received not the Love of the Truth that they might be saved By Truth is meant Eph. 1. 13. Rom. 1. 18. the saving Truth of the Gospel which is called the Word of Truth There is a Truth natural which the Heathens had and detained in Unrighteousness which brought Gods Wrath down from Heaven upon them There is a supernatural Truth from divine Revelation This is here meant the Abuse of which Truth highly provokes God to give up men judicially to the Delusions of Sin and the Devil and at last as the just Event and Effect of their rejecting the truth and believing Lies are damned These Wretches that receive not the Love of the truth are first punished with spiritual Judgments and then with eternal ones they are first blinded here judicially and then as the just Reward of their rejecting Christ the truth as it is in Jesus they are damn'd Having divided and opened the Text I shall lay down this one general Proposition viz. Doct. That God by Christ in just Judgment gives over such as are enemies to his Gospel to the Delusions of the Devil and their own Hearts to be hardned and blinded while others in Mercy are enlightned and converted by it That Gospel which makes the way of Salvation by Christ clear and evident to many souls who are in darkness and sit as in the shadow of Death to others thro' their Ignorance Prejudice and Malice and the righteous Judgment of God for their Perverseness and Infidelity proves a means to blind and harden their Hearts That Word and Gospel which to some is a Savour of Life unto Life to others thro' their Pride and Unbelief is a Savour of Death 2 Cor. 2. 15 16. unto Death In this sense these words agree with what was prophesied by the Prophet Isaiah He shall be for a sanctuary Isaiah 8. 14 15. speaking of Christ but for a stone of stumbling and for a Rock of Offence to both the Houses of Israel For a Gin and for a Snare to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem and many among them shall stumble and fall and be broken snared Luke 2. 34. and taken And with the words of good old Simeon to Mary the Mother of our Lord This Child is set says he for the Fall and Rising again of many in Israel and for a sign to be spoken against By the Fall and Rising again is here meant undoubtedly the Salvation and Damnation of many Christ will be the occasion of many Peoples Damnation even of all that reject him and his precious Gospel and believe not in him As Christ is the Cause of many Peoples Salvation even of all that believe and shall be saved Acts 4. 12. for there is no other Name by which men can be saved but by his So he is the Cause of their Damnation eventually and accedentually who oppose his Gospel and believes not in him for he that believeth not shall be damned This is the thing which Mark 16. 16. Christ tells us of in my Text and is spoken of by Paul Behold I lay in Sion a stumbling stone and rock of Offence whosoever believeth Rom. 9. 33. on him shall not be ashamed nor confounded For the opening of this weighty Point I shall first shew you what those sins are which provoke God and Christ to such a-degree as to blind and harden men by that means by which others are enlightened and softned Secondly Lay down some Conclusions for the better clearing up this great Truth Thirdly shew you how this stands with the Holiness and Goodness of God to give Men up to Blindness of Mind and Hardness of Heart to believe Lies that as Paul saith 2 Thes 2. 10 11. they may be damned Fourthly Then I shall sum up the whole with some practical Application O Lord God the Father of the Spirits of all Flesh help thy poor sinful Dust the meanest of all employed in thy Vineyard Give him thy holy Spirit and Wisdom from above to manage this great Point for thy Glory the good of Souls O! let him not darken Counsel by words without Knowledge but be led into all truth and cause it to shine transparently to the Convincing of the erroneous World the Conversion of sinners and the est ablishing thy Children in their most holy Faith c. for Jesus Christ's sake to whom with thy Self and eternal Spirit of Truth be Honour and Glory for ever Amen First I shall shew you what those sins are which provoke God to such a high degree as to give men over to Blindness under the Gospel Would you know what those sins are that provoke God to blind and harden many by the Word I 'll tell you in general They are sins against Knowledge and Light 1st Sins against the Light of Nature There are such sins which Paul speaks of that are of a provoking Nature and highly displeasing Rom. 1. 21 22. unto God When they knew God that is by the Light of Nature for the Light of the Word they had not as for his Judgements and his Statutes says the Psalmist they have not known them they glorified him Ps 147. 20. not as God but became vain in their Imaginations and their foolish Hearts were darkened These Heathens had the Light of Nature which was sufficient to let ' em know that there was a God and that He was not like a Man or a Beast or a creeping thing as they foolishly imagined for that which might be known of God is manifest Ver. 29. Ver. 20. in them for God hath shewed it unto them for the invisible things of him from the Creation of the world are clearly seen What is seen Even his eternal Power and Godhead But how is this seen and understood Why by the things that are made So that they are without Excuse the Heavens declare Gods Psal 19. 1 2. Ver. 23. Glory and the Firmament shews his handy Work Now this Light they abused and misimproved they changed the Glory of the incorruptible God into an Image made like to corruptible Man and to Birds and four footed Beasts thus they became vain in their own Imaginations For which cause God gave Ver. 24. them up to uncleanness thro' the Lusts of their own Hearts yea he gave them up to vile Affections and to a reprobate Mind or Ver. 26. to a mind void of Judgment to do those things which are not convenient Now if sins against the Light of Nature be of such an aggravating Nature as to provoke God to give up Persons to blindness of Mind What will sins against the Light of the Gospel do the greater the Light is that persons sin against the greater must their Sin be and the more provoking in the Sight of God Which brings me to the Second thing Namely sins against the Light of the Gospel these are great sin and provoke God highly to Anger to reject Christ and his Gospel and not receive the
heavy Judgement the more it is upon a man the less he feels it and the further he is from a possibility of repenting truly and believing in Christ for Salvation he must needs run head-long to evil and to Hell whom the Devil drives But Some may ask me what they must do Quest to escape this Judgement of being blinded and hardned by the Word Answer First When ever you hear the Word preached hear it with Reverence and Attention Keep thy Foot when thou goest to Eccles. 5. 1 2. Psal 119. 11. the house of God be reverent in his Presence and hear the word with due Attention as it is the word of God Let it not go in at one Ear and out of the other but hide it in your hearts that you may not sin against God 2dly Meditate upon the Grace of God in Christ to poor sinners think dayly on the freeness fulness and riches of it If the serious Thoughts of Grace and Love to undone Sinners will not melt you and constrain you to leave your sins and love Christ who have loved you to the Death I know not what will The prodigal Son when he thought of the fulness of Bread that was in his Fathers House then he resolved to return home and fell down at his Fathers Feet and said Father I have sinned Luk. 15. 18 19. against Heaven and before thee and am not worthy to be called thy Son Nothing like Grace and Love to constrain melt and humble the Sinner Oh! Think much on God's Love and Grace But lastly For I must not enlarge pray earnestly to God for a soft and tender heart plead his Covenant Promise who hath said That he will take away the Heart of Stone and Ezek 36. 26. give a heart of Flesh Oh! Pray that every Sermon may soften your Heart and melt it Gal. 4. 2. down into godly Sorrow Many cry God damn me but there 's few in good earnest Pray for Grace and for a tender Heart Oh! 1. Thes. 5. 17. Luk. 18. 1. 6. Turn the word preached into Prayer and say Lord make this and every word of 〈◊〉 a good word unto my Soul I shall add do more but leave what hath been said to the Blessing of the GREAT GOD. SOLIDEO GLORIA FINIS ERRATA Pray Courteous Reader mend with your Pen these following Faults PAge 7. line 32. for Sword read Fear In the same Page for Temption read Temptation Page 13. line 23. for Means read Meant Page 9. line 3. for Judiciously read Judicially Page 15. line 32. for Promulging read Promulgation Page 38. line 3. for Ways read Voice Page 39. line 10. for Pleasures read Pleasure In the same for To read Into A FUNERAL SERMON 2 Tim. iv Verse vii viii I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the Faith Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge shall give me at that Day And not to me only but unto all them also that love his appearing SOlomon the Wise tells us To every thing there is a Season and a Time a Time to be Born and a Time to Die a Time to Mourn and a Time to Rejoyce Eccles 3. 1. c. I doubt not All the Godly and the Serious and Sensible here present will readily acknowledge with me That this is a Time to Mourn But will it not look like the adventuring on a Paradox to affirm to you That it is also a Time to Rejoyce A Time it is indeed to Mourn for the loss of so dear a Relation and so Pious and Christian a Friend But are we not Christians as well as Men And while Nature seeles sighs nay sinks at the dismal Loss of Friends or Relations Grace should triumph over Nature and Faith over Sense While we are bemoaning their loss we should be Rejoycing in the Crown and Glory of Saints of which number she was we have so great Reason to be assured Our Deceased Friend was one of their Number who by their Holy Conversation give a plain and sensible demonstration of the Power of the Principles of our Holy Profession both by their Life and their Death For Words have not that Energy and Force that Action and Conversation hath a shining Life and a triumphant Death perswade beyond all the Power of Argument or charms of Rethoric And concerning the not only unblameableness but Piousness of her Life for whose Death we now Mourn it was so well known to all that knew her that she hath therein a better Character than I can give her for modesty of Stile and Reserves of Expression become me when I consider the Modesty and Humility of her Deportment through the whole of her Life I come therefore now to the Text I have proposed to Discourse upon The whole Text is drawn in Figures borowed from the Olimpic Games well known in the Times and Places in which the Apostle wrote Games appointed for all the activities of Persons prepared by Frame and Constitution of Body Vigour of Mind and Inclination and strictly Disciplined Dieted and Exercised thereunto Such an allusion is at other times made use of by the Apostle as 1 Cor. 9. 24. And being Sanctified by the Divine Spirit is most elegant and expressive of holy Senses In this Place The Apostle of the Gentiles gives us under these Emblems a threefold Character of himself and then sets out the Prize 1. His Encountring and Combating all the Temptations of Satan within and of the World without wherein he Fought not as one that beateth the Air but at sharps as they say with great effect for Offence and Defence as those Combatants alluded to used to do 2. He who received the Prize Finished his Course Therein he alludes to those who Run in a Race that they might Obtain He Ran not as in certainly He Ran the whole Course of Doing and Suffering and of his Ministry and Apostleship the whole Race set before him to the very Mark 3. He kept the Faith the great Faith of the Gospel in union to the Crucified Jesus which was the scandal of the Jews and Gentiles even the Cross of Christ and the Obedience of Faith in all the Holiness Mortification to the World and the Lusts of it within and without and doth extend to all kinds of Suffering Heavenlyness of Mind and Conversation Hereby he behaved himself as a mighty Champion that by no means would let go his Hold or Deposium the Pearl of great Prize or surrender it to the violence against it And so he leads us to the second Part of this great Text under the same allusion The Crown or the Prize not the Corruptible Crown of those Games but the Incorruptible to which the Apostle refers a Man is not Crowned except he strive Lawfully and herein he thus expresses himself Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Righteous Lord shall give me Before I begin
to blindness of Mind and hardness of Heart One he Condemns for Covetousness and yet he is Covetous another for Pride and yet he is Proud such were these in my Text they said men must not commit Adultery and yet Rom. 2. 19. 20 to 24. they committed Adultery they pretended to abhor Idols and yet committed Sacriledge They taught that a man must not Steal and yet they Stole so while they boasted of the Law they became Transgressors of it and Dishonour'd God But 4 thly They sin against Light that sin against the express Threatnings of God in his Word against sin Hath not God said that to be sure your sins shall find you out i. e. the punishments due to you for them Has not the Lord said expresly that the Wicked Psal 9. 17. shall be turned into Hell and all the Nations that forget God and yet you go on as if God were but in jest and did not mean as he spake God hath thunder'd out his Judgments against Sin and Sinners he hath said that he will wound the Head of his Enemies and Psal 68. 21. the hairy Scalp of him that remaineth still in his sins And yet you go on and hold your sins fast tho' God sets the point of the Sword at your Breast yet you will go on in your sins and Rebellion against him Is not this think you to sin against Light doth not this argue that the pleasures of sin doth more delight and please you than the Threatnings of God afright you Are not many sinners like the Leviathan Job 41. 29. that Laughs at the shaking of the spear many Laugh when they hear of Hell but they will not when they come there there be many so bold that they deride Gods threatnings they say as them who draw Iniquity with Cords of Vanity Let him Isaiah 5. 19 20. make speed and hasten his work that we may see it c. As if they had said we have heard that God will do much against sinners and that his Judgments will Light upon them Why do not he do it We would fain see it Let the Counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come that we may know it What wretches are these thus to deride Gods threatnings Let such vile ones remember this that for men to see Gods Flaming Sword as it were drawn against sin and sinners and yet strengthen themselves in sin is to sin against Light and Knowledg and the way highly to provoke God But Lastly such sin indeed against Light as sin after many Promises and Vows made against it How many have promised God fairly to amend and leave sin and yet they go on in it What says Solomon to such When thou vowest a vow unto God defer not to pay it For he hath no pleasure in fools pay that Eccl. 5. 4 5 6. which thou hast vow'd Better is it that thou shouldest not vow than that thou shouldest vow and not pay Suffer not thy Mouth to cause thy Flesh to sin c. Many put God off with a many good morrows and fair promises to Repent and amend their-ways but mind not to perform'em A Vow is a religious promise What a Vow is made to God to dedicate our selves to him and to be for him and for no other but him Now how greatly do they sin that have not only purposed but promised to leave sin and yet they Live in it Every man that vows makes himself a debtor he binds himself to God in a solemn manner Now for a man to sin after a vow to vow himself to God and yet give himself to Sin and the Devil is to sin against Light with a witness Let men have a care what they do in this point and especially professors who have the vows of God upon them It is dangerous to Leave God when we have vow'd our selves to him Thus much for the first general 2dly I shall now lay down a few propositions for the better clearing of the Doctrine and they are these six following viz. First Prop. That God sometimes punisheth sin with sin for sin he gives men up often to be led Capuve by their base Lusts God gave them up says Paul to uncleanness Rom. 1. 24 26. thro' the Lust that were in their Hearts When men harden their hearts willfully God often hardens them judicially Pharaoh would not let Exod. 7. 3 4. the People go Well says God with he not let my Son go to serve me I will Harden his Heart that he shall not let them go c. They that will not Repent when God would have them but harden their Hearts and say they will do so again shall not have a Heart nor Grace to Repent to purpose when for Fear of Judgements they with Esau seek a place for Repentance It is a dreadful Judgment for God to Punish sin with sin But 2dly Spiritual Judgments of all on this Prop. 2. side Hell are the worst a Judicial Blindness of Mind and Hardness of Heart of all Rev. 22. 17 Hos 4. 19. Plagues are the worst For God to say Let him that is Filthy be Filthy still and he that is Unjust be Unjust still is very dreadful Spirit strive not with him any more he is joyn'd to Idols let him alone What can be more dreadful on this side Hell than for God to say Ez. 24. 13. to Sinners because when I have Purged thee thou wast not Purged thou shalt not be Purged from thy Filthiness till I cause my Fury to rest upon thee Spiritual Judgments and Plagues are the worst and that for these three Reasons First Reason is in respect the Subject upon whom they Fall and that is the Soul which Mat. 16. 26. is a rare and precious Jewel The Soul of Man is worth more than all the World for the World cannot with all its Riches save nor redeem it The Soul is a spiritual substance in Man Created by God the Father of Spirits which can exist when separated from the Body Now by how much the Soul What the Soul is Ecc. 12. 7. is better than the Body by so much must it be worse for the Soul to be afflicted as mercies to the Soul are the greatest so judgments upon it must be the greatest But 2dly Because these plagues are the greatest Evidences of Eternal Wrath What surer mark for Hell can there be than this for a Person judicially to be left of God here John 3. 36. and given up to Blindness of Mind to believe Lies is a sure mark of eternal ruine and destruction 3dly Spiritual judgments are the worst because they hinder and with-hold from us the best good which is God and Christ Now that which restrains and keeps from us the best and chief good without which our Souls cannot be happy must needs be the worst kinds of restraints and judgments What plagues are like those of Hardness of Heart a Spirit
16. Rom. 2. 16 17. Mie 2. 12. Word Have you sound it to be a saviour of Life unto Life and the power of God to the saving of your Souls Doth not my word saith God do good to the upright O examine what good you have found by the Gospel You have been hearers of it many Years what Have you received no Soul-benefit by it Let me ask you two or three questions and do you ask them seriously your own Souls Have you been savingly enlightned by the Quest 1 Spirit in the Word Can you say with the blind man upon good grounds I was born blind but now I see Are your Eyes beloved opened and Illuminated to see the evil of sin and the good that is in Jesus Christ Every Eph. i. 18. 19. one that is brought to Christ Interested in him are Spiritually Illuminated their understandings which were darkned are enlightned by the Spirit Is it thus with you Have the Spirit by the Word set up a divine Light in your Souls Is the Veil taken from off your Eyes Are you that were darkness 2 Cor. 3. 16. Eph. 5. 8. Acts 26. 18 1 Cor 4. 5 6. in the abstract made Light in the Lord Are you turned from Darkness to Light and from the power of Satan to God In a Word Hath God commanded the Light to shine into your Souls and shewn you his Glory in the face of Jesus Christ God saith Paul that commandeth the Light to shine out of Darkness hath shined into our hearts to give the Light of the Knowledg of the glory of God in the face of Christ Is it thus with you Have you found God dealing thus with your Souls Are your hard and frozen Hearts softned Quest 2 by the Word Have any of you in good earnest been made to cry out with them 3000 that were pricked at the Heart under Peters Sermon Men and Brethren what shall we do That beloved which neither can be bruised nor broken with any strokes nor softned with any Moisture is hard indeed By this you may know your Hearts Will no means and monitions of the Word break your Hearts Will no exhortations entreaties nor promises in it melt you Surely thy heart O sinner Must be hardned indeed that nothing will move nor melt it Oh! have the Word or rather the Spirit by the Word broken and melted any of your Hearts Have you found it a hammer and a fire A hammer to break your rocky Hearts Jer. 23. 29. and a fire to burn up your Lusts and melt down your hearts into Godly Sorrow Can you mourn for sin as sin And are you grieved that you can love Christ no better nor bring forth no more Fruit for his Glory are you concerned for his absence And do you greatly rejoyce in his presence If it be thus 't is a good sign your hearts are softned Are you transformed by the Gospel into the Image of Christ Is the Old man put off Quest 3 Eph. 4. 22 23. with is deeds and the New man put on Can you truly say with Paul from good experience we all with open face beholding as in 2 Cor 3. 18. a glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory Even by the Spirit of our God have you had transforming sights of Christ in the pure Glass of the Gospel Are you become new Creatures Can you remember it was not with you once as it is now Is sin Loth some and Christ Lovely to you Then you have received good by the Word and it is not a Judgment but a Mercy to you 3d. Use is by way of exhortation Oh! Use 3 Let me exhort you all in the Name and Fear of the dreadful God to these few following things and I shall soon have done First be exhorted and perswaded to abstain from all sin but especially from sins against Light and Knowledg A good Man thro' the violence of temptation or Infirmity may sin against knowledge as David and Peter did But have a care as one says of cold blood and continuing in known sins Remember that knowledg taketh away all excuse of sin If I had not come says Christ to the Jews and spoken to them they had not had John 12. 22. sin but now they have no Cloak or Excuse for their sin Ignorance if not affected may excuse a tanto but not a toto but Knowledg will not excuse any Dost thou know that drunkenness O Man is a sin And that Lying Whoredom and Sabboth-breaking are abominable sins and yet Live in them Alas what hope canst thou have A willing practise of known sins and true repentance cannot stand together Nay remember it 't is the ready way to a reprobate Mind and to Eternal Ruine Tho' while in this mortal State you cannot but sin yet beware of two things First of being willingly Ignorant of that which God gives you the means to know This O sinner Is the mark of a Reprobate Wretch Peter tells us of some that are willingly Ignorant of this that by the Word of the Lord the Heavens were of Old There 2 Pet. 3. 5 6. be many that do not know Christ savingly and this is their misery they do not desire to know him They say unto God depart from Job 21. 4. us we desire not the Knowledg of thy ways Oh! beware of this for to be Ignorant and not desire to know is a sad sign of a hardned Heart and a blinded Mind But 2dly beware of doing contrary to your knowledg For to him that knoweth to 2. James 4. 18 do good and doth it not to him it is a sin His knowledg aggravates his fault To sin against Light and Knowledg is a crimson sin a sin of a deep dye Every infirmity every thing that falls short of the Rule is sin but much more that which contradicts the Rule This Man's sin is a hainous sin a capital sin 't is a sin with a witness and will be punished with a vengance If he that sins Ignorantly will be damned surely then he that doth not what he knows but contrary shall be double Luk. 12. 47. damned He that knoweth his Master's Will and doth it not shall be beaten with many stripes But 2dly be exhorted to comply and fall in with the motions of the Blessed Spirit in the Word Do not the Spirit at no time move upon your Hearts and cause some convictions in your Consciences c. Oh! see that when the Spirit move you do not resist For his Spirit God hath said shall Gen. 3. 6. not always strive with Man Oh! quench not the Spirit turn not a deaf Ear to his Calls do not drown his convictions as some in a Cup of Ale or in merry Company But I must not inlarge Therefore in the Third and last Place Be exhorted and perswaded dayly to fear and dread being hardned by the Gospel a hardned Heart is a most
to the Last as to the First even as in the Parable Mat. 20. 2. In that all Saints Love the Appearance of Christ it is made certain They are those that have Fought Run hell fast the great Depositum Committed to them so as to obtain and not to be rejected the Faith which gives them the assurance and lifting up of the Head at the appearance of the great Judge and Arbitrator of the Prize and so they desire long for and Love his Appearance And thus I have given a breif View and Examination of the words of this Great Text. Applic. That which I would now infer from the whole discourse by way of Doctrinal conclusion by way of Practical enforcement by way of Consolation relating to the particular occasion shall be First That we would look to it To hold the Faith of Jesus Christ in its own Purity For the Gospel is so pure separate from all mixtures as Silver Purified in a Furnace of Earth Purified seven Times that we must not pervert it any way Every Word of God Prov. 30. 5 6. Much more the Great Gospel-Points Whoever add to it or diminish from it will be found Lyars unto it Blessed are they that trust in it It will be to them a Sheild of Salvation As to that Great Point Righteousness by Faith in Christ without works How suddenly do Men slide down to Another Gospel under the Apostles Anathema and yet It is not another but the clear pure streams of Gospel-Truth and Grace are hereby troubled and the satisfaction and comfort of Believers disturb'd and the Invitingness of it to strangers much obscur'd and defiled Now here in the subtility of the Enemies of the pure Doctrine of the Gospel is seen That they being afraid to take up the Insolent Anti-christian Word Merit or as the Apostle calls it Debt They would yet Privily bring in such a supposed presence of works after Grace as sincere obedience though not perfect into Justification as the condition of that Covenant upon which it justifies even as perfect obedience was the condition of the Covenant of Works and yet merit not once Named nor Allowed Because Adams strength to work by if he had rightly applyed it was indeed from the Bounty and Goodness of the Creator yet as in a way of Condecency of such a Creator to such a Creation as the Humane Nature that came pure and perfect out of His Hand But what Believers do is from Grace in Christ by and from His Spirit Vouchsafed to Sinners and so cannot Merit Now this hath indeed very great Truth in it Yet it doth not Answer the High Expression of the Gospel excluding all Created or Creature-Righteousness in the Court of Righteousness or Justification and placing all in the Righteousness of God by Faith in Jesus Christ In his obedience in his Expiation Filling up and so replenishing that Court That nothing else can enter but is kept out by the Flaming Sword of the Fiery Law Yea Angels that never sinn'd yet Cover their Faces Esa 6. and their Feet their Excellency and the Nakedness and Folly of all Created Being before Increated and consist in and by Christ Christ as the Head of Amity and Perseverance in their Glorious State and Adam not Flying to it upon those tenders of it signifid to Him as by that real evidence of it That he was and could be no more then the Figure of Him that was to come Rom. 5. 12. And that His and His Posteritys standing in Him was only their standing in Christ as this was also represented in those Sacramental Types the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil Gen. 2. Warning Him against subsisting in Himself as a God knowing or able to determine Good and Evil but to look to the Tree of Life so great a Type of Christ as we find in the Revelation Nothing therefore can enter into the Court of Justification but Poor empty single Faith Receiving Owning Acknowledging Grace Receiving Grace in Abundance excluding all else and the Gift of Righteousness by Jesus Christ alone And to this it is enabled by Grace and Accepted only for that Righteousness sake it does receive As to the enforcement by way of Action and Practice we see in this Great Portraicture the Apostle gives of a Man in Christ that Fights the Good Fight Finishes his Course keeps the Faith That a Believer in Christ is not a Loose or an Idle Slothful Unactive Person but shall appear in that Day as of the Overcomers in those so Famed Games or Exercises of all Prowess Courage Action so as to be judg'd worthy of those Crowns of which they were so Ambitious though but corruptible by the justest Judges or Arbitrators of them So the Saints shall be presented before the Father the Lord Jesus the Eternal Spirit of Holiness and before Saints and Angels to the Terror and Amazement of all the Lost as Persons of distinct Excellency and the Overcomers as in the Apocalyptic Expression is repeated and yet all in Christ and to the Glory and Praise of Grace in Him So that the Doctrine of Free Grace is indeed the most Powerful Effective Fruitful Doctrine of Holyness and so is most Discriminative of Persons in Christ and with greatest severity on those who are not and of those who shall be thought worthy of the Crown and who not and yet without the least Injury to Free Grace in Christ 3. Great Consolation have they who knew our Deceased Friend who had always Admiring Adoring thoughts of Free Grace and thereby a great sense of Perfecting Holiness in the Fear of God but all through Christ strengthning Her and in Fighting Running holding fast an Eye to the Crown but as purchased for her by Jesus Christ and that therefore she Loved the Appearance of Jesus When the Crown already received shall with Glory be set upon her at that Day That we may yet enter into the deeper enquiry into and consideration of all this Triumphant Declaration of the Apostle concerning Himself and all Saints in that supreme Point their receiving the Crown of Righteousness I will propose to give a breif resolution of these following Points 1. How in the lost undone State of the Children of Adam there can arise such a Generation of Servants of God both more eminent and smaller in this World 2. How or why they fall all under the Prohibition of serving God any longer here in the World then the Finishing such a Course of service on such a Measure of their Line Prescribed by God 3. Why this Prohibition is serv'd upon them by Death Two Persons only Enoch and Elias and why they only excepted Herein I shall with all the care and Caution according to the understanding given to me by and from the Word of God Discourse each of these Point 1. It is indeed the wonder of Divine Grace and Power That there should have been and are such a Generation of the Servants of God in the World in every Age