III. Gods mercy to the greatest sinners an argument against despair THE mercies of our Lord so infinitely exceed our transgressions that meditating on them they cannot but greatly consolate our drooping spirits and arme us with courage against those temptations we ought strongly to resist lest they overcome our trust and confidence in God I mean those stupid apprehensions of the unpardonable immensity of our own guilt as if God were not able to forgive us our sins being so great and so many that to our imaginations they exceed the saving promises of his mercy Oh let us take heed of such desperate perswasions as these oh let us be careful that such thoughts as these do not quash and annihilate our hopes let not the Devill delude us with an opinion that our Lord is mercifull indeed but extends that goodnesse onely to small offenders to those onely who have provok'd him but with a few and those small faults For suppose a man justly branded with all the markes of those infamies and shames which are due to the greatest reprobates One who had committed all those wicked acts which most certainly unrepented fail not to shut the gates of Heaven against them who transgresse so highly in them And withall we must grant this person to be no stranger to the truth but to have been one of Christs Church Whatsoever was the cause of his fall Whatsoever the inveterate malice of the Tempter had chang'd him to be either whoremaster or adulterer nay perhaps Sodomite Were he theef drunkard or common calumniator one who had hug'd all these sinns with appetite and delight nay had made it his serious study to contrive his ends and hellish satisfaction in them For my part I would not be Author of despair to such a wretch as this no though he had continued in them many years For it is impious blasphemy to reflect upon the anger of God as if he were therefore displeas'd that we might be hardned for then wee justly should relinquish our hopes if we were assur'd the flames of his wrath set on â—â—â—e by so many sinns were not to be extinguish'd with the tears of true repentance But wee must look with more believing eyes on his mercy and admire the excellency of his justice and his clemency who in his punishments is quite free from passions and perturbations And any one but willfully blind offenders may plainly see that our Lord has no delight or contentment in his revenge but takes exceeding pleasure in his love and tenderness which is infinitely intent on our good Be thou therefore of good courage confidently and undauntedly rely upon the hopes of thy restauration to grace and happinesse in spite of all the machinations of the Devill Let him not deceive thee and possesse thee with so horrid an opinion as that God should at all delight in the punishment of sinners For he is a most indulgent Father carefully fond of us and directing all his actions towards us for our good even in the depth of our malice against him unwiling is he and loath to see the encrease of our perversenesse But of his owne Fatherly compassion keeps us off from contemning and despising his mercy If any one voluntarily of his own free motion forsakes the light who can accuse the light for that mans darknesse does not he want the benefit of that light through his own folly and willfullnesse So he that disdains submissively to adhere to the omnipotent power of God and to live in the light of grace which illuminates all true believers suffers not by the goodnesse of that power which is the originall Fountain of all blessings but the unrulinesse of of his own rashnesse and stupidity which so willfully brought him into his own ruin and destruction Our mercifull God sometimes lets us see the rod to frighten us but draws it back and puts it up again that his children may be sensible of his aversnesse to revenge and of his infinite propensity to allure and attract them to himself So a discreet Physitian afflicts not or troubles himself at the raging distempers of a man frantick but is himself the patient when he workes the cure He treats him gently he courts him into his own health and though the mad man fly in his very face hee uses meeknesse with art and skill and unmov'd endeavours to palliate the violence of his disease though perhaps he be justly enough incens'd to leave off the cure And as the distemper'd man recovers his senses the Physitian encreases his joy and prosecutes his intended cure having never return'd peevishnesse for fury but laying aside all self-respect applyed himself wholly to the good of the lunatick So our Lord when we arrive at the extreamest madnesse and rage in sinning takes no revenge of us even in the height of that fury but like our carefull Physitian most charitably applyes his mercies which are his medicines to cure our madnesse not any thing reflecting on those wild passions we provoke him with This is a truth to be justified by the testimonies of all right minded Christians who daily find the effects of his clemency and the records of holy writ are full of examples teaching us the verity of it CHAP. IV. The example of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon a coherence to the preceding Chapter WAs there ever any one so great a Monster as Nebuchadnezzar that King of the Babylonians And yet I beleeve the records of all ages cannot produce the man to whom God reveal'd himselfe more apparently both in his power and his mercies Observe his story how at first he honors the Prophet of the Lord even to the adoring him commanding sacrifice to be offer'd to him as God Then see how at last he returnes to his owne old pride which puffs him up to believe that he his self is the God to be only worshipp'd and who exalts not him above God is cast into the fiery Furnace Behold the infinite mercie and love of our Lord who forsakes not this strange beast for such was he rather to be esteemed then a man But still followes and pursues him with his favours in his most irrationall rebellions calls him back with profers of grace and loving invitations to repentance First shewing him his omnipotency by the miracle in the fiery Furnace then by the strange vision which the King saw and Daniel interpreted Wonders able to move a Rock could not mollifie his harder soul To these the Prophet joynes his pathetick counsell Wherefore O King let my counsell be acceptable unto thee and redeem thy sins by righteousnesse and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor if it may be a lengthning of thy tranquillity Dan. 27. What saist thou thou opinator of thy owne wisdome and happinesse Canst thou return yet canst thou repent after this thy strange fall Is thy diseast so desperate thou darest not hope for a recovery Can no wisdome regulate the passions of a mind so troubled The dumb-struck King
lay hold on mercy while we may Let us now acknowledge our Lord humbly faithfully and sincerely as we ought For while there is life there is hope by repentance and the benefits that never faile to accompany it are ready for us it is a physick for the sickest languishing soul nay a most sure remedy but it calls not the dead back again it is a salve cannot be applyed to their wounds who suffer in Hell where there is no cure from whence there is no redemption though in this World the last and weakest of our daies render us not so desperately ill but this Soveraign balme may cure us Wherefore the Devill uses all his power and subtlety to plant desperate apprehensions in our soules seeing the mercies of our Lord are free and open to the least repentance that is hearty and never let 's it passe unrewarded As he expresses his propensity to charity in the Gospell Even hee that gives a cup of cold water to one of these in my name shall not lose his reward saith Christ Mat. 10. 42. the same Christ's promise is that he who repents him of the sins he has committed though his repentance be infinitely beneath the merit of retribution the mercies of our Lord will find him out for the least good in us though never so small the benignity and compassion of so mercifull a Father will not neglect He who searches our sins with that severe curiosity that our very words and thoughts shall be arraign'd at the day of judgement much more carefully search and look upon the least good we do So infinitely his mercy and love to mankind exceeds his revenge He is a God of so great mercy as he will remember his bounty to the least good in us as well as his severity to the least ill Wherefore if thou findest thy strength so to flagge and faile thee when thou attempts an enterprize so difficile to our naturall corruption as is a reall repentance which is the totall change of our inclinations and deprav'd appetites yet do not faint in thy undertakings and weakly fall from trusting in the promises of a God that will never forsake thee but begin by degrees to stoppe the superfluous humors of this disease which so debilitates and infeebles thee then art thou ready for this spirituall combate the victory will soon follow when thou hast once valiantly resisted the fury of the assault But if like a coward thou dreadst the first appearance of the Enemy it is no wonder if every thing seem difficult and hopelesse to thee Before attempts and tryalls the most feasable and facile things that oppose may possibly look full of danger and horror which once resolutely attempted our confidence and our courage of our banisht fear and stupid weaknesse will assure us of those victorious wreaths which are prepar'd to incircle the Temples of all true Christian souldiers The Devill himselfe was fearfull to lose his Conquest even over Judas himself he keeps him down with despair knowing that repentance and contrition might have turn'd the day for that lost wretch For it is truth and it must be confest though it almost exceed belief that sin of Judas went not beyond the possibility of pardon could he but have repented Wherefore I pray and beseech thee to drive away and expell all these deceits of the Devill from thy soul that thou maist enter this Port of salvation I expect not at an instant that perswasions can give thee leave to think thy self so soon lifted up out of the pit of destruction to the possession of a Crown of glory it were too much presently to believe as thy condition hath made thee though to God nothing be impossible Therefore all that I desire of thee is to stop here and adde no more to thy former transgressions that thou wouldst turn thy eyes another way and not let them rest fixt on the dotage of thy beastlinesse to let us see that thou hast gone in those crooked meanders have quite tyred thee and thou beginst to be refresht and recover thy strength in better paths and art thou thy own hindrance Doest thou not know that many have dyed in their drunkennesse their lusts and other sinfull deluâ—sions of this age Where are some now who lately trac'd the streets in pride who fed their parasites with dainties and cloath'd themselves with the finest silkes they that presum'd the walkes they went in what is become of all this pomp and pride is it not vanish'd is it not past over like a dreame Their costly feasts their jollities their compleasing mirths and laughings had their period and are now no more their vanities their uncheckt thoughts and uncontrould liberties their delicious and insatiable luxuries are all fled What are become of those pamper'd bodies so studiously observ'd and fed so lusciously Pray look into the grave Contemplate on their dust and ashes on the wormes devour'd them the deformity of their charnell houses then sigh and bewaile that folly which took so great a care to preserve so litle a nothing And would to God this destruction there terminated where their ashes are consum'd But turn thy eyes from the grave and wormes there devouring them and reflect on that everlasting fire that can never be extinguish'd on that gnashing of teeth that utter darknesse on those streghts and irremediable afflictions declar'd to us in the Parable of Lazarus and the rich man who once was cloathed in purple and the Lord of unvalew'd treasures of riches that had no end and at last became so destitute of all necessaries that he could not purchase one drop of water to cool his tongue when he suffer'd in flames of fire and was condemn'd to the bitterest cruelties of all torments And how miserable a soul then is that which thinkes pleasures and the vain lights of this World to exceed the gain or Prophet of a dream suppose a man were condemn'd to work in Mines of Metalls or doom'd to undergo some harder punishment then fancie this miserable creature sunk under his labour and fallen asleep next in that sleepe imagine him to have a dream possessing him with the delusion of all pleasures and content which when hee awakes are with his sleep fled how little ows this poor soul to this mockery of felicity And truly that rich mans happinesse on Earth was no more then such a kind of dream If we consider how little it lasted and how it concluded in bitternesse and dreadfull punishments in everlasting fires There is no meditation so necessary to one besotted to his appetites as it is to compare one fire with the other the burning of the lusts with the eternall flames which are their decreed punishment and hee is worse then mad that will not quench the one to eschew the other For there is such nicety and dependance one on the other insomuch that hee who puts out the present fires of his concupiscence is certain to avoid the eternity
rejecting his commands and art become a slave under the outragious Empire of that Tyrannous enemy to mankind who never rests day nor night from ensnaring us our selves to fight against our own hopes and expectations of Heaven Thus hast thou flung off a light and easie burthen freed thy self from a mercifull yoke to fasten thy neck in linkes of Iron And what is both base and ridiculous hast laid a Mill-stone the Asses burthen on thy owne shoulders What wilt thou think to do in the future that at present suffers thy most miserable soul to be swallow'd in this impetuous Gulfe of lusts Nay that wilfully has brough a kind of necessity on thy self which continually compels thee to fall into deeper extreams The woman in the Gospels when she had found her lost groat call'd all her neighbours together to partake of her joy with her saying Rejoyce with me because I have found the lost groat Lu. 15. 8. Thus will I call your friends and mine together but to a different end and purpose I will not bid them rejoyce with me but grieve and weep lament be truly sorrowfull and mourn with me For our losse is grievous and insupportable greater then if we had lost never so great a treasure or Magazine of Gold or Diamonds For we have lost a friend not to be valewed who sailing with us through this vast Ocean I know not by what means is fallen overboard and sunk into the bottomlesse Gulfe of perdition If any man should offer to disswade mee from my lamentations I would answer him with this passionate expression of the Prophet Isaiah Let me alone I will weep bitterly you cannot comfort me Is 22. Such is the sorrow which draws this flood of tears from my eyes Such a sorrow as doubtlessely would not shame Saint Peter or Saint Paul to own it though in such excesse as they denyed themselves all consolation or perswasion to the contrary They who deplore the naturall decreed death of the body may perhaps find coÌ„forters who by the strength of reason and argument may without much labour restore their dâ—ooping spirits to settledness tranqulity by religious precepts gently quiet and palliate their griefes But who can plead gainst his just deploring who laments the death of a soul fallen into perdition dead in sin and pierc'd with ten thousand arrows venom'd with Hells malitious poyson the beauty form and grace of most eminent Vertues and devotions lost and extinct in him These administer matter justly to provoke lawfull and lasting tears What flinty heart What rockie soul could in an agony so moving forbear lamentings or entertain an apparition of any delusion should forbid him his just sorrow At the fall of the body it is humane though not altogether rebellious to weep At the falling of a soul the extreamest lamentation is the greatest evidence of the truest piety He who had on Earth possession of Heaven in so much as hee contemn'd abhor'd and laught at the vanity of the World hee who beheld the greatest beauty but as a statue of stone or a fair picture That he who despis'd Gold as dirt pleasures and vanity as mire He it is who most unexpectedly falling into a raging feaver of burning lusts has lost his comliness and his courage is now turn'd a slave to his own bestiall appetites Shall not we then grieve for him shall we cease our lamentations till he return to himselfe again it is no more then our duty and tye of Christian charity if we have any sense of pitty or humanity in us What alas is the destruction of the body but an accomplish'd course in the order of nature yet such a losse finds dayly mourners and lamenters What ought we then to doe for his perishing soul which manifestly appears resolv'd on eternall damnation if our prayers bring him not to repentance but that he finish his course in obstinate sinning and obduratenesse of heart For in death there is no remembrance of thee in the grave who shall give thee thanks Psal. 6. How great a sin then is it against the rules and Laws of charity not to resent with the greatest pitty a soul thus everlastingly perishing Violent cries and abundance of tears cannot possibly recall the dead But frequent experience teaches us that a soule dying here in sin is not wept for in vaine For the humble requests of brotherly charity plead so effectually before the Throne of mercy that many hardned in obstinate impenitency have melted into floods of tears and have ow'd thee thanks for their contrition to the importunity of other mens prayers And by such meanes many both in our daies and the daies of our forefathers who have deserted the paths of righteousnesse and run headlong astray out of the waies of piety which is a spirituall dying at length have risen again with such heavenly alacrity their fall so hid and obscur'd by the glory of their rise that they have purchas'd the palme of recompence and crowned with the wreath of victory have triumph'd Conquerors on earth till they were summon'd to be numbred with the blessed for all eternity Yet infinite such examples prevail not with a man who wilfully continues in the flames and fires of his lusts Such a wretched perversenesse withstands his recovery and pleads an impossibility of mercy against him But if he chance to get a little way out of the fire and by degrees leave it still farther behind him the dimnesse which the flames caused will be taken from his eyes then how plainly wil he discern the way of salvation to be accessible and very plain smooth and easie having obtain'd grace for his guide And conquer'd those Troops the Devill laid in ambush for him But hee who wants the courage to undertake the combat in vain desires the conquest He may that 's willfull stay and burn in the fire nay shut the doors against himself that are open for him And whatman who is thus sotishly his own enemy can design any thing nobly and virtuously Wherfore this our common enemy makes it his onely businesse leaves nothing unattempted which may render us diffident of grace and mercy Nor needs he much labour to compasse that his end if we lie prostrate at his feet and take no counsell or resolution or order the battail against him it is an easie conquest to overcome us But he who violently breaks his fetters and betakes himself to the use of his strength with courage He I say who in so desperate a condition allows himselfe no cessation but with a continuall violence maintains the battell against him though hee have before lost the day a thousand times shall then recover his losses and gloriously triumph in his enemies overthrow When he who is dejected with despair and permits his spirits to fail and languish can never hope for conquest how can he overcome who makes no resistance at all but fearing the encounter lays down his armes and submits to his enemy CHAP.
But because that he repented that he trusted to the hopes at his return of his Fathers forgivenesse see the change of his base and abject condition he is thus restor'd to his Fathers favour cloath'd in a rich garment and better treated then his brother who had never transgrest For saies the brother So many years have I serv'd thee and never transgrest thy commands and yet thou never gavest me a Kid that I might make merry with my friends but now this thy Son is returned who has devour'd thy substance thou hast killed the fatted Calfe Out of this parable and the precedent discourse may be collected the great efficacie of repentance CHAP. VI That we ought carefully to cleanse our souls from the filth of sin which must by no means be slighted or neglected since in this World wee cannot presume on to morrow every thing is so subject to mutability And then the pleasures of the Earth being so short and quickly vanishing That we ought to fix our thoughts upon that eternity in which we shall be crown'd with glory or plagu'd in torments HAving before our eyes so famous and eminent examples of Gods inviting benignity to stirre us up to repentance with such ample assurances of his mercies to the truly penitent Our duty is not to waver as uncertain of his assisting grace but resolutely to attempt the encounter when we are assur'd of such irresistible aide to second us as the power and favour of our omnipotent Lord Do not his mercifull calls summon us Let us go on with courage Let us say We will go to our Father c. like that prodigall For if we approach our selves but one step towards him our God will draw us nearer so far is he from refusing us But we are a generation that willfully depart from the Lord and on set purpose forsake his waies designing our selves to perdition Yet saies our Lord Jer. 23. 23 I am a God at hand and not a God a far off and again he speaks by the Prophet do not your sins separate you and make this division betwixt you and me Are they our sins which hinder us are they the blocks which lie in our way to eternall happinesse Let us remove them by the force of prayer and humiliation that we may approach nearer to our Lord Set before our eyes Saint Pauls treating the Corinthian and apply to this present discourse 1 Cor. 5. A Corinthian an eminent person had committed such a sin as the like is hardly named amongst the very Heathens He was of the faith of Christs family some believe he was a Priest What follow'd this fall of his Did St. Paul cast him off as a reprobate from the hopes of salvation not at all For in his first and second Epistles to the Corinthians he expostulates with them because they had not received him into repentance ver. 7. 4. In all which treating with them he manifestly declar'd that there was no sin so heinous but God has appointed a conditionall pardon for it that the diseases and distempers of our souls are to be cur'd by pennance their proper medicine and purgation ver. 5. Deliver such a one saies he to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be sav'd in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ This was the Apostles language before his repentance in the time he stood excommunicated but after his repentance saies Saint Paul To him that is such a one this rebuke sufficeth that is given of many 2 Cor. 6. Wherefore he wrote to them to comfort encourage him lest Satan should get an advantage over him In like manner the intire Nation of Galatia after they had embrac'd the faith after miracles wrought amongst them after they had overcome many temptations against their belief in Christ Jesus at length fell into infidelity yet recover'd their fall He therefore that giveth you the spirit saith he and worketh miracles amongst you Gal. 3. 5. Certainly they had many temptations whom he so teaches ver. 4. Have you suffer'd so many things in vain yet in vain These people after a great encreate of a strong faith in our Lord committed a heynous offence they alienated themselves from Christ of which he seems to speak to them Behold I Paul tell you that if you be circumcis'd Christ shall profit you nothing Gal. 5. 2. And again who ever of you are justified by the Law are faln from grace ver. 4. From so dangerous a fall how lovingly and friendly he strives to preserve them My little children whom I travell withall again untill Christ be formed in you Gal. 4. 19. Here he declares that in our worst estate Christ may be renew'd and form'd in us For he will not the death of a sinner but rather that he may turn from his wickednesse and live Eze. 18. 12. Return then to our Lord most dearly beloved Theodorus and performe his will that would so have it For this end he created us for this we were made to bestow on us the glory of eternity to give us the Kingdome of Heaven not to fling us into Hell or cast us into those flames which were indeed made for the Devill and not for us Our Saviour declares this to us when he saies to those on his right hand Come you blessed of my Father Possesse the Kingdome prepared for you from the beginning of the World Mat. 25. but to those on his left hand Depart you cursed into fire everlasting which was prepared hee does not say for you but for the Devill and his Angels ver. 41. You see then Hell was not purposely made for us but for the Devill and his Angells And that Heaven was appointed for us from the beginning of the World Shall we then render our selves incapable of infinite honors and felicities by eternall providence and favour determined us and not make our selves ready to enter the Bride-Chamber with the Bridegroom This preparation is onely possible in this World here it is that wee must put on our wedding Garments that we must dresse our selves in the robes of contrition and repentance and though we may be often disordered in our atttire and contract again the filth and deformity of our sinne there is hope left as long as the waters of repentance may yet cleanse us but if we neglect it to day wee know not how late it may be to morrow the end and terme of our life is forbid the curiosity of our knowledge and when wee depart hence it will be too late to expect any good though wee repent with all the passionate humility that can be imagin'd it will not profit us though we gnash our teeth howle horridly and fill that Hell we are in with our complaints till they reach the Heaven we complain to wee shall not be the better so much water as would cool our tongues Luke 16. 16. Remember Abrahams answer to the rich man there is a great Chaos betwixt you and us Let us
dotage till it forsake thee thou art deaf to perswasions while thy eares are stopt with thy delights or wilt if thou hearest think them lyars that call the sweets so please thee what they really are bitter and noysome But when by the mercifull deliverance of our Lord thou art freed out of the toyls thou wilt with patience hear mee treat of the malicious cunning that deceiv'd thee with those snares Wherefore I deferr to tell thee the malignity of thy disease till I see thee recovering Now let us fancy pleasures to be really the things they seem and that the delights of this world have nothing of gall or bitternesse But what then I pray shall we say of the punishments attend them how shall wee avoid them whither shall we flye to escape the wrath that followes them They that now rejoyce and triumph in the shades of seeming content shall not with their greatest fortitude be able to endure the least punishments of those many prepar'd for their vengeance And how little time well spent in prayer and unfaign'd hearty penitence might save them from those torments and bring them to those joyes prepar'd for the blessed Such is the clemency and mercy of our God who so earnestly loves mankind that hee has not appointed a long time of conflict with Satan the Warre last's no longer then the short space of this fleeting life which is but the twinkling of an eye compar'd with those infinite ages to come wherein wee shall be crown'd with glory for ever And this will adde infinitely to those things the damn'd shall suffer when they remember their great neglect of that little time they had to repent in and at how easie a rate and low a price they sold and betray'd themselves into everlasting thraldome Let us then awake and rouze our selves out of this lethargie of sin lest this sad doom be ours And let us hast and do it whilst the time is yet that wee may be receiv'd into mercy and favour while there is hope and that salvation may be had before repentance be too late for they who idly and sloathfully wallow in the mire of their iniquities shall not onely endure these but far more intolerable torments Since it is not to be exprest in the most artificiall termes of eloquence how great those tortures are which are prepared for the damned in Hell But if it were onely to lose the joy and blessings of Heaven the thought alone of so great a losse though we were after to perish like other beasts would be insupportable it would bring with it so just cause of sorrow such affliction and tribulation that were no other punishment ordain'd for sinners that it selfe should bee sufficient to reduce us from our wicked waies and might terrifie us more then the apprehension of all those torments that threaten and affright us and wee may most assuredly expect unlesse wee truly repent CHAP. VIII Of the beatitude of the Saints glorifi'd in Heaven pressing Theodorus farther to amendment by arguing that Heaven is rather to be sought after then Hell to be fear'd The glory of one being a more moving object then the terriblenesse of the other FRom this caution given thee Theodorus of the unspeakable paines of Hell I would raise thy contemplations to the most necessary most admirable and ravishing delight thy soule can possibly fix it self upon which is to imploy thy curiosity in search of the Knowledge of the joyes of Heaven for though the dignity of that blessed state be not within the compasse of the most accurate expression and farre exceeding the delineation of the acutest wit yet my advice presumes to invite thee to conceive as much of it as is allow'd our humane judgements to comprehend And as farre as wee are taught and instructed by holy writ our contemplations have liberty to soare into the felicities of Heaven Isaiah the Prophet expresses them thus The ransom'd of the Lord shall rejoyce and come to Sion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads they shall obtain joy and gladnesse and sorrow and sighing shall flee away Isai. 35. 10. 51. 11. What can be more happy then such a life There you shall never fear povertie or sicknesse There shall be neither oppressor nor opprest No troubsome tormentor nor any one tormented No man angry or vext nor any repining at anothers displeasure No proud man swelling in abundance nor any person dejected and mourning for his necessities No man contentious for principality or power nor any one lamenting under the persecution of a superiour There all the tempestuous passions of our minds shall be hush't in a perpetuall calme All things shall be peace joy and gladness all things serenity and tranquillity There shall be eternall day brightnesse and light Light as farre excelling the splendor of the Sun as that does the blaze of a torch for it shall never be hid with the vail of night never be obscur'd in clouds and darknesse yet though so exceeding lustrous withall so temperate that it shall neither burn nor scorch No night nor evening shall the blessed know no scorching summer or chill winter no change of seasons shall molest them every thing is so ordered in a setled constancy and so appointed for their fruition whom grace and repentance shall fit for it They shall feel no old age nor the evills of it there shall nothing remain subject to corruption but every one be crown'd with incorruptible glory what exceeds all already said the blessed shall then enjoy eternally the company of Christ with his Angels Archgels and all the glorious hoasts of Heaven contemplate on the skies in that excellency they appeare now to our eyes behold the beauties there No starre in the firmament shall in thy beatitude outshine thee which will be when all things created shall be refined into greater abundance of glory and exceed themselves as they are now as much as the purest Gold which seems to give light to the air and captivate our humane sence does the complexion of lead So shall all things created as they shall then be refin'd excell themselves in their glory For as blessed Saint Paul saies The creature also it self shall be deliver'd from the servitude of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God Rom. 8. For now in our flesh we suffer many things lyable onely to the corruption of the body which nature in the body it selfe shal be chang'd into incorruptible and that together with the soul become immortall the soul it self possest of more beauty and greater excellencie And where then canst thou dream of any jarre or discord may happen what ruines or what destroying civill dissention when an eternall inviolable love shall knit the Saints of Heaven in one knot and make them one soul The dread of the Divell shall be no more no more threats no more snares no more death the body it selfe shall be immortall and the soule quit her fear of a far
thy life but I cannot utterly despair of thee though thou wilfully do so of thy selfe as yet for I should be then guilty of thy own folly and peevishnesse by my distrust Which is a sin I will not commit For though I see thee strangely fallen I will still trust in Gods mercy and grace to thee and doubt not but to see thee in a happy condition clear'd and purg'd of all that fatall malignancy thy carelesse soule has now contracted and behold thee perfectly reconcil'd to vertue godlinesse and the favour of God CHAP. XII The story of the Ninivites repentance the proeme to Saint Chrysostomes farther urging Theodorus to his conversion collecting thence that greatest sinners may return to God he prosecutes his perswasions alledging that many so converted have become the best and most zealous people THE Ninivites hearing that threatning and sharp crying out of the Prophet Jonah Jonah 3. 4. Yet forty daies and Nineveh shall be destroyed were not so discourag'd and dismai'd at so terrible warnings of their approaching destruction from the fierce anger of an incens'd omnipotent God but they would yet trust to his mercy Though the decreee of his vengeance was not conditionall but positive Niniveh shall be destroy'd without admittance of any clause to foment a hope in them for the words of the Prophet were not disjoynted but a plain and direct sentence of judgement yet they submit with humble penitence ver. 9. For say they who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that wee perish not ver. 10. And God saw their workes that they turned from their evill ways and God repented of the evill that he said that he would do unto them and he did it not See how those barbarous rude and mad people apprehended their imminent destruction togther understood the possibility of their deliverance having their hearts set upon his infinite mercy in his greatest wrath and rage against them Let us then that are Christians and nursed up in the knowledge of our Lords benignity who are instructed and disciplin'd in his word and know many the like examples stir up our soules to sincere repentance and not be less then them in our confidence of his goodness and mercy For he it is whose sacred spirit has told us Isa 55. 8 9. That his thoughts are not our thoughts neither are our waies his waies For as the Heavens are higher then then the Earth so are his waies higher then our waies and his thoughts then our thoughts Servants of men erre from the duty they owe their masters and commit foul faults against them yet if they grow sorrowfull and recant that disobedience they are againe received into their masters good opinion and sometimes with advantage of preferment God our gratious Lord and master whose thoughts and waies exceed those of men will deale as favourably Nay far more mercifully with us If the intent of his creating us had been to damn us then thy despaire were reasonable and just nor couldst thou do otherwise then doubt of salvation when none were prepar'd for thee But God having made thee out of his goodnesse and created thee to good ends no less then that thou mightst enjoy everlasting happinesse and to that intent his great workes continue in thee if thou willfully denie not to perceive it what should make thee thus diffident or in the least to mistrust his mercy When we have the most incens'd him then ought we most carefully to look to our selves most diligently and couragiously to resist all issuing temptations present and most bitterly lament our easie yielding to those past which so miserably overcame us so shall wee be able to give a manifest testimony of our perfect change For nothing more provokes our Lord then our obstinacie and denyall to returne into the right way For to do ill is but humane weaknesse to persevere Diabolicall malice Consider how horrid a thing it was which wee read in the Prophet that Iudah call'd back in the race of her vild whoredomes would not return to the Lord Jer. 3. 7. And I said after shee had done all these things turn thou unto me but she returned not The Lord strives with us to show how mercifully he is inclin'd to our salvation many are his promises to those who return into the right way forsaking the Meanders and by-paths of iniquity When hee saw Israels promises of repentance that they began to prepare their hearts to fear him and to keep his Commandements his promise was that it should bee well with them and their Children for ever Wherefore Moses joyns the reward with the command when hee bids them to keep the Commands of the Lord and his statutes which he commands saies he for their good Deut. 10. 13. And immediately before he commands us to fear him to walk in his waies and to love him Which is most remarkable that the God of Heaven should earnestly seek their loves who so wretchedly offend him Wherefore ought wee to love him who desires to belov'd of us who woes us and does us all things to win our affections Nay who spar'd not his onely begotten Son for us but gave him up and delivered him to the ignominious death of the Crosse that we might be reconcil'd to him And what think you so loving a Father will do for them he has purchas'd at so dear a rate Nay and what lies on our duty which is humiliation and repentance even that he presses on us if wee were not insensible of our own miseries the evill of our own miseries the evill of our own condition would invite us to As he speakes by the Prophet Isaiah 43. 26 Tell thy sinns first declare thou that thou maist be justified Which the Lord speakes desiring to make our affections vehement that so with freenesse and openness of heart we may deliver our selves up to his mercifull kindnesse Infinite is this love of our Lord while we anger and provoke him while we abuse his goodnesse and his patience all this ingratitude cannot extinguish his love and when hee laies open to us the injuries wee offer his divine Majesty he does it but to dilate on his love and so to tye our affections nearer to him and demands of us nothing but penitent acknowledgment If then to confesse our sinnes unto him bring with it so much comfort as the promise of justification how great will our joy be when our workes are rendred acceptable in the sight of God and all the filth and uncleannesse of them washt quite away And if this way to him were not accessible after we err'd and leudly strai'd from the paths of righteousnesse how few of many soules now glorified in Heaven had ever seen their salvation It is worthy all mens observation seriously to consider the returne of many desperate sinners who after the reconcilement of their enormous soules to grace have strangely excell'd in piety and outshin'd those who were in
the deepest abysse of Hell Nor does this discourse alone aver this For the records of holy writ most amply testifie the same The Evangelist Saint Matthew shewes it Matth. 16. 27. He shall render saith he every man according to his workes Nor in Hell onely but in Heaven also shall there be difference of reward John 14. 2. In my Fathers house are many mansions saies our blessed Saviour And again 1 Cor. 15. 41. There is one glory of the Sun another of the the Moon another of the Starrs for one Star differeth from another Star in glory so likewise in the Resurrection of the dead Let him who considers this value the expence of his labour and be continually employ'd in good deeds If we attain not the glory of the Sun or the Moon wee get to be little starrs if we discharge the duty of good Christians so far as to get there at all If we shine not in glory like Diamonds or like Gold wee may like Silver But we must be carefull we are not found of materialls fitter for the fire then a place in his Heavenly mansions And if wee are not able to discharge the highest actions of perfection let us not neglect the due observance of lesser things which we may perform For it is most desperate madnesse to do no good at all because we are not in the state of the most excelling perfection For as worldlings grow rich by saving every little trifle encreasing their store so are spirituall riches attain'd by a circumspect laying hold on every occasion wherein we may serve our Lord It is wonderfull and something strange to humane sence that God has appointed so great a reward as the Kingdome of Heaven to him that shall but give a cup of cold water in his name yet are men so foolish that unlesse they can atchieve the greatest they neglect lesser matters which are likewise very profitable He that neglects not his duty in things but small in their appearance will learn to be able to performe greater But he that is negligent in a little will be a weak discharger of greater duties And to prevent this humane inclination Christ has left us great proposalls of certain reward for things to be compast with very little trouble What is more easie then to pay the labourer his hire which is but a part of thy own gain and yet large are the promises of our Lord for that See then the way to lay hold on Everlasting salvation enter into it delight in our Lord pray incessantly unto him again submit thy self to his easie yoak take on thy shoulders the light burthen thou bearst in a more happy condition and let the end of it prove worthy the beginning of thy life Do not O do not despise such infinite riches which freely flow unto thee And they are all for ever lost to thee if thou perseverest to exasperate our Lord with those ill courses thou art in For if thou yet stopst the channells and hinder'st this deluge in time before it has made too great a breach thou maist repaire thy losses to thy great advantage When thou hast considered and meditated seriously on this as thou oughtest fling away the filth and mud which hangs upon thy soule rise from out of the mire wherein thou hast wallowed And see how formidable thou wilt be to thy adversarie who believ'd he had cast thee down never to rise again it will amaze him to see thee again provoke him to the battaile surpriz'd with thy recovery and astonisht at such an undaunted resolution how fearfull will the coward the Devill be to attempt again the ensnaring thee If other mens calamities be proper lessons for us shall not all our owne instruct us I believe that I shall see this shortly in thee and that thou wilt appear in the sight of Heaven a person restor'd to grace a more excellent and clearer soul then ever thou were one that shall give testimonies of such perfection and integrity that thou maist be ranckt amongst the best men if not preferr'd before them Onely despair not fall not againe This is my counsell do thou as my custome is When ever I hear any thing from others may profit me I make no delay to embrace and follow it and if thou receivest with a good purpose these my admonitions thy sick and languishing soule will need no other Physick FINIS Erata Page 1. l. 5. for this r. the l 7. of dissolute r. of a dissolute p. 3. l. 4. of sin r. of any sin l. 13. for for prepared r. so prepared l. 20. for committing every thing that was dedicated r. committing every thing to the flames that was dedicated p. 6. l. 7. for intollerable r. in alterable p. 9. l. 5. r. linkd to p. 12. l. 16. for rebellious r. religious p. 14. l. 15. for wretched r. wretches p. 23. l. 1. leave out and promised p. 24. l. 6. r. like a loving father p. 26. l. last for peruses r. persues p. 31. l 11. for confidences r. consciences p. 44. l. 28. r. delights for lights p. 46. l. 17. for again r. gone again p. 60. l. 7. r. there appeared not p. 62. l. 22. for receive r. conceive p. 67. l. 11. for screen scaene p. 70. l. 4. for undertake labour r. undertake the labour p. 72. l. 5. for choosed r. crost p. 79. l. 12. for Hermions r. Hermiones p. 79. l. 17. for starrs r. statues p. 80. l. 7. for Hermion's r. Hermione's p. 84. l. 6. for hope r. home ibid. l. 23. for greater r. great p. 87. l. 3. for were r. wore p. 103. l. 13. Chap. is intitled the 5. ibid l. 3. I knew a young Phoenix r. I knew a young man Phoenix p. 104. l. 3. for religions r. religious Reader this multitude of faults in so small a treatise I can attribute to nothing but my own ill hand which deceived the printer which I entreat thee to correct The Contents of every Chapter CHAP. I. SAint Chrysostome passionately describes the great esteem and value we ought to have of our own soules and on that basis he raises the fabrick of this treatise to perswade Theodorus plung'd into extream sinns and bewitch't with the vanity of a dissolute life to return to vertue and piety in which he had once been an eminant example CHAP. II. The Devil endeavours and practices to undermine our hopes and raze the foundation of our eternall happiness The comparison betwixt a dying body and a perishing soul with an exhortation to be couragious in our conflicts with the Devill CHAP. III. Gods mercie to the greatest sinners an argument against despair CHAP. IV. The example of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon a cohaerence to the preceding Chapter CHAP. V. That sincere repentance is alwaies acceptable to God declar'd out of Holy writ by example precept and parable CHAP. VI That we ought carefully to cleanse our soules from the filth of sin which must by no meanes be slighted or neglected since in this word we cannot presume on to morrow every thing is so subject to mutability And then the pleasures of the Earth being so short and so quickly vanishing we ought to fix our thoughts upon that eternity in which we shall be crown'd with glory or plagued in torments CHAP. VII Hell fire expos'd to the terror of the impenitent with the torments and the certainty thereof CHAP. VIII Of the beatitude of the Saints glorified in Heaven pressing Theodorus farther to amendment by arguing that Heaven is rather to be sought after then Hell to be fear'd the glory of the one being a more moving object then the terriblenesse of the other CHAP. IX Of the day of judgement CHAP. X. The joyes of Heaven prosecuted give occasion to discourse of the felicities and blessings God has promis'd our soules the excellencies wherewith they are enricht and vile contempt we have of them preferring our bodies their slaves before them CHAP. XI Saint Chrysostome continues here the glorious nature of the Soule and from that excellence prosecutes his perswasions to Theodorus still striving to overcome the rebellions of his lusts with exhortations and pressing arguments CHAP. XII The story of the Ninivites repenpentance the proeme to St. Chrysostomes farther urging Theodorus to his conversion collecting thence that the greatest sinners may return to God he prosecutes his perswasives alledging that many so converted have become the best and most zealous people CHAP. XIII Sant Chrysostome relates a story of Phoenix a young Gentleman of his time another of an Hermit another of a Disciple of Johns the Son Zebedeus and of Onesimus out of Saint Paul with which he continues his perswasives to fallen Theodorus CHAP. XIV The sum and conclusion of this treatise FINIS No comparison betwixt the death of the body and the soul St. Chrysostom's application to Theodorus The Hermet The schooler of John In Eusebius Eccles. Hist. lib. 5. c. 2.