GLAD TYDINGS from HEAVEN TO The Worst of SINNERS on Earth BY WALTER CRADOCK Late Preacher at Hallows Great in LONDON LUKE 2 10. Feare not for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people LONDON Printed by Mathew Simmons 1648. To the Christian Reader READER THe nature of man is prone to be inquisitive after newes especially in these unsetled distracted times amongst us it is a great part of the imploiment of people and takes up much of their time as if London were Athens and the people thereof Athenians who spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to heare some newes And yet the news wee beare is sometimes bad sometimes uncertain and many times false Divert thy thoughts awhile from earthly things and in this ensuing Treatise thou shalt heare what newes from heaven in the Gospel The Law indeed brings us tidings but it is like the message of Ehud to Eglon it brings a dagger with it that stabs mortally but the tidings of the Gospel is like that message of the young Prophet to Jehu to make him a King There is nothing truly terrible but the Gospel brings tidings of our freedome from it if we be believers nor nothing truly amiable but it tells us of our interest in it How welcome to a poore captive is newes of deliverance from slaverie The Gospel brings us tidings of our deliverance from sin Satan death hell from wrath and damnation it tells us of riches and glory and Kingdomes and Crownes and what soever may satisfie the capacious soule of man God hath appointed different conditions for men and Angels the Angels that stood they are so confirmed that they cannot fall the Angels that fell they are determined under eternail wrath that they cannot rise but God from everlasting in his love and mercy had appointed that fallen man should have a way of recovery as a board after ship wracke whereby he might come safe to the shore And God in time was pleased to come out of his hidden eternity and to discover this love of his to the world and hath sent his Son to puhchase it and his Spirit to apply it and his servants to tell not this or that perticuler man but all Nations that whosoever believeth in Jesus Christ shall have everlasting life this blessed tidings is brought by the Gospel And let none say this newes is to good to be true for God who is truth it selfe as it were on purpose to anticipate the infidelity of man hath said it and sworne it and sealed it with the blood of his deare Son that we might have strong consolation and hath made this fabrick of the world to be as a stage to act the redemption of his people on which being finished it shall be no more It should stir us up to love and blesse the Father and his Son Jesus Christ and the holy Spirit and to imbrace the Messengers that bring those glad tidings to account their very feet beautifull the meanest part of the body and upon the moutaines the barren places of the earth And I doubt not but many poore soules can from experience blesse God for the worthy Authour in those barren mountaines where he converseth and else where and say of him as David of Ahimaaz he is a good man and bringeth good tidings Though others being hardened spit at such lights and labour to extinguish who God in just judgment will cause to stumble and fall and lie downe in eternall darknesse But I shall detaine thee no longer from the the work but commend it and thee to Gods blessing and rest Thine in the Gospel of Christ GOOD NEWES To the Worst of SINNERS MARKE 16. 15. And hee said unto them goe yee into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature YOu may easily understand who spake these words and to whom they were spoken In these words our Lord Jesus Christ after his resurrection when he had all power in Heaven and Earth given to him he sends forth his Apostles to Preach and he bids them Goe into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature This was their Commission they were to have now to go preach the Gospel Indeed they had a Commission before but it was only to the Jewes and it was a little but by spirts but now Christ was risen from the dead and had received all power in Heaven and Earth he sends them for good and all as it were he gives them a full and compleate Commission Goe yee into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature Before I come to the Lesson that I mean to insist upon there are two things here in the words that must be opened that you may see the foundation or ground of this Lesson And that is First what is meant by Gospel Goe and preach the Gospel Then what is meant by creature Goe preach the Gospel to every creature For the first what is meant by Gospel I will not stand upon the severall acceptations of it onely you may understand that both in the Scripture language and also among the Heathen Gospel hath been taken for Glad tidings good newes in generall any Good newes or Glad tidings have been called Gospel So the Greek word signifies so some conceive the English word Godspel being old English signifies Gospel that is good speech good newes good hearing good tidings but in a peculiar sense in Scripture it is taken for that Good tidings of grace and salvation by Jesus Christ And so in this sense we read of it in the old Testament and in the new In the old Testament you shall read in Heb. 4. 3. that our Fathers they had the Gospel as well as we but Beloved you are to take notice that though our Fathers had the Gospel that is the glad tidings of life and salvation by Jesus Christ from Adam from the beginning of the world yet they had it but dimly and darkly and they had it mixed with a great deale of Law a great deale of bad tidings as I may speak they had a little good newes with a great deale of bad So Adam had a little good tidings The seed of the woman shall bruise the Servents head and there was bad tidings also there was the curse upon the Serpent and upon the woman the man the woman should bring forth in paine the man must eat his bread in the sweat of his browes And so in all the old Testament there was a little Gospel in the Prophecies and Gospel in the sacrifices and Gospel in the visions but abundance of law mingled with this Gospel the one spake sad tidings as well as the other did good for you know the Law spake curses and damnation to those that in every point did not observe it But in the new Testament especially after the resurrection of Jesus Christ when he went up to Heaven
you that is better than to be Lords and Earles that have an innumerable company of Swearers and drunkards and whoremongers for their serving men that it were agreat deale more ease if they could spare them to be without them but you shall have a company of Saints and Angels to waite on you And though the Gospel tell you not of outward riches for Christ himselfe saith The soxes have holes and the foules of the aire have nests but the Son of Man hath not whereon to lay his head Yet the Gospel tells you that you have so much title to worldly things that Godlinesse hath the promise of this life and of that which is to come And that God will be a Sun and a shield to those that feare him and he will withhold from them nothing that is good Is not that tidings enough of riches and wealth when God will withhold nothing that is good God will give food and raiment they have it by promise wicked men have it by providence as the doggs and fowles have it Therefore for all that objection this truth runs cleare But secondly another will say the Gospel indeed brings tidings of Christ and salvation but it brings tidings also of afflictions and persecutions the Gospel saith Whosoever will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution And Christ saith I come not to bring peace but a sword I come to set the father against the sonne and the son against the father the mother against the daughter and the daughter against her mother And saith the carnall heart I like not this newes I love to be at peace with God and all the world as their phrase is Concerning that though it be true that the Gospel brings afflictions yet it is true the Gospel tells you that these sufferings of yours In the first place they are priviledges the Gospel tells you it is a peice of your happinesse to have them 1 Cor. 3. Whether it be Paul or Apollo or Cephas or life or death Death what is death Afflictions are called death In death oft that is afflictions they are but little deathes and one great death ends all the greatest death is a priviledge your afflictions and povertie and reproaches will be a priviledge How is that You have it in Ro. 8. They all work for good to them that love God For your good here and your glory hereafter for saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 4. These light afflictions that are but for a moment they work for us an exceeding exceeding weight of glory The English word cannot expresse it compare it with Rom. 8. The afflictions that wee suffer are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed The Spirit of glory riseth on you The Lord doth you good by it for the present and it works for a Crowne of glory hereafter For this is a true saying if we suffer with Christ we shall reigne with him Therefore though the Gospel bring sufferings with it yet take them as the Gospel expresseth them they are sweet and good tidings they are priviledges to you and will turne for your good here and your glory hereafter The Gospel moreover tells you for your suller satisfaction that the Lord will lay no more upon you than you are able to beare And he will be in the afflection with you in the fire and in the water the Lord Jesus will be with you there and in due time he will make you a way to get out Beloved put all together that the Gospel speakes of afflictions and sufferings construe them together you shall see that there is nothing in all that but glad tidings and good newes I but saith another the Gospel if it be Gospel that we use to heare from our Ministers it is not good newes for our Ministers preach against Drunkards and Swearers and Whoremongers and when I sweare the Minister saith I shall never goe to Heaven And he saith the Gospel will have a man forsake his sins and repent and the like this is not good newes it is good newes that God will save me but it is not good newes that I must leave my sins and all my wayes of pleasure that I am in It is good newes that the Gospel will have me saved but it is not good newes that the Gospel will have me a Puritan and be purisied and purged from my sins Concerning that it is very true that though the Gospel speak not properly against drunkards and whoremongers and Swearers yet the Gospel saith that drunkards must leave their drunkennesse and Swearers must leave their swearing and the Gospel calls every man to repentance from every sin yet not withstanding that it is no bad newes First take Christs Argument Mat. 5. Doth thy right eye offend thee pul it out and cast it from thee doth thy right hand offend thee cut it off and cast it from thee That is as some interpret it there are some sins that are as pleasant as the right eye as profitable as the right hand and thou wer 't better to cut them off why so It is better to goe to heaven with one eye than with two eyes to go to hell and it is better to goe to heaven with one hand than with two to goe to hell Is it not good tidings when a man is taught to make a good bargaine is 't not good tidings when the Gospel tells a man he must throw away his sinnes and it is better to crosse himself a little in his lusts and goe to heaven than to goe lusts and soul and body and all to hell Is it not good newes when a mans house is on fire if one come and shew him how to save a peice It is better than to have all burned Now the Gospel teacheth you to leave sin and it is good newes Why I will tel you because when the Gospel bids thee leave sin it puts in thee a new nature that is contrarie to sin to hate it more than hell and the Devill himself and then if God bid thee leave thy sins it is the best newes in the world as for instance there are many men and weomen I believe here that if the Lord should say to them as he did to Solomon I will give thee whatsoever thou wouldest have in heaven or earth there are some in this place that would say O Lord I would leave my pride I would have a humble heart and a heart that should not love worldly things and a heart that should not be froward and waspish If the Gospel should leave the heart as the Law did and bid you throw away your sinnes and give no strength to doe it it were bad newes but if the Gospel give you a new nature to hate sin and when it bids you leave it gives you power to take it away it is sweet and pleasant newes Another objection that others may make is that
God should expect faith from a poore sinner whereas for ought I know and learned men hold that Adam in innocencie had not the faith that we are justified by and for ought I know the Angels in heaven have it not and whence should a poore sinner have it It is God that gives repentance to Israel and God is the author and finisher of our faith Heb. 12. And in Philip 1. It is given to you to believe Therefore when I heare of grace and glory and salvation by Jesus Christ I must not consider where I shall have a vessell to carry it home where I shall have faith to receive it but it carries the vessel with it and I goe and take the promise and by the holy Spirit that same Gospel that brought the grace will work faith or else it were as harsh as the Law Therefore never stand off about faith for he that gives grace and solvation will work faith Againe it may be objected by some wee confesse that the Gospel is good newes and blessed be God it is performed also But it seemes that there is in the Gospel or annexed to it a discipline or a government whereby wee shall be ruled thus saith one thus saith another and if we receive the Gospel of Christ we must receive the Government of Christ say the Ministers and wee feare that will be no good newes to our poore soules As for that in few words as I am able I confesse Beloved that in or with the Gospel of Christ there is a Government or there is a discipline that may in a sense be called an externall discipline over the Saints or people of God And it is true that all the governments that have hetherto been in the world since our Lord Christ went to heaven men have called them the Governments of the Gospel and fatherod them upon Christ and the Gospel and truely if they had been so indeed as men pretended that is if those kind of governments that wee have had had been part of the Gospel surely than there had been a great deale of bad newes and heavie tidings in the Gospel of Jesus Christ As for instance There have been but two great governments or disciplines if I may use that word in the world since our Lord went to heaven The one was Papacie The other Episcopacy Wee have been governed either by the Pope that stiled himself the Successor of Peter and the Romish Governour or by Episcopacy in latter yeares in many parts though Papistrie made the greater stirr in the world Now these two differ in degrees otherwise they are of the same kinde And if these were the government of Christ and the discipline of the Gospel we may well say there hath been sad tidings and heavie newes from the Gospel for many yeares Give me leave to instance in a few substantiall things in these two Governments This was one thing that was in both these Governments The Ministers such as they were by what titles soever they were stiled for they had many sorts they took all the power of governing and government wholly and solely into their owne hands they called themselves the Church of God we must looke to the Church that is the Bishops to their lawes c. They called themselves the Clergie that is Gods inheritance as the word in the Originall signifies True it is there is a power a sweet Gospel power in the Ministers that is somewhat peculiar from the people But to take all power into their owne hands and to leave the people and call them the laity the drosse the valgar to leave them as vassalls and slaves and to call themselves the Clergie and the Church and the like If this had been Christs discipline there had been some hard and heavie tidings in the Gospel of Christ Secondly as they took this power into their hands so they used this power as Lords over Gods inheritance contrary to the command of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 5. 4. You shall not Lord it over Gods inheritance Now you know they were Lords that will appeare in two things First they made Lawes upon the consciences of men besides the Lawes that Jesus Christ made you know they had their Synods and their Convocations and their great Councels and the like and there they would have Canons or Lawes every time they met for the consciences of poore Saints This was no good newes And then forcing men to aver those lawes that they had made as they had made a law that people should not goe out of their Parishes they must every one heare his owne Minister though it may be he was an Ignorant drunken dumb prophane wretch and if they did not they were forced and compelled to doe it Beloved this was not according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ for if it had surely it had been no good newes Thirdly in the second Government that we have had hetherto they imposed Ministers and Officers upon the people the people never had yet liberty under these two Governments to choose men according to Gods own heart that would feed them with knowledge and understanding but such as the Bishops sent they must receive whether they were good or bad they must tako them as they found them and those usually were either Ignorant unlearned meu or prophane unsanctified men and these were sent by them as Lords and the people were forced to receive them Then fourthly in this government all the power which they had which they took all to themselves they exercised it onely almost against the Saints and people of God either as Schismaticks or Lollards or Heretiques or Puritans or the like either for doing that that was good or for things that were trifles according to their owne judgment For doing that which was good for fasting and praying for meeting to teach one another and to seek the Lord these were called Conventicles Or for trifles that they in their consciences held indifferent as the wearing of the Surplice and the Crosse in baptisme they themselves said they were indifferent things and trifles and yet men must be silenced and people bannished beyond Sea for these things This government wee have had and there was little good newes and glad tidings to the soules of the poore Saints from all this Fiftly they did restraine the Spirit of God in the Saints both in preaching and praying In preaching the Ministers were tied they must preach such and not such things and they must be in danger to be fined if they did not keep to the houre And for Prayer when it may be the poore Ministers soule was full of groanes and sighs and he would have rejoyced to have poured out his soule to the Lord he was tied to an old Service-Booke and must read that till he grieved the Spirit of God and dried up his owne spirit as a chip that he could not pray if he would and
Gospel quite contrary the proper object of all the good that the Gospel brings it is to a man quatinus as a sinner not as a regenerate man and a righteous man and a humble man but as a sinner And here is the excellency of the Gospel the more sinfull any man is the more sutable this Gospel is to him the more sin abounds grace abounds much more therefore you shall read Rom. 4. they that had the benefit of the Gospel they are called ungodly he that justifieth the ungodly They are called aliens Ephes. 2. they are called strangers and enemies and men without strength Rom. 5. they are called the chiefe of sinners 1 Tim. 1. 9. So to enemies aliens strangers lost people unrighteous ungodly and the like the Gospel brings perfect good newes and glad tidings of life and grace and salvation by Jesus Christ Now this in some measure you know but this that I tell you I feare you doe not know that the Ministery of the Gospel it is only good newes there is not one word of bad newes not one line not one sillable or tittle but only glad tidings sweet and good newes to the heart of the worst of sinners Therefore to shew you this truth a little more fully Before our Lord Christ went to Heaven there was some Gospel but there was much Law and as our Lord Christ was a Minister of the Gospel so he was of the circumcision as the Apostle calls him I mean before his resurrection yet it is said in Luk. 4. he took the booke of Isaiah and some think this was the first Sermon that ever he made and he read this place and opened it to the people The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because hee hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poore he hath sent me to heale the broken hearted to preach deliverance to the Captives to recover sight to the blinde to set at liberty them that are bruised to preach the acceptable yeare of the Lord c. Beloved there is nothing in all this but only good newes glad tidings as that the poore should have salvation by Christ that the broken hearted should be healed that the Captives should be delivered that the blinde should receive their sight and that them that are bruised should be set at liberty and them that are slaves should have the yeare of Jubilee the acceptable yeare of the Lord there is not a tittle in all this but only good newes and glad tidings Take another place and that is Heb. 12. 18. there you shall have the difference between the old Testament and the new or between the Law and the Gospel if I may so speak the Law that is the administration of the Gospel in the time of the Law where there was a little good newes but mingled with a world of bad and terrible newes Yee are not come unto the mount that might be touched and that burned with fire nor unto blacknesse and darknesse and tempest and the sound of a Trumpet and the voyce of words which they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more For they could not endure that which was commanded And if so much as a beast touch the mountaine it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart Here is nothing but what is terrible and sad newes as a mountaine that was so terrible that it might not be touched when God did give his Law upon mount Horeb or mount Sinai and that mountaine all burning with fire If we see a house burning with fire it is terrible but to see a mountaine all over burning with fire and with blacknesse and darknesse and tempest too A fire though it be terrible yet there is somewhat comfortable because there is light but that fire was full of blackness and darknesse and darknesse is a sad thing And there was tempest and lightning and thunder and a voyce of words a voyce of terrible words that bid them doe such and such things that they had no power to doe and yet they must doe them or be damned It was terrible in so much that Moses himself that used to see God face to face said I quake exceedingly and if a beast touch the hill he must be stoned to death or thrust through with a dart Here was nothing but terrible objects in the administration of the old Testament in the giving of the Law upon mount Sinai But come to the new Testament of the Gospel as it is set up since Christ went to the holy of holies after his resurrection You are come now to mount Sion and that was a pleasant place if you take it according to the letter it was the pleasantest place about Jerusalem And you are come to the City of the living God to the heavenly Jerusalem And what a beautifull thing that is you may read in Revel. 20. and 21. a City with 12 gates and every gate a whole pearle And to innumerable companies of Angels Whether that be meant that now in the times of the Gospel God sends out Angels to minister to the Saints more frequently or diligently than formerly or as most men understand it Ye are now come to a myrd of Angels or to an innumerable company of Angels that is ye are come to an estate by Christ in the Gospel wherein you are at least equall with Angels And you are come to the generall assembly and Church of the first borne as if he should say you are come to a Church where all are Patriarches for the Patriarches were the first borne heretofore Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and they were honourable men Every Saint in the time of the Gospel is in as honourable and glorious a condition as any Patriarch you are not come to a Church of ordinary Saints but to the Church of the first borne whose names are written in heaven And you are come to the judge of all You will say that is a terrible thing No it is a blessed thing to see God in the light of the Gospel to be a judge Therefore in 2 Thes. 1. and divers other places he comforts the Saints in their persecutions and sufferings with this that God will come to judgement God is the Judge of all it is a comfortable thing And then you are come to the spirits of just men made perfect to such an assembly of Saints and Church of the first borne where the spirits of men are made perfect that is beyond my expression and conception there is a perfection of the Saints in their love and in their graces incomparably to that it was before And yee are come to Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant and to the blood of sprinkling You are come to such an estate and to such a Testament where Christ is the Intercessor and his blood speaks not as the blood of Abel it doth not cry for vengance but alway for grace and mercy from his father to