away at this time and I will here thee at a more convenient season But I say unto you who will not hear me to day nor embrace this great salvation I shall defie all the Ministers in Scotland to assure you that ye shall get another offer if ye send me away to day There is not one that can or dare engage that the great salvation shall be in your offer any more Therefore I say let none of Felix temper be here to day that will say they will hear Christ at a more convenient season 5. There will be some of Balaams temper to day who will desire to dye the death of the righteous and to have their last end like his yet they desire not to live the life of the righteous But I say unto you ye shall never dye the death of the righteous if ye live not the life of the righteous 6. There will be some of you here to day who I hope at least will be of Agrippas humor that will say Thou hast almost perswaded me to be a Christian I say unto thee O wilt thou quickly out with that word almost and put in that word altogether and say O precious Christ Thou hast altogether perswaded me to be a Christian However if thou come no greater length I intreat thee come this length that so thou mayst cry out I am almost perswaded to embrace Christ the great salvation and may be ere long ye will come further 7. There will be some of Iudas temper here to day who will betray Christ for thirty pieces of silver Yea some would sell Christ Heaven their Idols and all for less then thirty pieces of silver 8. I think there will be many of Esaus profane temper here to day who will sell their birth-right for a mess of pottage Now will ye enquire at your selves Am I the person that will give my birth-right for a mess of pottage doth my heart say I will sell my birth right because I am hungered and ready to dye what will it profit me give me a mess of pottage and I will quit my birth-right I know it there are not a few such here to day Therefore I intreat you enquire at your selves what is your humor Oh shall the great salvation that ye have flighted so long be slighted this day also and shall there be none to embrace it Oh enquire and stand in awe lest the wrath of the most high pursue you Now I shall give you these seven considerations which may provoke you not to slight but embrace this great salvation 1. The first consideration That the not embracing this great salvation is one of the greatest acts of folly that can be Ier. 8. 9. They have rejected the word of the Lord and immediately it is subjoyned And what wisdom is in them And so Solomon doth assure you they cannot be wise who neglect this great salvation Prov. 1. 7. Fools despise wisdom and instruction Therefore may not I say unto you be who ye will though ye were the greatest heads of wit in all this place ye are but stark fools as long as ye neglect this But would you be wise indeed and wise unto eternal life Then I intreat you come and embrace this great salvation 2. The second consideration to provoke you not to slight the great salvation is this that the ruine and destruction of the slighters of it is most certain and infallable Ier. 11. 11. Where speaking of slighting the covenant which is indeed this same great salvation there is a Therefore put to the threatning Therefore thus saith the Lord I will bring evil upon them which they shall not be able to escape I defie you all who are the slighters of this great salvation to find a back door when Justice shall pursue you for there is no door to escape if ye embrace not this great salvation But the earth will disclose your iniquity and heaven will declare your sin 3. Thirdly Let this consideration provoke you not to slight this great salvation that Christ is exceeding serious and earnest that ye should embrace it And I think that Isa. 28. 23. speaketh out his exceeding seriousness where four times he beggeth of his hearers that they would give ear and hear his voice saying Give ear and hear my voice hearken and hear my speech What needeth all these exhortations but that Christ is most serious that they would embrace the great salvation And O that there were a person here to day as serious to the bargain as Christ is But be who ye will that flight this great salvation believe me the day is coming wherein ye shall cry out Alas for my slighting of it Wilt thou therefore think presently with thy self O thou slighter of this great salvation what wilt thou say of thy slighting it When the Devil shall be leading thee in thorow those dark gates of hell O slighter of the Gospel how many alasses wilt thou cry when thou shalt be passing thorow these dark gates into thy everlasting prison Wilt thou not then cry out O me a slighter of the everlasting salvation whether am I now going Alas now for my slighting the Gospel And as thou passest thorow thou shalt meet with numbers of miserable comforters there is not one in that prison who can comfort thee but many dreadful a lasses shalt thou then both cry and hear if thou embrace not this great salvation 4. Fourthly Let this provoke you not to slight the great salvation that ye will get it for a very look O ye within this house to day ye will get this great salvation for one look Isa. 45. 22. Look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth for a very look ye will get this great salvation and do ye ever think to get Heaven at a lower rate 5. The fifth consideration to provoke you not to slight this great salvation any more is this There is not one of you who is a slighter of it but your slighting it shall increase your immortal bonds Man or Woman be who thou wilt when thou art slighting this great salvation thou art but plating a cord wherewith to bind thy soul eternally in these unquenchable flames Isa. 28. 22. Be ye not mockers lest your bonds be made strong I say therefore unto you old men mock not lest your bonds be made strong Old Women near unto your graves mock not lest your bonds be made strong Young men be ye not mockers lest your bonds be made strong Young Women who are in the flower of your time mock not lest your bonds be made strong but now alas will there for all this be a person here to day who will be a moker of this great salvation 6. The sixth consideration to provoke you not to slight this great salvation any more is this Ye know not but that your days may be near unto a close I say you know not but the day of the preaching of this great salvation
THE Great Salvation Offered and Tendered First by Christ himself and then by his Holy Apostles with the inevitable Destruction of all that neglect it In two Sermons Reprinted By that eminent Servant of Christ Mr. Andrew Gray formerly Minister of the Gospel in Glasgow Isaiah 52. 7. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings that publisheth peace that bringeth good tidings of good that publisheth Salvation London Printed for H. Barnard in the Poultrey 1694. TO THE READER Christian Reader BLessed were those days when Christians whether frown'd or smil'd upon by the World lived by Faith and walked in Holiness and Love and Ministers sought the things of their Lord and Master Iesus Christ and not their own When Gospel-Truth was plainly declared by the Preachers and Reverendly received and not wantonly debated by Hearers When Gospel Ordinances were prised and used for the Enjoyment of God in them When Iesus Christ was all in all in Mens Religion And when the Holy Ghost went forth sensibly in Calling Furnishing and Countenancing Ministers in their Work A great measure of this Blessedness did the Western Parts of Scotland Enjoy especially from the Year 1651 to 1660. Amongst the many bright and shining Stars in Christs Right Hand which he set upon his Candlesticks in that part of Brittain two Youths deserve everlasting Remembrance in the Church Mr. Hugh Binning and Mr. Andrew Gray The former Lived but to the twenty sixth year of his Age of whose Labours though several excellent things are Published his Discourses of some of the Principles of Christian Religion deserve Special Regard They have been often Printed and their Depth Gravity and Excellency deserves a larger Commendation than I can give them Mr. Andrew Gray his Contemporary dyed in the twenty second year of his Age. He was Born of a Noble Family bred up at the Vniversity where he profited signularly in Learning and Polished the excellent Parts God had given him The Saving Grace of God reacht him about the nineteenth year of his Age and at twenty he was called and setled in the Ministry of the Gospel at Glasgow a bright Candlestick in that day with Mr. James Durham and Mr. John Carstairs Ministers of the New Testament of singular Worth After two years painful and successful Labours there the Lord called him to his Rest. His singular Gifts for Preaching his charming way of Delivery both in Voice and Action the power he was endowed with and the great success on Mens Hearts that commonly attended his Labours were so Eminent that he was followed by Multitudes wherever he Preached more than any other Minister in that Land in his Day and became the blessed Instrument of the Converting of many to the Faith of Christ. What is Printed of his Sermons was principally by the Notes taken by some of his Hearers sometimes compared with what he Wrote himself which render them but lean Sceletons of the Discourses of a Minister under such singular Influences and Assistance of the Holy Ghost as he usually was in his Work It is well known what Imperfections attend such posthumous writings and what allowances judicious persons read them with How these two came forth alone thou shalt know A worthy Christian in Lancashire being much taken with Mr. Gray's Sermons he design'd to reprint these two concerning The Great Salvation and to give some hundreds of them to his poor Neighbours for their Souls good This Gentleman finding that the first Publishers of them were two Ministers in Edinburgh one of them being my honoured Father and I also bearing his Name he did not know but that I was one of the persons that first sent them to the Press and therefore he desired me to Preface to them I told him his mistake and that I being very young when Mr. Gray dyed could Testify no more of my own Knowledg but that I had seen him in my Fathers House and Pulpit and that I do well remember the high Character be had from all the godly Ministers and Christians that knew him and that his Death was lamented bitterly as a publick Calamity and a Prognostick of evil to come Although another might be more fit than I to Commend them to the Publick and if it had been put to my cheice I might have pitched on something else of this Author or of another for that Chritable end driven at yet seeing every one is to be left to their own Liberty in good works of this nature I would neither divert his design nor deny his request These two Sermons now again published contain no matters or point of Controversy except the main things of the Gospel be so accounted in this Age wherein angry contention is more minded by many than solid Believing and Holy walking They hold forth the greatest of Truths and best of Tidings The great Salvation wrought out compleatly by the Son of God our Saviour They warn gravely of the greatest commonest and most Damning of all Sins the neglecting thereof They earnestly call to the most important of all Gospel-Duties the believing acceptance of this Saviour with his great Salvation May some of the same Power from on High accompany thy Reading of them that did attend the Preaching of them is the desire of Thy Servant in the Gospel Ro. Trail A SERMON Concerning the GREAT SALVATION Heb. 2. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him THis everlasting Gospel which is preached unto you is that glorious Star which must lead us to the place where blessed Christ doth lye This Gospel and glad tidings of the great salvation is come near unto you And Christ is standing at the everlasting doors of your hearts desiring that ye would open unto him There is that one great request which Heaven this day hath to present unto you and it is that ye would at last embrace this great salvation freely offered by him It is the thing for which ye are called to mourn this day that since the dayes of your fathers and since the beginning of your own dayes ye have stopped your ears from the sweet and chaunting voice of this blessed Chamber Ye would never dance to Christ when he piped Neither would ye weep to him when he lamented But to come to the words which we have read unto you The Apostle in the former Chapter had been discoursing most Divinely of the matchless and incomparable excellencies which are in our Lord Jesus And in the first verse of this second Chapter he draweth forth an Exhortation from his former Doctrine which in short is this That they would take heed to the Blessed Doctrine of the Gospel and not at any time to let it slip out of their minds and that they would keep this Gospel as a jewel of great price and would not sell it but that they would be induced to buy
then this place shall be an heap of witnesses against you for it hath heard all the words of the law which he hath spoken unto you John 24. Oh cast your eyes upon these pillars of the house and stones in the walls I take them as so many witnesses that they may speak and testifie against you in the great day of the Lord if ye neglect this great salvation to day Therefore as ye go away be thinking upon it and whether or not ye mind to embrace it now while ye may have it This day I have set life and death before you I have set before you both the great salvation and the great damnation And O that ye had understanding in all these things that ye being wise might be provoked at last to embrace this great salvation the which we do yet again entreat you to think upon Is not heaven looking upon you at this time to see what ye will do with this great offer of salvation which I have this day from the Lord presented unto you Now to him that can perswade you to embrace this great salvation this gospel redemption this blessed mystery into which the Angels desire to pray to him who can bring you back from the pit and can enlighten you with the light of the living To him who hath the keys of your prison Who can open and none can shut and can shut and none can open To him Who hath all power in Heaven and in Earth communicate to him who can deliver you from the power of the Grave and can set you free from all your enemies we desire to give praise Amen SERMON II. Heb. 2. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him THere are two great and most ordinary complaints in these dayes 1. There are many who complain that their estates and persons are in bondage and that they are sold for Slaves to the hands of strangers But O that we could also turn over the complaint to this that our souls are in bondange and that we are yet in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity that so we might be provoked to long for the great salvation that is in our offer 2. There are many complaining and not without much cause that there is now such a toleration of errours But O wilt thou complain also of this that within thy heart there is a toleration of lusts is there not an act of toleration concluded in thy breast that the devil and all his company may reign in thee at pleasure Oh haâ—e ye not need of great salvation Shall I tell you that Christ is courting you to embrace it and that he putteth on all his most glorious robes and manifesteth himself unto you a a suitor making offer of himself and of his great salvation O tell me have ye seen him Or do you think to see him this day What robes hath he on There are five glorious robes wherewith he clothes himself when he condescendeth to manifest himself to his people First He cometh to his own with the garments of salvation according to that word Zach. 9. verse 9. Kejoyce O dauhter of Sion greatly shout O daughter of Jerusalem for behold thy King cometh unto thee he is just and having salvation Ay your King is come here to day and will ye not fall in love with him when he is cloathed with the garments of salvation Can ye ever have a more conquering sight of Christ than when he is cloathed with such an excellent robe and offering you salvation Secondly He appeareth to his own sometimes in garments dyed in blood according to that word Isa. 63. verse 1. 2. Who is this that cometh up from Edom with dyed garments in blood as one that treadeth the Wine Fat And now I say to you that will not look to Christ when he appears in the garments of salvation have ye a heart to refuse him that hath fought such a combat for you who hath trode the wine press alone and hath stained all his garments with the blood of thy enemies or is there any here who dare refuse his salvation when they see how he treadeth his enemies in anger and trampleth them in his fury and thus sprinkleth their blood upon his garments O tremble at this sight and seek quarter from him in time or he shall dye his garments with the blood of thy mortal soul. Thirdly Christ appeareth unto his own being cloathed with these humble robes of condescendency when he came in the similitude of sinful flesh O what a sight was that to behold the Prince of Heaven cloathed with our nature What a sight was that to behold him that was cloathed with light as with a garment to be cloathed with our infirmities yet he condescended to cloath himself thus that we might have access unto him and be partakers of his gifts O can we refuse him when love hath thus pressed him to put on the beggars weed that he might say to worms ye are my brethren and my sisters Fourthly Christ sometimes manifesteth himself being cloathed with the garments of beauty and ravishing majesty such was the sight that the Spouse got of Christ Song 2. verse 3. As the Apple-tree among the Trees of the Wood so is my beloved among the Sons and Song 5. when she saw him white and ruddy and the Standard-bearer of ten thousand And such was that joyful sight of him when his garment was as the light and white as the Snow which he had at the transfiguration when these glorified ones did come as it were Ambassadours from that higher house to make him a visit And fifthly Christ he sometimes appeareth to his own in robes of dreadful majesty and terrible highness and loftiness when the soul upon the first sight of him remains dead and there remains no more life in them such was the sight Daniel got in his tenth Chapter and such was the sight that Iohn got of Christ Revel 1. verse 17. And I would ask of all that are here what a sight have ye gotten of Christ to day in which of all these robes have ye seen him It is true we are not to look for the extraordinary sights of him but yet if ever thou hast seen him in any of his wooing robes sure he hath appeared matchless and how then shall ye then refuse him But now to come to the words I was speaking unto you of The first thing in the words to wit That there are many who live under the offer of this great salvation that do slight it and do not embrace it And now I shall only add a few things further unto you 1. Let me propose a few considerations to perswade you to embrace this great salvation God forbid we go away before we embrace this gospel salvation and therefore I charge you in his name go not away