most confounded with monstrousness of this sin and know most of the sinfull nature of it and such as these can assure the world of blind sinners that it is a Soul confounding sin and a plague provoking sin and such as are infected with this leaprosy of sin may well cry out uncleane uncleane but while I am speaking but positively of the greatness of this sin I am allready leaping into the superlative so hard it is to speak diminutively of this sin Deus caelum non patiuntur hyperbolen as we cannot speak too highly of God who is the highest good so we cannot speak too aggravatingly of this sin because it is so objectively against the highest love of the highest God that it is a sin so opposite to the highest good is aggravation sufficient to speak it superlatively great yet since it was promised we shall proceed to the comparative and so come in order to the superlative at last 2. It is Comparatively greater than other sinns and here we shall take the course to manifest Gospel-refusing to be great sin as we did to manifest Gospel Salvation to be great Salvation we compared Gospel Salvation with Law Salvation and with temporall deliverances and lower Salvations and shew'd you that it was great if compar'd with them because it was greater than those we shall therefore 1. Compareâ— Gospel-refusing with Lawrefusing and so demonstrate it to be greater And this the very argument made use of by our Apostle which ushers in my text Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed unto the things that we have heard least at any time we let them slip for if the word spoken by Angells was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation c. That is if their sin which was less deserved so great punishment how much more ours which is greater Heb. 10 28 29. He that despised Moses Law died without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the bloud of the covenant wherewith he he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despight unto the spirit of grace We shall better improve that Scripture when we come to the handling of the third Doctrine only here as before read the the greatness of the sin in the greatness of the punishment for God who is ipsissima justitia justice it self doth allwayes proportion his punishment to the sin and note above all that this sin is here called a treading Christ under foot a counting of the bloud of the Covenant an uncleane thing and a doing despight unto the spirit of grace there is too much of these ingredients into the sin of Gospel-refusing which makes it to culminate and to mount up unto a sin of the highest altitude and greatest magnitude and to die in it to do it finally to continue refusers and neglecters of so great Salvation doth much aggravate it 2. If we compare this with other sinns it will appear to be greater than such as the Scripture condemns as very gross and out of measure sinfull 1 Adultery is lookt upon as a great sin it was so in Josephs account when he said how can I do this wickedness and sin against God Gen. 39.9 And David was even swallowed up of that twin-sin whereof adultery was one Psal 51.4 Against thee thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight but the refusing of Gospel-Salvation is far greater for David by Gospel-indulgence obtained pardon of that sin but if he had refused that Salvation he had been left to perish without remedy 2 Idolatry is also a most notorious sin surely the spirit of God names these two as two of the most crying when it promises great pardon to great sinns from your idols from your filthiness will I cleanse you Ezek. 36.25 i.e. if your sinns be as great as Idolatry against the first table or adultery against the second yet upon your seasonable and sincere returne you shall find mercy Idolatry is a spirituall adultery that ad alterius torum this ad alterum Deum Adultery is a running a whoring after strange flesh Idolatry a running a whoring after strange Gods When the Israelites had corrupted their waies by worshipping the calfe Moses told them they had sinned a great sin Exod. 32.30 and when Israel had sinned in asking them a King Samuel tells them they had sinned a great sin 1 Sam. 12.17 and what was that great sin they had rejected God the Israelits had taken a calfe for their God in Moses time and a man for their God in Samuell's but this is a greater refusing of God they refused him in his absolute power commanding their obedience these refuse him in his meruelous mercy calling them to beleive 3 Rebellâ—on or Treason are great sinns and disobedience to Gods commands is rebellion Isay 1.20 If ye refuse and rebell c. how much more our disobedience to that great Gospel command that we should beleive in the name of Jesus Christ whom he hath sent 1 Iohn 3.23 and Samuell told Saul that Rebellion was as the sin of witchcraft and stubbbornness as iniquity and idolatry 1. Sam. 1523. When a King shall proclaime his Lawes by his Embassadors and men shall offer violence to his Embassadors or refuse his Lawes they are left without the protection of those Lawes and not only so but proceeded against as rebells and Traitors against the Crowne and dignity of the Prince and Gospel refusing is Rebellion of an higher nature because it is against an higher Law against the royall Law and against a greater King against the King of Kings 4 Once more and I have done with the comparative part of the Illustration It s a greater sin than the sin of Sodom as may be gathered from Mark 6.11 Whosoever shall not receive you nor hear you when ye depart thence shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them verily I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgement than for that City It s very evident that its this sin of Gospel-refusing that is here intended it s the not receiving nor hearing the Apostles and messengers of Christ that were sent to negociate in the deep things of the Gospel Their setting light by it is here hinted in the Apostles gesture towards them they set no more by the preaching of the Gospel than they did by the dust under their feet and therefore they must shake off the dust of their feet against them And its further to be gathered by consequence that their sin was greater than the sin of Sodom in that Christ saith it and protests it that it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgement than for that City Let us make
2.18 He puts into their hands the Sheild of Faith which will quench all the fiery darts of the Devil Eph. 6.16 And he prays that that saith may not fail Luke 22.32 And hath ex abundanti for their strong consolation furnished them with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The whole Armour of God and bids them be of good cheere he hath overcome And the Apostle being strong in the Lord and the power of his might triumphs before Victory with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8.37 We shall overcom through him that loved us And this bondage we are saved from by this great Salvation 〈◊〉 â—â—ight here enumerate more particulars 〈…〉 Judgement and Hell for this great Salvation saves from the terrours of all these and is a shelter against these driving stormes which swell up a raging Sea of wrath to drown the whole world of the ungodly but these will come in seasonably among those which follow where we shall meet with them before we make a full dispatch of this Reason 4 To give you one generall that may be comprehensive of all particulars that we need to speak to It saves from all evills Now all evills have been well reduced into two rankes 1 Mala culpae Evills of sin 2 Mala paenae Evills of punishment 1. Salvation is from Sin yea and the best part of Salvation too 'T was this that gave unto Christ his saving name Mat. 1.21 Thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sinns Salvation from wrath which is done in Justification is quiddam exterius the work of Christ without us who dyed for our sinns and rose againe for our Justification who did undergoe the curse of the law in his passive obedience and fullfilled the righteousness of the law in his active obedience for the justification of sinners but Salvation from sin which is d ne in Sanctification is quiddam interius the work of Christ within us who workes all our workes in us as well as for us See that pithy and pertinent treatise upon that forecited Scripture Mat. 1.21 entituled Salvation from sin by Jesus Christ published not long since by a judicious and faithfull Brother of our Association Mr. George Hopkins of Evesham where you may read to satisfaction upon that profitable subject and save me the labour of enlarging upon it And as it is from sin so from all sin that lies within the reach of repentance There is a sin indeed which the Scripture hath excepted called the sin unto death and the sin against the Holy Ghost which is therefore impardonable because the sinner is impenitent and because that sin is alwayes twin'd with a totall and finall apostacy otherwise there is no sin so great but may be pardoned no sinner so great but may be saved First hear what testimony the old Testament gives unto the Salvation Covenant Moses is very large in dealing out the great pardons of the great God to great sinns Exod. 34.6 7. saying he pardoneth iniquity transgression and sin as if he alluded to the three degrees of comparison magna majora maxima peccata performing to the full what that Scripture promises Isay 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and turne unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon or according to the originall he will multiply to pardon The Prophet Ezekiel 36.25 dotr particularize I will pour clean water and ye shall be clean from your idols and from your filthyness will I clense you though your sinns were as great as idolatry against the first Table or uncleanness against the second and we can hardly think of greaâ—â—â— yet upon returne to God they may be pardoned and purged The Prophet Isay 1.18 goes yet further if further may be and makes mention of the pardon of Scarlet and Crimson sinns i. e. Sinns that are double dyed dyed in graine like those colours aggravated with the most notorious of circumstances as bloody as murther as Davids matter of Vriah or as black as Hell as Manasses witchcraft and familiarity with Evil spirits yet upon Gods termes they may be forgiven Secondly and because you shall have the evidence of this truth from the mouthes of the two witnesses the New Testament as well as Old peruse that place Mat. 12.31 That very verse that puts a barre to the Salvation of sinners against the Holy Ghost opens a wide doore of hope unto all besides All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men Know further that Salvation from sin to give you the dimensions of it is 1 Either from the Condemning power 2. Or from the Conmmanding power of sin and in respect of both it deserves the title of great Salvation 1 Believers are saved by Christ from the condemning power of sin Rom. 8.1 The Apostle layes it downe as a most certaine conclusion resulting by way of Argument from antecedent premises Now then there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Iohn 3.16 They shall not perish Iohn 10.28 They shall never perish and Iohn 5.24 Shall not come into condemnation 2 And they are freed from the commanding power of sin Sin doth not reigne in their mortall bodies that they should obey it in the lust of it They have given their members servants to righteousness unto holiness and though they sometimes do the Evill which they would not yet they have sued out their divorce and can say with the Apostle their consciences bearing them witness It is no longer I but sin that dwelleth in me They have put themselves under the regency of Christ and put up that petition daily in his name Thy Kingdome come desiring that God and Christ by the holy spirit may bear rule in their hearts and not sin and Thy will be done wherein they desire to be made willing to be ruled by his will and not the lusts of the flesh and by this meanes though sin be not â—jâ—cted from its inherency yet it is dejected from its regency and they are neither servants nor slaves of sin 2 Salvation is from punishment à malis poenae as well as à malis culpae from wrath as well as sin and this so great Salvation that I fear too many do look upon it as the vna vnica salus that that comprehends the totality of Salvation but having said enough to undâ—ceive you in the antecedent branch of Salvation from sin it remaines that we discover this also to be a considerable part though not the totum integrale the All of this great Salvation As all of transgression is epitomiz'd and summed up in Scripture in the terme of sin so is all of wrath and punishment in this terme of death and therefore the Apostle briefly layes downe both Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is death i e. All death is
yet that which doth tantamount is implyed in the question How shall we escape which is as much as to say ther 's no possibility of escaping And what is it that we cannot escape why a just recompence of reward for our transgression and disobedience if we look back to the verse before the Text yea a severer judgement more fiery indignation and a sorer punishment than the transgressors of Moses Law if we look forward to Ch. 10.27 28 29. And what the spirit of God speaks short here is spoken out and at large to the Scribes and Pharises hypocrites that slew the Prophets that were sent unto them and refused servants and Son too that came to require fruit of the vineyard Mat. 23.33 Ye Serpents ye generation of vipers how can ye escape the Damnation of Hell And observe that Mat. 25.41 It s called the Divels damnation depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Divel and his Angels The harmonious discord that dwells in the antithesis which opposes this great damnation to that great Salvation is very elegant and observable The Salvation refused is called the Salvation of God all the ends of the earth have seen the Salvation of our God The Damnation incurred by such a refusall is called the damnation of the Divel The Salvation slighted is the Salvation of Heaven The Damnation deserved is the Damnation of Hell I observed in the handling of the first that the mercy of Salvation is much magnifyed and made mervelous by three degrees And now we are to observe that the justice of damnation is made glorious by the same degrees for these two contraries have the same dimensions the most righteous God that gives the one and inflicts the other being as infiniâ—e in justice as in mercy Observe then in order to such an illustration of it 1. That it is positively great Damnation 2. That it is comparatively greater than other 3. That it is superlatively the greatest of all 1 That it is Great Damnation you may easily conclude from what is allready spoken that it is the damnation of Hell and the Divels Damnation and the very word gives such an astonishing sound to such as can apprehend both name and thing that to discover it to be great it will need no more than the naming but since we have to do with such as are brutifyed and must fight with beasts after the manner of men since our work lies much with dead men such as are dead in trespasses and sinns and though they bear the names of men and women that are reasoable creatures yet they are further from knowledge than the Ox and the Asse Isay 1.3 And as senseless and stupid as stocks and stones as the inanimate globes of Heaven and Earth Isay 1.2 We must therefore use all possible means and all little enough to awaken them to things of highest Consequence and everlasting Concernment and such are the things that we have in hand Matters of Salvation and Damnation matters of life and death for ever and ever Study with me but this one point that the Damnation that we are speaking of and about to aggravate is not Damnation barely for the breach of Gods Law but for refusing the mercy of the Gospel that was offered to make up that breach its Damnation for the refusal of Salvation of which refusers we may use the Apostles words Rom. 3.8 Whose Damnation is just There can be no greater justice than this when life and death are set before men and they will choose death that they should have it when Salvation and Damnation are both held out in the promise and threatning that the refusers of Salvation should fall into damnation observe Ioh. 3.16 God so loved the world that be gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him might not perish but have everlasting life and in the next verse God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved In both verses is declared both posivetily and negatively for what end Christ came into the world 1 He came to save sinners 2 He came to save and not to damne But as God by his creating power brought light out of darkness so men by their destroying sin bring darkness out of light and like the Spiders do gather poyson from the sweetest flowers and most wholsome hearbs They do wilfully aggravate their condemnation by the gracious offers of Salvation and treasure up for themselves severest wrath from sweetest mercy And this is that that brings this great damnation as you may see there in the very next verse but one ver 19. This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness more than light that mercy is offered and wrath is chosen that Salvation is tendered and Damnation is taken men deal so Jewishly with Christ that they prefer Barrabbas a murderer before him and this is rightly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Damnation 2. It is comparatively greater than other condemnations we proved Gospel-Salvation to be greater than other Salvations And the sin of Gospel-refusing to be greater than other sins And now are to shew that this damnation is greater than other condemnations 1. Greater than condemnation by mans law sentences in Courts of humane Judicature reach But 1. Either to the estate as fining or confiscation 2. Or to the body as imprisonment and scourging 3. Or to the name as stigmatizing or burning in the hand or forehead 4. Or if capitall to the life as hanging beheading c. 5. Or in case of treason to the family and posterity But this transcends all those condemnations as we may gather from Luke 12.4 5. which were the words of our Saviour to his Disciples I say unto you my freinds be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do but I will forewarn you whom you shall fear fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you fear him Provoking sinners are said to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2.5 Though they catch many a rap here that 's nothing in comparison of what 's behind This is the day of grace wherein God exerciseth patience and long-suffering towards them but if the goodness of God do not bring them to repentance there 's another day a coming where they must give another manner of reckoning a fearfull and terrible day a day all of Wrath Then righteous Judgement will be impartially dispensed without respect of persons here below in mens judicatories it falls out oftentimes as with fish in a net great ones are caught when little ones creep through and sometimes again as with flies in the Spiders webb the little ones are held when the great ones break through but that day will surprize High and Low Rich and Poor one with another We must all appear before the Judgement Seat of