may yet be had be not accessory to your own everlasting undoing do not tire a long suffering God out of patience and provoke him that sweares he takes no delight in the death of a sinner to sweare in his wrath that you shall never enter into his rest Do not make him your judge who is willing to be your advocate nor turne the Lamb of God into a Lion Rampant O grieve not the Spirit which would be your comforter and remember who said when he was waiting upon a rebellious people My spirit shall not alway strive with flesh O send not back Christs Embassadours to their master to tell him with teares that you will not believe their report and put them not upon that diabolicall imployment to be your accusers to God and swift witnesses against you at the barr of Christ make not the word to be the savour of death which was ordained to be the savour of life to the heires of Salvation Let not the Sermons that you have heard and the bookes that you have or might have read and this that you are now reading rise up in judgement against you what should I say more the Lord knows how willing I am to say all that I can possibly invent that may win upon you and all that he shall put into my mouth if he will open your eares and hearts to counsel who opens and none can shutt this may be enough to prevaile with you that hath been allready spoken but if he will shutt or will not open though I could speak with the tongues of men and Angells I should be but as a Sounding brass or a tinkling Cymball O consider this and the Lord give you understanding in all things 2 Let such consider lastly that there is mercy enough revealed in the Gospel even to pardon all such Gospel-refusing as it not finall The Gospel excludes but one sin from pardon and that is because such a sinner cannot be renewed by repentance If the sinner against the holy Ghost could be penitent the sin against the holy Ghost might be pardoned for it is not therefore impardonable because its greater than the mercy of the Father or merit of the Son but because the sinner hath done despight to the holy Ghost and rendred himselfe incapable of the help of the spirit of grace I have allready taught you that Gospel mercy is a present and precious remedy against Law-transgressions but this is a step farther to consider that it s also a soveraigne remedy against Gospel-refusing which is not finall and they may be Gospel-receivers who have been of long season Gospel refusers The bloud of Christ was so savingly soveraigne that it healed those that wounded him and gave life to some of those murderers that put him to death as is evident from that plain Scripture Acts. 2.36 37 38. Peter told them God had made that Jesus whom they crucified both Lord and Christ There we see they were such as had a hand in crucifying Christ The next verse shews that they were penitent and pricked at the heart for that sin and begging directions of the Apostles what they might do to be saved they were directed to repent and incouraged with the hopes of the promise and v. 41. They gladly received the word and there were added to the Church three thousand Soules who continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breathing of bread and prayer And as the merit of Christ extended to his very persecutors so the mercy of the Gospel extends to the refusers of the Gospel That Son that said he would not go into the vinyeard and went was better accepted with the Father than he that said I go Sr. and went not So those that have long stood at a distance from God upon their unfained repentance will be better accepted than such as are forward in profession and shew but have nothing of the power and beauty and reality of Godliness and Christianity in them O what greater incouragement can Rebells have to lay down armes and submitt to mercy than a probability nay a conditionall certainty of their Princes pardon We have heard that the Kings of Israel are mercifull said the servants of Benhadad and therefore got ropes about their necks in token of submission and humbled themselves and found mercy according to their expectation you have heard againe and againe that the God of Israel the King of Kings is mercifull but how mercifull none can tell you he is able to do more exceeding abundantly than we are able to ask or think let us lie in the dust and shame our selves before him and turne from our evill wayes and turne unto the Lord and as sure as he is a God of truth we shall find him to be a God of mercy but if notwithstanding all these allurements we shall persist in our sin of setting light by the Gospel our blood will be upon our own heads and we shall be left to perish without remedy I shall shut up all with that obtestation of the Apostle to the Romans Chap. 12.1 2. Which is my intreaty to you I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your selves a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service c. THE THIRD DOCTRINE The neglect of Great Salvation brings Great Damnation DAmnation is so dreadfull a doome that the very report of it is like a thunderclap to cause a heart-quake in the hearers and speakers of it If Ministers must preach upon paine of Damnation and people must hear and attend upon pain of Damnation the believing entertainment of this truth one would think should be powerfull to work miracles even to make the dumbe to speake and the deafe to hear it s better to hear the roring of the Lion than to come into his paw and its better to hear of the dreadfullness of Damnation than to come under the sentence It s joyous to hear of Heaven but it s the fullress of joy to be invited to it wath a come ye blâ—ssed children of my Father receive the Kingarâ—â— prepared for you So its dreadfull to hear of Hell but it s the most terrible of terribles to be sentenred to it with go yee cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Divel and his Angels You have heard of the amiableness of Salvation to invite you hearken unto the dreadfullness of Damnation to affright you that either you may be drawn or driven to mind the things that belong unto your peace the rule that we proposed was ingentia beneficia ingentia flagitia great mercies abused do aggravate sin and make it sinfull with a witness And now the remainder of it is ingentia flagitia ingentia supplicia those haynous sinns do pull down punishnent with a vengance that sin with a hard heart doth call and cry for judgement with a high hand Now though this be not expressed totidem verbis in express words in the Text
the Covenant of grace hath been exhibited under two dispensations First to the Jewes under the old Testament-dispensation in tipes and shadowes when the Ceremoniall Law was the Jewes Gospel And secondly to Jewes and Gentiles under the new Testament dispensation in truths and and substances and this is that Salvation that the Apostle seemes here to commend and exalt above other Salvations that Salvation which in the manifestation of it is grown up to more ripenesse of yeares and perfection of Statâ—e since the fullnesse of time than ever it was before And since we are speaking comparatively of it let us take in one consideration more though it may serve only for a pleonasme for having spoken of the greater we need not doubt of the lesse It may be called great Salvation if compared with temporall and corporall deliverances such as those from Aegypt and Babylon those were great deliveraâ—ces and great Salvations but that was of bodies thâ—s of soules that was temporall and this aeternall and therefore in every respect 1. If compared with Salvation by the law 2. If compared with the old Testementmanifestations 3. If compared with temporall deliverances We must give acclamation to it to be great Salvation And as for dreaming of any other Salvation properly and strictly so called we must keep close to those true sayings of God Acts 4.12 Neither is there Salvation in any other for there is none other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved and 1. Tim. 2.5 unicus est mediator There is one onely mediatour betwixt God and man the Man Christ Jesus The doubt being cleared we proceed to clear the doctrine 1. By improving the Text. 2. By Testimonies of Scripture 3. By pregnant and ponderous Reason First by improving the Text where the spirit of God gives it a rise three degrees high 1 Salvation 2 great Salvation 3 so great Salvation which last is a sic without a sicut as one saith of Gods love from that Scripture God so loved the World so that the tongues of men or Angells are not able to expresse nor the imaginations of men or Angells able to comprehend Or what if we suppose it better to illustrate those three gradations by the three degrees of comparison we may shew you at large how Gospel-Salvation is 1. Positively great Salvation 2. Comparatively greater than all other 3. Superlatively the greatest of all 's But all this was hinted in that that went before Secondly to shew you the consent of Scripture and how harmoniously they attest unto this truth Psal 130.7 Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy and with him is plenteous redemption let redemption but lead us to a redeemer and we shall find such plenty of it in Jesus Christ that out of his fullness we may be all receivers and grace for grace Luke 1 69. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel that hath raised up for us an horne of Salvation in the house of his servant David It s a figurative expression taken from beasts whose strength is in their hornes It is such mighty Salvation that it can push down all power that opposes it the Apostle applies it Rom. 8.33 34. It is God that justifieth who is it that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who sitteth at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us who shall separate us from the love of Christ c. Hebr. 7.25 He is able to save to the uttermost all those that come unto God by him seeing be ever liveth to make intercession for them Put all these together 1. Plentifull redemption 2. A horne of mighty Salvation 3. Salvation to the uttermost And they do univocally bear wittness to this great truth that Gospel-Salvation is great Salvation Thirdly to come to Reasons take into close consideration these three things 1. Ab hoc From what 2. Ad hoc To what 3 Per hoc By what we are saved And from hence we shall lay downe these three Reasons to prove it to be great Salvation 1. Because it saves us from great evills 2. Because it advances to great happiness 3. Because it doth all by great meanes 1 Ab hoc 1 Reason It saves from great Evills as is easy to shew in a multitude of particulars 1. From the wrath of God which buâ—nes like a conâ—uming fire and all the wicked upon earth are huâ—â— straw and stubble before it It burnes to the bottome of hell and setts on fire the foundations of the Mountaines and burnes up the earth with its increase The burning Tophet is kindled with his displeased breath as with a river of brimstone Isay 30.33 the old World was drowned in it and the new shall be burned in it It tumbled the Angels that fell out of Heaven and hurled them into Hell to be reserved in chaines under darkness to the judgment of the great day It brought such a curse upon the whole creation for Adams sin that the whole creation groanes under it Rom. 8.22 Man sweats under it and Woman is in labour of it It hath tumbled Monarchy upon Monarchy the Assyrian Persian Graecian Roman it hath reprobated the greatest part of men and women that ever were in the World are or shall be It hath cast off the Jewes and unchurhed many famous churches of the Gentiles It hath layed flourishing states on ruinous heapes and hath brought to pass those desolations even to wonder and aston shment by sword famine and pestilence which our fathers have told us of It hath done that worke that strange worke in our daies and in these parts of the World which our eyes have seen and may long be for a Lamentation In a word it brought that confluence of indignation upon Christ Gods only begotten and only beloved Son when he stood in our roome and became our surety that it made him sweat blood and cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me We may say of all the punishments personall and nationall that have befallen us or can befall us of all things that we feel or fear as the prophet doth Is there any Evil in the City Land World and the Lord hath not done it Ames 3.6 Ex ungue leonem all that see it may say This hath God done for they cannot but see that it is his work we may know it to be the Lord by his very footsteps for as none can deliver and save like him so none can punish and destroy like him Solomon tells us the wrath of a King is like the roring of a Lion Prov. 19.12 but Moses tells us that he cannot tell us the pâ—wer of Gods wrath Psal 90.11 Who knoweth the power of thine anger even according to thy fear so is thy wrath and this wrath we are saved from by this great Salvation 2. It saves from the curse of his law that binds over to that wrath cursed is every one that continueth not in
sweet a pardon would be to a condemned malefactor when he were at the place of execution and there you have a shadow of it 2 But how great it is I cannot tell you this I can tell you that it is so great that words cannot reach it neither can our dull intellects comprehend it we read that the love that saves us hath the largest dimensions of length and bredth and heigth and depth Eph. 3.18 19. But in the same breath we also read that it passeth knowledge and to be filled with it is to be filled with the fullnesse of God This Salvation must have the same dimensions and they must be as exactly fitted to each other as the arke and mercy-seat you have already heard of the depth of it in the evills that it saves us from which are as deep as the nethermost hell You have also heard of the heigth of it in the happiness that it advances unto which is a happiness as high as the third Heaven The bredth of it you have also measured unto you in the fullness of excellent meanes that conduce to the accomplishment of it The length of it remaines only to be supplyed and the Scripture is so full of that that you may even run and read it that this great Salvation hath no shorter date for its durance than Aeternity those that are saved are saved for ever and ever Or to help our selves herein by speaking after the manner of men 1 Men set great esteeme by that which is the gift of some great friend and such is this Salvation that we are speaking of we are not saved by our merit it is the gift of God The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6. ult Fear not little flock saith the purchaser of this great salvation for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdome Luke 12.32 Yea salvation and Saviour and all are the gift of God the Father Unto us a Son is given Isai 9.6 And God so loved the world that he gave his onely bogotten Son c. Joh. 3.16 2 Men count that great that hath been purchased at a dear rate and such is this Salvation less than the precious blood of Christ could never have purchased it we were not redeemed with corruptible things as gold and silver c. 1 Pet. 1.18 3 Men count that great that is hardly gained and such is this great Salvation The righteous are sâ—â—rsly saved i. e. At a hard hand and with much ado 1 Pet. 4.18 And we are commanded to strive to enter in at the streight gate Luke 13.24 And to offer violence to the Kingdome of Heaven Mat. 11 12. And to give all diligence to make our calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.5 4 Men count him great that hath a great retinue that is a great king that hath amultitude of subjects if we do but look back and recount the multitude of evills that we are saved from and the riches of grace and glory that we are advanced to and the multitude of excellent meanes by which both are brought to pass Salvation may also pass for great upon that account 2 USE Shall be a Proclamation to all that are willing to come in and challenge their part in this great Salvation Christ hath made a full purchase of it and he is a mighty Saviour able to save to the uttermost all that do come unto the Father by him God is a free bestower of it he expects not that we should bring any thing with us but a sense of our own blindness nakedness nothingness a sense of our own want of this great Salvation He is no respecter of persons he accepts none for his goodness nor excludes any for his badness provided that they will come in and accept of it upon the tearmes it is offered observe and study those sweetest invitations one in the old Testament the other in the new Isay 55.1 2. Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters and he that hath no money Come ye buy cate yea come buy wine and milk without money and without price wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfieth not hearken diligently unto me and eate ye that which is good let your soul delight it selfe in fatness Revel 22.17 The spirit the bride say come let him that heareth say come and let him that is athirst come and whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely O who can but admire at these gracious words if we do but also take into consideration those moving expostulations which we find in the word As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of a sinner turne ye turne ye why will ye die O house of Israel Ezek. 18.31 How often would Mat. 32.37 My very text hath the force of a most vehement expostulation how shall we escape c. how shall we answer it to God that we thus slight his mercy and undervalue his Son and destroy our owne Soules and refuse our owne mercies O let not any be guilty of such bedlam madness to exclude themselves when God excludes them not when God throws open his door of mercy to all comers what reason have poor lost undone sinners to barr it against themselves I may write a Noverint universi upon this Proclamation Be it known unto all the World that this Salvation as great as it is and it is greater than words or thoughts can reach unto yea and the great Saviour to boote with all their riches are freely offered unto us poor wretched worthless wormes upon no other or higher condition than our thankfull willing acceptation of them Iohn 1.12 As many as received him to them gave he power i.e. priviledge to become the Sonns of God even to them which believe on his name Oh that our everlasting doors might now flie open to give entertainment to this King of glory Oh that our understandings and wills could now close with the truth and goodness of this great Salvation that we may with one accord take up that saying of the Apostle 1 Tim. 1.15 This is a true and faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation that Iesus Christ came into the world to save sinners THIRD USE 3 Use Serves to reprove the madness of the neglecters or refusers of this great Salvation since it is so great salvation and offered on such easie terms surely the folly and madness of such as are regardless of it is exceeding great and this is the more aggravated and made out of measure sinfull by taking into consideration what toys and trifles are prized and set by while salvation is neglected the Devil World and the Flesh shall be served while Father Son and Holy Ghost are basely neglected mens profits pleasures and honours the perishing vanities of a transitory world shall be sought after with uttermost dilligence while more
God told the Israelites that they did not pray unto him when they howled upon their beds Hos 7.14 Ther 's a vast difference betwixt saying a prayer praying a prayer the words of prayer are but the carcase of the duty the longing desites of the soul after God and his mercies after gifts and giver are the soul of it and that only that makes the prayer effective Therefore I say that such sinners as Gospel-refusers may find mercy there must be deepest humiliations suitable repentance and most tervent prayers Old weather-beaten sinners â—hat have long setled on their lees and have been frozen in their dregs and have lain soaking in their lusts that have long frustrated meanes fair and foul and all that have been spent in vaine upon them such Blackmores will not be washed white with a little nitre nor such Leopards purged from their spots with a finger No if after long humbling and praying and fasting and waiting they may have a glimps of Gods pleased countenance at last they have cause to wonder at such mercy if at their latter end they may have their pardon sealed though their grey hairs are brought downe with sorrow to the grave yet they have reason more than enough to die admiring the Lords mercy But here I must enter a caveat against a mistake let all thought of meriting be banisht from our severest and most mortifying humiliations Though we should macerate our selves with fasting into very Skelitons and be like so many pale corpses or wandring shadows though we could sigh our selves into very aire and dissolve into very teares our heads being fountaines and our eyes rivers Yet when all were done we must cry out unprofitable and we must fly from our best performances to the Lords mercy and to Christs merit for succour and Salvation 4 There must be great changes of heart from stone to flesh is a great change and when God pours out his cleane water of sanctification he takes away the heart of stone and gives the heart of flesh Ezek. 36.26 From worse than nothing to the new creature is a greater change and this is wrought in regeneration From darkness to light is a change most remarkable and this saving conversion brings to pass Acts. 26.18 For a Man to hate his flesh his unregenerate part his lust and body of death which in the time of his vanity he loved so deerly and was as loath to part with the members of it right eye foot or hand this is a great change and such a change is wrought in selfe-denyall It was a great change that was wrought on Saul upon a sudden when from persecuting he fell to praying and preaching this well deserved an ecce as a note of admiration behold he prayes Acts. 9.11 For one that was so mad upon taking away the lives of others for professing Christ to be more ready to lay downe his own upon the same account was so notable a change that all that hear of it may say this is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes The grace of God which brings Salvation brings such changes and where great changes of heart are wrought there great changes of life will accompany them Gospel-sliting and neglecting will be turned into Gospel-prizing and advancing those that made no reckoning of Gods Law before will after this change say with David I love thy commandements above gold and the Lawof thy mouth is deerer unto me than thousands of gold and silver and they that thus prize it in their hearts will practise it in their lives knowing that the true sayings of God are verba vivenda non legenda and they ought to live Gospel as well as know it David approves himselfe to God in the sincerity of his own heart in saying Lord what love have I unto thy Law all the day long is my study in it and desires God to sift and try and prove and search him over and over that there may be no leaven of hypocrisy left behind Psal 139.23 24. And he makes it the Character of a blessed man that he exterciseth himselfe in Gods Law day and night Psal 1.2 We should make it our meat and drinke our food and Phisick and recreation And for an answerable conversation the Apostles exhortation is exceeding pregnant wherein he gives them one precept that may include totum homnis the whole duty of man Phil. 1.27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Jesus Christ As Solomon saith Fear God and keep his Law for this is the whole duty of man Ecles 12.13 So the Apostle there love Christ and love his Gospel for this is the whole duty of Christians 3 USE Shall lay before you and leave with you two breife incouraging considerations by way of comsolation for those that have formerly been such but now have resolved to breake off that and all other sins by unfained repentance 1 Let such consider it is not every Sermon that is slighted or every tender of mercy and offer of Jesus Christ that is made to the Soul and set light by that is the great damning and impardonable sin of Gospel-refusing though these are too bad and exceeding heynous and being objectively against the Gospel are much to be bewailed but it s the finall refusing of mercy and slighting of Jesus Christ to the death that is most properly and in strict sense the great sin of Gospel-refusing and such as live and die in that sin do render themselves by so doing uncapable of pardon and cast themselves unavoidably upon everlasting damnation Gods word saith as much either exprefly or by direct consequence in a thousand places every Minister that you hear tells you so or else he tells you not the truth every Chapter that you read gives you some hint or other of it many a time have your bretheren and Christian freinds told you that except you close which God and lay hold upon Christ you cannot be saved if they have dealt faithfully with your Soules yea many a time have your own consciences if they are not blind and dumbe and seared told you so and is it not the extremity of madness to venter your Salvation upon such termes that either the Scriptures must be false and God a Liar or you cannot be saved If you live and die in this sin you must as sure be damned as the Divel himselfe as sure as the Heaven is over your heads and the earth under your feet Hell will be your portion and everlasting damnation will be the wages of refusing Gospel-Salvation But if you may yet be prevailed with before your breath be stopt and the pitt shut her mouth upon you to embrace Christ whom you have long slighted and accept of that mercy which you have unworthily refused and receive the Gospel which you have neglected there is yet hope in Israel concerning this O for the Lords sake and for your Soules sake stand out no longer refuse not mercy that
worthy the glory which shal be revealed When we are inticed to sin let us sit down and count the cost it may cost our lives it may cost our precious Souls it may loose us Heaven and Salvation for eternity and when we are discouraged in the waies of God in laying out our selves to be wail our sins to treasure up grace to perform duty and not be weary of well doing to suffer patiently whatsoever can befall us for Christ's sake then let us sit down and count our gain It will make us live comfortably it will give us hope in death it will give us boldness in Judgement it will save us from hell it will advance us to Heaven To wind up all let me speak close to you as once Paul did to Agrippa as if he would offer violence to force his belief O Agrippa believest thou the Scriptures I know thou believest you that have read or heard these Lines do you believe these things I know you believe them they are so set out in the demonstration of the Spirit and in power that you cannot gain-say them and if you cannot contradict them will you not believe them 1. Do you believe Gospel-Salvation to be great Salvation The Angels believe it and admire it 1 Pet. 1.12 The Saints believe it and adore it Revel 5.11 13. The number of them that gave glory to God was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands and every creature in Heaven and earth and sea were heard to say Blessing Honour Glory and Power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lambe for ever and ever The Devils believe and envy it The damned believe it and the loss of it is that never-dying worm that renders them restless and whether you will now believe it or no the time is coming when you will believe and confess it with hearts as full of anguish as ever they can hold O believe it now and be happy for ever and the Lord help your unbelief and make you believers by the exceeding greatness of his Omnipotent Power and according to the working of his mighty power Oh that the King of Saints would command those everlasting doors of your understandings and wills to be opened to give entrance to the King of glory that you may imbrace and receive thankfully this great Salvation that you may live and dye upon the faithfulness and truth of that acceptable and accepted saying That Jesus Christ came into the World to save sinners 2. Do you believe Gospel neglecting to be great sin Those that are truely inlightned touched with the fear of God do think so those that are under the convictions and compunctions of the Spirit of bondage for this sin do think so they are ready to depend and give up themselves as lost and utterly undone under the load of it this is still ready at hand to make up the sum totall of their confessions we have added to all our transgressions of thy law this Monster that we have resisted and slighted thy gracious Gospel Against thee thee have we sinned and done this evil O be mercifull to our sin to this of all sins for it is great The infinite mercy of God and merit of Christ and mighty Spirit of grace and adoption revealing offering and applying that mercy and merit as balsome to the wounded Spirit hath much ado to bear it up from sinking under so insupportable a burden Inlightned sinners will believe it at the last when they are under the arrest of death then they will be ready with Cain and Spira to fill all the ears about them with their despairing complaints then they could seek the blessing with tears as Esau did could be content to fill heaven and earth with their roarings if that would help them Believe it Sirs the Devil that tempts you to make light of this Salvation now and presents it as a Molehill will then turn the other end of the prospective and make it as bigg as a Mountain and perswade you it is greater than that it can be forgiven How much better were it that you should now believingly receive in this truth in the power of it that where sin hath abounded grace may super-abound and that you may in time leave and loath this sin before it be your everlasting undoing 3. Do you believe that Great Damnation remains for such as dye in this sin that the wrath of God abides on them here and a sorer punishment and more fiery indignation will abide on them if conversion prevent not world without end Those that are in hell already do believe it yea they know not how to evade the believing it They do curse those Mountebank Preachers that heal mens wound with oyly words that speak Placentia things that may please itching ears rather than things that may profit unbelieving hearts Yea they do charge it heavily upon their deceiv'd own deceitful hearts that when they heard the words of the Curse and threats of Damnation caused them to bless themselves in their cursed practises though they added drunkenness to thirst and Gospel-refusing to Law-transgressing till all curses written and unwritten came in tumbling upon them like mighty waters How much better were it for men to carry about with them a hell in their consciences than to be carryed captive by the Devils into this hell of torments How much easier were it for them to descend every day into hell by meditation than at their dying day to be doom'd unto hell by condemnation Pliny writes of the Lions whelps that he is at first much given to Sleeping but being once awakened scared with the hideous roaring of the old Lion sleeps ever after with his eyes open The application is to our present purpose very pertinent Those that set light by Salvation are much given to sleeping they hear in the Text Damnation thundred out against such sleepers like the roaring of a Lion Rampant I heartily wish that this use may be made of it that our consciences may be so throughly awakened to see our sin and danger and duty that we may alwaies sleep with the eye of conscience open and that we may resolve not to suffer our eyes to sleep nor our eye-lids to slumber nor the temples of our heads to take any rest till we have made this great sin our great Lamentation till we have great and grounded probability of escaping this great Damnation and till we have believed and prayed and lived our selves into some setled and imfalliable perswasions of our obtaining of this great Salvation All which the Lord give grace unto his chosen people effectually to perform for his great names sake for his beloved Sons sake for his gracious Spirits sake And the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the Communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all 2 Cor. 13.14 Amen Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us unto him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages world without end Amen FINIS
bait the hooke of Prose with Poetry Fishers of men must put on every guise Winners of Soules must study to be wise If Poetry be goats hair and no more Yet it may serve to vail the Temple dore I le not detaine you lâ—nger in the Porch Nor light you to the Sun with such a Torch What furnitures within is now made free The Curtain 's drawne you may go in and see ERRATA Pag. 17. line 15. read able p. 34. l. 3. biot out and make figure 1 before the next word p. 36. l. 24. r. mankind p. 50. l. 11. r. the for their p. 59. l. 15. r. sink p. 62. l. 5. r. vassalls p. 69. l. 18. r. fold p. 76. l. 2. r. I count l. 14. r. maine thing p. 91. l. 21. r. great wickednesse p 24. l. ult r. Apostaticall p. 127. l. 10. r. certainty in the same line r. assert p. 128. l. 5. r. Apostates p. 128. l. 18. r. road p. 129. l. 23. r. preacher p. 135. l. 1. r. word p. 139. l 7. Jsay 1. p. 144. l. 5. r. bring p 150. l. 9. r. wet finger p. 151. l 17. r. as his right eye c. p. 186. l. 15. r. when p. 192. l. 16. read puluerem p. 196. l. 14. r. refuge p. 200. l. 8. read so obdurate p. 209. l. 3. r. Solamen p. 211. l. 11. read Masters p. 216 l. 23. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 218. l. 11. blot out if p. 230. l. 5. r. stony heart p. 236. l. 5. r. desponde p. 237. l. 22. r. owne deceived and deceitfull hearts p. 238. l. 8. r. whelpe A breife TABLE Of the CONTENTS A Short Introduction pag. 1. 2. 3. The rule of Gods dealing with the Refusers of his mercy upon which is grounded the whole Method of the Treatise in these 3 particulars 1. Ingentia Beneficia 2. Ingentia Flagitia 3. Ingentia Supplicia p. 4 Whence are raised 3 suitable Doctrines 1. Gospel Salvation is Great Salvation 2. Setting light by this great Salvation is great Sin 3. The neglect of this great Salvation brings great Damnation 1. Doct. proved and made plaine p. 5 1. By comparing it with Salvation by the Law 2. By comparing it with the old Test manifestations 3. By comparing it with temporall deliverances p. 5 It is also proved by improving the Text in its elegant Climax or Gradation 3 stories high 1. Salvation 2. Great Salvation 3. So great Salvation Illustrated further by alluding to the 3 degrees of comparison wherein is shewed to be 1. Positively great 2. Comparatively greater than other 3. Superlatively the greatest of all p. 8 Proved also from three pregnant Scriptures Psal 130.7 Plentifull Redemption Luke 1.69 A horn of mighty Salvation Hebr. 7.25 Salvation to the uttermost p. 8 9. Proved lastly by three Reasons p. 9. 1. Reason Drawn from the ab hoc shewing from what we are saved 2. Reason Drawn from the ad hoc shewing to what we are saved 3. Reason Drawn from the per hoc shewÌ„ing by what we are saved 1. Reason Because it saves from great Evills As 1. From the wrath of God p. 10. 11. 2. From the curse of the Law p. 12. 13. 3. From the tyranny and dominion of Satan p. 14. c. 4. From the evill of sin 1. From the condemning power p. 21 2. From the commanding power p. 21 5. From the evills of Punishment from a 3 fold Death 1. Internall of the Soul 2. Externall of the Body 3. Eternall of both Soul and Body p. 23. c. 2. Reason Because it advances to great Happines p. 6 1. Before time in Election 2. In time in Iustification and sanctification 3. After time in Glorification p. 27. Two bunches of Beatitudes belonging to Gods saved ones 1 Bunch 1. Justification wherein of ungodly they are made righteous 2. Reconciliation wherein of Enemies they are made Friends 3. Adoption wherein of Aliens they are made Sons 4. Sanctification wherein of Sinners they are made Saints 5. Glorification wherein of imperfect Saints they are made perfect 2 Bunch 1. They are entitled unto the love of God the Father 2. The Grace of God the Son 3. The Communion of God the holy Ghost 4. The Protection of the Trinity 5. The Guardianship of Angells 6. The comforts of an appeased conscience 7. The comfortable enjoyment of the things of this life 8. The believing expectation of the life to come p. 28. It s further shewed that Salvation advances its heires unto two Kingdoms at once 1. The Kingdome of Grace p. 29. 2. The Kingdome of Glory p. 31. to 35. 3. Reason Because we are saved by great meanes 1. The wisdom and love of God the Father p. 36. c. 2. The sufferings and Righteousness of God the Son p. 39. c. 3. The Revelation and Application of the holy Ghost p. 41. c. The other subord nate meanes laid down in 2 paires The 1 Pair is 1. Graces 2. Duties p. 45. 46. The 2 Pair is 1. Ordinances 2. Providences p. 47 48. c. 1. Vse Of Consideration 1. What it is 2. How great it is p. 51. to 54. 2. Vse Of Proclamation p. 54. 55. 56. 3. Vse Of Reproof p. 57. to 65. 4. Vse Of Consolation p. 65. to 70. 5. Vse Of Exhortation p. 70. to 77. 2 Doctrine Setting light by this great salvation is great sin p. 79. 1 Positively great p. 84 to 88. 2 Comparatively greater than other p. 88 to 95. 3 Superlatively the greatest p. 95. 1 Reason Because an accumulated sin p 95. Proved to be so because it is a refusing of Christ in all his Offices as p 98. 1 His Priestly office p. 100. c. 2 His Propheticall office p. 102. c. 3 His Kingly office p. 105. c. 2 Reason Because its an aggravated sin by three circumstances p. 110. 1 Of Person p. 111 to 114. 2 Of Time p. 114 to 116. 3 Of Place p. 117. 118. 3 Reason Because it is a State confounding sin p. 119 c. 4. Reason Because it is a Church confounding sin p. 123. c. 1 Vse of Information to shew wherin it consists p. 131. Viz. 1 In taking no care for salvation p. 132. c. 2 In taking but little care conjunct with greater care p. 137. c. 3 In not making it our greatest care p. 139. c. 2 Vse of Direction in 4 things p. 142. 1 There must be great thoughts of heart p. 143. 2 Great searchings of heart about it p. 145. 3 Great humblings of heart about it p. 147. c. 4 Great chainges of heart about it p. 151. c. 3 Use of consideration in order to consolation in two things 1 That only is Gospel refusing which is finall p. 153. c. 2 gospel-Gospel-mercy will pardon all Gospel-refusing which is not finall p. 156. c. â— Doctrine The neglect of great Salvation brings great Damnation p. 161. Damnation that is 1 Positively great p. 164. c. 2 Comparatively
greater than other p. 167. c. 3. Superlatively the greatest p. 170. c 1 Reason Because it comes from so great a God p. 174. c. 2 Reason Because it is for despising so great a Saviour p. 177. 3 Reason Because inflicted for resisting the spirit p. 180. c. 4 Reason Because prepared for great Enemies p. 182. 5 Reason Because it hath a long reach p. 185. 1 It reacheth to the Soul p. 185. c. 2 It reacheth to eternity p. 187. c. 6 Reason Because it consists of great Punishments p. 189. 1 The Punishment of Loss 2 The Punishment of Sense p. 189. c. 1 Noted by the worm that dyeth not p. 192. 2 By the fire that never goes out p. 193. 1 Rationall Torments inflicted upon 1 The understanding 〈◊〉 2 The conscience in three things p. 1 Remembrance of things past 2 Sense of present misery p. 197. c. 3 Fear of wrath to come 3 The Will p. 200. 4 The Passions p. 221. c. 2 Sensible Torments for the Body p. 213. c. Use of Terrour p. 219. Prompting us to a 4 fold Meditation 1 Of Death p. 224. c. 2 Of Judgement p. 227. c. 3 Of Hell p. 230. c. 4 Of Heaven p. 232. c. The Conclusion from pag. 234. to the end GREAT SALVATION BY JESVS CHRIST Tendered to the greatest of Sinners c. Hebr. 2 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation SAlvation is so sweet a subject that its pitty it should meet with any but faithfull handlers and profitable hearers I may say of the very sillables of it as once holy Bernard did of that saving Name Jesus in which it was founded Mat. 1.21 That it is Mel in ore melos in aure jubilum in corde Hony to the mouth Musick to the eare and rejoycing to the heart Words of Salvation are breath of life and its pitty any of that should be likâ— breath scattered in the ayre they are water of life and its pitty it should be like water spilt upon the ground we should deal by such doctrine as goldsmiths do by the filings of their gold secure every dust of it As God saith to ungodly teachers so may we say unto ungodly hearers What have you to do to take my word into your mouthes or eares when it takes no hold upon your hearts Whereas you hate to be reformed and have cast my words behind you Psal 50.16 17. Salvation is such a mystery of miraculous mercy that the very Angells do delight to pry into is 1. Pet. 1.12 And as they were ministring Spirits to the great Saviour when he was upon Earth so they are glad to be Ministring Spirits to the heyres of this great Salvation Heb. 1.14 A Messenger coming from the dead and from that triumphant community of just and perfect Soules were fitter to speak to you of such a theam than one that 's going to the dead and is yet clothed with the raggs of mortality and corruption If such a one should hear us expressing our low conceptions of such sublime mysteries as accompany Salvation he wouldsay as the Queen of the South of Solomons wisdome that one half is not told you in your own Country If the Divell and damned Soules might hear but one Sermon more of Salvation with hope of obtaining it can you think that they would be so regardles and negligent as the common sort of hearers are Do you think that the divells themselves which beleeve the dreadfullness of perfected damnation and tremble to beleeve it would say to such a preacher as Foelix did to Paul Acts 24 25. Go thy way for this time and when I have a more convenient season I will call for thee This is the unum magnum the unicum maximum the great thing that the Apostle indeavours to secure in this place that none of Christs blood may be lost that none of his own Ministeriall labour may be labour in vaine In a word his drift and scope is that that Salvation which was so great in the operation and in the Revelation should be as great in the Worlds acceptation Christ had wrought it out who was the Son of God higher than Angells the great Prophet and Priest and King of his Church as this Epistle declares at large The Gospel had brought it to light which is the glorious Gospel of the blessed God 1. Tim. 1.11 which makes Salvation neerer and clearer than the law did And therefore if we accepâ— it not how shall we escape that is to say there is no possibâ—â—ity of escaping One of the Ancients hath laid down this Rule as Gods method of dealing with the refuiers of his mercy Ingentia beneficia flagitia supplicia Where God offers or bestowes great meâ—cies there the setting light by those mercies are sinns with an high hand and those great sinns draw down proportionable punishments Now according to this Rule 1. What mercy â—reater than Gospel-mercy 2. What sin can be greater than to set light by such mercy 3. What punishment can be greater than that that such sin deserves The Apostles words here considered as related to the context may be exactly reduced to hat rule we shall therefore from such premises draw these three naturall conclusions as the plaine results of this Scripture 1. That Salvation brought to light by the Gospel is great Salvation 2. That setting light by such Salvation is great sin 3. That the neglect of such great Salvation brings great damnation The First Doctrine Gospel Salvation is great Salvation BEfore we open the doore to let you into a clear sight of this truth it may not be impertinent to remove an objection that lies as a stumbling block at the very entrance and that is this In that we proclaime Gospel-Salvation to be great Salvation some may demand whether there be any other Salvation that may stand in competition with Gospel-Salvation To which we answer that God never revealed but two wayes unto mankind for Salvation The first was by a Covenant of workes manifested unto the first Adam as the Worlds representative wherein the condition was Hoc fac vive do this and thou shalt live or do this and be saved But that Law being transgressed and that Covenant broken and Adam and his posterity being under the curse of that Covenant and the wrath of God abiding on them God was pleased to enter into another Covenant of grace with mankind through the second Adam proposing unto them another condition Hoc crede vive whosoever beleeveth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life Iohn 3.16 Though there was an old way to Salvation by working held out by the law yet now the new and living way brought to light by the Gospel is the way of beleeving and this Salvation by the Covenant of grace doth as farr excell that by the Covenant of workes as the second Adam doth excell the first I may further adde that
be gathered to Christ and to God their father who sit as cheise in that blessed Parliament that tryumphant panegyricall Assemblie Hebr. 12.22 Ye are come unto mount Sion and to the City of the living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angells to the generall assembly and church of the first borne which are written in Heaven and to God the judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel and thus you have the ad hoc laid before you 3 Per hoc 3 Reason It saves us by great means It doth not only save from great evills as you heard in the 1 Reason and procure great benefits as is cleared in the 2 Reason but it doth all by great meanes as is now to be made good and therefore in all these respects it may well pass for great Salvation Now the meanes which bring about this great Salvation shall be referred to two heads 1 To God 2 To those things that he useth as instruments to this saving work 1. Those that refer to God may be divided into 3 rankes as the Godhead is distinguished into 3 persons for as the faciamus hominem Gen. 1.26 noted that the whole Godhead was taken up in mans creation so was the whole Godhead imployd about this great Salvation conceive it thus 1. The wisdom and love of God the Father 2. The sufferings and Righteousnesse of God the Son 3. The revelation and application of God the Holy Ghost 1 To begin with the Father No wisdome but his could have found out a way and no love but his could have contrived such a way 1 No wisedome but his could have found out a way God at the first created man after his own likeness in righteousness and perfect holiness placed him in Paradise the glory of the World gave him a perfect Law that by doing it he might live gave him serenity of knowledge to understand his will and readiness of will to do it In breife he had a posse non mori though he were left mutable yet no necessity oâ—â—alling was laid upon him he was left to his own freedome either to stand oâ— fall 〈◊〉 to good is now but a dreame but then it was a priviledge had it been improved rightly But â—â—am by transgression falling and being a 〈◊〉 person and the worlds representative drew all manking with him And all 〈…〉 being under the curse of that Co 〈…〉 to the everlasting deâ—ertion of the Worlds Creator the matter of Salvation was utterly at a loss Man could not save himselfe neither could Angells help him so that as to men and Angells that worke must be let alone for ever Now in this desperate and hopeles state it pleased the Eternall Wisdome to find out an expedient and the offended Creatour provided a Redeemer whereas he had but one Son his only begotten and only beloved that thought it no robbery to be equall with himselfe he must be sent out of his own bosome and the Eternall word must be made flesh that being God and man in unity of person he might undergo the wrath of God for man and might reconcile God to man and man to God This was that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Apostle speaks of 1. Tim. 3.16 Great is the mystery of godlines c. This might well be the astonishment of men and Angells the Angells being left remediles without hope of a Redeemer that for us men and for our Salvation the Son of God should be incarnate and made man 〈◊〉 altitudo ô profunditas oh the unsearchableness of Gods wisdome This was the fullness of love that was manifested in the fullness of time This is the mystery that the Angells desire to prie into 1 Pet. 1.12 Which was tipified by the Cherubims placed upon the mercy-seat looking downe into the Propitiatory and in regard the foundation of mans Salvation was laid in such great and deep wisdome it may be rightly called great Salvation 2 And Gods love in this was no less wonderfull than his wisdome and the mercy of Redemption may well be said to equall if not exceed the power of creation The Apostle offers at an expression of this love when he saith Deus sic delexit c. God so loved the World Iohn 3.16 But it was so that the tongne of man is not able to express nor the heart of man able to conceive It overrunns all the degrees of Comparison and hath no paralell for a Man to give a Son to die to save a friend were a favour to be admired but for God to give his only Son to save his enemies for him to become man a servant a scorne of men and the outcast of the people that we who deserved to be reprobated and outcasts and castawayes might receive the adoption of Sonns this infinitly over reacheth the topp of any created understanding well might the Apostle say God is love 1 Iohn 4.16 For had not the great God been so turned into the very abstract of love that all his wayes had been mercy the Son of God had never become man upon such an accompt well doth he deserve to be stiled Pater misericordiarum deus omnium consolationum 2 Cor. 1.3 And this great love being twin'd with such great wisedome in God the Father in order to our Salvation may well denominate it great Salvation 2 Come we in the second place to the second person God the Son and let us see what he did contribute towards this great Salvation and the summe totall of his account may be cast up in 1. His active Obedience 2. His passive Obedience 1 He did all that man should have done in his active obedience and therefore was his name called the Lord our RIGHTEOUSNESS Jer. 33.16 Capitall Letters to note out the greatness of this Salvation The Apostle saith more 1 Cor. 1.30 He is made wisedome righteousness and sanctification and redemption which is but a paraphrase upon his threefold office 1 He is our wisedome in his propheticall office 2. He is our Righteousness sanctification in his priestly 3. He is our Redemption in his Kingly office He lived a most righteous and holy life and there was no guile found in him he carryed himselfe as a most innocent and harmless Lamb in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation 2. He suffered all that man should have suffered in his passive obedience herefore the Apostle saith Gal. 4.4 That he was made under the law 1. By fullfilling the righteousness of the law 2. By undergoing the curse of the law After he had like a man of sorrowes run through a dolorous and mâ—serable life he did undergo a most shamefull and cursed death Phil. 2.8 Being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient to death even the death of the Crosse which prompted the
most confounded with monstrousness of this sin and know most of the sinfull nature of it and such as these can assure the world of blind sinners that it is a Soul confounding sin and a plague provoking sin and such as are infected with this leaprosy of sin may well cry out uncleane uncleane but while I am speaking but positively of the greatness of this sin I am allready leaping into the superlative so hard it is to speak diminutively of this sin Deus caelum non patiuntur hyperbolen as we cannot speak too highly of God who is the highest good so we cannot speak too aggravatingly of this sin because it is so objectively against the highest love of the highest God that it is a sin so opposite to the highest good is aggravation sufficient to speak it superlatively great yet since it was promised we shall proceed to the comparative and so come in order to the superlative at last 2. It is Comparatively greater than other sinns and here we shall take the course to manifest Gospel-refusing to be great sin as we did to manifest Gospel Salvation to be great Salvation we compared Gospel Salvation with Law Salvation and with temporall deliverances and lower Salvations and shew'd you that it was great if compar'd with them because it was greater than those we shall therefore 1. Compareâ— Gospel-refusing with Lawrefusing and so demonstrate it to be greater And this the very argument made use of by our Apostle which ushers in my text Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed unto the things that we have heard least at any time we let them slip for if the word spoken by Angells was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation c. That is if their sin which was less deserved so great punishment how much more ours which is greater Heb. 10 28 29. He that despised Moses Law died without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the bloud of the covenant wherewith he he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despight unto the spirit of grace We shall better improve that Scripture when we come to the handling of the third Doctrine only here as before read the the greatness of the sin in the greatness of the punishment for God who is ipsissima justitia justice it self doth allwayes proportion his punishment to the sin and note above all that this sin is here called a treading Christ under foot a counting of the bloud of the Covenant an uncleane thing and a doing despight unto the spirit of grace there is too much of these ingredients into the sin of Gospel-refusing which makes it to culminate and to mount up unto a sin of the highest altitude and greatest magnitude and to die in it to do it finally to continue refusers and neglecters of so great Salvation doth much aggravate it 2. If we compare this with other sinns it will appear to be greater than such as the Scripture condemns as very gross and out of measure sinfull 1 Adultery is lookt upon as a great sin it was so in Josephs account when he said how can I do this wickedness and sin against God Gen. 39.9 And David was even swallowed up of that twin-sin whereof adultery was one Psal 51.4 Against thee thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight but the refusing of Gospel-Salvation is far greater for David by Gospel-indulgence obtained pardon of that sin but if he had refused that Salvation he had been left to perish without remedy 2 Idolatry is also a most notorious sin surely the spirit of God names these two as two of the most crying when it promises great pardon to great sinns from your idols from your filthiness will I cleanse you Ezek. 36.25 i.e. if your sinns be as great as Idolatry against the first table or adultery against the second yet upon your seasonable and sincere returne you shall find mercy Idolatry is a spirituall adultery that ad alterius torum this ad alterum Deum Adultery is a running a whoring after strange flesh Idolatry a running a whoring after strange Gods When the Israelites had corrupted their waies by worshipping the calfe Moses told them they had sinned a great sin Exod. 32.30 and when Israel had sinned in asking them a King Samuel tells them they had sinned a great sin 1 Sam. 12.17 and what was that great sin they had rejected God the Israelits had taken a calfe for their God in Moses time and a man for their God in Samuell's but this is a greater refusing of God they refused him in his absolute power commanding their obedience these refuse him in his meruelous mercy calling them to beleive 3 Rebellâ—on or Treason are great sinns and disobedience to Gods commands is rebellion Isay 1.20 If ye refuse and rebell c. how much more our disobedience to that great Gospel command that we should beleive in the name of Jesus Christ whom he hath sent 1 Iohn 3.23 and Samuell told Saul that Rebellion was as the sin of witchcraft and stubbbornness as iniquity and idolatry 1. Sam. 1523. When a King shall proclaime his Lawes by his Embassadors and men shall offer violence to his Embassadors or refuse his Lawes they are left without the protection of those Lawes and not only so but proceeded against as rebells and Traitors against the Crowne and dignity of the Prince and Gospel refusing is Rebellion of an higher nature because it is against an higher Law against the royall Law and against a greater King against the King of Kings 4 Once more and I have done with the comparative part of the Illustration It s a greater sin than the sin of Sodom as may be gathered from Mark 6.11 Whosoever shall not receive you nor hear you when ye depart thence shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them verily I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgement than for that City It s very evident that its this sin of Gospel-refusing that is here intended it s the not receiving nor hearing the Apostles and messengers of Christ that were sent to negociate in the deep things of the Gospel Their setting light by it is here hinted in the Apostles gesture towards them they set no more by the preaching of the Gospel than they did by the dust under their feet and therefore they must shake off the dust of their feet against them And its further to be gathered by consequence that their sin was greater than the sin of Sodom in that Christ saith it and protests it that it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgement than for that City Let us make
and rendered it more obscure to such whose eyes the God of this world hath blinded that the light of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ should not shine unto them To conclude the point it is in the dispensation of the Gospel that the Lord Christ doth excercise all his offices Propheticall and Kingly as well as Priestly and those that are Refusers of the Gospel are such as slight Christ in all 2 Reason proving the sin of setting light by the Gospel to be great sin is Because it is an aggravated sin That is a sin monstrously great further greatned and made notoriously sinfull by circumstances It s enquired which sinns are most sinfull those that are committed against the first table or the second and it s agreed that sinns against the first are if other circumstances of weight concurre not to make the other the heaviest Scale But this sin of Gospel-refusing is greater than all because the administration of the Gospel doth excell in glory that of the Law as farr as Christ doth excell Moses I might here enumerate a multitude of circumstances to aggravate the guilt of this sin but because I intend as much brevity as a subject so momentous will well allow of I shall satisfy my selfe to enlarge a little upon three Circumstances The circumstances 1 Of Person 2. Of Time 3. Of Place 1. The Circumstance of the Person adds sinfullness to the sin otherwise Nathan had been deceived in pleading the greatness of Davids sin by the eminency of his person and Gods munificence towards him 2. Sam. 12.7 8 9. Thus saith the Lord God of Jsrael I anointed thee King over Jsrael and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul and I gave thee thy Masters house and thy Masters wives into thy bosome and gave thee the house of Jsrael and Judah and if that had been too little I would moreover have given thee such and such things Wherefore hast thou despised the commandement of the Lord to do evill in his sight Much like that of David to his false freind had it been mine Adversary that had magnified himselfe against me perhaps I could have borne it but it was thou my Companion and mine own familiar freind Joseph interposes this consideration betwixt him and sin Quomodo ego how can I do this great wickedness and sin against God Gen. 39.9 And religious Nehemiah fortified himselfe against flying when Tobia and Sandballat were plotting his discouragment with the very like argument should such a man as I fly I will not go into the temple to save my life Nehem 6.11 Oh let the covenant-servants of the Lord and such as retaine to his Family consider this that those dishonours wound him most which he receives from his favorites and pretended freinds And as the abusers of grace given do sin with an high hand so the refusers of grace offered do sin with a hard heart and their sinns are also aggravated by the circumstance of the person None are capable of being guilty of this sin but such as live in the sound and sunshine of the Gospel those whom the day star from one high hath visited and to whom Christ is tendered in all his fullness The rebellious Jewes were guilty of it for it s said that Christ came to his own and his own received him not Iohn 1.11 And the Gentiles to whom the Gospel was sent upon their refusall they that receive it not are guilty of refusing it but Heathens and Infidels to whom the word of God is a stranger they cannot be guilty of this sin though sinning without Law they shall perish without Law Rom. 2.12 Yet sinning without Gospel they cannot be judged for contemning the Gospel Those Nations and people to whom the sound of the Gospel is gone out as it was into Jsrael of whom David said In Jury is God known his name is great in Jsrael c. He hath not dealt so with any Nation neither have the heathen such knowledge of his wayes and concerning whom Moses makes enquiry What Nation is so great to have the Lord nigh unto them as the Lord our God is nigh unto us in all that we call upon him for and the like may be said of England that it is a Land like Canaan the glory of all Lands a Land flowing not only with milk and hony but with better mercies the bread and water of life the wine and milk of consolation where the King that hath made a marriage for his Son keepes open house and the Lord of hoasts hath made for the faithfull of the Land a feast of fat things and wine upon the lees of fat things full of marrow and wines upon the lees well refined For such to be found here that shall undervalue the Lords bounty and run after their Oxen and Farmes and wives their profits and pleasures and lusts when they should thankfully embrace and rejoyce in the riches of Gods mercy and be meditating and studying some suitable returnes when they should be coveting better profits and solacing themselves with better pleasures and their hearts should be set upon better honours than the world can afford them what unthankfullness can be comparable to this what sinns or sinners can be more notorious 2. The circumstance of the time also doth aggravate the sin Paul said to the Athenians that were exceeding superstitious and given to idolatry Acts 17.30 The times of former ignorance God winked at but now saith he he commandeth all men every where to repent God did not require much from the darke times of heathenish superstitions nor so much from the duske glimmering or star-light of legall dispensations as he doth from us under the clear sunshine of the Gospel now life immortality is brought to light and brought neerer and made clearer than ever before Had we lived in the time of the old world neer unto the deluge when the world was overwhelm'd first with ignorance and licentiousness and then with water They were eating and drinking marrying and giving in marryage i.e. Wallowing in drunkenness and gluttony and lust making provisions for the flesh to fullfill the lusts of it so that Noah the preacher of righteousness could not be heard Or if we had lived in the time of that great revolt of the old Israelites when the Prophet complained and I only am left and they seek my life to take it away 1. Kings 19.10 Or had we lived near unto the time of Christs coming in the flesh when the Gentiles were no people Or in the rise and reign of Antichrist that grand Apostacy of the Gentiles then there might have been some excuse and we had had somewhat to say for our selves But to live in the last age of the World when the Lord is a destroying that man of sin with the breath of his mouth and the brightness of his coming when the fullness of the Gentiles is to come in and the Jewes to be reduc'd unto Christs fold I mean when these
things are the great expectation of the Church and people of God To live in reforming times when a glorious reformation hath been prayed paid for with a large expence of treasure teares and blood when it hath been sought and fought and covenanted for To be found Gospel-refusers in such a time when we should be incouraging one another like the people of Israel and Judah weeping and seeking the Lord and saying to one another come let us be joyned unto the Lord in an everlasting Covenant never to be forgotten Jer. 50.4 5. Or to be found refusers of mercy after such dayes as lately passed over us daies of breaking down in the valley of vision wherein the Lord called to weeping and baldness and girding with sackcloth not to keep touch with God at such times may be enough to blast our hopes of a full deliverance and frustrate our expectation of seeing Syons glory and Jerusalems prosperity Our bondage is not yet so far removed but our sins may easily call it back upon us and make our yoke heavier than ever it was Let us take special notice of that remarkable threatning Jer. 18.9 10. At what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom to build and to plant it If it do evil in my sight and obey not my voice then will I repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them if God be willing to plant and we will not comply do we not deserve to be rooted up when he offers to do by us as he did by Jerusalem by the call of his Gospel gather us as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and we will not how justly may he leave our Land desolate how speechless shall we be when these things shall be brought to Judgement and our sins set out in their colours and aggravated by this circumstance of time 3. The circumstance of Place is also a greatning aggravation The Lord Christ reproached those Cities where he had preached his powerfull Sermons and wrought his wonderfull miracles Matt. 11.21 22 23. Woe unto thee Corazin woe unto thee Bethsayda for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which have been done in you they had a great while ago repented in sackcloth and ashes but it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the Judgement than for you And thou Capernaum that art exalted to Heaven shalt be thrust down to Hell and the Prophet aggravates the sins of wicked doers by this circumstance Isa 26.10 Let favour be shewed to the wicked yet will he not learn righteousness in the Land of uprightness he will deal unjustly and will not behold the Majesty of the Lord. For the Angels to lift up themselves against God in Heaven deserved a casting into Hell and a reserving in chains under darkness to the judgement of the great day For Adam to side with the Devil against God in Paradise deserved an ejection For the Israelites in Canaan to sin worse than the Nations that the Lord had cast out before them deserved a Babylon and an iron yoke of bondage And for us that are like Angels of light in comparison of such as live under Egyptian darkness Angli quasi angeli as one saith placed as it were in an Heaven upon Earth in the bosome of the Church or like Adam in Paradise Angli quasi angulo as another saith in a select corner of the World singled from other Nations dwelling like a peculiar and chosen people by our selves for this to be a Land of forgetfulness and unthankfulness and the Inhabitants of it to be children of disobedience and strangers to the mysteries of the Gospel and things that accompany Salvation for this to be a receptacle of heresie and blasphemie and all notoriousness for this to be like the old World which God destroyed with water like Sodom and Gomorrah which were destroyed with fire like rebellious Israel with whom the Lord entred into controversie because there was no truth nor mercy nor knowledge of God in the Land Hosea 4.1 for us to abound with graceless principles and practises under such means of grace for us to neglect so great Salvation as hath been brought home unto us and hath dwelt among us our sin of Gospel-refusing being thus circumstantiated will make it to be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Judgement than for us 3. Reason of the greatness of this sin is because it is a State-confounding sin it 's a sin that hath laid flourishing Kingdoms on ruinous heaps Look back upon the state of the Jews whom the Lord owned as his first-born and in a nearer relation than all other people of the World see in what manner of language the Lord spake unto them Exod. 19.5 6. If ye will obey my voice indeed and keep my Covenant then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people for all the Earth is mine and ye shall be unto me a Kingdom of Priests and an holy Nation and yet how often were they cast off for casting off Gods yoke God told them what he would do unto them in case of disobedience Lev. 26.18 21 24 28. he tells them again and again and again that they might take thorough notice of it If ye will not be reform'd by these things that is by fewer stripes and lighter punishments but will walk contrary unto me then will I also walk contrary unto you and will punish you yet seven times more for your sins and I will bring a sword upon you that shall avenge the quarrel of my Covenant There 's the quarrel of all quarrels the Covenant-quarrel as Covenant-mercies and Priviledges are the greatest Mercies and Priviledges The Prophet Isa was bid to cry loud against Israel and Judah because their sins did cry loud unto Heaven for vengeance because God cries out as one tired out of patience they are a burden to him and he is weary to hear them Read the first of Isa and there the Lord hath a controversie with them not only about their sins but about their service their vain oblations and abominable incense their hatefull Festivals and provoking Prayers because there was nothing but seeming and formalitie no spirit nor power in any of their services And observe whether the Lord do not charge his valediction or last great forsaking of them upon that cause that they would not receive Christ nor entertain the Gospel Matt. 23.37 O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not and mark what follows behold your house is left unto you desolate v. 38. That is my house is designed to desolation which was so much your glory the Temple of the Lord that you made such boast of shall be taken from you yea and the Lord of the Temple too he
evill thoughts and then murders and a black traine of actuall abominations Mat. 15.19 And an evill man out of the evill treasure of his heart bringeth forth evill things Mat. 12.35 As vaine and lustfull thoughts do bring forth sin so serious and sad thoughts of sin do bring forth repentance Hezekia's thoughts troubled him by day David's by night Job's day and night so should a true penitent My sin is ever in my sight saith holy David The playster of Conviction should stick close till it draw forth Compunction and that of Compunction till it being forth humiliation and that till it being forth Faith and saving Conversion David saith I considered my wayes and turned my feet unto thy Testimonies In which words David makes a turne but first he makes a stop his thoughts did drive him to a stand I considered my wayes i. e. I studyed them I turned them upside downe It s good thus to prevent God he hath threatned to turne the wayes of the ungodly upside downe its safest that we turne our own ungodly wayes upside downe for the promise is If we judge our selves we should not be judged As all sin proceeds from ignorance and inconsiderateness so all grace begins in knowledge and consideration The progress of saving and conversion is laid before us in these severall degrees 1. Consideration 2. Deliberation 3. Resignation Resignation is the uppermost step when the Soul comes up to this point of a Covenant-delivery of it selfe to God and Jesus Christ and this begins in consideration that is taking up of our most serious thoughts about it for consideration is the eye of the Soul that lookes inward or the reflecting of the Soul upon it selfe which is done by this duty of thinking or thoughtfullnesse 2. There must be great searchings of heart Lament 3.40 Let us search and try our wayes and turne unto the Lord said the Church in distress in order to the getting out of her deepes Commune with your own hearts saith holy David on your bed and be still Psal 4.4 That is when you are retired and solitary and have sequestred your selves from other thoughts and imployments then take your hearts to task ask them questions and receive their answers and hold them to it keep them from starting aside or running away till you have your desired satisfaction The heart of man is deceitfull and wicked above all things It hath many turnings and windings and lurking holes in it many back-dores and evading places Observe how David did take his heart to task to make it a heart after Gods own heart and acted what before he gave in precept Psal 77.2 3 4 5 6. In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord my sore ran in the night and ceased not my Soul refused comfort I remembred God and was troubled I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed Thou holdest mine eyes waking I am so troubled that I cannot speake Sad thoughts did so throng in upon him that he could not speak for thinking he was overprest in his spirit and what course did he then take see verse 6. I commune with mine own heart and my spirit made diligent search As officers would search for hidden malefactors in every corner of an house where they are suspected to be so must we search every corner of our deceitfull hearts to find out those evill ones our selves a meipso libera me domine that body of sin and death that lies lurking secretly within us and as we would search dark vaults with lights so must we take Gods word to be a lanthorne that heart-discovering word to which all things are naked and manifest which is powerfull and mighty in operation and will pierce to the dividing asunder of the Soul and Spirit and joynts and marrow c. The cheife Quaeres that we should put to our selves should be these 1. Do we take no care about Salvation 2. Do we take but little care about it 3. Do we not make it our greatest care Our hearts should be fixed on such considerations and searchings till they are fired with them and we should have no rest in our Soules if our hearts condemne us till we have gone to God and vented our selves in a free and ingenuous confession of all our sins especially that sin with dejection of Spirit and humblings of heart which is the next thing 3. There must be great humblings of heart This sin should be for so great a lamentation that we should call downe the spirit of grace and mourning to assist us that our mourning may be deep and durable Notorious sinns must have notable repentance aggravated wickedness must have suitable sorrow where iniquity abounds humiliation must abound too if we expect grace shall super-abound Manasses having sinned greatly was said to humble himself greatly before the God of his Fathers 2. Chron. 33.12 13. and having sinned and sinned by adding sin unto sin He prayed and prayed he was instant and constant in his supplication for pardon We may not flatter our selves with the deceived multitude and think that a few good purposes towards the last or a crying God mercy upon our death beds will do the work The word indeed saith that the poor Publican that said but Lord be merciful to me a sinner went home rather justifyed than the proud Pharise that stood on upâ—oe in his own justification but observe the appurtenances to that prayer of the Publicans and you will find them to be such as do accompany deep humiliation 1. He stood afar off Eccetiâ—â—r 2. He 〈…〉 eyes to Heaven Ecce pudor 3. He smote his breast Ecce dolor That prayer of his was accompanyed with 1. Great fear in standing afar off 2. Great shame in not lifting up his eyes 3. Great sorrow in smiting his breast When souls tremble at Gods word to such will God look even to such Isa 66.2 when they take sâ—â— and shame to themselves and accept of the punishment of their iniquity and judge and condemne themselves God hath no more to â—â—y 1. Cor. 11.31 When the sinner is grieved because God and his Spirit are grieved God doth as it were sympathize with them and grieve for them he 's sorry for our afflictions and repents him of the evil Joel 2.13 and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel Judges 10.16 and I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them Jer. 18.8 I know the Scripture opens a wide door of hope to faithful prayers in times of greatest distress in that gracious promise whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved Rom. 10.13 but its physick that is administred with this corrective in the very next words But how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed The prayer of faith will not only recover health in sickness but life in death but it is not every call nor loud cry that is a prayer not every one that can say Lord Lord can pray and
yet that which doth tantamount is implyed in the question How shall we escape which is as much as to say ther 's no possibility of escaping And what is it that we cannot escape why a just recompence of reward for our transgression and disobedience if we look back to the verse before the Text yea a severer judgement more fiery indignation and a sorer punishment than the transgressors of Moses Law if we look forward to Ch. 10.27 28 29. And what the spirit of God speaks short here is spoken out and at large to the Scribes and Pharises hypocrites that slew the Prophets that were sent unto them and refused servants and Son too that came to require fruit of the vineyard Mat. 23.33 Ye Serpents ye generation of vipers how can ye escape the Damnation of Hell And observe that Mat. 25.41 It s called the Divels damnation depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Divel and his Angels The harmonious discord that dwells in the antithesis which opposes this great damnation to that great Salvation is very elegant and observable The Salvation refused is called the Salvation of God all the ends of the earth have seen the Salvation of our God The Damnation incurred by such a refusall is called the damnation of the Divel The Salvation slighted is the Salvation of Heaven The Damnation deserved is the Damnation of Hell I observed in the handling of the first that the mercy of Salvation is much magnifyed and made mervelous by three degrees And now we are to observe that the justice of damnation is made glorious by the same degrees for these two contraries have the same dimensions the most righteous God that gives the one and inflicts the other being as infiniâ—e in justice as in mercy Observe then in order to such an illustration of it 1. That it is positively great Damnation 2. That it is comparatively greater than other 3. That it is superlatively the greatest of all 1 That it is Great Damnation you may easily conclude from what is allready spoken that it is the damnation of Hell and the Divels Damnation and the very word gives such an astonishing sound to such as can apprehend both name and thing that to discover it to be great it will need no more than the naming but since we have to do with such as are brutifyed and must fight with beasts after the manner of men since our work lies much with dead men such as are dead in trespasses and sinns and though they bear the names of men and women that are reasoable creatures yet they are further from knowledge than the Ox and the Asse Isay 1.3 And as senseless and stupid as stocks and stones as the inanimate globes of Heaven and Earth Isay 1.2 We must therefore use all possible means and all little enough to awaken them to things of highest Consequence and everlasting Concernment and such are the things that we have in hand Matters of Salvation and Damnation matters of life and death for ever and ever Study with me but this one point that the Damnation that we are speaking of and about to aggravate is not Damnation barely for the breach of Gods Law but for refusing the mercy of the Gospel that was offered to make up that breach its Damnation for the refusal of Salvation of which refusers we may use the Apostles words Rom. 3.8 Whose Damnation is just There can be no greater justice than this when life and death are set before men and they will choose death that they should have it when Salvation and Damnation are both held out in the promise and threatning that the refusers of Salvation should fall into damnation observe Ioh. 3.16 God so loved the world that be gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him might not perish but have everlasting life and in the next verse God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved In both verses is declared both posivetily and negatively for what end Christ came into the world 1 He came to save sinners 2 He came to save and not to damne But as God by his creating power brought light out of darkness so men by their destroying sin bring darkness out of light and like the Spiders do gather poyson from the sweetest flowers and most wholsome hearbs They do wilfully aggravate their condemnation by the gracious offers of Salvation and treasure up for themselves severest wrath from sweetest mercy And this is that that brings this great damnation as you may see there in the very next verse but one ver 19. This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness more than light that mercy is offered and wrath is chosen that Salvation is tendered and Damnation is taken men deal so Jewishly with Christ that they prefer Barrabbas a murderer before him and this is rightly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Damnation 2. It is comparatively greater than other condemnations we proved Gospel-Salvation to be greater than other Salvations And the sin of Gospel-refusing to be greater than other sins And now are to shew that this damnation is greater than other condemnations 1. Greater than condemnation by mans law sentences in Courts of humane Judicature reach But 1. Either to the estate as fining or confiscation 2. Or to the body as imprisonment and scourging 3. Or to the name as stigmatizing or burning in the hand or forehead 4. Or if capitall to the life as hanging beheading c. 5. Or in case of treason to the family and posterity But this transcends all those condemnations as we may gather from Luke 12.4 5. which were the words of our Saviour to his Disciples I say unto you my freinds be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do but I will forewarn you whom you shall fear fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you fear him Provoking sinners are said to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2.5 Though they catch many a rap here that 's nothing in comparison of what 's behind This is the day of grace wherein God exerciseth patience and long-suffering towards them but if the goodness of God do not bring them to repentance there 's another day a coming where they must give another manner of reckoning a fearfull and terrible day a day all of Wrath Then righteous Judgement will be impartially dispensed without respect of persons here below in mens judicatories it falls out oftentimes as with fish in a net great ones are caught when little ones creep through and sometimes again as with flies in the Spiders webb the little ones are held when the great ones break through but that day will surprize High and Low Rich and Poor one with another We must all appear before the Judgement Seat of
Christ 2. Cor. 5.10 and every one must give an account of himself to God Rom. 14.12 If any are left out of these expressions all and every one they may expect to escape judgement else not Here sometimes the rod of the wicked falls to the lot of the righteous and Gods servants are condemned as evil doers when the Benjamins mess and double portion is given to the wicked but then the just Judge of all the World will do all men right and distribute righteous judgement in giving to every one according to his works Rom. 2.6 7 8 9 10. Rendering eternal vengeance to the ignorant and disobedient and wil be made glorious in them that believe 2 Thes 1.7 8 9 10. 2. Greater also than condemnation by Gods Law as appears from the verse before my text and Ch. 10.27 28 29 30 31. To such as wilfully refuse this Gospel-Salvation There remains no Sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries He that despised Moses law i. e. Gods law given by the Mediatourship of Moses died without mercy of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God and counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the spirit of Grace For we know him that hath said vengeance belogneth unto me I will recompense saith the Lord and again the Lord will judge his people It is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God So far the Apostle in that Scripture which thunder-claps though by the concurrent Judgement of expositours they are levelled at sinners against the Holy Ghost those that are guilty of that sin unto death yet many of the iniquities of that sin are though in a lower measure to be charged upon the neglecter of this great Salvation 3. It is superlatively the greatest of all condemnations two places of Scripture I shall quote and improve that are of this tendency and then shall pass to the further confirmation of it by strength of reason The first is 1 Thes 2.16 Where the Apostle notes that the Jews that killed the Lord Jesus and their own Prophets and persecuted the Apostles and envyed the Gentiles that in a word with the unjust Judge did neither fear God nor reverence Man did thus Fill up the measure of their sins till wrath came upon them to the utter most i. e. they sinned to the uttermost till they were plagued to the uttermost compare with this place that Heb. 7.25 which words are spoken of Jesus Christ the great high Priest of his Church the plentiful Redeemer and mighty Saviour He is able to save to the uttermost all them that do come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them what can be more equall than this that they that refuse mercy to the uttermost should have wrath to the uttermost that they which set light by that Salvation to the uttermost should indure the uttermost of Damnation The other place of Scripture that speaks to this point and serves to set out the superlative greatness of this Damnation is Matth. 3.7 They are the words of John Baptist to the Pharisees and Saduces that came to his Baptism O Generation of vipers who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come Where note that this dreadfull Damnation is called Wrath to come and therefore because the main of it is reserved for the life to come true it is that some notorious Malefactours have an entrance into Hell opened unto them while they are upon earth and are hang'd up in Gibbets for the astonishment of others that are so pursued by the hornets of their consciences stinging them with the pangs of the second death that with Cain and Judas they are driven by the Devil through hell internal into an hell eternal but the dreadfulness of perfected Damnation which the Devil believes and trembles to believe is reserved for an endless life in that which we call the World to come David saith Great plagues remain for the ungodly though upon the ungodly God raines snares fire and brimston storm and tempest and discharges whole Vollies of Wonderful plagues upon the children of disobedience Deut. 28.59 yet there is a reserve of more and greater and the biggest and worst are still behind As the Saints have usually the worst in possession and best in reversion and this life is a sowing in tears that they may reap in joy so usually the wicked have the best at first and worst at last as Abrabram said to Dives Son remember how in thy life time thou receivedst thy good things but Lazarus pains but now he is comforted and thou art tormented But to return to take into further consideration that expression of wrath to come Cast abroad your eyes in all the world and look back to the beginning of time and enquire whether ever sorrow were like unto that Weeping and Howling and Gnashing of Teeth which the Lord inflicts upon the Damned in the day of his fierce wrath 1. We read that for our first Parents disobedience the whole Creation was under such a load of wrath that ever since it hath groan'd under it Rom. 8.22 But there we read also that the creature groans under an expectation of liberty waiting when it shall be restor'd into the glorious liberty of the Sons God but when this Damnation takes place the Torments as they are easless so shall they be endless the worm dyeth not and the fire never goes out there is no hope of a deliverance 2. It s upon record that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed with Fire and Brimston but when the Cities were burnt the fire was extinguisht but the wicked are the chaff and stubble that must be burnt with unquenchable fire the damned who are the fuel that feed it shal be like the burning bush all on a fire but not consummed and therefore the fire must needs be everlasting The burning thereof is fire and much wood and the breath of the Lord like a River of brimston doth kindle it Isay 30.33 3. God overthrew the old World with a devouring floud but the Scripture makes mention of the rising and raging of it and then of its ebbing again and flowing no more But those souls that are drowned in perdition are cast into the Mare mortuum the dead and deadly Sea the Red and the Raging Sea of the Almighties wrath which hath neither bank nor bottome where they must be sinking and drowning for ever and ever 4. The Jews for their rejecting Christ were unchurched and Excommunicated but they are to be called again when the fulness of the Gentiles is come in But the sentence of finall Damnation shal be beyond the Anathema Maranatha that was but till the coming of Lord but this commences at the coming of the Lord and from thenceforth for ever Go ye cursed
into everlasting fire But we also promised to clear this point unto you by evidence of reason as I did the former for if such truths were but believingly received in the evidence of them they would surely be mighty in operation and pierce to the dividing of the Soul and Spirit If our everlasting doors were but opened to entertain such mighty Doctrines can we think that men and women that have reasonable Souls and the principles of self-love and self-preservation in them and the passion of fear in them I say can it be once imagined that they can be so bruitish to cast away all care what will become of them in another world and with both hands to pull down upon bodies and souls this swift damnation Know then that the damnation that we are treating of which men draw upon their own heads by setting light by Gospel-Salvation is monstrous great for these ensuing reasons 1. Reason Because it proceedeth from so great a God If we would know the greatness of this Damnation let us study the greatness of that God that inflicts it The wrath of a King is like the roring of a Lyon but let those that can tell what the wrath of the King of Kings is surely Moses his words do advance it above all that can be spoken or thought of it Psal 90.11 Who knows the power of thine anger for according to thy fear is thy wrath i.e. let such as have the most enlightned and most enlarged understandings graspe as much as they can in comprehending thy displeasure yet when they are come unto their wits end it is infinitly beyond their reach The Lord doth all things like himself If he do but speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom to build and to plant it his very word will bring it to pass it brought the world out of nothing with as little ado for he did but speak the word and they were made he commanded and they were created and again if he do but blow upon it and speak against it to destroy it whether it be a Nation or all the Nations of the world he can command a Floud or a Fire to do his strange work When he will deliver none can deliver like him and when he will destroy none can destroy like him Davids question puts all out of question that there is no resistance to be made against him Who may stand in his sight when he is angry Dare we provoke the Lord to jealousie oh foolish people and unwise are we stronger than he Can stubble stand before a deavouring fire or chaffe stand against a scattering whirlwind Though hand joyne in hand the wicked shall not go unpunished for he that judgeth them is a strong Lord. Though they could sore as high as Heaven or fall as low as Hell or fly to the uttermost coasts of the Earth or Sea though they should lie buried under Mountaines a thousand miles deep or all the rocks of the Sea and Land were piled upon them yet there is no hiding them from the wrath of this mighty God who is no less omniscient than he is omnipotent Those that desire to know more of the greatness of this God let them study the 40 Chapter of Isay And there they shall find v. 12. That he measureth the waters in the hollow of his hand and metes the Heaven with a span and comprehends the dust of the earth in a measure and weighs the mountaines in scales and the hills in a ballance And v. 15. All nations are as a drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the ballance and v. 17. All nations before him are as nothing and they are counted less than nothing and vanity And v. 22. It is he that setteth upon the circle of the earth and the inhabitants thereof are as grashoppers that stretcheth out the Heavens as curtaine and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in That bringeth the Princes to nothing and maketh the Judges of the earth as vanity Considering all this greatness and considering further that one halfe is not told you the more we study it the more we are overwhelmed and confounded with the glory of it what can be too hard for the Lord or who can stand in the judgement before this mighty God to whom vengeance belongeth We may easily be confirmed in the truth of all that is said all that can be said of the greatness of damnation when we do but hear from whence it comes even from the dreadfull Jehovah who is able with a word or a frown or a displeased breath to turn all the wicked into hell and all the people that forget God 2. Reason why this Damnation is so great is because it is for despising and setting light by so great a Saviour an undervaluing of the highest Love in its lowest condescention This must be a reason coequall with the former because Christ is the Son coequall with the Father The mercy of heaven never put the sons of men to a quid amplius in any thing more than this What could I do more for an unthankfull world than this Let the Sons of invention set their wits upon the rack and tell us if they can what God could do more than to turn himself wholly into LOVE 1 John 4.16 and having but one Son who was Heyr of all things his orâ—â—â—â— begotten and onely beloved who thought it no robbery to be equall with himself to send him out of his own bosome to empty himself of his glory to take our sin and curse with our nature upon him that we who were children of disobedience and wrath and heyrs apparent to hell and condemnttion might be received into the glorious liberty of the Sons and Daughters of the Lord God Almighty Now for men to be so desperatly rebellious is to slight this love and so stubbornly mad as to refuse this Saviour can the greatest judgements in Gods storehouse or the hottest place in that fire that burns to the bottom of hell be a proportionable recompence for such dâ—ing provocations Shall wicked miscreants slight and trample upon that which the Saints admire and the Angels adore O stupendious madness It s a thousand wonders that the great eye of Heaven doth not wink the earth into utter darkness the very Sun take its leave of the world abhorring to see men to be such incarnate Devils and to see the Earth tainted with such hellish abominations hellish do I say nay in this the wickedness of man is so great in the Earth that it justifies the Devils for they being left without hope of a Redeemer were never guilty of setting light by a Saviour and knowing so much of the terrours of the Lord as doth accompany their initial Damnation in their chains of darkness wherein they are reserved to the judgement of the great day and trembling to believe 〈◊〉 much more of the consummation of it fâ—â—â—â—night be put to tryall whether they wouâ—
confluence of choicest provisions such is God's free entertainment of his Servants and Favourites Mine Oxen and Fallings are killed and all things in a readiness come unto the Marriage Mat. 22 4. And Come yee blessed of my Father receive the Kingdome prepared for you Mat. 25 34. But when men are to prosecute their deadliest Enemies they will do it with the uttermost rigour that their possibility can reach unto Such and infinitely greater is Gods anger against his Adversaries he takes pleasure at their overthrow and laughs at their destruction Ah I will ease me of mine enemies and be avenged on mine Adversaries Isay 1.24 And as if his mercy were utterly at an end and he had forgotten to be gracious he will denounce that everlasting excommunication as the triumph of his glorious justice Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Divel and his Angels Mat. 25.41 5 Reason Because it hath a great and a long reach 1. It reacheth to the Soul 2. And it reacheth to eternity 1 It reacheth unto the Soul other sentences reach but to the body name estate family relations liberty life as was before hinted but this reacheth the Soul Fear not them which kill the body and when they have done that have no more that they can do but fear him who when he hath killed is able to cast into Hell yea I say unto you fear him Luke 12 4. How do malefactors that are arraigned for some capitall offences tremble before an earthly Judge when he is pronouncing sentence of death upon them but how will corrupt Judges themselves tremble as Faelix did when he heard Paul reasoning of judgement to come yea a more than either he or Belshazzar did when the hand was writing him a divorce from his Kingdome when this sentence of Damnation is going out how will blackness cover all faces when a World of selfe condemned sinners shall stand before the dreadfull Tribunall of the Lord Jesus which in the last Assize he is sitting upon life and death when nothing is left them but a certaine fearfull looking for of judgement and fiery indignation which shall devour the Adversaries Hebr. 10.27 'T was a sad hearing to the rich glutton Thou foole this night shall thy Soul be taken from thee Luke 12.20 The Soul is more worth than the World in his esteem that laid down his life to save Soules Mat. 16.26 And in this damnation this jewell is lost and this darling of ours must be delivered to the roring Lion The Saints do lay all at stake to save their souls Profsâ—s Pleasures Honours Friends Liberty Life it self and think all to be an easie exchange which will more than conclude the loss of the soul to be the loss of all losses 2. And that which makes this so great a loss and that we are treating of so great Damnation is because it is for ever and ever It reacheth to Eternity The sinner under convictions thinks he shall dy no other death looks upon himself as in a very hell upon earth David after deliverance out of such a deep saith O Lord thou hast delivered my Soul from the nethermost hell and Saint Augustine having in his confessions taken shame unto himself for a multitude sins in the depth of his humiliation calls out of the deep of misery to the deep of mercy Lord pitty my Soul in the lowest hell such in Scripture-sense are called lost Christ came to seeke save the lost but this loss shall- be their gain and I may say in this case as the Word in another he that loseth his life shall find it and the Apostle Paul desired to be lost in himself that he might be found in Christ this is but a seeming loss nor will it last long heaviness may indure for a night but joy cometh in the morning for a moment have I hid my face in mine anger saith the Lord but with everlasting mercy will I return and have compassion but the lose we are speaking of is reall and irreparable The soul under desertion thinks it self in a wofull case and hath much ado to distinguish betwixt it self and a cast-away as appears in Davids case Psal 77.7 8 9. Will the Lord absent himself for ever and will he be favourable no more c. and Job complained in the bitterness of his soul that God had set him up as his marke to shoot at and the venome of his arrows drank up his Spirit and Hezekiah did mourn like a Dove and chatter like a Crane and complained that from morning to night God did make an end of him But though it were now winter with them and the sap was gone down into the root yet the Suns return brought their spring again and the light of Gods countenance made all whole but in that desertion which Damnation causes the deserted soul is deserted for ever When the body loses the soul at the death naturall it s a sad loss but the Resurrection will bring them together again but where the soul and God are parted in the spirituall death and the naturall death finds them in this case eternall death presently seizes that soul and that separation wil be everlasting that soul and happiness will never meet 6. Reason The last reason to prove this Damnation to be exceeding great is Because it consists in great and dreadfull punishments We shall make use of this old and common distinction of 1. Poena Damni The punishment of loss 2. Poena Sensus The punishment of sense All evil is distinguished into 1. Malum culpae The evil of sin 2. Malum poenae The sin of punishment All evill of sin may be distinguished into 1. Inherent our own sins 2. Adherent our other mens sins All evil of punishment as afore into 1. Poenam Damni the punishment of loss 2. Poenam Sensus the punishment of sense Man is a compound creature consisting of a soul and body a Coelestiall and Terrestriall part as God is Lord both by Creation Preservation and Purchase so he requires to be honoured with both with all of both all the parts of our bodys and all the powers of our souls If the Apostles inference hold concerning one viz Gods right of purchase ye are bought with a price and therefore ought to glorifie God c. It will conclude much more strongly if we take in all ye are created with his power preserved by his providence as well as bought with a price therefore ye ought to glorifie God both with your bodies and souls which are Gods Here is the very quâ—nâ—essence of reason that God should have his own that which is so much his own by a manifold right Give unto Caesar that which is Caesars and give unto God that wich is Gods Now for such as give up themselves wholly to God in a way of grace and duty taking him to be their â—â—rtion and his Son to be their Lord preferring their interests before all others serving them in the
Divel perswaded our first parents to know it to know the excellency of good by the misery of evill by a wofull experimentall knowledge as light is known by darkness or sweetness by bitterness Then they shall be fully convinc'd in their judgements of that which no art of ours no evidence of the spirit could prevaile with them to believe that Gods justice is as infinite as his mercy and his mercy no larger than his truth That Christ is only a refuse for humble penitent believing sinners and none else that Hell is as hot and eternity full as long as Gods word and Ministers have told them 2 They shall be plagued in their consciences The conscience is taken to be a part of the practicall understanding Scientia cum scientia a reflex knowledge joyn'd with a direct knowledge and most of the rationall torments of the damned are discharged upon conscience and therefore the worme of conscience as instar omnium is synechdochically put for for all If a wounded conscience were an intolerable burden upon earth surely a damned conscience will be much more intolerable in Hell Some do cut this worme of conscience into three peices but cut it into an hundred and it will never die 1. Memoria praeteritorum 2. Sensus praesentium 3. Metus futurorum 1. The remembrance of things past 2. The sense of present misery 3. The fear of wrath to come But I may not enlarge upon these particulars least it swell this part of our discourse that it will not hold proportion with the rest While they lived here though the mighty word mannaged by Sons of thunder did often grate upon conscience that their sins were hardly the pleasures of sin for a season yet the spirit of slumber did often fall upon them and they might perhaps fall into some pleasing dream while that sleep lasted or they might be sear'd with an hot iron and made past feeling but when the pit shuts her mouth upon the sinner the conscience opens hers and opens it wide opens it so as it shall never be shut more the conscience is all feeling the sinner can never hope for any flattering anodine from his bribed conscience but must indure conscience as Judge Jury Witnes Executioner for ever ever When a sinner in hell shall look back upon his time upon earth and consider that God made him a reasonable creature fit to perform unto him reasonable service and reveal'd his righteous will in his law and Gospel both for matter and manner of his service and gâ—ve him his lot of being not onely in the bosome of his Church and in Gospel times but in reforming times when the Sun was broken out of a cloud and shined in strength and did strive with him by his Spirit in ordinances and providences making many gracious offers of Christ and with Christ himself and Spirit and all things belonging to their peace saying and swearing that he takes no delight in the death of sinners intreating and beseeching them to be reconciled to return and live expostulating with them why they will dye why they will not be gathered waiting with invincible patience and a very miracle of long-suffering when it will once be yet after all this after Christ and mercy and grace have been offered and refused after sin hath been reproved and yet continued in Faith and other graces have been pressed of as absolute necessity to Salvation and never heeded duty hath been taught and never performed seasons opportunitys have been offered and all neglected and frustrated and now to consider that there shall never be one call more one offer of grace more one opportunity to be saved more they are all lost and lost for ever this makes the heart to sinke and dye and this is the worm of consciencâ— that never dyes Sinners believe it though you can now slight Christ at your pleasure and wilfully neglect this great Salvation and deipise the riches of Gods patience and long-suffering and will not be brought to repentance all the cords of Love cannot draw you to it and neither scourges nor scorpions can drive you when this shal be lookt back upon in hell and the time is near it will prove the most torturing torment in the bottomless pit the most tormenting torture that the damned can meet with through all eternity Then let the stundiest sinner refuse to submit to the sentence of Damnation if he can let him turn away his ear from the clamours of his conscience if he can let him break prison get out of hell if he can or if he cannot as it is more than infinitely impossible then let men set themselves sericusly and seasonably to the preventing of it and make use of Gods gracious warnings that they never come into those torments 3. They shal be plagued in their Wills with stubborness and wilfulness God would and they would not here they would and God would not when they were departing hence but neither they nor God will when they come to hell the sinner that could not be wrought upon to be made willing in the time of Love shal be of obdurate that he shal be wilfull in the day of his wrath sins of the damned do partake much of that wilfulness that is in the sinners against the Holy Ghost here as here they sin willingly so there they sin wilfully As by Adam's sin mankind was bound up to good let loose to evil and that is all the moral freewil they have till through regeneration the Son hath made them free indeed so after judgement is past upon them the damned are utterly disabled from all good and their hearts are set in them to do wickedly so that they are sinning and yet suffering suffering and yet sinning for ever and ever The damned could well enough away with a hell of sin but they cannot indure a hell of suffering if that might but be abated it were the haven where they would be Objection But if sin be their delight is this wilfulness in sinning their plague and punishment Answer yea and as great as any for as Pharoah's hard heart was the biggest plague in Egypt that pull'd down all the rest so this sining frame of Spirit this sinning wilfully and with a hard heart is one of the greatest plagues of hell for if the sins of a sinners life were not more than enough this would find fuel to supply the fire for ever and ever 4. I shall but touch upon some of the passions and pass over to the next Love Joy Hope Desire being bereft of their objects the damned are bereft of them they would not love God nor what God loves here and there they cannot they would not joy in believing here with joy unspeakable and glorious the joy of grace and Salvation would not relish with them and now they have nothing to rejoyce in while they lived they made a kind of a mock-consolation of the pleasures of sin of the Profits
will let fly against the oversights of such overseers O you caterers for the Devil your houses should have been nurseries for the Church and they have been sties and kennels to breed up hel-hounds in you should have brought up your children in the fear and nurture and admonition of the Lord and done your indevour to make your servants Gods servants you should have read the word of God to them and talked of it with them at your down-lying and uprising you should have sought God early and late with them and for them and according to the Commandment should have preserved the Sabbath in your Families as well as observed it in your selves But there was nothing but Prayerlesness all the week and profaneness all the Sabbath when you hired us you gave us your carelesness for our earnest and now have brought upon your selves and us Damnation for our wages The neglected wife will say to the neglecting husband as Zipora once to Moses Thou hast been a bloody husband to me and the graceless child to the graceless father thou hast been a bloody Butcher to me and the unprofitable servant to the ungodly Master thou hast been a cruel Master to me God will say to careless Brethren The voice of your Brothers blood cries for vengeance and those that live here as neighbours and friends in their dull carnal way of neighbour-hood friendship will cry sin and shame upon one another as the greatest foes and most cruel enemies O the heart-burnings that hell-fire shall kindle the everlasting grudges that shall find Fomentations there 's the malice that burns and boyls in that fiery lake in the breasts of the damned 'T was not for nothing that Dives desired his brethren should be kept out of that place of torment one reason amongst the rest may be conceived to be this that their sins being augmented by his and they hardned in them by his society and example his torments at their coming to hell should receive an augmentation 2. As there is no joy in hell there is Greif with a witness yea with a thousand thousand witnesses Men count it their Solomon upon earth to have fellow-sufferers but this will be no palliation to the pangs of hell but augmentations rather especially by the sins of others which have been made ours by accessoriness Here they would not greive with godly sorrow but there they shall greive though with sorrow as far from godly sorrow as the heaven is from hell How many with worldly sorrow have grieved themselves to death taking up Rachells Lamentation perhaps for children or some other relation in the flesh mourning refusing to be comforted But this hellish sorrow doth far exceed it every pang of it is a heart-breaking sorrow we usually say were it not for hope the heart would break and all the mourning in hell is mourning without hope Ezekiel makes mention of a book written within and without with Lamentations and mournings and We and the Damned have no other book to read in If they look to their book without the book of Scriptures by that they stand condemned and according to that sentence is past upon them If they look to the book of conscience the book within that contains nothing but matter of mourning and everlasting Lamentation nothing but what will cause Weeping and howling and gnashing of teeth 3. As there is no hope in hell so there is fear horour in such superabundant measure that like a thousand Milstones or Mountains of lead they would sink the Soul to the bottom of that Sea of wrath were it not bottomless They shall be raging mad with fear and desperate horrour at the fearful sights that their eyes shall see and the fearful things that their ears shall hear They had no fear of God before their eyes while they lived in the flesh they could fear the face and frowns of man who was but Dust and Ashes but the dreadful everliving God that ought to be feared he was not feared we could never bring them to the beginning of wisdom the fear of the Lord with all that we could say or do though we have studyed to speak words that might cut like swords and have preacht them Sermons as keen as Razors Though we have improved all our wit and skill in handling that Sacrificing knife that pierces to the dividing asunder of the Soul and Spirit and Joynts and Marrow though we have in our severe denunciations of certain judgements spoken thunder claps and fire-brands and thrown heâ—l fire amongst them in many and many a Sermon yet they were so cross-grain'd and knotty that they were fearless in the midst of real fears though they could fear where no fear was but now the case is altered before they would not fear alwaies to purchase blessedness Pro. 28.14 and now they shall fear alwaies with Gods curse to boot now they shall fear vvith a vengeance and God shall set a marke upon them even Cain's marke a perpetual quaking not a horn in 's forehead as the Master of Fancy the Jewish Rabbies have some of them thought but a hornet in his conscience The curse that God threatned to the Rebellious children of disobedience Deut. 28.65 shal be inflicted upon them God shall give them a trembling heart They vvould not sanctifie the Lord in their hearts nor make him their fear and dread vvhen he vvould have undertaken to be for a Sanctuary against all other fear Isay 8.13 14. and therefore novv a confluence of all other fears shall flovv in upon them like the billovvs of the raging Sea which cannot rest one in the neck of another Here the very name of the Devil is like a Bug-bear to children if they have but thoughts of seeing him in their solitary vvalks especially vvhen they are in the dark they are ready to creep into corners to hide themselves If they do but dream of him how do their thoughts trouble them till they awake and if they see him indeed though he do not appear in the most formidable shape they are ready to fall dead or mad Oh what will they do when they shall be cast into the same prison with all the Devils in hell and they must continue shut up with them for ever What fear and trembling shall then come upon them what Tribulation and anguish shall fill their Souls to the very brim What horrour and desperation shall over-whelm the damned when the King of fears the death natural hath delivered them up unto the Second death when fear anguish is still coming upon them and they shall never know when Wrath is come upon them to the uttermost it shall all be so to the uttermost and all without end despairing Cain's Language differs now in the several readings one runs thus My punishment is greater than I can bear Gen. 4.13 the other thus Mine iniquity is greater than that it can be forgiven then both these shall be true of all the damned their Sins are
impardonable and their torments unsuffereable Christs merit cannot then satisfie for their sins neither can Gods mercy pardon them God and Christ can as soone cease to be what they are as to do it The case of the damned for ever shall be much like that of the wicked that shall be alive immediately before Christ's coming to judgement Luk. 21.25 26. There shal be signs in the Sun and in the Moon and in the Stars that is if we consult Mat. 24.29 The Sun shal be darkned and the Moon shall not give her light and the Stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the Heavens shal be shaken c. When upon the world God shall rain Stars and the ungodly may ever expect when he shall rain snares fire and brimston storm and tempest to be the portion of the wicked to drink When these are but the beginning of sorrows more pangs are coming upon them as upon a woman in travel as the Evangelist Luke goes on upon the earth there shal be distress of Nations and perplexity the Sea and Waves roaring Mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming for all the judgements that are come they shall still be eaten up with fear of further wrath and indignation that is still a coming 2. Sensible torments provided for the bodies of the damned are also a part of those punishments which do denominate this to be GREAT DAMNATION As the former were comprehended under the Worm that dyeth not so these under the fire that never goeth out As the torments of conscience were put for all rational torments belonging to the Soul so the torments of the sense of feeling here signified by fire is put for all sensible torments belonging to the body I shall first discover unto you why the torments of hell are compared to fire The Jews before their Jurisdiction was taken away by Herod who was sur-named the great primus ex alienigenis Rex Judeorum the first of forraigners that was King of the Jews had three Courts of Judicature one was ruled by three men wherein were tryed money matters and lesser causes The 2 did consist of 23 Judges who heard decided weighty affairs and matters of life and death And these two were called the lesser Shanedrim The highest of all which was called the great Shanedrim had 71 Judges who had the hearing of most weighty affairs as the matter of a whole Tribe or an high Priest or a false Prophet Now the punishments that their Judicatories did infl ct were of four Sorts 1. Hanging 2. Beheading 3. Stoning 4. Burning And because burning was the most dreadful therefore doth our Saviour â—llude unto that in compâ—ring of hell-torments to fire Neither is it every kind of fire but the fire of Gehenna now that Gehenna was the Vally of Hinnom a place in the suburbs of Jerusalem where Idolaters offered their children halfe burnt to Idols Which place was also called Tophet from a word in the Hebrew tongue which signifies a Drum because they did beat drums to deaden the cries of the Infants while they were a burning Indeed those half burnings do best shadow out unto us those of hell where the dâ—mned shall be fuel for everlasting fire ever burning and never consumed ever dying and never dead It s also called fire and brimstone as if fire it self were not hot enough to shadow out the terrour of it I might here enlarge upon all the senses as we did before upon the faculties but the very torments of the Soul are the very Soul of torments and do as far surpass bodily torment as the Soul doth the body And I have enlarged so much upon that that its time to think of contracting here Yet for all the hast know that as Heaven is likened to a Kingdom where there is a confluence of Pleasures so Hell is compared to a Prison where there is an inundation of Miserys It s called in the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 utter darkness being furthest from God the Fountain of life and glory say some Because compared to a prison say others and prisons were usually without the gates of Cities and they were dark places especially the dungeons where malefactours were as it were buryed alive Without are doggs saith John of the new Jermsalem Revel 22.15 Within are children but without doggs And the Apostle calleth Infidels such as are without Col. 4.5 without indeed if you read all those withouts Eph. 2.12 Without Christ without the Commonwealth of Israel without the Covenant of promise without hope and without God in the world and surely those that are in hell are and everlastingly shal be without in all these respects Now as in a Prison all the senses have their punishments The Eyes are punished with darkness the Ears with complaints of fellow prisoners the Smell with loathsome stinks the Palate with the hunger or coursest provisions the Touch with the hard earth and cold and nakedness So in the prison of hell ther 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the blackness of darkness for the sight besides that cursed crue of the Devils and damned the displeased countenance of the Almighty and the sight of him whoâ— their sins have pierced Their ears shalâ—â— filled with roarings and howlings and gnashing of teeth besides the curses and blasphemies of the damned Their smell shall be suffocated with fire and brimston their tast glutted with Gall and Worm-wood and the dreggs of the Cup of the Lords Fury And their touch with fire with fire unquenchable Observe lastly that our Enquiries concerning Hell are here answered by fire to note out unto us the extremity of hell-torments Fire is as great a torment as our capacities can reach unto but if they can reach higher the terrours of those infernal torments are still out of our reach As a fire painted on a wall in the story of Dives and Lazarus is nothing in comparison of our Culinary fire so that fire that burns upon our hearths is but like a painted fire for heat to the flames of hell Suppose a woman should lye in the extreamest pangs of child-birth for 100 years or a man should lye languishing under the continual pains of stone and goute and collick for 1000. Suppose a Traytour should be upon the Rack as many years as there are drops in the Sea or a Malefactour should be a burning as many years as there are Sands on the Sea-shore Suppose Captives should be detained in the Turkish Gâ—llies or in that hell upon earth the Devils Slaughter-house the Spanish Inquisition for as many years as there are Stars in the Firmament These if they were real would be amazing and confounding considerations able to shake to pieces the stoutest heart of the most daring Nimrod but these that we have been speakâ—ng of are so infinitly beyond them ut nihil supra that nothing can be more transcendedently inconceivable and unspeakable AETERNITY is of such a length that when we