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
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
Mediator the Life which they who have him have with him is that which he hath as Mediator which the Father hath given to all that believe and is put into the hands of the Son to give unto them To open this great Mystery the more you will find that the Son as God hath Life himself as in a Fountain yea he is Life And as he is Mediator and Redeemer the Father hath given to the Son to have Life in himself John 5.26 And gave him power to give eternal Life to as many as he hath given him John 17.2 And again John 6.57 As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me shall live by me Mark the place Christ was speaking of eating his Flesh and comparing himself to Bread more excellent than Manna and of the singular Benefit which they who made use of him by Faith as Men do eat Bread they should have Life by him But how could he give Life to them that believe He opens that in this vers 57. where note 1. The gracious Act of the Father in sending his Son in our Natures to be a Mediator and Saviour with Commission and Power 2. He who as God the Son had Life in himself receiv'd Life from the Father by whom he lived and this Life he did communicate to all that believed 3. So he that eateth me shall live by me The Benefit and Blessing derived to them that eat him that by Faith apply him is Life and as eating of Bread is the means of living by Bread so believing or spiritual eating is the means of living so he that eateth me shall live by me O! How marvellous is the manifold Wisdom of God in the way of Life as his Grace and Mercy is in bringing forth Life to the Dead in Sin and in bringing Life and Immortality to light by the Gospel Our miserable and helpless condition required no small help but a great and all-sufficient Saviour And so the Life of our Mediator shews the Death of every Sinner and our Deliverance from Death must in order go before though not in time the free Gift of Life It was by an easie passage which seemed wonderful delightful to the deluded minds of our first Parents that we fell under Condemnation and Death but the recovery was hard and two things were to be done for us to the praise of the Glory of Grace 1. The Evils under which we lay were to be removed 2. Our Life and Happiness procured and communicated and both these are done by our Mediator and Saviour I. The Evils under which we lay are contained under that bitter and terrible Word Death which is four-fold 1. We were dead in respect of the Guilt of Sin We were all Filii Mortis As in Adam all die That Threatning In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die hangs over our Heads Gen. 2.17 The Death contained in the Threatning and Curse of the Law Grot. de Satisfac p. 71. the eternal Death especially We are dead and our sed by the Law and we are all guilty before God Rom. 3.19 2. We are all spiritually dead dead in Trespasses and Sins under the power of our Corruptions and sinful Lusts Eph. 2.1 and 5. And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins dead to God and all spiritual Good Even when we were dead in sins hath he quickned us together with Christ making us alive to God and Holiness 3. We were dead as to all real and spiritual Comforts born to misery as the Sparks fly upward Comfortless without Hope Eph. 2.12 As Adam was naked and ashamed thrust thorough with Fears and Perplexities driven to invent helpless Shifts for felt necessities Paul did sadly mistake his condition when he thought himself alive and was brisk and well Rom. 7.9 I was alive without the Law once I thought my self well and safe but it was my Ignorance and Senselesness for when the Commandment came by which I was convinced of Sin then sin revived then the Snake appear'd to be alive by that Fire and I died I was a lost man I died and had no hope nor comfort that way 4. We are dead as Death is opposed to Eternal Life in Heaven dead under God's everlasting Wrath which is an everlasting Separation from the Presence of God and the Punishment of the Eternal Fire This is the wages of sin Rom. 6. II. The good which we need and which is procured for us is Life and Happiness All Blessings are comprehended in and presented to us under the sweet and comfortable Word Life and this Life is in the Son Christ and they who have him have it and every Branch and Distinction of Life and that in Perfection 1. He hath in him the Life of Righteousness and through his Righteousness they who believe in him are justified and pardoned and have their precious Life given unto them who were under Condemnation Righteousness and Life are equivalent to have the one is to be secure of the other Rom. 5.17 18. Therefore as by the Offence of one Judgment came upon all to condemnation so by the Righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men to the justification of Life How came this to pass See 2 Cor. 5.21 For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him He paid the Ransom and endured the Curse of the Law and as a Sin-offering bare the punishment of our Sin that we migh be made the Righteousness the Abstract put for the Concrete that is that we might be made fully righteous in his sight with that righteousness which is of God compleat and acceptable He was made of God to be righteousness for us that we might be justified and not come into Condemnation 1. Cor. 1.30 2. He hath in him the Life of Grace Sanctification and Holiness He hath a quickning Power in effectual Calling raising out of the Death and Grave of sin and rolling away the stony Heart that the dead in sin may rise to a spiritual Life John 5.25 Verily verily I say unto you the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live They shall hear his Voice and they that hear shall live O then most mighty Lord put forth thy Voice and say Awake thou that sleepest and rise from the Dead and Christ shall give thee Life Ephes 5.14 And that our Lamps should never want Oyl our Hearts never want Supplies there is a fulness in Jesus Christ and that to be communicated to all that receive him And of this fulness have all we received Grace for Grace John 1.16 The Life of Holiness conceived and brought forth in Regeneration is encreased and continued by the Mortification and Death of Sin and living to God and both these Powers we receive from Christ Rom. 6.11 Likewise
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
case in the Book of God They are all lost and dead Men they shall never see Life Not to have the Son of God is a Negative of having him and not to have Life is a Privative of having Life The Reasons and Truth of this Sentence doth spring from the former He that hath the Son hath Life which implies these Propositions or Doctrins 1. The Son of God hath Life in him and is the Saviour of all them that believe and he alone excluding all other ways or means or persons neither is there Salvation in any other 2. He whoever he be that would have Life must have the Son 3. He that hath the Son of God hath Life and none but he Therefore he who hath not the Son hath not Life because he alone hath Life who hath the Son of God And as God did for his great Love give his Son made this Law abstract in the first Sentence so in Justice he hath added this other The words are so plain and certain that they need no Proof but only a laying open of the case that all Men may see into themselves And the desire of my Soul is that by seeing how it is as long as you have not Christ and how it shall be for ever if you will not have him you may be prevailed upon to believe in Christ to close with him and cleave to him for Life Beside what was proved in the former Doctrin from John 3.36 Acts 4.12 Open your Eyes and see open your Ears and hear and conclude with the Text upon full Proof and Evidence both in Jews and Gentiles 1. The Jews had Moses and the Prophets Priviledges Ordinances Types and Shadows and Promises of Christ but if they had not Christ they were lost and undone for they had not Life For God declared and enacted this Law or Rule to be followed in giving Life John 5.24 Verily verily I say unto you he that heareth my Word and believeth on him or him that sent me hath everlasting Life and shall not come into Condemnation but is passed from Death to Life And again John 6.40 And this is the Will of him that sent me that every one who seeeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting Life and I will raise him up at the last day vers 36. But I say unto you ye have seen me and believe not How could they then have everlasting Life or escape that Sentence v. 53. Except ye eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of the Son of Man ye have no Life in ye It is not your eating Bread and following me for Loaves that can give you Life but you must by Faith eat of Christ and live 2. All they who believed not are severely threatned with dying in their sins I said therefore unto you that ye that die in your Sins for if ye believe not that I am he ye shall die in your Sins 3. All that were sensible of Sin and Death that were stung in Conscience were to look to him for Cure John 3.14 15. and were invited to come to him Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden c. Mat. 11.28 But they who would not come unto him would not come that they might have Life John 5.40 4. They who put away the Word of God from them judged themselves unworthy of Eternal Life Acts 13.46 and were cut off for their Unbelief Rom. 11.20 23. 2. Thus God determined concerning the Jews Let us pass from them to the Gentiles Could they have Life who had not Christ If Life and Immortality were brought to Light by the Gospel as they were 2 Tim. 1.10 then they were in Darkness before that was brought to Light and their state before the Gospel-light did shine and the Gospel-call did sound in their Ears is every where described to be miserable and doleful as Dead in Sin as Children of Wrath Slaves of the Devil Ephes 2.1 3. Out of the way Rom. 3.10 11 12. And without hope Ephes 2.12 2. After the Gospel was preached it was still certain He that believed not and had not the Son had not Life To open this observe there was and is but one way one streight Gate for all Flesh to enter into Life For observe 1. When the Apostles were to go into all the World and to preach the Gospel to every Creature capable as the Jews called the Gentiles by way of Contempt they were to keep to this Rule He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved he that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16.16 And Paul was sent to the Gentiles to open blind Eyes to turn them from darkness to light that they might receive an Inheritance among them that are sanctified by Faith that is in me Acts 26.18.2 When the Gospel brought forth Fruit this was the Fruit they were translated into the Kingdom of his dear Son Col. 1.13 And as many as were ordained to eternal Life believed Acts 13.48 See 1 Thess 1.9 10. and 1 Cor. 15.11 So we preach vers 3. c. and so ye believed 3. Consider what was the principal Subject-matter of the preaching and writing Was it not Christ and him crucified 1 Cor. 2.2 5. Was it not Christ Jesus the Lord 2 Cor. 4.5 Was it not Faith in Christ the Benefits and Fruits of Faith Yes certainly 1. They shewed the necessity of Faith and the Righteousness of God by Faith Rom. 3.22 28. 2. The great Blessing the Justification of Life by Faith Rom. 3.25 26 30. Chap. 5.1 Being therefore justified by Faith we have Peace with God c. and Salvation which is the Consummation of all Blessedness and Life in Perfection Ephes 2.8 By Grace ye are saved and that through Faith Receiving the End of your Faith the Salvation of your Souls 1 Pet. 1.9 3. They forewarned all of the danger of Unbelief Heb. 3.18 19. c. 4.2 3. See the Heads of Doctrin preached by Paul to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 15.3 4 5. 4. How many Arguments are spent in perswading to Perseverance and how many flaming Threatnings are drawn to deter from everlasting Deaths from the 23d Verse of the 10th to the Hebrews to the end of the 12th Chapter All this serves to convince every considering Person that as Life and Power to save all Men is in Christ and that they who would live must have him so they who have him not shall certainly perish Application I hope I have cleared and laid open the Case of every Man that hath not Christ not to leave any Soul that shall read this in that horrid state of Death but to perswade them to a timely Flight from the Wrath to come upon all that believe not and trust not to God through Jesus Christ alone for Mercy I beseech you receive the Love of the Truth that you may be saved 1. If all who have not Christ have not Life then he convinced of the miserable and necessitous condition of all them who are under
It will be more tolerable in Hell for Devils than for any of you if you die in Unbelief for Christ died not to save them nor was he ever offer'd to them as he is to you Will you chuse Sin and Death rather than Christ and the Life of Pardon Grace and Glory because the Devil would have you do so What Evil have you heard of the Son of God that rather than have him you would be tied to a stake yea dragged in pieces yea lose Life rather than have it if you must have him for it Oh! the Prejudices Strangeness and Enmity of the World against Christ and his ways of Salvation But will you live and die without a Saviour And walk in that Faction of Men against God which hath the Devil in the Head of them You should turn out of all the Paths of the Devil for he brought in Sin and Death by Sin into the World If you come to Christ and have him with his Merits and Benefits with his Fathers Love and Spirits Grace and Comfort you shall have a Christian's Life in Heaven but if not you must take what Follows the Life of a Sinner which is a Slave's Life upon Earth and a Devil's Life in Hell Precious and Beloved Soul whoever seriously reads and is moved with any of these things take these Advices and Directions following and the Lord give you a Heart to follow them 1. Do not carelesly lay by the Book and the Thoughts of what is written together If one Eye be opened to see somewhat of your Case close it not up to sleep upon it but open both to see the true state of your Soul as to Life and Death If you are prickt in the Heart receive more Pricks and fear not to be wounded for sin for Christ can heal thee and give thee Life 2. Do not receive the Word upon my Credit and do not reject it for any Prejudice against me but go to the Word of God it self Read the Text and recieve it as it is the Word of God for so it becomes effectual 1 Thess 2.13 3. Dread a slight Work upon thy Heart The Son of God finished his Work and left nothing undone that was to be done It lay heavy upon him yet he did it till all was finished Be faithful to thine own Soul to thine own Life in working out thine own Salvation with fear and trembling with a wise care and diligence fearing to fail and miscarry And when you are heartily and seriously engaged to work out your Salvation Take these Directions 1. Study well with reading hearing praying the Word of Grace and Salvation As you shall pass from Death to Life in your Justification so you must have a new Principle of Life and be changed from Death to Life in Regeneration and Sanctification How was the Apostle changed The Law of the Spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus Christ hath made me free from the Law of sin and death Rom. 8.2 The Gospel is the Ministration of Life 2 Cor. 3.6 and by it we are changed while we behold the Glory of the Lord the Son Jesus Christ with open face as in a glass v. 18. 2. As you are dead and can never be saved but by Christ the Saviour so you can never be quickned nor believe nor have Christ but by the Holy Spirit We are changed from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 It is the real effectual Work of the Spirit of the Lord and it is so done as to demonstrate the Finger of God to be in it 3. Rest not in outward Performances and Acts of Devotion but wait upon God in all his Ordinances as appointed means for Salvation Pray for the Spirit of the Lord to work in you a sincere Separation from sin Satan and Self and to implant you in Jesus Christ to work your Hearts to believe and joyn you to him in love that you may have him for all those kinds of Life that have been spoken of 4. Rest not in Wishes that you had Christ but by humble Applications with great earnestness of Soul by the quickning Assistance of the Holy Spirit come to Jesus Christ himself for Himself and Life You must have Christ himself therefore come to him directly and see that no overloved Creature or Sin whatever lie in the Heart like a Stone between the Grass and the Tree to hinder a closure Idols and Harlots must be shaken off or there will be no Marriage-Union between the Son and you And now the God of all Grace supply what I am wanting in and give Life with his Son to whom be Glory for ever A Narrative of the Occasion of Preaching and Printing this Discourse and of the Behaviour of those two condemned Criminals from their Condemnation to their Death submitted to the charitable Judgment of Pious Readers THE last day of the Assizes at Even which ordinarily was in Lent but then put off I received a Message at my House to desire me to visit a Woman a meer Stranger to me as was her Father also condemned for the Murder of a Child Next Morning I waited on the Lord Chief Justice Pollixfen on the Road towards Rutland being but two Mile from my House to desire the favour of a Reprieve for some convenient Time for me to use my endeavours with her His Lordship told me he had reprieved her not being satisfied in the Proof that the Child was born alive He entertained me with very Divine Discourse and proper for me and the Woman and obliged me to give him an account of her at his return from the Circuit that if there were good hopes of her leading a Life answerable to Repentance he might procure her Pardon and his last Words to me deserve my remembrance Pray Sir do it sincerely Her Name was put into the Pardon by his Lordship and expected to come the next Assizes but came not then as was expected The next Assizes I waited upon his Lordship and staying there giving what Assistance I could to the most afflicted good Father of the Woman Mr. Samuel Dudley my kind Friend came to me and told me He was shortly to come and settle in Town and was resolved to make it his business to visit the Prisoners and desired my Assistance which I promised when desired and had opportunity The Afternoon after the Woman was ordered to be Executed being condemned two years before and the Man received his Sentence Mr. D. sent for me into the Prison where he was performing his Visit to these poor condemned Criminals After we had privately discoursed them as fully as time would give us leave the Honoured Thomas Catesby Esq the High Sheriff was desired to give us leave to preach to them before Execution which was readily granted with Thanks for our willingness to take pains with them They had but about a Week to live we agreed That one of us should preach the Wednesday following
and the other the Friday Mr. D. preached the Wednesday after I had been in private with the Prisoners clearing some necessary things to them for their Profit as we had good reason to hope they were not unprofitable Hearers after hearing that Sermon When I came about the time appointed on Friday I did not a little wonder to see so many stand in the Street before the Prison-Gate and a Crowd within and the Room in which I did intend to preach as my Brother had done so full that there was no getting in As soon as I came within the Gate the Mistress of the House in her Husbands Absence desired me shewing a great Concern in her Speech 〈◊〉 Countenance that I would preach in the Seâ— house for the Crowd was too great for the 〈◊〉 I foreseeing what Offence some would 〈…〉 that new thing and how I should be censuâ—… 〈◊〉 offered to preach in the Prison-yard or in any other convenient place The Officers of the House press'd me to preach in the Sessions-House for the Debtors stood in need of and would be glad of a Sermon as well as others and they could easily and safely bring all of them into the Bar there being a Vault to convey the Prisoners from the Prison to the Bar up a Trap-door Being overcome by their Reasons and Earnestness I consented to that which was most convenient and safe for the House the Auditory and for me tho it was a large place And to this day I know not how otherwise to have done so well nor had I any ways to avoid it either by refusing to preach because the Assembly was so great or desiring them to depart and go about other business If either of these had been suggested to me at that time I hope I should have rejected the Temptation I foresaw not the Auditory nor desired the place It was not my Zeal nor my Vain-glory that led me to the first occasion of visiting nor to this of preaching And this may satisfie my Friends and those others that they did wisely forbear to give us trouble for this Service for which we had Authority sufficient to have born us out The Reasons for Printing this plain Sermon enlarged are not to vindicate my self nor condemn others but purely for the Excellency of the Subject the very Sum of the Gospel and pertinency to all praying that God would pardon its Defects and make it profitable to many more than those that heard it several of whom desired a Copy of it and I could not deny their Request and some of my Fellow-labourers and Brethren hearing what the Subject was have perswaded me to print it But the prevailing Reason is taken from God's Glory alone and desire of saving Souls I have nothing to say to any particular Man But why so angry Why so troublesom to themselves What Evil had I or my Fellow-Servant done Know ye not yet what Spirit ye are of I should be glad if this Evil Spirit were cast out for its own sake I was very much taken with a Story I read of Mr. John White a very Judicious Divine He liv'd a while in a House that was haunted his Maid-Servant complained much of the trouble in the House He chid her for going near the haunted Chambers and bad her keep within the compass of her own business One Night the Spectre after Mr. White was laid down in his Bed came to his Beds Feet opened the Curtains and looked upon him to which the fearless Minister said If thou hast nothing else to do stand there and I will go to sleep Was ever poor Ghost more blew'd So I would say to this restless Spirit If thou wilt not go to rest and hast nothing else to do I am resolv'd to do my Masters Work as well as I can when call'd unto it and not be scared or frighted from it by thee I trust that he who was a Shield to me from Dangers in Evil Times will do as much for me in better times He who walketh uprightly walketh surely And so good Night Judge charitably of the Success of our Endeavours which in short was as followeth And first of the Woman We might have looked for better Fruit from a Branch of that Stock from which she sprang had her Parents lived to have seen her past the years of dangerous and foolish Youth Her Parents left her young with other Children and her Friends gave 60. l. with her to a Trade in the Exchange There the old Deceiver and Murderer would soon find her out and draw out her Inclinations to suitable Actions and bring her such Confidents and Acquaintance as could serve his Designs upon her When she came to set up she came into the Country and followed the Calling of a Milliner travelling with Horses Her Husband went about as a Bedder he had married and buried a Sister of a Family that for Estate might live reputably at home but delighted in the rambling course of Gipsies and this Man had learn'd the Cant and followed that kind of Life with his Relations Some of her Friends betrayed her to this Marriage as she said and others were against it and she and her Family were so well known that they were constrained to go a great way before they could be married Because of this Marriage and meeting sometimes with the Gipsies in their Travels and being present when as she constantly affirmed to her Death the Gipsie her Husband's Brother-in-law kill'd the Inn-keeper she was counted one of that Crew but she constantly affirmed that she understood not their Cant nor their way of living and could never endure that her Husband should have any Familiarity with them She had a ready Wit and Speech a great stout Spirit but too little knowledge she was more apprehensive than the poor Fellow was but came short of a preparedness to die After that we had opened the Nature and Desert of Sin in general we came to those particular Sins for which they were condemned and when I aggravated their Sins from the Ignominy of the Punishment that such Offenders were thought unfit to live among Men she stomach'd the Expression and cried bitterly through Pride and the sense of the dishonour of the Death she was condemned to and slew out in angry Expressions at her Prosecutors We gave way to her Passion and made as good use of it as we could for her Consideration of the shamefulness of sin and a far worse End to come without Repentance I laboured to convince her of the Truth of what I had said and went on to other things She confessed freely she had been a great Sinner but not guilty of several sins which she named nor of that for which she was to die altho Mr. D. told her he was sent for while he left us by some Persons of Quality upon the Grand Jury who remembred the Evidence against her and looked upon her as a very ill Woman yet she persisted in the Denial of the
his hands that which is good that he may have to give to him that needeth Ephes 4.28 But yet Baskets of Spiritual Alms are the most precious and what is done as directly tending to the everlasting Salvation of poor Souls comes next to the love of Jesus Christ to Souls You have given an Example in this as in many other kinds the Prison hath been emptied and filled since your time and most of your Preachers are gone before you You are honoured with Age I pray God enable you more and more to honour him who only hath Immortality with your Age and Abilities of doing good But to return to my purpose The next year after the third of you a Gentleman of another County was made Sheriff in this whose Estate was little known in the County and so great a Stranger that he was directed by another where to find out a Preacher The Preacher humbly desired him to carry on the Work of preaching in the Good as you had done assuring him he should find Ministers though Strangers to him that would freely bestow their pains He took the motion kindly but living out of the County and taking ill to be put into that Office who had but very lately serv'd in another County he did no more than just what was necessary in attending upon the Judges Soon after besides the Inconveniency of the Prison after the Fire Gentlemen were pickt out for that place of Trust who were carved and fitted for the Service of the Court and they were active men till the Eyes of some of them being opened they turned their Backs upon the Court and their Faces upon Nottingham and the chief Persons of Quality were divided and most of them endangered by that famous Presentment of the 52 whereof but one was a Papist and he was sure enough of protection and favour whatever became of the rest and while the Country was broken into Parties there was no regard to such private and pious Exercises as I am speaking of And all other Exercises besides reading the Service and giving the Sacrament was next to keeping a Conventicle if not as bad in the Sense of some of the most favoured Clergy whose Affections or Interest made them drink down Notions and Objections against the prime Duty of their Office in which there was little new and nothing could be strong against it The chiefest of their Objections were long ago answered either materially or formally by those Reverend Men Mr. Attersoll on Philemon and Mr. Hildersam on Psal 51. Lect. 152. and on John Sec. 60. And by Mr. Rob. Bolton Saints sure and perpetual Guide p. 205. c. If I could turn my Wishes into Petitions I would beg for poor Prisoners these following Benefits I wish 1. That able and holy Ministers of Experience would frequent these close places to try if they could not recover some that belong to the Election of Grace out of the Chains of Infidelity and Impenitency Many a Soul hath been called out of a Prison to Grace and Glory And Holy Men have made it a business to find them out in Goals Holy Latimer the Martyr hath transmitted this of St. Bilney as he called him and himself also to our notice Now after I had been acquainted with him Bilney I went with him to visit the Prisoners in the Tower of Cambridge for he was ever visiting Prisoners and sick Folk Latim 1. Serm. on the Lords Prayer Holy Bradford when he was Prisoner in Southwark was wont to visit the Thieves on the other side the Prison Learned Mr. Perkins preach'd once every Lords Day to the Prisoners in the Sessions-House in Cambridge whither the Goaler brought them till he was called to preach in a Church in Town And so that Reverend and Experienced Exemplary Divine Mr. Richard Rogers was a Visitor of Prisoners as may be seen in Practise of Christianity Of visiting the Sick p. 698. Edit Fol. 2. I wish that all High Sheriffs would be so zealously affected towards the Salvation of poor Prisoners as to take care to provide the best means and helps to save their Souls from Hell and in particular that they would provide well for them and grant them as much time as they can between Sentence and Execution that they may not be hurried out of the World under Darkness and Confusion upon their Souls Then we may press hard upon them Turn or Die when hopes of Life are taken away Some Learned Men have written against a Late or Death-bed Repentance with much Severity and it must be acknowledged to be a very great Sin to neglect Salvation and I have been under a Temptation to neglect them because I had so much to do with hard Heads and hard Hearts and but a little time to do all in But as I have the great Examples of Divines more exercised and experienced than the former so I have found that God has been pleased to make the fear of Death a means of Salvation And why may we not think it to be much more effectual than an Affliction out of which a man may escape alive But here is no hopes of Life and Afflictions have been sanctified means of Conversion therefore so may the fear and apprehensions of approaching Death and Judgment be This request is the same in effect that zealous and holy Latimer made to King Edward the 6th Serm. 4. Here I take occasion to move your Grace that such Men as may be put to Death may have Learned Men to give them Instruction and Exhortation For the Reverence of God when they be put to Execution let them have Instructors for many of them are cast away for lack of Instruction and die miserably for lack of good preaching And the fore-cited Mr. Rogers hath these Word And this I can say I have my self visited many Prisoners after they have received Sentence of Death in whom I saw as good Signs of saved persons as ever I beheld in such as died in their Beds not having tasted of Repentance before And it were to be desired that as Joshua pitied Achan when he should be stoned to Death for his Offence so that he brought him to confess his Faults with hope of Pardon so that such woful Prisoners might be provided for that they might die with comfort p. before-cited There is more to be said and done than Prepare your self and I will give you the Sacrament 3. I humbly desire that High Sheriffs would give encouragement and leave to willing Ministers to visit Prisoners at all times and especially the last mentioned time and command to their Officers to receive them to such an end and for such a Work And this I desire not because I have found any difficulty or disrespect but the contrary but that none may be thought to intrude into anothers man's Province or questioned for exercising out of his own Parish I may not be much suspected for making this motion with respect to my self so much for my distance and
Marriage-Covenant between Christ and his Church Rev. 3.20 The only Son of the highest the Lord of Glory that one Mediator is tendred to you Will you have the Son of God If you will you shall live A Blessing which comprehends all manner of Blessings in it even the everlasting Inheritance You hear what is said your Answer is will or will not if you will not then that 's entred as in a Book of Remembrance And you will not come to me that you may have Life John 5.40 But if you will and consent and say you will have him for your Husband your Head and your Lord then there is a Covenant between you and you have Life setled upon you and you enter upon the First Fruits of it and have Communion with the Father and the Son which is Life indeed O what a Life is this beginning of Life Till the Soul say I will there is no full Answer given and while you suspend Consent your Life is in Suspense IV. He who hath the Son hath him in his Affection And except you have him by Faith in your Heart how can you affect him But if you have him in your Hearts the whole Houshold of the Affections entertain and come about him Love the first-born and strength of the Heart receives and hath him Desires run and go clogged as they are now with Infirmities towards him their Delights and Joys when they are themselves and free from the clutter of Strangers and worldly Lusts which quarter upon them are in him above all Persons and Things they ever saw or knew My Beloved is unto me a Bundle of Camphire of a refreshing vertue He is a Bundle and breaths out Grace and Life he shall lie all Night between my Breasts he shall be next my Heart most intimate with me I will make him a Bed in my very Heart I will not disturb him nor offend him nor make him weary of his Lodging and so offend him as to make him go away O happy I when I have him with me Cant. 1.13 He is altogether lovely or all desirous And this is my Beloved and this is my Friend O ye Daughters of Jerusalem Cant. 5. from ver 10. to 16. They who have him in their Hearts trust him with the dearest thing they have with the best of all yea their All that is their Life in whom ye trusted Ephes 1.13 And rejoyce in the hope of the Glory of God and Christ in them is that hope of Glory Col. 1.27 You cannot have Christ without spiritual strong affections towards him no more than a faithful chaste Wife can have an Husband God works upon these Powers of the Soul when you come first unto Christ to have him and by lively Affections you hold him and keep to him 5. To have the Son is by Faith to have him in our Aims We have him to live by him to live in Communion with him not as with an equal or ordinary Companion but to live to him and to make him the scope of our Lives as well as the lively Rule and Example That we should not live unto our selves but to him who died and rose again 2 Cor. 5.15 And so the Holy Apostle profess'd that to him to live is Christ Phil. 1.21 That Christ may be enjoy'd obey'd pleas'd and glorified in me and by me 6. They who have him thus have him as in their Eye to love him and to aim at him so they have him in their remembrance Can a Maid forget her Ornaments or a Bride her Attire Jer. 2.32 Can that Soul who hath the Son of God who hath taken him and given her self to him forget her Ornaments the Garments of Salvation wherewith he hath clothed her the Wedding Garment and best Robe Can a Bride forget her Attire If not her Attire can she forget her Bridegroom There is a particular great Ordinance appointed to this End that he should be remembred and the Church his Spouse must do as he hath commanded in remembrance of him 1 Cor. 11.25 7. They who have him in their Minds Hearts and Affections will have him in their Mouths with Honour Whom do Men say that I the Son of Man am Some say thou art John the Baptist But whom do ye say that I am And Simon Peter answered Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God Mat. 16.16 They that have the Son know what to call him and who he is Faith must know him distinctly and separately from all other Names and Persons and eminently above all I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God Acts 8.37 If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God raised him from the Dead thou shalt be saved Rom. 10.9 What! A Wife and not speak of her absent Husband While we are present in the Body we are absent from the Lord. But not have him in our Mouths to remember and honour him How many Wonders have you to speak of concerning Christ How many great Actions wise Sayings Heavenly Doctrins holy Precepts and precious Promises and rich Tokens have you to speak of Have him have him more in your Hearts and more in your Mouths with pure Affection and great Praise as the Church had him Cant. 5. from the 10th verse Have him in your daily Prayers and Praises have him in your Closets in your Houses have him in your Communication as the Disciples had him as they walked by the way Luke 24. 8. They who have him have him in their Lives They cannot live but by having him I live yet not I but the Life that I live in the flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2.20 You must have the Son or you cannot have Life He is our Life Col. 3.3 4. Have him in your Lives as the perfect Copy Exemplar and Pattern of Holy and Heavenly Living have him in your Lives as the Manna as the Meat you eat as the Garments you wear as the Air you breath in yea as the Life you live III. What is that Life which they have who have the Son By Life all manner of good things all manner of Blessings are understood and by Death all manner of Evil. Life and Good are set out together in opposition to Death and Evil Deut. 30.15 See I have set before thee this day Life and Good Death and Evil There is some shadow of Death in all manner of Afflictions Miseries and Sufferings and all the lesser Streams of Evil run at last into the endless Gulf of Death whose Spring-head is the Curse and Threatning of Death In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Gen. 3.36 That is the Wrath which abideth upon them who believe not And when we believe and are justified and pardoned we are said to pass from Death to Life John 3.36 John 5.24 I have shewed you before that the Son is here considered as
Christian are knit together our very Persons Soul and Body are coupled to the Person of Christ by the same Holy Ghost which dwelleth in him and in us 1 Joh. 4.13 Worthy Lyford p. 116. Hoornb Theol. practic l. 7. de Spirituali nostri cum Christo unione Zanch. in Ep. ad Ephes c. 3. De Spirituali Connubio A. B. Arm. Serm. before cited p. 19 20 21. And by him the Protestant Schoolman as a learned Person calls him Zanc. in c. 5. Ep. ad Ephes Q. 3. Thess 4. l. 3. Spiritualis connubii It was an high Dishonour that some did to Christ and injury to Souls that exposed the having acquaintance with the Person of Christ to the pleasure of vain ignorant Men or disgusted Palates at the Doctrin of God our Saviour We must not only know but have the Person of the Son as sent into the World to save Sinners as Mediator in the Execution of that Office as Prophet Priest and King as was said before But if any will ask How is it possible for us upon Earth to have the Son who is now ascended above all Heavens This Question or Objection was answered long ago by the renowned Vsher The Conjunction is Spiritual and Supernatural no Local Presence no Physical or Mathematical Continuity or Contiguity is requisite thereunto It is sufficient for the making of a real Union in this kind that Christ and we tho never so far distant in place each from other be knit together by those Spiritual Ligatures the quickning Spirit and a lively Faith wrought by the same Spirit A Wife is a Wife joyned in Marriage to her Husbands Person tho separate in divers Countries Subjects are related to the Person of their King and Politically united and enjoy the Benefit of his Government and pay Duty to him tho they never saw him But tho the Body of our glorious Redeemer be in Heaven his Person and his Spirit are in all that believe and with them whom having not seen yet believing ye live 1 Pet. 1.8 3. Every particular Believer who hath the Son hath Life and hath the Son for himself and by his own particular Faith as really and truly as the Catholick Church hath which is made up of all Believers What is the Universal Church but the Whole existing in Particulars The Text speaks in particular and not in general He that hath the Son hath Life Camero de Eccles p. 226. Itaque nullum est membrum corporis Christi ne vilissimo quidem judicio humamano quod non aeque Christum contingat atque illa quae sunt nobilissima c. quia Christus totius Ecclesiae singulorum Ecclesiaâ— membrorum Sponsus est and this having is an immediate having of him by every particular Believer for himself He that believeth shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16.16 By this therefore let this Truth enter into your Hearts That every one of you not one excepted must have Christ for your own particular Life and Salvation Except we are living Stones living Members we are not Members of the Catholick Church The wise Virgins might as well have given of their Oyl to the foolish Virgins All Believers are immediately joyn'd to Christ one is not more united than another in the Body every Member is not proximly joyn'd to the Head but in Christ the meanest and weakest Believer is immediately joyned to him Rev. Mr. Burgess on 17 of John p. 589. as the Catholick Church give Life to any particular Member of it Christ is the Fountain of Life and except we have Life from him we are not Members of his Body the Catholick Church nor have Spiritual Communion with it Do not think of entring into Life by any new-invented Door or round about by which you shall not speed but come to him that hath Life and calleth you to come to him himself Make haste then for it is for Life 4. If he who hath the Son hath Life O what a Prize have they who have him They have him who is all Worth and Excellency A Pearl and nothing but Pearl There is no dross at all cleaving to him whose Head is of the most fine Gold Cant. 5.11 Yea he is altogether lovely all Desires Most desirable and most desirable for this that he is good to make a Man that is dead to live O what a Prize have all that have him They have Life What an Immense Loss was that of Adam's losing Life and Goods God and Creatures Soul and Body But now behold all that was lost is recovered All was sunk in the Sea of Perdition Man and his whole Estate of Happiness but now all regained and brought to Light he hath brought Life and Immortality to light by the Gospel Is there any thing to be given in exchange for a Soul Here is now a Jewel more valuable than a World Here 's Life with the Lord Jesus Christ Such a Life as none should live without but those miserable condemned ones who cannot have it The loss of it will be lamented for ever How joyful should the Souls be that have it Let us make merry saith the Prodigal's Father for this my Son was lost but is found was dead but is now alive O how glad should we be of having this Life For it was lost and is now found and shall never more be lost O value value Christ and what is to be had with him He is infinitely better than your selves and by him you have the best of the best of things Life is more precious than all things but this Life is the Crown of Life 4. You who have Christ owe more to him than to all the World Parents have done nothing for you in comparison of Christ they were Instruments of giving Life to you but they were also unhappy Instruments of Sin and of bringing Death upon you and when they had made you miserable and brought you into a World of Misery and Danger of Sin of every Sin and of Temptation They never sweat drops of Blood nor shed their Blood to save you They reckon they have done much in nursing and bringing you up and giving you a Portion of such perishing things poor stuff as they have But the Son of God who never did you harm and whom you never obliged to do you good sorrowed pray'd wept sweat drops of Blood yea died a cursed Death to save you from everlasting Death and to procure everlasting Life What have Physicians done for you or can they do but give some ease and some relief and for a few days prolong your natural Life Did they ever bear your Sorrows or raise your Dead or make your recovered Lives the happier But the Son hath born our Griefs and by his Stripes we are healed There 's a way of healing and all the happiness of life he provided for you What can Kings and Princes do for you VVe acknowledge the Blessing of Peace and Protection under
Dispenser Excellent Charn made known and offered to us then we have him God shines in our hearts 2 Cor. 4.6 The God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Glory giveth the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him Ephes 1.17 Every man therefore that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh to me John 6.45 This is the way by which we come to the Son and have him 2. But the meaning of the Question may be What must I do What means may I use Or what manner of Man must I be that I may have the Son And then I answer in this general Sentence or Rule Then a man may have the Son when he is made heartily glad to have him on any Terms that is according to the Son 's own Proposals Here mark We do not mean by the Word Terms Condition Propositions any Bargain or Exchange Price or Commodity of our own We receive all from Christ being nothing to him in consideration whereof we have Christ We find in him all fulness riches and honours But what have we of our own but Baseness Poverty and Misery This Misery contracted by sin is the Dowry Cameron as above-cited in Myrothecio The Son as the Son of God gets nothing by us nor doth our Union which he affecteth bring any gain or happiness to him but by much loss and many Sufferings he obtained it But respectu nostri omnia candida we receive from him nothing but good and magnificent and only such things Hoornb ubi supra p. 797. which we bring to our Husband Christ I say again then are you prepared to have Christ when you would gladly have him with all your Soul with all that he requireth of you He hath set down the Terms your Hearts consent you subscribe to them all as the VVritings are drawn by the Spirit in the Gospel you desire no new Articles nor abatement of any but stand to his Mercy and Grace And well you may for he is VVisdom and Love Goodness Mercy and Compassion and will enable you to do and suffer all that you bind your self unto Q. But when is the Sinner made glad to have him A. Then when he seeth there is but one way for him if he have him not that is when he is under actual strong Apprehensions and Convictions that he must perish and die for ever a Death of Privation of the enjoyment of God in Heaven yea and in Earth also when he is humbled and poor in his own Sense when he feels himself sinking into the bottomless Pit under the Burden of his Sin and Guilt 2. VVhen he finds all Creatures Helps and Confidences in the Flesh fail him Phil. 3.4 When he looks upon his right hand and upon his left hand and there is no Helper nor Intercessor that can save him when he believes for certain there is Salvation in any other Acts 4.12 Oh how formidable and terrible doth Hell look with its Flames and utter Darkness How wonderful doth Salvation appear to such a Soul 3. When he cannot think of being damned without Horror and not of being saved without Wonder and Astonishment And then when he hears of the Grace of God in Christ and of the graciousness of Jesus Christ his Fulness his Fitness his Compassions his Kindness his willingness to save every one that comes unto him O how glad is the miserable humbled Soul to hear of his Offers his Invitations to come to him and his Promises to them that come and have him Those Jews who were pricked in their Hearts gladly or willingly received the Word of Advice and Grace in their extremity and soreness of heart And they who gladly received the Word of Salvation were baptized They by Baptism a sign of their having him put on Christ and had him They who are sick will gladly have the Physician and the Soul that is poor desolate lost a Syrian ready to perish will most gladly have Christ for a Covering of their Eyes for their Head and Husband when they hear the Record and Testimonies those high Characters and Reports that are given of him Mark a condemned Prisoner When we behold our selves in our Blood O how comfortable is that word of Grace and Mercy Live that fears the Execution and lies under the terror of Death will most gladly receive his Life at the hands of his Gracious Prince and serve him as his Prince with the hazard of Life What will not a Man do for Life How much for eternal Life Q. But how may I be brought to this to be made glad and willing to have the Son for my Saviour 1. You must awake out of your Sleep and Dreams And will not the Alarum of Death and Wrath hastning towards you awake you Will not a Cry at Midnight rouze you The last Enemy and the last Trump stir you The Drowsiness of this Generation is a fearful Sign and Forerunner of a Spirit of Slumber and a dead Sleep You then that have Ears to hear hear and then we shall shew you how you may have Life Eternal 2. Hear read and ponder upon the Word of God The more you know and seriously consider of these things the better it will be I say ponder the things and the drift of them and do not lay them up as Notions and Historical Passages in a careless Head 1. Understand how the case of Mankind stood before the Fall 2. How it is with all Mankind under the ruins of that Fall how we are under Guilt Sin Satan and the Curse how great our Darkness is how we are all out of the way what our Enmity is against God and true Holiness what our Impotency is to turn to God as without Strength to help or recover our selves 3. How we must be restored by Jesus Christ alone Rom. 5.8 9 10 12. c. 4. What the Gospel declares to be our Duty Knowledge Faith Repentance Love Obedience Active and Passive Obedience and Self-denial when our Lord calls for us to forsake all and suffer for him 5. None of these things are called for as a price or Mony as the Prophet speaks Isa 55.1 2. The great main thing that is required of you is your rational deliberate free Consent Will you have me That 's the great Question say understandingly and sincerely you will and you have him who is infinitely worth your having 6. Study the invaluable worth of your precious Souls and of your great Saviour the Son of God and the Life of your Souls Know that one thing needful Luke 10.42 and the first thing to be sought Mat. 6.33 And tho the Gate be strait you will enter because it is unto Life 7. Think not much of the way of Salvation but submit to be led into every step of it It is the Invention of infinite Wisdom out of Grace and Mercy 8. No Man is excluded from Eternal Life but he that will not believe and have the Son John 6.37.9 Understand
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
danger of a partial Confession and Repentance of the horridness of the Judgment of God of the sinfulness of having and hiding Sin and pleaded with him by the Patience and Mercy of God by his Grace in affording him the means and helps God had granted him how that notwithstanding what was done upon him all would be to no purpose as to his Salvation but would aggravate his Condemnation Nothing would stir him nor a Word come from him At last I told him 't was Satan's Great Design to lock him up for his own to harden him against Christ and that we would have him know and the Devil know that we were the Ministers of Christ and must declare his Word and should leave him to the Judgment of the Great God We told him That whose confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall find mercy but he that hideth his sin shall not prosper i. e. shall not be blessed or happy but on the contrary We spared no Arguments or Pains to recover him out of the hands of the strong Man armed There were some good People with us who dealt with him to the same purpose At last God was pleased to own us and preserve us from a Foyl and baffle off the Devils and so he told us He believed none of his Confederates were living however he knew of none And then we went on again His Heart was melted his Tears returned his Ears were opened to further Instruction As he went along to the place of Execution he sighed mourned wept groan'd that I never heard the like Oh! how did he complain of his hard and obstinate Heart Oh this hard Heart O mercy mercy Oh sweet Jesus have mercy upon me When he came in sight of the Tree Oh! there is the place I am going to Oh! my sins have brought me to it Oh! my stealing my drinking my swearing my whoring my Sabbath-breaking my gaming I turned to him and said And your stealing was to maintain your other sins Oh! Ay ay Oh my hard and obstinate Heart Oh sweet Jesus have mercy upon me Oh Father have mercy upon me Oh pardon my sins And thus he continued from the Prison to the place of Execution which is I suppose a good Mile or more He said little upon the Ladder but desired all present to take Example He died very soon after he was turned off so that I believe his Heart was almost broken with Grief before the last stroke of Death This is a plain and true Account of both these Persons as to the matter and as to the very Words that are most remarkable I have but few Remarks upon them 1. They who are not at all ashamed of the most shameful sins think the Punishment deserved a great shame to themselves and Kindred 2. It is a good sign when persons are more grieved for their sins than ashamed of the Punishment 3. The Devil will hold out to the last and baffle Ministers if he can but we must not suffer it but resist him with those Weapons that are mighty through God 4. What Honourable Reverent Sweet Words will poor Souls that have been ignorant Despisers of Christ give him when they come to see their need of him Grace and Mercy to every Reader of what is written Three useful Books written by Mr. Edward Pearse viz. The Best Match or the Souls Espousal to Christ A Serious Warning to a lively and thorough Preparation for Death A Treatise of God's Unchangableness Books lately Printed A Discourse of Sickness and Recovery By T. Rogers M. A. A Treatise of Closet-Prayer by Mr. Slater Hearts Ease in Heart Trouble A Book useful for those that are in Affliction By J.B. An Abridgment of the Holy History By S. Clark Author of the Annotations on the Bible lately Published Sold by J. Robinson at the Golden Lion in St. Paul's Church-yard FINIS