said this much of the Certainty of the Execution I should next have spoke somewhat of the manner and the Instruments and have shewed how God will be for ever the Principal Cause and Satan and their own Consciences the Instruments in part and in what manner Conscience will do its part and how impossible it will be to quiet or resist it But having spoke so much of all this already elsewhere as is said before I will forbear here to repeat it leaving the Reader that desireth it there to peruse it The Vses Vse 1. BEloved hearers it was not to fill your fancies with news that God sent me hither this day nor to tell you of matters that nothing concern you nor by some terrible words to bring you to an hours amazement and no more But it is to tell you of things that your eyes shall see and to foretell you of your danger while it may be prevented that your precious souls may be saved at the last and you may stand before God with comfort at that day But because this will not be every mans case no nor the case of most I must in the name of Christ desire you to make this day an enquiry into your own souls and as in the presence of God let your hearts make answer to these few Questions which I shall propound and debate with you Qu. 1. DO you soundly Believe this Doctrine which I have preached to you What say you Sirs do you verily Believe it as a most certain Truth that you and I and all the world must stand at Gods barr and be Judged to Everlasting Joy or Torment I hope you do all in some sort Believe this but blame me not if I be jealous whether you soundly believe it while we see in the world so little of the effect of such a Belief I confess I am forced to think that there is more infidelity then faith among us when I see more ungodliness then godliness among us And I can hardly believe that man that will say or swear that he believeth these things and yet liveth as carelesly and carnally as an Infidel I know that no man can love to be damned yea I know that every man that hath a reasonable soul hath naturally some love to himself and a fear of a danger which he verily apprehendeth he therefore that liveth without all fear I must think liveth without all apprehension of his danger Custom hath taught men to hold these things as the Opinion of the Country but if men soundly believed them surely we should see stranger effects of such a faith then in the most we do see Doth the sleepy soul that liveth in security and followeth this world as eagerly as if he had no greater matters to mind that never once trembled at the thoughts of this great day nor once asked his own soul in good sadness My soul How dost thou think then to escape I say doth this man Believe that he is going to this Judgement Well Sirs whether you believe it or not you will find it true and believe it you must before you can be safe For if you do not Believe it you will never make ready Let me therefore perswade you in the fear of God to consider that it is a matter of undoubted Truth 1. Consider that it is the express word of the God of Truth revealed in Scripture as plainly as you can desire So that you cannot be unbelieving without denying Gods Word or giving him the lye Mat. 13.38 39 40 41 42 43 49 50. Mat. 25. throughout Rom. 2.5 6 7 8 9 10 16 and 1.32 John 5.28 29. The hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the Resurrection of damnation Heb. 9.27 It is appointed to all men once to dye and after this the Judgement Rom. 14.9.12 So then every one of us shall give Account of himself to God Rev. 20.12 And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the Books were opened and another book was opened which is the Book of life and the dead were Judged out of those things which were written in the Books according to their works Mat. 12.36 37. But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak the shall give account thereof in the day of Judgement For by thy words thou shalt be Justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned Many more most express Texts of Scripture do put the Truth of this Judgement out of all question to all that believe the Scripture and will understand it There is no place left for a Controversie in the point It is made as sure to us as the Word of the living God can make it And he that will question that what will he Believe What say you Sirs Dare you doubt of this which the God of Heaven hath so positively affirmed I hope you dare not 2. Consider it is a master-part of your faith if you are Christians and a fundamental Article of your Creed that Christ shall come again to Judge the quick and the dead So that you must Believe it or renounce your Christianity and then you renounce Christ and all the hopes of mercy that you have in him It s impossible that you should soundly Believe in Christ and not believe his Judgement and Life Everlasting because as he came to bring Life and Immortality to light in the Gospel 2 Tim. 1.10 so it was the end of his Incarnation Death and Resurrection to bring you thither and its part of his honour and office which he purchased with his blood to be the Lord and Judge of all the world Rom. 14.9 Joh. 5.22 If therefore you believe not heartily this Judgement deal plainly and openly and say you are Infidels and cast away the hypocritical vizor of Christianity and let us know you and take you as you are 3. Consider that it is a Truth that is known by the very light of nature that there shall be a happiness for the Righteous and a misery for the wicked after this life which is evident 1. In that we have undenyable natural reason for it 1. God is the Righteous governor of the world and therefore must make a difference among his subjects according to the nature of their waies which we see is not done here where the wicked prosper and the good are afflicted therefore it must be hereafter 2. We see there is a necessity that God should make promises and threatnings of everlasting happiness or misery for the right governing of the world for we certainly perceive that no lower things will keep men from destroying all humane society and living worse then bruit beasts and if there be a necessity of making such threats and promises then there is certainly a necessity of fulfilling them For God needeth no lye or means of deceiving
Immortal soul and thy comfortable appearance at the great day of Christ I have the thing which I intended and desired The Lord open thy Heart and accompany his Truth with the Blessing of his Spirit Amen A SERMON Of Judgement Preached at Pauls before the Honourable Lord Maior and Aldermen of the City London Dec. 17. 1654 2 Cor. 5.10 11. For we must all Appear before the Judgement Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad Knowing therefore the terrors of the Lord we perswade men IT is not unlikely that some of those wits that are taken more with things New then with things Necessary will marvel that I choose so common a subject and tell me that they all know this already But I do it purposely upon these following Considerations 1. Because I well know that it is these common Truths that are the great and necessary things which mens everlasting happiness or misery doth most Depend upon You may be ignorant of many Controversies and Inferiour points without the danger of your souls but so you cannot of these Fundamentals 2. Because its apparent by the lives of men that few know these Common Truths savingly that think they know them 3. Because there are several degrees of knowing the same Truths and the best are imperfect in degree The principal growth in knowledge that we should look afâ—er is not to know more matters then we kneâ— before but to know that better and with a clearer light and firmer apprehension which we darkly and sleightly knew before You may more safely be without any knowledge at all of many lower Truths then without some further degree of the knowledge of those which you already know 4. Besides it is known by sad experience that many perish who know the Truth for want of the Consideration of it and making use of what they know and so their knowledge doth but condemn them We have as much need therefore to teach and help you to get these Truths which you know into your hearts and lives as to tell you more 5. And indeed it is the impression of these great and master-Truths wherein the vitals and essentials of Gods Image upon the soul of man doth consist And it is these Truths that are the very Instruments of the great works that are to be done upon the heart by the spirit and our selves In the right use of these it is that the Principal part of the skill and holy wisdom of a Christian doth consist and in the diligent and constant use of these lyeth the life and trade of Christianity There is nothing amiss in mens hearts or lives but it is for want of sound knowing and believing or well using these fundamentals 6. And moreover me thinks in this choice of my subject I may expect this advantage with the hearers that I may spare that labour that else would be necessary for the proof of my doctrine and that I may also have easier access to your hearts and have a fuller stroak at them and with less resistance If I came to tell you of any thing not Common I know not how far I might expect belief from you You might say these things are uncertain to us or all men are not of this mind But when every hearer confesseth the Truth of my Doctrine no man can deny it without denying Christianity it self I hope I may expect that your hearts should the sooner receive the Impression of this Doctrine and the sooner yield to the duties which it directs you to and the easier let go the sins which from so certain a truth shall be discovered The words of my text are the reason which the Apostle giveth both of his perswading other men to the fear of God and his care to approve to God his own heart and life They contain the Assertion and Description of the great Judgement and one use which he makes of it It assureth us that Judged we must be and who must be so Judged and by whom and about what and on what terms and to what end The meaning of the words so far as is necessary I shall give you briefly We all both we Apostles that Preach the Gospel and you that hear it must willing or unwilling there is no avoiding it Appear stand forth or make our appearance and there have our hearts and wayes laid open and appear as well as we Before the Iudgement seat of Christ i.e. before the redeemer of the world to be Judged by him as our Rightful Lord That every one even of all mankind which are were or shall be without exception May receive that is may receive his sentence adjudging him to his due and then may receive the execution of the sentence and may go away from the barr with that Reward or Punishment that is his due according to the Law by which he is Judged The things done in his body that is the due Reward of the works done in his body or as some copies read it The things proper to the body i.e. due to the man even body as well as soul According to what he hath done whether it be good or bad i e. This is the cause to be tried and Judged whether men have done well or ill whiles they were in the flesh and what is due to them according to their deeds Knowing therefore c. i.e. Being certain therefore that these things are so and that such a Terrible Judgement of Christ will come we perswade men to become Christians and live as such that they may then speed well when others shall shall be destroyed or as others Knowing the fear of the Lord that is the true Religion we perswade men Doct. 1. There will be a Judgement Doct. 2. Christ will be the Judge Doct. 3. All men shall there appear Doct. 4. Men shall be then Judged according to the works that they did in the flesh whether good or evil Doct. 5. The end of Judgement is that men may receive their final due by Sentence and Execution Doct. 6. The knowledge and consideration of the terrible Judgement of God should move us to perswade and men to be perswaded to careful preparation The ordinary method for the handling of this subject of Judgement should be this 1. To shew you what Judgement is in the General and what it doth contain and that is 1. The persons 2. The cause 3. The Actions 1. The parties are 1. the Accuser 2. the Defendant 3. Somtime Assistants 4. The Judge 2. The cause contains 1. the Accusation 2. the Defence 3. With the Evidence of both 4. and the Merit The Merit of the cause is as it agreeth with the Law and Equity 3. The Judicial Actions are I. Introductory 1. Citation 2. Compulsion if need be 3. Appearance of the Accused II. Of the Essence of Judgement 1. Debate by â— the Accuser 2. Defendant called the Disceptation of the
counterfeit of any Grace and plead with God any shells of hypocritical performances and to think to prove a Title to heaven by any thing short of Gods Condition all these will be vain attempts 3. And as impossible will it prove by fraud or flattery by perswasion or bribery or by any other means to pervert Justice by turning the mind of God who is the Judge Fraud and flattery bribery and importunity may do much with weak men but with God they will do nothing Were he changable and partial he were not God 4. If God be Judge you may see the Cavils of Infidels are foolish when they ask How long will God be in Trying and Judging so many persons and taking an Account of so many VVords and Thoughts and Deeds Sure it will be a long time and a difficult work As if God were as man that knoweth not things till he seek out their Evidence by particular signs Let these fools understand if they have any understanding that the infinite God can shew to every man at once all the thoughts and words and actions that ever he hath been guilty of And in the twink of an eye even at one view can make all the world to see their wayes and their deservings Causing their consciences and memories to present them all before them in such a sort as shall be equivalent to a verbal debate Psal. 50.21 22. he will set them in Order before them 5. If Jesus Christ be the Judge then what a comfort must it needs be to his members that he shall be Judge that loved them to the death and whom they loved above their lives and he who was their Rock of hope and strength and the desire and delight of their souls 6. And if Iesus Christ must be the Iudge what confusion will it bring to the faces of his enemies and of all that set light by him in the day of their visitation to see Mercy turned against them and he that dyed for them now ready to condemn them and that blood and grace which did Aggravate their sin to be pleaded against them to the increase of their misery how sad will this be 7. If the God of Love and Grace and Truth be Judge then no man need to fear any wrong No subtilty of the Accuser nor darkness of Evidence no prejudice or partiality or whatsoever else may be imagined can there appear to the wrong of your cause Get a good cause and fear nothing and if your cause be bad nothing can deliver you III. FOR the third point Who are they that must be Judged Answ. All the rational creatures in this lower world And it seems Angels also either all or some But because their case is more darkly made known to us and less concerns us we will pass it by Every man that hath been made or born on earth except Christ who is God and man and is the Iudge must be judged If any foolish Infidel shall say VVhere shall so great a number stand I answer him that he knoweth not the things invisible either the nature of spirits and spiritual bodies nor what place containeth them or how but easily he may know that he that gave them all a Being can sustain them all and have room for them all and can at once disclose the thoughts of all as I said before The first in Order to bejudged are the Saints Mat. 25. and then with Christ they shall Judge the rest of the world 1 Cor. 6.2 3. not in an equal Authority and Commission with Christ but as the present Approvers of his Righteous Iudgement The Princes of the earth shall stand then before Christ even as the Peasants and the honourable as the base the rich and the poor shall meet together and the Lord shall judge them all Prov. 22.2 No man shall be excused from standing at that Barr and giving up their Account and receiving their doom Learned and unlearned young and old godly and ungodly all must stand there I know some have vainly imagined that the righteous shall not have any of their sins mentioned but their graces and duties only but they consider not that things will not then be transacted by words as we do now but by clear discoveries by the infinite Light and that if God should not discover to them their sins he would not discover the Riches of his Grace in the pardon of all these sins Even then must they be humbled in themselves that they may be glorified and for ever cry Not unto us Lord but unto thy name be the glory IV. FOR the fourth particular VVho will be the Accuser Answ. 1. Satan is called in Scripture the Accuser of the Brethren Rev. 12.10 and we find in Iob 1. and other places that now he doth Practice it even before God and therefore we judge it probable that he will do so then But we would determine of nothing that Scripture hath not clearly determined 2. Conscience will be an Accuser though especially of the wicked yet in some sense of the righteous for it will tell the truth to all and therefore so far as men are faulty it will tell them of their faults The wicked it will accuse of unpardoned sin and of sin unrepented of the godly only of sin repented of and pardoned It will be a Glass wherein every man may see the face of his heart and former Life Rom. 1.15 3. The Judge himself will be the Principal Accuser for it is he that is wronged and he that prosecutes the cause and will do Iustice on the wicked God judgeth even the Righteous themselves to be sinners or else they could not be pardoned sinners But he judgeth the wicked to be impenitent unbelieving unconverted sinners Remember what I said before that it is not a verbal Accusation but an opening of the Truth of the Cause to the view of our selves and others that God will then perform Nor can any think it unworthy of God to be mens Accuser by such a disclosure it being no dishonour to the purest light to reveal a dung-hill or to the greatest Prince to Accuse a Traytor Nor is it unmeet that God should be both Accuser and Judge seeing he is both absolute Lord and so far beyond all suspition of Injustice His Law also doth virtually accuse Iohn 5.45 but of this by it self V. FOR the fifth particular How will the sinners be called to the Barr Answ. God will not stand to send them a Citation nor require him to make his Voluntary Appearance but willing or unwilling he will bring them in 1. Before each mans particular Judgement he sendeth death to call away his soul A surly Serjeant that will have no Nay How dear so ever this world may be to men and how loth soever they are to depart away they must and come before the Lord that made them Death will not be bribed Every man that was set in the Vineyard in the morning of their lives must be called
your youth by doubling your diligence when you came to riper years The Apostles gathered Churches among Heathens that never heard of Christ before and converted many thousand souls that were never once told of a Saviour or the way to salvation till they had past a great part of their lives If you loitered till the latter part of the day it behoved you then to have bestirred your selves the more and not to say Through the fault of my Parents I lost the beginning of my life and therefore I will lose all they taught me not then and therefore I will not learn now Have you not seen some of your neighbors who were as ill educated as your selves attain to much knowledge afterwards by their Industry And why might not you have done so if you had been as industrious as they May not God and Conscience witness that it was because you cared not for knowledge and would not be at the pains to get it that you knew no more Speak truth man in the presence of thy Judge was thy heart and mind set upon it Didst thou pray daily for it to God Didst thou use all the means thou couldest to get it Didst thou attend diligently on the word in publike and think of what thou heardest when thou camest home Didst thou go to the Minister or to others that could teach thee and intreat them to tell thee the way to salvation Or didst thou not rather carelesly neglect these matters and hear a Sermon as a common tale even when the minister was speaking of Heaven or Hell It was not then thine unavoidable Ignorance but thy negligence Yea further answer as in the presence of God Didst thou Obey so far as thou dâ—dst know Or didst thou not rather sin against that knowledge which thou hadst Thou â—newest that the soul was better then the body and everlasting life more to be regarded then this transitory life But didst thou regard it accordingly Thou sure knewest that God was better then the world and Heaven then earth at least thou wast told of it But didst thou accordingâ—y value him and love him more Thou knewest sure that there was no salvation without Faith and Repentance and newness of life and yet they were neglected In a word many a thousand sins which were committed and duties that were omitted against thy own Knowledge and Conscience will marr this Excuse The fifth Excuse I lived not under a powerful Minister to tell me of these things but where there was no Preaching at all Answ. And might you not have gone where a powerful Minister was with a little pains Yea did not the very plain word which you heard read tell you of these things And might you not have had a Bible your â—elves and found them there The sixth Excuse I was a servant and had no time from my labour to mind these matters I lâ—ved with a hard master that required all his own work of me but would allow me no time for the service of God Or else I was a poor man and had a great charge to look after and with my hard labour had much ado to live so that I had no time for heavenly things Answ. 1. Who should be first served God or man what should be first sought after Heaven or Earth Did not Christ tell thee One thing is necessary Luke 10.41 42. was it not as needful to see that you escape Damnation and get safe to Heaven when this life is ended as to see that you had food and raiment for your selves and yours 2. Did you spend no time in Recreation nor Idleness nor vain talking why might not that at least have been spent about heavenly things 3. Could you have taken no time from your rest or eating or at other intermissions Mans body will not endure so great labours as have no Intermission And why then might not godlyness have been your ease and recreation 4. Or might you not have minded these things even when you were about your labour if you had but a heart to them 5. At least you might have spent the Lords own Day in hearing reading and pondering of these matters when you were forced to forbare your worldly labours even by the wholsom Law of the Land These therefore are all but vain Excuses and God will shortly make thee speak out and plainly confess It was not so much for want of Time or Helps or warning as for want of a heart to use them well I should have found some Time though it had been when I should have slept if my heart had been but set upon it The seventh Excuse Little did I think to have seen this Day â— did not Believe that ever God would be so severe I thought his Threatnings had been but to keep men in awe and I suspected either that the Scripture was not his word or else I thought he would be better than his word I thought all that I heard of another life had been uncertain and therefore was loth to let go a certainty for an uncertainty and lose my present pleasures which I had in hand for the hopes of that which I never did see Answ. He that will not know his misery by believing to prevent it shall know it by feeling to endure it You were told and told again what your unbelief would bring you to Did Gods word make Heaven and Earth Doth it support them and secure them And is not his word sufficient security for you to have trusted your souls upon Did you know where was any better security to be had and where was any surer ground for your confidence And did you think so basely and blasphemously of God that he would falsifie his word lest such as you should suffer and that he was fain to rule the world by a Lye Did God make the world so easily and can he not Govern it by true and righteous means what need God to say that which he will not do to awe sinners Can he not Awe them by Truth Is it not just that those should eternally perish that will entertain such despeâ—ate thoughts of God and then by such wicked imaginations encourage themselves in sin against him And for the Truth of Scripture God did not bid you believe it without Evidence He stamped on it the Image of his own Purity and Perfection that you might know it by that Image and superscription if you had eyes to see them He sealed it by uncontrouled multitudes of Miracles He delivered it down to your hands by Infallible witnesses so that he left you no room for rational Doubting And you knew that the matters of this world were not only uncertain but certainly vain and transitory and would shortly come to nothing and leave you in distress If it had then been uncertain whether there were a Glory and misery hereafter as it was not should not Reason have taught you to prefer the least probabilities of an everlasting unspeakable happiness before that which
is certainly perishing and vain These vain Excuses will but condemn you The eighth Excuse I was so enticed and perswaded by sinners to do as they did that I could not deny them They would never let me rest Answ. 1. And were you not as earnestly perswaded by God to forsake sin and serve him and yet that would not prevail with you You could not deny the Devil and fools but you could deny God and all his Messengers Were not Ministers as earnest with you every week to repent and amend What did men entice you with with a little deluding fleshly pleasure for a few daies And what did God entice you with with the Promise of endless unconceivable felicity And if this were a smaller matter in your eyes then the other then you have had your choice be content with it and thank your selves In your life time you had the good things which you chose and preferred before heaven and therefore cannot expect to have heaven besides The ninth Excuse I lived among ungodly persons that derided all that feared God so that if I had not done as they did but had made any more ado to be saved I should have been the very scorn of the place where I lived Answ. And was not Heaven worth the enduring of a scorn Is not he worthy to go without it that thinks so basely of it Dâ—d not Christ tell you that if you were ashamed of him before men he would be ashamed of you before his Father and the Angels of heaven Mark 8.38 He suffered more then scorns for you and could not you suffer a scorn for him and your selves seeing you chose rather to endure everlasting Torment than a little derision from ignorant men take that which you made choice of And seeing so small a matter would drive you from heaven and part God and you as a mock as the wind of a mans mouth No wonder if you be commanded to Depart from him into everlasting fire The tenth Excuse I had ungodly persons to my Parents or Masters or Landlord or Governors who threatned to undo me if I had addicted my self to so strict a life and if I would not believe and do as they did Answ. What if they threatned you with present Death Did not God also threaten you with everlasting Death if you were not ruled by him And whose threatning should you have chiefly feared Is man more dreadful than God Is death more terrible then Hell Did not Christ bid you Fear not them that can kill the body and after that can do no more but fear him that is able to destroy both body and soul in hell fire yea I say unto you fear him Mat. 10.28 Luke 12.4 5. and Isa. 51.7 Fear ye not the Reproach of men neither be afraid of their revilings For the moth shall eat them up like a Garment and the worm shall eat them like wool but my Righteousness shall be for ever and my salvation from Generation to Generation Seeing therefore you have chosen rather to suffer from God for ever for your sin then to suffer small matters for well-doing for a moment you must even bear your own choice Christ told you before hand that if you could not forsake all the world and your own lives for him you could not be his Disciples Matth. 10.37 38 39. And seeing you thought his terms too hard and would needs seek you out a better service even take what you have chosen and found The eleventh Excuse I saw so many follow their pleasures and their worldly business and never look after these higher things and so few go the other way that I thought sure God would not damn so great a part of the world and therefore I ventured to do as the most did Answ. God will make good his word upon many or few Did you doubt of his will or of his power For his will he hath told it you in his word For his power he is as able to punish many as one man What is all the world to him but as a drop of a Bucket as the dust of the ballance He told you before hand that the gate was strait and the way to heaven was narrow and few did find it and the gate to destruction was wide and the way was broad and many did enter in at it Mat. 7.13 14. And if you would not Believe him you must bear what your unbelief hath brought you to What if you had twenty children or servants or friends and the greater part of them should prove false to you and seek your destruction or prove disobedient and turn to your enemy would you think it a good excuse if the rest should do the like because of their example will you therefore wrong God because you see others wrong him would you spit in the face of your own Father if you saw others do so God warned you that you should not follow a multitude to do evil Exod. 23.2 And if yet you will do as most do you must even speed as most speed You should not so much consider who they be as what they do and whether they go and who they forsake and what they lose and what strength is in the Reasons that move them to do this And then you would find It is God they forsake it is sin they choose it is heaven they lose it is hell they run into and it is no true reason but Satans delusion and sensual inclinations that lead them to it And should men be imitated be they many or be they few in such a course as this The twelfth Excuse I saw so many faults in those that were accounted Godly and saw so much Division among them that I thought they were as bad as others and among so many opinions I knew not what Religion to be of Answ. 1. A spot is soonest seen in the fairest cloth And the malicious world useth to make such far worse then they are 2. But suppose all were true that malice saith of some you could not say the like by others 3. Or if you could yet it was Gods Law and not mens faults that was made the Rule for you to live by Will it excuse you that others are bad 4. And for their diverse opinions you should have taken counsel at Gods word which was right Did you first search the Scripture impartially as willing to know the Truth that you might obey it and did you pray daily that God would lead you into the Truth and did you obey as much as you knew Did you joyn with the godly so far as they are all agreed They are all agreed in the Fundamental Articles of Christianity and in all things absolutely necessary to a holy Life and to salvation that all known sin is to be forsaken and all known duty to be done Why did you not so far then agree with them Alas the imperfections of the godly and the false Accusations of the malicious world will prove but
a poor cover for your wilful ungodliness and Christ will convince you of the vanity of these Excuses The thirteenth Excuse The Scriptures were so dark that I could not understand them And I saw the wisest men differ so much in the exposition of them that I thought it was in vain for me to trouble my self about them If God would have had us live according to the Scriptures he would sure have written them plainly that men might understand them Answ. 1. It is all plainly written according to the nature of the subject But a prejudiced disaffected yea or but untaught disused soul cannot at first understand the plainest Teaching The plainest Greek or Hebrew Grammer that can be written will be utterly obscure to him that is but newly entred the English School yea after many years time that he spends in learning Did you study hard and pray for Gods teaching and enquire of others and wait patiently in Christs School that you might come to further knowledge by Degrees and were you willing to know even those Truths that called you out to self denyal and that did put you on the hardest flesh displeasing duties Had you done thus you would have admired the Light of the Holy Scripture and now have rejoyced that ever you saw them and not have quarreled at its seeming Darkness This word might have made you wise to salvation as it hath done others Act. 20.32 2 Tim. 3.15 16 17. This Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul the Testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple The statutes of the Lord are Right Rejoycing the heart the Commandement of the Lord is pure enlightning the eyes Psal. 19.7 8. 2. So much as is of Necessity to salvation is as plain as you could desire Yet if you be Judged by these you will be condemned For you did not obey that which was most plain What darkness is in such words as these Except ye Repent ye shall All perish Luk. 13.3 5. Love not the world nor the things in the world if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him 1 John 2.15 He that will come after me let hâ—m deny himself c. Matth. 16.24 3. If there had been nothing that seemed difficult to you would you not have despised its simplicity and have thought your selves wise enough at the first Reading and needed no more The fourteenth Excuse There were so many seeming Contradictions in the Scripture and so many strange improbable things that I could not believe it Answ. The contradictions were in your fancy that did not understand the word which you read Must the raw unexperienced Learner despise his book or Teacher as oft as in his ignorance he thinks he meets with contradictions Did you think God was no wiser then you and understood not himself because you understood him not Nor could reconcile his own words because you could not reconcile them You would needs be a Judge of the Law instead of obeying it and speak evil of it rather then do it Jam. 4.11 2. And those things which you called improbable in the word were the wonders of God of purpose to confirm it If it had not been confirmed by wonders you would have thought it unproved and yet now it is so confirmed you will not believe the Doctrine because the witness seems incredible And that is because they are matters above the power of man As if they were therefore above the power of God! You shall at last have your eyes so far opened as to see those seeming contradictions reconciled and the certainty of those things which you accounted Improbable that you may be forced to confess the folly of your Arrogancy and Unbelief and then God will Judge you in Righteousness who presumed unrighteously to judge him and his word The fifteenth Excuse It seemed so unlikely a thing to me that the merciful God should damn most of tht World to everlasting fire that I could not believe it Answ. 1. And did it not seem as unlikely to you that his word should be false 2. Should it not have seemed as unlikely that the Governor of the world should be unjust and suffer his Laws to be unexecuted and the worst to speed as well as the best and to suffer vile sinful dust to despise his mercy and abuse his patience and turn all his Creatures against him without due punishment 3. Did you not feel pain and misery begin in this life 4. You saw Toads and Serpents which had never sinned And you would rather live in any tolerable suffering then to be a Toad And is it not Reason that it should go worse with contemptuous sinners then with those creatures that never sinned 5. Could you expect that those should come to heaven that would not believe there was such a state but refused it and preferred the world before it And to be out of heaven is to be out of all Happiness and he that is so out of all happiness and knows that he lost it by his own folly must needs Torment himself with such Considerations were there no other Torments And as man is capable of greater felicity than bruits so must he needs be capable of more misery The sixteenth Excuse The things which God promised in heaven and threatned in Hell were all out of my sight and therefore I could not heartily believe them Had I but once seen them or spoke with one that had seen them I should have been satiâ—fied and have contemned the things of the world Answ. Wâ—ll you not believe till you see or feel was not Gods word sufficient Evidence would you have believed one from the dead that had told you he had seen such things and would you not believe Stephen that saw them Act. 7 5â— Or Paul that heard and saw them 2 Cor. 12.3 4. Nor Christ that came purposely from heaven to reveal them why flesh and blood cannot see them You see not God will you not therefore Believe that there is a God Indeed whatever you imagine if you would not Believe Moses and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles neither would you have belâ—â—ved though one had risen from the dead For â—ods word is more credible then a dead mans and Christ did rise from the dead to attest it Blessed are they that have not seen and yet believed Noah saw no rain when he was preparing the Ark but because he believed he made ready and escaped Heb. 11.7 when the world that would not Belâ—eve did perish But seeing Gods word was of no more weight with you and no knowledge would serve your turn but by seeing and feeling you shall see and feel everlastingly to your sorrow The seventeenth Excuse It was so strict a Law that God would have Ruled me by and the way to Heaven was so strait and difficult that I could not endure it I was not able to deny my flesh and live such a life Answ. 1. You were