Lord we would fain have drawn them with us to hear the word and to read it and to pray in their families and to santifie the holy day and take such happy Opportunities for their souls But we could not get them to it we did in our places what we were able to give them the Example of a Godly Conversation and they did but deride us they were readier to mark every slip of our lives and to observe all our Infirmities and catch at any Accusation that was against us then to follow us in any work of holy obedience or care for our everlasting peace The Lord knows it is a most heavy thing to consider now that poor neighbours must be fain to come in against those they love so dearly and by their Testimony to Judge them to pâ—rdition Oh heavy case to think of that a master must witness against his own servant Yea a husband against his own wife and a wife against her husband yea parents against their own children and say Lord taught them â—hy word but they would not learn I told them what would come on it if they returned not to thee I brought them to â—ermons and I prayed with them and for them I frequently minded them of thâ—se everlasting things and of this dreadfull day which they now see But youthful lusts and the temprations of the flash and the Devil led them away and I could never get them throughly and soundly to lay it to their hearts Oh you that are parents and friends and neighbours in the fear of God bestir you now that you maâ— not be put to this at that day of Judgement Oh give them no rest take no nay of them till you have perswaded their hearts from this word to God lest you be put to be their condemners it must be now that you must prevent it or else never now while you are with them while you and they are in the flesh together which will be but a little while Can you but now prevail with them all will be well and you may meet them Joyfully before the Lord. 3. Another wittness that will testifie against the ungodly at that day will be their sinful companions those that drew them into sin or were drawn by them or joyned with them in it Oh little do poor drunkards think when they sit merrily in an Ale house that one of them must bear witness against another and condemn one another If they thought of this me thinks it should make them have less delight in that company Those that now joyn with you in wicked ness shall then be forced to witness I confess Lord I did hear him swear and curse I heard him deride those that feared the Lord and make a jest of a holy life I saw him in the Ale-house when he should be hearing the Word of God or reading or calling upon God and preparing for this day I joyned with him in fleshly delights in abusing thy creature and our own bodies Sinners look your companions in the face the next time you are with them and remember this that I now say that those men shall give in Evidence against you that now are your associates in all your mirth Little thinketh the fornicator and lustful wanton that their sinful mates must then bear witness of that which they thought the dark had concealed and tell their shame before all the world But this must be the fruit of sin It s meet that they who encouraged one another sin should condemn one another for it And marvail not at it for they shall be forced to it whether they will or no Light will not then be hid They maâ— think to have some ease to their consciences by accusing and condemning others When Adam is questioned for his sin he presently accuseth the woman Gen. 3. 1â— when Judas his conscience was awakened he runs to the Pharisees with the money that drâ—w him to it and they cast it back in his own face See thou to it what is that to us Mat. 27. 4 5 6. Oh the cold comfort that sinners will have at that day and the little pleasure that they will find in remembring their evil waiâ—s Now when a fornicator or a worlding or a merry voluptuous man is grown old and cannot act all his sin again he takes pleasure in remembring and telling others of his former folly what he once was and what he did and the merry hours that he had but then when sinners are come to themselves a little more they will remember and tell one another of these things with another heart Oh that they did but know now how these things will then affect them 4. Another witness that will then rise up against them will be the very Devils that tempted them They that did purposely draw them to sin that they might draw them to Torment for sin They can witness that you harkned to their Temptations when you would not harken to Gods Exhortations They can witness that you obeyed them in working Iniquity But because you may think the Accusers Testimony is not to be taken I will not stand on this Though it is not nothing where God knoweth it to be true 5 The very Angels of God also may be witnesses against the wicked Therefore are we advised in Scriputre not to sin before them Eccl. 5. 6. 1 Cor. 11. 10. 1 Tim. 5. 21. I charge thee before the Elect Angels c. They can testifie that they would have been ministring Spirits for their good when the wicked rather chose to be slaves to the Spirit of malitiousness The holy Angels of God do many a time stand by you when you are sinning They see you when you see not them they are imployed by God in some sort for your good as well as we And as it is the grief of Ministers that their labours succeed not so may we suppose that according to their state and nature it is theirs For the that Rejoyce in heaven at the conversion of one sinner may be said to sorrow or to lose those joyes when you refuse to be converted These noble Spirits these Holy and Glorious attendants of Christ that shall wait upon him to Judgement will be Witnesses against Rebellious sinners to their Confusion â—irs you have all in you naturally a fear of Spirits and invisible powers Fear them aright lest hearkening to the deceiving Spirits and refusing the help of the Angels of God and wilfully sinning before their faces you should cause them at that day to the terrour of your souls to stand forth as witnesses against you to your Condemnation 6 Conscience it self will be most effectual witness against the wicked at that day I before told you it will be a Discerner and force them to a Confession But a further office it hath even to witness against them If none else in the world had known of their secret sins conscience will say I was acquainted with them 7. The spirit of Christ
to his dispose and service If custom bid thee curse and swear and Christ forbid thee which dost thou obey If thy Appetite bid thee take thy cups and fare deliciously every day If thy company bid thee play the good-fellow or scorn the Godly If thy covetousness bid thee love the world and Christ forbid thee which dost thou obey If Christ bid thee be Holy and walk precisely and be violent for Heaven and strive to enter in and the world and the flesh be enemies to all this and cry it down as tedious folly which dost thou obey Dost thou daily and spiritually worship him in private and in thy Family and teach thy Children and Servants to fear the Lord I intreat you Sirs deal truly in answering these Questions never man was saved by the bare title of a Christian If you are not subject to Christ you are not Christians no more then a Picture or a Carcase is a man and your salvation will be such as your Christianity is subjection is an essential part of thy Faith and obedience is its fruit In short then dost thou make him thy fear and tremble at his word Darest thou run upon fire or water sword or canon rather then wilfully run upon his displeasure wouldst thou rather displease thy dearest friend the greatest Prince or thine own flesh then wittingly provoke him When Christ speaks against thy sweetest sin thy nature or custom or credit or life against thy rooted opinions or thy corrupt traditions Art thou willing to submit to all that he revealeth Dost thou say Speak Lord for thy Servant heareth Lord what wouldst thou have me to do I am ready to do thy will O God Beloved Hearers This is the frame of every Servant of Christ and this is the acknowledging and accepting him for your Lord. I beseech you cozen not your souls with shews and formalities if ever you be saved without this subjection it must be without Christs merits or mercy It must be in a way that Scripture revealeth not â—nay it must be in despite of God his truth must be falsified his power must be mastered before the disobedient can be saved from his wrath 2 Examine also your Dependence on Christ whether you kiss his Hands as well as his Feet Do you understand that you are all by nature Condemned men and lyable to the everlasting wrath of God that Christ hath interposed and paid this Debt and bought us as his own by the satisfaction of that justice that all things are now delivered into his hands John 1â— â— and he is made Head over all things to his Church Ephes 1. 21 22. Dost thou take him for thy onely Saviour and believe the History of his Life and Passion the truth of his divine and humane nature his Resurrection his Office and his approaching Judgement Dost thou see that all thy supposed Righteousness is but vanity and sin and that thy self art unable to make the least satisfaction to the Law by thy Works or Sufferings and if his blood do not wash thee and his righteousness justifie thee thou must certainly be damned yet and perish for ever Dost thou therefore cast thy self into his arms and venture thy everlasting state upon him and trust him with thy soul and fetch all thy help and healing from him When sin is remembred and thy Conscience troubled and the fore-thoughts of judgement do amaze thy soul dost thou then fetch thy comfort from the view of his blood and the thoughts of the Freeness and Fulness of his Satisfaction his Love and Gospel-offers and promises Dost thou so build upon his promise of a Happiness hereafter that thou canst let goe all thy happiness here and drink of his Cup and be baptized with his Baptism and lose thy life upon his promise that thou shalt save it Canst thou part with goods and friends and all that thou hast in hope of a promised Glory which thou never sawest If thou canst drink with him of the Brook in the way thou shalt also with him lift up the head Psal 110 v. last Dost thou perceive a Mediator as well as a God in all thy mercies both special and common and tast his blood in all that thou receivest and wait upon his hand for thy future supplies Why this is kissing the hand of Christ and depending upon him O how contrary is the Case of the World whose confidence is like the Samaritans worship they trust God and their Wits and Labours Christ and their supposed Merits I would I might not say Christ and deceit and wicked contrivances Oh blasphemous joyning of heaven and hell to make up one foundation of their trust 3. Examine a little also your love to Christ Do you thus kiss the Son do your souls cleave to him and embrace him with the strongest of your affections Sirs though there is nothing that the blind world is more confident in then this that they love Christ with all their hearts yet is there nothing wherein they are more false and faulty I beseech you therefore deal truly in answering here Are your hearts set upon the Lord Jesus do you love him above all things in this World do you stick at your answer do you not know sure then at best you love him but little or else you could not choose but know it Love is a stirring and sensible Affection you know what it is to love a Friend Feel by this Pulse whether you live or dye Doth it beat more strongly toward Christ then to any thing else Never question man the necessity of this he hath concluded If thou love any thing more then him thou art unworthy of him nor canst be his Disciple Are thy thoughts of Christ thy freest and thy sweetest thoughts are thy speeches of him thy sweetest speeches when thou awakest art thou still with him and is he next thy heart when thou walkest abroad dost thou take him in thy thoughts canst thou say and lye not that thou wert ever deeply in love with him that thou dost love him but as heartily as thou lovest thy friend and art as loth to displease him and as glad of his presence and art as much troubled at his strangeness or absence Hath thy Minister or godly Acquaintance ever heard thee bemoaning thy soul for want of Christ or inquiring what thou shouldst do to attain him or thy Family heard thee commending his excellency and labouring to kindle their affections towards him why love will not be hid when it hath its desire it will be rejoycing and when it wants it will be Complaining Or at least Can thy Conscience witness thy longings thy groans thy prayers for a Christ Wilt thou stand to the Testimony of these Witnesses Do you love his weak his poor despised Members Do you visit them cloath them feed them to your power not only in a Common Natural Compassion to them as they are your Neighbors but do you love or relieve a Prophet in the name of a
can witness against the ungodly that he oft moved them to Repent and Return and they rejected his motions that the spoke to their hearts in secret and oft set in with the Minister and often minded them of their case and perswaded them to God but they resisted quenched and grieved the Spirit Acts 7. 51. As the Spirit witnesseth with the Spirits of the righteous that they are the children of God Rom. 8. 16. so doth he witness with the Conscience of the wicked that they were children of Rebellion and therefore are justly children of wrath This Spirit will not alway strive with men at last being vexed it will prove their enemy and rise up against them Gen. 6. 3. Isa 63. 10. If you will needs Grieve it now it will Grieve you then Were it not a Spirit of Grace and were it not free mercy that it came to offer you the Repulse would not have been so condemning nor the witness of this Spirit so heavy at the last But it was the Spirit of Jesus that came with recovering Grace which you resisted And though the wages of every sin is death yet you will find that it will cost you somewhat more to Reject this salvation than to break the Creators â—aw of works Kindness such Kindness will not be rejected at easie rates Many a good motion is now made by the Spirit to the Heart of a sinner which he doth not so much as once observe and therefore doth not now Remember them But then they shall be brought to his Remembrance with a witness Many a thousand secret motions to Repentance to Faith to a Holy Life will be Then set before the eyes of the poor unpardoned trembling sinner which he had quite forgotten And the Spirit of â—od shall testifie to his Confusion At such a Sermon I perswaded thy heart to Repent and thou wouldst not At such a time I shewed thee the evil of thy sin and perswaded thee to have forsaken it but thou wouldst not I minded thee in thy secret thoughts of the neerness of Judgement and the Certainty and Weight of everlasting things the need of Christ and faith and holyness and of the Danger of sinning but thou didst drown all my motions in the cares and pleasures of the world Thou harknedst rather to the Devil than to me The sensual inclinations of thy flesh did prevail against the strongest Arguments that I used Though I shewed Reasous undenyable Reasons from thy Creator from thy Redeemer from nature from grace from heaven and from hell yet all would not so much as stop thee much less turn thee but thou wouldest go on Thou wouldest follow thy flesh and now let it pay thee the wages of thy folly Thou wouldest be thy own guide and take thine own Course and now take what thou gettest by it Poor sinners I beseech you in the fear of God the next time you have any such motions from the Spirit of God to Repent and Believe and Break off your sins and the Occasions of them consider then what a mercy is set before you and how it will confound you at the day of Judgement to have all these motions brought in against you and that the Spirit of Grace it self should be your Condemner Alas that men should choose their own Desructon and wilfully choose it and that the foreknowledge of these things should not move them to relent So much concerning the witness that will be brought in against the sinner 5. The fifth Evidence that will be given against the sinner will be The Instruments and Effects You know among men if a man be found murthered by the high-way and you are found standing by with a bloody sword in your hand especially if there were a former dissention between you it will be an Evidence that will prove a strong presumption that you were the Murderer But if the fact be certain by other Evidence then many such things may be brought for aggravation of the fault So a twofold Evidence will be brought against the sinner from these things One to prove him guilty of the fact the other to Aggravate the fault and prove that his sin was very great For the former 1. The very creatures which sinners abused to sin may be brought in against them to their Conviction and Condemnation For though these creatures shall be consumed with the last destroying Fire which shall consume all the world yet they shall have a Being in the memory of the sinner an esse Cognitum The very Wine or Ale or other liquor which was abused to drunkenness may witness against the Drunkard The sweet morsels by which the Glutton did please his Appetite and all the good creatures of God which he luxuriously devoured may witness against him Luke 16. 19. 25. He that fared deliciously every day in this life was told by Abraham when he was dead and his soul in Hell Remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comfored and thou art tormented Though their sweet morsels and cups are past and gone yet must they be Remembred at Judgement and in Hell Remember Son saith Abraham Yea and Remember he must whether he will or no Long was the Glutton in sinning and many a pleasant bit did he taste and so many Evidences of his sin will lie against him and the sweetness will then be turned into gall The very cloathing and ornaments by which Proud person did manifest their Pride will be sufficient Evidence against them as his being clothed with Purple and fine Linnen is mentoned Luke 16. 19. The very Lands and goods and houses of worldlings will be an Evidence against them Their Gold and Silver which the covetous do now prefer before the everlasting Riches with Christ will be an Evidence against them James 5. 1 2 3 4. Go to now ye Rich men weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you Your Riches are corrupted and your Garments moath-eaten Your Gold and Silver is cankered and the Rust of them shall be a Witenss against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire Ye have heaped Treasure together for the Last daies Behold the hire of the Laborers which have reaped down you fields which is of you kept back by fraud cryety and the cryes of them which have reaped are entred into the ears of the Lord of Sabboth Ye have lived in pleasure on the Earth and been wanton Ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter Oh that worldlings would well consider this one Text and therein observe whether a life of earthly pleasure and fulness of worldly Glory and Gallantry be as desirable as they imagine and to what Time and Purpose they now lay up their Treasures and how they must hear of these Things hereafter and what effect the review of their Jovial daies will have upon their miserable condemned souls 2. The very circumstances of Time Place and the
a fleshly heart a heavenly or au earthly heart Look now upon all the course of thy life and see whether thou didst live to me or to the world and thy flesh Oh how easily will God convince men then of the very sins of their thoughts and in their secret Closets when they thought that no witness could have disclosed them Therefore it s said that the Books shall be opened and the dead Judged out of the books Revel 20. 12. Dan. 7. 10. The second Evidence will be the knowledge of the Judge If the sinner would not be convinced yet it is sufficient that the Judge knoweth the Cause God needeth no further witness he saw thee committing adultery in secret lying stealing forswearing in secret If thou do not know thy own heart to be unholy it is enough that God knoweth it If you have the face to say Lord when did we see thee hungry c. Mat. 25. 44. yet God will make good the charge against thee and there needeth no more Testimony then his own Can foolish sinners think to lie hid or escape at that day that will now sin wilfully before their Judge that know every day that their Judge is looking on them while they forget him and give up themselves to the world and yet go on even under his eye as if to his face they dared him to punish them 3. The third Evidence will be the sinners Confession God will force their own Consciences to witness against them add their own tongues to confess the Accusation If they do at first excuse it he will leave them speechless yea and condemning themselves before they have done Oh what a difference between their language now and then Now we cannot tell them of their sin and misery but they either tell us of our own faults or bid us look to our selves or deny or excuse their fault or make light of it but then their own tongues shall confess them and cry out of the wilful folly that they committed and lay a heavier charge upon them then we can now do Now if we tell them that we are afraid they are unregenerate and least their hearts are not truly set upon God they will tell us they hope to be saved with such hearts as they have But then Oh how they will confess the folly and falseness of their own hearts You may see a little of their case even in despairing sinners on earth how far they are from denying or excusing their sins Judas cryes out I have sinned in bttraying Innocent blood Mat. 27. 4. out of their own mouth shall they be Judged That very tongue that now excuseth their sin will in their torments be their great Accuser For God will have it so to be 4. The fourth Evidence will be the witness of others Oh how many thousand witnesses might there be produced were there need to convince the guilty soul at that day 1. All the Ministers of Christ that ever preached to them or warned them will be sufficient witnesses against them we must needs testifie that we preached to them the truth of the Gospel and they would not believe it We preached to them the goodness of God yet they set not their hearts upon him we shewed them their sin and they were not humbled We told them of the danger of an unregenerate state and they did not regard us we acquainted them with the Absolute Necessity of holiness but they made light of all We let them know the deceitfulness of their hearts and the need of a close and faithful examination but they would not bestow an hour in such a work nor scarce once be afraid of being mistaken and miscarrying We let them know the vanity of this world and yet they would not forsake it no not for Christ and the hopes of glory We told them of the everlasting felicity they might attain but they would not set themselves to seek it What we shal think of it then the Lord knows but surely it seemeth now to us a matter of very sad consideration that we must be brought in as witnesses against the souls of our neighbors and friends in the flesh Those whom we now unfeignedly love and would do any thing that we were able to do for their good whose welfare is dearer to us then all worldly enjoyments Alas that we must be forced to testifie to their faces for their condemnation Ah Lord with What a heart must a poor Minister study when he considereth this that all the words that he is studying must be brought in for a witness against many of his hearers with What a heart must a Minister Preach when he remembreth that all the words that he is speaking must condemn many if not most of his hearers Do we desire this sad fruit of our Labours No we may say with the Prophet Jer. 17. 16. I have not desired the woful day thou knowest No if we desired it we would not do so much to prevent it we would not study and preach and pray and intreat men that if it were possible we might not be put on such a task And doubtless it should make every honest Minister study hard and pray hard and intreat hard and stoop low to men and be earnest with men in season and out of season that if it may be they may not be the condemners of their peoples souls But if men will not hear and there be no remedy who can help it Christ himself came not into the world to condemn men but to save them and yet he will condemn those that will not yield to his saving work God takes no pleasure in the death of a sinner but rather that he repent and return and live Ezek. 18. 23 32. and yet he will rejoyce over those to do them hurt and destroy them that will not return Deut 28. 63. And if we must be put on such a work he will make us like-minded The Holy Gost tels us that the Saints shall Judge the world 1 Cor. 6. 2 3. and if they must Judge they will Judge as God Judgeth you cannot blame us for it sinners we now warn you of it before hand and if you will not prevent it blame not us but your selves Alas we are not our own Matters As we now speak not to you in our own names so then we may not do what we list our selves or if we might our wills will be as Gods will God will make us Judge you and witness against you Can we absolve you when the righteous God will condemn you when God is against you whose side would you have us be of We must be either against God or you And can you think that we should be for any one against our Maker and Redeemer We must either condemn the Sentence of Jesus Christ or condemn you and is not there more reason to condemn you then him can we have any mercy on you when he that made you will not save you and he
you in the Congregation by the Minister or might have done if you would And if your Parents did neglect you in your youth yet when you came to a fuller use of Reason and heard of the matters of salvation from Gods Word did it not concern you to have looked to your selves and to have redeemed that time which you lost in your youth by doubling your diligence when you came to riper years The Apostles gathered Churches among Heathens that never heard of Christ before and converted many thousand souls that were never once told of a Saviour or the way to salvation till they had past a great part of their lives If you loitered till the latter part of the day it behoved you then to have bestirred your selves the more and not to say Through the fault of my Parents I lost the beginning of my life and therefore I will lose all they taught me not then therefore I will not learn now hav you not seen som of your neighbours who were as ill educated as your selves attain to much knowledge afterwards by their Industry And why might not you have done so if you had been as Industrious as they May not God and Conscience witness that it was because you cared not for knowledge and would not be at pains to get it that you knew no more Speak truth man in the presence of thy Judge was thy heart and mind set upon it Didst thou pray daily for it to God Didst thou use all the means thou couldst to get it Didst thou attend diligently on the word in publike and think of what thou heardest when thou camest home Didst thou go to the Minister or to others that could teach thee and intreat them to tell thee the way to salvation Or didst thou not rather carelesly neglect these matters and hear a Sermon as a common tale even when the minister was speaking of Heaven or of Hell It was not then thine unavoidable Ignorance but thy negligence Yea further answer as in the presence of God Didst thou obey so far as thou didst know Or didst thou not rather sin against that knowledge which thou hadst Thou knewest that the soul was better then the body and everlasting life more to be regarded then this transitory life But didst thou regard it accordingly Thou sure knewest that God was better then the world and Heaven then earth at least thou was told of it But didst thou accordingly value him and love him more Thou knewest sure that there was no salvation without Faith and Repentance and newness of life and yet they were neglected In a word many a thousand sins which were committed and duties that were omitted against thy own Knowledge and Conscience will marr this Excuse The fifth Excuse I lived not under a powerfull Minister to tell me of these things but where there was no Preaching at all Answ And might you not have gone where a powerfull Minister was with a little pains Yea did not the very plain Word that you heard read tell you of these things and might you not have had a Bible your selves and found them there The Sixth Excuse I was a Servant and had no time from my labour to mind these matters I lived with a hard master that required all his own work of me but would allow me no time for the service of God Or else I was a poor man and had a great charge to look after and with my hard labour had much adoe to live so that I had no time for heavenly things Answ 1. Who should be first served God or man What should be first sought after heaven or earth Did not Christ cell thee One thing is necessary Luke 10. 41 42 Was it not as needfull to see that you escape Damnation and get safe to Heaven when this life is ended as to see that you had food and raiment for your selves and yours 2. Did you spend no time in Recreation nor Idleness nor vain talking why might not that at least have been spent about Heavenly things 3. Could you have taken no time from your rest or eating or at other Intermissions Mans Body will not endure so great Labours as have no Intermission And why then might not godliness have been your ease and recreation 4. Or might you not have minded these things even when you were about your labour if you had but a heart to them 5. At least you might have spent the Lords own Day in hearing reading and pondering of these matters when you were forced to forbear your worldly labours even by the wholsom Law of the Land These therefore are all but vain Excuses and God will shortly make thee speak out and plainly confess It was not so much for want of Time or Helps or warning as for want of a heart to use them well I should have found some time though it had been when I should have slept if my heart had been but set upon it The Seventh Excuse Little did I think â—o have seen this day I did not Believe that ever God would be so severe I thought his Threatnings had been but to keep men in awe and I suspected either that the Scripture was not his word or else I thought he would be better then his word I thought all that I heard of another life had been uncertain and therefore was loth to let go a certainty for an uncertainty and lose my present pleasures which I had in hand for the hopes of that which I never did see Answ He that will not know his misery by believing to prevent it shall know it by feeling to endure it You were told and told again what your unbelief would bring you to Did Gods Word make Heaven and Earth doth it support them and secure them and is not his Word sufficient security for you to have trusted your souls upon did you know where was any better security to be had and where was any surer ground for your confidence And did you think so basely and blasphemously of God that he would falsifie his Word lest such as you should suffer and that he was fain to rule the world by a Lye Did God make the world so easily and can he not govern it by true and righteous means what need God to say that which he will not do to awe sinners can he not awe them by Truth is it not just that those should eternally perish that will entertain such desperate thoughts of God and then by such wicked imaginations encourage themselves in sin against him And for the Truth of Scripture God did not bid you believe it without Evidence He stamped on it the Image of his own Purity and Perfection that you might know it by that Image and superscription if you had eyes to see them He sealed it by uncontrouled multitudes of Miracles He delivered it down to your hands by infallible witnesses so that he left you no room for rational Doubting And you knew that the matters
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 of his glory doth seâ— light comparatively by all things in this world and waiteth for it as the end of this life choosing any suffering that God shall call him to rather then to lose his hopes of that felicity and thus persevereth to the end I say that soul and none but that shall be justified in Judgement and escape Damnation In these five marks I have told you truly and briefly who shall be Justified and saved and who shall be condemned at the day of Judgement And if you would have them all in five words they are but the Description of these five Graces Repentance Faith Love Obedience Hope But though I have laid these close together for your use yet lest you should think that in so weighty a case I am too short in the proof of what I so determine of I will tell you in the express words of many Scripture Texts who shall be Justified and who shall be condemned John 3. 3. Except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Heb. 12. 14. Without holiness none shall see God Luk. 13. 3 5. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Acts 26. 18. I send thee to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an Inheritance among the sanctified by Faith that is in me Joh. 3. 15 16. 17 18 19. Whoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life he that believeth on him is not condemned he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not Believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God and this is the condemnation that light is come in to the world and men loved darkness rather then light because their deeds were evil John 5. 28 29. The hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shal hear his voice shall come forth they that have done good to the Resurrect on of life and they that have done evil to the Resurrection of damnation Mat. 25. 30. Cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness there shal be weeping gnashing of Teeth Lu. 19 27. But those mine enimies which would not that I should raign over them bring hither and slay them before me Mat 22. 12. 13. Friend how camest thou in hither not having on a wedding gatment And he was speechless Then said the King to the servants Bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer darkness c. Mat. 5. 20. For I say unto you that except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of heaven Mat. 7. 21. Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven Heb. 5. 6. He is become the Author of eternall salvation to all them that obey him Rev. 22. 14. Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in by the Gate into the City Rom. 8. 1. 13. There is then no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit For if ye live after the flesh ye shall dye but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Rom. 8. 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Gal. 5. l8 But if ye be Led of the Spirit ye are not under the Law Gal. 6. 7. 8. Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap for he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap Corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit read life Everlasting Matth. 6. 21. For where your Treasure is there wil your heart be also Read Psal 1. and many other Texts to this purpose of which some are cited in my Directions for Peace of Conscience Dir. 11. p. 115. 116. And thus I have told you from Gods Word how you may know whether you are ready for Judgement which is the fourth thing that I would advise you to enquire after O Sirs what shift do you make to keep your souls from Continual Terrours as you as long remain unready for Judgement How do you keep the Thoughts of it out of your mind that they do not break your sleep and meet you in your business and haunt you every way you go while Judgement is so neer and you are so unready But I shall proceed to say next Question Qu. 5 AND in the last place to those of you that are not yet Ready nor in a Condition wherein you may safe at that day ' my Question is How are you resolved to prepare for Judgement for the time to come Will you do no more than you have done hitherto Or will you now set your selves with all your might to make preparation for so great a day me thinks you should be now past all demurs delays or further doubtings about such a business and by the consideration of what I have said already you should be fully Resolved to lose no more time but presently to awake and â—eâ— upon the work Me thinks you should all say We will do any thing that the Lord shall Direct us to do rather then we will be unready for this final doom O that there were but such hearts in you that you were truly willing to follow the gracious Guidance of the Lord and to use but those sweet and reasonable means which he hath prescribed you in his Word that you may be ready for that day Alas it is no hard matter for me to tell you or my self what it is that we must do if we will be happy and it is no very hard matter to Do it so far ar we are truly willing but the difficulty is to be truly and throughly willing to this work If I shall tell you what you must do for preparation shall I not lose my labour Will you resolve and promise in the strength of Grace that you will faithfully and speedily endeavour to practise it whoever shall gainsay it Upon hope of this I will set you down some brief Directions