spent the Lord 's own Day in hearing reading and pondering of these Matters when you were forced to forbear your worldly Labours even by the wholesom Law of the Land These therefore are all but vain Excuses and God will shortly make thee speak out and plainly confess it wâ— 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 to have senâ— this Day I did not believe that ever God would be so severe I thought his Threatnings had been but to keep Men in aweâ— and I suspected either that the Scripture was not his Word 〈◊〉 else I thought he would be better than 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 Vncertainty and lose my present Pleasures which I had in hand for the Hopes oâ— 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 God's Word make Heaven and Earth doth it support them and secure them and 〈◊〉 not his Word sufficient Security for you to have â—usted your Souls upon did you know where was â—y better Security to be had and where was any â—rer Ground for your Confidence And did you think 〈◊〉 basely and blasphemously of God that he would â—sify his Word lest such as you should suffer and â—at he was fain to rule the World by a Lie Did God â—ake the World so easily and can he not govern it by â—â—e and righteous Means what need God to say that â—hich he will not do to awe Sinners can he not awe â—em by Truth is it not just that those should eterâ—lly perish that will entertain such desperate Thoughts â—f God and then by such wicked Imaginations encouâ—ge themselves in Sin against him And for the Truth of Scripture God did not bid â—ou believe it without Evidence He stamped on it â—e Image of his own Purity and Perfection that you â—ight know it by that Image and Superscription if â—ou had Eyes to see them He sealed it by uncontrouled Multitudes of Miracles He delivered it down to your â—ands by infallible Witnesses so that he left you no â—oom for rational Doubting And you knew that the Matters of this World were â—ot only uncertain but certainly vain and transitory â—nd would shortly come to nothing and leave you in â—istress If it had then been uncertain whether there â—ere a Glory and Misery hereafter as it was not â—hould not Reason have taught you to prefer the least Probabilities of an everlasting unspeakable Happiness â—efore that which is certainly perishing and vain These vain Excuses will but condemn you The eighth Excuse I was so enticed and perswaded by â—inners 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 serve 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 even Week to repent and amend What did Men entice you with with a little deluding fleshly Pleasure for a few Days And what did God entice you with with the Promise of endless unconceivable Felicity And if this were a smaller Matter in your Eyes than 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 they did but had made any more ado to be saved I 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 suffered more than Scorns for you and could not you suffer a Scorn for him and yourselves 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 would drive you from Heaven and part God and you as a Mock as the Wind of a Man's 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 Governours 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 than Hell Did not Christ bid you fear not them that can kill the Body and after that can do no more but fear him that is able to â—estroy both Body and Soul in Hell-fire 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 and the Worm shall eat them like Wool but my Righteousness shall be for ever and my Salvation from Generation to Geneâ—tion Seeing therefore you have chosen rather to suffer from God for ever for your Sin than to suffer small Matters for well-doing for a Moment you must ever bear your own Choice Christ told you before-and that if you could not forsake all the World and your own Lives for him you could not be his Disciples Mat. 10. 37 38 39. And seeing you thought his Terms too hard and 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 For his Will he hath told it you in his Word For his Power he is as able to punish many as one Man What is all the World to him but as the Drop of a
must willing or unwilling there is no avoiding it appear stand forth or make your appearance and there have your Hearts and Ways laid open and appear as well as we Before the Judgment-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 from the Bar 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 whilst 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 Judgment 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 Judgment Doct. 2. Christ will be the Judg. 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 Judgment is that Men may receive their final Due by Sentence and Execution Doct. 6. The Knowledg and Consideration of the terrible Judgment of God should move us to perswade and Men to be perswaded to careful Preparation The ordinary Method for the handling of this Subject of Judgment should be this 1 st To shew you what Judgment is in the General and what it doth contain and that is 1. The Persons 2. The Cause 3. The Actions 1. The Parties are 1. The Accuser 2. The Defendant 3. Sometime Assistants 4. The Judg. 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 of Judgment 1. Debate by 1. The Accuser 2. Defendant called the Disceptation of the Cause 2. By the Judg. 1. Exploration 2. Sentence 3. To see to the Execution But because this Method is less sutable to your Capacities and hath something humane I will reduce all to these following Heads 1. I will shew what Judgment is 2. Who is the Judg and why 3. Who must be judg'd 4. Who is the Accuser 5. How the Citation Constraint and Appearance will be 6. What is the Law by which Men shall be judged 7. What will be the Cause of the Day what the Accusation and what must be the just Defence 8. What will be the Evidence 9. What are thosâ— frivolous insufficient Excuses by which the Unrighteous may think to escape 10. What will be the Sentence who shall die and who shall live and what the Reward and Punishment â—s 11. What are the Properties of the Sentence 12. What and by whom the Execution will be In â—hese particular Heads we contain the whole Doctrine of â—his Judgment and in this more familiar Method shall â—andle it I. For the first Judgment as taken largely comprehendeth all the sorementioned Particulars as taken more strictly for the Act of the Judg it is the Trial of a controverted Case In our Case note these things following 1. God's Judgment is not intended for any Discovery to himself of what he knows not already he knows already that all Men are and what they have done and what is their Due But it is to discover to others and to Men themselves the ground of his Sentence that so his Judgment may attain its End for the glorifying â—his Grace on the Righteous and for the convincing the Wicked of their Sin and Desert and to shew to all the World the Righteousness of the Judg and of his Sentence and Execution Rom. 3. 4 26. and Rom. 2. 2. 2. It is not a Controversy therefore undecided â—in the Mind of God that is there to be decided but only one that is undecided as to the Knowledg and Mind of Creatures 3. Yet iâ— not this Judgment a bare Declaration but a Decision and so a Declaration thereupon the Cause will be then put out of Controversy and all farther Expectation of Decision be at an End and with the Justified there will be no more Accusation and with the Condemned no more Hope for ever II. For the second Thing who shall be the Judg I answer The Judg is God himself by Jesus Christ 1. Principally God as Creator 2. As also God as Redeemer the humane Nature of Jesus Christ having a derived subordinate Power God lost not his Right to his Creature either by Man's Fall or the Redemption by Christ but by the latter hath a new farther Right but it is in and by Christ that God judgeth For as meer Creator of innocent Man God judgeth none but hath committed all Judgment to the Son who hath procured this Right by the redeeming of fallen Man Joh. 5. 22. But as the Son only doth it in the nearest Sense so the Father as Creator doth it remotely and principally 1. In that the Power of the Son is derived from the Father and so standeth in Subordination to him as Fountain or Efficient 2. In that the Judgment of the Son as also his whole Mediatorship is to bring Men to God their Maker as their ultimate End and recover them to him from whom they are faln and so as a Means to that End the Judgment of the Son is subordinate to the Father From hence you may see these following Truths worthy your Consideration 1. That all Men are God's Creatures and none are the Workmanship of themselves or any other or else the Creator should not judg them on that Right 2. That Christ died for All and is the Redeemer of the World and a Sacrifice for All or else he should not judg them on that Right For he will not judg Wicked Men as he will do the Devils as the meer Enemies of his Redeemed Ones but as being themselves his Subjects in the World and being bought by him and therefore become his own who ought to have glorified him that bought them 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. 2 Pet. 2. 1. 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. 1 John 2. 2. Heb. 2. 9. 1 Tim. 2. 6 7. 3. Hence it appeareth that all Men were under some Law of
be transacted by Words as we do now but by clear Discoveries by the infinite Light and that if God should not 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 Prethren Revel 12. 10. and we find in Joh 1. and other Places that now he doth practise it even before God and therefore we judg 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 Righteâ—us 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 Judg 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 Dunghil or to the greatest Prince to accuse a Traitor Nor is it unmeet that God should be both Accuser and Judg seeing he is both absolute Lord and perfectly Just and so far beyond all suspition of Injustice His Law also doth virtually accuse Joh. 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 them to make their voluntary Appearance but willing or unwilling he will bring them in 1. Before each Man's particular Judgment he sendeth Death to call away his Soul a surly Serjeant that will have no Nay How dear soever this World may be to Men and how loth soever 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 Vineyard 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 Judg and be accountable for all that was done in the Body and be sent before till the final Judgment to remain in Happiness or Misery till the Body be raised again and joined 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 Abraham's 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 joined again to their Souls and the Soul and Body shall be judged to their endless State and this is the great and general Judgment where all Men shall 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 Wo 1 Cor. 15. 53. John 5. 28 29. Of this Resurrection and our Appearance at Judgment the Angels will be someway the Ministers as they shall come with Christ to Judgment so they shall sound his Trumpet 1 Thess 4. 16. and they shall gather the Wicked out of God's Kingdom and they shall gather the Tares to burn them Matth. 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 Matth. 17. 49 50. VI. For the sixth Particular What Law is it that Men shall be judged by Answ That which was given them to live by God's 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 sutable 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 stood condemned by that Law and could not be justified 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 tried at Judgment 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 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 Judgment though it must be first evinced that we are Sinners and have deserved Death according to the Law of pure Nature yet that is not the Upshot of the Judgment 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 be judged 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 Redeemer's Mercy they did enjoy which should have led them to repent and seek out after Recovery from their Misery and to come nearer Christ and for the
to him that died 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 Clothes which cover'd them the Houses which they dwelt in the Beasts that laboured for them and all the Creatures that died for their Use All these may rise up against them to their Condemnation And the Judg 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 yours with the weary Labours of your fellow-Creatures and should you have grudged to bear his easy 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 O how many thousand Mercies of God will then be reviewed by those that neglected them to the Horror of their Souls when they shall be upbraided by the Judg with their base Requital All the Deliverances from Sickness and from Danger all the Honours and Privileges and other Commodities which so much contented them will then be God's Evidences 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 and Revelation of the righteous Judgment of God who will render to every Man according to his Deeds 4. Moreover all the Means which God used for the Recovery of Sinners in the Day of their Visitation will rise up against impenitent Souls in Judgment to their Condemnation You can hear Sermons carelesly and sleepily now but O that you would consider how the Review of them will then awake you You now make light of the Warnings of God and Man and of all the wholesom Advice that is given you but God will not then make light of your Contempt O what cutting Questions will they be to the Hearts of the Ungodly when all the means that were used for their Good are brought to their Remembrance on one side and the Temprations that drew them to Sin on the other Side and the Lord shall plead his Cause with their Consciences and say Was I so hard a Master or was my Work so unreasonable or was my Wages so contemptible that no Perswasions could draw you into my Service Was Satan so good a Master or was his Work so honest and profitable or was his Wages so desirable that you would be so easily perswaded to do as he would have you Was there more perswading Reason in his Allurements and Deceits than in all my holy Words and all the powerful Sermons that you heard or all the faithful Admonitions you received or all the good Examples of the Righteous or in all the Works of God which you beheld Was not a Reason fetch'd from the Love of God from the Evil of Sin the Blood of Christ the Judgment to come the Glory promised the Torments threatned as forcible with you and as good in your Eyes to draw you to Holiness as a Reason from a little fleshly Delight or worldly Gain to draw you to be unholy In the Name of God Sinners I intreat you to bethink your selves in time how you will sufficiently answer such Questions as these You should have seen God in every Creature that you beheld and have read your Duty in all his Works what can you look upon above you or below you or round about you which might not have shewed you so much of the Wisdom and Goodness and Greatness of your Maker as should have convinced you that it was your Duty to be devoted to his Will and yet you have his written Word that speaks plainer than all these and will you despise them all will you not see so great a Light will you not hear so loud and constant Calls shall God and his Ministers speak in vain And can you think that you shall not hear of this again and pay for it one Day you have the Bible and other good Books by you why do you not read them You have Ministers at hand why do you not go to them and earnestly ask them Sirs What must I do to be saved and intreat them to teach you the Way to Life You have some Neighbours that fear God why do you not go to them and take their good Advice and imitate them in the Fear of God and in a holy Diligence for your Souls Now is the time for you to bestir your selves Life and Death are before you You have Gales of Grace to further your Voyage There are more for you than against you God will help you his Spirit will help you his Ministers will help you every good Christian will help you the Angels themselves will help you if you will resolvedly set your selves to the Work and yet will you not stir Patience is waiting on you Mercies are enticing you Scourges are driving you Judgment stayeth for you The Lights of God stand burning by you to direct you And yet will you not stir but lie in â—â—arkness And do you think you shall not hear of this Do you think this will not one Day cost you dear IX The ninth part of our Work is to shew you â—hat are those frivolous Excuses by which the Vnrighteous may then indeavour their Defence Having already shewed you what the Defence must be that must be sufficient to our Justification If any first demand Whether the Evidence of their Sin will not so overwhelm the Sinner that he will be speechless and past excuse I answer Before God hath done with him he will be so but it seems at first his clark Understanding and partial corrupted Conscience will set him upon a vain Defence
For Mat. 7. 22 23. Christ telleth us that Many will say to me in that Day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name have cast out Devils and in thy Name have â—lone many wonderful Works And then will I profess to them I never knew you Depart from me ye Workers of Iniquity And in Mat. 25. 11. the foolish Virgins cry Lord Lord open to us And ver 44. Then shall they also answer him saying Lord when â—aw we thee an hungred or thirst or a Stranger or Naked or Sick or in Prison and did not minister unto thee And vers 24 25. they fear not to cast some of the Causes of their neglect on God himself Then he which had received the one Talent came and said Lord I knew thou art an hard Man reaping where thou hast not sown and gathering where thou hast not strawed and I was afraid and went and hid thy Talent in the Earth lo there thou hast that is thine It is clear then that Excuses they will be ready to make and their full Conviction will be in order after these Excuses at least as in their Minds if not in Words but what the particular Excuses will be we may partly know by these Scriptures which recite them and partly by hearing what the Ungodly do now say for themselves And because it is for their present Benefit that I now make mention of them that they may see the Vanity of all such Excuses I will mention them as I now meet with them in the Mouths of Sinners in our ordinary Discourse and these Excuses are of several sorts some by which they would justify their Estate some Excuses of particular Actions and that either in whole or in part some by which they would put by the Penalty though they confess the Sin some by which they lay the blame on other Men and in â—ome they would cast it upon God himself I must touch but some of them very briefly The first Excuse I am not guilty of these things which I am accused of I did love God above all and my Neighbour as my self I did use the World but for Necessity but God had my Heart Answ The All-seeing Judg doth know the contrary and he will make thy Conscience know it Look back Man upon thy Heart and Life How seldom and how neglectfully didst thou think of God how coldly didst thou worship him or make any mention of him how carelesly didst thou serve him and think much of all that thou didst therein Thou rather thoughtest that his Service was making more ado than needs and didst grudg at those that were more diligent than thy self but for the World how heartily and how constantly didst thou seek and serve it and yet wouldst thou now perswade the Judg that thou didst love God above all He will shew thee thy naked Heart and the Course of thy former Life which shall 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 died for thee and never to do him one Hour's 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 Sin 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 ado might have served the turn and that if I look'd to my Body God would take care of my Soul and that it was better to trust him what would become of me hereafter than 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. 3 5. That without Holiness none should see God Heb. 12. 14. That you must 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 die 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 nor 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 and 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 more precious than your Bodies you should yet do so much more for your Bodies than 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 regarded 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 you enough to the contrary And could you think
that it was the Will of God that you should mind your Bodies more than your Souls and this Life more than that to come Why he hath bid you strive and run and fight 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 comparison 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 God's 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 Raiment for me but never once told me that I had a Soul to save or lose and an everlasting Life to provide and prepare for and therefore I could not come to the Knowledg 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 Judgment whether you are good Scholars or not no nor so much as whether you could write or read But consider well Was not God's 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 God's 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 and therefore I will not learn now Have you not seen some of your Neighbours who were as ill educated as your selves attain to much Knowledg 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 Knowledg and would not be at pains to get it that you knew no more Speak truth Man in the Presence of thy Judg 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 publick and think of what thou heardst 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 tou obey so far as thou didst know Or didst thou not rather sin against that Knowledg which thou hadst Thou knewest that the Soul was better than the Body and everlasting Life more to be regarded than this transitory Life but didst thou regard it accordingly Thou sure knewest that God was better than the World and Heaven than Earth at least thou wast 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 Knowledg and Conscience will marr this Excuse The fifth Excuse I lived not under a powerful Minister to tell me of these things but where there was no preaching at all Answ And might you not have gone where a powâ—â—ful 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 an 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 ado 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 tell thee One thing is necessary Luke 10. 41 42. Was it not as needful 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 Man's 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 ever when you were about your Labour if you had but a Heart to them 5. At least you might have
Ability or I can have none and if he had given it me I had not been an Vnbeliever or Impenitent I can no more believe of my self than I can fulfil the Law of my self Answ 1. These are the vain Cavils of learned Folly which God will easily answer in a Word The Word Power is taken in several Senses Sometime and most commonly and fitly for a Faculty or a Strength by which a Man can do his Duty if he will This physical Power you have and the worst of Sinners have while they are Men on Earth Were they actually willing they might acceptably perform sincere Obedience and were they dispositively willing they might actually believe and will And thus the Ungodly have Power to believe Sometime the word Power is taken for Authority or Leave for legal or civil Power And thus you have all not only Power or Liberty to believe but also a Command which makes it your Duty and a Threatning adjoined which will condemn you if you do not Sometime the Word Power is taken ethically and less properly for a Disposition Inclination Habit or Freedom from the contrary Habit or Disposition And in this Sense it 's true that none but the effectually called have a Power to believe But then observe 1. That this is but a Moral less proper and not a Physical proper Impotency And therefore Austin chuseth rather to say that all Men have power to believe but all have not a Will or Faith it self because we use to difference Power from Willingness and Willingness actuateth the Power which we had before And therefore our Divines choose rather to call Grace a Habit when they speak exactly than a Power and Dr. Twiss derides the Arminians for talking of a Power subjected in a Power 2. Note that this Impotency is but the same thing with your Unwillingness and wilful Blindness in another Word 3. Note that this Impotency is long of your selves as to the Original and much more as to the not curing and removing of it Hath God given you â—o means towards the Cure of this Disability which you have neglected 4. Note that this Impotency is not a just Excuse but an Aggravation of your Sin If you were willing to be the Servant of Christ and yet were not able either because he would not accept you or because of a want of natural Faculties or because of some other natural Difficulty which the willingest Mind could not overcome this were some Excuse But to be habitually wilful in refusing Grace is worse than to be meerly actually unwilling If a Man have so accustomed himself to Murder Drunkenness Stealing or the like Wickedness so far that he cannot leave it will you therefore forgive him or will any Judg 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 Freedom 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 irresistibly moved me thereto 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 do err Much more I think may be said against it than for it 2. I am sure it is either false or irreconcileable with God's Holiness and Man's Liberty and Culpability so that its a mad thing to deceive your selves with such philosophical Uncertainties 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 humane 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 infallibly determined by the practical Vnderstanding and that is as much unresistibly necessitated by Objects and therefore whatever act was done by my Vnderstanding or Will was this necessitated and I could not help it They say Liberty is but the Acting of the Faculty agreeably to its Nature And it was God as Creator that gave Adam his Faculties and God by providential Dispose that presented all Objects to him by which his Vnderstanding and so his Will were unavoidably necessitated Answ This is of the same Nature with the former uncertain if not 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 it self Yea the Will by commanding the Sense and Phantasy doth much to determine the Understanding As the Eye is not necessary to my going but to my going right so is not the Understanding's Guidance necessary to my willing there the simple Apprehension may suffice but to my right willing There are other ways 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 saith 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 Scholars and others that have conversed 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 God's Image It is a self-determining Power though it be biassed by Habits and needs a Guide As the Heart and 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
sake For it is not only or principally for the Goodness of the Work considered in it self or the Good that is done by it to the Poor but it is as those Works did express our Faith and Love to Christ by doing him the most costly and hazardous Service that by Faith we could see Christ in a poor Beggar or a Prisoner and could love Christ in these better than our worldly Goods or Liberties which we must part with or hazard by the Works that are here mentioned 2. The Reasons why Christ will so publickly declare the personal Righteousness of Men to be the Reason or Cause of his justifying Sentence is because it is the Business of that Day not only to glorify God's meer Love and Mercy but eminently to glorify his remunerative Justice and not only to express his Love to the Elect as such but to express his Love to them as faithful and obedient and such as have denied all for Christ and loved God above all and to shew his Justice to Men and Faithfulness in fulfilling all his Promises and also his Holiness in the high Estimation of the Holiness of his People I shall express this in the Words of a Learned Divine Dr. Twiss against Mr. Cotton pag. 40. Was there no more in God's Intention when he elected some than the Manifestation of the Riches of his glorious Grace Did not God purpose also to manifest the Glory of his remunerative Justice Is it no undeniable that God will bestow Salvation on all his Elect of ripe Years by way of Reward and Crown of Righteousness which God the righteous Judg will give 2 Tim. 4. 2 Thess 1. It is great pity this is not considered as usually it is not especially for the momentous Consequence thereof in my Judgment So far he So much of the Sentence of Justification which shall be passed by Christ at Judgment upon the Righteous 2. We are next to consider of the Sentence of Condemnation which shall then by Christ be passed on the Unrighteous Which is delivered to us by Christ Mat. 25. in the same Order as the former The Sentence containeth 1. The Condemnation it self 2. The Reason or Cause of it The Condemnation expresseth the Misery which they are judged to 1. Generally in the Denomination Cursed 2. Particularly by Description of their cursed State To be cursed is to be a People destinated and adjudged to utter Unhappiness to all kind of Misery without remedy 2. Their cursed Condition is described in the next Words Depart from me into everlasting Fire prepared for the 〈◊〉 and his Angels 1. Depart From whom from the God that made them in his Image from the Redeemer that bought them by the Price of his Blood and offered to save them freely for all their Unworthiness 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 than from Christ Depart from what why from the Presence of the Judg from all farther Hopes of Salvation for ever from all possibility of ever being saved and living in the joyful Inheritance of the Righteous Depart Not from God's Essential Presence for that will be with them to their everlasting 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 farther 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 Christ's Bar to be judged But from all Expectations of ever enjoying these again or ever tasting their former Delights from these they must depart not from their Sin for that will go with them but the Liberty of committing 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 Salvation 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 our 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 is easy for a secure unbelieving Soul to read and hear of it but Wo 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 prepared for the Devil and his Angels 1. What is this Devil that hath Angels 2. Who are his Angels 3. When was it prepared for them 4. Wat 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 seems 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 numbred 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 judged by Expositors and the Prince of the Power of the Air 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. 11. 15. But that wicked Men are here meant as part of his Angels is not clear 3. If it be the Preparation of God's 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 because 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 tere is because they are part of the Angels of the Devil and so included And some think it is purposely to manifest God's 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 Judgments 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 entertain him into more full and constant Familiarity with their Souls than these Witches do with their Bodies how familiar is he in Thoughts to fill them with Vanity Lust or Revenge How familiar is he in their Hearts to fill them with Covertousness 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 publick Assemblies 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 God's 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 Houshold and shall live altogether in perpetual Misery O poor Sinners you are not troubled now at his Presence and Power in your Hearts but will you not then be troubled at his Presence and tormenting Power As long as you do not see him let him do what he will with you it grieves you little or nothing at all but what will you say when you must see him and abide with him for ever O Sirs his Name is easily heard but his Company will be terrible to the stoutest Heart alive He sheweth you a smiling Face when he tempteth you but he hath a grimmer Face to shew you when Temptations have conquered you and Torments must succeed As those that write of Witches say he appeareth at first to them in some comely tempting Shape till he have them fast tied to him and then he beats them and affrights them and seldom appears to them but in some ugly Hew Believe it poor Sinners you do not hear or see the worst of him when you are merry about your sinful Pleasures and rejoicing in your Hopes of the Commodities or Preferments of the World he hath another kind of Voice which you must hear and another Face to shew you that will make you know a little better whom you had to do with You would be afraid now to meet him in the Dark what will you be to live with him in everlasting Darkness Then you will know who it was that you entertained and obeyed and plaid with in your Sins 3. And as the Text tells us that it is a Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels So it telleth us that it is an everlasting Fire It had a Beginning but it shall have no End If these Wretches would have chosen the Service of God they would have met with no Difficulty or Trouble but what would have had a speedy End Poverty and Injuries would have had an End Scorns and Abuses would have had an End Fasting Humiliation Sorrow for Sin watching and fighting against our spiritual Enemies would all have had an End But to avoid these they chose that Ease that Pleasure which hath brought them to that Torment which never will have end I have said so much of these things already in my Book called the Saints Rest that I will now say but this much It is one of the Wonders of the World how Men that do believe or think they do believe this Word of Christ to be true that the Wicked shall go into everlasting Fire can yet venture on Sin so boldly and live in it so fearlesly or sleep quietly till they are out of this unspeakable Danger Only the commonness of it and the known Wickedness of Man's Heart doth make this less wonderful And were there nothing else to convince us that Sinners are mad and dead as to spiritual Things this were enough that ever the greatest Pleasures or Profits of the World or the most enticing Baits that the Devil can offer them should once prevail with them to forget these endless things and draw them to reject an everlasting Glory and cast themselves desperately into everlasting Fire Yea and all this under daily Warnings and Instructions and when it 's told them beforehand by the God of Truth himself For the Lord's sake Sirs and for your Souls sakes if you care not what Ministers say or what such as I say yet will you soberly read now and then this 25 th Chapter of Matthew and regard what is told you by him that must be your Judg and now and then bethink yourselves soberly whether these are Matters for wise Men to make light of and what it is to be everlastingly in Heaven or in Hell-fire 2. We have seen what is the Penalty contained in the Sentence against the Ungodly The next thing that the Text directs us to is the Cause or Reason of the Sentence ver 42. For I was hungry and ye gave me no Meat c. The Reason is not given expresly either for their Sin against the Law of Works that is because they were Sinners and not perfectly innocent nor yet from their Unbelief which is the great Sin against the Law of Grace But it is given from their not expressing their Faith and Love to Christ in Works of Mercy and Self-denial And why is this so 1. We must not suppose that these Words of Christ do express the whole judicial Process in every Point but the chief Parts It is supposed that all Men are convicted of being Sinners against the perfect Law of the Creator and that they are guilty of Death for that
must die wiâ—â— you not believe us because you have lived so long and seen no Death coming Three or Four things there be that should bring any Matter to the Heart 1. If it be a Matter or exceeding Weight 2. If it concern not others only but our selves 3. If it be certain 4. If near All these things are here to be sound and therefore how should your Hearts be moved at the Consideration of this great Day 1. What Matter can be mentioned with the Tongue of Man of greater moment For the poor Creture to stand before his Maker and Redeemer to be judged to everlasting Joy or Torment Alas all the Matters of this World are Plays and Toys and Dreams to this Matters of Profit or Disprofit are nothing to it Matterâ— of Credit or Discredit are unworthy to be named with it Matters of temporal Life or Death are nothing to it We may see the poor brute Beasts go every Day to the Slaughter and we make no great matter of it though their Life be as dear to them as ours to us To be judged to an everlasting Death or Torment this is the great Danger that one would think should shake the stoutest Heart to consider it and awake the dullest Sinner to prevent it 2. It 's a Matter the concerneth every one of yourâ—selves and every Man or Woman that ever lived upon the Earth or ever shall do I am not speaking to you 〈◊〉 the Affairs of some far Country that are nothing to you but only to marvel at which you never saw not ever shall do no it is thy own self Man or Woman that hearest me this Day that shalt as surely appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ as the Lord liveth and as he is true and faithful and that is as sure as thou livest on this Earth or as the Heaven is over thee That Man that heareth all this with the most careless blockish Heart shall be awakened and stand with the rest at that Day that Man that never thought of it but spent his time in worldly Matters shall leave all and there appear that Man that will not believe these things to be true but make a Jest ofthem shall see and feel that he would not believe and he also shall be there the Godly that waited in Hope for that Day as the Day of their full Deliverance and Coronation they 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 than 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 near 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 withthat which he is certain shall come to pass in a manner as if it were now in doing 1 Thess 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 near 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 Judg is at the Door James 5. 9. and we are almost at the Bar 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 receive their particular Judgment and so wait till the Body be raised and judged to the same Condition It is not 100 Years in all likelihood till every Soul of us shall be in Heaven or Hell and it 's 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 100 how speedily is it come how many a Soul that is now in Heaven or Hell within 100 Years dwelt in the Places that you now dwell in and sat 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 Judgment will not be long For certainly we live in the End of the World Qu. 4. My next Question is Whether are you ready for his dreadful Judgment when it comes or not Seeing it 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 always ready because we know not the day or Hour of his coming Matth. 24. 44 42. and 25. 13 1 Thess 5. 6. and told us hos 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 Judgment or are you not Methinks 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 methinks 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 Cafe 2. When you are in a comfortable Cafe in regard of that Day The latter is very desiraeble but the frist is of absolute Necessity this therefore is it that you must principally enquire after In general all those and only those are ready for Judgment who shall be justified and saved and not condemned when Judgment corâ—es 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 justify or condemn and you may certainly know whom the Judg will justify or conemn 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
Repentance when they have Consciences seared with an hot Iroâ— as the Apostle speaks 2 Tim. 4. 2. no wonder then 〈◊〉 they be past feeling and working all Uncleanness wiâ— greediness do make light of Christ and everlasting Glâ—â—ry O that this were not the Case of too many of 〈◊〉 Hearers Had we but living Souls to speak to theâ— would hear and feel and not make light of what 〈◊〉 saâ— I know they are naturally alive but they 〈◊〉 spiritually dead as the Scripture witnesseth Ephes 2â— O if there were but one spark of the Life of Grace them the Doctrine of Salvation by Jesus Christ woâ— appear to them to be the weightiest Business in 〈◊〉 World O how confident should I be methinks to prevail with Men and to take them off this World and bring them to mind the Matter of another World if I spake but to Men that had Life and Sense and Reason but when we speak to Blocks and dead Men how should we be regarded O how sad a Case are these Souls in that are fallen under this fearful Judgment of sâ—iritual Madness and Deadness To have a blind 〈◊〉 and an hard Heart to be sottish and sensless 〈◊〉 â—4 12. John 12. 40. lest they should be converted and their Sins should be forgiven them 6. Christ and Salvation are made light of â—y the World because they are wholly enslaved to their Sense and taken up with lower things the Matters of another World are out of sight and so far from their Senses that they cannot regard them but present things are nearer them in their Eyes and in their Hands there must be a living Faith to prevail over Sense before Men can be so taken with things that are not seen though they have the Word of God for their Security as to neglect and let go things that are still before their Eyes Sense works with great Advantage and therefore doth much in resisting Faith where it is No wonder then if it carry all before it where there is no true and lively Faith to resist and to lead the Soul to higher things this Cause of making light of Christ and Salâ—ation is expressed here in my Text One went to his â—arm and another to his Merchandize Men have Houâ—es and Lands to look after they have Wife and Children to mind they have their Body and outward Estate â—o regard therefore they forget that they have a God 〈◊〉 Redeemer a Soul to mind these Matters of the World are still with them They see these but they 〈◊〉 not God nor Christ nor their Souls nor everlasting Glory These things are near at hand and therefore work â—aturally and so work forcibly but the other are thought â—n as a great way off and therefore too distant to work â—n their Affections or be at the present so much regarded by them Their Body hath Life and Sense and therefore if they want Meat or Drink or Clothes will feel their Want and tell them of it and give them no rest till their Wants be supplied and therefore they cannot make light of their bodily Necessities but their Souls in spiritual Respects are dead and therefore â—eel not their Wants but will let them alone in their greatest Necessities and be as quiet when they are starved and languishing to Destruction as if all were well and nothing ailed them And hereupon poor People are wholly taken up in providing for the Body as if they had nothing else to mind They have their Trades and Callings to follow and so much to do from Morning to Night that they can find no time for Matters of Salvation Christ would teach them but they have no leisure to hear him the Bible is before them but they cannot have while to read it A Minister is in the Town with them but they cannot have while to go to enquire of him what they should do to be saved And when they do hear their Hearts are so full of the World and carried away with these lower Matters that they cannot mind the things which they hear They are so full of the Thoughts and Desires and Cares of this World that there is no room to pour into them the Water of Life The Cares of the World do choak the Word and make it become unfruitful Matth. 13. 22. Men cannot serve two Masters God and Mammon but they will lean to the one and despise the other Matth. 6. 24. He that loveth the World the Love of the Father is not in him 1 Jeâ—â— 2. 15 16. Men cannot choose but set light by Christ and Salvation while they set so much by any thing on Earth It is that which is highly esteemed among Men is abominable in the Sight of God Luke 16. 15. O this is the Ruine of many thousand Souls It would grieve the Heart of any honest Christian to see how eagerly this vain World is followed everywhere and how little Men set by Christ and the World to come 〈◊〉 compare the Care that Men have for the World â—ith the Care of their Souls and the time that they â—y out on the World with that time they lay out â—r their Salvation To see how the World fills their â—ouths their Hands their Houses their Hearts â—â—d Christ hath little more than a bare Title to come 〈◊〉 their Company and hear no Discourse but of the â—orld to come into their Houses and hear and see noâ—â—ing but for the World as if this World would last â—r ever or would purchase them another When I â—k sometime the Ministers of the Gospel how their â—â—bours succeed they tell me People continue still the 〈◊〉 and give up themselves wholly to the World so that 〈◊〉 mind not what Ministers say to them nor will give any 〈◊〉 Entertainment to the Word and all because of the deludâ—g World And O that too many Ministers themselves â—d not make light of that Christ whom they preach â—eing drawn away with the Love of this World In a â—ord Men of a worldly Disposition do judg of things â—cording to worldly Advantages therefore Christ 〈◊〉 slighted Isa 53. 3. He is despised and rejected of Men 〈◊〉 hide their faces from him and esteem him not as seeâ—g no Beauty or Comeliness in him that they should desire â—n 7. Christ and Salvation are made light of because â—en do not soberly consider of the Truth and Weight of â—ese necessary things They suffer not their Minds 〈◊〉 long to dwell upon them till they procure a due â—steem and deeply affect their Heart did they beâ—â—eve them and not consider of them how should they â—ork O when Men have Reason given them to think â—nd consider of the things that most concern them â—nd yet they will not use it this causeth their Conâ—â—mpt 8. Christ and Salvation are made light of because â—en were never sensible of their Sin and Misery and exâ—â—am Necessity of Christ and his Salvation Their Eyes â—ere never opened to see themselves as they are nor their