1676 PURITAN UNPUBLISHED MSs. 236pp Volume of Red-Hot Judgment Sermons

A superb, unpublished and unresearched 236pp manuscript volume of rather intense, often eschatologically toned sermons preached between 1676 and 1708. One gets the feeling of a Richard Baxter or other experimental puritans. 

Subjects include a series of sermons on Paul before Felix and the missionary necessity and appropriateness of the imminent judgment of God in preaching; this is followed up be a pair of rather threatening sermons on the Rich Man and Lazarus and the famed, "What shall it profit a man . . ." text; and rounded on by a series of sermons on the peace and love of Christ in the Gospel and on the baptism of the Holy Ghost in Acts 2.

The ecclesiastical tribe of our author is not immediately evident, but his preaching follows the later experimental puritan narrative model, especially the conversion thinking of Joseph Alleine, Richard Baxter, etc.,  . . . a penetrating, emotionally devastating view of personal sinfulness as the set up for an equally impactful and expansive view of the love of God in Christ. Therin lies the whole Christian life . . . in the proper experience and expression of this story. It is the same we see again in the Great Awakening, i.e. George Whitefield's call to hear the thunder of Sinai before the forgiveness of Calvary, etc. 

The sermons themselves, of which there are 13 complete and two which are nearly complete, were preached almost entirely in communities situated between the three larger cities of Newark-on-Trent, Grantham, and Nottingham. Docketed after each sermon are locations, including Sibthorpe, Elston [spelled both Elson and Elston] Claypole, Staunton [Near Kilvington], Coddington, Hawton, etc.

The sermons include:

16pp complete sermon on Acts 2.2-4 “And when ye day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all ye house where they were sitting and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire & it sat upon each of them and they were filled with the holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

. . . not upon them and in them only, but upon us also if our souls be fitted for the receiving of so honorable a guest. Upon them indeed in visible form. But upon us also in invisible favors, leading us into all truth & teaching us all things that are necessary for us to learn . . .

. . . there is one body and one Spirit even as you are called in one hope of your calling and one Lord and faith and Baptism and one God and Father of all, who is above all, through all, and in you all, but being most together and of one mind and of one accord the Holy Ghost descended on them and they were all of one heart and of one soul. We may see from here by what spirit those are of that divide themselves schismatically and separate themselves . . . .not certainly of the Spirit of God, who is love and maketh men unanimous in one house. But the spirit of the devil and lusts of the flesh, engendering strife, debate, emulation, contradictions, sedition, heresies, and for as the spirit of man doth not quicken any member separate from the body . . . so as the dry bones which Ezekiel saw in the fields had no life in the till they were gathered together, bone to his bone, so the Spirit of God doth not animate, quicken, and comfort those who cut off and divide themselves from Christ’s mystical body and have no communion with his members . . . behold how good and how pleasant a thing it is for brethren to live together in unity, for they and they only enjoy consolation in Christ and the fellowship of his Spirit . . .

. . . There appeared coven tongues like as of fire and it sat upon each of them as no natural wind, so no real natural fire, but cloven tongues as of fire, tongues to show they were not to continue to one language, but in all languages, enable to show forth the great and wonderful works of God. And cloven tongues as of fire to show forth the burning zeal which every Christian should have towards the words of God, boldly & cheerfully to profess the truth in the face of the whole world and in defiance of all the opposition that shall be made against it. If Christ had given his Apostles only cloven tongues and not fiery, then they should have been full of knowledge, but void of zeal. And again, if fiery tongues and not cloven, they should have abounded with zeal, but not with knowledge . . .that every faithful Christian, especially such as are set apart to the work and labor of the ministry might be perfect and furnished to all good works . . .

. . . some interpreters are of the opinion that the Apostles spake the words but of one language only but that the people of several languages and nations under heaven, then by the great working of god, [though] they spake with ne tongue, but many languages were heard. But if this is so, then the miracle was in the hearing and not in the Apostles and to what ends were those cloven tongues if by them the Lord had not signified that he had given to his disciples all languages for all lands that in every language the gospel might be preached and all people show forth the praises of their God . . .

Etc.

20pp complete sermon on Acts 24.25, “And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgement to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time, when I have a convenient season I will send for thee.” [On the Judgment of Christ]

. . . temperance, that is chastity continence, it probably signifies that virtue by which we do contain and moderate our appetites and lusts and suffer them not to go beyond the due and lawful limits, that is the enjoyment of the prosecution of the outward pleasures of the flesh. That we restrain ourselves, neither do we pollute our souls and bodies with any irregular disordered and sinful lust and so in respect of meats and drinks it is called sobriety; a moderation in the use of them and in respect of carnal lusts, all immoderate and unlawful use of Chastity . . .

. . . she forsook him her lawful husband and married Felix the governor of Judea, living with him from her own husband in a shameful adulterous manner. And for Felix, besides his adultery, keeping as you now hear another man’s wife, his mistress, etc., . . .

. . .the manner of our preaching is that such that will not be drawn with the cords of love, they should be terrified with the sword of judgment . . . is there not reason my beloved, that they whom the sweet promises and comforts of the gospel will not allure should be terrified with the threatenings of the law. If mercy and the remembrance of a Savior and the hopes of heaven cannot invite the amendment of life, can it be any whit unreasonable to constrain them to it but putting them in mind of justice and the judge and judgement and hell torments. Remember, I beseech you the judgement to come, think that though it be possible for your to hear, to blind the eyes of men, and pervert the course of justice and escape all punishment for your sins, yet so always it will not be. A judge shall come and a great assize there shall be wherein we all shall give account for all that we have done. A severe impartial judge . . .

. . . O eternal, just, and all discerning Judge in thy self glorious, in thy son gracious, who try without a witness and condemnest without a jury, o we confess our very actions have betrayed us. They word hath brought evidence against us. Our own consciences have witnessed against us. And thy judgments hath passed sentence against us. And what have we now to plead, but our own misery and whether should that misery flee, but to the God of mercy, etc. . . .

16pp.complete sermon on Acts 24.25, “And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgement to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time, when I have a convenient season I will send for thee.” [On the Judgment of Christ, cont’d.]

. . . you heard last day the subject on matter of St. Paul’s discourse or sermon before Felix and therein was a notice not only of St. Paul’s boldness and constancy in preaching the truth, that being himself a prisoner and in bonds, yet he was not afraid to put Felix his judge on trial . . . minding him of the dangers that did attend him, namely eternal damnation, at the day of Judgment if he persisted in that neglect, but also his prudence that he did accommodate and suit his discourse to the pleasant condition and quality of his auditors . . .

. . . and how many poor souls that for a long time have gone on carelessly and securely in the ways of sin, as if no evil, no danger, did attend them, yet when their consciences being awakened, how represented to their memory the foulness of their sins. They have not only, as Felix, here quaked and trembled for fear, but falling into despair through the horror of conscience, have become their own executioners and with all means, some by languishing, some by drowning, some by stabbing themselves, destroying themselves eternally. Talk not of the terribleness of the day of judgment now preached . . . for what more terrible can there be then that day when the Lord shall come with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment on all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, etc. . . .

20pp complete sermon on Acts 24.25, “And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgement to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time, when I have a convenient season I will send for thee.” [On the Judgment of Christ, cont’d.]

This appears to have been a sermon he utilized over and again, including preaching it at additional locations. It is an earnest and urgent call for immediate repentance, arguing point after point why delay, a presumption of later repentance, etc., is inadvisable.

. . . the longer Satan hath had possession of our souls, the more hardly will he be cast out, for long possession seems to give him a right to us and with all might he will strive to maintain his right . . .

. . . as the strength of sin will increase so the practice of godliness and virtue will grow more and more irksome and we ourselves more disabled to repentance. For as the longer any sickness continues the more it weakens the body and more unfit it makes it for any work or action, so the longer sin, the soul’s sickness hath seized on us, the more would it make us unable to perform any good, virtuous action . . .

. . . deathbed repentance is often unsound . . . for though our intention were before our sines to repent truly then, yet our distemper and distractions may hinder us. For sufficient that time is the evil thereof and the reason is for our own sins, the hands of God being upon them, they promise if God will be pleased to restore them what manner of men they will be, in all godliness and honest. But when they are recovered they return to their vanity and their old sins, etc. . . [can such repentance save?] It is high time to repent now, put it off not another day. He knocketh at the doors of our hearts, desiring to enter, that he may dwell in us by his Holy Spirit. And if we refuse to let him in, how know we that he will ever knock again. If he does not, what gain we by the pleasures of sin for a seasons and in the end eternal death? . . .

17pp complete sermon on Luke 9.25, “For what is a man advantaged if he gain the whole world and lose himself or be cast away?

16pp complete sermon on Luke 16.26, “Son, remember that thou in thy life time received they good things, but now he is comforted and thou are tormented.” [Rich Man and Lazarus]

16pp complete sermon on Acts 21.14, “The will of the Lord be done.” [On the faithful persecuted for Christ.]

18pp complete sermon on Acts 21.14, “The will of the Lord be done.” [On the faithful persecuted for Christ, cont’d.]

14pp complete sermon on Romans 14.9, “For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord, both of the dead and living.”

18pp sacramental complete sermon on John 14.27, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you, let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

13pp complete sermon on Mark 10.15, “Verily I say unto you whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.”

16pp complete sermon on Luke 8.47, “Wherefore I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much.”

16pp complete sermon on Luke 8.47, “Wherefore I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much.” [Cont’d]

Plus two partial sermons. All housed in a fine original plain calf binding.