THE Preaching of Christ AND THE Prison of God As the Certain Portion of them that reject Christ's Word Opened in Several SERMONS On 1 Peter III. 19. By SAMUEL TOMLYNS M.A. And Minister of the Gospel of Christ in Marleborough LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers-Chappel 1694. TO My Honoured Friends Robert Grove of Dunnet in the County of Wilts Esq And to his Worthy Consort Madam Tryphena Grove Grace Mercy and Peace be multiplyed from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ THE True God is styled The Excellency of Jacob Amos 8.7 The Glory and Praise of his People Isa 60.19 Deut. 10.21 Though Pharaoh King of Egypt boasted thus I am the Son of the Wise the Son of Ancient Kings Isaiah 19.11 Yet David Glories in this Lord I am thy Servant I am thy Servant the Son of thy Handmaid Psal 116.16 This is your Honour That you are descended of Parents that owned Christ's Gospel espoused his Interest and countenanced God's pure Worship in Dark Difficult and Dangerous Times I Rejoyce that you tread in their steps and endeavour to promote God's Kingdom in your Family and among your Neighbours As this hath been the Glory of your Predecessors so I desire it may descend to and be inherited by your Children that the Entail of God's Covenant may never be cut off from your Posterity The World counts it Honourable when Estates continue and Lands descend from one Generation to another But this is most valuable when Piety and God's pure Worship descends from Father to Son It is said Deut. 33.4 Moses commanded us a Law even the Inheritance of the Congregation of Jacob. As God hath commanded and Commended his Law as an Inheritance to the whole Church so every Particular Member of it should by his Choice accept the Word of God as his Inheritance as the Psalmist saith he did Psal 119.111 Thy Testimonies have I taken as my Heritage for ever for they are the rejoycing of my Heart Children will be sure to claim their Father's Lands but it is much more desirable to claim their Father's God as Moses did Exod. 15.2 He is my Father's God and I will exalt him How Excellent is it when they Inherit their Parents Graces Vnfeigned Faith dwelt in his Grandmother Lois then in his Mother Eunice and then in Timothy himself This is to be an Ancient Family and truly Noble As in the Temple of Old there were Treasurers over the Dedicated Things 1 Chron. 20.26 So in the Spiritual Temple the Church of Christ God hath constituted Christian Parents as the Treasurers over the Dedicated Things Children of Believers are Dedicated to God in Baptism and Parents should Carefully and Faithfully watch over these Holy Dedicated Things that they may not be alienated from God by cold Neutrality or open Profaneness and Degeneracy The ensuing Discourse Treats on two Noble Subjects The Preaching of the Son of God and The Prison of God which will be the certain Portion and Punishment of those that reject the Word of the Son of God I am sensible of manifold Weaknesses Defects and Imperfections in my self that might deter me from exposing my self to the Censures of a Cavilling Contentious Age but because my Life declines apace my Days do post away my Sun will quickly set I am willing to publish something that may contribute to the Informing the Ignorant and awaken the Secure Christ's Preaching may be a Load-stone to draw perishing Sinners to him and the Prison of God may Alarm and Rouze up drousie Souls and be a Spur to Quicken them to fly for Refuge to lay hold of the Hope set before them I bow my Knee to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Lights and the God of all Grace that he would Grant unto you the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation and thereby Seal Instruction to your Souls that being built upon your most Holy Faith you may grow up into Christ in all things and at last obtain an Inheritance among all them that are sanctified by Faith in Christ These are the unfeigned Desires of Your Affectionate and Humble Servant Samuel Tomlyns Milcot May 11. 1694. 1 Pet. III. 19. By which also he went and Preached to the Spirits in Prison IN these words we may observe 1. A Subject He. The Person spoken of is called Christ in the 18th Verse Though he was put to death in the Flesh yet he was quickned by the Spirit He tasted Death for a little time but soon abolished and swallowed it up for ever His Humane Nature rendred him obnoxious to Death but his Divine Nature made him Victorious over it 2. We have something affirmed and asserted of this Subject viz. That he went by it that is by his Divine Nature and preached Though the Son of God had not yet assumed a Humane Nature yet he did exist in his Divine Nature though he came to Men in time yet he was with the Father from Eternity and so was in a capacity to Preach before he was manifested in the Flesh As a Candle can shine and give Light before it is put into a Lanthorn and the Light created the first day did Illuminate the World before the Sun was created the fourth day So the Divine Nature of Christ did enlighten the World before he rose and appeared as a Sun of Righteousness shining in and through a Body of Flesh while the fourth Thousand of Years was yet currant And this Expression is observable that by his Divine Nature he went and preached Where the Son of God preaches thither he comes and there he is Spiritually present where the Gospel is dispensed there is a special Presence of the Son of God In Ephes 2.17 it is said He came and preached Peace to those that were far off and to them that are nigh So the Housholder is said to go forth to the elder Brother and entreat him to come in to the Feast Luke 15.28 Where the Word is preached the Father and the Son do come forth and draw near to Men and treat with them about their Spiritual and Eternal Good 3. We may observe to whom the Son of God preached Peter tells us it was to the Spirits in Prison but yet he preached to them before they were cast into Prison while they were yet seated in Bodies cloathed with Flesh and were dwelling in the World it is such that are meet to be preached to that are yet in the way in a state of Tryal and Candidates for Eternity When once the Final Sentence is passed and the eternal state of Sinners fixed it is too late to set on foot a Treaty of Peace with them or to make offers of Mercy to them Those that were Prisoners in the days of Peter were living and at Liberty in the days of Noah The * Vid. Rhemish Test and the Notes on it Papists would impose and obtrude this sense on Peter's words as if the
whole World is his Diocess This Husbandman goeth forth to sow Matth. 13.3 and the large Field that he sows in is the World Matth. 13.38 The Field is the World This Noble Fisherman doth not Fish in the Rill of a Village in the Rivulet of a City in the River of one Country but in the Sea of the wide World Mat. 13.47 The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a Net cast into the Sea It is observable what the Son of God saith Psal 40.9 I have preached Righteousness in the great Congregation What is this great Congregation It is the Church made up of Jew and Gentile it is Men of all Nations He did not come only to call the Jews to raise up Jacob and to restore Israel Isa 49.4 5. but he was to gather the Kingdoms of the Earth Psal 102.22 To gather all Nations Jer. 3.17 To call and bring home Sheep that were not of the Fold of the Jewish Church John 10.16 The Son of God preached to the Heathen Zech. 9.10 caused Barbarous People and the Inhabitants of Wildernesses to bow to his Sceptre and to submit to his Authority Psal 72.9 They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him and his Enemies shall lick the dust yea the Kings and Great Ones of the World shall fall down before him as Subjects and Worshippers And the Son of God preached with such Authority Efficacy and Success that those that knew him not before did at his call run to him Isa 55.5 And fly as the Clouds and Doves to their windows Isa 60.8 As the Jews did formerly attend on the Ministry of God's Prophets Zech. 11.11 The poor of the Flock that waited on me So now the Gentiles should wait on the Son of God listen to his Doctrine and receive his Law Isa 51.5 The Isles shall wait upon me And Isa 42.4 The Isles shall wait for his Law By the Isles we are to understand the Gentile Nations that were beyond the Seas and lived remote from the Land of Canaan even these should wait for the Rain of Christ's Doctrine for the Dew of his Word they should submit to be Scholars when the Son of God did Teach and become his Disciples when he did call As Isa 2.2 3. The Gentiles should exhort one another and say Come let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord's House for he will teach us his ways and we will walk in them This is observable that the Lord is not said to Teach alike every where but in the Mount of his House that is in his Church he Teaches here it is Day when it is Night with other Parts of the World Darkness doth cover the Earth gross darkness the People but the Glory of the Lord ariseth on and shines in the Church Isa 60.1 2 3. Therefore the Gentiles are said to repair to the Churches Light with a full Resolution to yield submit and obey what the Son of God should teach as Truth and dictate as Duty I shall come now to the Use of the Doctrine Use 1. The Son of God preached by Instruments and hath also preached immediately in his own Person this may inform us of the wonderful Grace and Kindness of Jesus Christ As a Priest he purchases Good Things for us and as a Prophet he Preaches them to us He bought precious things dearly at God's hands and he proposeth and proffers them freely to our hands he procured an Inheritance provided a Feast and prepared Salvation and he promulgates and declares them to us O what a condescention is this that the Son of God should be a Herald to Proclaim Peace and the King of Glory should deign to be the Father's Ambassador to treat with Rebels and beseech Enemies to be reconciled to him Use 2. Here is great matter of Consolation that the Son of God Preacheth as truly by Instruments as in his own Person He can give Efficacy and Success to his own Word Our case were deplorable yea desperate if Men only did Preach Could they open blind Eyes unstop deaf Ears quicken dead Souls As Eglon's Servants did wait till they were ashamed for his rising and opening the Parlour-door to them Judges 3.23.25 But their waiting and expectation was in vain Ehud had killed Eglon the King of Moab Judg. 3.21 22 and a dead Man could not open the Door to his waiting Servants without So Sinners are dead in Trespasses and in the uncircumcision of their Flesh Col. 2.13 And can such arise and open the doors of their Hearts to the Son of God Free-will ruined Mankind when the Image of God was drawn on their Souls and the Law of God was written in their Hearts and will Free-will now raise and recover Man again out of his Ruins with the aids of Common Grace when the poor Sinner is a Captive under the Law of Sin and Death This was the great Encouragement that Christ gave his Apostles to go forth into the World and Teach all Nations That he was and would be with them to the end of the World Matth. 28 19 20. He that had all Power both in Heaven and Earth could make way for his own Word and cause it to be received and entertained Ministers need the special Presence and the powerful Working of the Son of God with them Weak and degenerate Man doth not only need an Auxilium sine quo non such an aid without which they cannot believe or come to Christ but an Auxilium cum quo as Jansenius * In his August excellently and truly distinguisheth We need such an aid as will certainly produce the Effect Such an aid as Free-will is Lord of and is to Husband and Improve will not suffice for our Recovery but such an aid of Grace we need as will Lord it in our Will and effectually incline it to yield and submit to Christ Ezek. 20.37 I will cause them to pass under the Rod I will bring them into the bond of the Covenant Blessed is he whom thou choosest and causest to draw nigh Psal 65.4 Christ can so influence the Will as to undertake it shall and cause it to comply Ars Coelestis Medici est Demonstrativae as Alvarez * De Auxiliis gratiae truly asserts it is in the Hand and Power of the Heavenly Physician to Cure the Will of its Malignity Enmity and Rebellion Surely he can Cure whom he will and when he will else he were not infinitely Wise and Omnipotent He could undertake that the Gentiles though deaf Isa 29.18 yea though dead John 5.25 should hear his Voice and be joyned with his Flock and gathered into his Fold God bids Moses to smite the Rock and it should give forth Water for the Thirsty Israelites to drink Exod. 17 6. But would the Rock yield Water if Moses alone had been there and smitten it with his Arm No a struck Rock would yield rather sparks of Fire than floods of Water had not the Lord stood on the Rock and caused it to cleave
snare till he takes up his snare Amos 3.5 seizes on the prey he hath caught and carries it away to Hell As the Lord liveth there is a place of Misery there is a dreadful Prison and place of Torments Do not banish it out of your Thoughts do not ridicule it as a meer Invention of Men or as vain ungrounded Fancy entertained in weak and timerous Minds Do not go on to despise or question it till God confutes your unbelief and punishes your Atheism by the woful painful feeling of that which you would not believe or fear 2. Vse Do not envy Sinners do not grudge them their full Cup of sensual Delights their calm and smoath Streams of Prosperity God hath a reckoning with them Judgments are travelling towards them Hos 5.1 Vengeance is ready to take hold of them those that now will bear no Yoak will be restrained by no bounds must shortly be laid fast in the Eternal Prison They that now swim in Rivers of Pleasures must soon be drowned in Perdition and Destruction They that suck in large draughts of sensual Delights must within a little time drink the Wine of the Wrath of the Almighty Would you envy a Malefactor a large Meal or a full Glass of Wine that next day is to be executed Would you grudge a Man Fine Cloaths or delicate Fare that next hour is to be cast into devouring Fire their Comforts are measured by Time but their Misery and Torment is to be measured by Eternity 3. Vse O examine your selves what grounded Hope you have that you shall be secured from Eternal Bondage and delivered from the wrath to come are you in the Road to the Prison or in the way to the Palace there are but these two Receptacles and places of Entertainment for departed Souls Consider well of it are you in a perishing way Psal 1. last or in the way Everlasting Psal 139. last Put these following Questions to your Souls 1. Are your Eyes opened Isa 42.7 This is the means to bring us out of our spiritual Prison and the first step towards our Liberty Why are Men so quiet so contented so satisfied to stay in Gods outer Prison Surely it is because their Eyes are shut they discern not where they are and how great their danger is Jesus Christ first opens the blind eyes and then he brings the Prisoners out of the Prison-House Inquire therefore did you ever come to your selves take up true Notions or form a right Judgment concerning your lost deplorable and miserable Estate Luk. 15.17 The Prodigal came to himself he conversed with reflected on himself dwelt on the sad Thoughts of what his Folly and Lusts had reduced him to and then he took up this fixed Resolution I will arise and go to my Father Luk. 15.18 19 20 21. If Men did come to themselves they would leave Sin as a bad and hard Master and would return to God their Heavenly Father The Apostle Paul speaks of Sinners recovering themselves out of the snare of the Devil 2 Tim. 2. last The Word in the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It signifies to recover out of Drunknness and to become sober and those that thus become sober do escape out of the snare of the Devil Sinners are drunken with false Notions with wrong Conceptions and ungrounded Imaginations concerning themselves the goodness of their own Estate the sweetness of the Pleasures of Sin the worth of the Riches of the World Men must return to sobriety of Mind to a right Judgment of their State and Ways that they may recover out of the snare of the Devil Are the Scales of Ignorance fallen off from your Eyes is the Veil drawn off from your Hearts Act. 12.7 9. A Light shined into Peters Prison and then he was raised and called out of it so here 2. Are you come to Jesus the Mediator of the New Testament and to the Blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than the Blood of Abel Heb. 12.24 Are you come into his Righteousness Psal 69.27 That is an observable Phrase to come into the Righteousness of the Messiah Believers come into it as their Garment that must cloath and cover them their Fortress and City of Refuge that must secure them from the Curse of the Law and Revenging Justice Those that lay hold of and come into the Righteousness of Christ are passed from Death to Life and shall never come into Condemnation John 5.20 These things are linked with and depend on each other coming into Christs Righteousness secures us from coming into Condemnation have you fled by Faith to the Mediator and his Blood so that you have received the Atonement that he made Rom. 5.11 Do you apply the Reconciliation that Christ hath made to your selves 2 Cor. 5.18 All things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ 3. Are you made Free from the Law of Sin and Death Rom. 8.2 The Law of the Spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death The Law of the Spirit is the mighty powerful effectual working of the Spirit of Life Though the Law of Sin be strong yet the Law of the Spirit of Life is stronger This Law of the Spirit can prevail and carry it against the Law of Sin have we ever experienced this mighty Law of the Spirit hath it broke our Fetters and Chains mortified our Lusts enlarged our Hearts Psal 119.32 Then will I run the way of thy Commandments when thou shalt enlarge my Heart It is the work of the Spirit to enlarge the understanding by beaming in new Light and to enlarge the Will by kindling new spiritual Love when Christ by his Spirit doth cirtumcise the Heart then the Chains of Lust do fall off Is the Law of God written in you Jer. 31.33 Is this a prevailing reigning Principle in your Hearts and as a powerful Byass on your Wills Do you choose the way of Truth and choose Gods Precepts Psal 119.30 173. 4. Have you New Honourable and Ornamental Chains cast about your Souls Isa 45.14 It is promised the Church that the Egyptians and the Ethiopians and other Gentile Nations should come over to her and be hers they should come over to her and after her in Chains We are not to understand the Words as if Christ should force Proselites into his Church or Subjects into his Kingdom Jesus Christ never did violence to the Bodies of Men or by an outward force hale Men to him but the Phrase signifies the powerful work of Christ by his Spirit on the Minds and Consciences of Men he casts Chains of Light and Love about the Souls of Men He mightily convinces and perswades them of the Truth of his Doctrine of the Excellency of his Promises He plants strong Inclinations in them he makes powerful Impressions on them that they cannot but subject themselves to him and yield and submit to his Church Those that are bound with Chains
unjustly Imprison Hold and Detain it they will not suffer it to have Authority in their Consciences they will not permit it to reign in their Souls to controul their Lusts to restrain their Vices to check their sins and may not God righteously shut up those Spirits of Men that have so unrighteously imprisoned bound held under that great and primary Truth that there is a God and have lived as if there were none as if there were no Omnisciency to observe their Sins no Holy Just Being to Loath and hate them no Omnipotent Arm to Punish them God hath several Attributes to Display his Glory as he hath a Palace to Magnify his Mercy in so he hath a Prison to Glorify his Justice in the Righteous Judg of the whole World hath several sorts of Persons to deal with he hath Friends that he will shine on and Enemies that his wrath will burn against to all Eternity he hath Children that he will Portion and Enemies that he will Punish as he will entertain and Feast his Sons and Daughters at the Table of Mercy in his Palace so he will Treat Satans Seed at the Table of Justice in his Prison all the World shall be Gods Guests he will set out their Food he will proportion and appoint their Cup they that have not their Inheritance in God shall yet have their portion from him The Lord is the Portion of my Inheritance and of my Cup this is the sweet Language of a Saint Psal 16.5 but this is the terrible Language of the Scripture concerning Sinners Job 31.2 What Portion of God is there from above And what inheritance of the Almighty from on high Is not Destruction to the Wicked And a strong punishment to the Workers of Iniquity God will magnify his Righteousness in feeding Sinners with the Fruits of their own ways and doings and in adjudging them to their proper place Acts 1.25 Judas is said to go to his own place the place his Sins had bespoken provided and prepared for him This place may well be called a Prison to sinners For 1. Sinners are made to be what they would not be For them to gratify sinful Self-Love was here their great sin and for God highly to cross Self-Love there will be their Eternal Punshment Sinners shall be the Foot stool of an Angry God Psal 110.1 They shall be the mark of Revenging Justice they shall be Vessels of wrath and Vessels for Dishonour Rom. 9.21 22. How dreadful is this for God to Illustrate his Justice and Magnify his Wrath in their Eternal Misery How Terrible is it for God to get him Honour by Wounding Eternally the Heads and Hearts of Sinners to Exalt himself by throwing them down into the bottomless Pit in striking and suppressing them in consuming and preserving them at once to continue a bare stock of being that he may Graft Eternal Torments on Will not this be exceedingly dishonourable and infamous to Creatures that they did not pay God any Rent Service or Obedience but necessitated their great Land-lord to Distrain on them and make distress and take up their Souls and Bodies both in Execution Will not this be an Everlasting reproach that they Robbed God of his Honour and Glory and obliged him to make Reprizals on them That they would give him no Glory as they ought Jer. 13.16 but left God to get Honour on them as he could So God saith He would get him Honour on ' Pharoah and on his Host Exod. 14.17 2. Sinners shall be where they would not be even in a bottomless Pit in a Lake of Fire and Brimstone and under outer Darkness Rev. 20.1 3 10. The state of the Damned may well be called a Bottomless Pit they cannot in their Thoughts reach to or by their longest Line of Reason Fathom the bottom of this Pit they cannot say they are arrived at the utmost that God can do against them or they can suffer from him As in Heaven there will still be fresh Visions of Glory so in Hell there will still be new Scenes of Misery and how Terrible is this Expression a Lake of Fire A Lake that will never Ebb never sink never dry away this Lake will be as broad as deep as hot and scorching to Eternity as it was the first moment sinners were cast into it 3. Sinners shall be deprived of what they would possess and enjoy what God threatens Babylon with shall be fulfilled to them and executed on them Rev. 19.14 All the things that their Souls Lusted after shall depart from them all that is delicate and dainty shall depart from them and they shall find them no more for ever all the Lamps whereby they did drive away the Darkness and Terror of their Night shall be put out their Cisterns shall be broken their Paradise of Earthly Pleasures and Delights shall be utterly and eternally blasted the Breasts of Creatures shall be withdrawn from their Mouths and all their Idols for ever snatch'd out of their Arms a great part of their Hell shall be drawn out of and from that which once was their Heaven this shall lash and scourge their Souls to think of the Mercies they enjoyed and abused to remember the good things that they received from God perverted and turned against God that they fed their Lusts with what should have fuelled their Love those Gifts inticed their Hearts from God which should have drawn them to him Dives in Hell complained of the pain of Sense but hath no relief Abraham minds him of the pain of Loss and so augments his misery Luke 16.24 25. Abraham said Son remember that thou in thy Life time receivedst thy good things as if Abraham should say Thou hadst all those good things which thou didst esteem and value that thou didst desire and delight in that thou didst love and doat on thou hadst thy choice thou didst possess the Prize thou didst run for but now thy Days of Pleasure are at an end thy Sun of Prosperity is set Thou hast no wrong yea God is highly Righteous in his Dispensations towards thee he withholds spiritual and eternal Mercies that thou didst never desire but always despise and snarches away Temporal Enjoyment which thou didst ever Idolize 4. Sinners shall feel suffer endure what they Loath and Abhor Job complains that the things that his Soul refused to touch were his sorrowful meat Job 6.7 So the wicked in Hell may renew and take up this doleful complaint that they must feed on that Wormwood and Gall that they abhor and drink the Wine of the wrath of God that they loath that Food is provided for them that they have the greatest aversation from that Cup is reached out to them that they have the greatest detestation of they shall be filled with their own ways Prov. 14.14 Eat the Fruit of their own doings and Drink the Wine of the Wrath of the Almighty Job 21.20 Rev. 14.10 All deadly Poysons all fatal Ingredients shall be tempered together