may be to men and how loth so ever they are to depart away they must and come before the Lord that made them Death will not be bribed Every man that was set in the vinyard in the morning of their lives must be called out at evening to Receive according to what he hath done then must the naked soul alone appear before its Judge and be accomptible for all that was done in the body and be sent before till the final judgement to remain in happiness or misery till the body be raised again and joyned to it In this appearance of the soul before God it seemeth by Scripture that there is some Ministry of Angels for Luke 16. 22. it is said that the Angels carried Lazarus that is his soul into Abrahams bosom What local motion there is or situation of souls is no fit matter for the enquiry of Mortals and what it is in this that the Angels will do we cannot clearly understand as yet But most certain it is that as soon as ever the soul is out of the Body it comes to its account before the God of Spirits 2. At the end of the world the bodies of all men shall be raised from the earth and joyned again to their souls and the soul and body shall be judged to their endless state and this is the great and generall Iudgement where all men shal at once appear The same power of God that made men of nothing will as easily then New make them by a Resurrection by which he will add much more perfection even to the wicked in their Naturals which will make them capable of the greater misery even they shall have immortal and incorruptible bodies which may be the subjects of immortal woe 1 Cor. 15. 53. Iohn 5. 28 29. Of this Resurrection and our Appearance at Iudgement the Angels will be some way the Ministers As they shall come with Christ to Iudgement so they shall sound his Trumpet 1 Thes 4. 16. and they shall gather the wicked out of Gods Kingdom and they shall gather the Tares to burn them Mat. 13. 39 40 41. in the end of the world the Angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just and shall cast them into the Furnace of fire Mat. 17. 49 50. FOR the sixth particular What Law is it that men shall be Judged by Answ That which was given them to live by Gods Law is but the sign of his will to teach us what shall be due from us and to us before we fell he gave us such a Law as was suitable to our perfection when we had sinned and turned from him as we ceased not to be his creatures nor he to be our Lord so he destroyed not his Law nor discharged or absolved us from the duty of our obedience But because we flood condemned by that Law and could not be Iustified by it having once Transgressed it he was pleased to make a Law of Grace even a new a remedying Law by which we might be saved from the deserved punishment of the Old So we shall be tryed at Judgement upon both these Laws but ultimately upon the Last The first Law commanded perfect Obedience and threatned Death to us if ever we disobeyed the second Law finding us under the Guilt of sin against the first doth command us to Repent and Believe in Christ and so to return to God by him and promiseth us pardon of all our sins upon that Condition and also if we persevere everlasting Glory So that in Judgement though it must first be evinced that we are sinners and have deserved Death according to the Law of pure nature yet that is not the upshot of the Judgement For the enquiry will be next whether we have accepted the remedy and so obeyed the Law of grace and performed its Condition for pardon and salvation and upon this our Life or Death will depend It is both these Laws that condemn the wicked but it is only the Law of grace that justifieth the righteous Obj. But how shall Heathens bejudged by the Law of grace that never did Receive it Answ The express Gospel some of them had not and therefore shall not directly be judged by it but much of the Redeemers mercy they did enjoy which should have led them to repent and seek out after Recovery from their misery and to come neerer Christ and for the neglect and abuse of this they shall be judged and not meerly for sinning against the Law that was given us in pure innocency So that Christ as Redeemer shall judge them as well as others though they had but one Talent yet must they give an account of that to the Redeemer from whom they received it But if any be unsatisfied in this let them remember that as God hath left the state of such more dark to us and the terms on which he will Iudge them so doth it much more concern us to look to the terms of our own Iudgement Obj. But how shall infants be judged by the Gospel that were uncapable of it Answ For ought I find in Scripture they stand or fall with their parents and on the same terms but I leave each to their own thoughts VII FOR the seventh head What will be the cause of the day to be enquired after what the Accusation and what the Defence Answ This may be gathered from what was last said The great Cause of the day will be to enquire and determine who shall dye and who shall live who ought to go to heaven and who to hell for ever according to the Law by which they must then be Judged 1. As there is a twofold Law by which they must be Judged so will there then be a twofold Accusation The first will be that they were sinners and so having violated the Law of God they Deserve Everlasting Death accordding to that Law If no defence could be made this one Accusation would condemn all the world for it is most certain that all are sinners and as certain that all sin deserveth Death The only defence against this Accusation lyeth in this Plea Confessing the charge we must plead that Christ hath satisfied for sins and upon that consideration God hath forgiven us and therefore being forgiven we ought not to be punished To prove this we must shew the pardon under Gods hand in the Gospel But because this pardoning Act of the Gospel doth forgive none but those that Repent and Believe and so return to God and to sincere Obedience for the time to come therefore the next Accusation will be that we did not perform these Conditions of forgiveness and therefore being Vnbelievers Impenitent and Rebels against the Redeemer we have no right to pardon but by the sentence of the Gospel are lyable to a greater punishment for this contempt of Christ and Grace This Accusation is either true or false where it is true God and Conscience who speak the truth may well be
THREE TREATISES Tending to awaken Secure Sinners viz. 1. The terror of the day of Judgment 2 COR. 5. 10. 2. The danger of slighting Christ and his Gospel MATT. 22. 5. 3. True Christianity or Christs absolute Dominion 1 COR. 6. 19 20. And Mans necessary Self-Resignation and Subjection unto Christ PSA 2. 10 11 12. By Richard Baxter To be sold by John Rothwell at the Fountain in Goldsmiths-row in Cheapside 1656. TRUE Christianity OR Christs absolute Dominion and Mans necessary Self-resignation and subjection In two Assize Sermons preached at WORCESTER By RICH. BAXTER LONDON Printed for Nevil Simmons bookseller in Kidderminster 1656. A Sermon OF The absolute Dominion of God-Redeemer and the necessity of being devoted and living to him Preached before the Honorable Judge of Assize at Worcester Aug. 2. 1654. By Rich. Baxter Rom. 14. 9. For to this end Christ both dyed and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and Living London Printed for Nevil Simmons Bookseller in Kidderminster 1656. To the Right Honourable Serjeant Glyn Now Judge of Assise in this Circuit My Lord COuld my excuse have satisfyed you this Sermon had been confined to the Auditory it was prepared for I cannot expect that is should find that Candor and favour with every Reader as it did with the Hearers When it must speak to All the guilty will hear and then it will gall Innocency is patient in hearing a reproof and charitable in the interpretation but Guilt will smart and quarrel and usually make a fault in him that findeth one in them Yet I confest this is but a poor justification of his silence that hath a Call to speak Both my Calling and this Sermon would condemn me if on such grounds I should draw back But my Backwardness was caused by the reason which I then tendred your Lord-ship as my excuse viz. Because here is nothing but what is common and that it is in as common and homely a dress And I hope we need not fear that our labours are dead unless the Press shall give them life We bring not Sermons to Church as we do a Corps for a burial If there be life in them and life in the Hearers the connaturality will cause such an amicable closure that through the Reception Retention and operation of the soul they will be the immortal seed of a life everlasting But yet seeing the press hath a louder voice then mine and the matter in hand is of such exceeding necessity I shall not refuse upon such an invitation to be a rememberancer to the the world of a Doctrine and duty of such high concernment thongh they have heard it never so oft before Seeing therefore I must present that now to your eyes which I lately presented to your ears I shall take the boldness to add one word of Application in this Epistle which I thought not seasonable to mention in the first delivery and that shall be to your Lordship and all others in your present case that are elected members of this expected Parliament Be sure to remember the interest of your soveraign the great Lord Protector of Heaven and Earth And as ever you will make him a comfortable accompt of your Power Abilities and Opportunities of serving him see that you prefer his interest before your own or any mans on earth If you go not thither as sent by Him with a firm resolution to serve him first you were better sit at home forget not that he hath laid claim to you and to all that you have and all that you can have and all that you can do I am bold with all possible earnestness to entreat you yea as Christs Minister to require you in his Name to study and remember his business and interest and see that it have the chief place in all your consultations Watch against the incroachments of your own carnal interests consult not with flesh and blood nor give it the hearing when it shall offer you its advice How subtilly will it insinuate how importunately will it urge you how certainly will it marr all if you do not constantly and resolvedly watch O how hard but now happy is it to conquer this carnal self Remember still that you are not your own that you have an unseen Master that must be pleased whoever be displeased and an unseen Kingdom to be obtained and an invisible soul that must be saved though all the world be lost Fix your eye still on him that made and redeemed you and upon the ultimate end of your Christian race and do nothing wilfully unworthy such a Master and such an end Often renew your self-resignation and devote your self to him sit close at his work and be sure that it be His both in the Matter and in your Intent If Conscience should at any time ask Whose work are you now doing or a man should pluck you by the sleeve and say Sir Whose Cause are you now pleading See that you have the answer of a Christian at hand delay not Gods work till you have done your own or any ones else You 'l best secure the Common-wealth and your own interest by looking first to His. By neglecting this and being carnally wise we have wheel'd about so long in the Wilderness and lost those advantages against the Powers of Darkness which we know not whether we shall ever recover again It is the great astonishment of sober men and not the least reproach that ever was cast on our holy Profession to think with what a zeal for the work of Christ men seemed to be animated in the beginning of our disagreements and how deeply they did engage themselves to him in solemn Vows Protestations and Covenants what advantages carnal self hath since got and turned the stream another way so that the same men have since been the instruments of our calamity in breaking in pieces and dishonouring the Churches of Christ yea and gone so neer to the taking down as much as in them lay the whole Ministry that stand approved in the Land O do not by trifling give advantage to the Temper to destroy your work and you together Take warning by the sad experiences of what is past bestir you speedily and vigoruosly for Christ as knowing your opposition and the shortness of your time Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he commeth shall find so doing If you ask me wherein his interest of Christ doth consist I shall tell you but in a few unquestionable particulars 1. In the main that truth godliness and honesty be countenanced and encouraged and their contraries by all fit means suppressed 2. In order to this that unworthy men be removed from Magistracy and Ministry and the places supplyed with the fittest that can be had 3. That a competent maintenance may be procured where it is wanting especially for Cities and great Towns where more Teachers are so necessary in some proportion to the number of souls and on which the
a season esteeming the reproacb of Christ greater riches then the treasures of Egypt for he had respect to the recompence of the reward I forbear citing more the case being so evident that God is set highest in the heart of every sound Believer they being in Covenant resigned to him as his Own On the contrary most of the unsanctified are Christians but in name because they were educated to this profession it is the common Religion of the Country where they live and they hear none make question of it or if they do it is to their own disgrace the name of Christ having got this advantage to be everywhere among us well spoken of even by those that shall perish for neglecting him and his Laws These men have resigned their names to Christ but reserved their hearts to flesh pleasing vanities Or if under Conviction aud terror of Conscience they do make any resignation of their souls to Christ it comes short of the true resignation of the sanctfied in these particulars 1. It is a firm and rooted belief of the Gospel which is the cause of sincere resignation to Christ â—ney are so fully perswaded of the truth of those things which Christ hath done and promised to do hereafter that they will venture all that they have in this world and their everlasting state upon it Wheras the belief of self-dâ—ceivers is only superficial staggering not rooted and will not carry them to such adventures Mat. 13. 2l 22 23. 2. Sincere self-resignation is accompanied with such a love to him that we are devoted to which over-toppeth as to the rational part all other love The soul hath a prevailing complacency in God and closeth with him as its chiefest good Psal 73. 25. 63. 3. But the unsanctified have no such complacency in him they would fain please him by their flatteries left he should do them any hurt but might they enjoy but the pleasures of this world they could be well content to live without him 3. Sincere self-resignation is a departing from our carnal selves and all Creatures as they stand in competition with Christ for our hearts and so it containeth a Crncifying of the flesh and mortification of all its lusts Gal. 5. 24. Rom. 8 1. to 14. There is a hearty renouncing of former contrad ctory Interests and delights that Christ may be set highest and chiefly delighted in But self deceivers are never truly mortified when they seem to devote themselves most seriously to Christ there is a contrary prevailing Interest in their minds their fleshly felicity is nearer to their hearts and this world is never unfeignedly renounced 4. Sincere self-resignation is resolved upon deliberation and not a rash inconsiderate promise which is afterwards reverst The illuminated see that perfection in God that vanity in the Creature that desirable sufficiency in Christ and emptiness in themselves that they firmly resolve to cast themselves on him and be his alone And though they cannot please him as they would they 'l dye before they 'l change their Master but with self-deceivers it is not thus 5. Sincere resignation is absolute and unreserved Such do not Capitulate and condition with Christ I will be thine so far and no further so thou wilt but save my estate or credit or lise But self-deceivers have ever such Reserves in their hearts though they do not express them nor perhaps themselves discern them They have secret Limitations Exceptions and Conditions they have ever a salve for their worldly safety or felicity and will rather venture upon a threatned Misery which they see not though everlasting then upon a certain Temporary misery which they see These deep Reserves are the soul of Hypocrisy 6. Sincere self-resignation is fixed and habituate it is not forced by a moving Sermon or a dangerous sickness and then forgotten and laid aside but it is become a fixed habit in the soul it is otherwise with self-deceivers Though they will oblige themselves to Christ with vows in a time of fear and danger yet so loose is the knot that when the danger seems over their bonds fall off It s one thing to be affrighted and another to have the heart quite changed and renewed It s one thing to hire our selves with a Master in our necessities and then serve our selves or run away and another thing to nail our ears to his door and say I love thee and therefore will uot depart So much for the first mark of one that lives not as his own but as Gods to wit sincere self-resignation The second is this 2. As the heart is thus devoted to God so also is the life where men do truly take themselves for his And that will appear in these three particulars 1. The principal study and care of such men is how to please God and promote his interest and do his work this is it that they most seriously mind and contrive Their own felicity they seek in this way 1 Cor. 7. 32. 33. Rom. 6. 11. 13 16. Col. 1. 10. 3 1 2 3. Phil. 1. 20. 21 24. It is not so with the unsanctified they drive on another design Their own work is principally minded and their carnal interest preferred to Christs They live to the flesh and make provision for it to satisfie its desires Rom. 13. 14. 2. It is the chiefest delight of a man devoted to God to see Christs interest prosper and prevail It doth him more good to see the Church flourish the Gospel succeed the souls of men brought in to God and all things fitted to his blessed pleasure then it would do him to prosper himself in the world to do good to mens bodies much more to their souls is more pleasing to him then to be honourable or rich To give is sweeter to him then to receive His own matters he respects as lower things that come not so neer his heart as Gods But with the unsanctified it is not so their prosperity and honours are most of their delight and the absence of them their greatest trouble 3. With a man that is truly devoted to God the interest of Christ doth bear down all contradicting interest in the ordinary course of his life As his own unrighteous righteousness so his own renounced carnal interest is loss and dung to him in comparison of Christs Phil. 3. 8. 9. He cannot take himself to be a loser by that which is gain to the souls of men and tendeth to promote the interest of his Lord. He serveth God with the first aud best and lets his own work stand by till Christs be done or rather owneth none but Christs His own dishonour being lighter to him then Christs and a ruined estate less grievous then a ruined Church therefore doth he first seek Gods Kingdom and its righteousness Mat. 6. 33. and chuseth rather to neglect his flesh his gain his friends his life then the cause and work of Christ it is far otherwise with the umsanctified they will
by your parents resign your self to Christ as his and renounce the flesh the world and the Devil and promise to fight under Christs banner against them to your lives end O happy person that performeth this Covenant and everlastingly miserable are they that do not Fides non recepta sed custodita vivâ—â—â—cat saith Cyprian It is not Covenant making without Covenant keeping that is like to save you Do you stand to the Covenant that you made by your parents or do you disclaim it If you disclaim it you renounce your part in Christ and his benefits in that Covenant made over to you If you stand to it you must perform your promise and live to God to whom you were resigned To take Gods oath of Allegiance so solemnly and afterward to turn to his Enemies which we renounced is a rebllion that shall not be alwaies unrevenged 11. Gods absolute dominion and soveraignty over us is the very foundation of all Religion even of that little that is found left among Infidels and Pagans much more evidently of the saving Religion of Christians He that dare say he believeth not this will never sure have the face to call himself a Christian Is it not a matter of most sad consideration that ever so many millions should think to be saved by a Doctrine which they believe not or by a Religion that never went deeper then the braine and is openly contradicted by the tenour of their lives Is a true Religion enough to save you if you be not true to that Religion How do men make shift to quiet their Consciences in such gross hypocrisie Is there a man to be found in this Congregation that will not confess that he is rightfully his Redeemers But hath he indeed their hearts their time their strength and their interest follow some of them from morning to night you shall not hear one serious word for Christ nor see any serious indeavours for his interest And yet these men will professe that they are his How sad a case is it that mens own Confessions should condemn them and that which they called their Religion should judge them to that everlasting misery which they thought it would have sav'd them from And how glorious would the Christian Religion appeare if men were true to it if Christs Doctrine had its full impression on their hearts and were expressed in their lives Is he not an exellent person that denyeth himselfe and doth all for God that goeth on no businesse but Gods that searcheth out Gods interest in every part of his calling and employment and intendeth that that whether he eat or drink or whatever he doth doth all to the glory of God 1. Cor. 10. 31. that can say as Paul Gal. 2 20. I am crucified with Christ neverthelesse I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me And Phil 3. 7 8. What things were gain to me those I counted loss for Christ yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ And Phil. 1. 21. For to me to live is Christ and to dye is gaine Perhaps you think that the degree of these examples is unimitable by us but I am sure all that will be saved must imitate them in the truth 12. Self-seeking is self-losing and delivering up your self and all you have to God is the only way to save your selves and to secure all The more you are His the more you are your own indeed and the more you deliver to him and expend for him the greater is your gain These Paradoxes are familiar tryed truths to the true Believer these are his daily food and exercise which seem to others such Scorpions as they dare not touch or such stones as they are not able to digest He knoweth that self-humbling is the true self-exalting and self-exalting is the infallible way to be brought low Luke 14 11. 18. 14. Mat 23. 12. He believeth that there is a losing of life which saves it and a saving of it which certainly loseth it Mat. 10. 39. 16. 25. O that I could reach the hearts of Self-seekers that spend their care and time for their bodies and live not unto God! That I were but able to make them see the issue of their Course and what it will profit them to win all the world and lose their souls O all you busie men of this world hearken to the proclamation of him that bought you Isa 55. 1 2 3. Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters buy wine and milk without money or price wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfieth not hearken diligently to me and eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight itself in fatness incline your ear and come unto me hear and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you O sirs what a deal of care and labour do you lose how much more gainfully might your lives be improved Godliness with contentment is the great gain 1 Tim. 6. 6. That which you now think you make your own will shortly prove to be least your own and that is most lost which you so carefully labour for you that are now so idlely busie in gathering together the Treasurie of an Ant-hillock and building Childrens tottering piles you forget that the foot of death is coming to spurn it all abroad and tread down you and it together You spend the day of life and visitation in painting your phantasies with the images of felicity and in dressing your selves and feathering your nest with that which you impiously steal from God and you do forget that the night of blackness is at hand when God will undress you of your temporary contents and deplume you of your borrowed bravery How easily how speedily â— how certainly will he do it Read over your case in Luke 12. from 16. to 22. How can you make shift to read such Texts and not perceive that they speak to you When you are a pulling down and building up and contriving what to do with your fruits and saying to your selves I have so much now as will serve me so many years I will take mine ease eat drink and be merry remember then the conclusion But God said unto him Thou fool this night thy soul shall be required of thee then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God Are these things Yours or Mine saith God! whose are they if they are yours keep them now if you can either stay with them or take them with you But God will make you know that they are his and disrobe such men as thieves that are adorned with that which is none of their own this honour â—aith
Actually unwilling If a man have so accustomed himself to murder drunkeness stealing or the like wickedness so far that he cannot leave it will you therefore forgive him or will any Judge or Jury hold him excused Or rather think him the more unfit for mercy 5. Note also that the want of a supernatural Habit no nor the presence of the contrary Habit do not Efficiently determine the will to particular acts much less take away its natural Freâ—â—om 6. And that till Habits attain an utter predominancy at least there is a Power remaining in the will to resist them and use means against them Though Eventually the perverse Inclination may hinder the use of it The three and twentieth Excuse I have heard from learned men that God doth determine all Actions Natural and Free as the first Efficient Physical immediate Cause or else nothing could Act. And then it was not long of me that I chose forbidden Objects but of him that irresistly moved me therto and whose Instrument I was Answ This is a trick of that wisdom which is foolishness with God and to be deceived by vain Philosophy 1. The very principle it self is most likely to be false and those that tell you this to err Much more I think may be said against it then for it 2. I am sure it is either false or reconcileable with Gods Holiness and mans liberty and culpability so that its a mad thing to deceive yeur selves with such Philosophical uncertainâ—ies when the Truth which you oppose by it is infallibly certain That God is not the Author of sin but man himself who is justly condemned for it is undoubtedly true and would you obscure so clear a Truth by searching into points beyond homane reach if not unsound as you conclude them The four and twentieth Excuse But at least those learned Divines among us that doubt of this do yet say that the will is necessarily and infallbly Determined by the Practical Understanding and that is as much unresistibly necessitated by Objects and therefore whatever act was done by my understanding or will was thus necessitated and I could not help it Theâ— say Liberty is but the Acting of the faculty aggreeably to its nature And it was God as Creator that gave Adam his faculties and God by providential dtspose that presented all Objects to him by Which hi understanding and so his Will were unvoidable necessitated Answ This is of the same nature with the former uncertain if noâ— certainly false Were this true for ought we can see it would lay all the sin and misery of this world on God as the unresistible necessitating Cause which because we know infallibly to be false we have no reason to take such principles to be true which infer it The understanding doth not by a necessary efficiency Determine the will but morally or rather is regularly a Condition or necessary Antecedent without which it may not Determine itself Yea the Will by commanding the sense and phantasie doth much to determine the Understanding As the eye is not necessary to my going but to my going right so is not the Understandings Guidance necessary to my willing there the simple Apprehension may suffice but to my Right willing There are other wayes of Determining the Will Or if the Understanding did Determine the Will Efficiently and Necessarily it is not every act of the Understanding that must do it If it be so when it saiâ—h This must be done and saith it importunately yet not when it only saith This may be done or you may venture on it which is the common part which it hath in sin I am not pleased that these curious Objections fall in the way nor do I delight to put them into vulgar heads but finding many young Schollars and others that have converted with them assaulted with these Temptations I thought meet to give a touch and but a touch to take them out of their way As Mr. Fenner hath done more fully in the Preface to his Hidden Manna on this last point to which I refer you I only add this The will of man in its very Dominion doth bear Gods Image It is a self Determining Power though it byassed by Habits and needs a Guide As the Heart Vital Spirits by which it acteth are to the rest of the Body so is It to the soul The Light of Nature hath taught all the world to carry the Guilt of every crime to the will of man and there to leave it Upon this all Laws and Judgements are grounded From Ignorance and Intellectual weakness men commonly fetch Excuses for their faults but from the Will they are Aggravated If we think it strange that mans will should be the first cause so much as of a sinful mode and answer all occuring Objections it may suffice that we are certain the Holy Majesty is not the Author of sin and he is able to make all this as plain as the Sun and easily answer all these vain Excuses though we should be unable And if we be much ignorant of the frame and motions of our own souls and especially of that high self determining principle Free-Will the great spring of our actions and the curious Engine by which God doth Sapientially Govern the world it is no wonder Considering that the soul can know it self but by Reflection and God gave us a soul to use rather then to know itself and to know its qualities and operations rather then its Essence The five and twentieth Excuse No man can be saved nor avoid any sin nor believe in Christ but those whom God hath predestinated thereto I was under an irreversible Sentence before I was born and therefore I do nothing but what I was predestinated to do and if God decreed not to save me how could I help it Answ 1. Gods Judgements are more plain but his Decrees or secret purposes are mysterious And to darken certainties by having recourse to points obscure is no part of Christian Wisdom God told you your Duty in his word and on what terms vou must be Judged to Life or Death Hither should you have recourse for Direction and not to the unsearchable mysteries of his mind 2. God decreeth not to Condemn any but for sin Sin I say as the Cause of that Condemnation though not of his Decree 3. Gods Decrees are acts Immanent in himself and make no change on you and therefore do not necessitate you to sin any more then his fore-knowledge doth For both cause only a necessity of Confequence which is Logical as the Divines on both sides do Consess And therefore this no more caused you to sin then if there had been no such Decree And it s a doubt whether that Decree be not negative A willing suspending of the Divine will as to evil or at most A purpose to permit it The six and twentieth Excuse If it be no more yet doth it make my perdition unavoidable For even Gods foreknowledge doth so
the next words Depart fromme in to Everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels 1. Depart From whom from the God thâ— made them in his Image From the Redeem that bought them by the price of his blood anâ— offered to save them freely for all their unworthyness and many a time intreated them to Accept his offer that their souls might live From the Holy Ghost the Sanctifier and comforter of the faithful who strove with their hearts till they quenched and expelled him O sad Departing who would not then choose rather to Depart from all the friends he had in the world and from any thing Imaginable from his life from himself if it were possible then from Christ Depart from what why from the presence of the Judge from all further Hopes of salvation for ever from all possibility of ever being saved and living in the joyful inheritance of the Righteous Depart Not from Gods Essential presence for that will be with them to their evelasting misery but from the presence of his Grace in that measure as they enjoyed it Depart Not from your fleshly pleasures and honours and profits of the world These were all gone and past already and there was no further need to bid them Depart from these Houses and Lands were gone Mirth and Recreations were gone Their sweet morsels and cups were gone All the Honour that men could give them was gone before they were set at Christs barr to be Iudged But from all expectations of ever enjoying these again or ever tasting their former delights from these they must Depart No from their sin for that will go with them But the Liberty of commiting that part of it which was sweet to them as Gluttony Drunkenness Whoredom Idleness and all Voluptuousness from these they must Depart But this is consequential It is Christ and the Possibility of salivation that they are Sentenced to Depart from But Whither must they Depart 1. Into fire 2. Into that fire which was prepared for the Devil and his Angels 3. Into everlasting fire 1. Not into a Purifying but a Tormenting fire Whether Elementary or not Whether properly or Metaphorically called fire let us not vainly trouble or selves to enquire It is enough to know that as fire is one of the most grievous Tormentors of the flesh so grievous will be those infernal Torments to the whole man soul and body Such as is most fitly represented to us under the notion of fire and of burning It s easie for a secure unbelieving soul to read and hear of it but woe and ten thousand woes to them that must endure it In this life they had their good things when it went harder as to the flesh with better men but now they are tormented when the godly are comforted as Luke 16. 25. 2. But why is it called a fire prerared for the Devil and his Angels 1. What is this Divel That hath Angels 2. Who are his Angels 3. When was it prepared for them 4. Was it not also prepared for wicked men To these in order 1. It seems by many passages in Scripture that there is an Order among Spirits both Good and Bad and that there is one Devil that is the Prince over the rest 2. It seem therefore that it 's the rest of the evil spirits that are called his Angels And some think that the wicked who served him in this life shall be numbered with his Angels in the life to come Indeed the Apostle calls him The God of this world 2 Cor 4. 4. as is ordinarily Iudged by Expositors and the Prince of the power of the Aire the Spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience Eph. 2. 2. And he Calleth false seducing Teachers the Ministers of Satan 2 Cor. â—1 15 But that wicked men are Here meant as part of his Angels is not clear 3. If it be the preparation of Gods purpose that is here meant then it was from Eternity but if it be any Commination of God as Ruler of the Angels then was this fire prepared for them Conditionally from the beginning of that Commination and was Due to them at their fall 4. It seems that the Reason why here is no mention of preparing Hell-fire for the wicked but only for the Devils is not be cause indeed it was not prepared also for the wicked but to note that it is the Torment which was first prepared for or assigned to the Devils thereby shewing the greatness of the misery of the wicked that the Devil and his Angels must be their Companions Though some think as is said before that the reason why wicked men are not Mentioned here is because they are part of the Angels of the Devil and so included And some think it is purposely to manifest Gods General Love to mankind that prepared not Hell for them but they cast themselves into the Hell prepared for the Devils But the first seems to be the true sense And how apparently Righteous are the Judgements of the Lord that those men who would here entertain the Devil into their hearts and daily familiarity should be then entertained by him into his place of Torments and there remain for ever in his society Though few entertained him into Visible familiarity with their bodies as Witches do who so make him their Familiar yet all wicked men do entettain him into more full c â—nstant familiarity with their so uls then these withces do with their bodies how famliariar is he in their thoughts to fill them with vanity lust or revenge How familiar is he in their hearts to fill them with covetousness malice pride or the like evils and to banish all thoughts of returning to God and to quench every motion that tendeth to their recovery How familiar is he with them even when they seem to be worshipping God in the publike Assembles stealing the word out of their hearts filling them with vain and wandring thoughts blinding their minds that they cannot understand the plainest words that we are able to speak to them and filling them with a proud rebellion against the Direction of their Teachers and an obstinate refusal to be ruled by them be the matter never so necessary to their own salvation How familiar are these evil Spirits in their houses filling them with ignorance worldliness and ungodliness and turning out Gods service so that they do not pray together once in a day or perhaps at all How familiarly doth Satan use their tongues in cursing swearing lying ribaldry backbiting or slandring and is it not just with God to make these fiends their familiars in Torment with whom they entertained such familiarity in sin As Christ with all the Blessed Angels and Saints will make but one Kingdom or family and shall live altogether in perpetual Delights so the Devil and all his Hellish Angels and wicked men shall make but one house-hold and shall live altogether in perpetual misery O poor sinners I you are not troubled now
not Believe aâ—d he alâ—o shall be there The godly that waited in hope for that day as the day of their â—ull Dâ—lâ—verance Coronation â—hey shall be there Those that have lain in the dust these 5000. years shall rise again and all stand there Hearer whoever thou art believe it thou maist better think to live without meat to see without light to escape death and abide for ever on earth then to keep away from that Appearance Willing or unwilling thou shalt be there And should not a matter then that so concerneth thy self go neer to thy heart and awake thee from thy security 3. That it is a matter of unquestionable certainty I have partly shewed you already and more would do if I were preaching to known Infidels If the careless world had any just reason to think it were uncertain their carelesness were more excusable Methinks a man should be affected with that which he is certain shall come to pass in a manner as if it were now in doing â— Thes 5. 2. Ye perfectly know that the day of the Lord so cometh c. saith the Apostle 4. This day is not only certain but it is neâ—r and therefore should affect you the more I confess if it were never so far off yet seeing it will come at last It should be carefully regarded But when the Judge is at the door Jam. 5. 9. and we are almost at the barr and it is so short a time to this assize what soul that is not dead will be secure Alas Sirs what is a little time when it is gone how quickly shall you and I be all in another world and our souls recieve their particular Judgement and so wait till the body be raised and judged to same Condition It is not a 100. years in all likelyhood till every soul of us shall be in heaven or hell and its like not half or a quarter of that time but it will be so with the greater part of us and what is a year or two or a 100 how speedily is it come how many a soul that is now in heaven or hell within a 1000 years dwelt in the places that you now dwel in and sate in the seats you now sit in And now their time is past what is it Alas how quickly will it be so with us You know not when you go to bed but you may be Judged by the next morning or when you rise but you may be Judged before night but certainly you know that shortly it will be and should not this then be laid to heart Yea the General Judgement wil lt no be long For certainly we live in the end of world Qu. 4. MY next Question is Whether are you ready for this dreadful Judgement when it comes or not Seeing it is your selves then must be tried I think it concerns you to see that you be prepared How often hath Christ warned us in the Gospel that we be alwaies ready because we know not the day or hour of his coming Mat. 24. 44. 42. and 25. 13. 1 Thes 5. 6. and told us how sad a time it will be to those that are unready Mat. 25. 11 12. Did men but well know what a meeting and greeting there will be between Christ and an unready soul it would sure startle them and make them look about them What say you Beloved Hearers are you ready for Judgement or are you not Me thinks a man that knoweth he shall be Judged should ask himself the Question every day of his life Am I ready to give up my Account to God! Do not you use to ask this of your own hearts unless you be careless whether you be saved or damned me thinks you should and ask it seriously Qu. But who be they that are ready how shall I know whether I be ready or not Answ There is a twofold readiness 1. When you are in a safe case 2. When you are in a comfortable case in regard of that day The latter is very desirable but the first is of absolute necessity this therefore is it that you must principally enquire after In General all those and only those are ready for Judgement who shall be justified and saved and not condemned when Judgement comes They that have a good cause in a Gospel sense It may be known before hand who these are for Christ Judgeth as I told you by his Law And therefore find out whom it is that the Law of grace doth justifie or condemn and you may certainly know whom the Judge will Justifie or condemn for he Judgeth righteously If you further ask me who these are remember that I told you before that every man that is personally righteous by fulfilling the Conditions of Salvation in the Gospel shall be saved and he that is found unrighteous as having not fulfilled them shall perish at that day Qu. Who are those Answ I will tell you them in a few words lest you should forget because it it a matter that your Salvation or Damnation dependeth upon 1. The soul that unfeignedly repenteth of his former sinful course and turneth from it in heart and life and loveth the way of godliness which he hateâ— and hateth the way of sin which he loved and is become thoroughly a New Creature being born again and sanctified by the Spirit of Christ shall be Justified but all others shall certainly be condemned Good news to repenting converted sinners but sad to Impenitent and him that knows not what this means 2. That soul that feeling his misery under sin and the power of Satan and the wrath of God doth believe what Christ hath done and suffered for mans restauration Salvation and thankfully accepteth him as his only Saviour and Lord on the terms that he is offered in the Gospel and to those ends even to Justifie him and sanctifie and guide him and bring him at last to everlasting glory that soul shall be Justified at Judgement and he that doth not shall be condemned Or in short in Scripture phrase He that believeth shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be condemned Mar. 16. 16. 3. The soul that hath had so much knowledge of the goodness of God and his love to man in Creation Redemption and the following mercies and hath had so much conviction of the vanity of all creatures as thereupon to Love God more then all things below so that he hath the cheifest room in the heart and is preferred before all creatures ordinarily in a time of tryal that soul shall be Justified at Judgement and all others shall be condemned 4. That soul that is so apprehensive of the absolute Soveraignty of God as Creator and Redeemer and of the Righteousness of his Law and the Goodness of his holy way as that he is firmly Resolved to obey him before all others and doth accordingly give up himself to study his will of purpose that he may obey it and doth walk in these holy waies and hath so
far mortified the flesh and subdued the world and the Devil that the Authority and Word of God can do more with him then any other and doth ordinarily prevail against all the perswasion and interest of the flesh so that the main scope and bent of the heart and life is still for God and when he sinneth he riseth again by true Repentance I say that soul and that only shall be Justified in Judgement and be saved 5. That soul that hath such Believing thoughts of the life to come that he taketh the promised blessedness for his portion and is resolved to venture all else upon it and in hope of his glory doth seâ— light comparatively by all things in this world and waiteth for it as the end of this life choosing any suffering that God shall call him to rather then to lose his hopes of that felicity and thus persevereth to the end I say that soul and none but that shall be justified in Judgement and escape Damnation In these five marks I have told you truly and briefly who shall be Justified and saved and who shall be condemned at the day of Judgement And if you would have them all in five words they are but the Description of these five Graces Repentance Faith Love Obedience Hope But though I have laid these close together for your use yet lest you should think that in so weighty a case I am too short in the proof of what I so determine of I will tell you in the express words of many Scripture Texts who shall be Justified and who shall be condemned John 3. 3. Except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Heb. 12. 14. Without holiness none shall see God Luk. 13. 3 5. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Acts 26. 18. I send thee to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an Inheritance among the sanctified by Faith that is in me Joh. 3. 15 16. 17 18 19. Whoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life he that believeth on him is not condemned he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not Believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God and this is the condemnation that light is come in to the world and men loved darkness rather then light because their deeds were evil John 5. 28 29. The hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shal hear his voice shall come forth they that have done good to the Resurrect on of life and they that have done evil to the Resurrection of damnation Mat. 25. 30. Cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness there shal be weeping gnashing of Teeth Lu. 19 27. But those mine enimies which would not that I should raign over them bring hither and slay them before me Mat 22. 12. 13. Friend how camest thou in hither not having on a wedding gatment And he was speechless Then said the King to the servants Bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer darkness c. Mat. 5. 20. For I say unto you that except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of heaven Mat. 7. 21. Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven Heb. 5. 6. He is become the Author of eternall salvation to all them that obey him Rev. 22. 14. Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in by the Gate into the City Rom. 8. 1. 13. There is then no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit For if ye live after the flesh ye shall dye but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Rom. 8. 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Gal. 5. l8 But if ye be Led of the Spirit ye are not under the Law Gal. 6. 7. 8. Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap for he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap Corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit read life Everlasting Matth. 6. 21. For where your Treasure is there wil your heart be also Read Psal 1. and many other Texts to this purpose of which some are cited in my Directions for Peace of Conscience Dir. 11. p. 115. 116. And thus I have told you from Gods Word how you may know whether you are ready for Judgement which is the fourth thing that I would advise you to enquire after O Sirs what shift do you make to keep your souls from Continual Terrours as you as long remain unready for Judgement How do you keep the Thoughts of it out of your mind that they do not break your sleep and meet you in your business and haunt you every way you go while Judgement is so neer and you are so unready But I shall proceed to say next Question Qu. 5 AND in the last place to those of you that are not yet Ready nor in a Condition wherein you may safe at that day ' my Question is How are you resolved to prepare for Judgement for the time to come Will you do no more than you have done hitherto Or will you now set your selves with all your might to make preparation for so great a day me thinks you should be now past all demurs delays or further doubtings about such a business and by the consideration of what I have said already you should be fully Resolved to lose no more time but presently to awake and â—eâ— upon the work Me thinks you should all say We will do any thing that the Lord shall Direct us to do rather then we will be unready for this final doom O that there were but such hearts in you that you were truly willing to follow the gracious Guidance of the Lord and to use but those sweet and reasonable means which he hath prescribed you in his Word that you may be ready for that day Alas it is no hard matter for me to tell you or my self what it is that we must do if we will be happy and it is no very hard matter to Do it so far ar we are truly willing but the difficulty is to be truly and throughly willing to this work If I shall tell you what you must do for preparation shall I not lose my labour Will you resolve and promise in the strength of Grace that you will faithfully and speedily endeavour to practise it whoever shall gainsay it Upon hope of this I will set you down some brief Directions
which you must follow if ever you will with comfort look the Lord Jesus in the face at the hour of Death or in the Day of Iudgement THE first Direction is this See that your souls be sincerely established in the Belief of this Judgement and everlasting life For if you do not soundly believe it you will not seriously prepare for it If you have the Judgement and belief of an Infidel you cannot have the Heart or the Life of a Christian Unbelief shuts out the most of the world from heaven see that it do not so by you If you say You cannot Believe what you would I answer Feed not yor â—â—belieâ— by wilfulness or unreasonableness Use Gods means to overcome it and shut not your eyes against he light and then try the issues Heb. 3. 12 13 15 16 17 18 19. THE second Direction Labour diligently to have a sound understanding of the nature of the Laws and Judgement of God On what terms it is that he dealeth with mankinde and on what terms he will Judge them to Life or Death and what the Reward and punishment is For if you know not the Law by which you must be Judged you cannot know how to prepare for the Judgement Study the Scripture therefore and mark who they be that God promiseth to save and who they be that he threatneth to Condemn For according to that Word will the Judgement pass THE third Direction See that you take it as the very business of your Lives to make ready for that day Understand that you have no other business in this world but what doth necessarily depend on this What else have you to do but to provide for everlasting and to use means to sustain your own bodies and others of purpose for his work till it be happily done â— Live therefore as men that make this the main scope and care of their Lives and let all things else come in but on the by Remember every morning when you awake that you must spend that day in preparation for your Account and that God doth give it you for that end When you go to bed examine your hearts what you have done that day in preparation for your last Day And take that time as lost which doth nothing to this end THe fourth Direction Vse frequently to think of the Certainty neerness and dreadfulness of that day to keep Life in your Affections and Endeavours lest by Inconsiderateness your souls grow stupid and negligent Otherwise because it is out of sight the heart will be apt to grow hardened and secure And do not think of it sleightly as a common thing but purposely set your selves to think of it that it may rouze you up to such Affections and Endeavours as in some measure are answerable to the nature of the thing THE fifth Direction Labour to have a lively feeling on thy heart of the evil and weight of that sin which thou art guilty of and of the misery into which it hath brought thee and would further bring thee if thou be not delivered and so to feel the need of a Deliverer This must prepare thee to partake of Christ now and if thou partake not of him now thou canst not be saved by him Then It is these souls that now make light of their sin and misery that must then feel them so heavy as to be pressed by them into the infernal flames And those that now feel little need of a Saviour they shall then have none to save them when they feel their need THE sixth Direction Vnderstand and Believe the sufficiency of that Ransom and Satisfaction to Justice which Christ hath made for thy sins and for the world and how freely and universally it is offered in the Gospel Thy sin is not uncurable or unpardonable nor thy misery remediless God hath provided a remedy in his Son Christ and brought it so neer thy hands that nothing but thy neglecting or wilful refusing it can deprive thee of the Benefit Settle thy soul in this belief THE seventh Direction Vnderstand and Believe that for all Christs satisfaction there is an Absolute Necessity of sound Faith and Repentancte to be in thy own self before thou canst be a Member of him or be Pardoned Adopted or Justified by his blood He dyed not for final Infidelâ—ty and Impenitency as predominant in any soul As the Law of his Father which occasioned his suffering required perfect Obedience or suffering So his own Law which he hath made for the conveyance of his Benefits doth require yet true Faith and Repentance of men themselves before they shall be pardoned by him and sincere Obedience and Perseverance before they shall be glorified THE eighth Direction Rest not therefore in an unrenewed unsanctified state that is till this Faith and Repentance be wrought on thy own soul and thou be truly broken of from thy former sinful course and from all things in this world and art Dedicated Devoted and Resigned unto God Seeing this change must be made and these graces must be had or thou must certainly perish in the fear of God see that thou give no ease to thy mind till thou art thus changed Be content with nothing till this be done Delay not another day How canst thou live merrily or sleep quietly in such a Condition as if thou shouldst dye in it thou shouldst perish for ever Especially when thou art every hour uncertain whether thou shalt see another hour and not be presently snatch away by death Methinks while thou art in so sad a case which way ever thou art going or what ever thou art doing it should still come into thy thoughts Oh what if I should Dye before I be Regenerate and have part in Christ THE ninth Direction Let it be the daily care of thy soul to mortifie thy fleshly desires and overcome this world and live as in a continual Conflict With Satan which Will not be ended till thy life do end If any thing destroy thee by drawing away thy heart from God it will be thy carnal self thy fleshly desires and the allurements of this world which is the matter that they feed upon This therefore must be the earnest work of thy life to subdue this flesh and set light by this world and resist the Devil that by these would destroy thee It is the common case of miserable hypocrites that at first they list themselves under Christ as for a fight but they presently forget their state and work and when they are once in their own conceit Regenerate they think themselves so safe that there is no further danger and thereupon they do lay down their Arms and take that which they miscall their Christian Liberty and indulge and please that flâ—sh which they promised to mortifie and close with the world which they promised to contemn and so give up themselves to the Devil whom they promised to fight against If once you apprehend all your Religion lieth in meer Believing
such conceits that it was but an act of the flesh and not of the minde and therefore as they thought the smaler sin The Apostles words from last to First according to the order of Intention do express first mans duty to glorifie God with soul and body and not to serve our lusts Secondly the great fundamental obligation to this duty Gods dominion or propriety 3ly The foundation of that Dominion Christs purchase according to the order of execution from first to last these three great fundamentals of our religion lie thus First Christs purchase Secondly Gods propriety thence arising Thirdly mans duty wholly to glorifie God arising from both The argument lies thus They that are not their own but wholly Gods should wholly glorifie God aud not serve their lusts but you are not your own but wholly Gods therefore you should wholly glorifie God not serve your lusts The major is clear by the common light of nature Every one should have the use of their own The Minor is proved thus They that are bought with a price are not their own but his that bought them but you are bought with a price therefore c. For the meaning of the terms briefly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vestri as the vulgar vestri juris as Beza and others is most fitly expressed by our English your own ye are bought a Synecdoche generis saith Piscator for ye are redeemed with a price There is no buying without a price This therefore is an Emphaticall Pleonasmus as Beza Piscator and others as to see with the eyes to hear with the ears Or else a price is put for a great price as Calvin Peter Martyr and Piscator rather thinks And therefore the Vulgar adds the Epithet magno the Arabick pretioso as Beza notes as agreeing to that of 1 Pet. 1. 18. I see not but we may supose the Apostle to respect both the purchase and the greatness of the price as Grotius and some others do Glorifie God that is by using your bodies and souls wholly for him and abstaining from those lusts which do dishonour him The Vulgar adds portate q. d. beare God about in your hearts and let his spirit dwell with you instead of lust But this addition is contrary to all our Greek Copies Grotius thinks that some Copies had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and thence some unskillful scribe did put 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 however it seems that reading was very antient when not only Austin but Cyprian and Tertullian followed it as Beza noteth The last words and in your spirit which are Gods are out of all the old Latin Traslations and therefore its like out of the Greek which they used But they are in all the present Greek Copies except our M. S. as also in the Syriack and Arabick version The rest of the explication shall follow the Doctrines which are these Doct. 1. We are bought with a price Doct. 2. Because we are bought to we are not our own but his that bought us Doct. 3. Because we are not our own but wholly Gods therefore we must not serve our lusts but glorifie him in the Body and Spirit In these three conclusions is the substance of the Text which I shall first explain and then make application of them in that order as the Apostle here doth The Points that need explication are these First in what sense we are said to be bought with a price who bought us and of whom and from what and with what price Secondly How we are Gods own upon the Title of this purchase Thirdly How we are not our own Fourthly What it is to glorifie God in Body and in Spirit on this account Fifthly Who they be that on this ground are or may be urged to this duty First For the first of these whether buying here be taken properly or Metaphorically I will not now enquire First mankind by sin became guilty of death liable to Gods wrath and a slave to Satan and his own lusts The sentence in part was past and execution begun the rest would have followed if not prevented This is the bondage from which we are redeemed Secondly he that redeemed us is the Son of God himself God and man and the Father by the Son Acts 20. 28. He purchased us with his own blood Thirdly the price was the whole humiliation of Christ in the first act whereof his incarnation the Godhead was alone which by humbling it self did suffer reputatively which could not really In the rest the whole person was the sufferer but still the humane nature Really and the Divine but Reputatively And why we may not add as part of the price the merit of that obedience wherein his suffering did not consist I yet see not But from whom were we redeemed Answ From Satan by rescue against his will From Gods wrath or Vindictive justice by his own procurement and consent He substituted for us such a sacrifice by which he could as fully attain the ends of his righteous Government in the Demonstration of his justice and hatred of sin as if the sinner had suffered himself And in this sound sense it is far from being an absurdity as the Socinian dreameth for God to satisfie his own Justice or to buy us of himself or redeem us from himself 2. Next let us consider how we are Gods upon the Title of this purchase By God here is meant both the Son who being God hath procured a right in us by his Redemption and also the Father who sent his Son and redeemed us by him and to whom it was that the Son redeemed us Rev. 5. 9. Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy Blood In one word it is God as Redeemer the manhood also of the second person included that hath purchased this right Here you must observe that God as Creator had a plenary Right of propriety and Government on which he founded the Law of works that then was This right he hath not lost Our fall did lose our Right in him but could not destroy his right in us Because it destroyed our right therefore the promissory part of that Law was immediately thereupon dissolved or ceased through our incapacity and therefore Divines say that as a Covenant it ceased but because it destroyed not Gods Right therefore the precâ—ptive and penall parts of that Law do still remain But how remain In their being but not alone or without remedy For the Son of God became a sacrifice in our stead not that we might absolutely immediately or ipso facto be fully delivered or that any man should ab ipsa hostia from the very sacrifice as made have a right to the great benefits of personall plenary Reconciliation and Remission and everlasting life but that the necessity of perishing through the unsatisfiedness of justice for the alone offences against the Law of works being removed from mankind they might all be delivered up to him as Proprietary Rector that he might
please and make us such Laws and Conditions as seem best to his wisdom upon which our justification and salvation should depend He hath resolved that this shall be the only condition and way and that as no man shall be justified by a meer Christ or his death abstracted from Faith that is of Age and use of Reason so this Faith shall be the condition upon which they shall be justified or as a Christ neglected shall save no man so the accepting or receiving of him shall justifie and save them as the conditon of the Covenant performed under which Notion it is that Faith justifieth 2. Yet other improper or subordinate Reasons which receive their life from the former and without it would be no Reasons may be given as 1. From the equity and 2. From the sutbleness and conveniency 1. It is but equal that he who hath bought us and that so dearly and from a state so deplorable and desperate as we were in should be acknowledged and accepted for our Saviour and our Lord and that we who are not our own but are bought with a price should glorifie him with our bodies and souls which are his 1 Cor. 6. 20. 7. 23. Epecially when for that end he both dyed aud rose again that he might rule or be Lord over both quick and dead Rom. 14. 9. If one of you should buy a man from the Galleyes or Gallowes with the price of your whole estate or the life of your only Son would you not expect that he should be at your dispose that he should love you depend on you and be subject to you 2. And as salvation by free Grace through Christ is a way most sutable to Gods honor and to our own necessities and low condition so in subordination thereto the way of believing is most rationally conducible to the same ends As we could not have had a fitter way to the Father then by Christ so neither could there be a fitter way to Christ or means to partake of him then by Faith For though I cannot call it the instrumental Cause of our justification either Active or Passive yet is this Faith or Acceptation of Christ for our Saviour and King which is here called Kising the Son the fairest condition that we could reasonably expect and the most apparently tending to the honor of our Redeemer applying and appropriating to our selves the person righteousness and benefits procured and offered but noâ— the least of the houor of the Work All we do is but to accept what Christ hath procured and that must be by the special assistance of his Spirit too 4. The fourth thing I promised is to shew you Why no other Priviledge or Power in the world can save him that doth not kiss the Son It may here suffice that I have shewed you Gods determination to the contrary But further consider if any shonld hope to scape by their Dignities Titles Friends Strength or any other endowments or virtuous qualifications 1. What is their task 2. What is their power to perform it 1. They must resist the unresistible will of God They must do that which Heaven or Earth Men or Devils were never able yet to do They have resisted his Laws and his love but they could never resist his purpose or his power The power that undertaketh to save the Enemy or Neglecter of Christ must first overcome the power of the Almighty and conquer him that doth command the World And who hath the strength that is sufficient for this Sinner before thou venture thy soul upon such a mad conceit or think to be saved whether God will or not try first thy skill and strength in some inferiour attempt Bid the Sun or Moon stand still in the Firmament invert the several seasons of the year Bid the snow and frost to come in Summer and the flowers and fruits to spring in Winter command the streams to turn their course or the Tide its times or the winds their motion If these will obey thee and thy word can prevail with them against the Law of their Creator then maist thou proceed with a greater confidence and courage and have some hopes to save the neglecters of Christ Or try first whether thou canst save thy present life against the course of nature and will of God call back thine age and years that are past command thy pains and sickness to be gone chide back this bold approaching death Will they not obey thee Canst thou do none of these How then canst thou expect the saving of thy soul against the determinate will and Way of God Where dwelleth that man or what was his name that did neglect Christ and yet escape damnation Who hath hardned himself against him and hath prospered Job 9. 4. And dost thou think then to be the first Thou maist perhaps knock boldly at the Gate of Heaven and plead thy Greatness thy virtues thy Almsdeeds and formal devotion but thou shalt receive a sadder answer then thou dost expect Jesus we know and obediential Faith in him we know but who are ye 2 He that will save the soul that loveth not dependeth not on and subjecteth not himself to Christ must first make false the word of God and make the true and faithful God a lyer this is another part of his task God hath given it under his hand for truth That he that believeth not is condemned already Joh. 3. 18. That he shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Joh. 3. 36. That they who are invited to Christ and make light of it or make excuses shall never taste of his Supper Luke 14. 24. Mat. 22. 5. 8. That it shall be easier for Sodom in the day of Judgement then for that City which refuseth the offers of the Gospel Mat. 12. 15. That whosoever would not have Christ to raign over them shall be brought forth at last and destroyed before him as his Enemies Luk. 19. 27. That they shall all be damned that believe not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thes 2. 12 c. And hath the Almighty said that thus it shall be Who then is he that dare say it shall not be Is this the concluded Decree of Heaven what power or policy is able to reverse it hath God said it wil he not do it Thus you see his task that will undertake to save one neglecter of Christ 2. Let us now consider what Power that is that must perform it If it be done it must be either 1. By Wisdom or 2. By Strength whereas the chiefest of men even the Kings and Judges of the Earth are both ignorant and Impotent 1. Ignorant Though Judges are learned in the repute of the World Alas poor crawling breathing dust Do you know the secrets of your Masters counsel and are you able to over reach them and frustrate his designs Doth this Book know what is written in it Can the Seat you sit on over-top your
counsels more likely then for you to over-top the Lord silly worms you know not what God is nor know you any one of his unrevealed thoughts no more then that Pillar doth know your thoughts you know not what you are your selves nor see any further then the superficies of your skin what is thy soul and when didst thou receive it Dost thou know its form or didst thou feel it enter which part didst thou feel it first possess Thou canst call it a Spirit but knowst thou what a Spirit is or rather only what it is not Thou knowest not that whereby thou knowest and how was thy body formed in the womb what was it an hundred years agoe what is that vital heat and moisture what causeth that order and diversity of its parts when will the most expert Anatomists and Physitians be agreed Why there are mysteries in the smallest worm which thou canst not reach nor couldst thou resolve the doubts arising about an Ant or Atome much less about the Sun or Fire or Air or or Wind c. and canst thou not know thy self nor the smallest part of thy self nor the smallest Creature and yet canst thou over-reach the everlasting Counsels 2. And is thy might and Power any greater then thy Policy Why what are the Kings and Rulers of the Earth but lumps of Clay that can speake and go moving shadows the Flowers of a day a corruptible seed blown up to that swelled consistence in which it appears as Children blow their bubbles of Soape somewhat invisibly condensate which that it may become visible is become more gross and so more vile and will shortly be almost all turned into invisible again that little dust which corruption leaves by the force of fire may be dissipated yet more and then where is this specious part of the man Surely now that body which is so much esteemed is but a loathsome lump of corruptible flesh covered with a smooth skin and kept a little while from stinking by the presence of the soul and must shortly be cast out of sight into a Grave as unfit for the sight or smell of the living and there be consumed with rotâ—enness and worm These are the Kings and Rulers of the Earth this is the power that must conquer Heaven and save them that rebel against Christ the Lord They that can not live a moneth without repairing their consuming bodies by food one part whereof doth turn to their vital blood and spirits and the other to most loathsome unsufferable excrements so neere is the kin between their Best and Worst Judge all you that have common reason whether he that cannot keep himself alive an hour and shortly will not be able to stirr a finger to remove the worms that feed upon his heart be able to resist the strengh of Christ and save the soul that God hath said and sworn shall not be saved Ah poor souls that have no better Saviours And well may Christ his Truth aud Cause prevail that have no stronger enemies Vse 1. You have here a Text that will fully inform you how you are like to speed at the Barr of Christ who shall dye and who shall live The great Assize is neare at hand the feet of our Judg are even at the dore go thy way unbelieving sinner when thou hast had all the pleasure that sin will afford thee lye down in the dust and sleep a while the rousing voice shall quickly awake thee and thine eyes shall see that dreadfull day O blessed oh dolefull day blessed to the Saints dolefull to the wicked O the rejoycing O the lamenting that there will be the triunphant shoutings of joyful Saints the hideous roaring cries of the ungodly when each man hath newly received his Doomâ— and there is nothing but eternal Glory and eternall fire Beloved hearers every man of you shall shortly there appeare and wait as the trembling prisoner at the Barr to hear what Doom must pass upon you Do you not believe this I hope you doe believe it Why what would you give now to know for certain how it shall then go with you why here is the Book by which you must be judged and here is the summe of it in my Text the grounds upon which the Judge will then proceed Will you but go along with me and answer the Questions which hence I shall put to you and search and judg your selves by them as you go and you may know what Doom you may then expect onely deal faithfully and search throughly for self flatery will not prevent your sorrow And here you must know that it is the kiss of the heart and not of the lips which we must here enquire after The question will not be at the Great Day Who hath spoke Christ fair or who have called themselves by the name of Christians or who hath said the Creed or the Lords Prayer oftnest or cryed Lord Lord or come to Church for carryed a Bible or who hath held this opinion or who that It would make a mans heart ake to think how zealously men will honour the shadow of Christ and bow at his Name and reverence the Image of the Cross which he dyed on and the names and reliques of the Saints that dyed for him and yet do utterly neglect the Lord himselfe and cannot endure to be governed by him and resist his spirit and scorne his strict and holy waies and dispitefully hate them that most love and obey him and yet belive themselves to be real Christians For God sake Sirs do not so delude your immortal souls as to think your Baptism and your outward devotion and your good meanings as you call them and your righteous dealing with men will serve the turn to prove you Christians Alas this is but with Judas to kiss the mouth of Christ and indeed to fetch your death from those blessed lips from whence the Saints do fetch their life I will shew you some surer signs then these 1. And first let me a little enquire into your subjection to Christ Do you remember the time when yon were the servants of sin and when Sathan led you captive at his will and the Prince of darkness ruled in your souls and all within you was in a carnal peace Do you remember when the Spirit in the word came powerfully upon your hearts and bound Sathan and cast him our and answered all your râ—asonings and conquered all your carnal wisdom and brought you from darkness to light and from the power of Sathan unto God Acts 26. 18. Or at least are you sure that now you live not under the same Lord and Laws as the ungodly do Hath Christ now the only soveraignty in your souls Is his word thy Law which thou darest not pass doth it bind thy thoughts and rule thy tongue and command thy self and all thou hast Hast thou laid all down at the feet of Christ and resigned thy self and all to his will and devoted all
to his dispose and service If custom bid thee curse and swear and Christ forbid thee which dost thou obey If thy Appetite bid thee take thy cups and fare deliciously every day If thy company bid thee play the good-fellow or scorn the Godly If thy covetousness bid thee love the world and Christ forbid thee which dost thou obey If Christ bid thee be Holy and walk precisely and be violent for Heaven and strive to enter in and the world and the flesh be enemies to all this and cry it down as tedious folly which dost thou obey Dost thou daily and spiritually worship him in private and in thy Family and teach thy Children and Servants to fear the Lord I intreat you Sirs deal truly in answering these Questions never man was saved by the bare title of a Christian If you are not subject to Christ you are not Christians no more then a Picture or a Carcase is a man and your salvation will be such as your Christianity is subjection is an essential part of thy Faith and obedience is its fruit In short then dost thou make him thy fear and tremble at his word Darest thou run upon fire or water sword or canon rather then wilfully run upon his displeasure wouldst thou rather displease thy dearest friend the greatest Prince or thine own flesh then wittingly provoke him When Christ speaks against thy sweetest sin thy nature or custom or credit or life against thy rooted opinions or thy corrupt traditions Art thou willing to submit to all that he revealeth Dost thou say Speak Lord for thy Servant heareth Lord what wouldst thou have me to do I am ready to do thy will O God Beloved Hearers This is the frame of every Servant of Christ and this is the acknowledging and accepting him for your Lord. I beseech you cozen not your souls with shews and formalities if ever you be saved without this subjection it must be without Christs merits or mercy It must be in a way that Scripture revealeth not â—nay it must be in despite of God his truth must be falsified his power must be mastered before the disobedient can be saved from his wrath 2 Examine also your Dependence on Christ whether you kiss his Hands as well as his Feet Do you understand that you are all by nature Condemned men and lyable to the everlasting wrath of God that Christ hath interposed and paid this Debt and bought us as his own by the satisfaction of that justice that all things are now delivered into his hands John 1â— â— and he is made Head over all things to his Church Ephes 1. 21 22. Dost thou take him for thy onely Saviour and believe the History of his Life and Passion the truth of his divine and humane nature his Resurrection his Office and his approaching Judgement Dost thou see that all thy supposed Righteousness is but vanity and sin and that thy self art unable to make the least satisfaction to the Law by thy Works or Sufferings and if his blood do not wash thee and his righteousness justifie thee thou must certainly be damned yet and perish for ever Dost thou therefore cast thy self into his arms and venture thy everlasting state upon him and trust him with thy soul and fetch all thy help and healing from him When sin is remembred and thy Conscience troubled and the fore-thoughts of judgement do amaze thy soul dost thou then fetch thy comfort from the view of his blood and the thoughts of the Freeness and Fulness of his Satisfaction his Love and Gospel-offers and promises Dost thou so build upon his promise of a Happiness hereafter that thou canst let goe all thy happiness here and drink of his Cup and be baptized with his Baptism and lose thy life upon his promise that thou shalt save it Canst thou part with goods and friends and all that thou hast in hope of a promised Glory which thou never sawest If thou canst drink with him of the Brook in the way thou shalt also with him lift up the head Psal 110 v. last Dost thou perceive a Mediator as well as a God in all thy mercies both special and common and tast his blood in all that thou receivest and wait upon his hand for thy future supplies Why this is kissing the hand of Christ and depending upon him O how contrary is the Case of the World whose confidence is like the Samaritans worship they trust God and their Wits and Labours Christ and their supposed Merits I would I might not say Christ and deceit and wicked contrivances Oh blasphemous joyning of heaven and hell to make up one foundation of their trust 3. Examine a little also your love to Christ Do you thus kiss the Son do your souls cleave to him and embrace him with the strongest of your affections Sirs though there is nothing that the blind world is more confident in then this that they love Christ with all their hearts yet is there nothing wherein they are more false and faulty I beseech you therefore deal truly in answering here Are your hearts set upon the Lord Jesus do you love him above all things in this World do you stick at your answer do you not know sure then at best you love him but little or else you could not choose but know it Love is a stirring and sensible Affection you know what it is to love a Friend Feel by this Pulse whether you live or dye Doth it beat more strongly toward Christ then to any thing else Never question man the necessity of this he hath concluded If thou love any thing more then him thou art unworthy of him nor canst be his Disciple Are thy thoughts of Christ thy freest and thy sweetest thoughts are thy speeches of him thy sweetest speeches when thou awakest art thou still with him and is he next thy heart when thou walkest abroad dost thou take him in thy thoughts canst thou say and lye not that thou wert ever deeply in love with him that thou dost love him but as heartily as thou lovest thy friend and art as loth to displease him and as glad of his presence and art as much troubled at his strangeness or absence Hath thy Minister or godly Acquaintance ever heard thee bemoaning thy soul for want of Christ or inquiring what thou shouldst do to attain him or thy Family heard thee commending his excellency and labouring to kindle their affections towards him why love will not be hid when it hath its desire it will be rejoycing and when it wants it will be Complaining Or at least Can thy Conscience witness thy longings thy groans thy prayers for a Christ Wilt thou stand to the Testimony of these Witnesses Do you love his weak his poor despised Members Do you visit them cloath them feed them to your power not only in a Common Natural Compassion to them as they are your Neighbors but do you love or relieve a Prophet in the name of a
better Master say as Peter Wither shall we go Lord thou hast the words of eternal life And when thou knowest once where to be better then go thy way part with Christ and spare not If thy merry company or thy honour or thy wealth or all thy friends and delights in the world will do that for thee which Christ hath done and which at last he will do if thou stick to him then take them for thy Gods and let Christ go In the meane time let me prevaile with thee as thou are a man of reason sell not thy Saviour till thou know for what sell not thy soul till thou know why sell not thy hopes of Heaven for nothing God forbid that thy wilfull folly should bring thee to Hell and there thou shouldst lie roaring and crying out for ever This is the reward of my neglecting Christ he would have led me to Glory and I would not follow him I sold heaven for a few merry hours for a little honour and ease and delight to my flesh here I lie in torment because I would not be ruled by Christ but chose my lusts and pleasure be fore him Sinner do not think I speak harshly or uncharitably to call this neglect of Christ thy folly As true as thou livest and hearest me this day except thy timely submission do prevent it which God grant it may thou wilt one of these dayes befool thy self a thousand times more then I now befool thee and call thy self mad and a thousand times mad when thou thinkest how fair thou wast for heaven and how ready Christ was to have been thy Saviour and thy Lord and how light thou madest of all his offers Either this will prove true to thy cost or else am I a fals Prophet and a cursed deceiver Be wise therefore be learned and kiss the Son The former Considerations were drawn from Aggravations of the sinne the following are drawn from the Aggravations of the punishment and that fom the words of the Text too 1. God will be angry if you kiss not the Son His wrath is as fire and this neglect of Christ is the way to kindle it If thou art not a Believer thou art condemned already but this will bring upon thee a double condemnation Believe it for a truth All thy sinnes as they are the Covenant of Works even the most hainous of them are not so provoking destroying as thy slighting of Christ Oh what will the Father say to such an unworthy wrecth Must I send my Son from my bosome to suffer for thee must he groan when thou shouldst groan and bleed when thou shouldst bleed and dye when thou shouldst dye And canst thou not now be perswaded to embrace him and obey him must the world be courted while he stands by must he have the naked title of thy Lord and Saviour while thy fleshly pleasures and profits have thy heart what wrath can be too great what hell too hot for such an ungrateful unworthy wretch Must I prepare thee a portion of the blood of my Son and wilt not thou be perswaded now to drink it must I be at so much cost to save thee and wilt thou not obey that thou maist be saved Go seize upon him justice let my wrath consume thee let hell devour thee let thy own Conscience for ever torment thee seeing thou hast chosen death thou shalt have it and as thou hast rejected Heaven thou shalt never see it but my wrath shall abide upon thee for ever Joh. 3. 36. Woe to the sinner if this be once thy sentence thou wert better have all the world angry with theeâ— and bound in an oath against thee as the Jews against Paul then that one drop of his anger should light upon thee thou wert better have Heaven and Earth to fall upon thee then one degree of Gods displeasure 2. As this wrath is Fire so is it a consuming fire and causeth the sinner utterly to perish All this is plain in the Text not that the Being of the soul will cease such a perishing the sinner would be glad oâ— A happy man would he think himself if he might dye as the bruits and be no more but such wishes are vain It is but a glimpse of his own condition which he shall see in the great combustion of the world when he seeth the heaven and earth on fire he see 's but the picture of his approaching wo. But alas it is he that must feel the devouring fire The world will be but refined or consumed by its fire but there must he burn and burn for ever and yet be neither consumed nor refined The Earth will not feel the flames that burn it but his soul and body must feel it with a witness Little know his friends that are honourably interring his Corps what his miserable sonl is seeing and feeling Here endeth the story of his prosperity and delights and now begins the Tragedy that will never have end Oh how his merry days are vanished as a dream and his jovial life as a Tale that is told His witty jests his pleasant sports his Cards and Dice his merry company and wanton dalliance his Cups and Queans yea his hopes of heaven and confident concerts of escaping this wrath are all perished with him in the way As the wax melteth before the fire as the chaff is scattered before the wind as the stubble consumeth before the flames as the flowers do wither before the scorching Sun so are all his sinful pleasures withered consumed scattered and melted And is not the hearty embracing of Christ and subjection to him a cheap prevention of all this Oh who among you can dwell with the devouring fire Who can dwell with the everlasting burnings Isai 33. 14. This God hath said he will surely do if you are able to gain-sâ—y and resist him try your strength read his ehal enge Isai 27. 4. Who would set the briars and thorns agaist me in battel I would go through them I would burn them together 3. This perishing will be sudden and unexpected in the way of their sin and resistance of Christ in the way of their fleshly delights and hopes They shall perish in the way l Thes 5. 3. Mat. 24. 37 As fire doth utterly break out in the night when men are sleeping and consumeth the fruit of their long labours so will this fire break forth upon their souls and how neer may it be when you little think on it A hundred to one but some of us present shall within a few moneths be in another world and what world will it be you may easily conceive if you do not embrace and obey the Son How many have been smitten with Herod in the midst of their vain glory How many like Ahab have been wounded in fight and dunged the Earth with their flesh and blood who left the Lords people to be fed with bread and water of affliction in confidence of their own return
in peace How many have been swallowed up like Pharaoh and his Host in their rash and malicious persuit of the godly Little thinks many an ignorant careless soul what a change of his condition he shall shortly find Those thousands of souls that are now in misery did as little think of that doleful state while they were merily pleasing the flesh on earth and forgetting Christ and their eternal state as you do now they could as contemptuously jeer the Preacher as you and verily believe that all this talk was but words and wind and empty threats and ventured their souls as boldy upon their carnal hopes Little thought Sodom of the devouring fire when they were fnriously assaulting the door of their righteous reprover As little do the raging enemies of godliness among us think of the deplorable state which they are hasting to They will cry out themselves then Little did I think to see this day or feel these torments Why thou wouldst not thâ—nk of it or else thou mightest God told thee in Scripture and Ministers in their preaching but thou wouldst not believe till it was too late A little of Gods wrath will bring down all this upon those that embrace not and obey not the Son If his wrath be kindled yea but a little c. As his mercy being the mercy of an infinite God a little of it will sweeten a world of crosses so therefore will a little of his wrath consume a world of pleasures one spark fell among the Bethshemites and consumed fifty thousand and seventy men but for looking into the Ark till the people cry out Who can stand before this Holy Lord God 1 Sam. 6. 19 20. How then will the neglecters of Christ stand before him Sirs me thinks we should not hear of this as strangers or unbelievers There did but one spark fall upon England and what a combustion hath it cast this Kingdom into how many Houses and Towns hath it consumed How many thousand of people hath it impoverished how many children hath it left fatherless and how many thousand bodies hath it bereaved of their souls And though there are as many hearty prayers and tears poured forth to quench it as most Kingdoms on earth have had yet is the fire kindled afresh and threatneth a more terrible desolation then before as if it would turn us all to ashes One spark fell upon Germany another upon Ireland and what it hath done there I need not tell you If a little of this wrath do but seize upon thy body what cryes and groans and lamentations doth it raise If it be on one member yea but a tooth how dost thou roar with intolerable pain and wouldst not take the world to live for ever in that condition If it seize upon the Conscience what torments doth it cause as if the man were already in the suburbs of Hell He thinketh every thing he seeth is against him he feareth every bit he eateth should be his bane If he sleep he dreams of death and judgement when he awaketh his Conscience and horror awake with him he is weary of living and fearful of dying even the thoughts of heaven are terrible to him because he thinks it is not for him Oh what a pittiful sight is it to see a man under the wrath of God! And are these little little sparks so intolerable hot What then do you think are the Everlasting flames Beloved Hearers if God had not spoke this I durst not have spoke it The desire of my soul is that you may never feel it or else I should never have chosen so unpleasing a subject but that I hope the foreknowing may help you to prevent it But let me tell you from God that as sure as the heaven is over your head and the earth under your feet except the Son of God be nearer thy heart and dearer to thy heart then friends or goods or pleasures or life or any thing in this world this burning wrath will never be prevented Mat. 10. 37. Luke 14. 26. 5. When this wrath of God is throughly kindled the world will discern the blessed from the wretched Then blessed are they that trust in him It is the property of the wicked to be wise too late Those that now they esteem but precise fools will then be acknowledged blessed men Bear with their scorns Christians in the mean time they will very shortly wish themselves in your stead and would give all that ever they were masters of that they had sought and loved Christ as earnestly as you and had a little of your oyl when they find their lamps are out Mat. 25. 8. And now Hearers what is your resolution perhaps you have been enemies to Christ under the name of Christians Will you be so still Have you not loathed this busie diligent serving of him and hated them that most carefully seek him more then the vilest drunkard or blaspemer Have not his word and service and sabbaths been a burthen to you Have not multitudes ventured their lives against his Ordinances and Government Nay is it not almost the common voice of the Nation in effect Give us our sports and liberty of sinning give us our Readers and singing-men and drunken Preachers give us our Holy-daies and Ceremonies and the Customes of our fore-fathers Away with these precise fellows they are an eye-sore to us these precise Preachers shall noâ— controll us this precise Scripture shall be no Law to us and consequently this Christ shall not Rule over us How long hath England rebelled against his Government Mr. Vdal told them in the days of Queen Elizabeth that if they would not set up the Discipline of Christ in the Church Christ would set it up himself in a way that would make their hearts to ake I think their hearts have aked by this time and as they judged him to the Gallowes for his Prediction so hath Christ executed them by thousands for their Rebellion against him and yet they are as unwilling of his Government as ever The Kings of the Earth are afraid lest Christs Government should un-king them The Rulers are jealous lest it will depose them from their Dignities even the Reformers that have adventured all to set it up are jealous lest it will incroach upon their power and priviledges Kings are afraid of it and think themselves but half kings where Christ doth set up his Word and Discipline Parliaments are afraid of it lest it should usurp their Authority Lawyers are afraid of it lest it should take away their gains and the Laws of Christ should over-top the Laws of the Land The people are afraid of it lest it will compel them to subjection to that Law and way which their souls abhor Indeed if men may be their own judges then Christ hath no enemies in England at all we are his friends and all good Christians It is Precisians and Rebels that men hate and not Christ It is not the Government of Christ that
we are afraid of but the domineering of aspiring ambitious Presbyters viz. That Generation of godly learned humble Ministers who have done more then any before them to make themselves uncapable of preferment or domineering and when men disobey and disregard our doctrine it is not Christ but the Preacher that they despise and disobey And if the Jews might so have been their own Judges it was not the Son of God whom they crucified but an enemy to Caesar and a blasphemer that works by the Devil It was not Panl a Saint that they persecuted but one that they found to be a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition amongst the people But were there no seditious persons but Apostles and Christians nor no troublers of Israel but Elias nor no enemies to Caesar but Christ and his friends Oh. God will shortly take off the vail of hypocrisy from the actions of the world and make them confess that it was Christ they resisted and that it was his holy waies and word that did kindle their fury else would they as soon have fallen upon the ungodly rabble as they did upon the most zealous and conscionable Christains And however you mangle and deform them with your false accusations and reproach he will then know and own his people and his Cause and will say to the world In despising them you despised me and in as much as you did it to one of these little ones you did it unto me As Dr. Stoughton saith If you strike a Schismatick and God find a Saint lie a bleeding and you to answer it I would not be in yor coat for more then you got by it Hath the world ever gained by resisting Christ Doth it make the Crown sit faster on the heads of Kings or must they not rather do to Christ as King John to his supposed Vicar resign their Crowns to him and take them from him again as his Tributaries before they can hold them by a certain tenure read over but this Psalm and judge Herod must kill the child Jesus to secure his Crown The Jews must kill him least the Romans should come and take away their place and Nation Joh. 11. 48 And did this means secure them or did it bring upon them the destruction wich they thought to avoid Or have the people been greater gainers by this then their Kings What hath England got by resisting his Gospel and Government by hating his servants by scorning his holy waies What have you got by it in this City what say you have you yet done with your enmity and resistance have you enough or would you yet have more If you have not done with Christ he hath not done with you you may try again and follow on as farre as Pharaoh if you will but if you be not losers in the latter end I have lost my judgement and if you return in peace God hath not spoken by me 1 King 22. 28 Sirs I am loth to leave you till the bargain be made What say you Do you heartily consent that Christ shall be your soveraign his Word your Law his people your Companions his worship your recreation his merits your refuge his glory your end and himself the desire and delight of your souls The Lord Jesus now waiteth upou you for your resolution and answer thou wilt very shortly wait on him for thy Doom as ever thou wouldst then have him speake life to thy soul do thou now resolve upon the way of life Remember thou art almost at death and judgement what wouldst thou resolve if thou knewest that it were to morow if thou didst but see what others do now suffer for neglecting him that doth now offer thee his grace what wouldst thou then resolve to do Sirs it stirreth my heart to look upou you as Xerxes upon his Army and to think that it is not an hundred yeares till every soul of you shall be in Heaven or in Hell and it may be not an 100 hours til some of your souls must take their leave of your bodies when it comes to that then you will cry Away with the world away with my pleasures nothing can comfort me now but Christ why then will you not be of the same mind now When the world cryes away with this holiness and praying and talking of heaven give us our sports and our profits and the customes of our fore-fathers i. e. away with Christ and give us Barabbas then doe you cry away with all these and give us Christ Oh if it might stand with the will of God that I might chuse what effect this Sermon should have upon your hearts verily it should be nothing that should hurt you in the least but this it should be It should now fasten upon your souls and pierce into your Consciences as an Arrow that is drawn out of the quiver of God it should follow thee home to thy house and bring thee down on thy knees in secret and make thee there lament thy case and cry out in bitterness of thy spirit Lord I am the sinner that have neglected thee I have tasted more sweetness in the world then in thy blood and taken more pleasure in my earthly labours and delights then I have done in praying to thee or meditating on thee I have complemented with thee by a cold profession but my heart was never set upon thee And here should it make thee lie in tears and prayers and follow Christ with cryes and complaints till he should take thee up from the dust and assure thee of his pardon and change thy heart and close it with his own If thou wert the dearest friend that I have in the world this is the success that I would wish this Sermon with thy soul That it might be as a voice still sounding in thine eares that when thou art next in thy sinfull company or delight thon mightest as it were heare this voyce in thy Conscience Is this thine obedience to him that bought thee That when thou art next forgetting Christ and neglecting his worship in secret or in thy family or publique thou mightest see this sentence as it were written upon thy wall Kiss the Son least he be angry and thou perish that thou mightest see it as it were written upon the â—ester of thy Bed as oft as thou liest down in an unregenerate state and that it may keep thine eyes waking and thy soul disquieted and give thee no rest till thou hadst rest in Christ In a word If it were but as mâ—ch in my hands as it is in yours what should become of this Sermon I hope it would be the best Sermon to thee that ever thou heardest it should lay thee at the feet of Christ and leave thee in his arms Oh that I did but know what Arguments would perswade you and what words would work thy heart hereto If I were sure it would prevail I would come down from the Pulpit and go from man to man upon
and therefore I was bold to hold you the longer FINIS A SERMON Of Iudgement Preached at Pauls before the Honourable Lord Maior and Aldermen of the City of London Decemb. 17. 1654. And now enlarged By RICH. BAXTER Rom. 14. 12. Every one of you shall give account of himself to God John 5. 28 29. The hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice aud shall come forth they that have done good to the Resurrection of life and they that have done evil to the Resurrection of Damnation LONDON Printed by R. W. for Nevill Simmons Bookseller in Kidderminster 1656. TO The Right Honorable Christopher Pack Lord Maior of London with the Right worshipful Aldermen Right Honorable BEing desired to Preach before you at Pauls I was fain to preach a Sermon which I had preached once before to a poor ignorant Congregation in the Country having little leisure for study in London I was glad to see that the more curious stomachs of the Citizens did not nauseate our plain Country Doctrine which I seemed to discern in the diligent attention of the greatest Congregation that ever I saw met for such a work But I little expected that you should have so far esteemed that discourse as to have thought it meet for the view of the world as I understood by a Message from you desiring it may be Printed I readily obey your wâ—ll when it gives me the least intimation of the will of God It s possible some others may afford it the like favourable Acceptance and entertainment I am sure the subject is as necessary as common and the Plainness makes it the fitter for the ignorant who are the far greatest number and have the greatest need I have added the 9 10 11 and 12. Heads or Common places which I did not deliver to you for want of time and because the rest are too briefly touched as contrived for an hours work I have enlarged these though making them somewhat unsuitable to the rest yet suitable to the use of those that they are now intended for The Directions also in the end are added Blessed be the Father of Lights who hath set up so many burning and shining lights in your City and hath watered you so plenteously with the Rivers of his Sanctuary that you have frequent opportunities for the refreshment of your souls to the joy of your friends the grief of your enemies and the glory of that Providence which hath hitherto maintained them in despite of Persecution Heresies and Hell It was not alwaies so in London It is not so in all other places or famous Cities in the world Nor are you sure that it will be alway so with you It doth me good to remember what blessed Lights have shined among you that new are more gloriously shining in a higher sphere Preston Sibbes Stoughton Taylor Stock Randal Gouge Gataker with multitudes more that are now with Christ It did me good to read in the Preface to Mr. Gatakers funeral Sermon by one of your reverend and faithful Guides what a number of sound and unanimous Labourers are yet close at work in that part of Christs Vineyard And it did me good in that short experience and observation while I was there to hear and see so much of their Prudence Unity and Fidelity Believe it it is the Gospel of Christ that is your Glory and if London be more honorable then other great and famous Cities of the earth it is the light of Gods face and the plenty and power of his Ordinances and Spirit that doth advance and honour it 0 know then the day of your visitation Three things I shall take leave to propound to your Consideration which I am certain God requireth at your hands The first is that you grow in knowledge humility heavenliness and Unity according to the blessed means that you enjoy In my eyes it is the greatest shame to a people in the world and a sign of Barbarousness or blockishness when we can hear and read what a famous learned powerful Minister such a place or such a place had and yet see as much ignorance ungodliness unruliness and sensuality as if the Gospel had scarce ever been there I hope it is not thus with you but I have found it so in too many places of England We that never saw the faces of their Ministers but have only read their holy Labours have been ready to think Sure there are few ignorant or ungodly ones in such a Congregation Sure they are a people rich in Grace and eminently qualified above their brethren who have lived under such Teaching as this At least sure there can be none left that have an enmity to the fear of God! But when we have come to the Towns where such men spent their lives and laid out their labours we have found ignorant sottish worldlings unprofitable or giddy unstable Professors and some haters of godliness among them O what a shame is this to them to the eyes of wise men and what a confounding aggravation of their sin before God! Thrive therefore and be fruitful in the Vineyard of the Lord that it may not repent him that he hath planted and watered you The second is this Improve your interest to the utmost for the continuance of a faithful Ministry among you and when any places are void do what you can to get a supply of the most Able men Your City is the Heart of the Nation you cannot be sick but we shall all feel it If you be infected with false Doctrines the Countreys will ere long receive the Contagion You have a very great influence on all the Land for good or evil And do you think the undermining enemies of the Church have not a special Design upon you in this point and will not promote it as far as is in their power Could they but get in Popish or Dividing Teachers among you they know how many advantages they should gain at once They would have some to grieve and trouble your faithful Guides hinder them in the work and lessen that estimation which by their Unity they would obtain And every Deceiver will hope to catch some fish that casteth his Net among such store We beseech you if there be Learned Holy Judicious men in England that can be had for supply on such occasions let them be yours that you may be fed with the Best and Guided by the Wisest and we may have all recourse to you for advice and where there are most Opposers Seducers there may be the most Powerful Convincing helps at hand Let us in the Country have the honest raw young Preachers and see that you have the chief Fathers and Pillars in the Church I speak it not for your sakes alone but because we have all Dependance on you The third thing which I humbly crave is that you will Know them which Labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish
you and to esteem them very highly in love for their work sake and be at peace among your selves 1 Thes 5. 12 13. And that you will instead of grieving or rejecting your Guides Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you Heb. 13. 17. 7. Encourage your Teachers for their work is great their spirits are weak they are but frail men the enemy is more industrious against them then any men and their discouragements are very many and the difficulties which they must encounter are very great Especially Obey submit and encourage them in the work of Government and Exercise of Christs Discipline and managing the Keyes of the Kingdom which he hath put into their hand Do you not perceive what a strait your Teachers are in The Lord Iesus requireth them to exercise his Discipline faithfully and impartially He giveth them not empty Titles of Rule but layes upon them the burden of Ruling It is his work more then their honour that he intends and if they will have the Honor it must be by the work The work is as to Teach the ignorant and convince the unbelieving and gainsaying so to admonish the disorderly and scandalous and to reject and cast out of the Communion of the Church the Obstinate and Impenitent and to set by the Leprous that they infect not the rest and to seperate thus the precious from the vile by Christs Dâ—scipline that dividing separation and soul destroying Transgressions may be prevented or cured This work Christ hath charged upon them and will have it done who ever is against it If they obey him and do it what a tumult what clamours discontents will they raise How many will be ready to rise up against them with hatred and scorn though it be the undoubted work of Christ which even under persecution was performed by the Church-Guides When they do but keep a scandalous untractable Sinner from the Communion of the Church in the Lords Supper what repinings doth it raise But alas this is a small part of the Discipline If all the apparently obstinate and impenitent were cast out what a stir would they make And if Christ be not obeyed what a stir will conscience make And it is not only between Christ and men but between men and men that your Guides are put upon streights The Separatists reproach them for suffering the Impenitent to continue members of their Churches and make it the pretence of their separation from them having little to say of any moment against the authorized way of Government but only against our slackness in the Execution And if we should set to the close Exercise of it as is meet how would City and Country ring of it and what Indignation should we raise in the multitude against us O what need have your Guides of your Encouragement and best Assistance in this streight God hath set them on a work so ungrateful and displeasing to flesh and blood that they cannot be faithful in it but twenty to one they will draw a world of Hatred upon themselves if not mens fists about their ears Festred sores will not be lancht and searcht with ease Corrupted members are unwilling to be cut off and cast aside Especially if any of the great ones fall under the censure who are big in the eyes of the world and in their own And yet our Soveraign Lord must be obeyed and his house must be swept and the filth cast out by what names or Titles soever it be dignified with men He must be pleased if all be displeased by it Withdraw not your help then from this needfull work It is by the Word Spirit and Ministery that Christ the King of his Church doth Govern it Not separatedly but joyntly by all three To disobey these is to disobey Christ and subjection to Christ is Essential to our Christianity This well thought on might do much to recover the Unruly that are Recoverable You may conjecture by the strange opposition that Church-Government meets with from all sorts of carnal and corrupted minds that there is somewhat in it that is eminently of God I shall say no more but this that It is an Able Judicious Godly Faithful Ministery not barely heard and applauded but humbly and piously submitted to and obeyed in the Lord that must be your truest present glory and the means of your everlasting Peace and Joy So testifieth from the Lord Your servant in â—he faith of Christ Rich. Baxter To the Ignorant or Careless Reader SEeing the Providence of God hath commanded forth this plain Discourse I shall hope upon experience of his dealing in the like cases with me That he hath some work for it to do in the world Who knows but it was intended for the saving of thy soul by opening thine eyes and awaking thee from thy sin who are now in Reading of it Be it known to thee it is the certain Truth of God and of high concernment to thy soul that it treateth of and therefore requireth thy most sober Consideration Thou hast in it how weakly soever it is managed by me an advantage put into thy hand from God to help thee in the greatest work in the world even to prepare for the great approaching Judgement In the name of God I require thee cast not away this advantage Turn not away thine ears or heart from this warning that is sent to theâ— from the living God! Seeing all the world cannot keep thee from judgement nor save thee in Judgement let not all the world be able to keep thee from a speedy and serious preparation for it Do it presently lest God come before thou art ready Do it seriously lest the Tempter over-reach thee and thou shouldst be found among the foolish self-deceivers when it is too late to do it better I intreat this of thee on the behalf of thy soul and as thou tenderest thy everlasting Peace with God that thou wouldest afford these matters thy deepest Consideration Think on them whether they are not True aud weighty Think of them lying down and rising up And seeing this small Book is faln into thy hands all that I would beg of thee concerning it is that thou wouldst bestow now and then an hour to read it and read it to thy family or friends as well at to thy self and as you go Consider what you read and Pray the Lord to help it to thy heart and to assist thee in the Practice that it may not rise up in Judgement agaiâ—st thee If thou have not leisure at other take now and then an hour on the Lords dayes or at night to that purpose and if any passage through brevity specially neer the beginning seem dark to thee Read it again and again and ask the help of an Instructer that thou mayest understand it May it
but help thee out of the snares of sin and promote the saving of thy Immortal soul and thy comfortable appearance at the great day of Christ I have the thing which I intended and desired The Lord open thy Heart aud accompany his Truth with the Blessing of his Spirit Amen A SERMON Of Judgement Preached at Pauls before the Honourable Lord Maior and Aldermen of the City of London Dec. 17. 1654. 2 Cor. 5. 10 11. For we must all appear before the Judgement seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad Knowing therefore the terrours of the Lord we perswade men IT is not unlikely that some of those wits that are taken more with things new then with things Necessary will marvel that I choose so common a subject and tell me that they all know this already But I do it purposely upon these following Considerations 1. Because I well know that it is these Common Truths that are the great and necessary things which mens everlasting happiness or misery doth most depend upon You may be ignorant of many Controversies aud Inferiour points without the danger of your souls but so you cannot of these Fundamentals 2. Because its apparent by the lives of men that few know these Common Truths savingly that think they know them 3. Because there are several degrees of knowing the same Truths and the best are imperfect in degree the principal growth in Knowledge that we should look after is not to know more matters then we knew before but to know that better and with a clearer light and firmer apprehension which we darkly and slightly knew before You may more safely be without any knowlege at all of many lower Truths then without some further degree of the knowledge of those which you already know 4. Besides it is known by sad Experience that many perish who know the Truth for want of the consideration ofâ— and making use of what they know and so their knowledge doth but condemn them We have as much need therefore to teach and help you to get these Truths which you know into your hearts and lives as to tell you more 5. And indeed it is the impression of these great and master-Truths wherein the vitals and essentials of Gods Image upon the soul of man doth consist And it is these Truths that are the very Instruments of the great works that are to be done upon the heart by the spirit and our selves In the right use of these it is that the Principal part of the skill and holy wisdom of a Christian doth consist and in the diligent and constant use of these lieth the life and trade of Christianity There is nothing amiss in mens hearts or lives but it is for want of sound knowing and believing or well using these Fundamentals 6. And moreover me thinks in this choice of my subject I may expect this advantage with the Hearers that I may spare that labour that else would be necessary for the proof of my Doctrine and that I may also have easier access to your hearts and have a fuller stroak at them and with less resistance If I came to tell you of anything not Common I know not how far I might expect belief from you You might say These things are uncertain to us or all men are not of this mind But when every Hearer confesseth the truth of my doctrine and no man can deny it without denying Christianity it self I hope I may expect that your hearts should the sooner receive the impression of this Doctrine and the sooner yield to the duties which it directs you to and the easier let go the sins which from so certain a Truth shall be discovered The words of my text are the reason which the Apostle giveth both of his perswading other men to the fear of God and his care to approve to God his own heart and life They contain the Assertion and Description of the great Judgement and one Use which he makes of it It assureth us that Judged we must be and who must be so Judged and by whom and about what and on what terms and to what end The meaning of the words so far as is necessary I shall give you briefly We all both we Apostles that Preach the Gospel you that hear it must willing or unwilling there is no avoiding it Appear stand forth or make our appearance and there have our hearts and wayes laid open and appear as well as we Before the Judgement seat of Christ i. e. before the Redeemer of the world to be Judged by him as our Rightful Lord. That every one even of all mankind which are were or shall be without exception May receive that is may receive his sentence adjudging him to his due and then may receive the execution of the sentence and may go away from the barr with that Reward or Punishment that is his due according to the Law by which he is Judged The things done in his body that is the due Reward of the works done in his body or as some copies read it The things proper to the body i. e. due to the man even body as well as soul According to what he hath done whether it be good or bad i. e. This is the cause to be tried and Judged whether men have done well or ill whiles they were in the flesh and what is due to them according to their deeds Knowing therefore c. i. e. Being certain therefore that these things are so and that such a Terrible Judgement of Christ will come we perswade men to become Christians and live as such that they may then speed well when others shall be destroyed or as others Knowing the fear of the Lord that is the true Religion we perswade men Doct. 1. There will be a Judgement Doct 2. Christ will be the Judge Doct. 3. All men shall there appear Doct. 4. Men shall be then Judged according to the works that they did in the flesh whether good or evil Doct. 5. The end of Judgement is that men may receive their final due by Sentence and Execution Doct. 6. The knowledge and consideration of the terrible Judgement of God should move us to perswade and men to be perswaded to carefull preparation The ordinary method for the handling of this subject of Judgement should be this 1. To shew you what Judgement is in the General and what it doth contain and that is 1. The persons 2. The cause 3. â—he Actions 1. The parties are 1. the Accuser 2. the Defendant 3. Sometime Assistants 4. The Judge 2. The cause contains 1. The Accusation 2. the Defence 3. With the Evidence of both 4. And the Merit The Merit of the cause is as it agreeth with the Law and Equity 3. The Judicial Actions are I. Introductory 1. Citation 2. Compulsion if need be 3. Appearance of the Accused II. Of the Essence
to hope that God will not be God It is in vain then for the unholy man to say he is holy or for any sinner to deny or excuse or extenuate his sin To bring forth the counterfeit of any Grace and plead with God any shels of hypocritical performances and to think to prove a Title to heaven by any thing short of Gods Condition all these will be vain attempts 3. And as impossible will it prove by fraud or flattery by perswasion or bribery or by any other means to pervert Justice by turning the mind of God who is the Judge fraud and flattery bribery and importunity may do much with weak men but with God they will do nothing Were he changeable and partial he were not God 4. If God be Judge you may see the Cavils of Infidels are foolish when they ask How long will God be in Trying and Judging so many persons and taking an Account of so many Words and Thoughts and Deeds Sure it will be a long time and a difficult work As if God were as man that knoweth not things till he seek out their Evidence by particular signs Let these fools understand if they have any understanding that the infinite God can shew to every man at once all the thoughts and words and actions that ever he hath been guilty of And in the twink of an eye even at one view can make all the world to see their ways and their deservings Causing their Consciences and Memories to present them all before them in such a sort as shall be equivalent to a verbal debate Psal 50. 21 22. he will set them in order before them 5. If Jesus Christ be the Judge then what a comfort must it needs be to his members that he shall be Judge that loved them to the death and whom they loved above their lives and he who was their Rock of hope and strength and the desire and delight of their souls 6. And if Jesus Christ must be the Judge what confusion will it bring to the faces of his enemies and of all that set light by him in the day of their visitation to see Mercy turned against them and he that dyed for them now ready to condemn them and that blood and grace which did Aggravate their sin to be pleaded against them to the increase of their misery how sad will this be 7. If the God of Love and Grace and Truth be Judge then no man need to fear any wrong No subtilty of the Accuser nor darkness of Evidence no prejudice or partiality or what soever else may be imagined can there appear to the wrong of your cause Get a good cause and fear nothing and if your cause be bad nothing can deliyer you III. FOR the Third Point Who are they that must be judged Answ All the rational Creatures in this lower world And it seems Angels also either all or some But because their case is more darkly made known to us and less concerns us we will pass it by Every man that hath been made or born on earth except Christ who is God and man and is the Judge must be judged If any foolish Infidel shall say Where shall so great a number stand I answer him That he knoweth not the things invisible either the nature of Spirits and spiritual bodies nor what place containeth them or how but easily he may know that he that gave them all a being can sustain them all and have room for them all and can at once disclose the thoughts of all as I said before The first in Order to be judged are the Saints Mat. 25. and then with Christ they shall judge the rest of the World 1 Cor. 6. 2 3. not in an equal authority and commission with Christ but as the present Approvers of his Righteous Judgement The Princes of the earth shall stand then before Christ even as the Peasants and the honorable as the base the rich and the poor shall meet together and the Lord shall judge them all Prov. 22. 2. No men shall be excused from standing at that Bar and giving up their account and receiving their doom Learned and unlearned young and old godly and ungodly all must stand there I know some have vainly imagined that the righteous shall not have any of their sins mentioned but their graces and duties only but they consider not that things will not then be transacted by words as we do now but by cleer diâ—coveries by the infinite Light and that if God should hot discover to them their sins he would not discover the Riches of his Grace in the pardon of all these sins Even then they must be humbled in themselves that they may be glorified and for ever cry Not unto us Lord but unto thy name be the glory IV. FOR the Fourth Particular who will be the Accuser Answ 1. Satan is called in Scripture the Accuser of the Brethren Rev. 12. 10. and we find in Job 1 and other places that now he doth Practise it even before God and therefore we judge it probable that he will do so then But we would determine of nothing that Scripture hath not clearly determined 2. Conscience will be an Accuser though especially of the wicked yet in some sense of the righteous for it will tell the truth to all and therefore so far as men are faulty it will tell them of their faults The wicked it will accuse of unpardoned sin and of sin unrepented of the godly only of sin repented of and pardoned It will be a Glass wherein every man may see the face of his heart and former Life Rom. 1. 15. 3. The Judge himself will be the Principal Accuser for it is he that is wronged and he that prosecutes the cause and will do justice on the wicked God judgeth even the righteous themselves to be sinners or else they could not be pardoned sinners But he judgeth the wicked to be impenitent unbelieving unconverted sinners Remember what I said before that it is not a verbal accusation but an opening of the truth of the cause to the view of our selves and others that God will then perform Nor can any think it unworthy of God to be mens Accuser by such a disclosure it being no dishonour to the purest light to reveal a dunghill or to the greatest Prince to accuse a Traytor Nor is it unmeet that God should be both Accuser and Judge seeing he is both absolute Lord and perfectly just and so far beyond all suspition of Injustice His Law also doth virtually accuse Iohn 5. 45. But of this by it self V. FOR the Fifth Particular How will the sinners be called to the Bar Answ God will not stand to send them a Citation nor require him to make his voluntary Appearance but willing or unwilling he will bring them in 1. Before each mans particular Judgement he sendeth Death to call away his soul a surly Serjeant that will have no Nay How dear so ever this World
said to be the Accusers Where it is false it can be only the work of Satan the malitious adversary who as we may see in Jobs case will not stick to bring a false Accusation If any think that the Accuser will not do so vain a work at least they may see that potentially this is the Accusation that lyeth against us and which we must be justified against For all Justification implyeth an Actual or Potential Accusation He that is truly accused of final Impenitency or Unbelief or Rebellion hath no other Defence to make but must needs be condemned He that is falsly accused of such non-performance of the condition of Grace must deny the Accusation and plead his own personal Righteousness as against that Accusation and produce that Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience and Perseverance by which he fulfilled that Condition and so is Evangelically Righteous in himself and therefore hath part in the blood of Christ which is instead of a Legal righteousnses to him in all things else as having procured him a pardon of all his sin and a right to everlasting glory And thus we must then be Justified by Christs satisfaction only against the accusation of being sinners in general and of deserving Gods wrath for the Breach of the Law of works But we must be justified by our faith repentance and sincere Obedience itself against the Accusation of being Impenitent unbelievers and Rebels against Christ and having not performed the Condition of the promise and so having no part in Christ and his Benefits So that in Summ you see that the cause of the day will be to enquire Whether being all known sinners we have accepted of Christ upon his terms and so have right in him and his benefits or not Whether they have forsaken this vain world for him and loved him so faithfully that they have manifested it in parting with these things at his Command And this is the meaning of Mat. 25. Where the enquiry is made to be whether they have fed and visited him in his members or not That is whether they have so far loved him as their Redeemer and God by him as that they have manifested this to his members according to Opportunity though it cost them the hazard or loss of all Seeing danger and labour and cost are fitter to express love by then Empty Complements and bare Professions Whether it be particularly enquired after or only taken for granted that men are sinners and have deserved Death according to the Law of works and that Christ hath satisfied by his death is all one as to the matter in hand seeing Gods enquiry is but the Discovery and Conviction of us But the last Question which must decide the Controversie will be whether we have performed the condition of the Gospel I have the rather also said all this to shew you in what sense these words are taken in the text that Every man shall be Judged according to what he hath done in the flesh whether it be good or bad Though every man be Judged worthy of Death for sinning yet every man shail not be Judged to dye for it and no man shall be Judged morthy of Life for his good works It is therefore according to the Gospel as the rule of judgement that this is meant They that have Repented and believed and returned to true though imperfect Obedience shall be Judged to everlasting Life according to these works not because these works Deserve it but because the free Gift in the Gospel through the blood of Christ doth make these things the condition of our possessing it They that have lived and dyed Impenitent Unbelievers and Rebels against Christ shall be judged to everlasting punishment because they have deserved it both by their sin in general against the Law and by these sins in special against the Gospel This is called the Merit of the Cause that is what is a mans due according to the true meaning of the Law Though the due may be by free gift And thus you see what will be the cause of the Day and the matter to be enquired after and decided as to our Life or Death VIII THE next point in our method is to shew you What will be the Evidence of the Cause Answ There is a fivefold Evidence among men 1. When the fact is notorious 2. The knowledge of an unsuspected Competent Iudge 3. The parties Confession 4. Witness 5. Instruments and visible effects of the action All these Evidences will be at hand and any one of them sufficient for the conviction of the guilty person at that day 1. As the sins of all men so the Impenitency and Rebellion of the wicked was notorious or at least will be then For though some play the hypocrites and hide the matter from the world and themselves yet God shall open their hearts and former lives to themselves and to the view of all the world He shal set their sins in order before them so that it shall be utterly in vain to deny or excuse them If any menwill then think to make their cause as good to God as they cannow do to us that are not able to see their hearts they will be fouly mistaken Now they can say they have as good hearts as the best then God will bring them out in the light and shew them to themselves and all the world whether they were good or bad Now they will face us down that they do truly Repent and they obey God as well as they can but God that knoweth the Deceivers will then undecieve them We cannot now make men acquainted with their own unsanctified hearts nor convince them that have not true Faith Repentance or Obedience but God will convince them of it They can find shifts and false answers to put off a Minister with but God will not so be shifted off Let us preach as plainly to them as we can and do all that ever we are able to acquaint them with the impenitency and unholiness of their own heart and the necessity of a new heart and life yet we cannot do it but they will Believe whether we will or not that the old heart will serve the turn But how easily will God make them know the contrary We plead with them in the dark for though we have the candle of the Gospel in our hands when we come to shew them their corruption yet they shut their eyes and are wilfully blind But God will open their eyes whether they will or not not by holy Illumination but by forced conviction and then he will plead with them as in the open light See here thy own unholy soul canst thou now say thou didst love me above all canst thou deny but thou didst love this world before me and serve thy flesh and lusts though I told thee if thou didst so thou shouldst dye Look upon thy own heart now and see whether it be a holy or an unholy heart a spiritual or
a fleshly heart a heavenly or au earthly heart Look now upon all the course of thy life and see whether thou didst live to me or to the world and thy flesh Oh how easily will God convince men then of the very sins of their thoughts and in their secret Closets when they thought that no witness could have disclosed them Therefore it s said that the Books shall be opened and the dead Judged out of the books Revel 20. 12. Dan. 7. 10. The second Evidence will be the knowledge of the Judge If the sinner would not be convinced yet it is sufficient that the Judge knoweth the Cause God needeth no further witness he saw thee committing adultery in secret lying stealing forswearing in secret If thou do not know thy own heart to be unholy it is enough that God knoweth it If you have the face to say Lord when did we see thee hungry c. Mat. 25. 44. yet God will make good the charge against thee and there needeth no more Testimony then his own Can foolish sinners think to lie hid or escape at that day that will now sin wilfully before their Judge that know every day that their Judge is looking on them while they forget him and give up themselves to the world and yet go on even under his eye as if to his face they dared him to punish them 3. The third Evidence will be the sinners Confession God will force their own Consciences to witness against them add their own tongues to confess the Accusation If they do at first excuse it he will leave them speechless yea and condemning themselves before they have done Oh what a difference between their language now and then Now we cannot tell them of their sin and misery but they either tell us of our own faults or bid us look to our selves or deny or excuse their fault or make light of it but then their own tongues shall confess them and cry out of the wilful folly that they committed and lay a heavier charge upon them then we can now do Now if we tell them that we are afraid they are unregenerate and least their hearts are not truly set upon God they will tell us they hope to be saved with such hearts as they have But then Oh how they will confess the folly and falseness of their own hearts You may see a little of their case even in despairing sinners on earth how far they are from denying or excusing their sins Judas cryes out I have sinned in bttraying Innocent blood Mat. 27. 4. out of their own mouth shall they be Judged That very tongue that now excuseth their sin will in their torments be their great Accuser For God will have it so to be 4. The fourth Evidence will be the witness of others Oh how many thousand witnesses might there be produced were there need to convince the guilty soul at that day 1. All the Ministers of Christ that ever preached to them or warned them will be sufficient witnesses against them we must needs testifie that we preached to them the truth of the Gospel and they would not believe it We preached to them the goodness of God yet they set not their hearts upon him we shewed them their sin and they were not humbled We told them of the danger of an unregenerate state and they did not regard us we acquainted them with the Absolute Necessity of holiness but they made light of all We let them know the deceitfulness of their hearts and the need of a close and faithful examination but they would not bestow an hour in such a work nor scarce once be afraid of being mistaken and miscarrying We let them know the vanity of this world and yet they would not forsake it no not for Christ and the hopes of glory We told them of the everlasting felicity they might attain but they would not set themselves to seek it What we shal think of it then the Lord knows but surely it seemeth now to us a matter of very sad consideration that we must be brought in as witnesses against the souls of our neighbors and friends in the flesh Those whom we now unfeignedly love and would do any thing that we were able to do for their good whose welfare is dearer to us then all worldly enjoyments Alas that we must be forced to testifie to their faces for their condemnation Ah Lord with What a heart must a poor Minister study when he considereth this that all the words that he is studying must be brought in for a witness against many of his hearers with What a heart must a Minister Preach when he remembreth that all the words that he is speaking must condemn many if not most of his hearers Do we desire this sad fruit of our Labours No we may say with the Prophet Jer. 17. 16. I have not desired the woful day thou knowest No if we desired it we would not do so much to prevent it we would not study and preach and pray and intreat men that if it were possible we might not be put on such a task And doubtless it should make every honest Minister study hard and pray hard and intreat hard and stoop low to men and be earnest with men in season and out of season that if it may be they may not be the condemners of their peoples souls But if men will not hear and there be no remedy who can help it Christ himself came not into the world to condemn men but to save them and yet he will condemn those that will not yield to his saving work God takes no pleasure in the death of a sinner but rather that he repent and return and live Ezek. 18. 23 32. and yet he will rejoyce over those to do them hurt and destroy them that will not return Deut 28. 63. And if we must be put on such a work he will make us like-minded The Holy Gost tels us that the Saints shall Judge the world 1 Cor. 6. 2 3. and if they must Judge they will Judge as God Judgeth you cannot blame us for it sinners we now warn you of it before hand and if you will not prevent it blame not us but your selves Alas we are not our own Matters As we now speak not to you in our own names so then we may not do what we list our selves or if we might our wills will be as Gods will God will make us Judge you and witness against you Can we absolve you when the righteous God will condemn you when God is against you whose side would you have us be of We must be either against God or you And can you think that we should be for any one against our Maker and Redeemer We must either condemn the Sentence of Jesus Christ or condemn you and is not there more reason to condemn you then him can we have any mercy on you when he that made you will not save you and he
that formed you will shew you no mercy Isa 27. 11. Yea when he that dyed for you will condemn you shall we be more merciful then God But alas If we should be so foolish and unjust what good would it do you If we would be false witnesses and partial Judges it would not save you we are not Justified if we absolve our selves 1 Cor. 4. 4. how unable then shall we be against Gods Sentence to Justifie you If all the world should say you were holy and penitent when God knows you were unholy and impenitent it will do you no good You pray every day that his will may be done and it will be done It will be done upon you because it was not done by you What would you have us say if God ask us Did you tell this sinner of the need of Christ of the glory of the world to come and the vanity of this Should we lye and say we did not what should we say if he ask us Did not you tell them the misery of their natural state and what would become of them if they were not made new Would you have us lye to God and say we did not Why if we did not your blood will be required at our hands Ezek. 33. 6. and 3. 18. and would you have us bring your blood upon our own heads by a lye Yea and to do you no good when we know that lyes will not prevail with God No no sinners We must unavoidably testifie to the confusion of your faces If God ask us we must bear witness against you and say Lord we did what we could according to our weak abilities to reclaim them Indeed our own thoughts of everlasting things were so low and our hearts so dull that we must confess we did not follow them so close nor speak so earnestly as we should have done we did not cry so loud or lift up our voice as a Trumpet to awaken them Isa 58. 1. we confess we did not speak to them with such melting compassion and with such streams of tears beseech them to regard as a mutter of such great concernment should have been spoken with We did not fall on our knees to them and so earnestly begg of them for the Lords sake to have mercy upon their own sâ—uls as we should have done But yet we told them the Message of God and we studyed to speak it to them as plainly and as piercingly as we could Fain we would have convinced them of their sin and misery but we could not Fain we would have drawn them to the admiration of Christ but they made light of it Mat. 22. 5. we would fain have brought them to the contempt of this vain world and to set their mind on the world to come but we could not Some compassion thou knowest Lord we had to their souls many a weeping or groaning hour we have had in secret because they would not hear and obey and some sad complaints we have made over them in publike We told them that they must shortly dye and come to Judgement and that this world would deceive them and leave them in the dust we told them that the time was at hand when nothing but Christ Would do them good and nothing but the favour of God would be sufficient for their happiness but we could never get them to lay it to heart Many a time did we intreat them to think soberly of this life and the life to come and to compare them together with the Faith of Christians and the reason of men but they would not do it many a time did we intreat them but to take now and then an hour in secret to consider who made them and for what he had made them and why they were sent into this world and what their business here is and whether they are going and how it will go with them at their latter end But we could never get most of them to spend one hour in serious thoughts of these weighty matters Many a time did we intreat them to try whether they were Regenerate or not whether Christ and his Spirit were in them or not Whether their souls were brought back to God by Sanctification but they would not try We did beseech them to make sure work and not leave such a matter as everlasting Joy or Torment to a bold and mad adventure but we could not prevail We intreated them to lay all other businesses aside a little while in the world and to enquire by the direction of the word of God what would become of them in the world to come and to Judge themselves before God came to Judge them seeing they had the Law and rule of Judgement before them but their minds were blinded and their hearts were hardned and the profit and pleasure and honour of this world did either stop their ears or quickly steal away their heartt so that we could never get them to a sober consideration nor ever win their hearts to God This will be the witness that many a hundred Ministers of the Gospel must give in against the souls of their people at that day Alas that ever you should cast this upon us For the Lords sake Sirs pitty your poor Teachers if you pitty not your selves We had rather go a 1000. miles for you we had rather be scorned and abused for your sakes we had rather lay our hands under your feet and beseech you on our knees with tears were we able then be put on such a work as this It is you that will do it if it be done We had rather follow you from house to house and teach and exhort you if you will but hear us and accept of our exhortation Your souls are pretious in our eyes for we know they were so in the eyes of Christ and therefore we are loth to see this day we were once in your case and therefore know what it is to be blind and careless and carnal as you are and therefore would fain obtain your Deliverance But if you will not hear but we must accuse you and we must condemn you The Lord Judge between you us For we can witness that it was full sore against our wills We have been faulty indeed in doing no more for you and not following you with restless Importunity the Good Lord forgive us but yet we have not betrayed you by silence 2. All those that fear God that have lived among ungodly men will also be sufficient witnesses against them Alas they must be put upon the same work which is very unpleasant to their thoughts as Minâ—sters are They must witness before the Lord that they did as friends and neighbours admonish them that they gave them a good example and endeavoured to walke in holyness before them but alas the most did but mock them and call them Puritans and precise fools and they made more aâ—o then needs for their salvation They must be forced to testifie
like may Evidence against his Condemnation The drunkard shall Remember In Such an Ale house I was so oft drunk and in such a â—avern I wasted my time The Adulterer and Fornicator shall Remember the very Time the Place the Room the Bed where they committed wickedness The Thief and Deceiver will Remember the Time Place the persons they wronged and the Thing which they robbed or deceived them of The worldling will Remember the business which he preferred before the service of God the worldly matters which had more of his heart then his Maker and Redeemer had the work which he was doing when he should have been Praying or Reading or Catechising his Family or thinking soberly of his latter end A thousand of these will then come into his mind and be as so many Evidences against him to his Condemnation 3. The very effects also of mens sins will be an Evidence against them The wife and children of a Drunkard are Impoverished by his sin His family and the neighbourhood is disquieted by him These will be so many Evidences against him So will the abuse of his own Reason The enticing of others to the same sin and hardning them by his example One covetons unmerciful Landlord doth keep a hundred or many hundred persons or families in so great necessities and care and labour that they are tempted by it to overpass the service of God as having scarce time for it or any room for it in their troubled thoughts All these miserable families and persons and all the souls that are undone by this Temptation will be so many Evidences against such Oppressors Yea the poor whom they have neglected to relieve when they might the sick whom they have neglected to visit when they might will all witness then against the unmerciful Mat. 25. The many ignorant worldly careless sinners that have perished under an idle and unfaithful Minister will be so many witnesses against him to his Condemnation They may then cry out against him to his face I was ignorant Lord and he never did so much as teach me catechize me nor tell me of these Things I was careless and minded the world and he let me go on quietly and was as careless as I had never plainly and faithfully warned me to waken me from my security And so their blood will be required at his hands though themselves also shall perish in their sins Ezek. 33 7. 8. 2. And as these Evidences will convince men of sin so there are many more which will convince them of the Greatness of their sin And these are so many that it would too much lengthen my discourse to stand on them A few I shall briefly touch 1. The very mercy of God in Creating men in giving and continuing their Being to them will be an Evidence for the Aggravation of their sin against him What will you abuse him by whom it is that you are men will you speak to his dishonor that giveth you your speech will you live to his dishonor who giveth you your Lives will you wrong him by his own creatures and neglect him without whom you cannot subsist 2. The Redemption of men by the Lord Jesus Christ will be an evidence to the exceeding Aggravation of their sins You sinned against the Lord that bought you 2 Pet. 2. 1. When the Feast was prepared and all things were Ready you made light of it and found excuses and would not come Mat. 22. 4 5 6. Luke 14. 17 18. Must Christ Redeem you by so dear a price from sin and misery and yet will you continue the servants of sin and prefer your slavery before your freedom and choose to be Satans drudges rather then to be the servants of God The sorrows and sufferings that Christ underwent for you will then prove the increase of your own sorrows As a neglected Redeemer it is that he will condemn you And then you would be glad that it were but true Doctrine that Christ never dyed for you that you might not be condemned for refusing a Redeemer and sinning against him that shed his blood for you How deeply will his wounds then wound your consciences You will then Remember that to this end he both â—yed rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the Dead and the Living And that he therefore dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves but to him that dyed for them and rose again Rom. 14. 9. 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. Mat 28. 18. 19. 20. 1 Pet. 1. 17 18. You will then understand that you were not your own but were bought with a price and therefore should have glorified him that Bought you with your Bodies and Spirits because they were His 1 Cor. 6 19 20. This one Aggravation of your sin will make you doubly and remedilesly miserable that you Trod under foot the Son of God and counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith you were sanctified an unholy thing Heb. 10. 26 27 28 29. and crucified to your selves the Son of God afresh and put him to open shame Heb. 6. 5 6. 3. Moreover All the personal mercies which they received will be so many Evidences for the condemnation of the ungodly The very earth that bore them and yielded them its fruits while they themselves are unfruitful to God The Air which they breathed in the food which nourish'd them the cloaths which cover'd them the houses which they dwelt in the beasts that laboured for them and all the creatures that dyed for their use All these may rise up against them to their condemnation And the Judge may thus expostulate with them Did all these mercies deserve no more Thanks should you not have served him that so liberally maintained you God thought not all these too good for you and did you think your hearts and services too good for him He served yous w th the weary labours of your fellow creature and should you have grudged to bear his easie Yoak They were your slaves and drudges and you refused to be his free servants and his Sons They suffered Death to feed your bodies and you would not suffer the short forbearance of a little forbidden fleshly pleasure for the sake of him that made you and redeemed you Oh how many thousand mercies of God will then be reviewed by those that neglected them to the horrour of their souls when they shall be upbraided by the Judge with their base requital All the deliverances from sickness and from danger all the honours and priviledges and other commodities which so much contented them will then be Gods Evidence to shame them and confound them On this supposition doth the Apostle reprove such Rom. 2. 4 5 6. Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath revelation of
that his Service was making more adoe then needs and didst grudge at those that were more diligent then thy self but for the World how heartily and how constantly didst thou seek and serve it and yet wouldst thou now perswade the Judge that thou didst love God above all He will shew thee thy naked heat and the course of thy former life which shail convince thee of the contrary The Second Excuse I lived not in any gross sin but only in small Infirmities I was no Murderer or Adulterer or Fornicator or Thief nor did I deceive or wrong any or take any thing by violence Answ Was it not a gross sin to love the world above God and to neglect Christ that dyed for thee and never to do him one hours hearty service but meerly to seek thy carnal self and to live to thy flesh God will open thine eyes then and shew thee a thousand gross sins which thou now forgettest or makest light of and it is not only Gross sins but All sin great or small that deserveth the wrath of God and will certainly bring thee under it for ever if thou have not part in Christ to relieve thee Wo to the man that ever he was born that must answer in his own name for his smallest offences The Third Excuse I did it ignorantly I knew not that there was so much required to my Salvation I thought less adoe might have served the turn and that if I lookt to my body God would take caâ—e of my soul and that it was better to trust him what would become of me hereafter then to trouble my mind so much about it Had I known better I would have done better Answ If you knew not better who was it long of but your self Did God hide these things from you Did he not tell them you in his Word as plainly as the tongue of man can speak That except you were regenerate and born again you should not enter into the Kingdom of God John 3. 3â— 5. That without holiness none should see God Heb. 12. 14. That you mist strive to enter in at the strait gate for many shall seek to enter and shall not be able Luke 13. 24. That if you lived after the flesh you should dye and if by the Spirit you mortified the deeds of the body you should live Rom 8. 13 That if any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom. 8. 9. And to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace Rom. 8. 9. That you must not lay up for your selves a treasure on earth where rust and moths do corrupt and thieves break through and steal but must lay up for your selves a treasure in heaven where rust and moths do not corrupt and thieves break through and steal Mat. 6. 19 20. That you must seek first the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof Mat. 6. 23. and not Labour for the food that perisheth but for the food that endureth to everlasting life which Christ would have given you John 6. 27. That if you be risen with Christ you must seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God and not the things that are on earth Col. 3. 1 2 3. Yea Your very Conversation should be in Heaven Phil. 3. 19. 20. 21. What say you Did not God tell you all this and much more aud plainly tell it you Turn to your Bibles and see the words and let them witness against you 2. And could you think with any Reason that your souls being so much move precious then your bodies you should yet do so much more for your bodies then your souls could you think all the labour of your lives little enough for a frail body that must lie shortly in the dirt and that your Immortal souls should be no more reâ—arded Could you think with any Reason that your souls should do so much for a life of a few years continuance and do no more for a life that shall have no end 3. And whereas you talk of trusting God with your souls you did not trust him You did but on that pretence carelesly disregard them If you trust God shew any word of Promise that ever he gave you to trust upon that ever an Impenitent Carnal Careless person shall be saved No he hath told yon enough to the contrary And could you think that it was the will of God that you should mind your bodies more then your souls and this life more then that to come Why he hath bid you strive and run and sight and labour and care and seek and use violence and all diligence for the safety of your souls and for the life to come But where hath he bid you do so for your bodies No he knew that you were prone to do too much for them and therefore he hath bid you Care not and Labour not that is Do it as if you did it not and let your care and Labour for earthly things be none in comparision of that for heavenly things You know God can as well maintain your lives without your care and labour as save your souls without it And yet you see he will not he doth not You must plough and sow and reap and thresh for all Gods Love and Care of you and not say I will let all alone and trust God And must you not much more use diligence in much greater things If you will trust God you must trust him in his own way and in the use of his own means The fourth Excuse I was never brought up to learning I cannot so much as read Nor did my Parents ever teach me any of these things but only set me about my worldly business and provide food and rayment for me but never once told me that I had a soul to save or lose and and an everlasting life to provide and prepare for And therefore I could not come to the knowledge of them Answ The greater is their sin who thus neglected you But this is no sufficient Excuse for you Heaven is not prepared for the Learned only nor will Christ ask you at Judgement whether you are good Scholars or not no nor so much as whether you could write or read But consider well was not Gods word so plainly written that the unlearned might understand it Did he not put it into the most familiar stile though he knew it would be offensive to the proud Scholars of the world of purpose that he might fit it to the capacities of the ignorant And if you could not read yet tell me Could not you have learned to read at 20 or 30 years of age if you had been but willing to bestow now and then an hour to that end Or at least did you not live near some that could Read and could you not have procured them to read to you or to help you And did you not hear these things read to
you in the Congregation by the Minister or might have done if you would And if your Parents did neglect you in your youth yet when you came to a fuller use of Reason and heard of the matters of salvation from Gods Word did it not concern you to have looked to your selves and to have redeemed that time which you lost in your youth by doubling your diligence when you came to riper years The Apostles gathered Churches among Heathens that never heard of Christ before and converted many thousand souls that were never once told of a Saviour or the way to salvation till they had past a great part of their lives If you loitered till the latter part of the day it behoved you then to have bestirred your selves the more and not to say Through the fault of my Parents I lost the beginning of my life and therefore I will lose all they taught me not then therefore I will not learn now hav you not seen som of your neighbours who were as ill educated as your selves attain to much knowledge afterwards by their Industry And why might not you have done so if you had been as Industrious as they May not God and Conscience witness that it was because you cared not for knowledge and would not be at pains to get it that you knew no more Speak truth man in the presence of thy Judge was thy heart and mind set upon it Didst thou pray daily for it to God Didst thou use all the means thou couldst to get it Didst thou attend diligently on the word in publike and think of what thou heardest when thou camest home Didst thou go to the Minister or to others that could teach thee and intreat them to tell thee the way to salvation Or didst thou not rather carelesly neglect these matters and hear a Sermon as a common tale even when the minister was speaking of Heaven or of Hell It was not then thine unavoidable Ignorance but thy negligence Yea further answer as in the presence of God Didst thou obey so far as thou didst know Or didst thou not rather sin against that knowledge which thou hadst Thou knewest that the soul was better then the body and everlasting life more to be regarded then this transitory life But didst thou regard it accordingly Thou sure knewest that God was better then the world and Heaven then earth at least thou was told of it But didst thou accordingly value him and love him more Thou knewest sure that there was no salvation without Faith and Repentance and newness of life and yet they were neglected In a word many a thousand sins which were committed and duties that were omitted against thy own Knowledge and Conscience will marr this Excuse The fifth Excuse I lived not under a powerfull Minister to tell me of these things but where there was no Preaching at all Answ And might you not have gone where a powerfull Minister was with a little pains Yea did not the very plain Word that you heard read tell you of these things and might you not have had a Bible your selves and found them there The Sixth Excuse I was a Servant and had no time from my labour to mind these matters I lived with a hard master that required all his own work of me but would allow me no time for the service of God Or else I was a poor man and had a great charge to look after and with my hard labour had much adoe to live so that I had no time for heavenly things Answ 1. Who should be first served God or man What should be first sought after heaven or earth Did not Christ cell thee One thing is necessary Luke 10. 41 42 Was it not as needfull to see that you escape Damnation and get safe to Heaven when this life is ended as to see that you had food and raiment for your selves and yours 2. Did you spend no time in Recreation nor Idleness nor vain talking why might not that at least have been spent about Heavenly things 3. Could you have taken no time from your rest or eating or at other Intermissions Mans Body will not endure so great Labours as have no Intermission And why then might not godliness have been your ease and recreation 4. Or might you not have minded these things even when you were about your labour if you had but a heart to them 5. At least you might have spent the Lords own Day in hearing reading and pondering of these matters when you were forced to forbear your worldly labours even by the wholsom Law of the Land These therefore are all but vain Excuses and God will shortly make thee speak out and plainly confess It was not so much for want of Time or Helps or warning as for want of a heart to use them well I should have found some time though it had been when I should have slept if my heart had been but set upon it The Seventh Excuse Little did I think â—o have seen this day I did not Believe that ever God would be so severe I thought his Threatnings had been but to keep men in awe and I suspected either that the Scripture was not his word or else I thought he would be better then his word I thought all that I heard of another life had been uncertain and therefore was loth to let go a certainty for an uncertainty and lose my present pleasures which I had in hand for the hopes of that which I never did see Answ He that will not know his misery by believing to prevent it shall know it by feeling to endure it You were told and told again what your unbelief would bring you to Did Gods Word make Heaven and Earth doth it support them and secure them and is not his Word sufficient security for you to have trusted your souls upon did you know where was any better security to be had and where was any surer ground for your confidence And did you think so basely and blasphemously of God that he would falsifie his Word lest such as you should suffer and that he was fain to rule the world by a Lye Did God make the world so easily and can he not govern it by true and righteous means what need God to say that which he will not do to awe sinners can he not awe them by Truth is it not just that those should eternally perish that will entertain such desperate thoughts of God and then by such wicked imaginations encourage themselves in sin against him And for the Truth of Scripture God did not bid you believe it without Evidence He stamped on it the Image of his own Purity and Perfection that you might know it by that Image and superscription if you had eyes to see them He sealed it by uncontrouled multitudes of Miracles He delivered it down to your hands by infallible witnesses so that he left you no room for rational Doubting And you knew that the matters
of this world were not only uncertain but certainly vain and transitory and would shortly come to nothing and leave you in distress If it had then been uncertain whether there were a Glory and Miâ—ery hereafter as it was not should not Reason have taught you to prefer the least probabilities of an everlasting unspeakable happiness before that which is certainly perishing and vain These vain Excuses will but condemn you The Eighth Excuse I was so enticed and perswaded by sinner to do as they did that I could not deny them they would never let me rest Answ And were you not as earnestly perswaded by God to forsake sin and erve him and yet that would not prevail with you You could not deny the Devils and fools but you could deny God and all his Messengers Were not Ministers as earnest with you every week to repent and amend What did men entice you with with a little deluding fleshly pleasure for a few daies And what did God entice you with with the Promise of endless unconcievable felicity And if this were a smaller matter in your eyes then the other then you have had your choice be content with it and thank your selves In your life time you had the good things which you chose and preferred before heaven and therefore cannot expect to have heaven besides The ninth Excuse I lived among ungodly persons that derided all that feared God so that if I had not done as I they did but had made any more ado to be saved should have been the very scorn of the place where I lived Answ And was not heaven worth the enduring of a scorn Is not he worthy to go without it that thinks so basely of it Did not Christ tell you that if you were ashamed of him before men he would be ashamed of you before his Father and the Angels of heaven Mark 8. 38. He sufferered more then scorns forth you and could not you suffer a scorn for im and your selves seeing you chose rather to endure everlasting Torment than a little derision from ignorant men take that which you made choice of And seeing so small a matter wonld drive you from heaven and part God and you as a mock as the wind of a mans mouth No wonder if you be commanded to Depart from him into everlasting fire The tenth Excuse I had ungodly persons to my Parents or Masters or Landlord or Governors who threatned to undo me if I had addicted my self to so strict a life and if I would not believe and do as they did Answ What if they threatned you with present Death Did not God also threaten you with everlasting Death if you were not ruled by him And whose threatning should you have chiefly feared Is man more dreadful than God Is death more terrible then Hell Did not Chirst bid you Fear not them that can kill the body and after that can do no more but fear him that is able to destroy both body and soul in hell sire yea I say unto you fear him Mat. 10. 28. Luke 12. 4 5. and Isa 51. 7. Fear ye not the Reproach of men neither be afraid of their revilings For the moth shall eat them up like a Garment the worm shall eat them like wool but My Righteousness shall be for ever ard my salvation from Generation to Generation Seeing therefore you have chosen rather to suffer from God for ever for your sin then to suffer small matters for well-doing for a moment you must ever bear your own choice Christ told you before hand that if you could not forsake all the world and your own lives for him you could not be his Disciples Match 10. 37 38 39. And seeing you thought his terms too hard would needs seek you out a better service even take what you have chosen and found The eleventh Excuse I saw so many follow their pleasure and their worldly business and never look after these higher things and so few go the other way that I thought sure God would not damn so great a part of the world and therefore I ventured to do as the most did Answ God will make good his word upon many or few Did you doubt of his will or of his power I For his will he hath told it you in his word For his power he is as ab e to punish many as one man What is all he world to him but as a drop of a Bucket as the dust of the ballance He told you before hand that the gate was strait and the way to heaven was narrow and few did find it and the gate to destruction was wide and the way was broad and many did enter in at it Mat. 7. 13 14. And if you would not Believe him you must bear what your unbelief hath brought you to Whaâ— if you had twenty children or servants or friends and the greater part of them should prove false to you and seek your destruction or prove disobedient and turn to your enemy would you think it a good excuse if the rest should do the like because of their example will you therefore wrong God because you see others wrong him would you spit in the face of your own Father if you saw others do so God warned you that you should not follow a multitude to do evil Exod. 23. 2 And if yet you will do as most do you must even speed as most speed You should not so much consider who they be as what they do and whither they go and who they forsake and what they lose and what strength is in the Reasons that move them to do this And then you would find It is God they forsake it is sin they choose it is heaven they lose it is hell they run into and it is no true reason but Satans delusion and sensual inclinations that lead them to it And should men be imitated be they many or be they few in such a course as this The twelfth Excuse I saw so many faults in those that were accounted Godly and saw so much Division among them that I thought they were as bad as others and among so many opinions I knew not what Religion to be of Answ 1. A spot is soonest seen in the fairest cloth And the malicious world useth to make such far worse then they are 2. But suppose all were true that malice saith of some you could not say the like by others 3. Or if you could yet it was Gods Law and not mens faults that was made the Rule for you to live by Will it excuse you that others are bad 4. And from their diverse opinions you should have taken counsel at Gods word which was right Did you first search the Scripture impartially as willing to know the Truth that you might obey it and did you pray daily that God would lead you into the truth and did you obey as much as you knew Did you joyn with the godly so far as they are
choose the fear of the Lord They would none of my counsels they despised all my Reproof therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices for the Turning away of the simple shall slay them and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them But who so harkneth to me shall dwel safely and shall be quiet from fear of evil I have recited all these words that you may see and consider whether I have spoke any other thing than God himself hath plainly told you of Having said this much of the Certainty of the Execution I should next have spoke somewhat of the manner and the Instruments and have shewed how God will be for ever the Principal Cause and Satan and 〈◊〉 own Conseiences the Instruments in part and in what manner Conscience will do its part and how impossible it will be to quiet or resist it But having spoke so much of all this already elsewhere as is said before I will forbear here to repeat it leaving the Reader that desireth it there to peruse it The Vses Vse 1. BEloved hearers it was not to fill your fancies with news that God sent me hither this day not to tell you of matters that nothing concern you nor by some terrible words to bring you to an hours amazement and no more But it is to tell you of things that your eyes shall see and to foretell you of your danger while it may be prevented that your precious souls may be saved at the last and you may stand before God with comfor at â—thas day But because this will not be every mans caseâ— no nor the case of most I must in the name of Christ desire you to make this day an enquiry into your own souls and as in the presence of God let your hearts make answer to these few Questions which I shall propound and debate with you Qu. 1. Do you soundly Believe this Doctrine which I have preached to you What say you Sirs do you verily Believe it as a most certain Truth that you and I and all the world must stand at Gods barr and be Judged to Everlasting Joy or Torment I hope you do all in some sort Believe this but blame me not if I be jealous whether you soundly believe it while we see in the world so little of the effect of such a Belief I confess I am forced to think that there is more infidelity then faith among us when I see moâ—â— ungodlyness then godlyness among us And I can hardly believe that man that will say or swear that he believeth these things and yet liveth as carelesly and carnally as an Infidel I know that no man can love to be damned yea I know that every man that hath a reasonable soul hath naturally some love to him self and a fear of a danger which he verily apprehendeth he therefore that liveth without all fear I must think liveth without all apprehension of his danger Custom hath taught men to hold these things as the Opinion of the Country but if men soundly believed them surely we should see stranger effects of such a faith then in the most we do see Doth the sleepy soul that liveth in security and followeth this world as eagerly as if he had no greater matters to mind that never once trembled at the thoughts of this great day nor once asked his own soul in good sadnesâ— My soul How dost thou think then to escape I say doth this man Believe that he is going to this Judgement Well Sirs whether you beleve it or not you will find it true and believe it you must before you can be safe For if you do not Believe it you will never make ready Let me therefore perswade you in the fear of God to consider that it is a matter of undoubted Truth 1. Consider that it is the express word of the God of Truth revealed in Sripâ—ure as plainly as you can desire So that yon cannot be unbelieving without denying Gods Word or giving him the lye Mat 13 38 39. 40 41 42 43 49 50. Mat. 25. throughout Rom. 2. 5. 6 7 8 9 10 16. and 1. 32. John 5. 28 29. The hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the Resurrection of damnation Heb. 9. 27. It is appointed to all men once to dye and after this the Judgement Rom. 14. 9. l2 So then every one of us shall give Account of himself to God Rev. 20. 12. And I saw the dead smal and great stand before God and the Books were opened and another book was opened which is the Book of life and the dead were Judged out of those things which were written in the Bookâ— according to their works Mat. 12. 36. 37. But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof at the day of Judgement For by thy words thou shalt be Justified and by thy Words thou shalt be condemned Many more most express Texts of Scripture do put the Truth of this Iudgement out of all question to all that believe the Scripture and will understand it There is no place left for a Controversie in the point It is made as â—ure to us as the Word of the living God can make it And he that will question that what will he Believe What say you Sirs Dare you doubt of this which the God of Heaven hath so positively affirmed I hope you dare not 2. Consider it is a master part of your faith if you are Christians and a fundamental Article of your Creed that Christ shall come again to Iudge the quick and the dead So that you must Believe it or renounce your Christianity and then you renounce Christ and all the hopes of mercy that you have in him It s impossible that you should soundly Believe in Christ and not believe his Iudgement and Life Everlasting because as he came to bring Life and immortality to light in the Gospel 2 Tim. 1. 10. so it was the end of his Incarnation Death and Resurrection to bring you thither and its part of his honour and office which he purchased with his blood to be the Lord and Iudge of all the world Rom. 14. 9. Joh. 5. 22. If therefore you believe not heartily this Iudgement deal plainly and openly and say you are Infidels and cast away the hypocritical vizor of Christianity and let us know you and take you as you are 3. Consider that it is a Truth that is known by the very light of nature that there shall be a happiness for the Righteous and a misery for the wicked after this life which is evident 1. In that we have undenyable natural reason for it 1. God is the Righteous governor of the world and therefore must make a difference among his Subjects according