Brands out of the Fire may we not have good reason to beleive that the Number of them is not small yea that it may exceed the number of those who for the glory of his Justice are left to perish in their Infidelity because it is written his Mercies are over or upon all his Workes but especially upon the Souls of men of which he accounteth it a part of his Glory that he is the Creatour Es 57.16 and because it is not his Anger but his Mercy his Mercy his Mercy that endureth for ever True it is likewise God hath had a Church in this World ever since he made a Covenant with Abraham if not before and so will have to the end of it till his holy Purpose and Decree be fully accomplished in the Salvation of all his Elect and this visible Church he hath thus built and established for excellent Ends and glorious Designs according to his infinite Wisdom viz. 1. That his Name may be here publiquely and Solemnely called upon in the World 2. That his beloved Son in whom he is well pleased may as a Prince and a Saviour be exalted among the Children of men 3. That his People who are also dear unto him and are solemnely contracted in covenant with him may here live together in Unity Peace and Love whereby they may in some measure be Inured to that perfect State of Life which is to come and whereto it shall please God to bring them 4. That his great Wisdom in finding out a way to save mankind might be publickly made known to the World 5. Finally that the Powers of Hell may publickly also be disappointed and counter wrought in their Projects and Machinations which they devise against his Crown and Dignity and against the glorious work of Redemption which hath been accomplished in the Earth It is likewise commonly said that as of old all the World perished in the Flood of Waters who were not in the Ark So out of the Church there can be no Salvation for any Nevertheless we are not to set Bounds to this Church otherwise than God hath appointed and the Bounds that he hath set are determined upon those Persons of what Nation or Country or kindred soever they are whom he hath chosen to be Heirs of Salvation unknown unto us for it is the Invisible Church which will prove to be Christs Spouse in the end As for us I say again upon whom God hath in the Face of the World written his new Name we must wait upon him in his own way set before us that is in a diligent use of his ordeined means for Salvation and woe will be to us if we neglect them but undoubtedly the Grace of God is not so straitned neither is his Word bound 2. Tim. 2.9 but it shall run and be glorified in all places of his Dominion without Controul The great God hath an absolute soveraignty over all his poor Creatures is free to do unto them and with them whatsoever he pleaseth by the liberty of his own Will as to create them at first with one single Fiat so to uphold them yea to save them by the Word of his Power and with a look as he did upon Peter to reduce those that are gone astray from him And as he is not tyed with any Popish or Pelagian Thongs of necessity congruity or condignity so neither is his Presence shut up in any Donatistical Limits or Anabaptistical Conventicles nor is his Church bounded within the marches of any or of all the Kingdoms or Countreys which are usually called by the Name of Christendome be it Italy Spain France Germany England Scotland c. But it shall break forth on the right hand and on the left so saith the evangelical Prophet Es 54. and her Seed shall inherit the Gentiles wheresoever they be and make the desolate Cities even the most Barbarous in the World to be inhabited with those that shall be Heirs of Salvation for as the said Prophets words are the Desolate hath many more Children than she that hath an Husband that is than she that was solemnly contracted to the Lord by a matrimonial that is ecclesiastical Covenant But should any now be desirous to see this secret Indulgence of God towards his poor Creatures exemplified at large out of Scripture or to behold it commonly produced into Act before their Eyes I must tell them that were it commonly Visible it would not be accounted Secret but Secret it must be that the Order which by the divine Wisdom is appointed in the Church for the conversion of Sinners unto God and for building up his People in their most holy Faith may not suffer any prejudice by an ordinary variation from it nor be less esteemed by us as in all likelihood it would if we could trace the Footsteps of Gods grace and goodness in this kind nevertheless some such Examples I shall produce for their full Satisfaction in the Sequel of this Discourse Let that which we read in the 87th Psalme suffice for the present to give us some notice hereof There we find if we will understand how graciously God will be pleased to deal with a People who by their continued Aberrations from his righteous Law are estranged from him When the Prophet who ever he was had said glorious things are spoken of thee thou City of God he presently addeth I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon behold Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia and what mention alas can be made of Egypt called Rabab or Babylon A Robore et Superbia and the rest as they are there joyned together all of them Chips of the old Chammisn Block unless it be of their Enmity against God and his Church or to tell how foulely Polluted they were with most odious Abominations Well let it be so yet even this miserably depraved People shall also help to build up Sion and make it Glorious Multitudes shall be born there who shall be free of the Foundation built upon the holy Mountains and the Lord saith the Prophet will account of them as his freeborn when he writeth up the People like a King taking a Survey of his good Subjects whose Names are enrolled by him in his cense-Cense-Book But hath it ever been known I will not say that in those places and Countreys the true God hath been religiously Worshipped for that possibly hath been or shall be in process of time before the End cometh but that the Idolatrous Issue and Offpring of Cham and Canaan for of such doubtless is the meaning of the holy Ghost here did in any Age joyn together publickly and unanimously to make this holy City Glorious by their ready obedience to Gods Law this certainly hath never been done and I think it may be said nor is it likely now to be done while the World standeth If so how come they here to have a favourable mention made of them much rather will some usurping Judges among us say do they
of it True it is the Preaching of Jonas though it was very short did as 't were sound an Alarm to these Ninivites which did awaken them out of their sinful Security it being the means which God ordaineth to bring men to Repentance and he will not digress from his own order unless it be where time of Life is near upon the last Period and those means do fail for in such cases where there is no open Vision and the Days of mans appointed time are at an end there doth free Mercy appear in her Eminency as it did to the Theif upon the Cross God giving first the Grace of Repentance and then Vouchsafing his favourable Acceptance of that Grace which he himself hath freely wrought in the Hearts of his poor Creatures though it be by them but weakly exerted and performed We alass unprofitable Servants that we are the best of us all when we buckle to our Business and with all diligence endeavour to work out our own Salvation as we are warned we must being conscious to our selves of our many failings in it do it with fear and trembling ever confessing it to be of the Lords Mercies if we find any acceptance and that we and our Works together be not at the last burnt in that Fire which shall never be quenched Hear how St. Paul determines the Case Rom. 9.16 It is not saith he of him that willeth who hath only an inward desire to please God by his Obedience but doth not or cannot produce it into act nor of him that runneth who doth the best he can in pressing toward the mark to obtain the Prize of eternal Happiness but of God that sheweth Mercy it is Mercy Mercy only that is all in all from first to last in the Work of mans Salvation and this hath ever been acknowledged by all the Pelagian Hereticks only excepted What else is the reason that when we see men among us live dissolutely and die it may be desperately especially if they be of our neerest Relations or such for whom we have had a more than ordinary kindness we do not presently account of them as cursed castaways but are willing to suspend our Judgment of them as to their final Estate though possibly we may have some fear of them and be greived that they had no more care of their Souls before they died what else I say is the reason hereof but that in the multitude of our Thoughts within us at such times our Minds are overruled by the remembrance of Gods infinite Mercies and I beseech you should we not impartially have the same consideration in us when we reflect upon others that are Strangers unto us in what place of the World soever they are whom howsoever we slight yet hath God a special regard unto them for when he at first had selected his Israel to be a peculiar People unto him even then he gave them a charge not to vex or oppress the Strangers but to love them as themselves Ex. 22.21 And very often doth God in the following Generations renew the same charge unto that his antient People now we cannot but think this Charge hath a measure in it reaching to us under the Gospel which if it hath and that we will not be partial as is said before in judging Strangers more than those desperate ones among our selves how can we so Positively determine of the major part of mankind as we do that they shall inevitably be thrown into Hell to be there Tormented for ever and ever If any who are yet tenaciously set upon this destructive Opinion shall accuse me of Prolixity as I think none else will I hope my endeavour to refute this Errour will sufficiently excuse me among those that follow the conduct of reason who will be ready to say in my behalf seeing so great an Errour hath prevailed so long among us it is but necessary that much be said in the Conviction of it Sure I am St. Austin will be my advocate herein Non est multiloquium saith he quando necessaria dicuntur quantâ libet Sermonum multitudine ac Prolixitate Dicantur I shall therefore take the liberty to proceed yet further in shewing the Irrationality I may say the Impiety of this Soul-murdering Doctrine High time it is for us all to forbear judging the World at the rate as we have been wont for we do not only condemn to Hell and everlasting Death those whom we may or should have good hope to beleive God hath ordained to eternal Life but we do in effect spend our hasty and audacious Censures upon God himself if he shall contrary to our decision in this case save those whom we have marked out to Destruction wherein we are somewhat like unto that Insolent and Peremptory Alphonsus in Spain who like a bold and Atheistical Fool spake of the Creation in this manner If saith he I had stood by God when he had created the World I could have directed him how to have ordered it better than he hath done So shall we in our precipitant judging the World before the time according to the common fancy that hath been among us seem to prescribe unto God what Course he should take in his Judgment to come and that he take care our Orders be punctually observed in it An Indignitie and contempt so hainous to be put upon the Wisdom of the most high God that it will be adjudged by the whole Creation an Impudency most Inexcusable And this we shall certainly find to our eternal Shame and Sorrow unless we repent of it betimes and learn to be wiser when we shall mourn at the last and say we Fools counted them miserable but now are they comforted and we are tormented Two Examples shall be here taken out of holy Scripture seeing that it is expected of such Persons the one a Heathen the other probably a Jew but extraordinarily wicked who had they been brought into our usurping Phrontisteries before we heard they were acquitted by their own lawful Judge we should have passed a Damnatory Sentence of Death upon them when notwithstanding the Holy Ghost himself would have been their Compurgator The first is that Syrophenician Woman whose Praise is in the Gospel she was of the Canaanitish Extraction and upon that account to be reckoned as a Dog an Idolatour among the Phenicians from whom many heathenish Abominations were spread into several parts of the World and her Habitation there was In Finibus in the remote Borders of that Countrey where unavoidably she must be deeply sowst in the Dreggs of Ignorance and Infidelity Yet even this Woman so unlikely as she was during this her deplorable Condition had her Name we may well presume written in the Book of Life and had also somewhat written in her Heart and Soul well pleasing unto God which did not outwardly appear until Christ to make her a publick Example of Gods abundant Mercy among the Heathen was pleased to draw it out of
are without he is well pleased with it accounting such not far from the Kingdom of God Finally if it will well become us to ascribe unto our Lord Jesus Christ all the Glory that can well be imagined by us and undoubtedly this will be a part of his Glory that his Kingdom shall be much more enlarged than the Kingdom of his Enemy the Devil For as the wise Preacher faith Pro. 14.28 In the multitude of People is the Kings Honour and that this inveterate Enemy may not at last with Triumphant Exultations make his boast Luctationibus robustis luctatus sum et etiam palmam Tuli with great wrastlings have I wrastled against God and his Christ and I have prevailed If I say these Principles be granted as they must unless we will dissolve all the Bands of Christianity only I confess I cannot be so positive in the second what should be the reason that this Opinion hath so long been tenaciously maintained viz. It is Decreed of God that the number of those that shall perish for ever in Hell is much greater than the Number of those that shall be saved in Heaven It is I must say an Amazement to me to see and hear the Considence that hath taken hold of many among us in their busie medling about this matter affirming presumptuously without Reason that which is infinitely beyond the Reach of men or Angels One Author there is of reverend Antiquity whom I am not willing here to name who is reported by a late Writer Ravanellus to give some reason for it which indeed is comprehensive of all that can be said though upon a diligent Search I do not find the Quotation agreeing with the pretended Original the Words in the Apographon are these Ita est ut intelligeremus quid omnibus deberetur atque adeo ut inde liquidius constaret quanta sit Ira dei erga peccatum Peccatores quanta sit ejus Bonitas Clementia erga Electos quae eo pretiosior est quo paucioribus communicatur ideoque magis ab illis Agnoscenda Praedicanda i e so it is that we may know what we have all deserved as our due and that it may appear thereupon the more cleerly how great Gods Anger is against Sin and Sinners and how great his goodness and Mercy is to his elect which the fewer they be that are saved by it is the more precious and by them to be so esteemed and proclaimed This is all which I for my part have ever read or heard to be alledged in this case But Judge I pray for I appeal unto all men that are able to discerne First whether we may not much better attain to the knowledge of the just desert of our Sins in a way which will more directly give us a right understanding therein and which we may be sure is more according to the Rule that the Spirit of God hath set us than in this way of Reflexion upon others who shall perish in their Sins though I say not but that this also may be sometimes of good use if it be with moderation considered as it ought to be which I fear is but seldome among most People But a way doubtless may be shewed unto us if we would apply our selves aright to the using of it which is more sure and convincing First the Conscience which God hath set in every Mans Breast as it is a faithful Monitor if it may be suffered to speak so it is in stead of a thousand Witnesses against us all for our eternal Condemnation unless Mercy prevent it And what man is there I except not the Heathen who doing by nature the things contained in the Law shew the Work of the Law written in their Hearts Rom. 2.14.15 what man I say is there let him be the most holy most humble most zealous man for Gods Glory that ever was in the World except the Man Christ Jesus in whom this faithful Informer hath not at one time or other done his Office in this kind of accusing and judging Yea the better the Heart of man is the more freedom hath it there to deal plainly in speaking of the Wrath which is to come as due unto all men for Sin 2. Doth not the Written Word of God sufficiently shew unto us in many other places of it that all mankind hath deserved to fall and perish under this Wrath for ever Is it not written cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the Book of the Law to doe them and is it not written also that in many things we offend all Is it not written all have finned and come short of the Glory of God and that even the best of us all are by Nature the Children of Wrath too as others are But there is no need to multiply Quotations to this purpose evident it is the Holy Scripture doth frequently testifie the same Truth that knowing the Terror of the Lord we may be perswaded by it Judge again in the next place whether Gods Anger against Sin and Sinners hath not appeared infinitely more in the cursed and cruel Death of his only begotten Son being thereby made a Curse for the Sin of the World than if he had in his just Indignation cast the whole Race of mankind into Hell for ever and should not the Consideration hereof also more work upon us to make us sensible of Gods Anger against Sin and Sinners than to talke unadvisedly with our Lips of a matter wherein we are totally ignorant and which will in the end prove to be rather than that which is here pretended too bold an Intrusion into Gods Pavillion a derogation also from Christs Merits and a Dishonour to the great Name of our God to whom belong Mercies and Forgiveness though to us and to all men belongeth confusion of Face for ever because we have rebelled against him But what a Word is this that followes viz. Gods Mercy is the more Precious and accordingly to be the more magnified the fewer they are who shall be partakers of it or which is all one because but a few shall be saved If this be Evangelical God be merciful to me I am yet to learn after so many Years teaching and studying the Holy Scripture what is the true Doctrine of the Gospel of my Lord and Master Christ Jesus What is it come to this shall the Rich and superabundant Mercy of God wherein we have trusted and triumphed all along be thus streitned accounted the more precious because it reacheth but to a few It grieves me to find so eminent a Leader in the Church to be so reported of as is here written of him which to my apprehension if it be true and I am not willing to be too Inquisitive signifies that he hath let fall too foul a Blot upon his most excellent Workes though I confess at first Sight it did worke in me a suspicion of my Judgment in this Point