Making Light of CHRIST AND SALVATION Too oft the Issue of Gospel-Invitations Manifested in a SERMON Preached at Lawrence-Jury in London By RICH. BAXTER Heb. 2. 34. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation The Second Edition LONDON Printed for Nevil Simmons and sold by most Booksellers 1691. To the READER READER BEing called on in London to Preach when I had no time to study I was fain to preach some Sermons that I had preached in the Country a little before This was one which I preached at S. Lawrence in the Church where my Reverend and faithful Brother in Christ Mr. Richard Vines is Pastor when I came home I was followed by such importunities by Letters to Print the Sermon that I have yielded thereunto though I know not fully the ground of their desires Seeing it must abroad will the Lord but bless it to the cure of thy contempt of Christ and Grace how comfortable may the occasion prove to thee and me It is the sleighting of Christ and Salvation that undoes the World Oh happy man if thou scape but this sin Thousands do split their Souls on this Rock which they should build them on Look into the World among rich and poor high and low young and old and see whether it appear not by the whole scope of their Conversations that they set more by something else than Christ and for all the proclamations of his Grace in the Gospel and our common profesing our selves to be his Disciples and to believe the Glorious things that he hath promised us in another World whether it yet appear not by the deceitfulness of our service by our heartless endeavours to obtain his Kingdom and by our busie and delightful following of the World that the most who are called Christians do yet in their hearts make light of Christ And if so what wonder if they perish by their contempt Wilt thou but soberly peruse this short Discourse and consider well as thou readest of its truth and weight till thy heart be sensible what a sin it is to make light of Christ and thy own Salvation and till the Lord that bought thee be advanced in the estimation and affections of thy Soul thou shalt hereby rejoyce and fulfil the desires of Thy Servant in the Faith RICH. BAXTER Matt. 22. 5. But they made light of it THE blessed Son of God that thought it not enough to die for the World but would himself also be the Preacher of Grace and Salvation doth comprize in this Parable the sum of his Gospel By the King that is here said to make the Marriage is meant God the Father that sent his Son into the World to cleanse them from their sins and espouse them to himself By his Son for whom the Marriage is made is meant The Lord Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God who took to his God-head the nature of Man that he might be capable of being their Redeemer when they had lost themselves in sin By the Marriage is meant The Conjunction of Christ to the soul of Sinners when he giveth up himself to them to be their Saviour and they give up themselves to him as his Redeemed Ones to be saved and ruled by him The perfection of which Marriage will be at the Day of Judgment when the Conjunction between the whole Church and Christ shall be solemnized The word here translated Marriage rather signifieth the Marriage-Feast and the meaning is that the World is invited by the Gospel to come in and partake of Christ and Salvation which comprehendeth both Pardon Justification and Right to Salvation and all other Priviledges of the Members of Christ The Invitation is God's offer of Christ and Salvation in the Gospel The Servants that invite them are the Preachers of the Gospel who are sent forth by God to that end The preparation for the feast there mentioned is The sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the enacting of a Law of Grace and opening a way for revolting Sinners to return to God There is mention of sending second Messengers because God useth not to take the first denyal but to exercise his patience till Sinners are obstinate The first Persons invited are the Jews upon their obstinate Refusal they are sentenced to punishment and the Gentiles are invited and not only invited but by powerful Preaching and Miracles and effectual Grace compelled that is infallibly prevailed with to come in The number of them is so great that the house is filled with the Guests Many come sincerely not only looking at the pleasure of the Feast that is at the Pardon of sin and Deliverance from the Wrath of God but also at the honour of the Marriage that is of the Redeemer and their profession by giving up themselves to a holy Conversation but some come in only for the Feast that is Justification by Christ having not the wedding Garment of sound Resolution for Obedience in their Life and looking only at themselves in Believing and not to the glory of their Redeemer and these are sentenced to everlasting Misery and speed as ill as those that came not in at all seeing a Faith that will not work is but like that of the Devil and they that look to be pardoned and saved by it are mistaken as James sheweth 2. 24. The words of my Text contain a Narration of the ill-entertainment that the Gospel findeth with many to whom it is sent even after a first and second invitation They made light of it and are taken up with other things Though it be the Jews that were first guilty they have too many followers among us Gentiles to this day Doct. For all the wonderful love and mercy that God hath manifested in giving his Son to be the Redeemer of the World and which the Son hath manifested in Redeeming them by his Blood for all his full preparation by being a sufficient sacrifice for the sins of all for all his Personal Excellencies and that full and glorious Salvation that he hath procured and for all his free offers of these and frequent and earnest Invitations of Sinners yet many do make light of all this and prefer their worldly enjoyments before it The ordinary entertainment of all is by contempt Not that all do so or that all continue to do so who were once guilty of it for God hath his chosen whom he will compel to come in But till the Spirit of Grace over-power the dead and obstinate hearts of Men they hear the Gospel as a common story and the great matters contained in it go not to the heart The Method in which I shall handle this Doctrin is this 1. I shall shew you what it is that Men make light of 2. What this sin of making light of it is 3. The cause of the sin 4. The use of the Doctrin 1. The thing that carnal hearers make light of is 1. The Doctrin of the Gospel it self which they hear regardlesly 2. The benefits offered them
grace continue but did you know what a hard and impossible thing it is to be so much as willing to have Christ and Grace when the Heart is given over to it self and the Spirit hath withdrawn its former invitations you would not be so confident of your own strength to believe and repent nor would you make light of Christ upon such foolish confidence If indeed it be so easie a matter as you imagine for a sinner to believe and repent at any time how comes it to pass that it is done by so few but most of the World do perish in their impenitency when they have all the helps and means that we can afford them It is true the thing is very reasonable and easie in it self to a pure nature but while Man is blind and dead these things are in a sort impossible to him which are never so easie to others It is the easiest and sweetest life in the World to a gracious soul to live in the love of God and the delightful thoughts of the life to come where all their hope and happiness lieth But to a worldly carnal Heart it is as easie to remove a Mountain as to bring them to this However these Men are their own condemners for if they think it so easie a matter to repent and believe and so have Christ and right to Salvation then have they no excuse for neglecting this which they thought so easie O wretched impenitent Soul what mean you to say when God shall ask you Why did you not Repent and Love your Redeemer above the World when you thought it so easie that you could do it at any time IV. Use 1. We come now to the Application and hence you may be informed of the blindness and folly of all carnal men how contemptible are their judgements that think Christ and Salvation contemptible and how little reason there is why any should be moved by them or discouraged by any of their scorns or contradictions How shall we sooner know a man to be a fool than if he know no difference between Dung and Gold Is there such a thing as madness in the World if that Man be not mad that sets light by Christ and his own Salvation while he daily toyls for the dung of the earth And yet what pity is it to see that a company of poor ignorant Souls will be ashamed of godliness if such Men as these do but deride them Or will think hardly of a holy life if such as these do speak against it Hearers if you see any set light by Christ and Salvation do you set light by that Man's Wit and by his Words and hear the reproaches of a holy life as you would hear the words of a mad Man not with regard but with a Compassion of his misery Use 2. What wonder if we and our preaching be despised and the best Ministers complain of ill success when the Ministry of the Apostles themselves did succeed i no better What wonder if for all that we can say or do our hearers still set light by Christ and their own Salvation when the Apostles hearers did the same They that did second their Doctrin by Miracles If any Men could have shaken and torn in pieces the Hearts of Sinners they could have done it If any could have laid them at their feet and made them all cry out as some What shall we do it would have been they You may see then that it is not meerly for want of good Preachers that men make light of Christ and Salvation the first News of such a thing as the Pardon of Sin and the Hopes of Glory and the Danger of everlasting Misery would turn the hearts of men within them if they were as tractable in spiritual matters as in temporal But alas it is far otherwise It must not seem any strange thing nor must it too much discourage the Preachers of the Gospel if when they have said all that they can devise to say to win the hearts of men to Christ the most do still slight him and while they bow the Knee to him and honour him with their Lips do yet set so light by him in their hearts as to prefer every fleshly pleasure or commodity before him It will be thus with many let us be glad that it is not thus with All. Use 3. But for closer application Seeing this is the great condemning Sin before we enquire after it into the hearts of our hearers it beseems us to begin at home and see that we who are Preachers of the Gospel be not guilty of it our selves The Lord forbid that they that have undertaken the sacred Office of revealing the Excellencies of Christ to the World should make light of him themselves and slight that Salvation which they do daily preach The Lord knows we are all of us so low in our Estimation of Christ and do this great Work so negligently that we have cause to be ashamed of our best Sermons but should this Sin prevail in us we were the most miserable of all men Brethren I love not censoriousness yet dare not befriend so vile a Sin in my self or others under pretence of avoiding it especially when there is so great necessity that it should be healed first in them that make it their work to heal it in others O that there were no cause to complain that Christ and Salvation are made light of by the Preachers of it But 1. Do not the negligent studies of some speak it out 2. Doth not their dead and drousie Preaching declare it do not they make light of the Doctrin they preach that do it as if they were half asleep and feel not what they speak themselves 3. Doth not the carelesness of some mens private endeavours discover it what do they for Souls how slightly do they reprove Sin how little do they when they are out of the Pulpit for the saving of mens Souls 4. Doth not the continued neglect of those things wherein the Interest of Christ consisteth discover it 1. The Churches Purity and Reformation 2. It s Unity 5. Doth not the covetous and worldly lives of too many discover it losing advantages for mens souls for a little gain to themselves And most of this is because men are Preachers before they are Christians and tell men of that which they never felt themselves Of all men on earth there are few that are in so bad a condition as such Ministers and if indeed they do believe that Scripture which they preach methinks it should be terrible to them in their studying and preaching it Use 4. Beloved hearers the Office that God hath called us to is by declaring the glory of his grace to help under Christ to the saving of mens Souls I hope you think not that I come hither to day on any other errand The Lord knows I had not set a foot out of doors but in hope to succeed in this Work for your Souls I
matters of another World and out of his element and therefore he hath no more delight in them than a Fish would have to be in the fairest Meadow or than a Swine hath in a Jewel or a Dog in a piece of Gold They may be good to others but he cannot apprehend them as suitable to him because he hath a nature that is otherwise inclined he savoureth not the things of the Spirit Rom 8. 5. 4. The main cause of the slighting of Christ and Salvation is a secret root of unbelief in mens hearts Whatsoever they may pretend they do not soundly and throughly believe the Word of God They are taught in general to say The Gospel is true but they never saw the Evidence of its truth so far as throughly to perswade them of it nor have they got their Souls setled on the Infallibility of God's Testimony nor considered of the Truth of the particular Doctrins revealed in the Scripture so far as soundly to believe them Oh did you all but soundly believe the words of this Gospel of the evil of sin of the need of Christ and what he hath done for you and what you must be and do if ever you will be saved by him and what will become of you for ever if you do it not I dare say it would cure the contempt of Christ and you would not make so light of the matters of your Salvation But men do not believe while they say they do and would face us down that they do and verily think that they do themselves There is a root of bitterness and an evil Heart of unbelief that makes them depart from the living God Heb. 2. 12. and 4. 1 2 6. Tell any Man in this Congregation that he shall have a gift of 10000 l. if he will but go to London for it if he believe you he will go but if he believe not he will not and if he will not go you may be sure he believeth not supposing that he is able I know a slight belief may stand with a wicked life Such as men have of the Truth of a Prognostication it may be true and it may be false but a true and sound belief is not consistent with so great neglect of the things that are believed 5. Christ and Salvation are made light of by the World because of their desperate hardness of Heart The Heart is hard naturally and by custom in sinning made more hard especially by long abuse of Mercy and neglect of the means of Grace and resisting the Spirit of God Hence it is that men are turned into such Stones and till God cure them of the stone of the Heart no wonder if they feel not what they know or regard not what we say but make light of all 'T is hard preaching a stone into tears or making a rock to tremble You may stand over a dead body long enough and say to it Oh thou Carcase when thou hast lain roting and mouldring to dust till the Resurrection God will then call thee to account for thy sin and cast thee into everlasting fire before you can make it feel what you say or fear the misery that is never so truly threatned when Mens Hearts are like the High-way that is trodden to hardness by long custom in sinning or like the clay that is hardned to a stone by the heat of those Mercies which should have melted them into Repentance when they have Consciences seared with a hot Iron as the Apostle speaks 2 Tim. 4. 2. no wonder then if they be past feeling and working all uncleanness with greediness do make light of Christ and Everlasting Glory Oh that this were not the case of too many of our Hearers Had we but living Souls to speak to they would hear and feel and not make light of what we say I know they are naturally alive but they are spiritually dead as Scripture witnesseth Eph. 2. 3. Oh if there were but one spark of the life of Grace in them the Doctrin of Salvation by Jesus Christ would appear to them to be the weightiest business in the World Oh how confident should I be methinks to prevail with men and to take them off this World and bring them to mind the matters of another World if I spake but to Men that had Life and Sense and Reason But when we speak to Blocks and dead Men how should we be regarded Oh how sad a case are these Souls in that are fallen under this fearful judgment of spiritual madness and deadness To have a blind Mind and a hard Heart to be sottish and senseless Mar. 4. 12. John 12. 40. lest they should be converted and their sin should be forgiven them 6. Christ and Salvation are made light of by the World because they are wholly enslaved to their sense and taken up with lower things the matters of another World are out of sight and so far from their senses that they cannot regard them but present things are nearer them in their eyes and in their hands There must be a living faith to prevail over sense before Men can be so taken with things that are not seen though they have the Word of God for their security as to neglect and let go things that are still before their eyes Sense works with great advantage and therefore doth much in resisting Faith where it is No wonder then if it carry all before it where there is no true and lively faith to resist and to lead the Soul to higher things this cause of making light of Christ and Salvation is expressed here in my Text One went to his Farm and another to his Merohandize Men have Houses and Lands to look after they have Wife and Children to mind they have their Body and outward Estate to regard therefore they forget that they have a God a Redeemer a Soul to mind These matters of the World are still with them They see these but they see not God nor Christ nor their Souls nor everlasting Glory These things are near at hand and therefore work naturally and so more forcibly but the other are thought on as a great way off and therefore too distant to work on their affections or to be at the present so much regarded by them Their Body hath life and sense and therefore if they want meats or drink or cloaths will feel their want and tell them of it and give them no rest till their wants be supplied and therefore they cannot make light of their bodily necessities but their Souls in spiritual respects are dead and therefore feel not their wants but will let them alone in their greatest necessities and be as quiet when they are starved and languishing to Destruction as if all were well and nothing ailed them And hereupon poor people are wholly taken up in providing for the Body as if they had nothing else to mind They have their Trades and Callings to follow and so much to do from morning
have considered and often considered what is the mater that so many Thousands should perish when God hath done so much for their Salvation and I find this that is mentioned in my Text is the cause It is one of the wonders of the World that when God hath so loved the World as to send his Son and Christ hath made a satisfaction by his death sufficient for them all and offereth the benefits of it so freely to them even without mony or price that yet the most of the World should perish yea the most of those that are thus called by his Word Why here is the reason when Christ hath done all this men make light of it God hath shewed that he is not unwilling and Christ hath shewed that he is not unwilling that men should be restored to God's favour and be saved but men are actually unwilling themselves God takes not pleasure in the death of sinners but rather that they return and live Ezek. 33. 11. But men take such pleasure in sin that they will dye before they will return The Lord Jesus was content to be their Physitian and hath provided them a sufficient plaister of his own blood but if men make light of it and will not apply it what wonder if they perish after all This Scripture giveth us the reason of their perdition This sad experience tells us the most of the World is guilty of It is a most lamentable thing to see how most men do spend their care their time their pains for known vanities while God and Glory are cast aside That he who is all should seem to them as nothing and that which is nothing should seem to them as good as all that God should set mankind in such a race where heaven or hell is their certain end and that they should set down and loyter or run after the childish Toyes of the World and so much forget the Prize that they should run for Were it but possible for one of us to see the whole of this business as the all seeing God doth to see at one view both heaven and hell which men are so near and see what most men in the World are minding and what they are doing every day it would be the saddest sight that could be imagined Oh how should we marvail at their madness and lament their self-delusion Oh poor distracted World what is it that you run after and what is it that you neglect If God had never told them what they were sent into the World to do or whether they were going or what was before them in another World then they had been excusable but he hath told them over and over till they were weary of it Had he left it doubtful there had been some excuse but it is his sealed word and they profess to believe it and would take it ill of us if we should question whether they do believe it or not Beloved I come not to accuse any of you particularly of this crime but seeing it is the commonest cause of mens Destruction I suppose you will judge it the fittest matter for our enquiry and deserving our greatest care for the cure To which end I shall 1. Endeavour the Conviction of the guilty 2. Shall give them such considerations as may tend to humble and reform them 3. I shall conclude with such direction as may help them that are willing to escape the destroying Power of Sin And for the first consider 1. It is the case of most sinners to think themselves freest from those sins that they are most enslaved to and one reason why we cannot reform them is because we cannot convince them of their guilt It is the nature of sin so far to blind and befool the sinner that he knoweth not what he doth but thinketh he is free from it when it reigneth in him on when he is committing it It bringeth men to be so much unacquainted with themselves that they know not what they think or what they mean and intend nor what they love or hate much less what they are habituated and disposed to They are alive to sin and dead to all the Reason Consideration and Resolution that should recover them as if it were only by their sinning that we must know they are alive May I hope that you that hear me to day are but willing to know the Truth of your case and then I shall be encouraged to proceed to an enquiry God will judge impartially why should not we do so Let me therefore by these following Questions try whether none of you are slighters of Christ and your own Salvation And follow me I beseech you by putting them close to your own hearts and faithfully answering them 1. Things that men highly value will be remembred they will be matter of their freest and sweetest thoughts this is a known case Do not those then make light of Christ and Salvation that think of them so seldom and coldly in comparison of other things Follow thy own heart man and observe what it daily runneth out after and then judge whether it make not light of Christ We cannot perswade men to one hours sober consideration what they should do for an interest in Christ or in thankfulness for his love and yet they will not believe that they make light of him 2. Things that we highly value will be matter of our Discourse The judgment and heart will command the tongue Freely and delightfully will our speech run after them This also is a known case Do not those then make light of Christ and Salvation that shun the mention of his name unless it be in a vain or sinful use Those that love not the company where Christ and Salvation is much talked of but think it troublesome precise Discourse That had rather hear some merry Jests or idle Tales or talk of their Riches or Business in the World When you may follow them from morning to night and scarce have a savory word of Christ but perhaps some slight and weary mention of him sometimes judge whether these make not light of Christ and Salvation How seriously do they talk of the World Psal 144. 8 11. and speak vanity but how heartlesly do they make mention of Christ and Salvation 3. The things that we highly value we would secure the possession of and therefore would take any convenient Course to have all doubts and fears about them well resolved Do not those men then make light of Christ and Salvation that have lived twenty or thirty Years in uncertainty whether they have any part in these or not and yet never seek out for the right resolution of their doubts Are all that hear me this day certain they shall be saved Oh that they were Oh had you not made light of Salvation you could not so easily bear such doubtings of it you could not rest till you had made it sure or done your best to make it sure Have you no body