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a poor creature, never worthy to have been made a minister; and
if it had not been Himself that had urged and fastened it on me, it
may be I never would have undertaken it; and I came not to this
place I thought without somewhat of his own hand seen therin,
and have been labouring but very weakly indeed) to declare unto
you a message from God, and some have received it, and sum not,
and I am even afraid
severall1
of this congregation have not
received it, yet God grant they may receive it. The Lord that
quickeneth the pickle that is sown in the ground, after the seedsman
is gone, if he please may doe good to some of you, if so it
come to passe that we be separate from
you.2
I shall not take up your time with reading any place. If I had,
I would have read that place of Scripture in the 10th of Matthew,
and 32d verse, — Christ saith, "Whosoever therefore shall confess
me before men, him will I confess before my Father which is in
heaven; but whosoever will deny me before men, him will I deny
before my Father."
Christianity is nothing else now but what you have heard before,
but it may be you have not taken up Christianity aright. I shall
say but a few words, and pray, and so dismiss you. There are
four pillars, one may think, of Christianity: 1. A man believeth
with the heart; and that brings in another pillar, Righteousness;
and a third is, man confesseth with his mouth; and that brings on
a fourth, which accomplishes all, Salvation.
There are two main wayes how Satan prevaills with poor creatures.
He allures them, and he terrifies them. There are the
lusts of the flesh, and the love of the world and of honour. These
have a kind of enticeing faculty. And then he hath another
engine toward those that will not be so much moved by the former,
and that is, he bends up terrors upon them, and makes them
afraid; and therefore that is the word going before the word that
I have cited. "Fear them not, ye arc of more value than many
sparrows." Now for a remedy against this fear, the fear of the
**************
1
I am afraid even severall.
2
That we should be separate one from another.
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flesh, and the fear of sufferings, — Jesus Christ holds forth that it
may be a man will not get much in this life, yet in another place
he makes them sure of ane hundred-fold in this life; but he insisteth
upon this, The man that confesseth him, (he hath to doe but
with men like himself,) it is before men — Jesus Christ shall avow
and confess that man (in another kind of ane assembly) before his
Father. And, on the other hand, because many are ready to find
out strange wayes to save themselves, their means, their life, (these
have been a great snare to many,) he propons very sharply, — The
man that denyes me, saith he, before men, I will turn my back
upon him, and deny him before my Father.
This is the most ticklish point in all divinity. Lawyers have
their points of high
treason.1
Physicians have their poysonous
things dangerous to handle. Now, what is the most dangerous
thing in all divinity, the rock that many have beaten out their
brains upon? It is even this, Satan hath wiled them, entised them
to deny Christ Jesus. It may be in reference to the time we live
in, some think if it were Christ Jesus, if it were any fundamentall
point, we would stand for it life and estate, and all that we have.
But it is thought that some things that Christians stand upon are
but fancies, and nice scrupulosities, and if there be any thing in
them, it is but a small matter. Shall a man venture his condition
here and hereafter upon such and such a small thing? Indeed, if
they be none of Christ's small things, let them goe; but if it be
one of his, will ye call that a small thing? His small things are
very great things; and what if this be warranted and proven to
you, that there was never a tryall since the beginning of the world,
but in the
while2
it was a tryall, it was a small thing. The word
was very clear, and it is very clear still. But I cannot go through
the things that have been contraverted, as the divinity of our Lord
Jesus Christ and his humane nature; the union and distinction of
the two natures in him, and his offices, his propheticall and his
priestly office; and it hath been the judgement of many of his
**************
1
Otherwise, If lawiers have a poynt of hie treason, O that is a dangerous poynt to meddle with.
2
"Time."
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