matters of another World and out of his element and therefore he hath no more delight in them than a Fish would have to be in the fairest Meadow or than a Swine hath in a Jewel or a Dog in a piece of Gold They may be good to others but he cannot apprehend them as suitable to him because he hath a nature that is otherwise inclined he savoureth not the things of the Spirit Rom 8. 5. 4. The main cause of the slighting of Christ and Salvation is a secret root of unbelief in mens hearts Whatsoever they may pretend they do not soundly and throughly believe the Word of God They are taught in general to say The Gospel is true but they never saw the Evidence of its truth so far as throughly to perswade them of it nor have they got their Souls setled on the Infallibility of God's Testimony nor considered of the Truth of the particular Doctrins revealed in the Scripture so far as soundly to believe them Oh did you all but soundly believe the words of this Gospel of the evil of sin of the need of Christ and what he hath done for you and what you must be and do if ever you will be saved by him and what will become of you for ever if you do it not I dare say it would cure the contempt of Christ and you would not make so light of the matters of your Salvation But men do not believe while they say they do and would face us down that they do and verily think that they do themselves There is a root of bitterness and an evil Heart of unbelief that makes them depart from the living God Heb. 2. 12. and 4. 1 2 6. Tell any Man in this Congregation that he shall have a gift of 10000 l. if he will but go to London for it if he believe you he will go but if he believe not he will not and if he will not go you may be sure he believeth not supposing that he is able I know a slight belief may stand with a wicked life Such as men have of the Truth of a Prognostication it may be true and it may be false but a true and sound belief is not consistent with so great neglect of the things that are believed 5. Christ and Salvation are made light of by the World because of their desperate hardness of Heart The Heart is hard naturally and by custom in sinning made more hard especially by long abuse of Mercy and neglect of the means of Grace and resisting the Spirit of God Hence it is that men are turned into such Stones and till God cure them of the stone of the Heart no wonder if they feel not what they know or regard not what we say but make light of all 'T is hard preaching a stone into tears or making a rock to tremble You may stand over a dead body long enough and say to it Oh thou Carcase when thou hast lain roting and mouldring to dust till the Resurrection God will then call thee to account for thy sin and cast thee into everlasting fire before you can make it feel what you say or fear the misery that is never so truly threatned when Mens Hearts are like the High-way that is trodden to hardness by long custom in sinning or like the clay that is hardned to a stone by the heat of those Mercies which should have melted them into Repentance when they have Consciences seared with a hot Iron as the Apostle speaks 2 Tim. 4. 2. no wonder then if they be past feeling and working all uncleanness with greediness do make light of Christ and Everlasting Glory Oh that this were not the case of too many of our Hearers Had we but living Souls to speak to they would hear and feel and not make light of what we say I know they are naturally alive but they are spiritually dead as Scripture witnesseth Eph. 2. 3. Oh if there were but one spark of the life of Grace in them the Doctrin of Salvation by Jesus Christ would appear to them to be the weightiest business in the World Oh how confident should I be methinks to prevail with men and to take them off this World and bring them to mind the matters of another World if I spake but to Men that had Life and Sense and Reason But when we speak to Blocks and dead Men how should we be regarded Oh how sad a case are these Souls in that are fallen under this fearful judgment of spiritual madness and deadness To have a blind Mind and a hard Heart to be sottish and senseless Mar. 4. 12. John 12. 40. lest they should be converted and their sin should be forgiven them 6. Christ and Salvation are made light of by the World because they are wholly enslaved to their sense and taken up with lower things the matters of another World are out of sight and so far from their senses that they cannot regard them but present things are nearer them in their eyes and in their hands There must be a living faith to prevail over sense before Men can be so taken with things that are not seen though they have the Word of God for their security as to neglect and let go things that are still before their eyes Sense works with great advantage and therefore doth much in resisting Faith where it is No wonder then if it carry all before it where there is no true and lively faith to resist and to lead the Soul to higher things this cause of making light of Christ and Salvation is expressed here in my Text One went to his Farm and another to his Merohandize Men have Houses and Lands to look after they have Wife and Children to mind they have their Body and outward Estate to regard therefore they forget that they have a God a Redeemer a Soul to mind These matters of the World are still with them They see these but they see not God nor Christ nor their Souls nor everlasting Glory These things are near at hand and therefore work naturally and so more forcibly but the other are thought on as a great way off and therefore too distant to work on their affections or to be at the present so much regarded by them Their Body hath life and sense and therefore if they want meats or drink or cloaths will feel their want and tell them of it and give them no rest till their wants be supplied and therefore they cannot make light of their bodily necessities but their Souls in spiritual respects are dead and therefore feel not their wants but will let them alone in their greatest necessities and be as quiet when they are starved and languishing to Destruction as if all were well and nothing ailed them And hereupon poor people are wholly taken up in providing for the Body as if they had nothing else to mind They have their Trades and Callings to follow and so much to do from morning
therein which are 1. Christ himself 2. The benefits which he giveth Concerning Christ himself the Gospel 1. Declareth his Person and Nature and the great things that he hath done and suffered for Man his Redeeming him from the wrath of God by his Blood and procuring a grant of Salvation with himself Furthermore The same Gospel maketh an offer of Christ to sinners that if they will accept him on his easie and reasonable terms he will be their Saviour the Physitian of their Souls their Husband and their Head 2. The benefits that he offereth them are these 1. That with these blessed Relations to him himself and interest in him they shall have the pardon of all their sins past and be saved from God's Wrath and be set in a sure way of obtaining a Pardon for all the sins that they shall commit hereafter so they do but obey sincerely and turn not again to the Rebellion of their Unregeneracy 2. They shall have his Spirit to become their Guide and Sanctifier and to dwell in their Souls and help them against their Enemies and conform them more and more to his Image and heal their Diseases and bring them back to God 3. They shall have right to everlasting Glory when this Life is ended and shall be raised up thereto at the last besides many excellent priviledges in the way in Means Preservation and Provision and the fore tast of what they shall enjoy hereafter All these benefits the Gospel offereth to them that will have Christ on his reasonable terms The sum of all is in 1 John 5. 11 12. This is the Record that God hath given us eternal Life and this Life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son hath not Life II. What this Sin of making light of the Gospel is 1. To make light of the Gospel is to take no great heed to what is spoken as if it were not a certain Truth or else were a matter that little concerned them or as if God had not written these things for them 2. When the Gospel doth not affect Men or go to their hearts but though they seem to attend to what is said yet men are not awakened by it from their security nor doth it work in any measure such holy Passion in their Souls as matters of such everlasting Consequence should do this is making light of the Gospel of Salvation When we tell men what Christ hath done and suffered for their Souls and it scarce moveth them We tell them of keen and cutting Truths but nothing will pierce them We can make them hear but we cannot make them feel Our words take up in the porch of their Ears and Fancies but will not enter into the inward parts as if we spake to men that had no hearts or feeling this is a making light of Christ and Salvation Acts 28. 26 27. hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand seeing ye shall see and shall not perceive For the Heart of this People is waxen gross and their Ears are dull of hearing their Eyes are closed c. 3. When Men have no high Estimation of Christ and Salvation but whatsoever they may say with their tongues or dreamingly and speculatively believe yet in their serious and practical thoughts they have a higher estimation of the matters of this World than they have of Christ and the Salvation that he hath purchased this is a making light of him When Men account the Doctrin of Christ to be but a matter of words and names as Gallio Acts 18. 4. or as Festus Acts 25. 19. a superstitious matter about one Jesus who was dead and Paul saith is alive Or ask the Preachers of the Gospel as the Athenians Acts 17. 18. What will this babler say This is contempt of Christ 4. When Men are informed of the truths of the Gospel and on what Terms Christ and his Benefits may be had and how it is the will of God that they should Believe and Accept the offer and that he commandeth them to do it upon pain of damnation and yet men will not consent unless they could have Christ on terms of their own They will not part with their worldly contents nor lay down their Pleasures and Profits and Honour at his Feet as being content to take so much of them only as he will give them back and as is consistent with his Will and Interest but think its a hard saying that they must forsake all in Resolution for Christ this is a making light of him and their Salvation When men might have part in him and all his Benefits if they would and they will not unless they may keep the World too and are resolved to please their flesh whatever comes of it this is a high contempt of Christ and everlasting life Mat. 13. 21 22. Luke 18. 23. you may find examples of such as I here describe 5. When men will promise fair and profess their willingness to have Christ on his terms and to forsake all for him but yet do stick to the World and their sinful Courses and when it comes to practice will not be removed by all that Christ hath done and said this is making light of Christ and Salvation Jer. 42. 5. compared with 43. 2. III. The causes of this sin are the next thing to be enquired after It may seem a wonder that ever Men that have the use of their reason should be so sottish as to make light of matters of such consequence But the cause is 1. Some Men understand not the very sense of the Words of the Gospel when they hear it and how can they be taken with that which they understand not Though we speak to them in plain English and study to speak it as plainly as we can yet People have so estranged themselves from God and the matters of their own happiness that they know not what we say as if we spoke in another language and as if they were under that Judgment Isa 28. 11. with stammering Lips and with another Tongue will he speak to his People 2. Some that do understand the Words that we speak yet because they are carnal understand not the matter for the natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. They are earthly and these things are heavenly John 3. 12. The things of the Spirit are not well known by bare hear-say but by a spiritual tast which none have but those that are taught by the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 2. 12 that we may know the things that are given us of God 3. A carnal mind apprehendeth not a suitableness in these spiritual and heavenly things to his mind and therefore he sets light by them and hath no mind of them When you tell him of everlasting glory he heareth you as if you were perswading him to go play with the Sun they are
deny thee that Salvation thou madest light of but he will take from thee all that which thou didst value before it He that most highly esteems Christ shall have him and the creatures so far as they are good here and him without the Creature hereafter because the Creature is not useful and he that sets more by the Creature than by Christ shall have some of the Creature without Christ here and neither Christ nor it hereafter So much of these considerations which may shew the true face of this hainous sin What think you now friends of this business Do you not see by this time what a case that Soul is in that maketh light of Christ and Salvation What need then is there that you should take heed lest this should prove your own case The Lord knows it is too common a case Whoever is found guilty at the last of this sin it were better for that man he had never been born It were better for him he had been a Turk or Indian that never had heard the Name of a Saviour and that never had Salvation offered to him For such men have no Cloak for their sin John 15. 22. Besides all the rest of their sins they have this killing sin to answer for which will undo them And this will aggravate their misery That Christ whom they set light by must be their Judge and for this sin will he judge them Oh that such would now consider how they will answer that Question that Christ puts to their Predecessors Mat. 23. 33. How will ye escape the Damnation of Hell or Heb. 2 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation Can you escape without a Christ or will a despised Christ save you then If he be accursed that set light by Father or Mother Deut. 27. 16. What then is he that sets light by Christ It was the hainous sin of the Jews that among them were found such as set light by Father and Mother Ezek. 22. 7. But among us men slight the Father of Spirits In the Name of God Brethren I beseech you to consider how you will then bear his Anger which you now make light of You that cannot make light of a little sickness or want or of natural Death no not of a Tooth-ach but groan as if you were undone how will you then make light of the Fury of the Lord which will burn against the Contemners of his Grace Doth it not behove you beforehand to think of these things Hitherto I have been convincing you of the evil of the sin and the danger that followeth I come now to know your Resolution for the time to come What say you Do you mean to set as light by Christ and Salvation as hitherto you have done and to be the same men after all this I hope not Oh let not your Ministers that would fain save you be brought in as Witnesses against you to condemn you At least I beseech you put not this upon me Why Sirs If the Lord shall say to us at Judgment Did you never tell these men what Christ did for their Souls and what need they had of him and how nearly it did concern them to look to their Salvation that they made light of it we must needs say the Truth Yea Lord we told them of it as plainly as we could we would have gone on our knees to them if we had thought it would have prevailed we did intreat them as earnestly as we could to consider these things They heard of these things every day but alass we could never got them to their hearts they gave us the hearing but they made light of all that we could say to them Oh sad will it prove on your side if you sorce us to such an Answer as this But if the Lord do move the hearts of any of you and you resolve to make light of Christ no more Or if any of you say we do not make light of him let me tell you here in the conclusion what you must do or else you shall be judged as slighters of Christ and Salvation And first I will tell you what will not serve the turn 1. You may have a notional knowledge of Christ and the necessity of his blood and of the excellency of Salvation and yet perish as neglecters of him This is too common among profest Christians You may say all that other men do of him What Gospel passages had Balaam Jesus I know and Paul I know the very Devils could say who believe and tremble Jam. 2. 2. You may weep at the History of his Passion when you read how he was used by the Jews and yet make light of him and perish for so doing 3. You may come desirously to his word and ordinances Herod heard gladly so do many that yet must perish as neglecters of Salvation 4. You may in a sit of fear have strong desires after a Christ to ease you and to save you from God's wrath as Saul had of David to play before him and yet you may perish for making light of Christ 5. You may obey him in many things so far as will not ruine you in the World and escape much of the Pollutions of the World by his knowledge and yet neglect him 6. You may suffer and lose much for him so far as leaveth you an earthly Felicity as Ananias the young man Some parcels of their pleasures and prosits many will part with in hope of Salvation that shall perish everlastingly for valuing it no more 7. You may be esteemed by others a man zealous for Christ and loved and admired upon that account and yet be one that shall perish for making light of him 8. You may verily think your selves that you set more by Christ and Salvation than any thing and yet be mistaken and be judged as Contemners of him Christ justisieth not all that justisie themselves 9. You may be zealous Preachers of Christ and Salvation and reprove others for this neglect and lament the sin of the World in like expressions as I have done this day and yet if you or I have no better evidence to prove our hearty esteem of Christ and Salvation we are undone for all this You hear Brethren what will not serve the turn Will you now hear what persons you must be if you would not be condemned as slighters of Christ O search whether it be thus with your Souls or no. 1. Your esteem of Christ and Salvation must be greater than your esteem of all the Honors Profits or Pleasures of this World or else you slight him No less will be accounted sincere or accepted to your Salvation Think not this hard when there is no comparison in the matters esteemed To esteem the greatest Glory on Earth before Christ and Everlasting Glory is a greater Folly and Wrong to Christ than to esteem a Dog before your Prince would be folly in you and a wrong to him Scripture is plain in