Captives bound in chains, made free by Christ their surety

1. Shall the greatness and the richness, and the gallantry of sinners advantage them any thing beyond the grave, or profit them one whit in another world, or at the Bar of God; shall they be preserved from Hell, and the torments of the damned because ⟨p. 56⟩they are rich and great, and prosper in the world? or shall they be saved or received into Heaven when they die, because they were rich while they lived in the world? will not death strip them of their estates, of their costly robes? will not death make these gallants as ghastly as the poor, and is there any difference betwixt the Corps of the nicest Dame, and the poorest beggar? must not the one rot in the earth as well as the other? and be fed upon by worms? or will the very worms make any difference betwixt the one and the other? when the graves are opened, where poor and rich were buried, and rotten, and their skulls and bones are cast up, can you know the bones and skulls of the rich from the bones and skulls of the poor; which it was that was clothed with silks, and which with rags or coarser cloth? which it was that was fed with sweetest morsels, and with greatest delicacies, and which with harder fare and meaner diet? No, you cannot. Why then, when you shall be so soon equalized with the poorest beggar, are you so prejudiced by the meanness of Christ's followers; Must you not stand as naked before the just Tribunal of an Impartial God as those that now for their poverty you contemn and scorn? or shall you appear in your ⟨p. 57⟩locks & curls, with which you so much vainly pride yourselves? shall you appear with your Rings, and Jewels, and Bracelets, or be then regarded, because you trick up your mortal bodies with such things now? No, no, it is more likely you will then wish you had never had them, you had never used them, especially since your heart was so puffed up with pride, that you disdained Redemption by Christ, because many of his followers were so far below you in outward enjoyments of the world.

1. Shall the greatness and the richness, and the gallantry of sinners advantage them any thing beyond the grave, or profit them one whit in another world, or at the Bar of God; shall they be preserved from Hell, and the torments of the damned because ⟨p. 56⟩