and Salvation A filial Fear of God when we fear his displeasure as well as his Judgments a sorrow for Sin according to God when we hate Sin so as to fly from it to God a Hungring and Thirsting after Righteousness a desire of Grace more than any thing on earth DIRECTIONS 1. Conclude on the absolute necessity of Sincerity and beg the Prayers of Gods Sincere ones Say then to your Souls we must be upright If it were proclaimed from Heaven that but one man in a Town or City should be saved every man had reason to give all diligence that he might be the man knowing he cannot dwell with Eternal Burnings Are your doubts many beg the Prayers of the Faithful do as God commanded Jobs Friends Go to my Servant Job and he shall pray for you and him will I accept Job 42.8 Go to such a Minister such a Christian be not ashamed to go to them to knock at their doors to speak with them and enquire Acts 16 30. What must I do to be saved Cry as they in the Vision to Paul Acts 16.9 Come over into Macedonia and help us If a man be distempered or wounded in his body away he goes to the Physician or Chirurgeon Be as careful of your Souls as you are of your Bodies If there be any good desires cherish them Cant. 2.3 The Fig-tree putteth forth her Green Figs and the Vines with the tender Grapes give a good Smell Arise my Love my Fair One and come away Thy sincere though weak desires and breathings of Soul are pleasant to God and promise well Can any Babes in Christ say as the poor Indian when first awakened being asked what Sin was Oh said he it is the continual Sickness of my Heart It argues they are alive to God 2. Do not too soon shake off all fears and doubts Some come and tell Ministers how they cannot sleep some nights being terrified about Sin and wrath I am ready to tell them where they awake one night I would they did many They that have been so before them have no reason to wish they had slept the mean while Wounds must smart much before they can be cured Many break their sleep by night about loss of Children of Goods c. and make no great matter of it You may in a little time say of your hearts as Jacob of that place Gen 28.16 The Lord was here and I knew it not The first cry of the New Creature pleaseth God tormenteth the Devil If you are full of fears now the comforts of God will be sweeter to you when they come If you on a Journey were benighted on a Down darkness comes Rain pours down one Clap of Thunder and Flash of Lightning followed another and you were wet to the skin affrighted and every hour seems as long as ten and in the morning when light appeared and the Sun began to shine and you were brought into your Inne and had the comfort of a good Fire warm cloaths good provision and a good bed would you not be the more sensible of the sweetness of these things because of your nights misery O Christian Sorrow may continue for a night Psal 30. Isa 50.10 but joy cometh in the morning Are you in darkness and so see no light Hear you the Thundrings of the Law See you the Flashes of Gods Judgment Do the Terrours of God fall upon your Soul When God shines upon you then his Promises and Comforts will be sweet to your Souls 3. Never stick at any attainments but be alwayes going on Are you weak The strongest in Christ were once so One hath a good meditation upon this The greatest Giant was once a Babe in the Cradle The greatest Oak was once a Twig And the greatest Scholar was once in his Horn-book learning letters So saith he the greatest Christian was once a Babe in Christ and weak in grace All must grow sad it is for any to say if I have so much Grace as will bring me to Heaven I am content But who is content with just so much meat as will kill hunger and save life Or with just so much money as will keep him from debts and so from Goal Strive more and more against Sin Get greater power over Constitution Sins Company Sins and the Sins of your Callings If any should say our hearts are still bad after praying watching and striving remember still to go on If a man went to cut down an Oak the first blow with the Ax tends to the fall of the tree as well as the last if one should see one blow given and another and an hundred and the Oak seems as firm as ever and should say it is but in vain to strike any more what weakness were he guilty of At last down falls the Tree So the first acts of Repentance Faith Obedience tend to the pulling down of Sin as really as the last How many are prone to Pride Covetousness unchast desires revenge have found this to be true they have prayed many years and Fasted and striven against Sin and yet found as they thought but a little change and at last down hath fallen the Sin And God hath made them very humble very mortifyed very chast very patient Then take up the Ax strike strike and spare not Sin Sin shall be destroyed 4. If you find you are Sincere give God the glory through Jesus Christ When King Solomon was Crowned what rejoycing was there 1 Kings 1.40 They piped wâ—â—h Pipes and rejoyeed with great joy so that the earth rent with the sound of them Cant. 3.11 Go forth ye Daughters of Zion and see King Solomon with the Crown wherewith his Mother Crowned him in the day of his Espousaels and in the day of the gladness of his heart God that hath sanctifyed you hath Crowned you with a better Crown of Grace and will with a Crown of Glory The Angels rejoyced at your Conversion and therefore you should rejoyce God in heaven and those your friends there are glad for you Luke 15.32 and you should be glad for your selves You once were under the same Condemnation with the wicked God sometimes pardons Sinners of the greatest sort and pardons â—ot some of the lesser sort As if a King seeing two men whom the Law had Condemned the one for Murthering his Child and contriving to Murther him another onely for stealing of a few Cattel or a summ of Money he pardons the Traytor and lets the Thief go to Execution Even so Father Mat. 11 26 for so it seems good in thy Sight Paul runs up all to the Will of God Rom. 9.23 Yet says Calvin Neque tamen ingerinâ—us commentum absolutae potentiae He is not pleased with saying onely That God is a Law to himself It is Gods Will saith he that is true but why God wills is not for us to know why he would wrap up so many men in Adam and they all fell by his Sin Why
SOME PRISON MEDITATIONS AND DIRECTIONS On several Subjects Viz. On The Fall of Man On The Sufferings of Christ On Repentance and Faith On Reproof and Counsel On The Holy Scriptures On Prayer On Love to Mankind On Sincerity On The Vanity of the World On The Benefit of Afflictions On Heaven and Hell By SAMVEL YOVNG Minister of the Gospel Jer. 33.1 3. Moreover the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the second time while he was yet shut up in the Court of the Prison saying Call unto me and I will answer thee and shew thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not Luther's Song Col. Men. Credens tribulatur Tribusatus invocat Invocans auditur Auditus laudat LONDON Printed by J. A. for Tho. Cockeril at the three Leggs in the Poultrey over against the Stocks-Market 1684. To all that are serious in the Profession of Religion whether Conformists or Nonconformists Ministers or People My Brethren THe Eternal God having spread open the everlasting arms of Mercy and embraced you hath made you so like himself as that you have such a hatred to sin as sin and love to holiness as holiness that cannot be quenched Hence it is that you being such God-like Creatures are often in â—angs because of a distracted world whose Lives are a delectable Frenzy or a continued fit of madness To you do I call that being Converted you would often speak of the chief things in Religion such as are contained in this Book to a vain world that Many may be by you turned unto Righteousness I foresee that several Questions will by several men be made concerning the Author and the Book As Q. What Opinion is the Author of A. I Answer He is of this Opinion that to love God with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the soul and with all the strength and to love his neighbour as himself is more than all whole Burnt-offerings and Sacrifices Mar. 12.33 He disowneth all those Names which have occasioned so many heats and heart-burnings among us and wisheth they were as little known among the Saints on Earth as they are among the Saints in Heaven He is an impartial enquirer after Truth without regard to interest or parties he is of all your Religions to whom he writes and yet of none of them of all so as to mind the great things you plead for as Love to God Christ and Souls c. above all of none so as to be tyed to any of your controverted modes of Discipline he is a mourner over all your parties that God and one another are no more loved but a furious Contender for none Q. Why in the following Meditations and Directions are Books Quoted and not Chapter and Page A. Because I have been for above two years from my Study The Observations are my own in the diligent perusing and reading over all the Authors I have named And now I call on you that know God and are known of him that you love one another If your heads must differ resolve that your hearts shall unite Are you such as frequent the Liturgy Call on them that worship with you not to mock God when they profess to come before him with an humble lowly penitent and obedient heart when they say to God Pitifully behold the sorrows of our hearts Perswade them when they bring their Children to Baptism not to make it only a matter of custome to give the Child a Name c. Choose no ignorant or scandalous God-fathers or God-mothers that never mind their own Souls and therefore in vain promise to mind the Souls of your Children Remember what a weighty matter it is to give up your Children to the Lord What cryes should there be at the throne of Grace what pains should you take as they grow up that they may indeed be his Those that go with you to the Lords Table as you have opportunity perswade them that their words be right when they say The thoughts of our sins are grievous the burthen of them is intolerable and when they resign themselves to God to do it unfeignedly You that frequent private Assemblies chiefly or only Love them that hate you Pray for them that are in Authority let all men by your good Conversations which they shall behold glorifie God in the day of visitation 1 Pet. 2.12 In whatsoever dress your Religion is cloathed whether in a more plain or curious one Love one another Perhaps a Prison may in time make many of you to fall into one anothers Arms and weep bitterly for your former Animosities Remember Ridley and Hooper The same Spirit seems to be among you that once was between Cox of England Fuller's Church-Hiâ—â— and Knox of Scotland when at Frankfort the extream zeal of one for the Liturgie and of the other against it made them fall into preternatural heats I am ashamed to write the whole but cover all with that of the holy Ghost concerning the great send between Paul and Barnabas Act 15 39. that sharp was the contention between them I cannot but take notice however That the Common-prayer-man was the sharpest I would ask them that have not yet learned Pauls directions when contentions were in the Church of God about little things in Religion as Meats Drinks and Holy-days Rom. 14.22 Hast thou Faith have it to thy self before God Let every man be perswaded in his own mind What if Origen Augustine and many of the Ancient Fathers and Holy Martyrs were now alive would they have them silenced for ever and cast out of the Church because they had some Principles that rendred them uncapable to subscribe and swear as some expect When there is an Uniformity in the Stature of all mens Bodies in the feature of all faces in the found of all Voices then and not 'till then may we expect an Uniformity in the Opinions and so practices of the People of God Our Divisions are the great stumbling-block to a Prophane world who if we perswade them to live soberly righteously and godly tell us You are not of one mind though our answer be ready Neither are Physicians nor Lawyers yet that man would not be himself that should say if my Body and my Estate be in never so great danger I will hearken to none of them Great have been the Controversies of late years on foot about Succession if any man should therfore say Government is needless 't is fatal to the world how soon might he be answer'd If any man should say because one man accounts a house of one figure best and another of another figure I will therefore dwell in no House Because one thinks Cloaths of one colour and fashion best and another of another I will therefore put on no Apparel because one man loves such a dish that another cares not for therefore I will eat nothing he were Distracted Let such mind the things wherein we agree and then if they mistake in the things
them and blessed them and called their name Adam In the day when they were Created they were one though not by a Physical yet by a Conjugal Union they were two distinct persons yet one by nearness of relation and so I may consider them both though sometimes I name one only as I see occasion Before the Fall great were the priviledges they had for their Bodie and Souls Of the first sort 1. Their Bodies were sound and free from all distempers bodies that could not be disturbed by any outward colds or heats or by any inward malignity or humours Gen. 2. ult Ask the sick and unhealthy that are chained by many pains in Head Stomack what this mercy was 2. All the Creatures were in subjection to him Gen. 1.28 29 30. God gave man Dominion over the Birds of the air and over the Beasts of the earth and over the Fish of the sea and over the living things that creep on the earth The Creatures saw such a lustre in the countenance of man that they fear'd him so much majesty yet appears though sin hath lessen'd it that the Beasts fear us not a little For venomous Creatures they either had no venome or that venom could not hurt 3. He was seated in a pleasant Habitation Gen. 2.8 And the Lord God planted a Garden eastward in Eden and there he put the man whom he had formed The Excellency of which place we read in the 10 11 12 13 14. verses Where he was placed or where Eden was a Learned Author hath spent much time to enquire Sir Walt. Rawley Hist of World That Paradise was not the whole world is clear from Gen. 3.24 So he drove out the man not sure out of the world for Adam lived Gen. 5.5 nine Hundred and thirty years For the idle notions that the Rivers signifie virtues c. I will not honour them with a confutation The good things of the Soul were these 1. It was enricht with wonderful knowledge Gen. 2.19 20. When God brought the Creatures to Adam he on the first sight gave names to them that is names significative or expressive of their natures as if we should call a Lion Rage a Lamb Meek a Dove Innocent c. His Knowledge much exceeded ours his was habitual ours acquired his was compleat ours imperfect His knowledg was as much above the knowledg of the wisest man on earth as the knowledg of a wise man above the knowledge of a Child 2. He had a perfection of Holiness not only a perfection of degrees but of parts he was perfect not only if we consider Perfection in opposition to Hypocrisy as Abraham Noah and many Saints in Scripture are said to be perfect But perfect in opposition to any defect or imperfection Adam in Paradise was as an Angel in Heaven was as free from any Sin or contempt of God 3. He had frequent and immediate and full Communion with God Gen. 2.16 17. God speaks to man and man to God without any fear or dread What an honour is it for a mean man to have the ear of a Prince or great man at his pleasure Hence it was that Paradise was a lower Heaven which makes some think if man had not sinned he had there continued for ever 2. We come to consider what Sins we were guilty of in the Fall Man had very bad thoughts of a good God very good thoughts of a bad Devil very high thoughts of low Self Adam and Eve 1. They made God a Lyar and justified the Devil as a Speaker of truth Gen. 2.17 God said In the day you eat thereof you shall die Gen. 3.3 The Devil said You shall not surely die Gen. 3.4 The Woman said Lest you die God affirms the Devil denies and the woman doubts Many Temptations Adam had that we know not Now this was by Interpretation to give God the Lye How tedious is it among men to be called a Lyar and what effusion of blood hath it caused Now the Devil the Father of Lies is believed more than God 2. They lookt on God as unworthy to be their Commander and took the Devil for their Councellour God must stand by the Devil takes place They chose this God or Guide for themselves and Posterity hence it is the Devil is called by the Apostle The God of this World 2 Cor. 4.4 3. They thought it unbecoming them to be restrained by any Law They should be as Gods Gen. 3.5 That there was some hidden vertue in the Tree that would make the Eaters of its fruit more like an absolute God than God would have them be and therefore God forbad the touching that Tree This was the Temptation 3. We shall consider what Miseries we brought on our selves after the Fall 1. We were deprived of the Image of the Blessed God According to supernatural endowments it was totally gone there was not one Spark of Grace left nothing of holiness remained in man According to natural endowments this Image was in part gone much wisdom much power over the Creatures was gone Gen. 3.7 They were as naked in their Souls as in their Bodies As Aaron in the matter of the Golden Calf is said to make the people naked Exod. 32.25 2. We were cast out of Paradise among the rest of the Beasts Gen. 3.24 Cherubims appeared in Shape like an Ox. Now man by Sin had made himself like the Beasts that perish and therefore God sends him to be their companion He is not now in Paradise but in a Wilderness not in a place of pleasure but of toyl and sorrow Gen. 3.19 3. We are naturally inclined to all sin and so exposed to all Judgments The Understanding is clouded with errour the judgment fails both in directing what is to be done and judging of the lawfulness or unlawfulness of what is done The affections are carnal In a word the Soul is blinded Gen. 3.19 nay some so blind as hardly to see the Being of God That what once God said to Adam they are ready to say to God Where art thou Gen. 2.17 I know it is enquired what Death was threatned in those words Gen. 2.17 In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Some think only the death of the Body But I thus argue That Death that followed mans sin was there threatned and the death that followed was the natural death of the Body the spiritual death of the Soul and the eternal death both of Body and Soul and therefore all was threatned in those words Thou shalt die Is it reasonable to think that the great Law-maker put more in the Execution than there was in the Threat In Adam you find no confession of Sin to God but adding Sin to Sin Gen. 3.10 When he fled God calls to him how doth he reply I heard thy voice in the Garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid my self As if he had said I am hid because I heard thy voice it is exceeding
Like men that should go on singing and dancing and calling for their Cups and Musick to the place of Execution I have spoken of several Duties of reading Scripture Prayer Charity but we must remember all must be done in Sincerity and this is the next thing we shall consider CHAP VIII Of Sincerity MEDITATIONS MAny there are I doubt not whose Sincerity no man questions that will be found formal another day and many that few thought well of will be saved Snow covers Dunghils Gilt makes common Wood and Stones look like Gold So doth a Profession and some attainments make many Unconverted Men look like true Christians When Judas went up and down Preaching the Gospel if any one had said to him Judas thou art now perswading the world to close with Christ within a little time thou thy self wilt betray this Christ to death for thirty pieces of Silver would he have believed it or would he not rather have said as Hazael to Elisha 2 Kings 8.13 Am I a Dog that I should do this thing Many famous Ministers great Preachers men of great Parts and Zeal much followed by all and accounted Angels from Heaven I fear will in a little time Mat. 258. cry Our Lamps are gone out Many forward hearers that have done many things set on Reformation and minded reading and praying in their Families will I fear in a little time be found to be Cakes half baked Hos 7.8 On the other hand there are many Ministers and People that are taken but little notice of for Religion that I hope will be saved Their Heavenly Father sees that in secret hearts broken for Sin and breathing after Christ for which he will reward them openly Many that deceive themselves thus plead I can remember the time when the place where the Minister by whom I was Converted 1 Kings 21.27 28.29 When Ahab heard these words he rent his cloaths he fasted c. God takes notice of it to the Prophet Seest thou not how Ahab humbleth himself before me Then Ahab remembred the time when the place where the Prophet by whom he was terrifyed so as to pray fast and had a Promise from God on the doing this work Acts 8.13 Simon himself believed and was Baptized Verse 21. And yet his heart was not right in the sight of God Philips Doctrine and Miracles Converted seemingly him that had deceived many Simon might say I remember the time when the place where the Minister by whom I was convinced and awakened and yet he was in the gall of Sin and the bond of Iniquity Gal. 4.14 15 16. Once again many of them received Paul as an Angel of God even as Christ Jesus high words were ready to have plucked out their eyes and have given them to him and yet at last they accounted him their Enemy because he told them the truth No doubt many of them were but formal to whom he said Where is then the Blessedness you spake of These men could remember the time when the place where the Minister by wom they were reformed Many such men can say but little else but their first Convictions and Terrours Others plead That God hath heard and wonderfully answer'd their Prayers and that they are assured from the Scriptures of Truth John 19.31 That God heareth not Sinners but if any man be a Worshpper of God him he heareth And they will tell you of Extraordinary Providences that they have met with as an answer to Prayer I answer It may be God heard not your Prayers but your Murmurings as Numb 11. The Quails came at the peoples request here was a Providence but what was the close of all Some have desired Children Riches c. but unless these things have made them love and serve God they never were given in a way of Mercy but Judgment Or it may be God heard only the Cry of nature in you as he hears the cries of Young Lions and Ravens Gen. 21.17 19 20. God heard Hagar's and Ishmaels Cry When Hagar lift up her voice and wept an Angel calls to her and tells her God had heard the Cry of the Lad and it is said vers 21. God was with the Lad. Hagar and Ishmael might they say God hath heard and wonderfully answered our Prayers and God heareth not Sinners And yet both were cast out I doubt not but God doth work Wonders or Miracles for their Preservation or Deliverance that shall never be saved Some plead But I find I have Repentance I have Faith I yield Obedience to the Gospel c. Amen would to God it may appear to be so Yet hear the Word of the Lord Mat. 8.12 The Children of the Kingdom shall be cast out Conclude on it there is nothing in Art that doth more resemble a thing in nature than Legal Repentance resembles Evangelical Temporary Faith Saving Partial Obedience Universal Never was there the picture or Statua of a man that did more resemble a living man than common Grace doth Saving Never was any Brass Half-Crown more like one of good Silver than the life of a Hypocrite may the life of a Christian Have you so repented of Sin as to loath Sin as Sin for its malignity and evil nature Hath your faith made you to esteem of Christ his Ordinances and People more than of all Treasures Your Obedience unfeigned without reserves In the account we have of the sickness and death of Bellarmine done by C.E. the Jesuite one passage he hath to make him famous to the world which makes me more to hate the name and memory of Bellarmine than any thing recorded of him That when his Confessor came to him Such saith he was the innocency of the man that he could hardly tell what to confess insomuch that his Ghostly Father was in some perplexity wanting matter of Absolution till by recourse to his life past he found some small defects of which he absolved him The Author cryes O Zealous Mind O Noble Bishop but let the Christian poor in spirit that complains with Paul Rom. 7. of a Body of Sin and Death cry O stupid Soul O vile Hypocrite how secure was thy Conscience that at thy death hadst no scruple but the exchanging of one good work for another and that when commanded to it That was his leaving the Archbishoprick of Capua for better preserment What is related of him his lying on his bed with his eyes and hands lift up to Heaven his falling prostrate on the ground to receive the Sacrament his bestowing so much to feed the poor all these things signifie nothing when the heart is so proud so insensible of its own Gailt Then every man must try himself The Famous Divines in the Synod of Dort gave these Marks of Sincerity Dordrehti Synodus Vera in Christum fides filialis Dei timor dolor de peccatis secundum Deum sitis esuries justitiae A True Faith in Christ when a man humbly relies upon him for Life
about him here is my Lord such a one famous for such a thing so above there is my Lord Moses by whom God wrought Wonders my Lord David a Man after God's Heart my Lord Paul the great Converter of the Gentiles Joseph when he saw his Brother Benjamin Gen. 45.14 fell on his neck and wept for joy so will they rejoyce in Glory as Children of the same Father God and of the same Mother the Church of Christ on Earth There is also the Society of Angels Creatures of such excellency that they seldom come into the world and when they do they are soon gone here being no place worthy to entertain them There is in Heaven an immediate fruition of the blessed God 1 Cor. 13.12 Then shall we see him face to face and know even as we are known He seems not to speak of the Vision of the divine Essence for that is every where but of the knowledge of God and his glorious attributes And by the way we must consider that the communicable Attributes are as really the undivided Essence of God as those we call incommunicable and therefore no Attributo of God can properly or strictly be communicated to any Creature for they are the Divine Essence and if the Attributes were communicated so would the Divine Essence be And therefore the Communication we speak of is only Analogical no Communication of the Attributes themselves to us for they are all infinite and therefore no Creature is capable of them but in respect of the Fruit and Effects of those Attributes God works that in Man which resembles his Perfections So we shall be made like him 1 John 3.2 as John sayes 2 Pet. 1.4 and so be Partakers of the Divine Nature as Peter saith How sweet is Communion with God now how much more sweet will it be then Bernard saith Tuipse Coronatores Ber. Med. Corona Promissor Promissio Praemiator Praemium O God Thou art the Crowner and the Crown it self the Promiser and the Promise it self the Rewarder and the Reward it self 1 Thes 4.17 We shall be for ever with the Lord. Well may we comfort one another with these words Where I am John 14.3 Joh. 17.21 there shall you also be saith Christ for we are one with Christ though not Naturâ yet I acto The Husband will have the Wife with him As we now have Communion with God and Christ is our Heaven begun Eph. 2.6 And hath made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Heaven is such a place Heb. 11.10 whose builder and maker is God The Structure is too glorious to be made by the Saints above or Angels there they cannot build their own Dwellings as Men do on Earth for the Workmanship is too curious for them no God doth it Infinite Wisdom contrived the Mansions there and infinite Power made them This is the place that God purposed to bring his People to from Eternity Mat. 25.34 1 Kings 7.8 9 10. What was the House that King Solomon built for the Daughter of Pharaoh when he took her to be his Wife but as a meer Dunghil in comparison of this House that God hath made for the Sons and Daughters of Men whom he hath made his beloved Ones Then shall that be fully accomplished Zeph. 3.17 The Lord thy God will rejoyce over thee with joy He will rest in his Love he will rejoyce over thee with singing Courts on Earth have their Troubles with their Pleasures A. to his Son one saith that well knew what they were That a Court is a place of most uncertain Air full of Damps and Exhalations then there is over-scorching Heat and soon over-casting of Clouds by the sudden rising and depressing of Favourites Great Men are most alterable every puff of Wind fans them into various shapes they which have extreamly loved to day have hated deadly the morrow So he But in Heaven there is no fear of the frowns of God nor abatement of his Love to Eternity But the Vngodly shall be cast into Hell I shall not contend about the place whether it be in the Air or whether in the Center of the Earth or whether beyond the Superficies of it I content my self with that of Luther I am satisfied in not knowing where Hell is whilest I know that it is We had better enquire how to escape the place than where the place is It is a place of Misery where the Ungodly shall for ever bear the Indignation of the Lord against whom they have sinned Mat. 25.46 Sin is objectively infinite as it is committed against an infinite God An infinite Offence calls for an infinite Punishment This Punishment must be either infinite for Nature or Duration for Nature it cannot be no finite Creature could then bear it it must be therefore infinite for Duration God hath given to Man an immortal Soul this Soul goes out of the World laden with Sin and Guilt is it not reasonable that whilest Sin remains Punishment should remain But Sin will remain for ever for how should it be gotten out or taken away What was the punishment of the Vestal Nuns in Campo Scelerato among the old Romans What is the Spanish Inquisition What is our Pane forte dure or Pressing Men to death Nothing to this And yet were any Man sure that after ten or twenty years Pleasures he should endure such Misery how would he quake at the thoughts of it in the midst of his Delights Mat. 25.41 The Ungodly are committed to the rage of the Devil What becomes of the Lamb if the Lyon have him How sad is it for any Man to be delivered over to the Will of his greatest Enemy that had no Pity no Humanity but should take more delight in torturing than in eating when hungry It is not in vain put in Depart from me Mat. 25.41 with the Devil and his Angels Now they are but Executioners God is the Judge Well might David say Who knoweth the Power of thy Wrath Psal 90.11 It is the Wrath of an infinite God of a sin-revenging God Let such as fear not Eternal Burnings consider what would an eternal Gout an eternal Tooth-ache an eternal Strangury be The Ungodly shall cry and not be heard cry as they Jer. 47.6 7. O thou Sword of the Lord how long will it be e're thou be quiet put up thy self into thy Scabbard rest and be still But that answer shall be given How can it be quiet since the Lord hath given it a charge to destroy I have many times thought when I have read the 48 49 chapters of Jeremy and the last Verses of both though dreadful things were threatned to be executed on Moab and Elam yet the Close of all is Yet will I bring again the Captivity of Moab in the latter dayes saith the Lord but it shall be in the latter dayes I will bring again the Captivity of Elam saith the Lord. But when