The Kingdome of glory 1. We are saved to the state or Kingdome of grace we are brought into Jerusalem the Holy and led through it into Ierusalem the happy we are conducted through holyness into happiness and made to pass through the porch of grace into the palace of glory 1. Salvation bestows upon us the first grace It s therefore called a Creation which we call regeneration and this as well as the first creation is ex nihilo the creating of grace where there was none before If any be in Christ saith the Apostle he is a new creature 2 Cor. 5.17 and David prayes create in me a clean heart O God Psal 51.10 And the promise is A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart that is your body and I will give you an heart of flesh Ez. 36.26 2. It causes us to increase in grace 1. By Addition adding grace unto grace and proceeding from vertue to vertue observe the Apostles direction 2. Pet. 1.5 giving all diligence adde unto faith vertue and unto vertue knowledge and unto knowledge temperance and unto temperance patience and unto patience godliness and unto godliness brotherly kindness and unto brotherly-kindness love there is no grace that a gracious Soul would want 2. By Multiplication heaping grace upon grace knowledge upon knowledge faith upon faith repentance upon repentance obedience upon obedience indeavouring to advance to higher degrees in grace labouring that grace may not not only be in us but that it may abound in us 2 Pet. 1.8 As there is no grace for kind so there is no degree of grace for measure that a gracious Soul would want 3. And it doth not only prevent us with grace by giving us the first grace and enabling us to will and bestow upon us the second grace by assisting us with grace and enabling us to do as well as to will according to that saying Nolentem praevenit deus ut velit volentem subsequitur ne frustra velit God prevents us with his grace to make willing and God followes us with his grace to make able But it also keepes us in grace Paul gloryed that he had kept the faith which was by being kept in the faith according to that of Peter Yee are kept by the power of God through faith unto Salvation 1. Pet. 1.5 2. By this great Salvation we are saved to the Kingdome of glory as well as to that of grace Christ teacheth us to pray for both at once in that Petition Thy Kingdome come 1 let the Kingdome of sin and Satan be domolished in us and others and let thy Kingdome of grace come in the room of it and let us and others be kept in it and do thou also hasten the Kingdome of glory David mentions both by way of promise Psal 84.11 The Lord will give grace and glory and therefore he makes mention of both in his prayer Lord guide me with thy counsell and after that receive me to glory which is as much as if he had said Lord lead me through thy Kingdome of grace into thy Kingdome of glory Now as David said of the Jerusalem upon Earth we may much more of the Heavenly Jerusalem Many excellent things are spoken of thee thou City of God We may more easily give you a Negative description of it by telling you what is not there than a positive by telling you what is there yet take somwhat though but a touch of both 1 Negatively 1. There shall be no sin no unclean thing can enter into that Kingdome 1 Cor. 6.9 The Angells at the last day shall gather out of Christs mixt Kingdome the Churchmilitant all things that offend and that worke iniquity Mat. 13.41 that nothing but what is pure and undefiled may be gathered into the Church triumphant the Kingdome of glory 2. There shall be no labour that is called the rest that remaines for the people of God Earth was their place of labour and there was nothing else though some be so strong that they live to fourscore years yet is their strength then but labour and sorrow labour and labour labour upon labour labour for the body and labour for the Soul but blessed are the dead that die in the Lord even so saith the spirit that they rest from their labours Heaven is their resting place and there shall be nothing but rest rest upon rest rest from their body labours and rest from their soul-labour only they shall be restles in the prayses of their God but that restlesness is the best part of heavens rest they shall not cease in ascribing praise and glory and honour and power and dominion and thanksgiving unto him that sits upon the throne to the Lamb for ever and ever 3. There shall be no sufferings as they shall cease from their labours and all sweat shall be wiped from their browes so they shall rest from their sufferings and all tears shall be wiped from their eyes there shall be nothing of want and weakness there no corruption nothing of infirme nature that which was sowne in dishonour corruption weakness nature shall be raised in honour incorruption power and spirit 1. Cor. 15.42 43 44. 2 Positively 1. There shall be fullness of joy joy not capable of addition or augmentation Christ told his disciples that their joy should be full Iohn 15.11 2. There shall be pleasures for evermore not only joy uncapable of augmentation but pleasures uncapable of diminution and therefore our Saviour in the same breath that he told them their joy should be full he also promised them that their joy should no man take from them John 16.22 All that the World could present them with were but shells without kernels a few mock-consolations which brought them much labour in geting more care in keeping and most sorrow in losing such things as they could not enjoy themselves with them In a word they were empty and transitory but the joyes of Heaven are commended to us by 2 most lovely and contrary qualities two They are full as opposite to the Worlds emptiness 2. They are lasting everlasting and so opposed to the Worlds transitoriness 3. Gods saved-ones shall not only enjoy a Kingdome of prepared pleasures but they shall enjoy God with them that they shall enjoy a Kingdome of prepared pleasures read Mat. 25.34 Come ye blessed children of my father receive the Kingdome prepared for you must not that be the confluence of all Beatitudes which hath taken up the love and wisedome of God in preparing them And that they shall enjoy God with them read 1 Thes 4.17 so shall we be for ever with the Lord the Apostle desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 It s the misery of unbeleevers upon earth that they are without Christ and without God in the World Eph. 2.12 but it shall be the imcomparable happiness of believers in Heaven that they shall
speechless they will not have one word to say for themselves why the sentence of damnation should not take hold upon them who have been such willfull refusers of that great Salvation that was offered to them upon such easy tearmes O worke out your Salvation while it is called to day the night is approaching in which none can worke Whatsoever is commanded you do it with your might for there is no knowledge nor wisedome nor invention in the grave whither you are going Perhaps your paines that you must take for it must be great and your sufferings that you must pass through may be great to but remember that it hath been declared and proved to be great Salvation which is to be your recompence and such as will more than recompence you for all that you can do or suffer for it As to the recompence of our doing the Apostle speakes modestly in speaking but negatively 1 Cor. 15. ult Be ye allwayes abundant in the worke of the Lord knowing that your labour shall not be in vaine in the Lord But when he speakes of the recompence of our sufferings a double superlative is little enough 2. Cor. 4.17 Our light affliction which is but for a moment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worketh for us a farr more exceeding and eternall weight of glory observe but the elegancy of the Apostles Antithesis in speaking diminutively of the sufferings and loftily of the glory which he opposes to them The one he calls 1. Afflictions 2. Light afflictions 3. Light affictions for a moment The other he calls 1. Glory 2. A weight of glory 3. A weight of glory for aeternity Compare 1. Glory with afflictions 2. A weight of glory with light afflictions 3. A weight of glory for aeternity with light afflictions for a moment The one will be ponderous beyond our imagination the other will seem lighter then vanity it selfe well might the Apostle say count that the afflictions of this present world are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us Rom. 8.18 Upon which an expositor of note excellently enlarges and saith non sunt condigni labores nec condignae passiones ad peccatumpraeteritum quod remittitur ad praesentis vitae gratiam quae immittitur ad futurae vitae gloriam quae promittitur All that we can do or suffer is nothing compared to the sin past which is remitted to the present grace which is bestowed nor to the future glory which is promised This was a meane thing that the Author of this Epistle amied at to incourage the Hebrews to suffer the spoiling of their goods joyfully and to take in good part all that might befall them and not to be offended at the Cross because this great Salvation would make them not only savers but imcomparable gainers I shall shut up this point with the same consideration O let us worke and watch and strive and walke circumspecctly let us pray and pray and give all dilligence and offer violence and be abundant in doing and suffering for let us assure our selves whatever men think of this Salvation now in that great day when the Lord Christ shall be made terrible to the refusers of it and glorious in them that beleive the most unbeleiving will be more than throughly convinc'd that the Salvation offered in the Gospel is GREAT SALVATION THE SECOND DOCTRINE Setting light by this great Salvation is great Sin THough we shall easily confesse all sins to be great yea the least to be objectively infinite because committed against an infinite God as we see David swallowed up of this deep Psal 51.4 against Thee Thee have I sinned c. And we shall as easily confesse that no sins are venial in the sense of Rome the Apostle Paul having declared that the wages of all sin is death Rom. 6.23 yet we cannot with the stoicks think all sins to be equal but more or less sinfull as they are circumstantiated that very expression of the sinfulness of sin had otherwise been a paradox which we find used in Scripture and in many of the writings of the learned and orthodox both modern and ancient and the Prophet had been guilty of an impropriety of speech in mentioning scarlet and crimson sins if some had not been of a deeper guilt than others and their sinfulness like those colours dyed in grain Now that this sin of gospel-refusing or setting light by this great Salvation is a sin with an high hand and a hard heart and a sin of that aggravated nature as to be out of measure sinfull is the point that is first to be illustrated and then to be proved by evidence and strength of reasons First for illustration thus The Scripture thunders out a most dreadfull curse against such as do the work of the Lord negligently Jer. 48.10 if the negligent hearers and doers do lie open to the curse of God what will become of those that are so grossly negligent that they neglect both the theory and practick the knowing and doing part and all that care so little for the gospel that they desire not to be acquainted with it that do as it were say to the Lord depart from us we care not to know thy waies nor to walk in thy paths The forementioned Scripture levels that curse against such as are negligent in the execution of Gods destroying work as the words immediately following do manifest Cursed is he that doth the work of the Lord negligently or deceitfully and cursed is he that keepeth back his sword from blood when God shall say to his sword go through a Land destroy all and save none and his executioners must close with it under pain of the Lords curse and fiercest indignation What shall become of such as will not close with his saving work when he shall say to his word go thorough a Land and open blind eyes and deaf ears and dead hearts that men may see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and be converted and be healed and when such as should proclaim these glad tidings shall be dumb and not declare it the hearers shall be deaf will not entertain it there must be blind leading the blind till all fall into the pit and the forna◠must be heat seven times hotter for the refusers of the Gospel than for the transgressors of the Law the fire of gods jealousie burning hottest about the Sanctuary and that judgement being most merciless which beginneth at the house of God read that confluence of threatnings Deut. 29.20 where God threatneth that all the curses that are written in his book shall fall upon such as bless themselves in a cursed estate and adde to that Deut. 28.61 where God threatens all the curses that are not written to the children of disobedience and yet that flaming place being a Gospel-threatning 2. Thes 1.7 8 9. is hotter and heavier than all The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven in
have run to our wits end we are but at the beginning of it if that Ever and Never though short in syllables and sound yet are so long in sense and signification that they are the savour of life and death to the saved and damned ever with the Lord and never taken out of his Hands is the savour of life to life to the one ever with the Devil and never redeem'd from hell is the savour of death unto death to the other Eternity is the very bottom of the bottomless pit though the torments were easless yet if they were not also endless they might be the better indured But when thousands and ten thousands and Millions and thousands of Millions and Millions of Millions and all the numbers in Arithmetick are added and put into one sum total when the drops and sands of the Sea and stars of the Firmament and all hairs upon all heads from the worlds creation to the day of Judgement shal be compared with the years of Eternity Nondum finis nondum medium nondum principium aeternitatis designatur they are so far from reaching to the end that they cannot reach the Middle no not the Beginning of eternity Sic parvis magna thus have I given you a Slender account of those great punishments which constitute this Great Damnation and so endeth the last of the Reasons USE The onely proper use to be made of a Sermon of Damnation that it may be the power of God through faith unto Salvation is a use of Terrour set home by a Son of thunder unto the consciences of secure sinners that are settled on their lees frozen in theis dreggs and lye soaking in their lusts As the Doctrine of Salvation may be the savour of death and aggravate the Damnation of unprofitable hearters so the Doctrine of Damnation may be the savour of life and tend to the furtherance of Salvation to such as hear in hearing that hear and understand and are converted and healed The Doctrine of Salvation like a pleasant Song may lull sinners into a Spiritually Lethargy when the Doctrine of Damnation may awake them and discover to them their danger to prevent it Oh that I could now speak with the tongue of Angels or rather that the Lord would speake unto you by the words of a man of like infirmities with your selves your fellow-creature and servant who is but dust and ashes oh that the Lord would either give me the tongue of the Learned or speake effectually by my Stammering tongue and open me a wide door of utterance and enterance Though I speake of a dreadfull Theme no less than Great Damnation yet afford me the hearing It s better to hear it than to feel it you had better hear a man coolly telling you of the greatness of the thing than to hear an angry God terribly denouncing the greatness of the sentence I may bespeake your attention as Elihu did Jobs Job 33 6 7. Behold I am according to your wish in Gods stead I also am formed out of the clay Behold my terrour shall not make you afraid neither shall my hand be heavy upon you But here I must lift up my voice and cry aloud or else I cannot wake you and he had need to have a stronger voice than mine that shall speake loud enough for the dead to hear When sinners are so supine and negligent that they can hear the wise and powerful charmes of the Gospel with Adders ears and so dead asleep that they can hear the words of the curse and bless themselves in their hearts and promise themselves peace when God proclaimes War and saith again and again no peace to the wicked I say 48.22 and 57.21 When you can come to the ordinances and sit as Gods people do as if you did delight to know his waies and enquire after the ordinances of justice and yet are no more moved with the sad or glad tidings of the law or Gospel than the Seats you sit upon or the Stones you tread upon no more moved with a discouse of judgement to come or shaken with the breath of Gods displeasure than the Walls or Pillars that you leane unto The dead under-ground are as sensible of what is spoken as the dead above ground how justly may we fear that the Lord will answer you according to your Idolls What need have the Lords servants to step into the gapp and step betwixt you and danger and seeke the Lord that he may not give a hardning commission to his word and ministry for if he once bind ther 's no loosing and if he shut none can open The proper effect of this great Damnation is to strike terrour through the spirits of such as are within reach of it And I have to do with men and women that have reasonable Souls into which God hath put the affections of fear and love and the same God hath put into his word promises and threatnings suitable to these affections that they may be drawn with the promises as with the cords of love or driven with the threats as with the rod of men you have heard of great Salvation a mighty motive to draw you and great Damnation a mighty engine to drive you I have set before you life and death blessing and cursingâ— oh that the Lord would perswade you to make Maries choise to choose life that your Souls your precious Souls may live and live for ever Since I have undertaken this expedition as David did his against Goliah not having any confidence in Sword or Spear but laying all the stress upon the Name and power of the living God I will not despair but that the Doctrine here delivered may take hold upon some hearts that may be savingly bettered by it Sinners remember that the time is at hand when the Lord Jesus must be revealed and the great Judge is even ready to take the Throne to sit upon life and death and all both quick and dead must be gathered before him and those that have made light of Salvation offered Christ will make light of their Damnation inflicted Those that take counsel against the Lord and against his Christ saying let us breake their bonds asunder and cast their cords from us He that sitteth in heaven shall laugh them to scorn the Lord shall have them in derision Then he shall speak unto them in his wrath and vexe them in his sore displeasure yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Sion The despisers of Christ shal be confounded and he alone shal be exalted in that day It is reported of Philip King of Macedon that he caused his Page to come every morning to his Chamber door with this good morrow Memento Philippe te esse mortalem O Philip remember that thou art a man and must dye like a man as Moses saith in Psal 82.6 7. I have said ye are Gods but ye shall dye like men and you Princes shall fall like others It s reported of
the other of righteousness unto life and the sentence passed on them both you shall find very punctually recorded Mat. 25. from 31. to the end Wherefore is the word so exact in all these but to assure us that there is nothing of greater certainty than death and judgement O what should those have to do with sin that must be brought to judgement If they be brought to judgement in their sins that is before they have confessed forsaken their sins before they have accused and condemned themselves they cannot stand in the judgement Can dust stand before a whirlwind or stubble before a consuming fire Solomon throws this judgement as a stumbling block in the way of licentious youth to stop them in their full careere and to be a means to teach the young man how to cleanse his way Eccles. 11.9 Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart cheer thee in the daies of thy youth and walk in the waies of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know that for all these things God will bring thee to judgement The former part of that verse looks lovely in the eyes of a libertine and speaks to his very heart but it hath as sad a farewell as ever was heard In the former part the preacher speaks Ironically and in jest but in the last he speaks plainly and in good earnest thou maist if thou wilt do as thy list but do if thou darest for know this take it home with thee take it home to thy heart receive the point of this sword into the very heart of thy beloved sin and if it kill it not or give it a deaths wound tell thy self that thou hast a strong heart a heart that is sermon-proof tell God so desire him day night to take away thy heart of stone and to give thee an heart of flesh 3. Hell and condemnation is commended as the third subject of our Meditation for as after death cometh the judgement so after judgement cometh the death Had not men need to fear double least they dye a double death If men be so scared at the face of the death naturall what should they be at the thoughts of death eternal in comparison whereof the other death is but a shadow of death It was said of Jezebells children Revel 2.23 I will kill her children with death Though all dye yet believers are not kill'd with death as the Spirit directed John to say unto Sardis Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead Rev. 3.1 We may say the contrary of sound believers they have but a name to dye and are alive that 's the thing which kills the Soul that is but the name which kills the body This death beyond death is that which the Scripture calls the second deathâ— Revel 21.8 The fearfull and unbelieâ—â—ng and abominable and murderers and Whoremonâ—ers and Sorcerers and Idolaters and all Lyars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death and Revel 20.6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second death hath no power O what should men do with sin when if they will have it they must have hell to boote durst a malefactour play his pranks if the Judge lookt on him that must condemne him and the torments were in sight that were prepared for him If sinners did but see God frowning upon them and hell gaping for them if they did but see death before them and Judgement beyond death and hell beyond Judgement they could not surely sin with such a swinge as they do they could not sin so damnably without check and controule Sinners do but go aside once a day and seriously meditate on the great damnation that you have heard of and the Eternity of it but one half hour and if you do not walke the more warily humbly and circumspectly say I am a Lyar. One that writes the life of Mr. Mâ— Fuâ—â—â—r it his Holy State Perkins reports of him that he did pronounce the word Damn with such an emphasis that it left an Echo in the ears of his hearers a long time after Oh that I could make such an impression of this Doctrine upon your Memories that it may stick like a barbed Arrow in your consciences that may never be shaken out untill you break off your sins and unfainedly turn to God who is ready to forgive abundantly and to give liberally 4. Heaven and Salvation is proposed as the fourth matter of meditation and both these last do follow Judgement which sends the Goats on the left hand to hell and the Sheep on the right hand to heaven The Libertines of the age would perswade us that there is neither Hell nor Heaven but what is in the conscience but let us assure our selves if there were no other Hell or Heaven there would be none there if a conscience excusing in well doing did not flow from a Heaven in hope and a conscience accusing for evil doing did not proceed from a hell in fear surely there would be no such consciences let the fancies of these vain men pass for strong delusions and let us mind the true sayings of the everlasting Gospel which tell us that as the wicked go into everlasting punishment so the righteous into life eternall Matth. 25. ult How positively and alluringly doth the Scripture speak of this blessed blessed making place calling it the third Heaven 2 Cor. 12.2 The throne of God I say 66.1 we are directed to prefer our petitions to him as our Father dwelling heaven Mat. 6.9 An house not made with hands eternall in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 the seat of the blessed The kingdom prepared for them from the beginning of the world Matth. 25.34 shadowed out by the Mount Sion Heb. 12.22 23 24. and the new Jerusalem Revel 21.10 to the end wherein many excellent things are spoken of this City of God But I have spoken so largely both of the Prison of Hell and the Paradise of Heaven in the antecedent Doctrines of Salvation Damnation that the less may serve here O what should those do with sin that make it their refuge to lay hold on the hope that is set before them Ther 's no sin in heaven and if unclean sinners should be carryed thither in their uncleanness heaven would not be heaven to them It s the Saints holiness that makes heaven their happiness and the grace they bring thither that prepares them for that Joy unspeakable and glorious When we meet with temptations to sin let us remember Hell with its forerunners death and judgement and that will prompt us to say with Joseph How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God Gen. 39.9 And when we meet with temptations from sufferings let us remember Heaven and that will prompt us to say with Paul I count that the afflictions of this present world are not
business that I have with you I came not hither to take tythes but to winn Soules The malevolent adversaries of the standing Ministry of England call us hirelings and it s a miracle of providence that we have our lives for a prey in the midst of such a blood-thirsty generation of unreasonable men but we so much more desire you than yours that if you would make this our hire to give up your selves to God by our Ministry that by taking heed unto our selves and to the doctrine we may save both our selves and them that hear us let them call us Divells and it should but adde unto our Crown while we all study to be what I desire to approve my selfe A Servant of Christ for the furtherance of your Salvation Richard Eedes To the Reader Reader BEhold I bring unto thee glad tidings of great joy That whatever thy life hath been for the time past and whatever thy sinnes unrepented of are for the present If God shall render thee teachable and willing to be counselled thou maist yet die happily if thou wilt but be perswaded to live holily for the short remainder of thy few and evill daies I desire to approve my selfe a true friend unto thy Soul in my indeavour to bring this to pass and nothing can hinder it if the Tempter do not still prevaile to make thee continue thine own greatest enemy If thou be young thou canst not set out upon such work too soon which is of everlasting concernment to thy Soul and tends to the sure-making of thy Salvation If thou be old and hast spent much time already in the service of sin it is more than time that thou shouldst awake out of that dead sleep least the sleep of death surprize thee and if thou should'st be taken out of the world by death before thou be taken out of the World by grace which God forbid it had been better that thou hadst never been born or hadst been created a Toade or Viper than a Man or Woman Deferr not a day not an houer not a moment longer to consider thy waies and to turne to God hearken to this call of God while it is called to day least deferring till to morrow it should be to late whiles the breath is yet in thy body and the Lord yet offers to breathe the breath of life into thy Soul let not the Divel World and Flesh so bewitch thee as to obstruct thy seasonable and serious closing with God upon a Covenant-accompt and with Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour So shalt thou breake off that Great Sin of Gospel-refusing and escape that Great Damnation that is due to it and attaine unto that Great Salvation which is here faithfully commended and heartily wished to thee by him who is Thy Soule Friend Richard Eedes To the Reader Reader IT is the glory and happiness of the Age and country in which thou livest to have the plaine and plentifull teachings of the Lord that while we see not God or the life to come with open face by immediate intuition to our full satisfaction we may yet see him in a glass by reason sanctifyed and guided and elevated by faith so far as to quicken our desires after more and to cheer and strengthen us as a fore-tast and earnest of the everlasting inheritance Though the invisible things of God may be so farr seen in the things that are made as to leave all those without excuse that know not God or glorify him not as God Rom. 1.20 21. yet is the Gospel the much clearer glass though not as to the sensible manner of Revelation yet as to the fullness and cleerness of Discovery In this glass thou maist certainly see on earth the things that will be done in Heaven and Hell to all Eternity Thou maist know if thou canst but know thy heart both where and in what case thou must live for ever Whether with God or Divells whether in joy or torments whether in the end I less sence of the love of God and in his Soul-ravishing vision and fruition and highest returnes of Love and praise with Christ and all the Heavenly Host or in the endless feeling of his confounding to wrath and pangs of conscience for thy former willfullness and folly and comfortless despairing lamentations of thy misery This certaine glass that from God foretelleth all these things is contained in the Holy Scriptures and daily held before thee by thy teachers who are commanded to call upon thee to try and know thy selfe hereby and to prevent the eternall misery fore-seen and set thy heart on the revealed glory and make out after it with the greatest care and desire of thy Soul that it may be thine for ever This glass is here held out unto thee by this faithfull Reverend Minister of Christ a member of our Association in these united Churches who hath judiciously and concisely yet seriously and pathetically told thee how great a Price is in thy hand if thou have but a heart to the blessedness to be procured by it and the improvement of it for that blessedness He hath told thee also what a sin and desperate folly it is to slight â—nd neglect this great Salvation and turne of that God that Heaven with a triâ—le or with the leaving of this contemptable World who is thy All and should have All and will have thy First and Best or nothing He hath told thee of that great Damnation that will certainely be thy Portion if thou go on to neglect this great Salvation Bless God for this seasonable call and admonition and harden not thy heart but hear if thou have but eares to hear Abuse not a God of Love that deserves not to be abused Turne not away from him that speaketh unto thee from Heaven Deny not thy Redeemer thy first and deepest thoughts and cares thy strongest love and most resolved labours that denyed thee not his blood his doctrine and his example Away with sin Man tread downe the World or use it for the World to come Crucify the flesh that hitherto thou hast served Heaven is before thee thou art made and redeemed to be equall with the Angels Dally not about so great a matter as everlasting joy or torment is God is not mocked and therefore do not mock thy selfe by preferring the tâ—yes of the World before him What needs all this adoe for thy daily bread Having food and rayment be therewith content Get well to Heaven and all is done and thou shalt never want lose that and lose all and thou wilt certainly lose it if thou seth it not first and give it not the chiefest roome in thy heart How thinkest thou to escape if thou neglect this Salvation Will a despised or neglected Christ be thy Saviour or a neglected Heaven be thine Inheritance Dost thou think to come back from the dead into this World to mend that which now thou dost amiss or canst thou escape against Gods will and word Reader
all things that are written in the booke of the Law to do them Deut. 27.26 It s this malediction that makes sin to be the sting of death and makes the hornet of an accusing conscience to sting self-condemned sinners like the pangs of death This put Adam upon that impossibility to run away and hide himselfe from God and made Cain to be à corde suo fugitivum a runnagate if it had been possible from himselfe This curse of the law sets the never-dying worme a gnawing and layes upon evill doers that intolerable burden of a wounded conscience which none can bear Cursed is the impenitent Drunkard Swearer Sabboth-breaker Lier Whoremonger prayerless Christless person saith the Law but I am such and such saith the conscience therefore thou art cursed thou art the man saith right reason in the conclusion It was the dreadfull impulse of this evill spirit that drave Judas first to despair and then to the gallows and furiously poasted him through an hell internall into an hell eternall T was this that doom'd despairing Spira to an hell above ground and fill'd him so brimfull with hellish horrour that he was the very monster of his time and the most dreadfull spectacle of the age he lived in Nay to come neerer to the quick It was the consciousness of this curse that set David upon the rack and put his bones out of joynt and brought him into a consumption that he complaines that his flesh was dryed up for want of fatness and his moisture was like the droughth in Summer These terrours of the Law and plunges of conscience were the stormes and flouds and mire and deepes that he so deeply complained of and made one deep to call upon another the deep of his misery to the deep of Gods mercy T was this venome that so pointed those arrows of the allmighties wrath that drank up Jobs spirits And made Hezekia to mourne like a dove and chatter like a Craine and complaine that from morning to evening God made an end of him T was this that pickled up Peter in his bitter tears and put blessed Paul so to it that he cryed aloud to Heaven for a deliverer Me miserum quis liberabit O wrethed man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death and this curse we are saved from by this great Salva 3. It saves from the tyranny and dominion of Satan Its mans hell above ground to be under the divells dominion and principality The Apostle notes that the unbeleveing and impenitent are held captive by Satan at his will 2. Tim. 2.26 and the Ephesians while they were dead in trespasses and sinns were said to be acted by the Prince of the power of the ayre the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience Eph. 2.2 Satan is therefore called The God of this World 2. Cor. 4.4 who blinds the minds of them that beleeve not least the light of the glorious Gospell of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them He goes about like a roring Lion seeking whom he may devour 1. Pet 5.8 And compasses the earth Job 1.7 yea he goes about with great wrath knowing that his time is but short Revel 12.12 He is called therefore the strong man armed that keepes peaceable possession till the stronger come Luke 11.21 but when that stronger comes and God and Christ come in with this mighty Salvation when the grace of God which brings Salvation once appeares then the weapons of our warfare are not Carnal but mighty through God to the pulling downe of strong holds When he that hath the key of David will open ther 's none that can keep shutt As the graves must open to his Surgite mortui and the Earth and Sea must give up their dead at his word of command so when he will give sinners their blessed part in the first Resurrection the Divel World and Flesh shall not be able to detaine their Captives If God will but give Paul a commission to go to the Gentiles he shall open their Eyes and translate them from darkness to light from the power of Satan to God Act. 26.17 18. When God will shine upon the labours of his planting and watering servants and come in with that increase which the Apostle calls the increase of God then not only gates of brass and barrs of Iron shall fly open and breake in sunder as they did before Cyrus when God would use him as an instrument towards his peoples enlargement but even the chaines of darkness shall snap asunder before the mighty word and almighty spirit of the Churches great Redemer like Sampsons cords when the Philistins were upon him And here is the comfort of all comforts they that are set at liberty by this great Salvation have so full a rescue that they shall never be led captive more though they have been pulled like brands out of the fire like the prey out of the paw of the Lion rampant out of the hands of the strong man by a stronger yet now they are in safe hands because there cannot come a stronger Christ saith none can take his sheep out of his hand and his father that gave them him is greater than all and none can take them out of his fathers hand Iohn 10.28 29. Though he consider and study Job Job 1.8 and resist Josua Zech. 3.1 Though be desire to have the Apostles to winnow them Luke 22.31 and wresties with beleivers about Heavenly things Eph. 6.11 12. Though he hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 devices plots machinations stratagems 2 Cor. 2.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wiles methods snares laid at unawares way layings as the word properly signifies traps artificially set to catch the prey and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Revel 2.24 the depths of Satan those poor deluded Soules like those in our times that are under strong delusions and the efficacy of error called their opinions the deep things of God in allusion probably unto that expression 1 Cor. 2.10 The spirit searcheth all things even the deep things of God and there the spirit tells them they were the deep things of the divel and not of God they were not fetcht from Heaven but from the depth of hell and though he hath such weapons as the word calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 6 16. The fiery darts of the Divel yet though he set all his infernall powers on worke and imploy all his heads and hornes all his stratagems and strength and joyne his serpentine subtilty with his Lyon-like power yet the least of God's little ones shall be saved from him though the Dragon cast Flouds out of his mouth after the woman and the remnant of her seed yet they shall have a hiding place provided They have a Captain generall that is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The cheife Captain and Finisher of their Faith Heb. 12.2 Who in that he himselfe hath suffered being tempted h◠is ble to succour them that are tempted Heb.
be gathered to Christ and to God their father who sit as cheise in that blessed Parliament that tryumphant panegyricall Assemblie Hebr. 12.22 Ye are come unto mount Sion and to the City of the living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angells to the generall assembly and church of the first borne which are written in Heaven and to God the judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel and thus you have the ad hoc laid before you 3 Per hoc 3 Reason It saves us by great means It doth not only save from great evills as you heard in the 1 Reason and procure great benefits as is cleared in the 2 Reason but it doth all by great meanes as is now to be made good and therefore in all these respects it may well pass for great Salvation Now the meanes which bring about this great Salvation shall be referred to two heads 1 To God 2 To those things that he useth as instruments to this saving work 1. Those that refer to God may be divided into 3 rankes as the Godhead is distinguished into 3 persons for as the faciamus hominem Gen. 1.26 noted that the whole Godhead was taken up in mans creation so was the whole Godhead imployd about this great Salvation conceive it thus 1. The wisdom and love of God the Father 2. The sufferings and Righteousnesse of God the Son 3. The revelation and application of God the Holy Ghost 1 To begin with the Father No wisdome but his could have found out a way and no love but his could have contrived such a way 1 No wisedome but his could have found out a way God at the first created man after his own likeness in righteousness and perfect holiness placed him in Paradise the glory of the World gave him a perfect Law that by doing it he might live gave him serenity of knowledge to understand his will and readiness of will to do it In breife he had a posse non mori though he were left mutable yet no necessity oâ—â—alling was laid upon him he was left to his own freedome either to stand oâ— fall 〈◊〉 to good is now but a dreame but then it was a priviledge had it been improved rightly But â—â—am by transgression falling and being a 〈◊〉 person and the worlds representative drew all manking with him And all 〈…〉 being under the curse of that Co 〈…〉 to the everlasting deâ—ertion of the Worlds Creator the matter of Salvation was utterly at a loss Man could not save himselfe neither could Angells help him so that as to men and Angells that worke must be let alone for ever Now in this desperate and hopeles state it pleased the Eternall Wisdome to find out an expedient and the offended Creatour provided a Redeemer whereas he had but one Son his only begotten and only beloved that thought it no robbery to be equall with himselfe he must be sent out of his own bosome and the Eternall word must be made flesh that being God and man in unity of person he might undergo the wrath of God for man and might reconcile God to man and man to God This was that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Apostle speaks of 1. Tim. 3.16 Great is the mystery of godlines c. This might well be the astonishment of men and Angells the Angells being left remediles without hope of a Redeemer that for us men and for our Salvation the Son of God should be incarnate and made man 〈◊〉 altitudo ô profunditas oh the unsearchableness of Gods wisdome This was the fullness of love that was manifested in the fullness of time This is the mystery that the Angells desire to prie into 1 Pet. 1.12 Which was tipified by the Cherubims placed upon the mercy-seat looking downe into the Propitiatory and in regard the foundation of mans Salvation was laid in such great and deep wisdome it may be rightly called great Salvation 2 And Gods love in this was no less wonderfull than his wisdome and the mercy of Redemption may well be said to equall if not exceed the power of creation The Apostle offers at an expression of this love when he saith Deus sic delexit c. God so loved the World Iohn 3.16 But it was so that the tongne of man is not able to express nor the heart of man able to conceive It overrunns all the degrees of Comparison and hath no paralell for a Man to give a Son to die to save a friend were a favour to be admired but for God to give his only Son to save his enemies for him to become man a servant a scorne of men and the outcast of the people that we who deserved to be reprobated and outcasts and castawayes might receive the adoption of Sonns this infinitly over reacheth the topp of any created understanding well might the Apostle say God is love 1 Iohn 4.16 For had not the great God been so turned into the very abstract of love that all his wayes had been mercy the Son of God had never become man upon such an accompt well doth he deserve to be stiled Pater misericordiarum deus omnium consolationum 2 Cor. 1.3 And this great love being twin'd with such great wisedome in God the Father in order to our Salvation may well denominate it great Salvation 2 Come we in the second place to the second person God the Son and let us see what he did contribute towards this great Salvation and the summe totall of his account may be cast up in 1. His active Obedience 2. His passive Obedience 1 He did all that man should have done in his active obedience and therefore was his name called the Lord our RIGHTEOUSNESS Jer. 33.16 Capitall Letters to note out the greatness of this Salvation The Apostle saith more 1 Cor. 1.30 He is made wisedome righteousness and sanctification and redemption which is but a paraphrase upon his threefold office 1 He is our wisedome in his propheticall office 2. He is our Righteousness sanctification in his priestly 3. He is our Redemption in his Kingly office He lived a most righteous and holy life and there was no guile found in him he carryed himselfe as a most innocent and harmless Lamb in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation 2. He suffered all that man should have suffered in his passive obedience herefore the Apostle saith Gal. 4.4 That he was made under the law 1. By fullfilling the righteousness of the law 2. By undergoing the curse of the law After he had like a man of sorrowes run through a dolorous and mâ—serable life he did undergo a most shamefull and cursed death Phil. 2.8 Being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient to death even the death of the Crosse which prompted the
flaming fire rendering vengance to them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glery of his power mark the tendencie and full scope of the words you may take them at large thus O all you stubborn and rebellious sinners who are refusers of Gospel-mercy and have long continued neglecters of that great Salvation remember that the Lord Jesus was revealed from Heaven as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the World and came down from his Fathers Throne to his foot-stool to take our nature upon him to humble himself and become obedient to death even the death of the Cross to be made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the adoption of sons and he sent abroad his Apostles to propagate to all Nations the knowledge of this Salvation and to perswade the sinfull World that lay under condemnation unto faith and obedience believingly to accept of this Saviour and Salvation and in all thankfulness to return obedience and to take him for their soveraign Lord Redeemer and Saviour Oh know and be it known unto you and to all the World that he shall once more be revealed as a roaring Lyon to tear in pieces such as know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ but this is to argue the greatness of the sin from the greatness of the punishment and the improvement of it may be referred unto the third doctrine as to its most proper place The same course that we took to illustrate the greatness of Gospel-Salvation we may take here to aggravate the sin of Gospel-neglecting or refusing We hinted there that Gospel-Salvation was called 1. Salvation 2. Great Salvation 3. So great Salvation Which we further amplified by alluding to the three degrees of comparison shewing 1. That it was positively great 2. That it was comparativly greater than other 3. That it was superlatively the greatest Conceive in like manner of the sin of setting light by this Salvation 1. That it is positively great 2. That it is comparatively greater than others 3. That it is superlatively the greatest of all except the excepted sin And we may call it 1. Sin 2. Great sin 3. So great sin 1. To discover it to be positively great we need but name it and a little open the nature of it to make men cry shame of it as the unwrapping of a plague sore and opening it to be seen is enough to make the sound to loath it and the stink of an open sepulchre is enough to make the living to abhor it Gospel-refusing O monstrous sin it hath a face more ugly than Belzebub the Prince of devils though it be a sin that is proper to men and so common to all degrees and estates of men that it fills Hell with souls yet it is such a sin that the devils have no temptation to commit they being left without hope of a Redeemer and doamed from their very fall to perish without remedy Salvation is a term that is comprehensive of all that is good and excellent and desirable yea of the highest good of the highest God for they are convertible the Trinity of persons agreeing in one unity of love as well as essence to further our Salvation yea the great God turned all into one great love to affect it God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son c. Joh. 3.16 Christ in the fullnes of time manifesting the fullness of love Gal. 4.4 And the spirit coming down upon Christs Ascention as another Comforter to abide with us to the end of the World and all in order to the bringing about of this great Salvation and if this be not a sin with a witness tell me what is Gospel-refusing is called in Scripture a God refusing a Christ-despising a spirit-resisting and inconsiderate sinners in refusing and setting light by the word and ministery of this Salvation do all this Christ said of the contemners of his messengers he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me Luke 10.16 and Stephen said unto his and the Gospels persecutors ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and eares ye do allwaies resist the holy Ghost as your father did so do ye Acts 7.51 When Gods Embassadors shall go out into the world and doe as the Prophet was commanded lift up their voices like trumpets to tell men and women of their sinns and transgressions when they with Iohn Baptist shall cry prepare ye the way of the Lord make his paths streight when they shall make proclamation Ho every one that thirsteth come come come Isay 55.12 And with the spirit and bride and him that heareth shall say come come come Rev. 22.17 And let whosoever will come and take of the water of life freely When men are so obdurate that like Pharoah they remaine hard and hardned in the midst of meanes neither miracles nor ministry nor misery nor mercy can do them good when all Gods and Christs and the Spirits and the messengers intreaties and beseechings shall be like breath scattered in the aire and like water spilt upon the ground and a labour in vain shall make Gods tired ministers ready in a heart-breaking despondency to turne their backs upon their labours let such as have understandings of the longest reach and witts exercised to to distinguish betwixt good and evill speak whether this must not be concluded to be a great sin for such only are fit to take the dimensions of a sin that is so circumstantiated I le give you but one rule more to help you to conceive of the greatness of this sin in the positive description and then pass to the comparative The Apostle prayed for his Ephesians Eph. 3.16 17 18 19. That God would grant them according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith that they being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that they might be filled with the fullness of God This is the well-spring of our Salvation the love of God in Christ which is here measured out unto us by the word and spirit of God in those dimensions of breadth and length and depth and height and said to pass knowledge and to comprehend all the fullness of God must not this have the length and breadth and depth and height of sin in it must it not be a sin passing knowledge must not this be to be filled with all the fullness and sinfullness of sin Those that are eaten up most of the love of God and know most of that love which passeth knowledge will be