nor Sorrow after Death 3. Besides if the Soul was mortal then the same Food that feeds the Body â—eeds or might feed the Soul and the same Balsam that will heal the Sores of the Body 〈…〉 Sores and Wounds of the Soul I seeâ— reason who I should not from their foolish Notion affirm this Therefore when the 〈◊〉 sick they should send to a Physcian to 〈…〉 case of bodily Sickness and not sâ—nd 〈…〉 of 〈◊〉 to apply a spiritual Cordial What signifies a Spiritual Medicine to a Corporal Thing Will preaching the Word seed and relieve a Man that is ready to perish with external Hunger Moreover 4. If the Soul be mortal then that Sword that kills the Body also kills the Soul Man may as well still one as the other But how contrary is this to that which our Saviour sâ—ith to his Disciples And fear not them which kill the Body and are not able to kill the Soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both Soul and Body in Hell 'T is not a Sword a Spear nor a Furnace of boiling Oil that can kill the Soul Man that way cannot hurt the Soul 't is Sin that destroys that Note this well if Man cannot kill the Soul it is immortal but Man cannot kill the Soul therefore it is immortal Is there any Creature or Thing that is Mortal which Man cannot kill or deprive it of Life Certainly these Men are strangely misled 5. Besides did not our Saviour say to the Penitent Thief on the Cross I say to thee this Day thou shalt be with me in Paradise Was the Body of Christ and the Body of that gracious Person that Day together in Paradise Their base abuse of this Text in reading it falsly by misplacing the Stops will not relieve them I say to thee this Day I make thee a Promise this Day that thou shalt sometime or another be with me in Paradise thus they to favour their grand Error misplace the common Point in reading which should we allow of what abominable Abuse might be put upon the Scripture in other places even quite to destroy the true Sense nay and make the Scripture speak untruly 6. Moreover doth not Paul say For me to live is Christ and to die is Gain How could Death be Gain to him if his Soul was mortal and slept with his Body in the Grave Is Communion with Christ on Earth worth nothing Is it Gain to lose that They know he would no sooner rise from the Dead if he died presently than if he lived twenty or thirty Years longer in the Body How then could Death be Gain to him Certainly it would be great Loss to him for he would lose all those Years of sweet Joy and Comfort in Communion with Christ if he died presently which he might have should he live twenty or thirty Years longer in this World 7. To this let me add what Paul affirms in another place For we know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle be dissolved we have a Building of God an House not made with Hands eternal in the Heavens He doth not say when this earthly House is raised up again but when it is dissolved that is when the Body lies in its dusty Crumbs the Soul hath a House in Heaven Therefore saith he we are always confident knowing that whilst we are at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord. Pray what is that which is absent from the Lord whilst it is at home in the Body is it not the Soul And what is that which is present with the Lord when it is absent from the Body Doth not this Place as fully prove the Immortality of the Soul as if the Apostle should in plain words say at Death the Soul which dwells now in our Body goes to Heaven to dwell in Heaven it goes to Christ Heaven is its Home As soon as Lazarus died his Soul was carried into Heaven signified by Abraham's Bosom and as soon as the rich Man died his Soul was in Hell though it is a Parable yet it clearly teaches us thus much though Parables do not always go on all four as we use to say 8. To which let me add what Paul further says For I am in a Strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Our Souls at Death depart and they go to Christ What is Joy and Peace in Christ to Joy Peace and Consolation with Christ In the Resurrection-Day Christ comes to us we shall meet him in the Air but at Death we go to him the Spirits of all Men go upward to God that gave them to be sent to the Place appointed for them either to Heaven or to the Prison of Hell or Place of Darkness in which Prison the Spirits of those Men are now who were once disobedient and sinned against God in the Days of Noah 9. In the last place to prove the Soul to be immortal consider well what Paul saith I knew a Man in Christ above fourteen Years ago whether in the Body I cannot tell or whether out of the Body I cannot tell God knoweth such an one caught up to the third Heaven How he was in Paradise and heard unspeakable Words which it is not lawful for a Man to utter In the third Heaven or in Paradise for certain he was but whether caught up Body and Soul together or in the Soul only out of the Body he could not tell From whence I argue that Paul knew that the Soul was capable of being separated from the Body and in that separated state capable of the Divine Ravishments of Heaven or of the Vision of God if he had not been of this Judgment since he was in the third Heaven he might be sure he was taken up in the Body Besides do we not read of the Spirits of just Men that are already made perfect Object But is it not said that David is not yet ascended into Heaven Answ I answer Peter there only refers to the Body of David that is not ascended for his Sepulchre is with us to this Day saith he and therefore he argues David means Jesus Christ whose Soul was not left in Hell that is his Body was not left in the Grave for the Body is often in the Scripture called by the Name of the Soul But when we read of the Soul as distinguished from the Body and as that which Man cannot kill it intends the superiour Part of Man or that which in our common acceptation is called the Soul or Spirit of Man in which the Image of God was chiefly created and which is fed with Spiritual Food and capable of sweet Communion with Jesus Christ as you have heard Now then if the Soul be Immortal and goes to Hell or Heaven at Death I mean to Joy or Sorrow or to a Prison of Pain and Darkness or to a Palace of Joy
a thing is this that I that have preached so much of the glory of another World should now be deprived of it all You will as surely see me damned as you now see me stand here To others he said I have trifled in Religion trifled trifled I am lost there is no Hope no Hope At another time he said The black Tokens of Reprobation are upon me He said to Mr. Plant smiting on his Breast Sir I am Damn'd I am Damn'd it is so most certainly My day is over O that it was with me as in days past but it is too late the Decree is gone forth it is Sealed in Heaven and it is irreversible Jesus Christ cannot save me he will not he cannot Mediate for me I have so much offended him in maliciously abusing of his People O what a Wretch was I what a Spirit was I led by I have guilt enough said he to sink seventeen Kingdoms and I know the Earth would open its mouth and swallow me alive like Corah Dathan and Abiram were it not that God hath reserved me to be a more publick Spectacle of his Anger and Displeasure both to Angels and Men. I can neither Pray nor desire others to pray for me my Heart is perfectly hardened how should I when I cannot desire Jesus Christ to pray for me flouds of Tears flowing from him Dear bought Experience saith he hath taught me that it is no small thing to trifle with him in the great things of Religion and Eternity c. In one of his Letters sent to Mr. James Jones are these Expressions viz. Being possessed with Doubts Fears and Tremblings night and day the sad savour of Gall and Wormwood an horrible Relish of Gravel-stones the sad Apprehensions of Curses Blastings and Mildew the dismal sound of the mad Prophets words I shall see him but not now I shall behold him but not nigh had I been a Backslider of an ordinary size I have a Voice behind me or dire Texts to love and make a Lye is a qualification for the Lake His poor Wife as I remember intimated to me that the very Ends of the Halr of his Head in the Night-season did stand in Drops thro' the Anguish of his Soul Thus he continued for several Months under most dreadful horror and fearful desparation until the 13 th of Octob. 1684. when to put an end to his miserable Life he hanged himself in his own hired house in Brick-lane near Spitlefields London leaving a sorrowful Widdow and several Children But she poor Woman lived not long after 'T is to be noted that there was a strange blast upon his Estate for tho' I understood by a Friend that was intimate with him he was little before his fall worth near a thousand pounds yet I can hear but of a little left to his Children his Eldest Son being but in a low and mean Condition I take not upon me to pass Judgment upon this miserable Man not knowing how God might deal with him whose Mercy is Infinite for I do not believe Self-murther is an unpardonable sin for if so there is more Sins unto Death than one certainly it is a Sin against the Father and the Son and not against the Holy Ghost and therefore may be forgiven unto men who may before their Life is quite gone have Repentance given to them But I am of the Opinion with a worthy Minister that visited him that if any Atheist in the World who had formerly known this man and had conversed with him in his bitter Agonies he would have seen sufficient Demonstrations to have convinced him that there is a dreadful God or a Power besides and above Nature who can touch shake and disorder and turn into Confusion the strongest constitution of body by ministring and fastning terrible things upon the Soul and as he saith let this Pillar of Salt tend to warn and season the People of this present and future Ages of the danger of sinning against the light of their understanding Moreover it doth I am sure serve with a witness to prove and fully to demonstrate the truth of that Proposition I am upon viz. That God doth sometimes let out his Wrath on the Consciences of some men for their horrid evil in this World which seems intollerable and hard to be born or undergone by any Mortal But Secondly To proceed by buring up the Chaff with unquenchable fire or by the Wrath of God in this place our Blessed Saviour doth intend casting the wicked into Hell it self Remarkable it is that no less than four or five times the Lord Christ positively affirms in Mark 9. that the fire of Hell into which Body and Soul of wicked men shall be cast cannot be quenched where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched c. Why repeated so often is it not to assure all ungodly persons of the certainty of it Men are not willing to believe this great truth they are too ready to think that it is inconsistent with infinite goodness to inflict such Punishment on his Creatures but alas they forget that there is an infinite perfection in every one of the Divine Attributes and that as Gods mercy is infinite unsearchable and unconceivable so is his wrath and fury none are able to conceive much less to declare what pain and anguish the damned undergo What torments like fire and what fire is so hot and so tormenting as Hell-fire sad it is to burn half an hour in an Elementary fire yet the Martyrs have endured that for Christs sake God made it easie to some of them But alas who can bear the burnings of Hell-fire when wrath shall be let out upon the Soul to the utterermost O Sirs what a fearful thing will it be to be found chaff and false hypocritical Persons such cannot escape the damnation of Hell No nor can any sinner whatsoever except they believe repent or are born again there is no avoiding being cast into unquenchable fire Thirdly I shall now endeavour to prove the point viz. That the Wrath of God in Hell is intollerable and far greater than any Wrath let out here either on the Bodies or Souls of men which will appear if we consider these particulars following First The extremity of their Torment will appear upon the Consideration that it is inconceivable beyond all mens understanding who knoweth the power of thy Anger who can apprehend it or is rightly and duely affected therewith we can conceive of all bodily pain or external Torment but cannot comprehend the Nature of infinite Wrath no more than we can conceive or apprehend the Nature of infinite Love and Goodness Secondly It is and will be intollerable because it is according to that fear nay beyond the fear that an awakened Conscience hath of it even according to thy fear so is thy Wrath. O what frightful thoughts and astonishing fears had Spira and Child of Gods Wrath Now Sirs it cannot be
by Original Sin or by Nature only wounded or maimed but dead The Holy Ghost doth not make use of an improper Metaphor We by Nature were as truly and really in a spiritual Sense dead that is had no more Life spiritual Life Motion Heat Feeling or Strength in us than a dead Man hath natural Life Motion Heat Feeling or Strength in him but when the Soul hears the spiritual and powerful Voice of Christ 't is immediately quickened a Principle of divine Life is infused You hath he quickened that were dead in Sins and Trespasses Thus the Greatness of Christ's Power towards Sinners appears that were dead or destitute of a Principle of spiritual Life Those that assert the Power of the Creature or that every Man is put into a Capacity to be saved if he will certainly do not consider this lay this to heart ponder on this viz. That all Mankind before Grace is infused into the Soul are dead What short of Almighty Power can raise the Dead to Life Power is not in the Dead to quicken himself nor can dead Lazarus resist that Principle of Life infused into him 't is not what the Sinner but what Christ the Saviour will and he quickens not all but whom he will For as the Father raiseth up the Dead and quickneth them even so the Son quickneth whom he will 'T is not in him that willeth nor in him that runneth but in God that sheweth Mercy 4. Christ's Voice by his Spirit is a Soul-humbling and a Self-abasing Voice They that hear his Voice are straitway brought to his Feet loathing and abhorring themselves The Voice of Christ hath the same Effect on the Soul as the sight of God in Christ I have heard of thee by the hearing of the Ear but now mine Eye seeth thee Wherefore I abhor my self and repent in Dust and Ashes After Paul had heard the Voice of Christ saying Saul Saul Why persecutest thou me how humble was he though called to be an Apostle yet esteemed himself less than the least of all Saints Now to be less than the least is to be nothing Man before Grace or before he comes to hear the Voice of Christ is a proud Creature but Grace humbles him to such a degree that he is little nay nothing in his own Eyes 5. Christ's Voice is a Soul-regenerating Voice His Voice is powerful and shakes the old Foundation down all former Hopes and fleshly Confidence is gone It was the Voice of the Spirit that first made us and made this World By the Word of God were all things made and created And 't is his Voice that creates us again or that renews us or forms his Sacred Image in us He that commanded by his Voice Light to shine out of Darkness doth but speak the word and so shines into our Hearts and thereby transforms us and gives us the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ 6. 'T is a Sin-killing Voice It lays the old Man a bleeding as it were the Spirit destroys the Body and Power of Sin it breaks down all the strong Holds of Sin Christ slays this Enemy by the Sword that goes out of his Mouth that is by his Word through the Operations of the Spirit If ye live after the Flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the Deeds of the Body ye shall live 'T is not enough to forbear the acting of Sin but we must kill and crucify it and this we cannot do without the powerful assistance and help of the Spirit 7. 'T is a Soul-strengthning Voice As Sin dies Grace lives and the Soul receives strength Faith is the Life and Strength of the Soul and this Life and Strength we receive by the Holy Spirit 8. 'T is a comforting Voice 'T is by the Spirit God speaks Peace to the Soul He will speak Peace unto his People and unto his Saints I will speak comfortably to her I will speak to her Heart None can speak to the Heart but God by his Spirit it is the Holy Ghost that is the Comforter And after the Sinner hath been deeply wounded in the true sense of Sin and is dejected grieved and sorely troubled then the Spirit comes with its sweet still and comforting Voice and revives the drooping Soul To comfort the Conscience Luther saith is as great a Work as to make the World 1. Now the Spirit speaks Comfort to the distressed Conscience through the Blood of Christ that is by shewing the Soul that Christ died in its stead and bore the Wrath that was due to us having fully satisfied God's Justice and answered all the Demands and Requirements of the Law being made a Curse for us that the Blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles through Christ Jesus that we might receive the Promise of the Spirit through Faith The Blood of Christ speaks it hath a Voice in it it speaks good things yea better things than the Blood of Abel But it never speaks Comfort to the Soul till the Spirit applies it and sprinkleth it upon the Heart O what Peace and Comfort then doth the Spirit speak to a wounded Spirit 2. The Spirit speaks Comfort to the Soul by applying the Promises of Pardon and Peace unto us causing our Souls to take hold of them and to cleave to God in them This Promise is mine God hath fastened and fixed it on my Heart saith a Believer 3. By opening the Greatness and Preciousness of Christ's Love to us because he hath loved us with an everlasting Love therefore with loving Kindness hath he drawn us and helped us to believe and to receive him 4. The Spirit speaks Comfort to Believers by opening unto them the Nature and Excellency of the Covenant of Grace which is ordered in all things and sure being confirmed by the Oath of God c. 5. By shewing them the Power Mercy and Faithfulness of God c. O Sirs no Voice like the Voice of the Spirit happy is that Soul which hears this Voice and 't is this Voice of Christ that all his Sheep hear Thirdly There is also the Voice of Christ's Doctrine I mean the true Evangelical Doctrine of the Gospel The true Faith of the Gospel or the sacred Doctrine thereof is the Voice of Christ which his Sheep will hear And they will not hear the Voice of Strangers they will not hear the Voice of false Teachers or their pernicious Doctrine they know not the Voice of Strangers they can distinguish between Christ's Voice Christ's Doctrine and the Doctrine of false Prophets and false Teachers they know not the Voice of Strangers that is they approve not of their Doctrine but they know they approve of Christ's Doctrine though never so hard never so difficult and never so unpleasant to others yet 't is approved of by them 't is easy and pleasant to them that are Christ's Sheep They hear what Christ hath
whether you are spiritually alive or not for if so you are quickned and made alive by the Operations of the Spirit and there is a Principle of Divine Life infused into your Souls So that from a holy and new Nature you can and do breath forth your Desires freely and frequently to God and see the excellency of spiritual Objects and Things Christ is must precious and lovely in your sight Your Eyes see and your Ears hear and you have spiritual feeling and you can and do act and move that is believe repent and obey God with great Activity and a strong Propensity or gracious Inclinations of Heart There is also much of the Beauty of Holiness shining forth in your Lives 2. This also by the way may serve to detect that Doctrine some nay too many maintain of the Power of the Creature Alas alas what can the Dead do For evident it is that those who are thus dead have no Principle or first Power of living unto God or to perform any Duty to be accepted of him It is with them as to all Acts and Ends of spiritual Life as with the Body as to the Acts and Ends of natural Life when the Soul is departed from it or else God would never say they are dead call them dead Does God make use of an improper Metaphor Dare they affirm that It must be so if Man naturally be not dead but wounded in a spiritual Sense only True a wicked Man is naturally alive and his Soul is in his Body and he is endowed with Vnderstanding Will and Affection and may perform many Duties God requires of him But what of this for in spiritual Life the Holy Ghost is unto the Soul what the Soul is unto the Body in respect of natural Life namely the quickning Principle And as a Learned Author well observes to deny such a quickning Principle of spiritual Life superadded unto us by the Grace of Christ distinct and separate from the natural Faculties of the Soul is upon the Matter to renounce the whole Gospel It is all one as to deny that Adam was created in the Image of God which he lost and that we are renewed unto the Image of God by Jesus Christ 2 dly They may also as well assert Man hath a creating Power for Regeneration is called the New Creature which is created in us after the Image of God according to his own glorious Power 3 dly Therefore whatsoever Sinners act in spiritual Things by their Understanding Will or Affections that are not renewed they do it naturally and not spiritually and are therefore called dead Works We may also from hence infer what a mighty Blessing and Favour it is to be made spiritually alive How should such admire God and his Free Grace in Jesus Christ for as they have an internal holy Life so they shall never die but have eternal Life nay that this Eternal Life is begun in them here I give them Eternal Life But to proceed Secondly I am to shew how Salvation or Everlasting Life is a free Gift or by Grace only 1. Life and Salvation is of Grace in opposition to Nature we have it not as the Product of Nature Which were born not of Blood nor of the Will of the Flesh nor of the Will of Man but of God To be born signifies to receive a Principle of Life and those that are the Children of God have not that spiritual Life that is in them from the Motions or Powers of Nature not from the Power of Man's Will nor from their fleshly or natural Parts and Abilities however improved 2. Life and Salvation is wholly of Grace or a free Gift in opposition to Merit we cannot purchase or procure it by our Acts of Obedience By Grace are ye saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the Gift of God not of Works c. Not by Works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his Mercy he saved us Not the desert of our Works let them be what they will either before or after Grace but from God's own sovereign Mercy and Goodness whose Bowels yerned towards his Elect in Misery For the VVages of Sin is Death but the Gift of God is Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Death Natural Death Spiritual and Death Eternal are the Wages and Desert of Sin And who will deny a Servant his Wages Wicked Men are the Servants of Sin and they shall have their Wages But though Death is the Wages or Merit of Sin yet Eternal Life is not the Wages of our good Works no but the Gift of God through the Righteousness of Jesus Christ It is not by our Works or for our Worthiness The Apostle as our Annotators note varies the Phrase on purpose to shew that Salvation is wholly of God's Grace and not of our own Merits 'T is of Grace or the Gift of God through Jesus Christ that is through his Merits De gratia libero arbitrio saith Augustine 3. Life and Salvation is by Grace only or the free Gift of God in opposition to the Law The Law could not give Life that could not save us For had there been a Law given that could have given Life verily Righteousness should have been by the Law The Law requires perfect Obedience and lays every one under the Curse that continues not in all things that is written therein to do them Therefore no Life by the Law that being weak through the Flesh Man could not perfectly fulfil it and so could have no Life by it 4. Life and Salvation is the free Gift of God in opposition to any acceptable Service done for it by us as some times great Gifts are bestowed on Persons for the sake of some small Service performed for them But it is not so here though Salvation be a Reward of Grace yet it is not given for the sake of any acceptable Service done by us we know that a small Matter sometimes purchases that which is of great Value but nothing we do or can do can purchase Life and Salvation for our Souls True Eternal Life is a Purchase it is a Reward of Merit but O mistake me not it is not of our purchasing it is no Reward for any Work done by us but it is the Purchase of Jesus Christ the Reward of his Work by his fulfilling of the Righteousness of the Law for us in our Nature in his holy and spotless Life and by his satisfying the Justice of God for our breaking and violating of his Holy Law which he did by the painful and cursed Death of his Cross For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh and for Sin condemned Sin in the Flesh that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit That the
nothing it is not such eating as the Idolatrous Papists dream of it is by the Holy Spirit by the indwelling of the quickning Spirit whereby we have a real participation of Christ He is in us by his Spirit as a Vital Principle changing our Hearts and working in us his own Holy Image infusing Gracious Dispositions and Sacred Habits in the Soul and we are in him by Faith in a gracious hidden and mystical manner and this Union cannot be dissolved Secondly This Union must needs be most intimate near and strong if we consider by what Metaphors it is set forth in God's Word 1. It is a Marriage-Union like as a Man and his Wife are said to be one Flesh so he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit No Man ever hated his own Flesh but nourished and cherished it as the Lord the Church He that loveth his Wife loveth himself a Man and his Wife is but one Mystical Self and what is in Nature as to the Perfection of it is much more eminently in Christ Now since God hath fitted to our Nature a Care of our Body this Care be sure is much more in Christ when the Apostle shews what the Love of the Husband should be unto the Wife and that a Man leaves both Father and Mother and cleaveth to his Wife and they two shall be one Flesh Saith he This is a great Mystery but I speak concerning Christ and his Church or of Christ and every believing Soul The Union between Husband and Wife is near ay but Death dissolves this Union because they can be united or be one no longer than both live But Christ lives for ever and the Soul of a Believer lives for ever Nay Believers have Eternal Life in them and they shall never die therefore it follows this Union abides for ever He hath betrothed his Saints his Spouse unto himself for ever And can any then dissolve this Marriage-Contract and Conjugal Union Is Christ able to preserve his Souse or the Soul that is united unto him Is it in the Power of his Hands Pray Brethren consider it well Will any of you that have a Spouse a Wife that you dearly love suffer her to be torn into pieces and basely murdered before your Eyes if you could prevent it And do any think that Christ who hath all Power in Heaven and Earth Power over Sin the World the Devil yea over Hell and Death will he I say ever suffer his Spouse to be destroyed and murdered by Sin World or Devil Strange did he die for her and has he married her and made her one Spirit with himself and will he leave her to conflict to fight and war with an Enemy that he knows is too strong and mighty for her and not come in rush in to her assistance to save and rescue her from such bloody cruel and barbarous Enemies No doubt but he will rise up with Indignation and Jealousy to save every Soul that is so related and united to him Thirdly This Spiritual Union between Christ and every believing Soul is set forth by that near and intimate Union which there is between the Natural Body and every Member thereof The Head and Members make but one Body even so Christ is the Head of his Saints and they being many are all Members of that one Body Christ and all Believers make but one Mystical Christ Even as the Body is one and hath many Members and all the Members of that one Body being many are one Body so is Christ that is Christ Mystical Now this Relation of Head and Members I say holds forth this Spiritual Union between Christ and every Believer We are Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bone And it is from their Head Jesus Christ that every Member receives Divine and Saving Influences of Life Strength Government and Guidance as the Apostle shews From whom the whole Body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every Joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh encrease of the Body unto the edifying of it self in Love Our Union with Christ brings us into a fixed Settlement and secures us from all Fears or danger of miscarrying let all Enemies do what they can Can the Members be lost that have such a Head Our Union with Christ cannot consist in the communication of any thing unto us as Members from him the Head But it must be in that which constitutes him and us in this Relation saith a Reverend Minister he is our Head antecedently in order of Nature to any communication of Grace from him as a Head yet not antecedent to our Union it self Herein then consists the Union of Head and Members that tho they are many and have many Offices Places and Dependencies yet there is but one living quickning Soul in Head and Members The same Life that is in the Head is in the Body and in every Member thereof in particular and he that offers Violence to one Member offers Violence to the Body and the Head also And as one living Soul makes the natural Head and Members to be but one Man one Body so one quickning Spirit dwelling in Christ and in his Members gives them their Mystical Union and makes them but one Body As the first Man Adam was made a living Soul so the last Man Adam was made a quickning Spirit It is he that quickens by his Spirit or conveys a vital Principle to all his by which they live spiritually as from Adam all his live naturally Because I live ye shall live also So long as there is Life in Christ the Head there shall be Life in the Members because that Life that is communicated to the Head without measure as Mediator was to this very End that it might be communicated to every believing Soul that is united to him Now then if it be thus if this be the Nature of the Soul's Union with Jesus Christ that it is set out and opened to us by the Union that there is between the Body natural and its Members then I infer 1. That by the Life that is in the Head the Members live and because of that Life that is in him they cannot die it was by that Spirit that is in him that we were first quickned and Life is in us and shall be continued to us 2. I also infer That if Christ be able or can do it he will prevent his losing of any one of his Members And for any one to say it is not in his Power is Blasphemy and to say he can and will not is a like Evil to assert because it renders Christ less tender and careful of his Spiritual Members than we are of the Members of our Natural Body Which of us would suffer his Hand or Foot to be torn from us nay a Toe or Finger if we could prevent it 3. Furthermore I infer That all the Members of Christ's Mystical Body
prayed the Father and was heard herein that all that the Father had given him might be one as He and the Father was one What can be a greater Argument to prove that that Union which is between Christ and Believers is an inseparable an abiding and an undissolvable Union The Union here doth not respect that Essential Union that is between the Father and the Son but in respect of Christ as he is our Head and Mediator in which respect the Father poured into him of his abundant Fulness that so we having a firm perfect and setled Union with him might in a glorious manner receive from him and be supplied with all things we need And Christ being the Medium of our Union with God both the Father's Union with Christ and Christ's Union with us are for the final Perfection and compleating that Glorious Work he hath begun in the Souls of his People until we all come to be with him where he is and behold his Glory If therefore we consider the Nature of this Union and the Prayer of Christ that it might be perfected and abide undissolvable it must follow that it is impossible for any Soul that is thus united to the Lord Jesus ever so to fall away as eternally to perish Fourthly By this Spiritual Union with Christ we partake of his Blessed Image or Divine Nature So that the Head and Members are of one kind and not like Nebuchadnezzar's Image a Head of Gold and a Belly and Thighs of Brass and Legs of Iron and Feet and Toes part of Iron and part of Clay This would be to make the Mystical Body of Christ a Monster an Immortal Head an Incorruptible Head and a Mortal Body and Members that may corrupt putrify and become loathsom No this cannot be such as is the Head as to Nature and Quality such is the Body and every Member in particular a living Head and living Members a Head of pure Gold and Members of pure Gold also a Head that cannot die and therefore the Members cannot die For Fifthly It is a Vital Vnion as you have heard that is to say the same Life that is in Christ is in all Believers And as it is in the natural Body the Members have not only Life in the Head but Life in themselves also and so long as there is Life in the Head there shall be Life in the Members so it is here And this must therefore be for ever for by the same parity of Reason that one Member may die or corrupt the whole Body may die and corrupt also But Christ is our Life and the Spirit which is the Bond of this Union communicates Life to every Soul in whom he resides and dwells and the Holy Spirit hath taken up his abode in Believers for ever He that hath the Spirit hath the Son and he that hath the Son hath Life I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me From hence I argue Arg. 1. If he that believeth in Christ or that hath Union with Christ is a Part or Limb of Christ Mystical then not one Soul that believes in Christ and has real Union with him can eternally perish Shall a Member of Christ perish or be torn from his Body Brethren was it Christ's Natural Body only that was concerned in that Prophecy A Bone of him shall not be broken Or did Christ take more care of the Members of his Natural Body than of the Members of his Mystical Body Arg. 2. If Christ's Love to and Care of the Members of his Mystical Body be greater than any Man's Love to or Care of the Members of his Natural Body can be then not one of Christ's Sheep or Saints can eternally perish But his Love to and Care of the Members of his Mystical Body is far greater than theirs can be therefore it follows no Believer can ever perish Arg. 3. If the Union between Christ and Believers be a Marriage-Union and that those that Christ does espouse and bring into that Relation to himself he doth espouse for ever if it is a Union like that Union that is between God the Father and Christ as Mediator if it be an indissolvable Union a Union which God nor Christ will ever break nor Sin Satan nor no Enemy can ever break then not one Soul that is truly and really united to Christ can ever so fall away as eternally to perish But all this we have proved to be true therefore not one Soul that hath true and real Union with Christ can fall away so as eternally to perish Arg. 4. If the Love of God and the Love of Christ abides firm for ever to every Soul that hath Union with Christ which is the Spring efficient and moving Cause of this Union then not one of them who have Union with Christ can perish But we have proved that the Love of the Father and Son abides firm for ever to every Soul that has Union with Christ therefore not one of them can perish for ever Arg. 5. If Christ died rose again and ascended into Heaven as the Head and Representative of all those that were given unto him and have Union with him then as sure as he is now in Heaven they shall every Soul of them come thither But this hereafter I shall fully prove and clearly God assisting make appear when I come to speak to the next General Argument Arg. 6. If the Union between Christ and Believers is so strong and firm a Union intensively that Christ and they become one Spirit so that as if there was but one Spirit in Christ and in them or what the Spirit is to Christ and doth to Christ as Mediator without measure he is to every Believer and does for every Believer in measure according to each Believer's Necessity and Capacity then this Union secures every Believer from falling so as to perish for ever But this we have proved is so the Spirit must either desert Christ as you heard or them if ever the Union be broken not Christ that all will say is impossible not Believers because of the blessed Union they have with him and also because Christ hath promised that the Spirit shall abide in them for ever Nay this is also the absolute Promise of the Father to the Son in the Covenant of Grace And as for me this is my Covenant with them saith Jehovah My Spirit that is upon thee and my Words which I have put in thy Mouth shall not depart out of thy Mouth nor out of the Mouth of thy Seed nor out of the Mouth of thy Seed's Seed from henceforth and for ever Arg. 7. By virtue of this Sacred Union because Christ lives the Saints or those that have Union with him shall live also which Blessing besides he has by a positive Promise assur'd them of then no Soul that hath real Union with him can perish But this our Blessed Saviour doth assert Because I live ye shall live also that is the
Life of Grace here and the Life of Glory hereafter Arg. 8. If there is no Condemnation to such who are in Jesus Christ or have Union with him if they have Everlasting Life because they have Union with the Son and are passed from Death to Life and shall not come into Condemnation then this Sacred Union secures and saves all that are united to Christ from falling away so as eternally to perish But that all this is true we have proved and it is in plain words asserted by the Holy Ghost therefore this Sacred Union secures and saves them all from eternal perishing Arg. 9. If Christ in us is a certain and sure Ground of the Hope of Glory and that Hope is the Anchor of the Soul both sure and stedfast that cannot be lost then Union with Christ gives all such an assurance of Salvation and that none of them that have Union with Christ or have Christ in them can eternally perish But that this is so the Holy Ghost doth positively assert therefore none of them can so perish Arg. 10. Lastly If Faith in the Habit of it through which by the Spirit we come to have this Actual Union with Christ can never be lost or shall not fail then none that have Union with Christ shall ever perish But that Faith in the Habit of it cannot be lost or shall not fail our Saviour affirms it being one part of his Prayer when on Earth and no doubt it is part of his Intercession now in Heaven I have prayed for thee that thy Faith fail not And he never asked any thing of the Father but it was granted him And I know thou hearest me always Therefore they can never perish I might add here that Communion which flows necessarily from this Union which affords a strong Argument for the Saints final Perseverance Union cannot be without Communion for whilst the Members are united to a living Head there will be as one observes an Influx of Animal Spirits whereby they shall partake of Life and Motion and though a Believer I grant may lose the sensible Experience of Communion with Christ yet the Spirit from their Mystical Head will be working in them providing for them and standing by them To conclude with this Argument I argue 1. If our Union be by the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit 2. If our Union with Christ be a Conjugal Union a Marriage-Union 3. If it be as near a Union as is between the Body the Members of the Natural Body 4. If it be such a Union as is between the Tree and the Branches 5. If it be such a Union as is between the Father and Son as Christ is Mediator 6. If it be a Union of Spirits as if but one Soul was in two Bodies 7. If it be such a Union that Believers partake of the Divine Nature 8. If it be a Vital Union 9. If it be such a Union that cannot be dissolved by all the Powers of Darkness the Seed of Grace remaining Then it is impossible for any Believer that hath Union with Christ to perish Eternally But all these things are true therefore no true Believer can Eternally perish APPLICATION First These things being so we may infer that our Union with Christ is a most glorious Spring of the greatest Comfort to Believers imaginable 1. From hence Brethren comes in your Actual Justification No Man is personally justified before he receives Christ by Faith before he has actual Union with him But every Soul that is in Christ is actually justified and discharged from all the Guilt of his Sins and stands in Christ compleat in his perfect Righteousness without Spot before the Throne of God 2. Such are made near and dear to Christ O how near is the Wife to the Husband or the Members to the Body even so near and dear is every Soul that hath actual Union with Christ unto him 3. From hence flows our Communion with Christ for by virtue of our Union we come to have our Natures changed It is hereby that we come to behold as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord and are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. It is impossible that a brutish and swinish Creature as all unrenewed Men and Women are should have Communion with the Holy God or with the Holy and Blessed Jesus What Fellowship hath Righteousness with Vnrighteousness Or what Communion hath Light with Darkness Or what Concord hath Christ with Belial If we would have Communion with Christ we must be Holy and touch not the unclean thing And impossible it is that we should be Holy until we come to have Union with Jesus Christ by which means we come to partake of his pure Nature and have the evil Habits of our vile and filthy Hearts and Souls changed The Tree must be first made good and then the Fruit will be good Man naturally is united to the Devil and to his own Sin and Iniquity and hath Enmity in his Heart against God The Prince of Darkness is the Head of this dark and wicked World The Vnderstandings Wills and Affections of all Men are under diabolical Influence ever since Adam betrayed us into the Enemies Hands and abide so until that Union be dissolved by the Power of Divine Grace and the Soul united by the Spirit unto Jesus Christ We are united to the first Adam by a Likeness of Nature and how can we be united to the Second without a Principle of Life by which another a new Nature is formed in us We were united to the First by a living Soul and we must be united to the other by a quickning Spirit By Nature Man is dead in Sins and Trespasses and how can he have Communion with a living Christ without a Principle of Life Would any go about to join a stinking Carcass to the Holy Jesus Would not any think it a great Plague to him if he had a dead and rotten Carcass united to him O remember it is from your Union with Christ your Communion with him follows yea and your Communion with the Saints too you can take no delight in Heavenly Company nor Heavenly Things without an Heavenly Heart 3. By this Union you that are Believers come to have interest in and a right unto all things Jesus Christ hath purchased by his Death nor shall any ever have any share or part in all those Spiritual and Eternal Blessings except they obtain this Union As the Cyon cannot partake of the Sap and Fatness of the Olive-Tree without it is grafted into the Stock no more can we partake of the Fatness and glorious Fulness of the true Olive Jesus Christ unless we are grafted into him by Faith and have the Indwellings of the Spirit and then all things that Christ merited for us and are laid up in him for us are ours 4. It is by virtue of this Union that we have
past Christ's Death hath glorious Effects as the Apostle shews For if the Blood of Bulls and Goats and Ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the Flesh how much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself to God purge your Consciences from dead Works to serve the living God To talk of Christ's Death and see no Effects of it alas what 's that All that Christ died for shall see and feel too its Glorious Effects and Operations upon their Souls and Consciences though the Sacrifice be over the Virtue and excellent Causality of it abides for ever Ninthly Christ by his Death redeemeth his People from all Iniquity and this was his End in dying What signifies such a Redemption that leaves a poor Slave in his Chains and Irons without procuring a Release for him In this lies the Glory of our Redemption by Christ 't is not only from the Curse of the Law and Wrath of God but from a vain Conversation also See the Apostle's Words Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works If this was his End and Design in his Death do any think he will see himself frustrated in it Shall any Enemy of the Soul bring Christ under a Disappointment Compare this with 1 Pes. 1. 17 18 19. Tenthly and Lastly Jesus Christ hath by his Death purchased Eternal Redemption or Everlasting Life for all his Sheep and by his Spirit hath also given to them the Earnest of it therefore his Death preserves them to Salvation In whom ye also trusted after ye heard the Word of Truth the Gospel of your Salvation in whom also after ye believed ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise which is the Earnest of our Inheritance until the Redemption of the purchased Possession unto the Praise of his Glory Now I should come to speak more particularly to the Effects of the Death of Christ and inlarge upon some things that I have but a little touched upon but that I must leave until the next Time and shall only speak something by way of Improvement of this Argument APPLICATION First To you that are Believers O praise and bless God for a Crucified Saviour What in Heaven and Earth is cause of greater Wonder and Admiration Christ's Death is the meritorious Cause of all Spiritual and Eternal Joy and Comfort all Grace flows out of the Wounds the Spear and Nailâ— made in his Blessed Body and from the Death and Pangs his Soul underwent Nothing is a greater Evidence of Christ's Love to us than the Death of his Cross 2. Apply his Blood draw Virtue from his Blood fly to his Death see how that stands to save thee from the Justice and Wrath of God in his Death is thy Hope and Succour when pursued by Satan and under all Temptations 3. Triumph in the Cross of Christ thou O Child of God wast crucified with Christ thy Sins were punished in him and thou art acquitted in him and raised in him O labour to know Christ and him crucified Labour to know him and the Power of his Death and the Fellowship of his Sufferings c. 4. And as to you Sinners is not here Ground of Hope for you Christ died for the chiefest of Sinners And whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting Life But wo to such who slight this bleeding Saviour that sin because Grace hath abounded or that make the Death of Christ an Incouragement to them to continue in Sin Tush say some trouble not your self with me Christ died for Sinners O Souls will you crucify Christ again I tell you if you do not feel the Effects of his Death in vain is all your present Hope 5. This may serve also to detect such and severely to reprehend them that say Christ died to save all or for all and every Man and Woman in the World Brethren if he died for all that is in the Stead and Room of all then all shall be saved God will not condemn such whom Christ laid down his Life for or in the place or stead of as I have proved from God's Word But further to detect this Error of General Redemption 1. Consider that Redemption is a Word easy to understand it is the saving of a Person that is in Slavery or Captivity commonly procured or obtained by a Price paid or a Ransom but if the Person is indeed redeemed he is set at Liberty To say a Man is redeemed and yet left in Chains and strong Bonds out of which he cannot come unless the Redeemer break those Chains and Bonds to pieces is to speak untruly or in plain English a Lie Now are all Men redeemed Redemption cannot be more universal than it is in Matter of Fact If ten Men were in Slavery in Argiers and a Sum of Money was paid to redeem them and yet after all care is not taken to make that Ransom to be effectual for their Redemption but six or seven of them are left in Captivity can any Man say all the ten were redeemed out of that Slavery and Thraldom wherein they are held Even so it is here for Men to say that the Redemption by Christ is for all the World and yet the greatest part of Mankind lie in Bonds under the Power of Sin and Satan and have not the Death of Christ made effectual to them is a great Mistake and indeed not true as to Matter of Fact 2. Are we redeemed only from the Curse of the Law and from the Wrath of God and are we not also redeemed from Sin and from being under the Power of Satan That Redemption that is by Christ is you hear from all Iniquity and are all so redeemed The Apostle Peter saith Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as Silver and Gold from a vain Conversation but with the precious Blood of Jesus Christ c. So many as are and shall be redeemed from all Iniquity from a vain Conversation or whom Christ hath redeemed from the Power of Satan he setting them at Liberty who naturally are bound and bringing them out of the Prison-House so many and no more did he die for and no further doth Redemption by Christ extend 3. If there are many left in the Enemies Hand and under their Power and eternally perish then there is no general or universal Redemption but there are Multitudes so left and perish 4. That Grace Love and blessed Price that doth not procure Universal Salvation is not cannot be an Universal Redemption But God never shewed such Grace and Love by the Price of Christ's Blood that doth procure Universal Salvation therefore there is no Universal Redemption for that Price or Paiment which doth not actually pass or terminate in Salvation is no Redemption at all an Attempt to redeem unless it be
9. That thou mayst say to the Prisoners Go forth and to them that are in Darkness Shew your selves He had a Charge to call his Elect out of the Grave of Sin and to knock off their Fetters to open their Eyes and to heal their Wounds 3. He hath a Charge to lead them For he that hath Mercy on them shall lead them even by the Spring of the Waters shall he guide them Christ hath the Conduct of these redeemed Captives which we have fully proved by his being called a Shepherd 4. He hath received a Charge to receive all the Father hath given him and those that come unto him he saith he will in no wise cast out And this he doth not only out of his own Affections and B. wels to all such poor Sinners but also as in discharge of his Office as all are put into his Hand 5. He hath received also a Charge to perfect that good Work that he hath begun in them The bruised Reea shall he not break and the smoaking Flax shall he not quench till he hath brought forth Judgment unto Victory He will carry on that Work in the Soul till it i compleated He shall do this saith the Father this is part of his Work and Office which he hath accepted of And our Saviour takes notice of this thing as his Father's Will and Charge given unto him And this is the Father's Will that sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last Day My Father sent me to cherish and take care of the poorest and weakest Soul that he hath given me and to see that none of them be lost I must as if he should say strengthen their Faith subdue their Corruptions and never leave them till I present them all before my Father without Spot at the last Day 6 He must give an Account of them also at the last Day and he will present them all without Blame before the Father in Love and say Behold here am I and the Children which thou gavest me none of them are lost 7. Consider in what Relation all Believers stand unto him in as well as he hath them in his Hand they are his Brethren nay more his Seed his Off-spring his own Children begotten and born of his own Spirit they are the Members of his own mystical Body his own Spouse yea of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bone and will not this think you greatly move him excite and stir up his tender Heart to hold them fast in his Hand and keep them from perishing 8. Consider his Faithfulness is it look'd upon as one of the worst Blots any Mortal can have upon him to betray his Trust or not to discharge it with all care and faithfulness especially where the Life of a Person is concerned And shall not our Lord Jesus faithfully discharge his Trust Will he fail any poor Believer under Temptation or leave him to the Power of Sin and Satan when the Life of the Soul is concerned O what is the Natural Life of the Body to the Eternal Life of the Soul Now are all the Godly put into Christ's Hand and hath he accepted of this Trust viz. to keep all the Father hath given him unto Everlasting Life and not suffer the Soul of any one to be lost and will he not be faithful O how faithful hath he been to the Father in all things and to the Souls of those that are already safely landed on the other side of the Grace and will he not be as faithful to all that yet remain in this lower World Alas he knows how weak and frail we are and that without him we can do nothing He is faithful and will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able and will also with the Temptation make way for our escape that we may be able to bear it For in that himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted He has a Fellow-feeling of our Infirmities and hath Compassion of the Ignorant and such that are out of the Way 9. Consider of the Greatness of that Love he hath to all that are in his Hand or are committed to his Charge which I have already spoken unto 10. Consider what he says in my Text take notice of his Resolution and Purpose of his Soul Neither shall any pluck them out of my Hand Quest What is meant by any Answ The World shall not the Devil shall not the Flesh shall not Sin shall not Temptation shall not Prosperity shall not Adversity shall not Death shall not no Enemy whatsoever shall be able to pluck them out of my Hand viz. 1. They shall not break that Union there is between me and them but it shall abide indissolvable for ever 2. None shall be able to remove my Love from them I will love them still love them to the end 3. None shall cause me to cast them off or throw them out of the Covenant into which I have brought them 4. Neither shall any be able to do it they shall not be able by Force to do it nor by Flattery to do it I will keep them and safely protect them The Enemy will attempt to do it as if our Saviour should say they will strive they will pluck and pull and do what they can to get them out of my Hand but says he they shall not do it Reproaches Persecution Poverty Hunger Nakedness Peril nor Sword these nor any of these shall ever be able to pluck them out of my Hand Thirdly I shall now shew you in what respect the Saints may be said to be in the Hand of Christ or under what considerations I shewed you at first in opening our Text that he hath a seven-fold hold of them which is held forth in part in the Sacred Scripture by several Tropical Allusions 1. They are as you have heard again and again in his Hand by virtue of his Covenant which he made with the Father so that they are in his Hand As when a Man makes a Bargain to do such or such a piece of Work which he ingageth and promiseth he will go through with and will not cease until he has perfected it Now upon this Account we say that Work is in his Hand And thus Christ hath undertaken the Work of our Salvation we and that Work of Grace in us are in his Hand and he will perform it and perfect it before he hath done 2. God the Father hath given us into Christ's Hand we are in his Hand by the Father's gracious Resignation and he hath accepted of the Trust Care and Charge of us as our only Sponsor and Blessed Trustee to pay our Debts and supply all our Wants 3. We are in Christ's Hand as Sheep are in the Hand of a Shepherd to feed lead and preserve us and defend us from all Enemies 4. As a
this I shall endeavour to prove and fully demonstrate First From the Nature of Grace it self Secondly In respect of the Fountain from whence it doth proceed i. e. the Blessed God and Father of Mercy Thirdly From Christ the Purchaser and more immediate Author the Beginner and Finisher of it in the Soul he is the Alpha and Omega of Grace First From the Nature of Grace it self 1. Let us consider unto what it is compared even to a small Seed to a Grain of Mustard-seed which becomes after it is sown a great Tree If ye have Faith as a Grain of Mustard-seed ye shall say unto this Mountain Remove hence to yonder place and it shall remove and nothing shall be impossible unto you The Mountain of Guilt of Pollution of Corruption of Opposition shall be removed out of the way of that Person sooner or later that hath never so small a Measure of Grace such is the Nature of it I do not judg that our Saviour chiefly refers here to the Faith of Miracles but our late Annotator no doubt is right I take the plain sense of the Text to be this saith he that there is nothing which may tend to the Glory of God or to our Good but may be obtained of God by a firm exercise of Faith in him Whether our Saviour speaketh here of a Faith of Miracles or no I will not determine I rather think that he speaks here of any true Faith c. A weak Faith put into exercise shall prevail and overcome at last This is the Victory that overcometh the World even our Faith it doth and shall overcome in every Soul at last This Seed I have proved already doth remain it can never be rooted out of the good Ground where it was received into honest Hearts it brought forth Fruit unto Everlasting Life 2. Grace in the Soul is compared to a Well of living Water The Water that I shall give him shall be in him a Well of living Water springing up unto Everlasting Life Grace in the Soul is like a Well that hath a never-sailing Spring at the bottom Grace proceeds from the Spring or Well of Salvation which continually supplies the Soul until it comes to Heaven We have a glorious Figure of this in the Water that gushed out of the Rock smitten in the Wilderness that never ceased following the Israelites until they came to Canaan True this Water may not rise up always alike but may sometimes be low like our Rivers it may have its Ebbs as well as its Flows but when it is a very low Tide it risen again and may be by degrees higher than ever it was before They shall revive as the Corn and grow as the Vine the Scent thereof shall be as the Wine of Lebanon 3. Grace is compared to Leaven which a Woman hid in three Measures of Meal till the whole was leavened the whole Soul Grace is of a diffusive Quality It works also like Leaven gradually it diffuseth it self first into the Vnderstanding and leavens that with blessed Gospel-Light It also diffuseth it self into the Will and bows and subjecteth that to the Power of Divine Truth and to a full Acceptance of Jesus Christ chusing him and relying upon him for Righteousness and Eternal Life It also diffuseth it self into the Affections of the Soul and then the whole is leavened It leavens or makes gracious every Faculty of the Soul and all its Powers the Body and all its Members Grace like Leaven makes the Creature a new Lump and of the same Nature with it self Holy Spiritual Heavenly c. Leaven is a quickning thing so Grace through the Spirit is the quickning Principle in the Soul Grace when received will like Leaven do its Work and never cease till all is in a spiritual manner leavened therewith 4. Grace is also compared by the Spirit of God to Fire 1. 'T is a Divine Spark that God kindles in the Soul which he taketh pains to do of his own abundant Goodness 2. And as he will not quench it himself as you heard so none else can And if it cannot be put out then be sure it will burn it is the Nature of Fire to seize on whatsoever is combustible Now Sin is that proper Fuel which Grace will never cease consuming until it hath quite brought it as it were to Ashes 3. Jesus Christ came on purpose from Heaven to kindle this Fire to burn up Sin and all Corruptions in the Souls of his People And can any think it is in the Power of Satan by his Temptations to quench it for ever and so frustrate his gracious Design If the Devil could not quench it when it was but a small Spark like smoaking Flax when it was first kindled in the Soul how should he be able to do it then when it has got a greater head All know it is much easier to put out and get the mastery of a Fire at first kindling than it is afterwards Yet mistake me not I do not say that this Divine Fire burns always alike in the Soul No Satan and Corruption may damp and lessen its burning but what tho for notwithstanding the Operations of Grace may be interrupted by the Law in the Members the Flesh lusting and warring against the Spirit and it may suffer an Eclipse and a poor Christian may lose the sense and feeling Influences of it at some times as to the comforting Operations thereof yet the Habit of Grace can never be lost 5. The Spirit of Grace is a Vital Principle it is the Life of the Believer or of the Soul of a Child of God Nay and this Life is Eternal it is in them an Eternal Vital Principle as I have proved since I was upon this Text therefore Grace through the Spirit prevents their eternal perishing those that have the Spirit in them and Grace in them have Christ and Everlasting Life in them Moreover should any say that Grace is not immutable in it self yet say I with relation it stands in unto Christ viz. having a Spring at the bottom it is an abiding Principle it will and must live Moreover it is a powerful and permanent Principle Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the World that is the Holy Spirit in the Graces and blessed Influences thereof Sin shall not have dominion over you because you are not under the Law but under Grace 6. Grace is a holy and sanctifying Principle it resisteth Sin and purgeth the Conscience It teacheth us to deny all Vngodliness and worldly Lusts to live soberly godly and righteously in this present World 7. Why is Grace called saving if Men may have it and yet perish Certainly that Grace that a Man may have and be damned is not saving Grace Secondly Grace shall abide in the Souls of Believers in respect of the Fountain of it from whence it proceeds namely the Holy God 1.
I argue If Grace though never so weak shall be victorious if Grace be such a Blessed Principle such a Spark that Sin nor Satan can't quench such a Seed that no Enemy can get out of the Ground of our Hearts if Grace through the Spirit is Life Eternal Life in the Soul if Grace be the Darling of Heaven hath such great and Almighty Allies if the whole Trinity sate in Council about the Birth of Grace or the Way of its infusion into the Soul if it be the Gift of the Father's Free Love and a part of his Holy Nature if it be wrought in us to shew forth his Praise if Grace be God's great and glorious Workmanship if the Power of God be engaged to preserve it in us if God hath promised to maintain its Life in us if it cannot stand consistent with God's Wisdom Love Faithfulness and Holiness to let it be totally overcome and vanquished in the Souls of his Elect if Christ purchased Grace for us if he was manifest to take away Sin if Christ be the Author and Finisher of Grace in the Soul if the Life of Grace tends so much to the Honour of Christ if Christ's Work now in Heaven is to interceed for the continuation of Grace in us that it may never fail in the Seed or Habit of it Then no true Believer can fall so from Grace as eternally to perish But all this is true therefore no Believer can so fall from Grace as eternally to perish APPLICATION First Of Information 1. First from the whole we may learn that the State of Believers through the Redemption by Jesus Christ is far better than Adam's was by Creation for though we have no natural and inherent Power of our own yet we have a supernatural Power ingaged to help and uphold us we are kept by the Power of God He stood by the Strength of Nature and Power of Free-Will before the Fall We by the Strength of Grace and Power of the Mediator who hath a Charge to uphold us in a State of Grace which was not allowed to Adam nor the Angels we have not only the Word of Grace to encourage us but also the Power of Grace to establish us Adam stood by his own Original Righteousness our standing is by the Suretiship Righteousness and Undertakings of Jesus Christ Who of God is made unto us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption Adam's Life was in himself our Life is hid in Christ and so out of the Power of our worst Enemies to come at it or deprive us of it and as Adam and all his were condemned so Christ and all his are justified 2. It may inform us that such who make a Profession of Religion without attaining to a State of true Grace and real Union with Christ are in danger of eternal Ruin notwithstanding whatsoever their Knowledg Gifts and common Improvements may be and their Hopes thereupon and that they are of this sort that frequently fall away and perish in their Sins which if well weighed may put every Professor into serious Thoughts and upon a thorow Work of Self-examination about their present Condition and therefore in this respect there is need enough of those Cautions and Take-heeds in the Scripture Let him that thinketh he stands take heed lest he fall How many are there who do but think they stand or that their State is safe and good when in truth they are in no better Condition than the Foolish Virgins or the thorny and stony-ground Professors 3. It also may inform us that all those that shall be saved are such who take care to make their Calling and Election sure It is a palpable Demonstration that they are under strong Delusion who suppose Election only refers to the End and not to the Means or that Men that are elected shall be saved let them live how they please No no the Case is quite otherwise we are elected to be Holy as well as to be Happy the whole Design of God herein being to make us Holy and also to preserve us in a Way and State of Holiness Therefore if thou dost begin well hast obtained true Grace and dost continue in a Way of well-doing or dost bring forth good Fruit and dost not waver nor faint in thy Mind it may be an Evidence that thy State is Good and that thou art one of Christ's Sheep who follow him constantly and wilt so follow him unto the End Secondly This may be Matter of great Comfort to weak Believers and such who may be under spiritual Deadness and feel Corruption too strong for them O do not be discouraged the weakest Grace gives a deadly wound to Sin and a good ground of Hope thy State is safe your Names are written in Heaven which is as our Saviour notes the greatest Cause of Joy which it could not be if their Names might be blotted out again 'T is no wonder Sin is in thee and makes thee mourn when it made Paul to cry out O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from this Body of Sin and Death 'T is one thing to have the Law of Sin in our Members and to have Sin in our Conversations and another thing to have it reign in us or to have it in our Affections Soul remember that weak Grace weak Faith shall become victorious Thou hast Grace enough in thy Head though thou hast but little in thy Hand O cry to God be much in Prayer that God would give thee more Grace and supply thy Wants and quicken and revive thy Soul as he hath promised A weak Faith renders the Soul as perfectly justified in Christ as the strongest Faith any Man hath whosoever he be and gives a Title to Eternal Life he that had but a weak or a dim Eye that look'd up unto the Brazen Serpent was as well healed as he that had a strong Sight or good Eyes 2. This Doctrine yields much Comfort to the strongest Saint also for if he that hath never so strong and lively Faith might fall finally away and perish what would Regeneration Justification Adoption c. signify to him Would not his Spirits droop and his Fears torment him But here by virtue of the Doctrine of final Perseverance is Comfort both for the Weak and Strong both have equal Interest in Christ in God's Love in the Covenant both are elected both are in Christ's Hand Such who have now a strong Faith had once but a weak Faith it was but a little Seed once and Christ's Charge extends to those that are weak He carries the Lambs in his Arms and the Stock in Christ's Hand is sure and his Promise of supply shall not fail and the Strong cannot stand of themselves Thirdly Caution Judg not of the Truth of thy Grace by the weakness of it a little Gold a Dram is Gold as well as a great Wedg 2. Let not this encourage thee to be negligent or remiss in Duty God
stead Legal Convictions discovered only to them under the Law who saw no further that the Life of the poor Beasts went for Sin but Evangelical Convictions shew that nothing can atone for our Sins and satisfy God's Justice but the Life of the Son of God not the Blood of Bulls or Lambs no it must be the Blood of the Lamb of God 7. Common Illuminations are a Man's Torment and Affliction and fain he would be eased and freed of them and of the smart thereby but the special ones tend to make a Man fear that he is not troubled enough he would be searched thorowly Search me and know my Heart try me and know my Thoughts see if there be any evil Way in me O lance my Soul Lord lay open my Sore let me not be slightly healed The one would fain shake the Trouble off he thinks it is enough nay too much the other would have it lie faster on O let not my Sore be skinned over The Devils cried Why dost thou torment us before the Time So unsound Persons would not be tormented but Conscience hath got hold of them and they cannot get out of its Hand But one truly enlightned saith with David I will be sorry for my Sin I chuse it I desire it The one desires to be freed from the Effects of Sin from the Pain and Punishment thereof but the other cries out to be delivered from the Sin which is the Cause of all Pain and Punishment The one is like the Swine who likes not the Whip yet loves the Mire they like not the Lash of the Law but hate to come under the Yoke of the Gospel The one cries out for a Plaister to ease his Conscience may be he is willing to let some Boughs and Twigs be lop'd off but the other would have the Ax laid to the Root of the Tree he would have the Body of Sin as well as the Branches to be destroyed he is for cutting off the right Hand Lusts of Profit and for pulling out the right Eye Lusts of Pleasure The unsound Soul is like Saul for sparing some of the Fat of the Cattel and Agag the King I mean his chief and beloved Lusts but a sincere Christian is for yielding up all to the Sword of the Spirit 8. Common Enlightnings work Terror which may be at last drive the Soul further from God as it is said of Cain He went out from the Presence of the Lord But special and saving Convictions cause the Soul to draw nearer to God in Jesus Christ The one is like a Slave under the Rod fain would get away from his Master the other is like a Child under the Rod that desires to see and behold his Father's reconciled Face and Favour The common Illuminations wound but the Soul sees not the Way of Cure nor will he bear the Instrument which would let out the Life and Power of Sin but perhaps catches up some thing or another to apply to his Sore may be his changed Life his Duties and good Deeds from hence he hopes that his State is good he being as he thinks not the Man he once was But as he who is under special Illuminations comes to be wounded by beholding a bleeding Saviour which is the alone way of Cure so he chiefly desires that Faith that Grace which will destroy the Life and Power of all Sin and thorowly cleanse and purify his Soul Brethren the Spirit of a Sinner may be torn into pieces by legal Terror the Heart of Stone may be broken and yet no Heart of Flesh be given the Ground may be plow'd up in part yet the Seed of Grace not sown in the Heart Sensuality saith one may be kept down by a Spirit of Bondage when it is not cast out by the Spirit of Adoption They have the Law to convince them but not Grace to renew them it is not being once enlightned that is sufficient unless truly enlightned it is not great Knowledg unless it be sanctified it is not the fair Fruit of Reformation nor Oil in the Lamp of the outward Life and visible Profession of Religion it is not your seeming pious Duties nor legal Convictions that discover you to be a true Christian no nothing short of Union with Christ and Faith that works by Love avails any thing Neither Circumcision nor Uncircumcision but a new Creature 9. Common or Legal Illuminations doubtless flow from a sense of God's Power who is able to punish and reward the Creature according to his Work not that they would be like God but can't alas get out of the Hand of God But true spiritual Enlightnings rise from a sense of God's Holiness by beholding the Excellency of it and seeing a necessity of a Conformity thereunto the Convictions of the one at the best is at a stay they do not grow however they never terminate in Conversion the Effect cannot exceed the Cause they only tend to reform the Life and oft-times such return with the Dog to his Vomit again but the Path of the Just in spiritual Convictions is as a shining Light that shineth more and more to a perfect Day Spiritual Enlightnings lead the Soul to Christ the Spirit in them doth not only convince of Sin but also of Righteousness such see all their old Props and Supports to fail them 't is Christ now and none but Christ the World is nothing to them a Name is of no worth to them Knowledg and Gifts without Grace will not satisfy them they see the Vanity of the Creature and the Fulness of the Mediator Christ is the chiefest of ten thousand to all such Others may see some things Christ hath purchased that may affect them but these see an Excellency in his Person To you that believe he is precious He is an Honour or honourable Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none on Earth that I desire besides thee These have their Eyes opened to see the Nature of God the Holiness of the Law the Weakness of the Creature the Sinfulness of Sin and the Sufficiency of Jesus Christ Others are convinced of many Sins and of some degree of Evil in Sin but these see that Sin is exceeding sinful and that no Sin is so odious as the Sin of Unbelief in which respects common Convictions fail Now considering what Enlightnings Men may have and yet not be savingly enlightned what little reason is there for any to conclude that the Persons in our Text were sanctified holy and true Christians because the Holy Ghost says they were once enlightned They may have or attain unto a great Change but not a true and thorow Change and they may be such who arrive to Light in spiritual Things above thousands nay may be exceed many true Christians in Knowledg Abilities Gifts and in their Lives and Conversations too in some respects and may not doubt of the Goodness of their State nay and may suffer for Religion yea give
Law perfectly is cursed but no Man can keep the Law perfectly therefore all Man naturally are cursed and impossible then to be blessed until delivered from that Curse and this therefore Christ came to do him hath God sent to bless us which Blessing we could not have 〈…〉 Christ puts himself in our place and bears the Curse away from us Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law by being 〈◊〉 a Curse for us for it is written Cursed is every one that 〈◊〉 on a Tree He that was hanged on a Tree under the Law was hanged for transgressing of it and was cursed of God and when 〈◊〉 is said Christ was made a Curse for us it signifies his bearing that Wrath and indignation of God which was due to us for our Sin and his he must do if ever we are justified and eternally â—â—ved from that Eternal Wrath and Vengeance Sin had brought upon every Soul of us 5. As our Lord Jesus if he procure Salvation for us must die and become a Curse for us so he must also raise up himself from the Dead or be discharged of the Bonds of Death he must destroy Death and be freed out of Prison He therefore rose again from the Dead for our Justification His Discharge was virtually a Discharge for us or for all he died for our Lord Jesus must subdue all our Enemies and bring not Death only but the Devil also and all the Powers of Darkness under his Feet or there could be no Salvation for our poor Souls Forasmuch then as the Children are partakers of Flesh and Blood he also himself likewise took part of the same that through Death he might destroy him that had the Power of Death that is the Devil And deliver them who through fear of Death were all their Life-time subject to Bondage Christ and Believers are of one and the same Nature they are as it were but one Man or are so united as to be considered as one Mystical Body This was held forth in his Incarnation in his assuming our Nature He took not only an Humane Soul but our Humane Flesh into Union with his Divine Nature that both our Souls and Bodies might be brought into Union with him and that our Bodies might also be raised from Death to a State of Life and Glory at the last Day and be fashioned like unto his Glorious Body Who hath abolished Death and hath brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel Had not Christ conquered Death and the Devil who had the Power of Death we had been lost for ever He hath not only taken away Sin the Sting of Death but he hath and will be the Death of Death The last Enemy that shall be destroyed is Death The Body as well as the Soul is brought into Union with Christ he is the Head of the whole Believer the Body as well as the Soul Shall I then take the Members of Christ and make them the Members of an Harlot Both Body and Spirit are the Lord's our Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost Brethren what a Conquest hath Christ made how hath he subdued all our Enemies that so he might work out a full and perfect Victory for us in every respect For this Corruptible must put on Incorruption and this Mortal must put on Immortality 1 Cor. 15. 53. So when this Corruptible shall have put on Incorruption and this Mortal shall have put on Immortality then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in Victory Ver. 54. O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory Ver. 55. 6. And lastly And as Christ must conquer the Devil the World Sin Death and the Grave for us and in our Nature so he must by his mighty Power destroy the Devil and Sin 's great Power in us and vanquish that natural Enmity that is in our Hearts against God and his Ways and thereby restore the Image of God in us which we had lost HEB. II. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation Ninthly GOSPEL-Salvation is great if we consider the Subject thereof or what is delivered and saved for ever namely the Souls and Bodies of his People First The Soul that is it Jesus Christ came to save which is very precious as I shall shew you in a deduction of several Particulars Certainly the Salvation of the Soul must needs be a great Salvation What is it to save our Estates our Liberties our Healths the Members of our Bodies our Eyes Arms Legs or our natural Lives to the saving of our precious and immortal Souls The Soul is more worth than all the World What shall it profit a Man to gain the whole World and lose his own Soul 1 st To demonstrate the great Worth Excellency and Preciousness of the Soul consider that it was first formed in the Image of God in Righteousness and true Holiness Our Souls had a glorious Impression of God's Image stamp'd upon them in the first Creation which we lost by Sin and Transgression But this Blessed Image is restored again as you have heard by the Grace of God in this Salvation 1. Pray Brethren remember that the Soul of Man is capable of a Divine Impression of God's glorious Image it is made I mean of such a Nature that it is capable of this great Blessing therefore to be deemed a very precious thing God will not stamp his Image upon low and base Metal if I may so speak with reverence 2. There are three things I find which the great God glories in as being peculiar to himself or his own glorious Prerogative alone The Burden of the Word of the Lord for Israel saith the Lord which stretcheth out the Heavens and layeth the Foundations of the Earth and formeth the Spirit of Man within him The first is his stretching out of the Heavens O what a great and glorious Work was that The second is his laying the Foundation of the Earth the hanging it upon nothing what a wonderful thing is that considering its great Weight and wonderful Body The third is his forming of our Souls Certainly the Spirit or Soul of Man is a glorious thing that God should account the Creation of it amongst those chiefest Parts of his admirable Handy-work Why is not the forming the Blessed Angels who are glorious Spirits rather mentioned it is worthy of serious Contemplation Our Bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made they are no small part of God's Wisdom and curious Workmanship if the Nature and Order of every Part was considered as some Artists who study Man's Humane Body will shew you But what is the Formation and Excellency of our Bodies to our Souls 3. The Soul is capable of Divine Union with Jesus Christ through a Communication of the Holy Spirit and by Faith of the Operation of God and thereby the whole Man partakes of the like Union also
therefore it is a very precious thing it is principally the Soul that Jesus Christ doth espouse it seems to be a proper or fit Match for the Son of God He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit 4. And 't is not only capable of Union but also of Divine Spiritual Communion both with the Father and the Son That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that you might have fellowship with us and truly our Fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ That Communion we have in our Spirits with the Father and the Son is by the Holy Ghost by which we come to have through his gracious Influences a Communication of that which is truly and spiritually Good according to our Needs and to delight strengthen and rejoice our Hearts our Souls being changed into the Life and Likeness of Christ and walking in the Light of the Spirit we have Fellowship one with another that is Christ with us and we with Christ for till the Soul is regenerated it cannot have Fellowship with the Holy God for Light cannot have Fellowship with Darkness it is not earthly or sensual but a Divine Heavenly and Spiritual Communion O what a precious thing is the Soul of Man there 's no other Creature that is capable of these most excellent Privileges save Man Mankind only of all that dwell on the Earth Nor could we have had this Honour and Dignity conferred on us we should not I mean been capable Subjects of it had it not been upon the Account of the excellent Nature of our Souls 5. Our Souls are also capable it appears from hence of Divine Inspiration God in a gracious manner inspires our Spirits with glorious Light and Knowledg there is a Light of Acceptation and a Light of Inspiration Like as Astronomers tell us that the Moon iâ— of such a Nature that she is capable by the glorious shining and reflection of the Son to receive Light and so she shine and gives Light to us in the Night Thus the Moon is a Light of Acceptation but it is the Sun that gives Light to her So a Candle is made meet to receive Light but shines not gives not Light until it is lighted And thus also our Spirits are made meet to receive Divine Light from God The Spirit of a Man is the Candle of the Lord but it never shines with any supernatural Light until the Lord pleases to light it There is a Spirit in Man and the Inspiration of the Lord giveth him Vnderstanding In Man that is in every Man every Man hath a rational Soul in him fit to receive Divine Light and Inspiration if God please to inspire him therewith he hath not that saving Knowledg and Light naturally no not till he doth partake of the Inspiration of the Almighty Though Man be endowed with natural Light Knowledg and Reason and may understand in some measure the Parts of Natural Religion yet that Light is but Darkness compared to the supernatural Light of Grace or the saving Knowledg of God in Christ All true and spiritual Knowledg and Understanding is from the special Inspiration of the Almighty For what Man knoweth the things of Man save the Spirit of a Man that is in him even so the things of God knoweth no Man but the Spirit of God But though it be thus that Man's Spirit without the Teachings and Inspiration of God's Spirit cannot understand nor know the things of God that is the Mysteries of the Gospel or have the saving Knowledg of Christ yet there is a Spirit a Soul in him that is capable to receive this Light and Revelation of God when he pleases to enlighten him therein therefore I say the Soul of Man is a very precious thing and so tends to greaten the Salvation of the Gospel by which it is saved from Hell and Wrath. 6. The Soul is capable of Divine Contemplation it can muse meditate and contemplate upon God the highest and chiefest Being no other Creatures on Earth are capable to do this because they have no rational Souls What have some Men found out of the Mysteries of Nature by means of the Excellency of the Soul Nay and also what Knowledg have they attained of the God of Nature as might be demonstrated should I speak of Natural and Moral Philosophy c. though it is true and I deny it not but that the knowledg of these things is acquired in a great measure yet nevertheless all in the first place next unto God must be attributed to the Excellency of the Soul I am fearfully and wonderfully made marvellous are thy Works and that my Soul knoweth right well David ascribes that wonderful Knowledg which he had of the Works of Creation to his Soul No doubt he was well skilled in Philosophy and was a Man greatly given to Contemplation My Subâ—iance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the Earth How curiously and exquisitely hast thou as if he should say composed my Bones Muscles Sinews Veins and Arteries in my Mother's Womb and all the Parts and Members of my Body And my Soul contemplates all these things my Soul knows that thou art a wonderful working God O what a precious thing is the Soul of Man what pity is it that it should be lost and damned for ever and how doth this tend to demonstrate the Glory and Greatness of this Salvation for it was under Wrath and the Curse of God by Sin Sirs the Nature of the Soul is such that it leads a Man out to behold and magnify God in the Works of Creation and Providence tho it want supernatural Light and Knowledg But O when it comes to be divinely inspired what does it discover through the help of the same Spirit of God in Christ and of the Work of Redemption For all Knowledg to this Knowledg is but of little worth Paul therefore determined to know nothing but Christ and him crucified nay and accounted all natural Knowledg Gifts Wisdom and Improvements or whatsoever he once esteemed of to be but Dung in comparison of the Excellency of the Knowledg of Jesus Christ his Lord. 7. The Soul is precious doth yet further appear because without an enjoyment of God or a part and interest in him it can never by happy nothing short of God himself can fill its Desires This some of the Heathens by the dim Light of Nature came to understand it is restless until it comes to find God Rest Peace and Satisfaction in God who is the best of Beings and our chief Good The Soul is much like unto Noah's Dove which he sent out of the Ark that found no rest for the Sole of her Foot until she returned unto him in the Ark Therefore miserable will all those be that for ever shall one Day be separated from God should they meet with no worse Torment
than that A Man accounts it no small Misery to be deprived of that which he esteems to be his only Happiness though he knows he can enjoy it but a short time Suppose it be his Riches his Houses his Lands or his Gold and Silver or his Pleasures or his Honours or his dear Relations in whom his very Life seems to bound up he is upon the loss of that which he esteems so highly of as a dead Man Now sure if the Soul is of such an excellent Nature that no created Good can fill its Desires nothing in this World nothing but God himself it must needs be a very precious thing But so it is for as Rachel said once to Jacob her Husband Give me Children or I die So this is the Voice of the Soul of Man Give me God give me Christ or I die Nay to be deprived of God is the Death of the Soul and it was that which brought Death on the Soul of Man originally by Sin we were deprived of God and that was the Death of the Soul God is the spiritual Life of the Soul as in a moral sense the Soul is the natural Life of the Body for as the Body is dead without the Soul naturally so the Soul is dead without God spiritually Therefore the Salvation of the Soul must needs be a great and glorious Salvation that which brings God again to the Soul that which restores God a lost God to the Soul that gives Life to a poor dead Soul and makes it live again and so be happy again yea and that for ever more 8. The Soul is precious and a most excellent thing it appears because God's Thoughts are so let out upon it What care hath he taken of the Soul of Man How early did he concern himself for the redemption of it and what a way did he seek out and contrive to restore it to a state of Peace Joy and Happiness again when he foresaw it brought under Death Sin and Misery it seems to be the Darling of Heaven as it was formed as it were by the Breath of God so nothing he thinks too good to impart for its Ransom to redeem it nor nothing too precious to feed it heal it or comfort it He gives the Bread of Heaven the very Flesh and Blood of his own Son to feed it the Righteousness of his own Son to clothe it the Graces of his own Spirit to deck and adorn it nay and his own Spirit is sent to lead to guide protect and govern it Certainly these things clearly shew and demonstrate its great Worth or that it is a most excellent thing in God's sight 9. The Soul is precious if we consider what God gave for its Redemption David saith That the Redemption of the Soul is precious and ceases for ever hard to be obtained though not impossible nothing but the Blood the precious Blood of Christ Jesus could redeem it Some take Soul there for our Life but certainly David intends the Redemption of the Soul from Sin and Wrath. Silver and Gold could not do this no it must not be redeemed it could not be redeemed by corruptible things not by a thousand Rams nor ten thousand Rivers of Oil nor by our First-born the Fruit of the Body could not make an Atonement for the Sin of the Soul No no it must be the Father's First-born it must be Jesus Christ the Blood of the Son of God or nothing if Christ die not for the Soul it must perish for ever But rather than the Soul should be lost and undone for ever God will not spare his own Son but deliver him up for us all 10. The Soul is very precious doth appear because from the unwearied Attempts and restless Endeavours of the Devil to destroy it all Satan's grand Rage and Malice is let out against the Soul of Man had it not been for our Souls he would have concerned himself no more to have work'd out our Ruin than the Ruin of irrational Creatures But he foresaw the precious Nature of the Soul of Man what excellent Faculties it was endowed withal and what a glorious Image of God was stamp'd upon it and therefore he rages and foams out his hellish Spite and Malice against us and all to destroy our Souls and this Rage and Fury he continues still against our Souls O what Ways diverse and cunning Stratagems doth he use that so he may spoil the Happiness or destroy the Comfort of our Souls For as it is God's great Concern to save our Souls so it is Satan's great Business to damn and destroy our Souls for ever and as God contrives Ways and Means to make our Souls happy for ever so the Devil contrives Ways and Means to make our Souls miserable for ever The Soul is as I may say that sweet Morsel Satan hungers after and fain would tear in pieces and devour if possible it is not so much to destroy our Bodies by natural Death as our Souls and Bodies by eternal Death O how great is that Salvation that is the Salvation of our precious Souls God's Care Cost and Labour to preserve our Souls to save our Souls shews that it is of great Worth And it is this that makes Man to differ so much from brutish Creatures and to excel all the Works of God in this nether Creation Had it not been for our Souls would God have been any more concerned for us than for the Beasts that perish And was not the Soul I say a very excellent and precious thing Satan would not make it his greatest Work and Business to destroy it as he hath always done and still continues to do 11. The Soul is very precious doth yet further appear because if a Man could gain all the World all the Riches Honours and Pleasures of the World with the loss of his Soul his Loss would be more than his Gain yea infinitely more there 's nothing that can make a Recompence for the loss of the Soul as our Saviour clearly shews Mat. 16. 26. All the World is nothing in Value when compared with the Soul therefore it is precious 12. The Soul is immortal its Nature is Life it is no corporal Thing 〈◊〉 thing it is not composed of the four Elements as our 〈◊〉 it cannot diâ— nor be annihilated it will either 〈…〉 Joy and â—lehedness or else of Eternal 〈…〉 'T is strange to me that any Man should 〈…〉 to be mortal 1. 〈…〉 and cast Contempt upon themselves 〈…〉 Mankind of their greatest Glory and reâ—der Man in 〈…〉 above the Beasts that perish and also they darken and â—â—â—â—ngely eclipse the Infinite Love and Grace of God in the Redemption and Restoration of Man 2. And if the Soul be moâ—t 〈…〉 with the Body then had we not been redeemed at all we â—â—d been no more if 〈◊〉 than the Beasts are we should but have 〈…〉 been no more we should have known no more Pain
and Pleasure O what a great Salvation is Gospel-Salvation How soon doth eternal Misery or Torment seize upon the Ungodly even no sooner do they die but their Souls are in Hell and no sooner do Believers die but their Souls are in Paradise and had not Christ came and wrought out our Salvation our Souls must have lain under Wrath and Misery for ever in an eternal separation from God and all true Joy and Happiness O what a fearful and an amazing Loss is the loss of the Soul Sirs pray remember this Salvation is the Salvation of your precious Souls thy Soul O Sinner is dearly concerned in it Our Soul is our All what have we more A Man is never utterly undone till his Soul is utterly lost if the Soul is saved all is saved but if the Soul is lost for ever lost all is lost But 2 dly The loss or losing of the Soul is the loss of the Body too that must have perished for ever with the Body of Beasts whilst our Souls must have lain in Torments had not Christ came to redeem us Moreover The Salvation of the Soul is the Salvation of the Body Christ came to save both the Soul and Body too And hence the Apostle saith Even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our Body that is for the farther Effects of our Adoption Now are we the Sons of God but it doth not appear what we shall be that is it doth not appear what we shall be when our Bodies shall be raised He shall change our vile Body that it may be fashioned like unto his own glorious Body This Salvation saves not our Souls only from Wrath but our Bodies also they shall rise to Life and Immortality the Bodies of the Wicked as well as their Souls shall be cast into Hell but the Bodies and the Souls of the Godly shall be glorified in Heaven for ever O what a grievous thing it is to think of the loss of the Body to have the Soul taken away from the Body But how sweet is it to think of that Day when those two old Friends shall meet together again and when both shall be delivered from all Evil from all Deformity and Pollution and be glorified and also shall never part more or be separated from each other to the Days of Eternity APPLICATION 1. Reproof to such who despise their own precious Souls What Fools are they who to save their Hutts lose their Heads or who to save their Goods in a fearful Fire lose their dear Child in the Cradle As I once told you of a Woman that did thus her House was on Fire and she bestirred her self to get out her best Goods and at last when she could go in no more she rejoiced that she had saved her Goods but said one to her Woman where is your Child O my Child my Child then she cried her Child when it was too late for that was burned to Death in the Cradle Just thus some to get and save their Goods to get the World lose their Souls We read of some who to save their Lives or their Bodies from being burned to Ashes for Christ denied Christ they could not burn for him What saith our Saviour He that seeks to save his Life shall lose it What Fools are they then who think that way to save their Bodies for as they lose their Souls so they lose their Bodies also And it is not worse to have the Body to â—e in Hell-Fire for ever than to be burned in Martyrdom and be consumed to Ashes in Corporal Fire 2. Consider that all such who neglect this great Salvation slight and neglect their own precious and immortal Souls What is the Hope of the Hypocrite though he hath gained when God taketh away his Soul He makes a bad Market that puts off his Soul at any Price What shall a Man give in exchange of his Soul Jesus Christ who knew the great worth of it laid down a Price of infinite Value to redeem and purchase it Witches they say sell their Souls to the Devil out of Malice to be revenged on some that have offended them What a dismal thing is that how fearful is their State But pray Brethren what do they lose who sell their Souls to the Devil as it were for the sake of their brutish Lusts or out of love to Sin Thus the Whoremongers and unclean Persons sell their Souls and Drunkards who will have their merry Bouts their Cups and Pots and silthy Companions and may be their Whores too let what will become of their immortal Souls others will have their Pride and haughty Hearts gay Clothes and their detestable Dresses though their Souls are clothed with Rags and a crawling Worm knaws on them and to Hell must be thrown at last where the Worm dieth not and the Fire is not quenched Moreover the carnal Worldling will be rich he will lay up Gold and Silver he will gain the World though he lose thereby his own Soul But remember Sinners Christ died for the Soul this Salvation is the Salvation of the Soul and does any wretched Sinner despise his Soul or is it think you not worth his Pains to part with his Cups with his sinful Companions with his or her Pride unlawful Gain or the love of this World to save it for ever 3. How does this tend to reprove such who do expose their precious Souls to eternal Wrath for the unjust Gain of Six-pence or a Shilling Are there not too many such in the World who will cheat lie and defraud their Neighbours for a small matter of profit O how dear will they one Day pay for that Gain 4. How does this reprove likewise such Parents that think they can never do enough for to enrich their Children or get them great Portions and care not what they eat drink wear or how richly their Bodies are deck'd and adorned but take no care of their immortal Souls but rather indulge them in their Sins and vain and wicked Practices and set also Soul damning Examples continually before their Eyes 5. We may also infer from hence what a mighty Charge an amazing Charge Parents have committed to them as also the Ministers of the Gospel who are to take care and watch over the Souls of such who are committed to them as such that must one Day give an Account of them 6. Moreover wo be to such who deceive and blindly lead the Souls of Men to destruction that are so exceeding precious If the Blind lead the Blind they will both fall into the Ditch 7. Shall I exhort you Sinners to look to Christ for the Salvation of your Souls 1. He bids you look to him Look unto me and be ye saved all ye Ends of the Earth 2. Consider that there is no other way to save your Souls there is but one Saviour and one way of Salvation There is no other Name given under
Absurdities attending the Doctrine of the final Apostacy of true Believers opened in twelve Particulars 313. The Application 315 to 318 Third Text Heb. 6. 4 5 6. 1. This Scripture mistaken by the antient Fathers 319 2. The Text opened with the Connection of what precedes and succeeds Doct. 1. The severest Doctrine useful to Professors that are slothful or dull of hearing 321 2. What those Persons Attainments were and what not 322 323 They were not true Believers 323 324 Doct. 2. It is a high Privilege for Men to be enlightened with the Knowledg of the Gospel 3. What common and saving Illuminations of the Spirit are and how they differ 325 to 331 Second Sermon What is meant by the Heavenly Gift 332 What by tasting the Heavenly Gift 333 334 How said to partake of the Holy Ghost 334 And tasted of the good Word of God 335 1. What is meant by the Word of God 335 2. Why called the good Word of God shewed in eight Particulars 336 What a kind of Taste an unsound Christian may have of the Word of God 337 338 What a kind of Taste Believers have of God's Word pag. 340 341 What is meant by the World to come 343 The Nature of the World to come 346 The Riches Honour Joy and Pleasures of the World to come 349 350 351 352 Third Sermon What meant by the Powers of the World to come 354 What a kind of Taste the Persons in the Text were said to have of the Powers of the World to come shewed in six Particlars 355 356 357 358 What is spoken concerning those Persons viz. They may fall away How it is impossible to renew such unto Repentance how not impossible 359 360 Why it is impossible c. 360 What the Sin against the Holy Ghost is 361 362 363 The Application 364 The fourth and last Text Heb. 2. 3. 1. The scope of the Text opened 368 2. The Terms and Parts explained 369 Doct. 1. That the Salvation of the Gospel is great and glorious Doct. 2. That the Means of this Salvation may be neglected Doct. 3. That such who neglect this Salvation cannot escape 369 Doct. 1. Two things proposed to be done 1. To prove the Proposition That Gospel-Salvation is great c. 2. To improve it by way of Application Arg. 1. Salvation great comparatively 369 370 Arg. 2. Salvation great positively Great and glorious in respect of the time when found out and promised 370 371 Arg. 3. Great in respect of that great Counsel held in Eternity between the Father and Son about it 371 Arg. 4. Great in respect of the Design of God therein which is threefold 1. His own Glory 2. The Ruin of Satan and his Kingdom 3. The Eternal Happiness of Man or of all that believe Arg. 5. Great considering how low Man was fallen and the seasonableness of it Second Sermon Arg. 6. Salvation is great considering the Persons that brought it about or do 〈◊〉 it viz. the Father the Son and the Holy 〈…〉 What part of Gospel-Salvation may 〈…〉 rectly attributed to God the Father 〈…〉 seven Particulars 〈…〉 79 What part Christ hath in it pag. 379 380 Christ a great and Almighty Saviour shewed in many Particulars 381 382 What part the Holy Ghost hath in working out our Salvation 382 383 Third Sermon Arg. 7. Gospel-Salvation great considering what we are delivered from 1. Sin that hath corrupted our Nature 2. From that which is destructive to our Nature which is Punishment both here and hereafter 1. The Evil of Sin opened in six Partic. 391 392 2. The nature of that Punishment we are delivered from 393 394 395 Arg. 8. Gospel-Salvation great considering what Christ hath done and suffered to effect it opened in five Particulars 397 398 399 Fourth Sermon Arg. 9. Salvation great considering the Subjects redeemed 1. The Soul of Man 2. The Body 400 The Soul of Man exceeding precious proved by eleven Arguments 401 402 403 404 405 The Soul Immortal proved by seven Arguments 406 407. The Application 408 409 Ministers and Parents have a great Charge committed to them the Charge of Souls 410 411 False Teachers much to answer for that deceive Souls Fifth Sermon Arg. 10. Gospel-Salvation great considering what Believers are thereby raised up unto or the Privileges invested with shewed in many Particulars 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 The Application Object I cannot rise to a full Perswasion that Christ is mine answered Such a full Perswasion appertaining not to the Being of true justifying Faith but is a high degree of it 420 Sixth Sermon Arg. 11. Gospel-Salvation great and glorious because a full compleat comprehensive Salvation 421. It hath all things in it that either Sinners or Saints do need proved at large 422 to 428 Seventh Sermon Arg. 12. Salvation great in respect of Christ himself the first and great Minister thereof 429 When Christ first began to preach this Salvation 431 Arg. 13. Gospel-Salvation great considering its wonderful Confirmation pag. 432 433 Arg. 14. Gospel-Salvation great because the holy Angels pry into it and are amaz'd at it 433 434 Arg. 15. Salvation great because so free a Salvation 434 435 Arg. 16. Salvation great because 't is eternal 435 Eighth Sermon Doct. 2. opened Gospel-Salvation may be neglected Four things proposed 436 1. What meant by neglecting it 436 2. Who may be said to neglect this Salvation opened in eighteen Particulars 436 to 443 Ninth Sermon 3. From whence it is Men neglect this Salvation largely opened 443 444 445 446 447 The Application 451 452 Tenth Sermon 4. The great Evil and Sin of 〈…〉 of the Gospel opened 453 1. In respect of God the Father 453 2. In respect had to Christ 457 458 459 3. In respect had 〈…〉 holy Spirit 461 462 Eleventh Sermon What a great Sin it is to neglect Gospel-Salvation opened in respect of the Sinner himself 464 c. Twelfth Sermon 1. What those cannot escape that neglect Gospel-Salvation 471 1. Not escape the Curse of the Law 471 472 2. The Guilt and Punishment of Sin 3. The Wrath of God 4. The Damnation of Hell 2. The Cause and Reasons why they cannot escape shewed in nine Particulars 475 Thirteenth Sermon 1. When or at what time they shall not escape shewed in four respects 477 2. The nature of that Wrath shewed in nine Particulars which they cannot escape 480 481 482 Fourteenth Sermon 1. Why the Gospel is attended with such Threats 483 484 485 486 2. What Sinners shall not escape 487 488 Fifteenth Sermon 1. What is not a Legal Doctrine 489 490 2. What is a Legal Doctrine 490 491. A TRUMPET Blown in ZION OR AN ALLARM IN God's Holy Mountain CONTAINING An Exposition of that Metaphorical Scripture MATTH III. 12. Lately delivered in Two Sermons and now Published to awaken the Drowsie and Formal Professors of this Age. Wherein the Nature of God's Wrath both Internal and Eternal is discovered as seizing upon the Chaff and Burning of it up
evil it is to proceed no further but if he cannot then he is oblidg'd by the holy Law of Christ to take one or two more and go to him and strive to convince him and bring him to a sight and sense of his iniquity but if he cannot do it then it ought to be brought unto the Church and if he will not hear the Church then the Fan of Excommunication is to be used in the Name of Jesus Christ and they purged out As to such who rend themselves from a Church or violate their sacred Covenant by irregularly withdrawing themselves they ought to be marked and solemnly in the publick Congregation declared to have withdrawn rent and cut off themselves from the Communion of the Church and no longer to be owned nor lookt upon as Members and none to Communicate with them until they have given satisfaction by Repentance The Second part of the Fan of Discipline is that rule laid down by the Apostle of withdrawing from every Brother and Sister that walketh disorderly as such that are Busibodies Tatlers or Idle or such that neglect their Duties in attending on the Church in times of solemn Worship or that make Parties or cause Division in the Church and refuse to live in Obedience to Christ under the due and just Government thereof or to obey them that are set over them in the Lord or who strive to have the prehemience like Diotrophes being Vain-glorious prating against or despising of Dignities or the just Authority of Christs Ministers or Angels of his Churches as the beloved Apostle speaks 3 Joh. 9 10. Wherefore if I come I will Remember his deeds which he doth prating against us with malicious Words and not content therwith neither doth he himself receive the Brethren and forbideth them that would and casteth them out of the Church These are to be marked and withdrawn from 2 Thess 3. 6. Not to be counted as Enemies but exhorted as Brethren Unless they provoke the Church to further and a more severe Censure Some of this sort oft-times strive to draw away disciples after them and seek to disquiet the Peace of the Church and in a fawning and flattering manner to deceive the hearts of the Simple therefore these if they will not hear the Church are to be quite fanned out also by Excommunication and to be looked upon as an Heathen-man or Publican as in the Case of Notorious and Scandalous Sinners or such who are guilty of Heresie Mat. 18. Fifthly Jesus Christ hath also another Fan in his hand to purge his floor or cleanse his Wheat from the Chaff filth and defilement of Sin namely the Holy Spirit and by this means he cleanses and Purifies in a gracious manner the Souls of his own People Such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are Sanctified but ye are Justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God What filthy Creatures were those Corinthians before the Lord Jesus by his Spirit had purged and Sanctified them Faith of the the Operation of God is a most excellent Grace it is by Faith in the Blood of Christ that we come to be purged from the Guilt of Sin Faith applying his Merits and Righteousness unto the Soul in Justification and such is the Nature thereof that it makes holy the Hearts and Lives of all such Persons in whom it is by the Spirit wrought or infused in Sanctification And hath put no difference between them and us Purifying their hearts by Faith Yea it cleanseth them from all filthyness of Flesh and Spirit that they may perfect Holyness in the fear of God But let me tell you that the Spirit and Grace of Christ in this respect is as a Fan rather to Cleanse the Saints by purging out the Chaff of Corruption which naturally is in their Hearts and Lives than to purge Hypocrites and gross Professors out of the Church and to that I Principally referr here 6. Moreover Christ hath the Fan of Persecution or the Sufferings of the Cross and all other afflictions which he brings upon his People which he uses to purge and purify their Souls and his Churches too And from hence Afflictions are compaired to a Refiners fire He shall set as a Refiners fire and Purifier of Silver He that is the Messiah i. e. our Lord Jesus Christ this is his Work viz. to purge his People who in this Place are compared to Silver and Gold that is refined As in my Text they are likened unto Wheat in this he is compared to a Refiner and hath his Furnace in the other to an Husbandman and so hath his Fan. Both these Texts allude to the same thing and doing the same work namely to sever and separate the clean from the unclean the Gold from the Dross the Chaff from the Wheat And evident it is that Persecution Trials and Afflictions commonly make a great discovery who are Wheat or pure Gold viz. Sincere Believers and who drossy and chaffy Professors If Wheat Persecution purges and purified them But if they are Chaff it usually fans them away But he that received the seed in stony places the same is he which heareth the Word and anon with joy reciveth it Yet hath he not root in himself but endureth for a while for when Tribulation or Persecution ariseth because of the Word by and by he is offended Thus the fan of Persecution purges these Chaffy Professors out of Christs Spiritual floor or rather his garner Namely his Church into which in a day of Liberty they got and had a place but they cannot bear the Wind and blast of Affliction and Tribulation And as it purges out much Chaff so also the Wheat is thereby refined and made more clean and fit for the Lords use Of so great benefit is Persecution to Gods Church that they cannot some times be without it it is if need be that we are in heaviness if we need it not or if Christ sees there is no need of it we shall never feel the Rod He doth it not for his pleasure but for our profit that we might partake of his Holiness And this Jehovah by the Prophet further makes known to us This is the fruit of all the taking away your Sin And thus the Lord purgeth away the filth of the Daughter of Sion and the Blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the Spirit of Judgment and by the Spirit of burning The Rod of Affliction or Furnace of Persecution cannot purge out the filth of Sin that is in the Lords People without the operations of the Holy Spirit The Spirit is called a Spirit of burning because like fire it burns up and consumes the Filth Chaff and Dross that is in us Before Trials and Persecution comes Christ seems to have a very great floor a great heap or much Corn but when he comes to try them with this fan in his hand one great part
Loins were loosed and his Knees smote one against the other When they cry peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape 3. A fire sometimes breaks forth in the Night when men are asleep So God comes upon men many times in the night of ignorance and unbelief while they lye on their Beds of Ease and carnal Security by amazing Judgments or by sudden Death How secure was the old World and the rich man in the Gospel to whom God said this night thy soul shall be required of thee 4. A consuming Fire destroys wasts and devours exceedingly as Sodom found and London also by woful experience So God when he breaks forth in his Wrath and Fury he makes most lamentable desolation The Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath and the fire shall devour them The Wrath of God is compared to a consuming fire For our God is a consuming Fire 5. A Consuming and raging fire spares none the Palace of the Prince no more than the Cottage of the Peasant the mighty Oaks as well as the lowest Shrubs are devoured by it so the wrath of God seizeth and will seize on all wicked men on the mighty and honourable of the Earth as well as the poor and contemptible ones the King on his Throne as well as the Beggar on the Dunghill His wrath shall be on every one that is lofty and upon every one that is proud and lifted up and he shall be brought down upon all the Cedars of Lebanon and upon all the Oaks of Bashan He will come upon Princes as upon morter the whole earth shall be devoured by the fire of his Jealousy neither their Gold nor Silver shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lords wrath 6. Wood Hay and Stubble are fit fuel for the fire to seize upon and such things that are combustible make it to burn the more vehemently And if high strong Towers cannot stand before a consuming fire how is it possible for Briars and Thorns Some Sinners are like stubble fully dry They are fit Fuel for the Wrath of God like fire to take hold of O what horrid Guilt lies upon some mens Consciences just like a great heap or pile of wood well dried or Cart loads of straw or dry stubble What if God will to shew his wrath and to make his power known endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction A long Course in sin Custom in sin resisting the Grace of God slighting Convictions hardening the Heart against Reproof stisling the Accusations of Conscience and abusing the Patience and long Suffering of God fits men for the fire of his Wrath Whilst they are folden together as Thorns and whilst they are drunken as Drunkards they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry Such that are drunk with Pride drunk with Pleasures or whose Souls are surfited with the Riches and Cares of the World the fire of Gods Wrath as fit matter or combustable stuff will seize upon 7. A dreadful fire when it breaks out turns all joy into sorrow and makes a day of mirth a day of Mourning So the consuming wrath of God whether it seizes on the consciences of Men only whilst alive in the body or on Body and Soul both here or on the Soul at Death it turns all joy into sorrow O what extremity of misery do such feel ask Judas or Spira they could tell you 8. Fire is a most cruel and dreadful tormentor if a man be cast into a fire what intollerable pain and anguish doth it put him to but alas alas that 's nothing to the Wrath of God when God kindles it in the Consciences of men nor to Hell fire You will say O 't is a fearful thing to fall into a furious fire into a burning Furnace but O Sirs how much more dreadful is it to fall under the Wrath of God! It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God For our God is a consuming fire If it be terrible to have a finger a foot or a hand to be burned off or to have the whole body cast into a Furnace of boyling Oil as some of the holy Martyrs were how then can sinners who are as chaff bear the Thoughts of Gods wrath and vindictive Vengance which is far more intollerable than any fire into which any Mortal was ever cast For 1. Other fire burns only the external part or temporal or corporal matter but the fire of Gods wrath burns and torments the Spirit the Soul the invisible part 2. Elementary fire is seen but internal Wrath is only felt inwardly it cannot be seen 3. The fiercest fire that ever was kindled hath been overcome and by Engines or Instruments put out but the fire of Gods Wrath when kindled and the Soul thrown into Hell cannot be put out nor be extinguished 't is unquenchable fire Tho' the burning of Mount Aetna and other burning Mountains are impossible for man to extinguish yet doubless they shall not burn always they will be put out but wrath shall burn for ever So much as to the Explanation of our Text. From hence we may observe divers Propositions or Points of Doctrine 1. Doct. The old floor is gone 't is removed viz. The old Jewish Church or national Church of Israel the wheat that was in it being taken into Christs Gospel-Garner and the chaff or all graceless persons or unbelievers are fann'd away Now Christ hath removed the partition-wall that was between Jew and Gentile and hath reconciled both unto God in one body Now there is no knowing men after the flesh fleshly Priviledges i. e. being the Seed of Abraham or being the Seed of Believers as such gives no right to Spiritual saving and eternal Blessings Both those two People Jews and Gentiles that believe of twain are made one i. e. one new man or one Christian or Gospel-Church And this is done by Jesus Christ who by his Fan or Dispensation of the New Testament hath abolished the old Covenant-right of Church-Membership not the fleshly Seed but the spiritual Seed of Abraham are to be received into Christs Gospel Garner Ye as lively stones are built up a spiritual House c. But this I shall not prosecute 2 Doct. Jesus Christ would have none but pure Wheat be gathered into his Garner not the fleshly and spiritual Seed not the Believer and the Vnbeliever not godly ones and ungodly ones not the Chaff and the Wheat as it was under the Law in the National Church of the Jews Not whole Parishes or whole Nations no no none but true Christians or holy persons sanctified and sincere and truly gracious Souls 3 Doct. Christs great Work and Office is to purge his People to cleanse them and make them holy and to sever the Wheat from the Chaff the pure from the impure or to separate Hypocrites from his
and art tost up and down with Temptations Trials and Afflictions Know that his Design is wholly herein for thy good it is but to purge out thy Chaff that thou as pure white Wheat may'st shine the more bright and clear in Grace and Gospel-Holiness for Sin and Corruption spoils thy Beauty to all that behold thee No Doctrine tends to promote Gospel Holiness like the Doctrine of Gods Free-Grace Shall we sin because grace hath abounded God forbid 2. O what a Mercy of Mercies it is that Gods Wrath is appeased towards you Christs Blood has quenched this dreadful fire as to you who believe and indeed nothing else could do it O bless God for Christ and for that River of Water which proceeds from him to the extinguishing this flaming Fire he hath born it and allay'd it nay quite put it out so that you shall never feel the burning or tormenting Nature thereof 3. Thou shalt at last whosoever thou art if sincere if Wheat be gathered into his Garner viz. into Heaven it self for Christ will not lose one grain of his spiritual Wheat not one Sheep of his shall perish He that has begun that good work in thee will perform it to the day of Christ He will gather his wheat into his Garner but the Chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire So much for this time MATTH III. 12. Whose Fan is in his hand and he will throughly purge his floor and gather the Wheat into his Garner but the Chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire BEloved I have gone through the several Terms of the Text by way of Explaination and have taken Notice of several Propositions or Points of Doctrine that naturally arise therefrom I purpose only to prosecute but one of them namely the 6 th and last viz. Doct. That the Wrath of God is like Fire 't is intollerable or the Misery and Torment of the Damned will be dismal and amazing there 's no expressing how fearful their condition is and will be who fall under the vindictive Wrath and Vengeance of an angry God I shall only do three things 1. Further open the Nature of Gods Wrath. 2. Prove and demonstrate the Truth of the Proposition 3. Improve it by way of Application And to proceed it is necessary to note to you in the first place as I before hinted that the Wrath of God may be considered under a twofold Consideration As it is manifested 1. Internally or Externally taking hold of and seizing upon some ungodly persons here whilst in this World 2. As it is Eternal seizing on and taking hold of all undone and lost Sinners hereafter Sin is the cause of Gods Wrath and Vengance both of that which is felt here and shall eternally be felt and undergone hereafter the word as the learned note which is translated Wrath comes from a Root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that signifies heat or to be hot and hence 't is compared to fire an angry Man we say is a fiery Man a Man that hath much fire or fury in him the Wrath of man is hot but the Wrath of God is much hotter Because there is Wrath beware Sirs there is Wrath in the Heart of God against Sinners there his anger is kindled there is Wrath also in his Decree and in his Threatnings his Wrath continues on all Unbelievers He that believeth not the Wrath of God abideth upon him Tho' many of them do not feel it they have not the sense of it but shall have one day yet there are some that God lets out his Wrath upon to such a degree here that they do feel it and cry out under the sense and horror thereof in a fearful manner Secondly The Wrath of God as it is compared unto fire is oft-times let out to consume men in divers respects 1. Sometimes by Poverty as by a flame he consumes in a secret way their outward substance there is a Curse upon their estates which dries up their Riches in which they Trusted and set their Hearts upon forgetting God their Maker their Chief Good and Last End 2. Sometimes he Consumes their Honour Reputation and Credit they falling by their Iniquity into disgrace after they have made a Profession of Religion and have been in the Love and Esteem of good Men. 3. Sometimes also by Sickness as by a flame he consumes their Health and thus he threatned the People of Israel The Lord shall smite thee with a Consumption and with a Feaver and with an Inflamation and with extream Burning 4. Also his Wrath oftentimes breaks out like fire on some Men by suddain Death in a strange and unusual manner as in the case of Lots Wife and of Nadab and Abihu and there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them and they died before the Lord. This was so amazing that Moses said unto Aron and unto Eleazor and unto Jâ—hamar Vncover not your heads neither rend your cloaths least ye die and least Wrath come upon all the People but let your brethren the whole house of Israel bewail the burning which the Lord hath kindled Open not your Mouths as if he should say shew no such sorrow as at other times for God is Just and he hath let out his deserved Wrath against these young Men least you should seem to Justifie them and shew a dislike of God's token of Divine dispeasure 5. Moreover God many times le ts out his Wrath by War and the Sword consumes and devours much people As also by Famine and by the Pestilence The Wrath of God as it is let out in this World is as a drying scorching and devouring fire The flame of Gods Displeasure puts all into a flame as at this day all the Earth seems to be on a fire God is now a burning up and consuming the Nations Therefore he hath poured upon him speaking of Jacob the fury of his anger and the strength of Battel and it hath set him on 〈◊〉 round about yet he knew it not and it burned him yet he laid it not to heart War consumes the Riches the Wealth the Strength the Food and Bread of the Nation as well as the People but it is not laid to heart He teareth me saith Job in his Wrath The Hebrew Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Mr. Caryl Notes is near in sound to our English Tear and it signifieth to Tear as a Lyon his prey Wrath is of a Tearing and devouring Nature God sometimes in his Wrath Tears in pieces the Bodies of Men he tears their Power their Riches and consumes their Beauty and turns all as it were to Ashes and thus he will pour out his Wrath on Babylon and she shall be burned with fire 6. The Wrath of God also Seizeth on the Souls of some men whilest they are in this World as when they are left or given up unto hardness of Heart Vnbelief and blindness of Mind indeed this is most
dreadful of all What can be a greater Token of Gods Divine Wrath it is the begining of that Future Vengeance that shall be poured forth upon them to Eternity Thus the Almighty dealt by the Jews for their Sin in rejecting of Jesus Christ and putting him to death by wicked hands for this he gave them up to an hard unbelieving and an impenitent heart and then let in the Romans upon them who utterly destroyed their City and Temple and so scattered them on all the face of the Earth and hence the Apostle saith that Wrath was come upon them to the uttermost 7. The Wrath of God like Fire sometimes also seizeth on the Consciences of men by which means they are fearfully tormented for their horrid Blasphemy Prophaness Atheism Apostacy c. We have had two Examples of this sort viz. Mr. Francis Spira in the last Century and Mr. John Child in this It is enough to make all who read those Naratives to Tremble at the very thoughts of the incensed Wrath and Anger of an offended God Who can stand before his indignation when his wrath is poured out like fire on the Souls and Consciences of Men O how doth he seem to Tear them into peices even to such a degree as they seem to be in the very torments of Hell while in the Body And not knowing but that a faithful reciting of some Passages concerning the inward Horror of the said Spira and Child may be of some use to Caution all to take heed of such like sins which they fell under I shall tho' more briefly than I intended compare their States Circumstances inward Anguish and Horror of their Spirits together SOME PASSAGES Of the Fearful Estate of Francis Spira SPira having received the Light of the Gospel became a Teacher of the Blessed Truths thereof amongst his Friends and familiar Acquaintance and says the Narrative in comparison seemed to neglect all other Affairs much pressing this main point of Doctrine viz. That we must wholly and only depend on the free and unchangable Love of God in the Death of Christ as the only way to Salvation As to his natural and corrupt Inclination ' I was saith he excessively Covetous of Money and accordinly applyed my self to get it by Injustice corrupting Justice by doing it ' c. As touching Spira's Sin and his grand fall it was thus viz. The Popes Legate Resident at Venice was stirred by the malice of the Papists to accuse Spira to him and by the Craft and Policy of the Legate and through slavish Fear Spira first fled and afterwards renounced his Testimony to the Truth before which it appears he reasoned thus within himself thro' the Suggestion of the Devil viz. ' Be well advised fond Man consider Reasons on both sides and then judge how canst thou thus overwean thine own sufficiency as thou neither regardest the Examples of thy Progenitors nor the Judgment of the whole Church dost thou not consider what misery this thy Rashness will bring thee into thou shalt lose thy Substance gotten with so great Care and Travel thou shalt undergo the most exquisite Torments that Malice 〈…〉 devise thou shalt be 〈…〉 an Heretick of all 〈…〉 to close up all thou shalt die shamefully What thinkest thou of the lothsom stinking Dungeon the Bloudy Ax the Burning Faggot are they delightful be wise at length and keep thy Life and Honour Go to the Legate Weak Man and freely Confess thy Fault ' c. And upon these thoughts he goes to the Legate and salutes him with this News viz. Having for these divers years entertained an Opinion concerning some Articles of Faith contrary to the Orthodox and received Judgment of the Church and uttered many things against the Authority of the Church of Rome and the universal Bishop I humbly acknowledge my Fault and Error and my Folly in my misleading others I therefore yeild my self in all Obedience to the supream Bishop of Rome into the Bosom of the Church of Rome never to depart again from the Traditions and Decrees of the Holy See I am heartily sorry for what is past and I humbly beg Pardon for so great an Offence The Legate at this commanded him to return to his own Town and there to confess and acknowledge the whole Doctrine of the Church of Rome to be holy and true and to abjure the Opinions of Luther c. After this he signed an Instrument of Abjuration and then fell under horrid Despairation ' And he thought he heard a direful Voice ' saying Thou wicked Wretch thou hast renounced the Covenant of thy Obedience thou hast broke thy Vow henc Apostate bear with thee the Sentene of thy Eternal Damnation He trembling in Body and Mind fellinto a Swound Now began some of his Friends to repent too late of their Rash Council not looking so high as to the Judgment of God laid all the blame on his Melancholly Constitution that over-shaddowing his Judgment wrought in him a kind of Madness and directed him to the use of Physicians c. To which Spira replyed Alas poor men how far wide are you do you think that this Disease is to be Cured by Potions believe me there must be another manner of Medicine it is neither Plaister nor Drugs that can help a fainting Soul cast down with the sence of sin and the Wrath of God 't is only Christ that must be the Pysician and the Gospel the Souls Antidote Amongst others that come to visit him was Panlus Vergerius and Mattheus Gribauldus principal Labourers for his Comfort they sound him about 50 Years of Age. Neither affected with Doteage nor with the unconstant head-strong Passion of Youth but in the strength of his Experience and Judgment in a burning heat calling for drink yet his Understanding active quick or Apprehension Witty in Discourse above his ordinary manner they forcibly infused some liquid Sustenance into his Mouth most of which he spit out again and in a fretting mood said As it is true that all things work for the better to those that Love God so to the wicked all to the contrary for whereas a plentiful Off-spring is the Blessing of God and his Reward being a stay to the weak Estate of their Aged Parents to me they are a cause of bitterness and vexation they do strive to make me tire out this misery I would fain be at an end I deserve not this dealing at their hands Oh that I were gone from hence that some body would let out this weary Soul My sin said Spira is greater than the Mercy of God nay answered his Visitors the Mercy of God is above all sin God would have all men to be saved it is true said he God would have all the Elect to be saved he would not have damn'd Reprobates to be saved I am one of that Number I know it for I willingly denyed Christ and I feel that he hardens me and will not suffer me to hope Being
torment for a refreshment Fifthly It will be intolerable because the punishment of Hell is to satisfie Divine Justice to pay the just Debt owing to God for the breach of his holy Law true because sin is an infinite wrong and the Creature is but finite they can never pay the Debt nor make a satisfaction for the injury done to God therefore they must suffer eternally they are always a paying but can never fully pay what they owe Justice requiring the utmost farthing Nothing can surely set forth the dismalness of their torment more than this Oh take a view of Divine Wrath in the sufferings of our Blessed Saviour when he stood in our stead and was to satisfie for the Sins of all the Elect how did it bring him down prostrate to the ground and made him sweat great drops of blood and to Cry out My Soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto Death Tho' he was God as well as Man and had the Strength of the infinite Deity to support him Ah Sirs this wrath laid upon finite Creatures will sink them down to the lowest Hell and grind them to Powder Sixthly It will be Wrath-amazing and very terrible Wrath because it will seize on the Soul of the Sinner it will put the Soul into the fire The Soul hath been the chief sinner here and therefore shall be the chief sufferer in those Regions of Sorrow and how unsupportable is that Wrath which is let out on the Soul or Spirit of man you have had a taste in Spira and Child If Sirs a spark of Divine Displeasure when it falls upon the guilty Conscience tears it pieces what will be those floods of Divine Wrath poured forth in Hell on the Souls of Men and Women who can stand here whilst in this World before an Angry God or encounter with Offended Omnipotency such is the sharpness of his Sword the heaviness of his Rod when laid on by the hand of his Wrath that every stroak is deadly and no doubt Satan greatens the wounds on the Conscience he charges the guilt upon their Spirits with all the Soul-killing aggravations and strives to hide Divine Mercy and Rob the Soul of the precious Blood of Christ the only lenitive and choice balm to heal a wounded Spirit O what visions of horror what sence of fear and perplexity were presented to the distressed minds of these two miserable Creatures before mentioned the guilty Conscience turns all Joy into Sorrow all Light into Darkness the sweet Promises of the Gospel that assure of favour and pardon to believing Sinners afford no relief but are turned into arguments of Despair by reflecting on their former Iniquities and abuse of Mercies so that Christ himself they see is become their Accuser ' Whatever the wounded Sinner sees and hears saith a worthy Minister afflicts him whatever he thinks of torments him all the diversions in the World Business Pleasures Merry Conversations Comedies are as ineffectual to give him freedom from those stings and furies in his breasts as the sprinkling of holy Water is to expel the Devil from a possessed Person those who in their Pride and Jollity have despised serious Religion either as a fond Transport and Extasie or a dull Melancholly and Dejection about the Soul c. yet when God has set their sins with all their killing circumstances before their Eyes how changed how confounded are they at that apparition how restless in the dreadful expectation of the doom that attends them ' But alas alas what is internal Wrath let out on the Soul in Hell as he notes for the Aprehensions of the Soul will be enlarged and their spirits work with the quickest activity Here tho' they have no hope at present yet they know not what God may do in a moment to turn their Sorrow into Joy and their Night into Noon-day here are many things to divert their thoughts and they meet with some intermission of their horror and perplexity as Mr. Child intimated but in Hell there 's none of this Seventhly It will be intolerable misery because it shall be Torments on the Body and Soul too not on the Soul only but on both O it will be a dismal Meeting when they two old Companions meet together at the last day I mean the miserable Soul and Body of a wicked man at the Resurrection and hear the dolesom Sentence Go ye cursed Spira and Child had direful Sorrow and Anguish in their Souls but their Bodies were not much tormented they both being in a state of Health as to the outward man but the fire of Gods Wrath will extend to and seize upon the Body as well as on the Soul in that day every Faculty of the Soul and Member of the Body which have been Instruments of Sin shall then be in Pain and under fearful Torture and Misery Now the Spirit of a man may support or sustain his bodily Infirmities and Afflictions but in Hell the Spirit cannot afford any Relief to the Body because it cannot sustain its own misery both must and shall suffer Eighthly All the Perplexing Passions and Faculties will then be let out upon the wicked beyond whatever they have been here whilst in this World 1. The Conscience in a fearful manner shall torment the damned May we not conclude Conscience will terrifie them after this manner O thou Wretch what a God hast thou lost who is a most infinite suitable seasonable and a Soul-satisfying Good what a Christ art thou deprived of who died for poor Sinners how often did he knock at thy Door calling upon thee intreating thee to let him in who stood with his Arms spread open to embrace all that came to him and what a Heaven and endless Joy hast thou contemned and this for one base Lust for bruitish Pleasure for a moment for a little Earthly Profit and sinful Honour How didst thou hearken to thy vile Companions and close in with them rather than adhere to me who accused thee for thy cursed Evils thou wouldst not mind those Checks and Lashes thou hadst from me in thy Bosom did not I tell thee what thy Pride thy Lying thy Swearing thy Whoreing thy Theft thy Cheating thy Covetousness and Cruelty to the Poor or Unmercifulness thy Neglect of the means of Grace and of Gospel or Christian Duties thy Hardness of Heart thy Unbelief thy Hypocrisie and Formality would bring thee to in the End This is the gnawing Worm that dyeth not O how fearfully will Conscience terrifie and torment the Soul of the Damned then now it is Blinded Misled Deceived may be seared with a hot Iron but then it will be throughly awakened and all Vails taken off it will lay unmerciful Blows upon the Soul and make it cry yea roar and none to speak a word to allay or appease its Acclamations and its fearful Outcries You may judge of the Nature of a Tormenting Conscience in Hell by what those have sound and experienced to be
the Effects of it who have been under Desparation in this World 2. Shame also will torment them some shall rise to Shame and everlasting Contempt O what Shame and Confusion of Face shall the Damned be cloathed with should a King lose his Crown and Kingdom to get a few Cockle-shells would it not bring Shame upon him O how will the Damned Soul cry I have for meer Toys and Trifles lost that God that made me that Christ that is worth ten thousand Worlds even he that is the Pearl of great Price I have been that Judas that did not value him above thirty pence no not above the sinful Profits of this World not above the Pleasure of Sin and the filthy Lusts of the Flesh thus will the unclean Person be ashamed Shame will torment him I must saith he now lye in Hell for ever and pay dear for my Folly 2. The Drunkard will be also tormented with Shame I was such a Fool he then may say that for the sake of my Cups and Love to my cursed Companions and merry Bouts have lost God the Perfection of Happiness I rather chose to go to the Ale-house or Tavern to Drink and carouse with these Damned Wretches than to go to hear Gods Word I derided them that feared to sin against God and accounted them Fools but I must lye in Hell for ever and pay dear for my wickedness 3. Shame also will torment the Proud and Ambitious Person Ah what a Fool was I he will say to love the Praise of Men more than the Praise of God! I sought vain Honour and pleased my self with a Name all my Design was to be great and had in Esteem among Men I was proud of my Estate and despised he Poor I was of a Haughty Spirit and gloried in my Titles of Honour I sought the Favour of my Prince but regarded not the Favour of God I was proud of my Parts I gloryed in my Gifts in my Beauty in my Strength I delighted my self in Antick Dresses and in Decking of my Vile Body that now is here burning in Hell I was so Graceless that I would not leave off Idle and Foolish Fashions though Godly Ministers were grieved at me and told me my Doom and tho' God bore Witness against my High Head and Haughty Heart by strange Prodigies in Nature seen in divers poor Animals yet I still vaunted my self in Pride and Wantouness and laught at Christs Ministers when they reproved me O what shame torments me now here must I lye in Hell under Gods Wrath for ever and pay dear for my Folly 4. The prophane Swearer and Blasphemer will be also tormented with Shame O saith he I looked upon my self to be no small Person but one of the Hero's of my Day and fit to keep Company with great Men because I could swear and curse with any of them how often did I call upon God to Damn me I have but that which I desired he hath now damn'd me indeed I acted like a fearless Brute Beast O what Shame do I find my Soul covered with that I should cast away my self for that filthy Vice that was no Profit to me any manner of way 5. Shame also will terrisie and bring Confusion upon the carnal Worldling or Covetuous Person who made this World his God I had he will say store of Gold and Silver in my Bags and Chests where it lay to rust but I refused to feed the Poor and to cloath the Naked I regarded no distressed Members of Christ I set my Heart upon my Earthly Treasure valuing it above God and Jesus Christ O what a Fool was I in that I could not foresee how soon I must leave all that which I had gathered I to get the World slighted nay despised my own Soul now if I had ten thousand Worlds I would give them for the Favour of God nay for one drop of Water to cool my Tongue 6. The Lyar moreover will be tormented with Shame Ah! saith he how often did I read that those that did love and make Lies should burn in this Lake but I would not believe it I damn'd my own Soul by telling Lies to please my graceless Companions even to cause them to laugh and be merry or to excuse my self and free me from shame when on Earth or for a little worldly Profit Gain or for popular Applause I made no Conscience oftelling Lyes O what Shame doth these things now bring upon my Spirit 7. The Seducer and Heretical person likewise will be filled and tormented with shame who preached false Doctrine or sucked in detestable Errors laying aside the chief Corner-stone and magnifying Morality or the Light of natural Conscience above Christ I seemed saith he to be a strict and zealous Person and deceived multitudes of People but for trusting in my own Righteousness for hugging a few base filthy Raggs I am damned I was ignorant of Gods Righteousness and of the Mysteries of the Gospel yet gave out that none were true Christians but such as my self I denyed that Christ that bought me and did not believe the Resurrection of my Body but now I find how the Devil blinded my Eyes and now here tormented with Shame I must lie in these flames Body and Soul for ever O! and what a multitude of poor deluded Creatures have I been an Instrument to bring into this place Wo is me that ever I was born 8. The Hypocritical Professor will be tormented with Shame also I rested he will say upon a bare Name of being Religious pleased my self with the Shell withan empty Cabinet without the Jewel a Lamp of Profession with a Form of Godliness my Business was to keep up my Credit amongst Gods People that they might take me to be one of them yet my own Conscience often told me I was not sincere I loved not the Life and Power of Godliness I did all to be seen of men had base ends I appeared abroad to be what I was not at home O what Shame now torments my Soul I had a darling Lust which I would not forego my heart was never really changed Thus I might go on to the rest c. O what Shame will seize upon the Sinner when all his vain Excuses are laid open and all his Extenuations of his Guilt are discovered when his secret Deeds of Darkness are published as it were on the House-top when his Breast shall be transparent to all Eyes when his inward Thoughts cursed Lusts cruel Malice Murthers and Deceits are made manifest and all his beastly Sensualities shall be laid open before God Angels and Saints when the Vails and Covers of Shame shall be taken off how will he be confounded for ever 9. The Devil also no doubt will reproach them for their Folly though he be in Misery with them Ah thou Wretch may not he say wast thou not a Fool to believe me whom thou wast often told was a Liar from the Beginning and wouldst not believe
know now the things that belong to your peace before they are hid from your Eyes Behold now is the accepted time c. 3. Close with Christ whilst the Spirit strives with thee and before Conscience is feared or let out against thee to tear thee into pieces 4. Attend carefully upon the means of Grace and know assuredly that the Wages of Sin is eternal Death even everlasting burnings therefore renounce it with the greatest abhorrence know all the Pleasures and Honours of this Life are but the Elements of carnal felicity and according to the Judgment of Reason and sense would any one chuse the enjoyment of the greatest Pleasures for a day and afterwards be satisfied to suffer the most exquisite Torments for a year much more folly and madness it is for momentary brutish delights to incurr the fiery Indignation of God for ever 1. One word to you that are Believers and I have done O bless God for Jesus Christ who has born the wrath of God for you and in your stead that you might never seel the bitterness of it even Jesus who delivered us from wrath to come 2. Admire the distinguishing Grace and special Love of God We love him because he first loved us It was his Love that overcame you The meer fear of Hell is not sufficient to Convert the Souls of men tho' it may stop them in their way and prevent great Abominations in the gross acts thereof yet does not cannot renew their Nature regenerate and make holy their hearts and lives that Religion that is the meer effect of fear will be according to the nature of its principle even legal wavering and inconstant yet the fear of Hell may awaken the sinner and in some sence prepare for Grace When the Soul is stormed by the terror of Wrath and the fear of Hell has made a breach Divine Grace enters but it is the Love of God and hopes of Heaven that works spiritual affections as the Obedience that flows therefrom is Evangelical free and voluntary from the entire consent of the Soul and are abiding 3. Be content with your Condition tho' poor in this World remember Lazarus how much better was his state than the Rich Glutton's O do not envy the wicked that are Rich they will pay dear for their Wealth when they come to Hell which they with greedy covetous minds heap up I remember a Passage which is related in History A General with an Army passing through another Princes Countrey gave strict Order that no Person should offer to touch the least thing which belong'd to the Inhabitants but nevertheless one Souldier as they were upon their March stole a Bunch of Grapes which the General being informed of gave Order that he should immediately be put to Death as he was going to Execution he fell a eating his Grapes and some Persons looking greedily on him he observing them said Do not envy me my Grapes for they cost me dear they cost me my Life 4. Let it appear to all that you do love Jesus Christ and preferr the honour of God and his interest above all things in this World let the main end and design of your Souls in desiring Grace Gifts Knowledge c. and in all you act and do in his Service be that you may advance his Glory Sirs the time is near when it will be known who are Christs Wheat true Christians and who are not but let all that are but Chaff tremble for Hell is prepared for them He will gather the Wheat into his garner but the Chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire FINIS THE BLESSEDNESS OF Christ's Sheep OR No final Falling from a State of true Grace DEMONSTRATED In Several SERMONS lately Preached and now for general Good Published Wherein all the grand Objections usually brought against the Saints final Perseverance are fully answered By BENJAMIN KEACH Heb. 10. 39. But we are not of them who draw back unto Perdition but of them that believe to the saving of the Soul London Printed in the Year 1694. THE BLESSEDNESS OF Christ's Sheep c. JOHN X. 27 28. My Sheep hear my Voice and I know them and they follow me And I give unto them Eternal Life and they shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of my Hand BELOVED these Words are the Words of our Blessed Saviour and they contain no small Comfort to all true Believers who are the Sheep and Lambs of Jesus Christ My main Purpose or Intention is to speak to the 28 th Verse and to defend the sweet and comfortable Doctrine of the Saints final Perseverance but shall begin with the 27 th Verse viz. My Sheep hear my Voice and I know them and they follow me In our Text are two Parts 1. Something Implied viz. Christ is a Shepherd and that he hath a People that are his Sheep 2. Something that is Expressed viz. That all such who are his Sheep hear his Voice and do follow him You have in the Words 1. The Property of Christ's Sheep 2. Their Security and happy State and Condition 1. Their Character or Property viz. They hear his Voice and do follow him 2. Their Security and happy State and Condition 1. He knows them that is he approves of them 2. He gives to them Eternal Life 3. They are in his Hand and shall never perish Our Saviour in this Chapter calls himself the Shepherd of the Sheep yea the Good Shepherd Ver. 11. I am the Good Shepherd the Good Shepherd giveth his Life for the Sheep Now if it be demanded who are the Sheep of Christ I answer All that the Father hath given to him and that believe in him Christ's Sheep may be considered as his two manner of ways 1. Decretively See Ver. 16. And other Sheep I have which are not of this Fold them also I must bring and they shall hear my Voice The Lord Jesus meaneth the Gentiles these he calls his Sheep by virtue of God's Eternal Election Them also I must bring They are given unto me and all that the Father hath given me shall come unto me I lay down my Life for them or in their stead that they might not perish I therefore as if he should so say must bring them call them renew or regenerate them The Covenant I have made with my Father is such that it cannot be broken the Purpose Counsel and Promises of God shall stand This agrees with that Word of the Holy God to St. Paul Be not afraid but speak and hold not thy peace For I am with thee and no Man shall set on thee to hurt thee for I have much People in this City They are called the Lord's People though then in a state of Darkness and Unbelief decretively or according to his Eternal Purpose they were his 2. Actually or such who are already brought in or who do believe and are visibly of his Fold The Doctrine I shall prosecute shall be
drawn as comporting with this latter Exposition Doct. 1. All true Believers are the Sheep and Lambs of Jesus Christ and he is their Shepherd they hear his Voice and follow him Two things I shall God assisting do Before I raise any other Point of Doctrine in prosecuting this I shall 1. Open or explain this Proposition 2. Apply it In speaking to the first I shall observe this Method First I shall explain the Proposition 1. I shall shew you in what respect they may be said to be his Sheep 2. Shew what is meant by Christ's Voice 3. What by hearing of his Voice 4. What by his knowing of them 5. Give you some of the Characters of Christ's Sheep and shew how they follow him 6. Shew what a kind of Shepherd Christ is First They are his Sheep by Choice or by virtue of Election Those that are Christ's are not only his Sheep but his Spouse also according to another Scripture-Metaphor and therefore 't is reasonable they should be his own free Choice and such as he can and doth dearly love not only such as the Father loved but he himself also loved all that were Elected from Everlasting were beloved by the Father and the Son from Everlasting with a Purpose of Grace and Favour or Love of Benevolence The Sign and Fruit of Christ's Love to his Sheep is the Choice he hath made of them Ye have not chosen me but I have chosen you and ordained that you should go and bring forth Fruit and that your Fruit should remain John 15. 16. This Christ mentions here as an Argument of his greatest Love and therefore he doth not refer to that Choice of them as Apostles for so was Judas chosen who was not comprehended in God's Eternal Election I speak not of you all I know whom I have chosen John 15. 18. Judas was chosen to the Apostleship but was not chosen to Eternal Life he was a Devil and therefore not to be one of Christ's Sheep Have I not chosen you Twelve and one of you is a Devil Christ hath no Sheep but such that he was pleased to chuse or make choice of for his own and he knows them before they know him as the Apostle speaks The Lord knows them that are his that is all such that he hath chosen according to the Decree of Eternal Election Secondly Christ's Sheep are his by virtue of the Father's free Donation They are all given unto him I pray not for the World but for them thou hast given me I have manifested thy Name to the Men which thou gavest me out of the World thine they were and thou gavest them me They were given to Christ to be his Sheep to be his Spouse and Members of his Mystical Body Behold I and the Children thou hast given me are for Signs and Wonders in Israel Thirdly They are Christ's Sheep by Purchase He bought them all and that too at a dear Price He paid heartily for them every Sheep cost one and the same Price even the meanest poorest and weakest of them cost more than ten thousand Millions nay that which was in value more than ten thousand Worlds Ye are not your own but you are bought with a Price We had sold our selves to other Masters and they had possession of us I am carnal saith Paul sold under Sin He was formerly sold and was hardly yet got out of the Tyrant's Hand Behold for your Iniquities have you sold your selves but ye shall be redeemed without Money We were all sold to Sin sold to Satan and there was no ways to redeem us from the Wrath of God without a great Ransom Justice will have a satisfactory Price And since corruptible things as Silver and Gold will not do it no nor a thousand Rams nor ten thousand Rivers of Oil nor the Fruit of the Body which could not make Atonement for the Sin of the Soul Christ must come to the Price proposed to him and demanded of him if he will purchase these Sheep and that was his own precious Blood Take heed therefore unto your selves and to the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers that ye feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own Blood I lay down my Life for my Sheep This was the Price so dearly did Christ buy his Sheep And this Day Beloved the Tokens of this Price or Sacred Signs or Symbols of this Purchase is to be set before your Eyes pray remember that Believers are Christ's Sheep by Purchase Fourthly Believers are Christ's Sheep by Renovation or Transformation In this lies a great Mystery they had not once a Sheep-like Nature but by Grace their swinish and evil Qualities are changed he hath infused new and holy Dispositions into them So that in this respect Jesus Christ excels all other Shepherds for they cannot turn Swine Bears or Tigers into Sheep but the Lord Jesus by the Holy Ghost makes such to become his Sheep or to have Sheep-like Natures and Dispositions that were before as vile filthy and abominable as the worst of Sinners the Holy Ghost compares them before Grace and Regeneration to Dogs Swine c. they having like evil Qualities with those unclean and filthy Creatures Such were some of you What a kind of such were they Why Thieves Covetous Drunkards Reviiers Extortioners Effeminate c. But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus that is by the Power of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God Christ hath not one Sheep but what he hath made so to be He as God made them at first and they having lost their first Excellent and Holy Nature he new makes them forms them again or transforms them into his own holy humble meek and gentle Nature This People have I formed for my self they shall shew forth my Praise We are created in Christ Jesus unto good Works and thus they may be said to be his Sheep Fifthly Believers are Christ's Sheep by a Holy Covenant or Contract made with the Father and by virtue of this Covenant they were given to him By virtue of this Covenant he died for them by virtue of this Covenant they became his and he calls them renews them and changes them He shall see his Seed It was by the Blood of this Covenant the Great Shepherd of the Sheep was raised from the Dead that they might be raised quickned and justified By virtue of this Covenant he gathers them and carries them in his Arms and lays the young and tender Ones in his Bosom and gently leads such that are with Young Isa 40. 11. By virtue of this Covenant he puts his Fear into their Hearts that they may not depart from him Christ as Mediator in this Covenant is God's Servant and undertakes the Office of Shepherd to take care of feed heal and preserve all those
justify us in God's sight as an Habit or Act or in respect of the Product of it but only objectively i. e. in respect of the Object it doth apprehend apply and take hold of O Sirs take heed ye are not deceived may be ye look upon the Lives and Conversations of Men and you think they are good Men holy Men yet for all this examine the Doctrine they preach for an evil and corrupt Doctrine may be as pernicious and damnable as an evil Conversation But there were false Prophets also among the People even as there shall be 〈…〉 Teachers among you who shall privily bring in damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift Destruction 7 thly Be wary also lest you are carried away with the Error of the Wicked to doubt of or deny the Resurrection of the Body If once you come to deny the Resurrection your State is dangerous for that is a capital Error If the Dead rise not then is not Christ risen and if Christ be not risen then is our preaching vain and your Faith is also vain Yea and we are found false Witnesses of God because we testified of God that he raised up Christ whom he raised not up if so be that the Dead rise not It must be the same Body not another for if not the same it will be no Resurrection but a new Creation and if not the same Body but another then it will not be that Body that suffered for Christ that shall be glorified nor that Body that sinned against God and Christ that shall be punished but an innocent Body a Body that never sinned Be sure labour to hold the Head and be established in all the fundamental Truths of the Gospel they are not many 1. Your Souls are in danger of being corrupted we have slie and crafty Deceivers among us in these Days 2. Many thousands we have cause to fear are already poisoned with most pernicious Notions and Soul-destructive Errors who are in danger of perishing this way to Eternity yet seem sober holy and devout Persons 3. Let it be your care to fit under the Ministry of such Men who preach Christ Christ only or wholly seek to exalt Christ and the Free Grace of God by Jesus Christ Take heed who you hear and take heed what you hear and how you hear Therefore watch and remember saith Paul that by the space of three Years I ceased not to warn every one Night and Day with Tears He was afraid of those grievous Wolves that would enter in among them not sparing the Flock You hear that Christ's Sheep hear his Voice let it appear you are his Sheep by having this Character namely in that you hear his Doctrine and will not hear the Voice of Strangers But O rest not in a bare hearing the Voice of Christ nor in the knowledg of saving Truth get it not only into your Heads but into your Hearts He that hath truly received Christ's Doctrine or rightly hears his Voice brings forth good Fruit he feels the Power of his Word upon his own Heart Knowledg without Grace will stand you in no stead A good Doctrine and much Head-Knowledg and great Gifts without Love Humility and a Godly Life signifies nothing Knowledg puffs up but Love edifies I shall add no more at this Time JOHN X. 27. My Sheep hear my Voice and I know them and they follow me DOCT. 1. All true Believers are the Sheep and Lambs of Jesus Christ they hear his Voice and they follow him I have shewed you what is meant by hearing of Christ's Voice Fourthly I am now to speak to the next thing proposed or Head of Discourse which is the fourth General I know them c. 1 st In speaking to this I shall shew you 1. In what respect Christ knows his Sheep 2. What a kind of Knowledg he hath of them 3. Shew what Comfort doth and may arise unto them hereby 1. Christ knows them as they are his Father's Choice All Christ's Sheep are chosen Sheep such as the Father hath pick'd out of the common Lump of Mankind or out of the great Flock of fallen Man thus Jesus Christ knows them and as they are his own Choice also for the Father and the Son agreed both in the Choice of the Elect. If you know these things happy are ye if you do them I speak not of you all I know whom I have chosen Not only to Apostleship but to Eternal Life for Judas was chosen to be an Apostle but he was not in the Election of Grace 2. Christ knoweth them as they are the special Purchase of his own Blood He knows whom he died for and in the room and stead of he knows what Sheep he hath bought and paid so dear for The Foundation of God standeth sure the Lord knoweth them that are his There is a certain Number who are built upon a Rock upon a sure Foundation these are sealed and confirmed by God's Eternal Decree of Election and are the Price therefore of Christ's special Purchase and as such he knows them from all others in the World 3. He knows them as such who have and do experience the Effects of his Death He sees and knows they are his Sheep as they have his Mark his Image formed in them for like as other Shepherds know their Sheep by the Mark they have upon them so to speak after the manner of Men Jesus Christ may in this respect be said to know his Sheep his Saints and People Surely they are my People Children that will not lie so he was their Saviour I know these are my People I cannot but own them they will keep my Covenant I have renewed them and they abide faithful to me and will not deal falsly with me In another place he says Their Spot is not the Spot of my Children These I know are none of my Sheep their Spot their Sin their Iniquity are not such as are in my People not Sins of Infirmity or common Frailties but they have a contagious Spot upon them they have none of my Image my Mark c. 4. Christ knows his Sheep with a Knowledg of Approbation I know them that is I approve of them I like them well I esteem them and accept of their Persons and their Services 5. Christ may be said to know his Sheep also with a Knowledg of Love and Affection He knows them as to delight in them they have his Heart I am the good Shepherd and know my Sheep and am known of mine As the Father knoweth me even so I know the Father and I lay down my Life for the Sheep As this mutual Knowledg between the Father and the Son was joined with perfect Love and Delight so is Christ's Knowledg of his Sheep And this he himself also here expresses by saying I lay down my Life for the Sheep which shews not only the Sincerity but also the
Degree of his Love unto his Saints So that if we can believe that God the Father loved Christ his only begotten Son we may also believe that both Father and Son love those who are really the Sheep of Jesus Christ the Love that Christ hath unto his People is as true certain and abiding as the Father's Love to Christ or Christ's Love unto the Father 2 dly I shall shew you what a kind of Knowledg Christ hath of his Saints 1. Christ knoweth them by Name As 't is said of Moses so it may be said of every true Believer Yet thou hast said I know thee by Name Even in like manner in this Chapter the Lord Jesus shews us that the true Shepherd calleth his Sheep by Name and leadeth them out this denotes the knowledg he hath of them particularly 2. Christ knows their Hearts as he testifies to the seven Churches in Asia And all the Churches shall know that I am he that searcheth the Reins and Hearts c. This shews he is the most High God For who knoweth the Heart but God himself This Jehovah glorieth in as his own absolute Prerogative it being out of the reach of any Creature I the Lord search the Heart I try the Reins Moreover 't is said of Jesus Christ That he needed not that any should testify of Man for he knew what was in Man He needeth not any to bring him Information concerning the Principles Ends Aims Purposes and Tempers of Men and therefore he knows his Sheep his Saints that they are sincere or upright-hearted Ones he knows them from Hypocrites from the Goats from the foolish Virgins 3. Christ knows where they live in what Land City Town or Family I know thy Works and where thou dwellest even where Satan's Seat is He knows the Place where they dwell and how they behave themselves 4. He knows their Works How many times doth he express this in the second and third Chapters of the Revelations even in the beginning of every Epistle to the seven Churches I know thy Works whether they proceed from a renewed Nature from a Principle of Divine Grace or Spiritual Life or not whether from Faith or not whether right Gospel-Works of Obedience or not he hath a Knowledg of Comprehension or Understanding of all But 5. He knows his Sheep his Saints with a Knowledg of Approbation as I hinted before 6. Christ knows their Faith the Quality and Quantity of it that it is true Faith unfeigned Faith the Faith of the Operation of God or of his own Spirit But there are some of you that believe not for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him Though Faith be an inward secret Act of the Soul yet Christ knows it he knows who hath it wrought in them and also though it be never so small even as a Grain of Mustard-seed whether it be weak or strong great or little growing or decaying he knows it 7. Christ knows the Love of his People whether they love him in Sincerity both the Truth of their Love and the Degree of their Love Jesus saith unto Simon Peter Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me more than these He saith unto him Yea Lord thou knowest that I love thee And as he knows whether they love him above all or not so he knows whether they love one another or no whether it be with a pure Heart fervently and in sincerity Christ knows it whether it be a Love in Words or with the Tongue only or in Deed and in Truth 8. He knows the Humility of his Saints whether they are clothed with it or not Though the Lord be high yet hath he respect unto the Lowly but the Proud he knoweth afar off He is far off from them though he knoweth such but he is near unto humble Souls he dwelleth with them 9. He knows the Patience of each of his People under all their Sufferings Losses and Disappointments they meet with in this World I know thy Works and thy Labour and thy Patience c. He knows how they carry it under the Rod of Afflictions which will work for the good of all that are patiently exercised thereby In a word Christ knows every Grace of the Spirit in the Souls of his People and whether they are in Exercise or not 10. He knows the Works and Actions of his Saints and of every one of them particularly I know thy Works And again he says I know thy Works 1. He knows what our Lives are whether we walk circumspectly or not whether we make Conscience in all we do and walk uprightly or not He knew Abraham that he would fear and serve him and command his Children and Houshold to keep his Commandments also He knew that Noah was only Righteous in that Generation He knows our up-rising and our down-lying whether we begin the Day with him and end the Day with him or not 2. He doth not only know all our Works and Actions whether Natural Moral or Spiritual but also the Manner of our Actions how we perform all our Duties towards God and towards Men. 3. He knoweth with what Hearts we act whether with Zeal Life and Power or not whether we stir up our selves in Duty to take hold of him or perform Duties of Obedience but with a cold and lukewarm Heart He knows with what Hearts we hear read pray meditate give to the Poor in all these Respects he knows his Sheep 4. He knows the Principle from whence we act the Means we use the Works we do and the End we propound to our selves in all our Actions whether we aim at his Glory or seek our selves self-Profit self-Honour self-Applause all is known to him 5. He knows what we have been and what we now are what we have done and what we do and will do hereafter nothing is hid from him 11. He knows our Carriage and Behaviour in our Families in our own Houses and what our Behaviour is in the House and Church of God whether we know our Places and our Duty in the Station where we are set He knows and will judg between Cattel and Cattel betwixt the fat and the lean Sheep if any oppress his Brother or if the Strong and Rich neglect or wrong the poor and weak Ones of his Flock he knows it He knows whether we make his Word our Rule in all Cases and do not offend nor grieve each other And if any be offended with their Brother he knows whether they proceed against him according to the Directions he hath left us to walk by 12. Christ knows all our Sorrows Troubles and Afflictions And the Lord said I have surely seen the Affliction of my People which are in Egypt and have heard their Cry by reason of their Task-master for I KNOW their Sorrow 13. He knows our Wants Temptations Tears and Poverty I know thy Works Tribulation and Poverty If
the whole Heart as when a Child is formed in the Womb it hath all the Parts Nature doth not fashion one Part and leave another imperfect So the Holy Spirit forms every Part of the new Creature in the Soul of the Regenerate This Habit is but one 't is an intire Rectitude in all the Faculties and an universal Principle of inclining and disposing to that which is good and well-pleasing to God there is a Divine Light in the Vnderstanding by which the Soul sees God to be its chief Good and owns and looks upon him as such There is a Change in the Will that consents and chuses God as such there is a Change in the Affections There is no true Draught of the Image of God in us unless there be a Rectitude of Affection and Disposition There is therefore a conformity of Affections to God they love God and love as God loves and hate as God hateth they hate Evil because of that inward Filthiness that is in it and love Grace and Vertue because of its pure and native Beauty and Excellency therefore it is from hence the Soul comes to take delight in God 5. It changes not the Heart only but the whole Life also The Life which I now live in the Flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God Such live no longer to themselves but to God their Tongues speak for God their Ears hear for God their Hands work for God their Actions are Holy Just and Good There is a Change of Company also a Change of Labour of Endeavour and their whole End Aim and Design is to glorify God Heavenly Things are preferred by them before earthly Things they chiefly seek the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness They do not pursue the World as they did nor fashion themselves according to the former Lusts and the Course of this World nor pray as they did nor hear as they did nor give Alms as they did No no they do all things from another Principle from another End and with other Zeal Endeavours and Diligence Thirdly Christ's Sheep will feed in Christ's Pasture in their own Pasture where they are put by him not but that they may for good Reasons be removed into another Pasture but they will not unless under strong Temptation break down the Hedg or Fold where they were put and run away No no but are contented with that Food that Pasture God affords them though there may be some more Fat and Rich than theirs Some Sheep when they grow wanton are unruly and will break into other Mens Ground so there are some Professors some Church-members that rend themselves away from their own Flock and Fold in a disorderly manner Which as a Reverend Minister shews is an abominable Evil and a shame to them this destroys the Relation of Pastor and People for what may be done by one Individual may be done by all and saith he what Liberty belongs to the Sheep belongs also to that particular Shepherd who has the Charge of them much more it is a breaking Covenant with Christ and the Congregation and therefore a great Immorality 't is a Schism if there be any such thing in the World it is a despising the Government of the Church and there is as much reason a Person should come in when he pleases without asking Consent as to depart when he pleases It is also very evil and unkind in another Church to receive such a One as not doing as they would be dealt with Such a Practice can issue in nothing but in the Breach and Confusion of all particular Churches It tends saith he to Anarchy putting an Arbitrary Power in every Member and breaks all Bonds of Love and raiseth the greatest Animosities between Brethren and Churches The truth is how can another Shepherd justify such an Act to the great Shepherd of the Sheep I mean to take into his Fold his Neighbour's Sheep without Christ's Order and Authority Fourthly Christ's Sheep will and do follow him and this our Blessed Saviour lays down as an undoubted Character of all that are his They follow his Example his Steps The good Shepherd when he putteth forth his own Sheep he goeth before them and the Sheep follow him Jesus Christ hath gone before his Sheep in his Obedience to the Father leaving us an Example that we should follow his Steps 1. They follow his Steps in Humility He bids us to learn of him upon this Account Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in Heart How did Christ deny himself in taking our Nature upon him In this ought his Sheep to follow him Let the same Mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus O let the same humble Spirit and self-denying Temper be in you which was in him Who being in the Form of God thought it no Robbery to be equal with God and made himself of no reputation but took upon him the Form of a Servant c. Saints are or ought to be of a humble Frame having mutual Love and a condescending Spirit even to them that are in the lowest and meanest Condition bearing with the Weak and not exalting themselves nor offending one another in any thing that is indifferent in its own Nature I become all things to all that I might gain some 2. Christ's Sheep do follow him in Love and bowels of Compassion Be ye followers of God as dear Children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us By this all Men may know we are his Disciples even when we have this Mark of his Sheep namely that we love one another Husbands are exhorted to love their Wives as Christ also loved his Church and gave himself for it even with a sincere pure ardent and constant Affection And thus ought all Christians to love each other also being united as Brethren together and Members of the same Body of which Christ is the Head He that loveth not his Brother is in Darkness he is none of Christ's Sheep He that saith he abideth in the Light ought also to walk even as he walked and love as he loved 3. They follow him in Holiness But as he that hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of Conversation Because it is written Be ye holy for I am holy God the Father is holy and Christ is holy He was holy harmless and undefiled separated from Sinners Therefore in this we should follow him in the whole Course of our Lives and in the several parts of our Conversations All those who are his Sheep they are such who are sanctified Persons who laying aside all filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit they go on perfecting Holiness in the fear of God 4. They follow the Example of Christ their holy Shepherd in Obedience Though he was a Son yet learned he Obedience by the things he suffered And being made perfect he became
the Author of Eternal Salvation to all them that obey him Christ's Meat and Drink was to do the Will of him that sent him and thus we ought to follow him it ought to be our Joy our Delight to do his Will and attend on his Work And this Mark have all Christ's Sheep i. e. they keep Christ's Word If a Man love me he will keep my Word And again He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me Not he that hath the knowledg of them it is possible Men may have Christ's Commandments in their Heads and in their Mouths may know which they are but they may not do them It is he that doth his Word that doth his Sayings that keepeth his Commandments that loves him Ye are my Friends if you do whatsoever I command you This is a Mark of Christ's Sheep of one of Christ's Friends or of a sincere Christian and follower of him He will be obedient to Christ not in some things only but in every thing that he requires or enjoins him to do in his Word 5. They follow Christ in the hardest things in such things that seem grievous to the Flesh Like as Abraham when he was commanded to offer up his Son his only Son his only Son Isaac whom he loved went presently about it he made no pause did not consult with Flesh and Blood And Abraham rose up early in the Morning c. with an intention to do this hard Work And now saith the Lord I know that thou fearest God seeing thou hast not withheld thy Son thine only Son from me God knew it before tho he speaks here after the manner of Men but he would have Abraham to know it and all Men to know that this is a Mark of one that feareth him that loveth him viz. he will do any thing God requires of him even sacrifice up all that is near and dear to him when called for O see how obedient Christ was to the Father The Lord God hath opened mine Ear and I was not rebellious neither turned away my back I gave my Back to the Smiters and my Cheeks to them that plucked off the Hair I hid not my Face from Shame and Spitting This was hard Work yet Christ readily passed through it He became obedient unto Death even the Death of the Cross the worst of Deaths exceeding ten thousand Deaths considering what he felt and did undergo for us 6. They follow Christ whithersoever he goeth Some will not do this they may go a great way after the Lord Jesus but then make a halt and give over following of him Some are like Orpah who kissed her Mother-in-Law and departed from her but Ruth clave unto her Even so such who are sincere Christians they keep following of Christ when others leave him and cleave to the World to their Lusts to their cursed Idolatry but these say to Jesus Christ as Ruth to Naomi Intreat me not to leave thee or to return from following of thee for whither thou goest I will go and where thou lodgest I will lodg Thy People shall be my People and thy God my God Those that are wise Virgins or the Sheep of Christ the Holy Ghost gives us their Character These are they which were not defiled with Women for they are Virgins these are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth c. They will not follow God and Baal Christ and Antichrist receive Christ's Institutions and Rome's vile Idolatry and Superstitions or follow some Precepts of Christ and reject others No no they follow him in all his holy Laws keeping close in all things to the Rules of his Worship both in Doctrine Discipline and Conversation in all Duties of Religion both Natural and Supernatural whether towards God or towards Men. They are like unto Joshua and Caleb they follow Christ fully But my Servant Caleb because he had another Spirit with him and hath followed me fully him will I bring into the good Land and his Seed shall possess it He followed God when others forsook him being not acted by that evil Spirit of Cowardice slavish Fear and Unbelief which ruled in others but was a Man of another Temper i. e. Couragious Faithful Obedient as it is said of the Righteous he was bold as a Lion and universally thrô all Difficulties Deaths and Dangers followed God And thus do all the true Sheep of Christ follow him 7. They follow Christ in sincerity not for Loaves c. 8. They follow Christ constantly to the End and faint not We read of some that followed our Blessed Saviour for some time but then they were offended at his Doctrine From that time many of his Disciples went back and walked no more with him This shewed they were not his Sheep or Disciples indeed for these returned no more they it is evident drew back to Perdition A godly Man may under a Temptation seem to faint and draw back as Peter did but he returns by Repentance and follows Christ again We are not saith Paul of them who draw back unto Perdition but of them that believe to the saving of the Soul The Sheep of Christ hold on their way they having clean Hands grow stronger and stronger they can never perish therefore shall follow Christ always or persevere in well-doing to the End of their Days The good Ground brought forth Fruit unto Eternal Life such who fall away were not sincere and honest-hearted Ones but are either like the stony or thorny ground Hearers Fifthly Christ's Sheep have his Character by which they are known Men mark their Sheep so we read in the Revelations that the Servants of God were sealed they were marked in their right Hands and in their Foreheads c. God gave a Charge of old to set a Mark upon the Men that sigh'd and mourn'd for all the Abominations that were committed in the Land Merchants and others commonly set a Mark upon their Goods by which they lay claim to them and know them So Christ sets his Mark his Seal upon all his Saints By their Father's Mark on their right Hand some understand the Heart A Mark in the Hand is a secret Mark 1. No doubt the Mark of Christ's Sheep is the Mark of Regeneration or that holy Image of God which is stamp'd upon them all as I hinted at first And if Christ sees not this Mark on the Soul he will not own that Man or Woman actually to be his 2. The Holy Spirit is expresly called the Seal with which every true Believer is sealed Also after that ye believed ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of Promise Which is the Earnest of our Inheritance until the Redemption of the purchased Possession unto the praise of his Glory And again he saith Grieve not the holy Spirit by which you are sealed unto the Day of Redemption Whosoever hath the Spirit of Christ in them or hath
saving Knowledg the Doctrine of Free Grace of Justification Adoption Pardon of Sin and free access to the Father which shews it to be a sat and blessed Pasture and thus it feeds their Understanding 2. It feeds and raises their Affections also in Love to Christ and desire after him to hear what God is to them and Christ is to them what a Covenant is made with Christ for them what Promises are made to them what Love the Lord Jesus hath to them and what Grace is purchased laid and treasured up in Christ for them what Care he hath of them and what Glory he hath prepared for them 3. They receive the Word they assent to the Truth of it and fâ—el a so the Power thereof inclining bowing and subjecting their Wills to a holy ready and hearty Consent thereunto in a way of universal Obedience to what is required of them 4. It feeds their Faith also and every Grace of the Spirit in their Souls it increases their Faith in Christ and their Love to Christ whilst they meditate thereon and believe with an unfeigned Faith the Veracity of God's Word and apply the Promises and Blessings thereof which are purchased by Jesus Christ now is to eat and digest the Word Secondly The Ordinances of Christ may be said to be another Pasture where his Sheep do feed The Spouse no doubt enquired after this Pasture Tell me O thou whom my Soul loveth where thou feedest c. where thy Holy Ordinances are truly administred 1. The Ordinance of Preaching or Administration of the Gospel is a rich Pasture especially when it is preached powerfully by the Influence and Demonstration of the Spirit the opening and explaining the Word of the Gospel is like the opening the Pasture-Gate and so letting the Sheep into it Did not our Hearts burn within us while he talked with us and opened the Scriptures 'T is like the opening of the Box of precious Ointment causing a sweet Perfume in the Soul like as Mary's did in the House The Work of the Ministry is to open the Scripture Vnderstandest thou what thou readest saith Philip. The Eunuch answered How can I unless some Man should guide me He might have added some skilful Man Alas some are unlearned unexperienced and ignorant Preachers they know not the Lord themselves they never learned of the Father but want the Teachings of the Holy Spirit They understand not the Scripture the Holy Bible is a sealed Book to them notwithstanding all their Humane Literature and Knowledg of the Tongues with their Arts and Sciences The preaching the Gospel is the feeding of the Soul But O what care should be taken that nothing is delivered by the Preacher but sound Doctrine not to feed the People with airy and empty Notions corrupt and poisonous Doctrine for that is to destroy the Sheep especially such that are weak in Knowledg and cannot quickly discern Truth from Error They are not to feed the Flock with Humane Traditions nor with their own Dreams Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me Feed my Sheep Not with good Doctrine only but good Discipline also and with an holy and good Example Good Government is precious Food to the Sheep and Lambs of Jesus Christ 2. The Holy Ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper is another part of this blessed Pasture And such are ill Sheep that will not feed where the Shepherd willeth them or like not a Pasture of his chusing With what gladness did those Saints at Jerusalem when they received the Word yield themselves up to Holy Baptism The Eunuch also found that Ordinance he meeting with Christ in it very sweet and therefore when baptized he went away rejoicing The Mystery of the Gospel is preached or held forth in a lively Figure in Baptism to the very sight of the natural Eye which being understood conveys much Light and Knowledg to the Understanding It shews that Christ was dead buried and rose again for our Justification 1 st Baptism saith the Learned Tilenus is the first Sacrament of the New Testament instituted by Christ in which there is an exact Analogy between the Sign and the Thing signified The outward Rite in Baptism is threefold 1. Immersion into the Water 2. Abiding under the Water 3. A Resurrection out of the Water The Form of Baptism saith he to wit External and Essential is no other than the Analogical Proportion which the Sign keeps with the Thing signified thereby The plunging into the Water saith he holds forth to us that horrible Gulph of Divine Justice in which Christ for our sakes for a while was in a manner swallowed up abiding under the Water how little time soever denotes his descent into Hell even the deepest of Lifelessness and lying in the sealed or guarded Sepulchre he was accounted as one dead Rising out of the Water holds forth to us in a lively Similitude that Conquest which this dead Man got over Death And saith the same worthy Author so dipping into the Water in a most lively Similitude sets forth the Mortification of the old Man and rising out of the Water the Vivification of the new Man it being meet that we being baptized into his Death and buried with him should rise also with him and go on in a new Life The Apostle clearly confirms the same great Truths Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his Death Therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into Death that like as Christ was raised up from the Dead by the Glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of Life We have Fellowship with Christ in his Death in Baptism or the Efficacy of his Death evidenced to us as the outward Symbol of it is held forth in the external Administration of it For as Christ died for Sin so we are hereby obliged to die to Sin and as he rose again from the Dead so we ought as we covenant in this Ordinance to walk in newness of Life Dr. Cave saith In Immerging there are in a manner three-fold Acts The putting the Person into the Water his abiding under the Water and his rising up again thereby representing Christ's Death Burial and Resurrection and our Conformity thereunto in our dying to Sin and the destruction of its Power and our resurrection to a new course of Life O learn what your Baptism holds forth and what you are taught thereby and promised therein and live accordingly Brethren you will find blessed Food in this Ordinance for your Souls and if you experience the Things signified thereby happy are you if not in vain were you baptized 2 dly What sweet Food or how good a Pasture is the Ordinance of the Lord's Supper to a hungry Soul who longs after the Bread of Life and Communion with Christ A Crucified Christ is the Bread of Life and by Faith in this Ordinance we feed on
this Bread it feeds and strengthens our Faith and also our Love to the Lord Jesus Who can forbear to love that Christ who poured forth his precious Blood for us He was made a Curse for us by hanging on the Tree and bearing our Sins When you take this Bread and this Cup you declare you take and accept of Christ as the only Food of your Souls and that way of Salvation God hath been graciously pleased to find out and when you eat the Bread and drink of the Cup you shew that you feed alone upon him and that he is your Saviour Indeed Christ doth in effect say to you Soul take all this in token that I have satisfied the Justice of God for thy Sins I have made thy Peace take this Bread and this Cup as a Pledg of it and of my Eternal Love to thee and as a Token that all thy Sins are forgiven and that thou art mine also 1. By this Ordinance we learn and clearly see the horible Evil of Sin the cursed Nature of Sin in that nothing could atone for it nor satisfy the Law and Justice of God but the precious Blood of the Son of God himself 2. Here likewise we see that infinite Love of the Father in giving of Christ to die for us He spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all 3 Here also we perceive the wonderful Love of Jesus Christ who willingly laid down his Life for us 4. Moreover here we see how we come to be saved or the Way of Life and that it is only by a Sacrifice and that by the Sacrifice of Christ himself alone 5. Here we see our near Union with Christ and blessed Union one with another as the Bread and Wine is turned into Nourishment the first is held forth and as many Corns of Wheat do make one Loas so we being many Members are but one Body and therein the latter Union is held forth also I mean our Union one with another Thirdly The Ordinance of Prayer is also as a Pasture for Christ's Sheep to feed in If we pray in Faith we receive what we desire and stand in need of That Soul that goes to God in Christ's Name believingly never comes away empty handed We have not because we ask not or else ask amiss that we may consume it on our Lusts to please the Flesh and gratify our Carnal Appetites and so an evil End spoils good Means So long said a good Woman in distress as I have a praying Heart God will have a helping Hand It argues we have not hungry Souls if we have not praying Souls You may as well live without eating as spiritually live without praying and as it is a sign you are not well when you cannot eat so it is a sign your Souls are not well when you cannot pray And as it is a sign the Body is faint when the Breath is short or breaths not freely so it is a sign of a faint and languishing Christian when his Prayers are short or prays not freely He that believes savingly will pray servently He that thrives not in this Pasture will thrive in none As be cannot live naturally that breaths not no more can that Soul live spiritually that prays not He that casts off Prayer casts off God No wonder God withholds Mercies from us when we restrain Prayer from him Pure Prayer is only pleasing to a pure God our Prayers must be directed to the right Object O thou that hearest Prayer to thee shall all Men come We must always direct our Prayers to God but must not forget to come unto him by Jesus Christ and we must see to the Matter of it as well as the Object If we ask not that which is lawful our Prayers must needs be unlawful as it is a Sin to do any thing God commands not so it is a Sin to ask any thing God allows not We must also be right in the Manner as well as in the Matter of our Prayer When our Spirit prays not our Hand receives not And we must if we would thrive in this Pasture also see that our End be right Our great End should be that our Prayer may be accepted and God may be glorified The first thing we should ask in Prayer is that the Name of God may be hallowed O Soul haste into this Pasture Whatsoever ye ask saith Christ in my Name I will do it that the Father may be glorified To pray in Christ's Name 1. Is to know we come to have this Privilege to draw near to God only by Christ i. e. through the Vail that is to say his Flesh he hath purchased us this Liberty 2. 'T is to pray in his Strength i. e. by the Spirit which he hath procured for us and given to us 3. 'T is to pray in the Virtue of Christ's Mediation Whatsoever we ask on Earth Christ obtains for us in Heaven 4. To ask in Christ's Name is to ask for his Sake for his Worthiness 'T is not what our Deservings are but what Christ's Merits are Fourthly The Promises of God are another Pasture where the Sheep of Christ do daily feed The Promises of God are of a Soul-fastening and Soul-strengthning Nature But there is no feeding here without believing A Sheep may as well feed on Grass without Teeth as a Christian can feed on the Promises without Faith The Reason why the Soul cannot get into this rich Common or rather fat Medow is because he cannot get over the Slough of Unbelief Man lives not by Bread alone but by every Word that proceeds out of the Mouth of God He can feed his People and support them by a Word of Promise when their Bread faileth Nor must we take unlawful Means to supply our Necessities nor distrust the Care and Providence of God tho we do not see which way we shall subsist Trust in the Lord and do good so thou shalt dwell in the Land and verily thou shalt be fed We must depend upon the Providence and Promise of God for Supplies both of Body and Soul The young Lions lack and suffer Hunger yet they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing We must let God judg and chuse for us 't is better for us sometimes to want than to abound There are Promises as I have sometimes shewed you that answer every Condition we can be in Fifthly The Providences of God and the Saints Experience are another Pasture for Christ's Sheep How oft have they been fed this way I have been young and now am old yet have I not seen the Righteous forsaken nor his Seed begging Bread This was more especially David's Experience and under that Dispensation when the Promises of God were of temporal Blessings ours under the Gospel are better Or else take it thus Not begging in vain If they are such Children that walk in the Steps of their godly Parents or not so begging
as to be forsaken it cannot intend any kind of asking or begging for David himself desired and received Relief from others Nothing doth more clearly relieve and feed our Souls under Trouble and Distress than those Experiences we have formerly had of God's special Providence and Goodness to us or how he helped his People in their Extremities in the days of old O my God my Soul is cast down within me therefore I will remember thee from the Land of Jordan and of the Hermonites from the Hill Mizar He would call to mind how God had helped him formerly when pursued by Saul or distressed by Absalom and the way his drooping Spirits were revived He that delivered me saith he from the Paw of the Bear and Paw of the Lion will deliver me from this uncircumcised Philistine All Power is given into Christ's Hand he is the great disposer of all things therefore be sure he will order every thing for the Good of his Church If not a Hair of our Heads shall fall without the Providence of God we may conclude he will be concerned for us in greater Matters And if he provide for Sparrows he will provide and take care of his own Children The Covenant of Grace the Love of Christ and that Relation we stand in to him must needs give us ground to believe he will in his most wise Providence order all things for our Good besides the express Promises he hath made upon that Account Doth he hold us in his Hand carry us in his Bosom nay engrave us on his Heart and will he forsake us O this cannot be Hath he took the Charge of his Sheep and will he leave them to Lions or Wolves to be torn to pieces Or shall Sin or the Devil pull Limb from Limb and he look on But I must not further enlarge here Quest What is the Nature of that Food which Jesus Christ feeds his Sheep with 1. I answer in the Negative It is not surfeiting Food some Pastures are naught they will rot the Sheep but Christ feeds not his People in such Pastures 2. 'T is not forbidden Food he hath prohibited us to follow a Multitude to do Evil to walk in the Way of the Heathen or after the Course of this World or according to the former Lusts in our Ignorance and not to touch taste nor handle of the Traditions and Doctrines of Men but he allows us his own Word and Ordinances 1. 'T is costly Food Pastures that were purchased by our Shepherd at a dear Price 2. 'T is sweet and pleasant Food More to be desired than Gold yea than much fine Gold sweeter also than Honey or the Honey-comb 3. 'T is Soul-satisfying Food he satisfies every hungry Soul I will abundantly bless her Provision and satisfy her Poor with Bread Wicked Men eat that which satisfies not what is all the Trash of this World but meer Husks Ashes and Gravel-stones 4. 'T is strengthning Food it strengthens the Soul and strengthens the Graces of the Spirit in the Soul 5. 'T is chearing comforting and reviving Food as I might shew you but must not enlarge 6. 'T is living Food 't is Bread of Life such who feed on it shall never die it gives Life and it continues and encreases Life and will feed the Soul up unto everlasting Life 7. It is Soul-fatning Food Eat you that which is good and let your Soul delight it self in fatness O this Food these Gospel-Pastures fatten the Soul when they meet with God enjoy God in his Ordinances when they have Communion with him and when they find their Sins and Corruptions wither and die and Grace grow and flourish in their Souls ' when they thrive in Holiness in Faith Love Patience and Humility c. Quest What is Christ's Fold Answ He hath a twofold Fold 1. His Church is his Fold Christ built it himself and it is a Fold the Enemy cannot destroy he hath set it upon a Rock 2. Heaven is Christ's Fold Quest What is the Fence of Christ's Fold or Church here on Earth Answ I answer It is threefold 1. The Fence may be said to be that Holy and Primitive Constitution Order and Ordinances which Christ hath appointed 2. That Sacred Covenant Believers enter into when they are admitted Members 3. The Holy Discipline Order and Government Christ hath ordained and left in the Gospel APPLICATION We infer from hence that Believers are in a most happy Condition they having such a Shepherd and such Pastures to feed in Which will further appear if we consider these things following 1. They are Pastures that will feed Multitudes nay they cannot be over-stock'd Christ's Pastures cannot be eaten up 2. Christ's Pastures are always Good always Rich as good in Winter as Summer and so are not other Pastures 3. So well fenced about that the Walls cannot by Men nor Devils be broken down God secures his People and Gospel by his own Almighty Power and Providence he is a Wall of Fire round about besides his Angels encamp about them that fear him also 4. Christ's Pastures have most precious Water in them There is a River that makes glad the City of God c. He feeds me in green Pastures and leads me besides the still Waters The Holy Spirit and Graces of the Spirit may be here intended 1. Water hath a cooling Nature it allays Thirst so these Waters cool the Fire of Lust and every evil Passion and allay that inordinate Thirst after the things of this World 2. Some Waters are of a purging Quality these Waters also purge the Soul of all evil and nauseous Humours 3. Water makes fruitful it makes Pastures fruitful and the Sheep also So these Sacred Waters make the Word and Ordinances fruitful and the Saints fruitful likewise 4. Waters soften so these Waters soften the Heart and make it tender 5. Waters have a cleansing Virtue So have these Divine Waters the Spirit and Graces of the Spirit cleanse the Soul of all Filth and Pollution of Flesh and Spirit 6. Water hath a healing Property The Spiritual Waters heal they are beyond all Waters exceed all Waters For 1. These Waters never fail other Waters may be dried up He that drinks of the Water I shall give him shall never thirst but the Waters that I shall give him shall be in him a Well of living Water springing up unto Everlasting Life 2. These are Waters of Life he that receives the Holy Spirit shall live for ever 3. These are still Waters not rough boisterous Streams they may be called still Waters in respect of their Effects 1. They will keep such that drink of them in God's Bounds and cause them to rest in quiet where he hath placed them 2. They make a still and quiet Soul a still and quiet Family a still and quiet Church when all drink of these Waters nay a still and quiet Nation they allay all Feuds and undue Heats among Christians that
partake of them These Waters quiet the Conscience under the Accusations of the Law quiet the Conscience under Satan's Temptations Thou art a Sinner saith Satan and thy Sins are committed with great Aggravations thou deservest Wrath and Divine Vengeance But no sooner doth the Soul drink of these Waters but it is quieted the Spirit by Faith shews the dejected Person that Christ hath born the Wrath of God and reconciled him to the Father 3. They quiet Believers under Affliction in Times of Want and Poverty and under National Fears and Disquietments And 4. In a Time of Sickness and at the Hour of Death 1. By evidencing to the Soul that the Covenant is well-ordered in all things and sure 2. That the Promises of God are firm and cannot be broken 3. That the Love of God is Everlasting and nothing can separate them from it 4. That the Faithfulness of God and his Almighty Power is engaged to preserve them and keep them unto Salvation 1. Exhortation If Christ feeds us in such Pastures and gives us such Waters labour O ye Saints to be thankful What Praise doth this call for even holy and thankful Lips and Lives 2. Labour to glorify this God this Saviour strive to bring forth Fruit to him Herein saith Christ is my Father glorified that you bring forth much Fruit so shall you be my Disciples 3. Take heed you do not straggle from the Fold of Christ or refuse the Conduct and Guidance of your Blessed Shepherd 4. Terror Wo to them that do annoy disturb or disquiet Christ's Flock Christ's Sheep or any manner of way seek to scatter or divide them so that they cannot comfortably feed and lie down together 5. Sinners will you not enquire where Christ feeds Remember his Direction Go forth by the Footsteps of the Flock 6. What comfort is here for you that are the Sheep and Lambs of Christ How safe are you in the Hand of such a Shepherd So much at this Time and for the first part of my Text viz. the 27 th Verse JOHN X. 28. And I give unto them Eternal Life and they shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of my Hand I Closed with the 27 th Verse the last Day and shall now come to the great Subject which at first I told you I should God assisting endeavour to demonstrate and fully prove Namely The final Perseverance of the Saints of God or Sheep of Jesus Christ But that we may the more orderly proceed we shall first consider again the Parts of our Text. 1. You have an Account of a Gift given which is expressed Life 2. The Nature of that Life explained Eternal Life 3. The Donor or whose Gift it is viz. Jesus Christ's 4. To whom the Gift is given namely to his Sheep 5. The Certainty of their possession of it They shall never perish neither shall any Man pluck them out of my Hand Some read it neither shall any and from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it may be better so rendred viz. any that is any Enemy neither Sin nor World Men nor Devils Things present nor Things to come let all Enemies do what they can I have them in my Hand in my Power in my keeping as if our Blessed Lord should say And I will hold them fast and they shall be preserved through Faith by my Power and the Power of my Father who gave them me unto Everlasting Life and perish they shall not 1. I give them Eternal Life I now give it to them in the Seed thereof Those that Christ gives saving Grace unto he gives Eternal Life unto I give them the promise of it and when they die they shall have the actual possession thereof 2. They shall never perish that is eternally perish they shall not die the second Death or be cast into the Lake that burns with Fire and Brimstone They shall not come into Condemnation or be eternally damned as all Unbelievers shall be 3. Neither shall any pluck them out of my Hand No doubt by the Hand of Christ is meant his Power his Protection the Lord's Hand is not shortned that it cannot save he is able to save it is in his Power to save They were delivered into Christ's Hand by that Holy Covenant or Compact made with the Father before the World began And when they believe or by that Grace which he infuses into them he then takes actual and fast hold of them and there he will keep them and never let his hold go They come therefore into Christ's Hand upon the same Considerations by which they came to be his Sheep which as I have already opened was seven manner of ways viz. 1. By Election 2. By that holy Covenant or Compact made between the Father and the Son 3. By the Father's free Donation they were given into his Hand delivered to him by the Father 4. By Purchase he bought them and so they came into his Hand 5. By Regeneration or Transformation he hath wrought his Image upon them and so brought them into his Hand 6. By Conquest he fought for them and conquered their Enemies and subdued their own filthy and rebellious Hearts and so they came into his Hand 7. They by a holy Resignation of themselves as being overcome by his Divine Grace yielded themselves up into his Hands So that he hath a sevenfold hold of them Secondly Their being in Christ's Hand denotes 1. His personal possession of them he being now entered upon the actual Administration of his Pastoral Office 2. It denotes the present actual Charge he hath taken of them he having gathered and brought them home to his own Fold and put them into his own Pasture 3. It denotes also their great Safety and blessed Security he being as Mediator every way invested qualified and endowed with Power and Authority to keep them having received all Grace yea the Fulness of Grace from the Father as well as an express Command to supply all their Wants and Necessities to subdue all their Enemies and to preserve them unto Eternal Life So much shall serve us to the Explanation of the Terms of our Text. I shall only observe three Propositions from hence Doct. 1. Everlasting Life is a free Gift or Salvation is wholly by Grace it is only of God and the Gift of Jesus Christ Doct. 2. The Saints of God are committed into the Hand of Christ he hath the Care and Charge of them Doct. 3. All the Saints all Believers or Sheep and Lambs of Jesus Christ have Everlasting Life given to them and they shall every Soul of them be saved and none of them so fall away as eternally to perish I shall speak to the first and last of these Propositions in which the Second will be comprehended In opening the first I shall 1. Shew what is meant by Eternal Life 2. Shew how it appears that Salvation is a free Gift or wholly by Grace 3. Shew why Salvation
or Everlasting Life is a free Gift or by Grace only 4. Shew why Christ doth and will give Eternal Life unto his Sheep 5. And lastly I shall briefly apply it 1. Quest What is meant by Eternal Life Answ There is a three-fold Life of Man 1. The Life of the Body which is a natural Life or the Life of Nature In him we live move and have our Being Neither count I my Life dear to me so that I might finish my Course with Joy He giveth to all Life c. All have this Life Sinners as well as Saints have a natural Life 2. There is a Spiritual Life which is the Life of the Soul the Life of a Saint or of the New Creature this is the Life of Grace I am crucified with Christ Nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the Life which I now live in the Flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God c. The Dead shall hear the Voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live that is their Souls shall live or be quickned and raised to a State of spiritual Life 3. Eternal Life that is properly the Life of Glory or the Life of the other World that Life which the glorified Saints possess above The Wages of Sin is Death but the Gift of God is Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Object But Christ says I give them Eternal Life He speaks in the Present Tense Answ 1. I answer you heard before that true and saving Grace is the Seed of Eternal Life or the Seed of Glory to come as Glory is the Harvest of Grace 2. Spiritual Life is the earnest of Eternal Life Now every Believer hath received the Spirit which is the Earnest of their Eternal Inheritance And thus they have it as a Man that purchases an Inheritance he gives Earnest for it and no sooner that is done but he cries such a House or such Land is mine 't is his by virtue of the Earnest given though he hath not yet the actual possession of it so it is here 3. Christ gives his Saints Eternal Life Now because he gives them a sure Title to it he makes them a Deed of Gift of it or seals unto them a Right and legal Conveyance of it as firm as the Law and Ordinance of Heaven Now when a Person hath a true Right and Title or Deed of Gift made and sealed to him of such or such an Estate he may say he has the Estate 't is his own And thus Believers have Everlasting Life or the Eternal Inheritance i. e. they have a true Right and Title of it sealed to them here by the Holy Spirit After that ye believed you were sealed with the Spirit of Promise which is the Earnest of the Saints Inheritance c. Faith is the Evidence of things not seen 4. The Spirit of God who is that Principle of Divine Life in the Soul of Believers is Eternal Christ is in us every Believer hath Christ in possession and Christ is Eternal Life and therefore he that hath the Son hath Everlasting Life These things have I written unto you that believe on the Name of the Son of God that ye may know you have Eternal Life c. Jesus Christ being in us here is more to us than the Hope of Glory for he is Eternal Life and the Soul of a Child of God shall never lose nor be dispossessed of Christ no not by Death it self therefore may be said to have Eternal Life They have Eternal Life abiding in them because they have the Spirit abiding in them But the Water that I shall give him shall be in him a Well of living Water springing up unto Everlasting Life Query Methinks I hear some doubting Soul say O that I could but experience this Spiritual Life to be in me How may I know I am made alive and have Eternal Life given to me 1. In answer to such it is necessary to consider that all Adam's Posterity by Nature are spiritually dead in Sin or under a Privation of the Life of God until spiritually quickned and made alive by Jesus Christ 2. Now as natural Death is made use of by the Spirit of God to shew what spiritual Death is so also natural Life is tropically made use of to demonstrate and discover spiritual Life A Man naturally dead 1. Is cold all Heat is gone if long dead So all unregenerate Persons are spiritually Cold or without any Divine Heat or Warmth in their Spirits that Principle of internal Life Man had before he fell being lost and gone he is cold as a Stone God ward or in a spiritual Sense 2. A Man naturally dead cannot move all power of Motion and Activity or all vital Actings are gone also So in Men spiritually dead there is a Disability or Impotency unto all spiritual things to be performed in a spiritual manner they can perform or act spiritually no Act of Life or do any thing that is absolutely accepted of him The carnal Mind is Enmity against God it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be So then they that are in the Flesh cannot please God 3. A Man naturally dead cannot breath nor speak no more can carnal Men Men spiritually dead breath forth their Desires in Prayer to God they have no Tongue to speak for God or to pray to God acceptably all they do is dead Service all their Prayers and Works are dead Prayers dead Works because performed from Persons spiritually dead and not from a Principle of Divine Life 4. A dead Man can't feel see nor hear No more can such who are dead in Sin they cannot feel spiritually they have a heavy Burden a mighty Weight of Sin Guilt and Wrath lying upon them but feel it not They are grievously wounded but feel no pain do not cry out think they are well and all nothing They cannot see spiritual Objects nor spiritual Things These Dead see not Jesus Christ see not his Beauty his Glory neither the Want of him nor the Worth of him the Eye of their Understanding is darkned they have no Faith which is the Eye of the new Creature Nor can they hear in a spiritual Sense until like dead Lazarus they hear Christ's voice by his Spirit and are made alive 5. The Beauty of the Dead is gone Death is gastly so is the spiritual Beauty of the Soul gone of those who lie dead in Sin and Trespasses 6. The Bodies of those who are naturally dead are fit for nothing they soon stink and therefore must be buried and put under the Ground being loathsom c. So ungodly Persons who are spiritually dead are loathsom in God's sight as filthy Carion or a stinking Sepulchre is in ours and are fit for nothing but to cast into Hell as abominable and hateful to the Holy Jehovah 1. By these things therefore you may know
Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us that is in our Head Surety and Representative for though we in our Persons were utterly unable to do it yet Christ having done it in our Behalf and Nature it is accepted as if we had done it our selves Christ's Righteousness and Obedience being imputed to us who do believe so that what he did and suffered is accounted unto us as if we had done and suffered it yet it was Christ that purchased Life not we he purchased and we possess he is the Redeemer we are the Redeemed he merited all and we have all freely of Grace through his Merits or through that Redemption that is in his Blood 5. Life and Salvation is a free Gift or of Grace only doth appear yet further because the Foundation thereof laid from before all Worlds in God's eternal Election was the Spring of it and this was alone of God's own free Grace There is a Remnant according to the Election of Grace And if it be of Grace then it is no more of Works otherwise Grace is no more Grace But if it be of Works then it is no more of Grace otherwise Works are no more Works This Opposition or Contrariety is not only between Grace and legal Works but between Grace and all manner of Works whatsoever because it lies betwixt the Nature of Grace and Works they are repugnant or contrary the one to the other they can no more be the Causes or Motive of any one Action than one individual thing can be White and Black in the same part as a worthy Writer notes Men are not elected partly of Grace and partly of Works foreseen but wholly of Grace nothing but an Act of God's Sovereign Grace was the Cause and Motive of it 6. Life and Salvation is a free Gift or by Grace only because the Glorious Covenant between the Father and the Son made and entred into before the World began was alone of God's Grace of his infinite Grace and Favour God was at liberty who foreseeing Man's Fall and horrible Transgression he having forfeited all those Blessings bestowed originally upon him whether he would or would not afford him any Help or Relief but might have justly and utterly rejected the whole Race of Mankind as he rejected all the Angels that sinned or kept not their first Estate Did Man fallen Man deserve this Love this Favour who was become an Enemy to God Was there any thing in Man that could be a Motive to move the Almighty to enter into this Covenant to save so vile a Creature such a poor and despicable a Creature as Man became by his Sins the Visage of his very Soul being now loathsom deformed and abominable in the sight of God God's holy Image being utterly defaced and all his Beauty gone being besmeared and covered all over with noisom Filthiness and Pollution filled with Enmity and Hatred against God dethroning his blessed Creator and setting up the Devil in his Place subjecting himself to that implacable Enemy of his and casting off his most holy and gracious Sovereign from whence he received his Breath and Being Nay and in respect of God himself it must needs appear to be wholly of Grace could Redemption of Man add any thing to the essential Glory of God Did he stand in need of Man to make him more happy or glorious in himself who being an independent Being had been eternally happy in the Injoyment of himself had Man never been made or had he left him under Wrath and Misery Or was he obliged to save us and that he might do it to send his own Son to die and be made a Curse for us Or could he not have created other Creatures to have shewed forth his glorious Perfections Or why might he not have sent his Son to have taken hold of the Nature of Angels to have redeemed them who were his Creatures as well as fallen Man and more glorious too than Man before they fell and let Man have perished for ever and not have entred into such a Covenant of Grace with his own Son on his Behalf 7. Life and Salvation therefore is a free Gift it is wholly of Grace because we could not have obtained it unless God sent his Son out of his own Bosom to effect it The giving of Christ and the Father's sending of him into the World is nothing but an Act of his own free Grace God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son c. 8. Because Everlasting Life is by Christ alone nor could we have had it except he died I am 〈…〉 the Truth and the Life no Man can come unto the Father but by 〈…〉 is by Faith that it might be by Grace But after that the 〈◊〉 and Love of God our Saviour appeared Not by Works of Righteousness that we have done but according to his Mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ That being justified by his Grace we should be made Heirs according to the Hope of Eternal Life Thus if we consider the Rise the Spring the Motive and the Author of Everlasting Life all appears fully to be of God's Grace alone but should we proceed a little further as to the Means and Application of the Remedy in order to interest in this Salvation that is all of Free Grace also 1. We are called and quickened by God's special Grace according to his Eternal Purpose in Jesus Christ No Man could quicken himself All rational Arguments without Divine Influence or an Almighty Power will not bring our Souls into a State of Life See how Paul ascribes his Conversion and special Vocation to God's Grace But when it pleased God who separated me from the Womb and called me by his Grace to reveal his Son in me c. Special Vocation is of God's Free Grace who hath saved us and called us with an Holy Calling not according to our Works but according to his own Purpose and Grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the World begun We are quickened renewed or regenerated by Grace through the Operations of the Holy Ghost 2. Adoption is of Grace Having predestinated us unto the Adoption of Children to the Praise of the Glory of his Grace As the Purpose was free so is the Execution free also That the Purpose of God according to election might stand not of Works but of him that calleth To them gave he Power to become the Sons of God c. The Privilege of being Sons and Daughters of God is freely given to us through Jesus Christ 'T is through Christ for that we might become Sons he became a Servant and died the cursed Death of the Cross for us to redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the Adoption of Sons 3. Justification is wholly of Grace Being justified freely by
is trampled upon but let God be true and every Man a Liar Object But doth not this Doctrine of special Grace render God unmerciful because he doth not give that Grace unto all Men that is effectual to their Salvation Answ I answer We do not deny that God gives that Grace to all which they say is sufficient or effectual to save all our Doctrine robs no Man of that Power they have but we do deny that common Light Grace and Abilities are sufficient to save any one Soul And if this be true it follows that they render God more unmerciful than they are aware of in that they will not have God to afford such Grace that is sufficient viz. Special Grace to any at all Certainly if God was not more merciful to them that assert this Doctrine than their Notions import or did not their Experiences contradict their Principles it would be impossible one of them should be saved For will meer moral Swasive Grace which leaves Salvation to the choice of Man's depraved and unrenewed Will whether it will turn to God or no believe in Christ or no save one Soul which they say is all the Grace God vouchsafes to any So that by their Doctrine none can be saved but all must unavoidably perish Besides how unjust do they render God to be seeing he as they say gave Christ to die for all Men with an intention to save them and this without any desert of Man which is the greater Gift and yet he denies the Gospel to the greatest part of the World nay and effectual Grace to many nay to all according to them that attend upon the Administration thereof seeing he could as easily bend or incline the Wills if he please of such who do not believe as he doth theirs that do believe Strange did Christ spill his Blood for the greatest part of Mankind in vain nay die in their stead for them that he foreknew would reject him and believe not Did he give Millions for them to redeem them and deny one Pound to make that Redemption effectual to them in order to give them a Right to it and Interest in it What! give them the greater and deny them the lesser Gift But how contrary is this to what Paul says If when we were Enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son much more being now reconciled we shall be saved by his Life And again saith He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall not he freely give us all things Secondly If Life Spiritual and Eternal be by Grace or if it is given freely by Jesus Christ Then all that have not this Gift given to them Life given Grace given are spiritually dead and if they die naturally before it is given to them they must perish for ever or die eternally Thirdly We may also infer That all that would have Everlasting Life must come to Jesus Christ seeing it is his Gift Ye will not not come to me that ye might have Life Thou hast the Words of Eternal Life Sinners you must believe in relie upon or fly unto Christ if you would be saved If thou knowest the Gift of God and who it is that saith Give me to drink thou wouldst have asked of him and he would have given thee living Water O know where this Life is how it is given and do not neglect the time Christ is now giving forth this Gift this is the time Behold now is the Day of Salvation Hear and your Souls shall live 'T is but asking Life and thou shalt have it thou must believe c. O seek and cry to God for Life haste to Christ Were there an earthly Crown or many Thousands of Pounds to be freely given what running and striving would there be every Body would make haste and be early at the Door they would not neglect the Time But alas what are all Riches all Crowns or all Kingdoms here below to Eternal Life So much for this Time JOHN X. 28. And I give them-Eternal Life and they shall never perish DOCT. 3. All the Saints of God all Believers or Sheep and Lambs of Jesus Christ shall be saved and none of them shall so fall away as eternally to perish Beloved in speaking unto this Point of Doctrine I shall only do two things I. Endeavour to confirm and prove the Truth of the Proposition II. Answer all the Objections that are usually brought against the Doctrine of the Saints final Perseverance First But before I enter upon the Proof and Confirmation of this great Gospel-Truth let me hint a word or two to explain who we mean by the Saints of God Secondly I shall shew you by way of Premise that the Saints or Sheep of Christ may fall yea fall from Grace and also how far they may fall and then proceed to demonstrate the Truth of the Proposition and prove That they cannot fall finally so as eternally to perish 1. Those that I call the Saints of God or Sheep of Christ are those who are elected or chosen in Jesus Christ unto Salvation 2. And such who are elected are they who are redeemed and purchased by the Blood of Christ or those whom he died for or in the stead of 3. By the Saints I mean those who are effectually called regenerated justified sanctified and adopted these are the Sheep of Christ that shall never perish but have Everlasting Life They are not all such that are of his Fold or Church on Earth not all the Members of the visible Church but all the Members of the invisible Church or mystical Body of Christ Secondly I shall shew you how far the Saints may fall 1 st They may if they take not heed fall into great Evils nay into most of the worst and abominable Sins any Mortals do commit and are overcome by Noah was a Saint of God yet he fell grievously by drinking too much Wine Noah began to be an Husbandman and he planted a Vineyard and he drank of the Wine and was drunken Though it might be partly through Ignorance of the Nature of the Fruit of the Grape yet no doubt by the pleasantness of the Liquor and Corruption and Infirmity of the Flesh he was overcome Lot was a Saint of God a righteous and just Man yet he fell worse not only by Drunkenness but also by committing Incest with his two Daughters What are the best of Men when God leaves them to themselves Jacob also no doubt greatly sinned and fell when he told his Father he was Esau his First-born How lamentably did David sin and fall who was a Man after God's own Heart save in the Case of Bathsheba the Wife of Vriah Peter fell likewise and that grievously too not only in denying of his blessed Master but also by Cursing and Swearing that he did not know him Many more sad Instances I might add of this Nature but that I love not
our base Hearts and hence it is our Danger is great which appears may be not so clearly till the Providence of God brings us unto such a State Occasion or Company whereby Satan hath an Opportunity to excite and stir up or draw forth that Sin or evil Seed into act that lies hid within us 2. The Cause of those Evils or grievous Falls that some Christians have and do sustain are from Satan who is not only a malicious Enemy but a strong and cruel Enemy also Hence called A roaring Lion going about and seeking whom he may devour He is very diligent to observe the natural Inclinations of all Christians and watcheth the fittest Opportunity to make his Onsets As when David neglected the proper Work and Business God by his Providence called him unto The time when Kings go forth to battel he sent Joâ—b and tarried at home himself and then the Enemy set upon him he being a walking on the Roof of his House spied a Woman washing her self which produced his fearful Fall Let Christians take heed they are not out of such Employment that God calls them to and not put an Opportunity into Satan's Hand by excess of Eating Drinking or Idleness or by gadding or gazing Abroad like Dinah Jacob's Daughter and beware how they neglect any spiritual Duty in the way of which God hath promised to keep our Souls 3. The Falls of the Saints may be occasioned by reason of the weakness of their Grace Faith may be but small or not in Exercise and so the Hope and Trust of the Soul may faâ—l If the Anchor hath not good and firm hold but should slip the Ship is in danger so it is here Hope is the Anchor of the Soul it should be therefore both sure and stedfast O ye of little Faith wherefore did you doubt Christians are in no small danger if their Faith be not strong Faith is the Shield by which we should quench all the siery Darts of the Wicked The Apostle alludes to those violent Temptations by which Satan strives to enflame Mens Lusts but right skill to use the Shield of Faith will soon quench all those Darts of Temptations A Shield is to desend every part of the Body and will if rightly used So by Faith a Christian is enabled when in the true Exercise thereof to preserve his whole Soul from Evil but let this Shield go and Satan quickly prevails If Satan can perswade a Man there is no such Evil in Sin as God's Word declares or that it is no great matter 't is no wonder he is overcome 4. They sometimes fall by reason of their own fleshly Confidence or trusting in their own Strength Though all deny thee yet will not I. Nay Peter said unto him Though I should die with thee yet I will not deny thee O how dangerous a thing is it to glory in our own Abilities or trust in Self-confidence What little knowledg have we of our own Hearts It was but a few Hours after this but Peter denied our Saviour and swore he did not know him When Men have not their whole dependance on the Grace and Power of God he oft-times leaves them that they may see without him they can do nothing And whenever God withdraws his Divine Assistance from a Person or leaves him to himself he falls immediately as Peter did 5. The Falls of the Saints may be through the Ensnarements and Vain-glory of this wicked World Hezekiah fell this way his Heart was lifted up with Pride in beholding all his Glory and Riches which he shewed to the Princes of the King of Babylon in a vain-glorious manner He shewed them all the House of his precious things the Silver and the Gold and the Spices and the precious Ointments and all the House of his Armour and all that was found in his Treasures there was nothing in his House nor in all his Dominions that Hezekiah shewed them not This was his Sin and Fall this provoked God against him And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah Hear the Word of the Lord. Behold the Days come that all that is in thine House and that which thy Fathers have laid up in Store to this Day shall be carried into Babylon nothing shall be left saith the Lord. And of thy Sons that shall issue from thee which thou shalt beget shall they take away and they shall be Eunuchs in the Palace of the King of Babylon 6. Sometimes they fall by the Subtilty of Deceivers who lie in wait to corrupt their Minds and poison their Souls with their abominable Errors Hence the Apostle Peter cautions the Saints to take heed lest they being led away by the Error of the Wicked fall from their own stedfastness 7. Many times they fall through slavish Fear in the Time of Persecution Many gracious Christians have wanted Courage in that Hour and have been prevailed with too far to a sinful Compliance with the Lusts and Wills of their Adversaries by reason of their cruel Threats and bloody Edicts who have nevertheless afterwards been restored again by Repentance as Peter was 8. Some fall through their Remisness in Duty or being off their Watch. There is no great fear of falling if Christians always stand with their Swords in their Hands and having all their Armour on Praying always with all Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit watching thereunto with all Perseverance The VVitch told the wicked Person as the Story goes that employed her to do Mischief to a godly Neighbour of his That she could not touch him because he was always either Reading Praying or Meditating or to that effect No Evil no Sin nor Devil need that Man fear that is always careful in the true and faithful discharge of his Duty to God If we are asleep or slothful 't is no marvel that Satan prevails and wounds our Souls How easy was it for the Philistines to cut off Sampson's Hair and bind him when he was asleep or Jael to strike a Nail through Sisera's Head he being asleep 9. And lastly They may sometimes also fall by having a greater dependance on that Grace they have already received or on the Grace that is in them than on that Grace which is in Christ Jesus we stand not by virtue of that Grace that is in our Cisterns but by the Grace that is in God's Fountain When the Grace already received fails us that Grace that is in Christ shall supply us if we by Faith depend upon him Thou therefore my Son be strong in the Grace that is in Christ Jesus How is that done Why to have our whole dependance upon Christ who as he is our Head and Mediator hath received the Spirit without measure to the end he might communicate thereof to all his Members 'T is of his Fulness that all we receive and Grace for Grace But it is not all let out at one time we have not all our Riches put into our own
be saved or no as I hinted before for when God hath done all Christ hath done all that he is concerned in or is to do on his part it is absolutely in the Power of the Will of Man whether it shall be effectual or not which is directly contrary to the Covenant Promise and Oath of God unto Jesus Christ 3. It is also contrary as you have heard unto express Texts of Scripture wherein effectual Conversion and final Perseverance is wholly ascribed unto the special Grace of God as the immediate Effect thereof God worketh in us to will and to do The Act therefore it self in our Conversion is of God's Operation and though we will our selves yet it is he who causeth us to will by working in us to will and to do But if the Act of our Will in Believing and Obedience in our Conversion and Perseverance be not the effect of God's special Grace in us then God doth not work in us both to will and to do of his own good Pleasure Thirdly The Covenant of Grace secures all Christ's Sheep all his Saints from falling away so as eternally to perish because the Covenant of Grace is an Everlasting Covenant well ordered in all things and sure Not only well ordered in all things for the Glory of God in all his blessed Attributes but also for the Happiness Safety and Security of all their Souls that the Father gave unto Jesus Christ 1. It is well ordered for our Good in that Christ hath pacified the Wrath of God thereby for us Christ hath by the Blood of his Covenant made up that great Breach that was between God and us So that now God says unto his People Fury is not in me See what Paul says When we were Enemies we were reconciled unto God by the Death of his Son And by his Spirit he reconciles us he slays and subdues the Enmity that naturally was in our Hearts against God Christ in this Covenant it is so well ordered is that blessed Days-man that lays his Hand upon both he brings God to Man and Man to God We were the Children of Wrath and under the Curse of the Law but by the Grace of this well-ordered Covenant we were made the Children of God and delivered from the Curse of the Law Christ hath delivered us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us We had lost the Image of God but by this Covenant it is restored to us again and so that we shall not lose it any more for ever We were dead blind naked in Bonds and in Prison but by the Grace of God in this Covenant we are quickned our Eyes are enlightned and we have our naked Souls clothed yea and are brought out of Prison and all our Wounds are healed We were guilty and filthy Creatures but by this Covenant are justified and sanctified being actually acquitted and through Faith pronounced Righteous in the perfect Righteousness of Christ and all our Sins pardoned and are sanctified purged and washed by Faith in his Blood and shall not come into Condemnation There is therefore now no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus they shall never perish If there is no Condemnation to them there is no possibility of their final falling Well but what are the Characters of those happy Souls why they are such saith the Apostle who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Moreover see this more fully confirmed by Christ himself Verily verily I say unto you he that heareth my Words and believeth on him that sent me hath Everlasting Life and shall not come into Condemnation but is passed from Death to Life He is passed out of a state of Death to a state of Spiritual Life he hath Eternal Life in the Seed of it in him he hath a sure and certain Right and Title to Everlasting Life he shall not be deprived of it by any Enemy whatsoever so much do these words of our Blessed Saviour imply Now what daring Men are they who say they may come into Condemnation that do believe Will they gainsay and contradict the Lord of Life and Glory 3 dly It is a well-ordered and sure Covenant because it is made in and with our blessed Surety as before I shewed you God treats with us trades again with us gives forth his Heavenly Treasure to us but all is upon the Credit and Security of Jesus Christ who is become the Surety of this Covenant Now we may have what we need come when we will in his Name he is engaged to God the Father for us Christ was made a Surety of a better Covenant When God saw Man undone run out of all and no trusting him any more Christ step'd in and undertook for us and put his Hand to the Covenant and brings himself under an Obligation for us Quest Is Christ a Surety to God for us or of us to God An. I answer God on his part had no need of a Surety to undertake for him he never failed nor broke at first with Man it was Man that broke and failed in his Covenant with God But we on all Accounts saith Dr. Owen stand in need of such a Surety for us or on our behalf Neither without the interposition of such a Surety saith he could any Covenant between God and us be firm and stable or an Everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure 4 thly Because this Covenant is made upon the unchangeable Decree and Counsel of God My Covenant I will not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my Mouth If you can break my Covenant of the Day and Night then may also my Covenant be broken with David Now Christ and his Seed his Elect are but one Party in this Covenant it was made with him and with us in him before the World began See Paul Who hath saved us and called us with an holy Calling not according to our Works but according to his own Purpose and Grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the World began It was made as firm to us in Christ who do believe as it was made to him and only made with him for us to this End even to secure Eternal Life for us that we might not lose it and it is as firm by the Decree and Counsel of God as the Covenant of Day and Night And thus it is of Grace alone the Reason of which the Apostle gives us Therefore it is of Faith that it might be of Grace to the end the Promise might be sure to all the Seed Pray observe it well 5 thly This Covenant is sure to all the Elect and gives them an Assurance of Everlasting Life because the execution of it is put into the Hands of the Holy Spirit the Holy Ghost is to see that all the Legacies left in Christ's last Will and Testament are given to all Believers all Covenant-Blessings shall therefore be
the Spirit in every Faculty of the Soul and a partaking of every Grace though at the first forming it is not come to full Growth and Perfection there is not only Light in the Vnderstanding Convictions in the Conscience but the Will is subjected to the Will of God and Power of Divine Grace and the Affections are renewed and changed also to love as God loves and to hate as God hates 2. A Babe partakes of the Nature of the Father that begot him So does a Child of God partake of his Divine Nature he is after God created in Righteousness and true Holiness That which is born of the Flesh is Flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit 3. It is observed that Babes come into the World crying So a Babe in Christ or one born again comes into a State of Grace praying Behold he prays And though it be not universally true in Nature yet it is so in Grace always so he that prays not is not renewed nor born again 4. A Babe or Child new-born desires the Milk of its Mother's Breast So such who are born of God desire after the sincere Milk of the Word or the heavenly and pure Doctrine of the Gospel that they may grow thereby 5. A dear Child loves and honours his Father who begot him So every true Child of God does love and honour God If I be a Father where is mine Honour 6. A Child is grieved when the Father is offended and will take care that he doth not displease him if a dear Child So doth every Child of God mourn when God is offended and also takes special care and heed he displeases him not 7. A dear Child loves all his Brethren and Sisters So every one that is born of God doth not only love him that begat but also all those who are begotten of him 8. A dear Child will strive to follow and imitate his Father in all his Vertues So a Child of God follows God imitates God in all his imitable Perfections Be ye followers of God as dear Children 3. Reproof How doth this tend to reprehend the Enemies of God's People who abuse reproach backbite nay persecute them How will they stand in the Judgment-Day when Christ will say what ye did to this and that Child of mine you did it unto me He that toucheth you saith Jehovah toucheth the Apple of my Eye 4. This greatly raiseth the Honour of Believers What greater Dignity can be conferred on us than to be begotten and born of God This is more than to be Adopted Sons we are born of God partake of his Divine Nature Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God Beloved now are we the Sons of God c. If David thought it no small Honour to be the Son-in-Law to an Earthly King what an Honour hath God conferred upon his Saints 5. And lastly You that are Saints read your Privilege If Children then Heirs But no more at this Time JOHN X. 28. And I give unto them Eternal Life and they shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of my Hand I Closed last Day with the fifth Argument Sixthly I shall now proceed to my next Argument to prove That none of Christ's Sheep can so fall away as eternally to perish And that shall be taken from the Nature of that Divine Spiritual and Mystical Union that there is between every true Believer and the Lord Jesus Christ By the way Let it be considered that this Union by the in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit is not a Personal Union that is impossible he doth not assume our Nature and so prevent our Personality which as one observes would make us one Person with himself But he dwells in our Persons keeping his own and leaving us our Personality indefinitely distinct But it is a Spiritual Union a Mysterious and Mystical Union more to be admired than undertaken fully to be defined by any Man under Heaven Many Debates there have been about this Union amongst Learned Men some carry it too high and some too low for though it be not a Personal Union yet it is more than a Union in Love and Affection or in Principle in Design and Interest which may be between one Friend and another First It is such a strong Union intensively that Christ and a regenerate Man become one Spirit He that is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit One Spirit saith Reverend Charnock as if they had but one Soul in two Bodies What the Spirit doth in Christ it doth also in a Believer according to the Capacity of the Soul The same Spirit which was the immediate Conveyer of Grace to the Humane Nature of Christ is so to us Christ hath an Essential Holiness in respect of his Godhead but a Derivative Holiness as Man and this Derivative Holiness proceeded from the Spirit 's dwelling in him without measure which we have in our Measures And by virtue of this Union by the same Spirit whereby we become one Spirit with Christ not only that Grace which is in us and in the greatest Apostle is the same but that Grace which is in us and in our Blessed Mediator the Man Christ Jesus are of the same Nature and Original As the Light of the Sun and the Light of the Stars are the same but they differ in Degrees not essentially And as we say of Souls Animae sunt pares dignitate saith Charnock though the Actions are not the same because of the indisposition of the Organs and the predominancy of some particular Humour 'T is the same Spirit in Christ and a Believer as it is the same Soul in dignity which is in an Infant and a Man of most refined Parts It is more here for 't is the same Spirit in respect of his Person which makes Christ very near of Kin to us this Spirit must either desert Christ or us before this Union can be dissolved Not Christ for he had it in the World not in Measures and he is yet anointed with the Oil of Gladness above his Fellows Not us because the Promise of Christ cannot be broken This being the Top-stone of the Comfort of Believers in sending this Comforter that he may abide with us for ever Evident it is that it is such a Union that Believers are said to partake of the Divine Nature that the Holy Spirit is promised to them and in a spiritual manner is united to them and dwelleth and abideth in them and that for ever cannot be denied Christ shews us that this Union arises from our spiritual eating of his Flesh and drinking of his Blood He that eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood dwelleth in me and I in him But when some were offended and could not see how this could be he said unto them ver 63. It is the Spirit that quickneth the Flesh profiteth
doubt of that And if you can make it appear that he so died for us as you affirm namely in the room or stead of all his Elect then your Argument is not to be answered Answ I answer That Jesus Christ did not suffer Death for our Good only but in our room or stead also I shall prove and make clearly to appear 1. This Notion if you will so call it of Christ dying for us must denote his dying in our stead because it is so always generally taken when one Person is said to die for another one is condemned and another dies for him that is in his Room to save the guilty Person from Death And should not this be granted we should be all confounded and not know either what Men or the Scripture means when they say such a Man such a Person died for another or for others when the Person for whom that great Love and Favour was shewed to was as a Criminal and condemned to die which moved his Friend or Surety to step in and suffer the Penalty for him or in his stead Now it was so here we were all Criminals guilty of the highest Treason against the God of Heaven and were by the holy Law of our offended Soveraign condemned to die and to bear Eternal Wrath and our Blessed Saviour was chosen in our room and given up as an Act of the Father's Infinite Love and Favour and as an Act of no less Love Favour and Compassion in Christ to die for us and to satisfy Divine Justice for us or to bear the Punishment we were to have born and must had not he born it for us for ever 2. Is it not plainly foretold that the Messiah should be cut off but not for himself Now since he had no Sin of his own and yet was cut off for Sin it follows he was put in our Place and stood charged with our Guilt or Debt and so was penally cut off he was cut off for us to save us from Divine Wrath and Vengeance It was not for himself it was not for the fallen Angels it was therefore for us that we might not die but live eternally 3. Pray Brethren see what our Saviour saith upon this Account Greater Love hath no Man than this that a Man lay down his Life for his Friends Can this Expression intend any thing more or less than in the room or stead of his Friend or die for them Thus Christ died Even the Just for the Vnjust the Just in the place or stead of the Unjust or us the guilty Persons Hereby perceive we the Love of God Because he laid down his Life for us we ought to lay down our Life for the Brethren These Texts fully prove the Notion He that lays down his Life for his Brother or dies for the Brethren dies in their stead to save them from Death as some have done For scarcely for a righteous Man will one die yet peradventure for a good Man some would even dare to die But God commendeth his Love towards 〈◊〉 in that while we were yet Sinners Christ died for us Now then seeing Christ underwent Death and bore that Punishment that was due for Sins and there being no Cause in himself why he should suffer that Pain and Penalty it unavoidably follows that it was because he stood in our Place charged with our Offences 4. Again it must be thus taken and understood because it is said The Lord laid on him the Iniquity of us all Our Sins were made to meet in him He was wounded for our Transgressions he was bruised for our Iniquities It was not by Christ's praying and interceding to the Father for us to forgive us our Iniquities No no that was not enough it was his dying for them He bore our Sins in his own Body on the Tree He prayed again and again but that Cup could not pass by if we are delivered and saved from our Sins he must die nay his Soul must be made an Offering for Sin 5. That Christ died in our stead will further appear because he was made Sin for us that knew no Sin He bore the Sins of many that is the Punishment of them Our Sins were charged upon him though he had no Sin of his own in a moral Sense but was pure from all Iniquity yet in a judicial Sense he was made Sin as he was constituted and put in the Sinner's Place dying and making Satisfaction in our stead as our blessed Head and Surety And how frivolous is the Cavil of the Socinians who would have it be understood where it is said Christ was made Sin that he was accounted a Sinner by wicked Men. This cannot be the meaning of the Place because as he was made Sin for us that knew no Sin so it was that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him Do wicked Men account Believers to be made the Righteousness of God in him Or does not God look upon us or count us in him so to be 6. But why is it said by the Holy Ghost But when the fulness of Time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law c. Had he not stood in our Law-place why is it thus expressed Certainly God saw it necessary to substitute him and to accept of him in our stead and therefore he was made under the Law i. e. he was obliged to keep the Law perfectly for us God requiring that of us in order to Justification which we being fallen were not able to do therefore he did it for us and in our Nature being made of a Woman he took our Nature upon him and suffered Death making a full and compleat Satisfaction for our Breach thereof whose Sufferings and Obedience upon the account of his being God as well as Man had an infinite Worth and Merit in them And if this which the Apostle saith in this place doth not prove that he suffered in our room I must confess I know nothing of this great Gospel-Mystery 7. That he suffered not only for our Good or Profit but also in our room and stead doth further appear because it is said He died for our Sins Who was delivered for our Offences and rose again for our Justification This Particle saith a Learned Man joined with an Accusative doth generally signify the impulsive Cause and not final Mat. 10. 22. 13. 5. 14. 9. John 20. 19. 2 Cor. 4. 11. And particularly when it is used in reference to Sufferings it hath that signification and no other see Levit. 26. 18 28. Deut. 28. 11. 2 Kings 23. 26. Jer. 13. 22. John 10. 32. In all these Places it necessarily signifies the Meritorious and Impulsive Cause and nowise the Final for our Offences must needs be understood that our Offences were the Meritorious and Impulsive Cause of Christ's Sufferings Another Particle the Holy
made it maintains it as he sits upon the Throne He it was that made it as he is a Priest and he maintains it as he is a King upon the Throne he will never suffer Sin to get such Head in us that we shall cast off God any more or violate our Covenant with him nor will he suffer Satan to do it therefore they who are reconciled shall never perish no not one of the Elect of God Thirdly The Gift of the Holy Spirit is another Effect of the Death of Christ This Jesus hath God raised up whereof we are Witnesses And having received of the Father the Promise of the Holy Ghost he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear The Father promised unto his Son upon his dying for us that the Holy Spirit should be given to all his Seed I will pour my Spirit upon thy Seed Indeed Christ receiving the Holy Spirit without measure for us in his own Person as Mediator antecedent to our believing is the fullest Security to us imaginable We are blessed with all spiritual Blessings in Christ that is in him as our Head And although Christ received the Spirit before he suffered yet it was upon the account of his Sufferings the Father trusted his Son took his Son's Word and gave him part of his Wages from the beginuing for all the Saints under the Old Testament had the Spirit upon no other Account than as we have it namely as the Fruits and Effects of Christ's Death and Purchase who was to die Now Brethren pray consider what the Work of the Holy Spirit is which is promised to abide with the Saints and Seed of Christ for ever 1. His Work is at first to quicken them You hath he quickned 2. To renew to regenerate to sanctify them this is the Work and Office of the Spirit I will sprinkle clean Water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your Filthiness And hence the Gentiles are said to be sanctified by the Holy Ghost But pray take notice of this the Rock in the Wilderness was first smitten before Water gush'd forth So Christ was first smitten first crucified then the Spirit like Water was poured forth It is Sirs wholly the Effects and Fruits of his Death 3. It is the Work of the Spirit to cause us to walk in God's Ways and to keep his Statutes I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my Judgments and do them We should not do this were it not for the Spirit we could not keep God's Precepts nor walk in his Paths but God puts his Spirit into us that we shall not depart from him that is we shall not finally apostatize from him but shall keep his Precepts to the End 4. It is the Work of the Spirit to help us to pray and breathe forth our Desires to God We know not how to pray but as the Spirit helps our Infirmities and maketh intercession for us with Groans that cannot be uttered Christ having redeemed us from the Curse of the Law it is that this Blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles And because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your Hearts crying Abba Father 5. The Office and Work of the Holy Spirit is to enable us to mortify Sin Rom. 8. 13. If ye through the Spirit mortify the Deeds of the Body ye shall live And hence it is also that Sin shall not have Dominion over them and therefore Believers cannot perish they having such a Helper He destroys all that Dominion Sin and Satan had in them and Power over them The Spirit utterly spoils Satan's Kingdom in them Because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the World saith John speaking to the Saints This is such a Helper that can never be worsted 6. It is hereby we perform all our Holy Duties By the Spirit Ministers preach to profit and Hearers hear to their profit hereby we read to profit and sing God's Praise to our profit and sweet comfort for as we pray with the Spirit so we sing with the Spirit and the same Measure the same Fillings of the Spirit that enable us to do the one enable us to do the other By the Spirit we are also helped to meditate on God and on his Word and hereby our Meditations of him are sweet to our Souls 7. 'T is by the Spirit we resist and repel Satan's Temptations Or if he doth at any time worst us the Spirit will help us up again 8. It is the Holy Spirit that doth confirm and establish us in the Truth 9. In a word All Grace is from the Spirit and it is by the Aid and Assistance of the Spirit that we are enabled to exercise that Grace for as he first formed the Habit in our Souls so it is he helps us to do the Act also or that doth influence us in the Exercise thereof 10. The Holy Spirit is also the Earnest of the Saints Inheritance 'T is given to them as an Earnest of that Glory they shall one Day absolutely be possessed of 'T is given to assure them that as certainly as they have received the Holy Spirit here and he is in them so certain it is that they shall be saved or have the Eternal Inheritance True I have mentioned this two or three times already yet it is of so great Importance I cannot pass it by here It is no small Matter that God gives us when he gives the Holy Spirit to us for as he is that Principle of Life in us so he gives us a full Assurance of Eternal Life hereafter and it is upon this Earnest-Money a Saint may be said to live whilst in this World nay and it will defray all his Charge and supply all his Need and manifold Wants as long as he lives upon the Earth even until he comes to the full possession of his Inheritance above 11. And as the Spirit is the Earnest of Glory or of Everlasting Life so he is also the Witness of God in our Souls yea such a Witness whose Testimony every Christian may trust to and rest upon The Spirit it self beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God It witnesseth to us our Adoption that we are Children and so Heirs Heirs of God and joint Heirs with Christ There is a twofold Witness of the Spirit 1. The Spirit witnesseth by a direct Act we taking hold of Christ and of the Promise Saith the Spirit to the Soul I testify that Christ and Eternal Life is yours you believe and therefore you have Christ and shall be saved 2. There is the witnessing of the Spirit by a reflex Act A Man finds such and such gracious Effects of Divine Grace upon his Soul and by these the Holy Spirit testifies he is gracious One that loves God that hates Sin is changed renewed lives
perpetually to be continued the Death of Christ hath special influence unto the mortification of Sin in the Death of the Cross Our Old Man is crucified that the Body of Sin might be destroyed Sin is mortified and we are sanctified by virtue of the Death of Christ and we hereby through his Grace come to be planted into the Likeness of his Death And as Paul in another place saith Being made conformable unto his Death This Conformity is not in our Natural Death or in our being put to death for him but Christ dying for our Sins is the procuring Cause of our dying to Sin therefore we must look for the Death of our Sins in the Death of Christ as the proper Effect thereof Virtue goeth from the Death of Christ to the subduing and destroying of Sin his Death was not only a Passive Example but is accompanied with Power conforming and changing us into his Likeness 'T is the great Ordinance of God to this very End it is by a fellowship or participation in his suffering we are never made conformable to the Death of Christ till we die to Sin the Death of Christ was designed to be the Death of Sin And as certain as Christ died for the Sins of all the Elect so certain it is they shall all first or last feel the powerful Effects thereof in the Death of their Sins The Corn fell into the Ground and died and shall produce all the Increase that virtually was hid in it Christ is our Life the Spring Fountain and Cause of it therefore we have nothing but what we derive from him Object He is say some the Author of Life and as he taught the Way of Life so he is our Life Answ He is our Life as he is our Head and it would be but a sorry Head that should only teach the Feet to go or the Members to act and move without communicating Strength unto them and to the whole Body Christ Brethren is an Head of Influence and in these spiritual Influences or Life that Strength which he communicates to us doth consist in the killing of Sin He loved his Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of Water that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having Spot or Wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be Holy and without Blame And if this was his End in his Death be sure his Death shall perfectly effect this glorious Work in the End upon every Soul of his Tenthly and lastly Glorification is also an Effect of the Death of Christ it is the Fruit of his Suffering it was by his own Blood he entred as our Head and Representative once into the Holy Place having obtained Eternal Redemption for us The Crown of Glory is the Purchase of his Blood and as sure as his Righteousness his Holy Life and Obedience and Meritorious Death carried him to the Father and set him down at the right Hand of the Majesty on high so will his Merits as certainly bring all the true Heirs to that Glory above where the Fore-runner is for us already entered For it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many Sons to Glory to make the Captain of their Salvation perfect through Sufferings First he brings those Sons into a State of Grace as the Effects of his Death and Resurrection and unto a State of Glory And whom he justified them also he glorified I shall draw up the Sum of this Argument If such are the certain Fruits and Effects of Christ's Death 1. If it hath appeased the Wrath of God for all that are in him 2. If it hath made their Peace and for ever reconciled them unto God 3. If the Holy Spirit is purchased and procured as the Effects of his Death for them by which they are renewed quickned and helped to mortify Sin and is to them an Earnest a Witness and Seal of Everlasting Life and shall abide with them for ever 4. If Justification is the Effect of Christ's Death and they are for ever acquitted from all Sin and accepted as Righteous in Christ's Righteousness 5. If all that believe in him are sanctified as the Effects of his Death and shall be perfected for ever 6. If Pardon of Sin is an Effect also of Christ's Death and all Believers have and shall have their Sins forgiven for ever or remembred no more 7. If they are adopted Sons and Daughters to God as the Effect of Christ's Death 8. And also if Glorification is an Effect of his Death and as certain as is the Cause the Effect will be or as sure as Christ is glorified in Heaven all that are his Members shall be glorified Then it is impossible that any one of them should so fall away as eternally to perish But all these things are true and none dare to deny them so to be therefore they cannot fall so as eternally to perish I shall apply this and come to the next Argument APPLICATION First To Sinners 1. Hath the Death of Christ such Virtue in it even to renew quicken regenerate all that believe in him Is God through the Death of his Son reconciled and shall all that take hold of him be justified c. O then Sinners look up unto him and never cease looking until you find the Effects of his Death in your own Souls Object 1. But alas Sir I am a vile and abominable Sinner Answ Well notwithstanding that yet there is Virtue enough in Christ to save you Object 2. But I have been a Drunkard a Swearer an Adulterer a Thief Answ So had some of those Paul speaks of 1 Cor. 6. 11. Such were some of you but you are sanctified but you are justified Object 3. But I have been an Old Sinner Answ Well let it be so yet but a Sinner and Christ died for Sinners for the chief of Sinners therefore there is hope for you nay if you can believe and apply the Virtue of Christ's Blood you shall find Mercy Object 4. But I fear Christ did not die for me Answ 1. If he died for the Chief of Sinners why not for thee And if those that crucified him found Mercy why not thee 2. Thou hast as much ground to believe that Christ died for thee as any ungodly Person hath that dwells on the Face of the whole Earth Sinner look up Nay 3. Thou hast as much ground to believe that Christ died for thee as any of those had once who now feel the Effects of his Death 4. Did ever any Sinner throw himself at his Feet as a poor lost and undone Creature and take hold of him that was rejected Query What is the first Effect of Christ's Death Answ The first Effect of Christ's Death in the Soul is Life Life is infused And if thou hast a vital Principle in thee thou wilt cry out under the Sense of thy
remainders of Corruption which none but he by his Spirit can finally vanquish overcome and root out for ever And should he not pursue his Victory all he hath done will prove fruitless and in vain therefore be sure he will never cease until he hath brought all his Foes not only under his Foot but destroyed them for ever more 14. They are in Christ's Hand as a poor Orphan is in the Hand of his Guardian who commits himself wholly to his Care Faithfulness and Compassion whilst in non-age not being able to help himself or shift for himself Thus I say Believers are in the Hand of Jesus Christ they are as poor helpless Orphans under-Age and have every one of them chosen him to be the only Guardian and Trustee of their Souls or have wholly committed themselves to his Care by a holy Resignation of themselves to him to be his and no more their own for ever and will not he be faithful think you to every one of them especially considering they did it also at his Command and by the Influence of his Spirit Will he betray his Trust who hath taken them into his House and under his own Conduct or leave them to shift for themselves They first gave themselves to the Lord and unto us by the Will of God And as David saith The Poor committeth himself unto thee thou are the helper of the Fatherless He yields himself up to thee Himself his Matter his Cause And what says he further Thou shalt keep them O Lord thou shalt preserve them from this Generation and for ever He tells us in the 5 th verse who they are even the Poor and Needy Brethren this lays a great Obligation upon a Guardian when he sees what a Child or any Person hath done in chusing him in confiding in his Fidelity and putting his whole Trust and Dependence in him What Man that has a Principle of Honesty or of Morality will deceive or fail such a One after he hath taken the sole Care and Charge of him And shall Christ be more unfaithful to the Souls of his People God forbid From the whole I infer 1. If all Believers are in the Father's Hand or under his Eternal Purpose and Counsel to save 2. If God's Purposes are Immutable 3. If he hath not left it to any mixtures of Counsels if he is Omnipotent and can and will bring all his Absolute Purposes to pass 4. If it be folly to imagine any of his Purposes should be subjected to the Will of Man 5. If Christ be the right Hand of God or in whom all his Attributes are united to the Perfection of his Power to save Believers 6. If Christ also hath them all in his Hand as God's faithful Servant and as their Surety or Trustee 7. If many of them are gone to Heaven already 8. If all Interests concerned in our Salvation are well pleased in Christ's Undertaking 9. If the Glory of every one of the Divine Attributes are raised in the Salvation of each Believer 10. If Christ hath received a Charge to keep every one of them and to lose none as he hath promised to do 11. If Christ is every ways fitted to supply his Saints with all things they need or can need And 12. If they are all in Christ's Hand in all those respects I have mentioned then it is impossible any one of them should so fall away as eternally to perish But all this is undeniably true therefore not one of them can so fall away as eternally to perish I should make some Improvement of this but having but one Argument to add to prove the Proposition I shall leave the Application to the last wherein I shall shew you how Christ doth preserve his Saints in a way of Holiness and Obedience unto Eternal Life JOHN X. 28. And I give unto them Eternal Life and they shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of my Hand BRETHREN though I hope I have sufficiently through Divine Assistance proved the Proposition i. e. That none of the Saints can so full away as eternally to perish Yet I shall add one General Argument more and then come to the Application and answer such Objections which I have not as yet met with Tenthly That the Saints of God or every true Believer shall persevere or hold out to the End and obtain Everlasting Life will appear from the Nature of true and saving Grace That therefore which I shall in the last place do shall be to demonstrate that true Grace though never so weak and small even like a Grain of Mustard-seed yet it shall be preserved in the Soul and at last become victorious See Matth. 12. 20. A bruised Reed shall he not break and smoaking Flax shall he not quench till he hath brought forth Judgment to Victory Hierom as I find him quoted by a Learned Author thinks that our Saviour alludes to a Musical Instrument made of a Reed which Shepherds used to have which when it was bruised sounded ill and therefore 't is flung away But the Lord Jesus Christ will not cast away a poor Soul saith that Worthy Person although he cannot make so good Musick in God's Ear as others or answer not the breathing of the Spirit with that Life and Vigour but he will take Pains with them and mend them who in a spiritual sense are like a bruised Reed broken and bruised under the sense of their Sins Weaknesses and Unworthinesses Smoaking Flax or a little Flax that hath a Spark of Fire kindled in it or a Wick of Candle wherein there is not only no Profit but some Trouble and Noisomness Tho the Soul is noisom by reason of the stench of its Corruption yet he will not blow out that expiring Fire which smoaks and though no Fire is seen yet there is Fire in it and it is kindled by the Lord and for some great and good Design By the Spark of Fire in the Flax let our Saviour refer to what he pleases is meant no doubt Divine Grace in the Soul of a poor weak and desponding Christian and this Christ will not quench that is he will tenderly cherish it and cause it to kindle more and more until he makes it flame forth and burn clearly And he will heal cure and strengthen the bruised Reed that is he will never cease until the Soul doth obtain a perfect Victory over Sin Satan the Flesh the World and over all Enemies Grace shall prevail over Corruption though there seems more Smoke than Fire more Sin than Grace more Weakness than Strength more Darkness than Light more Fear than Faith yet Grace shall be victorious Grace is that Principle of Life in the Soul the Law of God written in the Heart which shall never finally be obliterated any more or God's Image that shall not utterly be defaced Again Grace as the Seed of Glory shall abide in the Soul in spight of all the Opposition Hell can make And
Is it some Temporary Act of his whereby he hath declared himself unto them Then I say grant that Salvation is to be had in a Redeemer in Jesus Christ and give me an Instance how God in any Act whatsoever saith he hath declared his Mind and revealed himself to all Men of all Times and Places concerning his willingness of their Salvation by Jesus Christ a Redeemer and I will never more trouble you in this Cause Secondly Doth this Will equally respect the All intended or doth it not If it doth why hath it not equal Effects towards all What Reason can be assigned that all they whom God equally intended Salvation for by Christ have it not However they who have Salvation either have it as the Effects of Free-Grace or of Free-Will Who will assert the latter Besides this would follow i. e. God will have some Men be saved to whom he wills not the Means of their Salvation for so he doth not to one great Part of the World But since we have proved that there is not a Sufficiency of Grace granted to all universally that is Grace subjective to enable them to believe and change their Hearts but to some only I shall say no more to this for if it were sufficient it would have the same Effect on all as it hath on some that which is sufficient to such an End would be made no doubt efficient by the Will of the great Agent who worketh all our Works in us and for us of his own good Pleasure and without whom we can'do nothing Object 14. Well say some say what you will if this Doctrine of Election and Final Perseverance be true we see not to what purpose we should preach the Gospel to Sinners any more or press Saints to Holiness Answ 1. I am weary of these impertinent Objections God hath ordained the preaching of the Gospel as the great Ordinance to call in his Elect and to beget Faith in them It pleased God by the foolishness of Preaching to save them that believe And not only to beget Faith but also to strengthen that Faith and to perfect the Saints more and more in Holiness These Men dream of an Election without the Means and of a Salvation without Faith and Regeneration and a preserving Men to Eternal Life without a Perseverance in Grace and Holiness It is a Perseverance in well-doing we plead for and this we say Christ will in the use of Means not without it enable all his People to do he will help them strengthen them and keep their Souls alive Pray consider the Ways by which Jesus Christ preserves his People unto Everlasting Life the Saints are said to be sanctified by the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ 1. It is in a Way of Holiness And from fainting or being weary in well-doing he stirs us up by his Spirit to wait upon him and promises That they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their Strength they shall mount up with Wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary walk and not faint or grow stronger and stronger both in Faith and Patience 2. Christ preserves us in a Way of Perseverance in well-doing by shewing us our own Weakness and that without him we can do nothing but that we must wholly rely upon him in the Way of our Duties for all things we need 3. By increasing Grace in us He by his Word shews that the Grace we have already received is not sufficient to keep us from falling therefore he stirs us up to seek to him for more Grace more Faith more Patience more Humility more Wisdom c. 4. By succouring us under all Temptations For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is also able to succour them that are tempted He has purchased Help and Succour for tempted Saints His Bowels move him to help us against Sin and against Satan He hath a soft and tender Heart and hath a fellow-feeling of our Infirmities which is a Spring of great Comfort to tempted Christians 5. By warning and forewarning us of the Danger we are in by our spiritual Enemies and charging us by his Word always to be upon our watch and not to sleep as others do 6. By putting his Fear into our Hearts that we may not depart from him that is not finally to depart which he doth when at first he infuseth Holy Habits in us 7. By his putting upon us that Holy and Spiritual Armour Ephes 6. 10 11 12 13 14. Do these Men think Christ's Soldiers can expect the Victory and not fight or overcome their Enemy though they throw away their Sword which is the Word of God The Preaching of the Gospel is of wonderful use to them it is the Word of Command their Captain speaks to them thereby and shews what they are and are not to do and how they should keep their Ranks and maintain true Order and Discipline in themselves Church and Families 8. By his continual Intercession for them he prays for us that we may be kept in the World from the Evil of it that we may not be finally overcome thereby These things being considered pray Brethren remember that as the Saints cannot perish as Hypocrites and Unbelievers may so they cannot sin live in Sin and in neglect of Holy Duties continually as unsound Persons may do And now Brethren I having answered all the grand Objections that are usually brought against the Saints final Perseverance I shall shew you some of those Absurdities which do attend the contrary Doctrine viz. That Christ died to save all and every individual Person in the World and that the Elect may fall totally and finally away and perish for ever 1. It renders the Death of Christ as to its Effects and the Success thereof uncertain as to the Salvation of any one Person 2. It doth imply a Deficiency in God or want of good Will in him to prosecute his Design to perfection in Man's Salvation they affirming that Christ died for all even every individual Traitor who lies in strong Chains and Fetters under the Power of Sin and Satan but he will not break off the cursed Irons and bring out of the Prison-house but a very few of them only 3. It would also follow then that the Purpose of God yea his Eternal Counsel in Christ Jesus may be disappointed and Eternity be subjected to Time the Will of the Creator to the Will of the Creature the first Cause to the Second and all or many of God's Absolute Acts to be suspended unto the actings of sorry Man and so the Lord submit to the Servant Yea as saith a Reverend Minister It sets God at an uncertainty because it doth subject the Grace of God to the Will of Man it hangs the Glory of his Grace in all the Motions of it and the Efficacy of the Promises upon the slipperiness of Man's Will and Affections It makes the Omnipotent Grace of God follow not
said and so finish with this Text. 1. Inform. This may serve to inform and convince all Persons concerning the absolute Soveraignty of God He may save Man if he please and not Angels or may send a Saviour for some of the lost Sons of Adam and not for all Who shall say to him What dost thou If he had vouchsafed a Saviour for none of Adam's Posterity had he been unjust any more than he is in casting off for ever all the fallen Angels He called Abraham out of his own Country and revealed himself to him and let others remain then under the Power of Sin Ignorance and Idolatry calling them not He revealed himself to Isaac and rejected Ishmael he chose Jacob and refused Esau he afterwards chose the Children of Israel to be a peculiar People for himself and let all other Nations of the Earth abide in Darkness And in the Gospel-Days Christ chose a few poor Fisher-Men and refused the Learned and Wise Men after the Flesh nay and hid the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven from the Wise and Prudent and all this as an Act alone of his Soveraignty And in these days what Reason can be alledged why we and a few Nations more have the Knowledg of the Gospel when the greatest part of the Earth lie in Popish Mahometan and Pagan Darkness but that it is his good pleasure so to do He hath Mercy on whom he will have Mercy and whom he will he hardeneth 2. Praise God for the Knowledg you have of the Mysteries of Christ and the Gospel of Free-Grace Brethren next unto the Grace of God in my Conversion I have often said I do look upon my self bound to admire the Riches of God's Love and Goodness to me in opening my Eyes to see those Arminian Errors which when I was Young I had from some Men of corrupt Principles sucked in nay and when I was about 23 Years Old I wrote a little Book for Children in which some of those Errors were vindicated which after my Eyes were inlightned and the Book with Alterations being again Reprinted I left out and now do declare my dislike of the first Impressions and do disown what I there asserted When I was a Child I thought as a Child I understood as a Child as the Apostle speaks And let me intreat you to study the Nature of the Covenant of Grace for until I had that opened unto me I was ignorant of the Mysteries of the Gospel 3. O do not forget that the Design of God in contriving our Salvation in his Eternal Wisdom by Jesus Christ was wholly to advance his own Glory and the Freeness and Riches of his Grace and to abase and humble Man unto the Dust therefore be sure never err on that Hand And I think it is not easy for Men well to err on the other I mean in exalting God alone Christ alone though I deny not but that some good Men who in seeking to advance Free-Grace perhaps have erred and taken up some unsound Notions as that of Actual or Personal Justification before Faith and Actual Union with Jesus Christ O what need have we to ponder well the Paths of our Feet and not with Pride to magnify our selves or strive to promote any corrupt Notion under any Pretence whatsoever Our Days are Evil many dangerous Errors abound and it is cause of greatest Grief to see what a Generation of Men are risen up of late who strive to mix God's pure Gold with their Dross and his Wine with their Water Though on the other Hand let us bless and praise the Lord for raising up so many brave Champions in the mean time of our Brethren of the Congregational Way to defend the Gospel of God's Grace and the Truth as it is in Jesus Yet I could wish there was not so much Gall in some of them against us their Brethren who in all the great Truths of Christianity are of one Mind and Judgment and yet are exposed to Reproach for witnessing to a Truth of Christ that lies as plain in the Gospel as any one Truth or positive Precept of Christ whatsoever I mean that of Believers Baptism Why should we be censured for maintaining that Truth which the Holy Ghost so fully bears witness unto I long to see more of the Spirit of Love and Charity would to God that Chapter 1 Cor. 13. was more read and considered 4. This may also serve to reprehend such who strive to cast Reproach upon this Holy Doctrine and such that maintain it as if it tended to incourage People in Sin or open a Door to Licentiousness Let all for ever forbear such Reflections Is not this the Purport of that Doctrine which we vindicate 1. That there is wrought and preserved in the Minds and Souls of all Believers by the Holy Spirit a Supernatural Principle of Grace and Holiness whereby they are made meet and enabled to live unto God and discharge all Duties of Obedience which he requireth of them and accepteth through Christ which Principle or Habit of Grace is essentiaily distinct from all Natural Habits Intellectual and Moral however and by what Means so ever acquired or improved 2. That the Holy Spirit by his effectual Operations doth enable us according as we are required by his immediate Influences in all Acts of Obedience whether internal only in Faith and Love c. or External also even so that all the Powers of our Souls and Members of our Bodies are or ought to be in a spiritual manner governed and influenced thereby and unto all Duties of Holiness in our daily walking with God and that all this is the Effect of God's Free-Grace to us in Jesus Christ who hath communicated of the Spirit without measure to our Blessed Head and Mediator that he may give it forth to all his Saints that have Union with him and believe in him Brethren God hath circumcised the Hearts of his People to love him with all their Souls and with all their Strength He writes his Law in our Hearts as he promised I will put my Law in their inward Parts and write it in their Hearts This gracious Habit or Principle in the Soul is nothing but a Transcript of the Holy Law of God implanted and abiding in our Hearts whereby we are enabled with Chearfulness and ready Inclination of our Spirits to act in the Duties of Obedience and Holiness unto God as he requireth of us and also our Likeness and Conformity unto God doth consist herein I say it doth consist in this Divine and Sacred Principle or Spiritual Habit that is infused into the Soul it is our Spiritual Life whereby we live unto God it is the Foundation and Sum of all Internal Excellencies no Works no Duties are accepted where this Principle is not It is a Vital Principle of Holiness and it makes Religion co-natural to us Moreover it is a certain a permanent and an abiding Principle it is that Seed
that remains in Believers and will have good and spiritual Fruit to attend it therefore this Doctrine must needs promote Holiness that is thus founded on such a Sacred Principle and the Motives are every way as strong 5. It appears Brethren that our standing by Grace is most firm and sure it is like the standing of those who are in their consummate State in Glory The Good Angels and Blessed Souls above are confirmed in that State by superabounding Grace for by Nature as one observes the Angels are mutable What was the Reason some of them fell who beheld the Face of God The bare beholding the Face and Glory of God will not continue one Creature in a happy State without an Act of Divine and Confirming Grace it is a continual Addition of Grace and Supplies of Grace that preserves our Souls in a State of Life and to this End are we united to Jesus Christ I mean to such an Head that of and from his Fulness we might have a Communication of Strength and all Divine Influences as our Souls do stand in need 6. And this being so labour after the Exercise of Grace rest not in a small Degree thereof the more Grace you have the more Glory you will bring to God and the more easy it will be for you to resist Temptations 7. The more Grace also the more Peace Holiness is that which God calls for it is that which becomes his House for ever and without it no Man shall ever see the Lord. Therefore let this be the Use of all the Sermons you have heard from this Text even to work up your Hearts to Thankfulness to Holiness in all the whole Course of your Lives and to depend upon Christ alone into whose Hand you are committed by the Father that he would give you fresh Supplies of Grace and keep you from falling To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be Glory and Praise for ever Amen The Trial of the False Professor OR The Danger of Final APOSTACY Opened in three SERMONS preached lately at Horse-lie-down Wherein the Nature of the Sin against the Holy Ghost is discovered HEB. VI. 4 5 6. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightned and have tasted of the Heavenly Gift and were made Partakers of the Holy Ghost ver 4. And have tasted the good Word of God and the Powers of the World to come ver 5. If they fall away to renew them again unto Repentance seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame ver 6. BELOVED this Place of Holy Scripture was sent to me in Writing some Months ago I know not by whom perhaps by some who hold a Total and Final Apostacy from a State of True Grace But before I entered upon this Text I resolved in the Strength of God to endeavour to prove the Impossibility of their final Falling who are True Believers or such who have Real Union with Jesus Christ which I hope I have effectually done I know that this Text is brought by some to prove That True Believers may fall not only foully but also finally Which certainly is a great Mistake which I shall endeavour God assisting to make appear Mr. John Goodwin speaking of this Place and that in Heb. 10. 26. If we sin wilfully c. saith Evident it is from these two Passages the Holy Ghost after a serious manner and with a very pathetick and moving sirain of Speech and Discourse scarce the like to be found in all the Scripture admonisheth those who are at present true Believers to take heed of relapsing into the ways of their former Ignorance and Impiety This Caveat or Admonition he presseth by an Argument of this import that in case they shall thus relapse there will be very little or no hope at all of their Recovery or Return to the Estate of Faith and Grace wherein now they stand before the Faces of such Sayings and Passages as these rightly understood and duly considered there is no standing for that Doctrine which denies a Possibility either of a total or final Defection of the Saints c. He add That the Supposition or Hypothetical Proposition If they fall away doth denote here a Possibility of it which I will not deny but that these Persons of which the Apostle speaks were true Believers I see no ground at all to believe but do utterly deny it yet I readily grant this hath always been look'd upon as a very difficult place of Scripture to be rightly understood I have therefore consulted the best Authors and Exposuors I could meet with upon it 1. And I find that some of the Antients mistaking the Drift and Design of the Holy Ghost herein would take no Repentance from such who fell under Temptation in Times of Persecution especially if they fell into Idolatry 2. Nay such as fell into scandalous Crimes as Adultery and the like they would not admit by Repentance into the Church or have Communion any more with them And from hence I find that Tertullian reflects upon the Bishop of Rome that had admitted an Adulterer upon his Repentance Also Novatus as I find him quoted by a good Author denied all Hope of Church Pardon unto such Persons that had fallen into gross Sins after they had made a Profession of the Gospel and that from hence Which may seem strange considering that Paul admitted the incestuous Person upon his Repentance that being so notorious a Crime as most do or can fall into But no more as to this Brethren before I proceed let me premise three or four things 1. That the Apostacy here spoken of is not a bare falling into this or that Actual Sin be it of whatever Nature it will For do we not read how grievously some of the Saints of God sinned and fell and yet were restored again by Repentance 2. Nor is it a partial Apostacy or a falling upon Temptation or Surprizal in Time of Persecution though it be to the denying of Christ for did not Peter so fall and yet was restored afterwards 3. Neither is it a falling into some Capital Error as some of the Corinthians fell by denying the Resurrection of the Dead whom Paul laboured to recover Or like that of the Galatians who fell by denying Justification by Faith alone but mix'd Works with God's Free Grace in that great Point of Faith 4. Nor is it a falling of Ignorant Persons who never made any Profession of Religion such are not capable so to sin as is here mentioned because it is expresly said to be such who were once enlightned c. 5. And lastly Neither is it a falling away of such who are justified Persons or of those who have savingly been enlightned and quickned by the Spirit of God for such I have sufficiently proved cannot fall totally and finally so as to perish Thus far in the Negative But in the Affirmative 1. This Apostacy is a total and
their Bodies to be burned and yet be destitute of saving Grace or of true Love to God and therefore not self-condemned Hypocrites whose Hearts condemn them and yet be far from the State of sincere and renewed Christians APPLICATION 1. O see what Light what Spiritual Light you have received and what Convictions you have had the experience of 2. Which do you account the greatest Evil Sin or Suffering the Torture or Pain you feel or the Sin you have committed Do you groan most under the sense of Sin and want of Holiness or under the presages and fear of Hell and Damnation May be you cry out your State is sad but what think you of your Sin which is the Cause of it 3. Be exhorted to labour after true Spiritual Illuminations and thorow Convictions of Sin Motives 1. Sin will be your Pain and Sorrow first or last either here or hereafter 2. Consider what a good and gracious God you have offended 3. Without effectual Convictions there will be no true Conversion and where the first is indeed wrought the last will follow those that God kills in this respect he will make alive 4. Remember the Word never comes with Power until Convictions come with Power and also abide on the Soul and Conscience of the Sinner 5. Consider that it is better to be broken in Mercy than in Judgment better here than in Hell 6. Remember that true and thorow Convictions tend to let out the Life or Power of your Sin and consider also what Means of Convictions God is pleased to afford you 7. Sinner Christ was wounded for thy Sin look up to him nothing breaks the Soul rightly you have heard but a sight of a broken and crucified Christ HEB. VI. 4 5. For it is impossible for those c. I Have closed with the first Qualification or Attainment of these Persons spoken of in my Text I shall now proceed to the Second And have tasted of the Heavenly Gift 1. By the Heavenly Gift some understand the Heavenly Doctrine In that sense it may be true for Herod had some kind of Taste of the Heavenly Doctrine which John the Baptist preached he heard him gladly or with Joy As the Baptism of John is said to be from Heaven so all the Truths and Ordinances of the Gospel may be said to be but one intire Heavenly Gift 2. Others by the Heavenly Gift understand the Holy Ghost according to that in Acts 8. 20. Thou hast thought the Gift of God may be purchased with Money So Acts 10. 45. That on the Gentiles also was poured the Gift of the Holy Ghost Quest But what Gift of the Holy Ghost is it which these Persons are said to have a taste of Answ 1. The miraculous Operations of the Holy Ghost in the Times of the Gospel in the extraordinary Gifts thereof which are said to come down from Heaven in a way of Eminency as Acts 1. 4 5. and of those Gifts these Persons might have some taste either by their receiving those Gifts themselves for that unsound Persons may do And in thy Name we have cast out Devils so 1 Cor. 13. 1 2. And though I have all Faith so that I could remove Mountains and have not Charity I am nothing or else they may be said to have a taste of those Gifts by being wonderfully affected by beholding the miraculous Operations of this Heavenly Gift wrought by others 2. By tasting of the Heavenly Gift it may refer to the Doctrine of the Gospel it may denote their making some trial by Hearing and diligently attending on the Doctrine of Salvation there is a tasting for trial either to receive or refuse as we commonly do Meats or other things Every tasting is not a digesting Men taste before they eat and digest food These Persons may taste of the Doctrine of Justification taste of the Heavenly Gift or Doctrine of God's Free Grace taste of the Ordinance of Baptism and the Lord's Supper and seem also to like the Heavenly Gift well in all these and in other respects yet may feed all the while on some one Lust or another on the Love of this World or on their carnal and sensual Pleasures and because they were never savingly renewed having no new Nature they could not feed on spiritual Things so as to digest them No doubt it was or is such a tasting as the full Stomach takes sometimes of Food a full Stomach will taste yet refuse to eat they have no Appetite these being glutted with the Love of other things the Heavenly Gift is not so sweet to them as Food is to an hungry Man The Sum then is this these Persons had or may have some Experience of the Holy Ghost in the miraculous Gifts either in themselves or in others their Understandings being enlightned for it is evident that 't is a Taste by Illuminations by what we before shewed and they also might taste the Heavenly Doctrine or Ministration of the Gospel and might find the Truths the Institutions and Worship thereof to be good they making a trial of it so far as their carnal and unsanctified Hearts were capable to do yea they might find the Ways of God better than once they thought before they were inlightned and from thence imbraced them to appearance owned and walked therein for a time Doct. 2. That there is a Goodness and an Excellency in the Heavenly Gift and Heavenly Doctrine of the Gospel which such may taste of that never receive the Truth in the Power and Love thereof Doct. 3. That the rejecting and utter casting off the Gospel and the Ordinance and Worship thereof after some Tastes and Experience of it is an high Offence to God and a fearful Aggravation of Sin and a certain Presage of Damnation So much as to their second Attainment 3dly And were made Partakers of the Holy Ghost This seems to be more than a bare tasting Object Doth not this seem to interfere with your Exposition of the Attainment you mentioned last Answ 1. To this take Dr. Owen's Answer It is saith he ordinary to have the same thing twice expressed in various words to quicken the Sense of them 2. The Holy Ghost is mentioned before as he hints as the great Gift of the Gospel-Times as coming down from Heaven not absolutely not as unto his Person but with respect unto an especial Work namely the changing of the whole State of Religious Worship in the Church of God 3. But here in these words when it is said They were made Partakers of the Holy Ghost it is spoken chiefly in respect unto external actual Operations 1. They partake of the Holy Spirit in the common Operations of it themselves they tasted the Heavenly Doctrine as it was administred by others as it is hinted before but here is a Reception or a partaking of the Holy Spirit whereby it had some great and visible Operations upon their Hearts and Lives though not saving Operations not such
that changed them into a State of Grace 2. Nay they partake not only of common Gifts but common Grace also even such Grace that doth reform their Lives bridle restrain and curb their inordinate Lusts and Passions so that through the Knowledg of Jesus Christ they esteeming him as their Blessed Saviour they are said to escape the Pollution of the World as Peter plainly declares though afterwards they are again intangled therein and overcome 3. They did no doubt by the Assistance of the Holy Spirit leave and forsake those evil Ways and prophane Courses and Practices in which they lived before May be they were gross Idolaters Adulterers Blasphemers c. but the Spirit by its common Operations did so far strive and prevail with them that they became other Men As it is said of King Saul The Spirit of God will come upon thee and thou shalt be turned into another Man but not a new Man And God gave him another Heart 4. These Persons may partake of such Grace which the foolish Virgins had to keep their Lamps of Profession burning for a Time Doct. 4. The Holy Spirit may be with Persons nay in them by his common Operations with whom he is not by his gracious Inhabitation they may partake of common but not of saving Grace 4 thly The fourth Attainment of these Persons or these false Professors is this viz. And tasted of the good Word of God Four things I shall do in speaking unto this First Shew what is meant by the Word of God Secondly Shew why it is called the good Word of God Thirdly Shew what a taste an unsound Christian may have of the good Word of God Fourthly And also shew what a taste it is that a true Christian hath of it First By the Word of God is meant the Word of the Gospel Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God Again it is said From you sounded out the Word of God that is the Gospel of Christ Secondly It is called the good Word of God 1. Because it bringeth good News to Sinners the Tidings it brings are good and profitable to all that receive it in Truth 2. Because it is a Declaration of that good and gracious Counsel and Purpose of God in saving poor Sinners by Jesus Christ it is Heavenly Sublime the Nature and Glory of God in all his Attributes is made manifest thereby 3. It is good in the blessed Effects thereof That which is excellent and precious in it self and also doth as much good we esteem very good Now as divine Truth is pure Thy Word is pure therefore thy Servant loveth it so it is precious above Gold in the Effects of it on the Heart 1. It enlightens the Eyes it illuminates dark Minds it is a shining Light Thy Word is a Lamp unto my Feet and a Light unto my Path. 2. It quickens and revives a Soul under Deadness therefore it is good Thy Word hath quickned me 3. It is that which inriches the Soul Let the Word of God dwell in you richly We have this Treasure in earthen Vessels that the excellency of the Power may be of God and not of us Hence Ministers by preaching the Gospel though they may be externally poor yet make many spiritually rich 4. It may be said to be Good because of the powerful Effects it hath on Mens Souls where it comes not in Word only The Word of God is quick and powerful sharper than any two-edged Sword It makes the Dead to live infusing through the Spirit Life and regenerating Grace into the Hearts of Sinners it searcheth and purges out all Corruption by the means of it young and old come to have their Hearts and Ways cleansed Now ye are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you 5. It is our Sword by which we offend and wound our Enemies and defend our selves against all their Assaults and Temptations 6. It is good in respect of that discovery it makes of God of Jesus Christ and of Salvation as also of future Glory there is contained in it a Revelation of the Incarnation of the Son of God with all the Effects of infinite Wisdom in the glorious Contrivance of our Redemption What doth the Pagan World understand or know of these things who have not the good Word of God with them 7. It hath a comforting a healing and strengthning Virtue in it and it also preserves from Sin therefore it is good Thy Word have I hid in my Heart that I might not sin against thee It gives peace and quiet to a disturbed and distressed Mind when the Promises are set home with Power upon the Conscience How many hath that one Word revived that have been ready to drop into Hell in the sense of their Sin Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest 8. It is our Food I mean the Food of our Souls yea both Milk for Babes and strong Meat for Men of riper Age nay it is sweet satisfying and Soul-fatning Food therefore it is good Sirs if you have never tasted how good the Word of God is your State doubtless is bad but it is not enough to have a taste of it but you must feed upon it Eat O Friends drink yea drink abundantly O Beloved Thirdly I shall proceed to shew you what a kind of taste an unsound Christian may have of the Word of God It is evident that the Apostle here carefully keeps himself to such Expressions as we have in the Text to shew he intends not such Persons who by Faith truly receive and spiritually feed on Jesus Christ therefore it is said have tasted True by tasting sometimes is meant a spiritual feeding O taste and see that the Lord is good Compared with that in Peter If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious Brethren every one that feeds may be said to taste though he doth more than taste but every one that tasteth may not be said to feed no nor be said to love approve of nor digest that which he tasteth of Pray remember to feed is more than to taste I did but taste a little Honey saith Jonathan And it is said of our Saviour When he had tasted thereof he would not drink he tasted but did not drink So Men may taste and yet may not eat not feed upon that they tasted of I shall now come to shew you what a taste they may have of the Word of God 1. As tasting respecteth Experience or simple Knowledg of the Truth of a thing so these Persons may have a taste i. e. may have a simple Knowledg or Experience of the Truth of the Word of the Gospel they may taste in this sense they may believe or be fully convinced in their Consciences by what they have heard and have met with by such Operations of the Spirit that have past upon them that
Faith and Heirs of the Kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him They shall sit upon Thrones Know ye not that the Saints shall judg the World Even such poor Saints that this World disdains and do contemn 10. This World will have an End and the Time is near and the other World will begin in the Glory of it The World to come Brethren that shall never end it is an Eternal World tho the administration of it as in the Hands of Christ as Mediator shall cease and have an End yet the Kingdom and Glory of the World to come shall never have an End the Riches of it the Glory of it and the Joys of it shall abide for ever it is a Kingdom and a Crown that fadeth not away Lastly It will be a peaceable World Wars will cease Jerusalem shall be a quiet Habitation Nation shall not rise up against Nation nor learn War any more in that World I should now come to speak to the second Thing namely to shew what a taste it is that the Persons in our Text had or may have of the Powers of the World to come but I shall make a little use of this first APPLICATION 1. By way of Reprehension Brethren what Fools be they who value this World above the World come These are like the vain French-Man who said he would not part with his part in Paris for a pure in Paradise Alas he knew not what a Place Paradise is O the Vanity of Mens Minds how blind and deceived are poor Mortals 2. This shews and clearly may demonstrate that God's People are Men and Women of greatest Wisdom they are not satisfied with corruptible Things it is God and his Eternal Riches Kingdom and Glory their Eyes are set upon they are Rich it appears in Reversion though they have but little now in Possession they love Riches though not the Riches of this World they shall have one day rich and immortal Robes Robes beyond those of beaten Gold At thy right Hand did stand the Queen in Gold of Ophir It is not a few little Houses no nor earthly Palaces 't is not Bags of Gold and Silver that can satisfy them no no it is nothing less than a whole Kingdom and Crown of Glory in the other World of which they are joint Heirs with Christ They shall inherit all things all Riches and Happiness 1. Riches that inrich the Soul ay and the Body too the Bodies of the Saints shall be inriched in the World to come our vile Body shall be changed and made like Christ's Glorious Body 2. They shall have true Riches the Riches of this World are faise Riches deceitful Riches counterfeit Riches shadowy Riches they are but a Figure or a Shadow of the Riches of the World to come 3. They have right to incorruptible Riches not like the Worldings Riches that canker and corrupt and the Rust of which will rise up as Witness against them at the last Day 4. They are certain and and abiding Riches the Riches of this World are uncertain Riches they are but for a Moment and are gone Charge them that are in this World saith the Apostle that they be not high minded nor trust in uncertain Riches but in the living God O how poor and miserable are some Men who are rich in this World 5. The Riches of the World to come are Soul-satisfying Riches Gold and Silver satisfy not but Believers shall see God in the other World have a glorious Vision of God they shall be like him for they shall see him as he is Nothing but a Possession of God and a Likeness unto him will satisfy a gracious Soul I shall be satisfied saith David when I awake in thy Likeness I shall not be fully satisfied until then as if he should say but then I shall be satisfied to the full indeed What is there more for a Man to desire than God They that have God for their Portion may say with Jacob that they have all 6. The Riches of the other World are had without Care without Perplexity Alas Cares and Snares attend the Riches of this World there is Pains in getting them and Cares in keeping them and Fears of losing them and these things eat out the sweetness that seems to be in them but as there will be no Cares in keeping of the Riches of the World to come so there will be no fear of losing them 7. The Riches of the World to come will be the Perfection of Riches No Man can be perfectly rich here tho he hath some Riches yet he hath not all Riches and though he be rich in some things yet he is not rich in all things and though he be rich externally and for a time rich yet he may be spiritually poor But they that attain to the Riches of the World to come are every ways rich perfectly rich rich in the Body and rich in the Soul they are such Riches that Christ and the Angels do possess Secondly The Honours of the World to come will be great far surpassing all the Honours of this present evil World 1. 'T is no small Honour to be the Sons of God now are we the Sons of God This is a Privilege that appertains to the present Spiritual Kingdom of Christ but it doth not appear what we shall be that is the Time of the manifestation of the Sons of God then Christ will honour his Saints and God will honour them If any Man serves me him saith our Saviour will my Father honour 2. Will it not be an Honour to be crowned with a Crown of Glory Glory Honour and Immortality is the Portion of all who by well-doing seek it 3. Will it not be a great Honour to judg the World yea to judg the fallen Angels 4. Will it not be an high Honour to be the Lamb 's glorious Bride to be the Spouse of the Prince of the Kings of the Earth to have the Attendance of the Holy Angels and to have the Wicked to bow down to your very Feet and lick up the Dust 5. Will it not be a great Honour to sit with Christ on the Throne Besides it will be Eternal or Everlasting Honour it will abide for ever Thirdly The Pleasures of the World to come will be transcendent Pleasures far surpassing all the vain and carnal Pleasures of this present World 1. I once told you when I was speaking of Eternal Joys that the Pleasures of the World to come will not only delight the Soul but the Body too though not carnal sensual Pleasures yet the glorified Bodies of the Saints shall be filled with Delight and Pleasure as well as their Spirits you may be sure and that in a wonderful manner 2. The Joys of the World to come will be the Fulness of Joy and Delights Thou shalt make them drink of the Rivers of thy Pleasures Rivers of Pleasures denote fulness Pleasures
to full satisfaction all the Pleasures of this present World are but a Shadow of the Pleasures of Heaven and of the World to come and though these satisfy not yet those will satisfy the Soul 3. They are Pleasures for evermore we shall swim in Pleasures in that World Thou wilt shew me the Way of Life in thy Presence is fulness of Joy and at thy right Hand are Pleasures for ever more 4. The Joys and Pleasures of the World to come will be so sweet that as Mr. Caryl saith a whole Eternity will seem to be but as a Moment 5. They will be Pleasures without Pain without a Sting O what a Sting have some Men found to be in or to attend their carnal Pleasures Here are Sorrows cleaving to Men as well as Joy Pain and Misery as well as Delights and Pleasure but in the World to come there will be all Sweet and no Bitter all Pleasure and no Pain all Joy and no Sorrow 6. Is God able think you to delight to rejoice and to fill the Souls of his Saints with Joy and Pleasure Be sure then he will do it God's Love is such so infinite so inconceivable to his Children that he will fill them with the fullest Joys imaginable Will not earthly Parents make the Lives of their Children as sweet and happy as they can They are called Joys unspeakable and full of Glory All the lawful Pleasures of this World are Brethren but a Figure or Shadow of them The Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entred into the Heart of Man to conceive the things that God hath prepared for those that love him The Eye hath seen much and the Ear hath heard of more than the Eye ever saw and the Heart conceives of more than ever the Ear heard but the Heart cannot conceive how sweet the Joys of Christ's Kingdom will be or comprehend how transcendent the Joys of Heaven are 7. The Pleasures of the World to come are the Effects of God's infinite Love and Goodness according to the Perfection thereof And as none know the Power of God's Anger and Wrath in Hell that is let out against ungodly Sinners that hate him so none know the Power of his Infinite Love Grace and Goodness let out in Heaven to delight and ravish the Hearts of all them that love and serve him 8. The Pleasures of the World to come never will cease indeed no shorter a Time than an endless Eternity can serve to let out the infinite Goodness of the Eternal Deity and those varieties of Joys and Delights that flow and will flow like Rivers from him as none can imagine what the Nature of that personal Communion which the Saints shall have with Christ will be so also they will be Eternal Eternal Joys saith one are the longest and yet the shortest Longest in respect of Duration yet the shortest in respect of Apprehension An Eternity of Joy will seem to us no more tedious than one Minute or small Moment ' twis be so full of Joy and Pleasure 't is such Satisfaction that breed no wearisomness it doth not â—loy nor glut the Soul we living at the Fountain-head of Joy and Comfort in immediate Communion with Christ our Delights will renew as much as continue They are certainly blind or unthinking Persons that do not see how the Deity or Holy God delights in Varieties it may easily be discerned by beholding the different Varieties of Creatures Faces Colours or varieties of things to delight all our Senses here in this World O no doubt the Joys and Varieties of the World to come will be Wonderful and take up a whole Eternity for God to let out Joys will be as it were every day fresh and renewed upon us From hence saith a beloved Writer fresh Appetite and fulness of Satisfaction are perpetually interchangeable the Joys are so many the Years seem so few Eternity of Joys makes Eternity but as a Moment as eternal Pain and Torment makes every Moment seem an Eternity These things being so O who would not desire an Interest in Christ O happy happy Believer what a Choice hast thou made Exhortation Sinner what sayst thou come seek a Portion a Part in the World to come you are very busy to get a Part or Portion in this present evil World Alas alas what good can all these thing do you and how long can you keep them Come be perswaded to seek this better Country Christ hath redeemed us from this present evil World and hath purchased for us another World even this World to come Will you seek it You may have a share and part in the World to come Quest You will say which Way or how may we get a part in it Answ I answer You must marry the Prince and Heir of that World and so you shall have a Portion in it and a true Title to it you must by Faith espouse Jesus Christ there is no other way to have an Interest in the World to come Sinners you may gain the World to come and save your Souls but whilst you seek to gain this present evil World you may lose your Souls What will it profit a Man to gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Also you may have an Assurance of the World to come O strive to make it your own peculiar Inheritance take hold of the Foretop of Time Now I may say Time is hereafter it may be said Time was and then Time is past and lost for ever Remember that in this World while you are here the World to come in the Glory of it will be got or lost for ever if you obtain Grace you shall have Glory but if you have no Grace in this World no Glory you are like to have in the World to come Lastly Remember this World is near at an End 't is ready to pass away and the World to come in the Glory of it is just about to begin it is not far off He that testifieth these things saith Surely I come quickly Amen Even so come Lord Jesus HEB. VI. 4 5. And of the Powers of the World to come THE last time I spoke of the World to come and of the Powers of it especially of the Powers Glory and Pleasures of the World to come respecting the State of the Saints therein I shall now proceed to shew you what a kind of taste of the Powers of the World to come the Persons mentioned in our Text may be said to have which is the next thing propounded to be done under this Head Secondly The Persons here meant I have proved are not true and sincere Believers though such who come very near unto such being almost Christians Now the last Qualification or Attainment they are said to arrive unto is this Of tasting of the Powers of the World to come First I shall shew you what may be meant by the Powers of the World to come Secondly Shew what a
the Greatness of their Sin who do neglect this Salvation and the impossibility of such ever to escape God's Wrath. 1. From the Power and Authority of Christ who not only wrought this Salvation out but only first declared it or made it known which first began to be spoken by the Lord. Which some think may refer to his first declaring of it from the beginning to Adam upon his Transgression and to the Fathers under the Old Testament But I conceive he means chiefly our Lord 's preaching this Salvation in the Days of his Flesh when he entred first on his Ministry as verse 1. of the first Chapter God hath in these last Days spoken unto us by his Son 2. From the confirmation of it by Signs and Wonders I shall be very brief in speaking unto the Terms of our Text. How shall we escape avoid get clear of or deliver our selves from God's Wrath and Vengeance If we neglect if we mind other things more than this Salvation or seem to be indifferent in and about this great Business like those that made light of the Invitation to the Marriage-Supper Mat. 22. Luke 14. 16 17 18 19 20. So great Salvation namely the Salvation of the Gospel Great as it refers to God denotes the glorious Perfections of his Nature the Great God it signifies the infinite Power Wisdom Holiness Mercy and Glory of his Majesty Great as it refers to things may be considered as to the Nature and Quality of them as Great Riches Great Light as the Sun is called a great Light that is a Glorious Light excelling all other Natural or Created Lights or Artificial Lights Great Peace have they that love thy Law that is Glorious Peace So great Salvation denotes Glorious Salvation exceeding all Temporal Salvation So Great this so raises the Greatness and Glory of this Salvation God so loved the World So how Even so that it cannot be conceived much less expressed So this great Salvation is so wonderful so amazing so glorious and so affecting it calls for all to admire it consider it imbrace it and by no means to slight or neglect it From hence I shall note three Points of Doctrine Doct. 1. That the Salvation of the Gospel is a Great and Glorious Salvation Doct. 2. That the Means of this Salvation may be neglected Doct. 3. That all such who do neglect this Salvation shall not cannot escape I purpose to speak to all these three Propositions and shall begin with the first namely That the Salvation of the Gospel is a Great and Glorious Salvation First I shall prove and fully God assisting demonstrate the Truth of this Doctrine Secondly I shall improve it by way of Application First It is a Great and Glorious Salvation comparatively or when it is compared with all other Salvations 1. That was a Great and Glorious Salvation which God wrought for Israel at the Red Sea But what a Salvation was that Who were they saved from It was from Pharaoh a bloody and cruel Persecutor but this is from Satan and all cruel Enemies of our Souls 2. That was from the Wrath of Men this is from the fearful Wrath of God which none are able to conceive of according to thy Fear so is thy Wrath. 3. That was a Salvation of the natural Lives of the Children of Israel this a Salvation of our Immortal Souls and Bodies too for ever 4. That was a Type of this Salvation a Shadow of it and as far as the Substance exceeds the Shadow of a Thing so far doth this Salvation exceed that and all other Salvations 5. That was a Temporal Salvation this is an Eternal Salvation Now that Salvation at the Red Sea being one of the greatest Temporal Salvations that ever was wrought I need not mention any other Israel had many great Salvations wrought for them afterwards and so have many of the Saints had great Salvations and Deliverances wrought for them in the Times of the Gospel Nay we in these Nations have seen and heard of great and wonderful Things which God hath wrought for us and for our Forefathers It was a great Salvation that was wrought in 1588 at the Spanish Invasion and from the Powder-Plot and also that in 1688 when We and the Protestant Interest were brought very low and we could not see which way Relief and Deliverance could come But alas what are all these Salvations to this in my Text Pray remember that Gospel-Salvation is Great and Glorious comparatively But Secondly The Salvation of the Gospel is not only great comparatively but also positively not only in respect of all other Salvations but also in regard of it self And to demonstrate this consider that it is great and glorious in respect of the Time or rather that Eternity in which it was contrived and graciously promised This Salvation Brethren was contrived and found out by the Wisdom of God before the World began Hence Christ is said to be a Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World that is in the Decree Counsel and Purpose of God Christ was set up from Everlasting as the great and glorious Mediator and Saviour of all that should believe in him or that were given unto him by the Father The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his Way before his Works of old I was set up from Everlasting or ever the Earth was When there were no Depths I was brought forth As these Scriptures prove the Deity and Eternal Generation of the Son of God so also there was a Designation of him by the Father as Mediator to be our Saviour before all Worlds Hence God saith of miserable Man Deliver him from going down into the Pit I have found a Ransom And as it was found out before the beginning of the World or from Eternity so it was also as early promised to us as the Elect in Christ in hope of Eternal Life which God that cannot lie promised before the World began Compared with that in Timothy Who hath saved and called us with an holy Calling not according to our Works but according to his Purpose and Grace which was given us in Jesus Christ before the World began God thought of us poor Sinners and found out this way of Salvation before we had a Being yea even from Eternity foreseeing us fallen in the First Adam brought into a deplorable Condition of Wrath and Misery Thirdly The Salvation of the Gospel is great and glorious in regard of that Counsel that was held before all Worlds about bringing of it in Christ the great Saviour was delivered up according to the determinate Counsel of God Acts 2. 23. Should all the Wise Men and Great Potentates of the Earth be called together and sit in Council about the doing of some great and wonderful thing which unless it was effected all the Kingdoms and States of the Earth would sink and be dissolved would not all say that would be an amazing Thing
purchases and the Spirit applies the Blessings purchased Salvation is called a Garment He hath clothed me with the Garments of Salvation he hath covered me with the Robe of Righteousness The Father may be said to prepare the Matter which this Robe is made of the Son wrought it he made the Garment and the Holy Spirit puts it on the Soul the Garment of Salvation is Christ's Righteousness Again the Father sought out or chose the Bride the Son espouses and marries her but it is the Holy Ghost that inclines her Heart and stirs up nay that causes the Soul to like and to love this Blessed Lover and brings it to yield and consent to accept heartily and willingly of Jesus Christ We were sick of a fearful and incurable Disease and the Father found out the Medicine the Blood of Christ is that Medicine and the Holy Spirit applies it to the Soul We were in Debt in Prison and bound in Fetters and cruel Chains and the Father procured a Friend to pay all our Debts The Son was this our Friend who laid down the infinite Sum and the Holy Spirit knocks off our Irons our Fetters and Chains and brings us out of the Prison-house The Father loved us and sent his Son to merit Grace for us the Son loved us and died and thereby purchased that Grace to be imparted to us and the Holy Spirit works that Grace in us O what is the Nature of this Salvation how Great how Glorious That the whole Trinity both the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost are thus imployed in and about it that we might have it made fure to us for ever APPLICATION 1. Reproof Wo to such that esteem their own filthy Rags above this Garment of Salvation or that seem to set light by it Hath God the Father Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost held a Counsel before the World began about the Salvation of our Souls and hath each Person of the Blessed Trinity such a Part in order to the making of it to be effectual to us And shall any dare to say there is no need of this Garment We may work a Robe out of our own Bowels by the Operations of the Spirit that will serve to hide our Nakedness trouble not us with your old Divinity We are for rational Religion He that is Righteous and obeys Christ and leads a Goldly Life need not doubt of his Salvation For in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh Righteousness is accepted of him O how ready are Men to abuse the Scripture Can any Man think that his own personal inherent Righteousness can either justify or save him or that the Apostle Peter means any such thing God may so far accept of a Man in his Obedience in which he acts in all Sincerity and Faithfulness to him as to hear his Prayers so as to reveal himself to him in Christ as he did to Cornelius But was Cornelius a Believer and justfied before he heard of Jesus Christ and had Faith wrought in his Soul See how Peter preached Christ for Life and Salvation to this Man Notwithstanding all his own Righteousness Peter was commanded of God to tell him what he should do that he might be saved plainly intimating he did not know the Way or how to be saved before Peter preached Christ to him He saith the Lord shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do And in verse 43. Peter said To him that is to Jesus Christ gave all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in him should receive remission of Sins Will any say Cornelius had remission of Sins before he heard this Sermon and believed in Jesus Christ Was not Peter sent to him and to those other Gentiles with him that they might be converted O take heed you stumble not at this Stone lest it fall on you and grind you to Pouder 2. Dare any of you think that this Salvation is but a small Matter and that you need not trouble your selves about it O tremble you who never had one serious Thought about it to this Day You have other things to mind are full of Business but O Sirs what is of such Moment as this Salvation Yet nevertheless some will not spare time to hear it or to attend upon the Word of this Salvation Others will not part with the Love of this World to have a Part in it they value their earthly Riches Pleasures and Honours above it nay too many esteem their filthy Lusts more than an Interest in this great Salvation But what contempt do such Persons cast upon the great God who hath manifested such Depths of Divine Wisdom Grace and Goodness in bringing of it in and working of it out for our precious Souls Did they know what God is Christ is Salvation is certainly they would change their Opinion and not a little blame themselves for their great Folly Brethren a true and spiritual Knowledg of the Great Salvation of the Gospel makes all the Things of the World seem little nay nothing in comparison thereof All things that Carnal Men have their Hearts set upon are poor thin and beggarly Things when compared to Grace here and Glory hereafter No sooner had Paul a true sight of this Great Salvation but immediately he consulted not with Flesh and Blood When the sweetness of Christ and Salvation is tasted and a Soul knows how good and satisfying it is every thing that hath a Tincture of Flesh and Blood all carnal Interests and fleshly Counsels expire A full sight of this Salvation seems to make Life uneasy and Death desirable Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in Peace for mine Eyes have seen thy Salvation Nothing in this World could be worth a Thought of his Heart since his Eyes had seen God's Salvation Why what did he see It was Jesus Christ the Author of Salvation in whom he knew was Salvation and in no other He that lives so long as to see Christ by an Eye of Faith to be his Saviour and his Salvation will be willing to leave this World be willing to die because he then shall die in peace None can die happily that have not a sight of this Great Salvation nor can any have a true sight of this Salvation but they only who have by Faith a true sight of the Blessed Saviour Paul when he came to the Knowledg of Christ and of Salvation by Christ esteems every thing in the World to be no better than Dung and longs to be dissolv'd and to be in Christ's Arms and taste how good Salvation is in the full possession of it in Heaven 3. This reproves such who delay seeking after the Knowledg of this Salvation If it be so great it must and ought first of all be regarded Seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness May be ' ere long you will wish you had sought after Christ and Salvation by him before all things when you come to
lie upon a sick Bed O Sirs you will need it at last and may be seek it when too late Were a poor condemned Criminal sensible of a Way how to be saved from Death or that a Pardon might be had would he delay the Time or would he not make it all his Business with his uttermost Care to seek for a Pardon lest the Day of his Execution should come before he hath got it And if so he knows die he must Alas Sirs what is it to be delivered from Natural Death to our being delivered from Eternal Death The Time when you must die may be near and if you have not an Interest in this Salvation when you die Naturally your Souls must die Eternally Pray observe the Argument I am upon to excite and stir up your Souls to a Holy Diligence in attending on the Means of this Salvation it is the same the Apostle uses it is called Great Salvation considering the Dignity of Christ's Person who laid down his own Life to purchase it for us and also was the first great Minister and Preacher of it which at first began to be spoken by the Lord It was preached by the Lord of Life and Glory the great Mediator Head of all Principalities and Powers and it is again by one of his poor Servants this Day offered unto you in the Name of my Great Master therefore refuse it at your Peril If you receive it imbrace it you shall be happy but if you refuse it you will be miserable and at last die in your Sins 4. Here is Comfort and Encouragement for the worst of Sinners Are you such who are and have been great Sinners Well let it be so yet be not cast down into utter Despair for here is a great Saviour you have heard of his mighty Power and Ability to save and he saith All that the Father hath given to me shall come unto me Ay but you perhaps may say you know not who they be that the Father hath given to Christ Well what of that Pray mind his next Words And he that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have Everlasting Life Receive this Saviour believe in him and you shall be saved whosoever you are It is not the greatness of your Sins that can hinder or obstruct him from saving your Souls though your Sins be as red as Scarlet or as red as Crimson he will wash them all away and make you as white as Wool as white as Snow 5. Also here is good News for poor Sin-sick Sinners to wounded and lost Sinners I mean such who feel themselves sick see and feel themselves wounded who find they are lost and undone in themselves O Souls you are the Persons the Word of this Salvation is sent to The Whole need not a Physician but such that are sick I am not come to call the Righteous but Sinners to Repentance Such indeed who are conceited of their own Righteousness or swelled with a good Opinion of their own good Works good Deeds and good Duties will not come to Christ such think they need no such Physician as Christ is But you that see you have no Righteousness of your own but that all your Righteousness is as Dung O look to Christ come to Christ hear what he says to such that are lost that are under the burden of their Sins and wounded ones Come to me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest 6. But here is sad News to such who slight this Salvation and refuse Jesus Christ great will their Condemnation be The Men of Nineveh shall rise up in judgment with this Generation and condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonas and behold a greater than Jonas is here The greatness of this Saviour who preaches the Gospel to you and is come to save you will aggravate your Condemnation What was Jonas to Jesus Christ Also our Saviour saith The Queen of the South shall rise up in Judgment with this Generation and shall condemn it for she came from the uttermost Parts of the Earth to hear the Wisdom of Solomon and behold a greater than Solomon is here Solomon was a mighty King and for Wisdom exceeded all that went before him But alas what was Solomon to Jesus Christ who is the Wisdom of God it self and the express Image of the Father's Person and the Brightness of his Glory O know you Sinners this Day that Jesus Christ this glorious King and Prince of the Kings of the Earth this mighty Saviour is come to your Doors Behold I stand at the Door and knock Will you not open the Door nor cry to him to help you to open to him to enable you to believe in him What do you say shall the Son of God stand at your Doors and you not so much as ask Who is there Who is at my Door Shall Christ be kept out of your Hearts and stand at your Doors whilst Sin commands the chiefest Room and has absolute Power over you and rules in you How will you be able to look this Blessed Saviour in the Face another Day Is he come through a Sea of Blood to offer his Love to you and to espouse you unto himself for ever and will not you be perswaded to break your League with your old Lovers who will at last stab you at the very Heart and betray your Souls into the Hands of Divine Wrath Now they have done it already What are your Lovers but your 〈◊〉 your Pride your Earthly-mindedness your sinful Pleasures Profits and Honours O resolve to desert them they otherwise will damn your Souls for ever and expose you to the Torments of Hell-Fire And to deliver you from them and from that â—rath which is due to you for them I mean for your Sins is Christ come and this great Saviour is offered to you The Lord help every one of you to consider of this and to lay it to Heart 7. And lastly Here is Comfort for poor drooping Saints This Saviour is yours this mighty Saviour who is able to save to the uttermost and he will help you in all your Straits and supply all your Wants and he hath taken the Work into his own Hand and hath also begun it and will perform it and finally finish it before that he hath done rest therefore upon him HEB. II. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation BRETHREN the last Day I shewed you that Gospel-Salvation is Great and Glorious Salvation considering the Greatness Dignity and Glory of the Persons that are concerned in bringing of it in and working of it out for us namely the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost But more particularly upon the Consideration of the Dignity of the Person of Christ who is that great Saviour God hath sent who is great in his Name great in respect of his Person
and Nature great as to his Commission in his Call and in respect of those great and glorious Anointings that were upon him 〈◊〉 small now proceed Seventhly The Salvation of the Gospel is great c. if we consider what poor Sinners hereby 〈…〉 and delivered from By this Salvation those thâ—â— believe are delivered from every Evil in this World and in that which is to come All Evil may be considered under two general Heads First That which corrupteth our Nature both Soul and Body as to their Being Secondly That which is destructive to our Nature as to its well-being both Soul and Body The first is Sin the second is Punishment I purpose to speak briefly to both these that so we may the better demonstrate the Greatness of this Salvation First Of the Evil of Sin which all those are and shall be for ever saved and delivered from who embrace this Salvation This I shall speak unto more generally and then more particularly Brethren the Evil of Sin comprehendeth many things as it respecteth God and is directly against him his Holy Nature hateful and loathsom in his sight and in respect had to Man which takes in our first Apostacy from God the loss of his Holy and Blessed Image as also his Love and Favour and so the Pravity of all the Powers of our Souls and Faculties thereof as the blindness of our Minds and Darkness of our Understandings the Rebellion and Stubbornness of our Wills and hardness of our Hearts the Carnality and Vanity of our Affections the horrid Guilt Pollution and Filthiness that cleaves to the Soul and Conscience together with Shame Bondage Nakedness Poverty and Enmity against God Slavery to Satan and to this World having contracted a Likeness to the Devil or an Impress of his Image doing his Will and serving our own Lusts All these and many other things comprize the Evil of Sin from which by this Salvation we are delivered But to speak a little more particularly let us 1. Consider the Evil of Sin As it is contrary to God's most Holy and Pure Nature it is that thing which his Soul is said to hate Would not we be greatly concerned if any should do that in our sight and presence which they know we hate and abominate 2. Sin is a Dishonour to God and it is called a Despising of God Them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed Certainly Sin must needs have a great Evil in it if it be a despising of God if a Man be despised he thinks himself greatly wronged loss of Honour is no small loss 3. Sin is a crossing of God's Will acting directly contrary thereunto nay and it is a doing the Will of the Devil How are you troubled if your Servants cross your Will in that which is just and right and wherein your Interest and Honour lies and is nearly concerned Sin is a crossing of the Will of God not only when the Sinner doth not what God commands to be done which is a Sin of Omission but also in doing that which he hath positively forbid which is a Sin of Commission 4. Sin doth cast contempt upon God as when Men sin presumptuously with a high Hand as if it were in defiance of Heaven as if they bid God do his worst intimating that they will have their Way their Wills their cursed Lusts or sinful Pleasures and Profit let what will come of it 5. Sin is a renouncing of God's just Authority and Government over us it is a breaking his Bonds and casting his Cords from us What is the Voice of Sin God shall not reign over us we will not be under his Government but will live as we list our Tongues are our own and who is Lord over us Nay and as Sin doth cast off God and disown him contemn him rebel against him will not have him reign but strive to pull him out of his Throne So by Sin the Sinner sets up the Devil in God's Place puts him into God's Throne The Heart is the Throne of God but there the Sinner will not allow God to rule God to be but gives way to Sin and will sin and in so doing he exalts Satan and puts him into the Government and subjects to him O what is the Evil of Sin 6. Sin in the Nature of it is a manifestation of the Sinner's hatred of God God declares against Sinners in his Word as such that hate him the lesser Love is accounted a Hatred in the Scripture But alas Sinners seem to have no Love to God at all they proclaim War against him even wish there was no God to controul them to judg them to punish them so that they might sin the more freely and with the more impudence if it be possible for them so to do The Fool saith in his Heart there is no God He would have no God he would be glad it there was no God such is his hatred of God Hence it is said Visiting the Iniquity of the Fathers on the Children unto the third and fourth Generation of them that hate me And again it is said Shouldst thou love them that hate the Lord Sin even strikes at God's very Being Can you think any Person can have more hatred to you than to wish you had no Being nay would if he could destroy you and cause you not to be or deprive you of a King any more for ever This seems to be the Voice or Sin naturally in Mens Hearts therefore it must needs be a great Evil they would not have God to be if they could bring it about or have their Will for such as we despise resist war against we would kill and destroy if we could Sin would dethrone God and thrust him out of the World it fills the Mind so full of Enmity against him 2 dly But in the second place Sin hath not only great Evil in it as it against God but also in respect of our selves 'T is not only 〈…〉 our to God but hurtful to us No Evil like the Evil of Sin in this 〈…〉 also as will appear if we consideâ—â— 1. It was Sin we lost God's Holy Image in which we were created in our first Parents O what a 〈◊〉 Creature was Man as he came out of his great Creator's Hand there was no Spot Blemish nor Stain in him Man was created in Righteousness and true Holiness in that did the Image of God consist But this Likeness to God we lost by Sin and by yielding unto it and by being overcome by it we became like unto the Devil Naturally all Men bear his Image even the Devil's Likeness Judas was so much like the Devil that Christ calls him a Devil Have not I chosen you twelve and one of you is a Devil 2. Sin poisoned our whole Nature and corrupted all our Faculties 1. It is compared to the Plague of the Leprosy it spreads it self over us from
the Crown of our Heads to the Soles of our Feet it is more filthy than the filthiest thing in the World in God's sight And as all the Faculties of our Souls were poisoned thereby so all the Members of our Bodies are defiled and polluted with it also Nay and it is such a kind of Pollution that renders the Sinner loathsom to God God is said to be grieved with Sin nay grieved that he made Man grieved at his Heart because every Imagination of the Thought of his Heart was evil continually God is said upon this to repent that he made Man not that God properly can repent it signifies an alienation of God's Heart and Affections from Man for his Sin and Wickedness whereby he carries himself towards him as we do when we repent we have done a thing 2. It was therefore hereby that we lost God's Love and Favour and is not that a dismal and most bitter thing Man's only Happiness lies in his Likeness to God and in the enjoyment of his Love and the Light of his sweet Countenance But this the whole Race of Mankind lost by Original Sin and instead of his Love we were brought under his Wrath. Sin incurr'd the Wrath and Anger of God God is angry with the Wicked every Day And as we by Sin became Enemies to God so also hereby God became an Enemy to us And if we consider what it cost God and cost Jesus Christ to make our Peace or to make up this Breach sure we must say this is a great and wonderful Salvation 3. Sin is the worst of Evils it is the Plague of Plagues it is worse than any Affliction Afflictions oft-times bring us nearer unto God but Sin drives us further from him Sin is a departing from God a leaving and forsaking of God a casting of God off the more we are afflicted the more we are made conformable to Jesus Christ He was afflicted and a Man of Sorrows but the more we sin the more like we are unto the Devil Nay and by Afflictions we are purged and are said to partake of the Holiness of God therefore there is much Good in Affliction but Sin hath nothing but Evil in it hurtful Evil Soul-defiling and Soul-damning Evil. Sin is the Spring and Cause of all other Evils it is the Cause of all Sickness and of all Sorrow and Misery nay and 't is the Cause of Death it self The Wages of Sin is Death nay the Sting of Death is Sin that which makes Death so terrible to a wicked Man 4. Sin hath put Mankind into Satan's Hand who hath laid him in cruel Chains Consider what a thing it is to be taken Captive by a grand and merciless Tyrant Satan took all Mankind Captive and holds them still who are under the Power of it in Captivity they are his Bondmen his Slaves he takes them Captive at his Will Every vicious Habit is a strong Bond or Chain in which Satan binds his Vassals All Men naturally are bound down under the Bond of Ignorance Unbelief and Hardness of Heart such is the Nature of Sin Christ came to set at liberty such that were bound I perceive saith Peter that thou art in the Gall of Bitterness and in the Bond of Iniquity And O what is the Strength of these Bonds Who can break them but the Arm of the Omnipotent God Moreover these Bonds bind the Soul unto and under the Wrath of God O what a kind of Salvation is it that delivers us from Sin and out of the Power of Satan 5. Sin hath put out the Eyes of all Mankind and stripp'd them naked and wounded them unto Death All Men are born blind the Eyes of our Understanding naturally are darkened the State of Mâ—n by Nature is most miserable it is set out by a wretched Infant cast out in the open Fiâ—la in its Blood in the Day of its Nativity having none to pity it to wash it nor swade it at all We are all naturally most loathsom full of filthy Sâ—abs and running Sores and yet such iâ— the Ignorance and Blindness of the Sinner's Eyes and unsensibleness of his State that he sees it not feels it not but thinks all is well with him and is ready to fly into that Man's Face that shall tell him such iâ— his Condition 6. Moreover Sin feeds Men poorly How do they feed What is their Table spread with Are they served with the Best They are fed as it were with Mallows and Janiper-roots That saith Caryl is the Chear Sin make â—â— them yea Wickedness will be as Gravel in their Teeth and as Poison in their Bowels True some of them feed their Bodies deliciously every Day they are full fed they have liberal large and plentiful Tables But alas what have their Souls to eat What did the Soul of the Prodigal find Did he not feed on the Husks which the Swine did eat Their Food is and will be Gall and Wormwood he feedeth on Ashes saith the Prophet all his Hopes will deceive him and prove vain like the Spider's Web the Pleasures Honours Riches and Comforts of this Life are the Food wicked Men live upon they never tasted in a Spiritual manner of God they know not how good he is nor do they desire to eat that which is Good but the Time is coming in which they will desire to taste of Christ's Supper and shall not be admitted because they refused to come to the Wedding O what is Sin and how miserable is the Condition of Sinners And doth not this sâ—t forth and tend to demonstrate the greatness of this Salvation which delivers us from so great an Evil He shall save his People from their Sins He that understands no Evil in Sin as Man is fallen from God hath lost God the first Cause and chiefest Good and last End and being under the Power of a constant Enmity against him and in this deplorable Condition as I have hinted will have as one observes other apprehension of thâ—se things when at last he misses of a Part in this Great Salvation and when the Means of it shall not be afforded any more to him for ever And on the other Hand he that comes to see this to be his State and obtains an Interest in this Salvation will say it is a Great and Glorious Salvation Secondly By this Salvation we are delivered from that which is destructive to our whole Souls and Bodies 1. The Sinner by Sin is as you heard a Slave a Captive and under Satan's Power bound in strong Chains c. And now let me add he is for his Sin cursed by the Lord and condemned to die by his Righteous Law nay the Law le ts fly or denounces most bitter Curses against Sin even against every Sin and every Sinner that takes not hold of this Salvation Cursed is he that continues not in all things that are written in the Book of the Law to do them From this
Curse can no Soul be delivered but by Jesus Christ alone Is it not a fearful Thing to be under the Curse of an offended and angry God whose Wrath is like Fire that seizes on dry Stubble But he that believes or accepteth of the Salvation of the Gospel is delivered and saved for ever from the Curse of the Law Christ hath delivered us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us 2. Man by Sin is set against himself his own Conscience wars and sights against him and it is also sometimes let out upon him by the Lord to such a Degree tormenting him so dreadfully that he is not able to bear it hence some have destroyed themselves What is more dreadful and amazing than a guilty an accusing and condemning Conscience Poor Mr. Child found it intolerable and many more besides him it is that Worm that oft-times begins to gnaw here and will if this Salvation be not took hold of torment the Soul for ever for as in Hell the Fire is not quenched so the Worm dieth not But he that receives Jesus Christ believes in Jesus Christ and so gets an Interest in this Salvation is delivered from the Guilt and the Lashes the Accusation and Condemnation of his own Conscience nay his own Conscience speaks Peace to him and yields him a continual Feast For our rejoicing is this the Testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly Wisdom but by the Grace of God we have had our Conversation in the World c. O how is the Case altered Conscience before was a Tormentor but now is a Comforter before it spoke nothing but Terror but now it speaks nothing but Peace before it did accuse but now it doth excuse before it fed us with Gravel-stones but now it feeds us with Joy and sweet Food 3. The State of the Sinner is very sad and the Nature of Sin very destructive as it exposes the Soul to future Wrath the Wrath of God remains upon him that believes not The Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all Vngodliness and Vnrighteousness of Men. But by this Salvation we are saved from present and from future Wrath also this is done by Jesus Christ Even Jesus who delivered us from Wrath to come Wrath to come is far greater than any Wrath Mortal ever felt in this World Who knows the Power of thine Anger even according to thy Fear so is thy Wrath. But not one Drop of it shall fall upon that Soul that hath a Part and Interest in this Salvation Should God let out but a little of his Wrath upon a Soul whilst he is in the Body wo to him whither shall he fly how should he be able to bear it O 't is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the living God O what a great and glorious Salvation is this Suppose a Man was condemned to die for High-Treason or for some other great Crime nay to be burned alive or to be flead alive and just as the Sentence was going to be executed upon him one should bring him the Tidings that the King had pardoned his Offence and therefore he should not die would he not look upon this to be a great Salvation But alas what can reach or be compared to the State of condemned Sinners What is it to be thrown into a Fire or to burn for half an Hour nay to be put into a lingering Fire to be dying a whole Day nay a whole Year or if it were possible to be dying forty or fifty Years to lie burning in Hell to all Eternity Every Sinner is condemned by the Law of God to be burned to be burned alive in Hell for ever where the Damned are always dying but yet cannot die If this were well and seriously considered certainly every one must acknowledg the Gospel-Salvation to be a Great and Glorious Salvation that delivers all that imbrace it from so great a Death as the second Death or the Wrath of God in Hell Brethren this Salvation doth not only free and deliver the Souls of all that believe from Wrath from all Wrath and Misery but the Bodies also as I shall shew you hereafter before I have done with this Text. The Body shall be delivered from Sickness Lameness Blindness Poverty Hunger Nakedness nay and from Corruption it self even from whatsoever it is that is either grievous or destructive here or hereafter If a Man be but delivered from Want or from Hunger being almost starved to Death and ready to tear his own Flesh to feed himself or from Nakedness or from tormenting Pain suppose it be but the Extremity of the Tooth-ach Gout or tormenting Pain of the Stone or from Slavery in Turkey or from some grievous and cruel Imprisonment being in Bonds and Irons lying in a dark Dungeon among Toads and Serpents would he not think it a Great Salvation Or if People who feel the bitterness of War Famine or Pestilence were delivered and set at Liberty would they not account it a Great Salvation a Great Deliverance But what are all these Salvations to this Great Salvation I am speaking of What is the Sickness of the Body or Death of the Body here to the Sickness and Death of Body and Soul for ever What is an Imprisonment in the worst of Jails and to lie in Chains and Irons put upon us by Men like our selves and to bear their Wrath for a few Days to the eternal Prison What is a dark Dungeon here to the Blackness of Darkness for ever What is the Wrath of Man to the Wrath of God or Chains of Iron to everlasting Chains of Darkness What is a little outward Want or Poverty to the Want of God's Favour and Love to Eternity being separated from his Presence for ever and to lie in Fire burning and broiling and cannot have so much as one Drop of Water to cool the Tongue for one Drop is denied to the Damned in Hell The rich Glutton when in Hell begged that Lazarus might be sent to him and dip the Tip of his Finger in Water to cool his Tongue but it was not granted Alas all Miseries here are nothing as they pass away in a Moment when compared unto Eternal Wrath and burning in Hell which is the pourings forth of the unspeakable and righteous Vengeance of a provoked and angry God There is no Parallel nothing to express the Nature of that destructive Evil that is in Sin there is nothing left us to illustrate it withal therefore to be delivered and saved for ever from the just Punishment and dismal Wrath of God must needs be deemed Great Salvation and the Excellency of it will at length be known to them who slight and despise it when they come to fall and perish under the want of it He that is delivered from lying in Prison for a thousand Pound Debt where he must have lain till Death having nothing to pay it
Heaven whereby we must be saved He that receives Christ believes in Christ shall be saved and he that believes not shall be damned 3. If Life be more worth than all the World certainly the Soul is more worth than ten thousand Worlds O do not part with it on any Terms for it cost Christ dear the Price of his own Blood his Heart-Blood was let out to save our Souls Alas there are some nevertheless that are like the false Prophets of old who sold the Souls of the People for a handful of Barley and for a piece of Bread 4. How near may some of you be to Death and if you have not got an Interest in Christ before then what will become of your precious Souls 5. Will you consider what Means of Grace God is pleased to afford you for the good of your Souls and know it is by the preaching of the Gospel that God commonly saves the Souls of Men I mean that it is the Means he uses for the begetting of Faith Shall the Word have some good Effect upon your Souls this Day 6. Consider all your Prayers Tears Alms-deeds all Reformation of Life Services Duties and inherent Holiness cannot save your Souls no none but Christ nothing but the Merits of Christ it is his Blood alone that made your Peace and must wash away all the Guilt and Filth of your Sins Your Souls your precious Souls O Sinners are wounded polluted naked what will you do Nothing but Christ's Blood I tell you can heal them nothing but his Flesh his Blood can feed them and nothing but his Righteousness can clothe them and nothing but the Graces of Christ's Spirit can inrich can deck and adorn your Souls and without Faith you cannot obtain any of those Blessings O what shall I say to you if going down upon my Knees could move you to lay to Heart what a sad State you are in who have not received by Faith this Salvation and incline you now to believe I would readily do it but alas it is God's Gift O look up to him do what you can pray and attend on the Word What do you say do you believe that this is a Great Salvation Will you esteem it and look after it above all things in the World It is Sirs that one thing needful chuse with Mary that good Part that shall never be taken from you Shall there be Joy in Heaven this Day how can you slight such a precious Soul and such a precious Saviour who spilt his Blood to save the worst of Sinners Will you tread his Blood under your Feet If so what will you do at the Day of Death and in the Day of Judgment Should your Souls be lost there is no repairing that Loss no redemption of the Soul out of Hell no other Price no other Saviour no other way if this be slighted you must perish HEB. II. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation I AM upon the Proof and Demonstration of the greatness of the Salvation of the Gospel I closed with the ninth Reason of the Point the last time Tenthly Gospel-Salvation is a great and glorious Salvation if we consider what such who have interest in it are raised up unto or do and shall partake of I mean what great Blessings and wonderful Privileges they are invested with by it First Pardon of Sin This Blessing have all they that receive it 1. Consider the Blood of Christ is the way of Gospel-Remission no Remission of Sin without the shedding of Blood there is remission of Sin but no Blood could procure this Remission but the Blood of Christ he paid our Debts in whom we have redemption through his Blood even the Forgiveness of Sins It was by his offering himself an Expiatory Sacrifice to God there 's no Salvation without Pardon of Sin and no Pardon of Sin without a Compensation be made by Jesus Christ to the Law and Justice of God 2. Consider who are pardoned even all that believe though they were never such great Rebels against God such were Traitors and Enemies once who are now forgiven Here is a Pardon for the vilest Sinner that sees his horrid Evil and Rebellion and takes hold of Jesus Christ or looks up to him by Faith 3. Consider the Nature of this Pardon and Gospel-Remission Such are pardoned for ever I will remember their Sins no more they are blotted out for ever God promises to all penitent and believing Sinners to throw their Sins into the Depth of the Sea 4. Consider the Terms of Pardon it is a free Forgiveness we having nothing to pay God of his meer Grace and Goodness doth forgive us through the Atonement of Christ's Blood freely Even I am he that blotteth out thy Transgression for my own sake and will not remember thy Sins This is spoke to a People that had wearied the Lord with their Iniquities O what a glorious Salvation is this that here is Remission and free Pardon for rebellious Sinners such that deserve nothing but Wrath and Hell 5. It is a Pardon of all Sins great and small Sins of Omission and Sins of Commission Sins of all sorts and sizes 6. 'T is God that blotteth out our Sins he that can forgive he whose right it is to pardon he against whom we have sinned and he who when he gives a Pardon none can supersede it nor revoke it let them do what they can Secondly Reconciliation with God is another Blessing of this Salvation God doth not only forgive us but he takes us into his Bosom he is fully reconciled to us in Jesus Christ he cries Fury is not in me Again he says This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased When we were Enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son And none can make God our Enemy again for ever if we are Believers none can separate us from his Love in Jesus Christ our Lord as something agâ— I shewed you no not Sin nor Satan Thirdly By this Salvation we come to have Union with God and to be made one Spirit with Jesus Christ and how great and glorious is this saâ—red Union but having formerly spoken to it I shall not say more to it nâ—w Moreover we are not only brought into a State of Union but are also admitted to have Communion with the Father and the Son Brethren it is one thing for a Traitor to be pardoned and another thing for him to be admitted into the King's Presence and to become one of his great Favourites Truly our Fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ Fourthly By this Salvation also we are justified Justification is a high Privilege By him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses Let me shew you what it is to be justfied that so this Salvation may appear the more
the Law cannot no more can the Devil nor a Believer's own Heart I mean so as to bring him under Eternal Condemnation 8. And lastly All such that are justified shall be glorified see Rom. 8. 30. O glorious Salvation that brings in this blessed Privilege how happy are all justified Persons Fifthly Adoption appertains to this Salvation Every Believer is raised also to this great Privilege and hath this Prerogative he is made a Son of God a Child of God Adoption is to take such to be Children that naturally were not as a special Act of Grace and Favour So we who were the Children of Wrath by Nature are made or adopted to be the Children of God by Grace through Jesus Christ And Christ in working out this Salvation procured this glorious Blessing Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law that we might receive the Adoption of Sons To be Kings Children is no small Dignity yea the Children of the King of Heaven and Earth What manner of Love is this that the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God Beloved now are we the Sons of God c. God is not ashamed to be called our God nay our Father 1. Brethren this is an honourable Title What were we once how low base and ignoble before Grace 2. This Privilege it appears cost Christ dear 3. And because we are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our Hearts crying Abba Father 4. And if we be Children then Heirs Heirs of God and joint Heirs with Christ 5. Then Beloved we also as Children shall be cared for as Children be fed as Children be clothed as Children also be chastened God in all Afflictions deals with us as his Children 6. And if Children we shall be always Children for we are not only the Children of God by Adoption but we are also begotten and born of God and so partake of his Divine Nature which we cannot lose Sixthly By the Grace and Means of this Salvation we are espoused to Jesus Christ O what an Honour and Dignity is this Believers are the Bride the Lamb's Wife And how is and shall the Spouse of Christ be clothed Even in Gold of Ophir She shall be brought to the King in Raiment of Needle-work She is all glorious within and she shall be all glorious outwardly in Body too e're long as well as she is so now in her Soul and inward Parts Jesus Christ puts Chains about the Necks of all that are his or that he espouses I mean those precious Graces of his Spirit which he hath purchased for them For they shall be an Ornament of Grace unto thy Head and Chains about thy Neck The Father called for the best Robe to be put upon his Son as soon as he returned home and a Ring on his Finger The inward Beauty of the Spouse does even ravish the very Heart of Christ Thou hast ravished my Heart my Sister my Spouse thou hast ravished my Heart with one of thine Eyes with the Chain of thy Neck With one of thine Eyes some understand by one of her Eyes the Eye of Faith no doubt that is a precious Grace in Christ's sight Every Believer partakes of Grace and all Spiritual Gifts every Grace is a glorious Ornament and of great Price in the sight of God This Salvation makes Men and Women glorious Creatures new Creatures every one resembles the Son of a King they hereby come to partake of God's Holy Nature And as the Grace of this Salvation makes glorious Christians so it does also make glorious Churches Candlesticks of pure Gold Seventhly This Salvation brings Peace with it Peace is a precious Blessing we receive Grace first and then Peace My Peace I give unto you my Peace I leave with you The Peace of God is so excellent a thing that it passes all Mens Vnderstanding What would Spira or Child have given for true Peace and inward Serenity of Mind O it is a great and glorious Salvation Were these things considered and could be fully opened it would appear more abundantly true Peace of Conscience is never known to the Worth of it but to such who have known the want of it Eighthly I might also speak of Sanctification which Blessing all they also partake of that have an Interest in this Salvation Holiness is an Heaven on Earth it is Heaven begun here and it fits and makes every Believer meet for that blessed Inheritance of the Saints in Light the Spirit and Graces of the Spirit are given to this end I mean to make us holy in Heart and Life Ninthly Free access unto the Throne of Grace is another Blessing and Privilege which all Believers receive who have a part in this Salvation Christ hath made the Way easy for us to the Father it is by a new and living Way which he hath consecrated for us through the Vail that is to say his Flesh or by his Death Tenthly All the Promises of God belong to Believers and are procured for them in and by this Salvation They are great exceeding great and precious there is a Fulness in them the Promises as they are sure in Christ Yea and Amen in Christ so they answer every State and Condition any Believer can be in Eleventhly All the Ordinances of the Gospel belong to this Salvation and are no small Privilege they are as golden Pipes to convey Heavenly Riches or Sacred Treasure to our Souls Nay and in the last place there is a Crown of Glory that every Believer shall be raised unto that hath a saving Interest in this Salvation and not only a Crown but a Kingdom also Now is not this a great Salvation which raises poor Creatures who were fallen as low as Hell up to Heaven and of being Slaves of Sin and Satan to be Sons and Daughters of God It was a great Salvation that Joseph had when he was brought out of Prison where he lay in Irons to be the chief Ruler under the King in Egypt And it was a great Advancement of David from following the Sheep to sit on a Throne but nothing like this of Believers What is an Earthly Throne to an Heavenly one He that overcometh shall sit down with Christ in his Throne and reign for ever and ever APPLICATION 1. Admire this Salvation say it is no small thing to have a part in it I cannot particularly apply what I have insisted upon But 2. Bless God for Jesus Christ You cannot say that the Salvation he hath wrought is a barren Salvation O what is and will be the product of it 3. Particularly Consider what a Blessing Justification is and take heed you are not drawn away nor corrupted about the nature thereof 4. Be exhorted you that are Saints to strive to exercise Faith in respect of your Justification Believe the Gospel-Testimony He that believeth is justified from all things c. You have
the Word of that God that cannot lie to assure you of it Do not judg of your Justification according to the degree of your Sanctification as if you were no further justified than you are sanctified or that your Sanctification is any Cause of your Justification nor do not think you are more justified when you are in a lively frame of Duty than at another time when deadness and dulness takes hold of you Object I cannot believe so as to rise to a full perswasion that I am justified and shall be saved though I can relie upon Christ as a poor Sinner for my Justification and Eternal Life Answ 1. Well bless God for that Faith for a full Assurance doth not appertain to the Essence of true Faith but it is the highest degree of it and no doubt many are gone to Heaven that never attained to that degree of true Faith 2. I knew a Godly Minister who told me in his Sickness a little before he died All his Hopes were gone he could not come to Christ as a Saint his Evidences were so clouded this he uttered with Tears as I remember and with no small grief He presently broke forth and said But Brother I can come to him as a poor burdened lost and heavy-laden Sinner and I am sure he will not refuse me or to that purpose If thou canst do so certainly great Peace will come in it is from the weakness of our Faith that a strong and full Perswasion is wanting a direct Act of Faith I am perswaded must needs bring in the greatest Joy and Comfort a looking for all the signs of true Grace in us oft-times confounds a poor Christian If there is no Sin that thou dost allow thy self in but dost hate Sin as Sin and lovest Holiness and art willing to follow Christ in all things according to thy Light and lovest all the Saints of God as such no doubt but thy State is good and safe 3. But remember if thou canst not come to a satisfaction about what I speak in respect of those Signs yet know if thou dost believe i. e. rely upon the Merits and Righteousness of Christ as a poor Sin-sick Sinner all may be well 4. Take heed you do not look for a Righteousness in your selves to recommend you to God or to trust in for Justification Also know that it is not for the sake of Christ's Merits or for the sake of his Righteousness that we are justified but that it is his Righteousness that is the Matter of our Justification alone before God as it is â—puted unto us and received by Faith Christ's Merits render no our Faith and sincere Obedience to be any part of our Righteousâ—ess to Justification in God's sight 't is his Righteousness only which was perfect and no other Righteousness must thou be foâ—nd in in this respect if thou art justified and eternally saved Though 't is true that Man that has true Faith shall find the Effects of it to be such that it will cleansâ— and purify his Heart and Life and that Faith that hath not such Effects and good Fruits to accompany it is a dead Faith as the Apostle James shews HEB. II. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation I Closed the last Day with the tenth Demonstration to prove the Salvation of the Gospel to be Great and Glorious Seventhly Gospel-Salvation is Great and Glorious because it is a full a compleat and a comprehensible Salvation That which I intend hereby is this viz There are all things contained in this Salvation which our 〈…〉 in order to Grace and whatsoever is necessary for us here and eternal Glory hereafter 't is not a barren or a partial Salvation but a fruitful and compleat Salvation it does not require us to make Bâ—â—k and allow us no Straw it doth not command us to believe and give us no Power it is not like the Law that commands perfect Righteousness and condemns all that have it not but gives no Strength to perform it Some there be who seem to preach a strange Gospel they tell you what Christ hath done viz that he hath died c. and done his part in this Salvation and lest Sinners to do their part the Debt is paid you may go out of Poison if you will this they do tell you But alas alas the lest Sinner is bound he is in Chains under the Power of Sin and Satan nay he is dead and what can he do Is his Power greater than the Power of Satan Can he translate himself out of the Power of Darkness into the Kingdom of God's Son Can he by any Power God hath given him quicken himself or raise himself from the Dead No no this is impossible But now say I Gospel-Salvation is a full and comâ—â—â—â— Salvation what is needful and absolutely necessary to be donâ— for the Sinner in order to his having a saving Interest in it Jesus Christ will accomplish nay and he will do it himself he will not â—dmit you to have a Share or a Part in the Salvation of your own Souls for as he knows Sinners are not able to do that which must be done for them and in them if they are interested into the Blessings of this Salvation so he will have and must have all the Glory and Honour of this Salvation himself from the first to the last Christ hath no Partner no Competitor in this great Work I mean in and about the Salvation of our Souls 1. Sinners are you dead dead in Sins and Trespasses Christ is come to quicken you I am come that you might have Life There is in this Salvation Life for dead Sinners Christ hath a certain Water to give that whosoever drinketh of it though he be dead yet he shall live that Water is his Spirit 't is by that by infusing of his Spirit into the dead Soul that the Soul comes to be quickned the Spirit of Christ is his quickning Voice The Dead shall hear the Voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live Christ is our Life not only as he purchased Life for us but as he by his Spirit infuses it in us The Spirit is that Vital Principle in us You hath he quickned that were dead in Trespasses and Sins And he puts forth his Almighty Power to do this as the Apostle had declared to the Saints at Ephesus just in the Verses before in the first Chapter shewing to them that the same Power is put forth in raising us from a Death in Sin or in working Faith in our Souls that was wrought in Christ when he was raised from he Dead and therefore it is said to be the exceeding Greatness of his Power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty Power as before Can any Man do this can he raise himself Dead Lazarus might quicken and raise himself as soon out of the Grave as a dead Sinner can
quicken himself or believe of himself no Faith is God's Gift and it is the vital Principle of our Souls I wonder what some Men mean when they say Sinners must come up to the Rule of the Promise before they lay hold of the Promise Can they quicken themselves True if they can the Promise runs Christ will give them Life Get Life create Life in your Souls and lay hold of the Promise strange Notion I am sure Life must be first in the Soul before the Soul can do any thing that is truly and spiritually Good before Life is infused there is no motion towards God let the Motives be what they will 2. Sinners are blind spiritually blind and it is Jesus Christ must give them sight nay and he in the Work of this Salvation is anointed to open blind Eyes he is given to be a Light unto the Gentiles and so to be God's Salvation to the ends of the Earth Spiritual Life and Spiritual Light is in this Salvation and both are created in the Soul nay when Christ gives us Life he gives us Light also Object But it is said Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the Dead and Christ will give thee Light Answ 1. I answer That which God commands us to do in one place he says he will do for us in another place 2. It doth not imply that the Creature can of himself rise from the Dead but shews that he must be raised and quickned before he can receive Light from Christ 3. It shews a necessity of Faith or that we must believe and therefore ought to attend upon the Means of Faith and look up to God to obtain it Faith cometh by hearing that is the way he takes to work it in our Souls 3. Sinners have you hard and rocky Hearts Hearts of Stone even as hard as the nether Milstone Why now God bids you he commands you to make you a new Heart But can you do that if Christ never gives you Salvation until you create in your selves a new Heart and break your stony Hearts into pieces you will never have Salvation at all but must perish for ever and this Salvation will be in vain to you and to all Mortals were it so But pray observe the Promise this Salvation is so full that it hath a new Heart in it A new Heart also I will give you and a new Spirit I will put within you and I will take away the stony Heart out of your Flesh and will give you an Heart of Flesh A new Heart a holy a tender and broken Heart this God will give It is not naturally in us but it is of God's free Grace given to us Hence David cried Create in me a clean Heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me Thou didst as if he should say give me a new Heart but I have apostatized from thee and polluted my Soul O create again a clean Heart in me or renew thy Work Not that he had lost his new Heart but he would have God recover him from his Fall and put him into a holy and spiritual Frame which none but he that hath an almighty creating Power can do And if we cannot quicken our selves from a State of spiritual Deadness how should poor Sinners raise themselves from a State of spiritual Death Sinner here is Comfort for thee whose Heart is hard and thou feelest it hard and that makes thee go mourning all the Day behold in the Salvation of the Gospel a new Heart a Heart of Flesh is promised it is not you that can make your Heart new No no it is Jesus Christ that must do it 't is his Work We are his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good Works 4. Is there in the Hearts of Sinners naturally Enmity against God Christ in this Salvation takes it away The carnal Mind is Enmity against God it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be See in what a Pickle the Mind and Will of Man naturally is in What can a Sinner not do if the Doctrine of sore Men were true they can repent believe be regenerated and what not But 〈◊〉 says Paul their Mind their Will is not subject to the Law of God nor to the Gospel nor Rule of the Promise neither neither indeed can be Where they put a can Paul puts a cannot So 〈◊〉 another place he saith But the natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned Here is a cannot again 't is impossible till the Spirit of God removes that Enmity and Darkness and bows and bends the Will to the Will of God which shall be done when the Salvation of the Gospel comes with Power to the Soul of a poor Sinner 'T is Christ that must slay this Enmity as well as he did that which was between Jews and Gentiles He is a Mediator not only to reconcile God to us but us also to God My People shall be willing in the Day of my Power 5. Sinners are you polluted defiled with Sin and filthy in God's sight How will you get rid of this abominable Filth which renders you loathsom in God's sight Can you wash away your Pollution will Snow-water do it No no For though thou wash thee with Nitre and take thee much Sope yet thine Iniquity is marked before me saith the Lord. Sin is not easily washed away the Guilt of it nor the Filth of it This Job well knew therefore saith If I wash my self with Snow-water and my Hands never so clean yet shalt thou plunge me in the Ditch and my own Clothes shall abhor me 'T is not Snow-water nor much Sope no nor a Sea of brinish Tears that can wash away the Defilement and Guilt of Sin that cleaves to the Soul But Sinner in this Salvation there iâ— a way found out to cleanse thy filthy Soul nay a Fountain opened for Sin and for Vncleanness God 't is true says Wash thine Heart from Wickedness that thou mayest be saved So far I dâ—ny not as Man is able he ought to abstain from Sin and cleanse himself But says Christ If I wash thee not thou hast no part with me 'T is he it is his Blood that cleanses us from all Sin This Salvation Brethren is a full and compleat Salvation it brings every thing with it we need Rather than the Stain the Pollution and Guilt of Sin should abide upon us Christ will pour forth his own Blood to wash it away He hath loved us and washed us from our Sins in his own Blood He gave himself for his Church to this End That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of Water by the Word that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having Spot or Wrinkle or any such thing but that it might be Holy and without
Blemish 6. Sinners are you bound in strong Chains and in the Prison-house Are you in the Bonds of Iniquity How will you do to come out for you are kept by the strong Man armed if you can conquer this strong and cruel Enemy you may get out but are you a Match for Satan No certainly none can deliver himself none can get out of Satan's Hands it must be done by one mightier than he Well in this Salvation there is Liberty Christ is clothed with Power as you lately heard he is anointed to preach the Gospel to the Poor he is sent to heal the Broken-hearted to deliver the Captives and to set at liberty them that were bound Jesus Christ is stronger than the strong Man armed He hath taken captive Captivity himself O what a blessed what a great and glorious Salvation is this 7. Are you poor and naked and have nothing to cover your Nakedness but filthy Rags Well be it so yet this Salvation brings to you a rich and glorious Robe viz. Christ's Righteousness nay change of Raiment Salvation it self is called a Garment and it is by this Salvation also you have the Robe of Sanctification and Grace wherewith you are clothed Humility is called a Garment I counsel thee to buy of me white Raiment that thou mayst be clothed and that the Shame of thy Nakedness appear not 8. Are you poor hungry Souls and have no Bread nothing to eat but are forc'd to feed on Husks as the poor Prodigal did Soul to thy joy in this Salvation is Bread of Life for thee Eat you that which is good and let your Soul delight it self in Fatness The Gospel Sirs provides a Feast of fat things Have you not read of the Marriage-Supper All things are now ready O what a Banquet doth this Salvation make for hungry Sinners and such who hunger and thirst after Righteousness shall be filled 9. Are you Thirsty and have no Water to drink are all Wells empty and all Springs dry Yet know O Sinner here is the Well of Salvation brim full If any Man thirst let him come to me and drink 10. Are you guilty Sinners and condemned to die by a Holy and just Law The Gospel-Salvation has a full Discharge for you Christ hath died in your stead and here is a Pardon a free Pardon obtained upon his Satisfaction 11. Or Sinner dost thou want a broken Heart dost thou want a penitent Heart in this Salvation Christ has purchased Grace to melt and soften thy Heart Him hath God exalted at his right Hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give Repentance to Israel and Remission of Sins 12. Dost thou want Faith or more Faith It is to be had in this Salvation To you it is given in behalf of Christ not only to believe c. To believe Grace to believe is given to poor Sinners Christ is the Author and Finisher of our Faith 13. Do you want Peace the Gospel is the Gospel of Peace Christ is the Prince of Peace and as he had made Peace for us so he hath promised to all that lay hold on this Salvation to give them Peace yea great Peace not such Peace that the World gives 14. Do you want Strength it is in this Salvation also In the Lord that is in Christ shall one say have I Righteousness and Strength Nay you shall be strengthned according to his glorious Power Christ is our Strength as he is God's Arm of Power so he is our Arm also I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee yea I will uphold thee with the right Hand of my Righteousness 15. Or do you want Comfort this Salvation hath all Joy and spiritual Comfort in it God is called the God of all Comfort and Consolation but he is so only to us in Jesus Christ Christ hath procured and sent the Comforter himself to us and to abide with us for ever I will not leave you comfortless I will come unto you 16. Do you want Weapons and Armour to ingage your Enemies this Salvation provides these also see Eph. 6. 10 11 12 13. Christ's Souldiers are armed compleatly yea they have Armour of Proof put upon them 17 Do you want a Guide this Salvation provides you an infallible and faithful Guide also 1. To guide us we have God's Word which is that sure Word of Prophecy which if you follow you shall never go astray 2. To guide us we have also the Holy Spirit and Spirit of Truth when he is come he will guide you into all Truth 18. Or do you want a Shepherd to feed you a King to rule you a Priest to sacrifice and make an Atonement for you a Prophet to teach you this Salvation provides all these for you Christ is your Shepherd your Priest your King your Prophet and excels all that ever bore those Names 19. Do you want an Husband would you change your Condition What say you Sinners particularly you young People do you desire a good Match to be well disposed of in Marriage O then receive this Salvation here is a Prince nay the Prince of the Kings of the Earth that desires your Love will you accept of this Offer behold he is now come and knocks at your Doors O open to him say not nay For this Match being once made between Jesus Christ and your Souls this Salvation and all that is contained in it is yours for ever 20. Would you be Rich Great Honourable truly Rich and Honourable here it is receive this Salvation and all these things as you heard the last Day are yours none so Great so Rich nor so Honourable as Believers The Righteous is more excellent than his Neighbour the Saints are the excellent in all the Earth 21. Do you want Health and would you be freed of all your Diseases and Sickness for ever Health is in this Salvation Soul-health and that is the best Health Christ hath born our Sicknesses to cure and heal our Souls 22. Do you want a great Portion this is more than all the other this Salvation is so comprehensible that God himself is contained in it This Salvation gives us Interest in God God hereby gives himself to every Believer to be his Portion Christ hath purchased this Portion for us he restores to us a lost God by this Salvation we come to injoy God again 1. God is a Portion that will supply all thy Wants 2. A Portion that will content and fully satisfy every Soul that has an Interest in him 3. A Portion that can never be spent nor wasted 4. A Portion for thy Soul and a Portion that will last as long as thy Soul shall last and that is for ever Sirs many have great worldly Portions but they are sometimes soon spent and they become poor and miserable Some also have great earthly Portions bodily Portions but have no Portion for their poor Souls O get God to be your Portion i.
and under the Sentence of Eternal Death being Enemies to God and having Enmity in their Carnal Mind against God and great Mountains of Guilt lying upon them I say thus it is with them but they know it not It is with them as it was with the Church of the Laodiceans Because thou sayest I am Rich and increased in Goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked See what a sad State this professing People were in and yet ignorant of it thought they were perfect as that Man must needs suppose that thinks he wants nothing they no more knew their great Danger than did the old World of the Flood and Sodom of those Flames which suddenly consumed them all 4 thly Some conclude they believe and have true Grace they make a profession of the Gospel and have been baptized having great Gifts and Parts and yet for all this never were effectually changed never obtained the Faith of God's Elect but through Ignorance they are perswaded all is well with them and so they come not to look out to Christ but do neglect the Means of Conâ—â—rsion by being perswaded they are converted already Now this Ignorance may be occasioned several ways 1. Chiefly it arises from that natural Darkness that is in them and which naturally cleaves to all Mankind Sin has put out the Eyes of our Understanding But 2. It may also arise partly from the Ignorance of those blind Guides whose Teachings and Doctrine they may I mean some of them sit under My People are destroyed for lack of Knowledg and the Cause was those that taught them caused them to err If the Blind lead the Blind they will both fall into the Ditch O take heed under what Ministry you venture your Souls The Pharisees and Scribes were learned Men and some of them great Preachers but wholly ignorant of the Doctrine of the Gospel and of Salvation by Jesus Christ Many like the false Teachers of old Cry Peace Peace when there is no Peace 3. Moreover this Ignorance arises partly from Satan he hath too great an Influence on the Hearts and dark Minds of Men But if our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost In whom the God of this World hath blinded the Eyes of those that believe not lest the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the Image of God should shine unto them Satan hath a mighty Power over sinful Men by his cunning Devices to keep them in Ignorance and to hinder them from studying knowing and believing the Gospel and by this Means they neglect this Salvation Such are blinded by Satan that believe not he may perswade them that a general Faith or a common Faith is true Faith and sufficient and so he cheats them with a Counterfeit instead of saving Faith or Satan blinds Mens Eyes by moving them to seek Salvation in some other way than by Christ alone and by believing in him resting relying and depending on him like an evil Person who puts a poor Traveller out of his way or directs him the direct contrary way that so he may be robbed and murdered by him and by other Thieves that may way-lay him 2. Some neglect the Salvation of the Gospel from that inordinate Love they have to the things of this World Thus the young Man that came running to Christ neglected it he had his Heart so set upon his great Possessions that he went away from our Saviour sorrowful and refused the Salvation of his own Soul he could not part with the World for a Part in Christ and Eternal Life So they that were invited to the Marriage-Supper out of an inordinate Love to the things of the World refused to come The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a certain King which made a Marriage for his Son and sent forth his Servants to call them that were bidden and they would not come But they made light of it and went their ways one to his Farm another to his Merchandise This Marriage-Supper is this great Salvation but the things of the World are more valued by most People than the Salvation of their Souls Luke saith And he sent forth his Servants at Supper-time to say to them that were bidden Come for all things are now ready Many Persons refuse to feed on Christ they believe not will not eat of this Supper will not feed on a crucified Christ or eat his Flesh and drink his Blood by Faith through Love to their carnal Pleasures Honours and worldly Profits And they all began with one consent to make excuse The first said unto him I have bought a Piece of Ground and I must needs go and see it I pray thee have me excused And another said I have bought five Yoke of Oxen and I go to prove them I pray thee have me excused Another said I have married a Wife and therefore I cannot come Lawful things may be abused and the Heart so set upon them that they drown Men in Perdition and Destruction Mens Hearts naturally are earthly and sensual and as they know not so they desire not the Knowledg of God and Jesus Christ they are satisfied with that Portion they have this World is for them they care not regard not the things of another Life 3. Some neglect this Salvation out of Love to unlawful things They will feed on forbidden Fruit I mean on their filthy Lusts they will swear steal whore be drunk grind the Face of the Poor deal unjustly give way to Pride c. and from hence neglect the Salvation of their Souls I was lately told of a gracious Woman living near this City whose Daughter wore a very high Head-dress or that shameful Mode now in fashion which so grieved the Mother that she gave her a rich Ring upon condition she would leave off that Dress or Top-knots Her Daughter took the Ring and conformed for a while to her Mother's just Desire but it was not long before she gave her the Ring again and repented of her Reformation and got on her old Dresses again Alas some will not leave off and forsake their Lusts for Chains of Gold they will live in their Sins persist on in their ungodly Courses let what will come they matter not who they grieve they prefer their cursed Lusts and Pleasures above this Salvation though it be so great as you have heard 4. Moreover some neglect Salvation because there is a Cross joined to the Crown they must take Christ's Yoke upon them and be exposed to Reproach for his sake and this they cannot endure the Yoke is uneasy to the Flesh the Flesh cannot bear it No it is only easy to such whose Hearts are renewed who have got a new Nature The Cross makes many lose the Crown but Brethren had Jesus Christ refused the Cross where had we been 5. Some Persons neglect Salvation through the treachery and
wretched and naked and for Rebellion condemned to die nay to be burned for ever Unbelief was the Cause of Man's Fall at first he would not believe God who told him In the Day he eat of the forbidden Fruit he should surely die No he rather adhered to the Devil and gave credit to the Father of Lies This also was the grand Cause of the Israelites falling in the Wilderness And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his Rest but to them that believed not So we see they could not enter in because of Vnbelief Let us therefore fear saith the Apostle Brethren there is a notional and practical Unbelief Some believe there is a God but they deny him by their Works and deny Christ the only Saviour by cleaving to and trusting in other things for Salvation They perhaps think that their good Deeds their Prayers their just Dealings and sober and moral Lives will save them Some are like a poor ignorant Wretch that I heard of who being lately sick and a Christian Neighbour being sent for to come to him he asked him some Questions about his Soul who replied that he had been a Sinner but if God spared him he hop'd to make God amends for all Some sin and commit horrid Evils in the Day and then pray at Night and confess their Sins and may be drop a few Tears and that they think cures all and makes them as sound again as a Fish and so go on the next Day in their old trade of sinning as briskly as before Some have a humane Faith an historical Faith and from thence do many things though they do not live up to that Faith neither nor improve what Knowledg and Light they have received to that degree they ought and so shall be condemned like as was the Man that improved not his one Talent I call it a humane Faith because it is the Act of the Creature by virtue of his natural Powers and Capacity the Spring and Motive of their Faith is Humane therefore their Faith cannot be Divine I shall sum up the whole of this Head and come to the Application 1. It appears that the Salvation of the Gospel is neglected by many through Ignorance and natural Blindness their Understandings are darkned And Light shines in the Darkness but the Darkness comprehendeth it not Men love Darkness rather than Light Error rather than Truth If another come in his own Name him you will receive 2. There is a Perverseness and Rebellion in the Will and hardness in the Heart Ye will not come to me that ye might have Life The carnal Mind is Enmity against God it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be 3. Men are ignorant and unsensible of their States and Conditions Are we blind also We are Abraham 's Seed was the Plea of old We are Christians the Off-spring of Christian People and good Protestants is the Plea now They are 4. Ignorant of God's Holiness and Justice and so trust in his Mercy not regarding of his Law and Justice They are ignorant and unsensible of that insufficiency there is in themselves or in any thing they can do to save their own Souls 5. 'T is through the Ignorance of some of their Teachers who preach not the Gospel truly to them 6. 'T is through an inordinate Love to the things of this World their Affections are corrupted and set upon the Creature upon their Riches Honours and Pleasures 7. 'T is through that Love many have to their Sins and sinful Practices and sinful Companions 8. 'T is through the deceitfulness and treachery of their own evil Hearts 9. Through slavish Fear or pretended Modesty they dare not be so bold to venture themselves on Christ being such great Sinners and having nothing to present unto him for acceptance 10. It is from Idleness and spiritual Sloth 11. From Unbelief not giving Credit to the Revelation of God's Word in many respects but think to be saved some other ways than by Jesus Christ alone or not by him and nothing else and conclude something is to be joined to Christ's Merits and Righteousness or they cannot be justified nor saved and thus this Salvation is neglected it is upon these or such-like Considerations as these are APPLICATION 1. Tremble you that slight or neglect the great Salvation of the Gospel Will you say that Jesus Christ cannot save you or is not willing to save you Certainly those who give way to such Thoughts and Temptations are sharply to be reproved 2. Your Sins and Unbelief is the Cause of your Misery and if you perish it will be the Cause of your Damnation for ever 3. And to you that are Believers let me speak one Word Have a care of Unbelief beware of unbelieving and desponding Thoughts Why do you hang down your Heads Object O the deadness of my Heart This I know is the Voice and Complaint of your Souls Answ How came you to know that you are dead Certainly this is a sign that there is Life in you Did ever any Person that was naturally dead say he was dead cold or unsensible that is impossible 't is only such who are alive that thus complain Object O the abundance of Sin that is in me that afflicts and distresses my Soul Answ Say you so is Sin your Sickness is Sin your Sorrow Is Sin that which afflicts wounds and grieves your Spirit Then rejoice this is a good sign Would you live and sin not Do you see a loveliness in Holiness this is no doubt an Evidence of the Goodness of your Condition provided you hate it and allow not of Sin in you Object But alas how little do I mind and am affected with this great Salvation Answ Canst thou be contented without it or give over minding it and trouble thy self no more about it Nay art thou willing to part with that Interest thou hast in Christ and in this Salvation I am perswaded you will say No not for ten thousand Worlds 4. Moreover from hence we may see the Madness and Folly of the generality of Men who live under the preaching of the Gospel and yet neglect Day by Day the Means of this so great Salvation they regard not their chief and main Business What Blindness is naturally in Mankind But because I shall have occasion to open more particularly the great Evil of neglecting the Salvation of the Gospel the next time I shall say no more to it now HEB. II. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation I AM upon the Prosecution of the second Proposition I raised from this Text viz. Doct. 2. That the Means of the great Salvation of the Gospel may be neglected This is implied in the Words 1. I shewed you the last Day what the neglecting of Gospel-Salvation doth import 2. I also shewed you who they are that may be said to neglect it 3. And likewise from whence it cometh to pass
saith he I was blameless yet he esteemed it but Dung in comparison of God's Righteousness and renounced it all in point of Justification that he might be found in Christ And as it is Christ's Righteousness that is our Title for Heaven so it is his Death his bearing the Punishment of Sin that delivers us from eternal Damnation in Hell Hell is a fearful Place it is made deep and large The Fire is not quenched and the Worm dieth not and that Place is prepared for all Unbelievers for all who continue in their Sins and under the Power of Unbelief and neglect this so great Salvation the Damnation of which they cannot escape Secondly I shall shew you the Reasons why such cannot shall not escape God's eternal Wrath that neglect the Salvation of the Gospel 1. It is because this is the way yea the only way which Infinite Wisdom hath found out for the Salvation of our Souls If there is but one way to cure a Mortal Disease that may seize upon a Person then if he neglect that one Remedy he must die Sirs as there is but one way to escape starving and that is to eat so there is but one way to escape perishing and that is by believing or by feeding on Jesus Christ or by eating of his Flesh and drinking of his Blood There are many ways to be damned but there is but one way to be saved Verily verily I say unto you Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood ye have no Life in you If you neglect this way of Salvation there is no other way whereby you can be saved Neither is there Salvation in any other for there is no other Name given under Heaven whereby we must be saved 2. Such that neglect this Salvation cannot shall not escape the Wrath of God because it is just and equal that all such Persons who slight and neglect this Salvation should be destroyed and that for ever 1. By reason they neglect an Offer of Pardon and Peace contrived by the Infinite Wisdom of God and it is the highest Demonstration of admirable Mercy and Goodness therefore there cannot be a higher Indignity and Contempt cast upon God's Sovereign Grace and Favour Many of those Sinners that neglect this Salvation are so vile and ungrateful as not to enquire what this Grace means nor on what Terms this Salvation may be had And is not this in plainness to tell the Holy God that they scorn his Love and Goodness and despise the Offers of Peace and Reconciliation by Jesus Christ and fear not what he can do unto them and so no less than a trampling the Blood of Christ under their Feet Let Men deal thus with their provoked Rulers or with an earthly Prince when guilty of High-Treason and see how unpitied they will die yea be drawn hang'd and quartered What guilty of the worst of Treason and have an Offer of Pardon and slight or neglect the suing of it out How equal and just a thing would it be that such should die So it will be here Brethren God will not be mocked Sinners shall one Day see what it is to neglect the Salvation wrought out by Jesus Christ I mean the Way and Means of the Application thereof they will be forced to subscribe to the Righteousness Justice and Equity of their own Damnation in loving and cleaving to their Lusts and counting their earthly Riches Pleasures and Honours better than Jesus Christ and a part in this Salvation Remember it is the Sinner's own Salvation that he neglecteth it is his own Good his own Cure his own Relief his own Happiness Can any perish more justly and deservedly than such who refuse to be saved who choose Death rather than Life and Darkness rather than Light 3. They cannot shall not escape because it is Salvation in such a way a way that cost so dear even the Blood of the Son of God Should the King yield up his own Son as a Sacrifice to answer the Law for a cursed Traitor and yet he should despise and slight his Goodness how would that aggravate his Guilt O with what a Price is this Salvation procured by what a Sacrifice What Tears did Christ shed O what drops of Blood did he sweat and what Wrath did he bear What a Curse did he undergo to save us from Hell and Death How can any think to escape that neglect the Means of this Salvation 4. Because it is Salvation on such easy Terms as to us had God offered Sinners Salvation on hard and difficult Terms their Sin might not seem to be attended with such Aggravations Had God required a thousand Rams or ten thousand Rivers of Oil of every one that would be saved or to sacrifice their Sons and Daughters or their First-born the Fruit of their Bodies for the Sin of their Souls this would seem hard but none of this God requires of us it shall not be must not be our Son our Child our First-born but his Son the holy Child Jesus his First-born that must die or be a Sacrifice for our Sins it must be my Son as if God should say and all that I require of you is to apply his Blood and to sacrifice your Sins in love to me 5. That which the Apostle builds the Righteousness of God's proceeding against such that neglect this Salvation upon and shews the unavoidableness of their perishing from is the greatness of the Salvation it self Shall God's Justice be eclipsed shall his Honour be marr'd his Goodness be despised his Law be violated his Holiness stained it would be thus should such be saved who neglect and slight this Salvation Therefore all such cannot escape his Wrath. 6. The Apostle further argues the impossibility of their escaping who neglect this great Salvation from that impossibility there was of their escaping who refused to hear Moses For if the Word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every Transgression and Disobedience received a just Reward How shall we escape c. It was a just Reward they received for their Sins and Disobedience And if so how shall these escape God will render a just Retribution a righteous and proportionable Punishment it will be far worse or much greater howbeit it is against greater Light greater Grace and despising a Person of far greater Honour and Dignity He that despised Moses Law died without Mercy under two or three Witnesses Of how much sorer Punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Blood of the Son of God c. Sirs to love Sin to love this World or any Person or Thing above Jesus Christ is in effect to tread the Son of God under your Feet 't is such an undervaluing and vilifying of him God doth as it were propound the Case to us he would have Sinners themselves to be Judges how just their Condemnation will be if they neglect this Salvation and
God's sight and accepted for the sake of Christ's Merits Not that Christ's Righteousness alone is the matter of our Justification exclusive of all our inherent Righteousness and Obedience no no but rather it is our Righteousness which doth justify us The Gospel according to these Men is propounded as a Law and God as a Rector or just Governour commanding Obedience thereunto as the procuring Cause of our Justification So that our Faith and Obedience is a Cause and Condition of Life as Unbelief and Disobedience is the Cause of Eternal Death But having formerly detected this dangerous Error I shall not further insist upon the Confutation of it here 5. Such preach a Legal Doctrine that render Man a Co-worker with Christ in the Salvation of their own Souls by which means there is room left for him to boast and glory Such a Doctrine they preach who magnify the Will of Man or the Power of the Creature which I hope I have by the Assistance of God sufficiently detected and refuted in this Treatise All boasting being excluded by the Grace of God in the Gospel Man being abased and God alone exalted APPLICATION I shall now come to make the general Application of what I have said unto you from this great Text and so conclude with all I shall say from it First Inform. First by way of Information the Doctrine which hath in these Sermons been insisted on may inform us That Gospel-Sins are the greatest Sins and that the blind Heathens are not cannot be so guilty and culpable before God nor in such a dangerous Condition as those are who live under the preaching of the Gospel and yet slight and neglect the Salvation of it O what will they do in the Day of Judgment that live in England in London in a Land and City of so great Light and perish through their Sin and Contempt or Neglect of Gospel-Grace Secondly This may also inform us how strangely Mankind are blinded and deceived by the God of this World in that small things are accounted great and that which is of the greatest Concernment is little or not at all regarded but esteemed as a trivial matter O says some we must mind the main Chance they mean the main Business in respect of their Earthly Subsistence which is to get Bread and to provide for the Body for their Wives and Children Now the Doctrine which you have heard shews you how you are deluded that look upon Earthly Things to be the main Business you should look after What is of such Importance as the Salvation of your precious and immortal Souls and to be providing for an endless Eternity Thirdly I may infer from hence That the greatest part of Mankind are Unbelievers for all that neglect this Salvation and look not upon this matter as their chief Business are doubtless in a State of Unbelief They do not credit this holy Doctrine they believe not God's Word If one should tell you that are going a Journy that if you go such a Way you will certainly be destroyed by Thieves or wild Beasts yet you will go on Would it not follow clearly that you believe not what was told you Why thus it is here Sinners are told and assured from the Word of God as certain as God is true and his Word true that if they leave not their Swearing their Pride their Drunkenness their Lying their Lusts and Uncleanness their Worldly-mindedness and their preferring Earth and the things of the World above the things of God or if they do not believe repent and be born again they shall certainly perish for ever yet they go on and live in those ways of Sin and believe not repent not this is an evident sign that they do not give Credit to what is told them and so are Unbelievers and if they still persist in their way they will be certainly damned 1. Our Saviour saith Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish ye shall not escape eternal Wrath be ye great Sinners or not Sinners of the first Rank The Wicked shall be turned into Hell and all the Nations that forget God 2. Christ saith He that believeth not the Wrath of God abideth on him and they that do not believe are told there is no other way to escape this Wrath and that this Wrath will be poured forth upon them like Fire unless they believe in Christ receive Christ obtain an Interest in Jesus Christ nay that they are condemned already but they believe not 3. Moreover such who live a sober moral Life are told that notwithstanding that yet unless they are born again unless they get Faith in Jesus Christ and their Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees and they obtain the Righteousness of Christ they cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Now they will not believe this but conclude their State is good and that Morality is sufficient to save their Souls which shews that these are Unbelievers also 4. Others are told that their good Deeds their good Duties their Prayers their hearing of Sermons or their being Baptized and having Communion with God's People will not do unless they are savingly renewed and sanctified having the true Grace of God in their Hearts and lead a Godly Holy and Spiritual Life finding the powerful Operations of the Spirit changing them into the Likeness of Jesus Christ but they believe it not but rest upon their Duties and outward Privileges tho they are told the Kingdom of God is not in Meat and Drink but in Righteousness and Truth and Joy in the Holy Ghost or that the Kingdom of God is not inward only but in Power also and that Lamps of Profession will not save them except they have Oil in their Vessels many of these are like the foolish Virgins and believe it not but rest on a bare Name of Christians on a Form of Godliness and may be fall short too as to an outward Profession of Godliness for so do they who pray not in the Closet nor in their Families neither read God's Word nor make it their Business to hear the Word preached in Season and out of Season but every small Matter takes them off of those Duties Be sure all prayerless Souls are graceless Souls it is to be feared many of this sort make Religion but little of their Business who neither read pray nor meditate nor perhaps call upon their Children and Servants so to do but let their Children have their Carnal Lusts their Pride ambitious and wanton Inclinations indulged and nourished in them O how little is the outward Part of God's Worship kept up in the Families of some Professors Fourthly This may serve also for a Use of Terror to secure Sinners 1. May not Cry out Fire Fire Such a Cry hath often startled and amazed many of you that live in and about this City Sirs a Fire is just a breaking out which you cannot escape unless you look about you the sooner
When People hear the Cry of Fire in the Night how do they cry out Where Where Alas this Fire seizes not on your Houses nor Goods no nor on your Bodies only but on your Souls it has already kindled even the Wrath of God which no Sinner can escape that neglects this Salvation God's Wrath is compared to Fire and it has perhaps already taken hold of some of your Consciences but if it be not kindled there yet it is kindled in God's Anger For a Fire is kindled in my Anger and shall burn unto the lowest Hell O that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter End 2. Is the Wrath of God so terrible and can no Unbeliever or impenitent Sinner escape it what cause is here for them all to tremble Suppose you should be told that this Night you shall certainly not escape Death neither you nor your Wife nor Children but that your House shall be burned down your Goods Self Wife and Children shall all be burned to Ashes and that this Judgment you shall not escape would it not be startling and terrifying Tidings if you should believe it But alas what would that be to this doleful Tidings viz. that your precious Soul and Body as well as your Wife and Children and all belonging to you if you and they do neglect the Means of this Salvation and not believe in Christ and become new Creatures shall in a short time be in everlasting Flames and undergo intolerable Pain and Punishment from the Presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his Power which you shall not escape for the Mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it Nay and it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgment than for you or for that Soul who refuses the Offers of Christ Pardon of Sin and Salvation through him Fifthly It may be for a Lamentation to see how few understand the Nature of this Salvation and study the Mysteries of it or desire an Interest in it and also to see how many make light of it whilst others by dangerous Errors seek ways to eclipse the Glory of God's Free Grace therein Remember those Demonstrations you have heard to open the Greatness of the Salvation the Gospel Sixthly This reprehends such who are more affected with Temporal Salvation than with the Spiritual and Eternal Salvation of the Soul and also all such that defer looking after and striving to get an Interest in it Seventhly By way of Exhortation 1. Let me exhort you to praise God for Jesus Christ who is the Author and Finisher of this Salvation Christ is all and in all in our Salvation God hath sent us an Almighty Saviour O how miserable should we have been for ever had not God sent us Jesus Christ 2. Let me exhort you to admire the Love of Christ in coming to work out this Salvation What hath he born and undergon to save our Souls O love and exalt this Saviour and eclipse none of his Glory 3. Be exhorted to praise God for affording you the Knowledg of Gospel-Salvation O how few are they who have heard of this joyful Tidings But few Nations of the World have this News sounding in their Ears viz. the Gospel preached to them they have no declaration of it God shews his Soveraignty herein he reveals himself and the Knowledg of Salvation to whom he pleases And indeed many dark Parts of this Nation have but little of the Mysteries of the Gospel made known to them What People in the World have greater cause to admire God's distinguishing Grace and Favour than we that live in and about this City London is exalted to Heaven in respect of the Means of Grace O that it may never be brought down to Hell as our Saviour threatned Capernaum 4. From hence also I might exhort you to bless God for faithful Ministers who publish the Salvation of the Gospel to you How beautiful upon the Mountains are the Feet of him that bringeth good Tidings that publisheth Peace that bringeth good Tidings of Good that publisheth Salvation Let it appear you highly value and honour your faithful Ministers by your diligent attention on the Word and Doctrine they preach For Motives consider 1. God has ordained Preaching as the ordinary Way and Means to work Faith Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God And to increase and strengthen Faith also 2. God is gradiously pleased to assord Men a Day or a Time of Visitation in which he offers Terms of Peace unto them Take heed you do not like Jerusalem lose your Day and neglect the Means God affords you 3. You know not how short your Day may be and if you lose your Day you will lose your Souls also The Harvest will end with some and they not saved And that you may not lose the Day of your Visitation take a few Directions 1. Seriously think on the sad and woful Condition which naturally you are in being dead in Sin and Children of Wrath and if you die in that Estate you are lost for ever 2. Let your Thoughts now be let out on your latter End for when the Night comes no Man can work This is great Wisdom and every Man's Duty we none of us know how soon our great Change may come And what will you do if you live in the neglect of the Means of Salvatio even until God cuts you off 3. Pray that the Wind of the Spirit would blow upon your Souls The Wind bloweth where it listeth it bloweth at God's Command when on whom and how he pleaseth The Spirit is that great and only Agent that must work Faith in you quicken you and regenerate your Souls 4. Therefore see that you do not quench the Spirit but improve all the Convictions thereof 5. If you would have an Interest in this great Salvation you must have an Interest in Jesus Christ the great Saviour If you do not receive Christ by Faith but refuse him sad will your Condition be for no Christ no Salvation Quest How may I know that I have Christ or an Interest in him Answ 1. If thou hast Christ thou hast Life thou art spiritually quickned And as thou hast Spiritual Life so also thou hast Light thy Eyes are opened I mean the Eyes of thy Understanding 2. Thou canst remember the time when thou hadst no God no Christ or wast without Christ and it is much if thou art not able to tell how when or after what manner thou didst meet with him whether it was by the Word preached or by reading or by some Affliction c. 3. If Christ be thine he is very precious to thee Canst thou say with David Whom have I in Heaven but thee neither is there any on Earth that I desire beside thee And with the Spouse My Beloved is white and ruddy the chiefest among ten thousand Paul
9. Annatators Rom. 4. 5. Rom. 10. 3. Joh. 3. 9. Joh. 6. 60. Joh. 6. 66. Joh. 6. 60. 66. 1 Tim. 1. 20. 1 Cor. 5. 41. Tit. 3. 10. 1 Tim. 1. 20. Matth. 18. 17. Rom. 6. 17 18. 2 Thess 3. 6 14 15. Matth. 18. 2 Thess 3. 6. Matth. 18. 17. 1 Cor. 6. 11. Acts 15. 9. 2 Cor. 7. 1. Mat. 3. 3. Mat. 13. 20. 21. Heb. 12. 10. Isa 27. 9. Isa 4. 4. Rom. 9. 6. Mat. 21. 29. Joh. 12. 13. Jer. 23. 2â— Jer. 23. 28. Pro. 13. 5. Isa 43. 3 4. James 1. 26. Eccl. 10. 14. Mat. 12. 34. v. 35. v. 36. v. 37. Psa 15. 1. Mat. 12. 24. Jam. 1. 26. Antick Head-Dresses discovers the vanity of the Heart 1 Cor. 11. 10. Heb. 13. 9. Psa 111. 10. Sin is likened to Chaff Mat. 3. 3. Ger. 51. 2. Chap. 4. 11. 12. Jer. 35. So Jer. 15. 7. Why the Saints are compared to Wheat Prov. 12 26. Psa 6. 3. Mat. 3. ult Eph. 3. 8. Rom. 7. 21. v. 19. 24. Mat. 13. 2 King 6. 33. Heb. 12. 10. The Church is Christs Spritual Garner Heaven is Christs Garner Rev. 21. 27. What meant by burning up the Chaff Psa 8. 8. Psa 97. 3. Nah. 1. 6. Jer. 10. 10. Nah. 1. 6. Rev. 6. 16. Dan. 5. 5. 6. 1 Thess 3. 3. Psa 21. 9. 10. Heb. 12. ult Isa 2. 12 13 14 15 16 Zeph. 1. 18. Rom. 9. 22. Nah. 1. 10. Heb. 2. 12. Eph. 2. 16. 2 Cor. 5. 17. 1 Pet. 2. 5. Isa 1. 25 Isa 33. 14. Math. 25. 41. The Wrath of God whether internal or external is intollerable Amos 3 8. Isa 29. 6. Isa 24. 1. Mat 2. 4. Mal. 3. ult 1 Cor. 13. 1 2. 1 Sam. 2. 3. Joh. 10. 28. Phil. 1. 6. Serm. II. Preached March 12. 1693. Gods Wrath opened Job 36. 18. Joh. 3. 36. External wrath opened Deut. 28. 22. Levit. 10. 1 2. vers 6 Isa 42. 25. Job 16. 9. Internal Wrath explained 1 Thes 1. 16. Internal wrath on the Consciences of Men opened See the Relation of him at large Sold by A. and J. Churchil at the black Swan in Pater-Noster-Row The Narrative concerning Mr. Child is Sold by Tho. Fabian at the Bible in Cheapside and worthy it is Reader of thy perusal The fire of Gods eternal wrath opened Mark 9. 43 44 45 46 47 48. Psa 90. 11. Tormens of Hell inconceivable Hells Torments according to the fear of them Heb. 10. 26. No pains like the pains of Hell Luk. 16. 24. No Ease no Comfort in Hell His Wrath without mixture Rev. 14. 10. 2 Thess 1. 9. Psa 80. 11. The damned cast into a la7c of fire Isa 30. 33. Hell Torments can never satisfie Divine Justice Mat. 5. 26. The Torments of Hell seize on the Souls of the damned Body and Soul both shall be tormented in Hell Conscience will torment the damned Dan. 12. 2. Shame wil torment the damned The Devil will upbraid the damned The sorrow and despair of the damned will be great The wicked in Hell shall have the frightful company of Devils Hell is a dark place Exod. 10. 21. Jude 13. Torments of the wicked Eternal Mark 9. 2 Thess 1. 8 9. Rom. 3 5. 6. Rev. 16. 10. 11. Sin the greatest evil 2 Cor. 5 11. Jam. 5. 1 2 3. Mat. 25. 46. Mal. 4. 1 2. Rev. 21. 8. Isa 33. 14. Mat. 24. 51. Luk. 12. 45. Heb. 10. 27. Joh. 8. 24. Mark 16. 16. Heb. 6. 18. Joh. 3. 36. Psa 9. 17. 1 Cor. 6. 9. 10. Prov. 1. 26 27. Joh. 3. 16. Mat. 22. 7. Directions Comfort to Believers 1 Thess 1. 10. Serm. 1. Preach'd Feb. 5. 169 1 â— Parts of the Text. John 6. 37. Acts 18. 9 10. Believers Christ's Sheep by Choice 2 Tim. 2. 19. By Donation Joh. 17. 9. Joh. 17. 6. Isa 8. 18. By Purchase 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. Rom. 7. 14. Isa 50. 1. 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. Acts 20. 28. By Renovation 1 Cor. 6. 10 11. Eph. 2. 10. By Holy Covenant and Contract Heb. 13. 21. Jer. 31. 33. By Conquest By a holy Resignation 2 Cor. 8. 5. 2 Tim. 3. 16. Eph. 5. 14. John 4. 29. Acts 2. 37. John 5. 25. Eph. 2. 1. John 5. 21. Job 42. 5 6. 2 Cor. 4. 6. Rom. 8. 13. Psal 85. 8. Hos 2. 14. Gal. 3. 14. Heb. 12. 24. 2 Sam. 23. 6. 1 John 5. 7. Mich. 6. 9. Psal 89. 15. Serm. 2. Preach'd Feb. 12. 1693-4 How Christ's Sheep do hear his Voice Mat. 13. 23. Luke 24. 45. Psal 119. 140. Psal 33. 4. Psal 119. 128. 2 Thess 2. 10. Acts 16. 14. Isa 53. 1. John 3. 3. John 4. 50. Rom. 4. 5. 2 Chron. 34. 27. Isa 66. 2. Psal 119. 161. Acts 3. 23. Psal 119. 11. Mat. 13. Mat. 24. 24. Heb. 13. 3. John 5. 35. Mat. 11. 27. Dr. Owen John 1. 14 18. 1 John 1. 22. Heb. 1. 5 6. Gal. 4. 6. Joh. 8. 20. 10. 17 18. John 20. 21. Luke 10. 22. Acts 20. 28. John 5. 17. 1 Pet. 1. 18. Psal 2. 8. Heb. 10. 9. Heb. 1. 8 9. Isa 61. 1. 2 Cor. 4. 4. Col. 1. 15. Heb. 1. 3. Acts 20. 28. Heb. 9. 14. Rom. 4. 16. Rom. 5. 10. The new Doctrine or rather new Gospel 2 Pet. 2. 2. 1 Cor. 15. 13 14 15. Acts 20. 31. Serm. 3. John 13. 17 18. 2 Tim. 2. 19. Isa 63. 8. Deut. 32. 5. John 10. 14 15. Exod. 33. 12. John 10. 3. Rev. 2. 23. Jer. 17. 10. Joh. 2. 25. Rev. 2. 13. Joh. 6. 64. John 21. 15. Rev. 2. 2. Ezek. 34. 17. Mat. 18. Exod. 3. 7. Rev. 2. 9. Rev. 1. 14. 1 Tim. 4. 13. 2 Tim. 2. 15. 1 Sam. 2. 3. Psal 139. 1 2 3 4. Job 11. 11. Job 22. 13. Psal 50. 21. Dan. 5. 27. Job 10. 7. Job 27. 6. 2 Cor. 1. 12. Rom. 8. 32. Heb. 6. 10. Serm. IV. Why Believers are compared to Sheep 1 Cor. 6. 11. 1 Cor. 14. 20. Isa 53. 7. Psal 39. 9. Levit. 10. 1 2 3 4. Gen. 19. 22. Psal 73. 24. Cant. 1. 7. Cant. 1. 8. Ezek. 34. Psal 119. 176. Psal 51. 7. John 13. Mal. 3. 16. Psal 119. 74. Acts 4. 23. John 16. 33. Psal 57. 1. Isa 32. 2. Hab. 3. 17 18. Matth. 25. Mat. 25. 32 33. Charnock Gal. 2. 20. Christ's Sheep do follow him Joh. 10. 4. 1 Pet. 2. 21. Mat. 11. 29. Phil. 2. 5. Eph. 5. 1 2. Eph. 5. 25. 1. Joh. 2. 6. 1 Pet. 1. 15 16. Heb. 7. 26. 2 Cor. 7. 1. Heb. 5. 8 9. John 14. 11. John 15. 14. Gen. 22. 2 3. Verse 12. Isa 50. 5 6. Ruth 1. 14 15 16. Rev. 14. 4. Num. 14. 24. Joh. 6. 66. Heb. 10. 39. Mat. 13. Christ's Sheep have his Mark on them Ezek. 9. 4. Eph. 1. 13 14. Eph. 4. 30. Rom. 8. 9. Heb. 12. 14. Christ's Sheep follow the Footsteps of the Flock Jude 3. 1 Cor. 11. 2. Phil. 3. 8 9. Psal 23. 2 3. 1 Cor. 2. 4. Christ's Sheep trust in the Faithfulness of
a godly Life therefore is in Christ Jesus and shall be saved 12. It is also by the Holy Spirit that Believers are sealed unto the Day of Redemption Also after that ye believed ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of Promise Strange Can these fall away Can such perish that have received the Earnest of Heaven and have the Witness of the Spirit and have it sealed to them No no God hath put his Seal or Mark upon them he by his Seal hath secured them to and for himself and all this is the Effects of Christ's Death and Resurrection 13. The Spirit also thus purchased by Christ's Death and given as the Fruits and Effects thereof to Believers the Promise of the Father is that it shall abide with them for ever it is the great Promise made to Christ in the Covenant My Spirit which is upon thee shall not depart from thee nor from thy Seed henceforth and for ever See the Words Isa 59. 21. there is the Promise of the Father it is an absolute Promise and it runs thus it shall be in Christ and in his Seed henceforth and for ever The Spirit is called the Promise of the Father Also we have a Promise of the constant abiding of the Spirit in all Believers made by Christ the second Person in the Trinity he told his Disciples The Spirit of Truth the Comforter should abide with them and be in them forever Unto these add the Testimony of the Holy Ghost himself for it is he that doth in the Word assure us of his own abiding with us he hath chosen our Souls to be his own Temple and Habitation for ever and also assures us That all the Promises are in Christ yea and amen to the Glory of God So that we have this great Truth sealed and confirmed to us by the Three that bear witness in Heaven Fourthly Pardon of Sin is another Effect and Fruit of the Death of Christ In whom we have Redemption through his Blood that is as the Effects of his Blood even the Forgiveness of Sin True Jesus Christ satisfied God's Justice for our Sins he paid our Debts it is not Remission without a Satisfaction but yet we are freely forgiven we have it of God's Free Grace but it is through the Blood of Christ Remission of our Sins follows Redemption as the necessary Effects thereof Christ hath procured this Favour and Blessing for us and Gospel-Remission or Pardon of Sin is for ever I will remember their Sins no more they are blotted out for ever he hath cast our Sins into the Depth of the Sea put them behind his Back yea he hath put them far away from him as the East is from the West Fifthly Adoption is the Fruit and Effect of Christ's Death He hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law that we might receive the Adoption of Sons God takes us through Christ or by virtue of Christ's Death into the Relation of Sons which Privilege we have for ever we shall never cease being Sons and Daughters of God Sixthly Free Access to the Throne of Grace or unto the Father is the Effect of Christ's Death Having therefore Brethren boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Jesus by a new and living Way which he hath consecrated for us through the Vail that is to say his Flesh Christ's Blood His Death opened this Way it is by him we have access to the Throne of Grace Seventhly Another Fruit and Effect of the Death of Christ is Redemption from all Iniquity He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity c. Tit. 2. 14. Therefore this Glorious Effect his Death shall have upon all Redeemed Ones it was not to redeem only from the Curse of the Law as some talk but from the Guilt Pollution Power and Punishment of Sin therefore Believers shall never perish Eighthly Justification is also another Effect of the Death and Resurrection of Christ which is to acquit absolve and to pronounce us Righteous in God's Sight God accepting us Righteous by the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness which is ever the same Now Christ's Death being the Meritorious Cause thereof we are said to be justified by his Blood Rom. 5. 9. And pray see the Apostle's Argument from hence Much more then being now justified by his Blood we shall be saved from Wrath through him It is more to be reconciled and justified than it is to be saved such are justified and Christ's Blood having done the former will much more effect the latter those that Christ justifies he will glorify nay and his Death and Resurrection cannot be without this Effect And by him all that believe are justified from all things c. The Word Justified is opposed to Condemnation those that are justified are justified for ever Justification is not a gradual Act as Sanctification is it results not as the Fruits of our Repentance or inherent Holiness but as the Fruits of Christ's Death and Merits it is never less nor more as our Holiness cannot add any thing to it so the Sins and Infirmities of true Believers cannot diminish any thing from it there may be additions to our inherent Sanctification but not to our Justification Christ rose again for our Justification I may also challenge all the Men in the World to prove that any Man that was justified in the sight of God did ever fall away and come under Condemnation Ninthly Sanctification is another Effect of the Death of Christ You may again read that Text Heb. 9. 13 14. Christ died not only to justify Believers but to sanctify them also Object But some may say A Man may be sanctified and yet be defiled again We read of some that escaped the Pollution of the World through the Knowledg of Christ yet were again entangled and overcome Answ 1. If any sincere Christian be defiled again through any Sin or Corruption they shall be washed and cleansed again 2. Those that Peter speaks of were such that only had escaped gross Pollution through the common Operations of the Spirit it appears their swinish Nature was never changed he therefore saith It is happened to them according to the true Proverb The Dog it turned to his Vomit again and the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the Mire Such therefore never were sanctified in Heart they never experienced the Effects of Christ's Blood not that Soul-purifying Virtue that is in it they were cleansed from gross Idolatry through the Knowledg of Christ and also from some gross Acts of Prophaneness they had obtained a reformed but no renewed Life of Grace and Holiness therefore such fall into Sin again and are so overcome that the latter End is worse with them than the Beginning As to true Believers see what the Apostle says For by one Offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified By this one Offering our Lord Jesus hath procured our Sanctification