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
grace continue but did you know what a hard and impossible thing it is to be so much as willing to have Christ and Grace when the Heart is given over to it self and the Spirit hath withdrawn its former invitations you would not be so confident of your own strength to believe and repent nor would you make light of Christ upon such foolish confidence If indeed it be so easie a matter as you imagine for a sinner to believe and repent at any time how comes it to pass that it is done by so few but most of the World do perish in their impenitency when they have all the helps and means that we can afford them It is true the thing is very reasonable and easie in it self to a pure nature but while Man is blind and dead these things are in a sort impossible to him which are never so easie to others It is the easiest and sweetest life in the World to a gracious soul to live in the love of God and the delightful thoughts of the life to come where all their hope and happiness lieth But to a worldly carnal Heart it is as easie to remove a Mountain as to bring them to this However these Men are their own condemners for if they think it so easie a matter to repent and believe and so have Christ and right to Salvation then have they no excuse for neglecting this which they thought so easie O wretched impenitent Soul what mean you to say when God shall ask you Why did you not Repent and Love your Redeemer above the World when you thought it so easie that you could do it at any time IV. Use 1. We come now to the Application and hence you may be informed of the blindness and folly of all carnal men how contemptible are their judgements that think Christ and Salvation contemptible and how little reason there is why any should be moved by them or discouraged by any of their scorns or contradictions How shall we sooner know a man to be a fool than if he know no difference between Dung and Gold Is there such a thing as madness in the World if that Man be not mad that sets light by Christ and his own Salvation while he daily toyls for the dung of the earth And yet what pity is it to see that a company of poor ignorant Souls will be ashamed of godliness if such Men as these do but deride them Or will think hardly of a holy life if such as these do speak against it Hearers if you see any set light by Christ and Salvation do you set light by that Man's Wit and by his Words and hear the reproaches of a holy life as you would hear the words of a mad Man not with regard but with a Compassion of his misery Use 2. What wonder if we and our preaching be despised and the best Ministers complain of ill success when the Ministry of the Apostles themselves did succeed i no better What wonder if for all that we can say or do our hearers still set light by Christ and their own Salvation when the Apostles hearers did the same They that did second their Doctrin by Miracles If any Men could have shaken and torn in pieces the Hearts of Sinners they could have done it If any could have laid them at their feet and made them all cry out as some What shall we do it would have been they You may see then that it is not meerly for want of good Preachers that men make light of Christ and Salvation the first News of such a thing as the Pardon of Sin and the Hopes of Glory and the Danger of everlasting Misery would turn the hearts of men within them if they were as tractable in spiritual matters as in temporal But alas it is far otherwise It must not seem any strange thing nor must it too much discourage the Preachers of the Gospel if when they have said all that they can devise to say to win the hearts of men to Christ the most do still slight him and while they bow the Knee to him and honour him with their Lips do yet set so light by him in their hearts as to prefer every fleshly pleasure or commodity before him It will be thus with many let us be glad that it is not thus with All. Use 3. But for closer application Seeing this is the great condemning Sin before we enquire after it into the hearts of our hearers it beseems us to begin at home and see that we who are Preachers of the Gospel be not guilty of it our selves The Lord forbid that they that have undertaken the sacred Office of revealing the Excellencies of Christ to the World should make light of him themselves and slight that Salvation which they do daily preach The Lord knows we are all of us so low in our Estimation of Christ and do this great Work so negligently that we have cause to be ashamed of our best Sermons but should this Sin prevail in us we were the most miserable of all men Brethren I love not censoriousness yet dare not befriend so vile a Sin in my self or others under pretence of avoiding it especially when there is so great necessity that it should be healed first in them that make it their work to heal it in others O that there were no cause to complain that Christ and Salvation are made light of by the Preachers of it But 1. Do not the negligent studies of some speak it out 2. Doth not their dead and drousie Preaching declare it do not they make light of the Doctrin they preach that do it as if they were half asleep and feel not what they speak themselves 3. Doth not the carelesness of some mens private endeavours discover it what do they for Souls how slightly do they reprove Sin how little do they when they are out of the Pulpit for the saving of mens Souls 4. Doth not the continued neglect of those things wherein the Interest of Christ consisteth discover it 1. The Churches Purity and Reformation 2. It s Unity 5. Doth not the covetous and worldly lives of too many discover it losing advantages for mens souls for a little gain to themselves And most of this is because men are Preachers before they are Christians and tell men of that which they never felt themselves Of all men on earth there are few that are in so bad a condition as such Ministers and if indeed they do believe that Scripture which they preach methinks it should be terrible to them in their studying and preaching it Use 4. Beloved hearers the Office that God hath called us to is by declaring the glory of his grace to help under Christ to the saving of mens Souls I hope you think not that I come hither to day on any other errand The Lord knows I had not set a foot out of doors but in hope to succeed in this Work for your Souls I
Making Light of CHRIST AND SALVATION Too oft the Issue of Gospel-Invitations Manifested in a SERMON Preached at Lawrence-Jury in London By RICH. BAXTER Heb. 2. 34. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation The Second Edition LONDON Printed for Nevil Simmons and sold by most Booksellers 1691. To the READER READER BEing called on in London to Preach when I had no time to study I was fain to preach some Sermons that I had preached in the Country a little before This was one which I preached at S. Lawrence in the Church where my Reverend and faithful Brother in Christ Mr. Richard Vines is Pastor when I came home I was followed by such importunities by Letters to Print the Sermon that I have yielded thereunto though I know not fully the ground of their desires Seeing it must abroad will the Lord but bless it to the cure of thy contempt of Christ and Grace how comfortable may the occasion prove to thee and me It is the sleighting of Christ and Salvation that undoes the World Oh happy man if thou scape but this sin Thousands do split their Souls on this Rock which they should build them on Look into the World among rich and poor high and low young and old and see whether it appear not by the whole scope of their Conversations that they set more by something else than Christ and for all the proclamations of his Grace in the Gospel and our common profesing our selves to be his Disciples and to believe the Glorious things that he hath promised us in another World whether it yet appear not by the deceitfulness of our service by our heartless endeavours to obtain his Kingdom and by our busie and delightful following of the World that the most who are called Christians do yet in their hearts make light of Christ And if so what wonder if they perish by their contempt Wilt thou but soberly peruse this short Discourse and consider well as thou readest of its truth and weight till thy heart be sensible what a sin it is to make light of Christ and thy own Salvation and till the Lord that bought thee be advanced in the estimation and affections of thy Soul thou shalt hereby rejoyce and fulfil the desires of Thy Servant in the Faith RICH. BAXTER Matt. 22. 5. But they made light of it THE blessed Son of God that thought it not enough to die for the World but would himself also be the Preacher of Grace and Salvation doth comprize in this Parable the sum of his Gospel By the King that is here said to make the Marriage is meant God the Father that sent his Son into the World to cleanse them from their sins and espouse them to himself By his Son for whom the Marriage is made is meant The Lord Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God who took to his God-head the nature of Man that he might be capable of being their Redeemer when they had lost themselves in sin By the Marriage is meant The Conjunction of Christ to the soul of Sinners when he giveth up himself to them to be their Saviour and they give up themselves to him as his Redeemed Ones to be saved and ruled by him The perfection of which Marriage will be at the Day of Judgment when the Conjunction between the whole Church and Christ shall be solemnized The word here translated Marriage rather signifieth the Marriage-Feast and the meaning is that the World is invited by the Gospel to come in and partake of Christ and Salvation which comprehendeth both Pardon Justification and Right to Salvation and all other Priviledges of the Members of Christ The Invitation is God's offer of Christ and Salvation in the Gospel The Servants that invite them are the Preachers of the Gospel who are sent forth by God to that end The preparation for the feast there mentioned is The sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the enacting of a Law of Grace and opening a way for revolting Sinners to return to God There is mention of sending second Messengers because God useth not to take the first denyal but to exercise his patience till Sinners are obstinate The first Persons invited are the Jews upon their obstinate Refusal they are sentenced to punishment and the Gentiles are invited and not only invited but by powerful Preaching and Miracles and effectual Grace compelled that is infallibly prevailed with to come in The number of them is so great that the house is filled with the Guests Many come sincerely not only looking at the pleasure of the Feast that is at the Pardon of sin and Deliverance from the Wrath of God but also at the honour of the Marriage that is of the Redeemer and their profession by giving up themselves to a holy Conversation but some come in only for the Feast that is Justification by Christ having not the wedding Garment of sound Resolution for Obedience in their Life and looking only at themselves in Believing and not to the glory of their Redeemer and these are sentenced to everlasting Misery and speed as ill as those that came not in at all seeing a Faith that will not work is but like that of the Devil and they that look to be pardoned and saved by it are mistaken as James sheweth 2. 24. The words of my Text contain a Narration of the ill-entertainment that the Gospel findeth with many to whom it is sent even after a first and second invitation They made light of it and are taken up with other things Though it be the Jews that were first guilty they have too many followers among us Gentiles to this day Doct. For all the wonderful love and mercy that God hath manifested in giving his Son to be the Redeemer of the World and which the Son hath manifested in Redeeming them by his Blood for all his full preparation by being a sufficient sacrifice for the sins of all for all his Personal Excellencies and that full and glorious Salvation that he hath procured and for all his free offers of these and frequent and earnest Invitations of Sinners yet many do make light of all this and prefer their worldly enjoyments before it The ordinary entertainment of all is by contempt Not that all do so or that all continue to do so who were once guilty of it for God hath his chosen whom he will compel to come in But till the Spirit of Grace over-power the dead and obstinate hearts of Men they hear the Gospel as a common story and the great matters contained in it go not to the heart The Method in which I shall handle this Doctrin is this 1. I shall shew you what it is that Men make light of 2. What this sin of making light of it is 3. The cause of the sin 4. The use of the Doctrin 1. The thing that carnal hearers make light of is 1. The Doctrin of the Gospel it self which they hear regardlesly 2. The benefits offered them
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
dear to your selves than to make light of your own happiness or misery Why Sirs do you not care whether you be saved or damned Is Self-love lost Are you turned your own Enemies As he that slighteth his Meat doth slight his life so if you slight Christ whatsoever you may think you will find it was your own Salvation that you slighted Hear what he saith Prov. 1. 36. All they that hate me love Death 6. Your sin is greater in that you profess to believe the Gospel which you make so light of For a professed Infidel to do it that believes not that ever Christ died or rose again or doth not believe that there is a Heaven or Hell this were no such marvel but for you that make it your Creed and your very Religion and call your selves Christians and have been baptized into this Faith and seemed to stand to it this is the wonder and hath no excuse What! believe that you shall live in endless Joy or Torment and yet make no more of it to escape Torment and obtain that Joy What! believe that God will shortly judge you and yet make no more preparation for it Either say plainly I am no Christian I do not believe these wonderful things I will believe nothing but what I see or else let your hearts be affected with your Belief and live as you say you do believe What do you think when you repeat the Creed and mention Christ's Judgment and everlasting Life 7. What are these things you set so much by as to prefer them before Christ and the saving of your Souls Have you found a better friend a greater and surer happiness than this Good Lord What dung is it that men make so much of while they set so light by everlasting Glory What Toyes are they that they are daily taken up with while matters of life and death are neglected Why Sirs If you had every one a Kingdom in your hopes what were it in comparison of the everlasting Kingdom I cannot but look upon all the Glory and Dignity of this World Lands and Lordships Crowns and Kingdoms even as on some brainsick beggarly Fellow that borroweth fine Cloaths and plays the part of a King or a Lord for an hour on a stage and then comes down and the sport is ended and they are beggers again Were it not for God's interest in the Authority of Magistrates or for the service they might do him I should judge no better of them For as to their own Glory it is but a smoak what matter is it whether you live poor or rich unless it were a greater matter to dye rich than it is You know well enough that Death levels all What matter is it at Judgment whether you be to answer for the life of a rich man or a poor man Is Dives then any better than Lazarus Oh that men knew what a poor deceiving shadow they grasp at while they let go the everlasting Substance The strongest and richest and most voluptuous Sinners do but lay in fuel for their sorrows while they think they are gathering together a treasure Alas they are asleep and dream that they are happy but when they awake what a change will they find Their Crown is made of Thorns their pleasure hath such a sting as will stick in the heart through all Eternity except unfeigned Repentance do prevent it Oh how sadly will these wretches be convinced ere long what a foolish bargain they made in selling Christ and their Salvation for these Trifles Let your Farms and Merchandize then save you if they can and do that for you that Christ would have done Cry then to thy Baal to save thee Oh what thoughts have Drunkards and Adulterers c. of Christ that will not part with the basest lust for him For a piece of bread saith Solomon such men do transgress Prov. 28. 21. 8. To set so light by Christ and Salvation is a certain mark that thou hast no part in them and if thou so continue that Christ will set as light by thee Those that honour him he will honour and those that despise him shall be lightly esteemed 1 Sam. 2. 30. Thou wilt feel one day that thou canst not live without him Thou wilt confess then thy need of him and then thou mayst go look for a Saviour where thou wilt for he will be no Saviour for thee hereafter that wouldst not value him and submit to him here Then who will prove the loser by thy contempt Oh what a thing will it be for a poor miserable Soul to cry to Christ for help in the day of extremity and to hear so sad an Answer as this Thou didst set light by me and my Law in the day of thy Prosperity and I will now set as light by thee in thy Adversity Read Prov. 1. 24. to the end Thou that as Esau didst sell thy Birth-right for a Mess of Pottage shalt then find no place for repentance though thou seek it with tears Heb. 12. 17. Do you think that Christ shed his blood to save them that continue to make light of it and to save them that value a Cup of Drink or a Lust before his Salvation I tell you Sirs though you set light by Christ and Salvation God doth not so He will not give them on such Terms as these He valueth the Blood of his Son and the everlasting Glory and he will make you value them if ever you have them Nay this will be thy condemnation and leaveth no remedy All the World cannot save him that sets light by Christ Heb. 2. 3. Luke 14 24. None of them shall taste of his Supper Mat. 10. 37. Nor can you blame him to deny you what you made light of your selves Can you find fault if you miss of the Salvation which you slighted 9 The time is near when Christ and Salvation will not be made light of as now they are When God hath shaken those careless Souls out of their Bodies and you must answer for all your sins in your own Name O then what what would you give for a Saviour when a thousand Bills shall be brought in against you and none to relieve you then you will consider Oh Christ would now have stood between me and the wrath of God had I not despised him he would have answered all When you see the World hath left you and your companions in sin have deceived themselves and you and all your merry days are gone then what would you give for that Christ and Salvation that now you account not worth your labour Do you think when you see the Judgment set and you are doomed to everlasting Perdition for your Wickedness that you should then make as light of Christ as now Why will you not judge now as you know you shall judge then Will he then be worth ten thousand Worlds and is he not now worth your highest Estimation and dearest Affection 10. God will not only
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