It will be more tolerable in Hell for Devils than for any of you if you die in Unbelief for Christ died not to save them nor was he ever offer'd to them as he is to you Will you chuse Sin and Death rather than Christ and the Life of Pardon Grace and Glory because the Devil would have you do so What Evil have you heard of the Son of God that rather than have him you would be tied to a stake yea dragged in pieces yea lose Life rather than have it if you must have him for it Oh! the Prejudices Strangeness and Enmity of the World against Christ and his ways of Salvation But will you live and die without a Saviour And walk in that Faction of Men against God which hath the Devil in the Head of them You should turn out of all the Paths of the Devil for he brought in Sin and Death by Sin into the World If you come to Christ and have him with his Merits and Benefits with his Fathers Love and Spirits Grace and Comfort you shall have a Christian's Life in Heaven but if not you must take what Follows the Life of a Sinner which is a Slave's Life upon Earth and a Devil's Life in Hell Precious and Beloved Soul whoever seriously reads and is moved with any of these things take these Advices and Directions following and the Lord give you a Heart to follow them 1. Do not carelesly lay by the Book and the Thoughts of what is written together If one Eye be opened to see somewhat of your Case close it not up to sleep upon it but open both to see the true state of your Soul as to Life and Death If you are prickt in the Heart receive more Pricks and fear not to be wounded for sin for Christ can heal thee and give thee Life 2. Do not receive the Word upon my Credit and do not reject it for any Prejudice against me but go to the Word of God it self Read the Text and recieve it as it is the Word of God for so it becomes effectual 1 Thess 2.13 3. Dread a slight Work upon thy Heart The Son of God finished his Work and left nothing undone that was to be done It lay heavy upon him yet he did it till all was finished Be faithful to thine own Soul to thine own Life in working out thine own Salvation with fear and trembling with a wise care and diligence fearing to fail and miscarry And when you are heartily and seriously engaged to work out your Salvation Take these Directions 1. Study well with reading hearing praying the Word of Grace and Salvation As you shall pass from Death to Life in your Justification so you must have a new Principle of Life and be changed from Death to Life in Regeneration and Sanctification How was the Apostle changed The Law of the Spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus Christ hath made me free from the Law of sin and death Rom. 8.2 The Gospel is the Ministration of Life 2 Cor. 3.6 and by it we are changed while we behold the Glory of the Lord the Son Jesus Christ with open face as in a glass v. 18. 2. As you are dead and can never be saved but by Christ the Saviour so you can never be quickned nor believe nor have Christ but by the Holy Spirit We are changed from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 It is the real effectual Work of the Spirit of the Lord and it is so done as to demonstrate the Finger of God to be in it 3. Rest not in outward Performances and Acts of Devotion but wait upon God in all his Ordinances as appointed means for Salvation Pray for the Spirit of the Lord to work in you a sincere Separation from sin Satan and Self and to implant you in Jesus Christ to work your Hearts to believe and joyn you to him in love that you may have him for all those kinds of Life that have been spoken of 4. Rest not in Wishes that you had Christ but by humble Applications with great earnestness of Soul by the quickning Assistance of the Holy Spirit come to Jesus Christ himself for Himself and Life You must have Christ himself therefore come to him directly and see that no overloved Creature or Sin whatever lie in the Heart like a Stone between the Grass and the Tree to hinder a closure Idols and Harlots must be shaken off or there will be no Marriage-Union between the Son and you And now the God of all Grace supply what I am wanting in and give Life with his Son to whom be Glory for ever A Narrative of the Occasion of Preaching and Printing this Discourse and of the Behaviour of those two condemned Criminals from their Condemnation to their Death submitted to the charitable Judgment of Pious Readers THE last day of the Assizes at Even which ordinarily was in Lent but then put off I received a Message at my House to desire me to visit a Woman a meer Stranger to me as was her Father also condemned for the Murder of a Child Next Morning I waited on the Lord Chief Justice Pollixfen on the Road towards Rutland being but two Mile from my House to desire the favour of a Reprieve for some convenient Time for me to use my endeavours with her His Lordship told me he had reprieved her not being satisfied in the Proof that the Child was born alive He entertained me with very Divine Discourse and proper for me and the Woman and obliged me to give him an account of her at his return from the Circuit that if there were good hopes of her leading a Life answerable to Repentance he might procure her Pardon and his last Words to me deserve my remembrance Pray Sir do it sincerely Her Name was put into the Pardon by his Lordship and expected to come the next Assizes but came not then as was expected The next Assizes I waited upon his Lordship and staying there giving what Assistance I could to the most afflicted good Father of the Woman Mr. Samuel Dudley my kind Friend came to me and told me He was shortly to come and settle in Town and was resolved to make it his business to visit the Prisoners and desired my Assistance which I promised when desired and had opportunity The Afternoon after the Woman was ordered to be Executed being condemned two years before and the Man received his Sentence Mr. D. sent for me into the Prison where he was performing his Visit to these poor condemned Criminals After we had privately discoursed them as fully as time would give us leave the Honoured Thomas Catesby Esq the High Sheriff was desired to give us leave to preach to them before Execution which was readily granted with Thanks for our willingness to take pains with them They had but about a Week to live we agreed That one of us should preach the Wednesday following
Christ alone our Life THE GREAT CASE Of Every Man's LIFE and DEATH Determin'd by the Sentence of God In 1 John 5.12 Opened and applied in a SERMON Preach'd in the Sessions-House at Northampton Sept. 9th 1690. to some Prisoners the Day before their Execution And now Published with Enlargements for the further Benefit and Service of Souls With a Narrative of the Behaviour of the Prisoners By EDWARD PIERCE M.A. Rector of Cottesbrook in Northamptonshire LONDON Printed for Jonathan Robinson and are to be Sold by Thomas Pasham Bookseller in Northampton 1691. To the Honourable Sir James Langham Kt and Baronet my most Honoured Patron Sir William Langham of Walgrave John Thornton of Brockhole Esq Grace and Eternal Life Most Honoured Sirs THE Reasons for the Honour and Service which I owe to every of your Persons are more than I shall declare or than you desire should be declared I should not have grac'd these few Sheets with your Names but that I hope to make some advantage of them for those that shall be in such unhappy Circumstances of the Prisoners who were the occasion of my preaching upon this Argument by proposing you as Examples to Gentlemen of Quality and Goodness who shall bear the Office of High-Sheriffs as you have done The first of you considering the Charge committed to you by the Law of the Bodies of Prisoners and the Power you had over the Prison judged it to be a great Duty to take care of their precious Souls as if they had been a part of your Houshold Having a large room in the Hearts of able good Ministers you made use of it and easily obtained their pains of Preaching Weekly in the Prison They were all Licensed Preachers and of Eminency in the Country beside the Reverend Dr. Ford then Minister in the Town But before your Year expired this Light in the dark place was put out by one who should rather have set up Light in it if you had not It could not be for not reading the Liturgy which all did nor for want of a Liturgy for the Goaler had got A.B. Laud's which was sent into Scotland and put that Kingdom into a Flame This Sir you so tenderly resented that had it not been so near the end of your Shrievalty you would have tried his Power in that House which was as your own for that year But then as about three years before and after it was the Policy of Rulers to countenance no more preaching than would consist with the Design then subtily covered but afterwards revealed Great care was taken that Zeal in Religion should not disturb the Quiet of the State and they were made use of to put out the Candles who were of all men most obliged to keep them burning in Conscience to God and Love to Souls There was then in the Goal a large Room next the great Parlour which look'd to the Street and a Pulpit in it with a Gallery above Stairs at one end of it as I remember and other Conveniences for the Prisoners and others tho then it was hard for any of the Town to get admittance except they were Friends or could make acquaintance in the House and there was Six Pound per Annum paid to a Preacher for preaching once a Month as I remember given by Sir Francis Nicholas and your old Acquaintance in Em. Col. And my sincere Religious Friend Mr. William Holms received it many years for Preaching there But since the dreadful Fire there is a very fair House built that stands in good Air open to the Fields on one side which make a pleasant prospect well contrived for all Offices and Vses but there is no Room proper nor fit for preaching I presume the Salary is paid but it is more than I know that there is as much as one Sermon in a year preached for it After the Fire the Goal was removed into a strait House and since that more good may have been done in the Prison than I can tell of by private Visits especially by the Excellent Dr. Conant who was much taken up in those private Exercises of his Ministry but the Office of Salvation as Martyr Latimer calleth the preaching of the Word hath been shut up there And I wish that some like to your self may open it again and others keep it open The Second of you in few years succeeded your Elder Brother and there being no extraordinary Goal in your Year there was no extraordinary pains to be taken especially remembring how that compassionate Act of your Brothers was check'd and controul'd and you must needs have undergone a Contest with the same Power which was so lately exerted against the ordinary great means of Salvation then in the same person whom you at a publick Table heard speak contemptibly of Preaching and therefore could not expect the favour of a Connivance from him But Sir be pleased to take a share in this little Present because of the Encouragement you have given me speaking very kindly of my Performances in this kind when you have heard first from others and then took a particular Account of them from my self The Third of you succeeded the Second the very next year if I am not much mistaken and when you saw your time revived the Exercise and set up most of the same Lights which had been taken down before in the same place to shew the involuntary Inhabitants of it a way to prevent and escape their greatest Dangers And you met with no Interruption It is happy when poor Prisoners fall under the Care and Custody of such Men as know that there are immortal sinful Souls in those Bodies of which they must give an account by their Place The greatest of their Miseries is That they are shut up from the publick Light and means of Salvation therefore mercy on their Souls is the greatest mercy that can be shewed unto them And when all Acts of Charity shall come in remembrance even this to the Souls of men upon which commonly least Cost is bestow'd will be found the greatest The Lord God of Grace put it into the Hearts of Gentlemen to be thus merciful to Souls in Bonds whether in Prison or out of Prison And Honoured Sirs whatsoever you have done or have procured the doing of in this excellent kind will turn to your best account The Objects of all other Charities are mortal Bodies but the Objects of this are immortal Souls and to help to ransom them from the power of Devils is a nobler Work than to ransom Slaves from Heathens whose greatest misery is that they are in the hands of the Enemies of Christ Yet tho outward Charities must by no means be neglected nor intermitted for there is a Charge to be laid upon rich Men to be rich in good works 1 Tim. 6.17 18. And upon all and every man 2 Cor. 8.7 Every man according as he hath purposed in his heart so let him give c. yea even he who laboureth with
them Thousands yea Millions of Lives are lost in their Quarrels and Wars But here is the Son who saves his Subjects Lives raiseth their dead Bodies to Life he is the Prince of Peace and Life and he that believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting Life O what love and thanks shall be render'd to the Father of Mercy for his Son and to the Son for Life 5. Then here is good News to Sinners that are sensible of sin that know somewhat of the Death which they deserved and that fear it that desire Life and long for it but fear and doubt if not despair of Life O Souls here 's good News for you for Christ and Life are both to be had If you would have Life you must have Christ and if you have Christ you have Life both Christ and Life are to be had Life may be had O! if the Soul cry out and say How how is Life the Life of my Soul to be had The Spirit of God hath told you and his Servant John He that hath the Son hath Life the way to have Life is to have Christ Have him and you have Life that is most certain If the Soul pant and faint and pine for Life and cry out O when shall I be so happy as to live The Answer is ready As soon as you have Christ so soon you shall have Life Long long for Christ then make haste and come he will receive the Soul whom necessity drives 6. The way of having life is very wonderful and high yet attainable It is by Christ and by having Christ God gives life eternal life to his beloved ones but not one of them is fit to keep it for himself much less for others it is in his Son The Son comes down from Heaven in our Natures and he must die or we cannot have it We are dead and love Death in loving the way of Death and we are under the power of Murderers and Destroyers nay more we are under a Law of Sin and Death under the Curse of God Christ could cast out Devils with a Word and destroy the Destroyers without pain or shedding one drop of Blood but he could not deliver us from Death under the Sentence and Curse of the Law but by Blood The life of pardon by forgiving Sin was by precious Blood for without the shedding of Blood there is no remission of Sin Heb. 9.22 Behold how costly a life is our life Whence comes it From Heaven By whom by the Son By the imputation of his merit infusion and communion of his Spirit Per imputationem sc quae faciunt ad justificationem partim per participationem quae pro nostra sanctificatione gloria So those great Divines agree Bp. Reynold 's Life of Chr. and Hoornbeck as before p. 801. How by the Son By his Death and Life Passion and Resurrection From what O wonder at it it is life fetcht out of the Fire out of Death and Hell pluckt out of the Jaws of Devils and secured from all Dangers and Hazards but then he who hath it hath the Son 7. Then he who hath Christ is happier in having Christ than all other Persons in the World for he and he alone hath life when and while all other Persons are dead dead in Law dead in Sin dead to God and dead to their own Souls Good 8. Then the only sure and ready way to escape Death and to be sure of Life is to have Christ to come to him to believe in him and make him your own You know the ordinary way is that of the rich Man Good Master what good thing shall I do that I may inherit life Mat. 19.16 Memorable is the Relation of blessed Bilney's Conversion As the Woman in the Gospel had consumed all she had upon Physicians and yet was still worse and worse till she came to Christ c. Before I came to Christ I had likewise spent all I had upon ignorant Physicians they appointed me Fastings Watchings buying of Pardons and Masses c. But at last I heard speak of Jesus even then when the N. Testament was put forth by Erasmus At first I was allured to read rather for the Latin than for the Word of God At the first reading I hit upon the Sentence of St. Paul O most comfortable Sentence to my Soul It is a faithful Saying c. 1 Tim. 1.15 This did so exhilerate my Heart wounded with the guilt of my Sins insomuch that my bruised Bones leapt for joy And then I learnt that all my Travels all my Fasting and Watches all the Redemption by Masses and Pardons without Faith in Christ were but an hasty and swift running out of the way or like sowing Fig-leaves c. Neither could I be relieved or eased of the sharp stingings of my sins before I was taught of God that as Moses lift up the Serpent in the Wilderness c. That whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting Life c. B. of Martyrs 2 Vol. Letter to Tonstale The way he approved of was hard and he went a great way in it but there was a harder way and he could not find in his Heart to take it Souls Souls the way is but one and it is very fair save your pains of Pilgrimages and Cords and all the devised ways of human Reason and Superstition The way you know and me you know said our Saviour So say I because his Word saith so Have Christ and you shall live 2. Use of Exhortation to you all to have the Son O that I could perswade you to have Christ and to have him for Life and so to have him as to have Life by him Oh! how many have but Notions of him Some know not as much as the meaning of his Names and Office and such as their Faith is such their Life is A Notional Faith can have but a conceited Life an imaginary Life such as will last no longer but while they neglect their Salvation and receive the Grace of God in vain O have him as you have been taught what it is to have him I beseech you go along with me and set Consideration on work while I perswade you and then I will answer what you desire to know Arguments drawn from necessity and that extream and from advantage and gain and loss and both the greatest are very prevailing Let the greatest Wit in the World think if he can what is more necessary or equally necessary What Gain comparable to the gain of Life eternal Or what loss can come into a comparison with a loss of Life Who can number the Reasons to perswade you to have the Son for your Saviour and if you weigh them all other things are lighter than Vanity being put in the Ballance with them This one Reason should perswade us to have Christ because our life and all those good great and glorious things contained in life is first in Christ and
Dispenser Excellent Charn made known and offered to us then we have him God shines in our hearts 2 Cor. 4.6 The God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Glory giveth the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him Ephes 1.17 Every man therefore that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh to me John 6.45 This is the way by which we come to the Son and have him 2. But the meaning of the Question may be What must I do What means may I use Or what manner of Man must I be that I may have the Son And then I answer in this general Sentence or Rule Then a man may have the Son when he is made heartily glad to have him on any Terms that is according to the Son 's own Proposals Here mark We do not mean by the Word Terms Condition Propositions any Bargain or Exchange Price or Commodity of our own We receive all from Christ being nothing to him in consideration whereof we have Christ We find in him all fulness riches and honours But what have we of our own but Baseness Poverty and Misery This Misery contracted by sin is the Dowry Cameron as above-cited in Myrothecio The Son as the Son of God gets nothing by us nor doth our Union which he affecteth bring any gain or happiness to him but by much loss and many Sufferings he obtained it But respectu nostri omnia candida we receive from him nothing but good and magnificent and only such things Hoornb ubi supra p. 797. which we bring to our Husband Christ I say again then are you prepared to have Christ when you would gladly have him with all your Soul with all that he requireth of you He hath set down the Terms your Hearts consent you subscribe to them all as the VVritings are drawn by the Spirit in the Gospel you desire no new Articles nor abatement of any but stand to his Mercy and Grace And well you may for he is VVisdom and Love Goodness Mercy and Compassion and will enable you to do and suffer all that you bind your self unto Q. But when is the Sinner made glad to have him A. Then when he seeth there is but one way for him if he have him not that is when he is under actual strong Apprehensions and Convictions that he must perish and die for ever a Death of Privation of the enjoyment of God in Heaven yea and in Earth also when he is humbled and poor in his own Sense when he feels himself sinking into the bottomless Pit under the Burden of his Sin and Guilt 2. VVhen he finds all Creatures Helps and Confidences in the Flesh fail him Phil. 3.4 When he looks upon his right hand and upon his left hand and there is no Helper nor Intercessor that can save him when he believes for certain there is Salvation in any other Acts 4.12 Oh how formidable and terrible doth Hell look with its Flames and utter Darkness How wonderful doth Salvation appear to such a Soul 3. When he cannot think of being damned without Horror and not of being saved without Wonder and Astonishment And then when he hears of the Grace of God in Christ and of the graciousness of Jesus Christ his Fulness his Fitness his Compassions his Kindness his willingness to save every one that comes unto him O how glad is the miserable humbled Soul to hear of his Offers his Invitations to come to him and his Promises to them that come and have him Those Jews who were pricked in their Hearts gladly or willingly received the Word of Advice and Grace in their extremity and soreness of heart And they who gladly received the Word of Salvation were baptized They by Baptism a sign of their having him put on Christ and had him They who are sick will gladly have the Physician and the Soul that is poor desolate lost a Syrian ready to perish will most gladly have Christ for a Covering of their Eyes for their Head and Husband when they hear the Record and Testimonies those high Characters and Reports that are given of him Mark a condemned Prisoner When we behold our selves in our Blood O how comfortable is that word of Grace and Mercy Live that fears the Execution and lies under the terror of Death will most gladly receive his Life at the hands of his Gracious Prince and serve him as his Prince with the hazard of Life What will not a Man do for Life How much for eternal Life Q. But how may I be brought to this to be made glad and willing to have the Son for my Saviour 1. You must awake out of your Sleep and Dreams And will not the Alarum of Death and Wrath hastning towards you awake you Will not a Cry at Midnight rouze you The last Enemy and the last Trump stir you The Drowsiness of this Generation is a fearful Sign and Forerunner of a Spirit of Slumber and a dead Sleep You then that have Ears to hear hear and then we shall shew you how you may have Life Eternal 2. Hear read and ponder upon the Word of God The more you know and seriously consider of these things the better it will be I say ponder the things and the drift of them and do not lay them up as Notions and Historical Passages in a careless Head 1. Understand how the case of Mankind stood before the Fall 2. How it is with all Mankind under the ruins of that Fall how we are under Guilt Sin Satan and the Curse how great our Darkness is how we are all out of the way what our Enmity is against God and true Holiness what our Impotency is to turn to God as without Strength to help or recover our selves 3. How we must be restored by Jesus Christ alone Rom. 5.8 9 10 12. c. 4. What the Gospel declares to be our Duty Knowledge Faith Repentance Love Obedience Active and Passive Obedience and Self-denial when our Lord calls for us to forsake all and suffer for him 5. None of these things are called for as a price or Mony as the Prophet speaks Isa 55.1 2. The great main thing that is required of you is your rational deliberate free Consent Will you have me That 's the great Question say understandingly and sincerely you will and you have him who is infinitely worth your having 6. Study the invaluable worth of your precious Souls and of your great Saviour the Son of God and the Life of your Souls Know that one thing needful Luke 10.42 and the first thing to be sought Mat. 6.33 And tho the Gate be strait you will enter because it is unto Life 7. Think not much of the way of Salvation but submit to be led into every step of it It is the Invention of infinite Wisdom out of Grace and Mercy 8. No Man is excluded from Eternal Life but he that will not believe and have the Son John 6.37.9 Understand
not the Knowledge of it and Wisdom in themselves to come to Christ And the Father draweth No man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him John 6.44 2. The Son calls and puts out a mighty quickning Voice and raiseth the dead senseless Sinner to come to him for Life and he outwardly inviteth and draweth also Mat. 11.28 Come to me all ye that labour and are heavy laden c. He draweth objectively all Men to come unto him and all that come are drawn by him effectually John 12.32 And as all that the Father giveth him come unto him so he receiveth them and will in no wise cast off any that come unto him And then the Holy Ghost convincing the ignorant senseless lost miserable Sinner of Sin and Damnation and of Christ Righteousness and Salvation by him worketh Faith and the Heart to consent and receive and take Christ and so we come to have him The Holy Ghost is the Spirit of Faith 2 Cor. 4.13 and the Cause of our Union For by one Spirit we are baptized into one Body and into Christ the Head of that one Body who puts Life and Spirit into every living member of it 1 Cor. 12.12 13. 3. The outward means of this Union are The Word of God and the Ministry of it I have espoused you unto one Husband that I may present you as a chaste Virgin to Christ 2 Cor. 11.2 If you desire to know yet further how you have Life The Answer is ready In or by having the Son Christ you have Life You have it in having him who hath received it and hath it for you You have it in him who is the Author Purchaser and Giver of Eternal Salvation He is our Life as the meritorious Cause as the Conservator and Fountain of it as the efficient Cause and Giver of it You have Life and Deliverance from Death Eternal by the Grant of Pardon and Righteousness You have the Life of Grace and Holiness by Union and Influence from him and there is a fulness of habitual Grace to supply you John 1.16 You have the Spirit in you Rom. 8.9 10. and you have the Life of Glory in the Bud Principle First-Fruits Promise and Hopes of it What shall I say You have Life in having Christ as a Branch in a Vine hath Sap and Vertue by being in the Vine as a Member of the Body from the Head as a Spouse hath all that she is endowed with by being espoused and married to the Husband All the incomparable Benefits of Christ come from Union with him As we have Christ now so we have Life now that is such Communications of Grace and Blessings as are convenient for our present state and in the Life to come a Crown of Life All All an incomprehensible All This Union doth not stand only in relation to Christ tho in every relalation there is some kind of Union but it is such an Union tho spiritual and mystical as these Terms are contradistinct to Corporal and Natural as a third one doth result from it But he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit 1 Cor. 6.17 That one Spirit which our Lord received not by measure that he might be the Head of his Body the Church The Mystery of our Union with Christ consisteth mainly in this That the self-same Spirit which is in him as in the Head is so derived from him into every one of his true Members that thereby they are animated and quickned to a spiritual Life The most reverend Ushers Sermon before the House of Commons 1620. p. 20. Lyford's Senses exercised 127. The same Spirit which was the immediate Conveyor of Grace to the Humane Nature of Christ is so to us Mr. Charnock 2 Vol. p. 134. is that one and same Spirit which teacheth guideth ruleth in and sanctifieth all and every one that by Faith are joyned to the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God To be one Spirit is to be united in the highest degree of Union The Union of one Believer to another is very near and close as of one Member of the same Body to another And this Union of every single Believer to the Body of the Catholick or Universal Church is by the Grace and Operation of the holy Spirit quickning and regenerating and all these living Members make one Body in Christ Christ the Head of the whole Body and the Head of Influence from whom they all receive spiritual life and growth and they who are joyned to him are one Spirit and from that one Spirit we have Grace to consent with Christ to will the same and to love and hate the same things to aim at the same End the Glory of the Father and to be govern'd by him against all Distractions and Oppositions that hinder us It was an entire and comfortable happy Union of the Primitive Church an Example to all succeeding Churches Acts 4.32 And the multitude of them that believed were of one Heart and one Soul neither said any of them that ought of the things he possessed was his own but they had all things common They were all of one Heart aimed all at one common Good in one common Action without any private Ends. This was a close Union of Hearts but the Expression of this Conjunction comes far short of that Spiritual real tho not essential Union between Christ and his gracious regenerate sanctified Members made One Spirit It was much to be of one Heart and Soul but it is more to be one Spirit This is the closest Union of all except the Essential Union of the Persons in the Godhead or the Hypostatical or Personal of the Second Person with the Humane Nature For one Believer doth not derive his Spiritual Life and Being from another nor depend upon one another for it but all receive it from their Head Christ and depend upon him for it although their being knit together is a means of their Growth Col. 2.19 And not holding the Head from which all the Body by joynts and bands having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God Our Union with Christ the Head is the closest because from him we all receive our Life and have nourishment ministred that we may increase with the increase of God And because our Union with Christ is most inward and strict therefore it is shadowed out under the Similitude of the streightest natural Union Cum itaque nostra cum Christo unio sit arctissima ea propter in Scriptura sub figura utriusque illius unionis nobis quasi adumbratur c. Cameronis Myrothec in Evang. Jo. 6.56 p. 149. of both See the excellent B. Reynolds Life of Christ and Mr. Polhil's Answer to Dr. S. of the Knowledg of Christ c. 4. s 1. p. 162. c. and his Treatise of Spiritual Union There is no stricter Union in the World than that of Christ to Believers 't is therefore compared to all kind
the Reign of Darkness and Unbelief whatever their outward Condition is in the World high or low rich or poor young or old they lie under the heaviest and most intolerable necessity in the VVorld 1. They want Life and are under Death and what Pleasure can they take in Pleasures Riches Honours or the Glory and Enjoyment of all the Delights of the Sons of Men if they had them all as long as they have not Life VVhat ungrateful things should Musick and Songs and Revellings Banquettings Masks Dancings wanton Fashions the Fooleries of vain Minds be to a condemned Man VVhat Pleasure could you take in fulfilling any sinful Desire gratifying any Lush tho in the most secret retirement if you thought the Devil the Executioner of God's Sentence of Death stood at the Door or Stairs-foot to have you away You are condemn'd already and have no Pardon no Life 2. They need Jesus Christ for Life 3. They need Faith for having Christ Here 's nothing but want and misery 2. VVhat should be the first and chief endeavour and purpose of every one of our Souls but to be first out of the Danger of the greatest Loss and in the way of supplying the greatest want Therefore apply your selves to free Grace without delay pray and cry mightily to God for Life The Life is more than Meat and the Body than Raiment but this Life is more than Meat Raiment Body or the present Life pray and labour for it 3. If this be the sad case of Unbelievers then let us learn what should be the great study and work of Ministers Oh! Is our state any better than other Mens No not at all yea we are in danger of being further from Salvation than other Men because we are more apt to conceive and hold Errors concerning Spiritual Death Adam's Guilt and our own concerning Christ and Faith in Christ than other Men. The greater Men's Parts are without true Light and Grace the more apt to err and to flourish out their Errors and Sophistically to defend them How should we study for our own Life and for the Life of as many Souls as we are to watch over O! how should we labour to save our selves and them that hear us To have Christ for our own Life and Salvation and then to preach Christ and to draw others to have him for their Life There are three great Points to be studied by us 1. Christ the Son of God and what is written of him How necessary profitable and delightful is the study of Christ who is all in all See that excellent Sermon of the great Preacher Bp. Reynolds at an Ordination call'd the Preaching of Christ Printed at the request of those who were ordained 2. The only true way of having him for Life the Benefits of Christ and the way of partaking of them his Communication of himself and Benefits and our Reception of them and Duties towards him How offensive and troublesom should all those Notions and Books be to us which detract from the Glory of Free Grace in Christ and bring in another Gospel and speak vain Words of Spiritual Union and Communion the Nature and Office of Faith and work of the Holy Ghost upon the Hearts of Men 3. The state and condition of Souls what they need what way they must be saved what loseth and what saveth Sinners As they have or have not Christ so it must be with them for ever I cannot pass by this use when I consider how faithfully and plainly Moses dealt with Israel Behold this day I have set Life and Death Life and Good Death and Evil before you Deut. 30.15 And when I see the same Spirit of Light and plain-dealing in the Divine John How can we honour Christ It had been sufficient to say that all should seek to Christ for Life but lest any should turn aside out of the way he shuts out all from the hope of Life that seek it not in Christ Calvin on the Eph. and be faithful to Souls that do not preach as he wrote How can we deal faithfully with Souls if we have not some spiritual insight into that by which precious Souls are saved or lost O how faithful and plain should we be who have so great Arguments to treat upon as Christ and the Life and Death of Souls And hence will also follow under this Head that no Man should be ignorant of but all desirous to learn the way of Eternal Life and Death and to see in what way they are whether in the narrow way to Life and Salvation or in the broad way of Ignorance Carelesness Impenitence and Ungodliness which leadeth to Destruction But still remember when we speak of the Terror of the Lord and say to the wicked that they shall die if they turn not and receive Christ for Salvation that it may be to perswade Men to be willing to pass from Death to Life 2 Cor. 5.11 4. If he who hath not the Son hath not Life then in what case are all they that are ignorant and without Spiritual Sense of their Spiritual Death Unrighteousness Guilt and Condemnation by the Law for transgressing it and that are ignorant of Christ save by the Sound or Letters of his Name they know him not as the Son of God or how he is so nor as he is Mediator between God and Man to bring us to God as well as to make Reconciliation and procure forgiveness of sin nor how he came to be Mediator nor to what end nor how he performeth the Part and Office of a Mediator nor what it is to believe in him so as to have him for their Life Many will sometimes say that he died for them and hope he will be so good as to save them But do they know indeed the Nature Efficacy and Office of Faith which they should know for if they have him not they shall die in their Iniquities 2. In what case are they who neglect him and make light of him Mat. 22.5 They neglect their own Lives that neglect him Heb. 2.3 3. What will become of all them that refuse him John 5.40 And ye will not come unto me that ye may have Life How shall we escape if we refuse him who speaketh from Heaven See Heb. 12.25 5. Seeing God himself hath already determined this great Point and answered this Question Who shall and who shall not be saved it is every Man's Wisdom and should be his great business to submit to this Sentence of God concerning every Mans final state and as many as have any desire and knowledge of eternal Life or Apprehensions of eternal Death should apply themselves to the means of Grace that they may be drawn and brought to Christ When Men are sure that there are other things more worthy of their Care and Pains than the Life of their Souls let them lay aside the Care of their Souls till they are filled with their Vanities which will never be But Man hast
some fashion or way or other O! shall the short and uncertain life that fadeth away be more the Care and Concern of all Men than the life of Jesus That incomprehensible Gift of God which is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord unto all them but to none but them who have his Son Labour not for the meat that perisheth but for the meat which indureth unto eternal Life which the Son of Man shall give you John 6.27 Yea count it better to enter into life halt or maimed or blind to avoid Sin the cause of Death than having two Hands two Feet two Eyes to be cast into Hell-fire Mat. 18.8 9. yea if it comes not only to the loss of Limbs but of Life it self spare not any thing to secure the Son and Life to thy Soul The having of him is safe without assurance but the assurance of it is comfortable for then the greatest danger is over and the everlasting Treasure and Inheritance secured and known to be so by the Testimony of the Spirit both from the Word and Conscience also 2 Vse Of Exhortation and Persuasion to believe in Jesus Christ the Son of God so as to have him altogether Person and Offices for all Uses Necessities Benefits and Purposes with all your Soul Mind and Strength What can be said more to persuade you than what is contained in these two short Sentences in the Text Be not content with any thing below the real and saving having of the Son of God Deceive not your own precious Souls try what you have whether what you have and put confidence in doth cause a spiritual Life of Holiness and true Joy and Peace in believing and be in you the hope of Glory all which they have who have Jesus Christ indeed That you may not be deceived in so great a matter I will shew you what some have had and you may have and yet come short of having the Son to Salvation and what they have who have him 1. You may read that the Jews thought they had enough when they could say they had Abraham to their Father John 8.38 But if God had been their Father they would have loved his Son v. 42. And by their Relation to Abraham they had the sign of Circumcision and other outward Privileges which many did build much upon But the Apostle did often overthrow their deceitful Building often telling them that Circumcision availed nothing no more than Uncircumcision but Christ was all in all Col. 3.11 But Faith working by Love Gal. 5.6 And a new Creature Gal. 6.15 2. They may not oly build upon their relation to Abraham and have nothing in themselves but they had a Form of Knowledge and Truth of the Law and think they can be Teachers of others Rom. 2.20 21. c. 3. And not only a Form of Knowledge a Religion in the Head but also a Form of Godliness in their Lives in opposition to the power of it 2 Tim. 3.5 which is rooted in the Heart and from the Heart springs forth and grows out in the Life dying to Sin and the World and living unto God 4. They may think they have and seem to have but they are mistaken in their thinking and but seem to have Luke 8.18 They may seem to have a Root of Faith when the Seed of the Gospel comes up in a green Blade but it withereth and is choaked by the heat of Sufferings and worldly Affections And they may say they have Faith James 2.14 These may have knowledg of Christ and his Word and be so far convinced of his being the Son of God as to be able to answer Questions concerning Christ and make an acknowledgment of him As the Devils confessed Christ Thou art Christ the Son of God Luke 4.41 And he suffered them not to speak for they knew that he was Christ Which was almost as much as Peter's Confession Mat. 16.16 and more than the ordinary Jews and Pharisees could say The one was the sincere Confession of a Friend the other of an Enemy There is an Assent to this Truth as to a Proposition or a true Doctrin and an Assent that is lively practical and cordial in order to have Christ the Son of God as a Person to be trusted to and relied upon for Life This is the Assent of a true Faith 5. Men have some Desires after Christ for the good they may get as the Scribe expressed Master I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest And Jesus saith unto him The Foxes have Holes and the Birds of the Air have Nests but the Son of Man hath no where to lay his Head Mat. 8.19 20. This was a trial of his sincere Faith if he would be as poor and destitute as the Master was If you had all things that can be named and have not Christ you have not Life Take heed therefore where you pitch and settle what you count your Treasure and upon what you build your Confidences Give me leave to hold you a little longer and to shew upon what Sand careless Builders who look not to the things that are eternal do lay their hopes of Life Suppose you had all things that are common to the sincere Believer and to the Pretender all will not amount to the Happiness of Life You say you are born of Christian Parents and not only of professing Christians but holy Parents So had the Jews as was noted but now Abraham the Father of the Faithful to their Father but not his Faith in Christ Say you have the best Church in the World for your Mother to what purpose except you are a living new-born Child of God Know you not that the Children of the Kingdom such as they were should be cast out Mat. 8.12 You have Baptism Had not Simon Magus that Token upon him Acts 8.13 You have the Ministry of the best Scholars and bless'd Men Had not they who had not Life this to say to Christ himself Thou hast taught in our Streets Luke 13.25 Yea but you have a Society of Saints you have Fellowship with Virgins and wise Virgins and had not and have not foolish Virgins the same Mat. 25. Shew what you have with your Lamps and what Oyl your Lamps are furnished with Have you Faith So had Simon Magus Acts 8.12 so have Devils Have you Christ indeed Have you Love unfeigned burning fruitful Love You have perhaps a Name to live a Name of Renown and Eminency so had they who were dead Rev. 3.1 All these things will make rather against you than for you if by all outward means you have not the Son himself 2. But some may say How shall I be certain that I have Christ the Son truly and indeed Let me ask you a Question or two and answer them to your self 1. How came you to seek after him and to have him Have you understood and felt your own Case and do you still know and feel when you look into your self a dead miserable