know That when the Dead small and great shall stand before God They shall remember and find that it was matter of Duty for them to have heard and not as a thing of Indifferency which carries along with it a Contempt and Neglect of the things pertaining to his Kingdom It will be then seen which way doth most please and shall find Acceptance with God as also whither the Presumptuous sinner doth not yet more displease and provoke him by those his Imaginations But even in those who are most Ignorant and keep away from the sight and hearing of his Word Nevertheless God hath not left himself without Witness for they have a certain Rumour and Notion or rather an apprehension of the things contained in the Bible They have many silent and serious thoughts within themselves and when these do reprove warn and Testify they do in like manner Presumptously against them as others do immediately against the word Preached But where is that degree of the Spirit of Contradiction and that utmost Height of Disobedience To do after their own Lust and Will any Law or Ordinance of God to the contrary Notwithstanding For the Language of Stubbornness speaks on this wise I have Loved strangers and after them I will go This makes their sin to be exceeding sinful in the mean while and such shall be beaten with more stripes and Inherit a greater Condemnation at the last The Prophet doth intend somewhat alike to what it afore mentioned when he useth that Phrase and kind of words Hearken unto mee ye Stouthearted that are far from Righteousness Isa 46. 12. Stout-hearted such as will not submit as it were out of a Piece of Pride and Bravery and they do of set purpose keep off I bring near my Righteousness it shall not be far off and my Salvation shall not tarry Vers 13. But they will go further off and stand more at a distance and delay yet more that they may not see it A perverse and contrary manner of Acting which God doth behold and will recompense upon them There are some who let God do what He will send forth his Light and make further Manifestations of his Truth give more Pressing Motives and Arguments send his several sorts of Judgments yet they will not return unto the Lord. And so Notwithstanding all his methods of Mercy and Truth when there are Great Multitudes already brought over and Converted yet they reckon it as it were a greater Piece of Gallantry and Honour that for all this they will not be perswaded Who in the Land of uprightness will deal Vnjustly and will not behold the Majesty of the Lord Isa 26. 10. In that exceeding Glory of the Church by the vast Multitude of the Gentiles coming in yet still some will be Rebellious yea and refuse to come And therefore is that Denunciation and Threatning put as it were just in the middle of all those Blessings and Promises For the Nation and Kingdom that will not serve thee shall Perish Yea those Nations shall be utterly wasted Isa 60. 12. If that be their Humour and Resolution so it may be to kick against the Pricks to run their Head violently against a Brass Wall to set themselves as it were against their God When He hath Prophesied and Foretold of such an Universal Reformation they will what lieth in them make God a Liar for themselves will still refuse to be reformed O Wicked Fools Poor Ignorant Souls This ye cannot do but confirm his Word the more for his Holy Spirit doth foresee this Stubbornness and Refractinoriness of Yours and speaks of it some Thousand Years before your selves Practice it That the Purpose of God might stand And what Himself hath said shall be fulfilled Nevertheless for your Evil Intent and Malice of Heart you shall smart and be Punished for the same They shall Perish and be utterly wasted And then themselves shall know whither it would not have been better for them to have served God then as they did to have went on in their own Perverseness and Opposition After all What shall I say God hath spoken thus and himself shall do accordingly I shall go softly all my Years in the Bitterness of my Soul As often as I do seriously and throughly reflect thereon I have great heaviness and continual Sorrow of Heart I do not speak this in Words of Course or only in Scripture Phrase But from an inward feeling of the same and from the very Truth of the matter For tho' I could never wish my self Accursed from Christ rather then that my Brethren and Kinsmen according to the Flesh should Perish I have had yet a much greater concern for my nearest Kindred according to the Flesh Altho' herein They have Rewarded me Evil for Good and Hatred for my Love Psal 109. 10. Then for the rest of my Brethren and Sisters of the common stock of Mankind Yet herein I say the Truth in Christ I lie not my Conscience also bearing me Witness in the Holy Ghost that I have several times wished that my self had never came forth into Being rather then I should know and see so many of my fellow Creatures who are Flesh of my Flesh and Bone of my Bone go away into Everlasting Punishment and Misery I have had that greatest Compassion and most Earnest sensible concern for them For as it is Proverbially spoken of very ill weather That one would not then have a Dog abide out of Doors So Eternal Damnation is such a Terrible and Miserable thing to them who believe and apprehend it throughly that one would not wish it to the greatest Enemy one had I must confess again that this great Compassion and Earnest concern which I have formerly had for others doth now go off and lessen with me And what may seem yet more strange It doth so even as I behold their continued Provocation and Repeated evil doing which will more certainly seal them over unto the Day of their Destruction In this Temper of Mind I come yet more near to that of the Spirit which saith on this wise Yet behold therein shall be left a Remnant that shall be brought forth both Sons and Daughters Behold they shall come forth unto you and ye shall see their way and their doings And ye shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem even concerning all that I have brought upon it And they shall comfort you when ye see their ways and their doings And ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it saith the Lord God Ezek. 14. 22 23. There is so very much Malignity and Evil deserving in Sin that when God Himself which the Ministers of his Word do very faintly and imperfectly now shall lay it open before his Saints and Servants As that they shall see their ways and their doings As we behold Dirt and Mire now even they shall be Comforted concerning all the Punishment and Misery
which he will lay upon the Inhabitants of the Earth tho' it be upon their own Father Mother Brothers Sisters the Wife of their Bosom the nearest Kinsfolks and Dearest Friends according to the Flesh So that they shall not Pity the tender and delicate Man who was most set out with Riches Beauty Good Breeding or common good Nature if it was mixt with Ungodliness or Contempt of God Nor yet the tender and delicate Woman which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for Delicateness and Tenderness Deut. 28. 56. And How then will she undergo so much Pain and Fire And ye shall know that I have not done without cause without their deserving of it which we shall more clearly perceive then tho' we cannot now but we are apt to think it hard that Mankind should dye Eternally for tasting a little Honey or for the Pleasures of Sin for a season all that I have done in it even in his utmost Vengeance and Everlasting Punishment saith the Lord God Can thine heart endure or can thine hands be strong in the Days that I shall deal with thee I the Lord have spoken it and I will do it Ezek. 22. 14. By the former Part of which Expression is shewh forth that God will overcome their former Stubbornness and Presumption By the Punishment He will inflict that He will get the Victory and make them to yield In the latter part is the Ratification and Confirmation of it I the Lord have spoken it and I will do it As to all that foregoing Wickedness and Rebellion of the Jeres Wherein they denied the Holy one and the just and desired a Murtherer to be granted unto them and killed the Prince of Life How doth Peter lay it before them and Assign the cause thereof And now Brethren I wot that through Ignorance ye did it as also did your Rulers But those things which God hath shewed by the Mouth of all his Prophets that Christ should suffer He hath so fulfilled Acts 3. 17 18. When Himself was in the midst of his sufferings He saith Thinkest thou that I cannot Pray my Father and He shall presently give me more then twelve Legions of Angels Who would have preserved and defended him from all those Wicked Men that were his Crucifiers But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be Mat. 26. 53 54. In like manner as to all that sin Iniquity and Transgression which God hath spoken of by the Mouth of all his Prophets Evangelists and Apostles It must needs go on in its Course That the Scriptures might be fulfilled Both as to that and also to the further end and consequent thereof When He shall Punish the World for their Evil and the Wicked for their Iniquity And that will be found true also Which speaks of the Wide Gate and Broad way that leadeth to Destruction and many there be who go in thereat Mat. 7. 13. Amalek was the first of the Nations but his latter end shall be that he Perish for Ever Numbers 23. 20. Tho' they are in the first highest and most prosperous Wordly State thss hinders not but rather sooner occasions that they be miserable for ever as we Learn from sundry other Places of the Word of Truth The Scripture doth stand Checquer wise if I may so express it It is made up of black and white for therein is an intermixture of Promises and Threatnings Good and Evil things Blessing and Cursing Life and Death It is so almost in every Chapter I shall instance in one and mention the same use thereof that is there macle And as the Spirit of God doth make mention of the Eloquent Orator Isa 3. 3. It is a necessary part of Oratory to leave something with the Hearers at last that it may surely stick and he remembred by them At the close of this Discourse I would observe unto ye how that in the Tenth Chapter of the Hebrews there is an intermixture of Threatnings and Promises Good and Evil things for there is mention made Of a fearful looking for of Judgment and of Fiery Indignation which shall devour the Adversaries Vengeance belongeth unto me I will recompence saith the Lord. And again The Lord shall judge his People it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God After all these terrible things to the Wicked and Ungodly The Apostle speaks in a more mild strain unto the Christians Knowing in your selves that in Heaven ye have a better and an enduring substance and of a great Recompence of reward ver 35. After ye have done the Will of God ye might receive the Promise ver 36. But amidst and in the conclusion of all He shews himself to be a faithful and skillful Workman dividing the Word of Truth aright and giving to every one his Portion for he saith Now the just shall live by Faith but if any Man draw back My Soul shall have no Pleasure in him But we are not of them who draw back into Perdition but of them who believe unto the saying of the Soul So People are to take and receive in by Faith all the things that have been afore-written They must live by Faith if they will be justified and saved But if any of ye draw back that is go off and recede from his Truths neither God nor yet any of his Saints and Servants will have any Pleasure in that Man or Woman But by the Divine Grace and Assistance it shall be my constant and continued endeavour throughout all the remaining Days of this Life of Vanity as I hope and do hereby exhort that it may be of others also that we be not found amongst them upon whom the Word of God will have its effect to Condemnation but not to Salvation But rather that ye and my self there is nothing in the World which I so much desire may be found amongst them who shall believe to the saving of the Soul FINIS
yet hotter which shall be for their Punishmentâ— when they Tag or Link on an Oath or Speech of Vain Swearing to an Expression when the sentence which they speak would be more perfect and entire without it Or if to their Actions and Doings they Annex Iniquity and Transgression Nevertheless so it hath been so it is and so it will be during the Time of this Generation Altho at length there will be an End of Transgression And the Wicked shall be no more Psal 104. 35. For in what Prayer the Spirit of Truth doth dictate is included a Promise that so it shall be Yet until these latter Days and that Time is come the World will go on in Sinning let what will be spoken or declared against it Herein the VVord of God hath its Effect For hereby it is confirmed I had almost said seen but I am sure it is perceived that there is a Devil VVho deceiveth the Nations and deceiveth the whole World Rev. 12. 9. For these be the Days of Vengeance that all things which are written may be fulfilled Luke 21. 22. So it is as to the foregoing Sin and Transgression which bring these Judgments on the Earth It must needs go on in its course that the Scriptures might be fulfilled which say in Mat. 7. 13. and Mat. 25. That some yea and the greater part of Mankind shall go away into Everlasting Punishment But as our Lord said concerning offences It must needs be that offences come But Wo unto that Man by whom the offence cometh Mat. 18. 7. So in like manner it may be here applyed that the Scriptures might be fulfilled It must needs be that the greater Part of Mankind shall go away into Everlasting Punishment But Wo unto those Particular Souls who shall have their Lot and Portion in this matter For they can no more cease to be miserable then they can cease to be This is as certain tho' as yet it is not altogether so evident and visible then that there is a World which we behold or an Earth which we tread on For saith the same Word by the which the Heavens and the Earth were Created and the same Truth by the which they are now upheld and the things therein are Connected together Heaven and Earth shall pass away but my VVords shall not pass away Tho' it is imagined and said that seeing is believing It is an improper Expression For faith is the evidence of things not seen And that which a Man seeth He doth not so much believe as know yet for my Part when I think of Heat or Read the 25th Chapter of Matthew How that all Nations shall be Gathered and Christ shall separate them one from another as a Shepherd divideth his sheep from the Goats and he shall set the Sheep on the Right hand and the Goats on the left and shall say to the one Come ye Blessed c. And to the other Go ye Cursed I say All this is as evident and manifest to me as iâ— I did now see that Great and Terrible sight with my outward Bodily Eyes And truly if we did see that vast and doleful herd of Condemned Criminals as they are going to the Place of Everlasting Punishment we should fear For it is a thing Infinitely more to be Pitied then now a little Commiseration doth arise as we behold Sheep or Cattle going to the Shambles and Slaughter House What God hath said by his Son Jesus Christ shall certainly come to pass So that this will as certainly be as if we now saw it with our Eyes For it will as certainly be in the appointed Time as that we now present were once living on the Earth What can be more forcible to make us take the utmost heed that our selves be not among them It would be an hard Case if there was not one in such a Parish or Neighbourhood who should go to Heaven But I trust that several will as I am assured from the Scriptures of Truth That all those will who have a Good Conscience and are willing to live honestly in all things Heb. 13. 18. So it would be Melancholly and Dismal to suppose But yet it is justly and truly to be feared that some in this Neighbourhood I do not know one of them but the Lord knows who the very Persons be that are in such a place now Who shall be found amongst those Goats at the very last Day But either to convince them thereof or to make it known unto them would make their Life hang in doubt and fill them with a fearful Expectation and give them a trembling heart So to point them out by their Names and Distinct Persons it would make all Christians Note that Man or Woman and have no Conversation with them If he or she should prove certainly a cast away or a Condemned Creature at that Day But every one would be afraid or shy of them in the mean while as now they are of a Man that is to be hanged or put to Death I do here somewhat allude to those Words of the Apostle If any Man obey not the Word of this Epistle Note that Man and have no Conversation with him that he be ashamed So if any Man or Woman amongst ye do not obey those things which have been here alledged unto ye from the Word of the Lord If there be any who will despise and go frow ardly in the way of their heart And further if there be any who shall do Presumptuously and Sin with an high hand as of set Purpose to Sin and Transgress more and more because such things have been spoken against that and all manner of Sin and Transgression Truly my Brethren Partakers of the same Flesh and Blood these and such like are sad Signs and Prognosticks that such very Persons will be indeed found among that Number of Goats at the last Day and to them I am now sent with heavy Tidings It would be good for them if they had never been Born And upon them this Word Preached and Published will have its effect like the Sun which doth melt Wax but harden Clay for Evil but not for Good And here People should not so much as keep Company with such so as to Encourage them in their Evil Deeds or so much as barely to Countenance them in their Rebellion Transgression or even in their Contempt of the Lord God But only to warn exhort and testify that they seeing themselves as it were cut off from the Society of Mankind by perceiving the Inconvenience and Misery thereof may understand the ten Thousand Times greater Misery to be cut off and deprived from the General Assembly and Church of the first Born which are Written in Heaven And from God the Judge of all and the Spirits of just Men made Perfect And this would be some means for them to turn out of the wrong way which leads unto Destruction And they may be ashamed of Transgressing without a cause Psal 25.
3. Or that they should ever despise the Lord their God It was aforesaid that the foregoing Sin and Transgression which bring these Judgments on the Earth must needs go on in its Course that the Scriptures might be fulfilled What are these Judgments They are declared in Math. 24. and Luke 21. Rumors stirs and commotions of Wars Nation against Nation and Great Earthquakes shall be in Divers Places Luke 21. 11. And there was a Great Earthquake in Jamaica in June or July 1692. There was an Universal shaking of the Earth throughout most Parts of Europe in September 1692. And in January 1692. There was the Greatest Earthquake in the Islands of Sicily and Malta so as to swallow up an Hundred and Six score Thousand Inhabitants then ever I heard or read of in History since Man was Created on the Earth These are Great Earthquakes in Divers Places and Fearful Sights and Great Signs there have been from Heaven As the Great Comet about eighteen Years ago which is no long Time according to the Course and Reckoning of Time in the Decree of God and according to Scripture Account And for ought we know that gentle Universal shaking of the Earth in England France Holland or the Low Countreys Wherein it is more observable and shews that the Hand of God is somewhat more in it then the ordinary Course of Nature Because it happened thus at the very same Minute of Time in other Places which were distinct and separated one from another by the Great and Wide Sea All this may be a forerunner of a much Greater Earthquake from which we are no more secured and absolutely preserved by the Advantage of our Countreys Scituation and because such things have not been so usually among us as among others For the Pillars of the Earth are the Lords and he hath set the World upon them For He who stretcheth the North over the empty Place and hangeth the Earth upon nothing Can find out this way to Punish us if he please As it is yet more certain that tho if the Earth should not swallow us up alive yet it is but a very little while and it will receive and devour our Dead Bodies as also it gives Assurance of what he hath promised which hath been in some measure already and is yet to be fulfilled Saying Yet once more I shake not the Earth but also Heaven Hag. 2. 6. Heb. 12. 26. Which is not only set forth by way of Greatness of Expression or to signify only the Men and Women contained therein but it shall reach and affect even the very Elemental Bodies even the whole Creation according to 2 Pet. 3. As our selves shall one Day see All one as we now hear that those foregoing signs are fulfilled And as at such a Season of the Year we behold all the Trees shoot forth and the Grass doth grow then we know of our selves that Summer is near at hand So likewise when ye see these things come to pass know ye that the Kingdom of God is nigh at hand Now it is nearer then ever it was yet But we are given to understand farther that by the more then ordinary appearance of these foregoing signs we are just entring upon if not falling into those Great and Glorious Times Whereof the Scriptures do abundantly speak that it shall be in the latter Days that the Great Things of God shall be fulfilled And tho' Christ said Sixteen Hundred Years ago This Generation shall not pass away till all these things shall be fulfilled By which kind of Expression faith is exercised and proved as also the understandings of Men are somewhat Puzzled yet take and include Christ himself into that Generation for he was then in the Days of his Flesh and a Generation includes all that are living therein and it holds literally true in that sence for He the Son of God hath not passed away But was without beginning of Days or End of Life but abideth continually But I do verily believe That tho' there is never a Christ now on Earth nor an Enoch nor yet any such of whom there is a saying That any now living shall not die Yet before all the Young Men and Children and Infants that are now Breathing on this Earth are gone off from it there will be yet somewhat a Greater and more extraordinary Manifestation concerning the Kingdom of God then hath been in all the mean Generations since Christ and his Apostles were on the Earth And this I do assuredly gather because the Time of the Promise draws nigh Acts 7. 17. As is Manifest from the yet greater Appearance and Conspicuousness of those foregoing signs here mentioned All this put together should induce us to lay these things to heart and to tremble and fear continually before the Lord God of Heaven and Earth for what he hath already done on the Earth as also out of Expectation of what he will do yet further Which Expectation our hearts should be always very full off and in no wise Choke and Stifle the sence thereof with Gluttony Drunkenness and the Cares of this Life and so that Day come upon you unawares Luke 21. 34. Which is brought in upon this occasion As Moses said upon that terrible sight at Mount Sinah I exceedingly fear and quake So the same mind should be at all Times and in all Places in all the Servants of God as to what they have heard or seen He hath done more lately is now a doing and will shortly bring yet greater things to pass then all these in this Earth the lower Part of the World As God at first made all things and doth now uphold them by the Word of his Power so some of them do move and go on according to his Will Appointment and Decree Known to God are all his Works from the beginning of the World and so it is as to what He will do towards the End thereof as our selves know what we intend to do at such a Time hereafter if we have the same Mind and Will Strength and Opportunity Life and Power of Action or such like The want of any of which do often cause a neglect or failure of the same But now with God there is no variableness nor shadow of turning He is Almighty and Eternal What He once Decrees Purposes or Wills he doth certainly bring to pass and he speaks of things before they are done While they are yet Springing up do I tell you of them And so it is when he speaks of things before-hand and they do afterwards come to pass in like manner then it is that his word is fulfilled There are a Thousand Instances of this in Scripture and so very many for the whole is but an orderly Declaration of such things that it is superfluous to mention Particulars Those who know somewhat more of God then the ordinary and common Multitude do apprehend perceive and observe that as all things are Gods from the Cedar in Lebanon to