durable profits and lasting pleasures and everlasting honours are made no account of The body and lust and sinne shall be satisfied when the soul and grace and glory are laid aside as not worth the minding we are ready to condemne Adam of monstrous madness that would looss Paradise for an apple and to cry out upon Esau as the foole of all fooles that would exchange his birthright for a mess of pottage and the very name of Judas the traitor in graine stinkes like rotteness that would sell his master for thirty pence but surely the World is full of such fooles and madmen and monsters Those that will please their appetite with Adam though they lose an Heavenly Paradise for so doing Those that will satisfy their craving flesh with Esau though they lose the glorious I berty of Gods Sonns and forfeit all the priviledges of the new birth-right Those that will have Balaams wages the wages of iniquity with curied Judas though they lose Soul and Saviour and Salvation and all If we do but look abroad in the World and take a view of the lives and behaviour of men and women old and young high and low rich and poor one with another We shall see that the multitude is like that heard of Swine possessed of the Legion running headlong to their own damnation Ambition carries away thousands voluptuousness ten thousands worldly-mindedness hundreds of thousands so that Millions are visibly in a perishing condition wickedness recting the wicked man to his teeth 〈◊〉 as Daved saith that there is no fear of God before his eyes and the abounding of iniquity makes proclamation that notwithstanding such great Salvation be brought to light yet there are but few that shall be saved Hell hath enlarged herselfe without measure and all the pompe and all multitude of secure and careless and senseless sinners shall fall into it This oh this is the condemnation that is come into the world that light is come into the world and men love darkness more than light that a Saviour is come into the world and men will not come unto this Saviour that there should be a proclamation of so great Salvation and men will not leave their sinns and close with God through Christ that they may be saved yet let us take a further survey for as yet we have but stirr'd in the stinke of common sinners those that give up themselves to serve the Divell by a sensuall serving the flesh and worldly mindedness these do turne their backs upon God and do in their actions profess against the dominion of Christ that they will not have him â—o reigne over them let us look towards them that seeme to look towards Heaven and observe diligently what we can find there 1 Are not many of them meerly civiliz'd and no more though they will not wallow like Swine in the mire yet they are not carefull to keep clean their garments nor to keep themselves unspotted from the world though they will not tear Gods Name by Ruffian-like oathes yet they will pawae their faith and troth for small matters 2 Some that advance higher than meere Civility yet make a stand at formality and take up with a forme of Godliness short of the power of it knowledge and grace they would have and duty they will do but it is but some knowledge and some grace and some duty that its an easy conclusion that they desire it rather to save their credit than their Soules that they may be in esteem with men rather than in favour with God but our Saviour hath said enough to dash all this Matt. 5.20 Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes who had but a forme of knowledge and Pharises who had but a forme of Godliness ye cannot enter into the Kingdome of Heaven and Luke 8.18 From him thah hath not from him shall be taken away even all that he seemeth to have 3 Many do stick in halfe coversions like a child in the birth and there is not strength to bring forth like that man in the Gospel that started aside like a broken bow at a forsake all and chose rather to forsake Christ then to forgo his wealth Herod heard John Baptist gladly in many things but would not part with his Herodias and all such as these are but like Agrippa allmost perswaded to become Christians but if they come not up to Pauls measure alltogether such as he true Israelites indeed such in whom there is no guile they are but Godless and Christless and Spiritless and graceless Soules and will be reckoned in the number of the neglecters of this great Salvation How should the servants of the Lord that have his spirit dwelling in their hearts and have the fear of the Lord before their eyes knowing the terror of the Lord against all such as are out of Christ and out of Covenant how should they pitty these poor Soules and intreat and beseech them to pitty their own Soules and to come in and be reconciled to God and to be willing to embrace the things that belong to their Salvation before they shall he hidden from their eyes And if they continue refusers still how should we ply the throne of grace with our earnest intreaties that God would forgive them who know not what they do that he would take away their hearts of stone and give them hearts of flesh That he would deliver them up unto Satan for their Salvation not for their damnations I meane that he would cast them into an Hell of conscience and plead with them there and cause them to see and feel themselves to be the vessells of sin and bondslaves of Satan that they may spend the remainder of their few and evill dayes in mourning that their flesh and body of sin may be destryed and their Spirits may be saved in the day of the Lord. And to help forward this work if God will before I pass from this use afford your attention while I expostulate the case with stubborne sinners on their Soules behalfe that they may be snatcht as brands out of the fire and pull'd out of the paw of the Lion rampant that seekes to devour them if they be not such deafe Adders as refuse to hear the voice of the Charmer charme he never so wisely I will not aske them whether grace and glory be of no reckoning with them which Salvation doth advance unto as you have heard in the second reason I will not ask them if the wisdome and love of God the Father the sufferings and righteousness of God the Son the grace and communion of the spirit be of no account If graces and duties ordinances and providences are nothing set by it s a common thing with those whose eyes the God of this World hath blinded and with such as are wedded to world and enslaved to the flesh to overlook all these as if they were not worth the looking after But can they dwell with the devouring fire
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
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
Salvation were no part of our business we are sent into this World to make provision for another and though we are not so straightly confin'd as to do nothing else yet we are under a straight command to do nothing more and thus much the Apostle teaches when he teaches us habere tanquam non habentes so to be possest of the things of this World as not to be possest by them and to use the World as though we used it not Now when instead of so doing we shall use the things of another World as though we used them not pray as if we prayed not and hear as if we heard not and take our swinge in the World as if we were sent into it as Leviathan into the Sea to take our pastime therein or to say to our souls with the rich glutton Soul take thine ease eat drink and be merry thou hast Goods enough laid up for many years to mind low things and neglect high things to have an high esteem of low things and a low esteem of high things is grossely to neglect this great Salvation and if we look about us in the places where we live do not the greatest part live after that careless rate as Jeash said of Baal let Baal care for himself Judges 6.31 when his Altar was pulled down by his Son Gideon so too many are ready to say in works though not in words let God take care for himself and for his own service If his name be dishonoured his Son and Spirit abused his Day prophaned his Embassadors vilified his Ordinances and Worship slighted and disgraced it may be said of very many that would take it ill not to be counted Christians as it was of Gallio when the Apostles were under sufferings that Gallio cared for none of those things Acts 18.17 so that men may but have their wealth and pleasure and honour let Zion sink or swim let it fare how it will with the Church and Religion that is none of their care And this carelesnesse is the more aggravated because things of far less concernment are seriously minded by them 1. Their bodies shall be cared for if in health they will pamper them though they suffer under never so much leanness of soul they will provide largly for the flesh though their spirits starves they will give themselves to chambering and wantoness ryoting and drunkeness though to the loss of Christ and everlasting happiness And if their bodies be sick and their lives in danger no care no cost no pains shall then be spared then with the woman in the Gospel that had the bloudy issue they will spend all their substance upon Phisitians and like Pharaoh in his streights they will desire the prayers of their Ministers whom in health and prosperity they scorned as the very scumme and off scouring of the World 2. Their Estates shall be cared for as riches increase they set their hearts upon them and as if nothing else deserved any part of their care they will rise early and go late to bed and fare hard and all to grow rich to joyn house to house and lay field to field till they dwell alone their barns shall be pulled down and bigger built and all their care is for the Mammon of iniquity and indeed nothing shoulders out the love of God more than this immoderate and inordinate love of the World as the Apostle observes whosoever loves the World prevailingly the love of the Father is not in him 1. Joh. 2.15 And these cares of the World and deceitfulness of riches are said to choak the World and make it utterly unfruitfull This worldly gain is the souls loss not only loss to the soul but loss of the soul and what will it profit a man though he should gain the World if he lose his own soul Matt. 16.26 Those that be rich do fall into a snare and into many noysom lusts which drown the soul in perdition 1. Tim. 6.9 Which caused the Apostle to beseech Believers as Strangers and Pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul 1. Pet. 2.11 3. Their names and reputations shall be cared for every punctilio of a Title and every complemental Ceremony appurtenant to greatnesse and honour shall be narrowly observed yea our ambitious Nimrods will make use of any ladder of the devils rearing to climb to the top of earthly greatnesse and so they may but be mounted to the pinacle of preferment they care not though they be carried thither upon the devils back and though they be afterwards tempted by him to throw down themselves headlong and break their necks They will build Babel to purchase an aerial name though the Foundation be laid in Gods displeasure and the end prove confusion How do men set their names upon their Sons and upon their Estates calling their children anâ— their lands after their own names which is but to write their names in the sand which the next generation like the next tide doth clean put out How much better were it for them to pass the pangs of the new birth to the obtaining of the new name and to be made the sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty to be engrafted into Christ and made new creatures but this is none of their care to become fools that they may be wise is altogether a Paradox to them and such counsel as that they count the foolishness of preaching The Doctrine of self-denyal to deny Wits Wills and Worth though it be the first lesson of Christianity will not down with them and therefore upon necessity they must live and die fools what ever their other names be that 's their surname who will not be perswaded to advance so far as the beginning of wisdom In a word Pleasures Profits Honours which are the Worlds Trinity and self-seeking or flesh pleasing which are the same in Unity These are the great Diana's which the multitude do adore and cry up and these they will have though they have Hell with them and this great Salvation and the eternal weight of Glory ballanced with these are in the estimation of these men lighter than vanity it self and these are notorious neglecters of this Salvation 2. The neglect of this great Salvation is express'd by taking but a little care conjunct with greater cares Many because it is too too grosse and abominable and the very badge of Reprobates to give up themselves wholly to the World Flesh and Devil and to serve sin in the lust of it they will divide themselves betwixt God and the World God and the Flesh God and the Devil They will give God and Christ their names and tongues but the World Flesh and Devil shall have their hands and hearts they will pretend to serve God but keep their sins But the word is plain that we cannot serve two Masters ther 's no serving God and Mammon O cleanse your hands ye sinners and purge your hearts ye double minded
if God must have the whole heart and strength the whole body soul and spirit what remains then for other Lords O you self-seeking and Salvation-refusing souls why do ye halt thus betwixt two opinions If God be God serve him if you can find out a better Master serve him but know assuredly when God shall send you for succour at a dying hour to the Gods that ye have chosen and to the Idols that you have set up in your hearts you will be forced to say of them as Job of his false friends miserable comforters ye are all Though the Scripture is most express that we must dedicate all our Talents of time and gifts and parts and interests and callings to the advantage of our great Lord to the serving of our generation to the benefit of other souls and to the furtherance of our own accompt yet how ordinary a thing is it for men and women to be of Agrippa's temper almost Christians of a Laodicean frame of spirit luke-warm and betwixt hot and cold They will sometimes read and perhaps pray in their families and come to the Assembly on the Sabaoth if their lusts will give them leave and much of the easiest and cheapest part of Religion they will practice and be willing to adventure as far as a name to live and a form of godliness will bear them out but still with Herod they will set themselves a stint hitherto they will go and no further ere his right eye should out by parting with his Herodias his reprovers head should off and ere these will cut off their right hands by forsaking their evil practises and their right feet by forgoing their evil company and saying away ye wicked I will keep the Commandements of my God they will do as the rich young man did when he heard that command forsake all and follow me he thought it a hard saying and forsook his Counsellor though it were a Saviour Many will be perswaded to do as much as the Jewes did Isay 2. Offer sacrifice burne incence and observe dayes and like hasty messengers run away with half their errand leaving all of substance and power behind them but for close and costly services these are hard and irksome God must have them excused for such and for the suffering part of Christianity they are meat strangers to that yea and very enemies to the crosse of Christ These are they that in praying pray not and in hearing hear not and use the things that tend to Salvation as though they used them not 3. They may passe for neglecters of this great Salvation that do not make it their greatest care God is the highest good and not to love him with the highest love is interpretatively to hate him Mistake me not I do not mean it absolutely that we must love God in the highest degree here while we are in our imperfect militant condition to know but in part to be sanctifyed but in part and to love but in part We may love sincerely on earth but we shall not love perfectly till we come to Heaven where perfect love shall cast out all fear but my meaning is that in a comparative sense we should love him best and most more than the creature or our selves more than the interests of the world or flesh for whosoever loveth the World or any thing in the World more than God is not worthy of him and whosoever loves not God and Christ more than any thing than all things in the World loves them not in sincerity Those that are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God lovers of Mammon more than lovers of God they are not better than haters of God Salvation by Christ is the greatest happiness and therefore our greatest care and pains should be spent upon it It 's the unum necessarium the only thing necessary and therefore ought to be the unicum maximum that should carry away the flowre and cream of our affections and indeavours It 's common with the vulgar to judge of the things of the third Heaven as they do by the things of the second the Moon and the Stars they think the Moon to be biggest because it is nearest and seems so when stars of a greater magnitude are thought little because they are farther off So we are ready to look upon the perishing vanities of this transitory World as great matters because they are at hand and near us and the joyes of Heaven and felicities above to be but small and inconsiderable because they are far above and out of our sight But you have heard before that the Scripture bids us strive to enter in at the streight Gate and to give all diligence to make all sure and to offer violence to the Kingdome of Heaven and tells us that the righteous are scarcely saved and with greatest difficulty and therefore not to lay out our selves our whole selves and that to our uttermost possibility is to be neglecters of this great Salvation Now the good Lord be mercifull to us and help us and give us seeing eyes hearing eares and understanding hearts to hear and feele and consider this for if this be to neglect this great Salvation not to make it our highest care not to bestow the most serious thoughts of our minds the most ardent desires of our hearts and the most effectuall indeavours of our lives upon it what will become not of loose and carnall libertines but of the greatest part of those that take themselves and are taken by others to be good Christians 2 USE Shall be of Direction for the use and benefit of such as being confounded with the greatness of the sin of setting light by this Salvation and being pricked in their hearts and covered with confusion shal be ready to cry out Men and Brethren what shall we do I shall prescribe them a remedy in foure branches of direction In regard Gospell-Salvation is great salvation and our setting light by it is great sin Therefore that this sin may not be our ruine There must be 1. Great thoughts of heart 2. Great searchings of heart 3. Great humblings of heart 4. Great changes of heart about it These have such necessary dependance one upon another that they are preparative one to another 1. Great thoughts are antecedent to great searchings 2. Great searchings are preparative to great humblings 3. Great humblings to great changings 1 There must be great thoughts of heart about this great sin When Reuben was separated from the other Tribes of Jsrael the text saith for the divisions of Reuben there were great thoughts of heart but when men and women shall be separated from God by their iniquities yea by such a partition wall as this of Gospel-refusing these divisions should beget great thoughts of heart in such whose consciences cry guilty Thoughts are the seeds of action as evil actions proceed from evill thoughts so good actions from gracious thoughts The Scripture saith out of the heart proceed first
GREAT SALVATION BY JESVS CHRIST TENDERED To the greatest of Sinners and in particular to such as have been Refusers of it if God shall now at last make them willing to receive it By RICHARD EEDES Teacher of the Church at Beckford in Gloucester-shire LONDON Printed by TW for the Author 1659. To the Right Honourable the Lady VEERE Grace and Peace Right Honorable most Honored Madam MY ambition to invite your Honour to be Surety to my First-Borne hath offered violence to my modesty in this Dedication yet I know not why I may not dedicate my labours unto you to whom I have long agoe dedicated my selfe When I had once the happiness to entertaine your Ladyship for a very short time I found you so ready to take meane things in the best part that I do the less scruple here to invite you to take part of the Churches Ordinary The great Salvation that this weak hand holds out may well beseeme the greatest Personages not only to own but to have in highest estimation and I am perswaded that you have so long made the attainment of it next to God the Giver and Christ the Purchaser of it your chiefest interest that you have now with your namesake in the Gospel made the better part so sure unto you that it can never be taken from you yet dear Madam it is not unknown unto you that sin is so deceitfull to deceive and the heart so deceitfull to be deceived that we can see small ground of security though some of safety on this side Heaven It s our taking heed of falling that keepes us standing and Caveats against sin and condemnation may be of excellent use to keep the Soul in awe and reverend Dr Sibbs tells us that fear is the awe-band of the soul I am not insensible that Scoffers may say that here is more Porch than house but that was so far from being an oversight that it was a part of my design I dare not inclose nor impropriate that which the Apostle hath called the common Salvation Jude 3. v. That mysticall City that was called the holy Jerusalem descending from Heaven Revel 21.10 Tipifying the Church was said to have 12 Gates which noted out the confluence of Beleivers that should come into the preaching of the Gospel and should fly unto that great Salvation like Doves unto their windows and the discourse herein offered is so like the Pool of Bethesda a common Bath or Fountaine opened for sin and for uncleanness that I thought it convenient to make the more Porches and if I could direct a particular Epistle to every particular Soul the Soules excellency would acquit me from folly in so doing I have deservedly given your Honour the Preeminence in opening unto you the first Gate and the more to ennoble it have written your honourable name upon it that it may be called beautifull and followers may throng in after you and when they are entred if they will but learne of you they may count the feet and much more the faces of them beautifull that bring unto their Soules the glad tidings of Salvation But when they have made their entrance they will find that here is house as well as porch yea and that it is very roomthy for these three Stories Salvation Sin and Damnation do resemble Heaven Earth and Hell Salvation hath Heaven at the top of it and Damnation hath Hell at the bottome of it and Sin like its Father the Divell having the whole Earth for its walke is the worst Companion that the sonns of men have Madame you are here presented with a strange sight a poor sinner hanging betwixt Heaven and Hell if he will but accept of Salvation offered Heaven is his but if he neglect in this his day to know the things that belong unto his Peace he will fall into Hell and ther 's no escaping It 's a sad thing to see so many wallowing in sin like swine in the myre under such warnings and very sad to see many of the Godly to drive so low and dull a trade with Heaven that it may be sayd of them as of poor Tradesmen whom the World favours not that they are still buying selling and live by the losse What sad lives do we lead and what comfortable lives do we lose by not bringing our practises up to the principles of invisible Christianity and for want of more intimate acquaintance with the beauty of holines and power of godlines Gregory the great was said to be the last of the good Bishops of Rome and first of the bad his life was such a medley of good and evill and therefore some Interpreters have thought him to be that Angell in the Revelation that was said to fly betwixt Heaven and Earth And Salomon's life was so particoloured that an antient Limner drew him halfe in Heaven and halfe in Hell and such is the pittifull case of many a Christian they do so halt betwixt God and the World so half it betwixt the Spirit and the Flesh that they may be thought by themselves as well as others to hang equally poysed betwixt Fear of Hell and Hope of Heaven Oh how low are souls in their consolations for want of close and circumspect walking and for want of a laborious and costly serving of God Madam you may here stand safe upon the Rock of your salvation and behold the dead and red Sea of the Almighties wrath upon which multitudes of dead Souls ly floating like the Carcases of the drowned Aegyptians when the Israelites were passed over And while you are standing upon safe ground you may here behold that Rock of Gospel-refusing which hath shipwrack'd many and that Gulfe of Damnation which hath devoured them whereas you through Grace are brought nere unto the harbour and within sight of the Haven where you would be Let Faith and Patience hold out but a little longer for yet a little while he that shall come will come and will not tarry So desiring that the God only wise may guide you with his Counsell and stablish your Mind Heart with his Truth and Grace and lead you through militant holiness into tryumphant happiness I humbly crave pardon for this boldness take leave and rest Beckford Jan. 1st 1658. Madame Your unworthy Remembrancer at the Throne of Grace RICHARD EEDES 1 Tim. 1.15 This is a true and faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the World to save sinners of whom I am chief Hebr. 7.25 He is able to save to the uttermost all them that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them 2 Tim. 2.24 25 26. The servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men apt to teach patient In meeknesse instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Divell who
as ever thou hast the Reason of a man see that thou soberly bethink thee of this matter and rest not till thou canst solidly answer this question How shall I escape Death and Hell are a little before thee if thou be an unsanctifyed person and how wilt thou escape them Neither Policy nor power riches nor reputation formality or false presumptuous hopes will procure thine escape It must be by God the Father by Christ by the Holy Spirit or by none and it must be by a God most dearly loved and by a Christ most highly valued and received and by the Holy Ghost entertained into thy heart and obeyed for a God a Christ a Spirit finally neglected will never save thee Take this warning and additionall Testimony from A Friend of thy immortall Soul Richard Baxter A PREFATORY POEM OF THE AUTHOR' 's GReat Structures should have Porches but you 'l say This Fâ—brick is not great and well you may And yet t is so a Riddle but no Cheat The volum's little but the Title 's great The Workman's low but yet the Building 's tall The Matter great though Modell be but small Much treasure lies in little room and things When it consists in jewells and in rings This work is like the Ocean which you know Is still the same at ebbe as t is at flow Or like the Sun that Magazine of light The same in Clouds as shining in its might Or like a Map where points and lines do stand For Rivers and for Counties Sea and Land Though in Octavo written you must know The Subjects are the largest Folio Though Book and Price be small excuse that wrong The names are short but yet the Things are long Salvation and Damnation Oh the height And depth of these expressions Oh the weight Of what they signify Oh who can tell The height of Heaven or the depth of Hell That 's high that hath no topp you will confess And sure that pitt is deep that 's bottomless Salvation Sin Damnation are not Theames For sleepy sluggards or for men in dreames Sin 's clâ—ath'd in Scarlet like a man of Blouds Damnation doggs it like devouring flouds Cast from the Dragons mouth Salvation stands Like to a Refuge City on all hands Sin like a Sodom to destruct on tends Damnation's like a fire whose smoak ascends Salvation's like a Zoar Soules like Lot Fly for your life make hast and linger not God and your Teachers lowdly call and cry Oh sensless sinners wherefore will ye die Soules stop and turne oh turne oh sweetest breath God sayes and sweares he joyes not in your death O hearken for the Call of this â—ill voice Sets Life and Death before the sinners choice Reader wilt live or die Consider well And then Resolve it 's more than time to tell Thy thoughts to God If he should snatch thee hence Thy best would prove a very poor defence Depart thou must into a state forlorne Will make thee wish thou never hadst been born Eternity will all thy Thoughts confound It 's such a Depth no Intellect can sound We may the World and Witts out-run yet be But at the Entrance of Eternity Now wrastle and prevaile for who can tell But Jacob may be Christened Israel Chaff now is sold for Wheat and every dream Which is but Froth is now nick-named Cream Now Hereticks and each Blasphemer vents And greedy Doggs lick up their Excrements The Presse opprest gâ—ves out like Lotteries Too manj Blanks for one poor single Prize Authors neglected lie and sleep as dead Except than others taller by the head And Bookes in such a crowd of short and long Like London Cries are vended for a Song He 'is the best Artist now that best can tell How to make Bookes and then to make them sell As in Samaria's seige the ruder throng Are fâ—d with Asses heads and Cabbs of dung How often have I dugge to find out Ore In swarming Pamphlets but alas how poore And full of Rubbish little little gaines And often less than nothing for my paines When they should feed and feed and feed agen And hold out Milk for Babes and meat for Men And draw out new and old from their full store And should with Milk and Hony feed the poore Their Entertainments like a Witches feast A shew that feeds not but deludes the guest How should Babes thrive in a Step-mothers lap When Nurses give them poison in their papp Oh that some Zealous powers would conspire To sentence all such Stubble to the fire The whole is out of Order Church and State In my Prognosticks this is Englands Fate The Land will mourne and Men will find it true Till Caesar come who will give God his due Think not kind Reader that its my designe To clowd the Sun that my dim Starr may shine It is a task for Eagles not for Wrens To staine the beauty of deserving Penns This Iron age such Authors can rehearse Whose golden penns deserve a Golden verse Works should commend their Authors this being scan'd As it deserves so let me fall or stand I never lik't those Complements at Feasts That wish the best were better for the guests Those that in midst of plenty w sh for more And guilty of exceedings call it poore I ever thought the worst dish there too much The Coursest Morsell much too good for such If here a Feast of fat things you do meet Give God the praise and eat and drink the sweet If any failing here or leaness be Take you the best and leave the worst to me Christ bids his Shepards feed and feed and feed His Lambs and Sheep lo here is for your need And fill serv'd in First Second and Third Messe All wholesome food though but in homely dresse Eat drink and feast your selves my Friends but stay When that is done do not rise up to play If you will eat to live and live to die Joyne strictest Practise with the Theory Though naked Truth be best yet Fancies quaâ—nt Esteem the face the fairer for the paint And if we will mens queasy palates woo Our meat must wholesome be and toothsome too Most are like Children and refuse to eat Unless the dish be gaudy as the meat Even Curious palates feed as they would wish When wholesome food is in a garnisht dish When pleasure is with profit twin'd it s sed Its like the bristle that draws in the thred Austine delighting Ambrose for to hear His heart was led to Heav'n by his Ear And men must be indulged in this or we Our Books with dust and Cobwebs clad may see If Musick dwell in discords here are three That make a Unity in Trinity Or if Variety delight your braine Trichotomize that Unity againe But I am word-bound starv'd in midst of store My subject is too rich my Muse too poore Reader proceed thou lt not thy labour lose If halting Verse go more upright in prose T is to catch precious Soules to God that I Do
greater than other p. 167. c. 3. Superlatively the greatest p. 170. c 1 Reason Because it comes from so great a God p. 174. c. 2 Reason Because it is for despising so great a Saviour p. 177. 3 Reason Because inflicted for resisting the spirit p. 180. c. 4 Reason Because prepared for great Enemies p. 182. 5 Reason Because it hath a long reach p. 185. 1 It reacheth to the Soul p. 185. c. 2 It reacheth to eternity p. 187. c. 6 Reason Because it consists of great Punishments p. 189. 1 The Punishment of Loss 2 The Punishment of Sense p. 189. c. 1 Noted by the worm that dyeth not p. 192. 2 By the fire that never goes out p. 193. 1 Rationall Torments inflicted upon 1 The understanding 〈◊〉 2 The conscience in three things p. 1 Remembrance of things past 2 Sense of present misery p. 197. c. 3 Fear of wrath to come 3 The Will p. 200. 4 The Passions p. 221. c. 2 Sensible Torments for the Body p. 213. c. Use of Terrour p. 219. Prompting us to a 4 fold Meditation 1 Of Death p. 224. c. 2 Of Judgement p. 227. c. 3 Of Hell p. 230. c. 4 Of Heaven p. 232. c. The Conclusion from pag. 234. to the end GREAT SALVATION BY JESVS CHRIST Tendered to the greatest of Sinners c. Hebr. 2 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation SAlvation is so sweet a subject that its pitty it should meet with any but faithfull handlers and profitable hearers I may say of the very sillables of it as once holy Bernard did of that saving Name Jesus in which it was founded Mat. 1.21 That it is Mel in ore melos in aure jubilum in corde Hony to the mouth Musick to the eare and rejoycing to the heart Words of Salvation are breath of life and its pitty any of that should be likâ— breath scattered in the ayre they are water of life and its pitty it should be like water spilt upon the ground we should deal by such doctrine as goldsmiths do by the filings of their gold secure every dust of it As God saith to ungodly teachers so may we say unto ungodly hearers What have you to do to take my word into your mouthes or eares when it takes no hold upon your hearts Whereas you hate to be reformed and have cast my words behind you Psal 50.16 17. Salvation is such a mystery of miraculous mercy that the very Angells do delight to pry into is 1. Pet. 1.12 And as they were ministring Spirits to the great Saviour when he was upon Earth so they are glad to be Ministring Spirits to the heyres of this great Salvation Heb. 1.14 A Messenger coming from the dead and from that triumphant community of just and perfect Soules were fitter to speak to you of such a theam than one that 's going to the dead and is yet clothed with the raggs of mortality and corruption If such a one should hear us expressing our low conceptions of such sublime mysteries as accompany Salvation he wouldsay as the Queen of the South of Solomons wisdome that one half is not told you in your own Country If the Divell and damned Soules might hear but one Sermon more of Salvation with hope of obtaining it can you think that they would be so regardles and negligent as the common sort of hearers are Do you think that the divells themselves which beleeve the dreadfullness of perfected damnation and tremble to beleeve it would say to such a preacher as Foelix did to Paul Acts 24 25. Go thy way for this time and when I have a more convenient season I will call for thee This is the unum magnum the unicum maximum the great thing that the Apostle indeavours to secure in this place that none of Christs blood may be lost that none of his own Ministeriall labour may be labour in vaine In a word his drift and scope is that that Salvation which was so great in the operation and in the Revelation should be as great in the Worlds acceptation Christ had wrought it out who was the Son of God higher than Angells the great Prophet and Priest and King of his Church as this Epistle declares at large The Gospel had brought it to light which is the glorious Gospel of the blessed God 1. Tim. 1.11 which makes Salvation neerer and clearer than the law did And therefore if we accepâ— it not how shall we escape that is to say there is no possibâ—â—ity of escaping One of the Ancients hath laid down this Rule as Gods method of dealing with the refuiers of his mercy Ingentia beneficia flagitia supplicia Where God offers or bestowes great meâ—cies there the setting light by those mercies are sinns with an high hand and those great sinns draw down proportionable punishments Now according to this Rule 1. What mercy â—reater than Gospel-mercy 2. What sin can be greater than to set light by such mercy 3. What punishment can be greater than that that such sin deserves The Apostles words here considered as related to the context may be exactly reduced to hat rule we shall therefore from such premises draw these three naturall conclusions as the plaine results of this Scripture 1. That Salvation brought to light by the Gospel is great Salvation 2. That setting light by such Salvation is great sin 3. That the neglect of such great Salvation brings great damnation The First Doctrine Gospel Salvation is great Salvation BEfore we open the doore to let you into a clear sight of this truth it may not be impertinent to remove an objection that lies as a stumbling block at the very entrance and that is this In that we proclaime Gospel-Salvation to be great Salvation some may demand whether there be any other Salvation that may stand in competition with Gospel-Salvation To which we answer that God never revealed but two wayes unto mankind for Salvation The first was by a Covenant of workes manifested unto the first Adam as the Worlds representative wherein the condition was Hoc fac vive do this and thou shalt live or do this and be saved But that Law being transgressed and that Covenant broken and Adam and his posterity being under the curse of that Covenant and the wrath of God abiding on them God was pleased to enter into another Covenant of grace with mankind through the second Adam proposing unto them another condition Hoc crede vive whosoever beleeveth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life Iohn 3.16 Though there was an old way to Salvation by working held out by the law yet now the new and living way brought to light by the Gospel is the way of beleeving and this Salvation by the Covenant of grace doth as farr excell that by the Covenant of workes as the second Adam doth excell the first I may further adde that
The Kingdome of glory 1. We are saved to the state or Kingdome of grace we are brought into Jerusalem the Holy and led through it into Ierusalem the happy we are conducted through holyness into happiness and made to pass through the porch of grace into the palace of glory 1. Salvation bestows upon us the first grace It s therefore called a Creation which we call regeneration and this as well as the first creation is ex nihilo the creating of grace where there was none before If any be in Christ saith the Apostle he is a new creature 2 Cor. 5.17 and David prayes create in me a clean heart O God Psal 51.10 And the promise is A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart that is your body and I will give you an heart of flesh Ez. 36.26 2. It causes us to increase in grace 1. By Addition adding grace unto grace and proceeding from vertue to vertue observe the Apostles direction 2. Pet. 1.5 giving all diligence adde unto faith vertue and unto vertue knowledge and unto knowledge temperance and unto temperance patience and unto patience godliness and unto godliness brotherly kindness and unto brotherly-kindness love there is no grace that a gracious Soul would want 2. By Multiplication heaping grace upon grace knowledge upon knowledge faith upon faith repentance upon repentance obedience upon obedience indeavouring to advance to higher degrees in grace labouring that grace may not not only be in us but that it may abound in us 2 Pet. 1.8 As there is no grace for kind so there is no degree of grace for measure that a gracious Soul would want 3. And it doth not only prevent us with grace by giving us the first grace and enabling us to will and bestow upon us the second grace by assisting us with grace and enabling us to do as well as to will according to that saying Nolentem praevenit deus ut velit volentem subsequitur ne frustra velit God prevents us with his grace to make willing and God followes us with his grace to make able But it also keepes us in grace Paul gloryed that he had kept the faith which was by being kept in the faith according to that of Peter Yee are kept by the power of God through faith unto Salvation 1. Pet. 1.5 2. By this great Salvation we are saved to the Kingdome of glory as well as to that of grace Christ teacheth us to pray for both at once in that Petition Thy Kingdome come 1 let the Kingdome of sin and Satan be domolished in us and others and let thy Kingdome of grace come in the room of it and let us and others be kept in it and do thou also hasten the Kingdome of glory David mentions both by way of promise Psal 84.11 The Lord will give grace and glory and therefore he makes mention of both in his prayer Lord guide me with thy counsell and after that receive me to glory which is as much as if he had said Lord lead me through thy Kingdome of grace into thy Kingdome of glory Now as David said of the Jerusalem upon Earth we may much more of the Heavenly Jerusalem Many excellent things are spoken of thee thou City of God We may more easily give you a Negative description of it by telling you what is not there than a positive by telling you what is there yet take somwhat though but a touch of both 1 Negatively 1. There shall be no sin no unclean thing can enter into that Kingdome 1 Cor. 6.9 The Angells at the last day shall gather out of Christs mixt Kingdome the Churchmilitant all things that offend and that worke iniquity Mat. 13.41 that nothing but what is pure and undefiled may be gathered into the Church triumphant the Kingdome of glory 2. There shall be no labour that is called the rest that remaines for the people of God Earth was their place of labour and there was nothing else though some be so strong that they live to fourscore years yet is their strength then but labour and sorrow labour and labour labour upon labour labour for the body and labour for the Soul but blessed are the dead that die in the Lord even so saith the spirit that they rest from their labours Heaven is their resting place and there shall be nothing but rest rest upon rest rest from their body labours and rest from their soul-labour only they shall be restles in the prayses of their God but that restlesness is the best part of heavens rest they shall not cease in ascribing praise and glory and honour and power and dominion and thanksgiving unto him that sits upon the throne to the Lamb for ever and ever 3. There shall be no sufferings as they shall cease from their labours and all sweat shall be wiped from their browes so they shall rest from their sufferings and all tears shall be wiped from their eyes there shall be nothing of want and weakness there no corruption nothing of infirme nature that which was sowne in dishonour corruption weakness nature shall be raised in honour incorruption power and spirit 1. Cor. 15.42 43 44. 2 Positively 1. There shall be fullness of joy joy not capable of addition or augmentation Christ told his disciples that their joy should be full Iohn 15.11 2. There shall be pleasures for evermore not only joy uncapable of augmentation but pleasures uncapable of diminution and therefore our Saviour in the same breath that he told them their joy should be full he also promised them that their joy should no man take from them John 16.22 All that the World could present them with were but shells without kernels a few mock-consolations which brought them much labour in geting more care in keeping and most sorrow in losing such things as they could not enjoy themselves with them In a word they were empty and transitory but the joyes of Heaven are commended to us by 2 most lovely and contrary qualities two They are full as opposite to the Worlds emptiness 2. They are lasting everlasting and so opposed to the Worlds transitoriness 3. Gods saved-ones shall not only enjoy a Kingdome of prepared pleasures but they shall enjoy God with them that they shall enjoy a Kingdome of prepared pleasures read Mat. 25.34 Come ye blessed children of my father receive the Kingdome prepared for you must not that be the confluence of all Beatitudes which hath taken up the love and wisedome of God in preparing them And that they shall enjoy God with them read 1 Thes 4.17 so shall we be for ever with the Lord the Apostle desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 It s the misery of unbeleevers upon earth that they are without Christ and without God in the World Eph. 2.12 but it shall be the imcomparable happiness of believers in Heaven that they shall
Apostle Peter to say 1 Pet. 1.18 Ye were not redeamed with corruptible things as gold and silver but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemlish and without spot now if we look back upon the great righteousness and sufferings of God the Son which were ingredient into our Salvation we need not doubt to call it great Salvation 3 In the third place we come to the third person and to shew what proceeds from that person that proceeds from the Father and the Son towards this great Salvation and that is 1 The Revelation of the spirit It is the spirit of God that hath brought Salvation to light through the Gospel The word is but the letter the spirit is the inditer and penman of it all Scripture being given by divine inspiration 2. Tim. 3.16 And therefore as it is called the sword of the spirit so it may be called the word of the spirit It s true that men were the penmen of Scripture or rather the penns in the hand of a ready writer as the Apostle said he was Gods pen to write Gods Epistle in the fleshly tables of the hearts of the Corinthians 2. Cor. 3.2 3. And therefore it s said that no prophesy of Scripture is of any private interpretation but holy men of God wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2. Pet. 1.21 And in the beginning of this Epistle to the Hebrews The writer of it saith God at sundry times and in diverse manners spake to our fathers by his servants the prophets c. but especially take notice of the verse that follows my text How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that hear him God also bearing them witness both with signes and wonders and diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will it was the Holy Ghost that sealed up the truth of the Gospel by diverse miracles The Apostle therefore calleth the spirit the great Teacher 1 Ioh. 2.27 Ye need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you all things 1. Ioh. 2.27 And the spirit is said to reveale that in the word to the spirituall man which the word without the spirit cannot make the naturall man to understand 1 Cor 2.9 10. Eye hath not seen nor care heard neither hath entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him But God hath revealed them unto us by his spirit for the spirit searcheth all things even the deep things of God And the Apostle prayes that God would come in with the spirit of wisedome upon the word of wisedome and with the spirit of revelation upon the word of revelation to his Ephesians Eph. 1 17. 2 The Application of the spirit As this Salvation is from the spirits revelation so hath it its efficacy from the spirits application It s the spirit that must bring our hearts to the word as well as the word to our hearts that must speak us through and say to our blind eyes deafe eares and dead hearts be opened see and hear and understand and be converted and he healed It s the spirit that must perswade us to recieve entertaine and embrace Christ that must say to our understandings and wills and hearts lift up your heads O ye gates and be ye opened ye everlasting dores that the King of glory may enter in when the dead letter of the word and a dead heart meet there can be but dead worke till the spirit of life that free wind that blowes where it lists do blow through that word upon the Soul that spirit that indited the word can make it the savour of life and that spirit that formed the heart and searcheth the heart can say unto dead hearts live In this respect it is that we are said to be drawne to Christ Iohn 6.44 and to be made beleevers by the exceeding greatness of his power and according to the working of his mighty power Eph. 1.19 Now in that the Gospel needed so glorious a revelation and so powerfull an application and both by the spirit our Salvation wrought by it must be confessed to be great Salvation 3. Next we come to things in subordination that do subserve under God in Trinity towards this great Salvation and here I might enter upon a large field of matter but for brevites sake I shall only point out the hid treasures that so knowing where they lie you may digg after them And the things whose instrumentality the great God of our Salvation uses towards the effecting of this great Salvation may be laid before us in two paires 1. The First pair is 1. graces 2. duties 2. The Second pair is 1. ordinances 2. providences I thus joyne them together because God joyneth them together 1. Grace and duty grace being the principle of duty and duty being but the acting of grace 2. Ordinances and providences which usually go hand in hand for our conversion aedification and Salvation 1. We begin with grace The word saith Titus 2.12 The grace of God which bringeth Salvation teacheth us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live holily justly and soberly in this present World where the Apostle teacheth us that it is grace that makes us to abound in duty and therefore to that end that we may abound in the worke of the Lord which the Apostle presses 1. Cor. 15. ult we are taught by the Apostle Peter to abound in grace 2. Pet. 1.5 6 7 8. giving all dilligence adde unto your faith c. and then it follows If these things be in you and abound they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitfull in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ Note the graces of faith vertue knowledge temperance patience godliness brotherly kindness love must not only be in us but they must abound in us in order to this great Salvation And the fruits of the spirit that the heyres of Salvation must indeavour to abound in are laid downe in another cluster Gal. 5.22 23. The fruits of the spirit are love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance these and all the rest of the traine of heavenly graces do accompany Salvation and it must needes be great Salvation that is so greatly graced 2. Dutie is the next wherein as you heard before they must no less abound than they must in grace The Apostles exhortation is 1. Cor. 15. ult My bretheren be ye stedfast and unmovable alwayes abounding in the worke of the Lord for as much as you know that your labour is not in vaine in the Lord. And it was not only his precept but his practise to he did not like the Scribes and Pharises bind heavy burdens to lay upon others shoulders but he taught them by his own example to bear them too Phil. 3.13 14. This one thing I
or can they indure everlasting burnings Can the conflict with the wrath of God which is a devouring fire burning to the bottome of Hell dare they provoke the Lord to jealousy oh foolish people and unwise Ah t is a fearfull thing to fall into the sin revenging hands of the living God Can they undergo the curse of that fiery Law that was given with thunder and lightning and the sound of the trumpet or indure the appearing of the Lord Jesus when he shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angells and in flaming fire to render vengeance to them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power Can they grapple with the strong man armed without a stronger then he to their second How will they withstand their sinns when they shall be gathered together in a generall muster and set in battle arey in a most formidable army and armed with the teeth of Dragons and stings of Scorpions to kill their Bodies and Souls in Hell When the numberless number of their notorious provocations shall breake in furiously like a Sea of Billows to drive away the wicked in his wickedness and another sea of wrath shall be tumbling in after it When evills unrepented of like a kennel of Hell-hounds shall hunt the wicked persons to destruction When God shall be so severe to observe euery thing that is done amisse and shall set in order before us the things that we have done how shall we then answer to one of a Thousand Can you give battle to the King of feares or secure yourselves from a heart-quake when death hangs out his black colours and gives you an alarme will not your hearts then die like a stone or fall asunder in your brests like drops or water when your consciences are clamorous and speak bitter things against you will not Belshazzers palsy seize upon your joints and when you think of that judgement that follows death that fire and brimstone which is the second death will not this make you with Foelix to quake and tremple Oh do but forethinke with yourselves that you shall be as unable to stand in the day of the Lords wrath as chaff to stand before a whirlewinde or stubble before a consuming fire O consider this you that forget God least ye be torn in peices and there be none to deliver you 4 USE Is of Consolation to all such as have cordially closed with this great Salvation As the refusers of it deserve to be stigmatiz'd for notorious fooles for so wise Solomon declaims against them Prov. 1.22 How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity and the scorners delight in their scorning and fooles hate knowledge So such as thankfully accept and embrace this great Salvation deserve the reputation of the wisest of men no foole to the willfull sinner and no wisedome comparable to that that makes wise unto Salvation How was Timothy renowned and his fame rings as far as the Gospel is preached for searching the scripture which were able to make him wise unto Salvation 2 Tim 3.15 To be wise unto Salvation is to be wise indeed all wisedome that comes short of this leaves the possessors of it short of the beginning of wisedome To be wise for the world and wise after the flesh is in Gods esteem to be but fooles and rather a barr to keep men out of Heaven than a door to let them in and therefore our first lesson is selfe-deniall which consists in a denyall of our witts as well as a denyall of our wills and of our worth which the Apostle hints when he saith If any man will be wise let him become a foole that he may be wise As the wisedome of God is foolishesness with the world and God saves men by the foolishness of preaching 1 Cor. 1.21 So the wisedome of the world is foolishness with God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8.7 The wisedome of the flesh is enmity with God To be wise to do wickedly is the most foolish of all wisedome are not they without understanding that worke wickedness Ps 14.4 This wisedome is not from above but carnall sensuall and divelish To be wise according to art in Phisicks Ethicks Politicks Oeconomicks c. and to want the wisedome from above which Gods word and spirit do teach is but umbra sapientiae the shaddow of wisedome and can make men no better than learned fooles all amounting to no more than erudita ignorantia a finer sort of ignorance but to be wise for God for Heaven for our Soules for Salvation this is to be wise indeed A true Israelite indeed a true Christian indeed and true wisedome indeed are much worth when such as are so in shew are but like cyphers in Arithmetick joyne as many together as will fill a volume and they will signifie nothing O consider that when you have layd out your money for that that is not bread and have spent time and strength for that which cannot profit you will be the first that shall befoole your selves as soon as God shall anoint your eyes with eye salve from above then you will say with David so foolish was I and ignorant even as a very bruit before thee Psal 73.22 And my wounds stinke and are corrupt through my foolishness Psal 38.5 Yea the time is coming when those that thought the children of God to be fooles because they set their hearts upon a wisdome that was above the world shall condemne their own wretched folly and magnify the others wisedome as Wisd 5.4 5. We fooles thought his life madnesse and his end without honour how is he counted among the Children of God and his portion is among the Saints To draw towards a conclusion of this use they shall not only gaine the reputation of wisedome but as Solomon when he desired an understanding and religions heart in the first place had riches and honour given in ex abundanti as more than measure so shall these And therefore they are called heyres of Salvation Heb. 1.14 a title next in dignity and riches unto his who is called in the second verse of that chapter the heir of all things All Gods Sonns are heyres and fellow-heyres with Jesus Christ Rom 8.17 and being received into the glorious liberty of Gods adopted Sonns by their union with Christ they communicate in all the priviledges of Justification reconciliation adoption sanctification and glory They have a right to all the priviledges of the Sonns of God The love of the Father the grace of the Son The Communion of the holy Spirit The protection of the Trinity The guardianship of Angells The comforts of an appeased conscience The comfortable enjoyment of the things of this life and the beleiving expectation of the good things of the life to come We looke upon him as honourably and richly provided for that is a Kings
guilty and to bless themselves in their hearts and to flatter themselves till their abomminable wickedness be found out I confess its common with men and women to hang upon the outside of a Saviour as the Antidiluvians did on the outside of the Arke but those that will have a protection from condemnation and fly from wrath to come must get into this Saviour as Noah did into his arke Ther 's no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 We must not think as the Papists do that when we have blest our selves with the signe of the Cross or superstitiously used as a spel or conjuration the sillables of the name of Jesus that then we may bid defiance to the Divel and his Angells can then have no power over us this doth but confirme them in their delusion and make them much more the children of the Divel than others and yet the hope of the common sort of ignorant hearers is but little better If they can but say they beleive in Jesus Christ and they beleive he came into the world to save sinners and they have beleived this ever since they can remember and they will never be beaten out of it while they live and yet all this while they are Refusers of Christ and such notorious Refusers of him that they refuse him in all his Offices as I shall indeavour towards their undeceiving If God will to make so plaine that those whose eyes have been anointed with eye salve from above may even run and read it 1. Gospel-refusing is a refusing of Christ in his priestly office we begin with that because here they think themselves to be cock-sure and every one will profess their willingness to be saved by Christ and to be ready to take him to be their Jesus and Saviour I easily confess that ther 's a naturall propensity in man to desire good for himself and the principle of self-love is so deeply rooted that so long as man is master of his reason he will not yeild willingly to be miserable but we must further know that as there is a spirituall so there is a carnall desire of Christ and happiness which cannot be called a serving of Christ but our selves upon him This may not so properly be called a taking of Christ as a catching at him consider that Christ offers himself unto sinners in the Gospel in all his offices jointly and not in any one of them singly and he that will rightly receive him must receive him wholly and not catch at him by piecemeale we must have all Christ or no Christ and therefore we must give up our selves to be taught by him as by our Prophet and to be ruled by him as by our King if we will be saved by him as by our Priest Are we willing to take Christ for himselfe as well as for our selves otherwise we do frustrate the very end of his saving us for we are therefore saved by him that he may be served by us in righteousness and holyness all our daies Luke 1.74 75. To be saved from wrath and not from sin is but the lesser halfe of Gospel Salvation and such as are not willing of both can have neither What God hath joyned together we must not put asunder It s a most disingenious and unreasonable thing to be all on the receiving and nothing on the returning hand to expect all from him and to give nothing back indeed his redeemed ones can give him nothing but his owne which made the Apostle say Ye are not your owne but are bought with a price therefore glorify God both with your bodies and soules which are his and as we must give him our whole selves bodies soules and spirits so we must take his whole selfe as King Prophet and Priest if we can be content to be willing disciples to his propheticall office and willing subjects to his Kingly office then we may reasonably and believingly expect the benefit of his Prie stly office but let us not dreame that Christ will be our Jesus when our hearts tells us and our lives tell all that are neer us that we have not taken him to be our Lord. 2 Gospel-refusing is a refusing of Christ in his propheticall office and nothing is plainer than this that they which set light by the Gospel do refuse Christ to be their Teacher Salvation by the Gospel is the lesson that Christ teaches and can they slight the Lesson and regard the Teacher Observe what the Apostle saith Heb. 2.1 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard least at any time we should let them slip for if the word spoken by Angells was stedfast c. how shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation take notice of the Apostles inference Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed c. Wherefore Why because we have so admirable a Teacher for this referrs to the beginning of the foregoing Chapter which tells us in the last dayes that God hath spoken to us by his Son who was the express image of his person and brightness of his glory and more excellent than the Angells Therefore we ought to take heed because a greater then Moses is here the Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ Iohn 1.17 because a greater than the Prophets is here even the great Prophet of his Church Acts. 3.22 23. Moses truely said unto the Fathers A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your Bretheren like unto me him shall ye hear in all things that he shall say unto you And it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people And behold a greater than the Angells is here even the Angell of the Covenant of whom Paul saith Heb. 12 2â— See that ye refuse not him that speaketh for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth much more shall not we escape if we turne away from him that speaketh from Heaven To be taught of God and Christ is a thing that should be the glory of the disciples of the Church though some giddy spirit have learned hence to exclude mans teaching which Gods teaching and the teaching of the spirits anointing includes we read of certaine Sectaries in Corinth that would not be of Paul nor Apollos nor Cephas but not Christ 1. Cor. 1.12 But those Gospel-refusers that we are speaking of are such a monstrous sort of Recuâ—ants that they refuse the teaching of Christ himselfe and are such deafe adders that they will not hearken to the most alluring charmes though they come from him that spake as never man spake But as the neglecters of Christ will say at the last day Lord when did we see thee hungry and not feed thee c. So the refusers of Christ will be ready to say when did we hear Christ speaking and we slight him
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
evill thoughts and then murders and a black traine of actuall abominations Mat. 15.19 And an evill man out of the evill treasure of his heart bringeth forth evill things Mat. 12.35 As vaine and lustfull thoughts do bring forth sin so serious and sad thoughts of sin do bring forth repentance Hezekia's thoughts troubled him by day David's by night Job's day and night so should a true penitent My sin is ever in my sight saith holy David The playster of Conviction should stick close till it draw forth Compunction and that of Compunction till it being forth humiliation and that till it being forth Faith and saving Conversion David saith I considered my wayes and turned my feet unto thy Testimonies In which words David makes a turne but first he makes a stop his thoughts did drive him to a stand I considered my wayes i. e. I studyed them I turned them upside downe It s good thus to prevent God he hath threatned to turne the wayes of the ungodly upside downe its safest that we turne our own ungodly wayes upside downe for the promise is If we judge our selves we should not be judged As all sin proceeds from ignorance and inconsiderateness so all grace begins in knowledge and consideration The progress of saving and conversion is laid before us in these severall degrees 1. Consideration 2. Deliberation 3. Resignation Resignation is the uppermost step when the Soul comes up to this point of a Covenant-delivery of it selfe to God and Jesus Christ and this begins in consideration that is taking up of our most serious thoughts about it for consideration is the eye of the Soul that lookes inward or the reflecting of the Soul upon it selfe which is done by this duty of thinking or thoughtfullnesse 2. There must be great searchings of heart Lament 3.40 Let us search and try our wayes and turne unto the Lord said the Church in distress in order to the getting out of her deepes Commune with your own hearts saith holy David on your bed and be still Psal 4.4 That is when you are retired and solitary and have sequestred your selves from other thoughts and imployments then take your hearts to task ask them questions and receive their answers and hold them to it keep them from starting aside or running away till you have your desired satisfaction The heart of man is deceitfull and wicked above all things It hath many turnings and windings and lurking holes in it many back-dores and evading places Observe how David did take his heart to task to make it a heart after Gods own heart and acted what before he gave in precept Psal 77.2 3 4 5 6. In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord my sore ran in the night and ceased not my Soul refused comfort I remembred God and was troubled I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed Thou holdest mine eyes waking I am so troubled that I cannot speake Sad thoughts did so throng in upon him that he could not speak for thinking he was overprest in his spirit and what course did he then take see verse 6. I commune with mine own heart and my spirit made diligent search As officers would search for hidden malefactors in every corner of an house where they are suspected to be so must we search every corner of our deceitfull hearts to find out those evill ones our selves a meipso libera me domine that body of sin and death that lies lurking secretly within us and as we would search dark vaults with lights so must we take Gods word to be a lanthorne that heart-discovering word to which all things are naked and manifest which is powerfull and mighty in operation and will pierce to the dividing asunder of the Soul and Spirit and joynts and marrow c. The cheife Quaeres that we should put to our selves should be these 1. Do we take no care about Salvation 2. Do we take but little care about it 3. Do we not make it our greatest care Our hearts should be fixed on such considerations and searchings till they are fired with them and we should have no rest in our Soules if our hearts condemne us till we have gone to God and vented our selves in a free and ingenuous confession of all our sins especially that sin with dejection of Spirit and humblings of heart which is the next thing 3. There must be great humblings of heart This sin should be for so great a lamentation that we should call downe the spirit of grace and mourning to assist us that our mourning may be deep and durable Notorious sinns must have notable repentance aggravated wickedness must have suitable sorrow where iniquity abounds humiliation must abound too if we expect grace shall super-abound Manasses having sinned greatly was said to humble himself greatly before the God of his Fathers 2. Chron. 33.12 13. and having sinned and sinned by adding sin unto sin He prayed and prayed he was instant and constant in his supplication for pardon We may not flatter our selves with the deceived multitude and think that a few good purposes towards the last or a crying God mercy upon our death beds will do the work The word indeed saith that the poor Publican that said but Lord be merciful to me a sinner went home rather justifyed than the proud Pharise that stood on upâ—oe in his own justification but observe the appurtenances to that prayer of the Publicans and you will find them to be such as do accompany deep humiliation 1. He stood afar off Eccetiâ—â—r 2. He 〈…〉 eyes to Heaven Ecce pudor 3. He smote his breast Ecce dolor That prayer of his was accompanyed with 1. Great fear in standing afar off 2. Great shame in not lifting up his eyes 3. Great sorrow in smiting his breast When souls tremble at Gods word to such will God look even to such Isa 66.2 when they take sâ—â— and shame to themselves and accept of the punishment of their iniquity and judge and condemne themselves God hath no more to â—â—y 1. Cor. 11.31 When the sinner is grieved because God and his Spirit are grieved God doth as it were sympathize with them and grieve for them he 's sorry for our afflictions and repents him of the evil Joel 2.13 and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel Judges 10.16 and I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them Jer. 18.8 I know the Scripture opens a wide door of hope to faithful prayers in times of greatest distress in that gracious promise whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved Rom. 10.13 but its physick that is administred with this corrective in the very next words But how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed The prayer of faith will not only recover health in sickness but life in death but it is not every call nor loud cry that is a prayer not every one that can say Lord Lord can pray and
into everlasting fire But we also promised to clear this point unto you by evidence of reason as I did the former for if such truths were but believingly received in the evidence of them they would surely be mighty in operation and pierce to the dividing of the Soul and Spirit If our everlasting doors were but opened to entertain such mighty Doctrines can we think that men and women that have reasonable Souls and the principles of self-love and self-preservation in them and the passion of fear in them I say can it be once imagined that they can be so bruitish to cast away all care what will become of them in another world and with both hands to pull down upon bodies and souls this swift damnation Know then that the damnation that we are treating of which men draw upon their own heads by setting light by Gospel-Salvation is monstrous great for these ensuing reasons 1. Reason Because it proceedeth from so great a God If we would know the greatness of this Damnation let us study the greatness of that God that inflicts it The wrath of a King is like the roring of a Lyon but let those that can tell what the wrath of the King of Kings is surely Moses his words do advance it above all that can be spoken or thought of it Psal 90.11 Who knows the power of thine anger for according to thy fear is thy wrath i.e. let such as have the most enlightned and most enlarged understandings graspe as much as they can in comprehending thy displeasure yet when they are come unto their wits end it is infinitly beyond their reach The Lord doth all things like himself If he do but speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom to build and to plant it his very word will bring it to pass it brought the world out of nothing with as little ado for he did but speak the word and they were made he commanded and they were created and again if he do but blow upon it and speak against it to destroy it whether it be a Nation or all the Nations of the world he can command a Floud or a Fire to do his strange work When he will deliver none can deliver like him and when he will destroy none can destroy like him Davids question puts all out of question that there is no resistance to be made against him Who may stand in his sight when he is angry Dare we provoke the Lord to jealousie oh foolish people and unwise are we stronger than he Can stubble stand before a deavouring fire or chaffe stand against a scattering whirlwind Though hand joyne in hand the wicked shall not go unpunished for he that judgeth them is a strong Lord. Though they could sore as high as Heaven or fall as low as Hell or fly to the uttermost coasts of the Earth or Sea though they should lie buried under Mountaines a thousand miles deep or all the rocks of the Sea and Land were piled upon them yet there is no hiding them from the wrath of this mighty God who is no less omniscient than he is omnipotent Those that desire to know more of the greatness of this God let them study the 40 Chapter of Isay And there they shall find v. 12. That he measureth the waters in the hollow of his hand and metes the Heaven with a span and comprehends the dust of the earth in a measure and weighs the mountaines in scales and the hills in a ballance And v. 15. All nations are as a drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the ballance and v. 17. All nations before him are as nothing and they are counted less than nothing and vanity And v. 22. It is he that setteth upon the circle of the earth and the inhabitants thereof are as grashoppers that stretcheth out the Heavens as curtaine and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in That bringeth the Princes to nothing and maketh the Judges of the earth as vanity Considering all this greatness and considering further that one halfe is not told you the more we study it the more we are overwhelmed and confounded with the glory of it what can be too hard for the Lord or who can stand in the judgement before this mighty God to whom vengeance belongeth We may easily be confirmed in the truth of all that is said all that can be said of the greatness of damnation when we do but hear from whence it comes even from the dreadfull Jehovah who is able with a word or a frown or a displeased breath to turn all the wicked into hell and all the people that forget God 2. Reason why this Damnation is so great is because it is for despising and setting light by so great a Saviour an undervaluing of the highest Love in its lowest condescention This must be a reason coequall with the former because Christ is the Son coequall with the Father The mercy of heaven never put the sons of men to a quid amplius in any thing more than this What could I do more for an unthankfull world than this Let the Sons of invention set their wits upon the rack and tell us if they can what God could do more than to turn himself wholly into LOVE 1 John 4.16 and having but one Son who was Heyr of all things his orâ—â—â—â— begotten and onely beloved who thought it no robbery to be equall with himself to send him out of his own bosome to empty himself of his glory to take our sin and curse with our nature upon him that we who were children of disobedience and wrath and heyrs apparent to hell and condemnttion might be received into the glorious liberty of the Sons and Daughters of the Lord God Almighty Now for men to be so desperatly rebellious is to slight this love and so stubbornly mad as to refuse this Saviour can the greatest judgements in Gods storehouse or the hottest place in that fire that burns to the bottom of hell be a proportionable recompence for such dâ—ing provocations Shall wicked miscreants slight and trample upon that which the Saints admire and the Angels adore O stupendious madness It s a thousand wonders that the great eye of Heaven doth not wink the earth into utter darkness the very Sun take its leave of the world abhorring to see men to be such incarnate Devils and to see the Earth tainted with such hellish abominations hellish do I say nay in this the wickedness of man is so great in the Earth that it justifies the Devils for they being left without hope of a Redeemer were never guilty of setting light by a Saviour and knowing so much of the terrours of the Lord as doth accompany their initial Damnation in their chains of darkness wherein they are reserved to the judgement of the great day and trembling to believe 〈◊〉 much more of the consummation of it fâ—â—â—â—night be put to tryall whether they wouâ—
have run to our wits end we are but at the beginning of it if that Ever and Never though short in syllables and sound yet are so long in sense and signification that they are the savour of life and death to the saved and damned ever with the Lord and never taken out of his Hands is the savour of life to life to the one ever with the Devil and never redeem'd from hell is the savour of death unto death to the other Eternity is the very bottom of the bottomless pit though the torments were easless yet if they were not also endless they might be the better indured But when thousands and ten thousands and Millions and thousands of Millions and Millions of Millions and all the numbers in Arithmetick are added and put into one sum total when the drops and sands of the Sea and stars of the Firmament and all hairs upon all heads from the worlds creation to the day of Judgement shal be compared with the years of Eternity Nondum finis nondum medium nondum principium aeternitatis designatur they are so far from reaching to the end that they cannot reach the Middle no not the Beginning of eternity Sic parvis magna thus have I given you a Slender account of those great punishments which constitute this Great Damnation and so endeth the last of the Reasons USE The onely proper use to be made of a Sermon of Damnation that it may be the power of God through faith unto Salvation is a use of Terrour set home by a Son of thunder unto the consciences of secure sinners that are settled on their lees frozen in theis dreggs and lye soaking in their lusts As the Doctrine of Salvation may be the savour of death and aggravate the Damnation of unprofitable hearters so the Doctrine of Damnation may be the savour of life and tend to the furtherance of Salvation to such as hear in hearing that hear and understand and are converted and healed The Doctrine of Salvation like a pleasant Song may lull sinners into a Spiritually Lethargy when the Doctrine of Damnation may awake them and discover to them their danger to prevent it Oh that I could now speak with the tongue of Angels or rather that the Lord would speake unto you by the words of a man of like infirmities with your selves your fellow-creature and servant who is but dust and ashes oh that the Lord would either give me the tongue of the Learned or speake effectually by my Stammering tongue and open me a wide door of utterance and enterance Though I speake of a dreadfull Theme no less than Great Damnation yet afford me the hearing It s better to hear it than to feel it you had better hear a man coolly telling you of the greatness of the thing than to hear an angry God terribly denouncing the greatness of the sentence I may bespeake your attention as Elihu did Jobs Job 33 6 7. Behold I am according to your wish in Gods stead I also am formed out of the clay Behold my terrour shall not make you afraid neither shall my hand be heavy upon you But here I must lift up my voice and cry aloud or else I cannot wake you and he had need to have a stronger voice than mine that shall speake loud enough for the dead to hear When sinners are so supine and negligent that they can hear the wise and powerful charmes of the Gospel with Adders ears and so dead asleep that they can hear the words of the curse and bless themselves in their hearts and promise themselves peace when God proclaimes War and saith again and again no peace to the wicked I say 48.22 and 57.21 When you can come to the ordinances and sit as Gods people do as if you did delight to know his waies and enquire after the ordinances of justice and yet are no more moved with the sad or glad tidings of the law or Gospel than the Seats you sit upon or the Stones you tread upon no more moved with a discouse of judgement to come or shaken with the breath of Gods displeasure than the Walls or Pillars that you leane unto The dead under-ground are as sensible of what is spoken as the dead above ground how justly may we fear that the Lord will answer you according to your Idolls What need have the Lords servants to step into the gapp and step betwixt you and danger and seeke the Lord that he may not give a hardning commission to his word and ministry for if he once bind ther 's no loosing and if he shut none can open The proper effect of this great Damnation is to strike terrour through the spirits of such as are within reach of it And I have to do with men and women that have reasonable Souls into which God hath put the affections of fear and love and the same God hath put into his word promises and threatnings suitable to these affections that they may be drawn with the promises as with the cords of love or driven with the threats as with the rod of men you have heard of great Salvation a mighty motive to draw you and great Damnation a mighty engine to drive you I have set before you life and death blessing and cursingâ— oh that the Lord would perswade you to make Maries choise to choose life that your Souls your precious Souls may live and live for ever Since I have undertaken this expedition as David did his against Goliah not having any confidence in Sword or Spear but laying all the stress upon the Name and power of the living God I will not despair but that the Doctrine here delivered may take hold upon some hearts that may be savingly bettered by it Sinners remember that the time is at hand when the Lord Jesus must be revealed and the great Judge is even ready to take the Throne to sit upon life and death and all both quick and dead must be gathered before him and those that have made light of Salvation offered Christ will make light of their Damnation inflicted Those that take counsel against the Lord and against his Christ saying let us breake their bonds asunder and cast their cords from us He that sitteth in heaven shall laugh them to scorn the Lord shall have them in derision Then he shall speak unto them in his wrath and vexe them in his sore displeasure yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Sion The despisers of Christ shal be confounded and he alone shal be exalted in that day It is reported of Philip King of Macedon that he caused his Page to come every morning to his Chamber door with this good morrow Memento Philippe te esse mortalem O Philip remember that thou art a man and must dye like a man as Moses saith in Psal 82.6 7. I have said ye are Gods but ye shall dye like men and you Princes shall fall like others It s reported of
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