the higheâ—t nature and consequence which would not at all move them in other things But at last it is acknowledged by the men who love to be called the men of wit in this Age of ours that there is a God and Providence a future state and the differences of good and evil but the Christian Religion they will see no further reason to embrace than as it is the Religion of the State they live in But if we demand what mighty reasons they are able to bring forth against a Religion so holy and innocent in its design so agreeable to the Nature of God and Man so well contrived for the advantages of this and another life so fully attested to come from God by the Miracles wrought in confirmation of it by the death of the Son of God and of such multitudes of Martyrs so certainly conveyed to us by the unquestionable Tradition of all Ages since the first delivery of it the utmost they can pretend against it is that it is built upon such an appearance of the Son of God which was too mean and contemptible that the Doctrine of it is inconsistent with the Civil Interests of men and the design ineffectual for the Reformation of the World For the removal therefore of these cavils against our Religion I shall shew 1. That there were no circumstances in our Saviours appearance or course of life which were unbecoming the Son of God and the design he came upon 2. That the Doctrine delivered by him is so far from being contrary to the Civil Interests of the World that it tends highly to the preservation of them 3. That the design he came upon was very agreeable to the Infinite Wisdom of God and most effectual for the reformation of Mankind For clearing the first of these I shall consider 1. The Manner of our Saviours appearance 2. The Course of his Liâ—e and what it was which his enemies did most object against him 1. The manner of our Saviours Appearance which hath been always the great offence to the admirers of the pomp and greatness of this World For when they heard of the Son of God coming down from Heaven and making his Progress into this lower world they could imagin nothing less than that an innumerable company of Angels must have been dispatched before to have prepared a place for his reception that all the Soveraigns and Princes of the World must have been summoned to give their attendance and pay their homage to him that their Scepters must have been immediately laid at his feet and all the Kingdoms of the earth been united into one universal Monarchy under the Empire of the Son of God That the Heavens should bow down at his presence to shew their obeysance to him the Earth tremble and shake for fear at the near approaches of his Majesty that all the Clouds should clap together in one universal Thunder to welcome his appearance and tell the Inhabitants of the World what cause they had to fear him whom the Powers of the Heavens obey that the Sea should run out of its wonted course with amazement and horror and if it were possible hide it self in the hollow places of the earth that the Mountains should shrink in their heads to fill up the vast places of the deep so that all that should be fulfilled in a literal sense which was foretold of the coming of the Messias That every Valley should be filled and every Mountain and Hill brought low the crooked made straight and the rough ways smooth and all flesh see the salvation of God Yea that the Son for a time should be darkned and the Moon withdraw her light to let the Nations of the Earth understand that a Glory infinitely greater than theirs did now appear to the World In a word they could not imagine the Son of God could be born without the pangs and throws of the whole Creation that it was as impossible for him to appear as for the Son in the Firmament to disappear without the notice of the whole World But when instead of all his pomp and grandeur he comes incognito into the World instead of giving notice of his appearance to the Potentates of the Earth he is only discovered to a few silly Shepherds and three Wise men of the East instead of choosing either Rome or Hierusalem for the place of his Nativity he is born at Bethleem a mean and obscure Village instead of the glorious and magnificent Palaces of the East or West which were at that time so famous he is brought forth in a Stable where the Manger was his Cradle and his Mother the only attendant about him who was her self none of the great persons of the Court nor of any same in the Country but was only rich in her Genealogy and honourable in her Pedigree And according to the obscurity of his Birth was his Education too his Youth was not spent in the Imperial Court at Rome nor in the Schools of Philosophers at Athens nor at the feet of the great Rabbies at Ierusalem but at Nazareth a place of mean esteem among the Iews where he was remarkable for nothing so much as the Vertues proper to his Age Modesty Humility and Obedience All which he exercises to so high a degree that his greatest kindred and acquaintance were mightily surprized when at 30 years of age he began to discover himself by the Miracles which he wrought and the Authority which he spake with And although the rayes of his Divinity began to break forth through the Clouds he had hitherto disguised himself in yet he persisted still in the same course of humility and self-denial taking care of others to the negâ—ect of himself feeding others by a Miracle and fasting himself to one shewing his power in working miraculous Cures and his humility in concealing them Conversing with the meanest of the people and choosing such for his Apostles who brought nothing to recommend them but innocency and simplicity Who by their heats and ignorance were continual exercises of his patience in bearing with them and of his care and tenderness in instructing them And after a life thus led with such unparallel'd humility when he could add nothing more to it by his actions he doth it by his sufferings and compleats the sad Tragedy of his Life by a most shameful and ignominious Death This is the short and true account of all those things which the admirers of the greatness of this world think mean and contemptible in our Saviours appearance here on earth But we are now to consider whether so great humility were not more agreeable with the design of his coming into the World than all that pomp and state would have been which the Son of God might have more easily commanded than we can imagine He came not upon so mean an errand as to dazle the eyes of Mankind with the brightness of his Glory to amaze them by the terribleness of his Majesty much
hopes but such as these the greatest part of the world will fall into when that terrible day of the Lord shall come For as it was in the days of Noe so shall it be also in the day of the Son of Man they did eat they drank they married wives they were given in marriage until the day that Noe entred into the Ark and the flood came and destroyed them all Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot they did eat they drank they bought they sold they planted they builded but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from Heaven and destroyed them all Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole Earth If some of these expressions seem to relate to the unexpected coming of Christ to judgment upon Hierusalem we are to consider that was not only a fore-runner but a figure of Christ's coming to judge the World And that may be the great reason why our Saviour mixeth his discourses of both these so much together as he doth for not only the judgment upon that nation was a draught as it were in little of the great day but the symptoms and fore-runners of the one were to bear a proportion with the other among which the strange security of that people before their destruction was none of the least And the surprise shall be so much the more astonishing when the day of the Lord shall come upon the whole World as the terrour and consequents of that universal judgment shall exceed the overthrow of the Jewish Polity But supposing men were aware of its approach and prepared for it the burning of the Temple and City of Hierusalem though so frightful a spectacle to the beholders of it was but a mean representation of the terrour that shall be at the conflagration of the whole World When the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise or with a mighty force as some interpret it and the Elements shall melt with fervent beat i. e. when all the fiery bodies in the upper regions of this World which have been kept so long in an even and regular course within their several limits shall then be let loose again and by a more rapid and violent motion shall put the World into confusion and a flame together For then the present frame of things shall be dissolved and the bounds set to the more subtile and active parts of matter shall be taken away which mixing with the more gross and earthy shall sever them from each other and by their whirling and agitation set them all on fire And if the Stars falling to the Earth were to be understood in a literal sense none seems so probable as this That those aethereal fires shall then be scattered and dispersed throughout the Universe so that the Earth and all the works that are therein shall be turned into one funeral Pile Then the foundations of the Earth shall be shaken and all the combustible matter which lies hid in the bowels of it shall break forth into prodigious flames which while it rouls up and down within making it self a passage out will cause an universal quaking in all parts of the Earth and make the Sea to roar with a mighty noise which will either by the violent heat spend it self in vapour and smoak or be swallowed up in the hollow places of the deep Neither are we to imagine that only the sulphureous matter within the Earth shall by its kindling produce so general a conflagration although some Philosophers of old thought that sufficient for so great an effect but as it was in the deluge of water the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of Heaven were opened so shall it be in this deluge of fire as one of the ancients calls it not only mighty streams and rivers of Fire shall issue out of the bowels of the earth but the cataracts above shall discharge such abundance of thunder and lightning wherein God will rain down fire and brimstone from Heaven that nothing shall be able to withstand the force of it Then the Craters or breaches made in the earth by horrible earthquakes caused by the violent eruptions of Fire shall be wide enough to swallow up not only Cities but whole Countries too And what shall remain of the spoils of this devouring enemy within shall be consumed by the merciless fury of the thunder and lightning above What will then become of all the glories of the world which are now so much admired and courted by foolish men What will then become of the most magnificent piles the most curious structures the most stately palaces the most lasting monuments the most pleasant gardens and the most delightful countries they shall be all buried in one common heap of ruines when the whole face of the earth shall be like the top of mount Aetna nothing but rubbish and stones and ashes which unskilful travellers have at a distance mistaken for Snow What will then become of the pride and gallantry of the vain persons the large possessions of the great or the vast treasures of the rich the more they have had of these things only the more fuel they have made for this destroying fire which will have no respect to the honours the greatness or the riches of Men. Nay what will then become of the wicked and ungodly who have scoffed at all these things and walked after their own lusts saying Where is this promise of his coming because all things yet continue as they were from the beginning of the creation When this great day of his wrath is come how shall they be able to stand or escape his fury Will they fly to the tops of the mountains that were only to stand more ready to be destroyed from Heaven Will they hide themselves in the dens and the rocks of the mountains but there they fall into the burning furnaces of the earth and the mountains may fall upon them but can never hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. Will they go down into the deep and convey themselves to the uttermost parts of the Sea but even there the storms and tempests of these shours of fire shall overtake them and the vengeance of God shall pursue them to everlasting flames Consider now whether so dreadful a preparation for Christ's coming to judgment be not one great reason why it should be called the terrour of the Lord For can any thing be imagined more full of horror and amazement than to see the whole world in a flame about us We may remember and I hope we yet do so when the flames of one City filled the minds of all the beholders with astonishment and fear but what then would it do not only to see the earth vomit and cast forth fire every where about us
are infinitely beyond the racks and torments of the body It hath sometimes happened that the horrour of despair hath seized upon mens minds for some notorious crimes in this life which hath given no rest either to body or mind but the violence of the inward pains have forced them to put an end to this miserable life as in the case of Iudas But if the expectation of future misery be so dreadful what must the enduring of it be Of all the ways of dying we can hardly imagine any more painful or full of horrour than that of sacrificing their Children to Molock was among the Canaanites and Children of Amon where the Children were put into the body of a Brass Image and a fire made under it which by degrees with lamentable shrieks and cryings roasted them to death yet this above all others in the New Testament is chosen as the fittest representation of the miseries of another world and thence the very name of Gehenna is taken But as the joys of heaven will far surpass all the pleasure which the mind of a good man hath in this life so will the torments of Hell as much exceed the greatest miseries of this world But in the most exquisite pains of the body there is that satisfaction still left that death will at last put an end to them but that is a farther discovery of the unspeakable folly of losing the soul for the sake of this world that 3. The happiness of this world can last but for a little time but the misery of the soul will have no end Suppose a man had all the world at his command and enjoyed as much satisfaction in it as it was possible for humane nature to have yet the very thoughts of dying and leaving all in a short time must needs make his happiness seem much less considerable to him And every wise man would provide most for that State wherein he is sure to continue longest The shortness of life makes the pleasures of it less desireable and the miseries less dreadful but an endless State makes every thing of moment which belongs to it Where there is variety and liberty of change there is no necessity of any long deliberation before-hand but for that which is to continue always the same the greatest consideration is needful because the very continuance of some things is apt to bring weariness and satiety with it If a man were bound for his whole life-time to converse only with one person without so much as seeing any other he would desire time and use his best judgment in the choice of him If one were bound to lie in the same posture without any motion but for a month together how would he imploy his wits before-hand to make it as easie and tolerable as might be Thus solicitous and careful would men be for any thing that was to continue the same although but for a short time here But what are those things to the endless duration of a soul in a misery that is a perpetual destruction and everlasting death always intolerable and yet must always be endured A misery that must last when time it self shall be no more and the utmost periods we can imagine fall infinitely short of the continuance of it O the unfathomable Abyss of Eternity how are our imaginations lost in the conceptions of it But what will it then be to be swallowed up in an Abyss of misery and eternity together And I do not know how such an eternal State of misery could have been represented in Scripture in words more Emphatical than it is not only by everlasting fire and everlasting destruction but by a worm that never dies and a fire that never goes out and the very same expressions are used concerning the eternal State of the blessed and the damned so that if there were any reason to question the one there would be the same to question the other also 4. The loss of this world may be abundantly recompenced but the loss of the Soul can never be For what shall a man give in exchange for his soul If a man runs the hazard of losing all that is valuable or desirable in this world for the sake of his Soul heaven and eternal happiness will make him infinite amends for it He will have no cause to repent of his bargain that parts with his share in this evil world for the joys and glories that are above They who have done this in the resolution of their minds have before-hand had so great satisfaction in it that they have gloried in tribulations and rejoyced in hopes of the glory of God they have upon casting up their accounts found that the sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed because the afflictions they meet with here are but light and momentany but that which they expected in recompence for them was an exceeding and an eternal weight of Glory O blessed change what life can be so desirable as the parting with it is on such terms as these It was the hopes of this glorious recompence which inspired so many Martyrs to adventure for Heaven with so much courage patience and constancy in the primitive times of the Christian Church How do they look down from Heaven and despise all the vanities of this World in comparison with what they enjoy And if they are sensible of what is done on earth with what pity do they behold us miserable creatures that for the sake of the honours pleasures or riches of this World venture the loss of all which they enjoy and thereby of their Souls too Which is a loss so great that no recompence can ever be made for it no price of redemption can ever be accepted for the delivery of it For even the Son of God himself who laid down his life for the redemption of Souls shall then come from heaven with flaming fire to take vengeance on all those who so much despise the blood he hath shed for them the warnings he hath given to them the Spirit he hath promised them the reward he is ready to bestow upon them as in spight of all to cast away those precious and immortal Souls which he hath so dearly bought with his own blood Methinks the consideration of these things might serve to awaken our security to cure our stupidity to check our immoderate love of this world and inflame our desires of a better Wherein can we shew our selves men more than by having the greatest regard to that which makes us men which is our souls Wherein can we shew our selves Christians better than by abstaining from all those hurtful lusts which war against our souls and doing those things which tend to make them happy We are all walking upon the shore of eternity and for all that we know the next tide may sweep us away shall we only sport and play or gather cockle-shells and lay them in
the Fire we mourn for this day When it began like Sampson to break in pieces all the means of resisting it and carried before it not only the Gates but the Churches and most magnificent Structures of the City what horror and confusion may we then imagine had seized upon the spirits of the Citizens what destraction in their Councils what paleness in their Countenances what pantings at their Hearts what an universal consternation might have been then seen upon the Minds of men But O the sighs and tears the frights and amazements the miscarriages nay the deaths of some of the weaker Sex at the terror and apprehension of it O the hurry and useless pains the alarms and tumults the mutual hinderances of each other that were among men at the beholding the rage and fury of it There we might have seen Women weeping for their Children for fear of their being trod down in the press or lost in the crowd of people or exposed to the violence of the flames Husbands more solicitous for the safety of their Wives and Children than their own the Soldiers running to their Swords when there was more need of Buckets the Tradesmen loading their backs with that which had gotten possession of their hearts before Then we might have heard some complaining thus of themselves O that I had been as carefull of laying up treasures in Heaven as I have been upon Earth I had not been under such fears of losing them as now I am If I had served God as faithfully as I have done the world he would never have left me as now that is like to do What a fool have I been which have spent all my precious time for the gaining of that which may now be lost in an hours time If these flames be so dreadful what are those which we reserved for them who love the world more than God! If none can come near the heat of this Fire who can dwell with everlasting burnings O what madness then will it be to sin any more wilfully against that God who is a consuming fire infinitely more dreadful than this can be Farewel then all ye deceitful vanities now I understand thee and my self better O bewitching world than to fix my happiness in thee any more I will henceforth learn so much wisdom to lay up my treasures there where neither moths can corrupt them not Thieves steal them nor fire consume them O how happy would London be if this were the effect other flames on the minds of all her Inhabitants She might then rise with a greater glory and her inward beauty would outshine her outward splendour let it be as great as we can wish or imagine But in the mean time who can behold her present ruines without paying some tears as due to the sadness of the spectacle and more to the sins which caused them If that City were able to speak out of its ruines what sad complaints would it make of all those impieties which have made her so miserable If it had not been might she say for the pride and luxury the ease and delicacy of some of my Inhabitants the covetousness the fraud the injustice of others the debaucheries of the prophane the open factions and secret hypocrisie of too many pretending to greater sanctity my beauty had not been thus turned into ashes nor my glory into those ruines which make my enemies rejoyce my friends to mourn and all stand amazed at the beholding of them Look now upon me you who so lately admired the greatness of my Trade the riches of my Merchants the number of my People the conveniency of my Churches the multitude of my Streets and see what desolations sin hath made in the earth Look upon me and then tell me whether it be nothing to dally with Heaven to make a mock at sin to slight the judgments of God and abuse his mercies and after all the attempts of Heaven to reclaim a people from their sins to remain still the same that ever they were Was there no way to expiate your guilt but by my misery Had the Leprosie of your sins so fretted in my Walls that there was no cleansing them but by the flames which consume them Must I mourn in my dust and ashes for your iniquities while you are so ready to return to the practice of them Have I suffered so much by reason of them and do you think to escape your selves Can you then look upon my ruines with hearts as hard and unconcerned as the stones which lye in them If you have any kindness for me or for your selves if you ever hope to see my breaches repaired my beauty restored my glory advanced look on Londons ruines and repent Thus would she bid her Inhabitants not weep for her miseries but for their own sins for if never any sorrow was like to her sorrow it is because never any sins were like to their sins Not as though they were only the sins of the City which have brought this evil upon her no but as far as the judgment reaches so great hath the compass of the sins been which have provoked God to make her an example of his justice And I fear the effects of Londons calamity will be felt all the Nation over For considering the present languishing condition of this Nation it will be no easie matter to recover the blood and spirits which have been lost by this Fire So that whether we consider the sadness of those circumstances which accompained the rage of the fire or those which respect the present miseries of the City or the general influence those will have upon the Nation we cannot easily conceive what judgment could in so critical a time have befallen us which had been more severe for the kind and nature of it than this hath been 2. We consider it in the series and order of it We see by the Text this comes iâ— the last place as a reserve when nothing else would do any good upon them It is extrema medicina as St. Hierom saith the last attempt that God uses to reclaim a people by and if these Causticks will not do it is to be feared he looks upon the wounds as incurable He had sent a famine before v. 6. a drought v. 7 8. blasting and mildew v. 9. the Pestilence after the manner of Aegypt v. 10. the miseries of War in the same verse And when none of these would work that effect upon them which they were designed for then he comes to this last way of punishing before a final destruction he overthrew some of their Cities as he had overthrown Sodom and Gomorrah God forbid we should be so near a final subversion and utter desolation as the â—en Tribes were when none of these things would bring them to repentance but yet the method God hath used with us seems to bode very ill in case we do not at last return to the Lord. For it is not only agreeable to what is
than the Peoples holding a Rod over them which the best Princes are like to suffer the most by and bad will but grow desperate by it Good Princes will never need such a curb because their oaths and promises their love and tenderness towards their people the sense they have of a Power infinitely greater than theirs to which they must give an account of all their actions will make them govern as the Fathers of their Country and bad Princes will never value it but will endeavour by all possible means to secure themselves against it So that no inconveniency can be possibly so great on the supposition of this unaccountable Power in Soveraign Princes taking it in the general and meerly on the account of reason as the unavoidable mischiefs of that Hypotheses which places all power originally in the people and notwithstanding all oaths and bonds whatsoever to obedience gives them the liberty to resume it when they please which will always be when that Spirit of Faction and Sedition shall prevail among them which ruled here in Corah and his company 2. Another pretence of this Rebellion of Corah was the freeing themselves from the encroachments upon their spiritual priviledges which were made by the usurpations of Aaron and the Priesthood This served â—or a very popular pretence for they knew no reason that one Tribe should engross so much of the wealth of the Nation to themselves and have nothing to do but to attend the service of God for it What say they are not all the Lord's people holy Why may not then all they offer up incense to the Lord as well as the Sons of Aaron How many publick uses might those Revenues serve for which are now to maintain Aaron and all the Sons of Levi But if there must be some to attend the service of God why may not the meanest of the people serve for that purpose those who can be serviceable for nothing else Why must there be an order of Priesthood distinct from that of Levites why a High Priest above all the Priests what is there in all their office which one of the common people may not do as well as they cannot they slay the sacrifices and offer incense and dâ— all other parts of the Priestly Office So that at last they make all this to be a Politick design of Moses only to advance his own Family by making his Brother High-Priest and to have all the Priests and Levites at his devotion to keep the people the better in awe This hath always beeâ— the quarrel at Religion by those who seldom pretend to it but with a design tâ— destroy it For who would ever have minded the constant attendance at the Temple if no encouragements had been given to those who were imployed in it Or is not Religion apt enough to be despised of it self by Men of prophane minds unless it be rendred more mean and contemptible by the Poverty of those who are devoted to it Shall not God be allowed the priviledge of every Master of a Family to appoint the ranks and orders of his own servants and to take care they be provided for as becomes those who wait upon him What a dishonour had this been to the true God when those who worshipped false Gods thought nothing too great for those who were imployed in the service of them But never any yet cryed but he that had a mind to betray his Master to what purpose is all this waste Let God be honoured as he ought to be let Religion come in for its share among all the things which deserve encouragement and those who are employed in the offices of it enjoy but what God and Reason and the Laws of their Country give them and then we shall see it was nothing but the discontent and faction of Corah and his company which made any encroachment of Aaron and the Priesthood any pretence for Rebellion But all these pretences would not serve to make them escape the severe hand of divine justice for in an extraordinary and remarkable manner he made them suffer the just desert of their sin for they perished in their contradiction which is the next thing to be considered viz. 2. The Iudgment which was inflicted upon them for it They had provoked Heaven by their sin and disturbed the earth by their Faction and the earth as if it were moved with indignation against them trembled and shook as Iosephus saith like waves that are tossed with a mighty wind and then with a horrid noise it rends asunder and opens its mouth to swallow those in its bowels who were unfit to live upon the face of it They had been dividing the people and the earth to their amazement and ruine divides it self under their feet as though it had been design'd on purpose that in their punishment themselves might feel and others see the mischief of their sin Their seditious principles seemed to have infected the ground they stood upon the earth of a sudden proves as unquiet and troublesome as they but to rebuke their madness it was only in obedience to him who made it the executioner of his wrath against them and when it had done its office it is said that the earth closed upon them and they perished from among the Congregation Thus the earth having revenged it self against the disturbers of its peace Heaven presently appears with a flaming fire taking vengeance upon the 250 Men who in opposition to Aaron had usurped the Priestly office in offering incense before the Lord. Such a Fire if we believe the same Historian which far outwent the most dreadful eruptions of Aetna or Vesuvius which neither the art of Man nor the power of the wind could raise which neither the burning of Woods nor Cities could parallel but such a Fire which the wrath of God alone could kindle whose light could be outdone by nothing but the heat of it Thus Heaven and Earth agree in the punishment of such disturbers of Government and God by this remarkable judgment upon them hath left it upon record to all ages that all the world may be convinced how displeasing to him the sin of faction and sedition is For God takes all this that was done against Moses and Aaron as done against himself For they are said to be gathered together against the Lord v. 11. to provoke the Lord v. 30. And the fire is said to come out from the Lord v. 35. And aâ—terwards it is said of them This is that Moses and Dathan and Abiram who strove against Moses and against Aaron in the company of Corah when they strove against the Lord. By which we see God interprets striving against the Authority appointed by him to be a striving against himself God looks upon himself as immediately concerned in the Government of the world for by him Princes raign and they are his Vicegerents upon earth and they who resist resist not a meer appointment of the people
and the Sea to boyl and swell and froth like water in a seething pot but to hear nothing but perpetual claps of thunder and to see no light in the Heavens but what the flashings of lightning give Could we imagine our selves at a convenient distance to behold the eruption of a burning mountain such as Aetna and Vesuvius are when the Earth about it trembles and groans the Sea foams and rages and the bowels of the Mountain roar through impatience of casting forth its burden and at last gives it self ease by sending up a mixture of flames and ashes and smoak and a flood of fire spreading far and destroying where-ever it runs yet even this though it be very apt to put men in apprehensions and fears of this great day falls very far short of the terrour of it Could we yet farther suppose that at the same time we could see fire and brimstone raining from Heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah the earth opening to devour Corah and his company Belshazzar trembling at the hand-writing against the wall and the Jews destroying themselves in the fire of their Temple and City this may somewhat higher advance our imaginations of the horror of the World's conflagration but yet we cannot reach the greatness of it in as much as the Heavens and the Earth which are now are kept in store saith the Apostle reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men even those heavens whose beauty and order and motion and influence we now admire and that earth whose fruitful womb and richly adorned surface affords all the conveniencies of the life of man must either be destroyed or at least purged and refined by this last and dreadful Fire The expressions of which in Scripture being so frequent so particular so plain in Writers not affecting the losty Prophetical stile wherein fire is often used only to express the wrath of God make it evident that their meaning is not barely that the world shall be destroyed by the anger of God but that this destruction shall be by real fire which adds more to the sensible terrour of it to all that shall behold it 2. The terrour of Christ's appearance in that day The design of the Scripture in setting forth the coming of Christ to judgment is to represent it in such a manner to us as is most apt to strike us with awe and terrour at the apprehension of it Now the greatest appearance of Majesty among men is either when a mighty Prince marches triumphantly in the midst of a Royal Army with all the splendor of a Court and the discipline of a Camp having his greatest attendants about him and sending his Officers before him who with the sound of Trumpets give notice of his approach and is every-where received with the shouts and acclamations of the people or else of a Prince sitting upon his Throne of Majesty set forth with all the Ornaments of State and Greatness with all his Nobles and Courtiers standing about his Throne and in his own Person calling Malefactors to account and both these ways the appearance of Christ upon his second coming is represented to us first as coming in the clouds of Heaven i. e. riding triumphantly as it were upon a Chariot on a body of light brighter than the Son having all the Heavenly host attending upon him and therefore he is said to come with power and great glory and sending his Angels with a great sound of a trumpet before him after whom the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the vioce of the Archangel and with the trump of God Not as though we were to imagine any material trumpet as some have grossly done whose sound could reach over the whole earth but the sound of the last trumpet seems to be the same with the voice of the Son of God which the dead are said to hear and live i. e. it shall be an effectual power for raising the dead which may be therefore called the sound of the Trumpet because it supplies the use of one in calling all people together and doth more lively represent to our capacities the Majesty of Christ's appearance with all the Heavenly host of Angels and Saints Thus when God appeared upon Mount Sinai with his Holy Angels about him we there read of the noise of the trumpet and when God shewed his glorious presence in the temple he is said to go up with a shout and the Lord with the sound of a trumpet and when he sets himself against his enemies God himself is said to blow the trumpet and to go with the whirlwinds of the South But besides this we find Christ upon his second coming described as sitting on the throne of his glory and all the Holy Angels about him and all nations gathered before him to receive their sentence from him His Throne is said to be great and white i. e. most magnificent and glorious and to make it the more dreadful from it are said to proceed lightnings and thundrings and voices and so terrible is the Majesty of him that sits upon the throne that the Heaven and Earth are said to fly away from his face but the dead small and great are to stand before him and to be judged according to their works And if the appearance of a common Judge be so dreadful to a guilty prisoner if the Majesty of an earthly Prince begets an awe and reverence where there is no fear of punishment what may we then imagine when Justice and Majesty both meet in the person of the Judge and fear and guilt in the Conscience of Offenders Therefore it is said Behold he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him We find the best of men in Scripture seized on with a very unusal consternation at any extraordinary divine appearance The sight upon Mount Sinai was so terrible even to Moses that he did exceedingly fear and quake the vision which Isaiah had of the glory of God made him cry out Wo is me for I am undone for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts When Daniel saw his vision all his strength and vigour was gone and though an Angel raised him from the ground yet he saith of himself that he stood trembling If these whom God appeared to in a way of kindness were so possessed with fear what horror must needs seize upon the minds of the wicked when the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from Heaven in flaming fire on purpose to take vengeance upon them If in the days of his flesh there appeared so much Majesty in his Countenance that when the Officers came to apprehend him they went backward and fell to the ground how unconceivably greater must it be when his deâ—ign shall be to manifest that
The Right Reverend EDW. STILLING FLEET D.D. Lord Bishop of Worcester TWELVE SERMONS Preached on Several Occasions By the Right Reverend Father in God EDWARD Lord Bishop of Worcester The First VOLUME LONDON Printed by I. H. for Henry Mortlock at the Phoenix in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1696. THE CONTENTS A SERMON I. AMos IV. 11. I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and ye were as a fire-brand plukt out of the burning yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord. Page 1 SERMON II. Prov. XIV 9. Fools make a mock at sin p. 48 SERMON III. Luke VII 35. But Wisdom is justified of all her Children P. 88 SERMON IV. Rom. I. 16. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the Power of God unto salvation to every one that believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek p. 131 SERMON V. Heb. II. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation p. 169 SERMON VI. Heb. XII 3. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest ye be weary and faint in your minds p. 209 SERMON VII Jude V. 11. And perished in the gainsaying of Corah P. 261 SERMON VIII Matth. XXI 43. Therefore say I unto you the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits thereof p. 306 SERMON IX John VII 39. But this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive For the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Iesus was not yet glorified p. 353 SERMON X. Isa. LVII 21. There is no peace saith my God to the Wicked p. 387 SERMON XI 2 Corinth V. 2. Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men P. 431 SERMON XII Matth. XVI 26. For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall he give in exchange for his soul p. 469 Advertisement THERE will speedily be Published a Second Volume of Sermons by the same Author SERMON I. Preached at St. Margarets Westminster Before the Honourable House of COMMONS Octob. 10. 1666. Amos IV. XI I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and ye were as a fire-brand pluckt out of the burning yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord. IT is but a very little time since you met together in this place to lament the remainders of a raging pestilence which the last year destroyed so many thousand Inhabitants of the late great and famous City and now God hath given us another sad occasion for our fasting and humiliation by suffering a devouring fire to break forth and consume so many of her habitations As though the infected air had been too kind and partial and like Saul to the Amalekites had only destroyed the vile and refuse and spared the greatest of the people as though the grave had surfeited with the bodies of the dead and were loth to go in the execution of God's displeasure he hath imployed a more furious Element which by its merciless and devouring flames might in a more lively manner represent unto us the kindling of his wrath against us And that by a Fire which began with that violence and spread with that horror and raged with that fury and continued for so long a time with that irreâ—â—stible force that it might justly fill the beholders with confusion the hearers of it with amazement and all of us with a deep and humble sense of those sins which have brought down the judgments of God in so severe a manner in the midst of us For whatever arguments or reasons we can imagine that should compose the minds of men to a sense of their own or others calamities or excite them to an apprehension of the wrath of God as the cause of them or quicken them to an earnest supplication to him for mercy they do all eminently concurr in the sad occasion of this days solemnity For if either compassion would move or fear awaken or interest engage us to any of these it is hard to conceive there should be an instance of a more efficacious nature than that is which we this day bewail For who can behold the ruins of so great a City and not have his bowels of compassion moved towards it Who can have any sence of the anger of God discovered in it and not have his fear awakened by it Who can as we ought all look upon it as a judgment of universal influence on the whole Nation and not think himself concerned to imploâ—e the mercy of Heaven towards us For certainly howsoever we may vainly flatter and deceive our selves these are no common indications of the frowns of Heaven nor are they meerly intended as the expressions of God's severity towards that City which hath suffered so much by them but the stroaks which fall upon the head though they light upon that only are designed for the punishment of the whole body Were there nothing else but a bare permission of Divine Providence as to these things we could not reasonably think but that God must needs be very angry with us when he suffers two such dreadful calamities to â—read almost upon each others heels that no sooner had death taken away such multitudes of our Inhabitants but a Fire â—ollows it to consume our Habitations A Fire so dreadful in its appearance in its rage and fury and in all the dismal consequences of it which we cannot yet be sufficiently apprehensive of that on that very account we may justly lie down in our shame and our confusioâ— cover us because God hath Covered the daughter of Sion with a cloud in his anger and cast down from Heaven to earth the beauty of Israel and remembred not his footstool in the day of his anger For such was the violence and fury of the flames that they have not only defaced the beauty of the City and humbled the pride and grandeur of it not only stained its glory and consumed its Palaces but have made the Houses of God themselves a heap of ruins and a spectacle of desolation And what then can we propose to our selves as arguments of God's severe displeasure against us which we have not either already felt or have just cause to fear are coming upon us without a speedy and sincere amendment If a Sword abroad and Pestilence at home if Fire in our Houses and Death in our Streets if Foreign Wars and Domestick Factions if a languishing State and a discontented People if the ruines of the City and poverty of the Country may make us sensible how sad our condition at present is how much worse it may be if God in his mercy prevent it not we shall aâ—l surely think we have reason enough this day to lay to heart the evil of our doings which have brought all these things upon us and abhor our selves repenting in dust and ashes
present life such great things in God's account that it was not possible for his Son to appear without them Nay how unsuitable had it been for one who came to preach humility patience self-denyal and contempt of the world to have made ostentation of the State and Grandeur of it So that either he must have changed his Doctrine or rendred himself lyable to the suspicion of seeking to get this world by the preaching of another And if his Doctrine had been of another kind he might have been esteemed a great person among the Iews but not the Son of God or the promised Messias in whom all Nations of the Earth should be blessed Which surely they would never have thought themselves to have been in one who must have subdued the neighbour Nations to advance the honour of his own But since the Son of God thought fit to appear in another manner than they expected him they thought themselves too great to be saved by so mean a Saviour If he had made all the Kingdoms of the Earth to have bowed under him and the Nations about them to have been all tributaries to them if Ierusalem had been made the Seat of an Empire as great as the World it self they would then have gloried in his Name and entertained whatever he had said whether true or false with a wonderful Veneration But Truth in an humble dress meets with few admirers they could not imagine so much Power and Majesty could ever shroud it self under so plain a disguise Thus Christ came to his own and his own received him not Yea those that should have known him the best of all others those who frequently conversed with him and heard him speak as never man spake and saw him do what never man did were yet so blinded by the meanness of his Parentage and Education that they baffle their own Reason and persist in their Infidelity because they knew the place and manner of his breeding the names of his Mother and his Brethren and Sisters Are they not all with us whence then hath this man all these things As though Is not this the Carpenters Son had been sufficient answer to all he could say or do 2. The disparagement of his Miracles Since the bare proposal of his Doctrine though never so reasonable could not prevail with them to believe him to be the Son of God he offers them a further proof of it by the mighty works which were wrought by him And though the more ingenuous among them were ready to acknowledge that no man could do the things which he did unless God were with him yet they who were resolved to hear and see and not understand when they found it not for their credit to deny matters of fact so universally known attested they seek all the means to blast the reputation of them that may be Sometimes raising popular insinuations against him that he was a man of no austere life a friend of Publicans and Sinners one that could choose no other day to do his works on but that very day wherein God himself did rest from his and therefore no great regard was to be had to what such a one did When these arts would not take but the people found the benefit of his Miracles in healing the sick curing the blind and the lame feeding the hungry then they undervalue all these in comparison with the wonders that were wrought by Moses in the Wilderness If he would have made the Earth to open her mouth and swallow up the City and the power of Rome if he would have fed a mighty Army with bread from Heaven in stead of feeding some few thousands with very small Provisions if in stead of raising one Lazarus from the Grave he would have raised up their Sampson's and their David's their men of spirit and conduct whose very presence would have put a new life into the hearts of the people if in stead of casting out Devils he would have cast out the Romans whom they hated the worse of the two if he would have set himself to the cure of a distempered State instead of healing the maladies of some few inconsiderable persons if instead of being at the expense of a Miracle to pay tribute he would have hinder'd them from paying any at all then a Second Moses would have been too mean a title for him he could have been no less than the promised Messias the Son of God But while he imploy'd his power another way the demonstration of it made them hate him the more since they thought with themselves what strange things they would have done with it for the benefit of their Country and therefore express the greatest malice against him because he would not imploy it as they would have him From thence they condemn his Miracles as only some effects of a Magical skill and say he dispossessed the lesser Devils by the power of him that was the Prince among them So unworthy a requital did they make for all the mighty works which had been done among them Which as our Saviour saith if they had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes 3. But altho' all this argued a strange spirit of contradiction in them to all the designs for their own good yet the malice from whence that rose would not sâ—op here for as they had long contrived his ruin so they watched only an opportunity to effect it Which his frequent presence at Ierusalem seemed to put into their hands but his reputation with the people made them fearful of embracing it Therefore they imploy their Agents to deal privately with one of hâ—s Disciples who might be fittest for their design and to work upon his covetous humour by the promise of a reward to bring him to betray his Masâ—er with the greatest privacy into their hands This Iudas undertakes knowing the place and season of his Masters retirements not far from the City where they might with the greatest secrecy and safety seize upon his person Which contrivance of theirs our Saviour was not at all ignorant of but prepares himself and his Disciples for this great encounter He institutes his solemn Supper to be perpetually observed in remembrance of his death and sufferings after which he discourses admirably with his Disciples to arm them against their future sufferings and prays that most divine Prayer St. Iohn 17. which he had no sooner finished but he goes with his Disciples to the usual place of his retirement in a Garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives And now begins the blackest Scene of sufferings that ever was acted upon humane Nature Which was so great that the Son of God himself expresseth a more than usual apprehension of it which he discovered by the Agony he was in in which he sweat drops of blood by the earnestness of his Prayer falling upon his knees and praying thrice saying O my Father
are apt enough to complain of it I will not say it is wholly true of us what the Moralist saith generally of the complaints of men Non quia dura sed quia molles patimur that it is not the hardness of our conditions so much as the softness of our spirits which makes us complain of them For I must needs say this City hath smarted by such a series and succession of judgments which few Cities in the World could parallel in so short a time The Plague hath emptied its houses and the fire consumed them the War exhausted our spirits and it were well if Peace recovered them But still these are but the common calamities of humane nature things that we ought to make account of in the World and to grow the better by them And it were happy for this City if our thankfulness and obedience were but answerable to the mercies we yet enjoy let us not make our condition worse by our fears nor our fears greater than they need to be for no enemy can be so bad as they Thanks be to God our condition is much better at present than it hath been let us not make it worse by fearing it may be so Complaints will never end till the World does and we may imagine that will not last much longer when the City thinks it hath trade enough and the Country riches enough But I will not go about to perswade you that your condition is better than it is for I know it is to no purpose to do so all men will believe as they feel But suppose our condition were much worse than it is yet what were all our sufferings compared with those of our Saviour for us the sins that make us smart wounded him much deeper they pierced his side which only touch our skin we have no cause to complain of the bitterness of that Cup which he hath drunk off the dregs of already We lament over the ruins of a City and are revived with any hopes of seeing it rise out of the dust but Christ saw the ruins that sin caused in all mankind he undertook the repairing them and putting men into a better condition than before And we may easily think what a difficult task he had of it when he came to restore them who were delighted in their ruins and thought themselves too good to be mended It is the comfort of our miseries if they be only in this life that we know they cannot last long but that is the great aggravation of our Saviour's sufferings that the contradiction of sinners continues against him still Witness the Atheism I cannot so properly call it as the Antichristianism of this present Age wherein so many profane persons act over again the part of the Scribes and Pharisees they slight his Doctrine despise his Person disparage his Miracles contemn his Precepts and undervalue his Sufferings Men live as if it were in defiance to his holy Laws as though they feared not what God can do so much as to need a Mediator between him and them If ever men tread under foot the Son of God it is when they think themselves to be above the need of him if ever they count the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing it is not only when they do not value it as they ought but when they exercise their profane wits upon it Blessed Saviour was it not enough for thee to bear the contradiction of sinners upon Earth but thou must still suffer so much at the hands of those whom thou diedst for that thou mightest bring them to Heaven was it not enough for thee to be betrayed on Earth but thou must be defied in Heaven was it not enough for thee to stoop so low for our sakes but that thou shouldest be trampled on because thou didst it was the ignominious death upon the Cross too small a thing for thee to suffer in thy Person unless thy Religion be contemned and exposed to as much shame and mockery as thy self was Unhappy we that live to hear of such things but much more unhappy if any of our sins have been the occasion of them If our unsuitable lives to the Gospel have open'd the mouths of any against so excellent a Religion If any malice and revenge any humour and peevishness any pride or hypocrisie any sensuality and voluptuousness any injustice or too much love of gain have made others despise that Religion which so many pretend to and so few practise If we have been in any measure guilty of this as we love our Religion and the honour of our Saviour let us endeavour by the holiness and meekness of our spirits the temperance and justice of our actions the patience and contentedness of our minds to recover the honour of that Religion which only can make us happy and our Posterity after us 2. What Encouragement we have from the sufferings of Christ to bear our own the better because we see by his example that God deals no more hardly with us than he did with his own Son if he lays heavy things upon us Why should we think to escape when his own Son underwent so much if we meet with reproaches and ill usage with hard measure and a mean condition with injuries and violence with mockings and affronts nay with a shameful and a painful death what cause have we to complain for did not the Son of God undergo all these things before us If any of your Habitations have been consumed that you have been put to your shifts where to lodge your selves or your Families consider that though the Foxes have holes and the Birds of the Air have nests yet the Son of Man had not whereon to lay his head If your condition be mean and low think of him who being in the form of God took upon him the form of a servant and though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that through his poverty ye might be made rich If you are unjustly defamed and reproached consider what contumelies and disgraces the Son of God underwent for you If you are in pain and trouble think of his Agony and bloody sweat the nailing of his hands and feet to the Cross to be a sacrifice for the expiation of your sins Never think much of undergoing any thing whereby you may be conformable to the Image of the Son of God knowing this that if ye suffer with him ye shall also be glorified together And you have never yet set a true estimate and value upon things if you reckon the sufferings of this present life worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed Which Glory ought always to bear up our minds under our greatest afflictions here and the thoughts of that will easily bring us to the thoughts of his sufferings who by his own blood purchased an eternal redemption for us Therefore consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against
hear them No arguments can be more proper to mankind than those which work upon their reason and consideration no motives can stir up more to the exercise of this than their own happiness and misery no happiness and misery can deserve to be so much considered as that which is eternal And this eternal state is that which above all other things the Christian Religion delivers with the greatest plainness confirms with the strongest evidence and enforces upon the consciences of men with the most powerful and perswasive Rhetorick I need not go beyond my text for the proof of this wherein we see that the Apostles design was to perswade men i.e. to convince their judgments to gain their affections to reform their lives that the argument they used for this end was no less than the terrour of the Lord not the frowns of the World nor the fear of Men nor the malice of Devils but the terrour of the Almighty whose Majesty makes even the Devils tremble whose Power is irresistible and whose Wrath is insupportable But it is not the terrour of the Lord in this world which he here speaks of although that be great enough to make us as miserable as we can be in this State but the terrour of the Lord which shall appear at the dreadful day of judgment of which he speaks in the verse before the text For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad This is the terrour here meant which relates to our final and eternal State in another world when we must appear before the judgment-seat of Christ c. And of this he speaks not out of Poetical Fables ancient Traditions uncertain Conjectures or probable Arguments but from full assurance of the truth of what he delivers Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men In which words we shall consider these particulars 1. The argument which the Apostle makes choice of to perswade men which is the terrour of the Lord. 2. The great assurance he expresseth of the truth of it Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord. 3. The efficacy of it in order to the convincing and reforming mankind Knowing therefore c. we perswade men 1. The argument the Apostle makes choice of to perswade men by viz. the terrour of the Lord. In the Gospel we find a mixture of the highest clemency and the greatest severity the richest mercy and the strictest justice the most glorious rewards and intollerable punishments accordingly we find God therein described as a tender Father and as a terrible Judge as a God of peace and as a God of vengeance as an everlasting happiness and a consuming fire and the Son of God as coming once with great humility and again with Majesty and great glory once with all the infirmities of humane nature and again with all the demonstrations of a Divine power and presence once as the Son of God to take away the sins of the world by his death and passion and again as Judge of the world with flaming fire to execute vengeance on all impenitent sinners The intermixing of these in the doctrine of the Gospel was necessary in order to the benefit of mankind by it that such whom the condescension of his first appearance could not oblige to leave off their sins the terrour of his second may astonish when they foresee the account that will be taken of their ingratitude and disobedience that such who are apt to despise the meanness of his birth the poverty of his life and the shame of his death may be filled with horrour and amazement when they consider the Majesty of his second coming in the clouds to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly not only of their ungodly deeds but of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him And we shall easily see what great reason there is that this second coming of Christ to judgment should be called the terrour of the Lord if we consider 1. The terrour of the preparation for it 2. The terrour of the appearance in it 3. The terrour of the proceedings upon it 4. The terrour of the sentence which shall then be passed 1. The terrour of the preparation for it which is particularly described by St. Peter in these words But the day of the Lord will come as a Thief in the night in which the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up This day will come as a Thief in the night by way of surprise when it is not looked for and that makes it so much the more dreadful A lesser calamity coming suddenly doth astonish more than a far greater which hath been long expected for surprisals conâ—ound men's thoughts daunt their spirits and betray all the succours which reason offers But when the surprise shall be one of the least astonishing circumstances of the misery men fall into what unconceivable horrour will possess their minds at the apprehension of it what confusion and amazement may we imagine the soul of that man in whom our Saviour speaks of in his parable who being pleased with the fulness of his condition said to his soul Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and be merry but God said to him Thou fool this night thy soul shall be repaired of thee then whose shall those things be that thou hast provided Had God only said This night shall thy barns be burnt and thy substance consumed to ashes which thou hast laid up for so many years that would have caused a strange consternation in him for the present but he might have comforted himself with the hopes of living and getting more But this night shall thy soul be required of thee O dreadful words O the tremblings of body the anguish of mind the pangs and convulsions of conscience which such a one is tormented with at the hearing of them What sad reflections doth he presently make upon his own folly And must all the mirth and case I promised my self for so many years be at an end now in a very few hours Nay must my mirth be so suddenly turned into bitter howlings and my ease into a bed of flames Must my soul be thus torn away from the things it loved and go where it will hate to live and can never die O miserable creature to be thus deceived by my own folly to be surprised after so many warnings to betray my self into everlasting misery Fear horrour and despair have already taken hold on me and are carrying me where they will never leave me These are the Agonies but of one single person whom death snatches away in the midst of his years his pleasures and his
all who committed it and for a sin at so great a distance of time from the commission of it But I forbear I know not whether there be such another instance of God's severity in Scripture but it is such as may justly make us cry out with the Psalmist If thou Lord shouldst thus mark iniquities O Lord who shall stand But although God in this world so seldom shews his severity and tempers it with so much kindness we have no reason to expect he should do so in another For here he hath declared that mercy rejoyceth against judgment This being the time of Gods patience and forbearance and goodness towards sinners being not willing that any should â—erish but that all should come to repentance but if men will despise the riches of his goodness if they will still abuse his patience if they will trample under â—oot the means of â—heir own salvation then they shall to their unspeakable sorrow find that there is a day of wrath to come wherein their own dreadful experience will tell them That it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God For that will be a day of justice without mercy a day of vengeance without pity a day of execution without any further patience Thâ—n no vain excuses will be taken whereby men seek to palliate their sins and give ease to â—heir minds now It will be to no purpose to charge thy wilful sins upon â—he infirmity of thy nature the power of temptation the subtilty of the Devâ—l the allurement of company the common practice of the world the corruption of the age the badness of education the folly of youth all these and such like excuses will be too weak to be made then when it shall appear to thy eternal confusion that thy own vicious inclination swayed thee beyond them all Then there will be as little place for intreaties as for vain excuses God shews his great pity and indulgence to mankind now that he is so ready to hear the prayers and grant the desires of all penitent sinners but for those who stop their ears to all his instructions and will not hearken to the reproofs of his word or the rebukes of their own consciences but contemn all sober Counsels and scoff at Religion what can they expect from him but that when they shall call upon him he will not answer and when they seek him earnestly they shall not find him bâ—t he will laugh at their calamity and mock when their fear cometh O blessed Jesus didst thou weep over an incorrigible people in the days of thy flesh and wilt thou laugh at their miseries when thou comest to judge the world didst thou shed thy precious blood to save them and wilt thou mock at their destruction didst thou woo and intreat and beseech sinners to be reconciled and wilt thou not hear them when in the anguish of their souls they cry unto thee See then the mighty difference between Christ's coming as a Saviour and as a Judge between the day of our salvation and the day of his wrath between the joy in Heaven at the conversion of penitent sinners and at the confusion of the impenitent and unreclaimable How terrible is the representation of Gods wrath in the style of the Prophets when he punisheth a people in this world for their sins It is called the day of the Lord cruel with wrath and fierce anger the day of the Lord's vengeance The great and dreadful day of the Lord. If it were thus when his wrath was kindled but a little when mercy was mixed with his severity what will it be when he shall stir up all his wrath and the heavens and the earth shall shake that never did offend him what shall they then do that shall to their sorrow know how much they have displeased him Then neither power nor wit nor eloquence nor craft shall stand men in any stead for the great Judge of that day can neither be over-awed by power nor over-reached by wit nor moved by eloquence nor betrayed by craft but every man shall receive according to his deeds The mighty disturbers of mankind who have been called Conquerours shall not then be attended with their great armies but must stand alone to receive their sentence the greatest wits of the world will then find that a sincere honest heart will avail them more than the deepest reach or the greatest subtilty the most eloquent persons without true goodness will be like the man in the parable without the wedding garment speechless the most crafty and politick will then see that though they may deceive men and themselves too yet God will not be mocked for whatsoever a man sows that shall he reap and they who have spread snares for others and been hugely pleased to see them caught by them shall then be convinced that they have laid the greatest of all for themselves for God will then be fully known by the judgment which he shall execute and the wicked shall be snared in the work of their own hands for the wicked shall be turned into Hell and all the nations that forget God 4. The terror of the sentence which shall then be passed That the Judge himself hath told us before hand what it shall be to make us more apprehensive of it in this State wherein we are capable to prevent it by sincere repentance and a holy liâ—e The tenour of it is expressed in those dreadful words depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels It is impossible to conceive words fuller of horrour and amazement than those are to such as duâ—y consider the importance of them It is true indeed wicked men in this world are so little apprehensive of the misery of departing from God that they are ready to bid God depart from them and place no mean part of their felicity in keeping themselves at a distance from him The true reason of which is that while they pursue their lusts the thâ—ughts of God are disquieting to them as no man that robs his neighbour loves to think of the Judge while he does it not as though his condition were securer by it but when men are not wise enough to prevent a danger they are so great fools to count it their wisdom not to think of it But therein lies a great part of the misery of another world that men shall not be able to cheat and abuse themselves with false notions and shews of happiness The clouds they have embraced for Deities shall then vanish into smoke all the satisfaction they ever imagined in their lusts shall be wholly gone and nothing but the sad remembrance of them left behind to torment them All the Philosophy in the world will never make men understand their true happiness so much as one hours experience of another State will do all men shall know better but some
man's power to hinder than in the earth to hinder the falling of rain upon it If therefore sense and reason may prevail upon mankind not to fancy themselves under invisible chains and fetters of which they can have no evidence or experience we may thence infer the soul's capacity of rewards and punishments in another life since happiness and misery are set before them and it must be their own voluntary choice which brings them to either of them When either by their own folly they run themselves upon everlasting ruine or by making use of the assistance of divine grace they become capable of endless Joy But since men have not only a power of gorverning themselves but are capable of doing it by considerations as remote from the things of sense as Heaven is from Earth it is not conceivable there should be such a power within us if there were not an immortal soul which is the subject of it For what is there that hath the shadow of liberty in meer matter what is there of these inferiour creatures that can act by consideration of future things but only man Whence comes man to consider but from his reason or to guide himself by the consideration of future and eternal things but from an immortal principle within him which alone can make things at a distance to be as present can represent to it self the infinite pleasures and unconceivable misery of an eternal state in such a manner as to direct the course of this present life in order to the obtaining of the one and avoiding of the other And thus much concerning the supposition here made of the loss of the soul and its immortality implied therein I come to consider the hazard of losing the soul for the gain of this world For although our Saviour puts the utmost supposable case the better to represent the folly of losing the soul for the sake of the world yet he doth imply the danger may be as great although a man's ambition never comes to be so extravagant as to aim at the possession of the whole world The whole world can never make amends for the loss of the soul yet the soul may be lost for a very inconsiderable part of it although all the wealth and treasures of the Indies can never compensate to a man the loss of his life yet that may he in as great danger of losing upon far easier terms than those are It is not to be thought that those whom our Saviour speaks to could ever propose such vast designs to themselves as the Empire of the whole world was but he tells them if that could be supposed it were far more desirable to save a soul than to gain the world yet such is the folly of mankind to lose their souls for a very small share of this present world For the temptations of this world are so many so great so pleasing to mankind and the love of life so natural and so strong that inconsiderate men will run any hazard of their souls for the gain of one or preservation of the other The highest instance of this kind is that which our Saviour here intends when men will make shipwrack of faith and a good conscience to escape the danger of their lives or with Iudas will betray their Saviour for some present gain although very far short of that of the whole world And if I be not much mistaken it is upon this account that our Saviour pronounces it so hard for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven because in such difficult times of persecution on the account of Religion as those were such men would be shrewdly tempted to venture the loss of their souls in another world rather than of their estates in this For it was the young man's unwillingness to part with his great possessions to follow Christ which gave him occasion to utter that hard saying It is on this account St. Paul saith the love of money is the root of all evil which while some have coveted after they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows It was on this account that Demas forsook Paul having loved this present world and that the friendship of this world is said to be enmity with God and that our Saviour saith no man can serve two Masters for either he will hate the one and love the other else he will hold to the one and despise the other ye cannot serve God and Mammon which doth suppose that these two doth require two contrary things at the same time for if a hundred Masters did all require the same thing a man might in doing that be said to serve them all But when Religion requires that we must part with all for that and the world requires that we must part with Religion to preserve our interest in it then it is impossible to serve God and Mammon together for we must hold to the one and despise the other But what then Is there no danger of the loss of the soul for the sake of this world but only in the case of persecution then some may say we hope there is no fear now of mens being too rich to go to Heaven Thanks be to God that we live in times free from such dangerous tryals as those of persecution are and wherein men may quietly enjoy their Estates and the best Religion in the world together but although there be no danger of splitting upon the rocks there may be of sinking with being overcharged or springing too great a leak within us whereby we let in more than we can be able to bear And supposing the most prosperous and easie condition men can fancy to themselves here yet the things of this world are so great occasions of evil so great hindrances of good that on these accounts men always run a mighty hazard of their souls for the sake of this world The Devil knew well enough where his greatest strength lay when he reserved the temptation of the glories of this world to the last place in dealing with Christ himself when nothing else would prevail upon him he was yet in hopes that the Greatness and Splendour of this world would bring him to his terms And surely if the Devil had not a mighty opinion of the power of these charms of the Kingdoms and Glory of this world he would never have put such hard terms to them which were no less than falling down and worshipping him which we do not find he ever durst so much as mention before till he held this bait in his hand And although our Saviour baffled him in this his strongest temptation yet he still finds that far less than what he here offered will bring men in subjection to him How small a matter of gain will tempt some men to all the sins of lying of fraud and injustice who pawn their souls and put them out at interest for a very small
one but the hazard of losing the soul is certain to all And what folly is it for men to run themselves upon so great and certain danger for so uncertain gain which never any man yet attained to or is like to do it our Saviour knew how hard a matter it was to set any bounds to the ambitious thoughts or the covetous designs of men every step the ambitious man takes higher gives him the fairer prospect before him it raises his thoughts enlarges his desires puts new projects into his mind which like the circles of water spread still farther and farther till his honour and he be both laid in the dust together The covetous person is never satisfied with what he enjoys the more he gets still the more he hopes for and like the grave whither he is going is always devouring and always craving Yet neither of these can be thought so vain as to propose no less to themselves than the Empire or riches of the whole world But our Saviour allows them the utmost that ever can be supposed as to mens designs for this world let men be never so ambitious or covetous they could desire no more than all the world though they would have all this yet this all would never make amends for the loss of the Soul It is a thing possible that one person might by degrees bring the whole world in subjection to him but it is possible in so remote a degree that no man in his wits can be thought to design it How small a part of the inhabited world have the greatest Conquerours been able to subdue and if the Macedonian Prince was ever so vain to weep that he had no more worlds to conquer he gave others a just occasion to laugh at so much Ignorance which made him think he had conquered this And to put a check to such a troublesome ambition of disturbing the world in others how early was he taken away in the midst of his vast thoughts and designs What a small thing would the compass of the whole earth appear to one that should behold it at the distance of the fixed stars and the mighty Empires which have made the greatest noise in the world have taken up but an inconsiderable part of the whole earth What are then those mean designs which men continually hazard their souls for as much as if they aimed at the whole world For we are not to imagine that only Kings and Princes are in any hazard of losing their souls for the sake of this world for it is not the greatness of mens condition but their immoderate love to the world which ruins and destroys their souls And Covetousness and ambition do not always raign in Courts and Palaces they can stoop to the meanness of a Cottage and ruin the souls of such as want the things of this world as well as those that enjoy them So that no state oâ— condition of men is exempt from the hazard of losing the soul for the love of this world although but one person can be supposed at once to have the possession of the whole world 2. The gain of this world brings but an imaginary happiness but the loss of the soul a most real misery It is easie to suppose a person to have the whole world at his command and not himself and how can that man be happy that is not at his own command The cares of Government in a small part of the earth are so great and troublesome that by the consent of mankind the managers of it are invested with more than ordinary priviledges by way of recompence for them but what are these to the solicitous thoughts the continual fears the restless imployments the uninterrupted troubles which must attend the gain of the whole world So that after all the success of such a mans designs he may be farther off from any true contentment than he was at the beginning of them And in that respect mens conditions seem to be brought to a greater equality in the world because those who enjoy the most of the world do oft-times enjoy the least of themselves which hath made some great Emperours lay down their Crowns and Scepters to enjoy themselves in the retirements of a Cloyster or a Garden All the real happiness of this world lies in a contented mind and that we plainly see doth not depend upon mens outward circumstances for some men may be much farther from it in a higher condition in this world than others are or it may be themselves have been in a far lower But if mens happiness did ariâ—e from any thing without them that must be always agreeable to their outward condition but we find great difference as to mens contentment in equal circumstances and many times much greater in a private State of life than in the most publick capacity By which it appears that whatever looks like happiness in this world depends upon a mans soul and not upon the gain of the world nay it is only from thence that ever men are able to abuse themselves with false notions and Idea's of happiness here But none of those shall go into another world with them farewel then to all imaginary happiness to the pleasures of sin and the cheats of a deceitful world then nothing but the dreadful apprehensions of its own misery shall possess that soul which shall then too late discern its folly and lament it when it is past recovery Then the torments of the mind shall never be imputed to melancholy vapours or a disordered fancy There will be no drinking away sorrows no jesting with the sting of conscience no playing with the flames of another world God will then no longer be mocked by wicked men but they shall find to their own eternal horrour and confusion that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God He neither wants power to inflict nor justice to execute nor vengeance to pursue nor wrath to punish but his power is irresistible his justice inflexible and his wrath is insupportable Consider now O foolish sinner that hast hitherto been ready to cast away thy soul upon the pleasures of sin for a season what a wise exchange thou wilt make of a poor imaginary happiness for a most real and intollerable misery What will all the gain of this world signifie in that State whither we are all hastening apace What contentment will it be to thee then to think of all those bewitching vanities which have betrayed thy soul into unspeakable misery Wouldst thou be willing to be treated with all the ceremonies of State and Greatness for an hour or two if thou wert sure that immediately after thou must undergo the most exquisite tortures and be â—acked and tormented to death When men neglect their souls and cast them away upon the sinful pleasures and gains of this world it is but such a kind of airy and phantastical happiness but the miseries of a lost soul