Section 1

I begin with a use of reproof; a reproof of three things: 1. Of unbelief. 2. Of self-righteousness. 3. Of a careless neglect of the salvation of Christ.

1. If it is as we have heard, how greatly do these things reprove those who do not believe in, but reject the Lord Jesus Christ! that is, all those who do not heartily receive him. Persons may receive him in profession, and carry well outwardly towards him, and may wish that they had some of those benefits that Christ has purchased, and yet their hearts not receive Christ; they may be hearty in nothing that they do towards Christ; they may have no high esteem of Christ, nor any sincere honor or respect to Christ; they may never have opened the door of their heart to Christ, but have kept him shut out all their days, ever since they first heard of Christ, and his salvation has been offered to them. Though their hearts have been opened to others, their doors have been flung wide open to them, and they have had free admittance at all times, and have been embraced and made much of, and the best room in their hearts has been given them, and the throne of their hearts has been allowed them: yet Christ has always been shut out, and they have been deaf to all his knocks and calls. They never could find an inclination of heart to receive him, nor would they ever trust in him.

Let me now call upon you with whom it is thus, to consider how great your sin, in thus rejecting Jesus Christ, appears to be from those things that have been said. You slight the glorious person, for whose coming God made such great preparation in such a series of wonderful providences from the beginning of the world, and whom, after all things were made ready, God sent into the world, bringing to pass a thing before unknown, namely, the union of the divine nature with the human in one person. You have been guilty of slighting that great Savior, who, after such preparation, actually accomplished the purchase of redemption; and who, after he had spent thirty-three or thirty-four years in poverty, labor, and contempt, in purchasing redemption, at last finished the purchase by closing his life under such extreme sufferings as you have heard, and so by his death, and continuing for a time under the power of death, completed the whole. This is the person you reject and despise. You make light of all the glory of his person, and of all the glorious love of God the Father, in sending him into the world, and all his wonderful love appearing in the whole of this affair. That precious stone that God has laid in Zion for a foundation in such a manner, and by such wonderful works as you have heard, is a stone set at nought by you.

Sinners sometimes are ready to wonder why the sin of unbelief should be looked upon as such as a great sin: but if you consider what you have heard, how can you wonder? If it is so, that this Savior is so great a Savior, and this work so great a work, and such great things have been done in order to it, truly there is no cause of wonder that the sin of unbelief, or the rejection of this Savior, is spoken of in scripture as such a dreadful sin, so provoking to God, and what brings greater guilt than the sins of the worst of the Heathen, who never heard of these things, nor have had this Savior offered to them.

2. What has been said, affords matter of reproof to those who, instead of believing in Christ, trust in themselves for salvation. It is a common thing with men to take it upon themselves to purchase salvation for themselves, and so to do that great work which Christ came into the world to do. Are there none such here who trust in their prayers, and in their good conversation, and the pains they take in religion, and the reformation of their lives, and in their self-denial, to recommend them to God, to make some atonement for their past sins, and to draw the heart of God to them?

Consider three things:

1. How great a thing is which you take upon you. You take upon you to do the work of the great Savior of the world. You trust in your own doings to appease God for your sins, and to incline the heart of God to you. Though you are poor, worthless, vile, polluted worms of the dust; yet so arrogant are you, that you take upon you that very work, that the only begotten Son of God did when upon earth, and that he became man to capacitate himself for, and in order to which God spent four thousand years in all the great dispensations of his providence in the government of the world, aiming chiefly at this, to make way for Christ's coming to do this work. This is the work that you take upon yourself, and foolishly think yourself sufficient for it; as though your prayers, and other performances, were excellent enough for this purpose. Consider how vain is the thought which you entertain of yourself. How much such arrogance appear in the sight of Christ, whom it cost so much to make a purchase of salvation, when it was not to be obtained even by him, so great and glorious a person, at a cheaper rate than his wading through a sea of blood, and passing through the midst of the furnace of God's wrath. And how vain must your arrogance appear in the sight of God, when he sees you imagining yourself sufficient, and your worthless polluted performances excellent enough for the accomplishing of that work of his own Son, to prepare the way for which he was employed in ordering all the great affairs of the world for so many ages.

2. If there is ground for you to trust, as you do, in your own righteousness, then all that Christ did to purchase salvation when on earth, and all that God did from the first fall of man to that time to prepare the way for it, is in vain. Your self-righteousness charges God with the greatest folly, as though he has done all things in vain, even so much in vain, that he has done all this to bring about an accomplishment of that which you alone, a little worm, with your poor polluted prayers, and the little pains you take in religion, mingled with all that hypocrisy and filthiness, are sufficient to accomplish for yourself without Christ's help. For if you can appease God's anger, and can commend yourself to God by these means, then you have no need of Christ; but he is dead in vain: Galatians 2:21. "If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain."

If you can do this by your prayers and good works, Christ might have spared his pains; he might have spared his blood; he might have kept within the bosom of his Father, without coming down into this evil world to be despised, reproached, and persecuted to death; God needed not have busied himself, as he did for four thousand years together, causing so many changes in the state of the world all that while, in order to the bringing about that which you, as little as you are, can accomplish in a few days, only with the trouble of a few sighs, and groans, and prayers, and some other religious performances. Consider with yourself what greater folly could you have devised to charge upon God than this, to do all those things before and after Christ came into the world so needlessly; when, instead of all this, he might only have called you forth, and committed the business to you, which you think you can do so easily.

Alas! how blind are natural men! how sottish are the thoughts they have of things! and especially how vain are the thoughts which they have of themselves! How ignorant of their own littleness and pollution! How do they exalt themselves up to heaven! What great things do they assume to themselves!

3. You that trust to your own righteousness, arrogate to yourselves the honor of the greatest thing that ever God himself did; not only as if you were sufficient to perform divine works, and to accomplish some of the great works of God; but such is your pride and vanity, that you are not content without taking upon you to do the very greatest work that ever God himself wrought, even the work of redemption. You see how God's works of providence are greater than his works of creation, and that all God's works of providence, from the beginning of the generations of men, were in order to this, to make way for the purchasing of redemption. But this is what you take upon yourself. To take on yourself to work out redemption, is a greater thing than if you had taken it upon you to create a world. Consider with yourself what a figure you a poor worm would make, if you should seriously go about to create such a world as God did, should swell in your own conceit of yourself, should deck yourself with majesty, pretend to speak the word of power, and call a universe out of nothing, intending to go on in order, and say, "Let there be light; Let there be a firmament," et cetera. But then consider, that in attempting to work out redemption for yourself, you attempt a greater thing than this, and are serious in it, and will not be beat off from it; but strive in it, and are full of the thought of yourself that you are sufficient for it, and always big with hopes of accomplishing it.

You take upon you to do the very greatest and most difficult part of this work, namely, to purchase redemption. Christ can accomplish other parts of this work without cost, without any trouble and difficulty: but this part cost him his life, as well as innumerable pains and labors, with very great ignominy and contempt besides. Yet this is that part which self-righteous persons go about to accomplish for themselves. If all the angels in heaven had been sufficient for this work, would God have set himself to effect such things as he did in order to it, before he sent his Son into the world? And would he ever have sent his own Son, the great Creator and God of the angels, into the world, to have done and suffered such things?

What self-righteous persons take to themselves, is the same work that Christ was engaged in when he was in his agony and bloody sweat, and when he died on the cross, which was the greatest thing that ever the eyes of angels beheld. This, as great as it is, they imagine they can do the same that Christ accomplished by it. Their self-righteousness does in effect charge Christ's offering up himself in these sufferings, as the greatest instance of folly that ever men or angels saw, instead of being the most glorious display of the divine wisdom and grace that ever was seen. Yea, self-righteousness makes all that Christ did through the whole course of his life, and all that he said and suffered through that whole time, and his incarnation itself, and not only so, but all that God had been doing in the great dispensations of his providence from the beginning of the world to that time, as all nothing, but a scene of the most wild, and extreme and transcendent folly.

Is it any wonder, then, that the self-righteous spirit is so represented in scripture, and spoken of, as that which is most fatal to the souls of men? Is it any wonder, that Christ is represented in scripture as being so provoked with the Pharisees and others, who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and were proud of their goodness, and thought that their own performances were a valuable price of God's favor and love?

Let persons hence be warned against a self-righteous spirit. You that are seeking your salvation, and taking pains in religion, take heed to yourselves that you do not trust in what you do; that you do not harbour any such thoughts; that God now, seeing how much you are reformed, how you take pains in religion, and how you are sometimes affected, will be pacified towards you with respect to your sins, and on account of it will not be so angry for your former sins; and that you shall gain on him by such things, and draw his heart to show you mercy; or at least that God ought to accept of what you do, so as to be inclined by it in some measure to forgive you, and have mercy on you. If you entertain this thought, that God is obliged to do it, and does not act justly if he refuse to regard your prayers and pains, and so quarrel with God, and complain of him for not doing, this shows what your opinion is of your own righteousness, namely, that it is a valuable price of salvation, and ought to be accepted of God as such. Such complaining of God, and quarrelling with him, for not taking more notice of your righteousness, plainly shows that you are guilty of all that arrogance that has been spoken of, thinking yourself sufficient to offer the price of your own salvation.

3. What has been said on this subject, affords matter of reproof to those who carelessly neglected the salvation of Christ; such as live a senseless kind of life, neglecting the business of religion and their own souls for the present, not taking any course to get an interest in Christ, or what he has done and suffered, or any part in that glorious salvation he has purchased by that price, but rather have their minds taken up about the gains of the world, or about the vanities and pleasures of youth, and so make light of what they hear from time to time of Christ's salvation, that they do not at present so much as seek after it. Let me here apply myself to you in some expostulatory interrogations.

1. Shall so many prophets, and kings, and righteous men have their minds so much taken up with the prospect, that the purchase of salvation was to be wrought out in ages long after their death; and will you neglect it when actually accomplished? You have heard what great account the church in all ages made of the future redemption of Christ: how joyfully they expected it; how they spoke of it, how they studied and searched into these things, how they sung joyful songs, and had their hearts greatly engaged about it, and yet never expected to see it done, and did not expect that it would be accomplished till many ages after their death, 1 Peter 1:11-12. How much did Isaiah and Daniel, and other prophets, speak concerning this redemption! How much were their hearts engaged, and their attention and study fixed upon it! How was David's mind taken up in this subject! He declared that it was all his salvation, and all his desire; 2 Samuel 23:5. How did he employ his voice and harp in celebrating it, and the glorious display of divine grace therein exhibited! And all this although they beheld it not as yet accomplished, but saw that it was to be brought to pass so long a time after their day. Before this, how did Abraham and the other patriarchs rejoice in the prospect of Christ's day, and the redemption which he was to purchase! Even the saints before the coming were affected and elated in the expectation of this glorious event, though it was then so long future, and it was so very dimly and obscurely revealed to them.

Now these things are declared to you as actually fulfilled. The church now has seen accomplished all those great things which they so joyfully prophesied of; and you are abundantly shown how those things were accomplished: Matthew 13:17. "Verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them." Yet, when these things are so abundantly set before you as already accomplished, how do you slight them! How light do you make of them! How little are they taken notice of by you! How unconcerned are you about them, following other things, and not so much as feeling any interest in them! Indeed your sin is extremely aggravated in the sight of God. God has put you under great advantage for your eternal salvation, for greater than those saints of old enjoyed. He has put you under a more glorious dispensation; has given you a more clear revelation of Christ and his salvation; and yet you neglect all these advantages, and go on in a careless course of life, as though nothing had been done, no such proposals and offers had been made you.

2. Have the angels been so engaged about this salvation which is by Christ ever since the fall of man, though they are not interested in it, and will you who need it, and have it offered to you, be so careless about it? You have heard how the angels at first were subjected to Christ as mediator, and how they have all along been ministering spirits to him in this affair. In all the great dispensations which you have heard of from the beginning of the world, they have been active and as a flame of fire in this affair, being most diligently employed as ministering spirits to minister to Christ in this great affair of man's redemption. And when Christ came, how engaged were their minds! They came to Zacharias, to inform him of the coming of Christ's forerunner. They came to the Virgin Mary, to inform her of the approaching birth of Christ, the new born Saviour, and to point out to him the means of safety. How were their minds engaged at the time of the birth of Christ! The whole multitude of the heavenly hosts sang praises upon the occasion, saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, and good will towards men." Afterwards, from time to time, they ministered to Christ when on earth; they did so at the time of his temptation, at the time of his agony in the garden, at his resurrection, and at his ascension. All these things show, that they were greatly engaged in this affair; and the scripture informs us, that they pry into these things: 1 Peter 1:12. "Which things the angels desire to look into." How are they represented in the Revelation as being employed in heaven singing praises to him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb! Now, shall these take so much notice of this redemption, and of the purchaser, who need it not for themselves, and have no immediate concern or interest in it, or offer of it; and will you, to whom it is offered, and who are in such extreme necessity of it, neglect and take no notice of it?

3. Was it worth the while for Christ to labour so hard, and do and suffer so much to procure this salvation, and is it not worth the while for you to be at some labour in seeking it? Was it a thing of so great importance, that salvation should be procured for sinners, as that it was worthy to lie with such weight on the mind of Christ, as to induce him to become man, and to suffer such contempt and labour, and even death itself, in order to procure it, though he stood in need of nothing, though he was like to gain no addition to his eternal happiness, though he could get nothing by those that he saved, though he did not need them? Was it of such importance that sinners should be saved, that he might properly be induced to submit to such humiliation and suffering; and yet is it not worth the while for you, who are one of those miserable sinners that need this salvation, and must perish eternally without it, to take earnest pains to obtain an interest in it after it is procured, and all things are ready?

4. Shall the Great God be so concerned about this salvation, as so often to overturn the world to make way for it; and when all is done, is it not worth your seeking after? How has the Lord of heaven and earth been as it were engaged about this affair! What great, what wonderful things has he done from one age to another, removing kings, and setting up kings, raising up a great number of prophets, separating a distinct nation from the rest of the world, overturning one nation and kingdom, and another, and often overturning the state of the world; and so has continued bringing about one change and revolution after another forty centuries in succession, to make way for the procuring of salvation! And when he has done all; and when, at the circle of these ages, the great Saviour comes, and, becoming incarnate, and passing through a long series of reproach and suffering, and then suffering all the waves and billows of God's wrath for man's sins, insomuch that they overwhelmed his soul; after all these things done to procure salvation for sinners, is it not worthy of your taking so much notice of, or being so much concerned about, though you are those persons who need this salvation, but that it should be thrown by, and made nothing of in comparison of worldly gain, or gay clothing, or youthful diversions, and other such trifling things?

O! that you who live negligent of this salvation, would consider what you do! What you have heard from this subject, may show you what reason there is in that exclamation of the Apostle, Hebrews 2:3: "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?" and in that, Acts 13:41: "Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish; for I work a work in your days a work which you shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you." God looks on such as you as great enemies of the cross of Christ, and adversaries and despisers of all the glory of this great work. If God has made such account of the glory of salvation as to destroy many nations, and so to overturn all nations, to prepare the way for the glory of his Son in this affair; how little account will he make of the lives and souls of ten thousand such opposers and despisers as you that continue impenitent, in comparison of that glory when he shall hereafter come and find that your welfare stands in the way of that glory? Why surely you shall be dashed to pieces as a potter's vessel, and trodden down as the mire of the streets. God may, through wonderful patience, bear with hardened careless sinners for a while; but he will not long bear with such despisers of his dear Son, and his great salvation, the glory of which he has had so much at heart, before he will utterly consume them without remedy or mercy.

I begin with a word of reproof — addressing three things: 1. Unbelief. 2. Self-righteousness. 3. A careless neglect of the salvation Christ offers.

1. Given everything we have heard, how severely does this rebuke those who do not believe in Christ — who refuse to receive Him — that is, everyone who has never truly welcomed Him in their heart. A person may outwardly profess Christ, behave respectably, and wish for some of the benefits He purchased, while their heart has never received Him at all. They may go through the motions without any genuine depth — no true esteem for Christ, no sincere honor or respect for Him. They may never have opened the door of their heart to Christ; they may have kept Him shut out their entire lives, from the very first time they heard of Him and His salvation was offered to them. Their hearts have been open to others — the doors thrown wide, free access granted at any time, embraced and made much of, given the best room, allowed the throne. Yet Christ has always been shut out, and they have been deaf to every knock and every call. They have never found any inclination in their heart to receive Him, and they have never been willing to trust in Him.

Let me now call on those of you in this condition to consider how great your sin truly is in rejecting Jesus Christ — in light of everything that has been said. You are dismissing the glorious person for whose coming God made such extraordinary preparation through a long series of remarkable providences from the very beginning of the world — the one whom, after everything was made ready, God sent into the world, bringing about something never known before: the union of the divine nature with human nature in one person. You have been guilty of dismissing that great Savior who, after all that preparation, actually accomplished the purchase of redemption. After spending thirty-three or thirty-four years in poverty, labor, and contempt in purchasing redemption, He finally completed the purchase by laying down His life under extreme suffering — and by dying and remaining for a time under the power of death, He finished the whole work. This is the person you reject and despise. You are dismissing as unimportant all the glory of His person, all the wonderful love of God the Father in sending Him into the world, and all His extraordinary love displayed throughout the whole of this work. That precious stone which God has laid in Zion as a foundation — laid there through such remarkable works as you have heard — is a stone you have set at nothing.

People sometimes wonder why unbelief should be considered such a serious sin. But after hearing all of this, how can anyone wonder? When this Savior is so great, this work so extraordinary, and such remarkable things have been done to bring it about — there is no reason at all to be surprised that the sin of unbelief, of rejecting this Savior, is described in Scripture as a dreadful sin, deeply offensive to God, and one that brings greater guilt than the sins of the worst people who never heard of these things and never had this Savior offered to them.

2. What has been said also rebukes those who, instead of believing in Christ, trust in themselves for salvation. It is common for people to take it upon themselves to purchase their own salvation — effectively attempting to do the very work Christ came into the world to do. Are there not some here who trust in their prayers, their good behavior, their religious efforts, their personal reform, and their self-denial to commend themselves to God — to make some payment for their past sins and to win God's favor?

Consider three things.

1. Consider how great the work is that you are taking upon yourself. You are attempting to do the work of the great Savior of the world. You trust in your own efforts to appease God for your sins and to win His heart. Yet you are a poor, worthless, corrupt creature — and still you are so arrogant as to take on the very work that the only begotten Son of God came to earth to do, the work He became man to qualify Himself for, the work for which God spent four thousand years directing all His great providential dealings with the world — having this work chiefly in view, to make the way for Christ to come and do it. This is the work you take upon yourself, foolishly imagining yourself adequate for it — as though your prayers and other religious performances are excellent enough for the purpose. Consider what a vain opinion you hold of yourself. How does such arrogance appear in the sight of Christ — for whom it cost so much to purchase salvation, who could not obtain it even at the price of anything less than wading through a sea of blood and passing through the furnace of God's wrath. And how foolish your arrogance must appear to God, when He sees you imagining yourself sufficient, and your corrupt, worthless performances adequate for accomplishing what His own Son required the labor of ages of world history to prepare the way for.

2. If your own righteousness were actually a valid ground for trust, then everything Christ did to purchase salvation, and everything God did from the fall of man to that point to prepare the way for it, would be pointless. Your self-righteousness charges God with the greatest foolishness — as though He did all of that for nothing, so unnecessarily that you alone, a little worm with your poor, corrupt prayers and your meager religious efforts mixed with all their hypocrisy and filthiness, are sufficient to accomplish for yourself what required Christ's sacrifice. For if you can appease God's anger and commend yourself to God by these means, then you have no need of Christ at all — and He died for nothing. Galatians 2:21: 'If righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died needlessly.'

If you can accomplish this through your prayers and good works, then Christ could have spared Himself the effort — spared His blood, remained in the bosom of His Father without coming down into this world to be despised, reproached, and persecuted to death. God would not have needed to be so occupied for four thousand years, bringing about so many changes in the state of the world, in order to accomplish something that you — as small as you are — can apparently manage in a few days with nothing more than a handful of sighs, groans, prayers, and religious performances. Consider: what greater charge of foolishness could you lay against God than this — that He did all those things before and after Christ came into the world so needlessly? When instead of all that, He could simply have called on you and handed the business over to you, which you apparently think you can handle so easily.

How blind are people in their natural condition! How foolish are the thoughts they have about things — and especially how vain are the thoughts they have about themselves! How ignorant they are of their own smallness and corruption! How they lift themselves up to heaven! What great things they presume to claim for themselves!

3. Those who trust in their own righteousness are claiming the honor of the greatest thing God Himself ever did — not merely as if they were capable of performing divine works or accomplishing some great work of God, but in their pride they are not satisfied with anything less than taking on the very greatest work God ever performed: the work of redemption. You can see how God's works of providence are greater than His works of creation, and that all of God's providential works from the beginning of human history were aimed at one thing: making the way for the purchasing of redemption. But this is what you are taking upon yourself. To take on working out your own redemption is a greater thing than if you had taken it upon yourself to create a universe. Imagine what a spectacle you would make — a poor worm trying seriously to create the kind of world God created — swelling with pride, dressing yourself in majesty, presuming to speak a word of power and call a universe into being from nothing, proceeding in order: 'Let there be light; let there be a firmament,' and so on. But then recognize: in attempting to work out your own redemption, you are attempting something even greater than that — and you are serious about it, cannot be talked out of it, keep striving at it, and are filled with confidence that you are sufficient for it, always full of hope that you will accomplish it.

You are taking on the very greatest and most difficult part of this work — the purchasing of redemption. Christ can accomplish other parts of this work without great cost or difficulty. But this part cost Him His life, along with countless labors and pains, and great disgrace and contempt besides. Yet this is the very part that self-righteous people attempt to accomplish for themselves. If all the angels in heaven had been sufficient for this work, would God have undertaken all the great preparatory work He did before sending His Son into the world? And would He ever have sent His own Son — the Creator and Lord of the angels — into the world to do and suffer what He did?

What self-righteous people claim for themselves is the same work Christ was doing in His agony and bloody sweat, and when He died on the cross — the greatest thing angels ever witnessed. Yet they imagine they can accomplish with their religious efforts the same thing Christ accomplished through those sufferings. Self-righteousness in effect treats Christ's offering Himself in those sufferings as the greatest act of folly ever witnessed by men or angels, rather than as the most glorious display of divine wisdom and grace ever seen. Indeed, self-righteousness renders everything Christ did throughout His entire life — everything He said and suffered — along with His incarnation itself, and not only that but everything God had been doing through the great dispensations of His providence from the beginning of the world up to that time — as nothing but a display of wild, extreme, and boundless foolishness.

Is it any wonder, then, that the self-righteous spirit is so consistently portrayed in Scripture as the most deadly thing for a person's soul? Is it any wonder that Christ is shown in Scripture to be so provoked by the Pharisees and others who trusted in their own righteousness, were proud of their goodness, and thought their own performances were a worthy price for God's favor and love?

Let this be a warning against a self-righteous spirit. If you are seeking your salvation and making efforts in religion, be careful that you do not trust in what you do. Guard against thoughts like these: that God, seeing how much you have reformed, how hard you are trying in religion, how moved you sometimes are — will be appeased about your sins on that account, or will not be as angry about your past sins because of it. Do not think that you can gain ground with God through such things, or draw Him to show you mercy — or that at least God ought to accept what you do as sufficient reason to forgive you and be merciful. If you think God is obligated to respond to your efforts, and that He is unjust if He disregards your prayers and pains — if you quarrel with God and complain that He is not doing what He should — this reveals what you truly think of your own righteousness: that it is a worthy price of salvation and ought to be accepted by God as such. Complaining about God and quarreling with Him for not taking more notice of your righteousness makes plain that you are guilty of all the arrogance described above — imagining yourself capable of paying the price of your own salvation.

3. What has been said also rebukes those who carelessly neglect the salvation of Christ — those who live in a kind of spiritual numbness, neglecting the work of religion and the state of their own souls. They take no steps to gain an interest in Christ, or in what He has done and suffered, or any share in the glorious salvation He purchased at such great cost. Instead their minds are occupied with worldly gain or the pleasures and diversions of youth, and they treat lightly whatever they hear from time to time about Christ's salvation, not even troubling themselves to seek it. Let me press you on this with some pointed questions.

1. So many prophets, kings, and godly people had their minds deeply occupied with the prospect of a salvation to be purchased long after their deaths — and will you neglect it now that it has actually been accomplished? You have heard how much the church throughout every age valued the coming redemption of Christ — how joyfully they anticipated it, how earnestly they spoke of it, how they studied and searched into these things, how they sang joyful songs with hearts deeply engaged — and all this without ever expecting to see it happen, knowing it would not come until ages after their deaths, as 1 Peter 1:11-12 indicates. How much did Isaiah, Daniel, and the other prophets speak about this redemption! How deeply engaged were their hearts, how fixed their attention and study on it! How much was David's mind taken up with this subject! He declared it was all his salvation and all his desire — 2 Samuel 23:5. How he poured out his voice and his harp in celebrating it and the wonderful display of divine grace it would bring! And all this while it had not yet happened — they could only see it as something to be fulfilled long after their own day. How Abraham and the other patriarchs rejoiced in the prospect of Christ's day and the redemption He would purchase! Even the saints before Christ's coming were moved and lifted up in anticipation of this glorious event, though it was then far in the future and had been revealed to them only dimly and obscurely.

Now these very things are declared to you as already fulfilled. Everything the church joyfully prophesied about has now come to pass, and you have been thoroughly shown how it was accomplished. Matthew 13:17: 'Truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.' And yet, with all these things so fully set before you as already accomplished — how lightly you treat them! How little do you take notice of them! How indifferent you are, busy with other things and not even feeling any concern about them! Your sin is greatly magnified in the sight of God. God has given you a far greater advantage for your eternal salvation than those saints of old ever enjoyed. He has placed you under a more glorious dispensation, given you a clearer revelation of Christ and His salvation — and yet you neglect all these advantages and go on carelessly, as though nothing had been done, as though no such offer had ever been made to you.

2. The angels have been so deeply engaged about this salvation through Christ since the fall of man — even though it is not for them — and will you, who need it and have it offered to you, remain so careless about it? You have heard how the angels were placed under Christ as Mediator from the beginning, and how they have served throughout as ministering spirits in this great work. In all the remarkable providential events you have heard about since the beginning of the world, they have been active and engaged as a flame of fire — serving as ministering spirits to carry out this great work of redemption. When Christ came, how absorbed were their minds in it! They came to Zechariah to announce the coming of Christ's forerunner. They came to the Virgin Mary to announce the approaching birth of Christ, the newborn Savior, and to point out the means of safety for Him. How engaged were they at the time of Christ's birth! The entire multitude of the heavenly host sang praises on that occasion, saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.' Afterward they ministered to Christ on earth again and again — at His temptation, at His agony in the garden, at His resurrection, and at His ascension. All of this shows how deeply engaged they were in this work. Scripture tells us that they long to look into these things, as 1 Peter 1:12 says: 'Things into which angels long to look.' In Revelation they are shown in heaven continually singing praises to Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Now — shall these take such notice of this redemption and its purchaser, when they need it not for themselves and have no direct share or offer in it — while you, to whom it is freely offered and who are in desperate need of it, neglect and ignore it?

3. Was the purchasing of this salvation worth such labor and suffering on Christ's part — and is it not worth some effort on your part to seek it? Was it something of such great importance that sinners should be saved — important enough to weigh so heavily on Christ's heart that it led Him to become a man, to endure contempt and labor and death itself to secure it, even though He had no personal need, could gain no addition to His eternal happiness, could get nothing from those He saved, and had no need of them at all? Was it so important that sinners should be saved that He could rightly be moved to stoop to such humiliation and suffering — and yet is it not worth your while to earnestly seek your share in it? You are one of those very sinners who needs this salvation, and you will perish forever without it. It has already been procured. Everything is ready.

4. Shall the great God be so concerned about this salvation that He repeatedly overturned the world to make way for it — and when all is done, is it not worth your seeking after? How the Lord of heaven and earth has been engaged in this work! What great and wonderful things He has done from one age to the next — removing kings and setting up kings, raising up a great number of prophets, separating a distinct nation from the rest of the world, overthrowing one nation and kingdom after another, and repeatedly overturning the state of the world. For forty centuries in succession He continued bringing about one change and revolution after another, all to prepare the way for the securing of salvation. And after all that — after the great Savior finally comes at the end of those ages, becomes incarnate, passes through a long series of contempt and suffering, and then endures all the waves and billows of God's wrath for human sin until His soul was overwhelmed — after all this has been done to provide salvation for sinners, is it not worthy of your attention or concern? Are you so indifferent that it can be tossed aside and treated as nothing compared to worldly profit, fine clothing, youthful entertainment, and other such trivial things — even though you are exactly the person who needs this salvation?

How I wish that those who live in neglect of this salvation would consider what they are doing! Everything you have heard on this subject makes plain the force of the apostle's cry in Hebrews 2:3: 'How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?' And in Acts 13:41: 'Take heed, you scoffers, and marvel and perish; for I am accomplishing a work in your days, a work which you will never believe, though someone should describe it to you.' God regards people like you as great enemies of the cross of Christ — opponents and despisers of all the glory of this great work. If God has placed such value on the glory of salvation that He destroyed many nations and overturned the whole world to prepare the way for the glory of His Son — how little account will He make of the lives and souls of ten thousand impenitent despisers like you, when He comes and finds that your welfare stands in the way of that glory? You will be shattered like a clay pot and trampled like mud in the street. God may, through remarkable patience, endure hardened and careless sinners for a time — but He will not long tolerate such despisers of His dear Son and His great salvation, whose glory He has cared about so deeply, before He utterly destroys them without remedy or mercy.