God crown us here with the blessings of his left hand the comforts of this life and length of years yea though all things favour our longer continuance in this world yet in the end time and age will ruine us We shall bring our years to an end like a tale that is told and shall vanish away like a shadow Though we live many years and in them all we rejoice yet in the end we shall remember the daies of darknesse saith Solomon and the time shall come that the eye which saw us shall see us no more * Soles occidere redire possunt nobis cum occidet semel brevis lux nox est perpetuò una dormienda Cat. The sunne sets and riseth again but we alas when our glasse is runne and the short gleam of our summers day is spent shall never return till our last summons when the dead shall hear the voice of the Sonne of God and they that heare it shall live and come forth of their graves they that have done good to the resurrection of life and they that have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation both to Eternity and then shall follow that large day that shall never shut in that infinite continuation of time that shall never end that unlimited Eternity which ever hath been and is and will be the same for ever when the Sunne shall no more yeeld her light by day nor the Moon her brightnesse by night but God shall be our light and the Lord our glory But oh the unhappy condition of our age who is there that ponders these things with a digested meditation that looks into the state of his soul with a serious eye and considereth his wayes That endeavours to lay a good foundation for the time to come we stand at the door of Eternity and while we live we are every day entring into it it s but a stroak of death and we are gon even in a moment and whither from our short and fading delights to an endlesse easelesse gulfe where our worme shall never die nor our fire shall never out Now let all those who swim in the streams of their voluptuousnesse putting far from them the evil day who labour to expell from their hearts and to stifle in the bud the sad consideration of their approaching infelicities let them I say know that they may fall into this vast gulf of Eternity when they least suspect it into which when once they have unhappily plunged themselves they may desire redemption but shall not finde it * Postquam istinc excessum fuerit nullus poenitentiae locus nullus satisfactionis effectus Cyp It shall be one of their torments to know they shall never be out of torment All the gold of Ophir cannot purchase them one minute of relief from their unexpressible miseries But now even now is the jubile now is the accepted time now is the promulgation of pardon there remains nothing for our parts but to sue it forth we need not many hundred of years or number of dayes to redeem our mispent time and to wash out our contracted pollutions no one day will through Gods gracious favour and loving indulgence procure more mercy here then Eternity of time can obtain hereafter one sigh from a true sorrowfull heart here shall prevail to discharge more debts then infinite ages shall acquit or satisfie for hereafter Here God with patience expects our repentance but if we abuse his forbearance and come not in hereafter with trembling we shall abide his judgement Let us therefore be wise in time remember our Creatour in the dayes of our youth before the evil daies come and the years approach wherein we shall say we have no pleasure in them before our dust returne into the wombe from whence it came and our lungs be locked up into the breathles earth before that black and gloomy day the day of death and dissolution appeare to us the which if our timely repentance here prevent not our doom will seal up our souls to eternall darknesse Let us consider that wheresoever we are whatsoever we goe about Immanifestuâ— omnia autem manifestans per omnia apparet in omâ—ibus we stand every minute of our time in the glorious presence of an * incomprehensible majestie whose bright and most piercing eye is ten thousand times clearer then the Sunne who knows all hearts sees all actions understands all counsells views all persons there 's not a word in the tongue not a thought in the heart not a spark of lust in the flesh though never so softly blown and secretly kindled but he beholds it altogether he is all ear to hear all hand to punish and when and where he please all power to protect and all grace to pardon he that findes not his mercy shall feel his fury and who amongst us can dwell with devouring fire who amongst us can dwell with everlasting burnings CHAP. III. Expressing how all men doe naturally beleeve this Eternity VVIthin these hundred years many nations have been discovered and many are discovered still which were unfound in former ages Amongst them some have been found to live without law without King but yet none without some knowledge of God and of some everlasting being in the world to come What moved the Brackmans in India and the Magies amongst the Persians to begin and end their undertakings with prayers to God What moved Publius Scipio never to enter into the Senate house before he had ascended the Capitol avowing that principle as constantly in his practice as he did in his knowledge A Jove principium What made Caligula which threatned the aire if it rained on his game-plaies yet to runne under his bed and wrapp his cap about his head at a clap of thunder What moved Attillius Regulus who had no other teacher then a naturall illumination to preferre the obligation of his oath before the safety of his life and rather then he would break his ingaged word and promise to the Carthaginians expose himself to all the torments that the cruelty and malice of his enemies could inflict upon him What moved the Saguntines a people of Arragon to that undaunted resolution of theirs who having plighted their faith and loyalty by solemn oath to the Romans chose rather to entomb themselves voluntarily in a fire which they made in their Market place then to break their faith to the said Romans which they had so solemnly swore and sacredly avowed under their protection what I say could move these meer naturalists to such a fear of an oath to such a trembling at Gods judgements to such austerity and care and censorious circumspection in all their waies and actions but that they naturally apprehended what they truly and distinctly understood not viz. Some immortall happinesse and everlasting being and this they conceived was beyond the mountaines or above them or in some other world they knew not where according as their severall fancies led
our severall places and callings indeavour the extirpation of Heresy Scisme and whatsoever should be found contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of Godlines Yet notwithstanding this deep ingagement on our souls How many fearfull errors what unheard of fancies do uncontrollably abound in every corner of the land Doth not every man act what seems good in his own eyes Is not every wanton we impunitively suffered to make an idoll of his own way and to draw Disciples after him Me thinks its worthy our most serious thoughts how sadly how compassionately the reformed Churches do resent our home distractions See what the Walachrian Churches have writ to our Reverend Assembly of Divines upon this occasion Judicent conscientientiae vestrae quomodo omnium Heresium genus inultum permitti multiplicia schismatum sem ina impunè spargi prophana errorum dogmata passim in vulgus proferri possint in illa civitate quae tam expresso sancto severo juramento sese coram Deo devinxit ad omnes errores heresesschismata de domo Dei ejicienda * Let your own consciences judge say they hâ—â— Heresies of all kindes can passe unpunished manifold seeds of Schisme be spread without controll and prophane Doctrines of errors be commonly vented in publike in that City which by so expresse so sacred so severe an Oath hath bound it self in the presence of God to cast out all Heresies Errors Schismes out of the house of God Hence ye may observe how loud a peal our Church divisions ring thorow out the world Our friends pity us our foes deride us and neuters stand amazed at our doings and certainly God is not pleased with our wayes For God is the God of order and not of confusion the God of peace not of division In vain it is to expect any happy or peacefull dayes or that we shall see a well grounded settlement in Church and state so long as turbulent spirits have so much line and latitude to their fancies And surely it is now high time it is high time for us all in our severall places since we stand every day hovering between time and eternity to minde our sacred vowes and to lay our solemn Covenants closely to our hearts and ask our consciences how faithfully we have performed them especially in the particular wherein we now insist Errors in opinion are of as dangerous consequence as errors in practice and therefore happy would it be for the kingdome if they that move in the highest Sphears would all come in as with one shoulder and make it the chiefest businesse of their souls that the Lord may be one and his name one through the Kingdome Now if you tell me I here digresse from the point in hand I readily grant it for these distracted times have amazed me and obstructed me in my way But now I return You see the dismall fruits of sinne what destruction it hath wrought in all the earth what havock in our State what confusion in the Church what rentings of affections in the hearts of men Oh that we did seriously consider of and soundly digest the meditation of these things For had we but hearts to understand and eyes to see the deformity of our sinnes and did unpartially compare the stain and pollution of them with the purenesse of Gods nature and the brightnes of his Majesty how should we be confounded in our souls with the sight of our own filthinesse How ready should we be rather to admire Gods patience then question his severity How should we tremble at his glorious Majesty and dread his power and justly fear what we have worthily deserved his everlasting judgement but if now on the other side we advisedly look into Gods gracious proceedings towards us and his loving indulgence in restraining his incensed displeasure notwithstanding our infinite provocations and in shewing us a way to escape his fury I know not whether we shall finde greater cause to vindicate his justice or admire his mercy For true it is as saith Saint Augustine Deus adeo bonus est ut malum nunquam sincret nisi adeo potens suiflet ut ex malo bonum eliceret Aug. So good is our God that he would never have suffer'd us to fal had not his power been such that he could extract matter out of our sinfulnes to advance his own glory Oh how unsearchable how bottomlesse how surpassing the apprehension of men and Angels is the love of God towards us whither can we goe which way can we cast our eyes where we shall not behold the admirable foot-steps of his mercy If we look upward his mercy reacheth unto the Heavens saith David If downward they that goe down into the deep see the wonders of God saith the same Prophet and his mercies in the great waters If round about us those that put their trust in the Lord mercy embraceth them on every side And hence it is that the Apostle Saint Paul to the Ephesians so diversly amplifies the love of God in severall places of that Epistle by sundry appellations or epithetes as his love his great love his abundant love his love passing knowledge again the riches of his glory the riches of his grace the riches of his mercy God who is mercifull saith the Apostle who is rich in mercy through his love his great love even when we were dead by sinnes hath quickned us together in Christ Ephes 2.4 The Apostle also in the same Epistle and first chapter expresseth the Lord great in his power abundant in his wisdom but rich exceeding rich in his mercy And why rich in mercy only Is not the Lord rich in Angels rich in the Saints rich in the Heavens Hath he not created the Clouds founded the Seas wisely composed the whole frame of nature And is he yet rich only in mercy True it is the earth is the Lords and the fulnesse thereof all that we have all that we are is his but his mercy hath an excellency in it above all his creatures yea If I may so speak obove all his attributes above his Justice Mercy saith the Apostle rejoyceth against condemnation Above his power Jacob wrestled with God and overcame him above his greatnes for such was the unexpressible condiscention of the Almighty that although he were high and excellent and inhabited eternity yet did he humble himself to behold things done in Heaven earth for there is nothing doth more illustrate Gods omnipotency then his mercy It was no marvail that God should make the Heavens because he is power it self or that he should frame the earth because he is strength it self or that he should govern the times because he is wisdom it self or that he should give breath to all creatures because he is life it self But herein chiefly is God to be magnified that he who is infinitely just should yet be mercifull to sinners yea to sinners while they wallow in their blood while they rest in sinnes while they
would thy reward be not flocks of cattell not the daughters of Laban but God himself would be thy exceeding great reward thy life and happines He would be unto thee every thing that thy heart can desire or long for Thy soul should flowe and even melt in abundance of spirituall delights But now take a little view of thine own vilenes thy own nakednes thy utter disability to any thing that may be truly called good Thy hands are feeble to Gods work thy feet are slow to Gods temple thine eyes are seared or shut up towards heaven But for the works of flesh and Satan thy heart is hot to envy thy minde prone to revenge thy tongue voluble to blaspheme thy affections even glued and incorporated as it were into sensuall embracements And is this to serve God for Heaven shall the blessednesse of the Saints and the glory of Angels and the joy and fruition of God himself be powred out upon such works as these Dost thou thus requite thy maker O consider consider I say thy waies in time labour to serve God as Iacob did labour to approve thy self as faithfull to God as Iacob was to his uncle Laban And if the weight of the labour discourage thee or adversity oppresse thee or prosperity seduce thee then lift up thine eyes to heaven as Iacob did to his Rachel Let heaven be thy love thy spouse the delight of thine eyes the joy of thy heart Behold thy Rachel is fair and lovely Heaven is both beautifull and glorious Let thy desires goe before whither thou meanest to hasten after suffer for a season thy light affliction having an eye to the recompence of reward yet and but a little while and thou shalt approach the haven where thou shalt enjoy so much the more happines Eo dirigendus est spiritus quo aliquando est iturus by how much the deeper thou hast drunk in sorrow and by how much the more ardent thy affections have been towards God in this life the more abundant shall thy reward be in the life to come then shall thy crosses prove thy gains and that well-spring of joy which shall ever rise in thy heart shall swallow up all thy sorrows CHAP. II. Shewing that there is no other way nor possible means to attain to the true eternity but by a confident affiance upon the merey of God in Christ SUch and so deplorable is the condition of every man considered in his corrupted and degenerated state that albeit he be able by that small spark of naturall illumination which is left in his minde to see as in a glasse darkly and obscurely an eternity to come yet is he utterly ignorant of the true way thereunto neither hath he any possibility in nature to finde it out He is in no better state then the poor creeple at the pool of Bethesda who saw the waters that could heal him before his eyes but found no means to help him into them For that sound and perfect knowledge of the true way which man was adorned with in his first creation is wholly lost and extinguished in him he is now a meer stranger from the life of God Ephes 4.18 dead in trespasses and sinnes Ephes 1.2 reprobate to every good work Tit. 1.16 his very minde is defiled Tit. 1.15 his wisdom is death Rom. 8.6 * Nemo aliunde Deo placet nisi ex eo quod ipse dona verit He is no more able of himself to leade a holy life acceptable to God then a dead man is to perform the actions of one that is alive Being thus disrobed of all spirituall endowments and saving grace how shall he attain to that joyfull Eternity which his soul as I have said may long for but can no way reach Certainly there is no light to lead him but that * Si Christum habes aeternitatem per Christum in te habes Alst light of the world no way for him to take to but that new and living way even him who hath stiled himself the way the truth and the life no rock to cleave to but this strong foundation no name under Heaven to be saved by but this even this alone Iesus Christ yesterday and to day and the same for ever He and he alone is the onely sure effectuall infallible means of our salvation He alone is the true High Priest who was once offered to take away sinnes and after that entered into the true sanctuary the very Heaven to appear in the fight of God for us where he is able perfectly to save them which come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them Heb. 7.26 He alone is the ground of our hope the crown of our glory and the strength of our confidence * Oculum tuum Domine non excludit cor clausum nec manum tuam repellit duritia homi num Aug. It 's he alone who by the sweet influence of his grace and by the secret working of his spirit can when he will and doth when he please subdue and bring under the most obdurate gainsaying and rebellious heart to a cheerfull willing and ready obedience to his heavenly will O the infinite and inexpressible tendernesse of our loving Saviour to wards us When we like sheep had gon astray his mercy reduced us When we lay wallowing in our blood his pity refresht us When we were dead in our sins his death did revive us and here we may truly say with David his mercy reacheth to the Heavens From the Heavens came the price of our redemption We were not neither could we be redeemed by the blood of bulls and goats by thousands of rivers of oyl by the cattle that are upon a thousand mountains It was not the treasures of the world the power of men or Angels could purchase this freedom nothing could cleanse us but the blood of the Lamb He was that fountain opened for sin and for uncleannesse He was that Sonne of righteousnes that came with healing in his wings His were the wounds that healed our sores his was the back that bare our sorrows his was the price that quit our scores he assumed our flesh to redeem us here and he reigns as a king to crown us hereafter Now what remains after all this to be done on our parts Let us rest on this Anchor let us flee to this hold and build on this foundation For no other foundation can any man lay then that which is laid Iesus Christ Let us cast our souls into the arms of our Saviour In brachijs Salvatoris mei vivere vole mori eupio saith S. Bernard O let this be our desire Now the gate is open let us not deferre the time of entrance Now is the acceptable time let us not procrastinate the season Now he offers his mercy he shews his long sufferance let us not turn his grace into wantonnesse let us follow the counsell of the sonne of Sirach Eccles the 5.
Make no long tarrying to turn to the Lord and put not off from day to day For suddainly shall the wrath of the Lord break forth and in thy security thou shalt be destroyed and thou shalt perish in time of vengeance But alas farre otherwise it is with us in our practice * Magna pars vitae elabitur male agentibus maxima nihil agētibus tota aliud agentibus A great portion of our time is crumbled away in doing ill a greater part in doing nothing and our whole life in doing that which we should not or in matters as we say upon the by And as Archimedes was secure and busy about drawing lines on the ground when Syracuse was taken so is it with us Now that our eternall safety lyes at stake we lye puzling in our dust I mean in our worldly negotiations But for our eternity shortly approaching we seldom or rarely think of it We are like Martha trouble about many things when one thing is necessary But this one thing is that which of all other things is least regarded and in the last place We seldom seek heaven till death doth summon us to leave the earth we have many evasions to gull our own hearts many excuses to procrastinate our repentance like Dionysius the Sicilian king who to excuse himself for the present delivery of the golden garment which he took from his god Apollo answered that such a robe as that was could not be at any season of the year usefull to his god it would not keep him warm in the winter and it was too heavy for the summer So many there be saith S. Ambrose who play with God and with their own soul You must not say they seek for the vigour and life of Religion in the hearts of young men For youth as the proverb is must have his swinge neither can you expect it in the company of the aged for their age and those distempers which accompany it make them a burden to themselves and dulls the edge of their intentions unto all their serious undertakings Thus both the summer and the winter of our age are unfit for Gods service But let us not thus cheat ourselves If God be God let us follow him let us not put off the day of reconciliation and say in our hearts To morrow we will do it when yet we cannot tell vvhat shall be to morrovv for vvhat is our life It is even a vapour that appears for a little time and afterwards vanisheth away Hence it was that Macedonius being invited a day before to a feast replyed to the messenger Why doth thy Master invite me for to morrow whereas for this many years I have not promised to my self one daies life Nemo mortem satis cavet nisi qui semper cavet No man dreads death as he ought but he that alwaies expects his summons and therefore we may truly judge such men wofully secure and wilfull contemners of the future good who can go to their beds and rest on their pillows in the apprehension of their known sins without a particular humiliation for them For how oft doth a sudden and unexpected death arrest men We see and know in our daily experience many lay themselves to sleep in health and safety yet are they found dead in the morning Thus suddenly are they rapt from their quiet repose to their irrecoverable judgement perchance from their feathers to flames of fire such is the frail condition of our brittle lives vvithin the small particle of an hour live and sicken and die yet so grosse is our blindnesse that from one day to another nay from one yeer to another we triflingly put off the reformation of our lives untill our last hour creepes on us unlookt for and dragges us to eternitie Saint Augustine striving with all his endeavours against the backwardnes and slownes of his own heart to turne to the Lord bitterly complained within himself Quamdiu quamdiu cras cras Quare non hâc horâ finis turpitudinis meae How long saith he ô how long shall I delude my soule with to morrows repentance Why should not this hour terminate my sinfulnesse We are every minute at the brink of death every hour that we passe thorow might prove for ought we know the evening of our whole life and the very close of our mortalitie Now if it should please God to take away our souls from us this night as suddenly falls out to some what would then become of us In what Eternitie should we be found Whether amongst the damned or the blessed Happie were it for us if we were but as carefull for the welfare of our souls as we are curious for the adorning of our bodies if our clothes or faces do contract any blot or soiling we presently endeavour to cleanse the same But though our souls lie inthralled in the pollutions of sin this alas we feel not it neither provokes us to shame nor moves us to sorrow Wherfore let us look into our hearts with a severer eye Let the shortnesse of our dayes stir us up to theamendment of our sinful lives and let the hour wherein we have sinned be the beginning of our reformation according to that of Saint Ambrose Agenda est paenitentia nō solum sollicirè verumetiam maturè Our repentance must be not onely sincere but timely also whilest we have the light let us walk as children of the light Let us not any longer cheat our souls in studying to invent evasions or pretences for our sins but rather lay open our sores and seek to the true Physician that can heal them All the creatures under the sun do naturally intend their own preservation and desire that happinesse which is agreeable to their nature onely man is negligent and impiously carelesse of his own welfare We see the Hart when he is striken and wounded looks speedily for a certain herb well known unto him by a kinde of naturall instinct when he hath found it applies it to the wound The swallow when her young ones are blinde knowes how to procure them their sight by the use of her Celandine But we alas are wounded yet seek for no remedy we go customarily to our beds to our tables to our good company but who is he that observes his constant course of praier of repentance of hearty and sincere humiliation for his sins We go forward still in our old way and jogge on in the same rode Though our judgement hasten hell threaten death stand ar the door yet we thrust onward still in dulcem declinanamus lumina somnum But alas miserable souls as we are can we embrace quiet rests and uninterrupted sleeps with such wounded consciences Can we be so secure being so near our ruine But you will say we have passed already many nights without danger no sicknesse in the night hath befalne us hitherto why then should any fear of death amaze or trouble us Admit
* Coelum venale est nec multum exaestues propter pretij magnitudine 〈◊〉 te ipsum da habebis illud Aug. let sorrows oppresse my minde Bone Jesu qui par cendo sae prus nos à te abijcis feriendo effice ut ad te redeamus Ger. med let pains consume my flesh let watchings dry me or heat scorch me or cold freeze and contract me let all these and what can come more happen unto me to I may enjoy my Saviour For how excellent shall the glory of the just be how great their joy when every face shall shine as the sun when our Saviour shall martiall the Saints in their distinct orders and shall render to every one according to his works O were thy affections rightly setled on these heavenly mansions how abject and underneath thee wouldest thou esteem those things which before thou setst an high price upon As he which ascends an high mountain when he cometh to the top thereof findes the middle steps low and beneath him which seemed to be high to him while he stood in the bottom so he which sends his thoughts to heaven however he esteemed of the vanishing pleasures of the world when his heart lay groveling on the earth below now in this his transcendency he sees them under him and vilisies them all in regard of heavenly treasures Let us therefore chearfully follow that advice of a reverend Father * Quod aliquando per necessitatem amittenduÌ„ est pro aeterna remuneratione sponte est distribuendum Let us here willingly part with that for heaven which we must first or last necessarily leave upon earth and let all the strength of our studies and the very height of our endeavours be dispended for the attainment of Eternitie For certaine it is howsoever we live here like secure people of a secure age and however we waste out the strength and flower of our dayes as if we should never account for it yet our judgement is most sure and shall not be avoided The sentence of the Judge will be one day most assuredly published and shall not be revoked We must all appear saith Saint Paul before the judgement seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad Then shall our wickednesse be brought to light which now lies hid in darknes I saw the dead saith Saint Iohn Revel 20.12 both great and small stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged of those things which were written in the books according to their works and whosoever was not found witten in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire Thus it is evident every man shall give up his account every soul shall first or last come to his reckoning Multorum vocatio paucorum electio omnium retributio Many are called few chosen but all rewarded according to their deeds Oh then let us prepare our selves to meet our God let us come before him with fear and tremble at his judgements Fear not him saith our Saviour who when he hath killed the body can do no more but fear him who can cast both soul and body to hell I say him fear Oh hovv many of the Saints of God trembled and quaked when they have meditated upon the last judgement Hierom saith as oft as I think of that day how doth my whole body quake and my heart vvithin me tremble Cyril saith I am afraid of hell because the worme there dies not and the fire never goeth out I horribly tremble saith Bernard at the teeth * A dentibus bestiae infernalis contremisâ— quis dabit oculis meis fontem lachrymarum ut prç eniam fletibus fletuÌ„ stridorem dentium of that infernall beast Who will give to mine eyes saith he a fountain of tears that by my weeping here I may prevent vveping and gnashing of teeth hereafter And have the Saints of God thus shrunk at the thoughts of hell hovv should then the loyns of the vvicked quake and tremble Come novv thou prophane vvretch of a prophane age vvho at every vvord almost that drops from thy irreligious mouth speakest damnation to thy soul bealching out ever and anon these or the like execrable speeches Would I were damned if I knew this or that God damne me body and soul if I doe it not Alas alas seemeth it a light thing in thine eyes to play with flames to sport thy self with everlasting burnings Tell mee dost thou know or diddest thou ever cast it in thy thoughts what a condition it is to be damned Hear a little and tremble Thou shalt there to thy greater horrour and amazement see much joy but never feel it for thou shalt see Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdome of God thou thy self thrust out Luke 6.13.28 As touching thy company Though here on earth thou wouldest not perchance be hired to lodge one night in a house haunted with spirits yet there thou must inhabite with unclean divels for evermore Matth. 25.41 And to conclude in this thy cursed estate thy heart and tongue shall be full of cursings and blasphemies Thou shalt blaspheme the God of heaven for thy pains and sores thou shalt curse those that were the means to bring thee thither curse the time that ever thou lost so many goldeÌ„ opportunities of getting grace that thou hast heard so many sermons and no whit bettered by them Curse thy self that slightest so many wholsom reproofs which might have happily been improved to the saving of thy soul Say now desperate fearles sinner canst thou be content in the apprehension of these miseries to curse thy self again to the nethermost of hell or on the contrary dost thou now begin to be ashamed and confounded in thy self and is thy conscience affrighted with the ugly face of thy sins and of those bitter torments that abide them Know then thou hast to deal with a God who when thou art truly moved for thy sins an mourn for thy sufferings Jer. 31.20 Thou hast to deal with a God who will meet thee when thou approachest to him if thou worke righteousnes and remember him in his way Isa 64.5 Thou hast to deal with a God who doth account it his strange work to punish Isa 28.21 And he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men Lam. 3.33 Yea thou hast to deal with a God who hath graciously proclaimed to the whole world that he delights to shew mercy yea with his whole heart and with his whole soul Jer. 32.41 Oh then be wise now for thy soul in time and think it a mercy that thou art yet on this side hell And whatever thou judgest thy self worthy to be condemned for at that terrible barre condemn thy self for it before hand that the Lord may say I will not judge this man because he hath judged himself already And be assured where mans conversion begins there Gods displeasure makes its period Excellent is that advice of Saint Gregory weigh saith he and consider the errours of thy life while thy time serves Tremble at that strict judgement to come while thou hast health lest thou hear that bitter sentence Goe ye cursed goe forth against thee when it is too late Did man know what time he should leave the world carnall wisdom would prompt him to proportion his time some to pleasure and some to repentance But he that hath promised pardon to the penitent hath not assured the sinner of an houres life Culpam tuâ—m duÌ„ vacat peÌ„sa districtioneÌ„ su uâ— judicij duÌ„ vâ—les exhorresce ne tunc amaram sententianâ—â—â—udias cum nul lis fletibâ— evadas Since therefore we can neither prevent nor foresee death let us alwaies expect it and provide for it Let us dye to our sinnes here that we may live to Christ hereafter and let us suffer with Christ in this world that we may rejoyce and raign with him in the world to come When we depart this life we goe to an eternity to an eternity I say which shall never end never never me thinks this word never hath a mountanious weight in it to an eternity which maketh every good action infinitely better and every evill action infinitely worse Oh the unhappines everlasting woe of those men who preferre the small and trifling things of this life before the eternall weight of glory hereafter who to enjoy the short comfort of a miserable life here are content to lose the presence of God and society of Angels for ever hereafter FINIS