and rare peeces what majesty and incomprehensible excellencies may we expect in the Palace of the great King and the heavenly habitations of the Saints and Angels * How full of beauty and glory are the chiefe roomes and Presence-Chamber of the great and royall Monarch of Heaven and Earth O with what infinite sweetest delight may every truly gracious soule bathe it selfe before-hand even in this vale of teares in the delicious and ravishing contemplation of this most glorious Place wherein he hath an eternall blisfull mansion most certainly purchased and prepared for him already by the bloud of IESVS CHRIST Let us therefore as an holy Divine would have us spend many thoughts upon it Let us enter into deepe meditations of the inestimable glory of it Let us long untill we come to the fingering and possession of it even as the heire longeth for his inheritance Let us strive and straine to get into this golden Citie where streets walls and gates and all is gold all is pearle nay where pearle is but as mire and dirt and nothing worth O what fooles are they who deprive themselves willingly of this endlesse glory for a few stinking lusts O what mad men are they who bereave themselves of a roome in this Citie of Pearle for a few carnall pleasures O what bedlams and humane beasts are they who shut themselves out of these everlasting habitations for a little transitory pelfe O what intolerable sots and senselesse wretches are all such who wilfully barre themselves out of this Palace of infinite pleasure for the short fruition of worldly trash and trifles 2. In a second place let us take notice of some names titles and epithetes attributed to heavenly joyes eternall glory which may yet further represent to our relish their incomparable sweetnesse and excellency They are called 1. A Kingdome Mat. 25. 34. Luke 12. 32. Now a Kingly Throne is holden the top and crowne of all earthly happinesses the highest aime of the most eager and restlesse aspirations and ambitions of men A confluence it is of riches pleasures glory all royall bravery or what mans heart can wish for outward welfare and felicity What stirres and stratagems what murders and mischiefes what mining and counter-mining what mysterious plots and machivillian depths what strange adventures and effusions sometimes even of bloudy seas to catch a Crowne Witnesse Lancaster and Yorke nay all habitable parts of the earth which from time to time have become bloudy cock-pits in this kind 2. An Heavenly Kingdome Mat. 7. 21. And 18. 3. to intimate that it surpasseth in glory and excellency all earthly kingdomes as farre as heaven transcendeth earth and unconceiveably more 3. The Kingdome of GOD Acts 14. 23. A Kingdome of GODS owne making beautifying and blessing who doth all things like Himselfe as I said before replenished and shining with Majesty pleasures and ineffable felicities beseeming the glorious Residence of the King of Kings 4. An Inheritance Acts 20. 32. Not a tenement at will to be possessed or left at the landlords pleasure but an inheritance setled upon us and sealed unto us by the dearest and highest price that ever was payed which wil be as orient precious and acceptable after as many millions of yeares as you can think as it was the very first day it was powred out and payed 5. A rich and glorious inheritance Eph. 1. 18. Fit for the Majesty and mercy of Almighty GOD to bestow the un-valuable bloud of His Son to purchase and the dearely Beloved of His Soule to enjoy 6. An Inheritance of the Saints in light Coloss. 1. 12. Every word sounds a world of sweetnesse 7. An Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 1. 4. There can never possibly be the least diminution much lesse any abolishment of the least glimpse of heavenly glory But all blisse above wil be as fresh and full innumerable yeares hence as at our first entrance and so thorow all eternity 8. A Crowne of righteousnesse 2 Tim. 4. 8. Fairly come by and full dearely bought A crowne of life Iaâ—… 1. 12. A Crowne of glory 1 Pet. 5. 4. Glory it selfe Rom. 9. 23. Nay an exceeding exceeding eternall waight of glory 2 Corinth 4. 17. Which Crownes Kingdomes Pearles Iewels Feasts c. do but weakely shadow out unto us A superlative transcendent Phrase saith one such as is not to be found in all the Rhetoricke of the Heathens because they never wrote of such a theme nor with such a spirit 9. Fulnesse of joy everlasting pleasures Psal. 16. 11. A swift flowing river and torrent of pleasures Psal. 36. 8. The very joy of our LORD and Master Mat. 25. 21. 3. In a third place let us consider the beauty and blessednesse of glorified Bodies I do not here curiously enquire with the Schoole-men whether the glory of the body doth spring originally out of the blessednesse and beautifull excellency of the soule and so redounds upon the body by a continued constant influence as Aquinas thinks Or which I rather follow that those excellent endowments and heavenly splendours are originally and dispositively implanted by GODS hand in the reformed body onely perfected and actuated as it were by the glorious soule as Bonaventure supposeth Sure I am in generall they shal be made like the glorious Body of CHRIST Philip. 3. 21. And that is happinesse and honour enough inexplicable supereminent Besides their freedome from all defects and imperfections diseases and distempers infirmities and deformities maimednesse and monstrous shapes infancy or decrepitnesse of stature c. From want of meate drinke mariage for we shal be like the Angels of GOD in heaven Matth. 22. 30. We shall hunger no more neither thirst any more Rev. 7. 16. of sleepe for there shal be no wearying of the body or tyring the spirits for we shall live by the all-sufficient Spirit of GOD which never needs refreshing of physicke for we shall enjoy perpetuall impregnable health a glorified body cannot possibly be distempered either by inward contrariety of elementary qualities or any outward contagion or hurtfull impression of aire to coole our heat or keepe us from stifling of clothes for we shal be clothed with long white robes of immortality Rev. 7. 9. which can never be worne out but shall be so beautifull and glorious that like the Sun we shall be best adorned when we have no other covering but our owne resplendent Majesticall brightnesse of Sun for the glory of GOD shall illighten that heavenly city and the Lambe shal be the light thereof Rev. 21. 23. Of any thing for GOD shal be unto us All in All 1 Cor. 15. 28. I say besides an everlasting exemption and priviledge from all ils paines miseries our bodies shal be gloriously crowned with many positive prerogatives marvellous excellencies high and heavenly endowments 1. Immortality 1 Cor. 15. 54. Glorified bodies can never possibly die They shall last as long as GOD Himselfe and run parallell with
Heaven About HELL Consider 1. The Paine of losse Privation of GODS glorious presence and eternall separation from those everlasting joyes felicities and blisse above is the more horrible part of hell as Divines affirme There are two parts say they of hellish torments 1. Paine of losse and 2. Paine of sense but a sensible and serious contemplation of that inestimable and unrecoverable losse doth incomparably more afflict an understanding soule indeed than all those punishments tortures and extremest sufferings of sense It is the constant and concurrent judgement of the ancient Fathers that the torments and miseries of many hels come farre short are nothing to the shutting out everlastingly from the kingdome heaven and unhappy banishment from the beatificall vision of the most soveraigne onely and chiefest Good the thrice-glorious Iehovah blessed for ever For by how much the degrees of infinite good and happinesse in GOD exceed the finite wickednesse and misery of men by so much greater is the sorrow and griefe being rightly conceived for the losse of that than for the sense of this Assure then thy selfe before-hand though thou little thinke so in the meane time the losse but of the least raye of that Sun-like resplendent Body we should have in heaven but of a taste of those over-flowing rivers of pleasure and un-utterable blisse of that happy soule which should dwell in such a Body but of one foot-breadth of the pavement of the Empyrean Heaven to which the Starry Firmament is but a Porch or out-house but one houres company with all the crowned Saints and glorious inhabitants of that happy Place but of one glaunce upon the glorified Body of IESVS CHRIST but of one glimpse of that unapproachable Light and Iehovahs face in glory I say the losse but of any one of these would be a far dearer and more unvaluable losse than that of ten thousand worlds were they all compos'd of purest gold and brim-full with richest jewels What will it be then think you to loose all these nay the full and absolute fruition of all heavenly excellencies beauties glories pleasures and perfections and that eternally I know full well that carnall conceipts and worldly-wise men will wonder at this For having no sight but by sensuall eyes they cannot possibly apprehend or will by any meanes acknowledge any such thing Eagle-ey'd they are and sharpe-sighted enough into things of earth yet blinder than a mole as they say in beholding any spirituall or celestiall beauty But had we but the eyes of Austin Basill Chrysostome and some other holy Fathers and why should not ours be clearer and brighter considering the greater splendour and illustriousnesse of divine knowledge in these times we should easily confesse that the farre greatest and indeed most unconceiveable griefe would be to be severed for ever from the highest and supreme Good And that a thousand thousand rentings of the soule from the body were infinitely lesse than one of the soule from GOD. Nicostratus in Aelian himselfe being a cunning artisan finding a curious peece of worke and being wondred at by one and ask'd what pleasure he could take to stand as he did still gazing on the picture answered Hadst thou mine eyes my friend thou wouldest not wonder but rather be ravished as I am at the inimitable art of this rare and admired peece It is proportionably so in the present Point Or were we vouchsafed but one moment of Pauls heavenly rapture that we might sâ—…e but a glimpse of that insiniâ—…e glory and drinke but one drop of those ever-springing Fountaines of joy then should we freely acknowledge and feele the truth of what I say and that all I say comes farre short of what we shall find If it be so then that the losse of the presence of GOD and endlesse pleasures be so painefull irrecoverable and inestimable and that it hath beene many times made manifest unto you by Scriptures Fathers Reasons convincing familiar easie resemblances and the same also appeares and may be clearely concluded by the third exhortation before the Sacrament in the Common Prayer Booke to wit that living and lying wittingly and willingly in any one sinne against conscience robs us of all these infinite ever-during unutterable joyes and beatificall vision and fruition of GOD Himselfe for ever I say sith it is both thus and thus Let every one of us in the name and feare of GOD as we would not for a few 〈◊〉 pleasures nay sometimes one vile lust in this vale of teares for an inch of time lose 〈◊〉 knowne delights thorow all eternity in another world with an unshaken invincible resolution oppose all sorts and assaults of sinne with all motions enticements and temptations thereunto Let us hold with holy Chrysostome That it is worse and a more wofull thing to offend CHRIST than to be vexed with the miseries of hell Let us professe with Anselme That if we should see the hatefulnesse of sinne on the one side and the horrour of hell on the other and must necessarily fall into the one we would rather choose hell tâ—…an siâ—… It is reported also of Edmund his successor that he was wont to say I will rather leape into the siery lake than knowingly commit any sinne against GOD. Let us resolve with another of the Ancients Rather to be torne in peeces with wild horses than wittingly and willingly commit any sin See for this purpose twenty curbing Considerations to keepe from sin Instr. for comf afflict Consc. pag. 108. 2. The Paine of sense The extremity exquisitenesse and eternity whereof no tongue can possibly expresse or heart conceive Consider before hand what an unspeakable misery it would be and yet it would not be so much as a slea biting to this to lie everlastingly in a red hot scorching fire deprived of all possibility of dying or being ever consum'd I have some where read of the horrid execution of a Traitour in this manner being naked he was chained fast to a chaire of brasse or some other such metall that would burne most furiously being fil'd with fiery heat about which was made a mighty fire that by little and little caused the chaire to be red and raging hot so that the miserable man roared hideously many houres for extremest anguish and so expired But what an horrible thing had it beene to havelien in that dreadfull torment eternally And yet all this is nothing For if the blacke fire of hell be truly corporall and taken properly as some of the Fathers suppose yet it is such say they that as farre passeth our ordinary hottest fire as ours exceeds the fire painted upon the wall And it must be so I meane as farre surpasse our most furious ordinary sire immeasurably unconceiveably in degrees of heat and fiercenesse of burning For the one was created for comfort the other purposely to torment the one is made by the hand of man the other tempered by the angry arme
patience c. As a father shewes sometimes and represents to the eye of his child a glimpse and sparkle as it were of some rich orient jewell to make him love long pray and cry for a full sight of it and grasping of it in his owne hand So our heavenly Father in this case If celestiall excellencies and those surpassing joyes arising principally from the visible apprehension of the purity glory and beauty of GOD were clearely seene and fully knowne even by speculation it would be no strange thing or thanksworthy for the most horrible Beliall to become presently the holiest Saint the worlds greatest minion the most mortified man But in this vale of teares we must live by Faith 3. It is a fruit of our fall with Adam and the condition of this unglorified mortall state here upon earth to know but in part From which our knowledge above shall differ as the knowledge of a child from that of a perfect man as knowledge by a glasse from apprehension of the reall object as knowledge of a plaine speech from that which is a riddle It is not for us saith one in these earthly bodies to mount into the clouds to pierce this fulnesse of light to breake into this bottomlesse depth of glory or to dwell in that unapproachable brightnesse This is reserved to the last Day when CHRIST IESVS shall present us glorious and pure to His Father without spot or wrinkle 4. Our understandings upon necessity must be supernaturally irradiated and illightened with extraordinary enlargement and divinenesse before we can possibly comprehend the glorious brightnesse of heavenly joyes and full sweetnesse of eternall blisse It is as impossible in this life for any mortall braine to conceive them to the life as to compasse the heaven with a span or containe the mighty Ocean in a nut-shell The Philosopher could say that as the eyes of an Owle are to the light of the Sun so is the sharpest eye of the most pregnant wit to the mysteries of nature How strangely then would it be dazeled and struck starke blind with the excessive incomprehensible glory and greatnesse of celestiall secrets and immortall light But although we cannot comprehend the whole yet we may consider part Though we cannot take a full draught of that over-flowing fountaine of endlesse blisse above yet we may taste though we cannot yet enjoy the whole harvest yet we take a survey of the first fruits For the Scriptures to this end shadow unto us a glimpse by the most excellent precious and desireable things of this life Thus much premis'd let us for my present purpose about the joyes of Heaven consider 1. The Place where GOD and all His blessed ones inhabite eternally But how can an infinite GOD be said to dwell in a created heaven GOD from all eternity when there was nothing to which He might manifest and make knowne Himselfe is not said to dwell any where either to have been out of Himselfe or in any thing but onely in Himselfe He was therefore an heaven to Himselfe But when He pleased He created the world that in so large and goodly a Theater He might declare and conveigh His power goodnesse and bounty some way or other to all creatures Especially He prepared this glorious heaven we speake of not that it might enclose or enlarge His happinesse But that He might unspeakably beautifie and irradiate it with unconceiveable splendour of His Majesty and Glory and so communicate Himselfe beatifically to all the Elect Saints and Angels even for ever and ever I said not that it might enclose conclude and confine Him For He is as truly without the heavens as He is in them And He is where nothing is with Him He was when nothing was and then He was where nothing was beside Himselfe Before the Creation there was properly neither when nor where but onely an incomprehensible perfection of indivisible immensity and eternity which would still be the same though neither heaven nor earth nor any thing in them should any more be But we may not so place Him without the Heavens as to cloath Him with any imaginary space or give the checke to His immensity by any parallell distance locall He is said to be without the heavens in as much as His infinite Essence cannot be contained in them but necessarily containes them He is so without them or if you will beyond them that albeit a thousand moe worlds were heaped up by His all-powerfull hand each above other and all above this He should by vertue of His infinite Essence not by free choyce of will or mutation of place be as intimately coexistent to every part of them as He now is to any part of this heaven and earth we enjoy In a sober sense Bernard saith true Nusquam est ubique est He is no where because no place whether reall or imaginary can comprehend or containe Him He is every where because no body no space or spirituall substance can exclude His presence or avoid the penetration if I may so speake of His Essence This glorious Empyrean Heaven where nothing but light and blessed immortality no shadow of matter for teares discontentments griefes and uncomfortable passions to worke upon but all joy tranquillity and peace even for ever and ever doth dwell is seated above all the visible Orbs and Starry Firmament See Deut. 4. 39. 10. 14. Iosh. 2. 11. Pro. 25. 3. 1 King 8. 27. 30. 39. 43. 49. Luke 24. 51. Acts 1. 9. 7. 69. Eph. 4. 10. 2 Cor. 12. 2. where it is called the third heaven 1. The first is that whole space from the Earth to the Sphere of the Moone where the birds fly whence raine snow haile and other Meteors descend See Gen. 7. 11. Psal. 8. 8. Mat. 8. 20. Deut. 28. 12. Mat. 6. 26. where they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. The second consists of all the visible Orbs. See Gen. 1. 14 15. where he cals the whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Expansion Firmament Heaven And in this He placeth the Sun Moone and other Starres Deut. 17. 3. Within this second Extension we comprehend three other Orbs represented to our knowledge by their motion Of which see Eustachius Table at pag. 94. 3. The third is that where GOD is said specially to dwell whither CHRIST ascended and where all the blessed Ones shall be for ever No naturall knowledge can possibly be had of this heaven neither any helpe by humane arts Geometry Arithmetike Opticks Hypotheses Philosophy c. To illighten us thereunto For it is neither aspectable nor moveable Hence it is that Aristotle the most eagle-eyed into the mysteries of nature of all Philosophers and whom they call Natures Secretary yet said that beyond the moveable Heavens there was neither body nor time nor place nor vacuum But GODS Booke assures us of this Heaven of happinesse and House of GOD above all the aspectable
mooving Orbs. 2 Cor. 3. 2. Eph. 4. 10. 1 Kin. 8. 27. 30. 39. 43. 49. And it is the biggest and most beautifull Body of the whole creation incorruptible unmooveable unalterable wholly shining with the most exquisite glory and brightnesse of purest light wherein as in a confluence of all possible felicities Iehovah GOD blessed for ever doth familiarly and freely communicate Himselfe to be beatifically seene and fully enjoyed face to face of all the elect humane and Angelicall spirits for ever Where the glorified Body of IESVS CHRIST shines with unconceiveable splendour above the brightnesse of the Sun c. This place most excellent replenished with those unknowne pleasures which attend everlasting happinesse where GOD blessed for ever is seene face to face is made admirable and illustrious by its bignesse and beauty Guesse the immeasurable magnitude and beautifull signes of it 1. By its description Rev. 21. It is called Ver. 10. by an excellency That great City c. Which if it be immediately meant as many learned and holy Divines would have it of the glory of the Church here on earth when both Iewes and Gentiles shal be happily united into one Christian Body and Brother-hood before CHRISTS second comming it is no lesse pregnant to proove that the Heaven of Heavens is a place most glorious above all comparison and conceipt For if there be such goodlinesse amplitude beauty and majesty in this Militant Church how infinitely will this beauty be yet more beautified and all this glory glorified with incredible additions in the Church Triumphant If there be such excellency upon earth what may we expect in the Heaven of Heavens 2. By those many Mansions prepared for many thousand thousands of glorified Bodies after the last Day Ioh. 14. 2. Besides the numberlesse numbers of blessed Angels the present inhabitants of those heavenly Palaces 3. By the incredible distance from the earth to the Starry Firmament If I should here tell you the severall computations of Astronomers in this kind the summes would seeme to exceed all possibility of beliefe And yet besides the late learnedst of them place above the eight Sphere wherein all those glorious lamps shine so bright three mooving Orbs more Now the Empyrean Heaven comprehends all these how incomprehensible then must its compasse and greatnesse necessarily be 4. By considering what a large Expansion and immensity the mighty LORD of heaven and earth is like to chuse for revealing His glory in the highest and most transcendent manner to all His noblest creatures infinitely endear'd unto Him by the bloudy death of His dearest Son even the Son of His love thorow all eternity Who doth all things like Himselfe if He love it is with a frâ—…e infinite and eternall love if He worke He makes a world If He go out with our Hosts the Sun shall stand still if need be and the Starres must fight if He come against a people He will make His sword devoure flesh and His arrowes drinke bloud if He be angry with the world He brings a sloud over the whole face of the earth If He set His affection upon a mortall worme that trembles at His Word and is weary of sinne He will make him a King give him a Paradise crowne him with eternity if He builds a house for all His holy Ones it must needs be a None-such most magnificent stately and glorious farre above the reach of the thoughts of men 5. What a spacious and specious inheritance what a rich super-eminent and sumptuous Purchase and Palace do you thinke was the precious bloud of the Son of GOD by its inestimable price and merit able to procure at the hands of His Father for His Redeemed Let us here also lay hold upon some considerations whereby we may behold at least some little glimpses of the admirable glory of its light 1. To say nothing of that glorious projection and transfusion of Aethereall light both of the Sun and of the Starres of the six magnitudes which by Astrologicall computation constitute three hundred Suns at the least whence ariseth a masse of shining beauty upward into the Empyrean Heaven which Patricius endeavours industriously to proove I say to passe it by as a groundlesse conceipt let us take a scantling as it were and estimate of the incomparable brightnesse and splendour of the highest heaven by that which Orthodoxe Divines soberly tell from Rev. 21. and other places to wit that it is verus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wholly light not like the Starry Firmament bespangl'd here and there with glittering spots but all as it were one great Sun From every Point powring out abundantly whole rivers as it were of purest heavenly light c. Hence with allusion to brightest things below it is said to have a wall of Iasper building of gold a foundation of precious stones and gates of pearles Being cleare as Cristall shining like unto glasse transparent in brightnesse as a molten looking glasse It may be those places may also in latitude of sense intimate and include this glorious visible light I speake of Coloss. 1. 12. Psal. 36. 9. 1 Tim. 6. 16. Ancient Divines also apprehended this glorious beauty and brightnesse in the blessed heaven The eternall City saith Austin is incomparably bright and beautifull where there is victory verity dignity sanctity life eternity If those which be condemned saith Basill be cast into utter darknesse it is evident that those which walked worthy of GOD have their rest in supercelestiall light 2. Besides the superexcellency of its native lustre that I may so speak this blessed heaven wil yet be made infinitely more illustrious and resplendent by all the most admirable and amiable shining glory of that dearest ravishing object to a glorified eye the glorified Body of IESVS CHRIST In respect of the beauty and brightnesse whereof all sydereall light is but a darksome mote and blackest mid-night See Mat. 17. 2. 3. Adde hereunto the incredible and unspeakble splendour of many millions of glorified Saints whose bodies also will out-shine the Sun See Mat. 13. 43. Phil. 3. 21. Dan. 12. 3. Who are said to shine as the brightnesse of the Firmament as the Stars Dan. 12. 3. As the Sun Mat. 13. 43. To be like CHRIST Himselfe Iohn 3. 2. And to appeare with Him in glory Col. 3. 4. Now what a mighty and immeasurable masse of most glorious light will result and arise from that most admirable illustrious concurrence and mutuall shining reflexions of the Empyrean Heaven more bright and beautifull than the Sun in his strength the Sun of that sacred Pallace and all the blessed Inhabitants All which every glorified eye shal be supernaturally inlarged enabled and ennobl'd to behold and enjoy in a kindly and comfortable manner with ineffable delight and everlastingnesse 4. If the porch and first entry be so stately and glorious garnished and bespangl'd with so many bright shining Lights and beautifull Starres What workmanship
is a right noble and heroicall revenge which doth not onely deprive the body of temporall life but bring also the immortall soule to endlesse flames everlastingly 3. Desperate corrupt affection is strangely desperate to run headlong upon the damnation of hell for a little earthly delight if we should see a naked man in some furious moode as prodigall of his temporall life runne upon his owne sword or throw himselfe from some steep rocke or cast himselfe into some deep river and teare out his owne bowels we should censure it presently to be a very desperate part and ruefull spectacle what shall we say of him then who thorough the fury of his rebellious nature to the endlesse destruction of the life of his immortall soule doth desperatly throw himselfe upon the devouring edge of GODS fiercest indignation upon the sharpest points of all the plagues and curses in his Booke and into the very flames of everlasting fire It is a very fearefull thing to see a man bath and embrue his hands in the blood and butchery of his owne body and with his murderous blade to take away the life thereof but of how much more horrour and wofulnesse is that spectacle when a desperate wretch with the empoysoned edge of his owne enraged corruption doth cut the throat of his owne deare immortall soule so that a man may teach him all his life long by the blood thereof in the sinfull passages of his life untill at length it bee stark dead in sinnes and trespasses for how can a soule all purple red with willfull sheading its own blood looke for any part in that pretious blood of that spotles lambe Nay assuredly such bloody stubbornnes and selfe-murthering cruelty will be paid home at last by the severe revenger of such cursed desperatnesse Hee will judge such a man after the manner of them that shed their owne blood and give him the blood of wrath and of jealousie Lord it is prodigiously strange and lamentably fearefull that so noble and excellent a creature as man prince of all other earthly creatures by the priviledge of reason and enlightned with the glorious beame of understanding nature should be so furiously madded with its owne malice and bewitchedly blindfolded by the Prince which rules in the Aire as for the momentany enjoyment of some fewglorious miseries bitter-sweet pleasures heart-vexing riches or some other worldly vanity at the best desperatly and wilfully to abandon and cast himselfe from the unconceivable pleasures of its joyfull place where GOD dwels into an infinite world of everlasting woefulnesse For let a carnall man consider in a word his prodigious madnesse in this point He might not onely in this vale of teares bee possest with a peacefull heart which is an incomparable pretiousnesse surpassing all created understandings For I dare say this I know it to bee true One little glimpse of Heaven shed sometimes into the heart of a sanctified man by the saving illumination of the comforting spirit whereby he sees and feeles that in despight of the rage of divels malice of men let sin and death the grave and hell doe their worst his soule is most certainely bound by the hand of GOD in the bundle of the living and that hee shall hereafter everlastingly inhabite the joyes of eternity I say this one conceit being the immediate certificate of the spirit of truth doth infinitely more refresh his affections and affect his heart with more true sweetnesse and tastfull pleasure then all carnall delights and sensuall delicacies can possibly produce though they were as exquisite and numberlesse as nature art and pleasure it selfe could devise and to be enjoyed securely as long as the world lasts Besides this heaven upon earth and glorious happinesse even in this world he might hereafter go in arme with Angels sit downe by the side of the blessed Trinity amongst Saints and Angels and all the truly worthy men that ever lived with the highest perfection of blisse endlesse peace and blessed immortality all the joyes all the glory all the blisse which lies within the compasse of heaven should be powred upon him everlastingly and yet for all this he doth not onely in a spirituall phrensie desperately deprive himselfe and trample under foot this heaven upon earth and that joyfull rest in heaven world without end but also throwes himselfe into a hell of ill conscience here and hereafter into that hell of Devils which is a place of flames and perpetuall darknesse where there is torment without end and past imagination The day will come and the LORD knowes how soone when he will clearely see and acknowledge with horrible anguish of heart his strange and desperate madnesse See Wisd. 5. 2 c. For after the moment of a few miserable pleasures in this life be ended he is presently plunged into the fiery lake and ere he be aware the pit of destruction shutteth upon him everlastingly and if once he find himselfe in hell he knowes there is no redemption out of that infernall pit then would he think himselfe happy if he were to suffer those bitter and intolerable torments no mo thousands of yeares than there are sands on the sea shore haires on his head starres in heaven grasse piles on the ground and creatures both in heaven and earth for he would still comfort himselfe at least with this thought that once his misery would have an end but alas this word never doth ever burst his heart with unexpressible sorrow when he thinks upon it for after an hundred thousand of millions of yeares there suffered he hath as farre to suffer as he had at the first day of his entrance into those endlesse torments now let a man consider if he should lie in an extreme fit of the stone or a woman if she should be afflicted with the grievous torture of child-bed but one night though they lie upon the softest beds have their friends about them to comfort them Physitians to cure them all needfull things ministred unto them to asswage their paine yet how tedious painfull and wearisome would even one night seeme unto them how would they turne and tosse themselves from side to side telling the clocke counting every houre as it passeth which would seeme unto them a whole day What is it then think you to lie in fire and brimstone inflamed with the unquenchable wrath of GOD world without end Where they shall have nothing about them but darknesse and discomforts yellings and gnashings of teeth their companions in prophanenesse and vanity to ban and curse them the damned fiends of hell to scourge them and torment them despaire and the worme that never dies to feed upon them with everlasting horrour If carnall wretches be so desperate as wilfully to spill the bloud of their owne soules let us set light by the life of our bodies if the cruelty of the times call for it for the honour of the Saviour of our soules Let me give one instance of dangerous snares
evill conscience attends the one of which eats out their heart when we expect an harvest The other seizes upon the Soule in the time of sorrow and sinks it into the lowest hell And as Men of GOD and Sonnes of Wisdome to mount our thoughts and raise our spirits and bend our affections to things above which are as farre from diminution and decay as the Soule from death and can be no more corrupted or shaken than the Seat and Omnipotency of GOD surprised For besides that they infinitely surpasse in eminency of worth and sweetnesse of pleasure the comprehension of the largest heart and expression of any Angels tongue they also out-last the dayes of heaven and run parallell with the life of GOD and line of Eternity As we see the Fountaine of all materiall light to powre out his beames and shining abundantly every day upon the world without wearinesse emptinesse or end so and incomparably more doth joy and peace glory and blisse spring and plentifully flow every moment with fresh streames from the face of the Father of Lights upon all His holy ones in heaven and that everlastingly O blessed then shall we be upon our beds of death if following the counsell of our dearest LORD who shed the most precious and warmest bloud in His heart to bring our soules out of hell we treasure ap now in the meane time heavenly hoards which will ever happily hold out a stocke of grace which never shrinks in the wetting but abides the triall of the spirit and touch-stone of the Word in all times of danger and Day of the LORD even that accurate circumspect and precise walking pressed upon us by the Apostle Eph. 5. 15. Though pestilently persecuted and plagued by the enemies of GOD in all ages And that purity which Saint Iohn makes a property of every true-hearted Professour 1 Iohn 3. 3. So much opposed and bitterly opprest by the world and yet without which none of us shall ever see the face of GOD with comfort If while it is called To Day we make our peace with His heavenly Highnesse by an humble continued exercise of repentance by standing valiantly on His side by holding an holy acquaintance at His mercifull Throne with a mighty importunity of prayer and godly conversation above by ever offering up unto Him in the armes of our Faith when he is angry the bleeding Body of His owne crucified SONNE never giving Him over or any rest untill He bepleased to register and enroll the remission of our sinnes in the Booke of Life with the bloudy lines of CHRISTS Soule-saving sufferings and golden characters of His owne eternall love If now before we appeare at the dreadfull Tribunall of the euer-living GOD and little know we whose turne is next we make our friends in the Court of Heaven the blessed Angels in procuring their joy and love by a visible constancy in the fruits teares and truth of a sound conversion The Spirit of comfort by a ready and reverent entertainment of His holy Motions and inspirations of grace the Sonne and Heire of the King of glory the Foundation and Fountaine of all our Blisse in this world and the world to come from whose meritorious bloud shed and blessed mediation arise all those flouds of mercy and favour which refresh our Soules in this vale of teares and also those unknown bottomlesse seas of pleasure peace and all unspeakable delights which will superabound and overflow with new and fresh sweetnesse for ever and ever in the Paradise of GOD. Blessed are they that ever they were borne who have already got Him their Advocate at the right hand of His Father For besides many other glorious priviledges thereby in all their exigents and extremities they may be ever welcome to the Seat of mercy and be sure to speed If a man had a suit unto the King it were a comfortable and happy thing to find a friend in Court But if the Kings speciall and choisest Favourite nay His own only Son were his Intercessour how confident would he be to prevaile and prosper to conquer his opposites and crowne his desires Why then should any poore Christian be discomforted and cast downe nay why should he not be extraordinarily raised and ravished in spirit with much joyfull hope and sweet assurance when he throwes himselfe downe at the Throne of grace sith the dearest Sonne of the eternall GOD the Heire of heaven and earth the Mediator of the great Covenant of endlesse salvation is his Advocate at the hand of His All-mighty Father in the most high and glorious Court of Heaven Wherefore when an humbled soule and trembling spirit is sore troubled and almost turned backe from his purpose of prayer and prostration at the foot of heavenly Majesty by entertaining before hand a feeling apprehension of his owne abhorred vilenesse and the holy purity of GODS all-seeing and searching eye which cannot looke on iniquity let this consideration comfort and breed confidence that IESVS CHRIST the Son of GODS love doth sollicite and tender the suit who out of His owne sense and sympathy of such like troubles and temptations doth deale for us with a true a naturall and a sensible touch of compassionatenesse and mercy Shall that blessed Saviour of ours call and cry for a pardon to His Father for those which put Him to death who were so farre from seeking unto him that they sought and suckt his bloud and shall He shut His eares against the groanes of thy grieved spirit and heavy sighes of thy bleeding soule who values one drop of His bloud at an higher price than the worth of many worlds It cannot be Thus that saying of Salomon and this counsell of CHRIST makes good the truth of the Point which may further appeare by these Reasons 1. Taking this counsell betime and hoarding up heavenly things in this harvest time of grace mightily helps to asswage the smart mollifie the bitternesse and illighten the darknesse of the evill Day It is soveraigne and serves to take the venime sting and teeth out of any crosse calamity or distresse and so preserves the heart from that raging hopelesse sorrow which like a devouring Harpie dries up dissolves and destroyes the bloud spirits and life of all those who are destitute of such a divine Antidote What vast difference may we discerne betweene Iob and Iudas David and Achitophel in the daies of evill The two men of God being formerly enriched with his favour and familiarity so behaved themselves the one in the ship-wracke of his worldly happinesse the other in the hazard of his Kingdome as though they had not beene troubled at all The LORD gave and the LORD hath taken away saith Iob when all was gone blessed be the name of the LORD If I shall find favour in the eyes of the LORD saith David He will bring me againe and shew me both it and His habitation But if He thus say I have no delight in thee behold here
the discharge of it in every point and particular every company thou hast come into and all thy behaviour there every Sermon thou hast heard every Sabbath thou hast spent every motion of the Spirit which hath been made unto thy soule c. Let us then while it is called To Day call our selves to account examine search and trie thorowly our hearts lives and callings our thoughts words and deeds let us arraigne accuse judge cast and condemne our selves and prostrated before GODS Mercy-Seat with broken and bleeding affections lowlinesse of spirit and humblest adoration of His free grace upon the same ground with the Aramites 1 Kings 20. 31. We have heard that the Kings of the House of Israel are mercifull Kings let us I pray thee put sack cloth on our loines and ropes on our heads and go out to the King of Israel peradventure he will save thy life Let us there give our mercifull GOD no rest untill we have sued out our pardon by the intercession of the LORD IESVS c. And then we shall find the reckoning made up to our hand and all matters fully answered before-hand And which is a Point of unconceiveable comfort He that was our Advocate upon earth and purchased the Pardon with His owne hearts bloud shall then be our Iudge 3. That all the beastly and impure abominatitions of thine heart all thy secret sinnes and closet-villanies that no eye ever looked upon but that which is ten thousand times brighter than the Sun shall all then be disclosed and laid open before Angels Men and Devils and thou shalt then and there be horribly universally and everlastingly ashamed Thou now acts perhaps securely some harefull and abhorred worke of darknesse and wickednesse not to be nam'd in thine owne heart or one way or other in secret which thou wouldst not for the whole world were knowne to the world or to any but thy selfe or one or two of thy cursed companions curbed by their obnoxiousnesse but be well assured in that Day at that great assize thou shalt in the face of heaven and earth be laid out in thy colours to thine eternall confusion Never therefore go about or encourage thy selfe to commit any sinne because it is mid-night or that the doores are lockt upon thee because thou art alone and no mortall eye seeth thee neither is it possible to be reveal'd And yet I must tell thee by the way secret villanies have and may be discovered 1. In sleepe 2. Out of horrour of conscience or in time of distraction For suppose it be concealed and lie hid in as great darknesse as it was committed untill that last and great Day yet then shall it out with a witnesse and be as legible in thy fore-head as if it were writ with the brightest starres or the most glittering Sun beame upon a wall of Crystall 4. In what a wofull case thy heavy heart will be and with what strange terrour trembling and desperate rage it must needs be possest and rent in peeces when thou shalt heare that dreadfull sentence of damnation to eternall torments and horrour pronounced over thine head Depart from me thou cursed wretch into everlasting fire prepared for the Devill and his angels Every word breathes out nothing but fire and brimstone vengeance and woe bites deeper and terrifies more than ten thousand Scorpion stings To depart from that glorious presence were hell enough but thou must also go with a curse nor onely so but into fire and that must be everlasting fed continually with infinite rivers of brimstone and kept still in flame and fiercenesse by the unquenchable wrath of the most just GOD thorow all eternity And in that horrible dungeon and fiery lake thou shalt never have other company or comforters but wicked devils and they insulting over thee everlastingly with much hellish spite and stinging exprobrations for neglecting so great salvation all thy life long and losing heaven for some base lust and believing their lies If the drowning of the old world swallowing up of Korah and his complices burning up of Sodome with brimstone were attended with such terrours and hideous out cries How infinitely transcendent to all possibility of conceipt expression or beliefe will the confusions and tremblings of that Day be when so many millions of men shall be drag'd downe with all the Devils of hell to torments without end and past imagination There was horrible scryking when those five filthy cities first felt fire and brimstone drop downe upon their heads when those rebels saw the ground cleave asunder and themselves and all theirs go downe quicke into the pit when all the sonnes and daughters of Adam found the floud rising and ready to over-flow them all at once But the most horrid cry that ever was heard or ever shal be in heaven or earth in this world or the world to come will be then when all the forlorne condemned reprobates upon sentence given shal be violently and unresistably haled downe to hell and pulled presently from the presence not onely of the most glorious GOD the LORD IESVS Angels and all the blessed Ones but also of their Fathers Mothers Wives Husbands Children Sisters Brothers Lovers Friends Acquaintance who shall then justly and deservedly abandon them with all detestation and derision and forgetting all nearenesse and dearest obligations of nature neighbourhood alliance any thing rejoyce in the execution of divine justice in their everlasting condemnation So that no eye of GOD oâ—… man shall pitie them neither shall any teares prayers promises suits cries yellings calling upon rocks and mountains wishes never to have been or now to be made nothing c. be then heard or prevaâ—…e iâ—… their behalfe or any one in heaven or earth be found to mediate or speake for them to reverse or stay that fearefull doome of eternall woe but without mercy without stay without any farewell they shall be immediately and irrecoverably cast downe into the bottomlesse pit of easelesse endlesse and remedilesse torments which then shall finally shut her mouth upon them Oh! What then will be the guawings of the never dying worme what rage of guilty consciences what furious despaire what horrour of mind what distractions and feares what bitter looking backe upon their mis-spent time in this world what banning of their brethren in iniquity what cursing the day of their birth and even blaspheming of GOD Himselfe blessed for ever what tearing their haire and gnashing of teeth what wailing and wringing of hands what desperate roaring what hideous yellings filling heaven and earth and hell c. No tongue can tell no heart can thinke Be fore-warned then in a word To thirst long and labour infinitely more to have IESVS CHRIST in the meanetime say in the Ministry to thy truly humbled soule I am thy salvation than to be Possessour iâ—… it were possible of all the riches glory and pleasures of moe worlds than there are starres in
of almighty GOD with all terrible and torturing ingredients to make it most fierce and raging and a sit instrument for so great and mighty a GOD to torment everlastingly such impenitent reprobate rebels It is said to be prepared Matth. 2â—… 41. Isa. 30. 33. as if the all-powerfull wisdome did deliberate and as it were sit downe and devise most tormenting temper for that most formidable fire the one is blowne by an aiery breath the other by the angry breath of the great GOD which burnes farre hotter than ten thousand rivers of brimstone The pile thereof saith the Prophet is fire and much wood the breath of the LORD like a streame of brimstone doth kindle it What soule doth not quake and melt with thought of this fire at which the very Devils tremble There is no proportion betweene the heat of our breath and the fire that it blowes What a fearefull fire then is that which is blowne by a breath dissolved into brimstone which a great torrent of burning brimstone doth ever mightily blow If it be metaphoricall as Austin seemes some where to intimate and some moderne Divines are of mind and as the gold pearles and precious stones of the wall streets and gates of the heavenly Ierusalem Rev. 21. were metaphoricall so likewise it should seeme that the fire of hell should also be figurative And if it be so it is yet something els that is much more terrible and intolerable For as the Spirit of GOD to shadow unto us the glory of heaven doth name the most pretious excellent and glorious things in this life which notwithstanding come infinitely short so doth He intimate unto us the inexplicable paiâ—…es of hell by things most terrible and tormenting in this world fire brimstone c. which yet are nothing to hâ—…llish tortures Whether therefore it be materiall or metaphoricall I purpose not here to dispute or go about to determine neither is it much materiall for my purpose For be it whether it will it is infinitely horrible and insâ—…fferable beyond all compasse of conceipt and above the reach either of humane or Angelicall thoughts It doth not onely exceed with an incomparable disproportion â—…ll possibility of patience and resistance but also even ability to beare it and yet notwithstanding it must upon necessity be borne so long as GOD is GOD. Take in a word all that I intend to tell you in the point at this time If the severall paines of all the diseases and maladies incident to our nature as of the stone gout colicke strangury or what other you can name most afflicting the body nay and add besides all the most exquisite and unheard of tortures and if you will even those of the Spanish Inquisition which ever were or shal be inflicted upon miserable men by the bloudiest executioners of the greatest tyrants as that of him in the brazen chaire mentioned before c. and collect them all into one extremest anguish and yet it were nothing to the torment which shall for ever possesse and plague the least part of a damned body And as for the soule let all the griefes horrours and despaires that ever rent in peeces any heavy heart and vexed conscience as of Iudas Spira c. And let them all be heaped together into one extremest horrour and yet it would come infinitely short of that desperate rage and restlesse anguish which shall eternally torture the least and lowest faculty of the soule What then do you think wil be the torment of the whole body What wil be the terrour of the whole soule Here both invention of words would faile the ablest Oratour upon earth or the highest Angell in heaven Ah then is it not a madnesse above admiration and which may justly amaze both heaven and earth and be a prodigious astonishment to all creatures that being reasonable creatures having understanding like the Angels of GOD eyes in your heads to fore-see the approaching wrath hearts in your bodies that can tremble for trouble of mind as the leaves of the forrest that are shaken with the wind consciences capable of unspeakable horrour bodies and soules that can burne for ever in hell and may by taking lesse paines in the right way than a drunkard worldling or other wicked men in the wayes of death and going to hell escape everlasting paines yet will sit here still in the face of the Ministry with dead countenances dull eares and hard hearts as senslesse and unmooved as the seates you sit on the pillars you leane to and the dead bodies you tread on and never be said as they say never warn'd untill the fire of that infernall lake flame about your eares O monstrous madnesse and mercilesse cruelty to your owne soules Let the Angels blush heaven and earth be amaz'd and all the creatures stand astonished at it 3. When sentence is once irrevocably past by that high and everlasting Iudge and the mouth of the bottomlesse pit hath shut it selfe upon thee with that infinite anguish and enraged indignation thou wilt take on teare thy haire bite thy nailes gnash the teeth dig furiously into the very fountaine of life and if it were possible spit out thy bowels because having by a miracle of mercy beene blessed all thy life long in this gloriously illightened Goshen with the fairest noone-tide of the Gospell that ever the Sun saw and either diddest or mightest have heard many and many a powerfull and searching Sermon any one passage wherof if thou haddest not wickedly and wilfully forsaken thine own mercy and suffered Satan in a base and beastly maner to blindfold and baâ—…le thee might have beene unto thee the beginning of the new-birth and everlasting blisse yet thou in that respect a most accursed wretch diddest passe over all that long day of thy gracious visitation like a sonne or daughter of confusion without any piercing or profit at all and passed by all those goodly offers and opportunities with an inexpiable neglect and horrible ingratitude and so now liest drown'd and damn'd in that dreadfull lake of brimstone and fire which thou mightest have so easily and often escaped This irksome and furious reflexion of thy soule upon its owne wilfull folly whereby it hath so unnecessarily and sottishly lost everlasting joy and must now live in endlesse woe will vexe and torture more than thou canst possibly imagine continually gnaw upon thy heart with remedilesse and unconceivable griefe and in a word even make an hell it selfe O then having yet a price in thine hand to get wisdome to go to heaven lay it out with all holy greedinesse while it is called To day for the spirituall and eternall good of thy soule Improve to the utmost for that purpose the most powerfull Ministry holiest company best bookes all motions of GODS Spirit all saving meanes c. Spend every day passe every Sabbath make every prayer heare every Sâ—…imon thinke every thought speake every word do
the longest line of eternity In which respect also our condition is a thousand times more happy and glorious than if we had stood still with Adam in his innocency and felicity If so he could but have conveighed unto us bodies immortall potentiâ non moriendi ex Hypothesi as they say that is endowed onely with power of not dying if so and so but now they shall be immortall impotentiâ moriendi that is shine for ever in the highest heavens with impossibility of ever perishing 2. Incorruptiblenesse 1 Corinth 15. 42. 54. For every glorified body shall for ever be utterly impassible and un-impressionable with any corruptive quality action or alteration Whether 1. By the power of some peculiar glorifying endowment implanted in the body or redounding from the soule upon the body for that purpose Or 2. From an exquisite temper and harmony of the Elementary qualities freed everlastingly from all possibility of any angry contrariety and combate Or 3. Which seemeth most probable and approoved by the learned'st Schoole-men from an exact subjection of the body to the soule as of the soule to GOD I say whether so or so I doe not here enquire or contend but leave all alterations in this kinde to the curious disquisitions of such idle and ill-exercis'd Divines The testimony of GODS never-erring Spirit in the cited place is more than infinitely sufficient to assure every Christian heart that our raised bodies reformed by the All-mighty glorious hand of GOD shall never more be exposed to violence or hurt from any externall agent or obnoxious to the least disposition towards any inward decay putrefaction or dissolution 3. Potency 1 Corinth 15. 43. Our soules are in nature substance and immateriality like the Angels of GOD One of which killed in one night an hundred fourescore and five thousand 2 Kings 19. 35. And therefore little know we though the edges excellency and executions may be dul'd and drown'd in our heavy fraile sinfull bodies of what might and power they may be originally But then when to the soules native strength there is an addition of glorifying vigour and GODS mighty Spirits more plentifull inhabitation and it shall also put on a body which brings with it besides its owne peculiar inherent power an exact serviceablenesse and sufficiency apted and apportion'd to the soules highest abilities and executions how incredibly powerfull and mighty may we suppose a Saint in heaven shal be 4. Spiritualnesse 1 Cor. 15. 44. Not that our bodies shall be turned into spirits but imployed spiritually Or more fully thus 1. Because they shal be fully possessed with the Spirit which dwelling primarily and above measure in CHRIST our head is communicated from Him to us His members so that then we shall no more live by our animall faculty nor need for preservation of life meat drinke sleepe clothing physicke or the former naturall helpes In which respect they cease to be naturall bodies being freed from those animall faculties of nourishing increasing and multiplying by generation They shall no more live by vertue of food and nourishment thrice concocted first in the stomach c. but shal be spirituall and heavenly living without all these helpes as the Angels in heaven do 2. Because they shall in all things become subject to the Spirit of GOD and be wholly perfectly and willingly guided by Him with a spirituall Angelicall most absolute and free obedience As the spirit serving the flesh may not unfitly be called carnall so the body obedient to the soule saith Austin is rightly termed spirituall 3. By reason of their activenesse nimblenesse agility whereby they shal be able to moove from place to place with incredible swiftnesse and speed not being at all hindered by their weight An heavy lumpe of lead that sinkes now to the bottome being wire-drawne as it were by the workman into the forme of a boat will swimme saith Austin And shall not GOD give that ability to our bodies which the Artificer doth to the lead c. Here some of the Schoolemen moove an idle unnecessary question to wit Whether glorified Bodies moove from place to place in an instant For they may well know out of the Principles in Philosophy and Rules of sound reason that it is utterly impossible and implies contradiction That a body should in an instant be in many places at once But if a glorified body moove from place to place in an instant it will necessarily follow that the same body is in an instant In termino à quo locis intermedijs termino ad quem simul in the beginning middle and end of the space thorow which it passeth at once which is more than utterly impossible and quite destroyes the nature of a true Body I would rather interpret those words of Austin Certè ubi volet spiritus ibi protinus â—…rit corpus the body will presently be there where the soule would have it of extraordinary speed and incredibly short time Aquinas cals it imperceptible So that I doubt not but that a glorified Saint desiring to be in such or such a place a thousand miles off after the very first bent of his will that way would be there in an incredibly lesse time than thou wouldest imagine 5. Glory 1 Corinth 15. 43. The bodies of the Saints in heaven shal be passingly beautifull shining and amiable Two things according to Austin concurre to the constitution of beauty 1. A due and comely proportion an apt and congruent symmetry and mutuall correspondency of all the parts of the body or in a word well-favourednesse 2. Amiablenesse of colour a pleasing mixture of those two lively colours of white and red I add a third 3. A cheerfull lively light some aspect When the two former materials as it were are pleasantly enliv'd and actuated by a lively quicknesse and modest merrinesse of countenance Whereupon saith the Moralist it is not the red and white which giveth the life and perfection of beauty but certaine sparkling notes and touches of amiable cheerefulnesse accompanying the same In beauty saith another that of favour is more than that of colour and that of decent pleasing motion more than that of favour That is the best part of beauty which a picture cannot expresse c. All these concurre in eminency and excellency in glorified bodies 1. An exquisite feature and stature beautified by GODS owne blessed all-mighty hand with the utmost of created comlinesse and matchlesse proportion 2. Not onely sweetest mixture of liveliest colours but also a bright shining splendour of celestiall glory 3. And both these actuated to the life preserved in perpetuall freshnesse and oriency and quickened still with new supply of heavenly activenesse and amiablenesse by a more glorious soule for if the brightnesse of the body shall match the light of the Sun what do you thinke will be the glory of the soule and by an infinitely more glorious spirit which shall plentifully
dwell in them both for ever Amplifie the glory of our bodies in heaven from such places as these Dan. 12. 2. Mat. 13. 45. Phil. 3. 20 21. Col. 3. 4. From which the ancient Fathers also thus collect and affirme If we should compare saith Chrysostome our future bodies even with the most glistering beames of the Sun we shall yet say nothing to the expression of the excellency of their shining glory The beauty of the just in the other life saith Anselme shal be equall to the glory of the Sun though sevenfold brighter than now it is The brightnesse of a glorified body doth as farre excell the Sun as the Sun our mortall body Then shall the righteous shine forth as the Sunne in the Kingdome of their Father Not saith Chrysostome because they shall not surpasse the brightnesse of the Sun but because that being the most glittering thing in the world he takes a resemblance thence towards the expressing of their incomparable glory But how can there be so much beauty and delightfull amiable aspect in such intensive and extraordinary brightnesse Or what pleasure can we take in beholding such extremely bright and shining bodies Sith we find by experience that there is farre more content and delight in looking upon a well-proportioned object beautified with a pleasant mixture of colours than in seeing the Sun though it should not so dazle and offend the eyes For satisfaction herein we must know that the glorified eye shall become impassible elevated farre above all mortall possibility and fortified by an heavenly vigour to apprehend and enjoy all celestiall light and glory with much ravishing contentment and inexplicable delight Secondly that omnipotent mercifull hand of GOD which will raise our bodies out of the dust and reforme them anew can cause light and colour to concurre and consist in excellency in glorified bodies Those things which according to nature can consist together the one or both being in gradu remisso as they say abated of their height can by divine power consist together in gradu intensissimo suae speciei in their excellency but it is so with light and colour according to nature ergo c. as Durandus one of the acutest Schoolemen makes good by arguments Whether shall colour or light be seene Why not both in a most delicious admirable mixture Here the Schoolemen according to their wont do curiously inquire discusse and determine the manner of the acts exercise and objects of all the senses They say not only 1. That the eye shall delightfully contemplate CHRISTS glorious body the shining bodies of the Saints the beauty of the Empyrean Heaven c. 2. The eare drinke up with infinite delight the vocall harmony of Hailelu-jahs c. But also audaciously undertake to define without any good ground or found warrant many particulars about the other senses not without much absurdity and unspiritualnesse But let it be sufficient for us without searching beyond the bonds of sobriety to know for a certaine that every sense shal be filled with its severall singularity and excellency of all possible pleasure and perfection 4. In a fourth place let us take a glance of the unutterable happinesse of the Soule I should be infinite and endlesse if I did undertake to pursue the severall glories felicities and excellencies of every faculty of the soule and when I had done ended with the utmost of all both Angelicall and humane understanding and eloquence come infinitely short of expressing them to the life I will at this time but give you a taste onely in the understanding Part And that shal be extraordinarily and supernaturally enlarged and irradiated with the highest illuminations largest comprehensions and utmost extent of all possible comfortable knowledge of which such a creature is capable 1. Humane knowledge of Arts Nature created things is delicious and much desired Witnesse 1. The wisest Heathens and best Philosophers who were so ravished but even with a dimme glimpse of this knowledge that in comparison thereof they have contemned all the riches pleasures and preferments of the world 2. That wise saying A learned man doth as farre excell an illiterate as a reasonable creature a brute 3. The extraordinarily exulting and triumphant cry of the famous Mathematician hitting after long and laborious disquisition upon some abstruse excellency of his Art I have found it I have found it 4. That passage in an Epistle of Aeneas Silvius to Sigism D. of Austria If the face of humane learning could be seene it is fairer and more beautifull than the Morning and Evening Starre 5. For the pleasure and delight of knowledge and learning saith another it farre surpasseth all other in nature for shall the pleasures of the affections so exceed the senses as much as the obtaining of desire and victory exceedeth a song or dinner And must not of consequence the pleasures of the intellect or understanding exceed the pleasures of the affections We see in all other pleasures there is a saetiety and after they be used their verdour departeth which sheweth well they be but deceipts of pleasure and not pleasures and that it was the novelty which pleased and not the quality And therefore we see that voluptuous men turne Friers and ambitious Princes turne melancholy But of knowledge there is no satiety But satisfaction and appetite are perpetually interchangeable and therefore appeareth to be good in it selfe simply without fallacy or accident Now this learning shall then be fully perfected and raised to the highest pitch so that the least and lowest of the Saints in heaven shall farre surpasse in cleare contemplation of the causes of all naturall things and conclusions of Art the deepest Philosophers greatest Artists and learnedst Linguists that ever lived upon earth There are many difficulties and doubts in all kinds of humane learning which have from time to time exercised the bravest wits but by reason of the native dimnesse of our understanding never received cleare resolution and infallible assent As Whether the Elementary formes be in mixt Bodies 1. Corrupted 2. Remitted only 3. Or Entire Whether the celestiall Orbs be moved by Angels or internall formes Whether there be three distinct soules in a man 1. Vegetative 2. Sensitive 3. Rationall Or one onely in substance containing vertually the other two How all the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Appearances in the Aethereall Heaven may be truliest and with least exception maintained whether by Excentricks and Epicycles or onely by Concentricks or the Earths motion or the motion of the Starres in the heavens as fish move in the sea and birds in the aire c. So the best wits are inextricably pusl'd also about the Sympathy and Antipathy of things Alchymie cause of Criticall daies The mysts about these and many things moe shal be dispel'd out of our minds by a cleare sunne of a new and excellent knowledge so that we shal be exactly acquainted with the
and rebellious people which was fruitlesly and vainly spilt as water upon the ground or lost upon the hardest slint many a piercing and powerfull Sermon had he spent amongst them to the wasting of his strength and spirits which yet was to them as an idle and empty breath vanishing into nothing and scatter'd in the aire The LORD as He saies Himselfe made His mouth as a sharpe sword and Himselfe as a chosen shaft and yet that two-edged sword was full often blunted upon their hardest hearts and his keene arrowes discharged by a skilfull hand rebounded from their flinty bosomes as shafts shot against a stone wall And that made that Seraphicall Oratour the unmatched Paragon of sacred eloquence thus to complaine Isa. 47. 4. I have laboured in vaine I have spent my strength in vaine and for nothing A course of extraordinary severity and terrour was taken with Pharaoh he was not onely chastised with rods but even scourged with Scorpions and yet all the plagues of Egypt were so farre from piercing and softening his hard heart as that every particular plague added a severall iron sinew and more slintinesse to his already stony heart And as the heart is naturally thus hardened towards godlinesse so also hollow towards the godly See Sauls cariage towards David No materiall waight can more crush the heart of man than braying in a morter and yet saith Salomon Prov. 27. 22. Though thou shouldest bray a foole a desperate sinner a rebellious wretch in a morter amongst wheat brayed with a pestill yet will not his foolishnesse his sinfulnesse which is the greatest depart from him no more than the skin from the Blacke-moore or the spots from the Leopard by washing him Shame an old obstinate beaten sinner with his horrible ingratitude show him the ugly face of his hainous sinnes tell him of the losse of the happinesse of heaven affright him with the feare of hell and damnation in all this he is like a Smiths anvill that growes harder and harder for all his hammering Lastly a damned spirit though he lie in the lowest dungeon of utter darknesse laden with that burden of sinne which prest downe a glorious Angell of light and all his followers from the top of heaven into that lowest pit with the full weight of the unquenchable and everlasting wrath of GOD with all the heavy chaines of that infernall lake and with that which me thinkes is farre worse and more cutting than many hels than ten thousand damnations even with despaire of ever having ease end or remedy of those most bitter everlasting intolerable hellish torments I say though a damned soule be thus laden and thus heavily prest downe with all this cursed waight and hainousnesse of hell yet he is still as hard as a stone So certaine it is that no curse or created power not the softest eloquence or severest course not the waight of the whole world or the heavines of hell if all were prest and laid upon the heart of a man could possibly breake that stubbornesse or tame that rebellion This is onely the worke of the blessed Spirit with the hammer of the Word This hardnesse of heart had attained a strange height even in the worlds infancy into what a prodigious rocke is that growne now then by length of time in so many ages sith every generation since by invention of new sinnes and addition of hainousnesse unto the old have every one added thereunto a severall iron sinew and a further degree of flintinesse What a heart was got into Cains breast who was first cut out of the stony rocke of corrupt man-kind remorse of shedding the guiltlesse bloud of his murthered brother which was able to have melted an adarnant into bloudy teares moved him never a whit Nay the presence of Almighty GOD at which the earth trembles the hills melt like waxe which turneth the rocke into water-pooles and the stint into a fountaine of water as David speakes yet made his stony heart relent never a whit Nay yet further GODS mighty voice immediately from His owne mouth which breakes the cedars and shakes the wildernesse which was able with one word even in a moment to turne the whole world into nothing and the sonnes of men as though they had never beene yet I say this powerfull and mighty voice did not at all amaze or mollifie the un-relenting stubbornenesse of this bloudy wretch but in a strange dogged fashion he answers GOD Almighty even to His face For when GOD mildly and fairely asked him what was become of his brother Abel he answered I cannot tell Nay further as though he had bid GOD go looke he faith Am I my brothers keeper Where take this note by the way Let not Christians thinke much to receive dogged answers and disdainfull speeches from prophane men you see how doggedly this fellow answers even GOD Almighty The Disciple is not above his Master nor the servant above his Lord It is enough for the Disciple to be as the Master and the servant as his Lord if they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub how much more them of his houshold Mat. 10. 24 25. What a strange stony heart lodged in the breast of the tyrant Pharaoh When the Prophet 1 Kin. 13. cried to the altar of Ieroboam O altar altar the altar clave presently asunder at the Word of GOD in the mouth of the Prophet but this mighty hammer of the Word Ier. 23. 29. with ten miracles gave ten mighty strokes at Pharaohs heart and yet could find no entrance could not pierce it but rebounded backe as an arrow shot against a stone wall Let no man then thinke it strange to see many stubborne and rebellious wretches run on in their courses and rage against the waies of GOD though they have both the Ministry of the Word of GOD to reclaime them and be many times singled out particularly by the hand of GOD with some speciall judgement for the abatement of their fury For the rebelliousnesse of mans nature can never possibly be tamed corrupt affection can never be conquered untill the heart wherein it sits inthron'd be crusht and broke in peeces and this hardnesse of heart can never be mortified no created power can possibly pierce it untill the Almighty Spirit take the hammer of the Word into His owne hand that by His speciall unresistable power He may first breake and bruise it and after by sprinkling it with the bloud of CHRIST dissolve it into teares of true repentance that so it may be softened sanctified and sav'd And let no man marvell that the powerfullest Ministry doth produce by accident the most pestilent scorners cruellest persecutors and men of most raging cariage against the meanes of their salvation for these reasons 1. From the nature of the glorious Gospell of IESVS CHRIST the sunn of righteousnesse which shining upon one that hath spirituall life will more reuiue and quicken him but in one dead in
of folly And the very same attempt as to make two parallel lines to meet You thinke yee have a reach beyond the Moone To lie in some sweete sinne and yet to nourish in your selves some hope of salvation To have two heavens one in this world and another in the world to come which was never heard of to weare two crownes of joyes whereas IESVS CHRIST himselfe had the first of thornes But alas Beloved if you be saved in this condition you must have a new Scripture and there must bee found out another way to heaven then any of the Saints ever went since the Creation or shall doe to the end of the world And therefore we may say of you as Quintilian some where of some deluded with an overweening conceit of themselves That they might have prooved excellent Schollers if they had not beene so perswaded already So if you did not thinke falsly your selves safe already you might be saved But while you thus hugge the golden dreame of your mistaken states to GOD-ward like the Pharisees the very Publicans and Harlots shall goe into the Kingdome of heaven before you Matth. 21. 31. Fourthly you that are great in the world in the foure forenamed respects and meant in the Text cannot possibly downe with and digest downe-right dealing and the foolishnesse of preaching as it is called vers 21. And that vtterly undoes you You like well enough nay and much approve and applaud such Sermons as King IAMES censures in the reasons of his directions for preaching c. which he there cals a light affected and unprofitable kind of preaching which hath beene of late years saith he taken up in Court University City and Countrey whereby the people are filled onely with ayrie nourishment c. and I warrant you not especially hating to be reformed or disquieted for these are not wont to discover your consciences nor disturbe you in your present courses they never terrifie you with any fore-thought of the evill day neither torment you before the time but now let a man come with the foolishnesse of preaching by which it pleaseth GOD saith the Apostle to save them that believe with demonstration of the Spirit and of power and come home to the conscience if he suffer not Satan to revell in the bloud of your soules without resistance nor see you post furiously towards eternall fire but will tell you that the pit of hell is a little before you In a word if he take the right course to convert you and shew you therefore onely your spirituall misery that you may be fitted for mercy c. O such a fellow is a dangerous man a terrible and intolerable Teacher able to drive men to distraction despaire selfe-destruction he breaths out nothing but damnation and his searching Sermons are as scorching as the very flames of hel Fit phrases for the Devil himself railing in a drunkard or scoffing Ishmael against faithfulnesse in preaching and if you know where or when such men preach and it may be you entertaine some intelligence for that purpose to prevent the torture you will not you dare not heare them for your hearts except you cannot decline it for starke shame or for a time or two to satisfie your curiosities but as S. Paul saith you become their enemies because they tell you the truth to which truth not to have listened in this day of your visitation will herafter when it is too late torment you more than ten thousand fiery Scorpions stings and gnaw upon your consciences with unknowne and everlasting horrour Alas Beloved what meane you You will give your Physitian leave to tell you the distempers of your body the Lawyer to discover unto you any flaw in your deeds your horse-keeper to tell you the surfets of your horses nay your hunâ—…sman the surrances of your dogs and shall onely the Minister of GOD not tell you that your soules are bleeding to eternall death Preposterous and prodigious incongruity If it be thus then that of all the severall sorts of great men mentioned before by reason that they are beset with such variety of snares entangled in so many temptations so much taken up by the world and for other reasons rendred already very few are called converted and saved my counsell in a word unto all such is CHRISTS owne word Luke 13. 24. Strive to enter in at the strait gate lay violent hands upon flesh and blond strangle your lusts contend and wrastle as for the Garland in the Olympian Games to which the word seemes to allude become fooles in the worlds censure that you may be wise in the mystery of CHRIST be little and vile in your own esteeme that you may be great and gracious in the eyes of GOD. In a word submit your soules to the sword of the Spirit and foolishnesse of preaching as the Apostle cals it that you may be wrought upon savingly and brought into the good way and that by such works and waies as these Upon which before I enter give me leave to give you an account why at this time I labour rather to work upon your consciences for your personall conversion than as heretofore to tender unto you counsels and considerations for a more conscionable deportment in your severall publike places When I well weighed with my selfe the truth of that principle and position in Hooker That it is no peculiar conceipt but a matter of sound consequence that all duties are by so much the better performed by how much the men are more religious from whose abilities the same proceed And finding by experience of all ages and most of all in these worst and wofull times that men of publike imployment and in high places untill there be infused into their soules by the Spirit of grace an internall supernaturall principle and divine habit to worke by untill aliquid CHRISTI as they say be planted in them by the power of the Ministry they cannot possibly be universally thorow and unshaken Some strong affection feare favour or some thing will make them flie out and faile in some particular very fowly Upon extraordinary temptation they will serve the times and their owne turnes for alas as yet their spirits are not steeled with that heavenly edge and mighty vigour as to set to their shoulders against the torrent of the times and not to be overflowen with it I say upon this ground I have advisedly chosen to assay and follow this way at this time for if once you turne on the LORDS side in truth you are won for ever to an invincible constancy and conscionablenesse in an uniforme regular and religious discharge of your publike duties and will ever hold fast without partiality cowardlinesse or feare of mans face that brave and noble resolution Vt fiat justitia ruat coelum let heaven and earth be blundred together with horrible confusision before I make shipwracke of a good conscience or be any waies drawne to do basely Being
majestas est DEI luxque illa Deitasipsius quam inhabitare DEVS dicitur Ea omnibus est inaccessa corporeis oculis invisibilis Ab hac majesta te verò pro bene placito voluntatis DEI lumen creatum proficiscitur quo tota urbs splendet quo electis etiam communicato efficit DEVS ut ipsum plenè quas facie ad faciem cognoscant Zanch. De Coelo beato Cap 4. b Coelum Beatorum est imprimis lucidisâ—…imum eóque verus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hoc est totum omni ex parte luminosum ac splendidum Non enim est sicut firmamentum varijs ornatum â—…ellis eóque alibi lucidum alibi verò non it a lucidum sed totum est pellucidum Est enim perindè atque si totum sit quidem Sol maximus omnia suo ambitu complectens Neque lux illa est similis luci stellarum neque etiam ejusdem generis Sed est lux verè divina licèt creata idcircò quià lux est alterius generis lux est gloriae non penetrat huc ad nos usque oculis tamen corporeis futuro saeculo à nobis videbitur Ideâ—… Ibid. * Incomparabilitèr clara est civitas eterna ubi victoria ubi veritas ubi dignitas ubi sanctitas ubi vita ubi aeternitas De vitâ aeternd Oh how brave how beautifull how glorious how glittering how gorgeous how admirable a City is this For if the gates be of pearle and the streets of gâ—…ld then what are the inner roomes What are the dining chambers And what are the lodging roomes O how unspeakable is the glory of this city that Kings shall throw downe their Crownes and Scepters before it counting all their pompe and glory but as dust in respect of it And the magnificence and pompe of all the Potentates of the earth shall here be laid downe And albeit none of the Kings and Nobles of the Gentiles might be admitted into the old Ierusalem yet all the Gentiles that believe shal be admitted into this new Ierusalem and made free Denisons thereof for ever Dent upon the Rev. I might tell you here of many other probable singularities about this celestiall palace and that from the hand of some godly and learned Divines To wit That this third Heaven is not penetrable by any creature whereas the other two are passable by the grossest Bodies so that it is said to open to the very Angels Ioh. 1. 51. Who though they be able to penetrate all things under it yet are they no more able to enter that Body than they are to passe into one anothers natures Hence it comes to passe that the third Heaven gives way to Angels soules and bodies of men to enter in by miracle GOD making way by His power where nature yeelds no passage For it is without pores and cannot possibly extend or contract it selfe into a large or straiter compasse That Tertium hoc summum coelum in medio non est corpus solidum sed inest aura aliquis coelestis quae supplet defectum aeris corporibus glorificatis In qua etsi pori non sunt in nobis tamen porierunt in quibus erit haec natura coelestior quâ—… etiam aeris vicem supplebit ad sermonem In coelo enim usuri sumus Hebrâ—…â linguâ 1. Nam natura ibi redibit quae primitùs hanc linguam tenuit 2. Confusio linguarum maledictior fuit And this aura coelestis say they shall maintaine life eternally and be answerable to our constitution even as this atre is c. But as I would my selfe by no means confidently entertaine so will I never ebtrude upon others any thing in this or any other divine point but that onely which iâ—… grounded either directly and immediately or by good and sound consequence upon GODs sure Word * Who hath not observed what labour practice perill bloud shed cruelty the Kings and Princes of the world have undergone exercised taken on them and committed to make themselves and their issues Masters of the world S. W Rawleigh * Restat ergò ut suam recipiat quisque mensuram quam vel habuit in juventute â—…msi senex est mortuusâ—… vel fuerat habiturus si antè est defunctus Aug. de Civit. DEI. Lib. 22 Cap 15. Circa triginta annos desinierunt esse etiam saeculi hujus doctissimi homines juventutem Idem Ibid. Resurgent omnes tà m magni corpore quà m vel erant vel futuri erant in juvenili aetate Idem Ibid. Cap. 16. Quibus omnibus pro nostro modulo consideratis tractatis haec summa conficitur ut in resurrectione carnis in aeternum eas mensuras habeat corporum magnitudo quas habebat perficiendae sive perfectae cujuscunque indita corpori ratio juventutis in membrorum quoque omnium modulis congruo decore servatur Ibid Cap 20. All the bodieâ—… of the Elect shall arise in that perfection of nature whereunto they should have attained by their naturall temper and constitution if no impediment had hindered and in that vigour of age that a perfect man is at about three and thirty yeares old each in their proper sexe So saith some worthy Divine whose name I forgot to note when I tooke his Saying * A ssruere licet sanitatem vitae futurae ità vigere immutabilem ac inviolabilem fore ut inessabili quadam dulcedine suavitatis totum hominem repleat omne quod alicujus in se vicissitudinis mutabilitatis aut laesionis suspicionem praetendere queat procul arâ—…at atque repellat Anselm de simililitud Cap. 54. * Immortalitas sumitur quadrifariam Pro 1. Impotentia moriendi absoluta natura Sic solus DEVS immortalitatem habet 1 Tim. 6. 16. 2. Impotentia moriendi ex gratia creationis sic Angeli animae humanae sunt immortales 3. Impotentia moriendi ex gratia doni sic coelum novum terra nova corpora beatorum immortalitatem habebunt 4. Potentia non moriendi ex aliqua Hypothesi licet in se sit mortale Sic homo ante peccatum erat immortalis corpore ex Hypothesi unionis cum anima originaliter perfecta immortali * In futuro igitur ut jam praelibavimus sie justus ortus erit ut etiam si velit terram commovere possit Anselm de similitud Cap. 52. Verùm praestabunt viribus quicunque supernis viribus associantur civibus in tantum ut nullatenus illis quisquam obsâ—…stere valeat vel si movendo quid aut evertendo voluerit a suo statu quin illicò cedat Nec in eo quod dicimus majori laborabunt conatu quà m nos modò in oculorum nostrorum motu Ne quaeso similitudo illa Angelorum nostro excidat ab animo quam adepturi sumus in futuro quatenus si in hac forticudine aut in his quae dictuâ—…i sumus ad exemplum non occurrit vel ipsa per quam Angelis
incorporated into the rock of eternity IESVS CHRIST blessed for ever you will stand like unmooveable rocks against the corruptions of the times and all ungodly oppositions and never before For in the meane time say Ministers what they will you will not be moved but you heare our discourses of a faithfull discharge of your places as ye would heare a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice they leave no more impression upon your consciences than a sweet lesson upon the Lute in the eare when it is ended for then both the vocall and instrumentall sweetnesse dissolve into the aire and vanish into nothing It is too truly so with our Sermons upon your soules Heare your character in GODS own words unto the Prophet They come unto thee as the people commeth and they sit before me as my people and they heare thy words but they will not do them for with their mouth they shew much love but their heart goeth after their covetousnesse and loe thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument for they heare thy words but they do them not Let us lift up our voices never so high or cry never so lowd and â—…ll Iudges That they ought not to be afraid of the face of man for the judgement is GODS that in judgement they must neither respect the person of the poore nor honour the person of the mighty that they should not onely hold their hands from grosse bribes with Epaminondas who as the story tels us refused great presents sent unto him although he was poore saying If the thing were good he would do it without any bribe because good if not honest he would not do it for all the goods in the world But they must also be of Austins judgement that not onely money gold and silver or presents as they call them are bribes but the guilt of bribery also may be justly imputed even to any exorbitant affection which sways a man aside from an impartiall execution of justice as love feare hatred anger pusillanimity worldlinesse desire of praise and applause which is Austins instance c. That they beware of bringing more bloud upon the Law by sparing the spiller of bloud For bleâ—…d saith GOD it desileth the land and the land cannot be cleaâ—…sed of the bloud that is shed therein but by the bloud of him that shed it that they must not looke upon the caâ—…ses which come before them only through the spectacles of a favourite c and tell Iustices of Peace that they must be true-hearted patriots and not servers of themselves and their owne turnes that they must be serious reall and grave not onely formall not cyphers not unnobly light in their behaviour on the Bench that they must ever aime at the publike good and never at their owne particular and private ends that they should disdaine and scorne at any time to combine factiously or for a petty bribe to uphold a rotten cause apestilent alehouse or lewd companion and ever joyne with an unanimous magnanimity to honour GOD and do their Country good And tell the Lawyers that they should not make hast to be rich for so saith Salomon they shall not be innocent nor swallow downe gold too greedily least it turne to grauell and the gall of asps within them and they be enforced to vomite up the riches as Iob speaketh they have heaped together so hastily either by remorse and restitution in the meane time or with despaire and impenitent horrour here after that to oppose and wrangle against a good cause or undertake the defence of a bad are both equally most unworthy the very morall vertue of an honest Heathen that they must not learn to spin out the causes of their clients from Terme to Terme and wire-draw their suits untill they be utterly undone that they should not now be taking instructions from their clients when they should themselves here in the House of GOD be instructed to the kingdome of heaven had they this morning received a message from the Almighty that at night they should appeare before that high and everlasting Iudge to give an account for all things done in the flesh if they be not Atheists or Papists O with what eagernesse and violence would they have attended addrest and applied themselves to the present opportunity and little do we know what the evening may bring forth For assure your selves there is no man so assured of his riches or life but that he may be deprived of one or both the very next day or houre to come And tell the jurors and sworn-men that they should rather die than draw the bloud of any mans life livelihood or good name upon their owne consciences either by acquiâ—…ting the guilty or betraying the innocent Here had I time I would intimate unto you a mysticall but mischievous packing sometimes in choice of jâ—…ry-men I have seene I speake of that which was long since and at a Sessions some of the choicest drunkards in a Country chosen for that service Now is it not a pitifull thing that Country businesses should be put into the hands of such as labour industriously and with equall cunning to plague an honest man and deliver a drunkard I say now all this while we thus discourse unto you earnestly endeavouring and with a thirsty desire to do you good and direct you aright and by a divine rule in the severall duties proper to your places we do but plow in the sea and sow in the aire as they say except the immortall seed of the Word hath first moulded you anew and ye be brought by the foolishnesse of preaching out of the warme sun into GODS blessing and from the fooles paradise of worldly wisdome into the holy path of sincere professours and thereupon prize and preferre the peace of a good conscience before all the gold in the West and preferments in the world which blessed change from nature to grace is wrought by such stirrings of the soule and footsteps of the spirit as these lend me I beseech you while I passe along them something more than ordinary attention for I know they will seeme strange things to all such great ones as are intended in my Text and those who live at rest in their possessions and have nothing to vex them The naturall stoutnesse of their spirits will disdaine and scorne to stoupe to such uncouth humiliations and this mighty change And the more they are men of the world and wise according to the flesh the greater repugnancy and reluctation shall they find in their affections against these spirituall workings which makes the point good which was proved before But yet without them in truth and effect I define not the measure and degree GOD is a most free agent they can never become either gracious men or good Magistrates They must upon necessity become such fooles or they