one phrase Rev. 3. 21. in the same throne with himself The very promises of God are assurance for transcendent glory and happinesse God hath pawn'd his promise his irreversible bond and he will see Christ satisfied he will abate him nothing of his agreement Let the people of God Psal 40. 7 8. begin their triumphancies here God will see their Husband satisfied for their everlasting portion and dowry And here can be no mixture or mean in the eternity of the blessed because they shall enjoy the close sweet ravishing full and immediate presence of God And what more In hac vita mera calamitas in aeterna mera felicitas Ger. beatificall then to see God unveil his glorious face the open face of God which phrase doth import these three things The distinct knowledge of God we distinguish men by their faces their countenances doth diversifie them and we shall see God in Vita beatorum visio cognitio beatae Trinitatis Hugo glory distinctly know him to be the great glorious omnipotent infinite God I shall not as many do debate the way of Gods communicating Deus videbitur in â—â—gno coelorum paternaliter Iren. himself unto us but certain it is we shall see him clearly and distinctly without curtain or cloud as the face is the characteristicall difference We shall see him as Irenaeus speaks Paternaliter as a father is beheld by his child with knowledge and delight His glory shall appear to be the glory of God infinitely above all the splendour and glory of the creature though cloathed with brightnesse and perfection This phrase implies a familiar knowledge We shall see God in heaven not as the Saints do in an ordinance Psal 63. 2. by gratious influences and distillations or as Abraham saw God Gen. 32. 30. Gen. 18. 2. maskt in the veil of a body as Divines speak symbolically 1 King 21. 19. speculo symbolico Nor yet as Moses saw God in his back parts though that glorious vision shed such a resplendency on the face of Moses as the Exod. 33. 23. Israelites could not behold the radiant Quatuor modis videmus deum per fidem per contemplationem per apparitionem per apertam visionem Biel. lustre of his countenance but the Saints shall see God in heaven familiarly as one friend beholds another the Saints shall behold God in a friendly close and familiar way This phrase implies a pleasing and satisfactory knowledge of God as Jacob beheld the face of Joseph his Son He saw not his wagons only but his Gen. 46. 2 930. face In eternity we shall see God not in ordinances not by letters as 1 Cor. 13. 12. here but his face shall be visible to us i. e. we shall see God fully with transcendent and inexpressible satisfaction And our Masters joy which Mat. 25. 21. we shall inherit shall spring from this Angeli Sancti vino sapientiae inebriantur dum ipsum deum facie ad faciem videntes omni voluptate satiantur spirituali Greg. M. that we see our Masters face Now the beatificall vision is infinitely above all graduall mixt or ordinary possession this is the transcendentcy of transcendency in respect of which all excellencies and enjoyments are but as a drop to the Ocean And as the learned Father This vision only can limit the vaste and comprehensive desires of man and put a Ille est finis desideriotum nostrorum qui sine fine videbitur sine fastidio amabitur sine defatigatione laudabitur Aug. de civ dei stop to the waves of his ambition And there can be no mixture or moderation in the eternity of the wicked every thing shall be superlative and in the extreme to them There shall be no water in their fire no correction in their judgement No mercy in their misery no proportion in their calamity And it must be so In regard of Sin which is the fountain of their misery which is a superlative evill could we squeese out the poyson of aspes the venome of Serpents and all those detested Creatures which are the abhorrency of mankind into one draught yet that venemous portion would yeild a pleasant tast to the bitternesse of sin Sin is that which the Schoolmen say Ibi vidi omnia genera tormentorum quorum minimum majus omnibus Hugo Victor is totaliter malum a comprehensive evill that admits of no composition of good And therefore as there is no moderation or mixture in the evill nature of sin so neither in the everlasting punishment for sin Sin is an unlimited boundlesse and superlative evill and then conceive all the reprobates Ibi dolor intolerabilis timor horribilis foetor incomparabilis sic miseri motientur ut semper vivant sic vivent ut semper moriantur Bern. in Psal sins digested into one lumpe and wrapt up in one fardell and what moderation can there be in hell It is sin that is the flint from whence the fire of hell is struck the wombe of the monstrous paine of the damned the superlative cause of superlative misery Extremes in moralls breed extremity in punishment Indeed here in this life God doth punish the wicked with moderated and intermitted judgments but this doth not arise from the nature of sin which they are stained with but this doth arise from the prevalency of Gods mercy which here is exercised to render the impenitent sinner the more inexcusable but in eternity all hopes and capacities of mercy or compassion are out dated and obsolete In regard of the wrath of God Nec dubium quin ad fornacem Babylonicam Dan. cap. 3. deducamur inque typum oeterni illius ignis observemus Gerard. which shall ever be the signe and season in hell It is a superlative flame and there shall be wrath without the least mixture or allaying of mercy One sparke of Gods wrath is hotter then Nebuchadnezzars furnace were it 77. times hotter then it was And so the Prophet Isa 33. 14. Who shall dwell with everlasting burnings Burnings not findgings not scorchings and burnings in the plurall number and the everlasting is more terrible then the burnings One drop of the vialls of Gods wrath which he shall be ever powring out upon the damned is multiplyed misery a pullulation of calamity insupportable anguish and torturing perplexity If God Orcus malorum omnium extremum Plato lay his hand upon a sinner here either in the agonies of his mind or wracking distempers of his body with what fury and madnesse is he ready to turn his own executioner and to quench his frenzie in his own bloud Judas cannot here the scriches Coelestis ira quos premit miseros facit Sen. Herc. nor bear the throwes of his tormenting conscience but he must hasten his damnation by a self-dispatching murder Thus if God do but powre out some drops of his indignation and assault man primitiis irae with the first fruits of his
of guilt shall appear not only those internall corruptions those vipers which lodged in our breasts here and never broak the prisons but those extrinsecall abominations deeds of darknesse which clouded the sun it self All then shall arraign the soul at the bar of a tortured Luk. 8. 17. conscience Here the caitiffe miscreant is sometimes eased by oblivion but then all his vanity and violence shall stand as so many ghosts before him Conscience shall be but as the clear glasse to see all his deformities One sin shall not be behind the curtain shall not be annihilated or concealed the Damned sinner shall not do to his sins as Rachel did to her Gen. 31. 34. Gods hide them with a lying excuse No conscience in eternity shall give up all the whole beadroll of sinne Those numberlesse numbers of evils which would silence all Arithmetick to give the totall sum of them shall particularly and singly not only be observed and animadverted by conscience but give fresh and everlasting wounds to the tortured miscreant Every wanton glance proud look loose gesture vain thought unprofitable word every transient if unholy imagination shall not only be within the sad prospect of conscience but be continuall tortures to it Conscience in the damneds eternity shall remember all its sins in their greatest aggravations Then conscience shall Luk. 19. 42. feel what it was to refuse Christ to neglect heaven to pride the body and lose the soul Every extravagant thought in ordinances those Terme times for the soul every mispent minute shall be scrued to the highest Then wil come in what funshines what Heb. 2. 3. showrs what offers what means what manna the prodigal and frantick sinner hath trampled upon The conscience shall see all its guilt in bloudy colours in their just amplifications not as here they are palliated by Satan and misrepresented Gen. 3. 5. by the world curiously and cunningly extenuated by the sinner self Every sinâ—â—â—â—ll then be known to the conscience to be able to damne the soul dishonour the infinite God and shut men out of glory and sin shall then be aggravated with two dreadfull examples 1. Of Satans Angels how sin and for ought we know but 〈◊〉 sin discoloured their glory and sanke them into perpetuall contempt and misery and this will lash the conscience with Scorpions 2. Of the misery of eating one apple by Adam and that it should ingulf all posterity in one common desolation this likewise will fetch bloud from conscience Then indeed shall all sins against Scholastici docent morsum vermis longe superare ustionem ignis Ger. mercy means menaces light love checkes chidings prayers protestations appeare in their genuine colours to the sacrificed and tortured conscience The Conscience viz. in eternity shall remember all its sins as mixt with Gods wrath All the sins of the Reprobate shall be as Samsons foxes having Jud. 15. 4 5 c. firebrands at their tailes Here the sinner remembers sin notionally and God seems to connivâ—â—â— them but in eternity every sin shal◠〈◊〉 remembred and it shall be big with vengeance Every sin shall fall on and storme conscience fired with Gods indignation shall be a granado a fireball in the soul All recollected sins as all the sins of â—â—e damned shall be recollected shall be envenomed with punishment every vain thought shall have its sting its bullet in it and every idle word edged with Gods wrath shall excoriate the soul Then conscience shall remember every sin as unpardonable as being for ever incapable of forgivenesse and remission Conscience shall then look upon every sin as died in grain that shall never Vermis conscientiae tripliciter lacer abit affiget memoria sera turbabit poenitentia to quebit angustia Innoc. lose its colour its blacknesse its bloudinesse as that guilt which shall never be entombed in oblivion Of all the sins the consciences of the damned shall be burdened with not one the least of them shall either fall out of the remembrance or the revenge of the Lord. The massacred conscience shall look upon all its guilt as unremoveable for ever Not one sin of ignorance shall ever be overpassed the close venereall sin shall never lose its poyson but the conscience shall see its self ever to be tortured with the vultures of its own sins Here indeed in this life the awakening of conscience is a singular mercy and a rich priviledge and it doth accelerate and hasten the sinner to flie to the City of refuge Phil. 3. 9. the bloud of Christ whereby he may be freed from his stinging Serpents his sins and cured of the intolerable wounds of conscience but the awakened conscience in the eternity of misery shall look on the deluge of its guilt as that not one prop of it shall fall or ever be dried up But I cannot yet put a stop to my Contemplation on this subject viz. What a worme conscience will be in Animus aeger â—ale sibi consciâ—s semper est â—nfernus Luth. â—i diabolus non â—aberet malam conscientiam â—sset in coelo Id. hell and the rather because it may be the discussion of the wofull misery of the conscience of the damned in eternity may awaken the Conscience of some Reader here Further to amplifie the misery of the tormenting conscience of the Reprobates let be considered The intimacy of these gripes The soul shall be put into an everlasting agony Conscience is a bosome friend Erinnys Et quantum spiritualia bona excedunt corporalia tantum spiritualia mala in corde a flame in the spirit It is the fury in the closet Oftentimes here the conscience is on the wracke when none but God is the spectatour of that misery but in eternity conscience shall be fire in the inward man a soul torment it is not supplicium carnis but supplicium cordis not the punishment of the skin but of the soul And this aggravates the torment of conscience it shall cruciate fester and wrack the more noble more spirituall more capable more sensible and apprehensive part of Man the soul can drink in more punishment and more fully feel the burden and weight of it Its capacities are more extensive which is easily discernible in that it can enjoy the beatificall presence of God himself Ah! what measures of torture can this sublime piece of immortality take in The conscience of the damned is to be considered in the continuednesse of its torment No sleeping moment Nec moâ—â—â—ur vermis nec mâ—ratur sed semper corrodit peccatorem It shall be an ever awaking Lyon alwayes devouring yet never killing No rest no ease no slumber no pause shall mitigate the pain of conscience in miserable eternity These Scorpions of sin and guilt shall be ever tormenting the conscience No intermediate quiet the storme is perpetuall no vacation In hell there shall be darknesse Quocunque aspicias obviabit peccatum Basil
Gods afflictive and castigatory justice but that is impossible for in eternall happinesse there shall be nothing appearing but smiles love and indulgence And as in eternity the day of grace and favour is past to the reprobate sinner so the day of correction and displeasure is blown over to the glorified Saint In glory the least heat of anger shall not appear in the face of God nor shall the sword of vindicative justice be brandisht there I speak after the manner of men And so on the contrary there shall not be the least change in the eternity of the damned For the worse they cannot for they shall be fully miserable as before hath been demonstrated Nor for the better for this change would either proceed from Gods pity or mans piety First from Gods pity now God will shew no pity in hell For 1. Hell is a place of pure justice and exact severity no mitigation or favour in eternall misery could one drop of mercy fall into hell it would alter the very propriety of it Dives Mat. 5 26. in hell begs a drop of water but a Luk. 16. 24. drop the smallest measure and of water the most common element Natures common bounty yet in hell there is no concession to so reasonable a petition Mercies sweet voyce shall not be heard among the damneds groanes And 2. The day of grace is past when once the sinner is set on the shoare of eternity offers and overtures of mercy and peace are then buried in silence Sometimes the climacterical year of a Luk. 19. 42. Sinner is past before but alwayes then There shall be no mercy after the sun-set of mercy more then the shadowes of the night can counterfeit the light of the day here is the day of salvation which when once blown over the day of love shall break no more And 3. What should move Gods pity in hell 1. The cries of the damned they shall exalt his justice not move his compassion the horrours and the lamentations of the damned shall be the very musicke of Gods justice the Prov. 1. 26. heraulds of his righteous severity Mat. 25. 12. here Ephraims moaning turnes Gods Jer. 31. 20. bowels within him but the reprobates groanes shall only tune his justice Or 2. Shall the sinnes of the damned move God to compassion and therefore stir up pity because they are great Surely sin is the fuel of wrath not the argument of commiseration and grief and guilt shall be the reprobates livery for ever And Secondly as not from Gods pity so neither from mans piety shall any change arise in the eternity of the damned They shall not be refresht with mercy or their condition sweetned with an alleviating change from any conversion to God penitency for sin c. For 1. This piety had it been true or could it be so it had never come to hell nor could it lie there True grace is no Salamander to live in the fire of hell no flower to grow in that stench the fruit of the Spirit shall not lie in the womb of eternall misery that 2 Pet. 1. 4. grace which is honoured with the name of divine nature cannot be the subject of eternall divine wrath Had they been or could they after death be really pious they should not be eternally calamitous the least degree of true grace seales Christ and heaven to the soul Weak faith saint love c. And 2. If this piety be false as all tears in hell shall be for the weeping of the damned cannot be caâ—d a repentance but only a watery desperation an execration of themselves steept in tears then this dissembled mourning is a provocation not a mitigation to inflame not appease Gods wrath and certainly all the self-condemnations of the miserable reprobate proceeds not from a detestation of sin but a deploration of their torment And therefore now to sum up the whole this remains unfallibly true There shall not be the least alteration or change in our everlasting condition Ah! what might this consideration seriously weighed in the ballance work upon our feared and unawakened consciences CHAP. V. Concl. 5 Man 's eternall condition admits of no measure or commensuration ETernity is an Ocean without a shoare a Sea without land it hath neither bottome nor banks it is an unlimited estate As Boetius forementioned Status interminabilis an unconfin'd estate What is said of eternall joy 1 Cor. 2. 9. It hath not entred into the heart of man is true likewise of eternall misery Who can tell how eternity begins or when it ends who can divide or parcell out eternity who can set landmarkes to measure or find plummets to fadome it It is nothing but the vast Ocean the eye cannot see to the end of it nor the understanding reach to the bottome of it The most curious and criticall brain in the greatest abstractions cannot comma or put a stop in eternity Astronomers find out fictitious and imaginary lines to measure the heavens and the earth the Aequator Meridian Horizon c. but what imaginary circles shall compasse eternity who can say so much is gone so many Centuries so many Lustra so many Olympiads and so many ages are yet to come Eternity is a boundlesse being Aeternitas nec tempus nec temporis ulla pars est nec e. in mensuram cadit sed quod nobis tempus est solis motu definitum hoc aeternis aevum est Greg. Naz. there is no infancy in it no strength of years no decrepitnesse Nec efflorescentia nec canescentia aetatis no triumph or decay of age There are no divisions or subdivisions in it Numbers and multiplications are paradoxes in eternity There is no lease or determinate time time it self being a riddle as before But more particularly Eternity is unlimited In the possessions of it the eternall joy of the Saints is said to be full Psal 16 11. In thy presence is fulnesse of joy 1 Joh. 3. 2. but this is a faddomlesse fulnesse who can tell the portion of everlasting happinesse or count it out It is a summe that cannot be measured by number or figure The blessednesse of the Sâ—ints shall be ineffable inalterable inconceivable Who knowes how soft the down of the Saints rest is how sweet the bosome of Christ how pleasant the smile of God who can tell how delightfull the taste of the rivers of pleasure in heaven is There is no measuring or confining the Saints happinesse How unspeakably sweet is communion with God here that sometimes the Sâ—int can set it out more by admiration then eloquence how ravishing then are those extasies of joy which the glorified ones shall be raised and sublimated with And so on the contrary the misery of the damned how inintolerable how incomprehensible how unmeasurable who can tell how hot Gods wrath is when turn'd into a flame Or can any weigh the torments of the damned and say they rise to such an height
nihil addi potest Arist and cast into a nobler form fals short of perfection Now the Saints in glory enjoy a double perfection 1. A perfection in their persons They are perfect in all purity holinesse and unspotted transcendency their beings are refulgent with all rich and rare enoblements in all excellent capacities their natures shall shine with the diamonds of perfection as I may so say And 2. A perfection of inheritance the fulnesse of possession and therefore 2 Tim. 4. 8. heaven is alwayes represented by the Luk. 12. 32. most sublime enjoyments A Crown Joh. 3. 16. a Kingdome life a throne Now perfection Rev. 3. 21. that is the bound and bank to As they said of Cyrus Satia te sanguine Cyre So I may say Satia te gloria Sancte limit all expectation Our desires cannot sail beyond the pillar of perfection Nor fly above an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the top the firmament confines the eye of the body and heaven the ambition of the soul And thirdly There can be no further hopes in the blesseds eternity because the Saints in eternity enjoy God immediately which is Summum bonum in summo gradu the chiefest good in the highest degree God is comprehensively all inconceivable good As the Sun containes more light gradu eminentiori in a more eminent degree and consideration then all the candles in the world when lighted The beatificall vision is not all happinesse epitomized but enlarged in the most incomprehensible latitudes And when the Saints shall come to enjoy a free and full sight of God without the interposure of cloud or curtain then shall they say as the Queen of Sheba concerning Solomons glory 1 King 10. 7. Behold the one halfe was not told me All the expectations of the glorified ones shall be swallowed up in inexpressible admirations How sweet those glorious intuitions shall be that the Saints shall enjoy in heaven our most vast conceptions are not able to comprehend God being essentially whatever deserves the name of good And I need not by way of amplification of the Argument make mention of that glory that the humane nature of Christ shall shine in and how pleasing that pretious sight will be to the redeemed ones when arrived at the heavenly countrey And therefore to look for further happinesse is a solecisme in a blessed eternity And as eternity shall confine the hopes of the Saints so it shall bury all expectations of the sinner Hell shall be the grave of all the reprobates hopes Here indeed all hope was not smoothered and evaporated they had a reconcileable God Gods bowels 2 Cor. 5. 19. were not totally restrained but repentance might have enlarged them the treasury-door of mercy and grace was not lockt up but faith could have opened it and the oyle of grace might have procured the oyle of gladnesse and there was still a blanck in the lease for the sinners name to be put in upon conversion to God Mat. 25. 1. But in the eternity of the damned every door of hope is shut and lockt up and all expectation of change or compassion shall be silenced All longing for or looking after either 1. A totall extinction of the remembrance of them that ever there were such caytiffes in the World might cease Or 2. A releasment from their torturing extremities Or 3. An advancement to happinesse and change of the wrack into a throne I say all these hopes shall cease and evaporate in the damneds eternity Nay further the reprobates carnall hopes which was their pleurisie here and with which they were so elevated and rejoyced their hopes of pleasure and profit All their sinfull hopes that cursed tympany they did swell with here their hopes to satisfie their lusts the titillation of their sinfull hearts nay all their formall hopes that Christ would not blast a professed Christian shall all die and fade in their eternity And the damned shall be overwhelmed with cursed desperation as full of torment as void of comfort and hope for evermore the wretched despaire of Judas being the monster his exulcerate conscience brought forth was but a sad embleme of the Reprobates condition in eternity when they shall lie in an hopelesse helplesse endlesse easelesse condition of extremity to all everlasting And it must be so Because the Reprobate never had any true hope or rationall expectation in this life Indeed happily they were inflated with presumption here and their hearts were deluded into a vain dream of future glory but their soules were never winged with true hope it may be with the blaze of hope but not with the grace of hope They never were raised with the Heb. 11. 1. expectation of faith and the reason is because they never had any interesse in Christ which is objective objectively the summe of all true hopes Nor Col. 1. 27. was their hope fastned to or fixed upon a promise for they had no title to a Gospell-promise Indeed all the hopes and expectations of a sinner here they are but the ebullitions of fancy an anchor in the water both uselesse and ridiculous And if their hopes were but counterfeit coyne and alchymie expectation here what shall their hopes be in miserable eternity when they shall be out of sight of the land of promise And what should be a ground to the damned of hope 1. The greatnesse of their torment this is but commensurate to regular justice their inexpressible miseries are but the execution of Gods justice which is essentiall to the divine nature and which after this life is inexorable the very miseries of the reprobate shall be the glory of Gods righteous severity and the very flames of hell as I may say shall cast a light on divine justice Gods compassions in eternity are seal'd up to reprobate ones Or 2. Shall the duration of their torments fill the reprobate with hope Alas every sin they have committed deserves eternall calamity and that propter infinitam Majestatem offensam because of an infinite Majesty offended For sin being infinite ratione objecti in reference to the object the person incensed and because no punishment can be adequate to the deserving of sin in the greatnesse of it For how can a finite creature undergoe an infinite wrath what is abated in greatnesse shall be made up in the duration of the punishment So that the duration of misery shall be no argument to suggest the least hopes to the damned for eternall pain shall be proportionate to divine justice So that hope the last comforter of a wicked man shall leave him in eternity and everlasting despaire shall be as an ever corroding worme to him The Prophet Daniel speakes of an Angell coming down from heaven and saying Hew the tree down and destroy it cut off Dan. 4. 23. her boughs shake off her leaves and scatter her fruit abroad yet leave the stumpe of the roots thereof in the earth Upon which words Ambrose descants elegantly
nakednesse but sin and blasphemy shall cover them as a garment hell shall be the stewes of wickednesse as well as the prison of misery So that to close up this conclusion as the carriere and violence of sin not abating neither shall the terme or time of torment passe away in the reprobates eternity CHAP. X. Concl. 10 Man 's eternall condition admits of no mixture or moderation ALL things in eternity are in the superlative degree Every thing is scrued up to the highest No blended joyes in heaven joyes dampt with tears nor mitigated miseries in hell when the joyes of heaven are described how gloriously are they represented 1 Cor. 2. 9. In heaven there shall be joy in its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 its height 1 Joh. 3. 2. in its fulnesse and musick of glory in Isa 64. 4. its sweetest harmony Moderation here is a vertue in eternity it is an anomaly a meer impossibility The happinesse Quid quaeris ut ascendat in linguam quod in cor non ascendit Aug. in Psal 85. of the Saints shall be as the Sun at noon-day in its most sublime ascent The beatificall vision can be no moderate or ordinary possession but joy in its ravishment felicity in its glory Perfection is the perpetuall signe in heaven And so the miseries of hell are fire in its hottest inflamations no slak't or allayed flames Here indeed David may sing Psal 101. 1. and we may feel mercy and judgment we may observe black and white providences the face of providence sometimes looks pleasant with a smile and sometimes clouded with a frowne mixt together the heat of indignation allayed with the waters of compassion but in heaven there is mercy no judgement and in hell judgement no mercy In eternity there is no blending by a composition of contrarieties Here is correction in judgement Jer. 10. 24. afflictions weighed in the scales of pity and commiseration but in the eternity of the reprobate there is judgement no correction pure flames of wrath as Philos speak fire and heat ad octo Cogita homo quoslibet mundi cruciatus quasque seculi poenas intende animo quosque tormentorum dolores quascunque dolorum acerbitates compara hoc totum gehennae leve Isid Eternity is the wombe of extremity either of delight in transcendency or sorrow in extremity The felicities of the blessed shall be alwayes in a full Sea and the fit of the damneds paine shall be alwayes upon them in the greatest misery the Saints happinesse shall be incomparable and the sinners agonies shall be intolerable Every thing in eternity whether possession or execution shall be stretcht out and wound up to its superlative capacity De poenis excogitari non potest quod ibi non erit Orig. All things shall be boyld up to the height And it must be so For there can be no mixture or mean in the eternity of the Saints It is inconsistent with the price of Christs bloud which hath purchased the revenues of the Saints eternall happinesse shall the bloud of him that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God as well as man procure or purchase an indifferent or mixt happinesse glory that may be overmatcht or that may be raised to an higher enjoyment how would this stain the royalty of Christs bloud Shall so few that is comparatively enjoy the Phaenix-glory that shall arise from the ashes of Christs sufferings and shall that revenue be ordinary or indeed capable of being surpassed A moderate possession is not proportionate to Christs bleeding passion Could we compute what the riches of his merits are or how much value is contained in one groane of him who was innocency it selfe we might easily collect how superlative the joyes of the Saints must be which flow from the fountain of Christs merit Let Arithmeticians cast up what one drop of Christs bloud comes to at the rate how much the Isa 53. 11. travell of Christs soul comprehends and then how exploded will the opinion be if any such be of a mixt or moderate possession in glory what felicities must that bloud purchase which can fetch out the staine of those scarlet sinnes by which the infinite God hath been provoked And therefore Isa 1. 18. Christs purchase speaks the Saints glory Superlative And so doth the magnificence of God himself who gives eternall life to his people If Alexander shall boast of Rom. 6. 23. donum Alexandri Alexanders gift what do the gifts of God weigh what massie happinesse is included in them Heaven as it is the price of Christs bloud so it is the fruit of Gods bounty which must needs be transcendent especially these 3. things being seriously perpended Heaven is Gods last gift his fatherly donation the Saints inheritance not their pension but their portion their ultimate honour In glory God gives like himself gives Col. 1. 12. himselfe the summe of all beatitudes In eternity the Saints have what they must trust to and that is superlatively enough This glory is Gods consummative bounty Luk. 12. 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Kingdome And God in his last gift will not as I may speak crown with a silver crown I mean one that may be bettered will not give comparative happinesse that may admit of a higher degree Not like Herod give halfe of Mar. 6. 23. a Kingdome Gods magnificence invests the Saints with superlative glory Let it be considered whom doth God install in glory not so much his creatures as his children his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his little flocke such as his heart yearns after Can transcendent Isa 49. 15. affection bestow a moderate fruition Surely there will be a proportion between the fulnesse and the fruite of Gods love fulnesse of love can give no lesse then fulnesse of Joy It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the love of a father and the affection of a God 1 Joh. 4. 16. of a father whose love is his nature and of a God who hath all treasures of bounty by him and his love is the key to these treasuries being oyled with the bloud of Christ so Gods relation it amplifies the superabundancy of the Saints eternall possession this addes to the account The fathers promise lies upon record and inrolled for the most glorious promotions to the glorified Saints Let us but traverse that one text Isa 53. 11. He shall see the travell of his soul and be satisfied Ah remember the word satisfied what can satisfie the love of Jesus Christ to his Saints but most transcendent glory to those believers who are the redeemed by his bloud the birth of his travell nay and the travell of his soul the agonies and sweats of his soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Saints were born with the soarest travell and therefore shall be crowned with sweetest felicitie according to that Joh. 17. 24. That where I am they may be also As it were installed in the same Coronation according to Christs
what wofull notions we must paraphrase upon the death of the wicked Death to the wicked is an inlet to eternall wrath it opens the sluces of divine indignation it powres out and unstops the vials of Gods displeasure upon the reprobate soul those drops of anger which here in this life sometimes blasted and scorcht the sinner death turnes into a perpetuall storme and sets the reprobate as a marke for God to shoot all his arrowes of displeasure against him Here indeed in this life the fiercest anger God drawes out Hab. 3. 2. against a sinner is full of mixtures of mercy and pity is attempered with bowels and compassion hath its intermissions and breathing times hath its pauses and stops but death shall cast Rev. 6. 17. the sinner into the furnace whose heat shall not be allayed by any mitigation Death to the sinner is his particular doomesday the firstday of his dreadfull account as soon as ever death divorces Heb. 9. 27. vorces the soul from the body and gives Seneca Philosophi aiunt Mors homini natura est non poena immo vero ipse dico mors homini poena est non natura Corn. A Lap. the parting blow God passeth an immediate sentence of eternall death upon the widowed soul and the Lord begins the execution of the deceased sinner which shall never be overtaken with a close or end Then the sinner shall begin to reape the fruit of all his evill wayes and passively discharge every particular debt Then all the wounds of a wicked mans conscience shall fester and ranckle with intolerable pain and Gods executions shall finde out every vaine thought and die it in the bloud of the soul death immediately Mors est peccati comes filia stipendium in its stroak summons the sinner to the bar to receive the sad sentence and doom which shall be to all eternity in the execution vengeance doth but wait for a sinner till the clock of death strikes and then it seizeth on him as an everlasting prey Indeed the soul being the nobler part of man and so the more blame-worthy as casting it self away upon the account of sin and likewise being the principall agent in all offences for the poor body is dragged and animated by the soul to all miscarriages that gives life and will and love to all corporcall iniquities the body of it selfe being but a dead piece of clay I say the soul being thus the grand agent in all sin it receives its doom first and fals under its wofull execution and death doth cast it upon the spikes of immediate and everlasting ruine Death to the sinner is the ultimate period of all his comforts all his good As the Poet saith Mors ultimalinea rerum and I may in reference to the wicked solaminum too dayes are buried in the grave with him No lightning of comfort followes the thunder of his death when once the sinner dies there is no hope left of ever enjoying again a smile from God applause from the world refreshment from relations supplies from the creature sweetnesse from ordinances or ever lying in the shade of any relaxation In dying the sinners sun is set with all its beams of mercy and consolation the darknesse of the night of death as Joh. 9. â— death is called sometimes shall bury all colour of satisfaction or ease to the sinner In a word to close this Chapter Death in the generall is not mans conclusion but his initiation to joy or torment rather the budding then the withering of his being In death the 2 Cor. 5. 8. soul is neither must out nor rockt asleep death is but the Alarum of the soul to triumph or tribulation Death is not a gulfe but a gale not to drown the dying patient in but for him to passe thorough it can no more bury the soul then the grave could detaine the body of Christ Finally it is mans summons which cites both Saints and sinners before God the courtiers to attend and waite on his throne and the prisoners to heer and undergoe their doom CHAP. XIX Vse 2. of Terrour AND if our future condition be eternall What terrour should it strike into the hearts of all wicked men What do ye mean fond sinners Can ye hang in fiery chains for ever Remember your everlasting Mat. 3 12. condition your eternity the unquenchable fire Can ye undergoe a fit of the stone for a thousand years Or lie upon the wracke for a million of ages Can ye lie upon the points of needles for more ages then there are atomes in the Sun or drops in the Sea Can ye suffer scalding lead in your wounds in the raw gashes of your consciences for such a duration And what is this cold picture of misery to the damneds eternity Look with amazement Eph. 3. 17. on your future calamity unlesse by faith you hide your souls in the Mat. 25. 41. wounds of Christ Pray consider how dolefully will thae dismall voice sound Go ye cursed into everlasting fire The Martyrs fire turned them into Quam tristis vox est judex cum dixerit Ite ashes but the damneds shall not they shall be scorcht with everlasting flames be ever in the act of execution Can O aeternitas aeternitas tu sola ultra omnem modum supplicia damnatorum exaggeras ye endure ye delicate soft effeminated sinners who now cannot endure the buffeting of gentle blast of wind I say can ye endure to be stung with Serpents for as many ages as there are haires on your heads or to drinke the poyson of Aspes for as many centuries as there are sands on the shoar if ye can goe on in your licentious vanities Tell Quis dicere valeat quae impiis male viventibus tormenta sunt praeparata Cassianus me sinner when thou hast spent millions of yeares in torment what an agony will it be to recollect thou hast not spent a moment Shouldest thou lie to eternity on a bed of down how tedious how wearisome would it be how then canst thou lie on a bed of flames How wretched sinner canst thou hear the dolefull knell of an Adesse intolerabile Abesse impossibile everlasting funerall And will those transient glances of sin and pleasure thou hast enjoyed here make eternity spend the more delightfully shall thy enjoyments the bed and the banquet thy lust and luxury in rumination of them be any pastime in hell Remember if thou art Christlesse thou art to be prest to death for ever for ever And therefore awaken ye drowsy and secure sinners lest suddenly ye fall into infinite death Is it not more noble and plausible to swimme in tears then melt in flames The Saints under Potior est pâ—â—nitentia quam poena the Altar cry How long Lord holy and true Rev. 6. 10 11. But they shall wear white garments but how dolefully shall the damned cry how long
impietatis magnitudino peccata sunt punienda time of the commission but according to the nature of the crime it self which is amplified or extenuated according to the quality of the person offended Even in temporall and civill courts of Men few crimes but they deserve punishment of a longer continuance then the commission of them to think therefore that the punishment of sinne should be proportioned according to the time wherein it is perpetrated what greater folly Some faults deserve Dic quae Dementia major Bapt. Vant. imprisonment some proscription and banishment Now how shall the party peccant be exiled and remain in durance no longer then the sinne for which he was banished was in perpetration Murder is soon committed shall the punishment in respect of time be accordingly And to bring it nearer to our purpose what infinite intolerable Everlasting calamities do so many thousand sinnes committed by a vassall a subject a worm a grashopper a pure nothing compared to God against Almighty Incomprehensible Infinite Independent Majesty deserve Eternity it self is too short a space for God to revenge himself on sinners those petulant and contumacious shadowes But I shall no longer wrestle with the vain cavils of fond sinners who because they cannot find Repose in the bosome of Christ think to make their bed in a fancied indulgence and build their hopes on a pleasing dream But I shall draw up my thoughts in asserting the truth viz. that the damned must necessarily be tormented to Eternity in a few considerations The first confirmation shall be taken from the Scripture 16. Luk. 26. And besides all this between us and you there is a great gulf fixed so that they which would come from hence to you cannot neither Sed revocare gradum En. Virg. can they passe to us that would come from thence Here in this scripture this truth is cleared there is no shooting of the gulf to heaven for the damned there is no rising of the sunne in the Horizon of hell that is an Everlasting stoppage between the damned sinners and the glorified saints Let us consider the gate of blessednesse is ever shut against the reprobate as Mat. 25. 12. God shall never unlock to them 13. Luc. 25. Clausae erunt portae per quas aut consolatio aut minima spes liberationis possit intrare 1. The gate of grace 2. The gate of mercy and pitty 3. The gate of indulgence 4. The gate of repentance 5. The gate of Hope 6. The gate of Comfort All ease rest or consolation shall be barr'd up for Ever Let us consider the perfect opposition between the saints and the sinners Now the saints shall rest for ever 4. Heb. 9. and so the sinners shall be on the wrack for Constat quod sicut finis non est gaudio bonorum ita nec tormento malorum Greg. Dial. ever the saints joyes and the sinners groanes shall both be without period the saints pleasure and the sinners pains shall never be shut up neither shall death bury the one nor extinction the other Consider how God hath coupled the damned with the fallen and sinfull Angels 25. Mat. 41. and their doom is eternall Jud. 6. Now as they shall make up one cursed company and damned crew so shall they for ever tast the same wrath from the sinne-revenging God I shall not determine the measure but assert the duration Observe the sinne of the damned cries for eternall vengeance it is infinitae malitiae of infinite evilnesse and therefore it merits eternall punishment Now finne is infinitely evil many wayes In regard it is an offence against an infinite God to strike an inferiour Man is matter of arrest to strike the King matter of death and how infinitely above a poor worm as the greatest Potentate is no more is the great God How infinitely is Majesty above vanity and so the supremest Magistrates are compared to Jehovah Now every sinne is a fighting against God and it being not infinitely punishable because poor man cannot endure it what is wanting in torment must be made up in time In its privation by sinne the soul loseth an infinite good sinne robs the soul 59. Isa 2. Christi meritum est infiniti valeris si hoc perdit peccator of God himself sinne is the great thief it shuts the soul out of the presence of God it steales away the heart of God from a sinner it makes him bankrupt of the most transcendent possession which is God in Jesus Christ In reference to the infinite enlargement of it for the desire of sinning remaines Nunquam vellet peccare definire peccator immo vivere vellei u◠semper posset Bern. still in the sinner Et si peccator in aeternum viveret in aeternum peccaret the wicked man if he lived eternally he would sinne eternally Now the desire of sinning is sinne in Gods account and therefore that being eternall so must the punishment be And as one observes Homo semper peccavit in suo aeterno ideò semper punietur in Dei aeterno The sinner alwayes sinned in his eternity therefore he shall be alwaies punished in Gods eternity Sinne is infinite in point of destruction the sinne of the sinner destroys an immortall an eternall soul a soul created for eternity to be the Everlasting companion of God himself to be crown'd as well as indu'd wirh immortality and upon that account the sin shall be punished eternally The destructive power of sinne is of everlasting concernment and it therefore shall subject the sinner to Everlasting punishment Wicked men must be punished eternally because of the impenitence of the sinner If repentance never be made then release can never be had Penitence forerunneth pardon the teares of the sinner usher in the smiles of the Saviour now repentance cannot befall the sinner in eternity Because Repentance turnes to a reconcileable God looks on an embracing Saviour The Prodigall The penitents pattern runnes to a meeting Father but in eternity all possibility of reconciliation with God escapes the damned their day Quando istinc excessum fuerit nullus jam locus poenitentiae hic Vita aut amittitur aut tenetur hic saluti aeterne providetur Cypr. Ille judex sc Deus nec gratia praevecitur nec misericordia flectitur nec pecunia corrumpitur nec poenitentiâ aut satisfactione mittigatur August is past their terme is ended and now they must for ever behold with amazement God as an angry Judge but never again as a reconciled Father Christ who only can betroth God and Man together was rejected by the sinner here and he shall never offer himself again after death hath shut up both the day of grace and nature together 2. Repentance is a grace Now all spiritual qualifications and habits all grace is a star that shall never shine in the darkness of of Hell in the shades of the Reprobates eternity the works of the Spirit shall not lie in the womb