A39660:1100
Englands duty under the present gospel liberty from Revel. III, vers. 20
Englands duty under the present gospel liberty from Revel. III, vers. 20 : wherein is opened the admirable condescension and patience of Christ in waiting upon trifling and obstinate sinners, the wretched state of the unconverted, the nature of evangelical faith ..., the riches of free grace in the offers of Christ ..., the invaluable privileges of union and communion granted to all who receive him ... / by John Flavell ...Englands duty under the present gospel liberty from Revel. III, vers. 20 : wherein is opened the admirable condescension and patience of Christ in waiting upon trifling and obstinate sinners, the wretched state of the unconverted, the nature of evangelical faith ..., the riches of free grace in the offers of Christ ..., the invaluable priviledges of union and communion granted to all who receive him ... / by John Flavell ...
London: printed for Matthew Wotton, 1689
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Secondly, You that are poor and mean in the World, what say you, Will you have two Hells, one here, and another hereafter? No comfort in this World, nor hope for the next? Your expectations here laid in the dust, and your hopes for Heaven built upon the sand? O, if you were once in Christ, how happy were you, though you knew not where to fetch your next bread! Poor in the World, but rich in faith; and heirs of the Kingdom which God hath promised, James 2. 5. O blessed state! If you had Christ, you had then a right to all things, I Cor. 3. 22, 23. You had then a Father to take care for you: but to be poor, and Christless; no comfort from this World, nor hopes from the next; this is to be truly miserable indeed. Your very straights and wants should prompt you to the great duty I am now pressing on you; and methinks it should be ⟨p. 450⟩matter of encouragement that the greatest number of Christs friends and followers came out of that rank and order of men to which you belong.
Thirdly, You that are Seamen, floating so often upon the great deeps, you are reckoned a third sort of persons between the living and the dead; you belong not to the dead, because you yet breath; and scarcely to the living, because you are continually so near death: What think you friends, have you no need of a Saviour? Do you live so secure from the reach and danger of death? Have your lives been so pure, righteous, and innocent, who have been in the thick of temptations in the World abroad? Ponder that Scripture, I Cor. 6. 9, 10. Be not deceived, neither Fornicators, nor Idolaters, nor Adulterers, nor Effeminate, nor Abusers of themselves with man-kind, &c. Ponder it, I say, and think whether you have not as great and pressing a necessity of Jesus Christ, as any poor Souls under Heaven? You have had many temporal Salvations from God, great and eminent deliverances, and will these satisfy you? Is it enough that your bodies are delivered from the danger of the Sea, though your Souls sink and perish in the Ocean of Gods wrath for ever? If you will yet accept Christ upon his terms, all that you have done shall be forgiven,