possessions in large thy territories dominions yea commaund if thou wilt whole empires and worlds yet shalt thou never bee so great as the least of all the servants of almightie God who shall receive that treasure which this world cannot give shall enjoy that felicitie which shal endure for evermore when thou with thy pomp and riches shall bear the rich glutton companie whose buriall is in the deepe vault of hell but the devout spirituall man shall be carried by the holy Angels with poore Lazarus into Abrahams bosome a place of perpetuall rest joy sollace and eternall happines ¶ Of the benefites which our Lord promiseth to give in this present life to such as live a iust and godly life PEradventure thou wilt now say that al these things before rehearsed bee rewards and punishments only for the life to come and that thou desirest to see something in this present life because our mindes are wont to bee mooved very much with the sight of things present To satisfie thee herein I will also explaine unto thee what may answere thy desire For althogh our Lord do reserve the best wine and the delicat dishes of most delight untill the end of the banket yet he suffereth not his friends to bee utterly destitute of meat and drinke in this tedious voyage for he knoweth very wel that they could not otherwise hold out in their journey And therfore when he said unto Abraham Feare not Abraham for I am thy defendor and thy reward shall bee exceeding great By these wordes hee promised two thinges the one for the time present that was to be his safegard and defence in all such things as may happen in this life the other for the time to come and that is the reward of glorie which is reserved for the next life But how great the first promise is and how many kinds of benefites and favours are therein included no man is able to understand but onely hee that hath with great diligence read the holy scriptures wherein no one thing is more often repeated and set forth than the greatnesse of the favours benefits and priviledges which Almightie God promiseth unto his friends in this life Hearken what Salomon saith in the third chapter of his Proverbes as touching this matter Blessed is that man that findeth wisdome for it is better to have it than all the treasures of silver and gold be they never so excellent and precious and it is more worth than all the riches of the world and whatsoever mans heart is able to desire is not comparable unto it The length of daies are at her right hand and riches and glorie at her left Her waies be pleasant and all her passages be quiet she is a tree of life to all those that have obtained her and hee that shall have her in continuall possession shall bee blessed Keepe therefore O my sonne the lawes of Almightie God and his counsels for they shal bee as life to thy soule and sweetnesse to thy tast Then shalt thou walke safely in thy waies and thy feet shall not find any stumbling blockes If thou sleep thou shalt have no cause to feare and if thou take thy rest thy sleepe shall be quiet This is the sweetnesse and quietnesse of the way of the godly but the waies of the wicked are far different as the holy Scripture doth declare unto us The paths and waies of the wicked sayth Ecclesiasticus are full of brambles and at the end of their journey are prepared for them hell darkenesse paines Doest thou thinke it then a good exchaunge to forsake the waies of Almightie God for the wayes of the world sith there is so great difference betweene the one and the other not onely in the end of the way but also in all the steps of the same What madnesse can bee greater than to chuse one torment to gaine another by rather than with one rest to gaine another rest And that thou maist more clearely perceive the excellencie of this rest and what a number of benefits are presently incident therunto I beseech thee hearken attentively even what Almightie God himselfe hath promised by his Prophet Esay to the observers of his law in a manner with these words as diverse interpreters doe expound them When thou shalt doe saith he such and such things which I have commaunded thee to do there shall forthwith appear unto thee the dawning of the cleare day that is the sonne of justice which shall drive away all the darkenesse of thy errours and miseries then shalt thou begin to enjoy true and perfit salvation Now these are the benefits which almighty God hath promised to his servants And albeit some of them bee for the time to come yet are some of them to be presently received in this life as that new light and shining from heaven that safetie and abundance of all good thinges that assured confidence trust in the almightie God that divine assistance in all our praiers and petitions made unto him that peace and tranquilitie of conscience that protection and providence of Almightie God All these are the gracious gifts and favours which almightie God hath promised to his servaunts in this life They all are the works of his mercie effects of his grace testimonies of his love and blessings which hee of his fatherly providence extendeth To bee short all these benefits do the godly injoy both in this present life and in the life to come and of all these are the ungodly deprived both in the one life and in the other Wherby thou maist easily perceive what difference there is betweene the one sort and the other seeing the one is so rich in graces and the other so poore and needie For if thou ponder well Gods promised blessings and consider the state and condition of the good and the wicked thou shalt find that the one sort is highly in the favour of Almightie God and the other deeply in his displeasure the one be his friends and the other his enemies the one bee in light and the other in darkenesse the one doe enjoy the companie of Angels the other the filthie pleasures and delights of swine the one are truly free and lords over themselves and the other are become bondslaves unto Sathan and unto their owne lusts and appetites The one are joyfull with the witnesse of a good conscience and the other except they be utterly blinded are continually bitten with the worme of conscience evermore gnawing on them the one in tribulation stand stedfastly in their proper place and the other like light chaffe are carried up and downe with everie blast of wind the one stand secure and firme with the anker of hope and the other are unstable and evermore yeelding unto the assaults of fortune the praiers of the one are acceptable and liking unto God and the praiers of the other are abhorred and accursed the death of the one is quiet peaceable and precious
untill feare enforce him to it but let us frame our premises as wee would find our conclusion endeavouring to live as wee are desirous to die let us not offer the maine crop to the devill and set God to gleane the reproofe of his harvest let us not gorge the Devill with our fairest fruits and turne God to the filthie scrapes of his leavings but let us truly dedicate both soule and bodie to his service whose right they are and whose service they owe that so in the evening of our life wee may retire to a Christian rest closing up the day of our life with a cleare sunne-set that leaving all darkenesse behind us we may carrie in our consciences the light of grace◠and so escaping the horrour of an eternall night passe from a mortall day to an everlasting morrow Farewell STrike saile poore soule in sins tempestuous tide That runst to ruine and eternall wracke Thy course from heaven is exceeding wide Hels gulfe thou ent'rest if grace guide not backe Sathan is Pilot in this navigation The Ocean sin the rocke hell and damnation Warre with the dragon and his whole alliance Renounce his league intends thy utter losse Take in sinnes flag of truce set out defiance Display Christs ensigne with the bloudie crosse Against a Faith-proofe armed Christian knight The hellish coward dares not mannage fight Resist him then if thou wilt victor be For so he flees and is disanimate His fierie darts can have no force at thee The shield of faith dooth all their points rebate He conquers none to his infernall den But yeelding slaves that wage not fight like men Those in the dungeon of eternall darke He hath enthralled everlasting date Branded with Reprobations cole-blacke marke Within the never-opening ramd up gate Where Dives rates one drop of water more Than any crowne that ever monarch wore Where furies haunt the harttorne wretch despaire Where clamours cease not teeth are ever gnashing Where wrath vengeance sit in horrours chaire Where quenchlesse flames of sulphur fire be flashing Where damned soules blaspheme God in despight Where utter darkenesse stands remov'd frō light Where plagues inviron torments compasse round Where anguish rores in never stinted sorrow Where woe woe woe is every voices sound Where night eternall never yeelds tomorrow Where damned tortures dreadfull shall persever So long as God is God so long is ever Finis ¶ Of the punishments which our Lord threateneth unto such as live a sinfull life ONe of the principall meanes that our Lord hath used oftentimes to bridle the harts of men and to draw them unto the obedience of his commaundements hath beene to set before their eyes the horrible plagues and punishments that are prepared for such persons as be rebels and transgressors of his law For althogh the hope of the rewards that are promised unto the good in the life to come may moove us very much hereunto yet are we commonly more mooved with things that bee irkesome unto us than with such as bee pleasant even as wee see by dayly experience that wee are vexed more with an injurie done unto us than delighted with any honour and wee are more troubled with sickenesse than comforted with health and so by the discommoditie of sickenesse we come to understand the commoditie of health as by a thing so much the better perceived by how much more it is sensibly felt Now for this cause did our Lord in times past use this mean more than any other as it appeareth most clearly by the writings of the Prophets which are every where full of dreadfull sayings and threatenings wherewith our Lord pretendeth to put a terrour into the hearts of men and so to bridle subdue them under the obedience of his law And for this end hee commaunded the prophet Ieremie That hee should take a white booke and write in the same all the threatnings and calamities which he had revealed unto him even from the first day he began to talke with him untill that present houre and that he should read the same in the presence of all the people to see if peradventure they would be moved therwith unto repentance and to chaunge their former life to the end that hee might also chaunge the determination of his wrath which hee had purposed to execute upon them And the holy Scripture sayth That when the Prophet had done according as he was commaunded by almighty God and had read al those threatenings in the presence of the people and of the rulers there arose such a feare and terror amongst them that they were all astonished and as it were bestraughted of their wits looking one in anothers face for the exceeding great fear which they had conceived of those words This was one of the principall meanes which almightie God used with men in the time of the law written and so hee did also in the time of the lawe of grace in which the holy Apostle sayth That as there is revealed a justice whereby God maketh men just so is there also revealed an indignation and wrath whereby hee punisheth the unjust for which cause S. Iohn Baptist the glorious forerunner of our Saviour Christ was sent with this commission and embassage to preach unto the world That the axe was now put to the roote of the tree and that everie tree that brought not foorth good fruite should bee cut downe and cast into the fire Hee said moreover That there was another come into the world more mightie than hee that carried in his hand a fanne to winnow and cleanse therewith his flower and that hee would put up the corne into his garner but the chaffe hee will burne in a fire that should never bee quenched This was the preaching and embassage which the holy fore-runner of our Savior Iesus Christ brought into the world And so great was the thunder of these wordes and the terrour which entered into mens hearts so dreadfull that there ran unto him of all estates and conditions of men even of the very Pharisees and Publicanes yea and souldiours also which of all others are woont to bee most dis solute and to have least care of their consciences and each of them demanded for himselfe particularly of that holy man what hee should doe to attaine unto salvation and to escape those terrible threatenings which hee had denounced unto them so great was the feare they had conceived of them And this is that deare Christian brother which I doe at this present in the behalfe of almightie God deliver unto thee althogh not with such fervencie of spirit and like holinesse of life yet that which importeth more in this case with the same truth and certainetie for so much as the faith and Gospell which S. Iohn Baptist then preached is even the same now taught Now if thou bee desirous to understand in few words how great the punishment is that almightie God hath threatened in his holy Scriptures to the wicked that which may most
are evermore in continuall motion There is no feaver so fervent that dooth not decline neither greefe so sharpe but that after it is much augmented it dooth forthwith decrease To be short all the tribulations and miseries are by little and little worne away with time and as the common saying is Nothing is sooner dried up than teares Onely that paine in hell is alwaies greene onely that feaver never decreaseth only that extremitie of heat knoweth not what is either evening or morning In the time of Noahs flood Almightie God rained forty daies and fortie nights continually without ceasing upon the earth and this sufficed to drowne the whole world But in that place of torment in hell there shall raine everlasting vengeance darts of furie upon that cursed land without ever ceasing so much as one onely minute or moment Now what torment can be greater and more to be abhoâ—â—â—d than continually to suffer after one like manner without any kind of alteration or chaunge Though a meat bee never so delicate yet in case wee feed continually therupon it will in very short time be very loathsome unto us for no meat can be more precious and delicat than that Manna was which almightie God sent downe unto the children of Israel in the desart yet because they did eat continually therof it made them to loath it yea and provoked them to vomite it up again The way that is all plaine they say wearieth more than any other because alwais the varietie yea even in punishment is a kind of comfort Tell me then if things that bee pleasant and savorie when they be alwaies after one manner are an occasion of loathsomenesse and paine what kind of loathsomnesse will that be which shall bee caused by those most horrible paines and torments in hell which do continue everlastingly after one like sort What will the damned and cursed creatures think when they shall there see themselves so utterly abhorred forsaken of almightie God that hee will not so much as with the remission of any one sin mitigate somwhat their torments And so great shall the furie and rage bee which they shall there conceive against him that they shall never cease continually to curse and blaspheam his holy name Vnto all these pains there is also added the pain of that everlasting consumer to wit the worme of conscience wherof the holy Scripture maketh so oftentimes mention saying Their worme shal never die and their fire shall never bee quenched This worme is a furious raging despight and bitter repentance without anie fruit which the wicked shall alwais have in hell by calling to their remembrance the oportunitie and time they had whiles they were in this world to escape those most greevous and horrible torments and how they wold not vse the benefit thereof And therefore when the miserable sinner seeth himselfe thus to be tormented and vexed on every side and doth call to mind how many daies and yeares hee hath spent idly in vanities pastimes and pleasures and how oftentimes he was advertised of this perill and how little regard he tooke thereof What shall hee thinke What anguish and sorrow shall there be in his heart Hast thou not read in the Gospell that there shall be weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth The famine of Aegypt endured onely seven yeares but that in hell shall endure everlastingly In Aegypt they found a remedie though with great difficultie and charge but for this there shall never any remedie be found Theirs was redeemed with monie cattell but this can never bee redeemed with any manner of exchange This punishment cannot be pardoned this paine cannot bee exchaunged this sentence cannot bee revoked Oh if thou knewest and wouldest consider how everie one condemned to hell shall there remain tormenting and renting himselfe weeping and wailing and saying O miserable and unfortunate wretch that I am what times and oportunities have I suffered to passe in vaine A time there was when with one cup of cold water I might have purchased to my selfe a crowne of glorie and when also with such necessarie workes of mercie in releeving the poore I might have gained life everlasting Wherefore did I not looke before me How was I blinded with things present How did I let paâ—â—â— the fruitfull yeares of aboundance and did not enrich my selfe If I had beene brought up amongst Infidels and Pagans had beleeved that there had been nothing els but onely to be borne and to die then might I have had some kind of excuse and might have said I knew not what was commanded or prohibited me but for so much as I have lived amongst Christians was my selfe one of them professed and held it for an article of my beleefe that the hour should come when I should give up an account after what order I had spent my life forsomuch also as it was daily cried out unto mee by the continuall preaching and teaching of Gods embassadours whose advertisements manie following made preparation in time and laboured earnestly for the provision of good workes forsomuch I say as I made light of all these examples and persuaded my selfe very fondly that heaven was prepared for me though I took no pains for it at all what deserve I that have thus led my life O ye infernall furies come and rent me in peeces and devour these my bowels for so have I justly deserved I have deserved eternall famishment seeing I would not provide for my selfe while I had time I deserve not to reape because I have not sowne I am worthie to be destitute because I have not laid up in store I deserve that my request should now be denied mee sith when the poore made request unto mee I refused to releeve them I have deserved to sigh and lament so long as God shall bee God I have deserved that this worme of conscience shall gnaw mine entrails for ever and ever by representing unto me the little pleasure that I have enjoied and the great felicitie which I have lost how far greater that was which I might have gained by forgoing that little which I would not forgoe This is that immortall worme that shall never die but shall lie there everlastingly gnawing at the entrailes of the wicked which is one of the most terrible pains that can possibly be imagined Peradventure thou art nowe persuaded good Reader that there can bee added no more unto this than hath beene said But surely the mightie arme of God wanteth not force to chastice his enemies more and more for all these paines that are hetherto rehearsed are such as doe appertaine generally to all the damned but besides these generall paines there are also other particular paines which each one of the damned shall there suffer in diverse sort according to the qualitie of his sinne And so according to this proportion the hautie and proud shall there bee abased and brought low to their great confusion The covetous shall bee
breefely and most to the purpose bee spoken in this matter is this That like as the reward of the good is an universall good thing even so the punishment of the wicked is an universall evill which comprehendeth in it all the evils that are For the better understanding whereof it is to bee noted That all the evils of this life are particular evils and therefore doe not torment all our sences generally but only one or some of them As taking an example of the diseases of our bodie wee see that one hath a disease in his eyes another in his eares one is ficke in the heatr another in the stomacke some other in his head And so diverse men are diseased in diverse parts of the bodie howbeit in such wise that none of all these diseases be generally throghout all the members of the bodie but perticular to some one of them And yet for all this wee see what greefe onely one of these diseases may put us unto and how painefull a night the sicke man hath in any one of these infirmities yea although it bee nothing else but a little ach in one tooth Now let us put the case that there were some one man sicke of such an universall disease that hee had no part of his bodie neither any one joint or sence free from his proper pain but that at one time and instant hee suffered most exceeding sharpe torment in his head in his eyes and eares in his teeth and stomacke in his liver and heart and to bee short in all the rest of his members and joints of his bodie and that hee lay after this sort stretching himselfe in his bed beeing pained with these greefes and torments everie member of his bodie having his particular torment and greefe Hee I say that should lie thus pained and afflicted how great torment and greefe of mind and bodie thinke yee should hee sustaine Oh what thing could any man imagine more miserable and more woorthie of compassion Surely if thou shouldest see but a dogge to be so tormented and greeved in the street his verie paines would move thy heart to take pittie upon him Now this is that my deare Christian brother if any comparison may bee made betweene them which is suffered in that most cursed and horrible place of hell and not onely during for the space of one night but everlastingly for ever and ever For like as the wicked men have offended Almightie God with all their members and sences and have made armour of them all to serve sinne even so will hee ordaine that they shall bee there tormented everie one of them with his proper torment There shall the wanton unchast eyes bee tormented with the terrible sight of devils the eares with the confusion of such horrible cries and lamentations which shall there bee heard the nose with the intollerable stinke of that ougly filthie and loathsome place the tast with a most ravenous hunger and thirst the touching and all the members of the bodie with extreame burning fire The imagination shall bee tormented by the conceiving of greefes present the memorie by calling to mind the pleasures past the understanding by considering what benefites are lost and what endlesse miseries are to come This multitude of punishments the holy scripture signifieth unto us when it sayth Math. 15. Psalm 10. That in hell there shall bee hunger thirst weeping wailâ—ng gnashing of teeth swords double edged spirits created for revengement serpents worms scorpions hammers wormewood water of gall the spirit of tempest and other things of like sort Whereby are signified unto us as in a figure the multitude and dreadfull terrour of the most horrible torments and paines that be in that cursed place There shall bee likewise darkenesse inward and outward both of bodie and soule farre more obscure than the darkenesse of Aegypt which was to bee felt even with hands Exo. 20. There shall bee fire also not as this fire here that tormenteth a little and shortly endeth but such a fire as that place requireth which tormenteth exceedingly and shall never make an end of that tormenting This beeing true what greater wonder can there bee than that they which beleeve and confesse this for truth should live with such most straunge negligence and carelesnesse as they doe What travell and paines would not a man willingly take to escape even one onely day yea one houre the very least of these torments and wherefore doe they not then to escape the everlastingnesse of so great paines and horrible torments endure so little a travell as to follow the exercise of vertue Surely the consideration of this matter were able to make any sinfull soule to feare and tremble in case it were deepely regarded And if amongst so great number of paines there were any manner hope of end or release it would be some kind of comfort but alas it is not so for there the gates are fast shut up from all expectation of any maner of ease or hope In all kind of paines and calamities that bee in this world there is alwais some gap lying open whereby the patient may receive some kind of comfort sometimes reason sometimes the weather sometimes his friends sometimes the hearing that others are troubled with the very same disease sometimes at the least the hope of an end may cheare him somewhat onely in these most horrible pains miseries that be in hell all the wayes are shut up in such sort and all the havens of comfort so embarred that the miserable sinner cannot hope for remedie on any side neither of heaven nor of earth neither of the time past or present or of the time to come or of any other means The damned soules thinke that all men are shooting darts at them and that all creatures have conspired against them that even they themselves are cruell against themselves This is that distresse whereof the sinners doe lament by the Prophet saying The sorrowes of hell have compassed mee round about and the snares of death hath besieged me For on which side soever they looke or turne their eyes they doe continually behold occasions of sorrow and greefe and none at all of any ease or comfort The wise virgins sayth the Evangelist that stood readie prepared at the gate of the bridegroom entred in the gate was foorthwith locked fast O locking everlasting ô enclosure immortall ô gate of all goodnes which shall never any more bee opened againe As if hee had said more plainely the gate of pardon of mercie of comfort of grace of intercession of hope and of all other goodnesse is shut up for ever and ever Six dayes and no more was Manna to bee gathered but the seventh day which was the Sabboth day was there none to bee found and therefore shall hee fast forever that hath not in due time made his provision aforehand The sluggard sayth the wise man will not till his ground for feare of cold and therefore shall hee