heare the wisdome of Salomon But many of us which live in this evill declining age are so over busied with worldly affaires that they have little or no time to come out of our doores to bestow one houre in the Church to heare the Wisedome of Christ The want whereof maketh many which neglect their comming to Bethel the house of God to starve their Soules in Bethaven the denne of iniquitie Yea too too many to become so godlesse so gracelesse so rooâ—ed in all sin and so fully resolved to live therein that if John Baptist were to preach Esay to cry King David Ieremiah and Paul to wéep for the sins of the people Yet they are so frozen in their sin and so wedded in their wickednesse that a Leopard may sooner change his spots and a blacke Moore become white nay as our Saviour saith It is easier or a Camell to goe through the eye of a needle than many to forsake their beloved sins to gaine the Kingdome of Heaven What shall I more say If Christ himselfe came from Heaven to cry unto the people for to repent in these our dayes it may be they would let him say what he would but I feare that too too many would doe what they list All his preaching and all his wonders would no more prevaile with the wicked in these our times than it did in his time with the Iewes To conclude then this point if any seeme to storme at my harsh writing let them amend their lives and not dislike these my lines For I openly protest I feare none but God whose truth I teach and hate nothing but sin which is the ruine and destruction of the soule I care not for my life so it were lost in the defence of the truth I looke not for preferment the world is so corrupted I desire not the praise of men it is but vanitie I ayme not at my owne good but to set forth Gods glory the discharge of my owne conscience and the benefit of Christ his Church and children CHAP. II Of the shortnes and uncertainty of mans life MAns life is but a pilgrimage a travell and a way and he is scarce entred into the world but he is admonished to remember to depart out of the same for all the world is mutable and of all the things in the world man is most mutable And as our dayes here are short and evill we ought alwayes to be prepared for the Lord For Nihil certius morte hora mortis nihil incertius as there is nothing more certaine than death so there is nothing more uncertaine then the houre of death We are all tenants at will and know not how long we shall remaine it this earthly Tabernacle All creatures waxe old with this aged world this is even the last houre the world cannot continue long Methusela lived 969 yeares If in our age we reach to 80. it is with sorrow and labour Thou hast made my dayes as it were a span long saith David All flesh is grasse saith the Prophet and all the glory thereof as the flower of the field The old world had 120. yeares given them to repent Niniveh 40. daies and Israel 4â— yeares but thou O man knowest not how long thou hast to live Some are wasted away by wantonnesse as Commodus Claudius Nero Alexander the Great and such like Some are shortned by ambition many will never leave climbing till they catch a fall This climbing by ambition cut off the dayes of Absalom and brought Haman to the trée Some God taketh away because the world was not worthy of them and some because they are not worthy of it He cut off Iosias for his soule pleased God therefore he made haste to take him away from the iniquity of the world He cut off Achab Agag and Herod because they were vile and ungodly men therefore they did not live out half their dayes Some God cutteth off suddenly in so much as they have not time to thinke on God or once to cry Lord help me The old world not thinking on death was suddenly drowned The Sodomites suddenly consumed by fire Pharaoh with all his Host swallowed up in the sea the Israelites gnawne of dedly serpents Corah Dathan and Abiram eaten up of the earth Herod suddenly devoured with lice The rich man suddenly smitten with death Lying Ananias and his wife suddenly fell downe dead Eglon the Moabite and Abner the Captaine were suddenly murthered with the sword To conclude all Histories in all ages are full of the like examples CHAP. III. Of the straight accompt we mâ—st give unto God at the day of Judgement TO draw every man to a better consideration of his time and of his accompting day our Saviour addeth a reason why we should be ready and alwaies prepared to render our accompt for saith he The Kingdome of God is at hand What will move a man to consider of himselfe and of his accompting day if this will not when he heareth that the same is at hand Mortall men in their accompts they make to their Lords and Masters will gather their Scrowles Bils Papers and other writings from hundreths to farthings lest they be found unworthy men to be put in trust with such worldly commodities If mortall men have such a care how to make their accompts to mortall Auditors what care nay what feare ought to be in all men and women when they are summoned by the eternall God to appeare before him and his Angels to give accompt how they have spent their time from their birth untill their dying day Here we are summoded to the high Imperial Court of eternall doome The time is come and the Kingdome of God is at hand O Lord who shall escape amercing here Nay who shall escape damnation here Séeke up your Scrowles search the Bookes of your consciences we are called to the Court where every mans conscience shall be laid open Wherefore unlesse we repent that our sins may be blotted out with the bloud of Christ Iesus the Lord will call us to accompt the Bookes of our Consciences shall be laid open and every sin both secret and knowne shall be brought to light and not one sinne shall passe but all our sinnes both past present and to come as well our rebellious thoughts as sinfull Acts committed Whereupon S Bernard saith Omne tempus tibi impensum requiretur a te qualiter fuerit expensum All the time that God hath given thée except thou repent shall be required at thy hands how thou hast spent it There shall inquisition be made for the thoughts of the ungodly There shall not a wicked thought passe in Iudgement CHAP IV. Now followeth the manner of this accompt I. Who must give accompt II. Of what things they must give accompt III. To whom this accompt must be made IV. When it must be made FIrst the persons that
penury for gluttony extreame thirsting for excessive drinking burning for lecherous lusting want for ill gotten wealth outragious madnesse for blaspheming for oppression utter desolation and a fearfull agony for bloudy cruelty And S. Augustine speaking of Dives saith Desideravit guttam qui non dedit micam hée would not give a erum hée shall not have a drop a just recompence as he denied the least comfort to Lazarus living so Lazarus shall not bring him the least comfort dead And Seneca saith Nemini bonus sibi possimus as he was good to none so let it be his plague he is worst to himself thus the pain for sin answers the pleasure of sin Their torments shall be both comfortlesse endlesse They shall bée dying alwayes yet never dead They shall séek death but never find it They shal be burning alwayes yet never burnt to death Their meat shall be griping hunger and famine intolerable Their drink shall be lakes of fire and brimston Their musicke shall be howling and roaring of foule and ugly Devils with savage furies accompanied and with barbarous torments cruelly handled Thus Heaven they shall have lost which cannot be purchased Hell they have received the place must néeds be indured And looke how many sins they have set on the score so many kinds of punishments are provided for them in Hell O how many causes of wéeping and dolefull crying shall those miserable wretches then have They shall wéep because they cannot appeale from Gods dreadfull judgement They shall wéep because their pleasures have brought them to all these sorowes They shall wéep because they shall sée their miseries are past all remedy and their repentance too late To conclude this point they will then curse the parents which begat them and the wombs which bare them the day wherein they were borne the Aire that gave them breath and will cry woe woe that ever we were borne O where is that Dives that would not beléeve this before he felt the fire of Hell IV. The time when we must give this accompt VVE must give an accompt at the day of Iudgement when Christ commeth to judge the world But of that day and houre knoweth no man no not the Angels which are in Heaven neither the Son according to his humane nature but the Father But according to his Divine nature hée knoweth as well as the Father Therefore saith Christ It is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father hath put in his own power But as Paul saith to the Corinthians Seeing wee are they upon whom the ends of the world are come we ought to learne of our Saviour to watch for wee know not at what time the Lord will come And our Saviour séeing the iniquity of the world growing so fast to maturity saith Except those dayes should bee shortned there should no flesh be saved Therefore saith S. Iohn Repent for the Kingdome of Heaven is at hand And S. Iames cryeth out Behold the Iudge standeth before the doore If they looked for it to be so nigh in those daies now sure it cannot be far off Augustine in his book upon Genesis against the Manichees said that the world should last six ages And according to his prophecy we live in the last age Eliah also prophesied that the World should last six thousand yéeres two thousand before the Law two thousand under the Law two thousand from Christs his birth untill his coming to Iudgement If his prophecy be true the World cannot last foure hundred yéeres To conclude let us be ready alwayes howsoever although this day be like yesterday and too morow like to day yet let us not defer our repentance For God came not unto Adam before the evening yet he came Although the Angels came not upon Sodome untill the evening yet they came And so comes Christ to Iudgement although he be not yet come let us not think he hath leaden féet and cannot come lest we finde hée hath iron hands when he doth come To conclude if there be any one thing in the Booke of God from the Alpha of Genesis unto the Omega of the Revelation that is able to turne a sinner from his sinnes to come unto God by repentance it is the remembrance of this generall judgement This is that kept David in so much awe I have feared thy Iudgements I have been mindfull of thy Iudgements thy Iudgements were alwaies in my sight O therefore let us spéedily repent that we may be unblameable before the Iudge at that great generall day of Iudgement and be cloathed with the white Robes of righteousnesse stand in the number of those unto whom Christ shall say Come ye blessed children of my Father inherit the Kingdome prepared for you from the beginning of the world This God grant without whose help all the labour of man is vaine even for his deare Son Christ Iesus his sake our Redéemer and onely Saviour to whom with the Father and the holy Gost be all honour glory praise power and dominion both now and for evermore Amen FINIS Gen. 3.9 Esay 58.9 Ier. 50.2 Gen. 19.7 Ie. 4.19 Act. 20.19 Eze. 3.18 Eze. 33.7 Esa 56 1â— Ier. 2.1 2 Ier. 48.10 Ez. 34.2 3 4 to the 10. Ier. 1.7 8. Za. 11.8 17. Malac. 2.7 Eze. 3 4.10 18. Mat. 5.21 Mat. 10.17 Mat. 25.26 2â— 28. Mat. 9.47 Luk. 10.2 Rom. 10.18 Pro. 11.34 Rev. 3.10 Isa. 55 10. Ier. 25.15 Gal. 6.10 Heb. 3.15 Psal. 95.8 Psa. 51.17 Psal. 51.4 Acts 2.36 Psal. 6.99 Psa. 119 13 Iohn 2.17 Titus 2.14 Mâ—â— 2 â—4 Ionah 3.4 Ionah 3.5 Acts 2 37. Acts 10. Luk. 3.14.2 Rom. 15.15 Ioh. 12.19 Luk. 13.9 Esay 59.2 Nabu 1.2 1 King 10.1 2. 1 Chr. 9.8 Mat 12 42 Luke 11 3. Ge. 13.19 Hos. 4.15 Math. 3.2 Esay 51.12 Psal. 119.8 Ier. 4.19 Ier. 9.1 Acts 2.3 Mat. 10.51 Gen. 4.7 Psalm 3.1 Sirach 40. Psalme 1. Benard Gen 6.27 Psalme 89. Psal. 40.6 Esay 39.5 Gen 6.5 Ionah 1.4 Psal. 95.20 2 Sam. 18. Hester 7. 2 Kin. 22. Psal 54.5 1 Kin. 2 1. Psal 54.5 1 Kin. 22. 1 Sa. 15.32 Mat. 2.19 20. Act. 12.32 Gen. 7.11 Ge. 19.14 Exo. 14.27 Nu. 21.6 Nu. 16.3 Act. 12.23 Lu. 12 20. Acts 5 5. and 10. Iudg. 3.21 2 Sa. 3.27 Matth. 4. Mark 1.15 Rev. 10.12 Bernard Wisd. 1.9 Mâ—t. 13.36 1 Cor. 5.30 Mat. 12.37 Mat. 12.29 2 Cor. 5.10 Eccl. 12.4 Wisd. 1.9 Mat. 12.37 Rom. 4.12 1 Pet. 4.5 Psal. 56 13 Iohn 9.22 Gen. â—8 25 Iames 4.12 Iud. 14.15 Ma. 25.34 Wisd. 6. Acts. 3 19. Rev. 21.6 Rev. 7 1â— Esay 15.4 Mâ—t. 15.4 Mat. 7.17 Psalm 9.8 Mat. 25 41. Mat. 25.41 Augustines saying of Dives Rom. 7. Rev. 1.5 Psal. 1.7 Mat. 13.42 Mat. 22. 13 Psal. 11 7. Rev. 18 2 Mar. 13.3 Acts 1.17 Mat. 24.42 Mat. 14.24 Gen. 3.8 Gen. 19.1 Psal. 119. Rev. 19.8 Mat. 25.3
must give accompt our Saviour Christ expresly sheweth us to be men But I say unto you saith our Saviour that of every idle word that men shall speake they shall give accompt at the day of Iudgement And S. Paul saith We must all appeare before the Tribunall Seat of Christ that every man may receive according to his workes For as Lingua est mentis interpres The tongue is the interpreter of the mind so saith our Saviour By thy words if thou doe well thou shalt be justified and by thy words if thou do evill thou shalt be condemned Thus we may sée Christs true iust judgement how that first by the evidence of their déeds they shall be accused Secondly by the witnesse of their words convicted and thirdly by the testimony of their owne conscience condemned Thus all men none excepted of all ages and of all nations Kings and Princes rich and poore yea all that have been from the beginning of the world and shall be to the end of the same shall appeare before the Tribunall seat of Christ and give an account every one for himselfe II Of what things they must give accompt THey shall give accompt not onely of every idle word work deed but also of every idle thought yea every man and every member of man shall answer to his default The King must give an accompt for himselfe and how he hath governed his Kingdome The Ministers that have taken upon them curam animarum the charge of Soules must give an accompt how they have fed their Flocke and how they have lived in their calling The Magistrate for his Iustice The Master for his servants The Parents for the children and every Artificer for his trade every man in his own proper person must render an accompt of his Talent be it ten foure or one that he hath received And so strait shall this accompt be that every member of every body shall answer to his default the Eyes shall give an accompt what they have séene the Eares what they have heard the Tongue what it hath spoken the Hands what they have felt the Féet where they have béene and the Heart of man what it hath thought To conclude both Heart and Body with all the parts and powers thereof shall be indited and arraigned before the Tribunall Seat of Christ to render a streight accompt Tam de dictis quam de factis suis both of their words and their déeds III. To whom this accompt must be given THe Iudge to whom we must give our accompt is Christ The Lord commandeth saith David to judge the World S. Iohn saith the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgement to the Sonne And Abraham gave God the stile of the Iudge of the world There it is evident that our Saviour Iesus Christ is Iudge of the world He is verus Iudex Iustus he is a true and upright Iudge yea he is a Iudge that is able to destroy both body and soule in hell fire for ever But let us note he commeth not alone but bringeth ten thousand of his Saints to execute judgement upon all yea he said to his Disciples Ye which have followed me shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel Vnto the godly he shall say Come ye blessed c. They shall both with body and soule receive a glorious kingdome and a beautifull Crowne from the Lords hand for with his right hand shall he cover them and with his arme he shall protect them Because it shall be a day of refreshing when all teares shall be wiped away from their eyes and all sorrow shall cease and they shall live and raigne with the Lamb for ever To the wicked Christ saith Goe ye cursed BVt first let us note that he doth not judge them after the manner of worldly Iudges whose knowledg may be deceived with false and Sophisticall pleas whose justice may be corrupted with feare hatred love and rewards whose anger may be pacified with pittifull words Oh fearefall and terrible will the sight of this Iudge bée to the wicked for his power shall be invincible his anger implacable his knowledge infallible and his Iustice inflexible First tyrany and cruelty shall not countervaile his power Secondly benignity of pitifull words shall not appease his anger Thirdly liberality nor rewards shall not bow his Iustice Fourthly subtilty of advocates shall not blind his knowledge Whereupon saith S. Augustine Judex ille nec gratia praevenitur nec misericordia flectitur nec pecunia corrumpitur nec penitentia mitigatur Neither is this Iudge prevented with favour nor bowed with mercy nor bribed with money neither mitigated by Repentance Therefore when Christ saith to the wicked Goe ye cursed hée doth not onely curse them but hée biddeth them goe he sendeth them to Gehenna that dreadfull dungeon of utter darknesse that burning Lake and most fearfull Tophet yea to that hollow cave and Chaos of all confusion to that bottomlesse pit of eternall perdition whose burning furnace is made by Gods Iustice his power upholds it and it is blowne with the bellowes of his wrath ever prepared for the Deuill and his Angels And as Christ saith Goe ye cursed his curse is paenarum inflictio infliction of punishment which is twofold Paena Damni and Paena Sensus the punishment of losse and the punishment of sense The losse of God of his glorious and most blessed presence his mercy his favour his bounty his beauty his grace and all his eternall goodnesse the losse of heaven the habitation of God and of all his holy and blessed Angels and Saints the house and heaven of happinesse with all the unspeakable joyes pleasures glory riches and treasures thereof for evermore The punishment of sense which is hell and all the intolerable everlasting and wofull torments thereof As the blessing of God comprehends all blessings so this curse Anathema and Maranatha includes all crosses Goe ye cursed c. They shall bée cursed of Christ himselfe cursed shall they be of the Angels whose curse is conscientiae cruciamen vexation of conscience Cursed shall they be of the Devils whose curse is paenarum executio the execution of their punishment according to that of the Poet Minos examen Radamanthus dat cruciamen Tertius beufrater terti aiura tenet One Devill rippeth up the examination another Devill tormenteth the third addeth one torment upon another For their desire is revenge their devotion cursing and their blessing blasphemy They be in a Sea of miseries and in an Ocean of calamities Fire flameth about them the worme of conscience gnaweth within them rage madnesse and irefull indignation among them ugly visages of black and fearfull Devils affrighting them Sulphur and hot burning coales under them the revenging hand of God over them and powring forth the vials of his wrath full of variety of plagues without ceasing upon them They have