pacifie the Consciences of sinners any more than the Blood of Bulls and Goats could do it under the Law yea any more than the Lustrations and Expiations of Sin amongst the Heathen could effect it Wherefore they have at length formed a more stated and specious Image of it to serve all the turns of convinced Sinners and this is a Purgatory after this Life that is a subterraneous place and various means where and whereby the Souls of men are purged from all their Sins and made meet for Heaven when the Lord Christ thinks meet to send for them or the Pope judges it fit to send them to him Hereunto let them pretend what they please the People under their conduct do trust a thousand times more for the purging of their Sins than unto the Blood of Christ But it is only a cursed Image of the vertue of it set up to draw off the minds of poor sinners from seeking an interest in a participation of the efficacy of that blood for that end which is to be obtained by faith alone Rom. 3.25 Only they have placed this Image behind the curtain of mortality that the cheat of it might not be discovered none who find themselves deceived by it can come back to complain or warn others to take care of themselves and it was in an especial manner suited unto their delusion who lived in pleasures or in the pursuit of unjust gain without exercise of afflictions in this world From these two sorts of persons by this Engine they raised a revenue unto themselves beyond that of Kings or Princes for all the endowments of their Religious houses and Societies were but commutations for the abatement of the fire of this Purgatory But whereas in its self it was a rotten Post that could not stand or subsist they were forced to prop it with many other imaginations for unto this end to secure work for this Purgatory they joyned the distinction of Sin into mortal and venial not as unto their end with respect unto Faith and Repentance not as unto the Degrees of sin with respect unto the aggravations but as unto the nature of them some of them being such namely those that are Venial as were capable of a purging expiation after this life though men die without any repentance of them And when this was done they have cast almost all the sins that can be named under this order And hereon this Image is become an Engine to disappoint the whole Doctrine of the Gospel and to precipitate secure sinners into eternal Ruin And to strengthen this deceiving security they have added another invention of a certain storehouse of Ecclesiastical merits the keys whereof are committed to the Pope to make application of them as he sees good unto the ease and relief of them that are in this Purgatory For whereas many of their Church and Communion have as they say done more good works then were needful for their salvation which they have received upon a due ballance of Commutative Justice the Surplusage is committed to the Pope to commute with it for the punishment of their sins who are sent into purgatory to suffer for them then which they could have found out no engine more powerful to evacuate the efficacy of the blood of Christ both as offered and as sprinkled and therewith the Doctrine of the Gospel concerning faith and repentance Moreover to give it farther countenance as one-lie must be thatched with another or it will quickly rain through they have fancied a separation to be made between guilt and punishment so as that when the guilt is fully remitted and pardoned yet there may punishment remain on the account of sin For this is the case of them in Purgatory their sins are pardoned so as that the Guilt of them shall not bind them over to eternal damnation though the wages of sin is death yet they must be variously punished for the sins that are forgiven But as this is contradictory in it self it being utterly impossible there should be any punishment properly so called but where there is guilt as the cause of it so it is highly injurious both to the Grace of God and blood of Christ in procuring and giving out such a lame pardon of sins as should leave room for punishment next to that which is eternal These are some of the rotten Props which they have fixed on the minds of persons credulous and superstitious terrified with guilt and darkness to support this tottering deformed Image set up in the room of the efficacy of the blood of Christ to purge the souls and consciences of Believers from sin But that whereby it is principally established and set up is the darkness ignorance guilt fear terrour of conscience accompanied with a love of sin that the most among them are subject and obnoxious unto being disquieted perplexed and tormented with these things and utterly ignorant of the true and only way of their removal and deliverance from them they greedily embrace this sorry provision for their present ease and relief being accommodated unto the utmost that humane or Diabolical craft can extend unto to abate their fear ease their torments and to give security unto their superstitious minds And hereby it is become to be the life and soul of their Religion diffusing it self into all the parts and concerns of it more trusted unto then either God or Christ or the Gospel Spiritual light and experience with the consequents of them in peace with God will safeguard the minds of Believers from bowing down to this horrid image though the acknowledgments of its divinity should be imposed on them with craft and force otherwise it will not be done for without this there will a strong inclination and disposition arising from a mixture of superstitious fear and love of sin possess the minds of men to close with this pretended relief and satisfaction The foundation of our preservation herein lies in Spiritual light or an ability of mind from supernatural illumination to discern the Beauty Glory and efficacy of the purging of our sins by the blood of Christ when the glory of the wisdom and grace of God of the love and grace of Christ of the power of the Holy Ghost herein is made manifest unto us we shall despise all the paintings of this invention Dagon will fall before the Ark and all these things do gloriously shine forth and manifest themselves unto believers in this misterious way of purging all our sins by the blood of Christ Herein will ensue an experience of the efficacy of this heavenly truth in our own souls There is no man whose heart and ways are cleansed by the blood of Christ through the effectual application of it by the Holy Spirit in the ordinance of the Gospel but he hath or may have a refreshing experience of it in his own soul and by the power which is communicated therewith he is stirred up unto all that exercise of Faith and all those duties
Word by the Rod as Shepherds let loose their Dogs to hunt the stragling Sheep into their Bounds As Parents use Bug-bears to make their Children run into their Arms all in Love and to keep them in it by keeping them from excursions XI Another Means to keep our selves in the Love of God is to keep in our Hearts a quick sense of the Pardon of Sin of the wonderfull love of the Lord to a poor sinfull Soul to pardon great and many sins This puts such an Obligation upon a Sinner that he cannot chuse but express his great love to the Lord for it See a famous Instance of this in Mary Magdalen who having received this great Mercy from the Lord Luc. 7.38 47. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 came where he was in Simon the Pharisees house kneeled down at her dear Saviours feet and instead of Water her Eyes were Ewers and she wept tears upon the feet of Christ and washed his feet with them so abundant were they and then instead of a Towel she wiped his washen feet with the hair of her Head and not only so but kissed his feet All which thô the envious Pharisee blamed yet the Lord Jesus allowed and highly praised with tart reflexion upon the proud Pharisee who omitted those Civilities which that humble loving Convert performed Moreover the Lord that knew her Heart testifies for her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 she did it all in much love to him for the forgiveness of her many sins 1. Because Forgiveness of Sin is an act of the greatest Grace condescension and kindness of God to a poor Soul Because by the guilt of Sin a Soul is bound over to eternal Death and Wrath in Hell there to make satisfaction which will be ever a doing and never done Pardon of Sin loosneth the Sinner from that by Christs satisfaction for him 2. Because every one thus Pardoned Psal 51.12 Vphold me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with thy ingenuous or generous Spirit is made truly sensible of the Kindness of God to him in it and by converting Grace hath an ingenuous and noble Spirit created in his heart that will never suffer him to forget it nor think he can ever sufficiently prize or express it XII A further Means to keep our selves in the Love of God is not only to love the Lord but to keep up our Love to him to the height Such a love as the Bride and Bridegroom have to each other which is brisk and highest then Jer. 2.2 Rev. 2.4 5. I remember saith the Lord the love of thine espousals And again I have somewhat against thee because thou art fallen from thy first love repent and do thy first works The Lord commands our Love towards him in the most intense degree of Affection with all the heart with all the soul with all thy might Cum omni valdè tâ—o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all thy utmost power Deut. 11.1.13.22 Cap. 19.9 Cursed be the deceiver that hath this Male in his flock Mal. this Masculine Love and yet giveth God the lame and the lean The highest Love of the Soul is a Present for the greatest King in the world Therefore labour to keep up thy Love to the height towards God Thou canst never be excessive in thy Love to God to the Creature thou mayst and commonly art But behold the perversness of Man in this Affection We stint our Love to God where it should know no bounds nor measures and we are boundless in our love to Creatures which alwayes ought to be bounded XIII If we will keep our selves in the Love of God let us labour to grow in Grace and to carry on the work of it in our Souls to the highest perfection This is grounded upon the Verse immediately before the Text viz. Ye beloved building up your selves in your most holy Faith where the Participle building agrees with the Verb in the Text keep your selves in the love of God Noting this growth in Grace and Knowledge to be an effectual means to keep our selves in the Love of God Whether we understand this Clause building up your selves in your most holy Faith to be understood of the Doctrine of Faith or the Grace of Faith or of both for we cannot well sunder them they being helps to each other according to that of Peter who puts them both together to grow in Grace and in the Knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and this is a Soveraign Remedy against falling away 2 Pet. 3.17 18. Now there is good reason why our growth in Grace and particularly in Faith is a principal means to keep our selves in the Love of God 1. Because the Power of God goes with Faith to keep us firm unto salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are kept thereby as with a strong Guard 2. Because by building up our selves in our most holy Faith we please God without Faith we cannot do that and we gain upon his Love for we are in the way of God and doing his Will this is the Will of God even our Sanctification He that hath my commandments and doth them Joh. 14.21 he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me my Father and I will love him Joh. 15.9 10. As the Father hath loved me so have I loved you continue in my love If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love even as I have kept my Fathers commandments and abide in his love XIV A great Means of keeping our selves in the Love of God is this to Pray in the Holy Ghost ver 20. the verse after my Text Now we shall see how forcible and cogent this means is Consider 1. All good things come from God Jam. 1. Prayer is the Key of Gods Closet and Treasury we are meer Beggers and have nothing of our own but are fain to beg our daily Bread of God who keeps us from Hand to Mouth God will have it so because he will have us know to whom we are beholding for all Moreover he Loves to see our Face and hear our Voice and the oftner the more welcome And this he doth as tender Fathers use to do with their Children who know what they need but will have them come to them for all with bended knees for their Fathers Blessing nor shall they come in vain 1. For the Lord commands it and approves it Mat. 6.9 2. He hath annexed great Promises to Prayer 3. Even the Holy Spirit Rom. 8.15 26 27. And hath given us a Mediator to Intercede and plead for us by Office Heb. 4.15 16. and this is the great Office of his High-Priest-hood Heb. 2. two last verses By all which we see how seasonably the duty of Prayer and the Priviledge of Prayer is here annexed ver 20. to keep our selves in the Love of God How can Friends maintain their Amity without frequent converse Abraham was called the Friend of God Jam. 2.23 Gen. 18.17
bodily Eyes yet you do with an Eye of Faith and Love and therefore may rejoyce with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory 1 Pet. 1.8 When you look up unto the Heavens and see and say yonder is the place of my Everlasting abode there I must dwell with God there I must be with Christ and joyfully joyn with Angels and Saints in praising of my Lord and Saviour the foresight of this will make you joyful for the present and pleasant in your looking at it 10. Look fiducially at unseen Eternal things with an Holy Humble Confidence by Jesus Christ upon the performance of the conditions of the Gospel they shall be all your own that by turning from all your Sin by Repentance and Faith in Christ you trust you shall be possessed of them that when you see there are Mansions now unseen there are Eternal Joyes an Immoveable Kingdom an Incorruptible Crown the Eternal God to be enjoyed and for all this you have a promise and you know this promise is made to you by the performance of the Conditions annexed to the promise you trust in time to come unto it or rather when you go out of time into Eternity you shall be blessed in the Immediate Full Eternal Enjoyment of all the Happiness that God hath prepared in Heaven to give you wellcome joyful entertainment in that unseen Eternal World that you so eye that World while you live in this that when by Death you are going out of this World into that you might have this well-grounded confidence to say I have fought a good fight I have finished my course henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day 2 Tim. 4.7 8. If you get such a sight as this as now hath been set forth before you upon such Eternal Objects as before were propounded to you you will be able from your own experience to answer the third question contained in the general case but yet I will proceed unto that branch Q. 3. What influence will such an Eying of Eternity have upon us in all we do In all we do Will its Influence be so Universal Will the efficacy of such a sight be so extensive to reach forth its virtue in all we do yes in all we do Whether we Eat or Drink or go to Sleep whether we Trade or Work or Buy or Sell. Whether we Pray or Hear or search our Hearts or Meditate or Receive or Study or Preach or Sin or Suffer or Dy it will have a mighty influence upon us in any thing wherein we are active or passive culpable or praise-worthy in any condition be it Poverty or Riches Health or Sickness in any Relation be it of Husband and Wife of Parents and Children of Masters and Servants In any Office and Imployment Sacred or Civil out of such an heap because I am limited I will take an handful and because I have not room to speak of all I will not cast them into method according to their nature connexion and dependance one upon another but take them as they come in some few particulars only 1. Such an Eyeing of Eternity in all we do would make us careful to avoid Sin in any thing we do or however we might fail in all we do yet that we suffer it not to Reign or have Dominion over us Look at Eternity with a believing Eye and you will look at sin with an angry Eye you will cast a deadly look at Sin when you have a lively look at Eternity of Joy or Misery 1. Sin would deprive me of Eternal Life therefore I will be its Death it would keep me from Eternal Rest therefore I will never rest till I have conquered and subdued it nothing in the World would bring upon my Eternal Soul the Eternal loss of the Eternal God his Glorious Son and Holy Spirit of the Company of his Holy Angels and Saints of Eternal Treasures of a Blessed Kingdom and Incorruptible Crownâ— but cursed Sin Poverty Sickness Men Death Devils cannot nothing but Sin therefore I will be its bane that shall not Reign in me that would not suffer me to live in Everlasting Happiness 2. Sin would plunge me into unseen Eternal Torments into Endless Flames and Everlasting Burnings If you could speak with a Soul departed but a Moneth ago and ask him what do you now think of the delights of Sin of sporting on the Sabbath day of your pleasant Cups and Delightful Games of pleasing of the Flesh and gratifying of its Lusts What a sad reply would he return and what a doleful answer would he make you Sin Oh that was it that was my ruine that was it which hath brought me miserable wretch to Everlasting Torment that was it which shut me out of Heaven that sunk me down to Hell O ye foolish Sons of Men that are yet in time be not mad as I was mad and do not do as I did let not the seen pleasures and profits of the World which I have found were but for a time deceive you and bewitch you the Devil shewed me the seen delights of Sin but concealed from me the Extremity and Eternity of the pain that it hath brought me to the pleasure is past and the pain continues and I am lost for ever and all this Sin hath brought me to Let your eyeing of Eternity whilst you are standing in time be instead of ones speaking to you in time that hath been in Eternity for the Eternal God doth tell you as much as any Damned Soul can tell you and would you believe one from Hell and not the Son of God that came from Heaven Oh look and view Eternity in the Glass of the Scripture and firmly believe it and it will make slaughtering work amongst your Sins and destroy that which would damn you 2. Such Eyeing of Eternity would be a mighty help to quiet your hearts under the dispensations of Providence here to Men on Earth When you look at the seen Afflictions Distresses Disgraces Stripes Imprisonments Persecutions and Poverty of the People and Children of God and the Riches Ease Honours Pleasures and the seen flourishing prosperity of the worst of Men that by the Swearing Drinking Whoring hating of Godliness being patterns of wickedness proclaim themselves the Children of the Devil and you are offended and your Mind disquieted except in this you have a better heart than Job cap. 21.6 to 16. or David a Man after Gods own heart Psal 73.2 to 16. or Jeremiah cap. 12.1 2. or Habakkuk cap. 1.13 14. Now amongst the many helps to allay this Temptation the eyeing of the last yea Everlasting things is not the least Look upon these two sorts of Men which comprehend all in the World as going to Eternity and lodged there and then you will rather pity them because of their future Misery then envy them for their present Prosperity What if they have their Hearts desire for a
moment and must be tormented for ever What if they have Pleasures and carnal Delights for a season they must be under the heavy wrath of God for ever You might stand and see all their mirth at an end but their sorrow never will have end all their joy is but for a moment as the crackling of Thorns under a pot but their misery will be endless misery Let them laugh a while they shall weep for ever let them rejoyce for a season their mirth shall be turned into heaviness their Temporal rejoycing into Everlasting howling and the Eternity of Joy will be more than a recompence to the afflicted Saints whatsoever their Sufferings for Christ and Conscience be in this World A supposed case might be an help in this Temptation Suppose then that you were poor and full of pain for so long time or rather for so short that you should fall asleep and after you awake should be poor no more nor afflicted any more but have a Life of manly delights afterwards Suppose again another man were compassed about with all manner of accommodations costly Dishes to please his Palate beautiful Objects to delight his Eyes all manner of Musick grateful to his Ears many Servants to attend him all standing bare before him and bowing the knee in Honour to him and all this and much more he were to enjoy as long as he could abstain from sleeping but assoon as he doth fall asleep he should be taken off his Bed and cast into a Furnace of boyling Lead or scalding Pitch I demand which of these two Mens Condition you would choose I know it would be the condition of the former and not the latter this and infinitely beyond this is the case in hand you are afflicted till you fall asleep and then you shall be afflicted no more but live a life of Joy for ever the Wicked prosper till they fall asleep and they cannot long keep open their Eyes but Death will come and close them then the justice of God will arrest them and then Devils will seize upon them and they shall be cast into a Lake of burning Brimstone where they shall have no rest night nor day but the smoak of their Torment shall ascend for ever and ever Exercise your thoughts in this manner and have an Eye unto Eternity and you will more easily and successfully overcome such Temptations to murmuring and discontent from the different dispensations of the Providence of God here in time to good and bad 3. Such eyeing of Eternity would have great influence for the well improvement of our time Time is to be valued in order to Eternity because we go out of time into Eternity and that which should make every Man in time most concerned out of time into Eternity of Misery or Glory Oh! what a pretious thing is Time it is beyond the worth of Gold or Silver because we might do more in time in reference to Eternity than we can do by all our Gold and Silver Jewels are but Toyes in comparison of pretious Time Many are saving of their Money but are prodigal of Time and have more of Time then they know what to do with when others find so much to do that they know not what to do for time to do it in Oh Fools and blind what were an Hundred years to make preparation for Eternity Oh sluggish careless Sots Do you ask how shall we pass away the time Might ye not with more reason ask how shall we prevent hasty time from passing away with such winged motion Or if that cannot be prevented How shall we improve our time that is so fast a posting from us Blind World Do any Men in thee enquire How shall we spend our time It is easily answered in Praying Repenting begging for Grace the pardon of Sin the favour of God and peace with Him and fitness for Eternal Life Had the Damned in Hell the time that once they had and you now have do you think they would ask what they should do to pass away the time Their cry rather is Oh hasty time whither art thou fled Why didst thou move so fast while we sate still Or why in time did we so swiftly run in ways of Sin as if we could not have sinned enough before time was past and gone When we had a God to serve and Souls to save and an Everlasting State to make preparation for we like Fools did say How shall we spend our time But now our time is spent and past and gone and now the question is which never can be answered How shall we spend Eternity which never can be spent no not in enduring Ten Thousand Thousand Millions of Years in pain and punishment for when they are past it is as fresh and as far from ending as it was the first moment it began then Eye Eternity and you cannot but improve your time 4. Such Eyeing of Eternity would make us careful how we die because Death is our passing out of time into Eternity Death is dreadful to the ungodly because it opens the door into Everlasting Misery gainful to all endued with saving Grace because it lets them in to Everlasting Happiness Did you that are yet Christless Impenitent and Unbelieving see whither you are going and where you must within a little time take up your Everlasting Lodgings what fear and trembling would seize upon all your joynts and when by sickness you perceive Death to be approaching you would cry out Oh Death forbear forbear stay thine hand and do not strike for if thou cut me down in this condition I drop into Eternal Misery there is nothing but this single thred of my frail Life between me and endless wo and if this be cut or snapt asunder I sink in to irrecoverable Misery without all hope of ever coming forth Could you but see a Soul the next hour after its separation from the Body what a taking it is in what wo what despair it is filled with would you then live without Christ go to bed without Christ and rise and trade and still remain without an Interest in Christ What mean ye sirs to make no provision for Death that is so near so very near when you are as near to going into an Everlasting World as you are to going out of this Transitory World and your Souls be dragged sooner by Devils into Hell than your Bodies can be carryed by Men unto your Graves Awake arise repent and turn unto the Lord for if you sleep on in sin till you sleep by Death you will be awaked by the flames of Hell and then though you be under the power of Eternal Death you will sleep no more and rest no more for ever And Death is as gainful and desirable to a Gracious Man as it is terrible to the Ungodly for it lets him into unseen Eternal Glory to the sight of Christ unseen to us on Earth How willing would you be to go a Thousand Miles to see
Cor. 9.3 you may call it an Apologetical or defensive answer as relating to their Enemies accusation or charge against them or Examination of them they might look upon the Religion of Christians as an unreasonable thing and therefore require a reason of their Faith and Practice which if they should the Apostle would have them ready to make their defence and shew how good grounds they had for both 3. How they were to be always ready to give an answer It doth not imply that they were bound to do it to every Caviller or trifler but when the Glory of God and the Honour of the Gospel required it and when their silence might be injurious to the Truth to their own Consciences or their Brethrens Souls and so Christian Prudence ought to judge of the seasonableness of their making their defence they were not bound always actually to do it but to be always actually ready whenever God in his Providence should call them to it Now from what our Apostle enjoyns these Saints to be always ready to do I inferr what all true Saints may be able to do at least what the nature of the thing is capable of and so the doctrinal Inference I deduce from the words is this That true Christians may give a satisfactory account of their Christianity that it is something both real and reasonable Doct. not Folly nor Fancy In speaking to this Truth two things are to be done 1. I shall shew that true Believers may give an account of the Religion they profess according to the Gospel 2. I shall give Directions in answer to the Question How a Believer may be able to experience in himself and evidence to others that his Religion that powerful Godliness in the Practice whereof he lives is more than a Fancy 1 That true Believers may give a good account of the Religion they profess Most that the carnal World is wont to object against powerfull Religion in the Saints may be reduced to three heads 1. Against their Faith in which I include their Hope as of kin to it and the Fruit of it it is objected that it is but a fancy 2. Against their Obedience and close walking with God and diligence in Duty which is the fruit of their Faith that it is but the effect of Fancy and so no better than folly an unreasonable and groundless niceness and scrupulosity 3. Against their Comforts and spiritual Enjoyments that they can be no better than their Faith and Obedience from which they proceed and are no more than meer Imaginations and delusive Conceits In answer to each of these I shall I hope evidence the contrary to be most true 1. That the Faith of a true Believer is something reall and not a Fancy By the Faith of a Saint I understand only that lively and effectual Faith which is the Instrument or Means call it as you please not only of a Saints Justification a Rom. 5.1 but Sanctification b Act. 15.9 that which is called precious Faith 2 Pet. 1.1 the Faith of Gods Elect Tit. 1 1. as being peculiar to them and the effect of their Election c Act. 13.48 that Faith in a word which is an apprehending Christ as the author of eternal Salvation d Heb. 5.9 a believing the record God hath given of his Son that eternal life is in him 1 Joh. 5.11 This Faith imports in it a respect to Christ as the Author of all other spiritual benefits antecedent to eternal Life Justification whereby a Believer is entitled to it Sanctification whereby he is prepared for it Consolation by which he is encouraged in seeking it and supported under the opposition and difficulties he meets with in the way to it But here I speak of Faith especially as respecting Eternal Salvation which is one principal act of it and which includes or supposes the other and the rather because the belief and expectation of Life and Immortality after Death is that which the unbelieving World looks upon as most strange and unreasonable and takes all a Believer can say of his expecting future things in another World to be but strong fancies of great Nothings There is no act of Faith against which the Objections of carnal Reason are more usually levelled than against this and if the reality of a Christians Faith appears in this it can scarce be denyed in others Now that this belief of Eternal Life is something real in a Saints Heart and not meerly a Fancy in his Brains might appear more than probable in that it hath been and still is to be found in those who are least fancyfull men as serious as judicious as rational as any in the World though not many wise men after the flesh are called e 1 Cor. 1.26 yet some are And it cannot reasonably be imagined that they who are confessedly Grave and Prudent and Discreet and free from Conceits and Fancies in all other things should dote in those only which are of the greatest Concernment to them especially if we consider that this Faith is stirring in them at such times as men use to be least given to Fancies as on the most solemn Occasions under the greatest Afflictions and at the approach of the most terrible of all temporal evils Death it self Men are most apt to be taken with Fancies and Appearances when they are wholly at Ease and flush in the World and have hope or some prospect of great things in it then they are apt to fancy things according to their Appetites and fondly to believe that that will be which they desire may be But when Death draws nigh they have nothing to encourage such imaginations and then usually their Fancies vanish they come to discover their folly and deceitfulness they judge quite contrary to what they did before they then see those things to be real which they counted but Fancies and those things to be but Fantastical which they had thought to be real Now at such a time as this the Faith of a Saint saving what desertions or Temptations may occasion in particular instances is ordinarily more-strong and active as his judgment of earthly things is more true when he is leaving them so his apprehension of heavenly is more clear when he draws nigh to them the approach of Death proves an enlivening to his Faith he hath the fairest view of the Crown of Glory when his Lord is about to set it on his head the same thoughts indeed he then hath which before he had only more clear and affecting they are at the last there being less to interrupt or discompose him It were hard to say that all the Comforts and Joyes of dying Saints and Martyrs have been meer Delusions and Cheats and yet so they must be if the apprehensions they have had of heavenly things were but Fancies and Ravings But to pass this by it will sufficiently evince the reality of a Christians Faith if we can make it appear that the
notitiae connotat affectum light and heat clearer views and dearer and stronger Loves must go together 3. The Persons who are to labour after a greater measure of Knowledg and those are real Christians who have attained to some degree of spiritual Understanding that Light which is as the Light of the Moon should be increased so as to equal the Light of the Sun and that which is as the Light of the Sun should be augmented so as to equal the light of seven days should grow more and more glorious 4. The Arguments to perswade and they are two Christ is their Lord Christ is their Saviour 1. Christ is their Lord a Lord most great most gracious the more this is understood the better will his Service be liked as honourable and advantageous and Obedience will be yielded with greater chearfulness and constancy 2. Christ is their Saviour a Saviour from the greatest Evils Sin and the miserable effects of it in time in eternity a Saviour to the greatest Blessedness an everlasting Kingdom and Glory a Saviour of that which is most pretious the Soul which if safe the whole man must needs be secured The Text may be considered with a double reference to what goes before to what follows after 1. To what goes before grow in Grace and Knowledg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and hence we may observe That the way to increase in Grace is to increase in the Knowledg of Christ the means of Grace will be found inefficacious and empty will convey nothing if Christ be not with them and in them if he be not understood by those that use them All that fulness out of which the Church is replenished from the beginning of the world to the very end of it it has pleased the Father should dwell in Christ Col. 1.19 If a man know where a vast Treasure lies hid he may quickly go and enrich himself the way to have more Grace is to understand that Christ is the Fountain from whence all Grace is derived He is head over all things to his Church which is his Body and is called to shew the reality and plentifulness of Communication the fulness of him who filleth all in all Eph. 1. ult 2. The Text may be referred to what follows after To him be Glory both now and for ever Amen Hence observe thâ—t thâ— grâ—â—â—â—r Knâ—â—lâ—â—â—â—â—â— Christ we attain to the more we shall â—â—â—â—â—r and sâ—◠〈…〉 glorifie him his Godhead is the same with the Fathers his 〈…〉 Dominion equal and eternal The Church millitant muâ—◠〈…〉 begin to glorifie her Lord and Saviour and wheâ— she comes to be 〈…〉 praises will be vastly higher and to magnifie to love to aâ—â—ire and to rejoyce in him will be her everlasting business But I shall wave the Connexion and from the words themselâ—â—â— râ—â—se this Doctrine That it highly concerns all sâ—â—cere 〈◊〉 to grow and iâ—crease in the Knowledg of Christ The Gospel which revâ—â—ls Christ 〈…〉 mystery which the Angels themselves desire to 〈…〉 looking they admire the manifold wisdom of God the exceeding riches of his Grace and love and shall not the Saints search farthâ—â— into this Gospel shall they not look more unto and into Jesus what 〈…〉 him the nature of Angels but the Seed of Abraham The better Christ is understood the better will they understand how happy he has maâ—â—â— them and that Christ being theirs all is theirs The question that in this exercise I am to answer is this How 〈…〉 grow in the Knowledg of Christ and make use of and 〈…〉 Kâ—â—wledg Now that the Answer may be the more full I shall do theâ—â— four things First I shall tell you what it is to grow in the Knowledg of Christ 〈◊〉 the telling you this will tend to the advancement of this groâ—th Seâ—ondly What Properties are required in this Knowledg Thirdly The Directions are to follow that you may increase in the Knowledg of him Fourthly What Vse and Improvement you are to makâ— of tâ—is Kâ—â—wledg or of Christ known I begin with the first of these What it is to grow in the Kâ—â—wledg of Christ Here several Propositions are to be premised 1. The Knowledg of Christ is of the greatest Excellency The Apostle calls this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 3.8 Yea doubtless and I câ—â—â—t â—ll things but loss for the Excellency of the Knowledg of Christ Jesus my Lord other kind of Knowledg is like Light from the Sâ—ars this like bâ—amâ— from the Sun Christ is called the Sun of Righteousness He is called Wisdâ—m in the abstract Sapientiae omnimoda sapientia Prov. 1.20 in the Hebrew it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wisdom in him iâ—â—he Sum the Perfection of Wisdom To know him does assimuâ—ate and make us like him and when we shall have a full view of him in glory we shall to our utmost capacity fully resemble him To know him is Life eternal and they that seek Life any other way will find death 〈◊〉 themselves mistaken in the end No wonder the Apostle glories in 〈◊〉 Knowledg and that an ancient Father said he was glâ—d he had sometâ—â—â—â— of value he meant Philâ—sophy to despise in comparison 2. This Knowledg of Christ is of absolute necessity Stat invicta haec rupe s. Ego sum Via nullus a in s quicquid ante m via haec non fuerit error lubricum te nebraesunt Luther Tom. 2. p. 507. In Scripture he is compared to those things which are so needful that we cannot be without them 〈◊〉 Mâ—â—t and Drink and Raiment Christ is the Bread of Life the fountain of Living Water we are to put on the Lord Jesus his righteousness is tâ—â— Garment which must cover and secure us To be totally ignorant â—f him must needs be death eternal for there is not Salvation in any other◠〈◊〉 4.12 3. The Knowledg of Christ is by supernatural revelation Much of God may be râ—â—d in the Book of nature his visible Works do make the wisdom pâ—wer and goodness of the Worker also visible But Christ is a mystery hâ—d from Ages and Genâ—rations and would have remained hid still if the Gospel had not revealed him Col. 1.26 Who could ever have thought of God his being manifested in the flâ—sh and redeeming the Church with his oâ—â—â— Blood if this had not been brought to Light by the Gospel Thâ—se are indeed the deep things of God which the Spirit reveals 1 Cor. 2.10 11. and power to discern them and believe them is from the same Spirit 4. The Knowledg of Christ was communicated in a degree under the old Testament The Prophets spake of him and if they had not what they had said besides had been insignificant The Law was a Schoolmaster to bring Israel to Christ Gal. 3.24 The Ceremonial Law requiring the blood of so many sacrifices 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shewed plainly that the Sacrificers themselves deservâ—d to die and therefore is said to be against them
5.3 His Vineyard were themselves in a Figure and God is willing the case should be referred to their own determination if they would give themselves time and leisure to think of it So Amos 2.11 Is it not even thus O ye Children of Israel saith the Lord as if God had said I call your own Consciences to witness and let them but speak they will testifie both my Mercies to you and your sins against me or as elsewhere Ezek. 18.25 Are not my wayes equal and your wayes unequal And oh that men would consider how self-condemned they must needs be for all their sins against God and all their neglects of Salvation and disregards of their Souls their sins usually go thus beforehand unto Judgment and men cannot but condemn themselves who can think but that a humble useful temperate pious Life is far better than a proud useless luxurious and prophane Conversation Would we but shew our selves men in the concerns of our Souls as we do in those of our Bodies or Estates acting with that caution and concern in the one as we do in the other what a vast change should we soon discover for all Gods Commandments are for our good and his ways are pleasantness would we but seriously view and consider them Howsoever this is that which will make the Worm to gnaw and the fire to burn the ungodly in the other World in that they have sinn'd against those notices of good and evil which they had or might have had and in that they have put no difference between their vile bodies and their precious Souls whereas our Saviour here appeals to them concerning the worth of their Souls and the worthlesness of all things comparatively besides 2. From the form or manner of expression here used by way of a positive interrogation or Expostulation What is a man profited or what shall a man give We observe that the Negation is intended to be more vehement It being usual not only in Scripture but in common speech by a positive question vehemently to deny as by a negative question vehemently to affirm any thing as by these Scriptures before quoted Amos 2.11 18. Ezek. 25. amongst many other places may appear so that the sense of these words amounts to this 1. It is most evident and undeniable that if any man could gain the whole World not that such a thing was ever done or is indeed possible but upon that supposition he would be a vast loser by it if he lost his Soul for it Because 2. There is nothing of worth or value sufficient to exchange for a Soul with all Now this Text is as it were a ballance or pair of Scales in which the Commodities therein spoken of are weighed 1. In the one Scale is layd the whole world 1 Jo. 2.16 here you may take in the lust of the Flesh the lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life or whatsoever serves for Pleasure Gain or Honour the worldly man's Trinity Abate nothing make good weight more than was ever weighed out to any one but supposed or granted only for Arguments sake Yet here is a Mene Mene writ against it it is weighed and found too light It is touched and found under value 2. In the other Scale only a single Soul is put yours or mine and that doth so far praeponderate and outweigh or outvie the whole World as that there is no comparison betwixt them nothing is of value to be given or taken in Exchange for any of them As to the former of these the World and the Glory of it Our present purpose is to take no further notice of it Sic transit gloria mundi The Moon is not worth the looking after whilst the Sun appears nor all these fading changeable things when the Soul comes under consideration Gal. 6.14 It is now expected that the World should be crucified to us and we to the World and then only we shall be able to hear i. e. to understand what our Saviour here says concerning our Souls which being my intended Subject I shall take occasion from his words to speak to these following Particulars 1. What is meant by the Soul here spoken of 2. What this Soul here spoken of is 3. In what more particularly the worth of this Soul does appear As to the first of these viz. 1. What is meant by the Soul What is meant by a Soul in the Text To mention no other acceptions of the word than such as may be accommodated to this place and our present purpose 1. Soul or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word here used is put for Life by a Metonymy of the Efficient for the Effect because our Life depends upon the Soul thus Matth. 6.25 take no thought for your Lives when the same word is used which is here translated Soul which well considered will give a great light into the meaning of this place For these words are looked upon as a proverbial Speech taken out of Job 2.4 All that a man hath will he give for his Life As if our Saviour had from thence inferr'd if a man being in an apparent danger of a corporal Death would give any thing or do any thing to prolong or redeem his Life how much more should a man do or part with to prevent an Eternal Death or to procure an Everlasting Life 2. The word Soul is put for the Whole Man Synecdoche Partis frequently in Scripture thus Gen. 46.26 The number of Persons that came with Jacob into Egypt are reckon'd by so many Souls as also Act. 2.41 They that were Converted by St. Peter's Sermon are counted three thousand Souls This if considered furthers our present purpose and must needs add to our esteem of our Souls for the Soul is the Man Our Souls are our selves and what by this Evangelist our Saviour calls losing of the Soul in Luk. 9.25 That Evangelist relating the same thing calls losing of our selves The Body is but the House or Cabinet the Soul is the Jewel in it the Body is but the cloathing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Soul for a while is cloathed with and must put off 3. This word Soul is taken most properly and strictly for the Form constituent and better part of Man that Breath that is breathed into him from God Gen. 2.7 when Man becomes a Living Soul And in this acception we shall take this word here in our following Discourse and are come to enquire what it is 2. What this Soul is But we shall not be throughly able to satisfie our inquiry for being all our knowledge ariseth from our Sences and there is nothing in our Understanding which was not first in one of them Our Souls not incurring into our Senses Our understanding is at a loss to frame any adaequate conceptions of them There are three things reckoned amongst the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such things as cannot be known and by consequence be defined and they are
whom Christ prayed shall obtain all the rich and glorious things which he desired Finally Here is the greatest encouragement for our Prayers that can be desired for hereby it is manifest that whatever we can beg of God which is needful for our Happiness here or hereafter it hath been already prayed for on our behalf by Christ Himself who was not who could not be denyed When we pray for our Relatives or others who are given to Christ but do not yet believe that they may have Faith When we pray for Union with the Father and the Son for the comfort improvement and continuance of this Union When we pray for pardon of sin and the purging of guilt by the grand Sacrifice of Expiation when we pray for Holiness the increase and exercise of it when we pray to be kept from the evil of the World which is all in the World we need to fear from the evil of Suffering or whatever may be destructive to our Souls in a word when we pray for Eternal Glory it is evident by the premisses that all these and what else is necessary for these purposes were on the behalf of those that do or shall believe the requests of the great Mediator who was God and Man in one Person and could no more be repulsed than God can deny Himself in a Prayer that was not lyable to the least exception from Justice or Holiness it self that was in all points exactly agreeable unto the Will of God and infinitely acceptable to the Divine Majesty therefore praying for any or all these things expressed or included in this Divine Prayer as we are required we may be as fully perswaded that they will not be denyed us as we may be confident that the requests of our great Advocate Jesus Christ the Righteous will be granted SERMON XXVIII Quest How we should Eye ETERNITY that it may have its due Influence upon us in all we do 2 COR. 4.18 While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are Temporal but the things which are not seen are Eternal ETernal What a sound doth this word Eternal make in my Ears What workings doth it cause within my Heart What casting about of Thoughts what word is next to be added to it Is it Eternal World Where For this is Temporal Oh! that Eternal World is now by us unseen and as to us is yet to come But yet my trembling Heart is still solicitous to what other word this word Eternal might be prefixed as to my self or those that hear me this day when they and I who through the long sufferance of God are yet in this present and temporal shall be in that Eternal World Shall it be Eternal damnation in that Eternal World How after so many knocking 's of Christ Strivings of the Spirit Tenders of Mercy Wooings of Grace Calls of Ministers Warnings of Conscience Admonitions of Friends Waitings of Patience All which put us into a fair probability of escaping Eternal damnation O dreadful words can more terror be contained can more misery be comprehended in any two words than in Eternal damnation But we in time are Praying Hearing Repenting Believing Conflicting with Devils Mortifying Sin Weaning our Hearts from this World that when we shall go out of time we might find Life or Salvation added to Eternal Eternal Salvation these be words as comfortable as the other were terrible as sweet as they were bitter What then This word Eternal is the horror of Devils the amazement of damned Souls which causeth desperation in all that Hellish Crew for it woundeth like a Dart continually sticking in them that they most certainly know that they are damned to all Eternity Eternal it is the Joy of Angels the Delight of Saints that while they are made happy in the beatifical Vision are filled with perfect Love and Joy they sit and sing all this will be Eternal Eternal this word it is a loud alarm to all that be in time a serious caution to make this our grand concern that when we must go out of time our Eternal Souls might not be doomed down to Eternal Damnation but might obtain Salvation that shall be Eternal of which we have hope and expectation while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are Eternal The Consideration of these words may be twofold 1. Relative As they are a reason of stedfastness in shaking troubles as a Cordial against fainting under the Cross ver 16. For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day v. 17. for our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 18. While we look c. Not only the experience of present spiritual good in the inward by the pressing afflictions on the outward man in weakning of sin in purging away our dross in weaning us from the World in humbling us for our miscarriages in reducing us from wandring in emptying us of self-conceit in trying our Faith in exercising our Patiance in confirming our Hope in awakening of Conscience in bringing us to examine our Ways in renewing our Repentance in proving our Love in quickning us to Prayer but also the clear and certain prospect of Glory after Affliction of a Weight of Glory after light Affliction of Eternal Glory after short Affliction of a Weight of Glory far more exceeding all our present Sorrows Burdens Calamities than Tongue can express or Pen describe or the Mind of Man conceive being more than Eye hath seen or Ear hath heard or have entred into the Heart of Man must needs be an alleviation of our Sorrows a lightning of our Burdens comfort in our Grief joy in our Groans strength in our Weakness though we are troubled on every side yet not distressed though perplexed yet not in despair though under Afflictions both felt and seen yet we faint not while we keep our Eye fixed upon the Glorious things in the other World that are unseen and Eternal too 2. Absolute As they set before us the mark and scope we should have in our Eye all the while we are in time viz. unseen Eternal things you stand in time but you should look into Eternity you stand tottering upon the very brink of time and when by Death thrust out of time you must into Eternity and if in any case the old Proverb should prevail it should not fail in this to look before you leap The Analysis of the Text breaks it into these parts 1. The Objects that are before us 1. Things seen 2. Things not seen 2. The Act exerted on these Objects Looking expressed 1. Negatively 2. Affirmatively Not at things which are seen The Men of the World stand gazing at these till their
Thess 2.13 God hath from the Beginning chosen you to Salvation 1 Thess 5.9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain Salvation which Salvation doth include absence of all evil and presence of all good and this Salvation being Eternal Heb. 5.9 infers the absence of all evil for ever and the presence of all good for ever and whosoever is delivered from all privative Evils and possessed of all positive Everlasting good and that for ever can not be denyed to be happy for ever II. Christ hath redeemed some to be infallibly brought to Eternal Glory What reason can be given of the Incarnation and Death of the Son of God if there be no Eternal misery for men to be delivered from nor any Eternal happiness to be possessed of For 1. Did Christ dye to deliver his Followers from Poverty and Prisons from Sorrow and Sufferings from Trouble and Tribulation What! and yet his Holy Humble and Sincere people lye under these more than other Men that are wicked and ungodly why was Paul then in stripes and imprisonments in hunger and thirst in cold and nakedness in perils and jeopardy of his Life continually and such as Pilate Faelix and Festus in great worldly prosperity Or can it be imagined that Men persisting in Sin should be more partakers of the fruits of Christs Death than those that forsake their sin repent and turn and follow him 2. Did Christ suffer and dye to purchase only Temporal good things as Riches Honours for his Disciples Were these worth his precious Blood VVhatever Christ dyed for it cost him his most Sacred Blood Was it then for Temporal enjoyments only which Turks and Pagans may and do possess more than Thousands of his true and faithful Followers Did Christ intend the benefits of his Death for these in more especial manner then for such as remain finally impenitent and yet shall such reap the fruit of all his Sufferings and those that believe on him go without them Sober reason doth abhor it and all the Scripture is against it Would Christ have humbled himself to such a contemptible Birth miserable Life lamentable painful shameful Death only for transitory temporal fading Mercies If we consider the variety of his sufferings from God Men and Devils the dignity of the Sufferer I profess I cannot imagine any reason of all Christs undertakings and performances if there be not an Eternal state of Misery in suffering of evil things by his Death that Believers might be delivered from and of Glory in enjoying of good things to be brought unto III. The Spirit of God doth sanctifie some that they might be made meet to be partakers of the Eternal Inheritance of the Saints in light As all are not Godly so all are not Ungodly Though most be as they were born yet many there be that are born again there is a wonderful difference betwixt men and men the Spirit of God infusing a principle of spiritual Life and making some all over new working in them Faith in Christ Holy Fear and Love Patience and Hope longing Desires renewing in them the Holy Image of God is as the earnest and first fruits assuring of them in due time of a plentiful harvest of Everlasting Happiness Faith is in order to Eternal Life and Salvation Joh. 3.16 Love hath the promise of it 1 Cor. 2.9 2 Tim. 4.8 Jam. 1.12 Obedience ends in it Heb. 5.9 Hope waits for it Rom. 8.25 and because their hope shall never make them ashamed Rom. 5.5 therefore there must be such an Eternal-Blessed state they hope for IV. The Souls of all men are immortal though they had a beginning yet shall never cease to be therefore must while they be be in some state and because they be Eternal must be in some Eternal state This Eternal state must be either in the Souls enjoyment of God or in separation from him for the wit of Man cannot find out a third for the Soul continuing to be must be with God or not with God shall enjoy him or not enjoy him for to say he shall and shall not or to say he shall not and yet shall is a contradiction and to say he neither shall nor shall not is as bad if therefore the Soul be Eternal and while it shall be shall perfectly enjoy God it shall be Eternally happy If it shall for ever be and that without God it shall be Eternally miserable because God is the chiefest good the ultimate end and perfection of man The great work in this then is to prove that the Soul is Eternal and shall for ever be For which I offer these things 1. There is nothing within nor without the Soul that can be the cause of its ceasing to be here except God who though he can take away the being of Souls and Angels too yet he hath abundantly assured us that he will not Nothing within it because it is a Spiritual Being and hath no Internal Principle by contrary qualities causing a cessation of its Being and because it is simple and indivisible it is immortal and incorruptible for that which is not compounded of parts cannot be dissolved into parts and where there is no dissolution of a Being there is no corruption or end of it there is no Creature without it that can cause the Soul to cease Matth. 10.28 Not able to kill the Soul Luc. 12.4 Fear not them that kill the Body and after that have no more that they can do if they would kill the Soul they cannot when they have killed the Body they have done their worst their most their all 2. The Soul of man hath not dependance upon the Body as to its Being and Existence It hath certain actings and operations which do not depend upon the Body and if the operations of the Soul be independent from the Body such must the principle be from whence such operations do arise and if it can act without dependance on the Body then it can exist and be without the Body In the Body without dependance on the Body it hath the knowledge of immaterial Beings as God and Adgels which were never seen by the eye of the Body nor can because there must be some proportion between the object and the faculty and the Soul doth know it self wherein it hath no need of the phantasie for when it is intimately present to it self it wanteth not the ministry of the phantasie to its own intellection Besides it can conceive of universals abstracted from its singulars in which it doth not depend upon the phantasie for phantasmata sunt singularium non universalium therefore since it can act in the body without dependance on the Body it can exist without the Body and not dye when the Body doth which yet is more plain and certain from the Scripture which telleth us that the Soul of Lazarus after death was carryed by Angels into Abrahams bosom Luc. 16.22 but they did not carry it dead or alive but alive
Dead quickned and peeping out of their Graves to see why they are raised as if you saw the wicked come forth fearfully amazed with vile and filthy Bodies like Toads from their holes with pale and gastly countenances with trembling hearts and their knees for horrour knocking one against another tearing their hair smiting on their breasts and crying out what is the matter What meant that loud Alarm that thundring Call that awaked us out of the deep sleep of Death Oh! the Lord is come the slighted Christ is come Come how doth he come How cloathed with vengeance with fury in his face and his wrath like fire burns before him because of his Indignation the Heavens melt over our heads and the Earth burns under our feet and all is in flames round about us Oh terrible day such as this we never saw Oh the storms the storms Oh such burning scorching storms we never saw nor felt before We have been sleeping all the night of Death and the morning is come the day doth dawn Dawn Oh it is broad day all about we were wont to wake and go to work and go to sin to swear and lye to drink and take our pleasure but now we wake and must to Hell to Pain and Punishment Now we must go from God to Devils from the only Saviour to Eternal Torments Oh what day is this What day it seems to be rather night than day for it is a day of wrath a day of trouble and distress a day of wastness and desolation a day of darkness and gloominess a day of clouds and thick darkness a day of the trumpet and alarm against us all Impenitent Sinners and to us all it would prove the great Damnation day When our Souls and Bodies by Death were separated it was a sorrowful parting but this is a sorer meeting the Body with doleful groans doth strangely greet its reunited Soul Oh thou cursed Soul must I be tyed to thee again with a faster knot than ever Death did heretofore part thee and me but all the pains of Hell hereafter cannot do it thou wast Commander over me and shouldst have managed thy Government better thou shouldst have used this Tongue to call upon thy Maker thou shouldest have used these Ears to have hearkned to the calls of Christ to the wooings of Grace to the entreaties of Mercy these feet to have carryed thee to the means of Grace these hands to have been Instruments of good they were all at thy command what thou biddest them do they did and whither thou commandest them to go they went Oh that I might have lyen rotten in my Grave for then I had been at rest for though in the Grave I had no pleasure yet there I felt no pain but since I have been again united to this before-damned Soul I feel intolerable punishment and I now perceive it is past doubt that it will be Eternal the Soul will give no better salutations to the Body Oh cursed flesh what alive again Must I be linked to such a loathsome lump worse than any Carrion thou didst rebel against the commands of reason and thy Appetite was pleased and thy Lusts were obeyed and all the time of Life on Earth was spent and fool'd away in feeding clothing and adorning thee and as I was led away and entic'd by thee to live with thee a sensual flesh-pleasing life so formerly sowing to the flesh now of the flesh we reap that Damnation that shall be Eternal For the Judge is come his Throne is set and all the World is summoned to appear the separation is made the Books are opened all on the right hand are acquitted and called to the possession of an Everlasting Kingdom while we are doom'd down to Eternal Torments Lo they are going with their Blessed Glorious Lord unto Eternal Glory and we with cursed Devils like cursed Wretches to Everlasting shame and pain and banishment from God and Christ and Saints and Angels for ever Look thus believingly on these unseen things as if you saw all these and a thousand times more terrible and more joyful transacted now before your eyes 2. Look directly at unseen Eternal things Many do look indirectly at things Eternal but directly at things Temporal pretending things not seen intending things that are seen in praying preaching and professing seem to have an eye to God and Christ and Heaven but they look asquint to their worldly profits credit and applause Should pray that they might see God but it is that they might be seen of Men Mat. 6.5 Mat. 23.14 But this is to look awry contrary to Solomons advise Prov. 4.25 Let thine Eyes look right on and let thine Eye-lids look straight before thee 3. Let unseen Eternal things be the first that you look at Do not first look at Riches Honours Pleasures and please your selves with purposes after that to look after God and Christ and the happiness of Heaven when sickness cometh and Death approacheth and when near the end of time begin to make preparation for Eternity Men spend their days in getting a visible state while the unseen Eternal God and Glorious Saviour and Heavens Happiness is neglected by them but it would make a considering man to tremble to think what a sight these Sinners shall have after Death hath closed their eyes when the separated Soul shall see an angry God a condemning Judge the Gates of Heaven shut against it and its self in Everlasting misery Unseen Eternal things are first in order of duration for the invisible God was when nothing was besides himself and first in order of dignity and should have the priority of our thoughts care and diligent endeavours Matth. 6.33 Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you When we first take care about Eternity the things of time shall be given to us over and above but the Eternal happiness of Heaven shall never be given over and above to those that primarily look at and seek the things of time for amongst men the overplus doth not exceed in worth the things contracted for But this damnable preferring things Temporal and cursed post-poning things Eternal is the setting of God in the room of the Creature and the Creature in the Throne of God as if they would set the Heavens where the Earth doth stand and the Earth where the Heavens are and so subvert the order of things which God hath appointed to be observed in the Nature of things 4. Look heedfully at Eternity All the things that are only for time are toyes and trifles the things for an Eternal World are the grand concerns we should narrowly look to in time the gathering of Riches in time to the getting of Grace and an interest in Christ for the escaping of Damnation and obtaining of Happiness to Eternity is busie Idleness careful Negligence and laborious Sloth If God that inhabiteth Eternity looks narrowly to all our actions done in time
cured Would you take Pleasure in his witty sayings and be jested into your Grave Or if you go unto a Lawyer about your whole Estate though it were in Leases that will expire would you choose one that you think did not care whether you win or lose your cause Would you be pleased with some witty sayings impertinent to the pleading of your cause Would you not say Sir I am in danger of losing all I am worth my Estate lyes at stake deal plainly with me and be serious in your undertaking for me and tell me in words that I can understand the plain Law by which my case must be tryed And will you be more careful about the Temporal Life of a Body that must dy and about a Temporal Estate which you must leave when you dy and not about your Soul that must ever live and never dye No! not so much as to set your selves under faithful Preachers that shall in words that you can understand plainly tell you the Laws of Christ by which you must be tryed for your Life and according to them be Eternally damned or saved 11. Such an Eyeing of Eternity would make you serious and lively in all your spiritual duties in all your approaches unto God If you have no Grace the serious thoughts of the unseen Eternal World would stir you up to beg and cry and call for it if you have to desire more and to exercise what you have to confess your sins with such contrite broken penitent hearts as though you saw the fire burning which by your sins you have deserved to be cast into To beg for Christ and Sanctifying Grace and pardoning Mercy with that lively Importunity as if you saw the Lake of boiling Brimstone into which you must be cast if you be not sanctifyed and pardoned to hear the Word of God that sets this Eternal World before you with that diligent attention as Men hearkning for their Lives to commemorate the Death of Christ with such life while you are at the Lords Supper while you do as it were see the Torments you are delivered from and the Eternal Happiness by Faith in a crucifyed Christ you have a Title to it will cause a fire and flame of Love in your Hearts to that Lord that dyed for you ardent desires after him complacential delight in him thankfulness hope of Heaven hatred to sin resolution to live to or dye for him that dyed for you If your Hearts are dead and dull and out of frame go and look into the unseen Eternal World take a believing view of Everlasting Joyes and Torments on the other side of time and you shall feel warmth and heat and lively actings to be produced in you Particularly this Eyeing of Eternity would make Ministers sensible of the weightiness of their work that it calls for all possible diligence and care our utmost serious study and endeavours our fervent Cryes and Prayers to God for ability for the better management of our work and for success therein for as much as our imployment is more Immediately about Eternal matters to save under Christ Eternal Souls from Eternal Torments and to bring them to Eternal Joyes When we are to Preach to people that must live for ever in Heaven or Hell with God or Devils and our very Preaching is the means appointed by God to fit men for an Everlasting state when we stand and view some Hundreds of Persons before us and think all these are going to Eternity now we see them and they see us but after a little while they shall see us no more in our Pulpits nor we them in their Pews nor in any other place in this World but we and they must go down unto the Grave and into an Everlasting World when we think it may be some of these are hearing their last Sermon making their last publique Prayers keeping their last Sabbath and before we come to Preach again might be gone into another World if we had but a firm belief of Eternity our selves and a real lively sense of the mortality of their Bodies and our own and the Immortality of the Souls of both of the Eternity of the Joy or Torment we must all be quickly in how pathetically should we plead with them plentifully weep over them fervently pray for them that our words or rather the word of the Eternal God might have Effectual Operation on their Hearts This Eyeing of Eternity should 1. Influence us to be painful and diligent in our studies to prepare a message of such weight as we come about when we are to Preach to men about Everlasting matters to set before them the Eternal Torments of Hell and the Eternal Joyes of Heaven Especially when we consider how hard a thing it is to perswade Men to leave their sins which do endanger their Immortal Souls when if we do not prevail with them to hearken to our message and obey it speedily and sincerely they are lost Eternally when it is so hard to prevail with men to accept of Christ the only and Eternal Saviour on the conditions of the Gospel You might easily see that Idleness either in young Students that are designed for this work or in Ministers actually engaged in it is an intolerable sin and worse in them than in any men under Heaven Idleness in a Shop-keeper is a sin but much more in a Minister in a Trader much more in a Preacher bear with me if I tell you an Idle Cobler that is to mend mens Shooes is not to be approved but an Idle Preacher that is to mend mens Hearts and save their Souls shall be condemned by God and Men for he lives in dayly disobedience of that charge of God 1 Tim. 4.13 Give attendance to reading to exhortation to doctrine 15. Meditate upon these things give thy self wholly to them 16 continue in them 2. It would provoke us to be faithful in delivering the whole counsel of God and not to daub with untempered mortar not to flatter them in their sin or to be afraid to tell them of their evils least we should displease them or offend them Is it time to sooth men up in their Ignorance in their neglect of duty when we see them at the very door of Eternity on the very borders of an Everlasting World and this the fruit that they shall dye in their sins and their Blood be required at our hands Ezek. 33.1 to 10. but so to Preach and discharge the Ministerial Function that when dying might be able to say as Act. 20.25 And now behold I know that ye all among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God shall see my face no more 26. Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men 27. For I have not shunned to declare to you all the counsel of God 3. To be plain in our speech that every capacity of the weakest in the Congregation that hath an Eternal Soul that
must be damned or saved for ever might understand in things necessary to Salvation what we mean and aim and drive at it hath made me tremble to hear some soar aloft that knowing men might know their parts while the meaner sort are kept from the knowledge of Christ and put their matter in such a dress of words in such a stile so composed that the most stand looking the Preacher in the face and hear a sound but know not what he saith and while he doth pretend to feed them indeed doth starve them and to teach them keepeth them in ignorance Would a Man of any Bowels of compassion go from a Prince to a condemned man and tell him in such Language that he should not understand the conditions upon which the Prince would pardon him and the poor man lose his Life because the proud and haughty Messenger must shew his knack in delivering his message in fine English which the condemned Man could not understand but this is course dealing with a Man in such circumstances that call for pity and compassion Paul had more Parts and Learning but more self-denyal than any of these when he said 1 Cor. 2.1 And I Brethren when I came to you came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God 4. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing Words of mans Wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power 2 Cor. 3.12 Seeing then we have such hope we use great plainness of speech 13. and not as Moses which put a vail over his face that the Children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished Some put a vail upon their words that people of mean Education that yet have Souls that must be damned or saved cannot look into those truths that shall never be abolished but what is this but a cursed preferring their own parts and praise before the Salvation of Eternal Souls and the preaching themselves and not Christ which will not be their praise but shame at the Eternal Judgment when some shall plead they stand there condemned because the Learned Preacher would not stoop to speak to them of Eternal matters in Language that they might have understood 4. This Eyeing of Eternity would stir us up to improve our Interest in God and Men for a continual succession of Men in the Ministerial Function In God by Prayer that the Lord of the Harvest would send forth Labourers into his Harvest In men whether such as have Children of pregnant parts studious and bookish serious in Religion and inclined to this Imployment that they would give them to God and give them Education in order to it which would be the Honour of Parents to have such proceed from their loins that shall be Embassadors to call the blind ungodly World to mind Eternity to escape Everlasting Damnation and obtain Eternal Life or whether they be such as have no Children so qualifyed or disposed yet have riches to be helpful to such as have such Children but not an Estate to bring them up for there is a necessity of a standing continued Ministry Men in all Ages are hasting to Eternity those that were our Ancestors in former Ages are already there and have taken up their Lodgings where they must for ever dwell and we are following after them and what a mercy is it that we have the Gospel preached unto us wherein we have directions how to escape Everlasting Torments and obtain Eternal Joyes in the other Eternal World to which we are a going and those that shall live after us when they have been upon the stage of this World awhile shall follow us and our Fathers into Eternity and give place to those that follow after them thus this World doth often change its Inhabitants What is the Life of Man but a coming into time and a going out into Eternity Oh how needful is it then that while they make their short stay on Earth they should have preaching Ministers to warn them of Eternal Misery and teach them the way to Eternal Glory Those that are now engaged in the work will shortly be all silenced by Death and Dust and how desirable is it that your Children and posterity should see and hear others preaching in their room and the Honourableness of the Office might allure young men to encline unto it is it not an Honour to be an Embassador of the great Eternal God to propound Articles of Everlasting peace between him and Everlasting Souls What is buying and selling Temporal Transitory things in comparison of a calling wherein it is mens work and business to save Souls from Eternal Misery and to bring them to the Eternal Enjoyment of the glorious God Thus in some few particulars we have shewed the Influence that the Eyeing of Eternity will have upon us in what we do Do you so Eye Eternity and the rest here for want of room omitted you shall by experience find out which will be better than knowing of them in the notion only because they are told you The Conclusion of this Discourse shall be some particular uses omitting many that it would afford 1. Is there an Eternal State Such unseen Eternal Joyes and Torments Who then can sufficiently lament the blindness madness and folly of this distracted World and the unreasonableness of those that have Rational and Eternal Souls to see them busily imployed in the matters of time which are only for time in present Honours Pleasures and Profits while they do neglect Everlasting things Everlasting Life and Death is before them Everlasting Joy or Torment is hard at hand and yet poor sinners take no care how to avoid the one or obtain the other Is it not matter of lamentation to see so many Thousands bereaved of the sober serious use of their Understandings That while they use their reason to get the Riches of this World they will not act as rational men to get the joyes of Heaven and to avoid Temporal Calamities yet not to escape Eternal misery Or if they be fallen into present Afflictions they contrive how they may get out of them if they be sick reason tells them they must use the means if they would be well if they be in pain Nature puts them on to seek after a Remedy and yet these same Men neglect all duty and cast away all care concerning Everlasting matters they are for seen pleasures and profits which are passing from them in the enjoyment of them but the unseen Eternal Glory in Heaven they pray not for they think not of Are they unjustly charged Let Conscience speak what thoughts they lye down withal upon their pillow if they wake or sleep fly from them in the silent night what a noise doth the cares of the World make in their Souls With what thoughts do they rise in the Morning of God or of the World Of the things of time or of Eternity Their thoughts are
or others that you see go on in sin let it be your grief trouble lamentation when there is an Eternity of Joyes and they will lose it an Eternity of Torments and they be cast into it Use II. Do something every day in preparing for an Eternal state If any thing of weight lyeth upon your hands this is it If I could prevail with you in any thing Oh that it might be in this if in any thing I am to preach I had need to have gone unto my knees to beg that my message might be regarded this is it If in any thing I should be serious in Preaching and you in Hearing still this it The longer your abode shall be the greater preparation you should make When we exhort you to prepare for other Duties it is but in order unto this that you might be prepared for the Eternal World When we exhort you to Repent Believe be Holy or prepare for Death in all we have an Eye unto Eternity But if my words be slighted and rejected by you will you do so by the word of the Eternal God himself that hath given you this in charge If I shew you express commands from God that will shortly take you into Heaven or judge you down to Hell that will quickly call you out of time into Eternity will you promise you will do it then then read and do what you shall read Matth. 6.18 19 20 33. Luc. 13.24 John 6.27 1 Tim. 6.12 2 Pet. 1.10 11. To these Scriptures I will add these following Arguments to perswade you 1. God hath set you in this World for this very work to make ready for Eternity Consider I beseech you and demand an answer of your selves Why hath God brought you out of Nothing and given you a Being more noble than all his visible works in making your Souls Immortal induing you with Reason and Understanding Do you think it was that you should look after Riches and not Grace things Temporal not Eternal to buy and sell and eat and drink and sleep Do you in your Conscience think that God hath appointed you no higher things to mind no more lasting things to get Reason will convince you and Conscience will prove it to your face and the Immortality of your own Souls considered doth undeniably argue that God hath made you for more noble Ends higher Imployments and greater Concerns Why then do you not mind the end of your Creation and do the work that God hath set you in time to do and look after that Eternal state that God hath made you for I have read of a devout Pilgrim travelling to Jerusalem and in his way passed through many Cities where he saw many stately Buildings rare Monuments and delightful things but he was wont to say but this is not Jerusalem this is not the end of my coming hither I am sure that you are Pilgrims but whether devout or no let Conscience speak and you should be travelling to the Heavenly Jerusalem and if not you are to Eternal Torments why then do you stand gazing at the Temporal things you see in your Journey and your Hearts and Eyes so taken with them Sirs this is not the Heavenly Jerusalem this is not the end of your coming hither be sure the minding loving looking after things of time in the neglect of God and Christ and Heaven is not preparing for Eternity except it be for an Eternity of Wo and Misery and what need you be at so much pains and labour to get thither 2. God doth give you your time in this World to prepare for Eternity You have time to repent to get an Interest in Christ to mortifie sin to pray for Grace to make your peace with God to get the pardon of your sins and all this that you might be fitted for Eternity Why then do not you do in time that which God hath given you time for Can you imagine that God doth lengthen out so long the day of his Patience only that you might labour for Temporal Riches Or that you should live a life of Carnal Pleasure or gratifie the Flesh Can it enter into your heads that God supporteth you in Being and keeps you yet out of the Grave and Hell that you might scrape together things Temporal and neglect the things that are Eternal Doth he make his Sun to rise upon you every Morning to give you light to drudge for things that are but for a moment and let alone the things that are for ever And if God hath given you time in order to Eternity why do you spend your time in getting things that are but for a time and not for Eternity Oh the years that you have had the Moneths the Weeks that God hath given you to be improved for Eternity and you spend it some in things absolutely sinful in serving of the Devil and your Lusts some in things in themselves lawful but unlawfully but none in the things absolutely necessary that you may be happy in Eternity some in taking of your carnal Pleasures some in Trading some in Every thing but the One thing needful that none is left for an Everlasting state but when you shall be in Eternity you will repent though then too late that in this World you so spent your time 3. As you go out of time so you must in the same state go into Eternity If you dye in your sin you must in your sin go down to Hell This is a Life of Tryal here in time you are Probationers for Eternity and as you are found at the end of time so your state shall be determined to Eternity of Happiness or Misery without end 4. You stand upon the brink of Time you are near the Borders of Eternity so near that you that are in Time to day might be in Eternity to morrow or sooner for you never yet saw that hour that you could say you are sure of the next when you have drawn one breath you are not sure to draw another Time is short 1 Cor. 7.29 set forth sometimes by years if Seventy how much is already past Psal 90.10 Sometimes by Moneths Job 14.5 by dayes Psal 90.12 by one day Job 14.6 by a span and nothing Psal 39.5 by a vapour Jam. 4.14 15. But what if you were to live a Thousand years in pleasure upon Earth and after that pass into Eternity of pain and torment would you not when there cry out of your own folly that you should purchase a Thousand years of pleasure at so dear a rate as to endure for them Everlasting Burnings One would think you should not get it out of your heads that you are almost in Eternity One would think you should think on this when you lye down and when you do rise up or dream of this in your sleep that you are as near to Heaven or Hell to an Eternity of Joy or Misery as to your Grave 5. When time is past and gone and you are entred into
Eternity it will be too late to prepare for it Preparation for Eternity must be done in time not in Eternity Now or Never if once Death stop your Mouth and close your Eyes dying in your sin you must bid farewel to God and Christ for ever When time is gone your hope and all is gone When time is gone it will never come again Yesterday you shall never see more and the time that is going while I speak and you hear when gone will never come that which is to come will be present but not that which is past If you lose your Health you might recover it again if your Estate you might get it again but if you lose your time it is gone for ever 6. If you go out of time unfitted for Eternity better you had never been in time Better for you if you had been alwaies nothing Or if a Being to have been a Dog a Toad or Serpent for these do live in time but after time they do not live in Eternal Misery as they are not capable of Eternal Happiness and when you lye in extremity and eternity of pains in Hell this will be your judgment that it had been better never to have been then to be for ever miserable 7. Multitudes have and more shall come short of Eternal Happiness and go do down to Everlasting Misery and yet doth it not concern us to be preparing for Eternity What means this sottishness of mind that when multitudes are going dayly out of time into Eternity from seen pleasures to unseen pains that we are thus secure and careless as if we should live so long in time as never to live in Eternity Or that our Being should end with time Have not we deserved Eternal punishment as well as they that in Eternity are now enduring of it and do you know you have deserved it and take no care to prevent it not so much as ask of God by serious Prayers and Tears that you might not be cast into Everlasting burnings Do you think you can make as light of the wrath of God when you shall feel it in Eternity as you do when you hear of it in time Can you be merry in the flames of Hell Can you jest and sport and play when you shall be filled with the Indignation of a provoked God or when the Arrows of the Almighty shall stiick so fast as never to be plucked from you Why then do you in time cry out and roar and bitterly complain under the smarting pain that the Gout or Stone or Cholick puts you to why do you say if this were to continue for one year without intermission or mitigation you had rather dye than live Do not many walk in the broad way that leads to Eternal Damnation Matth. 7.13 14. Are not the Holy Humble Penitent ones saved with much difficulty 1 Pet. 4.18 Are not many Professors gone to Hell Matth. 8.12 and Preachers too Matth. 7.22 23. and yet is it not time for you in good earnest to mind your Eternal state lest there being an Everlasting Kingdom you should never enter into it and Everlasting Torments and you should feel them to all Eternity 8. God doth give you all the helps and means you have that you should make ready for Eternity Have not you had Sermons and Sabbaths Have not Gods Ministers preached to you and warned you from God of the wrath to come and charged you in the Name of God to repent believe and turn and told you you must turn from sin or burn in Hell And will you go from hearing on Earth to howlings in Hell from the Light of the Gospel to utter Darkness with the sound of the voice of Mercy in your Ears After a thousand calls to mind your Souls to accept of Christ and remedying Grace Do you mean to have the hottest place in that Infernal Lake the heaviest load of Wrath in that Eternal Furnace Read and tremble when you read Matth. 11.20 to 25. 9. This will be approved Wisdom ere long by all the Sons of Men Those that now do mock at Praying and make a mock of Sinning and deride serious Godliness shall quickly be of another mind shall confess and know that they were the wisest Men that in time prepared for Eternity and they were the Fools that spent their time in Sin and Vanity Some do say as much when they lye a dying and wish oh that I had been convinced of this before my time had been so near an end before my glass had been so nigh out Oh my Folly Oh my Vanity that had Eternity to make preparation for and yet of all the time I had I never spent one hour in hearty Prayer unto God to save me from Everlasting Torments Wo is me my strength is almost gone my time is almost gone and I in danger of Eternal Torments that never shall be past and gone or if they be blind or hardned on their Death-beds yet a moment after Death they shall be convinced indeed that it was worse than madness to neglect Eternity When stept into the other World shall be amazed and confounded saying where am I now what a place is this what a state is this I heard of such a place before but it is worse than any Mans Tongue in time could tell What is time gone this is not time Here is no Sun to measure it by its motion here is no succession of Night and Day Here is no turning of an Hour-glass no striking or telling of Clocks No Morning Noon and Evening this is not time I see nothing like the things I saw in time But a little while ago I was among my Friends on Earth Did I say a little while ago Alas I am but lately come and this little while seems to me a Thousand years No while in this place is little and it will never be less because it doth not go Oh happy they that are in Eternity but in another place than I am in they were wise indeed that have prevented their coming hither and are got into a place that is as light as this is dark as joyful as this is sorrowful as full of ease as this is of pain and yet this must last as long as that and that makes this as bitter and dreadful as that is pleasant and delightful Wise were they that did foresee while they were in time but I like a blind Fool did not see before I felt what I must endure for ever I did not see but Death did draw the Curtain open the Door and let me in to an Everlasting State but wo is me it is of Misery and Damnation You are for being of the mind of the most and doing that which the Generality do approve take in but these words first or last and then do so even that which all first or last shall confess to be truest wisdom and the neglect of it folly and madness God Angels good Men do all approve of this as
sober Wisdom and the Devils cannot deny it and all Damned Souls in Hell and all the Wicked upon Earth as fast as they go down to them and feel what now they do not believe and fear shall not deny it to be Wisdom in them that escaped that and got to a better place in the Eternal World 10. In Eternity there will be no mixture In the other World there is all pure Love or all pure Wrath all Sweet or all Bitter without all Pain or without all Ease without all Misery or without all Happiness not partly at Ease and partly in Pain partly Happy and partly Miserable but all the one or the other This Life is a middle place betwixt Heaven and Hell and here we partake of some good and some Evil No Judgment on this side Hell upon the worst of Men but there is some Mercy mixed with it for it is Mercy they are yet on this side Hell and no Condition on this side Heaven but there is some Evil mixed with it for till we get to Heaven we shall have sin in us In Heaven all are good in Hell all are bad on Earth some good but more bad In Hell Misery without mixture of Mercy or of Hope they have no Mercy and that is bad and they can hope for none and that is worse while they be in time they are pityed God doth pity them and Christ doth pity them and good Men doth pity them their Friends and Relations do pity them pray for them and weep over them but when time is past all pity will be past and they in Misery without pity to all Eternity Rev. 14.10 The same shall drink of the Wine of the Wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the Holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11. and the smoak of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever and they have no rest day nor night No! then for the Lords sake for your Souls sake as upon my knees I beseech you if you have any dread of God any fear of Hell any desire of Heaven any care whither you must go take no rest night nor day in time till you have secured your Everlasting happy state that you might have Everlasting rest night and Day in Eternity or that you might pass into that Eternity where it is alwayes day and no night and not into that where it shall be alwaies night and never day Sirs what say ye What are ye resolved upon to sin still or to repent that ye have already sinned and by the Grace of God to sin so no more To work in time for things of time or in time to prepare for Eternity Will ye obey my message or will ye not Speak in time or I will not say hold your peace for ever but repent in time or ye shall cry and roar for ever The time of this Sermon is out and the time of your Life will be quickly out and I am afraid I shall leave some of you as unfit for Eternity as I found you and my heart doth tremble least Death should find you as I shall leave you and the Justice of God and the Devils of Hell should find you as Death shall leave you and then vengeance shall never leave you and the Burning Flames Tormenting Devils and the Gnawing Worm shall never leave you Will ye then work it upon your Hearts that ye came into Time unfit to go into Eternity that in time ye have made your selves more unfit that the only remedy is the Lord Jesus Christ that in the fulness of time did dye that Sinners might not be damned for ever that this Crucifyed Christ will not save you from Eternal Misery nor take you to Eternal Glory except ye do perform the Conditions of the Gospel without which his Death puts no Man into an actual state of Happiness ye must Repent and be Converted ye must take him for your Saviour and your Lord ye must be Holy sincerely Hate Sin universally love Christ superlatively or else the Saviour will not save you Mercy it self will not save you from Everlasting Misery Ye must persevere in all this to the end of your time and then ye shall be Happy in Eternity to Eternity Otherwise ye shall not give audience Sirs otherwise ye shall not be Happy Happy no ye shall be Miserable If the loss of God and Christ and Heaven will make you Miserable for ever ye shall be Miserable for ever If the pains of Hell the company of Devils the stingings of Conscience the terrors of Darkness total final despair of having any end of your damned condition will make you miserable ye shall be miserable If all that God can lay upon you if all that Devils can torment you with if all that Conscience can for ever accuse you for if all that is in Hell can make you miserable except you repent in time and believe on Christ in time and be sanctifyed in time ye shall be miserable for ever O my God! be thou my Witness of this Doctrine All ye that fear God that hear me this day bear me witness that I have published this in the Ears of all that hear me Thou Conscience that art in that Man that is yet going on in Sin and posting with speed to Eternal Misery bear me witness now and at the day of Judgment that I told him what must be done upon him in him and by him if he would escape Eternal Torments If he will not hearken nor obey while he is in time Conscience I bespeak thy witness against him and that thou bring thy Accusation against him and upbraid him to the Confusion of his face among all the Devils in Hell and all that shall be damned with him that he was told he could not keep his sins and be kept out of that place when he dyed he could not reject Christ and finally refuse him and be saved for ever Sinner carest thou not wilt thou still on Good God! must we end thus Must I come down without hopes of his Repenting and he dye with foolish hopes of being saved and after Death be cast into that Eternity where the Worm dyeth not and the Fire is not quenched But in those Endless Flames shall cry out and roar oh cursed Caitif what did I mean all the while I was in time to neglect preparation for Eternity Oh miserable Wretch this is a doleful dreadful state and still the more because it is Eternal Wo is me that I cannot dye nor cease to be Oh that God would cut me off Oh that Devils could tear me into a Thousand Thousand pieces or that I could use such violence to my self that I might be no longer what I am nor where I am But alas I wish in vain and all these desires are in vain for though the union of my Soul and Body in
religious actually in being among a People may not be able by any means to deliver them or keep off the greatest evils from them for 1. Sometimes they cannot keep off such evils from themselves Sometimes they may suffer as deeply as any in the common Calamities of a Nation and perish themselves as to their outward condition be crushed in the Ruins of the State where they are Jeremiah and Baruch could not hinder the destruction of Jerusalem nor prevent the Captivity of their Nation but suffered themselves in a great measure among them And if we look to the external State of the best in the World how often doth God destroy the perfect as well as the wicked Job 9.22 2. Sometimes the sins of a People may be such that God will not pardon them as to temporal punishments nay not to the godly themselves even they may have been pertakers with others in their Sins or may have so provoked God themselves and sinned in such a way as to cause his Name to be blasphemed so that he is concerned in honour to bring some exemplary punishment upon them So it was with David 2 Sam. 12. though he pardoned him as to the Guilt of Eternal Death saved his Soul and spared his Life which was forfeited to Divine Justice for the Murther of Uriah that smart afflictions must come on him the Sword must never depart from his house verse 10 and the Child begotten in Adultery must dye verse 10. and his Wives must be given to his Neighbours verse 11. so Psal 99.8 it seems to be spoken of Moses himself and other godly among the Israelites who died in the Wilderness and were not permitted to come into the Land of Promise that God forgave them yet took vengeance of their inventions and Jer. 14. as God would not hear the Jews Prayers for themselves verse 12. so nor the Prophets Prayers for them who is therefore forbid to Pray for them verse 11. and it is said expresly of the Sins of Manasseh and particularly the Innocent Blood to shed that God would not pardon them 2 Kings 24.4 pardon them he did to Manasseh who humbled himself for them so as to save his Soul and remit his temporal punishment in part for he brought him back from his Captivity but to the Body of the People who had been pertakers with him in them and never repented of them he would not pardon them but they must be destroyed or go into Captivity In this case the religious of a Nation may not be able by all their Intercessions and with all their righteousness to deliver any more than their own Souls as is said of Noah Daniel and Job though so Eminently Holy Ezek. 14.14 3. Sometimes God may make a difference between the Holy Seed and the Sinners in the same People so as to Deliver the one when he Destroys the other so he provided for Noah when he Drown'd the World and saved Lot when he Destroyed Sodom and the Christians at Pella when Jerusalem was Sack'd by Titus God may sometimes hide them when he exposeth others cover their Heads in the Day of Battails when his Arrows are sharp in the Hearts of his Enemies He may set a mark upon them that Cry and Sigh for the Abominations of a Land and Command the Destroying Angel when he Slays others Young and Old and begins at the Sanctuary too yet not to come near them Ezek. 9.4 6. By what hath been said it appears that the proposition is not Universal That God always spares a People for the sake of the Holy Seed among them at least that are not Actually in Being I add therefore 3. By way of Position That the Religious of a Nation either that are or are to be among them are frequently ordinarily the means of a Peoples Deliverance and when God spares the Sinners of his People it is usually for the sake of the Saints and were it not for them he would not have any respect to the others even as the Prophet would not have looked to the King of Israel had it not been for the presence of Jehosaphat 2 Kings 3.14 1. Sometimes Judgments may be kept off from a People for their sake Had there been but Ten Righteous in Sodom God would have spared it Gen. 18.32 And he tells Jeremiah Chap. 5.1 That if there were any in Jerusalem that Executed Judgment and sought the Truth he would pardon it Jeremiah himself there was and Baruch and Ebimelech and it may be some few others but the generality were Corrupt and the Godly so few that they were next to none none to speak of as we say as few in Jerusalem proportionably as in Sodom in the time of Abraham and indeed Isa 1.10 it is compared to Sodom and probably from this reason among others and Jerem. 6.28 God calls them all grievous Revolters all Corrupters the few Righteous Ones among them are otherwise provided for and they were a People whom God would not pardon as before was said and in Honour could not And yet in another Case we find a City saved for the sake of a Saint Two Thousand was not Destroyd at Lots Entreaty Gen. 19.21 2. Sometimes Judgments may be defer'd and a Peoples Peace and Tranquility lengthned out for the sake of the Religious among them There was to be Peace and Truth in Hezekiah's Days though Dreadful Times to come after Isa 39.8 And Josiah was to go to his Grave in Peace and not see the Evil that should come after his Death 2 Kings 22.20 God takes away the Righteous from the Evil to come Isa 57.1 Which implies that God defers the Evil till he hath taken the Righteous and secured them It was a sign that Evil was coming on that People because the Righteous perished and it was their Sin that they did not Observe it the Death of the Righteous was the Fore-runner of Judgments which were defer'd while they Lived While God hath any Corn in the Field he keeps up the Hedges but when that is once Housed he breaks down the Fence and lets in the Beasts He may not sweep a Land with the Beesome of Destruction Isa 14.23 for a time because he may have some Jewels among the Rubbish but when he hath pick'd them up he defers no longer Thus though he would not spare Sodom for Lots sake yet he delayd its Vengeance till he was clear of it Gen. 19.22 I can do nothing says the Angel to him till thou be come thither i. e. to Zoar. And God would not bring on the Deluge till Noah were safe in the Ark. The Romans could not Conquer Jerusalem till the Christians were got out of it and the Judgment of Mystical Babylon is defer'd till all Gods People be gone out from her Rev. 18.4 3. Sometimes Judgments though they do come upon a People yet may for the sake of the Godly among them be abated and lessened and mingled with Mercy So Matth. 24.22 for the Elects sake those Days
Conscience is seen in the gladness of the Countenance Let the Birds of Paradise sing for joy Shall a Carnal man rejoyce whose hopes lean on earthly Crutches and shall not he rejoyce whose Treasure is laid up in Heaven Be Serious yet Chearful A dejected Melancholy temper as it unfits for Duty especially Praising God so it disparageth Heaven will others think God is such a great Reward when they see Christians hang the wing and go drooping in Religion 'T is a sin as well not to rejoyce as not to repent But how can I be chearful I am reduced to great Straits Object Let God take away what he will from thee Answ he will at last give thee that which is better As Pharaoh said Gen. 45.20 Regard not your Stuff for the good of all the Land of Egypt is yours So I say Regard not your Stuff be not too much troubled at the diminution of these earthly things for the good of all the Land of Heaven is yours In the Fields of Sicily there is a continual Spring and Flowers all the Year long an Emblem of the Jerusalem above where are Flowers of Joy alwayes growing There you shall tread upon Stars be Fellow-commoners with Angels and have Communion with the blessed Trinity Let the Saints then be glad in the Lord in God are Treasures that can never be emptied and Pleasures that can never be ended If God be an exceeding great Reward let such as have hope in Branch 6 him long for Possession Though it should not be irksom to us to stay here to do Service yet we should have an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an holy longing till the Portion comes into our hand l Veni Domine Jesu ut ad te veniam veni dulcedo mea emancipato Animam hanc ut te Marito suo fruaatur Roll. This is a temper becoming a Christian content to live desirous to dye Phil. 1.23.25 Doth not the Bride desire the day of Espousals m In Visione Dei ut primi veri amore Dei ut summi boni consistit Corona Aug. Rev. 22.17 Did we but seriously consider our Condition here We are compassed with a body of Sin we cannot pray without wandring we cannot believe without doubting should not this make us desire to have our Pass to be gone Let us think how happy those Saints above are who are solacing themselves in God while we live far from Court they alwaies behold the smiling face of God while we drink Wormwood they swim in Honey while we are perplexed between Hope and Fear they know their Names are enrolled in the Book of Life while we are tossed upon the unquiet Waves they are gotten to the Haven Did we but know what a Reward God is and what the joy of our Lord means we should need Patience to be content to stay here any longer Let such as have God for their exceeding great Reward be living Organs Branch 7 of Gods praise n Gratias agere possumus referre non possumus Aug. Psal 118.28 Thou art my God and I will praise thee Themistocles thought he was well required by the Graecians for his Valour when they took such notice of him in the Olympicks saying This is Themistocles God counts it Requital enough for all his Love when we are grateful and present him with our Thank-Offering and well may we stand upon Mount Gerizim Blessing and Praising if we consider the Greatness of this Reward that we should be made Heirs of God and that this surpassing Reward is not a Debt but a Legacy and that when many are passed by the Lot of free Grace should fall upon us let this make us ascribe Praise unto the Lord. It is called the Garment of Praise Isa 61.3 The Saints never look so comely as in this Garment Praise is the Work of Heaven Such as shall have Angels Reward should do Angels work The word Praise comes from an Hebrew Râ—dix that signifies to shoot up p 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Godly should send up their Praises as a Volley of shot towards Heaven shall you live with God and partake of his Fulness in Glory break forth into Doxologies and Triumphs long for that time when you shall join in Consort with the Angels those Quiristers of Heaven in sounding forth Hallelujah's to the King of Glory Such as are Monuments of Mercy should be Patterns of Thankfulness 3Vse Consolation Will God himself be his Peoples Reward this may be as Bezar-stone to revive and Comfort them 1. In Case of losses they have lost their Livings and Promotions for Conscience sake but as long as God lives their Reward is not lost Heb. 10.34 I cannot be poor faith Bernard as long as God is rich for his Riches are mine Habet omnia qui habet habentem omnia Whatever we lose for God we shall find again in him We have left all say the Disciples and followed thee Mark 10.28 Alas what had they left a few sorry Boats and Tackling what were these to their Reward they parted with movable goods for the unchangable God All losses are made up in him we may be losers for God we shall not be losers by him 2. It is Comfort in Case of Persecution the Saints Reward will abundantly compensate all their Sufferings Agrippa being laid in Chains for Caius when he came after to the Empire released Agrippa out of Prison and gave him a Chain of Gold bigger than his Iron Chain So God will infinitely remunerate them that suffer for him for their Waters of Marah they shall have the Wine of Paradise The Saints Sufferings are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a while 1 Pet. 5.10 their Reward is for ever they are but a while in the Wine-press ever in the Banqueting-house q 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys The Hebrew Word for Glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a Weight the weight of Glory should make Affliction light the enjoying of God eternally will cause Christians to forget all their Sorrows One Beam of the Sun of Righteousness will dry up their Tears after Trouble Peace after Labour Rest Then God will be all in all to his People 1 Cor. 15.28 Light to their Eye Manna to their Tast Musick to their Ear Joy to their Heart O then let the Saints be comforted in the midst of their Trials Rom. 8.18 I reckon that the Sufferings off this present time are not Worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be revealed in us 4 Vse Terror to the Wicked Here is a Gorgons head to affright them They shall have a Reward but vastly different from the Godly the one shall be rewarded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the Plagues in the Bible are their Reward Prov. 10.29 Destruction shall be to the Workers of Iniquity God is their Rewarder but not their Reward Rom. 6.23 The Wages of sin is Death They who did the Devils work will tremble to
receive their Wages Zophar doth notably set forth a Wicked mans Reward Job 20.7 He shall perish for ever like his own dâ—â—â—g That is he shall perish with disgrace he shall leave a stinking Savour behind Verse 16. He shall suck the Poison of Asps that is the sin which was Sweet as Honey in his Mouth shall be bitter as the Gall of Asps verse 26. A fire not blown shall consume him that is either ignis a Coelo delapsus r Mercer a Fire falling from Heaven shall consume him as it did Korah or a fire not blown may be meant a Fire casually hapning among his Goods and Chattels shall consume him or a fire not blown that is the fire of Hell not blown with bellows shall torture his Soul he shall be ever consuming never consumed Å¿ Sic morientur damnati ut semper Vivant Bernard Ver. 20. This is the Portion of a Wicked man And how Tremendous is this for every Golden sand of Mercy that runs out to a Sinner God puts a drop of Wrath into his Vial. Quest What may most hopefully be attempted to allay Animosities among Protestants that our Divisions may not be our Ruine SERMON IIII. COLOSS. II. 2. That their Hearts might be comforted being knit together in Love and unto all riches of the full assurance of Vnderstanding to the acknowledgment of the Mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ THis Question is propounded to me What may most hopefully be attempted to allay Animosities among Protestants that our Divisions may not be our Ruine I must here in the first place tell you how I understand this Question 1. As to the End the preventing our ruine I take the meaning chiefly to be not the ruine of our Estates Trade Houses Families not our ruine in these respects who are Christians but our ruine as we are Christians i. e. the ruine of our Christianity it self or of the truly Christian Interest among us 2. As for the Means enquired after I understand not the Question to intend what is to be done or attempted by Laws and Publick Constitutions as if our business were to teach our absent Rulers or prescribe to them what they should do to whom we have no present Call or Opportunity to apply our selves Nor again can it be thought our business to discusse the several questions that are controverted among us and shew in each what is the Truth and right wherewith every mans Conscience ought to be satisfy'd and in which we would all meet and unite As if we had the vanity to think of performing by an Hours discourse what the voluminous Writings of some Ages have not performed Much less are we to attempt the perswading of any to go against an already formed Judgment in these Points of difference for the sake of Union and to seek the Peace of the Church by breaking their peace with God and their own Consciences But I take the Question only to intend What serious Christians may and ought to endeavour in their Private Capacities and agreeably with their own Principles towards the proposed End And so I conceive the words read to you contain the Materials of a direct and full answer to the Question Which I reckon will appear by opening the Case the Apostles words have reference to that will be found a Case like our own and by opening the Words whereby their suitableness to that Case will be seen and consequently to our Case also 1. The Case which these words have reference to as indeed the general aspect of the Epistle and in great part of the other Apostolical Letters looks much the same way was in short this That a numerous Sect was already sprung up that began so early to corrupt the simplicity and purity of the Christian Religion and very much to disturb the peace of the Christian Church A sort they were of partly Judaizing partly Paganizing Christians the Disciples as they are reputed of Simon Magus who joyned with the name Christian the Rites and Ceremonies of the Jewes with the impurities even in Worship of the Gentiles denying the more principal Doctrines and hating the holy design of Christianity it self while thy seem'd to have assumed or to retain the Name as it were on purpose the more effectually to wound and injure the Christian Cause and Interest Men of high pretence to knowledge whence they had the Title of Gnosticks filched partly from the Jewish Cabbalisme partly from the Phythagorean By which pretence they insinuated the more plausibly with such as affected the knowledge of more hidden Mysteries Whereto the Apostle seems to have reference where he addes immediatey after the Text that in Christ were hid all the Treasures of wisdom and knowledge vers 3. And sayes he did purposely adde it lest any man should beguile them with enticing words Intimating there was no need to follow those vain Pretenders out of an affectation of sublimer knowledge and forsake Christ in whom all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge were hid Of the progress and Genius of this Sect not only some of the Fathers of the Church give an account †Clemens Alexandr Irenaeus Epiphanius c. But even a * Plotinus Ennead 2. l. 9. noted Philosopher among the Heathens who writes professedly against them thô not a word against Christians as such both making it his business to refute their absurd Doctrines that the World was in its nature evil and not made by God but by some evil Angel c. and representing them as men of most immoral Principles and Practices worse both in respect of their notions and morals than Epicurus himself It appears this sort of men did in the Apostles dayes not only set themselves with great art and industry to pervert as many Professors of Christianity as they could but found means as they might by their compliances with the Jews who were then much spread and numerously seated in sundry principal Cities under the Roman Power and who were every where the bitterest enemies to Christianity to raise Persecution against them they could not pervert which some passages seem to intimate in the Epistle to the Galatians who as that whole Epistle shews were much leaven'd by this Sect insomuch that the Apostle is put to travel as in birth again to have Christ formed in them and to reduce them back to sincere Christianity viz. that some leaders of this Sect so set the Peoples minds even against the Apostle himself that he began to be reputed by them as an Enemy chap 4.16 and was persecuted under that notion because he would not comply with them in the matter of Circumcision urged as an engagement to the whole Law of Moses chap. 5.11 If I yet preach Circumcision why do I yet suffer persecution Then is the offence of the Cross ceased And that they were as mischievous as they could be to fellow-Christians on the same account biting and devouring them that received not their