The First Doctrine. Gospel Salvation is great Salvation.

BEfore we open the doore to let you into a clear sight of this truth, it may not be impertinent to remove an objection that lies as a stumbling block at the very entrance, and that is this. In that we proclaime Gospel-Sal­vation to be great Salvation, some may de­mand whether there be any other Salvation that may stand in competition with Gospel-Salvation?

To which we answer, that God never re­vealed but two wayes unto mankind for Salva­tion.

The first was by a Covenant of workes, manifested unto the first Adam as the Worlds representative, wherein the condition was Hoc fac & vive, do this and thou shalt live, or do this and be saved.

But that Law being transgressed, and that Covenant broken; and Adam and his poste­rity being under the curse of that Covenant, and the wrath of God abiding on them: God was pleased to enter into another Covenant of grace with mankind through the second Adam, [Page 6]proposing unto them another condition, Hoc crede & vive, whosoever beleeveth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life Iohn. 3.16. Though there was an old way to Salvation by working held out by the law, yet now the new and living way, brought to light by the Gospel, is the way of beleeving; and this Sal­vation by the Covenant of grace doth as farr excell that by the Covenant of workes, as the second Adam doth excell the first.

I may further adde, that the Covenant of grace hath been exhibited under two dispen­sations.

First to the Jewes, under the old Testament-dispensation, in tipes and shadowes, when the Ceremoniall Law was the Jewes Gospel.

And secondly to Jewes and Gentiles, under the new Testament dispensation, in truths and and substances, and this is that Salvation that the Apostle seemes here to commend and ex­alt above other Salvations, that Salvation which in the manifestation of it, is grown up to more ripenesse of yeares, and perfection of Stat [...]e since the fullnesse of time, than ever it was before. And since we are speaking com­paratively of it, let us take in one consideration more, though it may serve only for a pleo­nasme, for having spoken of the greater, we [Page 7]need not doubt of the lesse. It may be called great Salvation, if compared with temporall, and corporall deliverances; such as those from Aegypt, and Babylon, those were great delive­ra [...]ces, and great Salvations, but that was of bodies, th [...]s of soules, that was temporall, and this aeternall, and therefore in every re­spect,

1. If compared with Salvation by the law,

2. If compared with the old Testement­manifestations,

3. If compared with temporall delive­rances,

We must give acclamation to it to be great Salvation. And as for dreaming of any other Salvation, properly, and strictly so called, we must keep close to those true sayings of God. Acts 4.12. Neither is, there Salvation in any other, for there is none other name under Hea­ven, given among men, whereby we must be saved, and 1. Tim. 2.5. unicus est mediator, There is one onely mediatour betwixt God and man, the Man Christ Jesus.

The doubt being cleared, we proceed to clear the doctrine.

1. By improving the Text.

2. By Testimonies of Scripture.

3. By pregnant, and ponderous Reason.

First by improving the Text, where the spirit of God gives it a rise three degrees high: 1 Salvation, 2 great Salvation, 3 so great Sal­vation, which last is a sic without a sicut (as one saith of Gods love from that Scripture, God so loved the World) so that the tongues of men or Angells are not able to expresse, nor the imaginations of men or Angells able to com­prehend: Or what if we suppose it better to illustrate those three gradations by the three degrees of comparison; we may shew you at large how Gospel-Salvation is,

• 1. Positively great Salvation.
• 2. Comparatively greater than all other.
• 3. Superlatively the greatest of alls.

But all this was hinted in that that went be­fore.

Secondly to shew you the consent of Scrip­ture, and how harmoniously they attest unto this truth.

Psal. 130.7. Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption, let redemption but lead us to a redeemer, and we shall find such plenty of it in Jesus Christ, that out of his full­ness we may be all receivers, and grace for grace.

Luke 1 69. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, that hath raised up for us an horne of Salvation in the house of his servant David. Its a figu­rative expression taken from beasts, whose strength is in their hornes; It is such mighty Salvation, that it can push down all power that opposes it: the Apostle applies it Rom. 8.33, 34. It is God that justifieth, who is it that condem­neth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who sitteth at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us; who shall separate us from the love of Christ? &c.

Hebr. 7.25. He is able to save to the utter­most all those that come unto God by him, seeing be ever liveth to make intercession for them.

Put all these together,

• 1. Plentifull redemption,
• 2. A horne of mighty Salvation,
• 3. Salvation to the uttermost,

And they do univocally bear wittness to this great truth that Gospel-Salvation is great Salvation.

Thirdly to come to Reasons, take into close consideration these three things.

• 1. Ab hoc: From what
• 2. Ad hoc: To what
• 3, Per hoc: By what

we are saved.

And from hence we shall lay downe these three [Page 10]Reasons to prove it to be great Salvation.

• 1. Because it saves us from great evills.
• 2. Because it advances to great happiness.
• 3. Because it doth all by great meanes.

1 Ab hoc 1 Reason. It saves from great Evills, as is easy to shew in a multitude of particulars.

1. From the wrath of God, which bu [...]nes like a con [...]uming fire, and all the wicked upon earth are hu [...] straw, and stubble before it: It burnes to the bottome of hell, and setts on fire the foundations of the Mountaines and burnes up the earth with its increase. The burning To­phet is kindled with his displeased breath as with a river of brimstone, Isay 30.33. the old World was drowned in it, and the new shall be burned in it. It tumbled the Angels that fell out of Heaven, and hurled them into Hell, to be reserved in chaines under darkness to the judgment of the great day. It brought such a curse upon the whole creation for Adams sin, that the whole creation groanes under it, Rom. 8.22. Man sweats under it, and Woman is in labour of it. It hath tumbled Monarchy upon Monarchy, the Assyrian, Persian, Graecian, Roman, it hath reprobated the greatest part of men and women that ever were in the World, are, or shall be. It hath cast off the Jewes, and unchurhed many famous churches [Page 11]of the Gentiles. It hath layed flourishing states on ruinous heapes, and hath brought to pass those desolations even to wonder and aston sh­ment, by sword, famine, and pestilence, which our fathers have told us of. It hath done that worke, that strange worke in our daies, and in these parts of the World, which our eyes have seen, and may long be for a Lamentation. In a word it brought that confluence of indignati­on upon Christ, Gods only begotten, and only beloved Son, when he stood in our roome, and became our surety, that it made him sweat blood, and cry out My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? We may say of all the punishments personall and nationall that have befallen us, or can befall us, of all things that we feel, or fear, as the prophet doth, Is there any Evil in the City, Land World, and the Lord hath not done it? Ames 3.6. Ex ungue leonem, all that see it may say, This hath God done, for they cannot but see that it is his work: we may know it to be the Lord by his very footsteps, for as none can deliver and save like him, so none can punish and destroy like him. Solomon, tells us the wrath of a King is like the roring of a Lion, Prov. 19.12. but Moses tells us that he cannot tell us the p [...]wer of Gods wrath, Psal. 90.11. Who knoweth the power of [Page 12]thine anger, even according to thy fear so is thy wrath, and this wrath we are saved from by this great Salvation.

2. It saves from the curse of his law, that binds over to that wrath, cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the booke of the Law to do them, Deut. 27.26. Its this malediction that makes sin to be the sting of death, and makes the hornet of an ac­cusing conscience to sting self-condemned sinners like the pangs of death. This put Adam upon that impossibility, to run away and hide himselfe from God; and made Cain to be à corde suo fugitivum, a runnagate (if it had been possible) from himselfe. This curse of the law sets the never-dying worme a gnawing, and layes upon evill doers that intolerable burden of a wounded conscience which none can bear. Cursed is the impenitent Drunkard, Swearer, Sabboth-breaker, Lier, Whore­monger, prayerless, Christless person, saith the Law, but I am such and such saith the consci­ence, therefore thou art cursed, thou art the man saith right reason in the conclusion. It was the dreadfull impulse of this evill spirit that drave Judas first to despair, and then to the gallows, and furiously poasted him through an hell internall into an hell eternall: Twas [Page 13]this that doom'd despairing Spira to an hell above ground, and fill'd him so brimfull with hellish horrour, that he was the very monster of his time, and the most dreadfull spectacle of the age he lived in. Nay, to come neerer to the quick, It was the consciousness of this curse that set David upon the rack, and put his bones out of joynt, and brought him into a con­sumption, that he complaines that his flesh was dryed up for want of fatness, and his moisture was like the droughth in Summer, These terrours of the Law, and plunges of conscience were the stormes, and flouds, and mire, and deepes that he so deeply complained of, and made one deep to call upon another, the deep of his mi­sery to the deep of Gods mercy. Twas this venome that so pointed those arrows of the all­mighties wrath that drank up Jobs spirits. And made Hezekia to mourne like a dove, and chatter like a Craine, and complaine that from mor­ning to evening God made an end of him: Twas this that pickled up Peter in his bitter tears; and put blessed Paul so to it that he cryed aloud to Heaven for a deliverer, Me miserum quis libe­rabit? O wrethed man that I am, who shall de­liver me from the body of this death? and this curse we are saved from by this great Salva-

3. It saves from the tyranny, and dominion [Page 14]of Satan, Its mans hell above ground to be under the divells dominion, and principality. The Apostle notes that the unbeleveing and impenitent are held captive by Satan at his will, 2. Tim. 2.26. and the Ephesians while they were dead in trespasses and sinns, were said to be acted by the Prince of the power of the ayre, the spirit that worketh in the children of diso­bedience, Eph. 2.2. Satan is therefore called The God of this World, 2. Cor. 4.4. who blinds the minds of them that beleeve not, least the light of the glorious Gospell of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. He goes about like a roring Lion, seeking whom he may devour. 1. Pet 5.8. And compasses the earth Job. 1.7. yea, he goes about with great wrath, knowing that his time is but short, Revel. 12.12. He is called therefore the strong man armed that keepes peaceable possession till the stronger come, Luke. 11.21. but when that stronger comes, and God, and Christ come in with this mighty Salvation; when the grace of God which brings Salvation once appeares, then the weapons of our warfare are not Car­nal, but mighty through God, to the pulling downe of strong holds. When he that hath the key of David will open, ther's none that can keep shutt; As the graves must open to his Surgite [Page 15]mortui, and the Earth and Sea must give up their dead at his word of command, so when he will give sinners their blessed part in the first Resurrection, the Divel, World and Flesh shall not be able to detaine their Captives: If God will but give Paul a commission to go to the Gentiles, he shall open their Eyes, and trans­late them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God. Act. 26.17, 18. When God will shine upon the labours of his plant­ing and watering servants, and come in with that increase which the Apostle calls the in­crease of God, then not only gates of brass and barrs of Iron shall fly open, and breake in sunder, as they did before Cyrus when God would use him as an instrument towards his peoples enlargement, but even the chaines of darkness shall snap asunder before the mighty word, and almighty spirit of the Churches great Redemer, like Sampsons cords when the Philistins were upon him.

And here is the comfort of all comforts, they that are set at liberty by this great Sal­vation, have so full a rescue, that they shall never be led captive more, though they have been pulled like brands out of the fire, like the prey out of the paw of the Lion rampant, out of the hands of the strong man by a [Page 16]stronger; yet now they are in safe hands, be­cause there cannot come a stronger. Christ saith none can take his sheep out of his hand, and his father that gave them him is greater than all, and none can take them out of his fathers hand, Iohn. 10.28, 29. Though he consider and study Job, Job. 1.8. and resist Josua. Zech. 3.1. Though be desire to have the Apo­stles to winnow them, Luke 22.31. and wre­sties with beleivers about Heavenly things, Eph. 6.11, 12. Though he hath [...] devi­ces, plots, machinations, stratagems. 2 Cor. 2.11. & [...] wiles, me­thods, snares laid at unawares, way layings as the word properly signifies, traps artifici­ally set to catch the prey and [...] Revel. 2.24. the depths of Satan (those poor deluded Soules (like those in our times that are under strong delusions, and the efficacy of error) called their opinions the deep things of God, in allusion probably unto that expression 1 Cor. 2.10. The spirit searcheth all things, even the deep things of God, and there the spirit tells them they were the deep things of the divel, and not of God, they were not fetcht from Heaven, but from the depth of hell, and though he hath such wea­pons as the word calls [...], [Page 17] Eph. 6, 16. The fiery darts of the Divel, yet though he set all his infernall powers on worke, and imploy all his heads and hornes, all his stratagems and strength, and joyne his serpentine subtilty with his Lyon-like power; yet the least of God's little ones shall be saved from him, though the Dragon cast Flouds out of his mouth after the woman, and the remnant of her seed, yet they shall have a hiding place provi­ded. They have a Captain generall that is called [...]. The cheife Captain and Finisher of their Faith, Heb. 12.2. Who, in that he himselfe, hath suffered being tempted, h [...] is ble to succour them that are tempted, Heb. 2.18. He puts into their hands the Sheild of Faith, which will quench all the fiery darts of the Devil, Eph. 6.16. And he prays that that saith may not fail, Luke 22.32. And hath ex abundan­ti, for their strong consolation, furnished them with a [...], The whole Armour of God, and bids them be of good cheere, he hath over­come, And the Apostle being strong in the Lord, and the power of his might, triumphs before Victory with an [...], Rom. 8.37. We shall overcom through him that loved us. And this bondage we are saved from by this great Salvation.

[...] [...]ight here enumerate more particulars, [...], Judgement, and Hell; for this great Salvation saves from the terrours of all these, and is a shelter against these driving stormes which swell up a raging Sea of wrath, to drown the whole world of the ungodly, but these will come in seasonably among those which follow, where we shall meet with them before we make a full dispatch of this Reason.

4 To give you one generall, that may be comprehensive of all particulars, that we need to speak to. It saves from all evills: Now all evills have been well reduced into two rankes.

• 1 Mala culpae Evills of sin.
• 2 Mala paenae Evills of punishment.

1. Salvation is from Sin, yea, and the best part of Salvation too; 'Twas this that gave unto Christ his saving name. Mat. 1.21, Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his, people from their sinns. Salvation from wrath, which is done in Justification, is quiddam exte­rius, the work of Christ without us, who dyed for our sinns, and rose againe for our Justifi­cation, who did undergoe the curse of the law in his passive obedience, and fullfilled the [Page 19]righteousness of the law in his active obedi­ence for the justification of sinners; but Sal­vation from sin, which is d ne in Sanctification, is quiddam interius, the work of Christ within us, who workes all our workes in us, as well as for us. See that pithy and pertinent treatise upon that forecited Scripture Mat. 1.21. en­tituled Salvation from sin by Jesus Christ, published not long since by a judicious and faithfull Brother of our Association, Mr. George Hopkins of Evesham, where you may read to satisfaction upon that profitable sub­ject, and save me the labour of enlarging upon it.

And as it is from sin, so from all sin that lies within the reach of repentance: There is a sin indeed which the Scripture hath excepted, called the sin unto death, and the sin against the Holy Ghost, which is therefore impardonable, because the sinner is impenitent, and because that sin is alwayes twin'd with a totall, and finall apostacy; otherwise there is no sin so great but may be pardoned, no sinner so great but may be saved.

First hear what testimony the old Testa­ment gives unto the Salvation Covenant. Moses is very large in dealing out the great pardons of the great God to great sinns [Page 20] Exod. 34.6, 7. saying, he pardoneth iniquity, & transgression, and sin, as if he alluded to the three degrees of comparison magna, majora, maxima peccata, performing to the full what that Scripture promises; Isay 55.7. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and turne unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God for he will abundantly pardon, or according to the originall, he will multiply to pardon. The Pro­phet Ezekiel. 36.25. dotr particularize: I will pour clean water and ye shall be clean from your idols and from your filthyness will I clense you, though your sinns were as great as idolatry against the first Table, or uncleanness against the second (and we can hardly think of grea [...] yet upon returne to God they may be pardoned and purged. The Prophet Isay, 1.18 goes yet further (if further may be) and makes mention of the pardon of Scarlet and Crimson sinns, i. e.) Sinns that are double dyed, dyed in graine, like those colours aggravated with the most notorious of circumstances, as bloody as murther (as Davids matter of Vriah, or as black as Hell, (as Manasses witchcraft, and familiarity with Evil spirits) yet upon Gods termes they may be forgiven.

Secondly and because you shall have the [Page 21]evidence of this truth from the mouthes of the two witnesses, the New Testament as well as Old, peruse that place Mat. 12.31. That very verse, that puts a barre to the Salvation of sinners against the Holy Ghost; opens a wide doore of hope unto all besides: All manner of sin, and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.

Know further that Salvation from sin (to give you the dimensions of it) is,

1 Either from the Condemning power,

2. Or from the Conmmanding power of sin, and in respect of both it deserves the title of great Salvation.

1 Believers are saved by Christ from the condemning power of sin: Rom. 8.1. The Apostle layes it downe as a most certaine con­clusion resulting by way of Argument from antecedent premises. Now then there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Iohn. 3.16. They shall not perish, Iohn. 10.28. They shall never perish, and Iohn. 5.24. Shall not come into condemnation.

2 And they are freed from the commanding power of sin: Sin doth not reigne in their mortall bodies, that they should obey it in the lust of it: They have given their members ser­vants [Page 22]to righteousness unto holiness, and though they sometimes do the Evill which they would not, yet they have sued out their divorce, and can say with the Apostle, their consciences bearing them witness, It is no longer I, but sin that dwelleth in me. They have put themselves under the regency of Christ, and put up that petition daily in his name, Thy Kingdome come, desiring that God and Christ by the holy spirit may bear rule in their hearts, and not sin: and Thy will be done, wherein they desire to be made willing to be ruled by his will, and not the lusts of the flesh, and by this meanes, though sin be not [...]j [...]cted from its inherency, yet it is dejected from its regency, and they are neither ser­vants, nor slaves of sin.

2 Salvation is from punishment, à malis poenae, as well as à malis culpae, from wrath as well as sin; and this so great Salvation, that I fear too many do look upon it as the vna, vnica salus, that that comprehends the tota­lity of Salvation, but having said enough to und [...]ceive you in the antecedent branch of Salvation from sin, it remaines that we dis­cover this also to be a considerable part, though not the totum integrale, the All of this great Salvation. As all of transgression [Page 23]is epitomiz'd, and summed up in Scripture in the terme of sin, so is all of wrath and pu­nishment in this terme of death, and therefore the Apostle briefly layes downe both Rom. 6.23. The wages of sin is death; (i e.) All death is the wages of all and every sin, so that sin will find the sinner suffering enough, death with all its appurtenances. 1 with all its fore­runners, diseases, aches paines &c. 2 With all its concomitants of tribulation, and anguish, desperation and horrour, 3 and all its followers, death after death, fire and brimstone which is the second death. Revel. 21.8.

Let us distinguish of a threefold death which is the wages of sin, and all will be plaine, when we have clear'd it that Salvation saves us from all the three. Death

• 1 Internall of the Soul.
• 2 Externall of the Body.
• 3 Eternall of the Body and Soul.

1 It saves from death internall, as Eph. 2.1. You hath he quickned, who were dead in tres­passes and sinns. Iohn. 5.25. The time shall come, and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and those that hear shall live, and Iohn. 5.24. He that heareth my words, [Page 24]and beleiveth in him that sent me hath everlast­ing life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death to life, and Revel. 20.6. Blessed is he that hath his part in the first Resurrection, on such the second death hath no power, which expositors do interpret of the resurrection of the Soul from the death of sin to the life of grace, as the second resurrection of the body from death to life immor­tall.

2. It saves from death externall, though not from the stroak of death, for its appointed unto all men once to die. Hebr. 9.27. Yet from the sting of death, for blessed are the dead which die in the Lord Revel. 14.13. Paul tells us, if in this life only we had hope in Christ we were of all men the most miserable. 1 Cor. 15.19. noting that the hope that we have in Christ for another life, is the best part of our hope, and that which maketh not ashamed, and in or­der to this Solomon saith, the righteous hath hope in his death. Prov. 14.32. Though be­leivers die, yet they are not kill'd with death as that deadly phrase is Revel. 2.23. It is but their dust that sees corruption; Their head having kill'd death, Oh death I will be thy death, Hos. 13.14. nothing hinders but that on the ac­count of that victory they may triumph as more [Page 25]than conquerors, and say with the Apostle. O death where is thy sting, O grave where is thy victory? 1 Cor. 15.55.

3 It saves from death eternall. Iohn. 11.25, 26. He that beleiveth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and beleiveh in me shall not die for ever. Death is therefore call'd the King of feares, because there is a more terrible death stands behind it; as the Apostle saith after death cometh the judgement, so we may say after judgement cometh the death: Observe but how the Apo­stle sends out bold challenges, and even bids defiance to all adversary power upon this very score of being protected, and secured from the second death. Rom. 8.33. Who shall con­demn? What shall separate? I am perswaded that neither death, nor life &c. nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. &c. Let all these be laid together that it saves us 1 From the wrath of God. 2 From the curse of his Law. 3 From the tyranny of Satan. 4 From sin both condemning and commanding, and then from punishment, death internall, exter­nall, and eternall, and these make up a preg­nant proof that Gospel-Salvation is great Sal­vation from the ab hoc, the great evills it saves [...] from.

2 Ad hoc. 2 Reason. It saves us to great hap­piness, I meane that by this great Salvation we are advanced to great happiness,

It were endles to handle all the particulars of that blessedness to which Salvation doth entitle us.

Moses brings in that blessedness in huddles that is prepared for the children of obedi­ence, and heyres of Salvation, Deut. 28. blessings of all sorts, and sizes, in every state and condition.

David saith Psal. 1.1. Blessednesses belong unto them, or as the originall doth more em­phatically render it, ô beatitudines, oh the blessednesses that belong unto such as he there describes: and Psal. 144.15. gives their bles­sedness a rise above all other blessedness, yea, above all that can be spoken or conceived, yea, blessed are the people which have the Lord to be their God.

Paul saith, they begin in election and end in glorification, Rom. 8.30. Whom he did predest­inate, them he called, and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified, them he also glorified. In which words he sets downe the priviledges of Gods saved ones.

• 1. Before time. In predestination.
• 2. In time. In calling, and Justification.
• 3. After time. In Glorification.

Let us if we can run back to the beginning of eternity, end run forward to the end of it, and if we cannot (as we cannot) let us run to our witts end, and then cry out ô altitudo! ô profunditas! oh the length, and bredth, and height, and depth of the love of God, which passeth knowledge! The measure of Heaven is heaped up, and pressed downe, and running over.

Yet though the excellencies of that Land of promise, which flowes with better blessings than milk and hony, cannot be told you, we shall not pass it by so slenderly as to say no more of it, but shall do as those faithfull spies, that were sent to survey the Land of Canaan, present you with a bunch or two, that you may have a tast at least of the fruits of the Land, though the full feast be reserved till the time of our fruition.

1. Those that are the heyres of this great Salvation are adopted into the family of Hea­ven, and received into the glorious liberty of the Sonns and Daughters of the Lord God Allmighty; which giving us union with Christ, gives us right also to all the priviledges of [Page 28] Communion, Justification, Reconciliation, adop­tion, Sanctification, and glory.

1. Justification, wherein of ungodly we are made righteous.

2. Reconciliation, wherein of enemies we are made freinds.

3. Adoption, wherein of aliens we are made Sonns.

4. Sanctification; wherein of Sinners we are made Saints.

5. Glorification, wherein of imperfect Saints, and such as are sanctified but in part, we are made perfect, grace being but glory begun, and glory nothing else but grace per­fected.

2. Those that are adopted into these pri­viledges are thereby entitled.

1. Unto the love of God the Father.

2. The grace of God the Son.

3. The Communion of God the Holy Ghost.

4. The protection of the Trinity.

5. The guardianship of Angells.

6. The comforts of an appeased consci­ence.

7. The comfortable enjoyment of the things of this life.

8. The beleiving and hopefull expecta­tion [Page 29]of the life that is to come.

These are two bunches of the beatitudes that this great Salvation doth advance us to.

But the most excellent are behind, this great Salvation doth advance the heirs of it un­to two Kingdoms at once.

• 1. The Kingdome of grace.
• 2. The Kingdome of glory.

1. We are saved to the state or Kingdome of grace, we are brought into Jerusalem the Holy, and led through it into Ierusalem the happy; we are conducted through holyness into happi­ness, and made to pass through the porch of grace into the palace of glory.

1. Salvation bestows upon us the first grace, Its therefore called a Creation, which we call regeneration, and this as well as the first creation is ex nihilo, the creating of grace where there was none before, If any be in Christ, saith the, Apostle, he is a new creature. 2 Cor. 5.17. and David prayes, create in me a clean heart, O God Psal. 51.10. And the promise is, A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart that is your body, and I will give you an heart of flesh. Ez. 36.26.

2. It causes us to increase in grace, 1. By Addition, adding grace unto grace, and pro­ceeding from vertue to vertue; observe the Apostles direction. 2. Pet. 1.5. giving all diligence adde unto faith vertue, and unto ver­tue knowledge, and unto knowledge temperance, and unto temperance patience, and unto patience godliness, and unto godliness brotherly kind­ness, and unto brotherly-kindness love, there is no grace that a gracious Soul would want.

2. By Multiplication, heaping grace upon grace, knowledge upon knowledge, faith upon faith, repentance upon repentance, obedience upon obedience, indeavouring to advance to higher degrees in grace, labouring that grace may not not only be in us, but that it may abound in us. 2 Pet. 1.8. As there is no grace for kind, so there is no degree of grace for measure that a gracious Soul would want.

3. And it doth not only prevent us with grace by giving us the first grace, and enabling us to will; and bestow upon us the second grace, by assisting us with grace, and enabling us to do as well as to will, according to that saying, Nolentem praevenit deus ut velit, volentem sub­sequitur ne frustra velit, God prevents us with his grace to make willing, and God followes us with his grace to make able.

But it also keepes us in grace, Paul gloryed that he had kept the faith, which was by being kept in the faith, according to that of Peter, Yee are kept by the power of God through faith unto Salvation. 1. Pet. 1.5.

2. By this great Salvation we are saved to the Kingdome of glory, as well as to that of grace: Christ teacheth us to pray for both at once in that Petition, Thy Kingdome come, (1) let the Kingdome of sin and Satan be domolished in us, and others, and let thy Kingdome of grace come in the room of it, and let us and others be kept in it, and do thou also hasten the Kingdome of glory. David mentions both by way of promise Psal. 84.11. The Lord will give grace and glory, and therefore he makes mention of both in his prayer, Lord guide me with thy counsell, and after that receive me to glory, which is as much as if he had said, Lord lead me through thy Kingdome of grace into thy Kingdome of glory. Now as David said of the Jerusalem upon Earth, we may much more of the Heavenly Jerusalem, Many excellent things are spoken of thee, thou City of God. We may more easily give you a Negative de­scription of it, by telling you what is not there, than a positive, by telling you what is there; yet take somwhat, though but a touch of both.

THE SECOND DOCTRINE, Setting light by this great Salvation is great Sin.

THough we shall easily confesse all sins to be great, yea, the least to be objectively infinite, because com­mitted against an infinite God, as we see David swallowed up of this deep, Psal. 51.4. against Thee, Thee have I sinned, &c. And we shall as easily confesse that no sins are venial in the sense of Rome, the A­postle Paul having declared, that the wages of all sin is death, Rom. 6.23. yet we cannot with the stoicks think all sins to be equal, but more or less sinfull as they are circumstantia­ted; that very expression of the sinfulness of sin, had otherwise been a paradox, which we find used in Scripture, and in many of the writings of the learned, and orthodox, both modern and ancient, and the Prophet had [Page 80]been guilty of an impropriety of speech, in mentioning scarlet and crimson sins, if some had not been of a deeper guilt than others, and their sinfulness like those colours dyed in grain. Now that this sin of gospel-refusing, or setting light by this great Salvation, is a sin with an high hand, and a hard heart, and a sin of that aggravated nature, as to be out of measure sinfull, is the point that is first to be il­lustrated, and then to be proved by evidence and strength of reasons.

First for illustration thus, The Scripture thunders out a most dreadfull curse against such as do the work of the Lord negligently, Jer. 48.10. if the negligent hearers and doers do lie open to the curse of God, what will be­come of those that are so grossly negligent, that they neglect both the theory and practick, the knowing and doing part, and all that care so little for the gospel, that they desire not to be acquainted with it, that do as it were say to the Lord, depart from us, we care not to know thy waies nor to walk in thy paths? The fore­mentioned Scripture levels that curse against such as are negligent in the execution of Gods destroying work, as the words immediately following do manifest; Cursed is he that doth the work of the Lord negligently, or deceitfully, [Page 81] and cursed is he that keepeth back his sword from blood, when God shall say to his sword, go through a Land, destroy all, and save none, and his executioners must close with it under pain of the Lords curse, and fiercest indignation: What shall become of such as will not close with his saving work, when he shall say to his word, go thorough a Land, and open blind eyes, and deaf ears, and dead hearts, that men may see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and be con­verted, and be healed, and when such as should proclaim these glad tidings shall be dumb, and not declare it, & the hearers shall be deaf, & will not entertain it, there must be blind leading the blind, till all fall into the pit, and the for­na [...] must be heat seven times hotter for the re­fusers of the Gospel than for the transgressors of the Law, the fire of gods jealousie burning hottest about the Sanctuary, and that judgement being most merciless, which beginneth at the house of God; read that confluence of threat­nings Deut. 29.20. where God threatneth that all the curses that are written in his book shall fall upon such as bless themselves in a cursed estate, and adde to that, Deut. 28.61. where God threatens all the curses that are not written to the children of disobedience; and [Page 82]yet that flaming place being a Gospel-threat­ning, 2. Thes. 1.7, 8, 9. is hotter and heavier than all; The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven in flaming fire, rendering ven­gance to them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and the glery of his power, mark the tendencie and full scope of the words, you may take them at large thus: O all you stubborn and rebellious sinners, who are refusers of Gospel-mercy, and have long continued neglecters of that great Salvation; remember that the Lord Jesus was revealed from Heaven, as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the World, and came down from his Fathers Throne to his foot-stool, to take our nature upon him, to humble himself, and become obedient to death, even the death of the Cross, to be made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption of sons, and he sent abroad his Apostles to propagate to all Nations the knowledge of this Salvation, and to perswade the sinfull World that lay under condemna­tion, unto faith and obedience, believingly to accept of this Saviour and Salvation, and in all thankfulness to return obedience, and to [Page 83]take him for their soveraign Lord, Redeemer, and Saviour! Oh know, and be it known unto you, and to all the World, that he shall once more be revealed as a roaring Lyon, to tear in pieces such as know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, but this is to argue the greatness of the sin from the greatness of the punishment, and the improve­ment of it may be referred unto the third doctrine, as to its most proper place.

The same course that we took to illustrate the greatness of Gospel-Salvation, we may take here to aggravate the sin of Gospel-neglecting or refusing.

We hinted there that Gospel-Salvation was called

• 1. Salvation.
• 2. Great Salvation.
• 3. So great Salvation.

Which we further amplified by alluding to the three degrees of comparison, shew­ing, [Page 84]

• 1. That it was positively great.
• 2. That it was comparativly greater than other.
• 3. That it was superlatively the greatest.

Conceive in like manner of the sin of set­ting light by this Salvation.

• 1. That it is positively great.
• 2. That it is comparatively greater than others.
• 3. That it is superlatively the greatest of all except the excepted sin.

And we may call it

• 1. Sin.
• 2. Great sin.
• 3. So great sin.

1. To discover it to be positively great, we need but name it, and a little open the nature of it, to make men cry shame of it, as the un­wrapping of a plague sore, and opening it to be seen, is enough to make the sound to loath it, and the stink of an open sepulchre is enough to make the living to abhor it; Gospel-refusing, O monstrous sin! it hath a face more ugly than Belzebub the Prince of devils, though it be a sin that is proper to men, and so common [Page 85]to all degrees and estates of men, that it fills Hell with souls, yet it is such a sin that the de­vils have no temptation to commit, they being left without hope of a Redeemer, and doamed from their very fall to perish without remedy. Salvation is a term that is comprehensive of all that is good, and excellent, and desirable, yea, of the highest good, of the highest God, (for they are convertible) the Trinity of persons agreeing in one unity of love, as well as essence, to further our Salvation, yea, the great God turned all into one great love to affect it; God so loved the World, that he gave his only begot­ten Son, &c. Joh. 3.16. & Christ in the fullnes of time, manifesting the fullness of love, Gal. 4.4. And the spirit coming down upon Christs Ascention, as another Comforter to abide with us to the end of the World, and all in order to the bringing about of this great Salvation, and if this be not a sin with a witness, tell me what is? Gospel-refusing is called in Scripture, a God refusing, a Christ-despising, a spirit-re­sisting, and inconsiderate sinners in refusing, and setting light by the word and ministery of this Salvation do all this; Christ said of the contemners of his messengers, he that despiseth you, despiseth me, and he that despiseth me, de­spiseth him that sent me, Luke, 10.16. and [Page 86] Stephen said unto his and the Gospels perse­cutors, ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and eares, ye do allwaies resist the holy Ghost, as your father did, so do ye. Acts 7.51. When Gods Embassadors shall go out into the world, and doe as the Prophet was com­manded, lift up their voices like trumpets to tell men and women of their sinns, and trans­gressions, when they with Iohn Baptist shall cry, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths streight, when they shall make procla­mation, Ho every one that thirsteth come, come, come. Isay. 55.12. And with the spirit, and bride, and him that heareth shall say come, come, come, Rev. 22.17. And let whosoever will come and take of the water of life freely. When men are so obdurate, that like Pharoah they remaine hard, and hardned in the midst of meanes, neither miracles, nor ministry, nor misery, nor mercy, can do them good, when all Gods, and Christs, and the Spirits, and the messengers intreaties, and beseechings shall be like breath scattered in the aire, and like wa­ter spilt upon the ground, and a labour in vain shall make Gods tired ministers ready in a heart-breaking despondency to turne their backs upon their labours, let such as have un­derstandings of the longest reach, and witts [Page 87]exercised to to distinguish betwixt good and evill, speak whether this must not be concluded to be a great sin, for such only are fit to take the dimensions of a sin that is so circumstan­tiated. Ile give you but one rule more to help you to conceive of the greatness of this sin, in the positive description, and then pass to the comparative. The Apostle prayed for his Ephesians, Eph. 3.16, 17, 18, 19. That God would grant them according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith, that they being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all Saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ which, passeth knowledge, that they might be filled with the fullness of God. This is the well­spring of our Salvation, the love of God in Christ, which is here measured out unto us by the word and spirit of God in those dimensions of breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and said to pass knowledge, and to comprehend all the fullness of God, must not this have the length, and breadth, and depth, and height of sin in it, must it not be a sin passing knowledge, must not this be to be filled with all the full­ness and sinfullness of sin? Those that are eaten [Page 88]up most of the love of God, and know most of that love which passeth knowledge, will be most confounded with monstrousness of this sin, and know most of the sinfull nature of it, and such as these can assure the world of blind sinners, that it is a Soul confounding sin, and a plague provoking sin, and such as are infected with this leaprosy of sin, may well cry out, uncleane, uncleane, but while I am speaking but positively of the greatness of this sin, I am allready leaping into the superlative, so hard it is to speak diminutively of this sin, Deus & caelum non patiuntur hyperbolen. as we cannot speak too highly of God, who is the highest good, so we cannot speak too aggravatingly of this sin, because it is so objectively against the highest love of the highest God, that it is a sin so opposite to the highest good, is aggravation sufficient to speak it superlatively great, yet since it was promised, we shall pro­ceed to the comparative, and so come in order to the superlative at last.

2. It is Comparatively greater than other sinns, and here we shall take the course to ma­nifest Gospel-refusing to be great sin, as we did to manifest Gospel Salvation to be great Sal­vation: we compared Gospel Salvation with Law: Salvation, and with temporall deliver­ances, [Page 89]and lower Salvations, and shew'd you that it was great, if compar'd with them, be­cause it was greater than those, we shall there­fore,

1. Compare [...] Gospel-refusing with Law­refusing, and so demonstrate it to be greater. And this the very argument made use of by our Apostle which ushers in my text. There­fore we ought to give the more earnest heed unto the things that we have heard, least at any time we let them slip, for if the word spoken by An­gells was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of re­ward, how shall we escape, if we neglect so great Salvation. &c. That is, if their sin, which was less, deserved so great punishment, how much more ours which is greater? & Heb. 10 28, 29. He that despised Moses Law died without mercy under two or three witnesses, of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the bloud of the cove­nant, wherewith he he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despight unto the spirit of grace? We shall better improve that Scrip­ture, when we come to the handling of the third Doctrine, only here, as before, read the the greatness of the sin in the greatness of the [Page 91]punishment, for God, who is, ipsissima justitia, justice it self, doth allwayes proportion his punishment to the sin, and note above all that, this sin is here called a treading Christ under foot, a counting of the bloud of the Covenant an uncleane thing, and a doing despight unto the spirit of grace, there is too much of these ingredients into the sin of Gospel-refusing, which makes it to culminate, and to mount up unto a sin of the highest altitude, and greatest magnitude, and to die in it, to do it finally, to continue refusers and neglecters of so great Salvation, doth much aggravate it.

2. If we compare this with other sinns, it will appear to be greater than such as the Scripture condemns as very gross and out of measure sinfull.

1 Adultery is lookt upon as a great sin, it was so in Josephs account, when he said, how can I do this wickedness and sin against God? Gen. 39.9. And David was even swallowed up of that twin-sin, whereof adultery was one, Psal. 51.4. Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight; but the refusing of Gospel-Salvation is far great­er, for David by Gospel-indulgence obtained pardon of that sin, but if he had refused [Page 90]that Salvation, he had been left to perish with­out remedy.

2 Idolatry is also a most notorious sin, surely the spirit of God names these two as two of the most crying, when it promises great pardon to great sinns, from your idols & from your filthi­ness will I cleanse you Ezek. 36.25. (i.e.) if your sinns be as great as Idolatry against the first table, or adultery against the second, yet upon your seasonable and sincere returne, you shall find mercy: Idolatry is a spirituall adultery; that ad alterius torum, this ad alterum Deum. Adul­tery is a running a whoring after strange flesh, Idolatry a running a whoring after strange Gods. When the Israelites had corrupted their waies by worshipping the calfe, Moses told them they had sinned a great sin: Exod. 32.30. and when Israel had sinned in asking them a King, Samuel tells them they had sinned a great sin, 1 Sam. 12.17. and what was that great sin, they had rejected God; the Israelits had taken a calfe for their God in Moses time, and a man for their God in Samuell's, but this is a greater refusing of God; they refused him in his absolute power, commanding their obedience, these refuse him in his meruelous mercy calling them to beleive.

3 Rebell [...]on, or Treason are great sinns, and [Page 92]disobedience to Gods commands is rebellion. Isay. 1.20. If ye refuse and rebell. &c. how much more our disobedience to that great. Gospel command, that we should beleive in the name of Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent. 1 Iohn. 3.23. and Samuell told Saul that Rebellion was as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbbornness as ini­quity and idolatry 1. Sam. 1523. When a King shall proclaime his Lawes by his Embassadors, and men shall offer violence to his Embassa­dors, or refuse his Lawes, they are left with­out the protection of those Lawes, and not only so, but proceeded against as rebells and Traitors against the Crowne and dignity of the Prince; and Gospel refusing is Rebellion of an higher nature, because it is against an high­er Law, against the royall Law, and against a greater King, against the King of Kings.

4 Once more and I have done with the comparative part of the Illustration. Its a greater sin than the sin of Sodom, as may be ga­thered from Mark. 6.11. Whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them; verily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgement than for that City. Its very evident that its this sin of Gospel-refusing [Page 93]that is here intended, its the not receiving, nor hearing the Apostles, and messengers of Christ, that were sent to negociate in the deep things of the Gospel: Their setting light by it is here hinted in the Apostles gesture to­wards them, they set no more by the preach­ing of the Gospel, than they did by the dust under their feet, and therefore they must shake off the dust of their feet against them. And its further to be gathered by consequence that their sin was greater than the sin of Sodom, in that Christ saith it, and protests it, that it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Go­morrah in the day of judgement, than for that City. Let us make enquiry then what Sodoms sin was, that we may judge the more clearly of this Comparison. Moses saith Gen. 13.13. The men of Sodom were wicked, and sin­ners before the Lord exceedingly, that is they were a most notorious sort of sinners and greater than ordinary. Though many of So­doms sins are enumerated in that black cata­logue, that stands upon record as an aggra­vation of the sins of Israel, whose sister shee is called, Ezek. 16.49. Pride, fullness of bread, (i.e.) gluttony, and drunkenness, and abundance of idleness, and uncharitableness. Yet there is one sin that is hang'd upon the file, that takes [Page 94]its denomination from that place, and is called the sin of Sodomy (e. i.) burning in strange unnaturall lusts, not fit to be named without trembling, this was that that caused them to be burnt with strange fire, even with fire and brimstone from Heaven, as they had abused their land, and turn'd it into a Hell of sin, so God raines down from Heaven upon them a Hell of punishment, somewhat may be yet added towards the aggravation of their sin, (which was monstrous enough without cir­cumstances of guilt) from Isay. 3.9. They declare their sin as Sodom; they hide it not, the meaning is they were shameless sinners, they did adde a brazen forhead to their stony hearts, and added to the extremity of lust the extremity of impudence; And if the sin we are speaking of be more monstrous than the sin of Sodom, what shall we say to this? Surely as the Prophet thundring against the sins of Israel saith, hear the word of the Lord, ye Prin­ces of Sodom, hearken to the Law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah, Isay 1.10. The Gospel-Boanerges may cry lowder against the sins of England, and all such Lands as have lived un­der the sun-shine of the Gospel: Hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, ye that are greater sinners than the Princes of Sodom, give eare [Page 95]unto the Salvation of our God, ye that are greater sinners than the people of Gomor­rah.

3. It is superlatively the greatest sin, except that excepted sin, the sin unto death, called in Scripture the sin against the holy Gost, That it is against the love of God, and grace of Christ, and revelation, and wrastling of the spirit, you have allready heard, a trinity of aggravations bigg enough to make three superlatives, and evidencing it to be a sin against the Holy Ghost of an high nature, though not the sin against the Holy Ghost yet it is not to pass thus, we have further evidence against it, which will prove it to be more than superla­tively abominable, but we shall modell that which is behind into a few arguments or Rea­sons, which shall make up a convincing and pregnant proofe of this truth, that the sin of Gospel-refusing is superlatively great, and a most sinfull sin.

1. Reason proving it to be exceeding great is, because it is an accumulated sin; To refuse Gospel-Salvation is to heap sin upon sin, we do all by nature through Adams disobedience ly under the Condemnation of the Covenant of workes, the wrath of God abiding on us. Now Gospel-Salvation is a plaister of Christs [Page 96]blood to heal that wound, and a mercifull in­dulgence provided by our wise and gratious God, as a suitable remedy against that mala­dy, God gave his only son, that whosoeuer be­leiveth in him might not perish &c. John 3.16. Now they that refuse this mercy do expose themselves to judgements without mer­cy, and they that are regardless of this remedy must be left to perish without remedy, and all because they adde to their transgessions of the Law, their owne and their forefathers: this sin above all, that they set light by the Gospel. The mercies of Heaven are meted out unto men in Heavens measure, that is heaped up, pressed downe, and running over, though we are ready to stand upon niggardly tearmes with God, [...]e deales not so with us, and when God requires of us a proportionable measure of thankfullness and obedience, even that we should be abundant in the worke of the Lord, who thus abounds to us in mercy and loving kindness; for us to make such a wretched re­tribution unto the Lord for all his mercies, as to returne a full measure of our iniquities, sinns heaped up, and pressed downe, and running over, this must needs be exceeding provoking to the eyes of his glory: Our Righteousness in­deed should be a righteousness running over, [Page 97]as our Saviour taught his disciples [...] except your righteousness exceed (i. e. run over) the righteousness of the Scibes and Phari­ses, ye cannot enter into the Kingdome of Hea­ven, Mat. 5.20. Mistake me not, I do not hold that the righteousness of the Saints can run over in the sense of Rome, by works of supererrogation, for being sanctified but in part, we must crave pardon dayly for the ini­quities of our holy things, and say when all is done, that we are unprofitable servants, but in respect of such as come short, and take up with the name and forme, and easy part of Religion (as the Scribes and Pharises did) so it must exceed, and run over. Now when insteed of a righteousness running over, our sin shall run over, as it doth when we are guilty of Gospel-refusing, where shall such ungodly ones, and sinners appear? The peo­ple of Israel when they had committed that sin of thunder in asking them a King (when God was their King) when they were awake­ned and convinc'd by a storme, and Son of thunder, they made this confession, we have added unto all our sinns this evil to aske us a King. 1 Sam. 12.19. But those that refuse the Gospel, may take up this confession, that they have added this to all their other sinns, [Page 98]that they have refused them a King, yea the King of Kings, the Royall King Jesus, yea, that that more than superlatively aggravates their sin, they refuse Jesus Christ in all his offices, who offers himselfe in the Gospel as their compleat Mediator in his propheticall, preistly, and kingly Office, and of God is made unto us wisedome and righteousness, and sanctification & redemption. 1. Cor. 1. [...]0. And because we are now declaring against this sin as an accumula­ted sin, we shall take a little liberty more than ordinary to make good these 3 charges against the sin of setting light by the Gospel, that it is against Christ in his threefold office, and this will do the office of a magnifying glass, and present that sin, which to purblind sinners seemes no bigger than a moleh [...]ll, in his full propo [...]on swelling to a mountaine; I know many will be ready to start [...] at such a charge, and [...]he most guilty will be ready to kick first, (as Judas was ready with his M [...]ste [...], is it I?) what, we Refusers of Jesus Christ? no we scorne it, we defy them that shall tell us so; It is not fit they should live that refuse Jesus Christ, do you make doggs, or Divells of us, that we should do so? and thus men are ready to cry peace, and plead not guilty, and to bless themselves in their hearts, and to flatter them­selves [Page 99]till their abomminable wickedness be found out: I confess its common with men and women to hang upon the outside of a Saviour, as the Antidiluvians did on the outside of the Arke, but those that will have a protection from condemnation, and fly from wrath to come, must get into this Saviour, as Noah did into his arke. Ther's no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, Rom. 8.1. We must not think as the Papists do, that when we have blest our selves with the signe of the Cross, or superstitiously used as a spel, or conjuration the sillables of the name of Jesus, that then we may bid defiance to the Divel, and his Angells can then have no power over us; this doth but confirme them in their de­lusion, and make them much more the chil­dren of the Divel than others; and yet the hope of the common sort of ignorant hear­ers is but little better. If they can but say they beleive in Jesus Christ, and they beleive he came into the world to save sinners, and they have beleived this ever since they can remember, and they will never be beaten out of it while they live, and yet all this while they are Refusers of Christ, and such noto­rious Refusers of him, that they refuse him in all his Offices, as I shall indeavour towards [Page 100]their undeceiving (If God will) to make so plaine, that those whose eyes have been anoint­ed with eye salve from above, may even run, and read it.

1. Gospel-refusing is a refusing of Christ in his priestly office, we begin with that, because here they think themselves to be cock-sure, and every one will profess their willingness to be saved by Christ, and to be ready to take him to be their Jesus and Saviour, I easily con­fess that ther's a naturall propensity in man to desire good for himself, and the principle of self-love is so deeply rooted, that so long as man is master of his reason, he will not yeild willingly to be miserable, but we must further know that as there is a spirituall, so there is a carnall desire of Christ and happi­ness, which cannot be called a serving of Christ but our selves upon him. This may not so properly be called a taking of Christ, as a catching at him, consider that Christ offers himself unto sinners in the Gospel in all his offices jointly, and not in any one of them singly, and he that will rightly receive him must receive him wholly, and not catch at him by piecemeale, we must have all Christ, or no Christ, and therefore we must give up our selves to be taught by him as by our [Page 101]Prophet, and to be ruled by him as by our King, if we will be saved by him as by our Priest. Are we willing to take Christ for himselfe, as well as for our selves? other­wise we do frustrate the very end of his sa­ving us, for we are therefore saved by him, that he may be served by us, in righteous­ness and holyness all our daies, Luke. 1.74, 75. To be saved from wrath and not from sin, is but the lesser halfe of Gospel Salvation, and such as are not willing of both, can have neither. What God hath joyned toge­ther we must not put asunder; Its a most dis­ingenious and unreasonable thing to be all on the receiving, and nothing on the returning hand, to expect all from him, and to give nothing back, indeed his redeemed ones can give him nothing but his owne, which made the Apostle say, Ye are not your owne but are bought with a price, therefore glorify God both with your bodies and soules which are his, and as we must give him our whole selves, bodies, soules, and spirits, so we must take his whole selfe as King, Prophet, and Priest, if we can be content to be willing disciples to his propheticall office, and willing subjects to his Kingly office, then we may reasonably, and believingly expect the benefit of his Prie stly office, but let us not dreame that [Page 102]Christ will be our Jesus, when our hearts tells us, and our lives tell all that are neer us, that we have not taken him to be our Lord.

2 Gospel-refusing is a refusing of Christ in his propheticall office, and nothing is plain­er than this, that they which set light by the Gospel, do refuse Christ to be their Teacher, Salvation by the Gospel is the lesson that Christ teaches, and can they slight the Lesson, and regard the Teacher? Observe what the Apostle saith Heb. 2.1. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, least at any time we should let them slip, for if the word spoken by Angells was stedfast &c. how shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation? take notice of the Apostles inference. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed &c. Wherefore? Why because we have so admi­rable a Teacher, for this referrs to the be­ginning of the foregoing Chapter, which tells us in the last dayes that God hath spoken to us by his Son, who was the express image of his person, and brightness of his glory, and more excellent than the Angells. There­fore we ought to take heed, because a great­er then Moses is here, the Law was given [Page 103]by Moses, but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ, Iohn: 1.17. because a greater than the Prophets is here, even the great Prophet of his Church, Acts. 3.22, 23. Moses truely said unto the Fathers, A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your Bre­theren like unto me, him shall ye hear in all things that he shall say unto you; And it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people. And behold a greater than the Angells is here, even the Angell of the Covenant, of whom Paul saith Heb. 12.2 [...]. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh, for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turne away from him that speaketh from Heaven. To be taught of God, and Christ is a thing that should be the glory of the dis­ciples of the Church, though some giddy spirit have learned hence to exclude mans teaching, which Gods teaching, and the teaching of the spirits anointing includes; we read of certaine Sectaries in Corinth that would not be of Paul, nor Apollos, nor Cephas, but not Christ 1. Cor. 1.12. But those Gospel-refusers that we are speaking of, are such a monstrous sort of Recu [...]ants, that they refuse the teaching of Christ himselfe, [Page 104]and are such deafe adders that they will not hearken to the most alluring charmes, though they come from him that spake as never man spake. But as the neglecters of Christ will say at the last day, Lord when did we see thee hungry and not feed thee &c. So the refusers of Christ will be ready to say, when did we hear Christ speaking and we slight him? I answer in every Sermon that you have heard unprofitably, for Christ hath a twofold teaching, an outward teach­ing by his word, and an inward by his spi­rit, now they that refuse the teaching of Christs messengers, do refuse his Gospel, and refuse him too. It was Christ that gave commission to his Apostles To teach all Na­tions, Mat. 28.19. And lo I am with you, saith he there, that is I will be present with you in that ministry, and in that teaching, and Eph. 4.8, 11, 12, 13. When Christ ascended up on high, and gave gifts unto men (i.e.) gifted and graced men unto his Church: Some extraordinary Apostles, Prophets, Evan­gelists and some ordinary Pastors and Teach­ers: and he doth not only set the workman before us, but sets their worke before them for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ, till [Page 105]we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Remember that the teaching of a ministry of Christs owning is Christs teaching, and those that refuse the word of wisedome, and revelation, do refuse to sub­mit to the teaching of Christ.

3 Gospel refusing is a refusing of Christ in his Kingly office. The King of Saints will not be owned by these Rebells like those Citizens to the Nobleman Luke. 19.14. that said we will not have this man to reigne over us, but when he returned, and received his Kingdome, and called his servants to an account, he takes especiall notice of those rebells, vers. 27. but those mine enemies that would not that I should reigne over them, bring hither, and slay them before me; though the goverment were laid upon his shoulder, Isay. 9, 6. And all power was given him in Hea­ven and in earth. Mat. 28.18. And his name was written in capitalls KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. Revel. 19.16. And though this great Preist, and King hath promised to make all his subjects and servants Kings and Priests Revel. 1.6. And these Kings and Priests shall make it their [Page 106]everlasting worke to ascribe blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, unto him that sitteth upon the Throne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever, Revel. 5.13. Yet will not these rebellious Refusers of Christs easy yoake be subject to his principality and do­minion, though he hath threatned to bruise his Enemies with a rod of Iron, and breake them in peices like a Potters vessell. Though there have been great disputes among the Nations about Government, some preferring one, and some another, some Monarchy, when one governes, some an Oligarchy, when a few governe, some an Aristocracy, when the Nobi­lity governe, some a Democracy when the people governe, some delighting in Anarchy to be Lawless, and ungovern'd, that there may be no king in Jsrael, but every one may do what is right in his owne eyes. But there were never any so desperatly wicked (except obdurate Atheists) to cast of a Theocracy, an acknow­ledgement of Gods supremacy, nor any but Jewes, and Turkes that worship not God in Christ to cast off a Christocracy the domini­on and principality of Jesus Christ, and they durst not do it neither if they did be­lieve that Christ were come in the flesh▪ as the Scripture observes of the Jewes, If they [Page 107]had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory, 1 Cor. 2.8. Amongst Christians Christ is honoured as the King of Saints, as the only King, and Law-giver of his Church, those that take him to be so indeed, are true Christians indeed; those that in shew and profession take him to be so, are taken to be visible Christians, but those that refuse, they have not so much as a name to live, but are altogether Christless, and without God in the World.

Its the Millenarian dreame, that Christ shall reigne personally upon earth for a thou­sand yeares, and many are travelling in birth of such an expectation, a delusion which its probable was borrowed from the Jewes that look't for a Messias that should out-shine all antecedent Monarks in temporall glory, and terrestriall Grandeur, and because he an­swered not their expectation, but came in the forme of a servant, they crucified him and his title together, writing upon his Cross as his grand accusation JESUS OF NAZA­RETH KING OF THE JEWES, which con­ceit it seemes some of the Apostles had taken up as a fomentation of their pride, some of them reasoning which should be the greatest in their masters Kingdome, and others de­manding, by the mediation of their Mother [Page 108]that one might sit at his right hand, and the other at his left in his Kingdome, Mat. 20.21. And they all inquired with one mouth, Acts. 1.6. Lord wilt thou at this time restore againe the Kingdome to Jsrael? And it hath been handed down from age to age, by such whose facultie lies rather in troubling clear Texts of Scripture, than lightning dark ones; And though it hath been sublimated of late by some Masters of fancy, and aeriall illu­minates, into that philosophicall quintessence, which beares that Babylonian name of THE FIFT MONARCHY. Yet the royall KING JESUS who should be of more credit with us than a Million of those millenary ser [...]phicall Doctors, having long since assured his sub­jects that his Kingdome is not of this world, and the Scripture being so plaine that he en­tred upon his Kingdome at his Ascention, when he ascended up on high, and led captivi­ty captive, and gave gifts unto men as his co­ronation mercies; and sent out his embassadors to subdue nations to his scepter, and to make the Kingdomes of the world to be the King­doms of the Lord and the Kingdoms of his Christ. And afterwards sending his mighty spirit upon his Apostles and Church, which was the golden scepter of his gracious King­dome, [Page 109]which subdued three thousand at once as a promising earnest that he would give a plentifull increase unto their planting and watering labours, and would make the wea­pons of their warfare mighty to pull downe the strong holds of Satans and sinns Kingdome: And finally the Scripture, and our Creed teaching us to believe assuredly that he was once offered to bear the sinns of many, and unto them that look for him shall be appear the se­cond time without sin unto Salvation, Heb. 9.28 Being compassed about with such a clowd of witnesses, let it be our earnest in­deavour to approve our selves to be true subjects of his Kingdome of grace, and to be such as unfainedly love the Lord Jesus, and wait for his appearing, and so we may have strong consolation in that hope that is set before us, 1 Ioh. 3.2. Now we are the Sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him.

But I have somewhat digrest in pursuing such as are out of the way, but not altoge­ther impertinently, in regard the concerned party have so perplexed Christs Kingly office, and rendered it more obscure to such whose eyes the God of this world hath blinded, that the light of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ should [Page 110]not shine unto them. To conclude the point, it is in the dispensation of the Gospel that the Lord Christ doth excercise all his offices, Propheticall, and Kingly, as well as Priestly, and those that are Refusers of the Gospel are such as slight Christ in all.

2 Reason proving the sin of setting light by the Gospel to be great sin is, Because it is an aggravated sin. That is, a sin monstrously great, further greatned, and made notori­ously sinfull by circumstances. Its enquired which sinns are most sinfull, those that are committed against the first table, or the se­cond, and its agreed that sinns against the first are, if other circumstances of weight concurre not to make the other the heaviest Scale; But this sin of Gospel-refusing is great­er than all, because the administration of the Gospel doth excell in glory that of the Law, as farr as Christ doth excell Moses: I might here enumerate a multitude of circumstances to aggravate the guilt of this sin, but because I intend as much brevity as a subject so mo­mentous will well allow of, I shall satisfy my selfe to enlarge a little upon three Circum­stances.

The circumstances

• 1 Of Person.
• 2. Of Time.
• 3. Of Place.

1. The Circumstance of the Person adds sin­fullness to the sin, otherwise Nathan had been deceived in pleading the greatness of Davids sin by the eminency of his person, and Gods munificence towards him, 2. Sam. 12.7, 8, 9. Thus saith the Lord God of Jsrael, I anointed thee King over Jsrael, and I deli­vered thee out of the hand of Saul, and I gave thee thy Masters house, and thy Masters wives into thy bosome, and gave thee the house of Jsrael and Judah, and if that had been too lit­tle, I would moreover have given thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou despised the commandement of the Lord to do evill in his sight? Much like that of David to his false freind, had it been mine Adversary that had mag­nified himselfe against me, perhaps I could have borne it, but it was thou my Companion, and mine own familiar freind. Joseph interposes this consideration betwixt him and sin. Quo­modo ego? how can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Gen. 39.9. And religi­ous Nehemiah fortified himselfe against fly­ing, [Page 112]when Tobia and Sandballat were plotting his discouragment with the very like argu­ment, should such a man as I fly? I will not go into the temple to save my life, Nehem 6.11. Oh let the covenant-servants of the Lord, and such as retaine to his Family consider this, that those dishonours wound him most which he receives from his favorites, and pretended freinds. And as the abusers of grace given do sin with an high hand, so the refusers of grace offered do sin with a hard heart, and their sinns are also aggravated by the circumstance of the person. None are capable of being guilty of this sin, but such as live in the sound, and sunshine of the Gospel, those whom the day star from one high hath visited, and to whom Christ is tendered in all his fullness. The rebellious Jewes were guilty of it for, its said that Christ came to his own and his own recei­ved him not, Iohn. 1.11. And the Gentiles to whom the Gospel was sent upon their refu­sall; they that receive it not, are guilty of re­fusing it, but Heathens, and Infidels to whom the word of God is a stranger, they cannot be guilty of this sin, though sinning without Law, they shall perish without Law, Rom. 2.12. Yet sinning without Gospel, they cannot be judged for contemning the Gospel. Those [Page 113]Nations, and people to whom the sound of the Gospel is gone out, as it was into Jsrael, of whom David said, In Jury is God known, his name is great in Jsrael &c. He hath not dealt so with any Nation, neither have the hea­then such knowledge of his wayes, and concer­ning whom Moses makes enquiry; What Na­tion is so great to have the Lord nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is nigh unto us in all that we call upon him for? and the like may be said of England, that it is a Land like Canaan, the glory of all Lands, a Land flowing, not only with milk and hony, but with better mercies, the bread and water of life, the wine and milk of consolation; where the King that hath made a marriage for his Son keepes open house, and the Lord of hoasts hath made for the faithfull of the Land a feast of fat things, and wine upon the lees, of fat things full of marrow, and wines upon the lees well refined. For such to be found here that shall underva­lue the Lords bounty, and run after their Oxen, and Farmes, and wives, their profits, and pleasures, and lusts, when they should thankfully embrace, and rejoyce in the riches of Gods mercy, and be meditating, and studying some suitable returnes; when they should be coveting better profits, and solacing [Page 114]themselves with better pleasures, and their hearts should be set upon better honours than the world can afford them, what unthank­fullness can be comparable to this, what sinns or sinners can be more notorious?

2. The circumstance of the time also doth aggravate the sin: Paul said to the Athenians that were exceeding superstitious, and given to idolatry, Acts 17.30. The times of former ignorance God winked at, but now saith he, he commandeth all men every where to repent, God did not require much from the darke times of heathenish superstitions, nor so much from the duske glimmering, or star-light of legall dispensations, as he doth from us under the clear sunshine of the Gospel, now life & immortality is brought to light, and brought neerer, and made clearer than ever before. Had we lived in the time of the old world, neer unto the deluge, when the world was overwhelm'd first with ignorance, and licen­tiousness, and then with water; They were eat­ing and drinking, marrying and giving in mar­ryage (i.e.) Wallowing in drunkenness and gluttony and lust, making provisions for the flesh to fullfill the lusts of it, so that Noah the preacher of righteousness could not be heard. Or if we had lived in the time of that great [Page 115]revolt of the old Israelites, when the Prophet complained, and I only am left, and they seek my life to take it away, 1. Kings, 19.10. Or had we lived near unto the time of Christs coming in the flesh, when the Gentiles were no people: Or in the rise and reign of Anti­christ, that grand Apostacy of the Gentiles, then there might have been some excuse, and we had had somewhat to say for our selves: But to live in the last age of the World, when the Lord is a destroying that man of sin with the breath of his mouth, and the brightness of his coming, when the fullness of the Gentiles is to come in, and the Jewes to be reduc'd unto Christs fold; I mean when these things are the great expectation of the Church and people of God. To live in reforming times, when a glorious reformation hath been prayed, & paid for with a large expence of treasure teares and blood, when it hath been sought and fought, and covenanted for; To be found Gospel-refusers in such a time when we should be in­couraging one another, like the people of Israel and Judah, weeping, and seeking the Lord, and saying to one another, come let us be joyned unto the Lord in an everlasting Covenant never to be forgotten, Jer. 50.4, 5. Or to be found refusers of mercy after such dayes, as [Page 116]lately passed over us, daies of breaking down in the valley of vision, wherein the Lord called to weeping and baldness, and girding with sack­cloth not to keep touch with God at such times may be enough to blast our hopes of a full de­liverance, and frustrate our expectation of see­ing Syons glory, and Jerusalems prosperity: Our bondage is not yet so far removed, but our sins may easily call it back upon us, and make our yoke heavier than ever it was; Let us take special notice of that remarkable threatning, Jer. 18.9, 10. At what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation, and concerning a Kingdom to build and to plant it, If it do evil in my sight, and obey not my voice, then will I repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them; if God be willing to plant, and we will not comply, do we not deserve to be rooted up, when he offers to do by us, as he did by Jerusalem, by the call of his Gospel, gather us as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and we will not, how justly may he leave our Land desolate; how speechless shall we be when these things shall be brought to Judgement, and our sins set out in their co­lours, and aggravated by this circumstance of time?

3. The circumstance of Place is also a [Page 117]greatning aggravation. The Lord Christ re­proached those Cities where he had preached his powerfull Sermons, and wrought his won­derfull miracles; Matt. 11.21, 22, 23. Woe unto thee Corazin, woe unto thee Bethsayda; for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented in sackcloth and ashes, but it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the Judgement, than for you: And thou Capernaum, that art exalted to Hea­ven, shalt be thrust down to Hell; and the Pro­phet aggravates the sins of wicked doers by this circumstance, Isa. 26.10. Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righ­teousness, in the Land of uprightness he will deal unjustly, and will not behold the Majesty of the Lord. For the Angels to lift up them­selves against God in Heaven, deserved a ca­sting into Hell, and a reserving in chains un­der darkness, to the judgement of the great day. For Adam to side with the Devil against God in Paradise, deserved an ejection.

For the Israelites in Canaan to sin worse than the Nations that the Lord had cast out before them, deserved a Babylon, and an iron yoke of bondage; And for us that are like Angels of light, in comparison of such as live [Page 118]under Egyptian darkness, Angli quasi angeli, as one saith, placed as it were in an Heaven upon Earth, in the bosome of the Church, or like Adam in Paradise, Angli quasi angulo, as another saith, in a select corner of the World singled from other Nations, dwelling like a peculiar and chosen people by our selves, for this to be a Land of forgetfulness and unthank­fulness, and the Inhabitants of it to be chil­dren of disobedience, and strangers to the my­steries of the Gospel, and things that accom­pany Salvation, for this to be a receptacle of heresie and blasphemie, and all notoriousness, for this to be like the old World which God destroyed with water, like Sodom and Gomor­rah which were destroyed with fire, like re­bellious Israel with whom the Lord entred in­to controversie, because there was no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the Land, Hosea, 4.1. for us to abound with graceless principles and practises under such means of grace, for us to neglect so great Salvation as hath been brought home unto us, and hath dwelt among us; our sin of Gospel-refusing being thus circumstantiated will make it to be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Judgement than for us.

3. Reason of the greatness of this sin is, [Page 119]because it is a State-confounding sin, it's a sin that hath laid flourishing Kingdoms on ruinous heaps. Look back upon the state of the Jews, whom the Lord owned as his first-born, and in a nearer relation than all other people of the World; see in what manner of language the Lord spake unto them, Exod. 19.5, 6. If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my Cove­nant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the Earth is mine, and ye shall be unto me a Kingdom of Priests, and an holy Nation, and yet how often were they cast off, for casting off Gods yoke? God told them what he would do unto them in case of disobedience, Lev. 26.18, 21, 24, 28. & he tells them again, and again, and again, that they might take thorough notice of it; If ye will not be reform'd by these things, (that is by fewer stripes, and lighter punishments) but will walk contrary unto me, then will I also walk con­trary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times more for your sins, and I will bring a sword upon you that shall avenge the quarrel of my Cove­nant; There's the quarrel of all quarrels, the Covenant-quarrel, as Covenant-mercies and Priviledges are the greatest Mercies and Priviledges. The Prophet Isa. was bid to cry loud against Israel and Judah, because their sins [Page 120]did cry loud unto Heaven for vengeance, be­cause God cries out as one tired out of pati­ence, they are a burden to him, and he is weary to hear them: Read the first of Isa. and there the Lord hath a controversie with them, not only about their sins, but about their service, their vain oblations, and abominable incense, their hatefull Festivals, and provoking Pray­ers, because there was nothing but seeming and formalitie, no spirit nor power in any of their services; And observe whether the Lord do not charge his valediction or last great for­saking of them upon that cause, that they would not receive Christ, nor entertain the Gospel, Matt. 23.37. O Jerusalem, Jerusa­lem, thou that killest the Prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not; and mark what follows; be­hold your house is left unto you desolate, v. 38. That is, my house is designed to desolation, which was so much your glory; the Temple of the Lord, that you made such boast of shall be taken from you, yea, and the Lord of the Temple too, he will repudiate you, and give you a bill of divorce, and because you were no more faithfull in keeping the Oracles of [Page 121]God, your Candlestick shall be removed, and you shall be left in darkness, and that Land of yours, which is the glory of all Lands, shall be like a desolated Desert, and a forsaken Wil­dernes; what is it that hath made such havock of late years in Germany, that hath destroyed so many Towns, and made such depopulations as our ears have heard of, was it not the Lords Covenant-quarrel? What was it that opened such bloudy sluces in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the Netherlands, without all per­adventure this sin of Gospel-refusing hath stricken the deadlyest stroakes in all our Wars, and we may say to this sin, as once Zippora said to Moses, thou hast been a bloudy sin to us, and if we shall go on to dishonour God, and slight his Gospel, and notwithstanding the loud out-cries of his Word and Sword, we shall nourish that viper in our bosoms, and shall foment those blasphemies and heresies that strike at the foundation, and shall help on those divisions that threaten to deprive us of Verity and Purity, as well as Unity; we may take up a lamentation when it is too late, and Sword, Pestilence and Famine may be sent upon that errand to bring our sins to our re­membrance, which the Gospel in the mid'st of peace, health and plenty could not fasten upon [Page 122]us. It should be written with a pen of iron in every thankfull heart; what wonderfull deli­verances the Lord hath wrought for us, especi­ally those of the Spanish Invasion, and the Powder-plot, of which we may say in Davids words, if the Lord himself had not been on our side, may England now say, if the Lord himself had not been on our side when men rose up against us, they had swallowed us up quik, when they were so wrathfully displeased at us; but blessed be the Lord that hath not given us over as a prey unto their teeth; Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the Fowler, the snare is broken, & we are delivered; And shall we after all this betray our native Land into the cruel hands of our reli­gious adversaries, that would borrow all the politicks of Julian, or Machiavill, and make use of all the Stratagems and strength of the Devils heads and borns to deprive us of the Gospel? Surely we cannot take a likelier course to effect all this, than by going on to neglect this great Salvation, which if this Go­spel-glutted Land shall persist in doing, not­withstanding the warnings of all Gods Watch­men, when the Sword of the Lord shall de­vour greedily your flesh, and his arrows shall make themselves drunk with your bloud, when your sins have made this populous and plentifull Land a place of sculls, and a field of [Page 123]bloud, when the hornet of your conscience shall sting you like the pangs of death, and say unto you as Nathan to David, you are the men that have done this; you will then know that you are Traitors to the State, who have betrayed your Country into the Enemies hand. We read that the Cananites dwelled in garrisons walled up to Heaven, and yet their sinns delivered them up into the hands of spoilers; and though our fenced Cities had walls as high and thick as the walls of Babylon, yet the sin that is within would let in the enemy; Though our Armies were never so mighty and numerous; Our Counsellors and States­men the very Oracles of the time; Yet they are the faithfull Ministers and people that are the Charets of Israel and horsemen of it, And our greatest security under Heaven lies in such as teach, and live the Gospel, such as know, and do, and declare the will of God, and indeavour to keep a conscience voyd of offence towards God and man, and order their whole conversation as it becometh the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

4 Reason of the greatness of this sin is be­cause it is a Church-confounding sin. There hath been a great crying down of Churches in our dayes by giddy sectaries, but this is a [Page 124]short cut to destroy all, and to turne the Lords vineyard into a howling wilderness. All the secret underminings of schismes within, and the malignant batteries of persecutors with­out, can do but little hurt, so long as he is our keeper that never slumbers nor sleepes, and is able to make his Church bear up a­gainst the gates of Hell; but when by setting light by the Gospel, we do put God from us, & open a wide dore to our own overthrow, then the wild bore and beasts may make havoek, the adversaries may fall on, and cry downe with it, downe with it even to the ground, and the Churches Enemies may say as Davids enemies did of him. God hath forsaken him, persecute and take him, for there is none to de­liver him. What it was that made the Lord God of Israel to forsake his tabernacle in Shi­lo, and utterly to forsake the Jewes, you hard in the last reason, for it was their set­ting light by Christ that did overthrow their State, and Church too: What was it that made Babylon the great to fall, and Rome to be unchurched, whose fame and faith made the world to ring, but because of Christian they became Antichristian, and from Aposto­licall did turne retrograde and became Anti­postolicall, and of a Church of the living [Page 125]God, a pillar and ground of the truth, they became an Hydra of Heresy, and Synagogue of Satan. What removed the Candlesticks from the seven famous Churches of Asia, and fills their eares with the forgeries of Ma­homet, where the sound of the Gospel was wont to ring, read the Prophesies that went of them, in the second and third Chapters of the Revelation, and you will find it was for turning their backs upon the Gospel, and en­tertaining falshood insteed of truth. And what hath made the Lord to stand so often upon the threshold amongst us, as if he were ready to take his leave (though like a long suffering God, and he yet plaies [...]oath to part) If we do but take these following causes among many into close consideration, we may easily informe our selves.

1 How many in this Goshen and Land of light do stand in open opposition to the Gos­pel, and as it were bid defiance to God and Christ? How have sectaries swarmed of late, and such as openly oppose the truths of God, yea, the very fundamentalls? opening their black mouthes wide against God, and Christ, and the Spirit, and the Word, and Seales, and Sabboth, and Ministry, some denying the immortality of the Soul, and perswading [Page 126]men that they are without Law, and that there is neither Heaven nor Hell. And besides these, how many dissolute, and profane Spi­rits abound in all places, even under search­ing and powerfull Ministries, that in words profess Christ, but in workes deny him.

2 How few do close with the Covenant of God so visibly that they may pass for belei­ver, in a large sence, and be conversed with as Saints upon a charitable account? I meane how few do walk exactly according to the Gospel-rule, that their conversation may be an ornament to the Gospel, and a Gospel becom­ing conversation, their light shining before men, that others seeing their good works may be stirred up to glorify our Father which is in Heaven, Though they will not be the Chil­dren of gross darkness, by tumbling and wal­lowing in notoriousness, yet they walke but as it were by moon-shine, and star-light, that it may be well doubted whether the day-starr from on high hath visited them, or whether their Sun be risen, to make them Children of the light, and of the day. They will not be perswaded to shine like lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, nor so farr as visible Christianity requires, deny ungodli­ness and worldly lusts, and live holily, justly and [Page 127]soberly in this present word.

3 And among these professors at large, that are not so properly of, as in the Church, how many revolters and backsliders do go out from us dayly, of such the Apostle saith, They went out from us, because they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. 1 Iohn. 2.19. Mi­stake me not. I do not go about to shake the certainly of the Saints perseverance, nor assure the falling away of any of the called accord­ing to Gods purpose, Because Christians se­cundùm dici, such as have but a name to live, may loose their seeming: It will not there­upon follow that Christians s [...]cundùm esse, true Israelites indeed can he pluckt out of Christs and the Fathers hand. There are principia cognoscendi, and essendi, Christianity affords us principles of knowing, and being, and though titular Christians may fall from their Principles of knowing, yet such as are really possest of invisible Christianity can­not fall from their being Principles; The gifts and calling of God being without repentance, Rom. 11.29. And whom he loveth he loveth to the end, Iohn. 13.1. But the heart of man being deceitfull and wicked above all things, Jer. 17.9. Men may think that they are stand­ing, [Page 128]when it is no such thing, 1 Cor. 10.12. And this evill heart of unbeleife will cause men to depart from the ever living God. Heb. 3.12. Therefore I speake of revolters, and Apostles, some going out unto one sect, and some unto another; railing against the Church, and like bastard children calling their Mother whore, reproaching their Bretheren, with whom they formerly walked in the house of God as freinds, looking asquint upon them as unbaptized Heathens, and branding them to be limbs of Antichrist, and the Divel; vili­fying the Ordinances, as if they were meere arbitrary things, or might be used or refused at pleasure, forsaking the publick assemblies of Gods people, and preferring their own Con­venticles before them, which the Apostle makes the rod to that grand Apostacy, of despighting the Spirit of grace, and sinning the sin unto death, Heb. 10.25. And revi­ling the Ministry, wherein they act the parts of such sick patients as are frantick, that abuse their Phisitian that comes in love to cure them. And as those devouring gulphs of Schism and Heresy do swallow thousands, so those other two of world and selfe do murder ten thousands. How many serve the Gospel as Demas did Paul, forsake the Gospel to [Page 129]Embrace the world, and the Gospel must give them leave to make provisions for the flesh, or else it is no Gospel for them. This is an argument that they did never love God and Christ with the prevailing degree of their love, nor preferre their interests above the interests of the world and flesh, this shews that the number of such is very few, whose hearts are whole with God, and which behave themselves stedfastly in his Covenant, and all this will appear to be but Gospel-refusing when we come to application.

To draw towards a conclusion of the Rea­sons, we need not wonder that it pulls down States, and unchurches Churches, for it was the great Sin that drowned the old world, and its the firebrand that shall set this on a flame: The old was drowned because iniquity did abound, and the flames of lust aid wax hot; and the new shall be burned, because iniquity shall abound, and the love of many shall wax cold. The old was destroyd because Noah, a preachers of righteousness, could not worke upon them, and the new shall be destroyed, because Gods messengers cannot winne upon them. The words of the Gospel are plaine, As it was in the dayes of Noah, so shall it be in the dayes when the Son of man shall come, for [Page 130]as in the dayes of Noah, they were eating, and drinking, and marrying, so in the last dayes the same sinns of gluttony, and drunkeness and lust shall abound. Mat. 24.37, 38, 39. So that this is the condemnation all along of States and Churches, of Jews and Gentiles, of the old World and new, that light is come into the World, and men love darkness more than light, because their deeds are evil, Joh. 3.19. In the 51. Psalme, where David laments his twin-sin of adultery, and bloud-guiltiness, its worth our notice that towards the close of it he puts up this petition; O be favourable and gracious unto Sion, build up the walls of Jerusalem, Sion signifying the Church, and Jerusalem the state of Israel, as some have noted, his meaning amounts to this, Lord do well unto Church and State, though I by my double sin have done enough to undo both, and all such as have been guilty of this sin of setting light by the Gospel, had need to turn from it with all speed, and to turn to God with the like petition; Lord be mercifull to the State and Church whereof we are members, for we have done enough to ruine both.

THE THIRD DOCTRINE, The neglect of Great Salvation brings Great Damnation.

DAmnation is so dreadfull a doome, that the very report of it is like a thunderclap to cause a heart-quake in the hearers and speakers of it; If Ministers must preach upon paine of Damnation, and people must hear and attend upon pain of Damnation, the be­lieving entertainment of this truth one would think should be powerfull to work miracles, even to make the dumbe to speake, and the deafe to hear; its better to hear the roring of the Lion, than to come into his paw, and its better to hear of the dreadfullness of Dam­nation, than to come under the sentence. Its joyous to hear of Heaven, but its the fullress of joy to be invited to it, wath a come ye bl [...]ssed children of my Father, receive the Kingar [...] [Page 162]prepared for you. So its dreadfull to hear of Hell, but its the most terrible of terribles to be sentenred to it, with go yee cursed into ever­lasting fire prepared for the Divel and his Angels. You have heard of the amiableness of Salvation to invite you, hearken unto the dread­fullness of Damnation to affright you, that either you may be drawn, or driven to mind the things that belong unto your peace: the rule that we proposed was ingentia beneficia, ingentia flagitia, great mercies abused do aggravate sin, and make it sinfull with a wit­ness, And now the remainder of it is ingentia flagitia, ingentia supplicia, those haynous sinns do pull down punishnent with a ven­gance, that sin with a hard heart doth call and cry for judgement with a high hand. Now though this be not expressed totidem verbis in express words in the Text, yet that which doth tantamount is implyed in the question, How shall we escape? which is as much as to say, ther's no possibility of escaping. And what is it that we cannot escape? why, a just recompence of reward for our transgression, and disobedience; if we look back to the verse before the Text, yea, a severer judgement more fiery indignation, and a sorer punishment than the transgressors of Moses Law, if we look [Page 163]forward to Ch. 10.27, 28, 29. And what the spirit of God speaks short here, is spoken out, and at large to the Scribes and Pharises, hypocrites, that slew the Prophets that were sent unto them, and refused servants, and Son too, that came to require fruit of the vineyard, Mat. 23.33. Ye Serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the Damnation of Hell? And observe that Mat. 25.41. Its called the Divels damnation, depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Divel and his Angels. The harmonious discord that dwells in the antithesis which opposes this great damnation to that great Salvation is very elegant and observable.

The Salvation refused is called the Salvation of God, all the ends of the earth have seen the Salvation of our God.

The Damnation incurred by such a re­fusall is called the damnation of the Divel.

• The Salvation slighted is the Salvation of Heaven.
• The Damnation deserved is the Damna­tion of Hell.

I observed in the handling of the first that the mercy of Salvation is much magnifyed, [Page 164]and made mervelous by three degrees. And now we are to observe that the justice of damnation is made glorious by the same de­grees, for these two contraries have the same dimensions, the most righteous God that gives the one, and inflicts the other, being as in­fini [...]e in justice, as in mercy. Observe then in order to such an illustration of it,

• 1. That it is positively great Damnation.
• 2. That it is comparatively greater than other.
• 3. That it is superlatively the greatest of all.

1 That it is Great Damnation you may easily conclude from what is allready spoken, that it is the damnation of Hell, and the Di­vels Damnation, and the very word gives such an astonishing sound to such as can ap­prehend both name and thing, that to dis­cover it to be great, it will need no more than the naming; but since we have to do with such as are brutifyed, and must fight with beasts after the manner of men, since our work lies much with dead men, such as are dead in trespasses and sinns, and though they bear the names of men and women, that are [Page 165]reasoable creatures, yet they are further from knowledge than the Ox and the Asse, Isay. 1.3. And as senseless and stupid as stocks and stones, as the inanimate globes of Heaven and Earth, Isay. 1.2.

We must therefore use all possible means (and all little enough) to awaken them to things of highest Consequence, and everla­sting Concernment, and such are the things that we have in hand. Matters of Salvation and Damnation, matters of life and death for ever and ever.

Study with me but this one point, that the Damnation that we are speaking of, and a­bout to aggravate is not Damnation barely for the breach of Gods Law, but for refusing the mercy of the Gospel, that was offered to make up that breach, its Damnation for the refusal of Salvation, of which refusers we may use the Apostles words, Rom. 3.8. Whose Damnation is just. There can be no greater justice than this, when life and death are set before men, and they will choose death, that they should have it, when Salva­tion and Damnation are both held out in the promise and threatning, that the refusers of Salvation should fall into damnation, observe Ioh. 3.16. God so loved the world that be gave [Page 166]his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish but have everlasting life, and in the next verse, God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved: In both verses is declared both posivetily, and ne­gatively for what end Christ came into the world. 1 He came to save sinners, 2 He came to save, and not to damne. But as God by his creating power brought light out of darkness; so men by their destroying sin bring darkness out of light, and like the Spiders do ga­ther poyson from the sweetest flowers, and most wholsome hearbs; They do wilfully ag­gravate their condemnation by the gracious offers of Salvation, and treasure up for them­selves severest wrath from sweetest mercy. And this is that that brings this great damnati­on, as you may see there in the very next verse but one, ver. 19. This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love dark­ness more than light, that mercy is offered and wrath is chosen, that Salvation is tendered, and Damnation is taken, men deal so Jewishly with Christ, that they prefer Barrabbas a murderer before him, and this is rightly called [...] The Damnation.

2. It is comparatively greater than other [Page 167]condemnations, we proved Gospel-Salvation to be greater than other Salvations. And the sin of Gospel-refusing to be greater than o­ther sins. And now are to shew that this dam­nation is greater than other condemnations.

1. Greater than condemnation by mans law, sentences in Courts of humane Judicature, reach But

• 1. Either to the estate as fining, or con­fiscation,
• 2. Or to the body, as imprisonment and scourging,
• 3. Or to the name, as stigmatizing, or burning in the hand or forehead,
• 4. Or if capitall to the life as hanging, beheading, &c.
• 5. Or in case of treason to the family and posterity.

But this transcends all those condemnations, as we may gather from Luke 12.4, 5. which were the words of our Saviour to his Disciples, I say unto you my freinds, be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do, but I will forewarn you whom you shall fear, fear him which after he hath kil­led, hath power to cast into hell, yea, I say unto you, fear him. Provoking sinners are said to treasure [Page 168]up wrath against the day of wrath. Rom. 2.5. Though they catch many a rap here, that's no­thing in comparison of what's behind: This is the day of grace, wherein God exerciseth pa­tience and long-suffering towards them, but if the goodness of God do not bring them to re­pentance, there's another day a coming, where they must give another manner of reckoning, a fearfull, and terrible day, a day all of Wrath: Then righteous Judgement will be impartially dispensed without respect of persons: here be­low in mens judicatories it falls out oftentimes as with fish in a net, great ones are caught, when little ones creep through; and sometimes again as with flies in the Spiders webb, the little ones are held, when the great ones break through, but that day will surprize High and Low, Rich and Poor, one with another, We must all ap­pear before the Judgement Seat of Christ, 2. Cor. 5.10 and every one must give an ac­count of himself to God, Rom. 14.12. If any are left out of these expressions, all and every one, they may expect to escape judgement, else not. Here sometimes the rod of the wicked falls to the lot of the righteous, and Gods servants are condemned as evil doers, when the Benja­mins mess, and double portion is given to the wicked, but then the just Judge of all the World [Page 169]will do all men right, and distribute righteous judgement in giving to every one according to his works. Rom. 2.6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Rendering eternal vengeance to the ignorant and disobedient, and wilbe made glorious in them that believe. 2 Thes. 1.7, 8, 9, 10.

2. Greater also than condemnation by Gods Law, as appears from the verse before my text and Ch. 10.27, 28, 29, 30, 31. To such as wil­fully refuse this Gospel-Salvation, There re­mains no Sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgement, and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries: He that des­pised Moses law (i. e.) Gods law given by the Mediatourship of Moses, died without mercy; of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy; who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and counted the blood of the Covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unho­ly thing, and hath done despite unto the spirit of Grace. For we know him that hath said, ven­geance belogneth unto me, I will recompense saith the Lord, and again the Lord will judge his peo­ple. It is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God. So far the Apostle in that Scripture, which thunder-claps, though by the concurrent Judgement of expositours, they are levelled at sinners against the Holy Ghost, [Page 170]those that are guilty of that sin unto death, yet many of the iniquities of that sin are (though in a lower measure) to be charged upon the neglecter of this great Salvation.

3. It is superlatively the greatest of all con­demnations, two places of Scripture I shall quote and improve, that are of this tendency, and then shall pass to the further confirmati­on of it by strength of reason.

The first is 1 Thes. 2.16. Where the A­postle notes that the Jews, that killed the Lord Jesus and their own Prophets, and persecuted the Apostles, and envyed the Gentiles, that in a word, with the unjust Judge did neither fear God, nor reverence Man, did thus Fill up the measure of their sins, till wrath came upon them to the utter most, (i. e.) they sinned to the utter­most till they were plagued to the uttermost. compare with this place that Heb. 7.25. which words are spoken of Jesus Christ, the great high Priest of his Church, the plentiful Re­deemer and mighty Saviour, He is able to save to the uttermost all them that do come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them: what can be more equall than this that they that refuse mercy to the uttermost, should have wrath to the uttermost, that they which set light by that Salvation to the utter­most, [Page 171]should indure the uttermost of Dam­nation.

The other place of Scripture that speaks to this point, and serves to set out the superlative greatness of this Damnation is Matth. 3.7. They are the words of John Baptist to the Pharisees and Saduces, that came to his Bap­tism, O Generation of vipers who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come. Where note that this dreadfull Damnation is called Wrath to come, and therefore because the main of it is reserved for the life to come; true it is that some notorious Malefactours have an entrance into Hell opened unto them while they are up­on earth, and are hang'd up in Gibbets for the astonishment of others, that are so pursued by the hornets of their consciences stinging them with the pangs of the second death, that with Cain and Judas they are driven by the Devil through hell internal into an hell eternal; but the dreadfulness of perfected Damnation, which the Devil believes and trembles to be­lieve, is reserved for an endless life, in that which we call the World to come, David saith Great plagues remain for the ungodly: though upon the ungodly, God raines snares, fire, and brimston, storm and tempest, and discharges whole Vollies of Wonderful plagues upon the [Page 172]children of disobedience, Deut. 28.59. yet there is a reserve of more and greater, and the biggest and worst are still behind. As the Saints have usually the worst in possession, and best in reversion, and this life is a sowing in tears that they may reap in joy; so usually the wicked have the best at first, and worst at last, as Abra­bram said to Dives, Son remember how in thy life time thou receivedst thy good things, but Lazarus pains, but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. But to return to take into further consideration that expression of wrath to come, Cast abroad your eyes in all the world, and look back to the beginning of time, and enquire whether ever sorrow were like un­to that Weeping and Howling, and Gnashing of Teeth, which the Lord inflicts upon the Damned in the day of his fierce wrath.

1. We read that for our first Parents diso­bedience, the whole Creation was under such a load of wrath, that ever since it hath groan'd under it: Rom. 8.22. But there we read al­so that the creature groans under an expecta­tion of liberty, waiting when it shall be restor'd into the glorious liberty of the Sons God; but when this Damnation takes place, the Tor­ments as they are easless, so shall they be endless; the worm dyeth not, and the fire never [Page 173]goes out, there is no hope of a deliverance.

2. Its upon record that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed with Fire and Brimston, but when the Cities were burnt the fire was extin­guisht, but the wicked are the chaff and stubble that must be burnt with unquenchable fire, the damned, who are the fuel that feed; it shalbe like the burning bush all on a fire but not con­summed, and therefore the fire must needs be everlasting; The burning thereof is fire and much wood, and the breath of the Lord like a River of brimston doth kindle it. Isay 30.33.

3. God overthrew the old World with a devouring floud, but the Scripture makes men­tion of the rising and raging of it, and then of its ebbing again, and flowing no more: But those souls that are drowned in perdition, are cast into the Mare mortuum, the dead, and deadly Sea, the Red and the Raging Sea of the Almighties wrath, which hath neither bank nor bottome, where they must be sinking and drowning for ever and ever.

4. The Jews for their rejecting Christ, were unchurched, and Excommunicated, but they are to be called again, when the fulness of the Gentiles is come in, But the sentence of finall Damnation shalbe beyond the Anathe­ma Maranatha, that was but till the coming of [Page 174]Lord, but this commences at the coming of the Lord, and from thenceforth for ever, Go ye cursed into everlasting fire.

But we also promised to clear this point un­to you by evidence of reason, as I did the for­mer, for if such truths were but believingly re­ceived in the evidence of them, they would surely be mighty in operation, and pierce to the dividing of the Soul and Spirit: If our everlasting doors were but opened to entertain such mighty Doctrines, can we think that men and women that have reasonable Souls, and the principles of self-love, and self-preserva­tion in them, and the passion of fear in them, I say can it be once imagined that they can be so bruitish to cast away all care what will be­come of them in another world, and with both hands to pull down upon bodies and souls this swift damnation. Know then that the damnation that we are treating of, which men draw upon their own heads by setting light by Gospel-Salvation, is monstrous great for these ensuing reasons,

1. Reason, Because it proceedeth from so great a God. If we would know the greatness of this Damnation, let us study the greatness of that God that inflicts it: The wrath of a King is like the roring of a Lyon; but let those that [Page 175]can tell what the wrath of the King of Kings is: surely Moses his words do advance it a­bove all that can be spoken or thought of it: Psal. 90.11. Who knows the power of thine an­ger? for according to thy fear is thy wrath (i.e.) let such as have the most enlightned and most enlarged understandings, graspe as much as they can in comprehending thy displeasure, yet when they are come unto their wits end, it is infinitly beyond their reach. The Lord doth all things like himself; If he do but speak concerning a Nation, and concerning a King­dom to build and to plant it, his very word will bring it to pass, it brought the world out of nothing with as little ado, for he did but speak the word and they were made, he commanded, and they were created: and again if he do but blow upon it, and speak against it to destroy it, whether it be a Nation, or all the Nations of the world, he can command a Floud or a Fire to do his strange work: When he will deliver, none can deliver like him, and when he will destroy, none can destroy like him. Davids question puts all out of question, that there is no resistance to be made against him. Who may stand in his sight when he is angry? Dare we provoke the Lord to jealousie? oh foolish people and unwise, are we stronger than he? Can stub­ble [Page 176]stand before a deavouring fire, or chaffe stand against a scattering whirlwind? Though hand joyne in hand, the wicked shall not go un­punished, for he that judgeth them is a strong Lord. Though they could sore as high as Heaven, or fall as low as Hell, or fly to the uttermost coasts of the Earth, or Sea, though they should lie buried under Mountaines a thousand miles deep, or all the rocks of the Sea and Land were piled upon them, yet there is no hiding them from the wrath of this mighty God, who is no less omniscient, than he is omnipotent. Those that desire to know more of the greatness of this God, let them study the 40 Chapter of Isay. And there they shall find, v. 12. That he measureth the wa­ters in the hollow of his hand, and metes the Heaven with a span, and comprehends the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighs the moun­taines in scales, and the hills in a ballance. And v. 15. All nations are as a drop of a buck­et, and are counted as the small dust of the bal­lance, and v. 17. All nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted less than no­thing and vanity. And v. 22. It is he that set­teth upon the circle of the earth, and the inha­bitants thereof are as grashoppers, that stretcheth out the Heavens as curtaine, and spreadeth them [Page 177]out as a tent to dwell in. That bringeth the Prin­ces to nothing, and maketh the Judges of the earth as vanity. Considering all this great­ness, and considering further that one halfe is not told you▪ the more we study it the more we are overwhelmed, and confounded with the glory of it, what can be too hard for the Lord, or who can stand in the judgement be­fore this mighty God, to whom vengeance be­longeth: We may easily be confirmed in the truth of all that is said, & all that can be said of the greatness of damnation, when we do but hear from whence it comes, even from the dreadfull Jehovah, who is able with a word, or a frown, or a displeased breath to turn all the wicked into hell, and all the people that for­get God.

2. Reason, why this Damnation is so great, is, because it is for despising, and setting light by so great a Saviour, an undervaluing of the high­est Love in its lowest condescention; This must be a reason coequall with the former, because Christ is the Son coequall with the Father. The mercy of heaven never put the sons of men to a quid amplius in any thing more than this? What could I do more for an unthankfull world than this? Let the Sons of invention set their wits upon the rack, and tell us (if they can) [Page 178]what God could do more than to turn himself wholly into LOVE. 1 John 4.16. and having but one Son, who was Heyr of all things, his or [...] begotten, and onely beloved; who thought it no robbery to be equall with him­self, to send him out of his own bosome, to empty himself of his glory, to take our sin and curse with our nature upon him, that we, who were children of disobedience and wrath, and heyrs apparent to hell and condemnttion, might be received into the glorious liberty of the Sons and Daughters of the Lord God Almighty: Now for men to be so desperatly rebellious is to slight this love, and so stubbornly mad as to refuse this Saviour, can the greatest judgements in Gods storehouse, or the hottest place in that fire that burns to the bottom of hell be a pro­portionable recompence for such d [...]ing pro­vocations? Shall wicked miscreants, slight and trample upon that which the Saints admire, and the Angels adore? O stupendious madness! Its a thousand wonders that the great eye of Hea­ven doth not wink the earth into utter darkness, & the very Sun take its leave of the world, ab­horring to see men to be such incarnate Devils, and to see the Earth tainted with such hellish abominations; hellish do I say, nay in this the wickedness of man is so great in the Earth, that [Page 179]it justifies the Devils, for they, being left with­out hope of a Redeemer, were never guilty of setting light by a Saviour, and knowing so much of the terrours of the Lord as doth ac­company their initial Damnation, in their chains of darkness, wherein they are reserved to the judgement of the great day, and trem­bling to believe [...] much more of the con­summation of it: f [...]night be put to tryall whether they wou [...] [...] of [...] off [...]e Sa­viour, can we th [...] [...] De­vils themselves, [...] gent deceiving of finners to their [...] they would greedily apprehend the opp [...] ­nity of laying hold upon Salvation. He [...] O heavens, and hearken O earth; and be astonish­ed at this! We may stand amazed and wonder, that those prodigies are not every daies news, which accompanyed the crucifying of this bles­sed Saviour, and did witness to the world h [...] deeply the Lord was displeased with the more than barbarous cruelties; th [...] [...] be a God even of invincible patien [...]e and long-suf­fering, and can see and suffer himself to be provoked every day, and his Sons blood, and righteousness to be trampled on, and set at nought by the refusers of mercy, yet this is but during the day of grace, this will not last [Page 180]alwaies, the day of wrath is a coming, even at the doors, and then righteous judgement shal­be dispensed; and one high and main end of that great and terrible day is the exaltation of Gods Son, that he may be manifested to both worlds, of men and Angels, to be Gods onely be­loved Son, in whom he is well pleased. Then shall the Lord Jesus be terrible to those that refused him, and glorious in them that believe, 2 Th. 7.8.

3. Reason, Because it is wrath inflicted for resisting, and vexing of the Spirit of grace; The Father and Son have been the matter of the two foregoing Reasons, and this third is drawn from the third Person in this great and glorious Trinity. This Spirit moved upon the waters in the worlds Creation, Gen. 1.2. This Spirit did strive with man in the daies and Mi­nistry of Noah, Gen. 6.3. This spirit was pro­phesied of in the daies of the Prophets, Isay 59. [...]1. My Spirit that is upon thee shall not depart from thee, nor from thy seed, nor from thy seeds feed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever, and Joel 2.28. I will poure out my Spirit upon all flesh, &c. This spirit our Saviour pro­mise when he went to the Father. I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another com­forter and he shall abide with you for ever. Joh. 14.16. And this spirit was sent accor­ding [Page 181]to promise in the likeness of cloven and fiery Tongues, Acts 2.2, 3, 4. to guid, the A­postles into all truth, to bring to their remem­brance, and to teach them more perfectly the things they had heard of Christ; to inspire and guide them in perfecting the Scriptures, and bearing witness to the truth of them by many wonderfull miracles: And this spirit keeps residence in the Church, and joyns it self as the spirit of wisdom and revelation, with the word of wisdom and revelation, to call and draw men unto Christ, and to work energetically and effectually in such as are made believers by the exceeding greatness of its mighty power. Now as Steven impleaded the Jews, so may we lay it to the charge of all such as live within the sound of the Gospel, Act. 7.51. Ye stifnecked, and uncircumcised in hearts and ears, ye do alwaies resist the Holy Ghost, as your Father did, so do ye. When the Spirit of God strives verbis, and verberibus, in the Word, and Rod, in ordinances, and pro­vidences, and the Lord may charge it upon us, as he doth, Pro. 1.24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31. Because I have called and ye refused, I have stretched out my hand, and none would re­gard, but ye have set at nought all my counsell, and would none of my reproof, I also will laugh [Page 182]at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh, when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, and distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer, they shall seek me early but shall not find me, &c. Therefore they shall eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. When the spirit shall be thus unworthily resisted, and vexed, nothing renders the Lord more inexorable, implacable, and merciless, and leaves the guilty to perish without remedy.

4. Reason, Because it is prepared for great enemies. The very word prepared is a most stinging expression Go ye cursed into everlast­ing fire, prepared &c. That wrath into whose preparation the wisedome, and justice of so great a God is ingredient, must needs be in­conceivably, and unutterably great. But if we take in the great enemies for whom it is pre­pared, [...]t will augment it; it was prepared for the D [...]vel and his Angell. Mat. 25.41. Those that were discontented with their own ange­licall excellency, and emulated the Majesty and greatness of God, and had an ambition to be like him. Tophet is prepared for the King (i. e.) for the Prince of darkness, and God of this world, or for the greatest of ma­lefactors be they never so high, never so [Page 183]mighty, never so noble after the flesh, all their number, pompe, and greatness shall be swallowed up in the bottomless pit.

Observe what black Catalogues the Scrip­ture makes of that notorious rabble of Re­bells Rampant that must descend into the bot­tomless pit. 1 Cor. 6.9, 10. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the King­dome of God, be not deceived, neither fornica­tors, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effemi­nate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor theeves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdome of God. See also Gal. 5.19, 20, 21. The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lascivousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, enyvings, murders, drunkenness, re­velling, and such like, of the which I tell you, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the King­dome of God. And Eph. 5.5. This ye know, that no whoremonger, nor uncleane person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any in­heritance in the Kingdome of Christ, and of God. These Scriptures are only exclusive, and bar Heaven against such, hear one place [Page 184]more, that acquaints us which the place that must receive them when Heaven spues them out, and that is the very sink of Hell. Rev. 21.8. The fearfull and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all lyars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death, Its said in Scripture that those which die in their unbeliefe, and impenitency, shall have their portion with hypocrites, dissemblers of holyness do but double their wickedness, and God will double their damnation. The per­secutors of Gods people, that strike at God, and Christ, and wound them through the sides of the Saints, these shall sink deep into the bottomless pit, and the dispisers of God and Christ shall go into the same place of torment, the damnation prepared for the most notorious malefactors, shall be shared a­mongst the world of ungodly: When men are to entertaine their best friends, they will do it with a confluence of choicest pro­visions, such is God's free entertainment of his Servants, and Favourites: Mine Oxen and Fallings are killed, and all things in a rea­diness, come unto the Marriage. Mat. 22, 4. And Come yee blessed of my Father, receive [Page 185]the Kingdome prepared for you, Mat. 25, 34. But when men are to prosecute their deadli­est Enemies, they will do it with the uttermost rigour that their possibility can reach unto; Such, and infinitely greater, is Gods anger against his Adversaries, he takes pleasure at their overthrow, and laughs at their destru­ction, Ah, I will ease me of mine enemies, and be avenged on mine Adversaries, Isay. 1.24. And as if his mercy were utterly at an end, and he had forgotten to be gracious, he will denounce that everlasting excommunication, as the triumph of his glorious justice, Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Divel and his Angels, Mat. 25.41.

5 Reason. Because it hath a great and a long reach.

• 1. It reacheth to the Soul.
• 2. And it reacheth to eternity.

1 It reacheth unto the Soul: other sentences reach but to the body, name, estate, family, relations, liberty, life, as was before hinted, but this reacheth the Soul. Fear not them which kill the body, and when they have done that, have no more that they can do, but fear him, who when he hath killed is able to cast [Page 186]into Hell, yea, I say unto you, fear him, Luke. 12, 4. How do malefactors, that are arraigned for some capitall offences tremble before an earthly Judge, when he is pronouncing sen­tence of death upon them? but how will cor­rupt Judges themselves tremble, as Faelix did, when he heard Paul reasoning of judgement to come, yea, a more than either he or Belshazzar did, when the hand was writing him a divorce from his Kingdome, when this sentence of Damnation is going out? how will blackness cover all faces, when a World of selfe condemned sinners shall stand before the dreadfull Tribunall of the Lord Jesus, which in the last Assize he is sitting upon life and death, when nothing is left them but a certaine fearfull looking for of judgement, and fiery indignation, which shall devour the Ad­versaries, Hebr. 10.27. 'Twas a sad hearing to the rich glutton, Thou foole this night shall thy Soul be taken from thee, Luke. 12.20. The Soul is more worth than the World in his esteem that laid down his life to save Soules, Mat. 16.26. And in this damnati­on this jewell is lost, and this darling of ours must be delivered to the roring Lion. The Saints do lay all at stake to save their souls; Profs [...]s, Pleasures, Honours, Friends, Liber­ty, [Page 187]Life it self, and think all to be an easie ex­change, which will more than conclude the loss, of the soul to be the loss of all losses.

2. And that which makes this so great a loss, and that we are treating of so great Dam­nation, is because it is for ever and ever, It rea­cheth to Eternity. The sinner under convicti­ons thinks he shall dy no other death, & looks upon himself as in a very hell upon earth; Da­vid after deliverance out of such a deep, saith, O Lord, thou hast delivered my Soul from the nethermost hell, and Saint Augustine having in his confessions taken shame unto himself for a multitude sins, in the depth of his humiliati­on, calls out of the deep of misery to the deep of mercy, Lord, pitty my Soul in the lowest hell; & such in Scripture-sense are called lost, Christ came to seeke & save the lost, but this loss shall-be their gain, and I may say in this case as the Word in another, he that loseth his life, shall find it, and the Apostle Paul desired to be lost in himself, that he might be found in Christ, this is but a seeming loss, nor will it last long, hea­viness may indure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning, for a moment have I hid my face, in mine anger, saith the Lord, but with everlast­ing mercy will I return and have compassion; but the lose we are speaking of is reall, and [Page 188]irreparable. The soul under desertion thinks it self in a wofull case, and hath much ado to distinguish betwixt it self and a cast-away, as appears in Davids case, Psal. 77.7, 8, 9. Will the Lord absent himself for ever? and will he be favourable no more? &c. and Job complained in the bitterness of his soul, that God had set him up as his marke to shoot at, and the venome of his arrows drank up his Spirit, and Hezekiah did mourn like a Dove and chatter like a Crane, and complained that from morning to night, God did make an end of him. But though it were now winter with them, and the sap was gone down into the root, yet the Suns return brought their spring again, and the light of Gods countenance made all whole; but in that desertion which Damnation causes, the deser­ted soul is deserted for ever: When the body loses the soul at the death naturall, its a sad loss, but the Resurrection will bring them to­gether again, but where the soul and God are parted in the spirituall death, and the naturall death finds them in this case, eternall death presently seizes that soul, and that separation wilbe everlasting, that soul and happiness will never meet.

6. Reason, The last reason to prove this Damnation to be exceeding great, is Because it [Page 189]consists in great, and dreadfull punishments. We shall make use of this old, and common distinction of

• 1. Poena Damni The punishment of loss.
• 2. Poena Sensus, The punishment of sense.

All evil is distinguished into

• 1. Malum culpae, The evil of sin.
• 2. Malum poenae, The sin of punishment.

All evill of sin may be distinguished into

• 1. Inherent, our own sins.
• 2. Adherent, our other mens sins,

All evil of punishment as afore, into

• 1. Poenam Damni, the punishment of loss.
• 2. Poenam Sensus, the punishment of sense.

Man is a compound creature, consisting of a soul and body, a Coelestiall and Terrestriall part, as God is Lord both by Creation, Pre­servation, and Purchase, so he requires to be honoured with both, with all of both, all the parts of our bodys, and all the powers of our souls: If the Apostles inference hold concer­ning one, (viz) Gods right of purchase, ye are bought with a price, and therefore ought to glo­rifie God, &c. It will conclude much more strongly, if we take in all: ye are created with [Page 190]his power, preserved by his providence, as well as bought with a price, therefore ye ought to glorifie God both with your bodies and souls, which are Gods. Here is the very qu [...]n [...]essence of reason that God should have his own, that which is so much his own by a manifold right. Give unto Caesar that which is Caesars, and give unto God that wich is Gods. Now for such as give up themselves wholly to God in a way of grace and duty, taking him to be their [...]rtion, and his Son to be their Lord, preferring their interests before all others, serving them in the beautie of holiness, and power of Godliness, giving up themselves bodys, souls, and spirits unto God upon the account of the Covenant, desiring nothing more than that their hearts may be whole with God, and they could be stedfast in his Covenant, making God and Je­sus Christ the joy of their hearts, and breath of their lives, and resolve to continue so doing to the death, God hath provided for them sui­table joyes and pleasures in the life to come; Rationall delights for their reasonable souls, and sensible delights for their glorified bodys. Mistake not, far be it from me to say, or you to imagine that the glorified Saints shall enjoy such carnall delights in heaven, which sensuall, and flesh pleasing men do make their heaven [Page 191]upon earth, that were a conceite better beseem­ing a Turk than a Christian, the Proselytes of Mahomet have dreamed of such an earthly, or rather hellish heaven, by fancying such an Utopian Paradise into which the unclean may enter, and the pleasures of sin shall meet them. The sensible pleasures to be enjoyed there are such as sort, and suite with the sublimated senses of glorified bodies and no other.

And as God hath prepared such suitable joyes and pleasures for such as love and serve him in sincerity, even joyes for Soules, and pleasures for bod [...]es, for those that glorify him with Soules [...] so on the contrary those that will [...] [...]ting call, nor close with his [...], in ac­cepting his dear Son, [...] great Salvation offered with him, but remaine sworne vassalls to the Divell, World, and Flesh giving up the parts and powers of their Soules and Bodies to serve sin in the lust of it, These shall re­ceive wages according to their work, as they polluted themselves with filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and dishonoured God with their Soules and Bodies, so God will punish them accordingly, their Soules with rationall pu­nishments, tribulation and anguish shall be upon the Soul of every one that doth evill, and their [Page 192]bodies with sensible, which the word shaddows out by fire and brimstone.

These two sorts of Torments are breifly con­tained in those Scriptures, Isay. 66.24. Mark. 9.44. In the worme that dyeth not, and the fire that never goeth out. In which ex­pressions expositors conceive the holy Ghost alludeth unto two Kinds of burialls of dead corpses, some were interred in the earth, and out of those wormes would breed, which would eat them up, and never leave devour­ing till all were consumed, an Ancient gives this account of the degrees of that annihilati­on, which resolves the body into its principle of nullity. Caro in putredinem, putredo in vermes vermis in pulvere, pulvis in nihilum re­digitur. The flesh is turn'd into rottenness, that rottenness into wormes, those wormes into dust, and that dust is reduced to nothing.

Other bodies were not buryed in the earth, but were burned with fire, and reduced to ashes, and those ashes were reserved in urnes. Only here is the difference, this worme is not like that that devours bodies, for when the body is consumed, that worme dies, nor is this fire like that that burnes carcasses, for when the carcases are burnt, that fire goes out, but this is ignis inextinguibilis unquenchable fire.

By this never dying worme we are to un­derstand the worme of an accusing, and tor­menting conscience, that is ever gnawing, and hereby we may understand all rationall torments of which the buffetings of conscience are the cheifest.

And by this fire that never goes out, we are to understand the torments of sense, set off by burning, because that was the most torturing death that was inflicted by the Jewes; but to open these a little more fully, we will take them as they lie before us, and speak of them apart.

1 Rationall torments provided for damned Soules are a part, and the greatest part of the torments of Hell, for which this deserves to be called Great Damnation. Now as the Soul is distributed into the understanding, will, and affections, so we may assigne unto these sove­ral faculties their peculiar torments, I only intend to touch upon them to give you a tast, and not to enter upon any topicall, and me­thodicall discourse concerning them.

1 They shall be plagued in their understand­ings, by seing, and knowing, and feeling themselves to be irrecoverably lost, and in­tolerably miserable: Here the messengers of the Lord, knowing the terrors of the Lord, [Page 194]did cry alowd to give warning of their sin, and danger, and duty, they did throw Hell-fire in their faces, and so gaster them with the thunder and lightning of Hell and damnation, that they could never be at quiet, but were even tormented before their time; and when they had done their uttermost, when they had studyed, and preacht, and prayed, and wait­ed, and wept themselves into consumptions, in seeking to them, and to God for them, that they might be saved, they could make no bet­ter a report of their embassy to him that sent them, but to this effect. Lord, who hath belie­ved our report, or to whom hath the arme of the Lord been revealed? In which seat doth that Sou [...] si [...], in what town is his habitation, or in what family dwells he that was dead and is alive, that was lost and is found? Some of us, thy unworthy servants, Lord, have through undeserved mercy been preachers ten, some twenty, some thirty, some forty yeares and more, to such and such congregations, we have preacht some hundreds, some of us thou­sands of Sermons, and through grace we have indeavoured to do it faithfully in our measure, we have taught publikly and from house to house, we have spoken with autho­rity, and dealt personally and familiarly with [Page 195]the soules of refusers, and all was but lost la­bour upon them, though not a labour in vaine to our selves: Will not this be a sad hearing for thousands, when those, that have been watch­men for their souls, must come to give up this account with griefe; But what will the Lord say to this? Will he say to those that would not be taught, be ignorant still, and to those that would not be reformed, be disobedient still, no surely, it may well be doubted whether the Lord had not formerly seared them up in their ignorance and prophaneness, with such an hard­ning of their hardness by inflecting senslesness for their affecting senslesness: But now it shall be otherwise, the ignorant shall be no longer ignorant, the drunkard, swearer, who mon­ger, sabboth-breaker shall be so no longer, they shall see with their eyes, and hear with their eares, and understand with their hearts, though they shall never be converted, nor be healed; Lord thy hand is lifted up, said the Pro­phet Isay, and they will not see, thy wrath was in the threatning, they saw a black clowd ri­sing, and a driving storme coming, and would not beware, but now they shall see, vo­lentes, nolentes, willing or nilling they shall hear and understand, and be ashamed, and con­founded.

Then shall the damned know good and e­vill, as the Angels that kept not their first estate know it, and as the Divel perswaded our first parents to know it, to know the excellen­cy of good by the misery of evill, by a wo­full experimentall knowledge, as light is known by darkness, or sweetness by bitter­ness. Then they shall be fully convinc'd in their judgements of that, which no art of ours, no evidence of the spirit could pre­vaile with them to believe, that Gods justice is as infinite as his mercy, and his mercy no larger than his truth: That Christ is only a refuse for humble, penitent, believing sinners, and none else, that Hell is as hot, and eternity full as long as Gods word, and Ministers have told them.

2 They shall be plagued in their con­sciences; The conscience is taken to be a part of the practicall understanding: Scientia cum scientia, a reflex knowledge joyn'd with a di­rect knowledge, and most of the rationall tor­ments of the damned are discharged upon conscience, and therefore the worme of con­science as instar omnium is synechdochically, put for for all. If a wounded conscience were an intolerable burden upon earth, surely a damned conscience will be much more intole­rable [Page 197]in Hell. Some do cut this worme of conscience into three peices, but cut it into an hundred, and it will never die.

• 1. Memoria praeteritorum.
• 2. Sensus praesentium.
• 3. Metus futurorum.

• 1. The remembrance of things past.
• 2. The sense of present misery.
• 3. The fear of wrath to come.

But I may not enlarge upon these particu­lars, least it swell this part of our discourse, that it will not hold proportion with the rest.

While they lived here, though the mighty word mannaged by Sons of thunder, did often grate upon conscience, that their sins were hard­ly the pleasures of sin for a season, yet the spirit of slumber did often fall upon them, and they might perhaps fall into some pleasing dream while that sleep lasted; or they might be sear'd with an hot iron, and made past feeling, but when the pit shuts her mouth upon the sinner, the conscience opens hers, and opens it wide, & opens it so as it shall never be shut more, the conscience is all feeling, & the sinner can never hope for any flattering anodine from his bribed [Page 198]conscience, but must indure conscience as Judge Jury, & Witnes & Executioner for ever & ever. When a sinner in hell shall look back upon his time upon earth, and consider that God made him a reasonable creature fit to perform unto him reasonable service, and reveal'd his righte­ous will in his law and Gospel, both for matter and manner of his service; and g [...]ve him his lot of being, not onely in the bosome of his Church, and in Gospel times, but in reform­ing times, when the Sun was broken out of a cloud, and shined in strength, and did strive with him by his Spirit in ordinances and provi­dences, making many gracious offers of Christ, and with Christ himself, and Spirit, and all things belonging to their peace, saying and swearing that he takes no delight in the death of sinners, intreating, and beseeching them to be reconciled, to return and live; ex­postulating with them why they will dye, why they will not be gathered, waiting with in­vincible patience, and, a very miracle of long-suffering, when it will once be; yet after all this, after Christ, and mercy, and grace have been offered, and refused, after sin hath been reproved and yet continued in; Faith and o­ther graces have been pressed, of as absolute necessity to Salvation, and never heeded, duty [Page 199]hath been taught, and never performed, seasons & opportunitys have been offered and all neg­lected and frustrated; and now to consider that there shall never be one call more, one offer of grace more, one opportunity to be saved more, they are all lost and lost for ever, this makes the heart to sinke and dye, and this is the worm of conscienc [...] that never dyes.

Sinners believe it, though you can now slight Christ at your pleasure, and wilfully neglect this great Salvation, and deipise the riches of Gods patience and long-suffering and will not be brought to repentance, all the cords of Love cannot draw you to it, and neither scourges, nor scorpions can drive you: when this shalbe lookt back upon in hell (and the time is near) it will prove the most torturing torment in the bottomless pit, the most tormenting torture that the damned can meet with through all eter­nity: Then let the stundiest sinner refuse to sub­mit to the sentence of Damnation, if he can, let him turn away his ear from the clamours of his conscience, if he can, let him break prison, & get out of hell, if he can, or if he cannot (as it is more than infinitely impossible) then let men set themselves sericusly and seasonably to the pre­venting of it, and make use of Gods gracious warnings, that they never come into those tor­ments.

3. They shalbe plagued in their Wills, with stubborness, and wilfulness: God would and they would not, here; they would, and God would not, when they were departing hence, but neither they nor God will, when they come to hell: the sinner that could not be wrought upon to be made willing in the time of Love, shalbe of obdurate, that he shalbe wil­full in the day of his wrath: sins of the dam­ned do partake much of that wilfulness that is in the sinners against the Holy Ghost here, as here they sin willingly, so there they sin wil­fully. As by Adam's sin mankind was bound up to good, & let loose to evil, and that is all the moral freewil they have, till through regene­ration, the Son hath made them free indeed, so after judgement is past upon them, the damned are utterly disabled from all good, and their hearts are set in them to do wickedly, so that they are sinning, and yet suffering, suffering and yet sinning for ever and ever. The dam­ned could well enough away with a hell of sin, but they cannot indure a hell of suffering, if that might but be abated, it were the haven where they would be.

Objection, But if sin be their delight, is this wilfulness in sinning, their plague, and punish­ment.

Answer, yea and as great as any, for as Pha­roah's hard heart was the biggest plague in E­gypt, that pull'd down all the rest, so this sin­ing frame of Spirit, this sinning wilfully and with a hard heart, is one of the greatest plagues of hell, for if the sins of a sinners life were not more than enough, this would find fuel to supply the fire for ever and ever.

4. I shall but touch upon some of the pas­sions, and pass over to the next.

Love, Joy, Hope, Desire being bereft of their objects, the damned are bereft of them: they would not love God, nor what God loves here, and there they cannot, they would not joy in believing here, with joy unspeakable and glo­rious, the joy of grace, and Salvation would not relish with them, and now they have no­thing to rejoyce in; while they lived they made a kind of a mock-consolation of the pleasures of sin, of the Profits, pleasures, and honours of the world, but these are passed away, as if they had never been, Transit voluptas, dolor manet, & nothing remains but the doleful remembrance of them. They had a door of hope once ope­ned to them, and a prize in their hands, if they had had hearts to use it, but now its shut and barr'd, and shall never be opened more, and they are left to mourn as without hope, and [Page 202]without God in that world. They had no desire of God, and Christ, and happiness, while they lived here, or no more but a carnal desire, as Balaam desired the death of the righteous without their life, so they desired happiness without holiness, and glory without grace, and there the desire of their Souls shall never be towards his name, or if they could never so much desire to get out of the bottom­less pit, there can be no redemption.

The tormented and tormenting passions which will find the damned suffering work in their Souls world without end, are those that are contrary to these forementioned affections, I shall trouble you but with three.

• 1. Hatred, which is loves contrary.
• 2. Greif, which is joys contrary.
• 3. Fear, or despair which is hopes contrary.

1. As there is no love in Hell, so there is all Hatred, and if hatred, envy, and malice do gnaw so greedy, like hellish vultures upon the hearts of the malicious here; If implacable anger, Ira furor brevis est. which is more than furor bre­vis, do so macerate the Sons of vio­lence, when their blood-thirsty rage is not satisfied: How will this passion work, [Page 203]when they come to hell? If they hate God, and the Saints, and one another with such bit­ter hatred upon earth: surely the matter will not be mended when they come to hell; be­sides that, that they shall hate God, as God ab­hors them, and that they shall hate the Saints, that are gathered to the congregation of the first-born, whom God hath secured in his pa­vilion from the strife of tongues. They shall like mad Dogs, or enraged Lions discharge their invenom'd spleens upon one another: Those that have been fratres in malo, brethren in iniquity, and have walked hand in hand in the counsel of the ungodly, and have enticed one another into Satans snares: and accompa­nyed and incouraged, and hardned one ano­ther in the, waies of sin, and hindred one ano­thers repentance and conversion; those that could go in troopes to the harlots houses, and bear one another company daies and nights at an Ale-house, and could swear, and be drunk, and whore, and revel, and rant together, like so many hellish furies that had broke prison, or hell had spued them out upon earth, and cast them up as the foam and scumme of the bottomles pit, with what dejected, and fell countenances will these looke upon one ano­ther in hell? People that have been lost by [Page 204]the neglect of Magistrates cursing their Magi­strates, O you Princes of Sodome, you should have been nursing fathers to us, and you have cut our throats: your care should have been that your subjects should have lived under you in all godliness & honesty, but you, like the unjust Judge, that neither feared God, nor reverenc't man, gave up your Kingdoms and power to the Beast, or Dragon, the Pope or Devil: Whereas you should have served God with your might, and if it had been possible have set a Candle upon every Candlestick, and coun­tenanc't and protected a godly and learned, and laborious Ministry, and not muzled their mouths, and have stopped the mouths of g [...]in­sayers, and seducers, of blasphemers and here­ticks, and should have been copies for your subjects to live by; but you were taken up in minding and plotting high things for your selves and relations, (but the things of God and heaven, the highest things were none of them) oh you cut-throats both of Churches and Commonwealths, you are justly in this condemnation, and we that have perisht through your base negligence, and notorious ungodliness must be here with you cursing and banning you for evermore.

Souls that have been lost through the neg­lect [Page 205]of Ministers will do the like by their Mi­nisters, oh you daubers with untempered mor­tar, you cursed time-servers, and men-pleasers, you Wolves in sheeps clothing, that insteed of feeding did devour the flock, you cryed peace, peace, and made us flatter our selves with mercy, mercy, what peace is to the wicked now? what mercy for us and you? whether had it been better believing God, or your ly­ing visions; oh you soul-murderers, our blood is required at your hands, but we must be dam­ned with you, world without end. The Qua­kers, and the Devils agents, the Factours for Rome and Hell do rail at good Ministers now, and call them hirelings, and limbs of Antichrist, but the bad Ministers that have fed upon the milke, and clothed themselves with the fleeces of the flock, and have neither fed nor taught the sheep and lambs of their fold; they wilbe ready to tear out their own throats, they will then take shame unto them­selves, and befool and bebeast themselves, and the Souls that have perisht by their neglect will heap worse reproches upon them for ever and ever.

Hearers that have been deceived by the damnable doctrines of seducers, that have been led away by the errours of the wicked into [Page 206] Blaspemies and Heresies, they will say to their Sect-Masters, as Paul said to Elimas the Sor­cerer, Act. 13.10. O full of subtlety and all mischeife you children of the Devil, and enemies of all righteousness, you have not ceased to per­vert the right waies of the Lord: You have cumbred the Church with your wranglings about circumstances, while the substantials and vitals of invisible Christianity have been left languishing, you have tithed Mint, Anniss, and Cummine, and neglected justice and judge­ment, you have filled the world with doubt­ful disputations de lanâ caprinâ, of things of nought; while the great truths of the Law and Gospel, are unknown, and unbelieved, and unpractised: you do but beat your drums, and fill the Church with calmour, like the Idola­ters at Tophet, while the children are a bur­ning, that the cry may not be heard; whiles you are robbing the Church of its Fun­damentals, and poysoning the people with false doctrine, and Heterodox principles; you were the men that taught others to fight with shadows, while you carryed away the sub­stance, and perplexed people about Church­member-ship, and Baptisme; and questions a­bout the Law, till you had left them neither Church, Saviour, nor Gospel: Then shall the [Page 207]poore silly Women that were led captive by House-creepers (as the Apostle calls them) let fly against these seducers. O you sons of the Deceiver-General and daughters of the Sorce­ress and the whore, oh ye children of Belzebub, and sons of Which-craft, you are they that have dealt with us as the Devil dealt with our first Parents, or Jacob with Esau, that gave us an apple for Paradise, and a mess of Pottage for a Birth-right.

Family-Members that have been lost through the carelesness of Family-masters, they will let fly against the oversights of such over­seers: O you caterers for the Devil, your houses should have been nurseries for the Church, and they have been sties, and ken­nels to breed up hel-hounds in, you should have brought up your children in the fear and nur­ture, and admonition of the Lord, and done your indevour to make your servants Gods servants, you should have read the word of God to them, and talked of it with them at your down­lying, and uprising; you should have sought God early and late, with them and for them, and according to the Commandment should have preserved the Sabbath in your Families, as well as observed it in your selves. But there was nothing but Prayerlesness all the [Page 208]week, and profaneness all the Sabbath; when you hired us, you gave us your carelesness for our earnest, and now have brought upon your selves and us Damnation for our wages. The neglected wife will say to the neglecting hus­band, as Zipora once to Moses, Thou hast been a bloody husband to me, and the graceless child to the graceless father, thou hast been a bloody Butcher to me, and the unprofitable servant to the ungodly Master, thou hast been a cruel Master to me: God will say to careless Bre­thren; The voice of your Brothers blood cries for vengeance, and those that live here as neighbours and friends in their dull, carnal way of neighbour-hood & friendship, will cry sin and shame upon one another, as the greatest foes and most cruel enemies; O the heart-bur­nings that hell-fire shall kindle, the everlasting grudges that shall find Fomentations, there's the malice that burns and boyls in that fiery lake in the breasts of the damned; 'Twas not for nothing that Dives desired his brethren should be kept out of that place of torment, one reason amongst the rest may be conceived to be this, that their sins being augmented by his, and they hardned in them by his society, and example, his torments at their coming to hell should receive an augmentation.

2. As there is no joy in hell, there is Greif with a witness, yea, with a thousand thou­sand witnesses: Men count it their Solomon up­on earth to have fellow-sufferers, but this will be no palliation to the pangs of hell, but augmentations rather, especially by the sins of others, which have been made ours by acces­soriness. Here they would not greive with godly sorrow, but there they shall greive, though with sorrow as far from godly sorrow as the heaven is from hell. How many with worldly sorrow have grieved themselves to death; taking up Rachells Lamentation, per­haps for children, or some other relation in the flesh, mourning, refusing to be comforted? But this hellish sorrow doth far exceed it, every pang of it is a heart-breaking sorrow; we usu­ally say, were it not for hope the heart would break, and all the mourning in hell is mour­ning without hope: Ezekiel makes mention of a book written within and without with Lamen­tations and mournings and We, and the Dam­ned have no other book to read in: If they look to their book without, the book of Scrip­tures, by that they stand condemned, and ac­cording to that, sentence is past upon them. If they look to the book of conscience, the book within, that contains nothing but matter [Page 210]of mourning and everlasting Lamentation, no­thing but what will cause Weeping and howling and gnashing of teeth.

3. As there is no hope in hell, so there is fear & horour in such superabundant measure, that like a thousand Milstones, or Mountains of lead they would sink the Soul to the bot­tom of that Sea of wrath, were it not bottom­less. They shall be raging mad with fear, and desperate horrour at the fearful sights that their eyes shall see, and the fearful things that their ears shall hear. They had no fear of God be­fore their eyes while they lived in the flesh, they could fear the face and frowns of man, who was but Dust and Ashes, but the dreadful ever­living God, that ought to be feared, he was not feared; we could never bring them to the begin­ning of wisdom, the fear of the Lord, with all that we could say or do, though we have stu­dyed to speak words that might cut like swords, and have preacht them Sermons as keen as Razors: Though we have improved all our wit and skill in handling that Sacrifi­cing knife that pierces to the dividing asunder of the Soul, and Spirit, and Joynts and Marrow, though we have in our severe denunciations of certain judgements spoken thunder claps and fire-brands, and thrown he [...]l fire amongst [Page 211]them in many and many a Sermon, yet they were so cross-grain'd, and knotty, that they were fearless in the midst of real fears, though they could fear where no fear was; but now the case is altered, before they would not fear alwaies to purchase blessedness, Pro. 28.14. and now they shall fear alwaies, with Gods curse to boot; now they shall fear vvith a vengeance, and God shall set a marke upon them, even Cain's marke, a perpetual quaking, not a horn in 's forehead, as the Master of Fan­cy, the Jewish Rabbies have some of them thought, but a hornet in his conscience. The curse that God threatned to the Rebellious children of disobedience, Deut. 28.65. shalbe inflicted upon them, God shall give them a trembling heart. They vvould not sanctifie the Lord in their hearts, nor make him their fear and dread, vvhen he vvould have undertaken to be for a Sanctuary against all other fear, Isay 8.13, 14. and therefore novv a conflu­ence of all other fears shall flovv in upon them like the billovvs of the raging, Sea, which cannot rest, one in the neck of another: Here the very name of the Devil is like a Bug-bear to children; if they have but thoughts of seeing him in their solitary vvalks, especially vvhen they are in the dark; they are ready to creep [Page 212]into corners to hide themselves, If they do but dream of him, how do their thoughts trouble them till they awake; and if they see him indeed, though he do not appear in the most formidable shape, they are ready to fall dead, or mad. Oh what will they do when they shall be cast into the same prison with all the Devils in hell, and they must continue shut up with them for ever? What fear and trembling shall then come upon them, what Tribulation and anguish shall fill their Souls to the very brim? What horrour and despera­tion shall over-whelm the damned, when the King of fears, the death natural, hath deli­vered them up unto the Second death, when fear & anguish is still coming upon them, and they shall never know when Wrath is come upon them to the uttermost, it shall all be so to the uttermost, and all without end, despairing Cain's Language differs now in the several rea­dings: one runs thus, My punishment is grea­ter than I can bear, Gen. 4.13. the other thus, Mine iniquity is greater than that it can be forgiven, then both these shall be true of all the damned, their Sins are impardonable, and their torments unsuffereable; Christs merit can­not then satisfie for their sins, neither can Gods mercy pardon them; God and Christ [Page 213]can as soone cease to be what they are as to do it. The case of the damned for ever shall be much like that of the wicked, that shall be alive immediately before Christ's coming to judge­ment, Luk. 21.25, 26. There shalbe signs in the Sun, and in the Moon, and in the Stars; that is, if we consult Mat. 24.29. The Sun shalbe darkned, and the Moon shall not give her light, and the Stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the Heavens shalbe shaken, &c. When upon the world God shall rain Stars, and the ungodly may ever expect when he shall rain snares, fire and brimston, storm and tempest to be the portion of the wicked to drink; When these are but the beginning of sorrows, & more pangs are coming upon them as upon a woman in travel; as the Evangelist Luke goes on, upon the earth there shalbe distress of Nati­ons and perplexity, the Sea and Waves roaring; Mens hearts failing them for fear, and for look­ing after those things which are coming: for all the judgements that are come, they shall still be eaten up with fear of further wrath, and indignation that is still a coming.

2. Sensible torments provided for the bo­dies of the damned are also a part of those pu­nishments: which do denominate this to be GREAT DAMNATION: As the former [Page 214]were comprehended under the Worm that dy­eth not, so these under the fire that never goeth out; As the torments of conscience were put for all rational torments belonging to the Soul, so the torments of the sense of feeling, here signified by fire, is put for all sensible torments belonging to the body. I shall first discover unto you, why the torments of hell are compared to fire: The Jews before their Jurisdiction was taken away by Herod, who was sur-named the great, primus ex alienigenis Rex Judeorum, the first of forraigners that was King of the Jews, had three Courts of Judi­cature: one was ruled by three men, wherein were tryed money matters, and lesser causes. The 2 did consist of 23 Judges, who heard & decided weighty affairs, and matters of life and death: And these two were called the lesser Shanedrim. The highest of all, which was cal­led the great Shanedrim, had 71 Judges, who had the hearing of most weighty affairs, as the matter of a whole Tribe, or an high Priest, or a false Prophet. Now the punishments that their Judicatories did infl ct, were of four Sorts. 1. Hanging, 2. Beheading, 3. Stoning, 4. Burning. And because burning was the most dreadful, therefore doth our Saviour [...]llude unto that in comp [...]ring of hell-torments to fire.

Neither is it every kind of fire, but the fire of Gehenna; now that Gehenna was the Vally of Hinnom, a place in the suburbs of Jerusalem, where Idolaters offered their children halfe burnt to Idols; Which place was also called Tophet from a word in the Hebrew tongue which signifies a Drum, because they did beat drums to deaden the cries of the Infants while they were a burning: Indeed those half burnings do best shadow out unto us those of hell, where the d [...]mned shall be fuel for everlasting fire, ever burning and never consumed, ever dying, and never dead. Its also called fire and brimstone, as if fire it self were not hot e­nough to shadow out the terrour of it.

I might here enlarge upon all the senses, as we did before upon the faculties, but the very torments of the Soul are the very Soul of tor­ments, and do as far surpass bodily torment as the Soul doth the body. And I have enlarged so much upon that, that its time to think of contracting here.

Yet for all the hast, know that as Heaven is likened to a Kingdom, where there is a conflu­ence of Pleasures, so Hell is compared to a Prison, where there is an inundation of Miserys Its called in the Gospel [...] utter darkness, being furthest from God the [Page 216]Fountain of life and glory say some. Because compared to a prison say others, and prisons were usually without the gates of Cities, and they were dark places, especially the dunge­ons, where malefactours were as it were bury­ed alive: Without are doggs saith John of the new Jermsalem, Revel 22.15. Within are children, but without doggs. And the A­postle calleth Infidels such as are without, Col. 4.5. without indeed if you read all those withouts Eph. 2.12. Without Christ, without the Commonwealth of Israel, without the Cove­nant of promise, without hope, and without God in the world; and surely those that are in hell are, and everlastingly shalbe without in all these respects: Now as in a Prison all the senses have their punishments, The Eyes are punished with darkness, the Ears with com­plaints of fellow prisoners, the Smell with loath­some stinks, the Palate with the hunger or coursest provisions, the Touch with the hard earth, and cold, and nakedness: So in the prison of hell ther's. [...] the blackness of darkness for the sight, besides that cursed crue of the Devils and damned, the displeased countenance of the Almighty, and the sight of him who [...] their sins have pierced: Their ears shal [...] filled with roarings, and howlings, and [Page 217]gnashing of teeth, besides the curses, and blas­phemies of the damned. Their smell shall be suffocated with fire and brimston; their tast glutted with Gall and Worm-wood, and the dreggs of the Cup of the Lords Fury. And their touch with fire, with fire unquenchable. Observe lastly that our Enquiries concerning Hell are here answered by fire, to note out unto us the extremity of hell-torments. Fire is as great a torment as our capacities can reach unto, but if they can reach higher, the terrours of those infernal torments are still out of our reach; As a fire painted on a wall in the story of Dives and Lazarus is nothing in comparison of our Culinary fire, so that fire that burns upon our hearths is but like a painted fire for heat to the flames of hell. Suppose a woman should lye in the extreamest pangs of child­birth for 100 years; or a man should lye lan­guishing under the continual pains of stone, and goute, and collick for 1000. Suppose a Tray­tour should be upon the Rack as many years as there are drops in the Sea; or a Malefa­ctour should be a burning as many years as there are Sands on the Sea-shore: Suppose Captives should be detained in the Turkish G [...]llies, or in that hell upon earth, the Devils Slaughter-house, the Spanish Inquisition for [Page 218]as many years as there are Stars in the Firma­ment. These if they were real would be ama­zing and confounding considerations able to shake to pieces the stoutest heart of the most daring Nimrod; but these that we have been speak [...]ng of are so infinitly beyond them, ut nihil supra; that nothing can be more tran­scendedently inconceivable, and unspeakable; AETERNITY is of such a length, that when we have run to our wits end, we are but at the beginning of it, if that Ever and Never, though short in syllables, and sound, yet are so long in sense and signification, that they are the savour of life and death to the saved, and damned; ever with the Lord, and never taken out of his Hands, is the savour of life to life to the one; ever with the Devil, and never redeem'd from hell, is the savour of death unto death to the other. Eternity is the very bot­tom of the bottomless pit, though the tor­ments were easless, yet if they were not also endless they might be the better indured, But when thousands, and ten thousands, and Mil­lions, and thousands of Millions, and Milli­ons of Millions, and all the numbers in Arith­metick are added, and put into one sum total; when the drops, and sands of the Sea, and stars of the Firmament, and all hairs upon all [Page 219]heads from the worlds creation to the day of Judgement shalbe compared with the years of Eternity: Nondum finis, nondum medium, nondum principium aeternitatis designatur, they are so far from reaching to the end, that they cannot reach the Middle, no not the Begin­ning of eternity. Sic parvis magna, thus have I given you a Slender account of those great punishments which constitute this Great Dam­nation, and so endeth the last of the Rea­sons.