Selected quad for the lemma: evil_n
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A49958
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Contemplations on mortality Wherein the terrors of death are laid open, for a warning to sinners: and the joyes of communion with Christ for comfort to believers.
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Lee, Samuel, 1625-1691.
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1669
(1669)
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Wing L892; ESTC R221707
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76,929
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158
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in war warmth influenced into thy Soul by sitting under the b Ps 91.4 Feathers of the Almighty under the wings of the Cherubims in his holy Oracle Art rhou warm'd by Ordinances and inflamed in thy affections to God and through a holy cherishing vitall heat Can'st say with David thou art with me then humbly infer I will fear no evill He that walks in c Ps 89.15 the light of Gods face and under the warmth of his wings no evill frights him no Lion in the way turns him aside from the paths of holiness A righteous man under the sense of the flowings in upon him of the righteousness of Christ is as bold as a Lion and makes all the beasts of the forrest tremble He playes with that huge d Job 41.2.5 Leviathan of Death as with a Bird and bores his jaw with a thorne The head of this e Ps 74.14 Crocodile is meat for his Soul in the wilderness he spreads a banquet for his companions and parts him among his spirituall merchants he makes a gain of death and feeds upon the Destroyer For f 1. Cor. 3.21 death is his because he is Christs and Christ is Gods He carries the g Rev. 2.17 white stone of absolution in his bosome and fears not the day of Judgment Christ is h Gal. 1.16 revealed in him and so shall his glory The i Col. 1.27 Eph. 3.17 dwelling of Christ in his heart by faith is not only the bode of glory but roots and grounds him in love and inlarges his Soul to comprehehend with all Saints the interminable bounds the unmeasurable dimensions the unintelligible knowledge of the love of Christ till he be filled with all the fulness of God Though as yet he sees not Christ by the eye of sense yet he is enamour'd with him by the eye of love from the optick nerve of Faith and k 1 Pet. 1.8 rejoices with joy unspeakable and full of glory A Saint cannot conceive the greatness of Christs love nor utter the exuberancy of his own joy As the love of Christ flowes in so his joy swells overflowes and tides it into the bosome of Christ He is as full of heaven as he can hold and is ready to take his Phoenix-flight upon the wing of an extasie into Paradise But where 's the Saint that injoyes such heavenly feelings of the presence of God Did we search our experiments to feel our feelings and tast our tastings of God More would find the Well and drink the waters of assurance Ut nemo in sese tentet descendere nemo Will no man dive into his breast To seek the face of such a guest Hast thou a Well of living waters within thee and ne're a Bucket A Fountain and ne're a Bason of Meditation Be a worthy Souldier of Gideon a Judg. 7.5 6. lap with the hand of Faith b Bochart de animal parti col 674. hasten and conquer the Midian of tentation O how it strengthens the nerves inspirits and puts a new life in the sinews of these Champions of valour to fight the Lords Battails A sense a tast of the waters of divine love makes a conquering Saint Like Sampson at death slayes all his Philistins destroyes their God and their Temple together What the touch of God upon the heart is may be better felt then exprest and what ye can express none understands but he that feels None hear these Unison strokes but Virgin-Souls that have learnt b Rev. 14.3 the Song of the Lamb No stranger intermedles with a c Prov. 14 10. Saints bitterness at first conversion nor the sweet fruit of joy in assurance These spices grow in the d Song 4 12 enclosed garden bitter are they in the root and taste at first but send forth a fragrant scent when pounded in the Mortar of Meditation These waters flow from a Fountain sealed like the head of Nilus but at length by their nitrous streams impregnate all the champion plains of the Soul with fertile and teeming joyes A Saint distills them into Spirits of consolation and then like an expert Chymist circulates all his duties and graces in the closed glasse of experience at the Sun of Gods countenance into an oyl of joy 'T is etheriall and volatile and comforts all that mourn ' I is fragrant wine and highly balsamicall fit for a sick beloved it e Song 7.9 goes down sweetly causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak The love of God is a glorious object seen by the eyes of the Soul turn'd inward Experience is like the chrystalline humour through which and Meditation is like the tunica a Spigel Anat fol. p. 301. Bartholin 80. p. 351 Ed Lug. B. 1651. retina the Network-Coat of the Eye upon which the various kinds and species of divine love are cleerly discern'd Like as the curious varieties of all manner of objects are brought into darkned rooms by convex glasses So 't is with a Saint in the private room of contemplation when his glasse is placed in the roof of his Soul and all worldly objects are shut out a heavenly heart lets in only the admirable things that come from above All that 's in Heaven flowes in and paints the Chambers of the Soul like Solomons Temple within and adorns a holy heart in lively colours with Palm-Trees and Cherubims The Queen is all glorious b Psal 45.13 within Her clothing of wrought Gold from the Isle of Ophir her garments of Phrygian Needlework But all these ornaments beautifie the heart within The Kings c Song 7.5 Galleries within the Soul are hung with the Arras of Grace and Tapistry Stories of Gods love from Election to Salvation from Heaven to Heaven Lift up your heads ye everlasting d Ps 24.9 dores that the King of glory may enter and there e Song 7.12 receive his loves Naked innocency and godly simplicity holy integrity and unblameable purity of life are a Saints outward ornaments the choicest lustre and radiancy shines in the presence Chamber The Soul that has it beholds it with unsatiable delight enjoyes it and is even inebriated and scarce it self with the pleasant draughts of this cordiall Nectar It drinks abundantly of this holy anodyne to asswage its sorrows The joyes of Heaven pour'd in from the golden cup of assurance is a choice opiative against death It perverts not but exalts the intellectualls and translates a Saint in a trance to glory Hast thou then any spirituall senses are they f eâ—ercised to discern both good and evill Heb. 5.14 Canst thou tast the bitter evill of death in the forbidden fruit and cure that mortall gust with the g Rev. 2.7 Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God Eph. 1.21 2. Hath the h Head of Principalities and Powers commanded away the Cherubims with their flaming Swords from the gates of Eden Has the Prince of Life called
or retreating when the Reapers are sent forth to gather the Tares d Mat. 13.30 together to bind them in bundles and to burn them to ashes no stately Mausoleums no Marble Tombs can detain the new-enlivened bodies when they begin to hear the shrill Ecchoes of the Arch-Angels Trumpet That acute voice which sounded so oft in the ears of Jerom Arise ye dead and come to Judgment The great doctrin of the Resurrection which vain Athenians derided now shines forth in its glory when the bones that were scatter'd at the graves mouth begin to crawl together See Ezek 37.8 how the sinews nerves and muscles climb up to their proper places and milk-white skin covers them round about Here 's an admirable spectacle of the imperiall power of God when so many millions of miracles shall proclaim that glorious and fearfull name of the Lord of Hosts when some dust shall creep up the Banks of Rivers and others from the depths of the Sea when that which was mingled with common Earth or the Sands of the Shore the Bowels of Fishes wild Beasts and Canniballs shall each Atome return to the structure of their proper Bodies and all the round Globe over new-quickned and living persons start up in every quarter Methinks the Angells stand gazing at it and trumpeting forth blessing a Rev. 5.13 Clem. Alex. strom l. 5. p. 405. honour glory and power to him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever That the ancient Heathens had some glimpses of this great point b Euseb de prepar Evang l. 11. c. 33. l. 13. c. 13. Clemens Alexandrinus Eusebius out of Plato and Plutarch and our c Bradward de Caus Dei l. 1. c. 1. sect 39. p. 96. Bradwardin out of Pliny Varro Plato and Democritus give some evidence But whence the old Sophies lighted their Torches and how far they improved their faint and glimmering twi-light I must not enlarge nor shew who rose no higher then Pythagoras his doctrin of transanimation out of Porphyry and the Stoick Schools since we have a more sure word of Prophecy to which we do well d 2 Pet 1.19 to take heed as to a light shining in a dark place till the Day-star arise in our hearts We have here to consider with what consternation of Spirit all wicked and ungodly men shall lift up their heads out of the dust of Death How bitterly shall their Souls and Bodies greet and rue the day of their sad reunion These Simeons and Levies former brethren in evill now turn mutuall instruments of cruelty in their habitations Methinks the fore-dooming of that Tragicall Dialogue should fore amuse any reasonable creature To think how the lamenting body shall wring its hands at the moment of the Souls re-entry when the Soul it self shall tremble and all the bells of the senses ring backward at this fatall marriage How do the eyes gush forth with tears in that cloudy morning and the whole day overflown e Pro. 27 15 with continuall droppings of a soaking rain and that with tears of blood and flaming drops of brimstone They who were in this life mutuall tempters shall in that life be mutuall tormenters O that mortalls would put on Prometheus betimes and be wise beforehand and cry out with Jacob O my a Gen. 49.6 Soul come not into their secret unto their assembly mine honour be not thou united For both were guilty of self-murder and that of the deepest grain the strangling of Souls But alas were the body to rise only that were its happiness and perfection Resurrection in its simple notion speaks out the redintegration of nature The form of the Soul hath a strong and vehement appetite after the materiall Body It delights in union to perform the native and genuine functions of information Alas sinners shall not meerly rise but must all stand before the Judgment Seat of Jesus Christ and can there be any thing more horrible to the immagination of a dying sinner not reconciled to God then the great and fearfull Tribunall When God b Eccl. 12.14 shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or evill When Death rides towards him on a meager and pale Horse that dismaies him most to spie Judgment galloping after him c Heb. 9.27 It s appointed for all to dye and rhen to Judgment There will a Judg sit down upon a fiery Throne of Carbuncle who shall not d Isay 11. â—â— judg after the sight of his eyes nor reprove after the hearing of his ears externall appearance and glittering greatness bribes the understanding and falfe witness perverts the sentence of an earthly worm he must go Secundum allegata probata according to proofs and witnesses But here 's a Judg e Ib. V. 3. of quick scent in the fear of the Lord righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins and faithfulness of his reins The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f Heb. 4.12 13. the Word essentiall pierces to the dividing of soul and spirit the joints and marrow he is a discerner of the thought and intents of the heart There 's not a creature but is manifest in his sight All things without are naked and stript of their vestments and all things within are cut open by his Razor and anatomiz'd to the back-bone and spinall marrow before the eyes of him with whom we have to doe The eyes of this Judg are g Rev. 1.14 c. as a flame of fire his feet like fine brasse burning in a Furnace he treads down and burns up his enemies at once His voice is as the sound of many waters who can abide the day of his coming Out of his mouth flowes a sharp two-edged Sword and his countenance is like the Sun shining in his strength a Rev. 2.23 He searcheth the reins and hearts and giveth to every one according to their works He that sits down on this Judgment Seat b Rev. 4.3 c. is to look on like the various and many-vein'd Jasper in the rare diversity of his excellent and glorious atributes and perfections like the incarnate Sardine in taking our flesh upon him and round about the Throne the enamouring Rain-bow of the Covenant shining like a pleasant green Emerald with all the glittering promises of the Spirit Upon twenty four Seats encompassing this illustrious Chair of heavenly state sit the reverend Assessors twenty sour Elders clothed in white Raiment and Crowns of Gold upon their Heads according to the twenty four Orders of Priests attending this great Prince of might and High-Priest upon c Zach. 6.13 his Throne and between his Princely and his Priestly Dignities the Counsell of Peace shall stand Before him burn seven Lamps of Fire and upon twelve Brazen Oxen stands a Sea of Glasse like Chrystall He is endued with the multiformions gifts and graces of the holy Spirit his hands are alwaies purely washt