A fourth volume containing one hundred and fifty sermons on several texts of Scripture…

(1.) Consider the greatness of the Salvation: Heb. 2.3. How shall we escape, if we neglect so great Salvation? It is not a slight matter, in the Gospel God doth not treat with you about Trifles, your eternal Life lies upon it; we preach to you a Doctrine that tends to Salvation. That so the Argument may be more operative, consider, what is Salvation? Salvation implieth a Deliverance from Danger and ⟨p. 18⟩Distress, and a preservation in a condition of Safety. Sometimes he is called a Saviour, qui quod semel factum est conservat, ne pereat, that keepeth a thing in a condition of Safety, tho it were never lost. In this sense God is said to save Man and Beast, Psal. 36.6. O Lord, thou preservest Man and Beast. As he doth preserve them from Decay and Ruin; so he is the Saviour of all Men, 1 Tim. 4.10. There is not a Creature but may call God Saviour: But this Salvation I speak of, is a Salvation proper but to a few Creatures; not a general Preservation or Act of Providence: here is not only Safety, but Glory; it is a translation to a place of Happiness. Again, he is said to save that delivers out of Danger and Destruction, as the Shepherd that snatcheth the Lamb out of the Teeth of the Lion, saveth him; and in common speech we call him a Saviour that delivers from Evil. But mark, this Salvation is not only privative but positive; Christ doth not only deliver us from Evil, from Sin, from the Wrath of God, the Accusations of the Law, and eternal Death; but positively he gives us Grace, and Righteousness, and everlasting Life; he is not only a Saviour to defend us, but a Saviour to bless us, a Sun, and Shield, Psal. 84.11. not only a Shield to keep from Danger, but a Sun who is the Fountain and Cause of Vegetation and Life; it is not Preservation merely, but Preferment. If Christ had only delivered us from Wrath to come, and been a Saviour privatively, it had been more than we could expect; or if he had procured some place where we might have been unacquainted with Pain or Trouble, yet then he had been a Saviour; but here is not only a Ransom and Deliverance, but an Inheritance, an Exaltation; Heaven and everlasting Glory are included in this Salvation: Instead of Horror and Howlings, here are everlasting Joys, and we shall ever be with God, praising his Grace in the midst of all his Saints. The Blessing is so excellent, that we cannot neglect it without great danger;