Matth. 20.28 Oh! what an inestimable Ransom is that 3. The Nature of Christs Mediation His Work was not so easie and cheap as the Socicinians make it They make our Mediator to be a Messenger sent from God to make known his Will to the World Catech. Racov. de prophetico Christ munere or an Interpreter of his Mind But to what End doth the Apostle add this Who gave himself a Ransom for all if that was all But he who is that One and only Mediator between God and Man gave himself a Ransom for those who could never have redeemed their own Lives who lay under the Sentence of Death and Condemnation Let it not be tedious to you to read and ponder Heb. 9.14 15. How much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offer'd himself without spot to God purge your Conscience from dead works to serve the living God The Offerer or Priest was Christ the Offering or Sacrifice was Himself Body and Soul even unto Death and Blood that which gave Efficiency and Power to the Offering was the eternal Spirit or Divine Nature he to whom it was offered was God who in Justice required and in Mercy accepted it for them who believe and repent to purge Conscience from Guilt and Pollution vers 15. And for this Cause he is the Mediator of the New Testament that by means of Death for the Redemption of the Transgressions that were under the first Testament they which are called may receive the Promise of the Eternal Inheritance Here we have the Reason or Cause of Christ's Mediatory Office He is a middle Person dealing between both Parties God and Men and for both To God he gave himself a Ransom Nam ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 officium non minus pertinent hominum vice apud Deum fungi quam Dei vice apud homines Grot. de Satisfactione Christi p. 172. which is a Satisfaction for Sin and sinful Men For them that are called he procured the Promise of the Eternal Inheritance the means by which he obtained Pardon for the sins of the Hebrews under the First Testament whereof Moses was a Typical Mediator and the eternal Inheritance for them who are called and believe was his Blood the Blood of Attonement And this great Work of Christ was performed by him as a Priest and so he is a Mediator in his Priestly Office and procures Peace and Reconciliation as a Priest and therefore as a Priest he is Mediator As a Priest he offered up himself to God in our sted and for our Good so he stood between us Sinners and the offended God and made Attonement and as Priest he appears for all that believe in him for he is an Advocate and makes intercession which he could not do if he were not the Propitiation for our sins 1 John 2.2 And so he is a Mediator between both for both for he is the Mediator of the New Testament having satisfied by his Death and Obedience for the Violation of the first Covenant made with Adam in the Guilt of which all Mankind are involved and for the sins of the Hebrews under the first Testament made with their Fathers which no Sacrifice could expiate or satisfie for All the Mercy and Goodness of God is conferred upon them that are called and brought to believe and obey him by a Testament or Covenant and all that Man is obliged to as Duty and Obedience is required in that Testament whereof Christ is Mediator And therefore some judicious Divines put this into the Description of the Office of Christ Mediator that Christ is the Person God-Man who doth confederate God and Man in the same Covenant of Grace Christianus Schotanus Disput 19. De Mediatore Thess prima Le Blanc Thess 1. An Christus sit Mediator secund utramque naturam p. 109. Tileni Syntagma de Incarnatione Fil. Dei Disput 1. Thess 4. and make them one again The whole Work of Christ as Mediator may be reduced to two Heads 1. To satisfie for the Breach of the first Covenant and redeem sinful Men from the Curse of it 2. To bring God and Man into another Covenant the Covenant of Grace and to make them one To this end it was necessary 1. That he should be a Mediator of Redemption and Reconciliation 2. That as God is one there should be one Mediator and so there is one and but one 1 Tim. 2.5 3. This one Mediator is said to be Man in this Text but not meer Man nor Mediator as Man only excluding the Divine Nature but the Man Christ Jesus He addeth to the Nature Man the Names Christ Jesus which contain the Nature and Person of the Son of God and signifie that wonderful Person Pet. Martyr administros Regn. Polonici L. Com. p. 1113. our Lord Jesus Christ The Words do not shew according to which Nature Christ is Mediator but that the Mediator is Man and that Jesus Christ is Man who bringeth us to God It is usual in Scripture to speak of the Person of our Mediator Jesus Christ by one of his Natures Genevenses Thes Theol. de Christo Med. Thes 27. p. 49. Centur. 1. not excluding the other from the Unity of the Person So by the Man Christ may be understood that Person who hath that Nature which is truly called Man and that for divers Reasons 1. That the Apostle would encourage us to put our Trust and Confidence in him Reverend Mr. J. Ball of the Covenant p. 269. as being our Elder Brother 2. To encourage us in the Duty of Prayer through the Mediator to which we are exhorted as knowing the greatness of that Power and Authority which Christ hath with his Father residing in our Nature 3. That it might appear that our Mediator was the same Christ or Messiah which was promised from the Beginning as the only Restorer of miserable Sinners the Seed of the Woman Gen. 3.14 4. That no man to whom the Gospel is preached Nequis igitur se torqueat ubinam ille quaerendus Mediator aut qua via ad ipsum perveniendum hominem nominans propinquum imo contiguum nobis esse admonet quandoquidem caro nostra est Calvin Instit l. 2. c. 12. S. 1. 2. of any Condition or Quality whether in Authority or under Authority high or low rich or poor should be discouraged or terrified from seeking and accepting that Salvation which by the Gospel is proposed and offered to all Conditions of men seeing there is one Mediator for all as there is one God over all and good to all and that one Mediator is the man Christ Jesus who is near to us and bound not only by the bond of Nature as Man but by Office and Undertaking as Mediator Redeemer and Reconciler to save all that come unto him Now if you have cause to fear everlasting Destruction for want of a Mediator and Redeemer nor for want of Tenderness of Compassion or
them Thousands yea Millions of Lives are lost in their Quarrels and Wars But here is the Son who saves his Subjects Lives raiseth their dead Bodies to Life he is the Prince of Peace and Life and he that believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting Life O what love and thanks shall be render'd to the Father of Mercy for his Son and to the Son for Life 5. Then here is good News to Sinners that are sensible of sin that know somewhat of the Death which they deserved and that fear it that desire Life and long for it but fear and doubt if not despair of Life O Souls here 's good News for you for Christ and Life are both to be had If you would have Life you must have Christ and if you have Christ you have Life both Christ and Life are to be had Life may be had O! if the Soul cry out and say How how is Life the Life of my Soul to be had The Spirit of God hath told you and his Servant John He that hath the Son hath Life the way to have Life is to have Christ Have him and you have Life that is most certain If the Soul pant and faint and pine for Life and cry out O when shall I be so happy as to live The Answer is ready As soon as you have Christ so soon you shall have Life Long long for Christ then make haste and come he will receive the Soul whom necessity drives 6. The way of having life is very wonderful and high yet attainable It is by Christ and by having Christ God gives life eternal life to his beloved ones but not one of them is fit to keep it for himself much less for others it is in his Son The Son comes down from Heaven in our Natures and he must die or we cannot have it We are dead and love Death in loving the way of Death and we are under the power of Murderers and Destroyers nay more we are under a Law of Sin and Death under the Curse of God Christ could cast out Devils with a Word and destroy the Destroyers without pain or shedding one drop of Blood but he could not deliver us from Death under the Sentence and Curse of the Law but by Blood The life of pardon by forgiving Sin was by precious Blood for without the shedding of Blood there is no remission of Sin Heb. 9.22 Behold how costly a life is our life Whence comes it From Heaven By whom by the Son By the imputation of his merit infusion and communion of his Spirit Per imputationem sc quae faciunt ad justificationem partim per participationem quae pro nostra sanctificatione gloria So those great Divines agree Bp. Reynold 's Life of Chr. and Hoornbeck as before p. 801. How by the Son By his Death and Life Passion and Resurrection From what O wonder at it it is life fetcht out of the Fire out of Death and Hell pluckt out of the Jaws of Devils and secured from all Dangers and Hazards but then he who hath it hath the Son 7. Then he who hath Christ is happier in having Christ than all other Persons in the World for he and he alone hath life when and while all other Persons are dead dead in Law dead in Sin dead to God and dead to their own Souls Good 8. Then the only sure and ready way to escape Death and to be sure of Life is to have Christ to come to him to believe in him and make him your own You know the ordinary way is that of the rich Man Good Master what good thing shall I do that I may inherit life Mat. 19.16 Memorable is the Relation of blessed Bilney's Conversion As the Woman in the Gospel had consumed all she had upon Physicians and yet was still worse and worse till she came to Christ c. Before I came to Christ I had likewise spent all I had upon ignorant Physicians they appointed me Fastings Watchings buying of Pardons and Masses c. But at last I heard speak of Jesus even then when the N. Testament was put forth by Erasmus At first I was allured to read rather for the Latin than for the Word of God At the first reading I hit upon the Sentence of St. Paul O most comfortable Sentence to my Soul It is a faithful Saying c. 1 Tim. 1.15 This did so exhilerate my Heart wounded with the guilt of my Sins insomuch that my bruised Bones leapt for joy And then I learnt that all my Travels all my Fasting and Watches all the Redemption by Masses and Pardons without Faith in Christ were but an hasty and swift running out of the way or like sowing Fig-leaves c. Neither could I be relieved or eased of the sharp stingings of my sins before I was taught of God that as Moses lift up the Serpent in the Wilderness c. That whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting Life c. B. of Martyrs 2 Vol. Letter to Tonstale The way he approved of was hard and he went a great way in it but there was a harder way and he could not find in his Heart to take it Souls Souls the way is but one and it is very fair save your pains of Pilgrimages and Cords and all the devised ways of human Reason and Superstition The way you know and me you know said our Saviour So say I because his Word saith so Have Christ and you shall live 2. Use of Exhortation to you all to have the Son O that I could perswade you to have Christ and to have him for Life and so to have him as to have Life by him Oh! how many have but Notions of him Some know not as much as the meaning of his Names and Office and such as their Faith is such their Life is A Notional Faith can have but a conceited Life an imaginary Life such as will last no longer but while they neglect their Salvation and receive the Grace of God in vain O have him as you have been taught what it is to have him I beseech you go along with me and set Consideration on work while I perswade you and then I will answer what you desire to know Arguments drawn from necessity and that extream and from advantage and gain and loss and both the greatest are very prevailing Let the greatest Wit in the World think if he can what is more necessary or equally necessary What Gain comparable to the gain of Life eternal Or what loss can come into a comparison with a loss of Life Who can number the Reasons to perswade you to have the Son for your Saviour and if you weigh them all other things are lighter than Vanity being put in the Ballance with them This one Reason should perswade us to have Christ because our life and all those good great and glorious things contained in life is first in Christ and
Son seeing that is no less than to put off the having of Life Who would run his Life upon such an Hazard seeing their are so many Enemies that seek our Damnation and work it by gaining the time of our delaying Can any Business or Pleasures in the World be thought of that Consequence as for them to venture the loss of eternal Life Many Men given much to the Pleasures and Vanities of Life have cast them off and fallen to the study of the Law or to follow their Business when but some Branch of their Estates have been in Question much more when the whole was in Danger Oh! how diligent and wise for the World and careless for a World to come are Men Put on Consideration and know for certain that the greatest matters of care and diligence meet in this one Life for this Life comprehends in it the whole of a Man's Estate He who hath not Life hath lost all in one and both these inestimable things and both these inestimable things an everlasting Kingdom an Heavenly Treasure a Crown of Life and Glory and that Life in the possession whereof the blessed Saints shall rejoyce for ever and in the privation of which the miserable and damned shall weep and lament for ever And this Punishment of Privation of Life will be the more intolerable when it shall come upon the Unbeliever for this Cause of his not having the Son For not having the Son who is the Son of God's love infinitely amiable and dear to all that love their own Nature for he is the Son in our Nature and now in our Nature glorified All Men think themselves honoured in the Honour of their Blood and Kindred and esteem the Person that is advanced But such is the Nature of Unbelief that it moves to no Estimation or Love to our Lord in Glory who hath promised Glory to all that believe and follow him and can see no excellency in him who is highly exalted and hath a Name that is above every Name The not having of the Son is upon Refusal and Contempt in Deeds if not in Words And because this Privation of Life is for Unbelief and Refusal the loss will be the greater for the Punishment of Unbelief must needs be great because Unbelief is a great sin and we need not go further than this Text to prove it Unbelief and not having is the undervaluing neglecting and refusing the only two things that cannot be valued the Son of God and everlasting Life O that I could say something that may enter and stick to the Heart Hath God been pleased to make manifest the Mystery of Redemption by Jesus Christ which hath been hid from Ages Col. 1.26 and now will ye not look into it but reject the Counsel of God as the Lawyers did against themselves Luke 7.30 Hath God so loved the World that he sent his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish and now he is sent to you who have as much need of him as any in the World will you not have him Is there Salvation in no other and will you not have him Do you no more value the Grace and Love of God in his Son Christ Nor the love of Christ in humbling himself unto Death even the Death of the Cross for you And now he is at the Right Hand of God in possession of his Kingdom and is able to save all that come to God by him and will you not have him and Life by him Oh then you must perish Then you must have no part in the Tokens of God's everlasting Love no Saving Benefit of all the Cost our Lord hath been at to redeem you no Joy or Consolation by the Spirit no Communion with Saints in Glory nor Light Rest Peace in your own Souls for ever No pardon of Sin or Peace and Comfort by it nor any other Blessing of Grace Obj. But some may say If I have not Life then I shall die A. So you shall But you hope you shall be extinct and be no more but that shall not be eternal Death will not be like the blowing out of a Candle which shall never be lighted again No if you are Unbelievers and Atheists of that sort the everlasting Pain and Torment shall convince you of your wicked Error and of the loss of not having Life And this should be a 2. A Second effectual Motive to have Christ and Life for else you shall not have Life but enough of Death the first moment Oh! how bitter and dreadful will it be to Eternity All they that hate me love Death Prov. 8. vers ult They love the way and the sins which deserve it This shall be the Punishment of all Unbelievers Oh! who would make light of Christ and Life that shall be condemned if they have him not to Death Eternal Death A word containing innumerable and endless Evils The loss of God and Heaven will be a Death The sight of Hell and Devils with Millions of Workers of Iniquity under Condemnation will be Death Death not an End of the Sinner but of his Happiness If the Flames shall never be quenched as they shall not as Christ hath declared whose word is true Mat. 25.41 And this everlasting Fire is called everlasting Punishment vers 46. If the Punishment shall be everlasting it will follow that they who are punished must live in it and endure it for ever And Men may as well say that the blessed of the Father shall not go into everlasting Life as that the wicked shall not go into everlasting Punishment As long as the Punishment shall endure they shall endure that have deserved it and shall be condemned to it Oh! what a cursed Death will this be Oh! how miserable will an immortal Body be with an immortal Soul All the Miseries of the Damned are set forth by the Name of Death Every drop of the Rivers of Brimstone every Spark of the unquenchable Fire every Tear that the Damned shall drop every Gnash of their Teeth every Bite of the Worm will be a Death O Death How full of Stings This Death will be a Death of Separation from God and Good When Christ shall bid the wicked depart from him then all presumptuous Thoughts all fond Imaginations all vain Hopes all carnal Confidences and all that ever they deceived themselves withal shall depart from them and under this Death they shall weep and roar for ever Now if the Life everlasting with God in Heaven were no better than a Prisoners Life upon Earth or of a Persecuted Protestant kept from Sleep and tortured by Dragoons the Devils black Regiments and bare-fac'd Wolves the Consideration of this fearful Death should make all Men that have any Consideration desire and prefer the Son's Grace before the whole World But when the Life that is entail'd upon Believers is a Son's Life in the Kingdom of God an Heirs of Life what desperate Folly and Madness is it for any
Christ alone our Life THE GREAT CASE Of Every Man's LIFE and DEATH Determin'd by the Sentence of God In 1 John 5.12 Opened and applied in a SERMON Preach'd in the Sessions-House at Northampton Sept. 9th 1690. to some Prisoners the Day before their Execution And now Published with Enlargements for the further Benefit and Service of Souls With a Narrative of the Behaviour of the Prisoners By EDWARD PIERCE M.A. Rector of Cottesbrook in Northamptonshire LONDON Printed for Jonathan Robinson and are to be Sold by Thomas Pasham Bookseller in Northampton 1691. To the Honourable Sir James Langham Kt and Baronet my most Honoured Patron Sir William Langham of Walgrave John Thornton of Brockhole Esq Grace and Eternal Life Most Honoured Sirs THE Reasons for the Honour and Service which I owe to every of your Persons are more than I shall declare or than you desire should be declared I should not have grac'd these few Sheets with your Names but that I hope to make some advantage of them for those that shall be in such unhappy Circumstances of the Prisoners who were the occasion of my preaching upon this Argument by proposing you as Examples to Gentlemen of Quality and Goodness who shall bear the Office of High-Sheriffs as you have done The first of you considering the Charge committed to you by the Law of the Bodies of Prisoners and the Power you had over the Prison judged it to be a great Duty to take care of their precious Souls as if they had been a part of your Houshold Having a large room in the Hearts of able good Ministers you made use of it and easily obtained their pains of Preaching Weekly in the Prison They were all Licensed Preachers and of Eminency in the Country beside the Reverend Dr. Ford then Minister in the Town But before your Year expired this Light in the dark place was put out by one who should rather have set up Light in it if you had not It could not be for not reading the Liturgy which all did nor for want of a Liturgy for the Goaler had got A.B. Laud's which was sent into Scotland and put that Kingdom into a Flame This Sir you so tenderly resented that had it not been so near the end of your Shrievalty you would have tried his Power in that House which was as your own for that year But then as about three years before and after it was the Policy of Rulers to countenance no more preaching than would consist with the Design then subtily covered but afterwards revealed Great care was taken that Zeal in Religion should not disturb the Quiet of the State and they were made use of to put out the Candles who were of all men most obliged to keep them burning in Conscience to God and Love to Souls There was then in the Goal a large Room next the great Parlour which look'd to the Street and a Pulpit in it with a Gallery above Stairs at one end of it as I remember and other Conveniences for the Prisoners and others tho then it was hard for any of the Town to get admittance except they were Friends or could make acquaintance in the House and there was Six Pound per Annum paid to a Preacher for preaching once a Month as I remember given by Sir Francis Nicholas and your old Acquaintance in Em. Col. And my sincere Religious Friend Mr. William Holms received it many years for Preaching there But since the dreadful Fire there is a very fair House built that stands in good Air open to the Fields on one side which make a pleasant prospect well contrived for all Offices and Vses but there is no Room proper nor fit for preaching I presume the Salary is paid but it is more than I know that there is as much as one Sermon in a year preached for it After the Fire the Goal was removed into a strait House and since that more good may have been done in the Prison than I can tell of by private Visits especially by the Excellent Dr. Conant who was much taken up in those private Exercises of his Ministry but the Office of Salvation as Martyr Latimer calleth the preaching of the Word hath been shut up there And I wish that some like to your self may open it again and others keep it open The Second of you in few years succeeded your Elder Brother and there being no extraordinary Goal in your Year there was no extraordinary pains to be taken especially remembring how that compassionate Act of your Brothers was check'd and controul'd and you must needs have undergone a Contest with the same Power which was so lately exerted against the ordinary great means of Salvation then in the same person whom you at a publick Table heard speak contemptibly of Preaching and therefore could not expect the favour of a Connivance from him But Sir be pleased to take a share in this little Present because of the Encouragement you have given me speaking very kindly of my Performances in this kind when you have heard first from others and then took a particular Account of them from my self The Third of you succeeded the Second the very next year if I am not much mistaken and when you saw your time revived the Exercise and set up most of the same Lights which had been taken down before in the same place to shew the involuntary Inhabitants of it a way to prevent and escape their greatest Dangers And you met with no Interruption It is happy when poor Prisoners fall under the Care and Custody of such Men as know that there are immortal sinful Souls in those Bodies of which they must give an account by their Place The greatest of their Miseries is That they are shut up from the publick Light and means of Salvation therefore mercy on their Souls is the greatest mercy that can be shewed unto them And when all Acts of Charity shall come in remembrance even this to the Souls of men upon which commonly least Cost is bestow'd will be found the greatest The Lord God of Grace put it into the Hearts of Gentlemen to be thus merciful to Souls in Bonds whether in Prison or out of Prison And Honoured Sirs whatsoever you have done or have procured the doing of in this excellent kind will turn to your best account The Objects of all other Charities are mortal Bodies but the Objects of this are immortal Souls and to help to ransom them from the power of Devils is a nobler Work than to ransom Slaves from Heathens whose greatest misery is that they are in the hands of the Enemies of Christ Yet tho outward Charities must by no means be neglected nor intermitted for there is a Charge to be laid upon rich Men to be rich in good works 1 Tim. 6.17 18. And upon all and every man 2 Cor. 8.7 Every man according as he hath purposed in his heart so let him give c. yea even he who laboureth with
Bidbanck M. A. Price 6 d. bound A new System of the Apocalyps or plain and methodical Illustrations of all the Visions in the Revelation of St. John Written by a French Minister in the year 1685 and finished but two days before the Dragoons plundred him of all except this Treatise 1 John V.xii. He that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son of God hath not Life WE that have this Prize put into our hands of labouring to save your Souls near the last Day and Hour and the going down of the Sun of your Lives are constrained to make short Work As blessed Mr. Perkins did in calling down a Malefactor from the very Ladder saying Man come down and thou shalt see what God's Grace will do to strengthen thee In the Life of Mr. Perkins but as true as we can in this little time If we should hold you under the Conviction Wrath and Condemnation of the Law of God for Sin deserving it we should keep you in the dark Prison of Unbelief and endanger your everlasting state by with-holding from you the saving Knowledge of Jesus Christ We have endeavoured faithfully to set before you your Sins and the Ways of Sin not to keep you under Terrors but to draw you to Christ not to bind upon you the heavy Burden of Ten Thousand Talents which you owe to the Justice of God and leave you to groan under it without hope of unbinding or releasing your Souls but that you may come weary and heavy laden to Christ We have cause of great sadness and heaviness of Spirit to think how nigh you are to the Judgment-Seat of Jesus Christ and how long you have been ignorant careless Despisers of him in whom you must believe or perish everlastingly Oh! How sad and grievous would it be if you should go out of the World without saving Knowledge and Faith without turning to God through Jesus Christ by whom alone you must come to God and obtain remission of Sin and everlasting Life You have now but a little Time left you to learn Christ and we must now open to you the Kingdom of God and set forth Jesus Christ before you evidently for Grace and Life or leave you in the Dark as we found you You must take hold of Christ and of Eternal Life or sink into the Gulf of Eternity You are upon the Brink of that boundless Ocean O now even now while there is any part of this Day left lay hold of eternal Life by Jesus Christ But how shall you believe except you hear and how shall you hear without a Preacher O now then hear a Sermon of Jesus Christ and of eternal Life by him If I were to Preach for my Life and but one Sermon and never to Preach more it should be of God my Saviour of the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ This is certainly like to be the last that you for whose sake principally it is designed shall hear before you die O! therefore now hearken for it is for your Life and by how much the more negligent you have been of your great Salvation be you the more diligent and attentive now O hearken now and the Lord open your Hears to attend to what the Lord shall say unto you from the Text now read to you The Reason why I have chosen this Text is because I would drive home the Point which you heard already Preached by Mr. Dudley the Wednesday before in the Prison and to purpose handled the other day That you cannot contend with God nor stand in his Judgment without Christ from Job 9.3 If he will contend with him he cannot answer him one of a thousand you cannot answer to your Charge therefore take Counsel And this being the last Service I shall ever do for you in this kind the best Service I can do you that are so near your appointed End yea and to all that hear me this day is to open and apply to you this Text which I have read unto you In the Words we may find full Resolutions and Answers to the greatest Questions of Concernment to all Men living The great Case of every Mans Life and Death is determined in them If the Question were asked by any of you 1. Who is the Man that shall escape in the day of the Lords Wrath and live happily with God in Heaven for ever The Answer is That Man and that Man only who hath the Son of God that is to say He who heartily believes in him embraces and receives him as the Son of God the Saviour The Decision is plain in few words He that hath the Son hath Life 2. If a contrary Question be asked Who is that wretched miserable Man who shall not see Life nor come into the Kingdom of Heaven but perish everlastingly in Hell not in respect of his being but happiness and well-being The Answer is plain and peremptory He who hath not the Son of God hath not Life hath no title nor right to Life nor any grounds of hope of it 3. If the Question be What a Man shall do to be saved Or how may a Soul that is convinced of Sin and Death that is made sensible of his Sin and Misery that confesseth how he hath sinned and how he deserves to die for ever for it How may a Soul I say thrust thorough with the fear of the Curse of the Law as with a fiery Dart that sigheth and groaneth under the Sentence of Death and is afraid of dying and being condemned to Hell when he dieth come to be cured of his Wounds and to Hope to see Life This this is the way the Only way the sure and certain way let him come to Christ and have him as he is offered and then he shall not die in his sins but have eternal Life For He that hath the Son hath Life as sure as he hath the one he shall have the other O then you that pant for Life embrace the Son 4. Grant it to be true that such are the Merits Grace and Power of Jesus Christ the Son of God that whoever hath him and believeth in him with a right hearty uniting effectual Faith hath Life But may not a Man who hath not the Son have Life Is there no other way or means of Life and Salvation but Christ Hearken to the Word and give Credit to it it speaks fully to the Question He who hath not the Son of God hath not Life This one Scripture carries Evidence and Conviction with it to stop the Mouths of all Gainsayers and Cavillers But this Text is not alone there are three Scriptures more that conclude in the same Sense both in the Affirmative and Negative See 1. John 3.36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting Life there 's the Affirmative He that hath the Son hath Life And he that believeth not the Son shall not see Life there 's the Negative or Contrary He who hath
Marriage Union and Relation John 3.29 1 Cor. 7.2 Mark 12.22 23. Luke 20.33 Of which afterwards II. To have the Son is so to have him as to have him for Eternal Life and so to have him as to have Life by him and from him To have him is unspeakably more than to have him as some think they have him To have the Son you shall hear is more than 1. To have him in your Eye by reading in your Ears by hearing in your Mouths by speaking you come to have him by means but many have means who have not him many have him in the Word and Ministry in the Church in the Creed who have him not in their Minds by spiritual and saving Knowledge nor in their Hearts by Love 2. To have him is much more than to have him in their Mouths and Profession Oh! how many hear him and have him standing at the Door knocking without and let him stand till he is weary of standing and knocking and they have no mind nor heart to listen rise and open having other Guests Friends Companions and things which they naturally and dearly love which they love better than him or that Life that true happy eternal Life which he comes to give to them that will have it Oh! How many have him as they who cried Lord Lord but did not the Will of God Or not as Thomas had him with Interest in and Affection to him My Lord and my God Oh! how many have him coming and going in the Word and Ministry that let him go as he came in at one Ear and out at another The Doors of the Heart are as open for him to go out as they were to let him in Oh! how many have him in their mouths as he is in their Belief in the Congregation as Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord who study not the meaning of what they say who shew nothing of him in their Conversation The Devil and rotten Communication may be oftner in their mouths than he except it be to tear his Wounds and prophane his Blood and to cause many to blaspheme that worthy Name by which they are called Oh! how many have him no further into their Souls than their minds and memories as a Stranger or Passenger that have him not in their Hearts as a Ruler or Dweller They have him as the Papists have the Crucifix hanging at their Necks and in their Bosoms that have him not within them by his Spirit for Life and Salvation And are they few who have him but as Judas had him and carnal and worldly Politicians have him for their private Ends to make merchandize of him And to say no more how many delay to have him till a convenient Season They say they intend to have him but they cannot yet determin when for he is held at too high a rate they cannot yet come up to the terms of Repentance and Self-denial When they cannot sin as they were wont they will repent and when they are upon a forced remove out of the World and must leave all then they will deny themselves This is plainly the Sense of them who do not flatly refuse to have him but are not resolved to have him as they must or not at all And that is as followeth Mark the Word it self He that hath the Son hath Life First the Son and then Life by him First Christ himself his Glorious Person full of Grace and Truth and then Life both or neither and both in this order and connexion of which a little more afterwards And then observe that to have the Son is all one as to believe in him John 3.15 16. And to believe on the Son with Trust and Reliance John 3.36 Or to receive him but to as many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe in his Name John 1.12 They who received first the Son had the Prerogative and Priviledge to become the Sons of God Upon our having the Son as invested in the Office of Mediator for which he put on our Nature we have Life the Benefit of his Redemption and Mediation To have him is to have him by the Application and Union of Faith There is a mutual Act between Christ and the Believer Christ exhibiteth himself unto us and we adhere and dwell in him B. Reynolds Life of Christ 4 to p. 461. saith one of our best Divines upon the Text. To have him is to believe and receive him as to have a Propriety in him and and after a sort a Possession of him as another of our Worthies doth express himself Mr. Ball of the Covenant p. 287. not by way of Dominion for so we are his 1 Cor. 6.19 but by way of Communion and Propriety To have him is to believe and receive him as he is made of God to us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 which are the Benefits of Christ as Mediator Worthy Mr. Firmin Real Christian Synopsis pur Theologiae de Officio Christi S. 38. and the gracious effects of his Offices as Prophet Priest and King For these things we need him and these things we have by him To have Christ is to act answerably to the Proposal offer of Christ and everlasting Life through him The matter will be more clear in Particulars I. To believe and to have the Son is to have him in our Understanding and Minds by a clear and unfeigned Assent to the Revelation and Proposal of Jesus Christ as Mediator and Redeemer The Understanding upon the convincing Evidence of what is reported concerning Christ and Life by him doth assent unto it and doth acknowledge the Wisdom and Grace of God in the way to Life Eternal That God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself 2 Cor. 5.19 That God set him forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood Rom. 3.25 is wonderfully approved of This is a faithful Saying that Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners and it is received and own'd as true and worthy to be believed When a Sinner is convinced of Sin and Death and that Life is out of his own reach and power and that he must receive it as a gift of Grace and Mercy and that the Author and Giver of Life hath set down this for a Law Rule That whoever would have Life must have Christ The Soul lays aside all Thoughts of coming to Life and Happiness any other way and subscribes to and approves of this wonderful Contrivance of giving eternal Life by Jesus Christ and of making it necessary to have Christ Much of the Nature and Work of Faith is seen in this Assent to and Approbation of this way of attaining Eternal Life And thus Faith may be understood to be an Approbation of the way to Life by its contrary unbelief express'd by a disallowance of God's prescribed way and means 1 Pet. 2.4 unto whom coming as
the Reign of Darkness and Unbelief whatever their outward Condition is in the World high or low rich or poor young or old they lie under the heaviest and most intolerable necessity in the VVorld 1. They want Life and are under Death and what Pleasure can they take in Pleasures Riches Honours or the Glory and Enjoyment of all the Delights of the Sons of Men if they had them all as long as they have not Life VVhat ungrateful things should Musick and Songs and Revellings Banquettings Masks Dancings wanton Fashions the Fooleries of vain Minds be to a condemned Man VVhat Pleasure could you take in fulfilling any sinful Desire gratifying any Lush tho in the most secret retirement if you thought the Devil the Executioner of God's Sentence of Death stood at the Door or Stairs-foot to have you away You are condemn'd already and have no Pardon no Life 2. They need Jesus Christ for Life 3. They need Faith for having Christ Here 's nothing but want and misery 2. VVhat should be the first and chief endeavour and purpose of every one of our Souls but to be first out of the Danger of the greatest Loss and in the way of supplying the greatest want Therefore apply your selves to free Grace without delay pray and cry mightily to God for Life The Life is more than Meat and the Body than Raiment but this Life is more than Meat Raiment Body or the present Life pray and labour for it 3. If this be the sad case of Unbelievers then let us learn what should be the great study and work of Ministers Oh! Is our state any better than other Mens No not at all yea we are in danger of being further from Salvation than other Men because we are more apt to conceive and hold Errors concerning Spiritual Death Adam's Guilt and our own concerning Christ and Faith in Christ than other Men. The greater Men's Parts are without true Light and Grace the more apt to err and to flourish out their Errors and Sophistically to defend them How should we study for our own Life and for the Life of as many Souls as we are to watch over O! how should we labour to save our selves and them that hear us To have Christ for our own Life and Salvation and then to preach Christ and to draw others to have him for their Life There are three great Points to be studied by us 1. Christ the Son of God and what is written of him How necessary profitable and delightful is the study of Christ who is all in all See that excellent Sermon of the great Preacher Bp. Reynolds at an Ordination call'd the Preaching of Christ Printed at the request of those who were ordained 2. The only true way of having him for Life the Benefits of Christ and the way of partaking of them his Communication of himself and Benefits and our Reception of them and Duties towards him How offensive and troublesom should all those Notions and Books be to us which detract from the Glory of Free Grace in Christ and bring in another Gospel and speak vain Words of Spiritual Union and Communion the Nature and Office of Faith and work of the Holy Ghost upon the Hearts of Men 3. The state and condition of Souls what they need what way they must be saved what loseth and what saveth Sinners As they have or have not Christ so it must be with them for ever I cannot pass by this use when I consider how faithfully and plainly Moses dealt with Israel Behold this day I have set Life and Death Life and Good Death and Evil before you Deut. 30.15 And when I see the same Spirit of Light and plain-dealing in the Divine John How can we honour Christ It had been sufficient to say that all should seek to Christ for Life but lest any should turn aside out of the way he shuts out all from the hope of Life that seek it not in Christ Calvin on the Eph. and be faithful to Souls that do not preach as he wrote How can we deal faithfully with Souls if we have not some spiritual insight into that by which precious Souls are saved or lost O how faithful and plain should we be who have so great Arguments to treat upon as Christ and the Life and Death of Souls And hence will also follow under this Head that no Man should be ignorant of but all desirous to learn the way of Eternal Life and Death and to see in what way they are whether in the narrow way to Life and Salvation or in the broad way of Ignorance Carelesness Impenitence and Ungodliness which leadeth to Destruction But still remember when we speak of the Terror of the Lord and say to the wicked that they shall die if they turn not and receive Christ for Salvation that it may be to perswade Men to be willing to pass from Death to Life 2 Cor. 5.11 4. If he who hath not the Son hath not Life then in what case are all they that are ignorant and without Spiritual Sense of their Spiritual Death Unrighteousness Guilt and Condemnation by the Law for transgressing it and that are ignorant of Christ save by the Sound or Letters of his Name they know him not as the Son of God or how he is so nor as he is Mediator between God and Man to bring us to God as well as to make Reconciliation and procure forgiveness of sin nor how he came to be Mediator nor to what end nor how he performeth the Part and Office of a Mediator nor what it is to believe in him so as to have him for their Life Many will sometimes say that he died for them and hope he will be so good as to save them But do they know indeed the Nature Efficacy and Office of Faith which they should know for if they have him not they shall die in their Iniquities 2. In what case are they who neglect him and make light of him Mat. 22.5 They neglect their own Lives that neglect him Heb. 2.3 3. What will become of all them that refuse him John 5.40 And ye will not come unto me that ye may have Life How shall we escape if we refuse him who speaketh from Heaven See Heb. 12.25 5. Seeing God himself hath already determined this great Point and answered this Question Who shall and who shall not be saved it is every Man's Wisdom and should be his great business to submit to this Sentence of God concerning every Mans final state and as many as have any desire and knowledge of eternal Life or Apprehensions of eternal Death should apply themselves to the means of Grace that they may be drawn and brought to Christ When Men are sure that there are other things more worthy of their Care and Pains than the Life of their Souls let them lay aside the Care of their Souls till they are filled with their Vanities which will never be But Man hast
thou any Sense left Any desire of Happiness and Heaven or fear of Hell O then take up the serious Thoughts of the Life of the World to come of Glory and Immortality and apply thy self to Jesus Christ not slightly and ineffectually but betimes and earnestly Thou shalt find no Discouragement from him but most gracious Inclinations and assurance of being received into his Bosom and Arms as a Saviour of them that believe And know for certain that if thou come short of Eternal Life Quamvis fides non fit nisi ex Dei dono hominis voluntate infidelitas tamen non est nisi ex sola hominis voluntate Prosp Responsa ad Cap. Gallorum p. 330. it is thy own Sin and Fault and the remembrance of that thy Sin of making light of Christ will lie heavy upon thee to Eternity as the main Cause of thy Damnation 6. In what Honour and Reputation should the Son of God be had in the World seeing as was Prophesied of him by Simeon to the Mother of our Lord that should be for the fall and rising again of many in Israel Luke 2.33 He will raise up all that are humble and poor and broken in Heart that come unto him that they may have Life but he will be by his Justice and Power the fall of all them that refuse him If Christ be so high and great that the eternal Life and eternal Death of all be in his Hand O! what seeking should there be unto him for Life and Mercy What crowding to his Doors What knocking and lifting up of Eyes Hands Voices Hearts to the Throne of Grace for Life And how would Christ be reverenc'd and fear'd admir'd and magnify'd sought unto and lov'd if Men would believe that he is the Prince of Life and the Author of eternal Salvation Heb. 5.9 O how would it be said Happy is that Man that hath him first It is the Will of his Father that all Men should honour the Son as they honour the Father but how true is that that they who believe not honour neither the Father nor the Son no tho he have Life and Death in his Power How will Petitioners for Pardons from a King gratifie even Door-keepers and Friends that can make way for them How will the proudest Knee come down to the King himself 7. Then hence be satisfied in the true cause of the Damnation of Sinners Sinful Man takes himself to be wise in shifting off the true Cause of his Miseries and Sufferings which come upon him from himself upon others The Woman that thou gavest me c. Gen. 3.12 Adam doth not only cast the Blame upon the Woman but upon God himself Which thou gavest me If thou hadst not given me the Woman I had never eaten But now this Text is of great use to carry us to the proper Cause of Perdition the true reason why Sinners die is because they have not the Son And if this be the Cause of Perdition then as you love Life and hate Death do all that God commands you to prevent your Damnation in the Cause of it The means of Grace are the open and beaten way of Life O! keep that way with care and diligence 8. Then how inexcusable will all Unbelievers be before God's Tribunal that have not Life They shall then know what a Life what a Pearl they have lost And the more inexcusable the greater will the shame of their being placed on the left Hand be and the more their shame the more grievous will their Torment be They should have had Christ and he was made known and offer'd as the Author of Eternal Salvation and Salvation and Damnation were set out before them but they neglected the Son of God and lost Eternal Life by wilful neglect The Cause of the Death of Sinners is slighting of Christ Mat. 22.5 Neglecting of great Salvation Heb. 2.3 Refusing to hear Christ Heb. 12.25 Scriptures quoted but little before But Soul to whom I speak what think you Is a Saviour to be neglected when there is but one and no other Is the Salvation of Soul and Body to be neglected when thou hast but one of a kind one Body and one Soul Is Life Eternal to be neglected when there is but one day of Salvation and when that is once gone not one moment to be added to it They who in the Parable of the Wedding-Feast are said to make light of Christ are the good Husbands and Men of Business in the World who could spare no time from their careful Occasions to spend in seeking nay in accepting the Grace and Favour of God and Communion with him who had made great preparation for them We should let all things lie rather than neglect the momentous Affairs of a better and more enduring Life Oh! then how do they neglect it and make light of Christ who are Men of Pleasure and Diversion who have so much time lying upon their hands that they are glad of such Persons and Occasions as will help them to consume it And how can they who throw away this Life save that which is to come And with what Shame and Confusion will they go out of the World and come out of their Graves to be judged by the Judge of the whole World who offered them a dearly purchased Pardon and Life What a Mad-man would you account him to be who hath no more life to spend than what runs between Condemnation in Law and execution in Judgment that would spend that precious time in stead of securing his precious Life upon his Hair his Cloaths in reading Plays in Drollery Songs Racing Gaming the News of the Town fruitless Disputations Contentions Quarrelling and Fighting Oh! What time have we but the time of Patience and long-suffering which we should count Salvation 2 Pet. 3.15 That is a time for us to take hold of eternal life All are condemned already that do not believe John 3.18 But if Judgment be not speedily executed shall we live after the Flesh this time Then we must die Rom. 8.13 How bitter will Death be after a Life of Pleasure and when this shall be a continual Aggravation to make it the more bitter that eternal life was lost through neglect How mad are worldly Men with themselves if they lose a Fortune as they speak or a Place of Profit or Honour by being out of the way at a convenient season Oh! how will they rave when they go to Hell for the loss of life by negligence and folly 9. One Inference more and so to other Uses Hence you may plainly see what is the great Duty and Interest of all Men whatsoever to whom the Word of Salvation is sent it is to have and to secure to themselves the having of Jesus Christ for have Christ have life and all spiritual Blessings all kind of promises of all kind of good but no Christ no Life What is every natural Man's business in the World but to live in
some fashion or way or other O! shall the short and uncertain life that fadeth away be more the Care and Concern of all Men than the life of Jesus That incomprehensible Gift of God which is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord unto all them but to none but them who have his Son Labour not for the meat that perisheth but for the meat which indureth unto eternal Life which the Son of Man shall give you John 6.27 Yea count it better to enter into life halt or maimed or blind to avoid Sin the cause of Death than having two Hands two Feet two Eyes to be cast into Hell-fire Mat. 18.8 9. yea if it comes not only to the loss of Limbs but of Life it self spare not any thing to secure the Son and Life to thy Soul The having of him is safe without assurance but the assurance of it is comfortable for then the greatest danger is over and the everlasting Treasure and Inheritance secured and known to be so by the Testimony of the Spirit both from the Word and Conscience also 2 Vse Of Exhortation and Persuasion to believe in Jesus Christ the Son of God so as to have him altogether Person and Offices for all Uses Necessities Benefits and Purposes with all your Soul Mind and Strength What can be said more to persuade you than what is contained in these two short Sentences in the Text Be not content with any thing below the real and saving having of the Son of God Deceive not your own precious Souls try what you have whether what you have and put confidence in doth cause a spiritual Life of Holiness and true Joy and Peace in believing and be in you the hope of Glory all which they have who have Jesus Christ indeed That you may not be deceived in so great a matter I will shew you what some have had and you may have and yet come short of having the Son to Salvation and what they have who have him 1. You may read that the Jews thought they had enough when they could say they had Abraham to their Father John 8.38 But if God had been their Father they would have loved his Son v. 42. And by their Relation to Abraham they had the sign of Circumcision and other outward Privileges which many did build much upon But the Apostle did often overthrow their deceitful Building often telling them that Circumcision availed nothing no more than Uncircumcision but Christ was all in all Col. 3.11 But Faith working by Love Gal. 5.6 And a new Creature Gal. 6.15 2. They may not oly build upon their relation to Abraham and have nothing in themselves but they had a Form of Knowledge and Truth of the Law and think they can be Teachers of others Rom. 2.20 21. c. 3. And not only a Form of Knowledge a Religion in the Head but also a Form of Godliness in their Lives in opposition to the power of it 2 Tim. 3.5 which is rooted in the Heart and from the Heart springs forth and grows out in the Life dying to Sin and the World and living unto God 4. They may think they have and seem to have but they are mistaken in their thinking and but seem to have Luke 8.18 They may seem to have a Root of Faith when the Seed of the Gospel comes up in a green Blade but it withereth and is choaked by the heat of Sufferings and worldly Affections And they may say they have Faith James 2.14 These may have knowledg of Christ and his Word and be so far convinced of his being the Son of God as to be able to answer Questions concerning Christ and make an acknowledgment of him As the Devils confessed Christ Thou art Christ the Son of God Luke 4.41 And he suffered them not to speak for they knew that he was Christ Which was almost as much as Peter's Confession Mat. 16.16 and more than the ordinary Jews and Pharisees could say The one was the sincere Confession of a Friend the other of an Enemy There is an Assent to this Truth as to a Proposition or a true Doctrin and an Assent that is lively practical and cordial in order to have Christ the Son of God as a Person to be trusted to and relied upon for Life This is the Assent of a true Faith 5. Men have some Desires after Christ for the good they may get as the Scribe expressed Master I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest And Jesus saith unto him The Foxes have Holes and the Birds of the Air have Nests but the Son of Man hath no where to lay his Head Mat. 8.19 20. This was a trial of his sincere Faith if he would be as poor and destitute as the Master was If you had all things that can be named and have not Christ you have not Life Take heed therefore where you pitch and settle what you count your Treasure and upon what you build your Confidences Give me leave to hold you a little longer and to shew upon what Sand careless Builders who look not to the things that are eternal do lay their hopes of Life Suppose you had all things that are common to the sincere Believer and to the Pretender all will not amount to the Happiness of Life You say you are born of Christian Parents and not only of professing Christians but holy Parents So had the Jews as was noted but now Abraham the Father of the Faithful to their Father but not his Faith in Christ Say you have the best Church in the World for your Mother to what purpose except you are a living new-born Child of God Know you not that the Children of the Kingdom such as they were should be cast out Mat. 8.12 You have Baptism Had not Simon Magus that Token upon him Acts 8.13 You have the Ministry of the best Scholars and bless'd Men Had not they who had not Life this to say to Christ himself Thou hast taught in our Streets Luke 13.25 Yea but you have a Society of Saints you have Fellowship with Virgins and wise Virgins and had not and have not foolish Virgins the same Mat. 25. Shew what you have with your Lamps and what Oyl your Lamps are furnished with Have you Faith So had Simon Magus Acts 8.12 so have Devils Have you Christ indeed Have you Love unfeigned burning fruitful Love You have perhaps a Name to live a Name of Renown and Eminency so had they who were dead Rev. 3.1 All these things will make rather against you than for you if by all outward means you have not the Son himself 2. But some may say How shall I be certain that I have Christ the Son truly and indeed Let me ask you a Question or two and answer them to your self 1. How came you to seek after him and to have him Have you understood and felt your own Case and do you still know and feel when you look into your self a dead miserable