They are answer in their actions, what need we any more? Honorable, worshipful, and all wellbeloved, it is a weighty employment that occasioneth your meeting here to-day. The estates and lives of men are in your hands. But it is another kind of judgment which you are all hasting towards: when judges and justices, the accusers and accused, must all appear upon equal terms, for the final decision of a far greater cause. The case that is then and there to be determined, is not whether you shall have lands or no lands, life or no life; (in our natural sense ;) but whether you shall have heaven or hell, salvation or damnation, an endless life of glory with God, and the Redeemer, and the angels of heaven, or an endless life of torment with devils and ungodly men. As sure as you now sit on those seats, you shall shortly all appear before the Judge of all the world, and there receive an irreversible sentence to an unchangeable state of happiness or misery. This is the great business that should presently call up your most serious thoughts, and set all the powers of your souls on work for the most effectual preparation; that if you are men, you may quit yourselves like men, for the preventing of that dreadful doom which unprepared souls must there expect. The greatest of your secular affairs are but dreams and toys to this: were you at every assize to determine causes of no lower value than the crowns and kingdoms of the monarchs of the earth, it were but as children's games to this. If any man of you believe not this, he is worse than the devil that tempteth him to unbelief: and let him know that unbelief is no prevention, nor will put off the day, or hinder his appearance; but ascertain his condemnation at that appearance. And if you all do believe this, you will sure be content that I speak to you of it as one that also do believe it. Faith is the evidence of things not seen: by it we may foresee the judgment set, the world appearing, and yourselves there waiting for your final doom. And because we clearly find beforehand, who then shall die, and who shall live, I shall desire of you that you would presently improve the discovery. Some think we cannot know in this life what a This was preached at an assize at Worcester, before the judges, and therefore here are these passages suited to that occasion. will become of us in the next: but God hath not bid us try in vain, nor in vain delivered us so many signs by which it may be known, nor is the difference between the saved and the damned so small as to be undiscernible. Our own reason may tell us that the righteous God would not send some to glory with angels, and others to endless misery with devils, and make such difference between men hereafter, if there were not a considerable difference here. He that knows the law and the fact, may know before your assizes what will become of every prisoner, if the proceedings be all just, as in our case they will certainly be. Christ will judge according to his laws: know therefore whom the law condemneth or justifieth, and you may know whom Christ will condemn or justify. And seeing all this is so, doth it not concern us all to make a speedy trial of ourselves in preparation to this final trial? I shall for your own sakes therefore, take the boldness, as the officer of Christ, to summon you to appear before yourselves, and keep an assize this day in your own souls, and answer at the bar of conscience to what shall be charged upon you. Fear not the trial; for it is not conclusive, final, nor a peremptory, irreversible sentence that must now pass. Yet slight it not; for it is a necessary preparative to that which is final and irreversible. Consequentially it may prove a justifying accusation, an absolving condemnation, and if you proceed to execution, a saving, quickening death, which I am now persuading you to undergo. The whole world is divided into two sorts of men : one that love God above all, and live for him; and the other that love the flesh and world above all, and live to them. One that lay up a treasure in earth, and have their heart there; the other that lay up a treasure in heaven, and have their heart there. One that seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; another that seek first the things of this life. One that mind and savour the things of the flesh and of man; the other that mind and savour most the things of the Spirit and of God. One that account all things dung and dross that they may win Christ; another that make light of Christ in comparison of their business, and riches, and pleasures in the world. One that live by sight and sense upon present things; another that live by faith upon things invisible. One that have their conversation in heaven, and live as strangers upon earth; ven. another that mind earthly things, and are strangers to heaOne that have in resolution forsaken all for Christ, and the hopes of a treasure in heaven; another that resolve to keep somewhat here, though they venture and forsake the heavenly reward, and will go away sorrowful that they cannot have both. One that being born of the flesh is but flesh; the other that being born of the Spirit is spirit. One that live as without God in the world; the other that live as without the seducing world in God, and in and by the subservient world to God. One that have ordinances and means of grace, as if they had none; the other that have houses, lands, wives, as if they had none. One that believe as if they believed not, and love God as if they loved him not, and pray as if they prayed not, as if the fruit of these were but a shadow; the other that weep as if they wept not, (for worldly things,) and rejoice as if they rejoiced not. One that have Christ as not possessing him, and use him and his name, as but abusing them; the other that buy as if they possessed not, and use the world as not abusing it. One that draw near to God with their lips, when their hearts are far from him; the other that corporally converse with the world, when their hearts are far from it. One that serve God, who is a Spirit, with carnal service, and not in spirit and truth; the other that use the world itself spiritually, and not in a carnal, worldly manner. In a word, one sort are children of this world; the other are the children of the world to come, and heirs of the heavenly kingdom. One sort have their portion in this life; and the other have God for their portion. One sort have their good things in this lifetime, and their reward here; the other have their evil things in this life, and live in hope of the everlasting reward. I suppose you know that all this is from the word of God, and therefore I need not cite the texts which do contain it! But lest any doubt, I will lay them all together, that you may peruse them at leisure, Matt. xxii. 37. x.37. vi. 12-21. 33. John vi. 27. Isa. lv. 1-3. Rom. viii. 5-7. 13. Phil. iii. 9-11. Matt. xxii. 5. 2 Cor. iv. 18. Heb. xi. 1. throughout. Phil. iii. 19--21. Psalm cxix. 19. Heb. xi. 13. Luke xiv. 33. xviii. 22. John iii. 6. Ephes. ii. 12. 1 Cor. x. 31. Psalm xvi. 8. Ezek. xxxiii. 31, 32. 1 Cor. vii. 29-31. John xv. 2. i. 9-11. x. 31. John ii. 23, 24. Psalm 1xxviii, 35-73. Matt. xv. 8. Psalm lxxiii. 23-25. 1 Thess. v. 17, 18. Matt. xv. 9. John iv. 22, 23. 1 Cor. Luke x. 8. xx. 34. Rom. viii. 16, 17. Psalm xvii. xvi. 5. lxxiii. 26. Luke xvi. 25. Matt. vi. 5. Luke xviii. 22. In these texts is plainly contained all that I have here said to you. 14. v. 12. Well then, beloved hearers, seeing you that sit here present are all of one of these two sorts, let conscience speak, which is it that you are of? These are the two sorts that shall stand on the right and left hand of Christ in judgment. They that gave Christ his own with advantage, and lived to him, and studiously devoted their riches and other talents to his use, as men that unfeignedly made God their end, these are they that are set on the right hand, and judged as blessed to the kingdom which they so esteemed. And those that hid their talents, by keeping or expending them to their private use, denying them to Christ, and living to themselves, these are they that are set on the left hand, and adjudged to the everlasting fire, with the devils whom they served. It is a desperate mistake of self-deceiving men, to think that a state of holiness consisteth only in external worship, or that a state of wickedness consisteth only in some gross sins. I tell you from the word of God, the difference is greater, and lieth deeper than so. If you would know whether you are Christians indeed, and shall be saved, the first great question is, What is your end? What take you for your portion? And what is it that hath the prevalent stream of your desires and endeavours? As it is not every step that we set out of the way to heaven, that will prove us ungodly; so it is not any religiousness whatsoever that standeth in a subserviency to the world, that will prove you godly. Would you know then what you are? And whether you are in the way to heaven or hell? And what God will judge of you, if you so continue? Why then deal faithfully with yourselves, and answer this question without deceit! What is it that hath your hearts, your very hearts? What is it that is the matter of your dearest love? And what is the matter of your chiefest care? What is it that is the very bent and scope of your life? Is it for this world, or the world to come? What do you daily labour and live for? Is it for God, or your carnal selves? What interest is it that is predominant in you? Know but that and know all. And now I shall apply myself to those of you that are guilty; in whose souls the worldly interest is predominant, and in whom the world is not crucified by the cross of Christ, but rather Christ again crucified by the world. I have no mind to dishonour you, or exasperate you; but if faithfulness to Christ and you will do both, there is no remedy. I do here prefer an indictment against you in the court of your consciences, and before this congregation: the articles I shall distinctly read. And first, I require you, study not a defence; excuse not, extenuate not your crimes; but confess your sin freely, and condemn yourselves impartially, and return to God, and forsake them speedily, or you shall do worse. Self-condemnation may be saving and preventive; and the death of sin thereupon may be the life of your souls: but if this be neglected, and you hold on awhile till the great assize, you shall have another kind of charge than this, even such an one as shall appal that face that now can merrily smile at the accusation; and such an one as shall bring down the stoutest of your spirits, and make the hardest heart to feel, and the most stubborn of you all to stoop and tremble. O how easy is it to hear your sin and danger from such a worm as I! or to hear your state discovered, and yourselves condemned, by a minister of Christ in a pulpit! But how dreadful will it be to hear all this from the Lord of glory! and that when the case is past remedy, which now might have been remedied if you would, and if your obstinate hearts had not resisted.. The general charge that I put in against you is, That you are carnal flesh-pleasers, and have loved and lived to the world which you should have crucified, and have not lived as devoted unto God, nor hath he been your end, or his interest predominant in your hearts and lives. I speak only to the guilty; and for evidence of the fact, I need none but your consciences, seeing it is only to your consciences that I accuse you, which are acquainted, or should be, with the whole. But lest conscience itself should be bribed and corrupted, I shall, besides all that is before said, produce a little evidence more. 1. If indeed the world be crucified to you, what meaneth your eager pursuit after it? Are not your thoughts con |