desperate condition if I knew how to remedy it I will give you some Considerations which may move you if you be men of reason and understanding to look better about you and I beseech you weigh them and make use of them as ye go and lay open your Hearts to the work of Grace and sadly bethink you what a case you are in if you prove such as make light of Christ Consider 1. Thou makest light of him that made not light of thee who didst deserve it Thou wast worthy of nothing but contempt As a Man what art thou but a worm to God As a Sinner thou art far viler than a Toad yet Christ was so far from making light of thee and thy happiness that he came down into the flesh and lived a life of suffering and offered himself a sacrifice to the Justice which thou hadst provoked that thy miserable Soul might have a remedy It is no less than Miracles of love and mercy that he hath shewed to us and yet shall we slight them after all Angels admire them whom they less concern 1 Pet. 1. 12. and shall redeemed Sinners make light of them What barbarous yea devilish yea worse then devilish Ingratitude is this the Devils never had a Saviour offered them but thou hast and dost thou yet make light of him 2. Consider the work of Man's Salvation by Jesus Christ is the Master-piece of all the works of God wherein he would have his love and mercy to be magnified As the Creation declareth his Goodness and Power so doth Redemption his Goodness and Mercy he hath contrived the very frame of his Worship so that it shall much consist in the magnifying of this work and after all this will you make light of it His Name is wonderful Isa 9. 6. He did the work that none could do John 15. 24. Greater love could none shew than his John 15. 13. How great was the evil and misery that he delivered us from the good procured for us all are wonders from his Birth to his Ascension from our new Birth to our Glorification all are wonders of matchless Mercy And yet do you make light of them 3. You make light of matters of greatest excellency and moment in the World you know not what it is that you slight had you well known you could not have done it As Christ said to the Woman of Samaria John 4. 10. hadst thou known who it is that speaketh to thee thou wouldst have asked of him the waters of Life Had they known they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory 1 Cor. 2. 8. So had you known what Christ is you would not have made light of him had you been one day in Heaven and but seen what they possess and seen also what miserable Souls must endure that are shut out you would never sure have made so light of Christ again Oh Sirs it is no trifle or jesting matter that the Gospel speaks of I must needs profess to you that when I have the most serious thoughts of these things my self I am ready to marvel that such amazing matters do not overwhelm the souls of Men that the greatness of the Subject doth not so overmatch our understandings and affections as even to drive men besides themselves but that God hath always somewhat allayed it by the distance much more that Men should be so blockish as to make light of them Oh Lord that Men did but know what everlasting Glory and everlasting Torments are Would they then hear us as they do Would they read and think of these things as they do I profess I have been ready to wonder when I have heard such weighty things delivered how People can forbear crying out in the Congregation much more how they can rest till they have gone to their Ministers and learned what they should do to be saved that this great business might be put out of doubt Oh that Heaven and Hell should work no more upon Men Oh that Everlastingness should work no more Oh how can you forbear when you are alone to think with your selves what it is to be everlastingly in Joy or in Torment I wonder that such thoughts do not break your sleep and that they come not in your mind when you are about your labour I wonder how you can almost do any thing else how you can have any quietness in your minds how you can eat or drink or rest till you have got some ground of everlasting Consolations Is that a Man or a Corps that is not affected with matters of this moment That can be readier to sleep than to tremble when he heareth how he must stand at the Bar of God Is that a Man or a Clod of Clay that can rise and lie down without being deeply affected with his everlasting Estate that can follow his worldly Business and make nothing of the great business of Salvation or Damnation and that when they know it is hard at hand Truly Sirs when I think of the weight of the matter I wonder at the very best of God's Saints upon Earth that they are no better and do no more in so weighty a case I wonder at those whom the World accounteth more holy than needs and scorns for making too much ado that they can put off Christ and their Souls with so little that they pour not out their Souls in every Supplication that they are not more taken up with God that their thoughts be not more serious in preparation for their account I wonder that they be not an hundred times more strict in their lives and more laborious and unwearied in striving for the Crown than they are And for my self as I am ashamed of my dull and careless Heart and of my slow and unprofitable course of Life so the Lord knows I am ashamed of every Sermon that I preach when I think what I have been speaking of and who sent me and that Men's Salvation or Damnation is so much concerned in it I am ready to tremble lest God should judge me as a slighter of his Truth and the souls of Men and lest in the best Sermon I should be guilty of their blood Me-thinks we should not speak a word to men in matters of such Consequence without Tears or the greatest earnestness that possibly we can were not we too much guilty of the sin which we reprove it would be so Whether we are alone or in company me-thinks our end and such an end should still be in our mind and as before our eyes and we should sooner forget any thing and set light by any thing or by all things than by this Consider 4. Who is it that sends this weighty Message to you Is it not God himself Shall the God of Heaven speak and Men make light of it You would not slight the Voice of an Angel or a Prince 5. Whose Salvation is it that you make light of Is it not your own Are you no more near or
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
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
have considered and often considered what is the mater that so many Thousands should perish when God hath done so much for their Salvation and I find this that is mentioned in my Text is the cause It is one of the wonders of the World that when God hath so loved the World as to send his Son and Christ hath made a satisfaction by his death sufficient for them all and offereth the benefits of it so freely to them even without mony or price that yet the most of the World should perish yea the most of those that are thus called by his Word Why here is the reason when Christ hath done all this men make light of it God hath shewed that he is not unwilling and Christ hath shewed that he is not unwilling that men should be restored to God's favour and be saved but men are actually unwilling themselves God takes not pleasure in the death of sinners but rather that they return and live Ezek. 33. 11. But men take such pleasure in sin that they will dye before they will return The Lord Jesus was content to be their Physitian and hath provided them a sufficient plaister of his own blood but if men make light of it and will not apply it what wonder if they perish after all This Scripture giveth us the reason of their perdition This sad experience tells us the most of the World is guilty of It is a most lamentable thing to see how most men do spend their care their time their pains for known vanities while God and Glory are cast aside That he who is all should seem to them as nothing and that which is nothing should seem to them as good as all that God should set mankind in such a race where heaven or hell is their certain end and that they should set down and loyter or run after the childish Toyes of the World and so much forget the Prize that they should run for Were it but possible for one of us to see the whole of this business as the all seeing God doth to see at one view both heaven and hell which men are so near and see what most men in the World are minding and what they are doing every day it would be the saddest sight that could be imagined Oh how should we marvail at their madness and lament their self-delusion Oh poor distracted World what is it that you run after and what is it that you neglect If God had never told them what they were sent into the World to do or whether they were going or what was before them in another World then they had been excusable but he hath told them over and over till they were weary of it Had he left it doubtful there had been some excuse but it is his sealed word and they profess to believe it and would take it ill of us if we should question whether they do believe it or not Beloved I come not to accuse any of you particularly of this crime but seeing it is the commonest cause of mens Destruction I suppose you will judge it the fittest matter for our enquiry and deserving our greatest care for the cure To which end I shall 1. Endeavour the Conviction of the guilty 2. Shall give them such considerations as may tend to humble and reform them 3. I shall conclude with such direction as may help them that are willing to escape the destroying Power of Sin And for the first consider 1. It is the case of most sinners to think themselves freest from those sins that they are most enslaved to and one reason why we cannot reform them is because we cannot convince them of their guilt It is the nature of sin so far to blind and befool the sinner that he knoweth not what he doth but thinketh he is free from it when it reigneth in him on when he is committing it It bringeth men to be so much unacquainted with themselves that they know not what they think or what they mean and intend nor what they love or hate much less what they are habituated and disposed to They are alive to sin and dead to all the Reason Consideration and Resolution that should recover them as if it were only by their sinning that we must know they are alive May I hope that you that hear me to day are but willing to know the Truth of your case and then I shall be encouraged to proceed to an enquiry God will judge impartially why should not we do so Let me therefore by these following Questions try whether none of you are slighters of Christ and your own Salvation And follow me I beseech you by putting them close to your own hearts and faithfully answering them 1. Things that men highly value will be remembred they will be matter of their freest and sweetest thoughts this is a known case Do not those then make light of Christ and Salvation that think of them so seldom and coldly in comparison of other things Follow thy own heart man and observe what it daily runneth out after and then judge whether it make not light of Christ We cannot perswade men to one hours sober consideration what they should do for an interest in Christ or in thankfulness for his love and yet they will not believe that they make light of him 2. Things that we highly value will be matter of our Discourse The judgment and heart will command the tongue Freely and delightfully will our speech run after them This also is a known case Do not those then make light of Christ and Salvation that shun the mention of his name unless it be in a vain or sinful use Those that love not the company where Christ and Salvation is much talked of but think it troublesome precise Discourse That had rather hear some merry Jests or idle Tales or talk of their Riches or Business in the World When you may follow them from morning to night and scarce have a savory word of Christ but perhaps some slight and weary mention of him sometimes judge whether these make not light of Christ and Salvation How seriously do they talk of the World Psal 144. 8 11. and speak vanity but how heartlesly do they make mention of Christ and Salvation 3. The things that we highly value we would secure the possession of and therefore would take any convenient Course to have all doubts and fears about them well resolved Do not those men then make light of Christ and Salvation that have lived twenty or thirty Years in uncertainty whether they have any part in these or not and yet never seek out for the right resolution of their doubts Are all that hear me this day certain they shall be saved Oh that they were Oh had you not made light of Salvation you could not so easily bear such doubtings of it you could not rest till you had made it sure or done your best to make it sure Have you no body