Consider, 1.  Thou makest light of Him that made not light of thee who deserve it.  Thou wast worthy of nothing but contempt.  As a man, what art thou but a worm to God?  As a sinner, thou art far viler than a toad:  yet Christ was so far from making light of thee and thy happiness, that He came down into the flesh, and lived a life of suffering, and offered Himself a sacrifice to the justice which thou hadst provoked, that thy miserable soul might have a remedy.  It is no less than miracles of love and mercy that He hath showed to us; and yet shall we slight them after all?

Angels admire them, whom they less concern, and shall redeemed sinners make light of them?  What barbarous, yea, devilish—­yea, worse than devilish—­ingratitude is this!  The devils never had a savior offered to them; but thou hast, and dost thou yet make light of Him?

2.  Consider, the work of man’s salvation by Jesus Christ is the masterpiece of all the works of God, wherein He would have His love and mercy to be magnified.  As the creation declareth.  His goodness and power, so doth redemption His goodness and mercy; He hath contrived the very frame of His worship so that it shall much consist in the magnifying of this work; and, after all this, will you make light of it?  “His name is wonderful.”  “He did the work that none could do.”  “Greater love could none show than His.”  How great was the evil and misery that He delivered us from! the good procured from us!  All are wonders, from His birth to His ascension; from our new birth to our glorification, all are wonders of matchless mercy—­and yet do you make light of them?

3.  You make light of matters of greatest excellency and moment in the world:  you know not what it is that you slight:  had you well known, you would not have done it.  As Christ said to the woman of Samaria, “Hadst thou known who it is that speaketh to thee, thou wouldst have asked of Him the waters of life”; had they known they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory.  So, had you known what Christ is, you would not have made light of Him; had you been one day in heaven, and but seen what they possess, and seen also what miserable souls must endure that are shut out, you would never sure have made so light of Christ.

O sirs, it is no trifles or jesting matters that the gospel speaks of.  I must needs profess to you that when I have the most serious thoughts of these things myself, I am ready to marvel that such amazing matters do not overwhelm the souls of men; that the greatness of the subject doth not so overmatch our understandings and affections as even to drive men besides themselves, but that God hath always somewhat allayed it by the distance; much more that men should be so blockish as to make light of them.  O Lord, that men did but know what everlasting glory and everlasting torments are:  would they then hear us as they do? would they read and think of these things as they do?  I profess I have been ready to wonder, when