That they had as soul natures as the vilest that they had as leprous poisonous odious hearts until they were renewed and sanctified as those which they shall see condemned and tormented that they were sometimes foolish and disobedient serving divers lusts and pleasures hateful and hating one another until the kindness and free love of God was manifested in the regeneration and renovation of them by the holy Ghost Tit. 3. 3 4 5. That they were dead in sin with others and walked according to the course of the World according to the Prince of the power of the Aire who wrought in them as in other Children of disobedience so that they were as forward as others to fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the minde and ran with others to the same excess of riot until God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved them had quickned them and saved them by his grace and hereby put a difference between them and the wicked who went on to the end of the sinful course in which sometimes they were running with them in company Eph. 2. 1 2 3 4 c. yea some of them will remember how they out-stripped others in sin and were guilty of more gross breaches of the Law than many millions of the wicked whom they will see condemned and that they should escape and be awakened to repent and enabled to believe and reform and that they should obtain pardon and salvation thorow Christ when others were passed by and let alone to perish under smaller sins this will fill them with astonishing admiration and wondering joy when they see some of their neer Relations going to Hel their Fathers their Mothers their Children their Husbands their Wives their Brethren their Sisters their intimate Friends and Companions however they are grieved now to see them take such courses and walk in the way to Hell and they labour to pull them out of that way and would fain perswade them to walk with them in Heavens way and are troubled to forethink of the torment which they must endure if they go on yet hereafter relative tyes and those affections which now they have to relations out of Christ wil cease and they wil not have the least trouble to see them sentenced to hel and thrust into the fiery furnace but rejoyce in the glory of God which wil be manifested upon them in their destruction and O the joy that they wil be filled withal to think that they were not passed by with the rest of their relations that they are not under the same deserved-condemnation with them that God should chuse but one or two in many families and they should be in the number of the chosen ones that when his chosen were comparatively so few and the reprobates so many that they should be elected when there was no motive in them to encline God to the choice of them that he should chuse them freely if he had not chosen them if they were now to change places with some of their wicked relations going to Hel this would be dreadful but that they are going from Hel when their relations are going into it this wil fil them with joy unspeakable Especially 3. When they consider in their going away that they were sometime so neer to Hell that whilst they were in a state of nature and under the guilt of sin that some of them were neer to death that they were brought to the sides of the pit to the doors of the grave to the very brink of Hell before they had repented and accepted of Jesus Christ some of them will remember how neer they were to death when they were young how neer they were to death by some casualties how neer by some diseases some of them will remember the great Plague in London which swept away so many thousands how ill they were provided for death at the beginning thereof how neerly they escaped the disease and some which had the disease how neerly they escaped death by it and if they had died then that they should certainly have gone to Hell O how will they admire the Providence of God in keeping them alive notwithstanding the many dangers they were in of death all the daies of their unregeneracy and when they moreover consider how they tried Gods patience and trampled upon it by their hainous provocations how they abused his goodness and turned his grace into wantonness how they did hasten in the waies of sin towards hell and were come even to the end of the line that some of them were Drunkards and Sabbath-breakers and profane persons and swearers and unclean persons and persecutors of the people of God and were arrived even to the heighth of wickedness and wanâ—ed but a step or two of falling into Hell and yet that the Lord should meet with them with a flaming sword in the way of sin they were driving on so fast and furiously in and stop them and turn them and change them and bring them home to himself yea when they had deafned their ears against many calls and stifled many convictions and often quenched the motions of his spirit and were so unwilling to leave their sins and to come out of the way of destruction were so desperately bent upon their ruine that yet he should knock and call again and again and follow them still by his Spirit that he should lay hold on them as the Angels did on Lot and bring them out of Sodom even by force and over-power the contranitency of their stubborn wills and break open the door of their hearts and overturn the strong holds of sin and sathan and set up the throne of his Son within them that he should snatch them like fire-brands out of the fire and pluck them out of the snare of the devil that had almost drag'd them into Hell O how will they be astonished to remember Gods infinite pitty and love and the power of his rich grace that did work salvation for them especially when they perceive how dreadful the misery is which they were hastning unto I have heard of a man who in the night galloped over a high bridge which was broken down all but a narrow plank which Gods providence directed his horses feet upon which if they had slipt never so little on the one side or the other horse and man had fallen into the deep stream and been drowned which the man did not know till the next morning but then viewing the place and considering the danger he had so narrowly escaped was struck with such astonishment at it that he fell down dead in the place When some of Gods people shall go away from Hell at the last day and look behind them into the bottomless-pit and take a view of the streams of fire and brimstone which are running in the burning lake and remember how they have galloped over those streams when they were in the carreer of their sins and by how narroâ—
of the Sadduces Master Moses said c. their Argument against the Resurrection is this If there were a Resurrection then there would be a confusion in Relations insomuch as seven Men having been in this World married to one Woman all of them would claim a propriety in her and to whom should she belong would not this breed a discord Must not six of them with grief be deprived of her who once was their Wife And could this agree with the state of perfection and happiness in which all the just should be raised The Sadduces thought now they had our Saviour upon the hip they thought now it is likely that they should confound him with this Argument that they should gravel him and shame him before the People they could not answer it themselves and they thought that out Saviour could not answer it neither and truly the objection hath subtilty in it 4. The answer of our Saviour lies in vers 30 In the Resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like the Angels of God in Heaven Hereby he gives them to understand that there would be no confusion in Relations at the Resurrection that there would be no enjoyment or deprivation of conjugal Relations there because such Relations would then cease and Men and Women would then be like Angels which neither have such Relations neither do stand in need of them the end of such Relations will then cease and the Relation will cease too 1. One end of the conjugal Relation here is the propagation of Man-kinde insomuch as the number is incompleat and will be incompleat till the end of the World and the number is compleating by Generation but at the Resurrection the number of Man-kinde will be compleat the number of the Elect will be perfect and in this regard they will be like to Angels whose number was compleat at the first and therefore this end of marriage ceasing the Relation should cease also 2. Another end of marriage is mutual help and this end also will cease at the Resurrection the wicked they shall have no help the righteous shall have no need of help from such Relations God will supply All they will be perfect in him God will be All and in All God will be instead of Father Mother Husband Wife and all unto them like Angels they shall behhold the Face of their Father and have no need of conjugal Relations 5. And with this Answer to the Sadduces Objection we may take notice of Christs Discovery of their errour and the grounds thereof namely their ignorance of the Scriptures and the power of God whereby our Saviour doth suggest a strong Argument to prove the Doctrine of the Resurrection drawn from the power of God and the Scriptures the Argument is this If there be power in God to raise the Dead and in the Scriptures he hath revealed that he will do it then there will certainly be a Resurrection of the Dead But there is power in God to raise the dead and in the Scriptures he hath revealed that he will do it 1. That there is Power in God to raise the Dead is evident and none which acknowledge his Deity can rationally deny he that had power to make the World out of nothing hath power to raise the Dead out of their Graves he that had power to give life hath power to restore it he that hath all power hath this power he who is infinite in power who is omnipotent unto whom nothing is difficult he can raise the dead and joyn soul body together after a long separation There is little doubt but God can raise the dead but the great question lyes in his will whether he will or no. Therefore 2. The Scriptures reveal his will herein he that in the Scriptures hath promised that he will raise the dead being so powerful and faithful he will certainly do it but God hath promised in the Scriptures that he will raise the dead And though in the old Testament the Doctrine of the Resurrection be spoken of more obscurely yet our Saviour fetcheth a proof of the Doctrine out of the Book of Mâ—ses which the Sadduces as is observed did not acknowledge Vers. 31. 32 As touching the Resurrection of the Deâ—d have yeâ— not read what was said to you by God I am the God of Abraham c. God is not the God of the deâ—d but of the living our Saviour proves the Doctrine by strong inserence drawn from this place which needs a little opening to perceive the argument It is not unlikely but our Saviour cleared the thing in more words for we have but the heads in Scripture of many things which were delivered in large discourses he made it so clear that is satisfied the people silenced the Saduces The Argument formed up is this If God be the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Iacob when they are dead then Abraham Isaac and Iacob will rise again from the dead and so there shall be a resurrection from the dead but God calls himself the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Iacob when they are dead as they were when he spake those words of Moses out of the bush therefore they shall rise from the dead The consequence our Saviour proves because he is the God of the living and not of the dead if that Abraham and Isaac and Iacob be living before God in regard of his purpose to raise them from the dead because he is their God when their bodies lie rotting in the grave and therefore they may be called living when dead by him who quicknefh the dead and causeth-those things which are not but shall be as though they were Rom. 4. 17. then Abraham and Isaac and Iacob shall be raised from the dead as certainly as if they were actually living but they are living before God in regard of his purpose and promise to make them alive which is evident from the nature of the covenant which he hath made with them which doth include a promise of blessedness and perfect happiness which he will give unto them If God be the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Iacob he is their God in covenant and by consequence will make them perfectly happy not only in regard of their souls by receiving them into glory when they die but also in regard of their bodies too by raising them from the dead at the last day till which time their happiness is but in part and imperfect and therefore hence may strongly be inferred that they shall be raised and by consequence all in covenant shall be raised to receive the perfect happiness promised in the covenant and by parity of reason that all out of covenant shall be raised to receive the compleat punishment threaâ—ned to sinners for their sins and by consequence that there shall be a general resurrection Thus our Saviour confirms this great
easily loosned because you will be the faster asleep in sin and not so easily awakened because your hearts will grow the harder by the Jong practice of sin and not so easily broken because your sins will be the more encreased which you must repent of because your time will be the more decreased which you are to repent in so that if it should come to passe which is a thousand to one that you should repent after procrstination or deferring repentance yet you will finde the work to be very difficult 4. Think what glory you may bring to God what service you may do if you repent and reform presently all which time whilest you defer repentance is spent in the service of the Devil and your own lusts unto the dishonour of God 5. Think what measures of grace and comfort you may attain here and what degrees of glory you may attain hereafter if you repent without delay which by deferring the work you are like to lose 6. If you defer Repentance it is a question whether your last repentance will be true and if it should be true it is a question whether ever you shall obtain the evidence of the truth thereof 7. And lastly If you defer your repentance God may never call you to repentance Yea he may give you up to a judiciary hardnesse and seal you up unto condemnation swearing in his wrath that you shall never enter into his Rest. Thus much for the exhortation of Sinners to repent 2. Sinners will the Lord Iesus Christ certainly and quickly appear to judgment be perswaded then to flee to him and get an interest in him before his appearance I am sure that there is none of you but would be glad of an interest in Christ when he cometh in his glorie to judge the world the vilest persons upon the earth those who despise and reject Christ now those who hate and scorn the wayes of godlinesse as being too mean a way for their high spirits would give ten thousand worlds if they had them for the room of the meanest Believers who have an interest in Christ at that day But let me tell you sinners that this world is the onely place and this time while the day of Grace doth last is the onely time of obtaining such a priviledge as this is if you have not an interest in Christ whilst you live it will be impossible to obtain it after death or at the resurrection If you are none of Christs now he will not know you nor own you at the day of his glorious Appearance 1. Get an interest in Christ as your high Priest and Advocate Be sensible of your sins be assured of his death for sin and satisfaction to Gods justice Be perswaded of his intercession at the right hand of God and that he is able and willing to save you apply your selves to him that through him you may obtain remission of sins and an inheritance amongst the Saints and if through the mediation of Christ now you obtain a pardon of all your sins here how welcome will your Redeemer be unto you and with what joy will you lift up your heads out of your graves when the day of your Redemption and perfect Salvation is come and your Saviour doth appear to take vengeance upon unpardoned sinners but shall own and acquit you before the whole world 2. Get Christ to be your Master Enter your selves amongst his Servants and Disciples submit to his Teachings learn his Lessons believe and obey his Commands follow his Example promote his honour and interest in the world be readie to do or suffer any thing for him and when your Lord and Master cometh in his glorie you will finde that it was not in vain to serve him though in wayes harsh and grating to flesh and blood O what a Reward will be give then to his Servants What a crown of glorie will he put upon their heads It is a sweet encouraging Promise which Christ hath made now and will make good to all his faithfull servants at that day Iohn 12. 26. If any man serve me let him follow me and where I am there shall my servant be if any man serve me him will my Father honour 3. Get Christ to be your Husband Sinners We Ministers are sent to invite and wooe you to enter into this most near and sweet Relation unto Jesus Christ we are to tell you of the beautie and excellencie of his Person of his Love and tender affection to poor sinners of his willingness to be yours and to make you sharers in his riches O accept of him it is the best motion that ever was made to you and it may be the laft motion accept of Christ to be your husband lay off your filthy Garments put on the white Robes of his righteousness joyn your hearts to him divorse your selves from sin and dedicate your selves unto Christ alone and if Christ be your husband O how joyful will his appearance be unto you when you shall see his glorious face and sweet smiles and be received into his embracements and be carried by him into his Fathers house where you shall live with and delight in his loves for evermore 4. Get Christ to be your Captain list your selves under his banner wear his Colours arme your selves with his Weapons follow his conduct fight against his Enemies endure hardness as good Souldiers and do not shrink when you are put upon the tryal and if you have an interest in this Captain and be victorious here over your spiritual enemies when your Captain doth ride in Triumph at the last day you shall be caught up into the Clouds and Triumph with him and receive a Crown of Glory from him which fadeth not away Sinners get an interest in Christ in all his Offices in all his Relations it is he only can save you from sin and wrath and eternal death It would be too large a subject here to treat of salvation by Christ and the way of attaining it I may God giving leave hereafter treat purposely on some words whereby we may be saved from Acts 11. 14. He shall tell thee words whereby thou and thy House shall be saved which I thought to have added to the end of this with some words of advice unto young Men from 1 Ioh. 2. part of the 14. vers I have written unto you young Men because yee are strong and the Word of god abideth in you and yee have overcome the wicked one All which I did indeed at the first inteâ—a to have joyned together in one small Volume with God's terrible voice in the City but thoughts have so multiplyed in putting them into writing that I am even forced to separate them into three parts which I thought at first the room of one would hold CHAP. XIV HAving spoken to Sinners I come now to speak 2. To Believers and that in two words 1. For the Tryal of them 2. For the comforting of them 1. For