To the Congregation at Sepulchres That Were the Auditors of These Sermons

Beloved,

What the meaning of that providence was that called me to the occupation of my Talent among you this Summer, will be best read and understood by the effects of it upon your own souls: the kindly increase of grace and holiness in heart and life, can only prove it to have been in mercy: where this is not the fruit of the word, there it becomes a judgment. The word travels with life or death, salvation or damnation, and brings forth one or other in every soul that hears it; I would not for a world (were it in my power to make the choice) that my labors, which were meant and designed for the promotion of your immortal souls, to the glory of the other World, in a present pursuance of the things of your peace, should be found to have been a ministration of death and condemnation, in the great day of Jesus Christ. Yet this (the Lord knows) is the too common effect of the most plain and powerful preaching of the Gospel: the waters of the sanctuary do not always heal where they come, for there are miry and marshy places that shall be given to salt (Ezekiel 47:11). The same word is elsewhere in Scripture rendered barrenness: he turns a faithful land into barrenness (Psalm 107:34), so that the judgment denounced upon these miry and marshy places is that the curse of barrenness shall rest upon them, notwithstanding the waters of the sanctuary overflow them.

It is sad but certain, that the Gospel inflicts a death of its own as well as the Law; or else how are those trees in Jude, said to be twice dead, plucked up by the roots (Jude 12)? Indeed, that which in itself is the greatest mercy, through the interposition of men's lusts, and the efficacy of this cursed sin of unbelief, turns to the greatest judgment, as the richest and most generous wine makes the sharpest vinegar. Our Lord Christ himself, the choicest mercy that the bowels of a God could bless a perishing world with, whose coming (himself bearing witness) was on no less errand than that of eternal life and blessedness to the lost and cursed sons of Adam (John 3:16; John 10:10); yet to how many was he a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense (Isaiah 8:14); indeed, a gin and a snare, and that to both the houses of Israel, the only professing people of God at that day, in the world. And is he not a stone of stumbling in the ministry of the Gospel to many professors to this very day, upon which they fall and are broken? When he says, blessed is he whoever shall not be offended in me (Matthew 11:6), he does therein plainly suppose that both in his person and doctrine the generality of men would be offended in him.

Not that this is the design of Christ and the Gospel, but it comes so to pass through the corruptions of the hearts of men whereby they make light of Christ, and stand out against that life and grace which the Lord Jesus by his blood so dearly purchased, and is by the preaching of the Gospel so freely tendered; the willful refusal whereof will as surely double our damnation, as the acceptance thereof will secure our eternal salvation.

Oh, consider it is a thing of the most serious concern in the world, how we carry ourselves under the Gospel, and with what dispositions and affections of heart and soul, seasons of grace are entertained; this being taken into the consideration to make it weighty, that we are the nearer to heaven or to hell, to salvation or damnation, by every ordinance we sit under: boast not therefore of privileges enjoyed with neglect of the important duties thereby required. Remember Capernaum's case and tremble; as many go to heaven by the very gates of hell, so more go to hell by the gates of heaven, in that the number of them that profess Christ is greater than the number of them that truly close with Christ (Matthew 11:23).

Beloved, I know the preaching of the Gospel has proselyted many of you into a profession; but I fear that but few of you are brought by it to a true close with the Lord Christ for salvation (I beseech you bear with my jealousy, for it is the fruit of a tender love to your precious souls): most men are good Christians in the verdict of their own opinion, but you know the law allows no man to be a witness in his own case, because their affection usually out-acts conscience, and self-love balks truth for its own interest.

The heart of man is the greatest impostor and cheat in the world; God himself [reconstructed: adjudges] it (Jeremiah 17:9): the heart is deceitful above all things. Some of the deceits of which you will find discovered in this treatise, which shows you that every grace has its counterfeit, and that the highest profession may be where true conversion is not.

The design hereof is not to break the bruised reed, nor to quench the smoking flax (Matthew 12:20), not to discourage the weakest believer, but to awaken formal professors. I would not sadden the heart of any, whom God would not have made sad (Ezekiel 13:22), though I know it is hard to rip up the dangerous estate and condition of a professing hypocrite, but that the weak Christian will think himself concerned in the discovery. And therefore as I preached a sermon on sincerity, among you, for the support and encouragement of such, at the end of this: so I did purpose to have printed it with this, but who can be master of his own purposes, that is (as I am) under such daily variety of providences; your kindly acceptance of this, will make me a debtor for that.

The dedication hereof belongs to you on a double account, for as it had not been preached, but that love to your souls caused it, so it had much less been printed but that your importunate desire procured it: and therefore whatever entertainment it finds in the world, yet I hope I may expect you will welcome it, especially considering it was born under your roof, and therefore hopes to find favor in your eyes, and room in your hearts.

Accept it I beseech you, as a public acknowledgment of the engagements which your great and (I think I may say) unparalleled respects have laid me under, which I can no way compensate, but by my prayers, and if you will take them for satisfaction I do promise to be your remembrancer at the throne of grace, while I am

Matthew Meade.