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.
2.18 He puts into their hands the Sheild of Faith which will quench all the fiery darts of the Devil Eph. 6.16 And he prays that that saith may not fail Luke 22.32 And hath ex abundanti for their strong consolation furnished them with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The whole Armour of God and bids them be of good cheere he hath overcome And the Apostle being strong in the Lord and the power of his might triumphs before Victory with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8.37 We shall overcom through him that loved us And this bondage we are saved from by this great Salvation 〈◊〉 â—â—ight here enumerate more particulars 〈…〉 Judgement and Hell for this great Salvation saves from the terrours of all these and is a shelter against these driving stormes which swell up a raging Sea of wrath to drown the whole world of the ungodly but these will come in seasonably among those which follow where we shall meet with them before we make a full dispatch of this Reason 4 To give you one generall that may be comprehensive of all particulars that we need to speak to It saves from all evills Now all evills have been well reduced into two rankes 1 Mala culpae Evills of sin 2 Mala paenae Evills of punishment 1. Salvation is from Sin yea and the best part of Salvation too 'T was this that gave unto Christ his saving name Mat. 1.21 Thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sinns Salvation from wrath which is done in Justification is quiddam exterius the work of Christ without us who dyed for our sinns and rose againe for our Justification who did undergoe the curse of the law in his passive obedience and fullfilled the righteousness of the law in his active obedience for the justification of sinners but Salvation from sin which is d ne in Sanctification is quiddam interius the work of Christ within us who workes all our workes in us as well as for us See that pithy and pertinent treatise upon that forecited Scripture Mat. 1.21 entituled Salvation from sin by Jesus Christ published not long since by a judicious and faithfull Brother of our Association Mr. George Hopkins of Evesham where you may read to satisfaction upon that profitable subject and save me the labour of enlarging upon it And as it is from sin so from all sin that lies within the reach of repentance There is a sin indeed which the Scripture hath excepted called the sin unto death and the sin against the Holy Ghost which is therefore impardonable because the sinner is impenitent and because that sin is alwayes twin'd with a totall and finall apostacy otherwise there is no sin so great but may be pardoned no sinner so great but may be saved First hear what testimony the old Testament gives unto the Salvation Covenant Moses is very large in dealing out the great pardons of the great God to great sinns Exod. 34.6 7. saying he pardoneth iniquity transgression and sin as if he alluded to the three degrees of comparison magna majora maxima peccata performing to the full what that Scripture promises Isay 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and turne unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon or according to the originall he will multiply to pardon The Prophet Ezekiel 36.25 dotr particularize I will pour clean water and ye shall be clean from your idols and from your filthyness will I clense you though your sinns were as great as idolatry against the first Table or uncleanness against the second and we can hardly think of greaâ—â—â— yet upon returne to God they may be pardoned and purged The Prophet Isay 1.18 goes yet further if further may be and makes mention of the pardon of Scarlet and Crimson sinns i. e. Sinns that are double dyed dyed in graine like those colours aggravated with the most notorious of circumstances as bloody as murther as Davids matter of Vriah or as black as Hell as Manasses witchcraft and familiarity with Evil spirits yet upon Gods termes they may be forgiven Secondly and because you shall have the evidence of this truth from the mouthes of the two witnesses the New Testament as well as Old peruse that place Mat. 12.31 That very verse that puts a barre to the Salvation of sinners against the Holy Ghost opens a wide doore of hope unto all besides All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men Know further that Salvation from sin to give you the dimensions of it is 1 Either from the Condemning power 2. Or from the Conmmanding power of sin and in respect of both it deserves the title of great Salvation 1 Believers are saved by Christ from the condemning power of sin Rom. 8.1 The Apostle layes it downe as a most certaine conclusion resulting by way of Argument from antecedent premises Now then there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Iohn 3.16 They shall not perish Iohn 10.28 They shall never perish and Iohn 5.24 Shall not come into condemnation 2 And they are freed from the commanding power of sin Sin doth not reigne in their mortall bodies that they should obey it in the lust of it They have given their members servants to righteousness unto holiness and though they sometimes do the Evill which they would not yet they have sued out their divorce and can say with the Apostle their consciences bearing them witness It is no longer I but sin that dwelleth in me They have put themselves under the regency of Christ and put up that petition daily in his name Thy Kingdome come desiring that God and Christ by the holy spirit may bear rule in their hearts and not sin and Thy will be done wherein they desire to be made willing to be ruled by his will and not the lusts of the flesh and by this meanes though sin be not â—jâ—cted from its inherency yet it is dejected from its regency and they are neither servants nor slaves of sin 2 Salvation is from punishment à malis poenae as well as à malis culpae from wrath as well as sin and this so great Salvation that I fear too many do look upon it as the vna vnica salus that that comprehends the totality of Salvation but having said enough to undâ—ceive you in the antecedent branch of Salvation from sin it remaines that we discover this also to be a considerable part though not the totum integrale the All of this great Salvation As all of transgression is epitomiz'd and summed up in Scripture in the terme of sin so is all of wrath and punishment in this terme of death and therefore the Apostle briefly layes downe both Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is death i e. All death is
speechless they will not have one word to say for themselves why the sentence of damnation should not take hold upon them who have been such willfull refusers of that great Salvation that was offered to them upon such easy tearmes O worke out your Salvation while it is called to day the night is approaching in which none can worke Whatsoever is commanded you do it with your might for there is no knowledge nor wisedome nor invention in the grave whither you are going Perhaps your paines that you must take for it must be great and your sufferings that you must pass through may be great to but remember that it hath been declared and proved to be great Salvation which is to be your recompence and such as will more than recompence you for all that you can do or suffer for it As to the recompence of our doing the Apostle speakes modestly in speaking but negatively 1 Cor. 15. ult Be ye allwayes abundant in the worke of the Lord knowing that your labour shall not be in vaine in the Lord But when he speakes of the recompence of our sufferings a double superlative is little enough 2. Cor. 4.17 Our light affliction which is but for a moment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worketh for us a farr more exceeding and eternall weight of glory observe but the elegancy of the Apostles Antithesis in speaking diminutively of the sufferings and loftily of the glory which he opposes to them The one he calls 1. Afflictions 2. Light afflictions 3. Light affictions for a moment The other he calls 1. Glory 2. A weight of glory 3. A weight of glory for aeternity Compare 1. Glory with afflictions 2. A weight of glory with light afflictions 3. A weight of glory for aeternity with light afflictions for a moment The one will be ponderous beyond our imagination the other will seem lighter then vanity it selfe well might the Apostle say count that the afflictions of this present world are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us Rom. 8.18 Upon which an expositor of note excellently enlarges and saith non sunt condigni labores nec condignae passiones ad peccatumpraeteritum quod remittitur ad praesentis vitae gratiam quae immittitur ad futurae vitae gloriam quae promittitur All that we can do or suffer is nothing compared to the sin past which is remitted to the present grace which is bestowed nor to the future glory which is promised This was a meane thing that the Author of this Epistle amied at to incourage the Hebrews to suffer the spoiling of their goods joyfully and to take in good part all that might befall them and not to be offended at the Cross because this great Salvation would make them not only savers but imcomparable gainers I shall shut up this point with the same consideration O let us worke and watch and strive and walke circumspecctly let us pray and pray and give all dilligence and offer violence and be abundant in doing and suffering for let us assure our selves whatever men think of this Salvation now in that great day when the Lord Christ shall be made terrible to the refusers of it and glorious in them that beleive the most unbeleiving will be more than throughly convinc'd that the Salvation offered in the Gospel is GREAT SALVATION THE SECOND DOCTRINE Setting light by this great Salvation is great Sin THough we shall easily confesse all sins to be great yea the least to be objectively infinite because committed against an infinite God as we see David swallowed up of this deep Psal 51.4 against Thee Thee have I sinned c. And we shall as easily confesse that no sins are venial in the sense of Rome the Apostle Paul having declared that the wages of all sin is death Rom. 6.23 yet we cannot with the stoicks think all sins to be equal but more or less sinfull as they are circumstantiated that very expression of the sinfulness of sin had otherwise been a paradox which we find used in Scripture and in many of the writings of the learned and orthodox both modern and ancient and the Prophet had been guilty of an impropriety of speech in mentioning scarlet and crimson sins if some had not been of a deeper guilt than others and their sinfulness like those colours dyed in grain Now that this sin of gospel-refusing or setting light by this great Salvation is a sin with an high hand and a hard heart and a sin of that aggravated nature as to be out of measure sinfull is the point that is first to be illustrated and then to be proved by evidence and strength of reasons First for illustration thus The Scripture thunders out a most dreadfull curse against such as do the work of the Lord negligently Jer. 48.10 if the negligent hearers and doers do lie open to the curse of God what will become of those that are so grossly negligent that they neglect both the theory and practick the knowing and doing part and all that care so little for the gospel that they desire not to be acquainted with it that do as it were say to the Lord depart from us we care not to know thy waies nor to walk in thy paths The forementioned Scripture levels that curse against such as are negligent in the execution of Gods destroying work as the words immediately following do manifest Cursed is he that doth the work of the Lord negligently or deceitfully and cursed is he that keepeth back his sword from blood when God shall say to his sword go through a Land destroy all and save none and his executioners must close with it under pain of the Lords curse and fiercest indignation What shall become of such as will not close with his saving work when he shall say to his word go thorough a Land and open blind eyes and deaf ears and dead hearts that men may see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and be converted and be healed and when such as should proclaim these glad tidings shall be dumb and not declare it the hearers shall be deaf will not entertain it there must be blind leading the blind till all fall into the pit and the forna◠must be heat seven times hotter for the refusers of the Gospel than for the transgressors of the Law the fire of gods jealousie burning hottest about the Sanctuary and that judgement being most merciless which beginneth at the house of God read that confluence of threatnings Deut. 29.20 where God threatneth that all the curses that are written in his book shall fall upon such as bless themselves in a cursed estate and adde to that Deut. 28.61 where God threatens all the curses that are not written to the children of disobedience and yet that flaming place being a Gospel-threatning 2. Thes 1.7 8 9. is hotter and heavier than all The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven in
God told the Israelites that they did not pray unto him when they howled upon their beds Hos 7.14 Ther 's a vast difference betwixt saying a prayer praying a prayer the words of prayer are but the carcase of the duty the longing desites of the soul after God and his mercies after gifts and giver are the soul of it and that only that makes the prayer effective Therefore I say that such sinners as Gospel-refusers may find mercy there must be deepest humiliations suitable repentance and most tervent prayers Old weather-beaten sinners â—hat have long setled on their lees and have been frozen in their dregs and have lain soaking in their lusts that have long frustrated meanes fair and foul and all that have been spent in vaine upon them such Blackmores will not be washed white with a little nitre nor such Leopards purged from their spots with a finger No if after long humbling and praying and fasting and waiting they may have a glimps of Gods pleased countenance at last they have cause to wonder at such mercy if at their latter end they may have their pardon sealed though their grey hairs are brought downe with sorrow to the grave yet they have reason more than enough to die admiring the Lords mercy But here I must enter a caveat against a mistake let all thought of meriting be banisht from our severest and most mortifying humiliations Though we should macerate our selves with fasting into very Skelitons and be like so many pale corpses or wandring shadows though we could sigh our selves into very aire and dissolve into very teares our heads being fountaines and our eyes rivers Yet when all were done we must cry out unprofitable and we must fly from our best performances to the Lords mercy and to Christs merit for succour and Salvation 4 There must be great changes of heart from stone to flesh is a great change and when God pours out his cleane water of sanctification he takes away the heart of stone and gives the heart of flesh Ezek. 36.26 From worse than nothing to the new creature is a greater change and this is wrought in regeneration From darkness to light is a change most remarkable and this saving conversion brings to pass Acts. 26.18 For a Man to hate his flesh his unregenerate part his lust and body of death which in the time of his vanity he loved so deerly and was as loath to part with the members of it right eye foot or hand this is a great change and such a change is wrought in selfe-denyall It was a great change that was wrought on Saul upon a sudden when from persecuting he fell to praying and preaching this well deserved an ecce as a note of admiration behold he prayes Acts. 9.11 For one that was so mad upon taking away the lives of others for professing Christ to be more ready to lay downe his own upon the same account was so notable a change that all that hear of it may say this is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes The grace of God which brings Salvation brings such changes and where great changes of heart are wrought there great changes of life will accompany them Gospel-sliting and neglecting will be turned into Gospel-prizing and advancing those that made no reckoning of Gods Law before will after this change say with David I love thy commandements above gold and the Lawof thy mouth is deerer unto me than thousands of gold and silver and they that thus prize it in their hearts will practise it in their lives knowing that the true sayings of God are verba vivenda non legenda and they ought to live Gospel as well as know it David approves himselfe to God in the sincerity of his own heart in saying Lord what love have I unto thy Law all the day long is my study in it and desires God to sift and try and prove and search him over and over that there may be no leaven of hypocrisy left behind Psal 139.23 24. And he makes it the Character of a blessed man that he exterciseth himselfe in Gods Law day and night Psal 1.2 We should make it our meat and drinke our food and Phisick and recreation And for an answerable conversation the Apostles exhortation is exceeding pregnant wherein he gives them one precept that may include totum homnis the whole duty of man Phil. 1.27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Jesus Christ As Solomon saith Fear God and keep his Law for this is the whole duty of man Ecles 12.13 So the Apostle there love Christ and love his Gospel for this is the whole duty of Christians 3 USE Shall lay before you and leave with you two breife incouraging considerations by way of comsolation for those that have formerly been such but now have resolved to breake off that and all other sins by unfained repentance 1 Let such consider it is not every Sermon that is slighted or every tender of mercy and offer of Jesus Christ that is made to the Soul and set light by that is the great damning and impardonable sin of Gospel-refusing though these are too bad and exceeding heynous and being objectively against the Gospel are much to be bewailed but it s the finall refusing of mercy and slighting of Jesus Christ to the death that is most properly and in strict sense the great sin of Gospel-refusing and such as live and die in that sin do render themselves by so doing uncapable of pardon and cast themselves unavoidably upon everlasting damnation Gods word saith as much either exprefly or by direct consequence in a thousand places every Minister that you hear tells you so or else he tells you not the truth every Chapter that you read gives you some hint or other of it many a time have your bretheren and Christian freinds told you that except you close which God and lay hold upon Christ you cannot be saved if they have dealt faithfully with your Soules yea many a time have your own consciences if they are not blind and dumbe and seared told you so and is it not the extremity of madness to venter your Salvation upon such termes that either the Scriptures must be false and God a Liar or you cannot be saved If you live and die in this sin you must as sure be damned as the Divel himselfe as sure as the Heaven is over your heads and the earth under your feet Hell will be your portion and everlasting damnation will be the wages of refusing Gospel-Salvation But if you may yet be prevailed with before your breath be stopt and the pitt shut her mouth upon you to embrace Christ whom you have long slighted and accept of that mercy which you have unworthily refused and receive the Gospel which you have neglected there is yet hope in Israel concerning this O for the Lords sake and for your Soules sake stand out no longer refuse not mercy that
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
enquiry then what Sodoms sin was that we may judge the more clearly of this Comparison Moses saith Gen. 13.13 The men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly that is they were a most notorious sort of sinners and greater than ordinary Though many of Sodoms sins are enumerated in that black catalogue that stands upon record as an aggravation of the sins of Israel whose sister shee is called Ezek. 16.49 Pride fullness of bread i.e. gluttony and drunkenness and abundance of idleness and uncharitableness Yet there is one sin that is hang'd upon the file that takes its denomination from that place and is called the sin of Sodomy e. i. burning in strange unnaturall lusts not fit to be named without trembling this was that that caused them to be burnt with strange fire even with fire and brimstone from Heaven as they had abused their land and turn'd it into a Hell of sin so God raines down from Heaven upon them a Hell of punishment somewhat may be yet added towards the aggravation of their sin which was monstrous enough without circumstances of guilt from Isay 3.9 They declare their sin as Sodom they hide it not the meaning is they were shameless sinners they did adde a brazen forhead to their stony hearts and added to the extremity of lust the extremity of impudence And if the sin we are speaking of be more monstrous than the sin of Sodom what shall we say to this Surely as the Prophet thundring against the sins of Israel saith hear the word of the Lord ye Princes of Sodom hearken to the Law of our God ye people of Gomorrah Isay 1.10 The Gospel Boanerges may cry lowder against the sins of England and all such Lands as have lived under the sun-shine of the Gospel Hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ ye that are greater sinners than the Princes of Sodom give eare unto the Salvation of our God ye that are greater sinners than the people of Gomorrah 3. It is superlatively the greatest sin except that excepted sin the sin unto death called in Scripture the sin against the holy Gost That it is against the love of God and grace of Christ and revelation and wrastling of the spirit you have allready heard a trinity of aggravations bigg enough to make three superlatives and evidencing it to be a sin against the Holy Ghost of an high nature though not the sin against the Holy Ghost yet it is not to pass thus we have further evidence against it which will prove it to be more than superlatively abominable but we shall modell that which is behind into a few arguments or Reasons which shall make up a convincing and pregnant proofe of this truth that the sin of Gospel-refusing is superlatively great and a most sinfull sin 1. Reason proving it to be exceeding great is because it is an accumulated sin To refuse Gospel-Salvation is to heap sin upon sin we do all by nature through Adams disobedience ly under the Condemnation of the Covenant of workes the wrath of God abiding on us Now Gospel-Salvation is a plaister of Christs blood to heal that wound and a mercifull indulgence provided by our wise and gratious God as a suitable remedy against that malady God gave his only son that whosoeuer beleiveth in him might not perish c. John 3.16 Now they that refuse this mercy do expose themselves to judgements without mercy and they that are regardless of this remedy must be left to perish without remedy and all because they adde to their transgessions of the Law their owne and their forefathers this sin above all that they set light by the Gospel The mercies of Heaven are meted out unto men in Heavens measure that is heaped up pressed downe and running over though we are ready to stand upon niggardly tearmes with God â—e deales not so with us and when God requires of us a proportionable measure of thankfullness and obedience even that we should be abundant in the worke of the Lord who thus abounds to us in mercy and loving kindness for us to make such a wretched retribution unto the Lord for all his mercies as to returne a full measure of our iniquities sinns heaped up and pressed downe and running over this must needs be exceeding provoking to the eyes of his glory Our Righteousness indeed should be a righteousness running over as our Saviour taught his disciples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 except your righteousness exceed i. e. run over the righteousness of the Scibes and Pharises ye cannot enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Mat. 5.20 Mistake me not I do not hold that the righteousness of the Saints can run over in the sense of Rome by works of supererrogation for being sanctified but in part we must crave pardon dayly for the iniquities of our holy things and say when all is done that we are unprofitable servants but in respect of such as come short and take up with the name and forme and easy part of Religion as the Scribes and Pharises did so it must exceed and run over Now when insteed of a righteousness running over our sin shall run over as it doth when we are guilty of Gospel-refusing where shall such ungodly ones and sinners appear The people of Israel when they had committed that sin of thunder in asking them a King when God was their King when they were awakened and convinc'd by a storme and Son of thunder they made this confession we have added unto all our sinns this evil to aske us a King 1 Sam. 12.19 But those that refuse the Gospel may take up this confession that they have added this to all their other sinns that they have refused them a King yea the King of Kings the Royall King Jesus yea that that more than superlatively aggravates their sin they refuse Jesus Christ in all his offices who offers himselfe in the Gospel as their compleat Mediator in his propheticall preistly and kingly Office and of God is made unto us wisedome and righteousness and sanctification redemption 1. Cor. 1. â—0 And because we are now declaring against this sin as an accumulated sin we shall take a little liberty more than ordinary to make good these 3 charges against the sin of setting light by the Gospel that it is against Christ in his threefold office and this will do the office of a magnifying glass and present that sin which to purblind sinners seemes no bigger than a molehâ—ll in his full propoâ—â—on swelling to a mountaine I know many will be ready to startâ—â— at such a charge and â—he most guilty will be ready to kick first as Judas was ready with his Mâ—steâ— is it I what we Refusers of Jesus Christ no we scorne it we defy them that shall tell us so It is not fit they should live that refuse Jesus Christ do you make doggs or Divells of us that we should do so and thus men are ready to cry peace and plead not
will repudiate you and give you a bill of divorce and because you were no more faithfull in keeping the Oracles of God your Candlestick shall be removed and you shall be left in darkness and that Land of yours which is the glory of all Lands shall be like a desolated Desert and a forsaken Wildernes what is it that hath made such havock of late years in Germany that hath destroyed so many Towns and made such depopulations as our ears have heard of was it not the Lords Covenant-quarrel What was it that opened such bloudy sluces in England Scotland and Ireland and the Netherlands without all peradventure this sin of Gospel-refusing hath stricken the deadlyest stroakes in all our Wars and we may say to this sin as once Zippora said to Moses thou hast been a bloudy sin to us and if we shall go on to dishonour God and slight his Gospel and notwithstanding the loud out-cries of his Word and Sword we shall nourish that viper in our bosoms and shall foment those blasphemies and heresies that strike at the foundation and shall help on those divisions that threaten to deprive us of Verity and Purity as well as Unity we may take up a lamentation when it is too late and Sword Pestilence and Famine may be sent upon that errand to bring our sins to our remembrance which the Gospel in the mid'st of peace health and plenty could not fasten upon us It should be written with a pen of iron in every thankfull heart what wonderfull deliverances the Lord hath wrought for us especially those of the Spanish Invasion and the Powder-plot of which we may say in Davids words if the Lord himself had not been on our side may England now say if the Lord himself had not been on our side when men rose up against us they had swallowed us up quik when they were so wrathfully displeased at us but blessed be the Lord that hath not given us over as a prey unto their teeth Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the Fowler the snare is broken we are delivered And shall we after all this betray our native Land into the cruel hands of our religious adversaries that would borrow all the politicks of Julian or Machiavill and make use of all the Stratagems and strength of the Devils heads and borns to deprive us of the Gospel Surely we cannot take a likelier course to effect all this than by going on to neglect this great Salvation which if this Gospel-glutted Land shall persist in doing notwithstanding the warnings of all Gods Watchmen when the Sword of the Lord shall devour greedily your flesh and his arrows shall make themselves drunk with your bloud when your sins have made this populous and plentifull Land a place of sculls and a field of bloud when the hornet of your conscience shall sting you like the pangs of death and say unto you as Nathan to David you are the men that have done this you will then know that you are Traitors to the State who have betrayed your Country into the Enemies hand We read that the Cananites dwelled in garrisons walled up to Heaven and yet their sinns delivered them up into the hands of spoilers and though our fenced Cities had walls as high and thick as the walls of Babylon yet the sin that is within would let in the enemy Though our Armies were never so mighty and numerous Our Counsellors and Statesmen the very Oracles of the time Yet they are the faithfull Ministers and people that are the Charets of Israel and horsemen of it And our greatest security under Heaven lies in such as teach and live the Gospel such as know and do and declare the will of God and indeavour to keep a conscience voyd of offence towards God and man and order their whole conversation as it becometh the Gospel of Jesus Christ 4 Reason of the greatness of this sin is because it is a Church-confounding sin There hath been a great crying down of Churches in our dayes by giddy sectaries but this is a short cut to destroy all and to turne the Lords vineyard into a howling wilderness All the secret underminings of schismes within and the malignant batteries of persecutors without can do but little hurt so long as he is our keeper that never slumbers nor sleepes and is able to make his Church bear up against the gates of Hell but when by setting light by the Gospel we do put God from us open a wide dore to our own overthrow then the wild bore and beasts may make havoek the adversaries may fall on and cry downe with it downe with it even to the ground and the Churches Enemies may say as Davids enemies did of him God hath forsaken him persecute and take him for there is none to deliver him What it was that made the Lord God of Israel to forsake his tabernacle in Shilo and utterly to forsake the Jewes you hard in the last reason for it was their setting light by Christ that did overthrow their State and Church too What was it that made Babylon the great to fall and Rome to be unchurched whose fame and faith made the world to ring but because of Christian they became Antichristian and from Apostolicall did turne retrograde and became Antipostolicall and of a Church of the living God a pillar and ground of the truth they became an Hydra of Heresy and Synagogue of Satan What removed the Candlesticks from the seven famous Churches of Asia and fills their eares with the forgeries of Mahomet where the sound of the Gospel was wont to ring read the Prophesies that went of them in the second and third Chapters of the Revelation and you will find it was for turning their backs upon the Gospel and entertaining falshood insteed of truth And what hath made the Lord to stand so often upon the threshold amongst us as if he were ready to take his leave though like a long suffering God and he yet plaies â—oath to part If we do but take these following causes among many into close consideration we may easily informe our selves 1 How many in this Goshen and Land of light do stand in open opposition to the Gospel and as it were bid defiance to God and Christ How have sectaries swarmed of late and such as openly oppose the truths of God yea the very fundamentalls opening their black mouthes wide against God and Christ and the Spirit and the Word and Seales and Sabboth and Ministry some denying the immortality of the Soul and perswading men that they are without Law and that there is neither Heaven nor Hell And besides these how many dissolute and profane Spirits abound in all places even under searching and powerfull Ministries that in words profess Christ but in workes deny him 2 How few do close with the Covenant of God so visibly that they may pass for beleiver in a large sence and be conversed with
Christ 2. Cor. 5.10 and every one must give an account of himself to God Rom. 14.12 If any are left out of these expressions all and every one they may expect to escape judgement else not Here sometimes the rod of the wicked falls to the lot of the righteous and Gods servants are condemned as evil doers when the Benjamins mess and double portion is given to the wicked but then the just Judge of all the World will do all men right and distribute righteous judgement in giving to every one according to his works Rom. 2.6 7 8 9 10. Rendering eternal vengeance to the ignorant and disobedient and wil be made glorious in them that believe 2 Thes 1.7 8 9 10. 2. Greater also than condemnation by Gods Law as appears from the verse before my text and Ch. 10.27 28 29 30 31. To such as wilfully refuse this Gospel-Salvation There remains no Sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries He that despised Moses law i. e. Gods law given by the Mediatourship of Moses died without mercy of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God and counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the spirit of Grace For we know him that hath said vengeance belogneth unto me I will recompense saith the Lord and again the Lord will judge his people It is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God So far the Apostle in that Scripture which thunder-claps though by the concurrent Judgement of expositours they are levelled at sinners against the Holy Ghost those that are guilty of that sin unto death yet many of the iniquities of that sin are though in a lower measure to be charged upon the neglecter of this great Salvation 3. It is superlatively the greatest of all condemnations two places of Scripture I shall quote and improve that are of this tendency and then shall pass to the further confirmation of it by strength of reason The first is 1 Thes 2.16 Where the Apostle notes that the Jews that killed the Lord Jesus and their own Prophets and persecuted the Apostles and envyed the Gentiles that in a word with the unjust Judge did neither fear God nor reverence Man did thus Fill up the measure of their sins till wrath came upon them to the utter most i. e. they sinned to the uttermost till they were plagued to the uttermost compare with this place that Heb. 7.25 which words are spoken of Jesus Christ the great high Priest of his Church the plentiful Redeemer and mighty Saviour He is able to save to the uttermost all them that do come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them what can be more equall than this that they that refuse mercy to the uttermost should have wrath to the uttermost that they which set light by that Salvation to the uttermost should indure the uttermost of Damnation The other place of Scripture that speaks to this point and serves to set out the superlative greatness of this Damnation is Matth. 3.7 They are the words of John Baptist to the Pharisees and Saduces that came to his Baptism O Generation of vipers who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come Where note that this dreadfull Damnation is called Wrath to come and therefore because the main of it is reserved for the life to come true it is that some notorious Malefactours have an entrance into Hell opened unto them while they are upon earth and are hang'd up in Gibbets for the astonishment of others that are so pursued by the hornets of their consciences stinging them with the pangs of the second death that with Cain and Judas they are driven by the Devil through hell internal into an hell eternal but the dreadfulness of perfected Damnation which the Devil believes and trembles to believe is reserved for an endless life in that which we call the World to come David saith Great plagues remain for the ungodly though upon the ungodly God raines snares fire and brimston storm and tempest and discharges whole Vollies of Wonderful plagues upon the children of disobedience Deut. 28.59 yet there is a reserve of more and greater and the biggest and worst are still behind As the Saints have usually the worst in possession and best in reversion and this life is a sowing in tears that they may reap in joy so usually the wicked have the best at first and worst at last as Abrabram said to Dives Son remember how in thy life time thou receivedst thy good things but Lazarus pains but now he is comforted and thou art tormented But to return to take into further consideration that expression of wrath to come Cast abroad your eyes in all the world and look back to the beginning of time and enquire whether ever sorrow were like unto that Weeping and Howling and Gnashing of Teeth which the Lord inflicts upon the Damned in the day of his fierce wrath 1. We read that for our first Parents disobedience the whole Creation was under such a load of wrath that ever since it hath groan'd under it Rom. 8.22 But there we read also that the creature groans under an expectation of liberty waiting when it shall be restor'd into the glorious liberty of the Sons God but when this Damnation takes place the Torments as they are easless so shall they be endless the worm dyeth not and the fire never goes out there is no hope of a deliverance 2. It s upon record that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed with Fire and Brimston but when the Cities were burnt the fire was extinguisht but the wicked are the chaff and stubble that must be burnt with unquenchable fire the damned who are the fuel that feed it shal be like the burning bush all on a fire but not consummed and therefore the fire must needs be everlasting The burning thereof is fire and much wood and the breath of the Lord like a River of brimston doth kindle it Isay 30.33 3. God overthrew the old World with a devouring floud but the Scripture makes mention of the rising and raging of it and then of its ebbing again and flowing no more But those souls that are drowned in perdition are cast into the Mare mortuum the dead and deadly Sea the Red and the Raging Sea of the Almighties wrath which hath neither bank nor bottome where they must be sinking and drowning for ever and ever 4. The Jews for their rejecting Christ were unchurched and Excommunicated but they are to be called again when the fulness of the Gentiles is come in But the sentence of finall Damnation shal be beyond the Anathema Maranatha that was but till the coming of Lord but this commences at the coming of the Lord and from thenceforth for ever Go ye cursed
confluence of choicest provisions such is God's free entertainment of his Servants and Favourites Mine Oxen and Fallings are killed and all things in a readiness come unto the Marriage Mat. 22 4. And Come yee blessed of my Father receive the Kingdome prepared for you Mat. 25 34. But when men are to prosecute their deadliest Enemies they will do it with the uttermost rigour that their possibility can reach unto Such and infinitely greater is Gods anger against his Adversaries he takes pleasure at their overthrow and laughs at their destruction Ah I will ease me of mine enemies and be avenged on mine Adversaries Isay 1.24 And as if his mercy were utterly at an end and he had forgotten to be gracious he will denounce that everlasting excommunication as the triumph of his glorious justice Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Divel and his Angels Mat. 25.41 5 Reason Because it hath a great and a long reach 1. It reacheth to the Soul 2. And it reacheth to eternity 1 It reacheth unto the Soul other sentences reach but to the body name estate family relations liberty life as was before hinted but this reacheth the Soul Fear not them which kill the body and when they have done that have no more that they can do but fear him who when he hath killed is able to cast into Hell yea I say unto you fear him Luke 12 4. How do malefactors that are arraigned for some capitall offences tremble before an earthly Judge when he is pronouncing sentence of death upon them but how will corrupt Judges themselves tremble as Faelix did when he heard Paul reasoning of judgement to come yea a more than either he or Belshazzar did when the hand was writing him a divorce from his Kingdome when this sentence of Damnation is going out how will blackness cover all faces when a World of selfe condemned sinners shall stand before the dreadfull Tribunall of the Lord Jesus which in the last Assize he is sitting upon life and death when nothing is left them but a certaine fearfull looking for of judgement and fiery indignation which shall devour the Adversaries Hebr. 10.27 'T was a sad hearing to the rich glutton Thou foole this night shall thy Soul be taken from thee Luke 12.20 The Soul is more worth than the World in his esteem that laid down his life to save Soules Mat. 16.26 And in this damnation this jewell is lost and this darling of ours must be delivered to the roring Lion The Saints do lay all at stake to save their souls Profsâ—s Pleasures Honours Friends Liberty Life it self and think all to be an easie exchange which will more than conclude the loss of the soul to be the loss of all losses 2. And that which makes this so great a loss and that we are treating of so great Damnation is because it is for ever and ever It reacheth to Eternity The sinner under convictions thinks he shall dy no other death looks upon himself as in a very hell upon earth David after deliverance out of such a deep saith O Lord thou hast delivered my Soul from the nethermost hell and Saint Augustine having in his confessions taken shame unto himself for a multitude sins in the depth of his humiliation calls out of the deep of misery to the deep of mercy Lord pitty my Soul in the lowest hell such in Scripture-sense are called lost Christ came to seeke save the lost but this loss shall- be their gain and I may say in this case as the Word in another he that loseth his life shall find it and the Apostle Paul desired to be lost in himself that he might be found in Christ this is but a seeming loss nor will it last long heaviness may indure for a night but joy cometh in the morning for a moment have I hid my face in mine anger saith the Lord but with everlasting mercy will I return and have compassion but the lose we are speaking of is reall and irreparable The soul under desertion thinks it self in a wofull case and hath much ado to distinguish betwixt it self and a cast-away as appears in Davids case Psal 77.7 8 9. Will the Lord absent himself for ever and will he be favourable no more c. and Job complained in the bitterness of his soul that God had set him up as his marke to shoot at and the venome of his arrows drank up his Spirit and Hezekiah did mourn like a Dove and chatter like a Crane and complained that from morning to night God did make an end of him But though it were now winter with them and the sap was gone down into the root yet the Suns return brought their spring again and the light of Gods countenance made all whole but in that desertion which Damnation causes the deserted soul is deserted for ever When the body loses the soul at the death naturall it s a sad loss but the Resurrection will bring them together again but where the soul and God are parted in the spirituall death and the naturall death finds them in this case eternall death presently seizes that soul and that separation wil be everlasting that soul and happiness will never meet 6. Reason The last reason to prove this Damnation to be exceeding great is Because it consists in great and dreadfull punishments We shall make use of this old and common distinction of 1. Poena Damni The punishment of loss 2. Poena Sensus The punishment of sense All evil is distinguished into 1. Malum culpae The evil of sin 2. Malum poenae The sin of punishment All evill of sin may be distinguished into 1. Inherent our own sins 2. Adherent our other mens sins All evil of punishment as afore into 1. Poenam Damni the punishment of loss 2. Poenam Sensus the punishment of sense Man is a compound creature consisting of a soul and body a Coelestiall and Terrestriall part as God is Lord both by Creation Preservation and Purchase so he requires to be honoured with both with all of both all the parts of our bodys and all the powers of our souls If the Apostles inference hold concerning one viz Gods right of purchase ye are bought with a price and therefore ought to glorifie God c. It will conclude much more strongly if we take in all ye are created with his power preserved by his providence as well as bought with a price therefore ye ought to glorifie God both with your bodies and souls which are Gods Here is the very quâ—nâ—essence of reason that God should have his own that which is so much his own by a manifold right Give unto Caesar that which is Caesars and give unto God that wich is Gods Now for such as give up themselves wholly to God in a way of grace and duty taking him to be their â—â—rtion and his Son to be their Lord preferring their interests before all others serving them in the
beautie of holiness and power of Godliness giving up themselves bodys souls and spirits unto God upon the account of the Covenant desiring nothing more than that their hearts may be whole with God and they could be stedfast in his Covenant making God and Jesus Christ the joy of their hearts and breath of their lives and resolve to continue so doing to the death God hath provided for them suitable joyes and pleasures in the life to come Rationall delights for their reasonable souls and sensible delights for their glorified bodys Mistake not far be it from me to say or you to imagine that the glorified Saints shall enjoy such carnall delights in heaven which sensuall and flesh pleasing men do make their heaven upon earth that were a conceite better beseeming a Turk than a Christian the Proselytes of Mahomet have dreamed of such an earthly or rather hellish heaven by fancying such an Utopian Paradise into which the unclean may enter and the pleasures of sin shall meet them The sensible pleasures to be enjoyed there are such as sort and suite with the sublimated senses of glorified bodies and no other And as God hath prepared such suitable joyes and pleasures for such as love and serve him in sincerity even joyes for Soules and pleasures for bodâ—es for those that glorify him with Soules 〈…〉 so on the contrary those that will 〈…〉 â—ting call nor close with his 〈…〉 in accepting his dear Son 〈…〉 great Salvation offered with him but remaine sworne vassalls to the Divell World and Flesh giving up the parts and powers of their Soules and Bodies to serve sin in the lust of it These shall receive wages according to their work as they polluted themselves with filthiness of the flesh and spirit and dishonoured God with their Soules and Bodies so God will punish them accordingly their Soules with rationall punishments tribulation and anguish shall be upon the Soul of every one that doth evill and their bodies with sensible which the word shaddows out by fire and brimstone These two sorts of Torments are breifly contained in those Scriptures Isay 66.24 Mark 9.44 In the worme that dyeth not and the fire that never goeth out In which expressions expositors conceive the holy Ghost alludeth unto two Kinds of burialls of dead corpses some were interred in the earth and out of those wormes would breed which would eat them up and never leave devouring till all were consumed an Ancient gives this account of the degrees of that annihilation which resolves the body into its principle of nullity Caro in putredinem putredo in vermes vermis in pulvere pulvis in nihilum redigitur The flesh is turn'd into rottenness that rottenness into wormes those wormes into dust and that dust is reduced to nothing Other bodies were not buryed in the earth but were burned with fire and reduced to ashes and those ashes were reserved in urnes Only here is the difference this worme is not like that that devours bodies for when the body is consumed that worme dies nor is this fire like that that burnes carcasses for when the carcases are burnt that fire goes out but this is ignis inextinguibilis unquenchable fire By this never dying worme we are to understand the worme of an accusing and tormenting conscience that is ever gnawing and hereby we may understand all rationall torments of which the buffetings of conscience are the cheifest And by this fire that never goes out we are to understand the torments of sense set off by burning because that was the most torturing death that was inflicted by the Jewes but to open these a little more fully we will take them as they lie before us and speak of them apart 1 Rationall torments provided for damned Soules are a part and the greatest part of the torments of Hell for which this deserves to be called Great Damnation Now as the Soul is distributed into the understanding will and affections so we may assigne unto these soveral faculties their peculiar torments I only intend to touch upon them to give you a tast and not to enter upon any topicall and methodicall discourse concerning them 1 They shall be plagued in their understandings by seing and knowing and feeling themselves to be irrecoverably lost and intolerably miserable Here the messengers of the Lord knowing the terrors of the Lord did cry alowd to give warning of their sin and danger and duty they did throw Hell-fire in their faces and so gaster them with the thunder and lightning of Hell and damnation that they could never be at quiet but were even tormented before their time and when they had done their uttermost when they had studyed and preacht and prayed and waited and wept themselves into consumptions in seeking to them and to God for them that they might be saved they could make no better a report of their embassy to him that sent them but to this effect Lord who hath believed our report or to whom hath the arme of the Lord been revealed In which seat doth that Souâ— siâ— in what town is his habitation or in what family dwells he that was dead and is alive that was lost and is found Some of us thy unworthy servants Lord have through undeserved mercy been preachers ten some twenty some thirty some forty yeares and more to such and such congregations we have preacht some hundreds some of us thousands of Sermons and through grace we have indeavoured to do it faithfully in our measure we have taught publikly and from house to house we have spoken with authority and dealt personally and familiarly with the soules of refusers and all was but lost labour upon them though not a labour in vaine to our selves Will not this be a sad hearing for thousands when those that have been watchmen for their souls must come to give up this account with griefe But what will the Lord say to this Will he say to those that would not be taught be ignorant still and to those that would not be reformed be disobedient still no surely it may well be doubted whether the Lord had not formerly seared them up in their ignorance and prophaneness with such an hardning of their hardness by inflecting senslesness for their affecting senslesness But now it shall be otherwise the ignorant shall be no longer ignorant the drunkard swearer who monger sabboth-breaker shall be so no longer they shall see with their eyes and hear with their eares and understand with their hearts though they shall never be converted nor be healed Lord thy hand is lifted up said the Prophet Isay and they will not see thy wrath was in the threatning they saw a black clowd rising and a driving storme coming and would not beware but now they shall see volentes nolentes willing or nilling they shall hear and understand and be ashamed and confounded Then shall the damned know good and evill as the Angels that kept not their first estate know it and as the
the other of righteousness unto life and the sentence passed on them both you shall find very punctually recorded Mat. 25. from 31. to the end Wherefore is the word so exact in all these but to assure us that there is nothing of greater certainty than death and judgement O what should those have to do with sin that must be brought to judgement If they be brought to judgement in their sins that is before they have confessed forsaken their sins before they have accused and condemned themselves they cannot stand in the judgement Can dust stand before a whirlwind or stubble before a consuming fire Solomon throws this judgement as a stumbling block in the way of licentious youth to stop them in their full careere and to be a means to teach the young man how to cleanse his way Eccles. 11.9 Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart cheer thee in the daies of thy youth and walk in the waies of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know that for all these things God will bring thee to judgement The former part of that verse looks lovely in the eyes of a libertine and speaks to his very heart but it hath as sad a farewell as ever was heard In the former part the preacher speaks Ironically and in jest but in the last he speaks plainly and in good earnest thou maist if thou wilt do as thy list but do if thou darest for know this take it home with thee take it home to thy heart receive the point of this sword into the very heart of thy beloved sin and if it kill it not or give it a deaths wound tell thy self that thou hast a strong heart a heart that is sermon-proof tell God so desire him day night to take away thy heart of stone and to give thee an heart of flesh 3. Hell and condemnation is commended as the third subject of our Meditation for as after death cometh the judgement so after judgement cometh the death Had not men need to fear double least they dye a double death If men be so scared at the face of the death naturall what should they be at the thoughts of death eternal in comparison whereof the other death is but a shadow of death It was said of Jezebells children Revel 2.23 I will kill her children with death Though all dye yet believers are not kill'd with death as the Spirit directed John to say unto Sardis Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead Rev. 3.1 We may say the contrary of sound believers they have but a name to dye and are alive that 's the thing which kills the Soul that is but the name which kills the body This death beyond death is that which the Scripture calls the second deathâ— Revel 21.8 The fearfull and unbelieâ—â—ng and abominable and murderers and Whoremonâ—ers and Sorcerers and Idolaters and all Lyars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death and Revel 20.6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second death hath no power O what should men do with sin when if they will have it they must have hell to boote durst a malefactour play his pranks if the Judge lookt on him that must condemne him and the torments were in sight that were prepared for him If sinners did but see God frowning upon them and hell gaping for them if they did but see death before them and Judgement beyond death and hell beyond Judgement they could not surely sin with such a swinge as they do they could not sin so damnably without check and controule Sinners do but go aside once a day and seriously meditate on the great damnation that you have heard of and the Eternity of it but one half hour and if you do not walke the more warily humbly and circumspectly say I am a Lyar. One that writes the life of Mr. Mâ— Fuâ—â—â—r it his Holy State Perkins reports of him that he did pronounce the word Damn with such an emphasis that it left an Echo in the ears of his hearers a long time after Oh that I could make such an impression of this Doctrine upon your Memories that it may stick like a barbed Arrow in your consciences that may never be shaken out untill you break off your sins and unfainedly turn to God who is ready to forgive abundantly and to give liberally 4. Heaven and Salvation is proposed as the fourth matter of meditation and both these last do follow Judgement which sends the Goats on the left hand to hell and the Sheep on the right hand to heaven The Libertines of the age would perswade us that there is neither Hell nor Heaven but what is in the conscience but let us assure our selves if there were no other Hell or Heaven there would be none there if a conscience excusing in well doing did not flow from a Heaven in hope and a conscience accusing for evil doing did not proceed from a hell in fear surely there would be no such consciences let the fancies of these vain men pass for strong delusions and let us mind the true sayings of the everlasting Gospel which tell us that as the wicked go into everlasting punishment so the righteous into life eternall Matth. 25. ult How positively and alluringly doth the Scripture speak of this blessed blessed making place calling it the third Heaven 2 Cor. 12.2 The throne of God I say 66.1 we are directed to prefer our petitions to him as our Father dwelling heaven Mat. 6.9 An house not made with hands eternall in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 the seat of the blessed The kingdom prepared for them from the beginning of the world Matth. 25.34 shadowed out by the Mount Sion Heb. 12.22 23 24. and the new Jerusalem Revel 21.10 to the end wherein many excellent things are spoken of this City of God But I have spoken so largely both of the Prison of Hell and the Paradise of Heaven in the antecedent Doctrines of Salvation Damnation that the less may serve here O what should those do with sin that make it their refuge to lay hold on the hope that is set before them Ther 's no sin in heaven and if unclean sinners should be carryed thither in their uncleanness heaven would not be heaven to them It s the Saints holiness that makes heaven their happiness and the grace they bring thither that prepares them for that Joy unspeakable and glorious When we meet with temptations to sin let us remember Hell with its forerunners death and judgement and that will prompt us to say with Joseph How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God Gen. 39.9 And when we meet with temptations from sufferings let us remember Heaven and that will prompt us to say with Paul I count that the afflictions of this present world are not