THE Worm that Dyeth not OR HELL TORMENTS In The CERTAINTY AND ETERNITY of Them Plainly Discovered in several Sermons Preached on Mark Chap. the 9th and the 48. v. By that Painful and Laborious Minister of the Gospel William Strong And now published by his own Notes as a means to deter from Sin and to stir up to Mortification LONDON Printed by T. R. and M. D. and are to be sold by Fra. Titon at the three Daggers in Fleet-street 1672. GOOD READER A Discourse of Hell cannot be unprofitable and unseasonable in an age wherein many deny the eternal recompenses others live as if they did not believe them yea among those that take on a stricter form of living many carry it on with such coldness and deadness that their conversations no way look like a flight from wrath to come or a pursuit after eternal life and therefore they need to be awakened Sermons of Hell may keep many out of Hell yea it concerneth the best and most serious to know what wrath they have escaped to quicken their thankfulness for that they are as brands plucked out of the burning As it heightned the sence of their deliverance to the Israelites when they looked back and saw the Egyptians tumbling in the waters of the Red-Sea which they passed through without harm surely they that cannot endure to hear of Hell or read of Hell discover too much of the guilt and security of their own hearts presumption is a coward and a run-away but Faith supposeth the worst Psal 23.4 and so encountreth its enemy in the open fields if the torments prepared for the disobedient and impenitent be so â—orrible and grievous we all need to be more srious in settling our eâ—erâ—â—â— interests upon a sure bottom and fâ—undation and to learn that holy mixture of serving God with fear and rejoycing with trembling and so to take sanctuary at the Lords Grace and enter our selves heirs to the priviledges of the Gospel that our claim may never be disproved nor our hope leave us ashamed This is the design of these Sermons of the reverend Author which were transcribed from his own Notes not indeed prepared for the Press but the Pulpit and if they want any thing of that accuracy which might be expected from one so able in the work of the Ministry The Candid Reader will distinguish between what is intended to be spoken to one Auditory and written to the World and how much is reserved to be uttered on the suddain in the heat and vigour of speaking for enlivening and polishment on such occasions What is left was conceived useful and therefore put into thy hands The Blessing of God Almighty go along with it and sanctifie it to thy Soul which is the hearty Prayer of thy Servants in the Lords Work Tho. Manton J. Rowe MARK 9.48 Where their Worm dyeth not and the Fire is not quenched MY purpose is to break up those Treasures of wrath which God hath reserved for his enemies Psal 90.11 Ephes 3.19 which not only passeth knowledge but also fear his love to his People passeth knowledge his wrath to his enemies passeth fear a full discovery by me you cannot expect seeing it passeth knowledge and answerable affections in you I cannot expect to the utmost seeing that it passeth fear but if it may be a means to deter you from sin and a motive unto mortification I shall have my end in the discourse as Christ his end in the exhortation The words are to be considered either respective in reference unto what goes before and so we see them several times repeated to press the duty of mortification of a mans dearest darling Lust his most pleasant and most profitable sin that sin is resembled unto a body in Scripture is clear Rom. 7 4. the body of sin and the body of death and that some sins are in this body â—s the right hand and the right eye is as clear also called a mans sweet morsel his own iniquity the peccatum in deliciis the right eye is in the body the dearest and the right hand is most usefull serviceable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 profitable and advantageous to the body but if it be a stumbling block to thee and cause thee to offend God and forsake the way of his obedience then cut it off pluck it out it is a hyperbolical expression Sic animo tuo comparatus esto though thou do not actually yet intentionally and in thy purpose and resolution of heart part with what is dearest to thee then that it should be a means or an occasion of sin unto thee and the reason it given better enter into life maimed that is though thou think'st if thou part with such a lust thou shouldest live uncomfortably and be as a maimed and but half a man all thy days yet in common reason the whole is better than any part therefore better suffer the excision of a member than the dissolution of the body in your own judgement and the judgement of the World be counted imperfect men all your days rather than suffer the destruction of the body and soul in Hell Hence we are to learn First that whatever is near and dear unto a man if it be an occasion of his sin either to hinder from duty in omission or to provoke unto any lust by way of commission a man is to reject it with ind gnation pluck it out â—ut it off cast it from him The dearest thing must be parted with either as a snare or as a sacrifice Secondly Even Gods own people may have some dear pleasant and profitable lusts right hands to be cut off and right eyes to be plucked out Thridly If they should part with them they may look upon themselves and the World may count them as maimed men but Fourthly though they may seem so to themselves and the World to judge of them yet it is their best course that they could take Fifthly The good and evill of all things is to be judged by the end and issue of it i'ts better because thou enterest into life and it 's worse because keeping them thou wilt indanger body and soul in hell Sixthly Legal motives are of use even to the regenerated and therefore Christians may use them and not be legal Christians indeed the more ingenious services are the better and the more freely and readily the heart comes off from sin upon the principles of the Gospel and performes duty from a spirit of love fearing the Lord and his goodness obeying from a cord of love and thankfulness the love of Christ constraining But yet this will work no longer than grace hath the upper hand and if corruption prevail to call in these helps is not only lawfull but necessary But to come to the words of my Text They are a description of that destruction that keeping a right hand or a right eye that offends a man will bring upon him It is destruction in hell even of
are evil and the false reasonings of sin in the Conscience the man cannot see men are given over to believe the lyes of their own spirits and cannot say is there not a lye in my right hand and a seared Conscience with a hot Iron that man despises the threatning and judgment of God 1 Tim. 4.9 and is wholly insensible as seared flesh And all this defilement is not brought into the Conscience from without but grows out of it by custome in sinning And the ground of it is because Conscience is the highest faculty and has the highest office in the man and therefore it is by corruption of the Conscience that all the rest of the faculties are so exceedingly corrupted as they are because Conscience doth not its duty and therefore God will mainly lay load upon the Conscience after this life as this had the main hand in defiling the man so it shall be the great instrument in tormenting the man for could men walk on in sin as they do if Conscience did its duty if it did instruct suggest accuse truly as in the name of God and never excuse but upon grounds from the judgment that God gives of things c. The great pollution of the whole soul flows from the pollution of the Conscience and therefore when the Papists do crowd down the defilement of the soul unto the inferiour faculties the affections and passions as if they were the sink of the soul and all the filthiness were swept down upon them but as for the understanding the will they are in a great measure free the Mistress or Lady in the soul and if a light be brought into the understanding the will has a power to follow and so say the Arminians also and it is a doctrine that spreads much amongst us so when you hear Divines say that of all the faculties the Conscience is the least polluted take heed of it for the main filthiness of thy soul lyes there And the reason that is commonly given is because Conscience in the worst men doth many times take part with God against sin when Lust carries a man and his will is very violently bent upon it but consider in an unregenerate man this doth not proceed from the purity of his Conscience even at that time when it doth take part with God but because there is the spirit of God comes in and stirs up Conscience and lays a command upon it and forceth it to do its duty which it would be glad to let alone and let Lust revel in it without controle it would surely gratify the affection it has to Lust but that the spirit of God comes in and over-aws the Conscience and doth awaken and terrify it and force it to speak and therefore it doth not any more argue the purity of Conscience then Balaams blessing of the people of Israel in the wilderness did argue his love to Israel whom he did earnestly desire to have cursed and did greedily follow after the wayges of unrighteousness but that the Lord held a strickt hand upon his Convcience that he durst not sin in it being over-awd but it was no thanks to Balaam And so it is here no thanks to Conscience which is corrupt and will by degrees grow insencible and incourage a man desperately in a way of sinning even to despight of the spirit of Gods grace Now How shall this defilement be purged all these dead works how shall they be cleansed It is by the blood of Christ First From the Holyness of his nature as he is our Head For by the blood of Christ is meant all his active and passive obedience and in his active obedience the holyness of his nature must be taken in as he was man he received the spirit He had a union and an unction from the free grace of the Father calling him to this great work and by a glorious sovereignty appointed Christ to be the head of his Church and the second Adam to stand in their stead to perform all for them and to receive all for them c. So he did receive the spirit as an unction from the Father Isa 42.1 I will put my spirit upon him he shall be cloathed with the Holy Ghost and put it on as a garment and this spirit he doth receive as a head that he may disperse it for the infinite holyness of the Divine nature could no more be communicated then the infinite righteousness of the Divine nature could be imputed and therefore he must perform perfect obedience in his humane nature for our justification that it may be imputed to us and he must receive perfect holiness in his humane nature for our sanctification that it may be imparted to us John 17.19 For their sakes I sanctify my self that is recieved a spirit of sanctification that it might be unto them a principle of holiness and the fountain of their sanctification also which I conceive to be meant by the Law of the spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death Rom. 8.2 What is the Law of sin and death It is the power of sin to condemnation defiling and destroying and what is the Law of the spirit of Life it is put for the powerful and commanding work of the living and the quickning spirit of Christ and this Law not as it is in us but as it is in Christ it is this that frees us both in respect of justification and of sanctification also from the law of sin to defile and rule and also to condemn and to destroy and thus from the holiness of the nature of Christ it comes to pass that the same spirit that was in him is conveyed unto us his union did abundantly sanctifie him in himself it being persoual and therefore there was an inpeccability the actus est suppositi but his unction was for us he had a fulness of the spirit as he was our surety he paid our debt and as our head so he received a spirit for us and dispenced it to us c. thus you see the sanctification of the humane nature of Christ doth purge a mans Conseience from dead works even the Law of the spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus makes us free from the Law of sin Secondly There is in the blood of Christ a causa meritoria and it doth meritoriously purge the Couscience for though there was the fulness of all grace in the humane nature of Christ yet it could never have been conveyed unto us without a satisfaction had gone before God must be satisfied that men might be sanctified for there is in the sufferings of Christ two things First The payment of a debt Secondly There is a redundancy of merit some thing must be procured for man non solum instauratus est Aust sed melioratus à peccatis ablutus instauratus est in caeteris melioratus Aust Tom. 4.9 123. p. 613. First It
sins Thirdly That all a mans comfort comes in by it Isa 40.1 says God speak comfortably to her and tell her that her fins are pardoned be of good cheer for thy sins are forgiven and Gods people many of them that walk in bitterness all their dayes and have sad hearts and they pray and their souls draw near to the grave and all this God permits that he might raise the price of pardon in their hearts when he bids them be of good cheer their sins are forgiven and then their flesh comes again as the flesh of a young child These and many the like principles of prophaness there is in the hearts of men and these being once granted they do bear a great sway with a man in his whole life Thus we have seen how to keep a pure Conscience in respect of the principles in mens hearts Now let us come to the second which is how to keep Conscience pure in respect of practise and therein two things are to be spoken to First The notes of a defiled Conscience Secondly Rules how to preserve it pure from defilement First Marks how to judge of the defilement of a mans Conscience as first when a man sins much against knowledge Tit. 1.15 and to sin against knowledge is one of the highest aggravations of sin and it makes every sin to be presumptious and qualifies a man Heb. 10.27 for the great transgression if a mans sin will fully after he has received the knowledge of the truth if you had been blind you had had no sin the Pharisees and the people committed the same sin they all persecuted Christ but the Pharisees sin'd against the Holy Ghost in it and the people did it ignorantly and repented sins that are ignorantly commited leave a door open to mercy Paul obtained mercy for I did it ignorantly in unbelief yet though he did it ignorantly there was need of mercy but because he did it ignorantly therefore there was hope of mercy there was place for mercy and the more the light is of education and example the greater the sin it is a great advantage to have good education Pro. 22.6 Train up a Child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it and so Pro. 31.1 it was that which his mother taught him and Timothy knew the Scriptures from a child and examples do aggravate sins Isa 26.10 In a Land of uprightness will he deal unjustly c. and Dan. 5. Thou Belshazzar hast not humbled thy heart though thou knowest all this to have a light within a man as well as example without to have been once enlightned and tasted of the heavenly gift and then fall away it 's impossible to renew them unto repentance for a man to turn away from professed light and cast up his vomit and lick it up again and as a washed Sow return to the myre again and after many years enquiring of God return with Saul the Witches This is a dreadfull state and such a one had better never to have known the wayes of God c. Secondly When a man resolves to reserve to himself any way of sinning Joh 20.12 Some sweet Morsell and the man hides it see it in Herod he did hear John Baptist gladly and did many things but there was a Herodias that he did reserve and was resolved he could not part with it so there is a way of wickedness that men will not turne from as there are fundamentals in faith and errours in these are most dangerous to destroy the foundation so there are some fundamentals in practise and they will subvert all and this is one of the main that a man deny himself in every known sin pluck out the right eye and cut off the right hand and there is no man that is more polluted in the sight of God than he that spares a right eye or a right hand for there is no sin that this one evil reserved will not draw him to Luke 8.13 in the time of temptation he will fall away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Herod try him in his darling and he will turn a persecutor of that way that before he professed and Judas in his covetousness turn'd Devil and betray'd his Master Thirdly When men fall often into the same sin see it in Sampson and Peter that the Lord lets them fall so fouly at the Last being insnared by carnal confidence so often and Jonas was angry again and again and justified it when a man makes a sin his meat and drink the comfort of his life comes in by it from day to day it 's a sad sign Fourthly with the more hardness of heart and with the less relenting sin is committed and the longer he can lye in it unrepented of as we see it in Judas he was told of the evil and danger of it it had been good for him if he never had been born and yet he goes out and saith What will you give me and some good men as David and Solomon yet lay long in a way of sinning the sooner a man riseth after falls and a mans heart smites him as Davids did the more pure is that mans Conscience in the sight of God to be past feeling and for men to give themselves up to uncleanness Eph. 4.19 it 's a sad sign of a sear'd Conscience 1 Tim. 4.2 c. Fifthly When a temptation takes speedily with a man John 13.27.30 Christ did give Judas a Sop which was a signal to give Satan a farther possession of him and he follows the temptation but after that he went immediately out there was no more consultation so the sooner also that motions to duty prevail with a man the more pure his Conscience is when the Lord sayes seek you my face the Soul presently answers thy face Lord will I seek the spirit sayes come and the Bride sayes come and the sooner motions to sin take with a man the more impure and defiled is his Conscience Pro. 7.23 He no sooner saw a Harlot but he went after her straight way their hearts are hot as an Oven c. Sixthly The more a man plots iniquity and dothdeliberate it before hand makes pro vision for the flesh the adulterer waits for the twy-light Rom. 13.14 and he doth lye in wait at his neighbours door when men dig deep for wayes how to accomplish that that is evil the more men exercise their wits in sin and the more devilish wisdom is in it to commit iniquity by counsell and advice is the wisdom of the flesh ingeniose nequam as Pharaoh men will destroy the just by cruelty and yet deal wisely and Julian by clemency yet deal wisely let them enjoy their liberty by corrupting them by liberty and in peace destroy them God abhors plotted wickedness and surely God will bring it to nought and confound men by it Seventhly When men watch oppertunities of sinning and be glad ofthem and be sorry
heed of some special sins that above others do most defile the Conscience though indeed all sins defile the Conscience but some sins are of a more bewitching and a more defiling nature then others as First Secret sins will provoke God to give thee up to the judgment of a defiled Conscience as he did Judas because he was a Devil Secondly Idolatry Take heed of hankering after that abomination either to worship an Idol a false god or the true God in a false manner and it is this last that you are most in danger of therefore let it not be said of any of you you know not what you worship but be able to say we know what we worship and how we worship God in spirit and truth and do not set up mans post by Gods post away with all traditious and inventions of men in the worship of God If you would keep Gods presence observe his order let all be done according to the pattern to the Law and to the Testament c. Else God may in just judgment send us strong delusions to believe lies which I fear is like to befall many of this nation who have not received the truth in ths love of it Thirdly Take heed of drunkenness and Whoredome Hos 14.12 Whoredome and Wine and new Wine Prov 2.19 take away thy heart none that go unto her return again neither take they hold of the paths of Life c. Flee fornication and be not drunk with Wine there is a woe to the drunkards c. Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge These sins besot men c. Lastly Be much in a secret judging of your selves and in a private examination Hag. 1.7 the Lord saith consider your ways and set your hearts upon them and turn in upon your actions and overlook them again bring them to the Light prove your selves and judge your selves and do it often there is a daily judicatory to be erected a cultus conscientiae which a man should be busied about every day Matt. 25.7 Then all those Virgins arose and trimmed their lamps the wise as well as the foolish c. Ego de terrenis negotiis simpliciter accipio Calv. Whilest men are in this World there is a daily defilement that will cleave unto them a squallor there will be something out of order that there must be a daily and a continual triming the wise as well as the foolish Virgins must be found in it and truely if a man neglects it but a while and keeps not a constant course in it a man shall find a strange averseness in his spirit thereunto all his life after for the way to sin's defilement is mainly by insensibleness a man is hardened by the deceitfulness of sin and walks with God at a venture and truely if Satan brings a man to that once he hath prevailed very farr and will exceedingly defile the man We have spoken of keeping a good Conscience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 towards God let us now come to consider also what it is for a man to keep a good Conscience towards man for both these must go together he must keep a good Conscience in all things as was hinted formerly and be holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a dead fly spoils the whole Box of Oyntment and a good Conscience is like to the eye it hates motes and they disquiet it as well as beams It 's an errour in the common sort of men to think all Religion lyes in their just and upright carriage towards men as the Pharisees did and to such I say doth your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the cribes and Pharisees if not you shall never enter into the Kingdom of God c. Indeed there is a civil honesty a sweet and an ingenious carriage towards men that is very lovely and these are commonly called the worlds Saints and indeed they have nothing amongst them appears so pleasing Mar. 10.21 Christ loved the young man and yet peculiar Grace he had none for he was under the reigning power of covetousness and therefore there was something in him that was more general for which Christ loved him he had restraining grace and a sweet outward carriage that even the spirit of God had wrought in him habent filii concubinarum sua munera c. and yet Christ said to him for all these accomplishments one thing thou lackest c. and if thou walk never so uprightly before men that thou be esteemed the worlds Saint and thou couldest bring a testimony of thy good behaviour from all the ingenious men of thy age yet without an inward work of grace and regeneration and a heart inlivened by a spirit of faith so that all these works flow from union with Christ and from a principle of love wrought in thee to God truly all that thou dost is abominable to God in non renatis non solum peccata sed bona opera sunt mortalia for fides est caput bonorum operum and if that be wanting all of it is but nature improved and new dressed and so can never please God semen naturae non consurgit in fructum gratiae for a mans duties do proceed from the same principles that his sins do and there must be a renewing in the spirit of his mind before God accepts any service of him And there are some men do turn to the other extream and they say that all obedience is mainly towards God and therefore they are much in prayer and hearing and run from Ordinance to Ordinance and they do speak much also of keeping a good Conscience before God but yet they are negligent and loose in their carriages towards men they are as censorious and unjust and deceitfull busie-bodies in other mens matters proud boasters false accusers whisperers c. Yet these men would pass for Saints and think themselves in the highest form of professors Now this is a sure rule a pure Conscience though he cannot keep all the commandments of God yet he has a respect unto them all as Psal 119.6 with a care to walk answerable unto them and there is none that he doth wholly neglect as the word in the Hebrew signifies that man therefore whose profession for God is never so high and talkes never so much of having a good heart to Gods word and would be accounted in his religious duties even Angelical he prays much hears much fasts much c. Yet if he practise it not in his particular place in his relations in his shop in his dealings with a man I shall strongly suspect that man of hallowness and hypocrisie how ever he may tip his Tongue like a Saint yet he may boldly be reckoned amongst the sinners and such are spots in our feasts c. Now To stir you up to this Duty of keeping a good Conscience towards men let me exhort you to observe these particulars First Take special care of the souls that are committed to your