is so much the kinder is GOD to give such repeated warning of it and so much the more Inexcusable are Sinners that will not consider it and lay it to Heart 'T is from Ignorance of GOD and how much he is above us that they dare talk so boldly of Divine Justice and Goodness And declare that the Everlasting Punishment of the Wicked is inconsistent with either or both GOD knows better than we what it is to be Just and what is Consistent with his Goodness and Mercy His Word is express and plain concerning the State of Sinners when the Day of Mercy is ended The measure of Punishment with respect to Crimes is not to be taken alway from the Quality and Degree of the Offence much less from the Time and Duration of it but from the Ends and Reasons of Government to deter men from the Breach of the Law The greatest Sins may often be committed in a short space of Time as Murder So that to argue from the Disproportion between Temporary Sins and Eternal Punishment will not conclude against the Justice of GOD. Can we think that God would threaten Sinners with a Punishment he could not inflict without Injustice Cannot GOD be Just and Good and Merciful except he save the Wilful and Disobedient who continue to despise the Offers of his Grace and persist in their Contempt and Rebellion to the very last Hath he not told us how far his Mercy shall reach Thousands of Holy Souls shall know to their Eternal Comfort that GOD is infinitely Good tho' he render Vengeance on them that slighted his Mercy and died without Repentance They had a time of tryal Mercy was offered them They were entreated to accept it GOD waited with much Long-suffering and Patience and often renewed his Calls and Warnings and Invitations to perswade them to flee from Wrath to come But they would not accept his Mercy in time If they plead that the endless Punishment of Sinners doth not answer the proper Ends and Design of Punishment viz. to reform the Sinner or to admonish and warn others against the like Offence It must be considered That this is not all the End and Design of Punishment But that when God hath declared his Will to punish one great End of that Punishment is to vindicate his Honour as Governour of the World that is injured and affronted by the Sins of Men And there 's a great deal of difference between the Ends of Punishment in this Life which very much respect the Community and those in another World And yet even here God as the Governour of the World may vindicate the Rites of his Honour and Soveraignty by inflicting Punishment But in the next Life they who are punished are Obstinate Offenders that would not take warning or be reclaim'd by all the Mercies and Judgments of God either as to others or themselves Moreover supposing the Immortality of the Soul and the remaining Wickedness and Impenitence of Sinners and Death will not change the ill Temper and Disposition of Men's Minds but they that were filthy and unholy will be still so as well as they that were Unrighteous and Unjustify'd A sinful Soul if it be Immortal must needs be unchangeably miserable He will never Repent there is no promise of Mercy to encourage it And therefore if he shall never die he must be miserable for ever And what reason is there to expect that God should Annihilate those that are incurably Wicked especially when he has so expressly declared the contrary Matt. xxv ult and in the same Terms express'd the Duration of the Punishment of the Wicked as the Everlasting Life and Happiness of the Righteous Of the many that sleep in the Dust some shall awake and arise to Everlasting Life and others to Shame and Everlasting Contempt Dan. xii 2. There cannot be Perpetual Shame and Everlasting Contempt without the Everlasting Existence of the Persons How can they continue for ever under Shame and Contempt unless they continue in their Being Let us therefore urge this upon our Minds and Hearts as what we ought to believe and seriously consider and therefore instead of replying against God whose Terrors should make us afraid and whose Truth endures for ever let us think of it in time and put the Questions to our selves we often meet with in the Scripture which can never be answered Who can stand before him when he is angry Can thy Hands be strong or thy Heart endure when he shall execute Vengeance Who can dwell with a Devouring Fire Who can dwell with Everlasting Burnings Can You or You You who have lived in Ease and Pleasure all your Days and by a sharp fit of Pain but for one half Hour would groan as if your Hearts would break could you abide Everlasting Fire An Everlasting Toothach Stone or Cholick or a much less Pain but suppos'd Endless is insupportable what then is Hell However you may ask another Question which blessed be God may be Resolv'd and that is What shall we do to be saved How shall we escape this Intolerable and Everlasting Wrath And this brings me to the Application by Inferences of Truth and Duty First 'T is then obvious that Now or Never is the season to prepare for Eternity seeing both States are unchangeable after Death The Gulf will then be fix'd there is no Possibility for Repentance or hope of Pardon beyond the Grave 't will be in vain to cry with the Foolish Virgins Lord open to us when the Door is shut Now you are encouraged to pray for Mercy earnestly invited and entreated to work out your own Salvation and warn'd of your Danger Now is your time to hearken to good Counsel Many of you have mispent a great part of your Life past you shall not live it over again You are not certain of the Future You may be in an Unchangeable State e're you are aware so that to defer it one Week or Day longer may be your undoing You have now a Promise of Forgiveness if you Repent and the Hopes of God's Grace if you seek it You have yet an Opportunity to make Peace with God This is your accepted time and Day of Salvation The Door of Mercy and of Hope is yet open but e're long it will be shut and your State Immutable Whatever is to be done in Preparation for Eternity must be Now or Never Now quickly or it will be too late now presently and without Delay or it may be too late Is he not a bold Man that will venture to deferr if he believes both States after Death to be Endless and Unchangeable How can he be satisfy'd to live in such a state wherein he is as near to Hell as he is to Death You have reason to be Thankful that when others have been snatch'd away in their Impenitence Others it may be of your Companions and possibly lesser Sinners than you that you are yet spar'd You must think him to be a
the Flames of Hell for a Thousand Years When no Man hath Pleasure for a Hundred Days together without some intervening Trouble or at least a Weariness and Loathing of the Pleasure A Thousand Years is a long while to be in Torment We find a Fever of one and twenty Days to be like an Age in length But what 's that to the Duration of an Intolerable Misery for ever in the Height and for ever Beginning When ten thousand Years shall have spent no part of its Term. The Comparison of this Life with the other of Time with Eternity whether in Happiness or Misery is of so much Moment and Use may serve to so many Excellent Purposes and produce such wise Thoughts and Reflections that I wish we would consider the one and the other more seriously and frequently How little a while we are to abide here and that after Death we must abide for ever in Abraham's Bosom or in Torments with God in Endless Glory or in Everlastinst Fire with the Devil and his Angels Oh think a little how Inconsiderable a thing is the longest Life of Man on Earth compar'd with an Everlasting Duration The Psalmist tells us Psal xxxix 5 6. Thou hast made my Days as an Hands breadth and mine Age my Life my little Time on Earth is as nothing unto thee compar'd with thy Duration which is without Beginning or End Old Jacob when he had pass'd one hundred and thirty Years saith Few and evil are the Days of the Years of the Life of my Pilgrimage What was that to Adam's nine hundred and thirty Years after his Creation in full Strength and Maturity or to Methusaleh's nine hundred and sixty Years But what a Moment is that to the Divine Eternity A thousand Years in thy sight are but as one Day or as Yesterday when it is past Psal xc 5 6. If it had been said ten thousand millions of Years are but as a Minute it had been as true According to this Computation a Thousand Years as one Day suppose a Man had been born above five thousand Years agoe he is in God's sight as one born five Days agoe If the first Man were now alive he would not be six Days old by that Reckoning And by the same Account he that hath liv'd in the World sixty two Years hath liv'd but an Hour and half And he that was born forty Years agoe is but as if he came into the World this present Hour Yea even as a Watch in the Night A thousand Years in God's sight is but as two or three Hours And so threescore Years is but as five or six Minutes But ten thousand millions of Years in Comparison of GOD's ETERNITY are less than one Unite one Minute How awful and useful may it be to make the Comparison between the longest Life and Eternity Upon the whole who would not pray with David that God would teach him to number his Days and value his little Time so as to apply his Heart to Wisdom that he may walk in the way of Life that is above to the Wise Prov. xv 24. and depart from Hell beneath Lastly How unspeakable a Hazard do they run who delay their Repentance especially to the last Hour to a Death-Bed Have they any Assurance they shall not die suddenly but be warned by Sickness How many are dispatch'd to the Grave and Hell in the midst of their Hopes of living to Repent hereafter The true reason of deferring it to hereafter is not because they intend to begin then but because they have no mind to begin now And unless They be then in a better mind than at present which by adding Sin to Sin is unlikely they will be for deferring it still even to their last Sickness But do they know what kind of Sickness their last shall be What if it be not a surprizing Apoplexy yet in a stupid Lethargy or a Raging Fever they will have no Opportunity or Leisure to Repent And if they should they may not apprehend any Danger in their present Sickness as if it would end in Death Or they may not have the Grace which they have so often forfeited to employ that time to so good a Purpose The common pretence is the Example of the Thief on the Cross that he upon a short Prayer found Mercy at last and was promis'd an Admission into Paradise that very Day But think a little how extraordinary that Case was as to the Time of it when our Lord was Dying for Sinners then to give such an Instance of the Royalty of his Grace The like Season can never happen again And there is but this one Instance mention'd in the whole Bible Besides the manifest Proof which he gave of his Conversion as to Repentance Faith in Christ Love to him Charity to his Fellow-Sufferer and the extraordinary Prayer which he made to Christ notwithstanding all manner of Discouragement from what he saw or heard at that time makes his Case to be very different from the ordinary Condition of Men upon a Sick-Bed First As to any thing he saw What was there as to outward Appearance that represented Christ as the Son of God and the King of Glory while he suffered as a Criminal hanging on a Gibbit or a Cross between two Malefactors And in the midst of them as the Chiefest of the three What Relation could this poor Man see between these Sufferings this Ignominy this wretched Death between the Outrages Reproaches Scorns and Curses which he endured and his Glory and Divinity his Power and his Kingdom And yet he owns him for his Saviour tho' under the same Condemnation with himself He sees him nailed to the accursed Tree and yet prays to him as if he were upon a Throne He beholds him suffering a Cruel Death and yet adores him as Lord of Glory Have we found such Faith in Israel or amongst Christians even among those of Christ's own Family who have heard his Heavenly Doctrine and seen his Miracles and had enjoyed Familiar Converse with him Yet they forsook him when he comes to be crucify'd But here 's a poor Penitent who beholds him on the Rack despised by his own Country-men condemned by the Romans and Jews rejected by Men of Learning Credit and Authority and Calumniated and Reviled by a multitude of By-standers Yet owns Him for a King speaks of his Kingdom elsewhere and ventures his Soul on his Power and Grace to make him Blessed after Death tho' he saw him expire and die in his view and before his Eyes O amazing Instance of a Divine Faith when there was so much to be seen at that Time to discourage it But neither the Face of Authority in his Condemnation nor the cry of the Common People for his Crucifixion nor the Scorn of the Chief Priests and Rulers nor the Jeers of his Fellow-Sufferer nor any the least Jealousie of his being unable to save him could stop his Mouth but by a most vigorous Act of
here so much under the Power of secret Infidelity as to say in their Hearts notwithstanding all this I will run the Venture I am not convinc'd there will be such a Glorious Heaven and such a Terrible Hell 'T is true I can't tell what will become of me after Death but I resolve to have as much as I can of the Pleasures and Enjoyments of this Life I hope the Frightfull Story of a Place of Torment is all or most of it Fancy or Prejudice meer Metaphor and Parable or Priestcraft and the Bugbear of the Clergy I hope I shall find it otherwise than Ministers talk I intend to run the Hazard and to make my self easy I 'le not read the Bible or any other such Books as may disturb my Pleasures and disquiet my Mind And to make all sure I 'le stifle and drown all my Fears by hard Drinking Will you do so Dare you resolve to do so Are there any so Besotted and so much forsaken of God I beseech 'em to consider how little a while this Fit of Madness is like to last And that they have no reason to expect after so many Warnings the extraordinary Methods of God's Grace to recover ' em For He that blesseth himself in his heart notwithstanding the Curses denounc'd for Sin saying I shall have Peace tho' I walk in the Imagination of my Heart to add Drunkenness to Thirst The Lord will not spare him but the Anger of the Lord and his Jealousie shall smoke against that Man and all the Curses written in the Book shall lie upon him and the Lord shall blot out his Name from under Heaven O that we may all lay to Heart these great and acknowledg'd Truths of our Holy Religion And frequently and seriously consider the Eternal Blessedness of the Saints and the Everlasting Misery of Sinners What a Change would it make upon all of us if we did indeed believe ' em How should we be afraid of Sin and of the Company and Occasions that would intice us to Sin and afraid of delaying our Repentance for which there is no place after Death How earnestly and speedily should we seek the Favour of God and his Pardoning Mercy and Sanctifying Grace BY JESVS CHRIST the only Saviour of Sinners who alone can deliver us from Wrath to come that he may own and help us at the Hour of Death and absolve us in the Day of Judgment God grant we may all so Believe and Live as to find Mercy of the Lord in that Day Amen FINIS BOOKS Printed for and Sold by John Sprint in Little-Britain SErious Reflections on Time and Eternity and some other Subjects Moral and Divine with an Appendin concerning the first Day of the Year how observed by the Jews and may best be imploy'd by a Serious Christian By John Shower Twelves The Tradesman's Calling being a Discourse concerning the Nature Necessity Choice c. of a Calling in General and Directions for the right managing of the Tradesman's Calling By Richard Steel M. A. and Minister of the Gospel 2d Edition Man's Sinfulness and Misery by Nature Asserted and Opened in several Sermons on Ephesians 2. Ver. 1 2 3. designed chiefly for the Unconverted Whereunto is added a Disputation concerning the Headship of Adam and Christ and the Imputation of the Sin of the One and the Righteousness of the Other By John England Minister of the Gospel at Sherborne in Dorsetshire 8vo The History of the Old and New-Testament Translated from the French with above 200 Copper Cuts in Quarto Recommended by Dr. Hernick and other Orthodox Divines A Treatise of the Corruption of Scripture Councils and Fathers by Prelates Pastors and Pillars of the Church of Rome Maintainers of Popery By Thomas James Student in Divinity In Octavo M. T. Ciceronis Orationes quaedam selectae cum interpret Notis in Usum Serenissimi Delphini Huic Editioni accesserunt Dialogi de Senectute de Amicitia 8vo D. Junii Juvenalis A. Persii Flacci Satyrae Interpretatione ac Notis Illustravit Ludovicus Bateus Rhetoricae Professor emeritus Jussu Christianissimi Regis in usum serenissimi Delphini Octavo The Works of Mr. John Cleveland Containing his Poems Orations and Epistles Also the Rustick Rampant or Rural Anarchy affronting Monarchy in the Insurrection of Wat. Tyler Collected into one Volume with the Life of the Author In Octavo The Illiads and Odysses of Homer Translated out of Greek into English By Thomas Hebbes of Malmsbury Also the Life of Homer The Third Edition In Twelves Fidelis Achates Or an Historical Account of the most Remarkable Actions in the late Reigns and the Present Revolution in Heroiok Verse In Octavo