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
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
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
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
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
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
〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 offâ—â—e Saviour can we th◠〈…〉 Devils themselves 〈…〉 gent deceiving of finners to their 〈…〉 they would greedily apprehend the oppâ—â—nity of laying hold upon Salvation Heâ— O heavens and hearken O earth and be astonished at this We may stand amazed and wonder that those prodigies are not every daies news which accompanyed the crucifying of this blessed Saviour and did witness to the world hâ—â— deeply the Lord was displeased with the more than barbarous cruelties th◠〈◊〉 be a God even of invincible patienâ—e and long-suffering and can see and suffer himself to be provoked every day and his Sons blood and righteousness to be trampled on and set at nought by the refusers of mercy yet this is but during the day of grace this will not last alwaies the day of wrath is a coming even at the doors and then righteous judgement shal be dispensed and one high and main end of that great and terrible day is the exaltation of Gods Son that he may be manifested to both worlds of men and Angels to be Gods onely beloved Son in whom he is well pleased Then shall the Lord Jesus be terrible to those that refused him and glorious in them that believe 2 Th. 7.8 3. Reason Because it is wrath inflicted for resisting and vexing of the Spirit of grace The Father and Son have been the matter of the two foregoing Reasons and this third is drawn from the third Person in this great and glorious Trinity This Spirit moved upon the waters in the worlds Creation Gen. 1.2 This Spirit did strive with man in the daies and Ministry of Noah Gen. 6.3 This spirit was prophesied of in the daies of the Prophets Isay 59. â—1 My Spirit that is upon thee shall not depart from thee nor from thy seed nor from thy seeds feed saith the Lord from henceforth and for ever and Joel 2.28 I will poure out my Spirit upon all flesh c. This spirit our Saviour promise when he went to the Father I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter and he shall abide with you for ever Joh. 14.16 And this spirit was sent according to promise in the likeness of cloven and fiery Tongues Acts 2.2 3 4. to guid the Apostles into all truth to bring to their remembrance and to teach them more perfectly the things they had heard of Christ to inspire and guide them in perfecting the Scriptures and bearing witness to the truth of them by many wonderfull miracles And this spirit keeps residence in the Church and joyns it self as the spirit of wisdom and revelation with the word of wisdom and revelation to call and draw men unto Christ and to work energetically and effectually in such as are made believers by the exceeding greatness of its mighty power Now as Steven impleaded the Jews so may we lay it to the charge of all such as live within the sound of the Gospel Act. 7.51 Ye stifnecked and uncircumcised in hearts and ears ye do alwaies resist the Holy Ghost as your Father did so do ye When the Spirit of God strives verbis and verberibus in the Word and Rod in ordinances and providences and the Lord may charge it upon us as he doth Pro. 1.24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31. Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and none would regard but ye have set at nought all my counsell and would none of my reproof I also will laugh at your calamity I will mock when your fear cometh when your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind and distress and anguish cometh upon you Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but shall not find me c. Therefore they shall eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices When the spirit shall be thus unworthily resisted and vexed nothing renders the Lord more inexorable implacable and merciless and leaves the guilty to perish without remedy 4. Reason Because it is prepared for great enemies The very word prepared is a most stinging expression Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared c. That wrath into whose preparation the wisedome and justice of so great a God is ingredient must needs be inconceivably and unutterably great But if we take in the great enemies for whom it is prepared â—t will augment it it was prepared for the Dâ—vel and his Angell Mat. 25.41 Those that were discontented with their own angelicall excellency and emulated the Majesty and greatness of God and had an ambition to be like him Tophet is prepared for the King i. e. for the Prince of darkness and God of this world or for the greatest of malefactors be they never so high never so mighty never so noble after the flesh all their number pompe and greatness shall be swallowed up in the bottomless pit Observe what black Catalogues the Scripture makes of that notorious rabble of Rebells Rampant that must descend into the bottomless pit 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdome of God be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor theeves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdome of God See also Gal. 5.19 20 21. The works of the flesh are manifest which are these adultery fornication uncleanness lascivousness idolatry witchcraft hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions heresies enyvings murders drunkenness revelling and such like of the which I tell you as I have also told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdome of God And Eph. 5.5 This ye know that no whoremonger nor uncleane person nor covetous man who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdome of Christ and of God These Scriptures are only exclusive and bar Heaven against such hear one place more that acquaints us which the place that must receive them when Heaven spues them out and that is the very sink of Hell Rev. 21.8 The fearfull and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers 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 It s said in Scripture that those which die in their unbeliefe and impenitency shall have their portion with hypocrites dissemblers of holyness do but double their wickedness and God will double their damnation The persecutors of Gods people that strike at God and Christ and wound them through the sides of the Saints these shall sink deep into the bottomless pit and the dispisers of God and Christ shall go into the same place of torment the damnation prepared for the most notorious malefactors shall be shared amongst the world of ungodly When men are to entertaine their best friends they will do it with a
Divel perswaded our first parents to know it to know the excellency of good by the misery of evill by a wofull experimentall knowledge as light is known by darkness or sweetness by bitterness Then they shall be fully convinc'd in their judgements of that which no art of ours no evidence of the spirit could prevaile with them to believe that Gods justice is as infinite as his mercy and his mercy no larger than his truth That Christ is only a refuse for humble penitent believing sinners and none else that Hell is as hot and eternity full as long as Gods word and Ministers have told them 2 They shall be plagued in their consciences The conscience is taken to be a part of the practicall understanding Scientia cum scientia a reflex knowledge joyn'd with a direct knowledge and most of the rationall torments of the damned are discharged upon conscience and therefore the worme of conscience as instar omnium is synechdochically put for for all If a wounded conscience were an intolerable burden upon earth surely a damned conscience will be much more intolerable in Hell Some do cut this worme of conscience into three peices but cut it into an hundred and it will never die 1. Memoria praeteritorum 2. Sensus praesentium 3. Metus futurorum 1. The remembrance of things past 2. The sense of present misery 3. The fear of wrath to come But I may not enlarge upon these particulars least it swell this part of our discourse that it will not hold proportion with the rest While they lived here though the mighty word mannaged by Sons of thunder did often grate upon conscience that their sins were hardly the pleasures of sin for a season yet the spirit of slumber did often fall upon them and they might perhaps fall into some pleasing dream while that sleep lasted or they might be sear'd with an hot iron and made past feeling but when the pit shuts her mouth upon the sinner the conscience opens hers and opens it wide opens it so as it shall never be shut more the conscience is all feeling the sinner can never hope for any flattering anodine from his bribed conscience but must indure conscience as Judge Jury Witnes Executioner for ever ever When a sinner in hell shall look back upon his time upon earth and consider that God made him a reasonable creature fit to perform unto him reasonable service and reveal'd his righteous will in his law and Gospel both for matter and manner of his service and gâ—ve him his lot of being not onely in the bosome of his Church and in Gospel times but in reforming times when the Sun was broken out of a cloud and shined in strength and did strive with him by his Spirit in ordinances and providences making many gracious offers of Christ and with Christ himself and Spirit and all things belonging to their peace saying and swearing that he takes no delight in the death of sinners intreating and beseeching them to be reconciled to return and live expostulating with them why they will dye why they will not be gathered waiting with invincible patience and a very miracle of long-suffering when it will once be yet after all this after Christ and mercy and grace have been offered and refused after sin hath been reproved and yet continued in Faith and other graces have been pressed of as absolute necessity to Salvation and never heeded duty hath been taught and never performed seasons opportunitys have been offered and all neglected and frustrated and now to consider that there shall never be one call more one offer of grace more one opportunity to be saved more they are all lost and lost for ever this makes the heart to sinke and dye and this is the worm of consciencâ— that never dyes Sinners believe it though you can now slight Christ at your pleasure and wilfully neglect this great Salvation and deipise the riches of Gods patience and long-suffering and will not be brought to repentance all the cords of Love cannot draw you to it and neither scourges nor scorpions can drive you when this shal be lookt back upon in hell and the time is near it will prove the most torturing torment in the bottomless pit the most tormenting torture that the damned can meet with through all eternity Then let the stundiest sinner refuse to submit to the sentence of Damnation if he can let him turn away his ear from the clamours of his conscience if he can let him break prison get out of hell if he can or if he cannot as it is more than infinitely impossible then let men set themselves sericusly and seasonably to the preventing of it and make use of Gods gracious warnings that they never come into those torments 3. They shal be plagued in their Wills with stubborness and wilfulness God would and they would not here they would and God would not when they were departing hence but neither they nor God will when they come to hell the sinner that could not be wrought upon to be made willing in the time of Love shal be of obdurate that he shal be wilfull in the day of his wrath sins of the damned do partake much of that wilfulness that is in the sinners against the Holy Ghost here as here they sin willingly so there they sin wilfully As by Adam's sin mankind was bound up to good let loose to evil and that is all the moral freewil they have till through regeneration the Son hath made them free indeed so after judgement is past upon them the damned are utterly disabled from all good and their hearts are set in them to do wickedly so that they are sinning and yet suffering suffering and yet sinning for ever and ever The damned could well enough away with a hell of sin but they cannot indure a hell of suffering if that might but be abated it were the haven where they would be Objection But if sin be their delight is this wilfulness in sinning their plague and punishment Answer yea and as great as any for as Pharoah's hard heart was the biggest plague in Egypt that pull'd down all the rest so this sining frame of Spirit this sinning wilfully and with a hard heart is one of the greatest plagues of hell for if the sins of a sinners life were not more than enough this would find fuel to supply the fire for ever and ever 4. I shall but touch upon some of the passions and pass over to the next Love Joy Hope Desire being bereft of their objects the damned are bereft of them they would not love God nor what God loves here and there they cannot they would not joy in believing here with joy unspeakable and glorious the joy of grace and Salvation would not relish with them and now they have nothing to rejoyce in while they lived they made a kind of a mock-consolation of the pleasures of sin of the Profits
the ancient Aegyptians that in their great feasts they caused a Deaths head to be carryed about the Table to put them in mind of their mortality a frolick that the Epicures and Belly-gods of our times that sit-down to eat and drink and rise up to play are not acquainted with it s reported of one of the Fathers and I think it is Hierome That he seemed alwaies to hear that saying sounding in his ear Surgite mortui venite ad judicium arise you dead and come to judgement The meditations of death and judgement are excellent corosives to eat out the heart of sin and no less Soveraign preservatives to keep us upright If we adde two more unto them which this Scripture prompts us to take in it will be more than a double fence it wil be a double bar to keep out sin and a double cord to draw to God and duty The second that my Text adds are Hell and Heaven Salvation and Damnation and these four put together are quatuor novissima the four last things and will furnish us with excellent matter for profitable meditation Some advise to meditate of Death some to think of Judgement some advise that we should remember Hell others that above all we should not forget Heaven but if they are of such force single to kill sin and quicken grace to help the Spirit and mortifie the flesh vis unita fortior when they joyn forces they will do their work more effectually I shall therefore lay and leave them before you as the fittest subjects of daily serious Meditation 1. Death shal be the first in order because it is first in time the great Statute of the Churches Magna Charta the Scriptures is recorded thus Heb. 9.27 It is appointed unto all men once to dye The Scriptures tell us examples tell us all former generations tell us experience tells us our own infirmities tell us that there is not that man living that shall not see death O what should dying men have to do with sin surely not to hugg it in their bosomes and lodge it next their hearts and let it reign in their mortal bodies and serve it in the lusts of it but to kill and crucifie and mortifie it to kill it before they dye to kill it which otherwise will kill them sin is the sting of death and it makes death to be the King of fears to a man in his sins O death how bitter is thy remembrance to such a one We dare not dye in our sins Balaam that lived the life of the wicked did choose to dye the death of the righteous sin unrepented of is the worst pillow that a mans head can lye upon on a dying bed and sinners if they can by the help of a seared or flattering conscience make a shift to dye quietly that no bonds appear in their death no desperate horrour open them an entrance into Hell yet the wicked shall not be able to stand in the Judgement nor the sinners in the congregation of the righteous they may elude humane justice or out-face and out-brave it in mens courts greatness may carry them off with power or poverty with pitty but righteous judgement shall be there dispensed by the searcher of hearts to high and low according to their works And this is certain that no unclean thing can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven ther 's no Purgatory to scour such as dye polluted but as death leaves them so shall Judgement find them Ther 's no knowledge nor wisdom nor invention in the grave saith Solomon O that they were wise to consider this that they would remember their latter end saith Moses on the behalf of Israel noting what David saith the onely way to apply a mans heart to wisdom is to pray to God to teach him to number his daies Psal 90.12 And in another place the Prophet notes that Jerusalems filthiness was in her skirts because she remembred not her latter end Lament 1.9 The onely way to have all in a readiness at death to have calling and election made sure and to have nothing to do but to dye when death comes is to write it in our memories and to be often drawing it out by meditation and conference some will wear a ring with a deaths-head upon their fingers some will keep a dead mans scull in tâ—eir studyes or closets some will have death pictured on their walls or windows some will have their Coffins in their chambers some will write Memento mori upon their books as their Motto remember death all to help our dulness and slowness of heart in believing that our end is near and our dissolution at hand but those that have gotten it deeply rooted in their hearts and are carefull to keep the memory of death alive and quick in their meditations are the onely champions that are like to give death a valiant encounter and to come off with victory and triumph Oh death where is thy sting Oh grave where is thy victory These are likelyest to give Paul's farewell to the world I have fought I have finished I have kept c. henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness 2 Tim. 4.7 8. and Rom. 8.38 I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor any other creature shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus The frequent Meditation of death is an excellent means to make us dye daily 2. Judgement is the second because it is deaths second after death cometh the judgement and it is sure that we must all come to judgement as that we must once dye We must all appear before the judgement Seat of Christ to receive according to things done in the flesh whether they be good or evil The word of God is abundant in setting this before us with all appurtenances that do accommodate it as 1. The Judge and his throne and attendants and his work 2 Thes 1.7 8. The Judge the the Lord Jesus 2. His throne Heaven shall be revealed from heaven 3. His attendants with his mighty Angels 4. His work of justice to render vengeance in flaming fire to them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and his gracious work to be made glorious in them that believe 2. The books by which we must bâ— judged of Scripture and Conscience Revel 20.12 And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened i. e. of Scripture and Conscience and another book was opened i. e. the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works 3. The causes that must be heard and tryed good and bad just and unjust Ecles 12.14 God shall bring every work into judgement with every secret thing whether it be good or evil 4. The whole process and final sentence Gods dealing with the good and evil to convict the one of sin unto Damnation
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