TO THE

CONGREGATION AT ST. SEPULCHRE’S,

THAT WERE THE

AUDITORS OF THESE SERMONS,

GRACE AND PEACE BE MULTIPLIED.

Beloved,

WHAT the meaning of that providence was, that called me to the occupation of my talent amongst 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 bringeth forth one or the 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, xxin the great day of Jesus Christ. Yet this the Lord knoweth, 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.” The same word is elsewhere in Scripture rendered “barrenness;” He “turneth a fruitful land into barrenness;”—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 said, with certainty, that the gospel inflicteth a death of its own, as well as the law; or else how are those trees in Jude said to be twice dead, and plucked up by the roots.” Yea, 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 with which the bowels of God could bless a perishing world; whose coming, himself bearing witness, was on no less an errand than that of eternal life and blessedness to the lost and cursed sons of Adam; yet to how many was he a “stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence;” yea, “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 xxito many professors to this very day, upon which they fall and are broken? When he saith, “Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me,” he therein plainly supposes, 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 wilful refusal whereof will as surely double our damnation, as the acceptance thereof will secure our eternal salvation.

O 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 soul-seasons of grace are entertained; this being taken into the consideration to give it weight, that we are the nearer to heaven or 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 those that profess Christ is greater than the number of those that truly close with Christ.

Beloved, I know the preaching of the gospel hath proselyted many of you into a profession; but I fear xxiithat 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 for your precious souls. Most men are good Christians in the verdict of their own opinion; but you know the law alloweth no man to be a witness in his own case, because their affection usually overreacheth conscience, and self-love deceiveth truth for its own interest.

The heart of man is the greatest impostor and cheat in the world; God himself states it—“The heart is deceitful above all things.” Some of the deceits thereof you will find discovered in this Treatise, which shows you, that every grace hath its counterfeit, and that the highest profession may be, where true conversion is not.

The design of it is not to “break the bruised reed, nor to quench the smoking flax.” Not to discourage the weakest believer, but to awaken formal professors. I would not sadden the hearts of any “whom God would not have made sad;” though I know it is hard to expose the dangerous state 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, so I purposed 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 what entertainment soever 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 promise to be your remembrancer at the throne of grace, whilst I am

MATTHEW MEAD.