sins because they are against a most easie gracious merciful Law God will more punish for sins against the Gospel than for those sins that are against the Law of nature Sodom sinned against the Law written upon her heart but the Jews they sinned against the Gospel and therefore were the greatest sinners Let Christ be judg I tell you saith Christ it shall be more tollerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the great day than it shall be for you More tolerable why for if they had had the means that you have had they would have repented They had sinned but they had not the means of repentance or at least not such means as you have had for you have had not only the means of the Law to convert yon Oh Jews but you have had the means of the Gospel The means of the Gospel doth as it were lift a people up unto Heaven it bringeth them as near to Heaven as means can bring them and thus was Bethsaida and Corazin lifted up with What with the means of the grace of the Gospel they had the preaching of Christ among them but they did despise these means and continue in their infidelity and therefore were thrown down to Hell as Christ threatned them And saith the Apostle to the Hebrews I am shewing of you that sins against the Gospel are the greatest sins If a trangression against the Law of Moses deserveth death and was punished by death of how much sorer punishment shall they be thought worthy that do neglect so great salvation That is the Gospel-salvation gospel-Gospel-sins are the greatest sins when God punisheth he punisheth for both And now I have spoken to the four parts Application Let me make a short Application and I shall conclude Doth it thus appear that God is the author of all the punishments that are upon a City are you convinced of it my Brethren are you satisfied by what I have said That there is no punishment that befalls any person any family any City but it is of Gods appointing and of Gods executing that is he provideth and seeth to the execution of it Is this true Then you have in the First place a clear and a full information of the author of the burning of your City Who did burn London why what was the burning of London an evil ay and a great one too Was it so Be it then known to all you Londoners saith the Lord you that are the Citizens thereof be it known to you I did burn this City and I do this day own it God doth own it this day God hath burnt it I know you may be ready to be complaining of instruments and surely if there were any they were wicked instruments for as I told you before in several instances God may make use of wicked instruments to do his work to inflict his punishments God made use of lying Prophets to deceive Ahab for to bring Ahabs death about and God made use of Judas his Treason to bring the punishment of the iniquity of us all upon the back of Jesus Christ But my Brethren whoever were the instruments God is the principal efficient Pray will you remember and carry it home with you God did it How did God do it God did decree it it came doubtless according to the determinate counsel of God For as the world was not drowned without an antecedent decree nor Sodom burned without an antecedent decree nor Jerusalem the first and second time destroyed without an antecedent decree so doubtless this City of London did not come to ashes without the decree of God it was before determined in the counsel of God and as God did decree it so God in his Providence took order for all the means that were employed to the burning thereof God had a hand in giving leave to all the lesser wheels to work It was God that by six week or two months hot weather did purposely dry the Houses of London to make them fuel fit for the fire Would you have believed it the weather was the Lords the Lord caused it When it was fired that men wanted wisdom or courage or success to put it out God took away their wisdom God took away their courage God stood by and as it were said Hands off I intend to execute my wrath upon London touch it not let it go on Magistrates do nothing or if you do let it be to no purpose Again God provided a wind that when the fire began at one end God ordered the wind to blow it on to the other end The wind came out of the hollow of Gods hand it was no casual thing no accidental thing my Brethren it was according to the predeterminate Counsel of God That is the first thing if God be the cause of all the evil of punishment then of the burning of London God hath done it who ever was the instrument God was the principal cause Secondly if God burnt London then in the second place let us this day learn to be silent under the hand of God let us not question nor quarrel with his Providence let us not say to the Almighty why hast thou done so Let us not have a thought rise up against him as to charge him foolishly let us be silent nay let us not too eagerly in our passion run out and vent our selves against any that were instruments for that is to do like the Dog that snarls and gnaws the staff and run after the stone and gnaweth the stone but never regards the hand that threw the stone nor the hand that strikes with the staff you vent your anger and wrath against the instruments alas the instruments they were but rods in the hand of Almighty God they were but the stone and the staff alas they were in the hand of God he could have frustrated them if he would but he had so ordered it in his Providence to give men leave to execute their malice upon London let us lay our hanâ—â— upon our mouths and not murmur against the Lord let us acknowledg that since it is the evil of punishment it was a just one for never did City deserve to be burnt as London did Never No say you What do you think of Sodom do you think that we are as bad as they I tell you worse you are worse you are as much worse than Sodom as Bethsaida was worse than Sodom Why wherein was Bethsaida worse because Bethsaida did sin under Gospel-light and so did London Never had a people more of the Gospel than you have had never Ministers more gifted than you have had never a Ministry more drawn out in their affections after your Conversion than you have had and yet London have blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts and would not be converted So that you deserved it more than Sodom and it will be more tolerable for Sodom in the day of Judgment than for you Humble your selves therefore under his mighty hand Why how shall we
WADSWORTH's Remains BEING A COLLECTION Of some few MEDITATIONS With respect to the LORDS SUPPER Three Pious LETTERS when a young Student at Cambridg Two Practical SERMONS much desired by the Hearers Several Sacred Poems and private Ejaculations By that late Eminent Minister of the Gospel Mr. THOMAS WADSWORTH With a PREFACE containing several Remarkables of his Holy LIFE and DEATH from his own Note-book and those that knew him best Heb. 13.7 Remember them which have the rule over you or are the guides to you who have spoken unto you the word of God whose faith follow considering the end of their conversation Aliud est locis communibus laudare defunctum aliud desuncti proprias narrare virtutes Hieronimâ—s in vitâ Hilarionis LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers-Chappel 1680. THE CONTENTS OF THE PREFACE THE Introduction Sect. 1. His Birth and Youth Sect. 2 3. His Life at the Vniversity Sect. 4. His thankefulness to God and resolution from experience Sect. 5 His experimentally differencing 'twixt carnal and spiritual love and joy Sect. 6 7 8 9. His experience upon the discovery of the Divine Majesty Sect. 10. His check to the lightness of his spirit Sect. 11. Observation about doubting and examining Christians Sect. 12 13. About a multitude of sins Sect. 14. About Security Sect. 15. Mortification Sect. 16 17. Rising of pride in the heart Sect. 18. Living above Duties Sect. 19. About a dull and dead state Sect. 20. And enjoyments Sect. 21. Concerning self-abasement and the exercise of humility in speaking Sect. 22. And the shunning of pride Sect. 23. The frame of his spirit in prayer with some special cases about prayer Sect. 24 25 26 27 28 29. About raisedness and dejection removing Objections Sect. 30 31. About carnal reasonings and Satans suggestions Sect. 32. 33. Of Gods love in outward mercies and waiting Sect. 34. Of not meeting God in Ordinances Sect. 35. Of mourning for others sins and praying for mortification of a particular corruption Sect. 36. Of his Call to Newington Sect. 37 38. His observing the fruit of his Ministry Sect. 39. His recommending Catechising Sect. 40. His unwearied and seasonable industry at and removal from Newington Sect. 41. His Lecturing and Preaching in London and ejection at Laurence Poultney Sect. 42. His holy prudent and cheerful conversation with a Case or two about merriness and tentations therein Sect. 43 44 45 46 47. Of raising Christian affections Sect. 48. And outward mercies Sect. 49. Of his Sabbath Sanctification Sect. 50. Of his affections to and prayers for his Relatives with thankefulness Sect. 51. Of his respect to his people and charity Sect. 52. Of his Marriages and Children Sect. 53. Of his Sicknesses Sect. 54. Of his last Sickness Sect 55 56 57 58 59. His Death Sect. 60. His Works formerly published Sect. 61. And his Remains with the Conclusion Sect. 62. SECTION I. TO the Publication of these Remains of that Man of God Mr. Thomas Wadsworth a large Preface of his holy Life and Death would have been acceptable but a Melchior Adam well instructed with materials cannot readily be found who might in a proper stile give him his due Yet as an Addition to what hath been already written by Mr. Bragge in a Sermon and an Epistle to it upon his Funerals by Mr. Baxter and Mr. Parsons Prefactory to the two last Sermons he himself Preached to his people it may not be amiss to acquaint the world II. That he was born of honest Parents Decemb 15. 1630 in the Parish of Saviours or Mary Overees Southwark But it seems whiles an Infant he had such a dangerous Thrush in his Throat that the Milk taken into his mouth not having a right passage came out at his Nose and he was grown so weak within the mouth that they even gave him over for dead Yea the nurse having him on her knee thought to have laid him out as a dead corpse only staid till after Dinner in which space she thinking he had expir'd with a groan he gave a Keck whereupon she presently put her finger into his throat and pull'd out a core which being remov'd open'd a free passage for the breast-milk in this weakness his Parents seeking God earnestly â—or his life did dedicate him to the Ministry if capable as Hannah did her Samuel to the Lord. When his Mother to whom he did evermore shew himself very obedient and of whose tenderness he would speak with thankfulness to the last someâ—imes towards her latter end would say He had â—ost her more pains in bearing and nursing than any â—f her other Children He would say pleasantly â—et far from any conceitedness but with an hearty â—cknowledgment of her motherly love and kindâ—ess Ah Mother when you brought forth me you â—â—ought a great Soul into the world They that knew him best had abundant proof that he really was such an one He did timely shew himself to be an ingenious and apt Scholar in the Free-school of that place of his Nativity where the strict and skilful Master encourag'd by his Fathers liberality found him every way ready to receive instruction till about the 10th year of his age he was fitted for Academical Studies When upon his Fathers frequent converse with the Reverend and Pious Dr. Samuel Bolton then the famous Lecturer of the Parish and the worthy Master of Christ-Colledg in Cambridg who had often examin'd him at his Fathers house and found him not only very Religiously dispos'd but well accomplisht with School-learning He was then remov'd to that Colledg under the Tutoridg of him who was afterwards Dr. Outram who had a great value for him as long as he liv'd III. Before he went to the Vniversity he shew'd himself to be one of a tender conscience for when a Boy having took a fair Tulip out of anothers Garden and given it to his Father who sometime after askt him where he had it upon his Father's admonition and his own acknowledgment of his youthful folly as Augustine did his 't was often after a great trouble to his spirit and did keep him humble and watchful So early did he begin to startle at the committing of the least sin For on a Lords-day going into the Work-house in his Fathers yard and there a little loitering he heedlesly clapt his hand on a Tenter-hook and tore his hand much Whereupon he resolv'd no more to mis-spend his time on the Lords-day but to addict himself wholly to the Religious Observance of it which resolution he was known to keep strictly ever after both at home and abroad IV. When at the Vniversity he made good Proficiency in that learning which might make him mostly instrumental for the winning of Souls to Christ that being mainly design'd by him in the service of his generation In order to which we find this young Student early associating with an honest Club of Scholars of his own and other Colledges as were not only
through the merits of his Death and sufferings Come tell me is not this thy language I know thou darest not to speak so much in words But ah my Heart I find thou hast got a Tongue as well as my Mouth that often mutters and speaks a different language But tell me if thy unbelief hath any ground for it What makes it then that thy self is so free from fears and terrours when thou shouldst believe the Almighty of thy Bodies Death Resurrection and coming to Judgment if thou thoughtest him not thy friend and reconciled to thee in his Son if not methinks thy fears should fright thee and trembling seize on every joint and yet thou wilt foolishly mutter against thine own feeling Soul speaks O blessed God! I feel thou hast overcome I yield I yield I have not left a word to speak against thy love thy Son hath offered satisfaction and thou hast accepted it thou hast laid down O my Saviour thy life for mine and thy Father and my Father is well pleased with it Blood is paid Justice is satisfied Heavens doors are widened thine arms opened to receive me nothing is wanting but my heart make it such as thou wilt have it and then take it to thy self Come up my soul thou hast an heart and there is a Christ the Father thou feest is willing and the Son is willing give but thy consent and he is thine for ever Fear not thy hardness blindness deadness loathsomeness all these cannot hinder if thou be but willing He hath been in the world to ask the worlds consent already and also thine thou canst not doubt of his good-will speak but the word and he hath thine too What stickest thou at surely thou art a sluggish spirit what dost thou ail Half of this ado would find a heart for a little mire or dirt or something else that is worse and is not Christ better But ah yet I feel a spice of unbelief still working in thy very bowels as if that Jesus that died at Jerusalem were not the Son of God and the Redeemer of the world And is this all O were I certain thou wouldst ne're doubt more how freely should I make satisfaction But Oh! I faint and tire with the trips and stumblings of my unbelief But mount my soul thou must resolve to tire and put to silence all thy unbelieving bablings or they will thee which if they do never expect an hours peace or quiet more thou must resolve to conquer thy unbelief or to be conquered thou knowest her tyranny too well to let her go away the victoress He was not the Christ thou sayest but tell me why Object His Parentage was too low and mean what the Saviour of the world a Carpenters Son how can it be Answ My unbelief in the first place thou lyest his Mother was a Virgin and her Conception knew no Father but the Almighty power of the overshadowing Holy Ghost he was more truly the Son of God than Joseph's Son And was his birth thinkst thou so mean whose Parentage was so glorious Object His birth but mean and beggarly no sooner born but cradled in a manger and could Heaven suffer this Answ It is confest But yet it was as glorious for did not a Star proclaim him born and did not a whole Host of Angels sing and shout it up for joy and did not wise men yea and Kings bring Incense Myrrh and Frankincense being but as so much tribute unto the new-born King and heir of all things as if by instinct they knew they held their Crowns of him a greater honour than ever any new-born Prince hath yet received before him or ever shall or will do after him Methinks my unbelieving heart I could dare to tell thee that room was no stable it was a Palace and did not the cost presents and glorious presence of Kings speak as much Object But his days were spent in poverty meanness and disgrace and can I dare I trust my soul with such a one and take him to be the Son of God Answ And now I wonder at thee it's true what thou fayest if thou lookst upon him one way his life was such as thou tellest me of but 't is a strong argument against thy self for just such a one was the Christ to be according to the Prophets the 53 Chapter of Isaiah shews as much But yet if thou truly understandest what true pomp and glory means even to an eye of sense as well as to that of faith Solomon's life imbroidered with all his glorious acts was not comparable to this life of his Was it not filled with miracles and wonders was he not proclaimed the Son of God with voices from Heaven did he not conquer Devils and therefore the Kingdom of Hell Was ever Prince on Earth honoured with so great a Conquest Were not his miraculous Feasts more splendid than those of Princes the fare was but poor and mean but the miracles made it rich and glorious Had I been present should I not have wondered and gazed more at the Master of this Feast and have taken more pleasure to have seen him sit down with these five thousands than with a Table full of Princes and great men Alas it were a trifling sight to this Methinks my unbelief that pleads so much for sense sense it self pleads too strongly against thee for thou canst not argue one syllable Object But would the Son of God be hanged and crucified could Heaven have suffered this could not the Saviour of the world save himself how could he then save me Answ Hadst thou not the blindness of the Jews thou couldest not reason thus like them but was it not necessary it should be so Did not the Prophets foretell his death and such a death Had he not died and died as he did I might then have had some ground to doubt him whether he were the Messias or not for it was needful that the Prophesies should be fulfilled Dan. 9. But yet as wretched and as contemptible a going out of the world as he had and his manner of dying on the Cross how vile soever it seemed to be yet was there not enough to silence all the doubts that could possibly from thence arise and much for the confirmation of my faith in the wonderful Eclipse of the Sun the rending of the veil of the Temple the opening of the Graves the raising of the dead and afterwards his own rising the third day and ascending up to Heaven in a Cloud If my faith might have staggered in seeing him on the Cross dying it could not when it saw him risen and in the Clouds ascending Object But were those wonders true and certain Answ But hast thou any ground to doubt them are they not written in thy Bible and art thou not certain that it is the word of God or hast thou not sufficient reason to believe it to be so But hast thou not a whole Nation yea Nations that do believe the
the times to be drunk and commit adultery sobriety is laughed at a scornful defiance is bid to the Law of God and Ministers have now much ado to perswade men that these things are sins It is for London's impudence in sin that God burnt London Secondly they are not only the bare sins of London but God is angry with them for these sins under the preaching of the Gospel Alas if you were drunk you might be drunk and God never have burnt the City if you swore and forswore and had been some of the Americans that had no Law nor Prophets nor Christ nor Apostles nor Ministers you might have sworn and cursed and God would have stood still and let you alone and only took a course with you at death burned you then in Hell But since God hath taken England for his people and London for his people and sent Christ to be preached and sent Ministers and gifted them and bid them cry and cry aloud believe it God will not take your sins as he takes the sins of others No Sabbath-breaking is a greater sin in London than it is in the Northern parts of this Kingdom Why you have more means you have the Gospel in a greater light And you Parents in London and Masters for you to neglect your Families God taketh it worse at your hands than he doth at those in the Country Why you should know better God hath given you more means to know the preciousness of servants and childrens souls therefore you should look more carefully after them Your sins are committed against Gospel-light and therefore more dangerous therefore God punishes you Thirdly sins after vows of reformation did London never promise God solemnly to reform if you have forgotten it God hath not London hath been under a promise to reform How to reform to entertain Christ and the Gospel and to improve it better to promote his Ordinances and to reform their Families every one in their places If you have broken your Vows and thrown them behind your backs God is still alive to punish for it Ay your sins are greater too than others Why because they are against more mercies temporal mercies in some respects than the Countries about In the time of the Civil War when all the Country almost was laid wast London was not touched there were Cities besieged Cities burnt Cities and Towns laid waste and desolate people beggered and undone every where London did thrive all the while God had a great reckoning with London London a people of so much means so many mercies so many deliverances so much of the Gospel and yet London a drunken London a covetous London an adulterous London Believe it God hath now at length reckoned with you and hath begun to pay off your old and long score and I fear he hath not yet done with you Christ hath been neglected the Spirit grieved Ministers rejected hated persecuted Sabbaths prophaned London full of pride covetousness lying swearing luxury drunkenness and all these under the Gospel and all these committed with a brazen face impudently for these things God is angry with you for these things God sent the Pestilence for these things sake God brought the fire If this be true here is another Inference followeth Have our sins burnt our City and brought so many thousands by the Pestilence to the grave Oh that we could be ashamed of our sins confess them with shame be humbled for our sins learn to hate our sins beg of God for grace to conquer our sins Oh that there might be a separation between sin and us that the great separation between God and us may be prevented Is God angry with London it is for sin Oh be rid of your sins let us all this day search our hearts and try our reins and see what iniquity is in us what personal sins what Family-sins what City-sins what Church sins let us see how far we contributed to the burning of London and Oh that we might by repentance and reformation crucifie those sins that burnt London this would be a good work and without this work in vain do you fast this day God told Israel when they came fasting and mourning before him there in the Prophet Isaiah That they should cease to do evil and learn to do well and then come and fast and pray and then faith he Let us reason together if you will cease to do evil and learn to do well Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool So I say in the name of the Lord to you this day you are about praying to God that he would be at peâ—ce with London let all of us cease to do evil what evils those evils that I have named have any of us been guilty of London's pride the Lord help every one of us to resolve for to crucifie that sin and to resolve we will not have a hand any more in burning London Which of you would not part with pride to save so great a City let your ornaments be sober as become men and women professing Godliness Those that have been guilty of drunkenness let them be drunk no more take up that resolution those that have been guilty of injustice in their callings let them resolve they will never more sin to get an estate and that they will rather live and die beggars Believe it that is not the way to die beggars if you come to resolve upon it For God can bless you in his way more than you can gain by walking in your own sinful ways Resolve to lye no more cozen no more swear no more are there any unclean let them be unclean no more Have you broken the Lords-day and prophaned that do so no more Resolve every one of you in your places that for the future you and your Families will endeavour to spend the whole Lords-day in serving God and looking after the Salvation of your Souls Again take up a resolution to give Christ a greater acceptation a better acceptation stand with your hearts wide open to the offers of Salvation do not neglect and slight Salvation when God offers it When you despise his Son you despise God himself They that receive me saith Christ receive him that sent me So those that reject Christ reject God the Father When you come hither and Christ is offered and you will not entertain him you reject God you will not entertain God See that the Gospel may come in its efficacy and power upon your souls God is angry with every Citizen that hath not after all the offers of Salvation accepted of it Every impenitent unconverted sinner because of his impenitency and unconvertedness he had a hand in the firing the City Let us I say repent of our sins let us forsake those sins whereby we have provoked the Lord against us But you will say How if we should we shall leave thousands and ten