promise of the gospel is this psalm of mercy, which God offers in his Son to law- condemned sinners; believing is reading this psalm of mercy : if thou believest not, and art damned, thou go\'st to hell rather for thy final unhelief,_ than any of thy other sins, for which a discharge is offered thee upon thy receiving Christ, and believing on him. Let this cause us all to rise up against this sin, as the Philistines did against Samson, whom they called the destroyer of their country, Judg. xvi. 24. This is the destroyer of your souls, and that is worse : yea, it destroys them with a bloodier hand than other sins do, that are not aggravated with tins. We find two general heads of indictments, upon which the whole world of sinners shall be condennied at the great day, 2 Thess. i. 8, where Christ's coming to judgment is expressed ; and those miserable, undone creatures, that shall fall under his condemning sentence, they are comprised in these two ; such as 'know not God,' and such as 'obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ.' The heathens' negative unbelief of the gospel shall not be charged upon them, because they never had it preached to them. No, they shall be sent to hell for 'not knowing God,' and so shall escape with a lighter damnation by far, than Jews or Christian Gentiles, to whom the gospel hath been preached, though to some of these with a stronger and longer continued beam of light than others. The dismal charge which shall be brought against these will be, that they have not obeyed the gospel of our Lord Jesus; that is, not believed on Christ, called therefore ' the obedience of faith,' Rom. xvi. 2(5. And certainly we can- not but think, that there shall be a torment proper to these gospel-refusers which those that never had the offer of grace shall not feel in hell. And among those that obey not the gospel, tlie greatest vengeance waits for them that have had the longest and most passionate treaty of mercy allowed them. These are they who put God to the greatest expense of mercy, and therefore must neces- sarily expect the greatest proportion of wrath and vengeance to be measured to them ; yea, their unbelief puts Christ and the grace of God in him to the greatest shame and scorn that is possible for creatures to do ; and it is but righteous that God should therefore put their unbelief and themselves with it to the greatest shame before men and angels of any other sinners.
CHAPTER IV.
SOME ARGUMENTS TO MAKE US SERIOUS IN THE TRIAL OF OUR FAITH, WITH ONE DIRECTION TAKEN FROM THE MANNER OF THE SPIRIt's WORKING FAITH.
Use 2. Is faith the chief of graces? Let this make us the more curious and careful, that we be not deceived in our faith. There are some things of so inconsiderable worth, that they will not pay us for the pains and care we take about them ; and there to be choice and scrupidous, is folly ; to be negligent and incurious, wisdom. But there are other things of such worth, and weighty consequence, that none but he that means to call his wisdom in question can be willing to be mistaken or cozened in. Who that is wise would pay as for a precious stone, and have a pebble, or at best a Bristol stone, put upon him for his money? Who, when his life is at stake, and knows no way to save it, but by getting some one rich drug which is very scarce, but to be had, would not be very careful to have the right? O my dear friends, doth it not infi- nitely more concern you to be careful in your merchandize for this ]yQiix\ of precious faith? Can you be willing to take the devil's false sophisticated ware off his hand, — a mock-faith with which he would cheat you, rather than obtain the faitli unfeigned, which God hath to give unto his children ; called tlierefore ' the faith of God's elect?' Will the devil's dregs, that are sure to kill thee, serve thy turn, when thou art offered by God himself a rich drug that will cure thee ? When thou goest to buy a garment, thou askest for the best piece of stuff or cloth in the shop ; in the market thou wouldst have the best meat for thy belly ; when with the lawyer, the best counsel for thy estate ; and of the physician, the best directions for thy health. Art thou for the best in all, but for thy soul? Wouldst thou not have a faith of the best kind also ? If a man recei\es false monej^, who doth he wrong but himself? and if thou art gulled witli a false faith, the loss is thy own, and that no small one ; thyself will think so when tliou comest to the bar, and God shall bid thee either pay the debt thou owest him, or go to rot and roar in hell's prison. Then, how wilt thou be
442 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH.