sleepily now but O that you would consider how the review of them will then awake you You now make light of the warnings of God and man and of all the wholsom advice that is given you but God will not then make light of your contempt Oh what cutting Questions will they be to the hearts of the ungodly when all the means that were used for their good are brought to their remembrance on one side and the temptations that drew them to sin on the other side and the Lord shall plead his cause with their consciences and say Was I so hard a Master or was my work so unreasonable or was my wages so contemptible that no perswasions could draw you into my service was Satan so good a Master or was his work so honest and profitable or was his wages so desirable that you would be so easily perswaded to do as he would have you Was there more perswading Reason in his allurements and deceits then in all my holy words and all the powerful Sermons that you heard or all the faithful admonitions you received or all the good examples of the righteous or in all the works of God which you beheld Was not a reason fetcht from the love of God from the evil of sin the blood of Christ the Judgement to come the glory promised the torments threatned as forcible with you and as good in your eyes to draw you to holiness as a Reason from a little fleshly delight or worldly gain to draw you to be unholy In the name of God sinners I intreat you to bethink your selves in time how you will sufficiently answer such Questions as these You should have seen God in every creature that you beheld and have read your duty in all his works what can you look upon above you or below you or round about you which might not have shewed you so much of the wisdom and goodness and greatness of your Maker as should have convinced you that it was your duty to be Devoted to his will And yet you have his written word that speaks plainer then all these And will you despise them all will you not see so great a Light will you not hear so loud and constant calls shall God and his Ministers speak in vain And can you think that you shall not hear of this again and pay for it one day You have the Bible and other good books by you why do you not read them You have Ministers at hand why do you not go to them and earnestly ask them Sir What must I do to be saved and entreate them to teach you the way to life You have some neighbors that fear God why do you not go to them and take their good advice and imitate them in the fear of God and in a holy diligence for your souls Now is the time for you to bestir your selves Life and Death are are before you You have gales of Grace to further your voyage There are more for you then against you God will help you his Spirit will help you his Ministers will help you every good Christian will help you the Angels themselves will help you if you will but resolvedly set your selves to the work And yet will you not stir Patience is waiting on you Mercies are enticing you Scourges are driving you Judgement stayeth for you the Lights of God stand burning by you to direct you And yet will you not stir but lie in darkness And do you think you shall not hear of this Do you think this will not one day cost you dear IX THE ninth part of our work is to shew you What are those frivolous excuses by which the unrighteous may then endeavour their defence Having already shewed you what the Defence must be that must be sufficient to our Justification If any first demand Whether the Evidence of their sin will not so overwhelm the sinner that he will be speechless and past excuse I answ. Before God hath done with him he will be so But it seems at first his dark understanding and partial corrupted conscience will set him upon a vain Defence For Mat. 7.22 23. Christ telleth us that Many will say to me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out Devils and in thy name have done many wonderful works And then will I profess to them I never knew you Depart from me ye workers of Iniquity And in Mat. 25.11 The foolish Virgins cry Lord Lord open to us And vers. 44. Then shall they also answer him saying Lord when saw we thee an hungred or thirst or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not Minister unto thee And vers. 24 25. They fear not to cast some of the cause of their neglect on God himself Then he which had received the one Talent came and said Lord I knew thee that thou art an hard man reaping where thou hast not sown and gathering where thou hast not strawed and I was afraid and went and hid thy talent in the earth lo there thou hast that is thine It is clear then that Excuses they will be ready to make and their full Conviction will be in order after these Excuses at least as in their minds if not in words But what the particular excuses will be we may partly know by these Scriptures which recite them and partly by hearing what the ungodly do now say for themselves And because it is for their present benefit that I now make mention of them that they may see the vanity of all such Excuses I will mention them as I now meet with them in the mouths of sinners in our ordinary discourse And these Excuses are of several sorts some by which they would Justifie their estate some excuses of particular Actions and that either in whole or in part some by which they would put by the penalty though they confess the sin some by which they lay the blame on other men and in some they vvould cast it upon God himself I must touch but some of them very briefly The first Excuse I am not guilty of these things which I am accused of I did love God above All and my Neighbor as my self I did use the world but for Necessity but God had my heart Answ. The All-seeing Judge doth know the contrary and he will make thy conscience know it Look back man upon thy heart and Life Hovv seldom and hovv neglectfully didst thou think of God hovv coldly didst thou vvorship him or make any mention of him hovv carelessly didst thou serve him and think much of all that thou dâ—dst therein Thou rather thoughtest that his service vvas making more ado than needs and didst grudge at those that vvere more diligent than thy self But for the world How heartily and how constantly didst thou seek and serve it And yet wouldst thou now perswade the Judge that thou didst Love God above all He will shew
before he justifie them against the charge of being sinners in general and he will first give men Faith Repentance and new Obedience before he will Justifie them against the charge of being Impenitent Infidels or Hypocrites and consequently unpardoned and doubly guilty of damnation This twofold righteousness he will first Give men and so constitute them Just before he will Declare it and Sentence them just 2. The Reason of the Sentence particularly Described is from their Faith and â—ove to Christ expressed in their Obedience self-denyal and forsaking all for him For I was hungry and ye fed me I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in Naked and ye cloaâ—hed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in prison and ye came to me Verily I say unto you inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my Brethren ye have done it unto me Mat. 25.35 to 41. Here is 1. The causal conjunction for 2. And the Cause or Reason it self Concerning both which Observe 1. How it is that mans Obedience and self-denyal is The Reason and Cause of his Justification 2. Why it is that God will have the Reason or Cause thus Declared in the Sentence For the first observe that It s one thing to give a Reason of the Sentence and another thing to express the Cause of the Benefit Given us by the promise and Judged to us by the Sentence Mans Obedience was no proper Cause why God did in this life Give pardon of sin to us or a Right to glory much less of his Giving Christ to dye for us And therefore as to our Constitutive Justification at our Conversion we must not say or think that God doth Justifie us For or Because of any works of our Obedience Legal or Evangelical But when God hath so Justified us when he comes to give a Reason of his Sentence in Judgement he may and will fetch that Reason partly from our Obedience or our performance of the Conditions of the New Covenant For as in this life we had a Righteousness consisting in free pardon of all sin through the blood of Christ and a Righteousness consisting in our personal performance of the Conditions of the promise which giveth that pardon and continueth it to us so at Judgement we shall accordingly be justified And as our Evangelical personal Righteousness commonly called Inherent was at first only in our Faith and Repentance and Disposition to obey but afterward in our Actual sincere Obedience in which sense we are Constitutively Justified or made Righteous here by our works in James his sense Jam. 2.24 so accordingly a double Reason will be assigned of our sentential Justification One from our pardon by Christs blood and merits which will prove our Right to Impunity and to Glory The other from our own Faith and holy Obedience which will prove our Right to that pardon through Christ and to the free Gift of a Right to glory and so this last is to be pleaded in subordination to the former For Christ is become the Author of Eternal salvation to all them that Obey him Heb. 5 9. He therefore that will be saved must have a Christ to save him as the Author and an Obedience to that Christ as the Condition of that salvation and consequently both must be declared in the Judgement The Reason why the Judge doth mention our Good works rather then our Believing may be because those holy self-denying expressions of Faith and Love to Christ do contain or certainly imply Faith in them as the life of the tree is in the fruit but faith doth contain our works of Obedience but only as their cause These works also are a part of the personal Righteousness which is to be enquired after that is we shall not be judged righteous meerly because we have Believed but also because we have added to our Faith vertue and have improved our Talents and have loved Christ to the hazard of all or his sake For it is not only or principally for the goodness of the work considered in it self or the good that is done by it to the poor but it is as these works did express our Faith and Love to Christ by doing him the most costly and hazardous service that by Faith we could see Christ in a poor beggar or a prisoner and could love Christ in These better then our worldly goods or liberties which we must part with or hazard by the works that are here mentioned 2. The Reasons why Christ will so publikely Declare the personal righteousness of men to be the Reason or Cause of his Justifying sentence it is because It is the business of that day not only to glorifie Gods meer Love and Mercy but eminently to glorifie his Remunerative Justice and not only to express his love to the Elect as such but to express his love to them as Faithful and Obedient and such as have denyed all for Christ and Loved God above all And to shew his justice to the men and faithfulness in fulfilling all his promises and also his holinss in the high estimation of the holiness of his people I shall express this in the words of a Learned Divine Dr Twiss against Mr. Cotton pag. 40. Was there no more in Gods intention when he elected some then the manifestation of the riches of his glorious grace Did not God purpose also to manifest the Glory of his Remunerative Justice Is it not undenyable that God will bestow salvation on all his Elect of ripe years by way of reward and Crown of Righteousness which God the Righteous Judge will give 2 Tim. 4. 2 Thes. 1. It is great pitty this is not considered as usually it is not Especially for the momentous Consequence thereof in my Judgement So far he So much of the Sentence of Justification which shall be passed by Christ at Judgement upon the Righteous 2. We are next to consider of the Sentence of Condemnation which shall then by Christ be passed on the unrighteous Which is delivered to us by Christ Mat. 25. in the same order as the former This Sentence containeth 1. The Condemnation it self 2. The Reason or Cause of it The Condemnation expresseth the misery which they are judged to 1. Generally in the Denomination Cursed 2. Particularly by Description of their Cursed state To be cursed is to be a People destinated and adjudged to utter unhappiness to all kind of misery without remedy 2. Their Cursed condition is described in the next words Depart from me into Everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels 1. Depart From whom from the God that made them in his Image From the Redeemer that bought them by the price of his blood and offered to save them freely for all their unworthyness and many a time intreated them to Accept his offer that their souls might live From the Holy Ghost the Sanctifier and Comforter of the faithful who strove
Immortal soul and thy comfortable appearance at the great day of Christ I have the thing which I intended and desired The Lord open thy Heart and accompany his Truth with the Blessing of his Spirit Amen A SERMON Of Judgement Preached at Pauls before the Honourable Lord Maior and Aldermen of the City London Dec. 17. 1654 2 Cor. 5.10 11. For we must all Appear before the Judgement Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad Knowing therefore the terrors of the Lord we perswade men IT is not unlikely that some of those wits that are taken more with things New then with things Necessary will marvel that I choose so common a subject and tell me that they all know this already But I do it purposely upon these following Considerations 1. Because I well know that it is these common Truths that are the great and necessary things which mens everlasting happiness or misery doth most Depend upon You may be ignorant of many Controversies and Inferiour points without the danger of your souls but so you cannot of these Fundamentals 2. Because its apparent by the lives of men that few know these Common Truths savingly that think they know them 3. Because there are several degrees of knowing the same Truths and the best are imperfect in degree The principal growth in knowledge that we should look afâ—er is not to know more matters then we kneâ— before but to know that better and with a clearer light and firmer apprehension which we darkly and sleightly knew before You may more safely be without any knowledge at all of many lower Truths then without some further degree of the knowledge of those which you already know 4. Besides it is known by sad experience that many perish who know the Truth for want of the Consideration of it and making use of what they know and so their knowledge doth but condemn them We have as much need therefore to teach and help you to get these Truths which you know into your hearts and lives as to tell you more 5. And indeed it is the impression of these great and master-Truths wherein the vitals and essentials of Gods Image upon the soul of man doth consist And it is these Truths that are the very Instruments of the great works that are to be done upon the heart by the spirit and our selves In the right use of these it is that the Principal part of the skill and holy wisdom of a Christian doth consist and in the diligent and constant use of these lyeth the life and trade of Christianity There is nothing amiss in mens hearts or lives but it is for want of sound knowing and believing or well using these fundamentals 6. And moreover me thinks in this choice of my subject I may expect this advantage with the hearers that I may spare that labour that else would be necessary for the proof of my doctrine and that I may also have easier access to your hearts and have a fuller stroak at them and with less resistance If I came to tell you of any thing not Common I know not how far I might expect belief from you You might say these things are uncertain to us or all men are not of this mind But when every hearer confesseth the Truth of my Doctrine no man can deny it without denying Christianity it self I hope I may expect that your hearts should the sooner receive the Impression of this Doctrine and the sooner yield to the duties which it directs you to and the easier let go the sins which from so certain a truth shall be discovered The words of my text are the reason which the Apostle giveth both of his perswading other men to the fear of God and his care to approve to God his own heart and life They contain the Assertion and Description of the great Judgement and one use which he makes of it It assureth us that Judged we must be and who must be so Judged and by whom and about what and on what terms and to what end The meaning of the words so far as is necessary I shall give you briefly We all both we Apostles that Preach the Gospel and you that hear it must willing or unwilling there is no avoiding it Appear stand forth or make our appearance and there have our hearts and wayes laid open and appear as well as we Before the Iudgement seat of Christ i.e. before the redeemer of the world to be Judged by him as our Rightful Lord That every one even of all mankind which are were or shall be without exception May receive that is may receive his sentence adjudging him to his due and then may receive the execution of the sentence and may go away from the barr with that Reward or Punishment that is his due according to the Law by which he is Judged The things done in his body that is the due Reward of the works done in his body or as some copies read it The things proper to the body i.e. due to the man even body as well as soul According to what he hath done whether it be good or bad i e. This is the cause to be tried and Judged whether men have done well or ill whiles they were in the flesh and what is due to them according to their deeds Knowing therefore c. i.e. Being certain therefore that these things are so and that such a Terrible Judgement of Christ will come we perswade men to become Christians and live as such that they may then speed well when others shall shall be destroyed or as others Knowing the fear of the Lord that is the true Religion we perswade men Doct. 1. There will be a Judgement Doct. 2. Christ will be the Judge Doct. 3. All men shall there appear Doct. 4. Men shall be then Judged according to the works that they did in the flesh whether good or evil Doct. 5. The end of Judgement is that men may receive their final due by Sentence and Execution Doct. 6. The knowledge and consideration of the terrible Judgement of God should move us to perswade and men to be perswaded to careful preparation The ordinary method for the handling of this subject of Judgement should be this 1. To shew you what Judgement is in the General and what it doth contain and that is 1. The persons 2. The cause 3. The Actions 1. The parties are 1. the Accuser 2. the Defendant 3. Somtime Assistants 4. The Judge 2. The cause contains 1. the Accusation 2. the Defence 3. With the Evidence of both 4. and the Merit The Merit of the cause is as it agreeth with the Law and Equity 3. The Judicial Actions are I. Introductory 1. Citation 2. Compulsion if need be 3. Appearance of the Accused II. Of the Essence of Judgement 1. Debate by â— the Accuser 2. Defendant called the Disceptation of the
counterfeit of any Grace and plead with God any shells of hypocritical performances and to think to prove a Title to heaven by any thing short of Gods Condition all these will be vain attempts 3. And as impossible will it prove by fraud or flattery by perswasion or bribery or by any other means to pervert Justice by turning the mind of God who is the Judge Fraud and flattery bribery and importunity may do much with weak men but with God they will do nothing Were he changable and partial he were not God 4. If God be Judge you may see the Cavils of Infidels are foolish when they ask How long will God be in Trying and Judging so many persons and taking an Account of so many VVords and Thoughts and Deeds Sure it will be a long time and a difficult work As if God were as man that knoweth not things till he seek out their Evidence by particular signs Let these fools understand if they have any understanding that the infinite God can shew to every man at once all the thoughts and words and actions that ever he hath been guilty of And in the twink of an eye even at one view can make all the world to see their wayes and their deservings Causing their consciences and memories to present them all before them in such a sort as shall be equivalent to a verbal debate Psal. 50.21 22. he will set them in Order before them 5. If Jesus Christ be the Judge then what a comfort must it needs be to his members that he shall be Judge that loved them to the death and whom they loved above their lives and he who was their Rock of hope and strength and the desire and delight of their souls 6. And if Iesus Christ must be the Iudge what confusion will it bring to the faces of his enemies and of all that set light by him in the day of their visitation to see Mercy turned against them and he that dyed for them now ready to condemn them and that blood and grace which did Aggravate their sin to be pleaded against them to the increase of their misery how sad will this be 7. If the God of Love and Grace and Truth be Judge then no man need to fear any wrong No subtilty of the Accuser nor darkness of Evidence no prejudice or partiality or whatsoever else may be imagined can there appear to the wrong of your cause Get a good cause and fear nothing and if your cause be bad nothing can deliver you III. FOR the third point Who are they that must be Judged Answ. All the rational creatures in this lower world And it seems Angels also either all or some But because their case is more darkly made known to us and less concerns us we will pass it by Every man that hath been made or born on earth except Christ who is God and man and is the Iudge must be judged If any foolish Infidel shall say VVhere shall so great a number stand I answer him that he knoweth not the things invisible either the nature of spirits and spiritual bodies nor what place containeth them or how but easily he may know that he that gave them all a Being can sustain them all and have room for them all and can at once disclose the thoughts of all as I said before The first in Order to bejudged are the Saints Mat. 25. and then with Christ they shall Judge the rest of the world 1 Cor. 6.2 3. not in an equal Authority and Commission with Christ but as the present Approvers of his Righteous Iudgement The Princes of the earth shall stand then before Christ even as the Peasants and the honourable as the base the rich and the poor shall meet together and the Lord shall judge them all Prov. 22.2 No man shall be excused from standing at that Barr and giving up their Account and receiving their doom Learned and unlearned young and old godly and ungodly all must stand there I know some have vainly imagined that the righteous shall not have any of their sins mentioned but their graces and duties only but they consider not that things will not then be transacted by words as we do now but by clear discoveries by the infinite Light and that if God should not discover to them their sins he would not discover the Riches of his Grace in the pardon of all these sins Even then must they be humbled in themselves that they may be glorified and for ever cry Not unto us Lord but unto thy name be the glory IV. FOR the fourth particular VVho will be the Accuser Answ. 1. Satan is called in Scripture the Accuser of the Brethren Rev. 12.10 and we find in Iob 1. and other places that now he doth Practice it even before God and therefore we judge it probable that he will do so then But we would determine of nothing that Scripture hath not clearly determined 2. Conscience will be an Accuser though especially of the wicked yet in some sense of the righteous for it will tell the truth to all and therefore so far as men are faulty it will tell them of their faults The wicked it will accuse of unpardoned sin and of sin unrepented of the godly only of sin repented of and pardoned It will be a Glass wherein every man may see the face of his heart and former Life Rom. 1.15 3. The Judge himself will be the Principal Accuser for it is he that is wronged and he that prosecutes the cause and will do Iustice on the wicked God judgeth even the Righteous themselves to be sinners or else they could not be pardoned sinners But he judgeth the wicked to be impenitent unbelieving unconverted sinners Remember what I said before that it is not a verbal Accusation but an opening of the Truth of the Cause to the view of our selves and others that God will then perform Nor can any think it unworthy of God to be mens Accuser by such a disclosure it being no dishonour to the purest light to reveal a dung-hill or to the greatest Prince to Accuse a Traytor Nor is it unmeet that God should be both Accuser and Judge seeing he is both absolute Lord and so far beyond all suspition of Injustice His Law also doth virtually accuse Iohn 5.45 but of this by it self V. FOR the fifth particular How will the sinners be called to the Barr Answ. God will not stand to send them a Citation nor require him to make his Voluntary Appearance but willing or unwilling he will bring them in 1. Before each mans particular Judgement he sendeth death to call away his soul A surly Serjeant that will have no Nay How dear so ever this world may be to men and how loth soever they are to depart away they must and come before the Lord that made them Death will not be bribed Every man that was set in the Vineyard in the morning of their lives must be called
to particular acts much less take away its natural Freedom 6. And that till Habits attain an utter predominancy at least there is a Power remaining in the will to resist them and use means against them Though Eventually the perverse Inclination may hinder the use of it The three and twentieth Excuse I have heard from learned men that God doth determine all Actions Natural and Free as the first efficient Physical Immediate Cause or else nothing could Act. And then it was not long of me that I choose forbidden Objects but of him that irresistibly moved me thereto and whose Instrument I was Answ. This is a trick of that wisdom which is foolishness with God and to be deceived by vain Philosophy 1. The very principle it self is most likely to be false and those that tell you this to err Much more I think may be said against it then for it 2. I am sure it is either false or reconcileable with Gods Holiness and mans liberty and culpability so that its a mad thing to deceive your selves with such Philosophical uncertainties when the Truth which you oppose by it is infallibly certain That God is not the Author of sin but man himself who is justly condemned for it is undoubtedly true and would you obscure so clear a Truth by searching into points beyond humane reach if not unsound as you conclude them The four and twentieth Excuse But at least those learned Divines among us that doubt of this do yet say that the will is necessarily and infallibly Determined by the Practical Vnderstanding and that is as much unresistibly necessitated by Objects and therefore whatever act was done by my understanding or will was thus necessitated and I could not help it They say Liberty is but the Acting of the faculty agreeably to its nature And it was God as Creator that gave Adam his faculties and God by providential dispose that presented all Objects to him by which his understanding and so his will were unavoidably necessitated Answ. This is of the same nature with the former uncertain if not certainly false Were this true for ought we can see it would lay all the sin and misery of the world on God as the unresistable necessitating Cause which because we know infallibly to be false we have no reason to take such principles to be true which infer it The understanding doth not by a necessary efficiency Determine the will but morally or rather is regularly a Condition or necessary Antecedent without which it may not Determine it self Yea the will by commanding the sense and phantasie doth much to determine the understanding As the eye is not necessary to my going but to my going right so is not the Understandings Guidance necessary to my willing there the simple Apprehension may suffice but to my Right willing There are other wayes of Determining the will Or if the Understanding did Determine the will Efficiently and Necessarily it is not every act of the understanding that must do it If it be so when it saith This must be don saith it importunatly yet not when it only saith This may be done or you may venture on it which is the common part which it hath in sin I am not pleased that these curious Objections fall in the way nor do I delight to put them into vulgar heads but finding many young Schollars and others that have conversed with them assaulted with these Temptations I thought meet to give a touch and and but a touch to take them out of their way As Mr. Fenner hath done more fully in the Preface to his Hidden Manna on this last point to which I refer you I only add this The will of man in its very Dominion doth be are Gods Image It is a self Determining Power though it be byassed by Habits and needs a Guide As the Heart and Vital Spirits by which it acteth are to the rest of the Body so is It to the soul The Light of Nature hath taught all the world to carry the Guilt of every crime to the will of man and there to leave it Upon this all Laws and Judgements are grounded From Ignorance and Intellectual weakness men commonly fetch Excuses for their faults but from the Will they are Aggravated If we think it strange that mans will should be the first cause so much as of a sinful mode and cannot answer all occuring Objections It may suffice that we are certain the Holy Majesty is not the Author of sin and he is able to make all this as plain as the Sun and easily answer all these vain Excuses though we should be unable And if we be much ignorant of the frame and motions of our own souls and especially of that high self determining principle Free-Will the great spring of our Actions and the curious Engine by which God doth Sapientially Govern the world it is no wonder Considering that the soul can know it self but by Reflexion and God gave us a soul to use rather than to know it self and to know its qualities and operations rather then its Essence The five and twentieth Excuse No man can be saved nor avoid any sin nor believe in Christ but those whom God hath predestinated thereto I was under an irreversible Sentence before I was born therefore I do nothing but what I was predestinated to do if God decreed not to save me how could I help it Answ. 1. Gods Judgements are more plain but his Decrees or secret purposes are mysterious And to darken certainties by having recourse to points obscure is no part of Christian wisdom God told you your Duty in his word and on what terms you must be Judged to Life or Death Hither should you have recourse for direction and not to the unsearchable mysteries of his mind 2. God decreeth not to Condemn any but for sin Sin I say as the Cause of that Condemnation though not of his Decree 3. Gods Decrees are acts Immanent in himself and make no change on you and therefore do not necessitate you to sin any more then his fore-knowledge doth For both cause only a necessity of Consequence which is Logical as the Divines on both sides do Confess And therefore this no more caused you to sin then if there had been no such Degree And its a doubt whether that Decree be not negative A willing suspending of the Divine will as to evil or at most A purpose to permit it The six and twentieth Excuse If it be no more yet doth it make my perdition unavoidable For even Gods foreknowledge doth so For if he foreknow it all the world cannot hinder it from coming to pass Answ. Must God either be Ignorant of what you will do or else be the cause of it If you foreknow that the Sun will rise tomorrow that doth not cause it to rise If you foreknow that one man will murder another you are not the cause of it by foreknowing it So is it
he hath a grimmer face to shew you when temptations have conquered you and torments must succeed As those that write of Witches say he appeareth at first to them in some comely tempting shape till he have them fast tyed to him and then he beats them and affrights them and seldom appears to them but in some ugly hew Believe it poor sinners you do not hear or see the worst of him when you are merry about your sinful Pleasures and Rejoycing in your Hopes of the Commodities or Preferments of the world he hath another kind of Voice which you must hear and another face to shew you that will make you know a little better whom you had to do with You would be afraid now to meet him in the dark what will you be to live with him in everlasting darkness Then you will know who it was that you entertained and obeyed and plaid with in your sins 3. And as the Text tells us that it is a fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels So it telleth us that is An everlasting fire It had a beginning but it shall have no end If these wretches would have chosen the service of God they would have met with no difficulty or trouble but what would have had a speedy end Poverty and Injuries would have had an end scorns and abuses would have had an end fasting humiliation sorrow for sin watching and fighting against our spiritual enemies would all have had an end But to avoid these they chose that ease that pleasure which hath brought them to that torment which never will have end I have said so much of these things already in my Book called the Saints Rest that I will now say but this much It is one of the wonders of the world how men that do believe or think they do believe this word of Christ to be true that the wicked shall go into Everlasting fire can yet venture on sin so boldly and live in it so fearlessly or sleep quietly till they are out of this unspeakable Danger Only the Commonness of it and the known wickedness of mans heart doth make this less wonderful And were there nothing else to convince us that sinners are Mad and Dead as to spiritual things this were enough That ever the greatest pleasures or profits of the world or the most enticing baits that the Devil can offer them should once prevail with them to forget these endless things and draw them to reject an Everlasting Glory and cast themselves desperately into Everlasting fire Yea and all this under daily warnings and Instructions and when it s told them before hand by the God of Truth himself For the Lords sake Sirs and for your souls sakes if you care not what Ministers say or what such as I say yet will you soberly read now and then this 25. Chapter of Matthew and Regard what is told you by him that must be your Judge and now and then bethink your selves soberly whether these are matters for wise men to make light of and what it is to be Everlastingly in Heaven or in Hell fire 2. We have seen what is the Penalty contained in the sentence against the ungodly The next thing that the Text directs us to is the Cause or Reason of the Sentence vers. 42 For I was hungry and ye gave me no meat c. The Reason is not given expresly either for their sin against the Law of works that is Because they were sinners and not perfectly Innocent Nor yet from their unbelief which is the great sin against the Law of Grace But it is given from their not expressing their Faith and Love to Christ in works of mercy and self-denyal And why is this so 1. We must not suppose that these words of Christ do express the whole Judicial process in every point but the chief parts It is supposed that all men are convicted of being sinners against the perfect Law of the Creator and that they are guilty of Death for that sin and that there is no way but by Christ to obtain deliverance But because all this must be acknowledged by the righteous themselves as well as by the wicked therefore Christ doth not mention this but that only which is the turning point or cause in the Judgement For it is not all sinners that shall be finally Condemned but all Impenitent Unbelieving sinners who have Rebelled finally against their Redeemer 2. And the reason why Faith it self is not expressed is 1. Because it is clearly implyed and so is Love to Christ as Redeemer in that they should have Relieved Christ himself in his members that is as it s expressed Matth. 10.42 they should have received a Prophet in the name of a Prophet and a Disciple in the name of a Disciple All should be done for Christs sake which could not be unless they Believed in him and Loved hâ—m 2. Also because that the bare Act of Believing is not all that Christ requireth to a mans final Justification and Salvation But holy self-denying Obedience must be added And therefore this is given as the Reason of their Condemnation that they did not so obey We must observe also that Christ here putteth the special for the general that is one way of self denying Obedience and expression of Love instead of such Obedience in general For all men have not ability to relieve those in misery being perhaps some of them poor themselves But all have that Love and self-denyal which will some way express it self And all have hearts and a Disposition to do thus if they had ability without such a Disposition none can be saved It is the fond conceit of some that if they have any love to the godly or wish them well it is enough to prove them happy But Christ here purposely lets us know that whoever doth not Love him at so high a rate as that he can part with his substance or any thing in the world to those uses which he shall require them even to relieve his servants in want and sufferings for the masters sake that man is none of Christs Disciple nor will be owned by him at the last XI THE next point that we come to is to shew you the Properties of this Sentence at Judgement When man had broken the Law of his Creator at the first he was lyable to the Sentence of Death and God presently sate in Judgement on him and sentenced him to some part of the Punishment which he had deserved But upon the Interposition of the Son he forbore the rest resolving on a way that might tend to his Recovery And Death is due yet to every sinner for every sin which he commits till a pardon do acquit him But this Sentence which will pass on sinners at the last Judgement doth much differ from that which was passed on the first sin or which is Due according to the Law of worâ—s alone for 1. As to the Penalty called the Pain of
3. That it is a matter of unquestionable certainty I have partly shewed you already and more would do if I were Preaching to known Infidels If the careless world had any just reason to think it were uncertain their carelesness were more excusable Me thinks a man should be affected with that which he is certain shall come to pass in a manner as if it were now in doing 1 Thes. 5.2 Ye perfectly know that the day of the Lord so cometh c. saith the Apostle 4. This day is not only certain but it is neer and therefore should affect you the more I confess if it were never so far of yet seeing it will come at last it should be carefully regarded But when the Judge is at the door Jam. 5.9 and we are almost at the barr and it is so short a time to this Assize what soul that is not dead will be secure Alas Sirs what is a little time when it is gone how quickly shall you and I be all in another world and our souls receive their particular Judgement and so wait till the body be raised and judged to the same Condition It is not a 100. years in all likelyhood till every soul of us shall be in heaven or hell and its like not half or a quarter of that time but it will be so with the greater part of us and what is a year or two or a 100 how speedily is it come how many a soul that is now in heaven or hell within a 1000 years dwelt in the places that you now dwell in and sate in the seats you now sit in And now their time is past what is it Alas how quickly will it be so with us You know not when you go to bed but you may be Judged by the next morning or when you rise but you may be judged before night but certainly you know that shortly it will be and should not this then be laid to heart Yea the General Judgement will not be long For certainly we live in the end of the world Qu. 4. MY next Question is Whether are you ready for this dreadful Judgement when it comes or not Seeing it is your selves that must be tried I think it concerns you to see that you be prepared How often hath Christ warned us in the Gospel that we be alwaies ready because we know not the day or hour of his coming Mat. 24.44.42 and 25.13 1 Thes. 5.6 and told us how sad a time it will be to those that are unready Mat. 25.11 12. Did men but well know what a meeting and greeting there will be between Christ and an unready soul it would sure startle them and make them look about them What say you Beloved Hearers are you ready for Judgement or are you not Me thinks a man that knoweth he shall be Judged should ask himself the Question every day of his life Am I ready to give up my Account to God! Do not you use to ask this of your own hearts unless you be careless whether you be saved or damned me thinks you should and ask it seriously Qu. But who be they that are ready how shall I know whether I be ready or not Answ. There is a twofold readiness 1. When you are in a safe case 2. When you are in a comfortable case in regard of that day The latter is very desirable but the first is of absolute necessity this therefore is it that you must principally enquire after In General all those and only those are ready for Judgement who shall be justified and saved and not condemned when Judgement comes They that have a good cause in a Gospel sense It may be known before hand who these are for Christ Judgeth as I told you by his Law And therefore find out whom it is that the Law of grace doth justifie or condemn and you may certainly know whom the Judge will Justifie or Condemn for he Judgeth righteously If you further ask me who these are remember that I told you before that every man that is personally righteous by fulfilling the Condition of Salvation in the Gospel shall be saved and he that is found unrighteous as having not fulfilled them shall perish at that day Q1 Who are these Answ. I will tell you them in a few words lest you should forget because it is a matter that your Salvation or Damnation dependeth upon 1. The soul that unfeignedly repenteth of his former sinful course and turneth from it in heart and life and loveth the way of godliness which he hated and hateth the way of sin which he loved and is become throughly a New creature being born again and sanctified by the Spirit of Christ shall be Justified but all others shall certainly be condemned Good news to repenting converted sinners but sad to Impenitent and him that knows not what this means 2. That soul that feeling his misery under sin and the power of Satan and the wrath of God doth believe what Christ hath done and suffered for mans Restauration and Salvation and thankfully accepteth him as his only Saviour and Lord on the terms that he is offered in the Gospel and to those ends even to Justifie him and sanctifie and guide him and bring him at last to everlasting glory that soul shall be Justified at Judgement and he that doth not shall be condemned Or in short in Scripture phrase He that believeth shall be saved and he that Believeth not shall be condemned Mar. 16.16 3. The soul that hath had so much knowledge of the goodness of God and his love to man in Creation Redemption and the following mercies and hath had so much conviction of the vanity of all creatures as thereupon to Love God more then all things below so that he hath the chiefest room in the heart and is prefered before all creatures ordinarily in a time of tryal that soul shall be Justified at Judgement and all others shall be condemned 4. That soul that is so apprehensive of the absolute Soveraignty of God as Creator and Redeemer and of the Righteousness of his Law and the Goodness of his holy way as that he is firmly Resolved to obey him before all others and doth accordingly give up himself to study his will of purpose that he may obey it and doth walk in these holy waies and hath so far mortified the flesh and subdued the world and the Devil that the Authority and Word of God can do more with him then any other and doth ordinarily prevail against all the perswasion and interest of the flesh so that the main scope and bent of the heart and life is still for God and when he sinneth he riseth again by true Repentance I say that soul and that only shall be Justified in Judgement and be saved 5. That soul that hath such Believing thoughts of the life to come that he taketh the promised blessedness for his portion and is resolved to venture all else upon it and in hope
here The seven and twentieth Excuse God might have hindred my Sin and Damnation if he would Answ. And will you wilfully sin and think to scape because God doth not hinder you The Prince that makes a Law against murder could lock you up and keep you from being a Murderer But are you excusable if he do not We are certain that God could have hindred all the sin and death and confusion and misery that is in the world And we are as certain that he doth not hinder it but by forbidding it and giving men means against it And we are certain that he is Just and Good and Wise in all and not bound to hinder it And what his Reasons are you may better know hereafter In the mean time you had been better have looked to your own Duty The eight and twentieth Excuse How could I be saved if Christ did not dye for me He dyed but for his Elect and none could be saved without his Death Answ. He did dye for you and for more than his Elect though he Absolutely purposed only their salvation Your sins crucified him and your debt lay upon him and he so far ransomed you that nothing but your wilful refusal of the benefits could have condemned you The nine and twentieth Excuse It was Adams sin that brought me into this Depravedness of will which I can neither cure nor could prevent Answ. 1. If Adam cast away his holiness he could no more convey that to us which he cast away then a Nobleman that is a Traytor can convey his lost Inheritance or Honours to his son 2. You perish not only for your Original sin but for Rejecting the Recovering mercy of the Redeemer you might have had Christ and Life in him for the Accepting The thirtieth Excuse God will require no more than â—e gives He gave me not Grace to Repent and Believe and without his gifts I could not have it Answ. 1. God will justly require more than he giveth that is The improvement of his Gâ—fts as Mat. 25. shews He gave Adam but a Power to persevere and not Actual perseverance Yet did he justly punish him for want of the Act even for not using by his own will the Power which he had given him 2. It is long of your self if God did not give you Grace to Believe It was because you wilfully refused some preparatory Grace Christ found you at a great distance from him and he gave you Grace sufficient to have brought you neerer to him than you were you had grace sufficient to have made you better than you were and restrained many sins and brought you to the means when you turned your back on them Though this were nâ—t sufficient to cause you to Believe it was sufficient to have brought you neerer to Believing and through your own wilfulness became not Effectual Even as Adam had sufficient grace to have stood which was not Effectual So that you had not only Christ offered to you if you would but Accept him but you had daily and precious helps and means to have cured your wills and caused you to Accept him for neglect of which and so for not believing and so for all your other sins you Justly perish The one and thirtieth Excuse Alas man is a worm a dry leaf Job 13.25 a silly foolish creature and therefore his Actions be not regardable nor deserve so great a punishment Answ. Though he be a worm and as nothing to God and foolish by sin yet is he naturally so noble a creature that the Image of God was on him Gen. 1.26 and 5.1 Jam. 3.9 and the world made his servants and Angels his attendants Heb. 1.14 so noble that Christ dyed for him God takes special care of him He is capable of knowing and enjoying God and heaven is not thought too good for him if he will obey And he that is capable of so great Good must be capable of as great Evil and his waies not to be so overlooked by that God that hath undertaken to be his Governor When it tendeth to Infidelity the Devil will teach you to Debase man even lower than God would do The two and thirtieth Excuse Sin is no Being and shall men be damned for that which is nothing Answ. 1. It is such a mode as deformeth Gods creature It is a moral Being It is a Relation of our actions and hearts to Gods will and Law 2. They that say sin is nothing say Pain and Loss is nothing too You shall therefore be paid with one nothing for another Make light of your misery and say It is nothing as you did of your sin 3. Will you take this for a good Excuse from your children or servants if they abuse you Or from a Thief or Murderer shall he escape by telling the Judge that his sin was Nothing Or rather have death which is nothing as the just Reward of it The three and thirtieth Excuse But sin is a Transient thing At least it doth God no harm and therefore why should he do us so much harm for it Answ. 1. It hurts not God because he is above hurt No thanks to you if he be out of your reach 2. You may Wrong him when you cannot Hurt him And the wrong deserves as much as you can beare If a Traytor endeavour the death of the Prince in vain his endeavour deserves death though he never hurt him You despise Gods Law and Authority you cause the Blaspheming of his name Rom. 2.24 He calls it A pressing him as a Cart is pressed with sheaves Amos 2.13 and a grieving of him 3. And you wrong his Image his Church the publike good and the souls of others The four and thirtieth Excuse But Gods nature is so Good and Merciful that sure he will not damn his own creature Answ. 1. A merciful Judge will hang a man for a fault against man By proportion then what is due for sin against God 2. All the death and calamity which you see in the world comes from the anger of this merciful God why then may not future misery come from it 3. God knoweth his own mercy better then you do and he hath told you how far it shall extend 4. He is infinitly merciful but it is to the Heirs of mercy Not to the final Rejecters of his mercy 5. Hath not God been merciful to thee in bearing with thee so long and offering thee Grace in the blood of Christ till thou didst wilfully reject it Thou wilt confess to thy everlasting wo that â—od was merciful Had he not been so merciful thou wouldst not have been so miserable for rejecting it The five and thirtieth Excuse I would not so Torment mine enemy my self Answ. No reason you should Is it all one to wrong you and to wrong the God of Heaven God is the only Judge of his own wrongs The six and thirtieth Excuse All men are sinners and I was but a sinner Answ. All were not Impenitent Unbelieving