the wages of all and every sin so that sin will find the sinner suffering enough death with all its appurtenances 1 with all its forerunners diseases aches paines c. 2 With all its concomitants of tribulation and anguish desperation and horrour 3 and all its followers death after death fire and brimstone which is the second death Revel 21.8 Let us distinguish of a threefold death which is the wages of sin and all will be plaine when we have clear'd it that Salvation saves us from all the three Death 1 Internall of the Soul 2 Externall of the Body 3 Eternall of the Body and Soul 1 It saves from death internall as Eph. 2.1 You hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sinns Iohn 5.25 The time shall come and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and those that hear shall live and Iohn 5.24 He that heareth my words and beleiveth in him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life and Revel 20.6 Blessed is he that hath his part in the first Resurrection on such the second death hath no power which expositors do interpret of the resurrection of the Soul from the death of sin to the life of grace as the second resurrection of the body from death to life immortall 2. It saves from death externall though not from the stroak of death for it s appointed unto all men once to die Hebr. 9.27 Yet from the sting of death for blessed are the dead which die in the Lord Revel 14.13 Paul tells us if in this life only we had hope in Christ we were of all men the most miserable 1 Cor. 15.19 noting that the hope that we have in Christ for another life is the best part of our hope and that which maketh not ashamed and in order to this Solomon saith the righteous hath hope in his death Prov. 14.32 Though beleivers die yet they are not kill'd with death as that deadly phrase is Revel 2.23 It is but their dust that sees corruption Their head having kill'd death Oh death I will be thy death Hos 13.14 nothing hinders but that on the account of that victory they may triumph as more than conquerors and say with the Apostle O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory 1 Cor. 15.55 3 It saves from death eternall Iohn 11.25 26. He that beleiveth in me though he were dead yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and beleiveh in me shall not die for ever Death is therefore call'd the King of feares because there is a more terrible death stands behind it as the Apostle saith after death cometh the judgement so we may say after judgement cometh the death Observe but how the Apostle sends out bold challenges and even bids defiance to all adversary power upon this very score of being protected and secured from the second death Rom. 8.33 Who shall condemn What shall separate I am perswaded that neither death nor life c. nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus c. Let all these be laid together that it saves us 1 From the wrath of God 2 From the curse of his Law 3 From the tyranny of Satan 4 From sin both condemning and commanding and then from punishment death internall externall and eternall and these make up a pregnant proof that Gospel-Salvation is great Salvation from the ab hoc the great evills it saves 〈◊〉 from 2 Ad hoc 2 Reason It saves us to great happiness I meane that by this great Salvation we are advanced to great happiness It were endles to handle all the particulars of that blessedness to which Salvation doth entitle us Moses brings in that blessedness in huddles that is prepared for the children of obedience and heyres of Salvation Deut. 28. blessings of all sorts and sizes in every state and condition David saith Psal 1.1 Blessednesses belong unto them or as the originall doth more emphatically render it ô beatitudines oh the blessednesses that belong unto such as he there describes and Psal 144.15 gives their blessedness a rise above all other blessedness yea above all that can be spoken or conceived yea blessed are the people which have the Lord to be their God Paul saith they begin in election and end in glorification Rom. 8.30 Whom he did predestinate them he called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified In which words he sets downe the priviledges of Gods saved ones 1. Before time In predestination 2. In time In calling and Justification 3. After time In Glorification Let us if we can run back to the beginning of eternity end run forward to the end of it and if we cannot as we cannot let us run to our witts end and then cry out ô altitudo ô profunditas oh the length and bredth and height and depth of the love of God which passeth knowledge The measure of Heaven is heaped up and pressed downe and running over Yet though the excellencies of that Land of promise which flowes with better blessings than milk and hony cannot be told you we shall not pass it by so slenderly as to say no more of it but shall do as those faithfull spies that were sent to survey the Land of Canaan present you with a bunch or two that you may have a tast at least of the fruits of the Land though the full feast be reserved till the time of our fruition 1. Those that are the heyres of this great Salvation are adopted into the family of Heaven and received into the glorious liberty of the Sonns and Daughters of the Lord God Allmighty which giving us union with Christ gives us right also to all the priviledges of Communion Justification Reconciliation adoption Sanctification and glory 1. Justification wherein of ungodly we are made righteous 2. Reconciliation wherein of enemies we are made freinds 3. Adoption wherein of aliens we are made Sonns 4. Sanctification wherein of Sinners we are made Saints 5. Glorification wherein of imperfect Saints and such as are sanctified but in part we are made perfect grace being but glory begun and glory nothing else but grace perfected 2. Those that are adopted into these priviledges are thereby entitled 1. Unto the love of God the Father 2. The grace of God the Son 3. The Communion of God the Holy Ghost 4. The protection of the Trinity 5. The guardianship of Angells 6. The comforts of an appeased conscience 7. The comfortable enjoyment of the things of this life 8. The beleiving and hopefull expectation of the life that is to come These are two bunches of the beatitudes that this great Salvation doth advance us to But the most excellent are behind this great Salvation doth advance the heirs of it unto two Kingdoms at once 1. The Kingdome of grace 2.
all things that are written in the booke of the Law to do them Deut. 27.26 It s this malediction that makes sin to be the sting of death and makes the hornet of an accusing conscience to sting self-condemned sinners like the pangs of death This put Adam upon that impossibility to run away and hide himselfe from God and made Cain to be à corde suo fugitivum a runnagate if it had been possible from himselfe This curse of the law sets the never-dying worme a gnawing and layes upon evill doers that intolerable burden of a wounded conscience which none can bear Cursed is the impenitent Drunkard Swearer Sabboth-breaker Lier Whoremonger prayerless Christless person saith the Law but I am such and such saith the conscience therefore thou art cursed thou art the man saith right reason in the conclusion It was the dreadfull impulse of this evill spirit that drave Judas first to despair and then to the gallows and furiously poasted him through an hell internall into an hell eternall T was this that doom'd despairing Spira to an hell above ground and fill'd him so brimfull with hellish horrour that he was the very monster of his time and the most dreadfull spectacle of the age he lived in Nay to come neerer to the quick It was the consciousness of this curse that set David upon the rack and put his bones out of joynt and brought him into a consumption that he complaines that his flesh was dryed up for want of fatness and his moisture was like the droughth in Summer These terrours of the Law and plunges of conscience were the stormes and flouds and mire and deepes that he so deeply complained of and made one deep to call upon another the deep of his misery to the deep of Gods mercy T was this venome that so pointed those arrows of the allmighties wrath that drank up Jobs spirits And made Hezekia to mourne like a dove and chatter like a Craine and complaine that from morning to evening God made an end of him T was this that pickled up Peter in his bitter tears and put blessed Paul so to it that he cryed aloud to Heaven for a deliverer Me miserum quis liberabit O wrethed man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death and this curse we are saved from by this great Salva 3. It saves from the tyranny and dominion of Satan Its mans hell above ground to be under the divells dominion and principality The Apostle notes that the unbeleveing and impenitent are held captive by Satan at his will 2. Tim. 2.26 and the Ephesians while they were dead in trespasses and sinns were said to be acted by the Prince of the power of the ayre the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience Eph. 2.2 Satan is therefore called The God of this World 2. Cor. 4.4 who blinds the minds of them that beleeve not least the light of the glorious Gospell of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them He goes about like a roring Lion seeking whom he may devour 1. Pet 5.8 And compasses the earth Job 1.7 yea he goes about with great wrath knowing that his time is but short Revel 12.12 He is called therefore the strong man armed that keepes peaceable possession till the stronger come Luke 11.21 but when that stronger comes and God and Christ come in with this mighty Salvation when the grace of God which brings Salvation once appeares then the weapons of our warfare are not Carnal but mighty through God to the pulling downe of strong holds When he that hath the key of David will open ther 's none that can keep shutt As the graves must open to his Surgite mortui and the Earth and Sea must give up their dead at his word of command so when he will give sinners their blessed part in the first Resurrection the Divel World and Flesh shall not be able to detaine their Captives If God will but give Paul a commission to go to the Gentiles he shall open their Eyes and translate them from darkness to light from the power of Satan to God Act. 26.17 18. When God will shine upon the labours of his planting and watering servants and come in with that increase which the Apostle calls the increase of God then not only gates of brass and barrs of Iron shall fly open and breake in sunder as they did before Cyrus when God would use him as an instrument towards his peoples enlargement but even the chaines of darkness shall snap asunder before the mighty word and almighty spirit of the Churches great Redemer like Sampsons cords when the Philistins were upon him And here is the comfort of all comforts they that are set at liberty by this great Salvation have so full a rescue that they shall never be led captive more though they have been pulled like brands out of the fire like the prey out of the paw of the Lion rampant out of the hands of the strong man by a stronger yet now they are in safe hands because there cannot come a stronger Christ saith none can take his sheep out of his hand and his father that gave them him is greater than all and none can take them out of his fathers hand Iohn 10.28 29. Though he consider and study Job Job 1.8 and resist Josua Zech. 3.1 Though be desire to have the Apostles to winnow them Luke 22.31 and wresties with beleivers about Heavenly things Eph. 6.11 12. Though he hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 devices plots machinations stratagems 2 Cor. 2.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wiles methods snares laid at unawares way layings as the word properly signifies traps artificially set to catch the prey and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Revel 2.24 the depths of Satan those poor deluded Soules like those in our times that are under strong delusions and the efficacy of error called their opinions the deep things of God in allusion probably unto that expression 1 Cor. 2.10 The spirit searcheth all things even the deep things of God and there the spirit tells them they were the deep things of the divel and not of God they were not fetcht from Heaven but from the depth of hell and though he hath such weapons as the word calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 6 16. The fiery darts of the Divel yet though he set all his infernall powers on worke and imploy all his heads and hornes all his stratagems and strength and joyne his serpentine subtilty with his Lyon-like power yet the least of God's little ones shall be saved from him though the Dragon cast Flouds out of his mouth after the woman and the remnant of her seed yet they shall have a hiding place provided They have a Captain generall that is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The cheife Captain and Finisher of their Faith Heb. 12.2 Who in that he himselfe hath suffered being tempted h◠is ble to succour them that are tempted Heb.
do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto the things that are before I press towards the marke for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus whereupon one of the Fathers call'd him insatiabilis dei cultor an unsatisfied greedy worshipper of the Lord Jesus Gods workmen should be the best and good workmen can never want worke did not our God lay enough upon them in the duties of holiness righteousness and sobriety which is the Epitome of the morall Law Did not Christ lay enough upon them in charging them to keep his Commandemeuts out of love and that their faith work by love which is the Epitome both of Law and Gospel Their own deceitfull hearts will find them enough The alluring world the enticing flesh and suggesting devill will afford them but a little breathing redit labor actus in Orbem their worke is never at an end till death give them a quietus est blessed are the dead which die in the Lord even so saith the Spirit that they rest from their labours Rev. 14.13 What betwixt reading and hearing and studying and meditating and praying and mourning and searching and watching and praising and all those laborious and painfull duties that are of absolute necessity in order to the attainment of this great Salvation it is plentifully attested to be great Salvation 3. Next for Ordinances what tendency have all these but the furtherance of this Salvation The word that Converting and edifying ordinance is it not the word of life and Salvation May I not say unto you Men and brethren children of the generation of Abraham and whosoever among you feareth God to you is the word of this Salvation sent Is not the gospell our Law of life and the law our rule of life leading to this Salvation doth not Evangelicall grace fit us for legall duty Consult that Scripture Tit. 2.12 and you shall find it so And for the sealing ordinances of Baptisme and the Supper their tendency can be no other but as seales to a deed to the sure-making of this Salvation The Ministry we may say of it as the word doth of the Sabboth that it was made for man and therefore it s reckoned to the Churches charter 1 Cor. 3.22 All things are yours whether Paul or Apollo or Cephus c. And the Apostle to the Ephes speaking of the extraordinary Ministry of Prophets Evangelists and Apostles and the ordinary of pastors teachers tells us that it was for the perfecting of the Saints for the worke of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of faith and of the knowledg of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ Eph. 4.12 13. Wherefore hath God given us his Sabboth but that we should make it our delight if Salvation be our delight wherefore hath he appointed the ordinance of prayer as a Catholicon as universall food and Phisick for our Soules as necessary as our daily bread and daily pardon as the fourth and fift Petition of the Lords prayer note yea the very discipline of the Church Christian reprooses and rebukes and excommunication it selfe aimes at the reformation of the unruly at the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. 4. Lastly for Providences how strangely doth God worke for the heires of Salvation though the word be the ordinary means for the conversion of a sinner yet how ordinarily is some afflictive providence singled out to set it home to weane unbelevers and such as stick at a halfe conversion like a child in the birth and to make them more then all-most Christians when souls do hang in aequilibrio and do as it were halt betwixt God and the world or flesh it s usually some pinching affliction that turnes the scales and causes the sinner to turne his heart and feet unto Gods testimonies Those that keep Catalogues of providences can draw out choice of experiences out of their full quivers They can tell you with David who delivered them out of the paw of the Lion and Bear 1 Sam. 17.37 and can with Paul record unto Gods glory he hath delivered and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will also yet deliver 2 Cor. 2.10 Cannot Gods people tell you when they were dead and he put life into them as the prodigalls Father said of his Son so can they say of their soules this my soul was dead and is alive againe he was lost and is found Cannot they tell when they were asleep and he awaked them when they were in deepes and he succoured them when they were rushing upon sin like a horse into the battle and he withheld them as he did David from hurting Nabal by the providence of Abigal yea they can record thankfully the very ordinances and providences wherein God appeared to them It were endless to enumerate all let experient Christians supply the rest out of their own store while weaker Christians do make use of those weake helpes to further their understandings in comprehending this truth And now being come to the uttermost of their reason let us look back and gather up the severall branches into one bundle which we need not doubt to call the bundle of life in which all saved soules are bound up 1 The wisedome and love of God the Father who is the God of our Salvation 2 The sufferings and righteousness of God the Son who is the Author and finisher of our Salvation 3 The revelation and application of the spirit who is the furtherer of our Salvation 4 Graces and duties which bear the name of saving graces and saving duties 5 Ordinances and Providences which are all things that do accompany Salvation And none of these can be left out but our Salvation will miscarry they are all of absolute necessity and for all these gospel Salvation must be confessed to be great Salvation and a mighty engine that is carried with so many and mighty wheels 1 USE Shall be of Consideration wherein I shall commend unto your serious consideration this Salvation with its dimensions as great and so great Salvation so that you are to hear 1 What it is 2 How great it is What it is take in this short account which containes the substance of all that goes before It s the dear purchase of our Soveraigne Lord Redeemer freely bestowed upon Gods elect whereby they are by a strong hand and mighty meanes freed from sin and eternall misery and advanced to grace and everlasting happiness You may read a breviary of it Iohn 3.16 God so loved the World that he gave his only bogotten Son that whosoever beleiveth in him might not perish but have everlasting life It s this Salvation that denominates the Gospel to be glad tidings for can there be gladder tidings then life from the dead then eternall life from eternall death judge how
yet that which doth tantamount is implyed in the question How shall we escape which is as much as to say ther 's no possibility of escaping And what is it that we cannot escape why a just recompence of reward for our transgression and disobedience if we look back to the verse before the Text yea a severer judgement more fiery indignation and a sorer punishment than the transgressors of Moses Law if we look forward to Ch. 10.27 28 29. And what the spirit of God speaks short here is spoken out and at large to the Scribes and Pharises hypocrites that slew the Prophets that were sent unto them and refused servants and Son too that came to require fruit of the vineyard Mat. 23.33 Ye Serpents ye generation of vipers how can ye escape the Damnation of Hell And observe that Mat. 25.41 It s called the Divels damnation depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Divel and his Angels The harmonious discord that dwells in the antithesis which opposes this great damnation to that great Salvation is very elegant and observable The Salvation refused is called the Salvation of God all the ends of the earth have seen the Salvation of our God The Damnation incurred by such a refusall is called the damnation of the Divel The Salvation slighted is the Salvation of Heaven The Damnation deserved is the Damnation of Hell I observed in the handling of the first that the mercy of Salvation is much magnifyed and made mervelous by three degrees And now we are to observe that the justice of damnation is made glorious by the same degrees for these two contraries have the same dimensions the most righteous God that gives the one and inflicts the other being as infiniâ—e in justice as in mercy Observe then in order to such an illustration of it 1. That it is positively great Damnation 2. That it is comparatively greater than other 3. That it is superlatively the greatest of all 1 That it is Great Damnation you may easily conclude from what is allready spoken that it is the damnation of Hell and the Divels Damnation and the very word gives such an astonishing sound to such as can apprehend both name and thing that to discover it to be great it will need no more than the naming but since we have to do with such as are brutifyed and must fight with beasts after the manner of men since our work lies much with dead men such as are dead in trespasses and sinns and though they bear the names of men and women that are reasoable creatures yet they are further from knowledge than the Ox and the Asse Isay 1.3 And as senseless and stupid as stocks and stones as the inanimate globes of Heaven and Earth Isay 1.2 We must therefore use all possible means and all little enough to awaken them to things of highest Consequence and everlasting Concernment and such are the things that we have in hand Matters of Salvation and Damnation matters of life and death for ever and ever Study with me but this one point that the Damnation that we are speaking of and about to aggravate is not Damnation barely for the breach of Gods Law but for refusing the mercy of the Gospel that was offered to make up that breach its Damnation for the refusal of Salvation of which refusers we may use the Apostles words Rom. 3.8 Whose Damnation is just There can be no greater justice than this when life and death are set before men and they will choose death that they should have it when Salvation and Damnation are both held out in the promise and threatning that the refusers of Salvation should fall into damnation observe Ioh. 3.16 God so loved the world that be gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him might not perish but have everlasting life and in the next verse God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved In both verses is declared both posivetily and negatively for what end Christ came into the world 1 He came to save sinners 2 He came to save and not to damne But as God by his creating power brought light out of darkness so men by their destroying sin bring darkness out of light and like the Spiders do gather poyson from the sweetest flowers and most wholsome hearbs They do wilfully aggravate their condemnation by the gracious offers of Salvation and treasure up for themselves severest wrath from sweetest mercy And this is that that brings this great damnation as you may see there in the very next verse but one ver 19. This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness more than light that mercy is offered and wrath is chosen that Salvation is tendered and Damnation is taken men deal so Jewishly with Christ that they prefer Barrabbas a murderer before him and this is rightly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Damnation 2. It is comparatively greater than other condemnations we proved Gospel-Salvation to be greater than other Salvations And the sin of Gospel-refusing to be greater than other sins And now are to shew that this damnation is greater than other condemnations 1. Greater than condemnation by mans law sentences in Courts of humane Judicature reach But 1. Either to the estate as fining or confiscation 2. Or to the body as imprisonment and scourging 3. Or to the name as stigmatizing or burning in the hand or forehead 4. Or if capitall to the life as hanging beheading c. 5. Or in case of treason to the family and posterity But this transcends all those condemnations as we may gather from Luke 12.4 5. which were the words of our Saviour to his Disciples I say unto you my freinds be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do but I will forewarn you whom you shall fear fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you fear him Provoking sinners are said to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2.5 Though they catch many a rap here that 's nothing in comparison of what 's behind This is the day of grace wherein God exerciseth patience and long-suffering towards them but if the goodness of God do not bring them to repentance there 's another day a coming where they must give another manner of reckoning a fearfull and terrible day a day all of Wrath Then righteous Judgement will be impartially dispensed without respect of persons here below in mens judicatories it falls out oftentimes as with fish in a net great ones are caught when little ones creep through and sometimes again as with flies in the Spiders webb the little ones are held when the great ones break through but that day will surprize High and Low Rich and Poor one with another We must all appear before the Judgement Seat of
the ancient Aegyptians that in their great feasts they caused a Deaths head to be carryed about the Table to put them in mind of their mortality a frolick that the Epicures and Belly-gods of our times that sit-down to eat and drink and rise up to play are not acquainted with it s reported of one of the Fathers and I think it is Hierome That he seemed alwaies to hear that saying sounding in his ear Surgite mortui venite ad judicium arise you dead and come to judgement The meditations of death and judgement are excellent corosives to eat out the heart of sin and no less Soveraign preservatives to keep us upright If we adde two more unto them which this Scripture prompts us to take in it will be more than a double fence it wil be a double bar to keep out sin and a double cord to draw to God and duty The second that my Text adds are Hell and Heaven Salvation and Damnation and these four put together are quatuor novissima the four last things and will furnish us with excellent matter for profitable meditation Some advise to meditate of Death some to think of Judgement some advise that we should remember Hell others that above all we should not forget Heaven but if they are of such force single to kill sin and quicken grace to help the Spirit and mortifie the flesh vis unita fortior when they joyn forces they will do their work more effectually I shall therefore lay and leave them before you as the fittest subjects of daily serious Meditation 1. Death shal be the first in order because it is first in time the great Statute of the Churches Magna Charta the Scriptures is recorded thus Heb. 9.27 It is appointed unto all men once to dye The Scriptures tell us examples tell us all former generations tell us experience tells us our own infirmities tell us that there is not that man living that shall not see death O what should dying men have to do with sin surely not to hugg it in their bosomes and lodge it next their hearts and let it reign in their mortal bodies and serve it in the lusts of it but to kill and crucifie and mortifie it to kill it before they dye to kill it which otherwise will kill them sin is the sting of death and it makes death to be the King of fears to a man in his sins O death how bitter is thy remembrance to such a one We dare not dye in our sins Balaam that lived the life of the wicked did choose to dye the death of the righteous sin unrepented of is the worst pillow that a mans head can lye upon on a dying bed and sinners if they can by the help of a seared or flattering conscience make a shift to dye quietly that no bonds appear in their death no desperate horrour open them an entrance into Hell yet the wicked shall not be able to stand in the Judgement nor the sinners in the congregation of the righteous they may elude humane justice or out-face and out-brave it in mens courts greatness may carry them off with power or poverty with pitty but righteous judgement shall be there dispensed by the searcher of hearts to high and low according to their works And this is certain that no unclean thing can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven ther 's no Purgatory to scour such as dye polluted but as death leaves them so shall Judgement find them Ther 's no knowledge nor wisdom nor invention in the grave saith Solomon O that they were wise to consider this that they would remember their latter end saith Moses on the behalf of Israel noting what David saith the onely way to apply a mans heart to wisdom is to pray to God to teach him to number his daies Psal 90.12 And in another place the Prophet notes that Jerusalems filthiness was in her skirts because she remembred not her latter end Lament 1.9 The onely way to have all in a readiness at death to have calling and election made sure and to have nothing to do but to dye when death comes is to write it in our memories and to be often drawing it out by meditation and conference some will wear a ring with a deaths-head upon their fingers some will keep a dead mans scull in tâ—eir studyes or closets some will have death pictured on their walls or windows some will have their Coffins in their chambers some will write Memento mori upon their books as their Motto remember death all to help our dulness and slowness of heart in believing that our end is near and our dissolution at hand but those that have gotten it deeply rooted in their hearts and are carefull to keep the memory of death alive and quick in their meditations are the onely champions that are like to give death a valiant encounter and to come off with victory and triumph Oh death where is thy sting Oh grave where is thy victory These are likelyest to give Paul's farewell to the world I have fought I have finished I have kept c. henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness 2 Tim. 4.7 8. and Rom. 8.38 I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor any other creature shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus The frequent Meditation of death is an excellent means to make us dye daily 2. Judgement is the second because it is deaths second after death cometh the judgement and it is sure that we must all come to judgement as that we must once dye We must all appear before the judgement Seat of Christ to receive according to things done in the flesh whether they be good or evil The word of God is abundant in setting this before us with all appurtenances that do accommodate it as 1. The Judge and his throne and attendants and his work 2 Thes 1.7 8. The Judge the the Lord Jesus 2. His throne Heaven shall be revealed from heaven 3. His attendants with his mighty Angels 4. His work of justice to render vengeance in flaming fire to them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and his gracious work to be made glorious in them that believe 2. The books by which we must bâ— judged of Scripture and Conscience Revel 20.12 And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened i. e. of Scripture and Conscience and another book was opened i. e. the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works 3. The causes that must be heard and tryed good and bad just and unjust Ecles 12.14 God shall bring every work into judgement with every secret thing whether it be good or evil 4. The whole process and final sentence Gods dealing with the good and evil to convict the one of sin unto Damnation