Page:The rock of wisdom.djvu/29

 under his banner and fight the good fight of faith, if we perform our duty well as officers under his command, if we overcome the enemies of our souls and of his church, our happiness will be complete, but how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, Heb. 2 c. 5 v. these remarks from different authors might be considered correct according to scripture, Christ is my only author for Jesus Christ will crown all them who believe on him with an everlasting crown, for I take notice of two sorts of crowns a regal or imperial crown and a crown of victory, this last is to be understood in this place as it was customary among the ancients, to crown a hero after a victorious campaign, this crown was not only a badge of high honor it also conferred a dignity and privileges which the conqueror enjoyed in preference to his fellow citizens, but these were only perishable crowns on earthly privileges, the Lord Jesus promised a crown of life with the privileges of immortality in his everlasting kingdom, and his peculiar favor is here offered to the gospel minister as the reward of being faithful until death, these perogations are not merely citizenship in heaven, but titles to large possessions, peculiar favor on spiritual employment in the most important concerns in Christ's kingdom; prayer is now the great object of all our comfort, God bearing witness unto us both with signs and wonders, this is the great question, how shall we get to heaven? how shall we escape hell? that awful lake of hell fire! and how shall we escape that dark place of purgatory, which has been a wonder to our world, which men have been called upon to flee from that place, and I never have seen the man as yet that could give me the laws of it, I think it would be right for us to be acquainted with the laws before we go there, if there is such a place, or else we might be sadly disappointed, for I think according to scripture all the purgatory men will find, is where the rich man lifted up his eyes, I know of no other place in the bible, where there is no law given there is no violation, that is well known to all intelligent men, for our father Adam did not violate the law before it was given unto him, but after the law was given he made a violation of that law, and then he found himself condemned, and when called on by the Almighty he made his public excuse, and said the woman that thou hast