Twenty sermons preached at Oxford before His Majesty, and elsewhere

I shall not now stand to speak of that common aspersion cast upon Religion, and the ways of God (that men must sail to Heaven by the Gates of Hell) of which many are so much afraid: But yet we must not think that our Saviour came to heal those, which were whole already; he's a God of Wisdom, and the Physician of the Soul; he comes to find, that which is lost: So that we must be lost in our own apprehensions, if we will be found, as David was, Ps. 119. ult. He first saith, I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost, then seek thy servant. If now we are once lost, we are lost for ever, if he seek us not; therefore we should first consider with our selves, what estate we are in now, how the case stands with us at present, that if God should come and strike thee with Death, if thou wert now to come to Judgment, what would trouble thee most, what couldst thou then answer him? Therefore since it is uncertain how soon God may deal thus with thee, it is wisdom to be always ready. Lam. 3.40. Let us search and try our ways, and turn again unto the Lord. Let us first try how the matter stands with us, at the present, let us examine our selves and our ways, and see if all be well, and then may we go on with comfort in the way wherein we are.

I shall not now stand to speak of that common aspersion cast upon Religion, and the waies of God (that men must sail to Heaven by the Gates of Hell) of which many are so much afraid: But yet we must not think that our Saviour came to heal those, which were whole already; he's a God of Wisedome, and the Physician of the Soul; he comes to find, that which is lost: So that we must be lost in our own apprehensions, if we will be found, as David was, Ps. 119. ult. He first saith, I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost, then seek thy servant. If now we are once lost, we are lost for ever, if he seek us not; therefore we should first consider with our selves, what estate we are in now, how the case stands with us at present, that if God should come and strike thee with Death, if thou wert now to come to Judgment, what would trouble thee most, what couldst thou then answer him? Therefore since it is uncertain how soon God may deal thus with thee, it is wisedome to be always ready. Lam. 3.40