is no ambiguity the word that signifieth to commend by way of praise is either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Luke 16.8 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 8.8 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 5.8 and 16.1 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 3.1 and 5.12 but the word used to signifie commending by way of trust is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Luke 23.46 Acts 14.23 and that is the word here used in the Text I commend you that is I resigne you over I deliver you up I commit you to the Trust of God That is the second thing the Act. The Third thing is the Subject of this Act or the persons thus commended You amplified by their relative compellation Brethren Brethren I commend you to God It is clear that this relates to the Elders of the Church of Ephesus and it is probable that some of the Vulgar some of the Plebs might be there also especially if they understood that Paul now sent for the Elders to take his last leave of them doubless some of the Brethren and Church-Members would willingly put themselves to the trouble of so small a journey to be present at this solemn parting and if you consider well the words of the 20 25 27 verses methinks it is more than probable that there were present upon the place some of Pauls ordinary hearers and ordinary members of the Church as well as the Elders therefore we may safely conclude that this you Brethren includes both Elders and People Brethren I commend you The fourth thing considerable is the Person to whom he doth thus commend these Brethren and that is first to God the Wise the Gracious the Faithful the Almighty God The same God to whom with my Lord and Master Jesus Christ I would commend my spirit if I were now a dying into his hands I commend you I commend you principally and in the first place to God and then secondly and subordinately to the Word of his Grace as a powerful means and nstrument of God unto you Brethren I commend you to God and the Word of his Grace Fiftly You have here the Eulogie of this word which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among them that are sanctified which clause may either refer to God I commend you to God who is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among them that are sanctified or to the Word of hic Grace I commend you to God and the Word of his Grace which is able to build you up c. and so in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is God is able by his Word to build you up and bring you to Heaven Or The Word of God is able to build you up in Grace and bring you to Glory Lastly You have the time when Paul doth thus studiously and solemnly commend the Brethren to God and to the Word of his Grace and that is Now Now that I am departing from you never to see your faces more Now that after my departure grievous Wolves shall enter among you Now Brethren I commend you to God and to the Word of his Grace which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified Which words will afford variety of Observations First For the term of Compellation Brethren This term Brother or Brethren saith Hierom quadrupliciter accipitur is taken four manner of wayes 1. First For those that are born of the same Parents 2. Secondly For those that are of the same Linage though not of the same immediate Parents those whom we call Cousins are usually in Scripture called Brethren and Sisters 3. Thirdly For those of the same Nation 4. Fourthly For those of the same Religion and Profession 5. To which we may add fifthly For those of the same place and co-habitations Thus Lot calls the men of Sodom Brethren Gen. 19.7 6. Sixthly They are called Brethren that are of a like quality and disposition so Prov. 18.9 He that is slothful in his work is Brother to him that is a great waster Here it is used upon no other but upon a Religious Account The Apostle calls these Persons here present Brethren because he and they had one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father therefore Brethren If we suppose this Compellation used to the Elders of the Church of Ephesus then we may reade in it the exceeding great humility and condescension of the blessed Apostle Paul who though he was advanced to an Office and Dignity of highest Eminency of any that ever Christ instituted in his Church even the Office of an Apostle which is another manner of Title and Dignity than that either of Bishop or Arch-Bishop or Patriarch or Cardinal or Pope And though the Apostle sufficiently understood how to magnifie this Office of his when necessity or occasion required it Rom. 11.13 yet so modest and humble is the Apostle that he doth not disdain to give unto a company of poor plain Presbyters or Elders of the Church that were in Office and questionless in Gifts and Graces many degrees inferiour to the Apostle yet I say he doth not disdain to give unto them the title and respect of Brethren So that other Apostle Peter whom the Papists forsooth would fain have to be the Prince of the Apostles and Head of the Church see what modest language he useth to the Elders of the Church 1 Pet. 5.1 The Elders that are among you I exhort who am also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fellow-Elder with your selves One would think it would have sounded better and more like the Prince of the Church to have said We will and require you We Peter by divine dispensation Prince of the Apostles Head of the Church the Vicar of Christ to whom the Keys of Heaven are given WE will and require We charge and command the Elders that are among you to feed the Flock of God This indeed is more according to the language and genius of those that pretend to be the Successors of Peter and of the Apostles But those Primitive and purer times knew no such distance betwixt the Ministers of the Gospel nor no such Lordliness of the one over the other the highest Officer in the Church looking upon the lowest as Brethren and Fellow-Elders These gracious and holy Souls had not yet forgotten the Words of their Lord and Master Luke 22.25 The Kings of the Gentiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lord it over them and they that exercise Authority upon them are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Benefactors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But as for you it shall not be so but he that is greatest among you let him be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the younger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And he that is Ruler or Governor among you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Deacon or Minister or Servant The Servants of Christ had not yet forgot these Words of their Lord and
Ultimum Vale OR The Last FAREWEL of a Minister of the Gospel to a beloved People By MATTHEVV NEVVCOMEN M. A. late Preacher of the Gospel to the Church of Christ at Dedham in Essex Now to the English Church at Leyden in Holland Coelum non Animum Coelum ne Animum Non Animum ne Coelum Heb. 13.7 Remember them which have the rule over you who have spoken unto you the Word of God whose Faith follow considering the end of their conversation 2 Pet. 1.12 13. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you alwayes in remembrance of these things though ye know them and be established in the present Truth Yea I think it meet as long as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance London Printed in the Year 1663. Ultimum Vale OR The Last Farewel of a Minister of the Gospel to a Beloved People Acts 20.32 And now Brethren I commend you to God and to the Word of his Grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among them that are sanctified THe blessed Apostle Paul being from all Eternity intended and designed by God to be a glorious President of the Riches and Almightiness of his Pardoning Mercy and Converting Grace as the Apostle tells you 1 Tim. 1.14 God did therefore cause his Grace in the Conversion of Paul not only to abound but to super-abound As it is there expressed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that was a Blasphemer and was a Persecutor and was Injurious being now by the rich and powerful Grace of God converted to be a Believer to be a Preacher to be a Martyr So the Lord Christ tells him at his first appearing to him as himself records it Acts 26.16 I have appeared to thee to make thee a Minister and a Martyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non cuivis competit Every Saint of God is not called to such a degree of Honour as to be made a Minister and a Martyr the first day and that of their conversion No more than every King hath the honour to be a King as soon as he comes into the World But this was the exceeding abundant Grace of God towards Paul above all others Paul had now spent about some eighteen years in the painful and laborious discharge of his Ministry though not without some intermixtures of bitter Sufferings Drops of that great Martyrdom whereby he was to close and seal up his Ministry at last and glorifie God And having it now revealed to him that the time was drawing nigh wherein he must be offered up unto the Sacrifice and Service of that Faith which he had so long preached having visited several of the Churches planted by his own Ministry he now makes hast to Jerusalem though he knew that was the place where the Tragedy of his Suffering was to begin v. 22 23. Having therefore for the more expedition determined to slip by Ephesus for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies and not to touch or enter there for fear of being too long detained among them and yet not willing Insalutatos praeterire to pass by his Christian Friends and Brethren there without so much as saluting them Therefore from Miletus he sends to Ephesus and calls the Elders of the Church thither to Miletus to him ver 17. Ephesus was the Metropolis the cheif City of the lesser Asia where Paul had spent at several times three years in the preaching of the Gospel and by the blessing of God upon those labours had gathered there a Famous and a Glorious Church unto Jesus Christ and had there as in other Churches Acts 14.23 constituted and ordained Elders to whom he resigned the whole Care and Government of those Churches and that by the direction and appointment of the holy Ghost himself It is observed by many and is indeed very obvious and easy to observe that though here be mention of a Metropolis or chief City Ephesus and mention of a Church in that City The Church of Ephesus yet here is no mention of a Metropolitan Bishop or any Bishop at all as certainly there would have been if there had been a Biship or Superintendant over that Church but the Holy-Ghost plainly tels us that that Church was governed by a Consessus Presbyterorum by a company of Elders who did govern Communi Consilio and all and every one of those Elders were equally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that Jure Divino Not one Bishop and the rest of them Elders of an inferior order To these Elders thus assembled Paul gives his Ultimum Vale in this pathetical parting speech Wherein First He looks back to the course of his Ministry already past among them ver 18.21 Secondly He looks forward to his approaching Suffering and Martyrdom ver 22 23 24. Where he sheweth that he was a Martyr Animo Voto Proposito already Thirdly He tels them this is the last time that ever they shall behold him ver 25. And as Samuel when he was laying down his Office of Magistracy appeals to the People concerning his integrity in the Magistracy 1 Sam. 12.3 So Paul here appeals to these concerning his uprightness and faithfulness in the discharge of the Ministry Happy are those Magistrates and Ministers that when they are leaving their Office and Imployment can make these appeals Fourthly He exhorts them unto a due care First of themselves and then of the Flock committed to them upon a twofold account First because it was the Flock over which the Holy-Ghost had made them Overseeres Secondly Because it is the Flock which God hath purchased by his own Blood ver 28. Fiftly He enforceth this care and diligence further by a prediction of the danger which he saw threatning the Church and the Flock of Christ among them v. 29 30. Sixthly He resumes the Exhortation again and presseth it under another term of Watching and urgeth it by his own example ver 31. Seventhly He fairly and piously takes his leave of them in ver 32. And afterwards propounds his own example again unto them for imitation and so the action concludes on his part with Prayer ver 36. on their parts with Tears ver 37 38. A solemn and sad parting In the words of the 32. vers you have First The Agent I Paul by the appointment of God a Minister once your Minister now no longer like to be your Minister nor a Minister unless in bonds I Paul There is the Agent Secondly We have the Act Commend Our English word commend is ambiguous sometimes it signifies to praise a person or thing so 2 Cor. 3.1 Do we commend our selves or need we as some others Epistles of commendation to you or Letters of commendation from you Sometimes our English word Commend signifieth to resign or deliver up or commit a person or thing to the care or trust of another so Luke 23.46 Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit But in the Original there
if you would not have the whole work of Grace in your souls decay and run to ruine If any of your now have a house in building and had laid the foundation begun to rear up the building and so let it stand by contented that your work-man should finish at his leasure when he could spare time when he had nothing else to do Would not all the world condemn you as very improvident men and negligent of your own concernments O that men were but as wise for their souls as they are for the world O why should you neglect your souls why should you suffer the building of Grace which God hath begun to rear up in your souls to decay and run to ruine as it will certainly do for Non progredi est regredi Not to go forward is to go backward O therfore be adding daily and doing something in your souls daily Could the Heathen Painter be so intent and industrious upon his trade of Painting that he could say Nulla dies sine lineâ and all that he might excell in that Art And shall not Christians be more intent upon and more industrious in their attendance to the work of Grace in their souls shall any day pass them without something done for their edification and for the carrying on of the work of Grace in their hearts unto more perfection O far be it far be it from every true Christan You Brethren building up your selves in your most holy Faith and praying alwayes in the Holy-Ghost keep your selves in the Love of God But you will say How shall we do that What can we do towards the building up of our selves Why the following Doctrines will tell you that the next whereof is this That the best of Christians have need of the Word of God for their edification and building up Therefore the Apostle here commends even the Elders of Ephesus who were themselves Officers of Christ and Builders in the Church of Christ the Apostle commends them to the Word of Grace so the Apostle exhorts Timothy 1 Tim. 4.13 Till I come give attendance to Reading to Exhortation to Doctrine Give attendance to reading to reading what certainly the holy Scriptures the Word of God Timothy was one that had known the Scriptures of a Child 2 Tim. 3.15 and that had received extraordinary Gifts of the holy Ghost by the laying on of the Apostles hands 2 Tim. 1.6 that was an Evangelist a Preacher of the Gospel to the Gentiles yet even this Timothy though thus qualified gifted and imployed must still give attendance to reading not only reade now then a chapter but give attendance to reading if he means to build up others or to be himself built up in Grace and Holiness So that you see the best of Christans have need of the Word of God for their building up and edification That this was the design and scope of God in causing his Word to be committed to writing is clear in 2 Tim. 3.16 17. All Scripture is given by inspiration from God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness That the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works There is the end why all Scripture was given that the man of God may be built up unto perfection And that this is the end why Christ hath instituted in his Church a publick Ministry for the opening and applying of these Scriptures is clear out of Ephes 4.11 12. And he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ Now if the infinite Wisdom of the Lord Jesus Christ did not know that the best of his Servants would need his Word for their edification and building up He would never have committed his Word first to writing and afterwards have appointed a continual preaching of it in his Church in season and out of season as a means properly subservient to their edification We may conclude therefore That the best of Christians have need of the Word for their edification and building up And this first condemns the Impiety of the Pope I say of the Pope rather than of the Papists for the poor People suffer under this Impiety of the Pope and his Clergy who deprive their Laity as they call them of the use and benefit of the Scriptures making it a Capital crime for any of them to have the Scriptures in any common or ordinary language Italian French Spanish or the like Satan himself could never have invented a more speedy and effectual way for the destroying of souls that this is They pretend indeed for this wickedness of theirs reverence to the Scriptures and care of souls they would not they say have the Scriptures polluted and prophaned by being made common and handled with unwashed and unholy hands therefore they suffer none to deal with the Scriptures but men in holy Orders and they are afraid lest by putting the Scriptures into vulgar hands they should but put a knife into the hand of a child or mad-man wherewith to wound and destroy themselves wresting the Scriptures to their own destruction But O how foolish is the wisdom of man when it would exalt it self above the Wisdom of God! Did not God know how to provide for the Honour and Majesty of his Sacred Word and for the good and well-fare of poor Souls if the Word were exposed to the view and use of the meanest and lowest of People Why then were the Scriptures of the Old Testament written to the Church of the Jews in the Hebrew tongue which every man woman and child spake and understood and why where the Scriptures of the New-Testament written to the Churches of the Gentiles in the Greek tongue which was the proper and maternal language of most of the Churches we reade of in the New-Testament and generally understood by all to whom the Gospel was at first preached and what mean all those Commandments both in the Old New Testament for reading meditating and searching the Scriptures and those promises of Blessing to them that so do made and given promiscuously unto all if all may not yea ought not to reade the Scriptures And why did the Apostles guided by the Spirit of God direct and intitle their Epistles not to Bishops and Church Officers only but even to the whole Church the Plebs and all if the Plebs might not reade the Scriptures And why doth John write his Canonical Epistle to the Elect Lady and to Gaius a private Christian if Ladies and private Christians might not reade Canonical Scripture And why do Chrysostom Hierom Austin and others of the glorious Lights of the antient Church so vehemently exhort their People and Auditors to the reading and study of the Scriptures had these men no care of the Honour of the Scriptures or the good of the Soul Apage Away with these pretences
spiritual sense God only is your Father he it is that begets you of his own good will by the Word of Truth Jam. 1.18 Though indeed that Word be dispensed by us as instruments and when he hath thus begotten you he is pleased to trust and honour us so far as to make us Foster-Fathers and Nursing-Fathers to you and this cannot but beget some kind of Affections and Respect in us to you and in you to us as there is between Nurse-Fathers and Nurse-Children and a lothness to part But I beseech you consider If a King that hath had a Child at Nurse some years in a private house judge it convenient to part the Child and Nurse one from another and the Nurse-Father upon notice given of the King's mind carries the Child home and delivers it up into the King 's own arms who is the true and proper Father and is a thousand times better able to provide for the Child than the Nurse-Father and more engaged to do it too hath this poor Child any hurt or any cause to complain or to cry after the Nurse-Father I will go home to my Father again Think my Brethren the case is the same here We have been Nursing-Fathers to you for some time God seeth it fit to make a change who are we that we should murmur or find fault or what cause have you to complain We resign you up into the hands of your Father and our Father your God and our God Why should you cry after us are you not well enough can you be better than in the arms of your dear gracious and mercifull Father Obj. But what shall we do for Ordinances how shall we live who shall feed and nourish our poor souls Ans You that do indeed love and prize and hunger after the Ordinances I will say to you as Abram did in another care My son God will provide As for the rest of you you that neither loved the Ordinances while you had them nor have been at all quickened by the withdrawing of them what God will do with you I cannot tell But you that love and prize the Ordinances I say to you concerning your souls as our Saviour concerning your bodies Take no thought what you shall eat and what you shall drink nor how your poor souls shall live in a time of straitness and scarcity That God that when Israel were in such a place as they could neither sow nor reap fed them with bread from Heaven that God if he bring you into such a condition as you can neither enjoy Word nor Sacraments will feed you too with hidden Manna that shall be better than Word and Sacraments that God who multiplied the Meal in the Widows barrel and the Oyl in her cruse that though her stock was little yet it served turn and lasted as long as the famine lasted So I dare confidently say it shall be with you that fear God in Truth and love his Ordinances in sincerity the less your stock of Grace in your own eyes be be it very little and small it shall hold out till you come to Heaven your handful of Meal and your cruise of Oyl shall not fail As for the rest of People in this Place and Nation what God will do with them I know not I am loth to speak what I see cause to fear even concerning this very place But I shall commend you to God after I have spoken a little of what follows And the Word of his Grace Mark here the Apostle doth not say I commend you to God and the impulse of his Spirit or I commend you to God and the Light within or I commend you to God and the Traditions of men or I commend you to God and the Customs and Orders of the holy Church No these are some of them uncertain others of them unprofitable things But we have a more sure Word 2 Pet. 1.19 A profitable Word a Word able to make wise to Salvation even the Holy Scriptures and to this next under God and in joynt co-operation with God for the good of their souls doth the Apostle commend these Christians I commend you to God and the Word of his Grace From thence observe That the Word of God it is the Word of God's Grace So we find it stiled not onely here but in Acts 14.3 They gave testimony to the Word of his Grace So in chap. 20. ver 24. it is called The Gospel of the Grace of God And the Word of God is the Word of his Grace upon this fourfold account Reas 1. Because it comes from Grace It was the meer Free-Grace of God that moved him to reveal and give forth this Word of his as a Revelation of himself unto the children of men Adam was at first created in such a condition as he needed not a word without to lead him into the true knowledge of the true God He was created after the Image of God in Knowledge Righteousness and Holiness he had the Law of God written in his heart And as the High Priest of old having the Vrim and Thummim upon his breast needed but cast his eye upon that and he might presently kmow any thing that he had a mind to know of God So Adam in his innocency it was for him but to reflect upon himself to cast his eye inward and presently he might know of God and of his Mind and Will that which he did desire But as the Vrim and Thummim being lost in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians God was pleased as the Rabbins tell us to favour his People with a vocal answer from the Oracle which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bathcol a voice without them instead of inward light and inspiration So this innate light of the knowledge of God being extinct and lost by that universal ruine which the sin of Adam hath brought upon all mankind and all mankind now being nothing but blindness and darkness alienated from the Life of God through the ignorance that is in them Ephes 4.18 able at the best but to feel and grope after God as the Apostles expression is Acts 17.27 even as the men of Sodom when they were struck with blindness groped to find the door of Lot's house til they wearied themselves but were never able to find it Gen. 19.11 So it is with all men now by Nature therefore the Lord who is said to dwell in Light inaccessible 1 Tim. 6.16 and who is a Fountain of pure Light inexhaustible 1 John 1.5 hath pleased to display unto his poor creatures some beams of his own Light and that in such a refracted way as their weak nature may be capable of without being overwhelmed and swallowed up with that Glory And to this end hath treasured up those Beams of Light in his holy Scriptures from whence they dart forth unto us not all at once and in their fulness but gradatim and by little and little as we are able to bear them
I would fain before wepart commend you to God and leave you in the Arms of His everlasting Mercy and the Bosome of his infaite Love And O that I could do this with comfort and with confidence concerning every one of you Concerning some of you I profess I can and that upon the same account that the Apostles commended the Churches unto God in Acts 14.23 They commended them to the Lord on whom they believed Well might the Apostles and with holy boldness commend these Christians to the Lord whom they knew to be Believers whom they knew not only to have given up their names to Christ in an open and visible profession but to have believed in him by a true and lively Faith and to have received him for their LORD and KING as well as for their Priest and Prophet A Minister may deliver up such a People to God with as much confidence and assurance as a man can deliver up his child into the arms of his own dearest and most indulgent father And such are some of you and through Grace many of you Believers not in name only and profession but indeed and in truth and in power Such I can heartily confidently and confortably commend unto God and leave with him in full assurance that He will never leave you nor forsake you in full assurance that however things go in Dedhaw however things go in England however things go with your selves as to the concernments of this life it shall be well with you to Eternity O that I could think thus and speak thus and hope thus of you all But are there not with you even with you also sinners against the Lord are there not some among you whom if a Minister should deal with according to Gosple Rule he should rather deliver to Satan than commend to God Are there not some among you whose Crime and Character if not Name may be found in that black Bill of men excommunicate in Heaven and from Heaven which the Apostle presents you 1 Cor. 6.9 where he reckons up ten several sorts of sinners that are excluded from the Kingdom of God Neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Effeminate nor Abusers of themselves with mankind nor Thieves nor Coveteous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God And are there not some such as these amongst you Are there not some that walk of whom I have told you often and now even tell you weeping that they are enemies to the Cross of Christ whose end is destruction whose belly is their god whose glory is their shame who mind earthly things Phil. 3.18 Do you think a poor Minister after above twenty years spent amongsuch a People in fruitless and unsuccesful labours can with confidence commend such unto God O Sirs what shall I say to you what shall I do for you Parents when they lye a dying and are about to commend as their own souls so their children to God put a difference between good and bad between gracious and graceless children Look over Gen. 49. and you shall and that good old Jacob doth not commend Reuben Simeon and Levi to God in such a manner as he commends Judah Joseph and Benjamin and some other of his children And I have heard of a Godly Parent that having several children whereof one was notoriously wicked and prophane when the Parent lay a dying all the Children were called together to attend at his death and there the Parent gave several Prayers and Blessings to the several Children commending them to God But as for you saith the Parent to one that was wicked and graceless Child as for you I can look for no other but to glorifie God in your just condemnation to Hell at the Day of Judgment A sad speech for a dying Parent to leave at his last words to a poor Child which yet God in infinite mercy turned to good Should I speak thus concerning any of you it would be more grievous to my self than to some of you it may be But the Lord knows this will be the portion of many of God's Ministers in that Great Day the Lord grant it be not mine But many of God's Ministers will be called out as bitter witnesses in that Day against their Peoples souls and God will say unto them Did not such and such live under your Ministry did you not warn them of their sins of their drunkenness fornication uncleanness lying swearing worldliness security neglect of holy Duties Did you not remonstrate to them the evil of their wayes did you not call them invite exhort perswaede them to repentance did you not foretel them of this Day and of the Wrath and Vengeance prepared for sinners did you not acquaint them with my Name did you not promise them Pardon and Forgiveness Heaven and Happiness upon condition of their Repentance Faith and new Obedience O my Brethren when God in the presence of his holy Angels and Saints shall put these interrogatories to-us his poor Ministers that have spoken to you in his Name What shall we say what can we say Must we can we dare we think you to excuse or extenuate your wickednesses lye against the Truth and to our own souls and say we have not warned you we have not admonished you exhorted perswaded you when our consciences know we have and your consciences know it too We must say Lord thou knowest all things and thou knowest we have in some measure of truth through Grace though with much human infirmity sought and desired and endeavoured the salvation of these mens souls as of our own We have many and many a time warned them and that with tears but they would not be warned We have perswaded them with all the arguments our reason helped by thy Grace could invent but they would not be perswaded we have entreated them with all the most urgent and affectionate importunity we could use but they would not be entreated Then will the Lord say unto us his poor Ministers I pronounce you pure and innocent from the blood of these men O blessed O joyful Word for us But as for you He will say unto you Your destruction be upon your own heads Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels O doleful word for you to hear and doleful for us now to think of while we are in this flesh But let me tell you all creature relations and affections shall in the Saints be so swallowed up in the Glory of God and in the joy of their own Salvation that Saints and Angels shall rejoyce in the condemnation of all wicked and ungodly men and with loud acclamations shall sing Hallelujahs Salvation and Glory and Honour and Power unto the Lord our God for True and Righteous are his Judgments But Ah Brethren my hearts desire and prayer is for you all that you may all be saved Shall I therefore be bold with you yea Brethren let me be bold with you in the Lord. I have heard of a very holy and eminently learned and pious man that lying upon his death-bed and having his Children about him Mr. Bolion among other things he used this remarkable expression I charge you saith he that none of you dare to appear before me in the Day of Judgment in an unconverted condition Intimating that if they did he should be one of the first that should stand up as a witness against them Give me leave to use a like expression unto you I a poor unworthy Minister of Jesus Christ yet his Minister unto you I hope for good that have often heretofore admonished and charged you in his Name being now by His Providence to leave you never more to see you faces nor to speak to you in His Name any more I charge you all from the highest to the lowest from the least to the greatest I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at His Appearing and before all the holy Angels who are present and Witnesses to these words I charge you That none of you appear in the Day of Judgment in an unconverted condition lest even these words of mine be brought in on that Day as a Witness against you And now Brethren I commend you to God having thus admonished you thus warned you thus charged you you that are yet in your sins I now commend you to God O that God would make this last Warning this last Admonition this last Charge these last Words more effectual than a thousand others have been That as Sampson slew more Philistines at his death than in all his life so I might be the happy Instrument to save more Souls now at my departure from you than in all my life before I can do no more but commend you to God that God who gives being to things that are not who is able to raise the dead who is able even of stones to raise up children unto Abraham That great and mighty and almighty God shew his Saving Power to you and in you Those that are dead in their sins and trespasses God Almighty quicken you you that are yet hardened in your sins God Almighty humble you soften you change you make you of stones the sons and danghters of Abraham And as for you my dearly beloved Brethren that are converted and in the state of Grace already I commend you to God as unto a gracious reconciled tender merciful indulgent alsufficient Father he will be unto you a little Sanctuary Ezek. 11.16 He will be unto you a place of broad Rivers and Streams Isa 33.21 He hath begun a good Work in you and will perform it to the Day of Christ I am confident Philip. 1.6 Be not anxiously careful what you shall do what shall become of you take heed of Security Luke-warmness leaving your First-Love Remember former Times Do your first Works strengthen the things that remain that are ready to dye And God he is able to keep you and he is faithful and will keep you from falling and present you faultless before the presence of his Glory with exceeding joy Jude 24 25. Now to Him that is able to do this to GOD onely Wise be Glory Majesty Dominion and Power both now and for ever Amen FINIS