Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	death_n	mercy_n	sin_n	3,579	5	4.7173	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A79466	Hell, with the everlasting torments thereof asserted. Shewing 1. Quod sit, that there is such a place. 2. Quid sit, what this place is. 3. Ubi sit, where it is. Being diametrically opposite to a late pamphlet, intituled, The foundation and pillars of Hell discovered, searched, shaken, and removed. For the glory of God, both in his mercy and justice, the comfort of all poor believing souls, and the terrour of all wicked and ungodly wretches. Semper meditare Gehennam. / By Nich. Chevvney, M.A.	Chewney, Nicholas, 1609 or 10-1685.	1660 (1660)	Wing C3805; Thomason E1802_2; ESTC R209913	50,666	128

constrained to ease himself by his just vengeance For though he suffer long in mercy there is no reason that he should suffer alwayes in justice Mercy having had her time Justice must have hers also Indeed the Cup that God gives to his own for their sins is full of mixture as Psal 75.8 tempered by his medicinal and fatherly hand with the sweetness of mercies and comfort in the end whereas it is far otherwise with wicked and impenitent sinners Thirdly the quantity of it It is a cup of indignation full to the brim in which God seems to deal equally and proportionably with them as they filled the cup of their iniquity so he fills the cup of their misery They shall see I and feel too with what a proportionable Analogy their sinning meets with their suffering whereby he manifests a very great difference between his punishing of the wicked in wrath and the correction of his own in love upon whom he will lay no more then they are able to bear and whom he ever corrects in mercy and in measure Fourthly The effect and operation of this direful and dreadful draught The Cup of the Lords indignation and that is Misery and Torment and that in the highest degree as of burning by fire mingled with brimstone as the fewel thereof which is found to be 1. Most obnoxious to the eyes 2. Most loathsome to the smel And 3. Most fierce in burning well therefore doth he speak of it who said Facillimè incenditur pertinacissimè fervet difficillimè extinguitur It is easily kindled violently fewelled and hardly very hard indeed which is never extinguished Fifthly This their tormenting shall be in the presence of the holy Angels and of the Lamb. 1. Of the holy Angels because in their sight they sinned and in their sight they shall be punished And 2. Of the Lamb against whom they sinned in siding with his Enemies while they professed themselves his followers Therefore saith Ribera Ipsi magis crucientur intelligentes se ab eo videri It is an addition to their misery when they shall consider that he beholds them that was once slighted and contemned by them Thus we see as clearly as if it were described with a ray of the Sun that there is a Hell a place of torment provided and prepared for all wicked and ungodly wretches and that plainly by Scripture proved I know there are and have been many besides our Anonymus that have vi armis opposed it and wrangled against it Danaeus reckons up nineteen severall sorts of Hereticks that denyed it But say what they will the wicked would give much to be sure that the scriptures in this particular were not true Credere nolunt non credere nequeunt they will not believe and yet they cannot chuse but believe truly their case is fearful The very Heathen though he deny it have prescribed to the truth thereof that there is a Hell a place of torment for those that rebel aginst the Gods Homer Iliad 8. not far from the beginning saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Where Iupiter speaking to the other Gods concerning the Grecians and Trojans If any shall so hardie be To aid each part in spight of me Him will I tumble down to Hell In that infernal place to dwell For Tartarus Obscurus was then and so ever since hath been taken for hell that place of Torment appointed for the wicked Also Horace lib. Ode speaking concerning Ioves Thunder-bolts saith Quo bruta tellus vaga flumina Quo styx invisi horrida Taenari Sedes c. With which Earth Seas the Stygian Lake And Hell with all her Furies quake Nor was Virgil ignorant thereof when he said Dent ocyus omnes Quas meruere pati sic stat sententia paenas They all shall pack Sentence once past to their deserved rack The horror of which place he acknowledgeth he could not express Non mihi si centum linguae sint oraque centum Omnia paenarum percurrere nomina possum No heart of man can think no tongue can tell The direful pains ordain'd and felt in Hell They ever retained so much light as sufficed to make some discovery of that place of darkness yea some of them have been terrified with their own inventious concerning it and distracted with the sense of those very Torments which their own Pens have described As Pigmalion doted on his own Picture so were they amazed with their own Comments How much more if they had known those unspeakable miscries and intollerable horrors as they are in themselves and inflicted upon those damned spirits that must for ever undergo them Par nulla figura Gehennae Nothing can truly resemble Hell Besides many wicked wretches are punished and many as wicked escape unpunished now justum est ut qui pariter peccarint easdem paenas luerint It is fit that partners in sin should not be parted in judgement God doth not punish all here that he may shew his mercy in allowing some space of repentance nor doth he forbear all here that he may manifest his justice lest the world should turn Atheist and deny his providence Parcit ut puniat punit ut parcat He spares that he may punish and he punisheth that he may spare He afflicteth some in the suburbs of Hell that they might never come into the City it self But those evill persons which he suffers to pass on uncorrected here he reserves to be condemned for ever hereafter Sin knows its doom it must smart either in this world or in the world to come Yet further in all things natural and supernatural there is an opposition and contrariety There is good there is evil light and darkness joy and sorrow Now as there are two several wayes so are there two distinct ends Heaven a place of admirable and inexpressible happiness whether the good Angels transport the souls of the Saints such as by a holy and rectified conversation have glorified God and adorned their profession Hell a place of horror and confusion whither the black and grisly spirits do hurry the souls of wicked incorrigible and impenitent wretches when they are once separated from their bodies Again all men naturally do honour the good and punish the evil The Barbarians themselves have Laws of Castigation and Instruments of execution to cut off irregular and exorbitant persons And shall the great Creator come short in justice of his Creatures and those Barbarians too The Law of Nations doth require that Malefactors if they escape with life be banished for ever And shall not God banish such as have been Rebels on earth from his glorious presence in Heaven dooming them to that dreadful place of eternal torment If this were not stabit cum Nerone Paulus Nero were as good a man as Paul Esau should still have his birth-right in bliss and Cain be a Saint as well as Abel As believers say If in this life onely we have

of Lights and the God of all comfort present and present in an action of mercy and yet a horror of great darkness fell upon Abraham the father of the faithful When God talked personally and presentially with Moses Moses hid his face for saith that Text Exod. 13.6 He was afraid to look upon God When we look upon God in those terrible judgements which he hath executed upon some and see that there is nothing between us and the same judgements for we have sinned the same sins and God is still the same God what can we do but stand in awe of him that we sin not He urgeth that place in John 1.4.18 to prove this fear and sin but to little purpose for the wise man saith Prov. 1.7 Timorem domini esse initium sapientiae The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdome and therefore Jonah to the Ninivites Joh. 3.4 and John Baptist to the Jewes Mat. 3.10 and all the Prophets to sinners have used to provoke them to this fear by threatning the dangers that were imminent if they repented not But yet afterwards when men are reclaimed from their iniquities converted to God and have made some progress in his service then do they change every day more and more their fear into love until they arrive at last unto that state whereof S. John there speaketh which cannot be suddenly nor fully expected of any S. August hath a pretty expression to this purpose He saith That fear is the servant sent before to prepare place in our hearts for his Mistress's love who being once admitted into and possessed thereof fear departeth and gives place unto love But where this fear never entereth at all it is impossible that ever love should take up a habitation And albeit this fear of punishment be not in those that are come up to that degree of perfection of which the Apostle there speaks or is at leastwise less in them then in others yet being joyned with that reverence that becomes it it is most necessary and profitable for such Christians whose life is not so perfect nor love so great This appeareth by that of our Saviour Christ Luk. 12.5 Fear him who after he hath killed hath pomer to destroy both body and soul in hell Also S. Paul testifieth of himself 1 Cor. 9.27 That he kept under his body and brought it into subjection least that by any means when he had preached to others himself should be a cast away meaning thereby that notwithstanding all those favours which he had received from God yet he retained such a fear of God as that he was careful of those relapses which considered in their own nature deserved exclusion out of those heavenly habitations the glory whereof in a very great measure he hath had some ocular demonstration of Now my friend Anonymus if such a man as S. Paul did thus stand in awe of the justice of God notwithstanding his Apostle-ship and those rare endowments with which he was plentifully furnished for the execution and administration of the same a man so holy as he what ought we to be in whose consciences remaines the guilt of many thousand notorious impieties This know saith the same Apostle Ep. 5.5 That no Whoremonger or unclean person or covetous man which is an Idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God And as though this had not been sufficient he adds Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience As if he should say Those that flatter you in your sinnes and boulster you up in your iniquities with this tush God is merciful and is easily won to pardon these or the like impieties notwithstanding a delightful continuance therein These men do but deceive you for the wrath and vengeance of God cometh upon the Children of disobedience for these very things The Author to the Hebrews tells us Horrendum esse incidere in manus Dei viventis That it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God The same Apostle rendring a reason Deus enim noster est ignis consumens for our God is a consuming fire They then that will not believe Gods justice nor are in any measure terrified with his threats against sin but presuming of his mercy do continue in their impiety shall suddenly be surprised and irrecoverably be confounded when Gods judgments do seize upon them I but saith Anonymus this causeth Melancholly and exceeding trouble of mind Truly if we consider the condition that we are in by nature we have very small cause to be jovial For 1. There is a captivity wherein we are violently detained under the slavery of sin and Satan S. Paul knew it and speaks of it Rom. 7.25 and in the sense thereof cryeth out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me I hope Anonymus will not be so fool-hardy as to say this trouble of the Apostle was a sinne who being sensible of it could not but be troubled with it Indeed there is no Turk so hurries his Gallie-slaves and puts them to so base services as sin doth her Captives Give me one that hath been in this Captivity and by the mercy of God is freed from it scit quod dico He knows what I say is certainly true 2. There a Prison too Ask David else who never was in any Goal what he means when he said Psal 88.8 I am so fast in prison that I knew not how to get out What else caused him to cry out so passionately Psal 142.7 O bring my Soul out of Prison And S. Mat. 4.16 saith of some to whom Christ preached here That they sat in darkness and in the shadow of death even as men in a Dungeon use to do 3. There are Chains too A sinner is tyed with the Chains of his own sins Prov. 5.22 With the bonds of iniquity Acts 8.23 And these are they for which David gives thanks to God Psal 116.16 That he had broken them in sunder A man need no other bonds if once he come to feel them The galls that sinne makes in the conscience are the entering of the Iron into his soul But perhaps these are not felt by some no not felt Take this then for a Rule If Christ heal them that be broken-hearted broken-hearted we must be ere he can heal us He is Medicus cordis the Physitian of the heart indeed but it is cordis contriti of the broken heart it is a condition ever annexed to make us the more capable and likewise a disposition it is to render us the more curable It is our fault and a great fault it is that we are more ready to laugh with the merry Philosopher then to weep with the mourner Mirth seldom knocks twice at our doors without entrance but sorrow shall not in so long as we our selves with all the miserable helps that we can muster up can

the house of Israel to do it for them Thus we see the Scriptures themselves are point blanck for the performance of holy duties But his intents and his purpose his aim and his end is to undervalue the Scriptures by telling us we have not the very Books that were written by the Prophets and Apostles Nor is it enough saith he that we have Books in Hebrew and Greek unless we could certainly know that these Copies as they are called do agree word for word with those that were written by those Holy Pen-men To which I answer If his ignorance be such that he knows not whether they accord or no let him sit by and submit to the judgment of the Godly Learned let him not raise a dust to blind the eyes of others because he himself cannot discern truth from falshood But yet forsooth under a probable and plausible shew of some learning which God knows is very smal which is to strongly presumed is none at all under the pretence of zeal and devotion holiness and humility labours to obtrude his paralogisms unto the people as sugred baits of serpentine deceit which he perswades himself cannot be done but by endeavouring to overthrow Religion and the very basis and foundation thereof the holy Scriptures But that he may not out-face us with a Card of ten we affirm that the original Text the authentique Hebrew of the Old Testament with the Greek of the New is entire and incorrupt and for proof hereof do commend these ensuing Arguments to the Consideration of the judicious and Christian Reader The first whereof is drawn from the want of proof on their side who endeavour to lay so foul an imputation upon the Scriptures which they are bound to make good by some evident demonstration but hic labor They are a Tree so firmly rooted that all the cold storms of humane reluctancy and opposition could never shake They then deserve and that justly too to be branded with a vain and prophane suspicion of that for which they never yet nor ever will be able to give a reason Secondly From the testimony of Christ himself Mat. 5.18 Where he saith that one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or tittle of the Law shall not pass away yea Heaven and Earth shall pass way before the word of God shall suffer the least diminution Whence it is manifest that God will not permit his word conteined in the Scriptures to suffer any the least depravation Thirdly From the incredible devotion even to superstition which the Jews bore to the holy Scriptures whence it was enacted by them that if any one should presume to change or alter any thing therein they were judged guilty of an unpardonable offence Besides if they would have done it they could not for it must have been done either before the coming of the Messias or after If before any such wickedness had been committed by them they could not have have evaded the just reprehension of Christ and his Apostles If after the Copies thereof being dispersed among the Christians would have rendred such attempts vain and fruitless And that they did it not may appear by those places concerning the coming of Christ in the flesh which above all and before all others would have been corrupted by them Fourthly From the care and vigilancy of the Fathers who have ever had recourse to and made use of these spiritual weapons against Heathens Hereticks and prophane persons insomuch that no manifest depravation of the Text could possibly creep in without publick notice taken of it and as publick clamor and scandal against it Fifthly From the consideration that almost every age hath afforded notable and famous Criticks such as Origen and Jerome of old Erasmus Beza and an infinite number of others in latter times who with an Heroick industry and diligence have weighed every tittle in the ballance of the Sanctuary and sound it entire so that there cannot be any visible corruption found in it or apparent depravation of it Lastly From the providence of God If God could and would preserve the Original and Authentique Scriptures inviolate and propagate them to posterity there is no doubt to be made but that they were preserved But that God could none can none dare deny That he would his providence to the Church doth testifie to whom he so delivered his holy Word that without any suspition of error it might receive instruction and information from it Mat. 28. ult Lo I am with you by my word and spirit unto the end of the world Now for Translations I confess they cannot have that propriety and delicacy and harmony and melody of language which the Holy Ghost delighted in and made frequent use of in the penning of the Scriptures We know that when the Grecians and the Romanes and S. August himself undervalued and despised the Scriptures because of the poor and beggerly phrase that they seemed to be written in the Christians could say little against it but turned still upon the other and safer way we consider the matter and not the phrase because for the most part they had read the Scriptures onely in Translations which could not maintain the Majesty nor preserve the Elegancies of the Original But howsoever the Christians were at first fain to sink a little under that imputation that their Scriptures had no Majesty because those imbellishments could not appear in Translations with which the Originall did abound yet now that a perfect knowledge of those languages hath brought us to see the beauty and to behold the glory of those Books and to come up so near unto the same in our Translations Let a man that is endued with the spirit of discerning read the Books in our Translation he shall apprehend the Author to be God the matter to be divine and absolute that is therein contained the manner and form to be no barbarous or trivial or market or homely language but as full of Majesty as possibly could be rendred in the simplicity of words And the end whereat they aim to be the glory of God alone may thence conclude these are the Scriptures and the very word of God By the Scriptures themselves then in the Original and by Translation as near and agreeable to the Original as the best and ablest Expositors could possibly render them have we proved that there is a place prepared wherein all wicked and ungodly wretches shall be tormented with the Devil and his Angels and that for ever I but God delights not in the death of a sinner Ezek. 18. much less in the eternal damnation of any of his Creatures Answ Yet as mercy hath had her place and day so Justice must have hers whom mercy saves she saves for ever though their works were short and nothing unto God yea the very effects of his own grace Therefore whom Justice condemns she condemns for ever not so much respecting the persons that have sinned as the person against whom they have sinned Almighty God

HELL With the Everlasting Torments thereof Asserted SHEWING 1. Quod sit That there is such a place 2. Quid sit What this place is 3. Ubi sit Where it is Being Diametrically opposite to a late Pamphlet Intituled The Foundation and Pillars of Hell Discovered Searched Shaken and Removed For the Glory of God both in his Mercy and Justice the comfort of all poor believing Souls and the terrour of all wicked and ungodly wretches Semper meditare Gehennam By NICH. CHEVVNEY M.A. LONDON Printed by J. M. for Tho. Dring and are to be sold at his Shop at the Sign of the George in Fleet-street near Cliffords-Inne 1660. To the Worshipfull and his ever honoured Friends William Parsons Esq and Mrs Dorothy Parsons his virtuous Consort THough either of your Names were more then sufficient Honour done to this small and weak piece in the Patronage of the same yet whom God hath joyned together I did not dare to sever To you both then do I make this Application and Dedication Yours was the Principal and to whom else should pertain the interest What you shall meet with of Vigour and Solidity I desire you would entertain and cherish for it is Yours Yours first in the Birth and Occasion now in the Nourishment and Protection What more languishing and abortive impute to the Author 't is mine like me I 'le Father it However it will implore your Charity the Charity of your fair Interpretation which if you shall vouch safe you have Nobly rewarded the Endeavours of SIR Your most Affectionate Friend and Servant N. C. To the READER WHat Anonymus tells thee in the beginning of his Epistle thou knowest to be true and wilt gratifie him with a concession of the same that what he presents there is both new and old to wit an old Originian Heresie new vampt on the Socinian last In the reviving of which that he may be indulgent to the Creature he considers not how injurious he is to the Creator whose mercy while he seems to magnifie he vilipends his justice For if there be no Hell no place of everlasting Torment after this life which he vainly endeavours to prove not onely the wicked how loose and licentious soever in their lives how prophane and scandalous soever at their death but even the Devils themselves who were reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgement of the great day may at last be saved And how then will the infinite justice of God be satisfied in which as well as in his mercy he will everlastingly be glorified I was once in the mind to have followed this bold Undertaker passibus aequis and to have set before thee his ignorant mistakes his wilfull errors his false glosses his fair pretences his foul purposes his undervaluing the Scriptures his diminution of Christ and his sufferings but I suppose these must needs be obvious to every judicious eye I have then contented my self and I hope thee with this down-right confutation In which God knows my aim is aut praevenire errori aut revocare errantem Either to prevent a man before he erres or to recal and recover him erring It is a phrase often used by the Apostles Let no man deceive you with vain words Nihil facilius est quàm errare There is nothing easier then to erre There is no man but does erre sometimes in via pedum often in via morum That provision then is very necessary for us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 especially in these bad times when deceits lie as thick upon the Earth as the Grashoppers did upon the ground in Aegypt that a man can scarce set his foot beside them But woe unto those by whose pride and self-conceitedness the world is so filled and furnished with them I but say some they urge the Scriptures for their opinions So did Arius Novatus Aerius Montanus Donatus Pelagius and the Devil himself Neither hath there been at any time any Heretick so fruitless that hath not used the copy of their countenance nor in any place any error so shameless that hath not been over-cast with the blaze of these orient colours Impostors make use of the scriptures to undermine those that desire to be guided by them by their corrupt interpretations of them Yet is it no disgrace to the Scriptures that they are thus depraved it seems rather some grace unto them that Satan and his Impes do meddle with them For thereby they tacitely acknowledge that there is virtue and power in them The Bee gathers honey on the same stalk from which the Spider sucks poyson Some have been infected by their meats and drinkes yet either these things must nourish us or nothing Nor is it possible for Impostors to find out a better colour for their Errors and Heresies then out of the Scriptures Therefore with that heavenly gold they guild over their base mettal that it may pass the more current But what they get hereby they may put in their eyes and see near the worse for they pervert the scriptures to their own destruction Truly I could wish that such Impostors as these before they be suffered to meddle with the Scriptures might be forced to put in sureties that the sense they give of them should be sound and Orthodox and consenting with the Church of God For the trusting of every man upon his single bond to interpret any place of scripture is the occasion of very much Error as we find by woful experience Hence grow they bold to utter their own fancies and look to be credited upon their bare word And what is this but Dominari fidei to Lord it over the faith of others Hence it is that the scriptures themselves which were by God ordained as a special means to bring us to the knowledge of him by Satans illusions become occasions of our more offending him As in dark nights Pyrates use to kindle fires and make great lights upon the Rocks and Maritime Coasts whether when the poor weather-beaten Seamen steer in hope of harbour they meet with nothing but wrack and ruine so Hereticks flourish with the scriptures or at least some seeming flashes thereof under the pretence of new but false Lights to which when distressed souls repair for succour these pestilent seducers feed them with nothing but pernitious error This is the cunning of these wicked Impostors something they will have good to draw down the evil the greater part shall be evil to poyson the good Miscent recta perversis c. But as the Apostle from God so I from the Apostle by the command of God do warn thee of these wicked perverters of the Word of God which come indeed in sheeps cloathing but inwardly they are ravening Wolves that thou take heed of them that thou be not led and so led away by them least thou fall into the error of the wicked It may be this councel may be slighted by thee but they of whom I warn thee would give much that

continuance of punishment is limited with the continuance of the fact Among men Adultery is but a short pleasure yet often pursued with a long pennance But the duration of torment respects the disposition of the delinquent Poenae singulorum inaequales intentione poenae omnium aequales duratione Aquin. The pains of all are equal in continuance unequal in grievance But Secondly and more particularly I answer It will appear to be most just both in respect of the mind and intention of the sinner of the matter wherein he sinneth and of the person against whom he sinneth First The mind and intention of the sinner considered it will appear to be most just for though the act it self the sin committed be but temporal and finite yet the mind of the sinner is eternal and infinite insomuch that if he could live ever he would sin ever and therefore as Gregory saith Quia mens in hac vita nunquam voluit carere peccato justum est ut nunquam careat supplicio Because the mind of man in this life would never be without sinne it is just that it should never be without punishment in the life to come 2. If the matter and subject of sinne be considered we shall find it to be of and in the soul like as then the wounding of the body causeth the death and destruction of the same by reason of which there is no returning unto life again so sinne being the death of the soul it must necessarily follow that it be perpetual and everlasting 3. Sin as it is a transgression of the Law of God is so much the more heynous As he that smiteth the Prince to whom principally and especially he ows his Allegiance doth more grievously offend then he that striketh a private person So every sin is of an infinite nature because of the infinite dignity of the person and his glorious Majesty against whom it is committed and therefore it deserveth an infinite punishment which because it cannot be infinite secundum intentionem in the intention and greatness of it it remaineth that it should be infinite secundum durationem in respect of the duration and continuance of the same Now further the equity of Gods justice in punishing the temporal act of sin with eternal torments Hugo doth fitly illustrate by these examples Like as saith he when marriage is contracted per verba de praesenti By words uttered in the present-tense though the contract it self in respect of the ceremony thereof be soon done yet the marriage as the substance thereof remaineth in force all the life long So when the Soul and Sin are contracted together it is no marvell this contract holding so long as the soul endureth if it deserve everlasting punishment And like as where the fewel and matter of the fire continueth the flame still burneth So sin leaving a blot in the soul being the matter of Hell fire is eternally punished because there is still matter for that everlasting fire to work upon Thus then we see it 's no injustice in God to punish sin eternally he doth but reward them whom he so punisheth according to their works For though the action of sinne be temporall Voluntas tamen peccandi quae per paenitentiam non mutatur est perpetua saith Gorrhan Yet the will to sinne which is not changed by repentance is eternal and perpetual For the further description of Hell the Scripture useth three principall terms The Worm that never dyeth Outer Darkness And fire that cannot be quenched Mark 9.44 First The Worm This must not be understood of a corporal worm which if it were would be terrible enough for a man to live alwayes dying and die alwaies living with an adder sucking and stinging his vital parts But we must know that after the worlds dissolution there shall remain no mixt body but only man no generation or corruption in the revived bodies Therefore this worm cannot be corporal but spiritual the stinging of a vexed gauled tormented and tormenting conscience This oh this is even Infernum in mundo a Hell on earth and consider O consider Qualiter sentient in inferno what it shall be to their sense who shall be tormented therewith in Hell it self It is so essential a part of their torment that Christ Jesus makes a threefold repetition thereof in one yea at the close of one Sermon Mark 9.44 Where their worm dyeth not And again ver 46. Where their worm dyeth not and again ver 40. Where their worm dyeth not and their fire goeth not out Great yea very great and inexpressible must this punishment needs be which our Saviour doth so often inculcate within so smal a space The Heathen Poets made this one of those three furies which they fictioned to torment the damned Scindes latus una flagello Alter a tartareis sectos dabit anguibus artus Tertia fumantes incoquet igne genas One brings the Scorpion which the conscience eats T'other with Iron whips the back flesh beats While the third boils the soul in scalding heats But if the testimony of a Heathen will not pass for currant or bear no weight at all with us hear then what an ancient Christian Poet Prudentius by name saith to this purpose Praescius inde Pater liventia tartara plumbo Incendit liquido piceasque bitumine fossas Infernalis aquae furvo suffodit Averno Et Phlegethontaeo sub gurgite sanxit edaces Perpetuis scelerum paenis obrodere vermes The prescient Father black hell burns With scalding lead and ditches turns Into a flame with sulphur mixt Th'internal streams rolling betwixt And gnawing worms hath put therein To torture wretches for their sin Some take this worm to be recordatio prateritorum the remembrance of things past and they are either sins committed or good things enjoyed Of sins which shall so long gnaw their souls and bodies like a vulture preying on their hearts as the remembrance of former iniquities committed shall continue which will be for ever Of good things enjoyed S August observes that of the rich mans pleasure Omnia dicit Abraham de praeterito He speaks of all in the time past and gone Dives erat vestiebatur epulabatur recipisti There was a rich man did lare did go had received all past and vanished away all like the counterpane of a lease expired or like wages received and spent before hand This fuisse felicem the remembrance of what he had been must need be a sharp corrosive to him So that for these poor rejected and damned wretches to remember the evils they have done is bitter the good they once had more bitter the good they might have had most bitter Therefore fore it is good councel for us now pravidere mala futura ne recordemur bona praeterita to foresee with fear the evil that shall be hereafter least we remember with grief the good that hath been heretofore O that our fore-sight were but half so sharp as our sense Let us now

obedience of God for God cannot be said either to obey or suffer but by his favour by the obedience testified both by the Action and Passion of that one person which was God and Man many are made righteous For the Apostle there used the term man not understanding thereby hominem merum meere man sed hominem verum but true man It was fit that the Redeemer of man should be true man in regard of the justice of God vvhich could not punish sinne but in that nature which had offended It was fit also that he should be more then man in regard of the heavy burden of Gods wrath which vvas to be sustained by him The righteousness of vvhom by vvhich we are constituted righteous is therefore by the communication of properties saith Downam called the righteousness of God being the righteousness of that person which is God as vvell as man It is not the obedience of the God-head no nor the obedience of the Man-head but the obedience of Christ our Mediator considered as God and Man by which vve are made righteous I cannot but by the vvay lament the growth and insinuation of this pestilent Heresie of Socinianism vvhich under pretence of giving glory to Christ doth rob him of all that true glory that belongs unto him It will allow him to be a holy a thrice holy man an unreproachable an irreprehensible an admirable an incomparable man a man to whom he that should equal any other man were worse then a Devil A man worthy to be called God in a farre higher sense then any Magistrate any King any Prophet But yet he was no God saith this Heresie and these Hereticks no Son of God A Redeemer by way of example but no Redeemer by way of equivalent satisfaction S. Paul saies Ephe. 2.12 He is an Atheist that is without Christ And he is as much an Atheist still that pretends to receive Christ and not as God for if the receiving of Christ must redeem him from being an Atheist there can no other way be imagined but by receiving him as God for that onely and no other good opinion of Christ overcomes and removes his Atheism After the great day whatsoever is not Heaven is Hell He that then shall be where the Son is now if he be not in Heaven shall be as far from heaven as if he were where the Center of the Earth is now He that confesses not all Christ confesses no Christ And this is the wickedness that keeps down Anonymus and the rest of that Heretical brood that they cannot will not be raised up to the consideration of Christ as God But we proceed 3. The serious meditation of this Doctrine doth restrain wicked men from their impieties Oderunt peccare mali formidine poenae Bad men for fear of pain do ill detest The Apostle Rom. 2.4 saith The goodness of God leadeth to repentance and well are they that will be led But some there are that will not lead with whom there is another course to be taken such must be driven on whether they will or no. John Baptist Mat. 3.2 proposed the goodness of God as a special argument to perswade his Hearers to repentance do it repent and the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand hard by you One would think this would have done it have even led them to it but it stirred them not He is fain to lay Heaven by and the life joy glory to come And to betake himself to Hell to the anguish tribulation torments there for all these are in the eighth verse under those words the wrath to come so to drive them if it may be to it since leading would not serve the turn How strangely doth sinne besot men that the Kingdom of Heaven works not so kindly with them as doth the wrath to come The loss of Heaven if that were all would never restrain any from it if no Ira ventura wrath to come they would never care for the loss of Heaven Repent or you lose Heaven alas this works not any change or alteration Repent or you must to Hell the place of endless and easeless torments that bites soon This doth strike fear in their hearts and that fear bringeth forth repentance So that this fear even the fear of punishment is good though it be ignorantly condemned by some 'T is true that the Apostle saith Rom. 8.15 That the Sons of God have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but the spirit of adoption whereby they cry Abba Father The spirit of Bondage is inferior to the spirit of Adoption yet that spirit is better then the spirit of Belial or that spirit of slumber which the Prophet mentions Isai 29.10 whereby mens eyes are closed up that thy cannot see the judgments of the Lord. It is a Maxime that actio perfecta non recipitur nisi imperfectè primo there is no perfect action but at first it is imperfect and is perfected by degrees It is a good thing to be a Son yet it is better to be a Servant A door-keeper in the house of God then to dwell in the Tents of ungodliness It is good to be in Canaan the Land of promise but in the mean time it is better to be in the Wilderness then in Aegypt So fear and spare not sayes S. August for Sinondum potes amore justitiae at timore poenae Do it if it be not for love of goodness yet for fear of punishment his ground is out of Deut. 5.29 O that there were in them saith God such an heart that they would fear me and keep my Commandements Nothing brought the Jews to the love of God but the terrour they conceived of his judgements which they visibly saw before their face yet God wished that they might have such an heart in them alwayes that they would so fear him which for ought I can perceive from that place was but a servile fear procured by the terrible sights at the delivery of the Law There is no fear of God then though it have some servility in it so farre as servility imports but a fear of punishment but is good for timor est amor inchoativus saith S. August The love of God begins in fear and then amor est timor consummatus The fear of God ends in love God presents to us the joyes of Heaven often thereby to allure us but we have seen how coldly we are affected towards them and therefore as often the torments of Hell thereby to terrifie us from the evill of our wayes Gehennae timor regni nos affert coronam even the fear of hell gets us heaven and we thank that pain which gives us sight Though there may be difference between timor tremor Fear and Terror yet the difference is not so great but that they may both be found in and fall upon the best of men When God talked with Abraham a horror of darkness saies that Text Gen. 15.12 fell upon him The Father