to have a convoy of Angels to fetch him away and to ascend on high with such a guard of attendants in view of so many witnesses this his glory And thus did he evidence his mediatorship by the lowest humiliation of his humanity and exaltation of his divinity by the glorious miracles by the one he did do and the insufferable injuries in the other he did undergo How many glorious miracles did he work certainly if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon they had repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes Did he not seed your admiring multitudes 5000 of them at one time with five barley loaves and two fishes and twelve baskets of fragments to spare did he not turn water into wine heal the sick make the lame to walk the deaf to hear the blinde to see and the dumb to sing did he not cleanse the Leper cast out Devils raise the dead even a Lazarus that had been a four dayes prisoner in the Grave Many things of him were remarkable and suited with him as he was the Messiah as to his Birth Death and Burial he was born under Augustus Caesar at such a time when there was an universal peace o're the whole world to shew that he was the prince of peace and came to reconcile his Father to fallen man In Bethlehem the house of bread for him that was the bread of life and the life of the world In an Inne a place of common resort for all persons to shew that all persons should have free admission to him and that he was in publick to manifest himself to the world He was Crucified without the Gates of Jerusalem to shew that he died for those out of the pale of the Church on Mount Calvary a place of death to shew that he came to destroy death on a Cross to shew that that was the way to a Crown and by his sufferings on that tree of shame he purchast for us diadems of glory He was buried in a Grave cut out of a Rock to shew that he was the Stone cut out of the Mountain a Grave untoucht for a body undefil'd in a Garden where mankinde was lost for him by whom the world was saved But this is not all he was a King and such a one you lookt for but here 's the difference you lookt for one to come in outward pomp and splendor he in meekness and humility for the glory of his kingdom consists not in outward shew but hidden splendor you lookt for a temporal Savior he an eternal you to be freed in bodies and estates he to save your souls in comparison of which the whole world is not worthy a name you to be delivered from the Roman yoke he from the Devils tyranny The weapons of his warfare were spiritual and his glory not temporal witness his progress to the Royal City for instead of Chariots and Steeds and Trains of State he hath not a beast but a borrowed one to ride upon no Crown on his head no Scepter in his hand no Cloth of State over him no precious Furniture about him no Tissue upon him no Caparisons of Gold under him No rich Carpets and curious Tapestries before him No Heralds in robes No Clarions No Trumpets to proclaim him And yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like this Lilly of the Vallies No Coats of Arms like his Fisher-mens No Laurels to the peoples Boughs No vests of beaten gold to their spread Clothes No Troops of Nobles to his Trains No Grandees to his Disciples which have even the Devils themselves for their subjects no Heralds to the Babes that bless him No Salve's no Jo 's no Ave's to the Hosanna's and Benisons bestowed on him He was a King as he told Pilate but 't was of another world his Throne Heaven the Angels his Courtiers and the whole Creation his Subjects his Judicatory the Courts of Conscience and Church Tribunals and at Doomsday the Clouds It was ordered by Divine Providence that you should put him to death else you should never have had the power to have done it Had he pleas'd he could have call'd Legions of Angels to his rescue one of which armed with his permission able to destroy a world In testimony of which did not the whole fabrick of heaven and earth acknowledge him whom the devils themselves beheld with terror and are you so stupied as not to take notice of him did not you see the rocks rend at his Passion and are you so senseless as to think that a stone shall bar his Resurrection did ye not hear of dead Saints walking up and down the City and do you think to hinder it in a dead Saviour Was not a whole band of you struck down with a word of his Mouth and can a watch keep him from rising up though your Souldiers be too strong for weak Disciples are they able to contend with Angels 'T was strange that he that was immortal should taste of death but impossible he should see corruption Wherefore notwithstanding all your guards he shall rise the third day all the powers of hell shall be too weak to detain him longer or hinder his return to his Fathers Bosome there to continue till the last day and then this Carpenters Son shall come in the Clouds with Power and great Glory and those silly Fishermen sit upon twelve Thorns and judge the twelve Tribes of Israel Look therefore on him now with faith whom else you shall then behold with horror and amazement and now mourn lest then too late ye repent strive to have an interest in his Blood as well as a hand in his Death And now dear Christian let me request thee seriously to look back admire and make a right use of thy Saviours sufferings behold his readiness to suffer his willingless to save the unspeakableness of his pains the greatness of his patience and the luster of his victory how ready was he to save how did his bowels yearn for lost man after the lost sheep of the house of Israel was he come and to save sinners was his errand how ready was he to lay down his life when they came with Swords and Staves to apprehend him did he not betray himself by his so ready a confession I am he How did he hasten that bitter cup and how was he straitned till he did suffer did he not forbid Saint Peter the use of his Sword though in so just a quarrel as his defence how ready was he to pardon how meek and patient in his sufferings was he not the Lamb dumb before the shearers that opened not his mouth who being revil'd revil'd not again but prayed for his enemies whilst they blasphem'd him which prayer of his was so prevalent with his father that in fifty five dayes it occasioned the conversion of eight thousand of his enemies at one time Christs sufferings did as far transcend any other as his Person but they were
shall be prickt with burning forks gluttons tormented with grievous hunger Epicures and voluptuous persons boyl in burning pitch and stinking brimstone the proud shall have shame and the coverous miserable penuty then thou wilt be convinc't to believe what before thou wouldst never credit that there is a Hell for sinners as well as an Earth for men a Firmament for stars a Heaven for Saints and a God in Heaven Then thou wilt wish if wishing would do it that thou hadst been created a loathsom toad that thy miseries might have closed up with thy life rather then to be dying perpetually and never dye for when thou hast languisht in unexpressible agonies tortures gnashings and horrid howlings ten thousand millions of years thou shalt not reach a conclusion 'T is a sad but certain truth that the damned in hell after ten thousand thousand millions of ages they have suffered such torments as none but one of those miserable tortur'd wretches are able to express shall be as far from an end as they were at the beginning That adjunct Eternal intimates such infinitness as neither thought can attract or supposition apprehend And further to amplifie it with the words of a worthy Authour Thóugh all the men that ever have or shall be created were Briarius-like hundred handed and should all at once take pens in their hundred hands and should do nothing else in ten thousand millions of years but sum up in figures as many hundred thousands as they could yet never could they reduce to a total or â—onfine within number this tri-syllable word ETERNALL The darkest Dungeon of Hell shall be the Reprobates everlasting Goal as the chains shall never be loosened or fil'd off so neither shall they change their dolefull habitation but the same prison and wrack the same place as well as degrees of torment shall shackle them to all eternity they shall not change their Tophet nor alter their bed of flames The bodies of the damned those deform'd â—ages of more deform'd souls shall never be blest with a dissolution Divine wrath shall make the bodies of the Reprobate like those stones which Naturalists speak of that alwayes burn they shall be butts for the arrows of Gods displeasure everlastingly to shoot at the smoak of the lake shall not smother them nor the flames of hell consume â—hem nor the least member twin'd into â—â—nders by everlasting burnings Their souls wax old but never die yet perpetually dying there they burn without consuming there they mourn without compassion here are torments without end and beyond imagination here fearful Dives that denied Lazarus a bit of bread now begs a drop of water which is denied him when whole rivers are not sufficient to extinguish his heat Mercy smiles not on these dismal Mansions the damned finde there 's a God to punish that will see execution everlastingly performed but none to pitty or ease those executions O the misery of the damned how intollerable 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 to say they rise to such a height As they are unsupportable so they shall be innumerable and inconceiveable God will then draw his arrow to the head and screw his wrath to an unconfin'd degree What shall limit or be a bank to the inundations of Gods everlasting displeasure Who knows how many drams of poison God will put into the cup of trembling which the wicked must be drinking of for evermore But not to undertake to express those inexpressible miseries or to be endlesse in this endlesse Subject I le leave these tortur'd wretches in the embraces of eternal flames wishing my self nor Readers may ever give a probatum est to those torments and return to the Bar and observe the sentence not of Malediction but Absolution not a go but come not cursed but blessed and possess the Kingdom and now those Saints which before saw but in part and knew but in part shall see and know God and be known of him when faith shall be turned into vision and hope into fruition Augustin wisht he might have seen three things before he died Rome in its glory Paul in the Pulpit and Christ in the flesh the Saints shall see a better sight they shall see not Rome but Heaven in its glory they shall see not Paul in the Pulpit but on the Throne and shall sit with him they shall see Christs flesh not vail'd with disgrace but in its spiritual embroidery as one hath it not a crucified but a glorified body They shall see the King in his beauty Isa 33.17 They shall know what those unseen things are what those fruitions of glory which free grace hath stretcht out to eternity that unshaken and unshaking crown what that everlasting joy they shall there partake of that unfading happiness they are to flourish in to all eternity that eternal house for the security of it 2 Cor. 5.1 the eternal glory for the renown of it 2 Tim. 2.10 that eternal inheritance for the riches of it Heb. 9.15 that eternal redemption for the love of it Heb. 9.12 that eternal salvation for the seasonabless of it Heb. 5.9 those glorious beatitudes which are reserv'd for believers entertainment which shall never receive either damp or death those rivers of pleasure that run at Gods right hand for evermore they shall to their everlasting comfort finde that no sorrow or benight heaven no grief shall thrust into the Brides chamber nor shall any trouble overshadow the everlasting festival of the glorified ones they shall weep no more as one excellently hath it unless it be for joy that they shall weep no more for grief all cause of grief is far remov'd from that presence they that enjoy it enjoy with it an absolute enfranchizement from all incumbrances and inconveniences They are free from want and free from war and free from death and free from devils they are free from want they can want nothing there except it be want it self they may finde the want of evil but never feel the evil of want evil is but the want of good and the want of evil is but the absence of want God is good and no want of good can be in God and what want can be endured in the presence of God where no evil is but all good nor are they free from want onely but wars too with all the mischiefs that are concommitant and all the miseries that are consequent The Kingdom of glory can never be turn'd into an Aceldama no forreign enemy can invade it nor home-bred enemy infest the happiness of it Moses and Aaron shall never be confronted there by any gain-saying Corahs or mutinous Abirams or complying Dathans or any of their confederates King David shall there be free from the pride of all ambitious Absolons from the presumption of all seditious Sheba's and from the wicked counsels of all contriving Achitophels No cursing Shimei's
for posterity to read Judas Iscariot who also was the Traytor Matth. 10.4 And God is so just that he will not act that himself for which he so severely punishes others for being guilty of But secondly did God move David to number the people and doth he yet punish that sin of Davids with the death of no less then seventy thousand Men Is he so severe in punishing that sin of which himself is the Author I answer in the 2 Sam. 24.1 't is said That God moved David to number the people and in the 1 Chron. 21.1 't is said That Satan tempted David to number the people For the reconciling of these Scriptures you are to take notice that God is said to move David to number the people because he did for a little withdraw the Arms of his Protection from him left him to himself and permitted Satan to tempt him who fraught with malice enough against David proves successful in his attempts and brings David to commit this sin And for further confirmation of this Truth I shall borrow an Arrow out of a Learned Quiver and demonstrate the several kindes of Tempters with the various natures of their Temptations God Satan Man the World and the Flesh are all said to tempt God temps Man to try his obedience Satan temps Man to draw him from obedience Men tempt men to try what is in them and Men tempt God by distrusting his Power The World is a Tempter to keep Man from God and the Flesh is a Tempter to bring him to the Devill So God tempted Abraham in the offering of his Son Satan tempted Job in the loss of his Goods A Queen tempted Solomon in trying his wisdom The Israelites tempted God by unbelief in the Desert The World tempted Demas when he forsook the Apostles and the flesh tempted David when he fell by Adultery and his own corruptions together with the instigation and sollicitation of Satan tempts him to commit this sin for which God was so highly displeased with him that he sent such a harsh summons to him that instead of answering he breaks out in the language of the Text And David said c. And thus have I fairly remov'd this great block out of the way at which many have stumbled and many more might have fallen what now remains but that I onely in brief set down the sad effects of sin in general to all mankinde and so I le conclude But by the way I must crave leave of my Readers to make a short digression briefly to shew how glorious man was by Creation how happy in his state of Innocency how great his fall and how miserable the effects of it and that shall be my conclusion Man was created a glorious Creature and heir to much happiness put in a state of innocency seated in an earthly Paradise and placed as a Monarch over all the Creatures that God made except those blessed Angels that are resident in a higher Sphere the Beasts of the Field and the Fowls of the Air the Fish in the Sea and all Creeping things did him homage and he gave them their Names The place of his Residence the Garden of Eden a fit Emblem of that Celestial Paradise that is above there being all the varieties that heart could wish or desire to make a life happy without either carking or caring moiling or toiling sighing or sorrowing and to make his happiness compleat he was to continue without the limits of Threescore Years and Ten or Fourscore Years his Body no less immortal then his Soul Here was a happy life indeed where there was no Sicknes to torment no Death to affright or Devil able to hurt And as a further addition to his Happiness that nothing might be wanting that may any way conduce to his well being a beloved companion is given him with such a body and such a soul as he had for his perpetual consort to keep him from the dumps of melancholly and be a constant sharer with him in all his felicity Adam thus happy the fruit of every tree in that glorious Eden onely one excepted was for his use and to eat of that one tree was death to himself and posterity This tree stood in the midst of the Garden and served as a touchstone to try their obedience The Devil not long before thrown from Heaven for his pride perplext not more at his own misery then mans happiness envying that Man a creature inferiour to him by creation should usurp his place to fill up that room or shine in that Orb whence himself was cast resolves to work his wits to bring Man as miserable as himself and thus he manages the design he gets into the Serpent so climbs the tree waits his opportunity and sets upon the Woman tells her the tree is handsome the fruit beautiful and the taste much more delightful and finding her not so tractable as he desired further bespeaks her thus Fear not the threats or menaces of thy Creator for no evil shall acrue to thee or thine by eating the lovely fruit of this fair tree Do not make me believe a thing I know to be false tell not me of dying the death 't is no such matter for when you have once tasted you shall be no longer servants of him that made you but Lords and Masters of your selves and every way as great and as good as he that made you Were not trees made for fruit and what was fruit made for but to eat then why not this as well as others And thus by the alluring speeches of this subtil deceiver the Woman is deluded Adam perverted the most high God highly dishonoured and all mankinde without an infinite mercy ruined she tastes and gives her husband with her and he did eat And so man that was so fearfully and wonderfully made and in so happy and glorious condition hath forfeited all by this one act of disobedience is become a Map of perfect misery so that as one wittily observes man is shut out of the doors of his everlasting habitation for two pretty toyes an Apple and a Woman And now the judgements of God like a troop pursue him and his posterity and all the miseries and calamities of this life and that to come follow close at his heels as the effect and reward of sin and brings him to such a Non-plus being loaded with so much gilt and attended with so many judgements and therefore no wonder to see him cast down and dejected Wherefore doth a living man mourn or complain was a Prophets question and 't is sadly answered by himself A man for the punishment of his sin Lam. 3.39 I have sinned and what shall I say unto thee O thou preserver of men sayes Job Wo unto us for we have sinned cryes the Church Lament 5.16 David cryes That his sins were gone over his head and become a burthen too heavy for him to bear and therefore after his committing this sin no wonder if he
their hearts and the Devil himself sometimes counterfeits an Angel of light Many make a fair profession of Christianity that speak well hear much and understand more upon examination you will finde by their actions that they have meerly a form of godliness but deny the power of it that at best will appear but like the Devil in Samuels Mantle We use to say that all is not gold that glisters and 't is as true that all are not holy that seem so all not Saints that have demure looks and specious pretences Our Saviour hath told us that the tree is known by his fruit and God that searches the reins knows the heart and judges of the outward actions by it Balaams words bespeak him both a Prophet and a Saint and he did as clearly prophesie of Christ as any Prophet of the Lord either before or after him and 't is thought by some that his Prophecy of a Star to rise out of Jacob c. drew those Persians King to attend the motion of that Star that appeared at our Saviours Incarnation 'T is most certain that Balaam spake so well that no man could speak better yet he could speak so bad that the Devil himself could not speak worse as when he advised the Moabites to send their Daughters to commit whoredom with the Israelites which occasioned the death of twenty four thousand Hebrews And so I pass from the Speakers description to the description of his Speech The speaker was Balaam and his speech or rather his prayer was Let me dye the death of the righteous and let my latter end be like his Balaam is so taken with the rayes of that Glory he beholds at a distance that he grows impatient No more of life nothing in it so desirable No more of this world he sees more glory in the next and therefore courts death to convey him to that glory which he so much longs for Let me dye c. What could he not dye without asking leave without much intreaty death was ready to attend him and for want of help he might have been his own executioner and as King Saul did a long time after made his own sword to have given him his Mittimus to the grave No Balaam as bad as he was would not lay violent hands on himself he knew that God would not entertain any runnagate or straggling sons that came without his call That God who infus'd a living Soul into our Bodies when we began to be will not have that soul come forth till he require it 'T is written Revel 3.21 To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne To him that overcomes not to him that runs away to him that conquers not him that flies from his colours We are now but on our way not yet in our countrey In this world we must do our work in that to come we must have our wages Here we must fight under the Banner there we must receive if we deserve it the Crown This world is a Sea of trouble that a Haven of rest and those who to avoid the troubles of this rush themselves out by laying violent hands on themselves shall never reach the happiness of that For how can God afford Mercy to those who have none for themselves Balaam would dye but how There are saith one three sorts of death the death of Nature the death of Sin and the death of Grace or rather a gracious death or the death of the Just 'T is onely the last that Balaam sues for Let me dye sayes he but no death will serve his turn but that of the Just Let me dye the death of the righteous and let my latter end be like his My latter end he is not altogether for himself he hath some care of his posterity after him he knew that God would be Abrahams exceeding great reward and that he would be the same to his seed that he was to him be the God of his seed and of his seeds seed and in them should all the Nations of the world be blessed So Balaam prayes in respect of his own particular end and for his posterity those that were come or were to come out of his loins Let my latter end be like his Now for the further amplifying of this Prayer of Balaams I shall draw these following Conclusions from it First That the Righteous dye c. Secondly That their death is happy and attended with glory Thirdly That none shall dye so but those that live so or that a holy Life is the onely prologue to a happy Death Lastly I shall present you with some short Directions how to lead such a life how to reach such a Death and this shall be my conclusion That Death is a debt of Nature to be paid by all the sons of men is so known a truth that it needs no further proof then common experience the decree hath long since gone forth that all men must once dye So sure as death sayes our common Proverb and that 's so sure that nothing more certain For of all the Priviledges that Christ purchast for the sons of men he never granted this for he himself tasted of death and so must all those do that breathe upon this earth except those onely that shall be found alive at the day of judgement which shall not dye but be chang'd None are exempted from deaths rage no honey without this gall no exaltation without this humiliation all must pass through his black Gates ere they can enter into glory And this brings me from the first conclusion to the second from the certainty of death to all mankinde to the Happiness of it to the righteous Let my latter end be like his I cannot blame Lalaam for making such wishes and it had been well for him if it had fallen so he had then been eternally happy as now miserable Indeed death to a righteous man is but a sleep for so our Saviour stiles it it puts an end to our miseries and a beginning to our joyes it cures all diseases the aking head and the fainting heart Asa of his Gout and Mephibosheth of his lameness Lazarus of his Sores and Gehazi of his Leprosie finishes that life that was a kinde of death or a passage to it and gives birth to another not subject to mutation and serves as a short bridge to conduct the Pious soul to a spacious inheritance But it may here come within the verge of an inquiry whether the righteous may desire death 't is answer'd that it may de desired not for it self but for what it brings First we may desire it as it puts a period to sin there 's no offending of God in the Grave sin will be an inmate with the choicest of Gods Saints whilst they are here but is forc't to leave them when they leave the world For as one observes sin was
repose for Beasts far unfit for the King of kings Bed-chamber the Lamb which all the shepherds left their flocks to finde is laid in a Manger his attendants but mean and not many his reputed Father and the Blessed Virgin no sooner eight dayes old but the circumcising knife according to the Law must pass upon him that came to fulfill both the Law and the Prophets with the loss of his Blood as an earnest of that which after in a more abundant manner flowed from him And before two years old is forc't to flye for his Life when he could not go his whole Life 't was but a continual supply of Crosses from his Alpha in the Manger to his Omega on Mount Calvary from his Cradle to his Crucifixion and from his Womb to his Tomb he might truly be termed a man of Sorrows When once he shewed himself to the world how was he hunted like a Partridge upon the Mountains in often hazards of his Life ere his hour was come he should lay it down He had not his mean Birth for nothing for as he was born under another mans roof so all the time of his Life had he no house of his own he that was Lord of all possest nothing He was poorer then the Foxes and not so rich as the Fowls of the Aire for the one had holes the other had nests but he no place of his own to rest in For a house he hath not a hole for Lands he hath none but what he treads upon for moneys a fish brings him a piece to pay his Tribute with for pleasure the Cross is his Cognisance for Honour Contempt is his common Livery How much ignomy and contempt did he pass through and how many opprobrious words did he patiently receive from the foul-mouth'd Multitude who were ever guilty of putting the worst glosses and constructions on his â—ctions If he works miracles they presently twit him with his Parentage Is not this the Carpenters son and can good come out of Nazareth If he converse with sinners he must be one himself or at least a friend to them and in that they spake truer then they were aware 〈◊〉 for he was the best friend that Sinners or Publicans ever had If he heals a Cripple or do any other work of mercy on the Sabbath day he is presently censur'd for a profaner of the Sabbath If he cast out devils he doth it by Belzebub at last his Exit draws nigh that all the miseries of his life shall be infinitely transcended by a painful and shameful death as a sad preface to which in order to the compleating the work of mans Redemption begins his agony in the Garden where indeed he receiv'd the first relish of that bitter cup of his Fathers Indignation which he was to drink of Here began the travel and anguish of his Soul that produc't those drops of bloody sweat which in so plentiful a manner flowed from him in a cold Winters night The conflict must needs be sharp that put him in such a heat in so cool an Aire as doubtless it was for the sins of the whole world lay upon him 'T was thy sin O man caused this blood-shed Thy guilt this sweat that was the Sword this the fire which made this blood and sweat Adam sinn'd in a Garden Christ there sweats for it his day lust made this night sweat Mans spirit was distempered in Eden Gods body therefore is thus bedew'd in Gethsemane that we might not burn and fry in Hell he thus sweats and bleeds on earth he suffers this horrid Agony for a time that we should not endure a hellish and worse extremity for ever so he was Gods Holocaust that we might not be the Devils Burnt-offering Besides Gethsemane's pains Golgotha's was upon him those floods of blood foreseen made these drops trickle The passion then to be acted on his body was now imprinted in his minde the rage of Hell the wrath of Heaven the wretchedness of man ingrateful man for whose sake all this was suffered to save him from that wrath and Hell Heaven Earth and Hell all in Union to afflict one though God and Man must needs make a heavy conflict a bloody Agony And that it might not be long ere he finish that on Mount Calvary which he hath so sadly begun here that the one might be but a short and sharp preface to the other he is betrayed be that did eat at his Table with him kicks up his heel against him and traytor-like betrayes him with a kiss and delivers him into the hands of his cruel enemies who with an unlimited rage do begin to abuse him and is now tost like a Ball from one place to another whilsâ— malice is inventing new tortures He iâ— first brought to the house of Annas the high Priest who restrains not the inraged multitude from venting their malice in revenge thence is sent to Caiphas another of the Devils Sanedrims who had formerly in a councel resolved he should dye yet now paliating the designe with the scheme of a Tribunal They seek out for Witnesses and the Witnesses are to seek out for allegations and when they finde them they are to seek for proof and those proofs were to seek for unity and consent but all too short to reach his innocency he is sent to Pilate who understanding him to belong to Herods Jurisdiction sends him to Herod who sets him at naught and his men of War abuse him what else to be expected from rude Souldiers whose very sports are cruelty then sent back again to Pilate attended with the hiddeous exclamations of the Rabble-rout whose note as they pass along nothing but Crucifie The Roman President smelling malice in the business uses several arguments of perswasion to appease the multitude and asswage their malice in order to the saving of his life The first drawn from his Innocency I finde no fault in him nor yet Herod he is an innocent Person one so far from deserving death and that I cannot finde he ever did any thing to merit a reproof malice it self cannot tax him of any Crime except innocency be Criminal here I bring him forth to you that you may know that he is clear from all objections and nothing justly to be laid to his charge and no fault no sentence I that sit in the place of Judicature must not commit so great a piece of injustice as the sentencing an Innocent to death But this not satisfying the multitude he delivers him over to bloody chastisements so he is torn with Whips crowned with Thorns blind-folded derided and buffeted even to the wearying of his tormentors Pilate being himself mov'd with pitty at the sight presents him in this forlorne and dolorous condition to them that his blood might become a mantle to him that if his innocency could not speak sufficiently for him his sorrows might Behold the man behold an Innocent afflicted one without Crime miserably chastiz'd who can behold him without pitty
unto him by Michael Paleologus Emperour of Constantinople askt whether those things could drive away calamities diseases or death No this they cannot do as Henry Beauford that rich and wretched Cardinal found by woful experience in the dayes of Hen. 6. who perceiving death at hand askt wherefore he should dye being so rich if the whole Realm will save my life I am able either by policy to get it or by riches to buy it Fie quoth he will not death be hired will money do nothing No money in this case bears no mastery death as the Jealous man will not regard any ransom neither will he rest content though thou offer many gifts Prov. 6.25 'T was but a vaine conceit of one who when he heard that his sickness was deadly and that he was for another world call'd for a bag of gold and laid to his heart as if that which had solely swayed him in his life to the committing of many prepostrous actions should now do something for him but he finding no ease by it threw it away crying it would not do Nor was he less ridiculous who being ready to expire clapt a twenty shillings piece of gold in his mouth saying some wiser then some I le take this with me howsoever alas he and his gold must now perish together death shews him a dismal change for now Balaam and his Bribes Belshazzar and his Bowls Dives and his Dishes Herod and his Harlots the Usurer and his Bills the Merchant and his Measures shall part assunder for ever which made one that was ready to breath his last call for his bags of money and sadly took his leave of them in these words Ah! I must now leave you there is no remedy I tremble to think in how sad a manner the wicked leaves the world to think what a sad fit of trembling doth surprize him when the cruel Sergeants and merliless Officers of the King of Terrors do arrest him as it were in the Devils name when death shall come with a writh of Habeas corpus and the Devil with a writh of Habeas animam when the cold Earth must have his Body and hot Hell hold his Soul Reader now tell me which is the happiest man Adrian the Emperour when his soul was ready to fly from his body bespake it thus O animula vagula blandula quae jam abibis in loca Poor forlorn soul into what gloomy and dismal mansions art thou now departing but of those Mansions in my next discourse I shall now with a few words to the Temporizing Professor and my Readers in general bring this to a conclusion First to the Temporizing Professor you I mean that in all mutations will be men of the Times be they never so bad and call those Men and Times blessed and glorious which make you gainers that admire all men for their greatness and conclude those to be hated of God that are despised of men and censure all as Reprobates that are not of your spirit You that pretend to such a transcendent measure of perfection to such high notions and revelations as if with St. Paul ye had been wrapt up into the third heaven and understood more then all your forefathers did as if Christ had led his Church in ignorance and blindness for 1600 years and upwards till you came with your new Discoveries You that have prated Religion out of the Nation as if it consisted in nothing but words and instead of practising the Graces of the Spirit as Faith Repentance Humility Charity c. studied nothing but needless and unnecessary Questions not at all tending to Edification but Vain glory which have enlarg'd the Breaches of the Church instead of closing them up Remember that God is just as well as merciful and though he spares you long will pay you at last and though you feed your selves like porkets with the fat things of the world a time will come when you shall cast it up again and all your hypocrisie shall be unmaskt and unvail'd both to Angels and men Humble your selves therefore under the mighty hand of God left for your pride God inflicts on you the saddest Judgement that is mention'd in the Book of God of being deliver'd over to a Reprobate sense Oh take heed that Satan couzen you not to hell and there twit you as he did Saul in Samuels mantle when there is no place for repentance You know what a plausible speech he made in the mouths of Ahabs Prophets when he tic't that King to his ruine have a care that ye are not condemn'd one day for condemning others and spued out of the Bridegrooms mouth for your lukewarnnesse think not me your enemy for telling you the truth be not Solomons fools to hate instruction better repent these things here then in a worse place consider seriously the foregoing Discourse take notice of the sad exit of wicked men that the doleful sound of their sad and too late Repentance may seasonably caution you by their harms to beware One word more think not without Repentance ever to arrive at Glory there 's no going to heaven on beds of doun you have more cause to fear exchanging doun pillows for beds of flames there 's no leaping from Dives his diet to Lazarus his crown nor from Dalilahs lap to Abrahams bosom Lastly To my Readers in general Let me caution you to take notice of Gods Omnipotency Omnisciency and Justice and our own Mortallity and these severally and seriously considered may be a motive to startle us from the very thoughts of those sins that we commit with greediness First his Omnisciency Remember that he is an all-seeing God that discovers all our actions and beholds all our wayes to whom the day and the night the darkness and the light are both alike If we dare not commit our beastly sins before the eyes of men how dare we presome to commit them before him that is able everlastingly to damn us and throw our souls into Tophets endless flames Secondly his Omnipotency Let us adumbrageously fancy as one hath it the Firmament to be his face the all-seeing Sun his right eye the Moon his left the Winds the breath of his nostrils the Lightning and Tempests the troubled actions of his ire the Frost and Snow his frowns that Heaven is his throne the Earth his footstool that he is in all things that his Omnipotency fills all the vacuities of Heaven Earth and Sea that by his power he can ungirdle and let loose the seas impetuous waves to orewhelm and bury this lower Universe in their vaste wombs in a moment that he can let drop the Azure Canopy which hath nothing above it whereto it is perpendicularly knit or hurl thunderbolts through the tumerous clouds to pash us precipitate through the center into the lowest dungeon of hell and that all the creatures in their several ranges are as so many Regiments of the great King and that with the meanest of these he can avenge
himself on sinners as he did on Pharaoh Herod c. In the next place let 's acknowledge his Justice Remember that he is a jealous God a perfect hater of sin and will bring every work to judgement And last of all that we take notice of our own Mortality and let the thoughts of that debar us from sinning we know not whether we shall live to see another day and shall we be found sinning on our last Let the uncertainty of that which will certainly once come put us in a posture of preparation for its coming and since that upon this moment depends our either everlasting woe or welfare let 's lose no time For as the Poet no less sweetly then discreetly sung who knows o're night that he next morn shall breath Therefore take Davids early in the morning not the Devils stay till to morrow think not to be accepted in thy makers presence one day if thou crammest the devil with thy sap of strength full gorge him with the purest fruits of thy sinewy virility if at last when thou art not able to do God or the devil service thou comest limping on Times tottering Crutches to present unto him the offall husks and morosity of thy doting decrept age Think every day thy last and spend it as if it were so for we know that God will bring us to judgement yet we know not when nor in what year nor in what moneth of the year nor in what week of the moneth nor in what day of the week nor in what hour of the day nor in what minute of the hour nor in what moment of that minute for he will come like a thief in the night suddenly before with a wink thou canst lock up thine eye or within thy brain create the nimblest thought the apprehension of which must needs stir us up to live in Gods fear so shall we dye in his favour and rest in his peace and rise in his power and reign with him in his glory world without end Godliness bearing its Rewards with it both here and hereafter and Sins pursuit of the Sinner to the other World Of the last Judgment and those succeeding Events that ensue thereupon A Meditation on 1 Tim. 4.8 HAppinesse is the mark and center which every man aims at the next thing that is sought after being is being happy where David begins his Psalms we all hope to end and that 's with blessedness and no way to reach that but holiness That holinesse is the way to happinesse or that the godly man is the truly happy man I have already sufficiently manifested in my last Discourse and therefore shall be the more sparing here in my Allegations for I would not take the pains o're again to prove what is proved already but happinesse is such a subject that I could willingly dwell upon and fill a large Volumn with a discourse upon it desiring that my portion may rest here but I am confin'd to such narrow limits both of time and paper that I cannot insist long on any one particular I shall therefore briefly strike at that which is here chiefly intended and before I have worn my Readers patieence quite out shall draw to a conclusion That the godly man is the happy and onely happy man will be further manifested in the end after the end of all things but first in this life we will prove him happy here as well as hereafter in this world as well as the world to come though not so happy here as there Neither prosperity nor adversity can come amisse to him though the times vary his happinesse is still the same like his God that changes not all things still work together for good to him and albeit he hath no perogative above the sinner from those two beds of mankinde of sicknesse and the grave his priviledge lies another way No Kings except such hath like perogative to the Saints God is their Father Christ their Brother the Holy Ghost their Comforter Angels their Guardians Saints their Associates Death their desire the Grave their rest the Bar their joy God their portion the Trinity their propriety Heaven their home Eternity their term before death their perogative is much at it more after it most but from death and diseases none by death they have from it not Put the case that God permits wicked men to ride over him and men and devils to use their utmost extremity to him which is to put his dayes to a shameful and a painful period for the shame Christ hath taken that away and for the pain that will soon end in endlesse pleasures what unhappinesse in this when all they do or can do is but to open the prison-doors of his body to let out his soul to fly to rest from the labour of the servant to the joy of the master from the work to the reward and from the crosse to the crown there to solace it self in those rivers of pleasures at Gods right hand whilest his precious ashes are preserved as in a safe store-house till the last trumpet shall shall alarm it to give its beloved companion the meeting to be made eternally happy together never to part more a Saint at his death is assured that a few moments will bring his departing soul to endlesse happinesse and that Angels attâ—nd him to do their office of wafting it into Abrahams bosom And now judge Reader whether I may not upon good consideration say that godlinesse is gain I know there are some and they such whose hopes extend not further then this life that invert this saying and tell us that gain is godliness and no happinesse without gain their sordid gain and albeit it I have sufficiently exploded this errour in my last Discourse I shall now notwithstanding more fully if that may be give a confutation in this as ye will the more clearly apprehend if ye minde the conclusion The longest day with have a night and the longest life will have an end Let the sinner live as long as he can a miserable period will at last be put to his sinful dayes and that period will decide this controversie Those who in their life were the Diana's of the people that seem'd the most high and happy will at their death but more clearly afterward appear most miserable as they have spent their dayes in the unprofitable works of darknesse so they shall finde but an unprofitable reward for their works they shall for their pains meet with such pains as shall never have a period The Devil comes now to expect his due that as he was their slave for a time upon earth they may eternally be his vassals in a worse place that as they did the works of darknesse and workt for the Prince of darknesse now receive their portion in utter darknesse There 's no denying or forswearing of bargains no talk of circumventing this experienced Politician the richest presents nor the loudest cryes nor the saddest tears nor
the greatest threats nor the humblest intreaties shall not serve the turn The usurers gold cannot ransome him nor the mighty mans honour priviledge him those that shut up their bowels of compassion from others shall finde nothing but tyranny from him Here the luxurious Epicure that through the five Senses which are the cinque ports or rather the sinners ports of the soul did gulp down delightful sin like water shall now finde that those pleasant dayes are now blown over and that the end will prove them like the Angels book sweet in the mouth but bitter in the bowels in that he must in few moments be wafted to remorselesse flames Here the gorbellied Mammonist that piled up huge masses of refulgent earth purchased by all unconscionable courses shall have nothing left but a coffin and winding sheet and which is worst of all a guilty conscience now all his fair pretences and apologies will be but like characters drawn upon the sands or arrows shot up to heaven ward they cannot release him from Satans inexpiable Servitude Deaths warrants run very high Non omittas propter ullum libertatem attache them where ever thou findest them there are no places in the world free from the arrests of death and when once this grim Serjeant death hath arrested their bodies their souls must be presently sent to the bar of judgement for particular sentences then actum erit as one hath it the matter will be past cure now the day-book of their own consciences will be produced as a thousand witnesses against them for there the debt of sin is scored up and never to be crost till expung'd by repentance which is now too late to speak of and now shall not the Judge of all the world do right Yes surely and he will give the Devil his due as the Devil bought their souls so he must now have them The Devil is the Jaylour of Hell and thither the Judge commands them Take them Jaylour saith the Judge take them Devil and keep them till the general Judgement that then their miseries may be compleated and suffer in soul and body as they sinned in both The end comes when the earth shall tremble and the foundations of the hills shall be shaken when the Sun shall be turn'd into darkness and the Moon into blood to usher in the coming of that day at which time how wilt thou be beleagur'd with anguish and horror when thou shalt behold with thy mortal eyes the Cataracts of Heaven unsluced and hushing showers of sulphrous fires disperse themselves through all the corners of the Earth and Air the whole universe o're-canoped with a remorse lesse flame when thou shalt see the great and glorious Judge appear triumphantly in the Skies whilest mighty winged clouds with devouring flames fly before him as ushers to his powerful and terrible Majesty attended with innumerable multitudes of beautiful Angels golden wing'd Seraphims and Cherubims sounding their shrill alarms whose clamorous tonges shall affright the empty air and call and awake the drouzie Dead from their dark and duskie cabbins when thou shalt see the dissipated bones of all Mortals since the creation concatinate and knit in their proper and peculiar form amazedly start up and in numberless troops flock together all turning up their wondering eyes to gaze upon their high and mighty Creator When thousand thousands shal minister unto him ten thousand times ten thousand stand before him the Thrones set for judgement and the Books opened and nothing remain but a fearful expectation and looking for of judgement and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries Then will thy Conscience recommemorate a fresh thy past committed sins and with the coroding sting of guilt stab through thy perplexed soul Then indeed to be nothing were something but that will not be for Justice must now exact to the utmost farthing 'T will be too late to wish the mountains to fall upon thee for they themselves would if possible for fear shrink into their center Alas it cannot then be available to wooe the Waters to swallow thee for they would be glad to exclaim their liquid substance and be reduc't to a nullity What will it boot thee to intreat the Earth to entomb thee in her darkish womb when she her self will struggle to remove her local residence and to fly from the presence of the great Judge The Air cannot muffle thee in her foggy vastity that will be clearly refin'd there 's celestial flames uncontaminated with humane pollution so that thou must be forc't to appear before a most severe Judge carrying in thy own conscience thy Indictment ready written and a perfect Register of all thy misdeeds When thou shalt see him that was once a Saviour now a Judge whose Knowledge is infallible whose Power is infringible and his Justice inflexible of exceeding dreadful Majesty clothed in glorious apparel and his body shining through it like sparkling diamonds his eyes like burning lamps his face like flashing lightning his arms and legs like inflamed brass his voice like the shout of a multitude or of many waters prepared for thy idle words evil deeds time mispent and talent ill govern'd to pass the sentence upon thee against whom thou hast transgressed and he thy umpire whom by many offences thou hast made thine enemy And in order to a full and clear accomplishment of Justice a final separation shall be made no hypocrite shall closely lurk here among the Saints the Gold shall be taken from the Dross and the Silver from the Tin the Tares from the Wheat and the Corn from the Chaff the Sheep from the Goats the Vile from the Precious and the Elect from the Reprobates and plac't on each side the Judge those on the left hand to be doom'd to everlasting punishment and those on the right to life eternal How will it then perplex thy afflicted soul to see those on the Judges right hand whom thou contemnest as inferiour to the dogs of thy flock who shall now be one of that Jury that shall confirm thy condemnation and applaud the sentence of the Judge here shall be a general Audit the Widows tears and the Orphans cryes shall be here regarded what wouldst thou now give for a good conscience that were a jewel of price then Christian graces shall be more precious then natural gifts There the foolish and dumb may be more happy then the wise and eloquent there the ignorant Rustick may be preferred before the knowing Philosopher and the mean Beggar before the mighty Prince and the simple and ignorant before the witty and subtle There simple obedience shall be found better then cunning hypocrisie a clear conscience more pleasant then profound Philosophy zealous prayers of more worth then fine tales and good works more acceptable then sweet words then shall the poor and meek triumph and the proud shake and tremble then shall the memory of misery be sweet because they are past and the thoughts of pleasure be
sad because they are all blown over The godly shall rejoyce and the reprobate howl then shall base apparel be glorious and proud attire infamous then shall all black and diabolical designs perpetrated in darknesse be made visible and the most retiredst actions and transactions that ever were huddled up in the world with the greatest privacy be exposed to the open view both of men and Angels Then if ever as one ingeniously hath it naked breasts and black spots shall be in fashion when all things shall be naked and bare and the sinner appear like the Leopard full of spots Then shall it appear who have been the Idolaters whose God was their belly and gold their hope and flesh their arm that with the French fool would not have left their part in Paris for their part in Paradise Then shall it appear who have been the swearer and common perjut'd person who have set a brazen face on a bad matter and gilded a falshoood with an oath of sanctity though it proceeded from the father of lies whither they are going Then shall it appear who have been the Ahabs that have killed Naboth for his vineyard and who the Ishmaels the make-bates that hated their brethren with a perfect hatred whose hand was against every man and every mans hand against them Then shall it appear who have been the Machiavels that have neglected those pretious opportunities Providence put into their hands to advance the glory of God and the good of Nations for their own base interests raising themselves out of the ruine of thousands Then shall it appear who have lorded it over their brethren more righteous then they and maliciously persecuted for no other cause then filthy lucre sake to the temporal undoing both of them and their posterity If any that read this Book as 't is possible some may with prejudice against the Author are guilty of this let them respect me for giving them this timely advice aforehand Then shall it appear who have been the nice Non-conformist that not out of tenderness of conscience or zeal to Gods Glory but for sedition sake and vain glory would be of the singular number Then shall it appear who have under pretences of zeal jugled their brethren out of their estates and term'd those malignant whom the righteous Judge shall proclaim the contrary Then shall it appear who have been at the charge of clothing with silk and gold the images of men and let the poor go naked who is the image of God Then it shall appear who have worn a cross on the belly while the belly was an enemy to the Cross of Christ Then shall it appear who have slily slided into Brothel-houses in the dark to commit their obscenities and return'd unseen of men and presently busied with their Pater nosters and who have maintain'd those Shambles of forbidden flesh with their Pimps Panders c. and other devilish and unquoth titles which then shall be known Then shall it appear who have blinded the eye of Justice with bribes and shut their ears against the clamorous cryes of the innocent that made the Law a nose of wax to turn and fashion to their own private ends to the disparagement of Justice and lamentable subversion of many an honest and upright Cause their quirks dilatory demurs conveyances and connivances cannot quit them for now whether they will or no they must be removed with a Writ into the lowest and darkest dungeon of damnation For no bribes shall be taken in this Court here shall Justice be obtain'd without money no relations shall take place here for there shall be no respect of persons with this Judge the great Jehovah shall now judge the world in righteousness Acts 17.31 Set now before thine eyes therefore that which thou must then set before them when thy self shall be set before so terrible a Tribunal above thee an angry Judge before thee the Books of Indictments at thy right hand the Devils accusing and calling for sentence which Justice cannot deny at thy left hand the world of wicked ones howling behinde thee the Angels guarding and presenting thee in Court within thee thy conscience gnawing without the world flaming beneath Hell yauning and gaping wide for thee as an eternal and irrecoverable morsel when to appear will be intollerable to be hid shall be impossible O the horror of that day of that sentence Go ye cursed what doom so great great as this depart from peace from life from hope from possibility of being any other then eternally exquisitely miserable 't is pain to mention these woes 't is more then death to fell them into hell take him Devils binde him hand and foot cast him into utter darkness where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth for ever shut on him seal to him the eternal impregnable doors of vengeance Rouze up your selves hellish furies horrors fears agonies madness vexations despisers never dying worm and the ever burning fires According to the several degrees of vanity let several degrees of tortures and torturers devils and devilish plagues masacre and torment them let no eye pitty them and let their vain eyes be put out in obscure darkness see nothing but infernal visions the vain ear hear nothing but shrieks and derided cryes of the tormented let loathsom brimstone fill the sent and let the flesh that before embracing and embraced vain wanton touches be food stubble fuel to a never quenched fire within without every way in body soul conscience Let vanity kindle those flames which are easeless endless remediless Sit mors ipsa immortalis Had we now but a glimpse of those miseries and did but hear the uncessant groans of those dying ones and had but the least sense of those torments for a moment we should soon guess what it were to live with everlasting burâ—… the thoughts of which would 〈◊〉 a divorce 'twixt us and our most beloved sins which are hells fuel as one calls them that like Samsons foxes carry fire in the tail of it O forlorn and miserable wretch to receive this fearful and irrecoverable sentence when not onely Devils but Saints and Angels shall plead against thee and thy self maugre thy self be thy sharpest appeacher What wilt thou do in these dreadful exigents when thou shalt see the gastly dungeon and huge gulf of Hell Aetna-like breaking out with most fearful flames yet perpetual darkness when thou shalt see the weeping and gnashing of teeth the rage of these hellish monsters the horror of the place the rigor of the pain the terror of the company and the eternity of all these punishments where the fire is unquenchable and the pains unsupportable our fires here may be endured that is intollerable ours are for comfort that for torment ours must be fed or will go out that burns continually without feeding ours gives light that none ours consumes the matter and â—â—ds the pain that torments but never conâ—â—mes to make the pain perpetual There idle persons