consuming fire and a mighty tempest shall be stirred up round about him He shall call the Heavens from above and the Earth that he may judge his people The Prophet Isaiah dilates thus on this dreadfull appearance Isaiah 13. 9. Behold the day of the Lord commeth cruel both with anger and fierceness to lay the land desolate and to destroy the sinners out of it for the starrs of Heaven Orion and the constellations there shall not give their light The Sun shall be darkned in his going forth and the moon shall not cause her light to shine And I will punish the whole Earth for their evils and the wicked for their iniquitie and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible And those that are left shall be more precious then fine Gold such a man shall be more esteem'd then a precious stone of Ophir for the Heavens shall be shaken and the Earth shall be removed out of her place for the anger of the Lord of Sabbath in the day when his wrath shall come And in another place the same Prophet The windowes of Heaven shall be opened and the foundations of the Earth shall be shaken the Earth shall be utterly broken down the Earth shall be cleane dissolved the Earth shall be moved excedingly it shal reel to and fro like a drunkard it shal be removed like a Cottage and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it and and it shall fall and not rise again Isa. 24. 18. For their iniquities have prevail'd against them To these adde the Prophet Malachi Behold saies he the Lord Almighty cometh but who shall abide the day of his comming and who shall stand when he appeareth for he is like a refiners fire and like fullers sope and he shall sit as a refiner of silver and gold Mal. 3. 2. And again saith he the day of the Lord commeth consuming like a furnace and it shall burn them up Mal. 4. 1. And they who are proud and all that do wickedly shal be as stubble the day commeth saith the Lord Almighty it shall leave them neither root nor branch And to the same purpose does the vision of the Prophet Daniel alarum us with the terrors of that day I beheld saith he till the Thrones were placed and the antient of daies did sit whose garment was white as snow and the hair of his head like the pure wooll his Throne was a flame of fire and his wheeles burning fire A fiery streame issued out before him Thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him The judgement was set and the Bookes were opened Dan. 7. 9. And a little after thus speakes the Prophet ver. 13. I saw a vision in the night and behold one like the Son of man came with the clouds of Heaven and came to the antient of daies and they brought him near before him And there was given him Dominion and glory and a Kingdome that all People Nations and languages should serve him his Dominion is an everlasting Dominion which cannot passe away and his Kingdome a Kingdome which cannot be destroyed ver. 15. I Daniel was grieved in my spirit and the visions of my head troubled me Let us consider these menaces of holy writ and instruct our soules how in that day the glory of Heaven shall be revealed the clouds shal separate the whole firmament open parting like a curtaine before a screen and discovering to us the Majestick prospect within which will fill all things created with fear amazement and horror Then shall the Angells themselves be full of fear with the Archangells Thrones and â—owers of Heaven not for themselves but because their fellowservants are brought to judgement and to give their strict accompt of their past life in this world For if they under whose tutelage we are grieve at the judgement pronounced against one sole City under their charge what will be the generall affrights and horrors when the Son comes against the whole world for though themselves they know exempt from the danger they will have a sence of them brought before a Judge whose alseeing eye needs no proof of witnesse or accusation Who will force the guilty to accuse themselves and lay their own offences open when every delinquent to Heavens justice shall produce his owne deeds his words and thoughts to condemn himself Will not this mighty and just severity of our Lord astonish the very powers of Heaven themselves If it had not in it the horror of an inundation of a river of fire and those terrible affrighting Angells ministers of his justice which assist the fury and rage of his revenge How would it move men to see the workmanship of the same creation call'd some to be highly preferr'd and honour'd Nay had in great admiration while others are blinded with disgrace lest they should see the glory of God Can you imagine a more tormenting Hel then this When the thought of that Heaven we have lâ—st will more sensibly cruciate our soules from the torments of that Hell wee suffer in The infinite losse our wilfully erring and self-abusing soules bring to themselves in the forfeiting those excellent great blessings ordain'd them are impossible to be apprehended by thought or in words comprehended Sad will be the experience of it to the impenitent Wherefore I beseech thee set before thy eyes the different ends of piety and impiety Behold the impious overwhelm'd with horrors and unspeakable punishments and even then when the truly pious children of God shall be cloath'd with immortality and eternall glories When the damn'd shall be deliver'd to cruell tormenting furies the blessed shall be adorn'd with crownes accompanied with Angells singing and rejoycing before the Kings Throne thus shal it be with them who on Earth have done good and justice and are found worthy of eternall life CHAP. X. The joyes of Heaven prosecuted give occasion to discourse of the felicities and blessings God has promis'd our soules the excellencies Wherewith they are enricht with and the vile contempt wee have of them preferring our bodies their slaves before them THE joyes of Heaven are beyond our dull perceptions while wee are loaden with earth in vain it were to undertake labour of their description Ineffable are those pleasures and delights the great profits unvaluable which will then bee ours in eternall possession when we are received into the number of the Saints glorified for ever When the immortall soule shall be invested with her own glory and eas'd of all her yoakes in happy freedome enjoy the pleasure to behold her Lord It cannot it cannot I say be exprest how great the extasies of her joyes must bee when she shall not onely be ravish't with contentments of her glorious condition for the present but rest likewise secur'd of their eternity that without lessning or decay but rather with encrease they shall endure for ever Nor is this
for them a better City or a more glorious Temple then the old Haggai 2. 9. The glory of this latter house shall be greater then the former saith the Lord of hosts in this wil I give peace saith the Lord of Hosts See thus often defil'd with her abhominations the Lord will not exclude this City from repentance nor shut the doors of his â—lemency against her No he will not nor will he forsake thee for ever though thy desperate condition by the suggestions of the Divell would perswade thee to it but with infinite desire and affection receive thee into mercy if thou returnest to him and he will lovingly embrace thy soule again though thus sunk in the deeps of wickednesse For no man no man I say though passionate even to madness can so truly affect the greatest beauty of the world as our Lord does the soul of man And if we look narrowly into the daily expressions of his love to every particular soul this truth will shew it self as clear to us as the light of the day And the Scriptures abound in testimonialls of this his infinite love to us Observe in Jeremiah and throughout the Prophets how the Lord has been wearied nay contemn'd and despised by his yet has restor'd the desertors and plac'd them again in his high favours this witnesse he bears of himself in the Gospell when he saies Mat. 23. 37. O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and you would not And Saint Paul 2 Cor. 5. 19. God saith he was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation Now when we are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us wee pray you in Christs stead be reconciled to God O let us lay these invitations to our hearts and the minute wee read them believe the holy Ghost calling us Nor let us think it enough that wee believe aright for alas infidelity is not the onely bane of the soul to believe well availes us nothing if we live ill if wee purifie not our soules from uncleannesse and bid a farwell to that lewdnesse of life which so incenses the mighty anger of the Lord against us Because that the fleshly mind is enmity against God for it is not obedient to the Law of God neither can be Rom. 8. 7. The concupiscence of the flesh stands like a separating wall betwixt our soules and mercy which wee must utterly raze and destroy or never hope to have a free passage to that happy reconciliation which will crown our soules with triumph and honor and make them lovely and acceptable to God himself Thou art now bewitcht with thy Hermion's face and thinkst nothing in the world comparable to such an excesse of beauty believ'st the Earth bears nothing like it thy selfe if thou pleasest maist be far more lovely then she nay excell her more then starres of Gold and inestimable workmanship doe images of clay and dirt If men are naturally amaz'd and ravisht with the sight of some extraordinary beauties how will they be extrasied with the splendour of a soule in glory For indeed the substance of the greatest beauties though in a greater excellence of composure is the same with the meanest and most contemptible things of nature And are nourisht by the same meanes and subject to the same decay if not preserv'd by most common contemptible and inferiour supplies What is the inside of her killing glittering eyes What lies under that sweet and lovely outside of thy Hermion's surpassing graces or her purpled cheeks If thou art once redeemed from thy dotage thou wilt confesse the greatest beauty but a Sepulcher fairly whited and painted over every thing within it being decreed to the certainty of ruine and dissolution for there is nothing soe lovely that turnes not into loathsome putrifaction But what was that former grace and beauty whilst thou wert in thy integrity in which thou didst so infinitely excell that was of another composition above al the glorious things of this world as much as the Heavens exceed the Earth in splendour nay far more glorious then the Heavens themselves for though the soul be undiscernable and wee are altogether strangers to her excellencies wee may behold her in the elevated expressions of those whose pious zeales have left their attempted descriptions to inflame us with the favour they had to possesse their thoughts with so amiable desires as the contemplation of future glory which they have severall waies aim'd to know especially by soaring high as they were able into the natures of Angelical and heavenly substances CHAP. XI Saint Chrysostome continues 〈◊〉 the glorious nature of the soul and from that excellence prosecutes his perswasives to Theodorus still striving to overcome the rebellions of his lusts with exhortation and pressing arguments HEar him whose desires would have showne the excellent substance of an happy soul but finding it unequall to all comparison he betakes himselfe first to illustrate it by an assimulation to the nature of metals whose gross being was too heavy in the purest of their extractions to give him a sufficient hint and light of it thence he rayses his contemplations and attempts his comparison with the brightness of lightning and next of Angelicall bodies whose glorified essence he finds of a nature so abstracted from our knowledge that he cannot expresse the curiosity and subtilety of their essences so transplendent are they And such shall the blessed be in their glory Mat. 22. They shall be as the Angells in Heaven saies our Saviour to the Sadduces In fine all examples deriv'd from materiall things can never expresse the beauty of a soule Heaven excells all the glories of the Earth fire surpasses water the starres in lustre excell the most pretious stones wee may admire the rainbow in Heaven the violets and lillies withall the pride and variety of the fields which are all nothing in a manner if compar'd with the glories of the soule and those ineffable honors she shall be clothed withall in the day of her blisse Let us not forfeit so much happinesse which a lively faith and constant hope can secure us Nay for this wee must wade through all the inconveniencies of this miserable world 2 Cor. 4. 17. For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternall weight of glory And as blessed Saint Paul teacheth us It is really easie to beare the greatest afflictions looking to the reward of our sufferings So is it equally easie to overcome the petulant passions of our lusts and the same reward is appointed for both the conquests For when I would draw thee from thy dissolute courses I invite thee not to dangers nor the horrors of eminent death nor to perpetuall plagues
But because that he repented that he trusted to the hopes at his return of his Fathers forgivenesse see the change of his base and abject condition he is thus restor'd to his Fathers favour cloath'd in a rich garment and better treated then his brother who had never transgrest For saies the brother So many years have I serv'd thee and never transgrest thy commands and yet thou never gavest me a Kid that I might make merry with my friends but now this thy Son is returned who has devour'd thy substance thou hast killed the fatted Calfe Out of this parable and the precedent discourse may be collected the great efficacie of repentance CHAP. VI That we ought carefully to cleanse our souls from the filth of sin which must by no means be slighted or neglected since in this World wee cannot presume on to morrow every thing is so subject to mutability And then the pleasures of the Earth being so short and quickly vanishing That we ought to fix our thoughts upon that eternity in which we shall be crown'd with glory or plagu'd in torments HAving before our eyes so famous and eminent examples of Gods inviting benignity to stirre us up to repentance with such ample assurances of his mercies to the truly penitent Our duty is not to waver as uncertain of his assisting grace but resolutely to attempt the encounter when we are assur'd of such irresistible aide to second us as the power and favour of our omnipotent Lord Do not his mercifull calls summon us Let us go on with courage Let us say We will go to our Father c. like that prodigall For if we approach our selves but one step towards him our God will draw us nearer so far is he from refusing us But we are a generation that willfully depart from the Lord and on set purpose forsake his waies designing our selves to perdition Yet saies our Lord Jer. 23. 23 I am a God at hand and not a God a far off and again he speaks by the Prophet do not your sins separate you and make this division betwixt you and me Are they our sins which hinder us are they the blocks which lie in our way to eternall happinesse Let us remove them by the force of prayer and humiliation that we may approach nearer to our Lord Set before our eyes Saint Pauls treating the Corinthian and apply to this present discourse 1 Cor. 5. A Corinthian an eminent person had committed such a sin as the like is hardly named amongst the very Heathens He was of the faith of Christs family some believe he was a Priest What follow'd this fall of his Did St. Paul cast him off as a reprobate from the hopes of salvation not at all For in his first and second Epistles to the Corinthians he expostulates with them because they had not received him into repentance ver. 7. 4. In all which treating with them he manifestly declar'd that there was no sin so heinous but God has appointed a conditionall pardon for it that the diseases and distempers of our souls are to be cur'd by pennance their proper medicine and purgation ver. 5. Deliver such a one saies he to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be sav'd in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ This was the Apostles language before his repentance in the time he stood excommunicated but after his repentance saies Saint Paul To him that is such a one this rebuke sufficeth that is given of many 2 Cor. 6. Wherefore he wrote to them to comfort encourage him lest Satan should get an advantage over him In like manner the intire Nation of Galatia after they had embrac'd the faith after miracles wrought amongst them after they had overcome many temptations against their belief in Christ Jesus at length fell into infidelity yet recover'd their fall He therefore that giveth you the spirit saith he and worketh miracles amongst you Gal. 3. 5. Certainly they had many temptations whom he so teaches ver. 4. Have you suffer'd so many things in vain yet in vain These people after a great encreate of a strong faith in our Lord committed a heynous offence they alienated themselves from Christ of which he seems to speak to them Behold I Paul tell you that if you be circumcis'd Christ shall profit you nothing Gal. 5. 2. And again who ever of you are justified by the Law are faln from grace ver. 4. From so dangerous a fall how lovingly and friendly he strives to preserve them My little children whom I travell withall again untill Christ be formed in you Gal. 4. 19. Here he declares that in our worst estate Christ may be renew'd and form'd in us For he will not the death of a sinner but rather that he may turn from his wickednesse and live Eze. 18. 12. Return then to our Lord most dearly beloved Theodorus and performe his will that would so have it For this end he created us for this we were made to bestow on us the glory of eternity to give us the Kingdome of Heaven not to fling us into Hell or cast us into those flames which were indeed made for the Devill and not for us Our Saviour declares this to us when he saies to those on his right hand Come you blessed of my Father Possesse the Kingdome prepared for you from the beginning of the World Mat. 25. but to those on his left hand Depart you cursed into fire everlasting which was prepared hee does not say for you but for the Devill and his Angels ver. 41. You see then Hell was not purposely made for us but for the Devill and his Angells And that Heaven was appointed for us from the beginning of the World Shall we then render our selves incapable of infinite honors and felicities by eternall providence and favour determined us and not make our selves ready to enter the Bride-Chamber with the Bridegroom This preparation is onely possible in this World here it is that wee must put on our wedding Garments that we must dresse our selves in the robes of contrition and repentance and though we may be often disordered in our atttire and contract again the filth and deformity of our sinne there is hope left as long as the waters of repentance may yet cleanse us but if we neglect it to day wee know not how late it may be to morrow the end and terme of our life is forbid the curiosity of our knowledge and when wee depart hence it will be too late to expect any good though wee repent with all the passionate humility that can be imagin'd it will not profit us though we gnash our teeth howle horridly and fill that Hell we are in with our complaints till they reach the Heaven we complain to wee shall not be the better so much water as would cool our tongues Luke 16. 16. Remember Abrahams answer to the rich man there is a great Chaos betwixt you and us Let us
dotage till it forsake thee thou art deaf to perswasions while thy eares are stopt with thy delights or wilt if thou hearest think them lyars that call the sweets so please thee what they really are bitter and noysome But when by the mercifull deliverance of our Lord thou art freed out of the toyls thou wilt with patience hear mee treat of the malicious cunning that deceiv'd thee with those snares Wherefore I deferr to tell thee the malignity of thy disease till I see thee recovering Now let us fancy pleasures to be really the things they seem and that the delights of this world have nothing of gall or bitternesse But what then I pray shall we say of the punishments attend them how shall wee avoid them whither shall we flye to escape the wrath that followes them They that now rejoyce and triumph in the shades of seeming content shall not with their greatest fortitude be able to endure the least punishments of those many prepar'd for their vengeance And how little time well spent in prayer and unfaign'd hearty penitence might save them from those torments and bring them to those joyes prepar'd for the blessed Such is the clemency and mercy of our God who so earnestly loves mankind that hee has not appointed a long time of conflict with Satan the Warre last's no longer then the short space of this fleeting life which is but the twinkling of an eye compar'd with those infinite ages to come wherein wee shall be crown'd with glory for ever And this will adde infinitely to those things the damn'd shall suffer when they remember their great neglect of that little time they had to repent in and at how easie a rate and low a price they sold and betray'd themselves into everlasting thraldome Let us then awake and rouze our selves out of this lethargie of sin lest this sad doom be ours And let us hast and do it whilst the time is yet that wee may be receiv'd into mercy and favour while there is hope and that salvation may be had before repentance be too late for they who idly and sloathfully wallow in the mire of their iniquities shall not onely endure these but far more intolerable torments Since it is not to be exprest in the most artificiall termes of eloquence how great those tortures are which are prepared for the damned in Hell But if it were onely to lose the joy and blessings of Heaven the thought alone of so great a losse though we were after to perish like other beasts would be insupportable it would bring with it so just cause of sorrow such affliction and tribulation that were no other punishment ordain'd for sinners that it selfe should bee sufficient to reduce us from our wicked waies and might terrifie us more then the apprehension of all those torments that threaten and affright us and wee may most assuredly expect unlesse wee truly repent CHAP. VIII Of the beatitude of the Saints glorifi'd in Heaven pressing Theodorus farther to amendment by arguing that Heaven is rather to be sought after then Hell to be fear'd The glory of one being a more moving object then the terriblenesse of the other FRom this caution given thee Theodorus of the unspeakable paines of Hell I would raise thy contemplations to the most necessary most admirable and ravishing delight thy soule can possibly fix it self upon which is to imploy thy curiosity in search of the Knowledge of the joyes of Heaven for though the dignity of that blessed state be not within the compasse of the most accurate expression and farre exceeding the delineation of the acutest wit yet my advice presumes to invite thee to conceive as much of it as is allow'd our humane judgements to comprehend And as farre as wee are taught and instructed by holy writ our contemplations have liberty to soare into the felicities of Heaven Isaiah the Prophet expresses them thus The ransom'd of the Lord shall rejoyce and come to Sion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads they shall obtain joy and gladnesse and sorrow and sighing shall flee away Isai. 35. 10. 51. 11. What can be more happy then such a life There you shall never fear povertie or sicknesse There shall be neither oppressor nor opprest No troubsome tormentor nor any one tormented No man angry or vext nor any repining at anothers displeasure No proud man swelling in abundance nor any person dejected and mourning for his necessities No man contentious for principality or power nor any one lamenting under the persecution of a superiour There all the tempestuous passions of our minds shall be hush't in a perpetuall calme All things shall be peace joy and gladness all things serenity and tranquillity There shall be eternall day brightnesse and light Light as farre excelling the splendor of the Sun as that does the blaze of a torch for it shall never be hid with the vail of night never be obscur'd in clouds and darknesse yet though so exceeding lustrous withall so temperate that it shall neither burn nor scorch No night nor evening shall the blessed know no scorching summer or chill winter no change of seasons shall molest them every thing is so ordered in a setled constancy and so appointed for their fruition whom grace and repentance shall fit for it They shall feel no old age nor the evills of it there shall nothing remain subject to corruption but every one be crown'd with incorruptible glory what exceeds all already said the blessed shall then enjoy eternally the company of Christ with his Angels Archgels and all the glorious hoasts of Heaven contemplate on the skies in that excellency they appeare now to our eyes behold the beauties there No starre in the firmament shall in thy beatitude outshine thee which will be when all things created shall be refined into greater abundance of glory and exceed themselves as they are now as much as the purest Gold which seems to give light to the air and captivate our humane sence does the complexion of lead So shall all things created as they shall then be refin'd excell themselves in their glory For as blessed Saint Paul saies The creature also it self shall be deliver'd from the servitude of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God Rom. 8. For now in our flesh we suffer many things lyable onely to the corruption of the body which nature in the body it selfe shal be chang'd into incorruptible and that together with the soul become immortall the soul it self possest of more beauty and greater excellencie And where then canst thou dream of any jarre or discord may happen what ruines or what destroying civill dissention when an eternall inviolable love shall knit the Saints of Heaven in one knot and make them one soul The dread of the Divell shall be no more no more threats no more snares no more death the body it selfe shall be immortall and the soule quit her fear of a far
more terrible destruction All apprehension of ills that may befall us shall for ever dye and it will be with our happy soules as with the heir to a King who in his infancy and minority is kept severely and educated under fear and the lash of a Tutors discipline lest remisnesse in his education might let him fall into unprincely wildnesse and render him by having no government of himself uncapable of governing others and inheriting his Fathers dignities but growing in years and encreasing in vertues becoming the Royall Majesty of a Prince he is then let loose to the guidance of those engraftments becoming his high calling and a full possession of his liberty He is clad in purple and his Temples circled with a Diadem the fears and menaces of the masters of his younger years are no longer his terrors but every thing serves his magnificence and complies with his happinesse and pleasure so at the consummation of blisse shall it be with the Saints of God whom as his beloved children here he keeps under the rod of affliction to fit and prepare them for those immortal honors and crownes they shall inherit in the Kingdome of Heaven No assimilation indeed is sufficient to give us a guesse at those transcending joyes nor can the Arts of eloquence expresse them But let our thoughts ascend to that mount where our Lord was transfigur'd and behold him there shining as he then did with the eyes of devout contemplation and yet there we shall not find one full entire figure of the perfect glories of the world to come that appearance being such as was fitted for the discerning of our naturall opticks As appeare by the words of the Evangelist His face did shine like the Sun Mat. 17. that is like to that body which it selfe is subject to corruption but the glory of incorruptible bodies shall be of a nature farre excelling that which mortall eyes shall not be able to look upon to behold the which we shall have incorruptible and immortall eyes On the mount though there not appear'd not greater light then was probably possible for them to have beheld without detriment to their sight yet that they endur'd not For they fell on their faces Tell me I pray If any one should lead you into a glorious Theatre and present your eyes with the sight of a gallant number of persons cloath'd in Gold and adorn'd with all curiosities of value And amongst them should shew one infinitely exceeding the rest in glory and power who were able to bring thee into the happy number of that society wouldst thou not be obedient to all his commands to purchase such a glorious felicity Let thy soul fly up to Heaven on the wings of holy meditations and view their Theatre whose glory consists in the assembly of far more transcending persons whose ornaments exceed the lustre of Gold and Diamonds whose beauty excells the very light of the rayes of the Sun There is the seat of Angels Archangells Thrones Dominions and Powers and of what farre excells them For of the Kings of Heaven and his glory all tongues must be silent or not presumptuously attempt so unequall a task so much does hee superexcell all expressions so transcendent are his Lustre Glory Splendor Majesty and Magnificence And tell me how great madnesse it is to lose and forfeit so infinite blessings onely for the satisfaction of abusing a little time What if we were to die a thousand times in a day to endure the torments of Hell it selfe for a season Would it be too much for us when the reward would be see Christ comming in his glory and our selves receiv'd into the number of the blessed for ever Observe what blessed Saint Peter saies Mat. 17. 4. It is good for us to be here if hee who saw but in a manner the shadow of the glory to come emptied his soule of all other thoughts to give up the possession to the contentment and joyes of such a sight What shall we say when not the shadow but the reall truth of that happy vision shall possesse our selves When the Chambers of Heaven shall be opened and wee behold the King of Glory himself not obscurely as in a glasse but face to face not barely with the eyes of faith but as he shall bee then manifested in truth unto us Their spirits are base and abject who rejoyce they have escap'd Hell out of the apprehension of the horrors of it It is to be accounted certainly a greater torment then any is in Hell it selfe to lose Heaven and the glory of it So pressing a calamity it must needs be to the damn'd to thinke of the losse of Heaven that certainly it will punish them more then the paines of Hell Our eyes wander with amazement after their happinesse whom we see great in Princes favours and wonder what possibly they can want who pertake of the counsells of the mighty and share with them in their honors to them we allow the fullnesse of all happinesse and adjudge our selves miserable if wee want any thing our emulations can receive to contribute to their happinesse Though perhaps our condition may exceed theirs if we consider the the lubricity and unstablenesse of fortune How slippery they stand who are tottering on the top of pinacles how uncertain their honors be and greatnesse whose duration cannot be secur'd beyond the fate of battell or the ruins of domestick envy Certain it is All the pompe of the Earth will have a period And it is vanity to fix our soules on any imaginary happinesse in this world But what wee look for from God our Lord whose raign shall be for ever whose Kingdome has no bounds Isaiah 40. Who possesseth not a part but the whole compasse of the Earth Who hath measur'd the waters in the hollow of his hand and meteth out Heaven with his span who sustains all things with his power to whom all Nations are nothing and are reputed as a drop of water Hee it is whose powr and mercies can onely make us eternally happy Let the immensity of the joyes then which are the determined portion of the blessed argue our soules into a true apprehension of them and let us more dread the losse of future happinesse then all the terrors of future paines and more abhorre to bee excluded out of the doors and not admitted into the quire of the Angels and the blessed Saints of Heaven then to be doom'd to eternall flames CHAP. IX Of the day of judgement THE terrible and mighty King of Heaven and Earth shall not come to judgement drawn by white mules or appear to the condemn'd in robes of peace crown'd with a diadem of mercy But how he then wil come the tongue of man cannot expresse you can have no surer evident rule for you then out of the Prophets thundring forth the terrors of his approach Psal. 50. ver. 3. Our God shall come and shall not keep silence there shall go before him a
happinesse alone above expression For no soarings of the most elevated soules in contemplation can reach the high perfections of those blisses We may by the waies of weak comparisons give obscure guesses and such demonstrations the excellency of that glory onely allowes our conjectures to practise on Let us then seriously contemplate their conditions we commonly allow happy in this world let us make enquiry of their felicities who exceed in riches power or honor in so great overflowes that they scarce believe themselves on Earth Then let us weigh the certainty and permanence of what they hold themselves thus happy in and wee shall find them possest with nothing but vanities which will leave and quit them swifter then a dream Nay imagine those pleasures lasting as their lives which is the most you can allow them and yielding the fulness of that content they fancy who enjoy them when you find how short that time is of their being you will confesse them none And yet how much are worldings puffed up with these transitory delights Will it not then bee infinite content and unspeakable satisfaction to soules arriv'd at the Haven of bliss when having choos'd the stormy Seas of this troubled world they shall bee landed on the bankes of peace and tranquillity and enter possession of a Kingdom abounding with all joyes and pleasures honors glories and felicities without end For in the narrow streights of this world hee that possesses the largest inheritance may be likened to an infant within his mothers womb so little is his liberty compar'd with the spatious fields of that heavenly paradise prepar'd for the blessed from all eternity And as those are embrions in the womb having not yet the naturall benefit of light till their legitimate and full birth when they are brought into the world and participate even with their Parents though in their first clouts the fulnesse and perfection of their Creation So have not wee the true effects and ends of our redemption till we see the day of our glory And as amongst them abortives such will be the condemned sinners at the latter day amongst men abortives though those never see the light of the Sun never know day yet deliver'd from the cell of the wombe into the spacious world have the doom of a larger yet to them a darker Prison if wee consider there is that light for them they are incapable to enjoy So abortives impenitents shall be delivered out of darknesse into greater darknesse out of afflictions into greater afflictions But the mature offspring bearing his marks and characters shall be presented to the King of Heaven then shall the mystery of salvation be reveal'd to them and they become fellowes in glory with the Angels and the Archangells Wherefore my beloved friend do not for ever blot out those characters thou art sign'd with by Gods Holy spirit Bury them not in a loathsome abysse of sinns Raise up thy soul by repentance which will refine and beautifie those thy excellent parts that are now besmear'd and spatter'd with the filth of a dissolute living then will the lustre of thy vertues dazle those eyes to whom now thou appear'st a cloud of vanity The most excellent beauty that is in man or woman is no beauty if not in relation to our discerning them and what to dotage our enamour'd senses have admir'd them we must at the last confesse them subject to decay and ruine But the beauty of the soules exempt from that servitude to natures necessities is of a more excellent condition then that of the body in it's greatest pompe yet are our soules enjoyments more ours then are our bodies So earnest and passionate a lover of mankind is our Lord whom hee has so nobly honor'd that things of lesser value which carry little of greatnesse in them he has decreed to the Laws and necessity of a naturall production but has made us our selves the workmen of better and more glorious effects Had the forming of our bodies beauty been left to us Our fantastick natures had taken too much care about it and we had utterly neglected the greater businesse of our soules But Divine providence having denyed us the power we may justly conclude our task appointed us to bee the care of our own soules Since all the curiosity to make our selves finer creatures then we are which finds so many so much employment for their precious hours is altogether fruitlesse The nicer arts of colours and curles to adorne us lookt into have made up nothing but a becomming handsome lie When so much time spent upon the soul had really enricht and adorn'd it with such beauties as will last for ever And for all this how little time should we allow the better part if so be we had a ful power to accomplish our desire on the more ignoble scarce any time would be spar'd upon our soules could we beautifie our bodies as we desire still should we be decking and adorning the base abject slave whilst we neglected the soule her Mistresse and Lady with the laziest sloath and meanest contempt Therefore has God taken the effect of this fruitlesse labour clean out of our power if we truly consider the end of it But has given us the use of better and more profitable labours and appointed their reward For hee that cannot truly better and beautifie his body may do it to his soul though never so deform'd with sin by true contrition and repentance making it not onely the object of good mens affections and bad mens envie But reduce it to the honour to bee belov'd even of God our Lord and King This is it the Psalmist means when hee saies Psal. 45. ver. 95. So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty for he is the Lord and worship thou him Nay such is the great benignity of our Lord that the vildest and most dissolute sinners may hope by repentance to regain his favour though they stand in the highest degrees forfeited to his anger and severe judgements Which is very apparant throughout the Prophets Ezekiel thus pathetically aggravates her abhominations faln into a new unheard of manner of whoredome contrary to the custome of Harlots They give gifts saith he to all whores but thou givest gifts to all thy lovers and and hirest them that come unto thee on every side for thy whoredome and the contrary is in thee from other women in thy whoredom whereas none followeth thee to commit whoredomes and in that thou givest a reward when as no reward is given unto thee therefore thou art contrary Yet the mercy and grace of God calls her home thus given over to the abominations of her lusts For he laid not this captivity on her having an eye to his revenge and punishment on her wickedness but to convert her and bring her into order by his corrections For would God have punish'd her as she deserv'd shee had been swallowed in destruction He had not brought her captives home nor prepar'd
comparison of them unspotted and undefiled For the same heat and violence of theirs which made them rage in sinne has after their conversion turn'd into a zeale as passionate in good and vertuous determinations out of a true sence of their guilt and the merited judgements on their past iniquities In this excesse did Christ resent the officious service of Mary Magdalen when hee answer'd Simon Luk. 7. 44. Doest thou see this woman I entred into thy house thou gavest mee no water for my feet but she hath washed my feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head Thou gavest me no kisse but this woman since I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet My head with oyle thou didst not annoint but this woman hath annointed my feet with oyntment Wherefore I say unto thee her sins which are many are foâ—given for she loved much but to whom little is forgiven the same loveth little and he said unto her Thy sins are forgiven This is the Devills reason both for his vigilance and fears that hee has often known the greatest sinners prove the sincerest penitents It is this makes him dread the losing of his prey when hee perceives a conscience beginning to be struck with the sense of sin O how he fears and trembles at the very first step a transgressor makes out of his snares how he is troubled at our least inclinations to conversion For they who have once begun this happy course can very difficulty bee turn'd back from it the zeale of true penitence burnes like a flame within us till it consumes our drosse and refines our soules to a greater purity then that of Gold tryed in the fire Wee are driven with the horrid memory of our past sins as if it were with a violent wind into the Haven of vertue And this is the reason that great sinners often prove better then they who seldome fell because their undertakings is to be manag'd with greater fervour and alacrity the difficulty in the beginning onely deludes us it seems a precipice at first too hard for us to clime off the bottome of impiety to the top of piety while our feet are nail'd in Hell wee may deem it impossible to get loose and fly to Heaven Therefore wee must boldly enter into this conflict our resolved penitence must storme the passe though the enemy spit fire in our faces valiantly assault him and thou hast already overcome the impotent wretch the vanquisht Devill flyes thee and leaves thee master of the field O let us begin this Heavenly journey let us ascend into this Heavenly City let us step up the first stepps and never look back till wee arrive at it for there are wee appointed Citizens there are our glorious dwellings design'd us For if wee like forlorne soules cast off our hopes wee shut the gates of Heaven against our selves and bind our feet in linkes of despair the chain that keeps Satan tyed for ever For despair at first flung the fiend into the bondage hee is confin'd to for all eternity The soule that once despairs is never sensible of her own condition weighs not the danger she is in but speakes and acts every thing in opposition to salvation As men quite frantick fear nothing are asham'd of nothing dare do any thing without apprehension of danger will run into Seas or fires and fly in their fits to the edge of precipices for security So those sinners who by negligent obstinacy become desperate run upon vices unheard of abhominations never dream't of imminent death and damnation stoppe not the violence of their courses but still they winde themselves into wild Labyrinths where they are lost for ever I therefore intreate thee Theodorus before thou drownst thy self any more in this thy drunkennesse manly to contend to get out of it Awake recover and cure thy soule of this diabolick surfeit If thou think'st it too difficult presently to resolve to leave it quite off do it by degrees Though in my opinion such excuses are childish fond delaies and too much show thy dotage on thy beastlinesse For if thou tryest thou wilt find it a most easie mastery to cast those base suggestions if a true knowledge and disdain of thy infirme reasons back thee in the conflict O let the blessed contemplation on eternity prevaile with thee to accomplish this blest conversion I beseech and pray thee by those vertues by which thou once didst so highly merit by that former trust and confidence in our Lord to let us see thee rais'd again to that top of vertue where thou wert once so eminent and from which thou fellest so miserably Let us see thee recover the lost strength and vigour of thy soule Pitty them that are scandaliz'd and offended at thy fall Pitty those who perhaps by thy example example run into the same dangerous destruction despairing of the waies of vertue seeing thee forsake them Consider how great the grief and sorrow is who dearly love thee And that this thy ruinating state can be joy or gladnesse to none but desperate Atheists and youths sacrific'd to their lusts and sensualities Return then to thy former goodnesse and piety we thy friends shall be over full of joy to see that happy hour When thou hast left them to contempt and infamie who are now Enemies to thy recovery malitiously wishing thou maist still continue this dissolute life Then will wee triumph 'ore them who gloried to blast thy honor and once assur'd of thy conversion triumphing crown thee with elogium's when thy detractors shall blush and envie the truths our tongues shall utter of thee Add to this the benefits thy example may bring to other falling soules seldome it is but such recoveries beget companions and what a joy will that be when the splendour of thy reclaiming shall give light to others to find the way out of the same darknesse Do not Theodorus neglect so great a good as may happen by thy return to vertue And for pitty deny not our soules the joy we shall have for thee Keep not us in this depth of grieving for thee but turn our suffocating lamentations into gentler melodious aires of joy and exultation Which will be full in us when we see thou hast forsaken the troops of Satan and that thou art come over to the army of Angells and enroll'd in the Militia of Heaven Consider how infinitely exemplary and eminent their glories be who escape the toiles and snares of Satan how much they acquire of praise and reward whose true repentance brings them home to the Lord how indeed they seem to excell those who have appear'd alwaies virtuous as has been formerly demonstrated out of holy writ So Harlots and Publicans have gain'd the Kingdome of Heaven for the lot of their inheritance and many who were last have obtain'd the preeminence to be the first CHAP. V. Saint Chrysostome relates a story of Phoenix a young gentleman of his time another of an Herm