them upon the publick Altar Which tho' it confutes that common opinion of his Dying a Martyr for the Belief of one God does yet no less plainly demonstrate how far he was from the late Doctrine of the Leviathan and how abominable a thing he concluded it for a Man to dissemble in Religion How extremely brave likewise and altogether free from Slavish Fear and Flattery was that of Calanus the Indian Philosopher in his Letter to Alexander the Great extant in Philo Judaeus I hear saith ne That your Friends advise you to apply Force and lay Violent Hands upon the Indian Philosophers who were never yet acquainted so much as in a Dream with any thing of our matters For you may indeed remove our Bodies from one place to another But you cannot force our Souls to do what they have no mind to You may sooner make Stones and Logs of Wood to Speak There is no King or Emperour in the whole World that can compel us to do what we our selves have not decreed Nay still in the last place to insist no more upon Pagans much less Philosophers of that kind so naturally base and ignoble is it for a Man to Lie or to Dissemble that some of those who one would think should of all others be most void of all sentiments of Honour in such cases yet retaining some faint shadows thereof in Vain glory have had that Principle strong enough in them to hurrie them out of the World rather than seem to incur so shameful an Imputation For even dull Atheism it self as it has had but too many Confessors so has it not wanted also some few Martyrs who have chosen to Die rather than profess with their Lips what they obstinately pretended they could no waies in their Hearts Believe For this was the very case of Vaninus who was Burnt to Death at Tholouse upon that Score we Read likewise of another amongst the Turks who chose to Die upon the same account Of whose Tragedy we have the particular relation in the worthy Authour of THE GOVERNMENT OF THE TVRKS Which examples of astonishing Govern Turks p. 119. Madness are yet not onely parallel'd but quite out done by those who believing Christianity and the unspeakable eternal Rewards and Punishments it acquaint us with can yet find in their Hearts to Dissemble or deny their Faith rather than undergo the short present Sufferings of a moment upon that account Thus you see what the Opinion has been concerning this Matter of all sorts of the more impartial whether Jews or Christians whether Hereticks Turks or Pagans nay partly and upon supposition even of some Atheists And as it is the sense of all the World besides so I am perswaded 't is sometimes so also in the Self-condemned Minds of these very Hypocrites themselves However the time is most certainly a coming when they shall be thorowly wakened into a quick and never-ending Sense of Shame and of Confusion upon this account Which advances me to my Eighth and last Consideration viz. CHAP. XIIII The unavoidableness of that infinite Shame and Misery which according to the Eternal and unalterable Nature of Things themselves must needs be the dreadful Portion of all such abominable Hypocrites and Dissemblers in the World to come HOW naturally sad must needs be the Condition of those who depart hence unmortify'd and full of the love of the World and cannot tell how to part with such Desires and Affections even in a State in which there will be no more World for them to enjoy The same Persons also being as I have already shewn wholly void of all true Love of God and of their Neighbours How is it possible for them to enjoy any thing of the Heavenly State even tho' we could suppose them in such a Place as Heaven where there is nothing else for them to Love besides God himself and those that love him and are like him So that ardent Love is the pure Air and very Life of Heaven without having our Hearts thorowly endued with which blessed Habit and Affection we are no more capable of that heavenly State than it is here possible for us to live without Breathing or to breath without Air. Upon which account according to the very nature of Things What good can they ever expect who leave this World being themselves wholly unfurnished with all those Divine Qualifications which are so absolutly necessary to capacitate Men for their entrance into the State of true Happiness and to make them meet to be Partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light As the Apostle speaks Col. 1. 12. The ill Habits we pass hence with and want of the contrary Graces will like natural Incapacities be sure to consign us over to our proper Stations and place us without any more adoe on the left Hand with the Goats Every wicked Man and Dissembling Hypocrite carries with him a whole Legion of Devils of tormenting Sins and unmortify'd Lusts any one of which is enough to unheaven Paradise and to turn Abraham's Bosom it self into a place of no rest Ill dispositions establish Hell within Men and naturally lay the Foundation of their perpetual Misery whilst they shall find such cursed Habits will prove those eternal Chains of Darkness to fetter them below amongst Devils where Sin shall be no more as here distinguished but known by its true proper Name Misery It is impossible that he should be finally miserable who does not love something more than God and 't is no less impossible that he who does prefer any thing before God should not be miserable if he be continued at all in being For to love God with all our Hearts is our only Duty and our greatest Happiness and not so to love him at once our greatest Sin and Misery And 't was certainly the deepest Sense of the true nature of Religion and a strong effect of the great Sincerity of the Man himself that made a Divine Poet of our own break out into this Pious and most Pathetick Ejaculation My God let me not love thee if I love thee not And indeed our future Bliss it self will consist chiefly in our extatic love of God and in perceiving how we love him and are beloved by him Gratitude and Thankfulness and endless Love for Love will be the Life of Heaven And without attaining here to some eminent degree of this Love and Gratitude our Souls can never be winged thither Our Saviour therefore who designed our everlasting Happiness did in order to it contrive the most effectual way to excite our Love by loving us first so well as to lay down his Life for our sakes that by his Precedent and Example we might be even constrained so to love him again and to express our Gratitude in such a degree as to be at least willing and prepared to die for his Honour rather than deny or dissemble our Faith And as even now any good Man cannot reflect upon his own willingness thus
to Die at Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus And what the same Apostle affirms of himself was no less true concerning all the rest of his Collegues That they did not shun to declare to the People all the Counsel of God One single Instance indeed to the contrary of this we find in St. Peter even after our Saviours Resurrection who at one time so behaved himself as if he designed to be thought of another Judgment than really he was for Fear of or to currie Favour with the Judaising Christians For which Action notwithstanding he was most severely Reprehended by St. Paul as he himself has given us thereof the particular Relation Gal. 2. 11. c. Where he expresly tells us that upon this Account he withstood him to the Face as one greatly to be Blamed for such Dissimulation and not walking uprightly according to the Truth of the Gospel But abating this single Example so far were they from any way concealing the Truth or dissembling their Belief that the Consideration of their having Acted quite otherwise was matter of their greatest Joy and Comfort whilst St. Paul speaking in the Name of all the rest assures us 2 Cor. 1. 12. Our rejoycing is this the Testimony of our Conscience that in Simplicity and godly Sincerity we have had our Conversation in the World Which indeed is so true a Charactor of their Demeanour in general that for constantly thus Acting and Professing they were all at last at several Times and Places put to several Deaths by their Heathen Persecutors St. John alone excepted who yet suffering Banishment and a Thousand other living Deaths shined Bright to the very last in all the Glories of a most Triumphant Confessour But did not then may you say this Couragious Temper of such admirable Zeal and Constancy and undisguis'd Simplicity did it not at length expire and die with those first Twelve most renowned Christian Worthies No no by no means It still survived for some Ages afterwards in the glorious Names and suitable Conversations of those holy Bishops and Martyrs St. Clemens St. Ignatius Polycarp Justin Irenaeus Cyprian and in the numerous Train and long Succession of other leading Officers in the Noble Army of Martyrs From whence I shall single out and chuse a little more largely to Relate some few Examples of latter Date which tho' perhaps they may be less known than the before mentioned are yet no less Remarkable nor less to my present purpose That good Bishop of Tagaste a City in Africa not far from Hippo Firmus by Name but much more firm in Resolution so much was he in Love with Truth and Christian Simplicity and so far from that most hainous Lie of denying his Faith that he was ready to Die mch rather than to be induced to tell that which is called an officious Lie only For when Officers sent by the Emperour for that end had enquired of him concerning a certain Person whom he had conceal'd with all the Care he could he most ingenuously answered them That he could neither tell a Lie nor yet betray the Man And thus constantly persisting in the same Resolution after all the Torments they could invent to make him Suffer they brought him at length to the Emperour to receive from him his final Doom Now what shall we think of this Action I know very well what Censure some who pass for Christians would readily give of it But let us hear I pray what was the Judgment of the Emperour himself in this Case who was no other than a Pagan But yet so extremely taken with the admirable Candour Fidelity and Courage of this so extraordinary Behaviour that he not only presently discharged Firmus himself but for his sake freely Pardoned the Person also whom the Bishop had so concealed * Aug. lib. de Mendacio as Augustine gives us the Relation Again what shall we say to the wonderful Zeal and undisguised Simplicity of Mark Bishop of Arethusa Who chose rather to be miserably Tormented to Death by the Rabble than either Rebuild as he was Commanded by Julian or give the least Sum himself or suffer others who so offered to do it for him towards the Rebuilding of the Heathen-Temple In like manner Anthony an Arian Bishop after he was able by no exquisiteness of Torments to bring Habetdeus an Orthodox Bishop over to the Profession of his own impious Sect at last stopping his Mouth and binding his Hands and Feet he by force Plunged him into the Bath of Re-babtization which he had prepared for that purpose And then afterwards endeavoured to perswade him that by this Washing he was made a Companion and Partaker with him of the same Heresie But the good Bishop by a constant Confession most Couragiously denyed it saying O wicked Anthony That can be no Condemnation unto Death where the Assent of the Will is wanting I most tenacious of my Faith did as long as ever I had the Opportunity lowdly defend and with my Voice confess the things which I did and do believe But after you had bound me with Chains and stopping my Mouth took away from me the Faculty of Speaking I then transmitted the more secret Confession of my Faith kept within the Closet of my Breast as well as the monstrous Acts of that your Violence against me to be both of them read by my blessed Saviour the holy Angels themselves also therein Subscribing to me Admirable likewise was the Example of Eulogius a Presbyter of the Church of Corduba who being drag'd upon the Account of his Religion before the chief Counsellours of a Mahomet an King was by one of them with whom he had been familiarly acquainted after this manner Subtily but yet as the Man meant it compassionately Accosted That Fools and Ideots saith he should run themselves upon Death and Ruin is a thing not so much to be wondered at But as for you who are a Man so adorned with all the Accomplishments of Wisdom and approved for the Honesty of your Conversation What Madness is it that forces you thus to fling your self into this lamentable Condition Hearken I beseech you to my Counsel and do not obstinately run upon your own Destruction Deny only by one small Word now in this your Hour of Necessity and then afterwards wheresoever you can do it safely freely exercise and enjoy your own Faith We Promise you that you shall no where be ever sought after To whom the holy Man a little Smiling thus reply'd O that you could but know how glorious Things are prepared for the sincere Worshipers that are of our Religion Or that I could but once Alvari Hist citante Baronio An. Vol. 10. p. 161. convey into yours what I retain and feel in my own Breast then would you be so far from endeavouring to recall me from my purpose that your Thoughts would be wholly taken up about how you might best withdraw your self from this deceitful Worldly Honour And so he began
to do without some extraordinary overflowings of Joy and Satisfaction in it So we shall hereafter infinitely more please our selves and Triumph to all Eternity in the Rembrance and Consideration of our Readiness in this frail State to Sacrifice our very Lives to our Redeemer and and in perceiving how well God is pleased with that Sincerity of our Affections and how acceptable the same is to our blessed Saviour Whereas were it possible that we should ever be admitted into those glorious Mansions without such Love of God and having proceeded so far in Gratitude we should have nothing to support or qualify us for our converse with and enjoyment of that infinite Fountain and God of Love But bring horrour of Conscience perpetual Shame and Confusion of Face with us even into Heaven it self For tho' in the sight and Presence of God will consist all Joy and Happiness yet can as without Holiness no Man see the Lord so true Love and Sincerity is the only thing which can enable us to sustain his Presence Insomuch that if a Man 's own Heart condemns him in this Point as every Hypocrites must then be sure to do it is impossible He should have any Confidence towards God in that day of Jugment But nothing on the contrary besides Shame treasured up for himself against that Day of Shame And how great a misery and severe Punishment this will indeed prove at last to all those who depart out of this World impenitent Sinners and vile Hypocrites may however faintly be conjectured from present Examples as well of some who have dyed with mere Shame and that too upon no such very extraordinary Varenius in descrip Regni Japon p. 98. 99. occasion for that Passion as also of very many others who have gladly chosen Death much rather than suffer great temporal Disgraces any longer Besides it may be observed how naturally apt we are to wax red and be very much abashed when we have at any time occasion to make but a set Speech to any considerable number of our fellow Mortals And how much more are we still apt to be concerned when we happen to be called in Question and are to answer for our selves before any more August Assembly even though we are sufficiently conscious to our selves of our own Innocency as to what may be objected against us to our disparagement But what then must we think will be at last the dismal condition of those who are all over loaden with Guilt and knowing themselves monstrous by the blackest deformity of Sin come to appear before the most dreadful Tribunal of the great God There to have all that ever they have thought said or done made clearly manifest and there to Answer and to receive Sentence for all that has been amiss in the Sight and Hearing not only of one particular Assembly City or Nation but of all the Men now living upon the whole Face of the Earth Nay of all the several Generations of Men that have ever or shall ever live upon it from the Beginning to the End of the World to all which add also those innumerable Millions of Holy Angels and which is still more considerable than all the rest the most Holy but highly affronted Jesus who would have been and took such miraculous Pains to be their Saviour and shall then sit as their Judge 'T is enough almost to make a Man sink and die but seriously to think what will then be the Shame and infinite Consternation of all wretched Sinners and especially of such provoking Hypocrites under those Circumstances And yet alas the thing it self will be much more dreadful than we can now apprehend and is indeed beyond all Words to describe beyond all possibility of our present Imagination Notwithstanding of any thing that has ever yet been here in this World methinks what happened in the time of Constantine the great upon that Emperours embracing Christianity and restoring Peace to the Church feems most to resemble how it shall be hereafter at the last Day with all such Offenders Some faint glimpse of which we may be able to discover whilst we consider how the lapsed were at that time affected For you might then have beheld whole multitudes of those who before in the time of Persecution had disgracefully denied their Faith presently upon this great alteration under the most lamentable State and Condition For how were they pricked to the very Hearts when they perceived themselves not only wholly excluded from the Holy Communion but denied all enterance into the Christian Churches all Society with the Faithful How were they confounded at the just Honours and profound Respects then paid to the noble Confessors and dazled at the lustre of their glorious Scars shinning out like so many several Constellations And in the mean time with what extreme Horrour and Regret did they remember their own base Cowardice and quite contrary Behaviour which had rendred them so justly infamous and abhorred in the sight of all So that perceiving themselves to have now no share in the common Joy no kind of portion in the general Exultation and Triumphs of all other Christians but pefectly overwhelm'd with the deepest Shame and Sorrow they betook themselves to the Bishops and lowly Prostrating themselves at their Feet with whole showers of Tears humbly acknowledged their hainous Crime and in the most earnest but submissive manner entreated that after most severe Penances and long Satisfactions perform'd they might be at last admitted to the Peace of the Church upon their true Repentance Repentance That blessed Word sweetens and chears up all with fresh Comforts and new Life like a perfect Resurrection from the Dead But alas How widely different therefore will be the Case of those whose Shame and Regret shall be both infinitely greater and sure to continue with them to all Eternity having joined thereto absolute despair of better whilst they shall perceive themselves wholly cut off from all hopes and possibility of Repentance and Forgiveness They who glory in their Shame and they who are ashamed of what they ought most of all to glory in are both of them in so high a degree guilty that 't is not very easy to determine which is indeed the most hainous Yet methinks in some respect the last seems to be the more monstrous perversion of the two For though the first gives that to Sin and to the Devil which belongs to God alone and Goodness yet the other casting if possible a still higher contempt upon both these do after such a manner treat God and Religon as they ought to treat Sin and Satan And therefore as of all things in the World nothing can be more truly Shameful so there 's nothing of which Men shall be hereafter more unconceivably ashamed of and actually confounded at than of their having been thus ashamed of their Religion So that should the great Judge at the last Day be wholly silent in the case and leave things onely
to their natural consequences yet the guilty Hearts of such self-condemned Criminals by an Insinuation as quick and intimate as the Sense of their own Souls is to them would soon Read to them their fatal Sentence And were it then possible for them to make the least attempt of Entrance their own Shame like an evil Angel with a flaming Sword would be sure to guard them from the Tree of Life and for ever drive them from the Heavenly Paradise thus lowdly pronouncing their dreadful Doom Depart from hence Vile Hypocrites for ever far depart these Glorious and Happy Mansions prepared for the Sincere and Faithful and such of which none are ever capable of Inhabiting but Souls Duely qualifi'd and such onely as are full of Divine Love and Zeal and other Holy Preparations and Christian Habits which are the onely Natural means of enabling any to Live the Life of Heaven After St. Peter's denyal of him one look from his Lord even in his lowest Suffering despised Condition was sufficient to make him go out and Weep bitterly But now since he sets in his glorified Estate as Judge of the whole World and Cloathed with all the Majesty of Heaven how will you be able to bear for ever nay but one Moment to look upon or receive a look from him whom 〈◊〉 know your selves to have so highly Despised and finally â—eny'd without Repentance Besides are glorious Saints and Martyrs who for the Love of God and their Religion Loved not their Lives even unto Death are they fit Company for such loathsome Dissemblers and Apostates What Pleasure or Delight are you able to take in a Society so infinitely different in all their qualities and dispositions Nay with what other Face beside that of absolute Confusion can you look upon the now dazling Countenances of them who to you alwaies were before and now are than ever much more Grievous even to behold Depart therefore according to the just Summons of your own Confusion into the Dark and far distant but to you suitable Regions of everlasting Contempt and Shame the proper Dwelling of Apostate Angels of your Fellow-hypocrites and Unbelievers and of other cursed Deniers Blasphemers and Apostates Nor let any one fondly suppose it possible for such Sinners then as now still to put on a brazen Forehead or to silence this Voice of Shame or remain void thereof through the like brutish Stupidity and Inconsideration which now possesseth them For Mens Dreams will then be at an end all their Mists dispelled and disguises taken away their Eies be open'd to See things as they are and they forced to consider and clearly apprehend all those essential reasons and inseparable Circumstances which render the nature of their Sin so much above all things truely shameful They shall then be no longer able not to discern how miserably they have abused and cheated their own precious Souls debased their Nature and rendred themselves Deformed They shall then plainly see how wholly their Sin was of their own choice through their own fault and how certainly they might have help'd it They shall likewise clearly perceive what height of the most abominable Ingratitude their offence argues and proceeds from and with what prodigious folly and Madness it has been all along accompanied In like manner all the causes of their former Imprudence shall then wholly cease and be removed the expedients they here made use of to keep themselves void and insensible of Shame shall have then no more place nor be any farther serviceable to the former Purposes but be turned at last only to encrease their endless Confusion For though whilst Men are here and have still an opportunity of proceeding farther in the enjoyments of forbidden sensual Pleasures long Custom in the way of Sin does so reconcile them to it that they can now follow the same free from their first Heart-smitings and the Rebukes of their own Minds and without being sensible of any Impressions of Shame yet then when they can properly Sin no more but come to answer for their Offences their ill Habits will most of all Gall and severely reproach them so that thorowly awakened with their sensitive Smart to consider how long and securely they have formerly wallowed in their Mire Conscience will be sure to redouble its force and to the full revenge of it self upon them for all their former stifling of it and the Worm that shall never dye gain thereby so many more stings of intollerable Shame and Sorrow Again all false Principles and corrupt Doctrines of Men by the help of which they were here enabled to continue in their Hypocrisy or the Commission of any other Sin without Shame can then have no farther place in their Minds Men shall be no longer able to continue Infidels or Misbelievers But all shall there clearly understand how grosly they have formerly been mistaken and how directly contrary they have acted to their Duty and their Happiness and how easily and certainly they might have seen as much had they not willfully suffered their Eyes to be blinded by the Prejudices of some vile Lust or other or through their most unreasonable admiration of some Idol Teacher of their own setting up and more depending upon his Authority than upon the express plain Word of God to the contrary Farthermore all those Flattering Excuses or Defences by which Dissemblers now endeavour to conceal their Shame and to countenance and encourage one another in the same wicked Courses shall then have an end and be turned only into so many bitter Cursings and mutual Accusations of of each other and of themselves whilst all their Faces shall be covered with most deserved Shame for ever Lastly all those sensual Objects and Delights in the enjoyment of which the fond Hypocrite did so far place his Happiness that as long as he could have the same continued to him he was able to contemn all Shame shall then be far removed and he being made uncapable for ever of any such Pleasure or Enjoyments have nothing else to fill and take up his Mind but the tormenting Consideration of his Sin and Shame and endless Misery To all which let me now only add this following Caution Let not any one as most are to apt to do think of what I have been last discoursing as of things uncertain or at a great distance from them For as the whole World of our Ancestors are long since gone that Journey so there 's no Man amongst us of any considerable Age but has sufficient occasion to consider that most of those with whom he has been acquainted are already gone before him into that World of Spirits and we see others still daily a going thither And as much strangers as we now make our selves to that future State or that to us there 's nothing else keeps us here or detains us from being there also besides a little Breath which we carry in our Nostrils and which will soon expire for ever There 's nothing
so for ought thou knowest before to Morrow So that there is really at this very time nothing betwixt thee and Hell but only the slight Partition of a little thin Breath which ten thousand things may easily obstruct insomuch that 't is a very great Miracle that thou shouldest be able to live at all but nothing strange that thou shouldest cease to do so If thou canst make a shift to lay aside all these thoughts and keep thy self insensible of any such thing for the present and compose thy self to Sleep and Security yet thy danger is really the same whether thou art apprehensive of it or no Nay indeed infinitly greater and more inevitable upon this very account of thy not considering it For thou wilt be shortly forced to consider though too late whether thou wilt or no in that State where Men can continue no more Atheists or Hypocrites and when thou awakest find thy self sur-rounded with Devils and everlasting burnings And now let such hardned Miscreants if they can still find in their Hearts to do so pursue their wonted Course and betake themselves to their only best Argument against this by scornfully laughing for a Moment at all these Matters till woful Experience shall change the Scene with them and sadly convince them of their Folly In the mean tim as for all those who by the Grace of God are for the present far better disposed and qualified as ever they desire to stand fast and still escape the fatal Contagion so let them carefully avoid the Example the Doctrines nay as much as well they can even the company of such double Minded Wretches and desperate Dissemblers Whilst all good Christians will be ready most devoutly to join with me in those Excellent Prayers of our Holy Mother the Church O Almighty God who alone canst order the unruly Wills and Affections of sinful Men Grant unto thy People that they may love the thing which thou Commandest and desire that which thou doest Promise that so among the sundry and manifold Changes of the World our Hearts may surely there be fixed where true Joys are to be found Give us Grace that being not like Children carried away with every blast of vain Doctrine we may be established in the truth of thy Holy Gospel Grant us such Strength and Protection as may support us in all Dangers and carry us through all Temptations Graft in our Hearts the love of thy Name encrease in us true Religion and the most hearty Sincerity therein without which whosoever liveth is counted Dead bofore thee nourish us with all Goodness and of thy great Mercy keep us in the same That thou being our Ruler and Guide we may so pass through things Temporal that we finally lose not the things Eternal Grant this O Heavenly Father for Jesus Christ's sake our only Lord and Saviour Amen FINIS Books of Devotion for this Holy time of LENT A Serious and Pathetical Contemplation of the Mercies of GOD in several most Devout and Sublime Thanksgivings for the same Published by the Reverend Doctor Hicks at the request of a Friend of the Authors The Spiritual Combat Or the Christian Pilgrim Translated from the French Revis'd and Recommended by R. Lucas D. D. The Church of England Man's Private Devotions being a Collection of Prayers out of the Common-prayer Book for Morning Noon and Night and other special Occasions By the Author of the Weeks Preparation to the Sacrament Contemplations on the Love of GOD c. with a Dovou Prayer suitable thereunto Printed for Samuel Reble at the Turks-head in Fleet-street 1699.