if they be brought home to God at last O what a cutting consideration must it needs be to old people to cast their eyes back upon a life spent in sin and dishonouring God and hurting the soules of others by their ill example O what a deal of sorrow would Manasses and Mary Magdalen have escaped if they had been converted in their younger years So if Paul had been betimes brought home to God he had not had all that trouble and grief of Spirit for persecuting the Church 2. Thou maist hereby come to some eminency of knowledge and Grace and Spiritual experience A young man that is a good husband betimes upon his trade we say is like to grow rich whereas one that has been prodigal in his younger time and a spend-thrist if he should in his elder years begin to be wise yet having lost so much time we are apt to think he will never do any great matter at it So they that give up their hearts to God betimes and consecrate their younger years to him O how rich in knowledge and Grace may they grow 3. Thy joyes and comforts will be the greater Thou art a hinderer of thy peace and comfort all the while thou art going on in the way of sin Thou art feeding on Onions when thou mightst have Manna Thou art feeding on husks with the Prodigal when thou mightest have the fatted calf What are all the noisom pleasures of sin to the peace of a good Conscience the enjoyment of God the delights and joyes of the Holy Ghost 4. The more service thou wilt do for God Suppose a man be call'd at the twelfth hour alas 't is little he can do for God before night An old man that was late converted ordered this to be written upon his Tomb-stone Here lies an old man of seven years old Suppose a man after many years spent in sin should at last be converted he had need of Methuselah's age to bewail his former miscarriages and to do service for God whom he hath so dishonoured Oh think what an honour it is to live to glorifie God and to do him service And canst thou begin too soon to honour him who deserves so infinitely well of thee 5. It will make not only thy life but thy death also comfortable When death comes thou wilt have this good evidence of thy sincerity that thou didst turn to God betimes in thy youth and in the flower and prime of thy daies Thou wilt not then be afraid to look God in the face nor dread him as an enemy but think delightfully of him as a long experienced friend and be willing to surrender thy soul unto him 'T is reported of Adrian that when he came to die he cried out O my soul whither art thou going thou art going where thou shalt never be jovial nor merry more O my soul whither art thou going Therefore do those things now which when thou comest to die thou wouldst wish thou hadst done and leave those things undone which thou supposest will not yield thee comfort in that hour 6. And lastly The sooner thou engagest thy heart to God and the more service thou dost him in this life the greater will be thy reward in Heaven Gal. 6.7 8. Be not deceived God is not mocked whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting I come now to the second thing to answer the Objections that young persons may make why they should not turn to God so soon Obj. 1. We shall hereby lose our chief time of pleasure Sol. You shall exchange dirt for Gold and the draff of swine for the food of Angels your sinfull pleasures for the delights of the Holy Ghost and the joyes of a good Conscience Religion will abridge you of nothing but sin which is rank poison to your souls It will allow you recreations that are lawful expedient seasonable and moderate and which may fit you more to glorifie God in your general or particular Calling See the Rules set down in the foregoing Chap. under the fifth Direction to the Rich. Pag 490 Obj. 2. We do but as most young people do and as others have done before us Sol. If you sin with others you must expect to suffer with others They that are like Simeon and Levi brethren in iniquity must be brethren also in misery The old world sinn'd together and were drown'd together You must not live by examples but by precepts Look not at what others do but at what God commands Exod. 23.2 Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil Obj. 3. There needs not so much ado to get to Heaven Sol. Is it more ado than Gods Word requires read and judge Luke 13.24 Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able Mat. 6.33 Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness c. Eph. 5.15 See that ye walke circumspectly not as fooles but as wise redeeming the time c. Phil. 2.12 Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling 1 Pet. 4.18 If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear If the righteous hardly i. e. with much striving diligence and watchfulness attain salvation what will become of the negligent secure sinner Can any think of ever coming to Heaven which is a state of holinesse and purity whose hearts disrellish Holinesse and cannot away with it as too much strictness and more ado than needs Obj 4. We are young enough We intend to turn to God hereafter but not yet Sol. Concerning the danger of delaies see before pag. 510 In all likelihood there are many in Hell that thought of turning hereafter Obj. 5. We shall be flouted and jeer'd if we begin to be religious and precise so soon Sol. What are reproaches to the great things others have suffered for Christ What is the enduring a jeer to the enduring a burning for the sake of Christ 1 Pet. 4.14 If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of Glory and of God resteth upon you 2 Cor. 6.8 By honour and dishonour by evil report and good report as decievers and yet true Mat. 5.11 Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake V. 12. Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven Obj. 6. We shall shift as well as others Sol. So you may and yet make but a bad shift neither 'T is small comfort to have companions in Hell Dives did not think it would ease his torments to have his Brethren come to him Obj. 7. We see many that once seem'd forward in Religion do fall off some to open prophanenesse and some into errour and strange opinions Sol.
drink nor yet for your body what ye shall put on is not the life more than meat and the body than raiment V. 26. Behold the fowls of the air for they sow not neither do they reap nor gather into barns yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them Are ye not much better than they V. 27. Which of you by taking thought can add one Cubit unto his stature V. 28. And why take ye thought for raiment consider the Lilies of the field how they grow they toyl not neither do they spin V. 29. And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his Glory was not arrayed like one of these V. 30. Wherefore if God so cloath the grasse of the field which to day is and to morrow is cast into the Oven shall he not much more cloath you Oh ye of little Faith V 31. Therefore take no thought saying What shall we eat Or what shall we drink Or wherewithall shall we be cloathed V. 33. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you V. 34. Take therefore no thought for the morrow for the morrow shall take thought for the things of it self sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof See more Scriptures to this purpose pag. 215. CHAP. XVIII Of the Duties of the Young and Old First Of those that concern the younger sort ALL young persons should consider that it is their duty and high concernment to endeavour to be really good and truly religious betimes In order hereunto I shall 1. Lay down some Reasons and Arguments to presse them to it 2. Answer such Objections and labour to remove such prejudices as are conceiv'd against it 3. Give some Directions to them who are willing to be advis'd herein There are many weighty Reasons and Arguments to perswade them to it I. God now invites them to it Eccles 12.1 Remember now thy Creatour in the daies of thy youth c. And let them consider 1. God hath no need of them but they have need of him and cannot possibly be happy without him 2. He is willing to be reconcil'd to them if they will turn to him though for their sins he might justly destroy them 3. He offers them better terms and conditions if they will serve him then they can possibly have any where else either in the service of sin or Satan Rom. 6.21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed for the end of those things is death The two genuine and natural fruits of sin are shame and death Is it not then an intollerable indignity and affront put upon the great God of Heaven and Earth for any to refuse to serve him who offers them so fair terms and to continue in the Devils slavery who they know intends the ruine both of their souls and bodies II. Delaies are exceeding dangerous 1. Life is uncertain Prov. 27.1 Boast not thy self of to morrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth Young men may reckon upon years when possibly they have not moneths to live Consider how quick God is with some cutting them off in their sins Time is precious Redeem it for on this moment depends Eternity 2. Grace is uncertain 'T is not in mans power to have Grace when he will The Spirit of God will not alwaies strive with the children of men To day and while it is call'd to day hear his voice Psal 95.7 And harden not your hearts Gather the Manna while it fals come in while the door of Grace stands open Take heed of being like Esau coming too late for a blessing 3. The longer thou delayest the more unfit unable and indisposed thou wilt be to return Now thy parts are fresh and thy affections vigorous If thou wilt enter thy self into the School of Christ now what a great deal of knowledge and Grace and spiritual experience maist thou attain unto What a good Scholar a good proficient maist thou be But if thou delayest then consider in what a sad condition thou art 1. Sin will be every day more and more hardning thy heart and stupifying thy Conscience and so will make thy return the more difficult Now may be thou hast some tenderness of Conscience Thou wilt quickly lose it if thou refusest to hearken to Gods call 2. The world and the cares of this life will more and more engage and intangle thy Affections If thou givest not thy self to God while young before thou art much engaged in the cares and businesses of this life 't is very hazardous whether the world will not carry away thy heart and whether thou maist not lose thy soul in an eager pursuit of these outward things 3. The Devil will get stronger possession Every soul is either Gods Temple or the Devils house 'T will be hard to cast Satan out where he hath had many years possession The longer any go on in sin the greater power God permits the Devil to have over them 4. The longer thou delayest the more thou provokest God to give thee up to thy own hearts lusts and to leave thee to thy self 'T was a sad word Isa 6.10 Go and make the heart of this people fat and shut their eies lest they see with their eies and hear with their eares and understand with their heart and convert and be healed God may justly refuse to hearken to thee when thou callest for mercy who wouldst not before hearken to the call of his Grace The Spirit of God after many repulses may go away aggrieved God may smite thee with stupidity and senslessenesse that great Spiritual judgment And then what will become of thee And besides dost thou think that any man whose wise should be false to him and run away from him and follow after strangers in her younger time would receive her at last in her old age Why wilt thou think then to deal so with God Upon the whole matter then if thou art not converted and dost really turn to God when young 't is a hundred to one whether ever thou be converted or no. 'T is rarely seen that men habituated and long accustomed to sin do ever change their black skins as the Reverend Mr. Burgess well observes III. Consider whether there be any part of a mans life wherein he may reasonably think he has a liberty to serve the Devil If not why wilt thou not speedily turn to God Why should not thy youth be consecrated unto him As long as thou remainest unconverted and in the state of Nature thou art doing the Devil service And who would serve such a Master IV. Consider There are many great advantages that will come unto thee by turning to God betimes 1. Multitude of sins and sorrows will be hereby prevented Those that get bruises and strains when young feel them when they grow old O what anguish and pain of Conscience have they that have lived long in sin and committed great ones
hearing 3. What we are to do after we have heard And oh that I might prevail with you to read these Directions often especially on Saturday-nights that so you might come prepared The great reason of the unprofitablenesse of preaching and that Sermons do no more good is because people come without preparation 3. Seeing that Heavenly duty of singing Psalms and lifting up the praises of the most High is now by some question'd as indeed what is not that tends to Gods Glory and mans good I purposely handle that subject and prove it to be a duty under the Gospel answer the Objections against it and give some Directions for the right performing of it 4. Forasmuch as Christians might exceedingly benefit one another by Religious conference thereby warming and enlivening one another and provoking one another to love and to good works In the next place I speak of that duty and set down some Rules concerning it Lastly Because without meditation 't is not to be expected the Word should do much good nor that the soul should ever thrive in Knowledge and Grace I shew the excellency and benefit thereof and give some Directions for the practise of it The Seventh Chapter treats of the danger of frequenting and unnecessarily conversing with bad company whereby many have been everlastingly undone A man that prayes to be delivered from temptations must not wilfully run himself into them And because 't is the duty of all true Christians both for their own peace sake and that they may adorn the Gospel of Christ to serve their generation in some honest and commendable way avoiding Idlenesse that great snare of the Devil In the eighth Chapter I discourse of diligence and conscientiousnesse in our particular places and callings And that the Name of God may not be blasphemed by the ill lives and practises of such as professe themselves Christians In the Ninth Chapter I treat of just and upright dealing in Trading and Commerce giving some Rules both to buyers and sellers and shew the necessity of making restitution of or satisfaction for ill gotten goods The Tenth Chapter contains the duties of Governours of Families which I desire all that are in that relation often to read over and seriously to meditate upon There is a great duty lies upon them and greater than they usually are aware of They may be exceeding instrumental of the salvation of those under their care if they discharge their duties as they ought But through their neglect of the Worship of God in their houses and their ill lives and examples they prove too often an occasion of the ruine of many in their Families And because very much of the life of Godlinesse consists in a faithful discharge of relative duties The Eleventh Chapter shews the duties of Husband and Wife The Twelfth of Mâ—sters and Servants The Thirteenth of Parents and Children The Fourteenth of such as are in office and of Inferiours The Fifteenth of People towards their Pastors and spiritual Guides O what an honour would it be to Christian Religion if all they that call themselves Christians would endeavour to walk uprightly and faithfully in their respective places And seeing it is a real kindnesse and an excellent expression of true Christian friendship to keep one another off from the pit of destruction and to help one another on towards Heaven In the Sixteenth Chapter I treat of that great and hard duty of Christian reproof and admonition which if it were prudently and faithfully discharged would by the blessing of God much abate sin in the world and exceedingly advance Piety The Seventeenth Chapter contains the duties of rich and poor Many duties belong to them both and both have great temptations therefore they had need be careful to discharge the one and avoid the other The Eighteenth Chapter speaks of the duties of Young and Old Ministers find by experience that the Word hath the greatest operation on those that are young who have not contracted such strong habits of sin nor so long resisted the Grace of God nor so much provoked him to give them up to their own hearts lusts as many ancient people have done who have liv'd a great while in an unconverted state under the light of the Gospel I have therefore shewed young persons the danger of delaies the advantages of turning to God betimes and answered the Objections that many are apt to make against it And because a Minister is also to have a care of the souls of the Ancient and to his utmost skill to endeavour their salvation I have laid down several awakening considerations for them to think upon I have shewed them the danger of vain presumptions and groundlesse hopes of Heaven I have set down some of those false grounds and sandy foundations whereon many ancient people build their hopes of happinesse that so they may be undeceived and may look better about them to secure their souls while there is time In the Nineteenth Chapter there are Directions given for the healthy and the sick To deal wisely and faithfully with sick persons in order to their souls welfare is one of the hardest pieces of the Ministerial work and requires much skill to perform it aright And seeing a Minister is not ever at hand to visit such sick persons as may need his help and many times they stand in need of much help and instruction I have drawn up such directions as I judged needful for them which they may mâ—ke use of when they cannot have the help and assistance of a Minister I have shewed how they should examine themselves And that they may not slubber over that great businesse but may come in some measure to discern the multitude of their sins and the manifold waies whereby they have offended God I have set down a Catalogue of the duties commanded and sinnes forbidden in the ten Commandments as also the sins against the Gospel That so people may not only in general say they are sinners and yet when they come and professe to humble their souls and to confesse their sins unto God can find few they are guilty of but may see themselves to be exceeding vile and sinful I know 't is very unpleasing to people to search their own Consciences and find themselves great sinners They had rather sit down with a false peace than arraign and terrifie themselves in this manner But who that is in his right wits would content himself with a shadow of repentance or a shadow of Faith without finding the substance and truth of these Graces in his soul when his everlasting welfare depends upon it Those Directions there mentioned may be of use also to all persons who desire at any time more solemnly to humble themselves before the Lord for the sins of their life past and more especially before the receiving the Sacrament of the Lords Supper The Twentieth Chapter contains a discourse of the four last things Death Judgment Hell Heaven There I shew the necessity
of Learning even in time of health that great art and skill how to die well Next what the Scripture declares concerning the day of judgment and the everlasting state both of the righteous and the wicked And methinks the serious consideration of these weighty matters should hugely affect us O did people oftener think and consider of those things they would live at another rate than usually they do All the businesses of this life would seem small and little even like childrens play in comparison of securing the soul to all eternity Thus My Loving Neighbours and Friends I have given you a short draught and scheme as it were of my whole Book What entertainment it will find with you I know not I can in some measure of sincerity say that an hearty desire of your eternal happiness first set me upon this work And now throw the assistance of God it is finished my prayers shall not be wanting that it may do you good yea much good If any of you will not afford leisure to read it nor time to consider of the things therein contained but after you have had it a little while shall throw it aside then I desire you seriously to think before hand what account you will be able to give to God of this your wilful neglect when you shall stand at his dreadful Tribunal For my part I have no other design upon any of you but that you may attain eternal life My great desire is that true Plety and Godlinesse that that Religion that saves souls may flourish among you My desire and endeavour is that where the saving work of Grace is begun upon any of your hearts it may be carried on daily and that you may encrease and abound more and more in the fruits of holinesse and righteousnesse to the praise and glory of God And where this blessed work of conversion is not yet begun my hearts desire and prayer to God is that it may be wrought if it be his holy will You see the plot and design I have upon you is of so innocent a nature that you have no reason in the world to go about to defeat me in it 'T is my duty to shew sinners the evil and danger of ignorance and ungodlinesse 'T is my duty to perswade intreat and be earnest with them to leave the tents of sin and Satan and to come in to Christ that by him they may have pardon and life And O that I could even compel them to come in Luke 14.23 Were it in my power not a soul among you should refuse or stand out But if notwithstanding all my prayers intreaties and endeavours many among you will still prefer a life of bruitish sensuality before the life that consists in righteousnesse peace and joy in the holy Ghost If Satan that cursed murderer who you know labours to ruine you soul and body for ever must still be preferr'd before that blessed Saviour who suffered and endur'd so much to redeem mankind and offers you salvation on so fair terms If neither the joyes of Heaven nor the torments of Hell can affect you but the pleasures and profits of this world must still ingrosse your minds and hearts remember what I say unto you it will one day cut you to the very soul to consider that you were shewed the way to eternal life and invited perswaded and intreated to walk in it but you would not O Neighbours think with your selves I beseech you that 't is but a short time and your souls must be either among Saints or Devils Does it not concern me therefore to be earnest with you and in all seriousnesse to call upon you to work out your salvation now while you have time For the Lords sake as ever you intend to see Gods face with comfort remember these few following directiōs 1. Take heed of a loose conversation of living to the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof If ye live after the flesh ye shall die Rom. 8.13 Now the works of the flesh are manifest Gal. 5.19 Which are these Adultery fornication uncleannesse lalciviousnesse idolatry witchcraft hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions heresies envyings murders drunkennesse and such like Of the which I tell you before as I have told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Never comfort your selves with the hopes of Gods mercy in Christ if ye live in known and wilful sins The holy nature of God will never be reconciled to sinners while they go on in their sins And Christ came to destroy the works of the Devil He came not to save men by bringing them to Heaven in their ungodlinesse or to Glory in their sins but to destroy their sins that would keep them out of Glory If he save us his Grace must have dominion in our hearts Without holinesse no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12.14 2. Take heed of worldly-mindednesse I do not go about to perswade you to idlenesse or negligence in your Callings but to take you off from the eager and inordinate love of this world which duls and deads the heart to Heavenly things Beware lest ye be the thorny ground Look to it that the cares of this life do not choak the good seed that is weekly sown among you Some people give up themselves wholly to the world and thrust God out of their hearts and houses Take you heed of that Believe it that man that hath the main bent of his heart set upon pleasing God and whose great end is to be happy with him for ever will be careful only so to converse with this world and only so to mind things temporal as he may not lose things eternall He will first and chiefly seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousnesse He will look upon all outwartd things as accomodations only in his passage but at Heaven as his home and happinesse He will cordially desire and endeavour so to walk in his particular Calling as he may be faithful also in his general and may secure his soul to eternal life 3. Be careful to get a distinct and clear knowledge of the things that concern your salvation Ignorance will not excuse any man when 't is caused by his own negligence The main things that concern salvation you may know if you will give your minds to it God hath not left you in darknesse take heed of shutting your eyes 4. Take heed of neglecting or slighting the publick Ordinances and means of Grace To have no appetite to the Word to apprehend no great need of it and to find no profit by it is a mark of a dead and gracelesse heart 5. Take heed of formality and resting in a meer outward performance of religious services Learn to distinguish between Religion the end and Religion the means Religion the end is To attain a gracious frame of Spirit to enjoy God to fear him love him and have our natures conform'd unto him
who is a Spirit infinitely Glorious and being One in Nature is yet Three in Persons or Subsistences The Father The Son and The Holy Ghost These are Three and One after a wonderfull and mysterious manner The Father God The Son God And the Holy Ghost God and yet not three Gods but one God Secondly His Properties or Attributes God is Eternal or without any Beginning or End Omnipotent or Almighty Omnipresent or every where present Omniscient or All-knowing Infinitely Wise Holy Just Mercifull Thirdly His Works which are principally two 1. Creation 2. Providence I. Creation Concerning which we must know 1. That God made the world and all the Creatures therein both visible and invisible by his Almighty power and Created them all very good 2. The chief of his Creatures are Angels Men. 3. All the Angels were at first made holy and happy Spirits Some continued in their obedience to God and are still Angels of Light Others fell from God through Pride or some other sin and are become Devils of Darknes Concerning the Creation of Man see farther in the next Chapter II. Providence As God Created the World and all the Creatures therein by his Almighty Power So he upholds directs disposes and governs them all by his Providence Nothing so Casual but he disposes of it No Agent so free as to be exempted from his Controule No affliction or Evil of Punishment but he hath a hand in it But as for sin he neither is nor possibly can be the Author or Approver of it CHAP. II. Concerning Man COncerning Man we are to know and understand these three things 1. The happy Condition in which he was made 2. His Fall 3. The way of his Recovery by Christ 1. The Holy and happy estate in which God created man at first Namely after his own Image in Knowledge Holinesse and Righteousnesse with Dominion over the Creatures here below writing his Law on mans heart requiring perfect obedience from him and giving him power to perform it promising the continuance of him in that happy estate if he obeyed and threatning him with death if he disobeyed which is called the Covenant of works 2. The miserable Condition into which man threw himself by sin Our first Parents by the temptation of Sathan disobeyed God broke his righteous Law and Commandement and thereby cast themselves out of the Favour of God became the Slaves of Satan and liable to the curse of the Law and brought a great depravation of soul and body upon themselves And such as our first Parents were such must their posterity needs be For who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean says Job Chap. 14.4 They having lost the Image of God themselves the holinesse and happinesse in which they were made could not conveigh it to their posterity So that the nature of man is now become corrupt prone to evil backward to good And this miserable condition is derived to us from Adam by our immediate Parents and as men come to be born in several Ages and generations so they actually participate of the sap that comes from the first root we being therefore all of us in so bad a Condition by nature and by custome and practice in sin having made our selves much worse and more abominable in the sight of God more guilty and liable to his wrath we are to know and consider that this woful state of sin and misery is by no means to be rested in But seeing we are fallen into so lamentable a condition we must speedily endeavour to get out of it And therefore let us remember that without Conversion there is no hope of Salvation Except a man be born again and made a new Creature he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God 3. The blessed way found out and appointed by God for mans Recovery out of this miserable state which is by the undertaking and mediation of his onely Son CHAP. III. Concerning the Mediator between God and Man COncerning the Mediator between God and man Christ Jesus We must know and understand these seaven things 1. What manner of person he was He was God and Man in the same person The Eternal Son of God The second Person in the Trinity took to himself our humane Nature a humane soul and body and united it after a wonderfull manner to his Godhead And so God and Man became one person 2. How he became man He was born about sixteen hundred and odd years ago of the Virgin Mary who was of the seed of Abraham and of the Family of David as was foretold in the Scriptures being Conceived in her by the Almighty power of the Holy Ghost without the help of man and without sin and was Called Jesus Christ 3. How he Lived He Lived about three and thirty years here upon Earth a most holy innocent sinless Life performing perfect obedience to the Law of God And as the great Prophet of God who was promised Deut. 18.15 Acts 3 22. he declared his Fathers will in his heavenly discourses and Sermons and wrought many miracles to confirm his doctrine and to prove himself the true Messias and the Eternal Son of God 4. How he Died Being betrayed by Judas forsaken by his Disciples scorned and rejected by the World through the malicious prosecution of the Jews and unjust sentence of Pilat he was Condemned to be Crucified and being tormented by his persecutors and having conflicted with the Terrors of Death and felt and born Gods wrath He endured the painful shameful and cursed death of the Crosse there as a Priest offering up himself a Sacrifice to God and a Ransome and Propitiation for our sins 5. What became of him after his Death He being buried rose again the third day and after Fourty days continuance on the earth in which time he frequently appeared to his Disciples and others teaching the things appertaining to the Kingdome of God he ascended into Heaven and is now in Glory with the Father where he intercedes for and presents the Merits of his Death and Sufferings in the behalf of all them that unfeignedly repent of their sins and do truly beleeve on him And being made King and Head of his Church and Lord of Angels and Men he shall come from Heaven again in great Glory to judge the quick and the dead at the Last day 6. What was the End and Intent of Christs Coming into the world The chief End and Intent of his Coming into the world was to save Lost and undone sinners to procure their pardon reconciliation with God by his Merits to Sanctifie their Natures by his Holy Spirit and to bring them to everlasting Life And to this end he appointed his Ministers to preach the Gospel unto the world and instituted the two Sacraments Baptism and the Lords Supper to signifie and keep in remembrance the great and inestimable benefits of his Death and Sufferings 7. What they are effectually Called unto and through the assistance of the
how can a man be born when he is old can he enter the second time into his mothers wombe and be born V. 5. Jesus answered verily verily I say unto thee except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdome of God V. 6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit V. 7. Marvel not that I said unto thee ye must be born again Col. 1.21 And you that were somtimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled 1 John 3.4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the Law for sin is the transgression of the Law Lam. 3.39 Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins Jam. 1.14 But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own Lust and enticed V. 15. Then when Lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death Rom. 6.23 For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom. 7.5 For when we were in the flesh the motions of sins which were by the Law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death Mat. 25.41 Then shall he say also to them on the left hand depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his Angels 2 Thes 1.9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his power 3. The blessed way found out and appointed by God for mans Recovery out of this miserable state which is by the undertaking and mediation of his onely Son Hos 13.9 O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thine help Rom. 7.24 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death V. 25. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord so then with the mind I my self serve the Law of God but with the flesh the Law of sin Gen. 3.15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel 1 Tim. 2.5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus John 3.14 And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wildernesse even so must the son of man be lifted up V. 15. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life V. 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Acts 4.12 Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved 1 John 4.14 And we have seen and do testifie that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world Gal. 3.13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us for it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree John 6.35 And Jesus said unto them I am the bread of life he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that beleeveth on me shall never thirst V. 51. I am the living bread which came down from Heaven if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever and the bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world Col. 1.20 And having made peace through the blood of his Crosse by him to reconcile all things unto himself by him I say whether they be things in earth or things in Heaven John 4.42 And said unto the woman now we beleeve not because of thy saying for we have heard him our selves and know that this is indeed the Christ the Saviour of the world Acts 13.38 Be it known unto you therefore men and Brethren that through this man is preached unto you the forgivenesse of sins John 1.29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him and saith behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world 1 John 5.11 And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son V. 12. He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life John 1.17 For the Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ 1 John 2.2 And he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world Heb 9.15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new Testament that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first Testament they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance CHAP. III. Concerning the Mediator between God and Man COncerning the Mediator between God and man Christ Jesus We must know and understand these seaven things 1. What manner of person he was He was God and Man in the same person The Eternal Son of God The second Person in the Trinity took to himself our humane Nature a humane soul and body and united it after a wonderfull manner to his Godhead And so God and Man became one person 1 Tim. 3.16 And without controversie great is the mystery of Godlinesse God was manifest in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles beleeved on in the world received up into Glory Rom. 9 5. Whose are the Fathers and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever Amen John 17.5 And now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self with the Glory which I had with thee before the world was Christ God Heb. 1.3 Who being the brightnesse of his Gloâ—y and the expresse Image of his Person and upholding all things by the word of his power when he had by himself purged our sins sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 13.8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day and for ever 1 John 5.20 And we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ This is the true God and eternal life John 10.30 I and my Father are one John 8.58 Jesus said unto them verily verily I say unto you before Abraham was I am John 17.11 And now I am no more in the world but these are in the world and I come to thee holy Father keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given mee that they may be one as we are John 17.12 While I was with them in the world I kept them in thy name Those that thou gavest me I have kept and none of them is lost but the son of perdition that
any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish V. 30. For we are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones V. 32. This is a great mystery but I speak concerning Christ and the Church 1 Cor. 6.17 He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit 1 Cor. 12.27 Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular Col. 1.18 And he is the head of the body the Church who is the beginning the first born from the dead that in all things he might have the preeminence Col. 2.19 And not holding the head from which all the body by joynts and bands having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God Eph. 4.15 But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things which is the head even Christ V. 16. From whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of it self in love Judge of quick and dead John 5.22 For the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgement to the son V. 27. And hath given him authority to execute judgement also because he is the son of man Rom. 14.9 For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living V. 10. But why dost thou judge thy brother we shall all stand before the Judgement seat of Christ. Acts 1.11 Which also said ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven this same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven Acts 10.42 And he commanded us to preach unto the people and to testifie that it is he which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead Mat. 13.40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burnt in the fire so shall it be in the end of this world V. 41. The Son of man shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather out of his Kingdome all things that offend and them which do iniquity V. 42. And shall cast them into a furnace of fire there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth Jude 6. And the Angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting Chains under darknesse unto the judgement of the great day V. 14. And Enoch the seventh from Adam prophecied of these saying behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints V. 15. To execute judgement upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodlily committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him 2 Pet. 2.4 For if God spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down to hell and delivered them into Chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgement Mat. 26.64 Jesus saith unto him hereafter shall ye see the son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of Heaven 1 Thes 4 16. For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voice of the Arch-Angel and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first V. 17. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the aire and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 2 Thes 1.7 And unto you which are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels V. 8. In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ V. 9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his power Rev. 20.12 And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works Dan. 7.10 A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him the judgement was set and the books were opened V. 13. I saw in the night visions and behold one like the son of man came with the Clouds of Heaven and came to the ancient of daies and they brought him neer before him V 14. And there was given him Dominion and Glory and a Kingdom that all people nations and languages should serve him his Dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his Kingdome that which shall not be destroyed Acts 17.30 And the times of this ignoranâ—â— God winked at but now he commandeth all men every where to repent V. 31. Because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in â—ightâ—ousnesse by that man whom he haâ—h ordaiâ—â—d whereof hâ— hath given assurance unto all meâ— in â—hat he hath raised him from the dead 1 Cor. 15.51 Behold I shew you a mystery we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed V. 52. In a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed Rom. 2.5 But thou after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God V. 6. Who will render to every man according to his deeds V. 7. To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory and Honour and immortality eternal life V. 8. But unto them which are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath V. 9. Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile V. 10. But Glory Honour Peace to every man that worketh good to the Jew first and also to the Gentile V. 11. For there is no respect of pâ—rsons with God V. 16. In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel Eccles 12.14 For God shall bring every work into judgement with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil 2 Tim. 4.1 I Charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and in his Kingdome V. 8. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto them also that love his appearing 2 Cor. 5.9 Wherefore we labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him V. 10. For we must all
turn again unto thee saying I repent thou shalt forgive him Concerning Faith in Christ Acts 16.31 And they said beleeve on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thine house 1 John 5.12 He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life V. 13. These things have I written unto you that believe on the Name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life and that ye may believe on the Name of the Son of God John 8.24 For if ye believe not that I am he ye shall die in your sins John 6.40 And this is the will of him that sent me that every one which seeth the Son and beleeveth on him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day V. 47. Verily verily I say unto you he that beleeveth on me hath everlasting life Eph. 2.12 At that time ye were without Christ being aliens from the Common wealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world V. 13. But now in Christ Jesus ye who somtimes were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ Eph. 2.8 For by Grace are ye saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God V. 9. Not of works lest any man should boast John 12.44 Jesus cried and said he that believeth on me believeth not on me but on him that sent me V. 46. I am come a Light into the world that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darknesse Rom. 10.14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a preacher V. 17. So then Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God 1 Pet. 2.6 Wherefore it is contained in the Scripture behold I lay in Sion a chief Corner stone elect precious and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded John 4 42. And they said unto the woman now we believe not because of thy saying for we have heard him our selves and know that this is indeed the Christ the Saviour of the world Heb. 11.13 These all died in Faith not having received the promises but having seen them afar off and were perswaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth John 1.12 But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his Name Gâ—l 2.20 I am crucified with Christ neverthelesse I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Acts 15.11 But we believe that through the Grace of the Lord Jesus we shall be saved even as they Eph. 6.16 Above all take the shield of Faith wherewith ye shâ—ll be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked Heb. 6.12 That ye be not slothful but followers of them who through Faith and patience inherit the promises Rom. 4.2 For if Abraham were justified by works he hath whereof to glory but not before God V. 4. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of Grace but of debt V. 6. Even as David also describeth the blessednesse of the man to whom God imputeth righteousnesse without works V. 20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in Faith giving Glory to God Rom. 3.20 Therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight for by the Law is the knowledge of sinne V. 21. But the righteousnesse of God without the Law is manifested being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets V. 22. Even the righteousnesse of God which is by Faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference V. 23. For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God V. 24. Being justified freely by his Grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. V. 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his blood to declare his righteousnesse for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God V. 26. To declare I say at this time his righteousnesse that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus V. 27. Where is boasting then it is excluded by what Law of works nay but by the Law of Faith V. 28. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by Faith without the deeds of the Law Gal. 2.16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but by the Faith of Jesus Christ even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the Faith of Christ and not by the works of the Law for by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified Phil. 3.9 And be found in him not having mine owne righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the righteousnesse which is of God by faith Acts 13.38 Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached forgivenesse of sins V. 39. And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses Heb. 12.24 Unto Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel Gal. 3.20 Now a Mediator is not a Mediator of one but God is one Rom. 8.1 There is therefore no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 5.1 Therefore being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. James 2.22 Seest thou how Faith wrought with his works and by works was Faith made perfect John 16.27 For the Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me and have beleeved that I came out from God Jude 20. But ye beloved building up your selves on your most holy Faith praying in the holy Ghost V. 21. Keep your selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life Concerning Holinesse and sincere obedidience Phil. 1.11 Being filled with the fruits of righteousnesse which are by Jesus Christ unto the Glory and praise of God Heb. 13.20 Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant V. 21. Make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be Glory for ever and ever Amen Micah 6.8 He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord
require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Jam. 2.14 What doth it profit my brethren though a man say he hath Faith and have no works can Faith save him V. 15. If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food V. 16. And one of you say unto them depart in peace be you warmed and filled notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body what doth it profit V. 17. Even so Faith if it hath not works is dead being alone 1 John 2.3 And hereby do we know that we know him if we keep his Commandements V. 5. But whoso keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected hereby know we that we are in him 2 Pet. 1.5 And besides this giving all diligence adde to your Faith vertue and to vertue knowledge V. 6. And to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience Godlinesse V. 7. And to Godlinesse brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindnesse Charity V. 8. For if these things be in you and abound they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. V. 9. But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see far off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins Mat. 5.16 Let your Light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven Tit. 2.11 For the Grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men V 12. Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world 1 Pet. 2.12 Having your Conversation honest among the Gentiles that whereas they speak against you as evil doers they may by your good works which they shall behold glorifie God in the day of visitation V. 15. For so is the will of God that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men John 15.8 Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit so shall ye be my disciples Eph. 2.10 For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them Rom. 6.22 But now being made free from sin and become servants to God ye have your fruit unto holinesse and the end everlasting life Mat. 25.21 His Lord said unto him well done thou good and faithful servant thou hast been faithful over a few things I will make thee ruler over many things enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. V. 22. He also that had received two talents came and said Lord thou deliveredst me two talents behold I have gained other two talents besides them V. 23. His Lord said unto him well done good and faithful servant thou hast been faithful over a few things I will make thee ruler over many things enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Luke 17.10 So likewise ye when ye have done all these things which are commanded you say we are unprofitable servants we have done that which was our duty to do Job 22.2 Can a man be profitable unto God as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself V. 3. Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous or is it gain to him that thou makest thy waies perfect Job 35.7 If thou be righteous what givest thou him or what receiveth he of thine hand V. 8. Thy wickednesse may hurt a man as thou art and thy righteousnesse may profit the son of man Mat. 23.23 Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for ye pay tithe of Mint and Annis and Cummin and have omitted the weightier matters of the Law Judgement Mercy and Faith these ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone Mat. 5.20 For I say unto you except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Gal. 5.22 But the fruit of the Spirit is Love Joy Peace Long Suffering Gentlenesse Goodnesse Faith V. 23. Meeknesse Temperance against such there is no Law 2 Cor. 8.12 For if there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not Heb. 6.10 For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love which ye have shewed towards his Name in that ye have ministred to the Saints and do minister Heb. 5.9 And being made perfect he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him Rom. 6.6 Know this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin Mat. 10.37 He that loveth Father or Mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth Son or Daughter more than me is not worthy of me 1 Cor. 16.22 If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha Mat. 22.37 Jesus said unto him thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind Acts 10.35 But in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousnesse is accepted with him Phil. 2.15 That ye may be blamelesse and harmless the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation among whom ye shine as Lights in the world Rom. 1.32 Who knowing the Judgement of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death not only doe the same but have pleasure in them that do them Rom. 6.1 What shall we say then shall we continue in sin that Grace may abound V. 2. God forbid how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein V. 15. What then shall we sin because we are not under the Law but under Grace God forbid V. 16. Know ye not that to whom ye yield your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousnesse 1 John 1.6 If we say then we have fellowship with him and walk in darknesse we lie and do not the Truth V. 8. If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us 1 John 3.3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure Rom. 8.13 For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Concerning Perseverance Phil. 1.6 Being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Christ 2 Pet. 1.10 Wherefore the rather Brethren give diligence to make your Calling and Election sure for if ye doe these things ye shall never fall John 10.28 And I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hand V. 29. My Father which gave them me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hand 1 John 3.9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God Jer. 31.3 The Lord hath appeared of old unto me saying yea I have loved thee with an everlasting love therefore with loving kindnesse have I drawn thee Jer. 32.40 And I will make an everlasting Covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me 1 Cor. 10.12 Therefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall 1 Pet. 1.5 Who are kept by the power of God through Faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time V. 9. Receiving the end of your Faith even the salvation of your Souls 2 Tim. 2.19 Neverthelesse the Foundation of God standeth sure having this seal the Lord knoweth them that are his and let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity Rom. 8.33 Who shall lay any thing to the Charge of Gods elect it is God that justifieth V. 34. Who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us V. 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakednesse or peril or sword Rom. 8.37 Nay in all these things we are more than Conquerors through him that loved us V. 38. For I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come V. 39. Nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. John 17.24 Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my Glory which thou hast given me for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world Luke 22.32 But I have prayed for thee that thy Faith fail not and when thou art converted strengthen thy Brethren 2 Theâ— 3.3 But the Lord is faithful who shall stablish you and keep you from evil Eph. 4.30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption Concerning the members of Christ John 15.1 I am the true Vine and my Father is the Husbandman V. 2. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit 1 Cor. 12.12 For as the body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so also is Christ. V. 13. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body whether we be Jews or Gentiles whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one Spirit 1 Cor. 1.2 Unto the Church of God which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus Called to be Saints with all that in every place Call upon the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours Rev. 7.9 After this I beheld and Lo a great multitude which no man could number of all Nations and Kindreds and People and Tongues stood before the Throne and before the Lamb clothed with white robes and with Palmes in their hands Rom. 11.16 For if the first fruit be holy the lump is also holy and if the root be holy so are the branches Eph. 2.19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and forreigners but fellow Citizens with the Saints and of the Houshold of God Eph. 3.15 Of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named Eph. 4.12 For the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ V. 13. Till we all come in the Unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ Mat. 16.18 And I say unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Mat. 23.8 But be not ye Called Rabbi for one is your Master even Christ and all ye are brethren V. 9. And call no man your Father upon the earth for one is your Father which is in Heaven V. 10. Neither be ye called Masters for one is your Master even Christ. Concerning the new Covenant Heb. 8.8 For finding fault with them he saith behold the days come saith the Lord when I will make a new Covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah V. 9. Not according to the Covenant I made with their Fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the Land of Egypt because they continued not in my Covenant and I regarded them not saith the Lord. V. 10 For this is the Covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those daies saith the Lord I will put my Laws in their mind and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people V. 12. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousnesse and their iniquities will I remember no more Mark 16.15 And he said unto them goe ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every Creature V. 16. He that beleeveth and is baptized shall be saved but he that beleeveth not shall be damned Jer. 31.31 Behold the daies come saith the Lord that I will make a new Covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah V. 34. For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more John 3.16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Heb. 9.15 And for this cause he is the Mediator of the new Testament that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first Testament they which are called might receive the promise of eternall inheritance V. 16. For where a Testament is there must also of necessity be the death of the Testator V. 17. For a Testament is of force after men are dead otherwise it is of no strength whilst the Testator liveth Heb. 12.24 And to Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel Ezek. 36 26 A new heart also will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and will give you an
or practise These are the Conclusions I come now in the third place to the Motives and Encouragements to believe in Christ 1. Consider for thy encouragement how able Christ is to save thee There is more merit in the Son of God to obtain our pardon than there is guilt of sin in us to merit condemnation For the person suffering being as to his God-head infinite and the merit and value of his sufferings depending on the dignity and worth of his person the satisfaction made must needs be infinite and so abundantly sufficient 2. Consider his willingness and readinesse to accept to mercy all poor humbled sinners that come unto him He never rejected any man that came unto him and acknowledged him for the true Messias and unfeignedly gave up himself to be saved by him His willingnesse to save sinners cannot but appear to thee if thou considerest these three things 1. His gracious words before he came into the world The Prophet in the person of Christ proclaims thus Isa 55.1 Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters c. 2. His free and general invitation when he was in the world John 7.37 In the last day that great day of the Feast Jesus stood and cried saying if any one thirst let him come to me and drink And Mat. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest 3. His great kindnesse to poor sinners expressed after his ascention and leaving the world Rev. 22.17 Let him that is athirst come and whosoever will let him take the waters of life freely That these were the words of Christ appeares v. 20. where 't is said He that testifieth these things saith surely I come quickly 3. Consider that to believe and rest on Christ crucified and to take him for our Lord and Saviour is to perform that act to which justification and remission of sins is promised John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Christ and all his benefits are promised to a believing soul Wilt thou not therefore give up thy self to him 4. Consider 't is the duty of all truly humbled sinners to go to Christ and believe in him 'T is the duty of a sick man to apply himself to a skilful Physitian and as such an one must not destroy his own life by a wilful refusing the Physick that would cure him so neither must the humbled sinner destroy his own soul by refusing to close with Christ He must not add to all the rest of his sins unbelief and a wilfull neglect of Christ and the salvation by him purchased and so freely offered 5. Consider that the humbled sinner by believing in Christ does not only bring comfort and salvation to his own soul but also in an eminent manner brings Glory to God When thou though discouraged in thy self by reason of thy sins darest venture thy soul in the hands of Christ When thou makest thy way through all doubts scruples and misgivings of heart and takest Gods bare Word because he hath said it thereby setting thy seal to his truth and faithfulnesse and dost resolve to throw thy self on his free Mercy and Christ's Merits for pardon and life to lay thy soul at Christ's feet and to clasp about him though he kill thee This is an excellent and an heroical act of Faith which brings Glory to God as Abrahams Faith did Of whom it is said Rom. 4.20 That he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in Faith giving Glory to God 6. Consider 't is the greatest folly and madnesse in the world for an humbled sinner not to close with Christ and commit his soul unto him What an irrational and unprofitable sin is unbelief If we go not to Christ Where can salvation possibly be had As those lepers reasoned 2 King 7.3 If we sit still we perish That person is sure to be damned that keeps off from Christ There is no way therefore for a poor sinner but to venture himself into the hands of Christ to give up his soul sincerely to him and to resolve with himself if I perish I will perish at his feet 7. Lastly If you think you have cause to fear that Christ is not yet yours and as yet you have no interest in him my advice is that you now go unto him now strike up the Covenant between him and you Defer no longer Let this be the marriage-day Now give up thy self unfeignedly to be pardoned sanctified commanded disposed of and everlastingly saved by him and rest assured he will on no terms cast thee out John 3.14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wildernesse even so must the Son of man be lifted up V. 15. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life V. 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life V. 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him John 5.40 And ye will not come to me that ye might have life John 6.37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out Phil. 3.8 Yea doubtlesse and I count all things but losse for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the losse of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ. V. 9. And be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the righteousnesse which is of God by Faith See more Scriptures concerning Faith p. 106. Covenanting with God Deut. 26.17 Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God to walk in his waies and to keep his Statutes and his Commandements and his Judgments and to hearken unto his voice Josh 24.21 And the people said unto Joshua nay but we will serve the Lord. V. 22. And Joshuah said unto the people ye are witnesses against your selves that ye have chosen you the Lord to serve him and they said we are witnesses CHAP. IV. Of the new Nature and reformed Life 4. HAving thus solemnly given up thy self to Christ labour to walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing being fruitful in every good work Let it be thy daily care begging the assistance of the Spirit to enable thee to mortifie the old man to crucifie the flesh with its affections and lusts to weaken impair and destroy the dominion of the whole body of sin and to put on the new man that thou maist be strengthened furnished with all saving Graces to the practise of true holinesse without which no man shall see the Lord As Christ
will give thee the Crown of life saies our Saviour Rev. 2.10 'T is to no purpose therefore for a man to do well for a spurt and then to give over break off that good course he was entred into for 't is perseverance in well doing that carrieth away the Crown 'T is true Gods called and sanctified people are preserved and kept in their state of Grace and Holiness by the power of God by their close union with Jesus Christ by vertue of his merits and constant intercession for them and also by a continued influence from the Spirit maintaining the essence life and seed of Grace in them so that they shall neither totally nor finally fall away Yet observe these four things 1. Seeming Grace may be lost Take from him that which he hath Mat. 25.28 In Luke 't is Take from him that which he seemeth to have Chap. 8. v. 18. Blazing Comets and Meteors are soon spent and fall from Heaven while true Stars keep their Orbe and Station 2. The common work of the Spirit may fail Such as is spoken of Heb. 6.4 5. viz. Illumination external reformation temporary Faith a slight tast of the comforts of the Gospel a weak glance upon the Glory of Heaven which may possibly stir up such a wish as was in Balaam O that I might die the death of the righteous Nay further there may be a partaking of the gifts of the Holy Ghost i.e. of abilities for holy duties though not of his renewing Graces And yet such plenty of blossoms as here are may somtimes be without fruit 3. True Grace may suffer a shrewd decay the leaves may fail though there may remain some life in the root We read in Scripture of a decay both of Faith Love and Obedience Some left their first Faith 1 Tim. 5.12 Others left their first Love Rev. 2.4 And as for obedience we read of the first waies of David as distinguished from his latter 2 Chron. 17.3 because David in his latter time fell into scandalous sins In temptations Gods children may be sorely shaken Their heel may be bruised as Christs was though their head be not crushed The operations of Grace may be obstructed for a time and yet a seed remain as in the case of David 4. True Grace if left to us would soon be lost Adam shewed a sad example of this in innocency But the best is our security lies in Gods power and promises and our union with Christ as was said before not in our own strength Christ hath a charge to keep the Saints safe and to conduct them safe to everlasting Glory John 10.28 I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish c. v. 29. My Father which gave them me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hand I and my Father are one God and Christ are engaged in the keeping of them But observe it Those whom God causes to persevere he makes to persevere in the use of meanes as 't was in their case Acts 27.31 All shall come to land but except ye abide in the ship ye cannot be safe No believer is so sure of his continuance in a state of Grace as that he needeth not be very wary and watchful and jealous over himself 1 Cor. 10.12 Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall There is a fear of caution as well as a fear of diffidence and distrust 't is good to weaken and abate the security of our flesh though not our confidence in Christ Our Saviour had prayed that Peters Faith should not fail yet together with the other Apostles he bids him watch Luke 22.40 46. The fear of God is a preserving Grace Jer. 32.40 I will put my fear into their hearts that they shall not depart from me This fear will make us watchful not diffident of Gods power and goodness And in this sense Blessed is the man that feareth alwaies as Solomon saies Prov. 28.14 And as our Saviour adviseth Luke 22.46 that watcheth and prayeth that he enter not into temptation We see then that to perseverance there is a concurrence of our care and diligence required Jude v. 21. Keep your selves in the love of God Phil. 2.12 13. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God that worketh in you c. Indeed the main work is Gods he is the beginner and he is the perfecter Phil. 1 6. He is the author and he is the finisher Heb. 12.2 But may we then be idle and sit still be careless and negligent No in no wise For God worketh in us and by us If therefore there be no Grace working in us nor working by us and exciting and quickning and enabling us to sincere obedience and a careful and watchful carriage towards God we may justly suspect our state for the present to be very bad A Christians life is never exempted from care We must be watchful and diligent to the very last Satan is alwaies busie we have corruptions within and the world is full of snares And many times where there seems to be least danger there is most cause of fear Lot that was chast in Sodom miscarried in the mountaines where there were none but his own Family David's example may warn the holiest persons to the worlds end to be jealous over themselves Who would have thought that he whose heart smote him for cutting off the lap of Sauls garment should after fall into uncleannesse and murder Peter also is a sad instance of confidence in a mans own strength Upon all these considerations let me advise thee to watch and pray to pray and watch continually Hast thou begun to make profession of Religion O do not fall off and bring an ill report upon the waies of Holinesse A house begun and not finished is a habitation of shreek owles Hold out to the last that so thou maist obtain that honourable title that Mnason had to be an old disciple Acts 21.16 I shall conclude this Head of watchfulnesse and this whole Chapter of maintaining a daily close communion with God with two further Directions which with Gods blessing will much conduce to the carrying on of the whole work Direction 1. Inure thy soul besides thy daily solemn prayers to send up frequent mental ejaculatory prayers unto God These holy liftings up of the heart unto the Lord as they are very pleasing to him so they are exceedingly advantageous for the fetching speedy aid from Heaven for the quenching of a lust resisting of a temptation the better performing any service delivering us out of any present straits enabling us to bear any affliction or in case of any failing to beg mercy and pardon speedily while the heart is smitten and tenderly affected with a sense of its miscarriage As when Davids heart smote him for numbring the people 2 Sam. 24.10 we find him lifting up his heart unto the Lord in this manner I have sinned I beseech thee
seems to have regard principally to that which we call the common Worship of God i. e. the right carriage of our selves for his honour in all the common affairs of our life as well as in the exercises of Religion so far forth as we have any thing to do with him therein The sins against this Commandment are 1. Light irreverent using naming the name of God Deut. 28.58 Not fearing this glorious and fearful Name the Lord thy God 2. Customary swearing and in ordinary communication 3. Swearing falsly or perjury not swearing in truth judgment and righteousnesse Jer. 4.2 when lawfully called thereunto 4. Blaspheming 5. Cursing 6. Charms and Exorcisms 7. Prophane jesting on Scripture 8. Unlawful and unwarrantable vowes 9. Calling on God with our lips when our hearts are far from him The fourth Commandment requires the keeping holy to God such set time as he hath appointed in his Word expresly one whole day in seven to be a Sabbath unto the Lord. The sins against this Commandment are 1. Not preparing for it by taking care so to dispatch and dispose our worldly businesses that we may be more free and fit for the duties of the day 2. Not resting from worldly employments and servile works excepting necessary and charitable offices to men and beasts to our selves or others 3. Neglect of or a carelesse heartlesse performance of the private and publick duties that concern the sanctification of it 4. Being weary of the Sabbath not delighting in it nor the duties of it but wishing it were gone 3. Prophaning the day by Idlenesse vain thoughts worldly discourse making it a day of carnal rest of feasting jollity immoderate eating and drinking visiting a day of sports and recreations which alienate the mind more from God than the ordinary labours of our callings 6. Not taking care that those under our charge do sanctifie the day and keep it holy to the Lord but by our carelessenesse or connivance and ill example encouraging them in the prophanation of it So much of the duties commanded and sins forbidden in the first Table The second Table enjoyns the duties of Charity and Justice towards our Neighbour Against this we sin when we do not love our neighbours with such a true unfeigned love as our selves when we do not so deal with them as we desire they should deal with us The fifth Commandment requires the giving of that honour and performing those duties which belong to every one in their several places and which we mutually owe in our several relations as Inferiours Superiours Equals By Father and Mother are meant not only natural Parents but all Superiours in age and gifts and especially such as by Gods Ordinance are over us in place of authority whether in Family Church or Common-wealth The Sins of Inferiours against Superiours are 1. Not paying them due reverence in heart word and behaviour 2. The envying at contemning of or rebelling against their persons places lawful commands counsels or corrections 3 Not praying for them not imitating their Graces and vertues 4. Cursing mocking and all such scandalous and refractory carriage towards them The sins of Superiours are 1. Neglecting the duties of their respective places 2. Seeking themselves and their own Glory 3. Commanding things unlawful 4. Counselling encouraging or favouring that which is evil and discouraging that which is good 5. Undue correction 6. Dishonouring themselves and lessening their Authority either by too rigorous or too remisse a behaviour The sins of Equals are undervaluing the worth envying the gifts grieving at the advancement or prosperity or esteem one of another and usurping preheminence one over another The sixth Commandment requires all lawfull endeavours to preserve our own life and the life of others The sins against this Commandment are 1. Murder 2. Striking maiming or hurting the body of our neighbour 3. Sinful unadvised anger 4. Hatred envy desire of revenge 5. Railing reviling contumelious speeches quarrelling threatning scorning and provoking 6. Sowing strife and contention among neighbours 7. Drunkennesse surfetting uncleannesse or drawing any to those vices which are sins against the body and may bring diseases and death 8. Inordinate passions worldly grief immoderate carking and caring or whatever else tends to the destruction of the life of man The seventh Commandment requires chastity of body mind affections words and behaviour and the preservation of it in our selves and others It forbideth 1. Lodging or entertaining in our minds unclean thoughts and fancying unclean matters with delight 2. Unclean desires affections and lusts though they come not into act which is the adultery of the heart 3. Wanton looks 4. Not shutting our eares against unclean talk 5. Filthy discourse 6. All unclean acts and sinful pollutions 7. Idlenesse intemperance and pampering the body 8. Wanton immodest attiring 9. Light behaviour and society with light persons 10. Lascivious gestures revellings dancings plaies pictures amorous books songs or whatever else tends to foment the fleshly concupiscence which we ought to labour by all good means to quench and suppresse The eighth Commandment requires the lawful procuring and furthering the wealth and outward estate of our selves and others It forbids 1. Violent taking or withholding from our neighbour what justly belongs unto him 2. Fraudulent dealing false weights and measures over-reaching in contracts 3. Unfaithfulnesse in matters of trust 4. Covetousnesse and inordinate love of money 5. Discontent at our own estates distrust of Gods Providence 6. Not paying what we borrow and what is justly due from us if we be able 7. Exaction extortion oppression and not making restitution of ill gotten goods where there is ability The ninth Commandment requires the maintaining and promoting of truth between man and man and of our own and our neighbours good names especially in witnesse-bearing It forbids 1. Giving false evidence and suborning false witnesse and all forgery 2. Wittingly appearing and pleading for an evil cause outfacing and overbearing the truth 3. Credulity sinister suspitions rash belief a ready listning to tale-bearers receiving and countenancing ill reports that tend to the defaming of others misconstruing intentions words and actions and interpreting doubtful matters in the worst sense 4. Lying speaking untruth of any man a readinesse to speak ill and spread the faults of others when it does no way concern us nor is like to benefit others Slandering raising false rumours backbiting detracting talebearing whispering scoffing reviling rash harsh and partiall censuring and uncharitable judging 5. Speaking too highly or too meanly of our selves or others 6. Undue silence when we ought and may defend the innocency of our neighbour The tenth Commandment requires purity and integrity of thoughts desires and wishes contentment with our own estate and condition and the portion God hath given us and a right charitable well-wishing frame of spirit towards our neighbour and all that is his The sins against this Commandment are 1. Discontent with our own estate 2. Having and harbouring in our minds
thee Psal 116.13 What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me V. 13. I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord. V. 14. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people CHAP. XX. Of the Four last things Death Judgement Hell Heaven I. Of Death ONE of the main businesses of our life should be to prepare for death In order hereunto observe these directions First Meditate often and seriously on thy death and dissolution even in time of thy health Joseph of Arimathea made his Sepulchre in his garden that in the midst of his delights he might think of death Often retire and take thy self alone and walk in the valley of the shadow of death Do not start from the thoughts of it Do by thy soul when thou findest it shy of such meditations as we do by our horses that are given to boggle and start when we ride them when they fly back and start at a thing in the way we do not yield to their fear and go back that will make them worse another time but we ride them up close to that they are afraid of and so in time break them of that ill quality So do thou bring up thy heart and inure it to look upon death and to handle that Serpent Consider death is making its approaches to thee and may be upon thee before thou art aware O therefore prepare for it that when it comes and attaches thee thou maist be found in such a gracious state with such a frame of Spirit and walking in such a holy way of life that thou maist bid it welcom and be able to say with blessed Paul I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ The frequent meditation of death will be an excellent means 1. To quicken thy soul to a deep humiliation and repentance for thy past sins 2. To represse the eager and insatiable desire of riches and the love of this world 3. To antidote thee against sin for time to come 4. To make thee improve time and carefully to work out thy salvation Think often of death and it will keep worse company from thee Secondly Labour to take away from thy own death the power and strength thereof The Philistims seeing Sampson so exceeding strong laboured to know wherein his power and strength principally consisted and when they understood it to lie in the hair of his head they ceased not till it was cut Consider therefore wherein the strength of death lies The Spirit of God teacheth us that in 1 Cor. 15.56 The sting of death is sin The power and force and sting of every mans particular death lies in his own sins Death cannot hurt us but by the force of our own sins A man may safely handle a Serpent when the sting is out If death be disarmed of its sting and poyson it cannot hurt us It concerns us therefore to use effectual means that our sins may be removed and pardoned and to labour before we die to abolish the strength of death Now the way to do this is 1. To humble our souls unfeignedly before the Lord and to repent of all our sins 2. To fly to Christ and to close with him for pardon and Grace 3. In the strength of his Grace to amend our lives and to walk in the waies of holinesse The sting of death is taken away by Christ Jesus as to all real converts and true believers so that it cannot hurt them nay will be an advantage to them It will be only a dark and short passage to a glorious Palace to the blisseful mansions above So that they may triumph as Paul did O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Thanks be to God who giveth us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. But now to all impenitent unpardoned sinners how deadly how incurable is the sting of death Death is death with a witnesse and Hell into the bargain to them that die in their sins No sight in the world more dreadful than to see a dying sinner with his Conscience newly awakened conflicting with death and sin and the Law and Gods Curse together O how sad how intollerably sad is it to see a man that hath gone on in a long carelesse obstinate course of sinning now at the point of death to have his eies first opened and to see himself on the brink of the dreadful pit unavoidably falling into the lake of fire and brimstone To such a person death brings its poysoned arrow and executes him with its venemous sting Thirdly Give all diligence in this life to lay hold on eternal life 1 Tim. 6.12 That is to enter into the first degree of life eternal Eternal life may be look'd upon under three considerations As Initial as Partial as Perfectional 1. The eternal life initial is that which is obtained in this life and is an earnest of that which is to follow 'T is the life of Grace Of this our Saviour spake Joh. 5.24 Verily verily I say unto you he that heareth my Word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life And Joh. 3.36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life 2. The Partial life eternal is that which belongeth though to the nobler yet but to a part of man namely to the Soul The happinesse which the Souls of Saints enjoy between the time of their death and the last day is the partial life eternal 3. The Perfectional life eternal is that which shall be conferred on the Saints immediatly after the blessed reunion of their souls and bodies and that gracious sentence pronounc'd come ye blessed of my Father receive the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world So that we see we must in this world enter into the first degree of eternal life if ever we intend to be partakers of the other two We must be raised from the death of sin to the life of grace We must as the Apostle speaks Col. 1.13 Be delivered from the power of darknesse and translated into the Kingdom of our blessed Saviour We must with Paul be able to say Gal. 2.20 I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me i. e. By his Spirit guides and governs my will affections and all the powers both of my soul and body Whoever would be saved when he is dead must begin to be saved while he is living We must begin to live that blessed and eternal life before we die Fourthly Inure thy self to die to this world and the enjoyments of it every day more and more Paul tels us he died daily 1 Cor. 15.31 If we would learn to do so it would not be so hard to die when we come to it in good earnest Death is not so strong to him whose natural strength has been wasted with a long pining sicknesse as to
him who lies but a few daies sick and has strength of nature to make resistance That Christian whose love to his life and the contentments of it hath been for many years consuming and dying will more easily part with them than he whose love is stronger to them As the Reverend Mr. Gurnal excellently expresses it in his Christian Armour We should consider we are but pilgrims and strangers here Heaven is the proper countrey of holy Souls We should therefore be providing for our removal out of this strange countrey We should pack up and send our best things aforehand namely our love our hearts our delights our joyes before we set out our selves for those Heavenly mansions Fifthly Consider what great reasons there are that those that are truly Godly should not much fear death I confesse nothing can sweeten death and make it desirable to a Christian but only an interest in Christ Things that are in their own nature sour and sharp will ask much Sugar to make them sweet Death is one of those things that hath the most harsh and ungrateful tast to a creatures pallat that may be Believe it a man cannot think with any comfort of putting his head into another world if he hath no solid ground to hope Christ will own him there for his But if he have there are many reasons why he should not dread death 1. They that are truly godly shall die but once i. e. a natural death only The wicked die twice not only a natural but a spiritual death The natural death stands in the separation of the soul from the body The spiritual in the separation of soul and body from God Rev. 20 6. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection on such the second death hath no power He that is born but once namely naturally shall die twice naturally and spiritually He that is born twice i. e. besides his natural birth hath been spiritually regenerated and born again shall die but once namely a natural death 2. Death is not a destruction or annihilation either of soul or body but only an alteration and change of the condition of them both and that for the better to all those that have an interest in Christ Such may say with Paul Phil. 1.21 To me to live is Christ to die is gain For 1. Though death separate soul and body yet it can separate neither of them from Christ. As in Christ's death his soul and body were separated each from other yet neither of them from the second Person in the Trinity in which both of them did subsist at that time in the personal Union so though when the Saints die soul and body be separated yet after this separation both remain united to Christ in the mystical Union because their bodies as well as their souls are part of the mystical body of Christ who is the Head and Saviour of the whole person consisting of soul and body And when Christ who is their life shall appear then shall they also appear with him in Glory Col. 3.3 4. We see then that though body and soul be sever'd each from other at death yet as to all those that die in the Lord neither of them are severed or disjoyned from Christ but the conjunction which is begun in this life remaines for ever Which must needs be matter of exceeding joy and comfort to them that by a lively Faith are united to him here 2. The body being resolved into dust is freed from all sicknesse and pains from all the miseries troubles and calamities of this life 3. It ceaseth to be either an active or a passive instrument of sin whereas in this life 't is both Sin and the temptations to it are the great grievances and burdens of the servants of God which they groan to be delivered from As sin therefore brought death into our bodies so death carries sin out of them 4. The bodies of the Saints shall be raised in a far greater glory at the general resurrection and be joyned again to their souls to live an everlasting life of glory and happinesse with them So that we may from hence conclude the body will be no loser by this change Neither will the soul for it will gain this threefold advantage thereby 1. It will change its place and be remov'd from a prison to a palace from a Tabernacle of clay to a Heavenly Mansion 2. Its qualities Here 't is infested with sinful and unruly passions and affections of all sorts which are a great annoyment to it But there it shall be freed from all these and made perfectly holy 3. It s company It leaves the company of sinners and gaines the company of Saints and Angels Yea shall have fellowship with the blessed Trinity in whose presence there is fulnesse of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore Psal 16.11 Let all such therefore as have an interest in Christ look upon death not in the glass of the Law but of the Gospel Death in the Law is a curse and a downfal to the pit of destruction In the Gospel it is an entrance into Heaven Christ hath taken away the sting and mischief and destructive power of death He hath altered the property of it and in stead of being a door to Hell hath made it a gate to blisse and happinesse for all those that are his Let the truly Godly and serious Christian therefore not fix his mind so much on the pangs and torments of death as upon the blessed estate that is to be enjoyed after it and so fortifie his heart against the fear of it See the Reverend and Worthy Mr. Baxters considerations against the fear of death in the 4th Part of his Saints everlasting Rest Chap. 2. Heb. 9.27 It is appointed unto men once to die but after this the Judgment Job 30.23 For I know that thou wilt bring me to death and to the house appointed for all living Job 17 14. I have said to corruption thou art my Father to the worm thou art my mother and my sister Jam. 4.14 For what is your life it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away Isa 40.6 The voice said cry and he said what shall I cry All flesh is grasse and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field V. 7. The grass withereth the flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it Surely the people is grass Psal 90.12 So teach us to number our daies that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom Psal 39.4 Lord make me to know mine end and the measure of my daies what it is that I may know how frail I am V. â— Behold thou hast made my daies as an hand breadth and mine age is as nothing before thee verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity Selah Job 14.2 He cometh forth like a flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a
to that he hath done whether it be good or bad Christ shall therefore appear in the proper form and condition of a Judge sitting upon a Throne of judicature 4. There will be a personal appearance of all men before that seat of judicature upon which Christ shall sit For we must all appear and we shall all stand before that judgment-seat Rev. 20.12 And I saw the dead small and great stand before God c. Mat. 25.32 And before him shall be gathered all Nations and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats 5. When those who are to he judged are brought before the judgment-seat of Christ all their actions shall appear 1 Cor. 4.5 Therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darknesse and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts Eccles 12.14 For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil To this end in the vision of Daniel when the judgment was set the books were opened Dan. 7.9 And in that of St. John The books were opened and the dead were judged out of the things that were written in the books according to their works Rev. 20.12 Divines speak of a threefold book that will then be opened 1. The book of Statutes or the book of Gods Word wherein the Law and Gospel are written with all the duties commanded and sins forbidden in them both 2. The book of Gods Omniscience and remembrance Mal. 3.16 And a book of remembrance was written before him c. 3. The book of Conscience which God maintains as a Register in every mans breast Jer. 17.1 The sin of Judah is written with a pen of Iron and with the point of a Diamond it is graven upon the Table of their heart Men will then be awakened to purpose and all their sins with the aggravations of them will be set in the view of their Consciences Hidden things shall be brought to light in that day 1 Cor. 4.5 c. 6. After the manifestation of all their actions the Judge will pronounce his definitive sentence upon all their persons according to their actions The sentence of absolution upon the Godly in these words Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world Mat. 25.34 The Saints of God and the elect will first be acquitted before the ungodly are condemned that they may afterwards joyn with Christ in judging the world according to that in the 1 Cor. 6.2 Where 't is said the Saints shall judge the world i. e. by way of approbation approving and magnifying Christ's just sentence on devils and wicked men giving some such approbation in probability as that of the Angel Rev. 16.5 Thou art righteous O Lord which art and wast and shalt be because then hast judged thus And thus all the Saints shall be Judges But some of them more eminently as Assessors with Christ as is intimated concerning the Apostles Mat. 19.28 Ye also shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel We have shewed what the sentence of absolution will be which shall pass upon the Godly The sentence of condemnation followes that will passe upon the wicked which we find recorded Mat. 25.41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels 7. After the promulgation of the sentence followeth the execution and sending of the persons judged to their everlasting state as it is written Mat. 25.46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life eternal We have seen what will be the Judiciary proceedings of this great day 4. It now followes in the fourth and last place that we speak something of the consequents thereof 1. Christs resigning up his Kingdom not his essential but that which he administers as Mediator to the Father having subdued sin and death and put all his enemies under his feet 1 Cor. 15.24 Then cometh the end when he shâ—ll have delivered up the Kingdom to God even the Father when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power V. 25. For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet V. 26. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death V. 27. For he hath put all things under his feet but when he saith all things are put under him it is manifest that he is excepted which did put all things under him V. 28. And when all things shall be subdued unto him then shall the son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him that God may be all in all 2. The burning of the world of which we read 2 Pet. c. 3. v. 12. Looking for and hastning unto the coming of the day of God wherein the Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat By this fire 't is probable the world will not be consum'd but renewed clarified and purged For 't is compar'd to a melting fire V. 10. The Elements shall melt with fervent heat And the Apostle saith elsewhere The Creature shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption Rom. 8.21 In the everlasting state God will have all things new even the world it self The use of this renewed world may either be for an habitation for the just or that it may remain as a standing monument of Gods wisdom and power Thus we have seen â— That there will certainly be a day of Judgment 2. That Christ will be the Judge 3. What manner of proceedings there will be in that day 4. The Consequents thereof What now remaines but that we carefully provide for this great and notable day of the Lord as 't is call'd Acts 2.20 By breaking off our sins by true and serious repentance and making our peace with God in and by Christ O let us labour to secure our interest in Christ and our union with him He is the Judge If he be our Advocate we need fear nothing There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 The Head will not condemn his own Members 2. Let us do good and communicate and be merciful to the poor while we have ability and opportunity In the 25 Mat. 35 36. Compar'd with 42 43. Christ hath told us aforehand what questions he will ask when he cometh Have you fed have you visited have you cloathed 'T is good we should be prepared for an answer See the Scriptures concerning the last Judgment in the first part of this Treatise pag. 74 c. Of Hell We h ve seen there will be a day of Judgment and that the Judge will judge the world in righteousnesse We have seen there will be a twofold sentence pronounced by him Of absolution upon the Godly Mat.
25.34 Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you Of condemnation upon the wicked v. 41. Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels We shall therefore here speak of the state of the wicked after the righteous Judge hath pronounced the sentence of condemnation upon them and shall shew how their bodies and souls being re-united shall be so continued in that life for ever to undergo the punishment due unto their sins Here three things are to be taken into consideration 1. The duration and continuance of their persons without ever dying or being destroyed or annihilated 2. The duration of their pains without ever being taken off 3. The dreadfulnesse of those infernal pains and torments I. The Scripture speaks expresly that the wicked after the day of judgment shall not be consumed or annihilated but remain alive in soul and body to endure the torments to be inflicted upon them by the Justice of God for all the sins committed by them while they were in the body The Word of God indeed speaks of the wicked as of such as shall be destroyed and perish and die But we must know that a man may be said to be destroyed and perish to be lost and dead who is rejected separated and disjoyn'd from God the fountain of glory and blessednesse And that person may still subsist and be what in his own nature he was before and live the life which doth consist in the vital union of his soul and body and so subsisting undergo the wrath of God for ever The same Scripture which saies the wicked shall be destroy'd and perish and die saies also that they shall be tormented with never-dying paines Mat. 25.41 Depart from me ye cursed shall the Judge say to the wicked at the last day into everlasting fire And least any should imagine that the fire shall be everlasting but not the torments at the 46 v. it followes and these shall go away into everlasting punishment Now if the fire be everlasting by which God punisheth the damned and the punishment inflicted be also everlasting then must the damned everlastingly subsist to endure that punishment Otherwise there will be a punishment inflicted and none endured which is a contradiction Indeed the eternity of that fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels is a sufficient demonstration of the eternity of such as suffer in it And as that fire is termed eternal so that eternity is described as absolute excluding all limits and determination The end of the burning of fire is by extinguishing and that fire which cannot be extinguished can never end But such is the fire which shall torment the damned For he whose fan is in his hand shall burn up the chaff with unquencheable fire Mark 3.12 Luke 3.17 And he hath told us plainly and thereby given us a fair warning Mat. 18.8 that it is better to enter into life halt or maimed rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire Or as it is Mark 9.43 To go into Hell into the fire that never shall be quenched And he hath farther explained himself by that unquestionable addition and undeniable description of the place of torments where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched And that we may be yet farther assur'd that this fire shall never be extinguished wereâ—â— that the smoak of their torments ascendeth up for ever and ever Rev. 14.11 And that those who are cast into the lake of fire and brimstone shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever Rev. â—0 â—0 If therefore the fire in which the damned are to be tormented be everlasting if so absolutely everlasting that it shall never be quenched if so certainty never to be quenched that the smoak thereof shall ascend for ever and ever if those that are to be cast into it shall be tormented for ever and ever all which the Scriptures expresly teach then shall the persons of the damned never be destroy'd or annihilated but shall subsist for ever and be coeternal to the tormenting flames When therefore the Scripture speaks that the wicked after the resurrection shall be punished with death and that a second death it cannot be so understood that they shall be no more nor in any sense be said to live or subsist For the enduring of this fire is that very death and they are therefore said to die the second death because they endure eternal torments He that overcometh shall not be hurt by the second death Rev. 2.11 It seemes they which shall die that death shall be hurt by it whereas if it were annihilation and so a conclusion of their torments it would be no way hurtful or injurious but highly beneficial to them But the living torments are the second death For Rev. 21.8 It was revealed to St. John that the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death Now if to have a part in the lake be the second death if that part be a perpetual continuance and permansion in torment as is before proved then to say that the wicked shall die the second death is not a confutation of their eternal being in misery but an assertion of it because 't is the same thing delivered in other terms As is well observed by the Learned Mr. Pearson in his Exposition of the Creed Neither will the phrases of perdition and destruction infer an annihilation of the persons of the damned or an ending of their torments For eternity of destruction in the language of the Scripture signifies a perpetual perpession and duration in misery As in the 2 Thes 1.8 9. When Christ shall come to take vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ 't is said they shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his power Wherefore from what hath been said we may conclude that the damned shall continue both in soul and body under the wrath of God and the torments proceeding from it never to be quitted of them by annihilation Here they might have life but would not there they would have death but cannot II. As the damned shall alwaies be continued in life and being to endure the torments due to their sins so the Justice of God will never fail to inflict those torments upon them for their sins The favour of God is not to be obtained where there is no means left to obtain it but in the world to come there is no place for Faith nor vertue in Repentance As no person once received into the Heavenly mansions shâ—ll ever be cast into outer darkness so certainly none who are once cast into the fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels shall ever enter
into their Masters joy As the tree falleth so it lieth There is no change to be wrought in man within those flames no purgation of his sins no sanctification of his Nature no justification of his person and therefore no salvation for him Without the mediation of Christ no man shall ever enter into Heaven And when he hath delivered up the Kingdom unto God even the Father then shall the office of the Mediator cease The condition then of the damned is unalterable their condemnation irreversible their torments remediless their miseries eternal See Mr. Manton's excellâ—nt Comment on Jude p. 430. The Reasons hereof are conceived by Divines to be these 1. Because of the greatnesse of the Majesty against whom they have sinned We are finite creatures and so not fit to judge of the nature of an offence against an infinite God The Law-giver best knowes the merit of sin which is the transgression of his Law 2. With man offences of a quick execution are judged to deserve a long punishment and the continuance of the penalty is not measured by the continuance of the Act of sinning therefore no wonder if it be so with God 3. The damned sinned here as long as they could if they had to eternity been allowed to live they would have improved it altogether in sin They would have dallied with God longer grieved his Spirit longer had they lived longer yea dispositively and in respect of their inclinations did so In Hell the desire of sinning is not extinguished nor mortified The damned have not their hearts there changed 4. They despised an eternal happinesse therefore do justly suffer an eternal torment 5. Their obligations to God are infinite and their punishment ariseth according to the greatnesse of their obligations against which they sin'd As the damned therefore shall not be taken from their punishment by annihilation or destruction of their persons so their punishment shall not be taken off from them by any compassion shewed unto them III. We come to consider the dreadfulnesse of the infernal torments Hell is set forth unto us in the Scriptures under sundry dreadful notions viz. By the worm that never dieth and the fire that never goeth out by a lake of fire and brimstone by outer darkness and blackness of darknesse for ever That which is most intelligible concerning the woful state of the damned I conceive may be reduced to these four Heads 1. They shall be tormented with the pain of losse in being for ever banished from the presence of God and the joyes of Heaven 2 Thes 2.9 Being punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2. With the pain of sense inflicted on them by the wrath of God which abideth on them represented to us by a lake of fire In this life if his anger be but kindled a little and a spark of it fly into the Conscience the poor creature is at his wits end But how dreadful will their portion be against whom he stirreth up his fierce wrath Who knowes the power of his anger Ps 90.11 We that cannot endure the gripes of the Cholick the paines of the stone or a violent tooth-ach how can we think of enduring the paines and torments of Hell 3. They shall be tormented with the worm of Conscience that is with a cutting reflexion upon and remembrance of their former enjoyments and by past pleasures Luke 16 2â— Son remember thou in thy life time hadst thy good things or when Conscience shall repeat over the passages of their lives past and set before them their precious time wasted and mispent opportunities of Grace sleighted the folly of their own choice their turning their backs upon eternal life offered in the Gospel their grosse neglect of their souls their eager pursuit of sensual satisfactions their disregarding admonitions stifling convictions quenching the motions of the Spirit of God hating to be reformed O these will be sad woful sad remembrances The scourges of Conscience we meet with here are too great a price for the short pleasure of a brutish lust O then what a raging pain will such reflections as these cause hereafter What will they do that are tormented day and night for ever and ever 4. As they will have a sharp sense and feeling of their present woful state and a bitter discontent and vexation that by their own folly they brought it upon themselves so they will be tormented with despair of ever coming out of it They will see they must continue for ever in this remediless condition under an everlasting pain of loss because there is no hope of Heaven under an eternal pain of sense because there is no meanes to appease the wrath of God which abideth on them And this despair of ever coming out is the very Hell of Hells O wo and alas 't is for ever for ever they must be tormented Drexellius a learned Authour writing upon this Argument hath this awakening passage If God saith he should speak thus to a damned soul let the whole world be filled with sand from the earth to the Empyrean Heaven and then let an Angel come every thousand year and fetch only one grain from that mighty sandy mountain and when that immeasurable heap is so spent and so many thousand years expired I will deliver thee out of Hell and those extream torments That most miserable forlorn wretch notwithstanding that he were to lie through that unconceiveable length of time in those intollerable hellish torments yet upon such a promise would infinitely rejoyce and deem himself not to be damned But alas when all those years are gone there are thousands upon thousands more to be endured even through all Eternity O sad and woful condition O Eternity Eternity Eternity This word ever breaks the heart O Lord to depart from thee for ever to lose the sight and fruition of thy pleased countenance to be hurled down among devils and damned fiends into a lake of fire and brimstone to be alwaies burning yet never consumed ever dying yet never dissolv'd alwaies gnawed upon by the worm of Conscience yet never devoured alwaies gnashing the teeth weeping howling vexing without any glimpse of hope or one drop of comfort What heart can think on these things without splitting in pieces O Lord whatever thou deniest me for this life whatever shall be my lot and portion here yet deny me not I humbly beseech thee the effectual assistance of thy Grace to enable me to work out my salvation to enable me unfeignedly to repent of all my sins and forsake them and to give up my soul to Christ Jesus for pardon and life that by him I may be justified and sanctified and saved from this dreadful wrath to come Even so let it be O Heavenly Father for thy rich mercy and my sweet Saviours merits sake I shall conclude this discourse of Hell with a few serious meditations Let us consider 1. How great how inexcusable
is the folly and stupidity of every wilful sinner that for the satisfaction of his brutish lusts will run the hazard of these everlasting torments O did we look upon sin with Scripture spectacles we should find a greater disproportion between the pleasure and the paines thereof than between a drop of honey and an Ocean of gall Methinks the meditation of eternal torments should damp and stop any sinner in his sinful heat and fury Wilt thou O sinner for a short pleasure be content to pay an everlasting punishment Go into Hell by meditation that thou maist not go thither by condemnation 2. What interest or concernment have we in the whole world comparable to this the making our peace with God He is the severest enemy but the sweetest friend How should we speedily humble our selves before him for all our sins and flie to his mercy in Christ for our pardon The wages of sin is death Nothing can bring us to those everlasting flames but sin unrepented of Nothing can save that man from the never-dying worm who dieth in his sins 3. How highly should we prize the love of Christ how great a value should we set upon his blood How willingly should we embrace the offers of Grace and reconciliation made to us in him How readily and chearfully should we give up our selves to him resolving to be his faithful Disciples and servants seeing he laid down his life to deliver us from these everlasting torments this wrath to come In one thing the sins of men admit of a greater aggravation than the sins of Angels These never sinn'd against the offers of a Saviour as men do 4. How readily should we do or suffer perform or undergo any thing this blessed Redeemer calls us to who hath done and sufferd so much for our sakes 5. How should we pity and pull back those who are posting towards the paines of eternal fire We may possibly anger them thereby but we had better endure some scalding drops of their wrath than let them fall if we can help it by doing our duty to admonish them into the lake of fire and brimstone 6. How should the consideration of everlasting torments after death breed in every heart a fear and awe of the great God and teach us to tremble at his Word and his Threatnings therein denounced against all impenitent sinners How eagerly should we embrace that reduplicated advice of our blessed Saviour Luke 12.5 I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into Hell yea I say unto you fear him Mat. 25.41 Then shall he say unto them on the left hand depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels V. 46. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment Mark 9.43 And if thy hand offend thee cut it off it is better for thee to enter into life maimed than having two hands to go into Hell into the fire that never shall be quenched V. 44. Where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched V. 45. And if thy foot offend thee cut it off it is better for thee to enter into life halt than having two feet to be cast into Hell into the fire that never shall be quenched V. 46. Where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched V. 47. And if thine eye offend thee pluck it out it is better for thee to enter into the Kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into Hell fire V. 48. Where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched Rev. 21.8 But the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death Rev. 20.10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false Prophet are and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever 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. V. 11. And the smoak of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever c. Matth. 22.13 Then said the King unto his servants bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer darknesse there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Matth. 23 33. Ye Serpents ye generation of vipers how can ye escape the damnation of Hell Matth. 7.13 Enter ye in at the strait gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in thereat Rev. 2.11 He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches he that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death Juâ—e v. 6. And the Angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chaines under darkness unto the judgment of the great day V 7. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the Cities about them in like manner giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh are set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire V. 13. Raging waves of the Sea foming out their own shame wandring stars to whom is reserved the blacknesse of darknesse for ever 2. Thes 1.9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power Psal 9.17 The wicked shall be turned into Hell and all the Nations that forget God 1 Thes 5.9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Thes 1.10 And to wait for his Son from Heaven from whom he raised the dead even Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come Matth. 10.28 And fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell Luke 16.23 And in Hell he lift up his eyes being in torments and seeth Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom V. 24. And he cried and said Father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame V. 25. But Abraham said Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented V. 27. Then he said I pray thee therefore Father that thou wouldst send him to my Fathers house V. 28. For I have five Brethren that he may testifie unto them lest they also come unto this place of torment Matth. 16.26 For what is a
publick Ordinances Do ye think it will be a sufficient excuse when you come to stand upon your Trial at Gods Tribunal to plead you wanted clothes and therefore could not come to the publick Ordinances when 't is well known you can dresse your selves in a tollerably decent manner at any time to go to a dinner There is an absolute necessity you must be instructed and get knowledge in the things that concern your Salvation or you will die in your sins And believe it you had better die in a ditch than die in your sins Were you sufficiently sensible of the great and weighty concernments of your soules you would wrestle against all difficulties and seek after knowledge with all seriousness And if you would set your selves in good earnest to it you might quickly attain much more than you can imagine you might soon grow rich in knowledge and Grace Though you are poor here you might be heirs of Heaven and when you die with Lazarus be received into Abrahams bosom Oh therefore bestir your selves You labour hard to get a little money here Oh take some pains to get a Kingdom that is offered to you on very fair terms Labour to be sensible of your spiritual poverty of the vilenesse of your natural condition and the manifold sins of your life Seek for help from Christ where help onely is to he had Give up your soules to him and beg of him pardon and Grace Receive him for your Lord as well as your Saviour beg his Spirit to sanctifie you and be willing to live in obedience to his Laws and Precepts And if you be once thus united unto him being rich in Faith and the fruits thereof you are heirs of the Kingdom even the Kingdom of Heaven and shall shortly enter into your inheritance gloriously and triumphantly Oh therefore though you are poor in this world yet labour to be spiritually rich Mind not only the present but secure your future state And not only look to your selves but to your children also Oh let not them be bred up in ignorance and prophannesse One main reason of the great blindnesse and irreligion that is among poor people is the cannot read neither do many of them take any care their children should learn They had rather they should earn a penny than spend two or three hours in a day to get that skill If there were a book extant and ordinarily to be had as the Bible is which men did generally beleeve to contain a plain and easie way for all men to become rich and to live in health and pleasure and this worlds happiness Can it be imagined that the poorest people would not learn to read it or would neglect to study it Whatever paines it cost or difficulties it put them to be sure they would not fail herein How is it then that so many that have the name of Christians can be content that both themselves and their children should be unable to read the Scriptures and so commonly remain as ignorant of the things of God as if they had been born among the Indians VI. Those that are poor should be especially careful to avoid these four temptations which they are in great danger of 1. Let them take heed of distrusting God when they are in straits Let them often call to mind and meditate on our Saviours words in Mat. 6 from v. 25. to the end Let them consider God provides for Creatures that cannot provide for themselves Beasts sleep quietly not knowing nor thinking where they shall get meat the next day If you say 't is because they have no reason nor foresight consider whether ever God gave us reason to make no other use of it than for our vexation and dishonouring himself 'T is a high injury and dishonour to God to distrust his care and providence over us seeing he takes care of bruit Creatures 2. Let them take heed of stealing or putting their hands to any indirect courses Theft is the poor mans danger as the wise man intimates Prov. 30.8 9. Give me neither poverty not riches feed me with food convenient for me least I be full and deny thee and say who is the Lord and lest I be poor and steal and take the Name of my God in vain Let them not think to excuse themselves by saying they are poor and he from whom they steal is rich For who made them dividers of other mens goods Let them not think to pretend 't is a small thing they steal the more abject sinners they who will defile their Consciences for a trifle Though the world should be hard and men should afford them no help let them not make themselves uncapable of Gods help Let them remember 't is better to suffer than to sin 3. Seeing the poorer sort usually live together and generally are apt to be envious malicious and extreamly quarrelsom slandering and reviling one another and upon small provocations cursing and using dreadful imprecations against each other and somtimes also against those that do not relieve them or not so liberally as they desire let all these wickednesses be carefully avoided and abandoned by them if ever they intend to see Gods face with comfort 4. And lastly seeing poor people for the most part depend on rich men that employ them and thereupon are apt to flatter them and humour them and bring tales to them and comply with them even in sinful courses and to be moulded after their example and usually hate and oppose Godliness it self if they see it disrelished by them Therefore it should be the care of all poor people to decline these courses and by fidelity industry and integrity to commend themselves to all those that employ them and walking humbly and conscientiously before the Lord in their place and calling they need not doubt of his Gracious Providence over them of his favour good-will to them Isa 45.9 Wo unto him that striveth with his maker Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it what makest thou Prov. 28.6 Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightnesse than he that is perverse in his waies though he be rich Psal 37.25 I have been young and now am old yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed forsaken though begging bread Phil. 4.6 Be careful for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God Jam. 2.5 Hearken my beloved Brethren Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in Faith and heirs of the Kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him Prov. 17.5 Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished Psal 10.14 The poor committeth himself unto thee thou art the helper of the Fatherlesse Matth. 6.25 Therefore I say unto you take no thought for your life what ye shall eat or what ye shall