Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n
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A53095
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Ultimum vale, or, The last farewell of a minister of the Gospel to a beloved people by Matthevv Nevvcomen ...
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Newcomen, Matthew, 1610?-1669.
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1663
(1663)
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Wing N914; ESTC R8564
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50,710
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82
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Love and Obedience which the Son yeelds to the Father So the Hapiness and Glory of the Life to come is not only a sufficient but a superabundant Recompence of all that the Saints of God either do or suffer for him Fourthly Because often in Scripture the phrase or denomination of an Inheritance is used pro quavis regratâ et acceptâ So Psal 16. The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places and I have a goodly Heritage Now the Hapiness and Glory of the Life to come may be called an Inheritance because it is the most acceptable desirable delightful thing that God himself could bestow upon the Creature Fiftly An Inheritance it is a free gift No Son can claim the Inheritance at his Fathers hands by way of merit indeed a man may by his demerit forfeit his Inheritance and deserve to be disinherited but no child can challenge the Inheritance of men but must receive it of free gift And the Child yet ows all love and all service and all duty to his Father though he have never a peny of Inheritance to leave him and though he hath and should not leave it to him but leave it to some other yet still the child ows all Love and Duty to his Father and the Inheritance that is left him it is his Fathers love and good-will and not his desert So the Happiness and Glory of the Life to come though as I said before in the third Particular it is a sufficient super-abundant reward of all the Love Duty Service and Sufferings of Believers yet it is not the wages of their Service but it is the Grace of God the free Gift of the good Will and Pleasure of God And that leads me to the second Doctrine That the Heavenly Inheritance it is a Gift So Scripture expresly speaks Luke 12.32 It is your Fathers good Pleasure to give you the Kingdom Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Death indeed is due wages deserved wages but eternal Life the Heavenly Inheritance is a Gift a free gift a meer gift so in many other places and needs it must be so I will but use the Apostle's disjunction Rom. 4.4 Either it must be of Grace or of Debt of debt it cannot be And therefore it must needs be of Grace That the Heavenly Inheritance or Reward cannot be of Debt I prove First That what ever it be that makes another indebted unto me it must be in debitum unto him For by doing that which is a due debt in me and which I am obliged to do I can never make him for whom I do it indebted unto me Now all our Service and Obedience to God it is but due debt in us unto God it is that we are obliged to and therefore all our Service can never oblige God or make him indebted unto us Upon this account it is our Saviour teacheth us Luke 17.10 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 Secondly This cannot be of debt because there must be a proportion between the Work and the Reward to make the Reward due of debt A man that works in your Fields for you a day why he may come at night and claim twelve or fourteen pence for a dayes work as a due debt but if he should challenge an hundred or a thousand pound for one dayes work you would look upon him as unreasonable and impudent There is infinitely more difference between all our Service and the heavenly Inheritance than there is between a pound for a dayes hedging or ditching in your Fields It cannot be that Heaven should be a debt it must then be a Gift not of Debt but of Grace Seeing then that Heaven is an Inheritance and therefore of Gift not of Merit because an Inheritance Let this teach us to abhor that proud Popish doctrine of Merit and admire and adore the free Grace of God in Jesus Christ The Reward of Heaven and Glory it is not a Purchase but an Inheritance Among men there is a great deal of difference between a Purchase and an Inheritance For a Purchase a man layeth down a valuable price but an Inheritance comes to him freely it costs nim nothing possibly it might cost another man much that purchased it for him but if it descend unto him by Inheritance it costs him nothing O my Brethren Heaven the Happiness and Glory of the Life to come it is not our Purchase but our Inheritance we pay nothing for it indeed it cost Christ our elder Brother dear to purchase it not for himself for He was Heir by birth but to purchase this Inheritance for us it cost him dear but it cost us nothing Christ bequeathed it unto us of free Gift it is to us not of purchase but Inheritance therefore it is not of Merit but of Grace Yea Heaven is not only said to be our Inheritance but we are said to be made Heirs So Tit. 3.7 We are not born Heirs of Heaven but born Heirs of Hell but we are made Heirs of Heaven by the Grace of Adoption yea we are not only made Heirs of Heaven by the Grace of Adoption but we are made fit for Heaven by the Grace of Sanctification unto Acceptation So that here all is of Grace The Inheritance of Grace our Right and Tittle to it is of Grace our Fitting and Preparing for it is of Grace all of Grace nothing of Merit all of God nothing of our selves Secondly this That Heaven is an Inheritance which God freely gives This should teach all of us 1. To set our minds upon this Inheritance A man that hath but possibilities or expectations of an Inheritance to befal him by the death of such or such a one though it be but a poor slender paltry matter yet how hardly can he keep his mind from running upon it from thinking long till he come to the possession of it from even almost wishing sometimes the party dead whose the present possession is Filius ante diem Patrios inquirit in annos Many a graceless Child is even weary of his Father and sick of his Mother only because his mind runs so much upon the Patrimony the Inheritance and he thinks so long for it Pupillumice utinam quem proximus Haeres Impello ex pungam saith another O my Brethren did we look upon the state and happiness of the life to come as an Inheritance as our Inheritance it would be so with us we could not keep our minds from running out upon the happiness and glory of the life to come our thoughts would be running upon it our hearts would be longing and wishing for the possession of it and here we may give our thoughts and desires line scope to the utmost Indeed in our thoughts of and desires after earthly inheritances we had need set bounds to our
ever you be that are unholy though you have not yet arrived at that height of Diabolism as to mock and jeer and hate Holiness yet you do not love it nor regard it nor care to be Holy but are content to continue in your sinful and unsanctified estate In the fear of God I beseech you consider with your selves you know you must not live in this world alwayes you see many dye before you old and young and it is impossible but you should think though few of you consider it yet it is impossible but you should think that you your selves must die and you do not know how soon Now think of it in the fear of God I beseech you when-ever you die be it sooner or later whenever you die if you be unsanctified think what will become of you Whither shall ye go when you go from hence think you Do you think to go to Heaven to receive this Inheritance in Life and Glory Alas poor creature it is impossible how ever thou hast flattered thy self it may be this many a year with hopes of going to Heaven when thou diest it is impossible unless it be possible for God the Father to alter his purpose and decree And whereas he once decreed that none should be saved but those that were first sanctified now to make a contrary Decree for the saving of those that never were nor would be Saints It is impossible for thee that art unsanctified to go Heaven unless it be possible for the Son of God to become incarnate and suffer Death again to purchase Heaven for those whom he never sanctified nor never intended to sanctifie by his Blood it is impossible for thee to go to Heaven unless it be possible for God the Holy-Ghost to alter his method and separate those things in his working which God hath joyned together in his Word Therefore flatter not thy self deceive not thy self with hopes of Heaven but know that Heaven is everlastingly shut against thee whatever thou be if thou beest not sanctified and holy though thou hast carried thy self never so justly and squarely though thou give much Alms to the Poor though thou be baptized and profess to believe in Christ though thou reade the Scriptures and pray in thy Family though thou come to the Church and hear the Word and receive the Sacrament yea though thou hast some fits of sorrow for thy sin yea though thou confessest and leavest thy sin and beest sorward and frequent in Christian Society and in the Duties of Religion yet if thou beest not sanctified throughout there is an utter impossibility of thy ever entering into Heaven Heaven is a most holy place and it is impossible for any but those that are truly and really holy to find entrance and abode there And if it were possible for any unsanctified wretch to creep and steal into Heaven Heaven would either spue him out again and deliver it self of such an unsavory burden or break in pieces under him and let him sink down to Hell his own place for ever There is they say such a repugnancy in some kind of Glass and Earth as your Venice-Glass and Porcellane or China Dishes that if a Spider or a Toad or any such venemous creature be put into them they would break in pieces presently Truly so would Heaven if an unsanctified sinner should enter there There is such a Repugnancy between Heaven the most holy place and the most unholy heart of every unsanctified sinner that Heaven would even rent and break in pieces if such a creature should appear there yea if an unsanctified sinner should get into Heaven he would be weary of Heaven as well as Heaven would be weary of him he would even wish himself out again the Place is no wayes fit for him the Persons that are there no company for him the Actions that are done there no imployment for him God will never admit any into Heaven that shall be a burden to Heaven and to whom Heaven also shall be a burden Heaven would be to the unsanctified sinner but as the dry land is to the Fish therefore no unsanctified person shall ever enter into Heaven Think therefore O thou that art unsanctified think whither thou art going if thou die this night as for any thing thou knowest thou mayest die this night think what will become of thee whither thou shalt go to Heaven thou canst not it is impossible whither then whither must thou then go O mightst thou die as doth the Ox and the Ass whose soul perish whith their body and as it is educed è potentiâ materiae so it perisheth with the matter and substance of the body if thy soul might do so too O how happy shouldst thou be in comparison of what thou shalt be if thou die in an unsanctified condition but alas poor creature thy soul is immortal thy soul must have a being for ever therefore there must be some place some ubi in which thy soul must be for ever And what is that This Inheritance among the Saints in Light Ah! No No there is another place and another inheritance appointed for thee Reade thy portion in Revel 28.1 But the Fearful and Unbelieving and 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 thy portion is everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels Thy portion hath been with the Devil and his angels in sinning here thou hast cast in thy lot with them in sin here and thou must whether thou wilt or no receive thy portion and take thy lot with them in suffering hereafter But In the second place This is as comfortable to them that are Sanctified as it is terrible to the Unsanctified For as it is impossible that any Unsanctified person should enter into Heaven so it is as impossible that any Sanctified one truly sanctified should miss of Heaven Thou that art a Saint how mean and poor soever how weak soever thy Grace be how imperfect soever thy Sanctification be yet if thou beest one that is truly sanctified though thou beest never so little and low in thine own eyes though with Paul thou look upon thy self as one that is less than the least of all Saints as the least in all thy Father's Family yet I assure thee from the Lord thou shalt surely go to Heaven yea thou shalt not only go to Heaven and have some little corner of Heaven for thine though O what cause of joy and triumph would that be to some poor soul if they might but be sure of the least corner in Heaven but I tell thee whole Heaven shall be thine for thou art an Heir the Inheritance belongs to thee as much as to Abraham or Isaac or David or Peter or Paul or any the most glorious of Saints that ever was upon the Earth or that is in Heaven For this know in