who is of so great dignity and to whom he owes the Honour of a true Subject And if the Prince and he should live for ever it were just that he should keep him in Prison for ever till he acknowledge his fault and humble himself unfeignedly for it as the Wicked in Hell will not to any purpose They will not humble themselves for their sins in any Religious way no not then when they are tormented for them as may be discovered ere long And if an offence against a man may deserve perpetual Imprisonment how much more may an offence against God deserve perpetual Damnation What are all the men in the world to him Behold saith the Prophet All Nations before him are as nothing Esay 40.17 and vanity Answer 4 4. It is not contrary to justice but an executing of just vengeance for God to condemn the sinful Angels to everlasting Punishment 2 Pet. 2.4 2 Pet. 2.4 He spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down to Hell when once they had sinned God spared them not his Justice took hold on them immediately and condemned them to Everlasting punishment for their state is expressed by St. Jude v. 6. by Everlasting chains under darkness and our Saviour tells us that Everlasting fire is prepared for them Matth. 25. v. 41. And certainly no man will question whether they shall be punished Everlastingly by that Everlasting fire or not unless he be bewitched by Mr. R's evil Spirit And though it were severity and strict Justice so to deal with them yet we know it was no injustice at all for He is a Righteous God and without Iniquity And though His ways are sometimes past finding out Deutr 32.4 Psal 9.7 Rom. 11. yet still we must say as those in the Revelation Just and True are thy ways O King of Saints Assuredly he will not punish the Devils themselves one whit longer than their sins deserve And if the sins of Angels are justly punishable with Everlasting punishments must we not acknowledge the same concerning sinful men and their sins Is sin any better thing in Men than in Angels or is God any fitter to be despised and dishonoured by them than by the other Doubtless if it make the noblest Beings worthy of Everlasting shame it must needs make their Inferiors so too To which let me add thus much that he hath laid more engagements upon Men to obey him than he hath done upon the fallen Angels He hath given Time and Means and Motives to Repent and promiseth Mercy and Salvation in and through Christ Esay 55.7 in case they forsake their evil ways and turn unto him which he hath not done for the fallen Angels And as for the Inferiority of Mans Nature to the Nature of Angels That I say is so far from excusing or extenuating their fault in sinning against him as that it seems very plainly to aggravate the offence If it be so horrible for Angels and Powerful Spirits to cross his Will and oppose his Laws and Government it seems to be much worse for Dust and ashes so to do As 't is a greater piece of Impudence for a mean person to contradict his Prince than for Lords and Nobles so to do Answer 5 5. 'T is not unknown what Miseries sin brought upon the Lord Jesus when he stood in the place of sinners It made him sweat as it were drops of Bloud it made his Body subject to Buffettings Scourgings Wounds and Death yea a shameful and accursed Death Matth. 27. Luke 23. c. it made his name subject to reproaches and Accusations and bitterest Scoffs and Taunts from the basest and wickedest men It made his Soul to be full of Sorrow though it were free from all spot of sin It made him a man of Sorrows on Earth who is the Matter of Heavens Joy It made him to be despised and rejected of men and live a life of continual Persecutions who is the object of the Angels Worship and at whose Birth they sang A Hymn of Praise Thus we see what Miseries he bore when he undertook for sinners and bare their sins 1 Pet. 2.24 And yet the sins that Christ became answerable for were not any sins of the Impenitent that live and dye such for if he had made satisfaction for them they should not be condemned for them as we know they shall Now if Christ suffered so much when he undertook for them that in time should repent if they came to years how great must that punishment be which the Impenitent must bear when they must answer for themselves That which in the Penitent man made Christ to suffer so great things for a time being imputed to him as the surety for the sinner must needs in the impenitent deserve Everlasting Punishment It is more for Christ to suffer for a time than for sinful men to suffer for ever He being * Rom. 9.5 God as well as man that which by Imputation to Christ made him liable to temporal vengeance and the curse of the Law must needs make the sinner worthy of Eternal vengeance being inherent in him and acted by him and attended with final impenitence as it is in them that perish Answer 6 Sixthly Sin being committed against a God of Infinite Majesty and Excellency as a dishonour to his Name and a violation of his Law must needs deserve a kind of Infinite Punishment for Justice requires a kind of proportion between the fault and the punishment Now because the wicked cannot bear a punishment that is infinite in weight and degree to compensate the wrong done to an Infinite Majesty therefore they must bear a punishment that is Infinite in duration and continuance Answer 7 Seventhly An Everlasting Punishment is suitable if not to the Act of sin so properly yet to the principle of sinning There is such a corrupt disposition in wicked Men that they would sin perpetually if they could There is no ungodly course they have delighted themselves in but they would do so still if they might have their own choice If a Lyar a malicious Miser a Contemner of God's Ordinances should live ten thousand years he would be as very a Lyar as covetous and malicious c. as ever he was And the like may be said in other cases The hearts of the children of men are fully set to do evil Eccles 8.11 They would have sinned for ever and why should not they suffer for ever what more just than that those should never want for sorrow that would never consent to forsake their sin If a man were to live on Earth never so many thousands of years and his Prince should know he would always be of a Rebellious disposition he would think he had reason enough to keep him in prison all that time And yet as was said before there is no comparison between the Princes of this world and the God that made it The Wicked cease not offending when they are in
he should tell them so his speech would seem as Ridiculous unto them as his Book is Odious unto me And in case He should suffer them to be familiar with him 't is possible they might tell him that at this rate of Arguing his own Beard might be called an Everlasting Beard for it is capable of growing whiles the nourishing matter lasteth i. e. whiles there is any considerable moisture remaining in his Pericranium And what Spirit I would demand hath moved him to make use of that Sacred Text of S. Jude to justifie such a piece of Learning by Jud. 7. opened I find not any Expositors of Note that Interpret that Eternal fire there mentioned of That fire that consumed the Cities nor is there any shew of Reason why it should be so called so far as I can apprehend and if the reason were as Mr. R. would have it because it went not out while the Combustible matter lasted why might we not call the flame of a Farthing Candle an Everlasting fire since it will last till the wiek is spent but rather do they interpret it of the Everlasting Wrath and Vengeance of God Dr. Willet on Jude Mr. Baxter Saints Rest Part 2. cap. 10. which is fitly compared to fire in various respects which I need not now insist on Dr. Willet makes it a proof of their Everlasting punishment and Mr. Baxter makes it an Argument of the present Punishments of the wicked in Soul immediately after death in opposition to those that imagine their Misery to be put off till the Day of Judgment And if Mr. R. should Interpret the Everlasting punishment after the same manner of a punishment that shall last as long as the wicked shall endure He will overthrow his whole design for they shall endure for ever and see corruption no more after they are once raised from the grave 1 Cor. 15.52 in the Text aforesaid Fourthly R. What if the Fire were Everlasting yet it will not follow that That which is cast into it is Everlasting His fourth Exception p. 20. to which he adds The wicked are compared in Scripture to Chaffe and Stubble which will not be long in consuming Answer 1 The Text under consideration speaks not of Everlasting Fire but of Everlasting Punishment And if it should be granted that there may be an Everlasting fire and no person everlastingly burning in it yet he doth not imagine there can be an everlasting punishment for the wicked and yet no wicked man to be punished with it for ever Answer 2 2. If it were not for contradicting such a man as Mr. R. why might we not say that it will follow that the persons cast into that fire shall be there for everlasting because the Fire it self is everlasting for without the supposal of their continual burning in that everlasting fire I say without that the word everlasting which flames with more terror than the fire it self and makes it most exceedingly intolerable should stand in effect for a Cypher and become a meer Bug-bear to fright fools withal for if a wicked man be soon consumed after he is cast into Hell fire then the everlastingness of it afterwards will be as nothing unto him he being upon that supposal past its fury Answer 3 3. And if Mr. R. had been so minded why might not he have preached glad tydings to the devils themselves for he might bespeak them thus Rejoyce O ye unclean Spirits or at least Despair not for who knows but your punishments may be ended in time for what though Christ tells us of Everlasting fire prepared for you yet it will not follow that ye shall suffer everlastingly in it Yet however his Book hath pleased them as being so dangerous to the Souls of men I am confident they would take little comfort in such a comfortable preachment as this And if his work should not prove to be done well in what he taught us in this Exception we must excuse him the better because he hath endeavoured to mend it by offering this following Observandum viz. That R. the wicked are compared in Scripture to Chaffe and Stubble which are not long in consuming in any fire that they fall into So then that 's the proposition Mr. R. his excellent Comparison examined from which his Reader he hopes is wise enough to draw the conclusion that therefore the wicked shall not be always burning in Hell-fire because they are compared to Stubble which will not burn long before it be consumed And at this rate it might as well be concluded that they shall not suffer in it so much as one minutes time for a great deal of Stubble if cast into a violent fire may be consumed in less than a minute Yet if my Author should say the word Everlasting may mean no more than a minutes time we shall know in some measure what answer to give him in that case And I would fain know how this Comparative Argument will hold for Comparisons as they say non currunt quatuor pedibus i. e. do not hold in all respects but in some only Psal 22.6 David compares himself to a Worm yet we will not say therefore that he had no bones in his body nor no reason in his Soul because a Worm hath not So the Scripture saith the Saints are as Christ himself was in this world as He was so are we in this world yet it follows not that the Saints are here without any sin because Christ was so 'T is enough that they are as he was in other respects namely subject to scorn and contempt and manifold troubles and temptations So the wicked are as Chaffe and Stubble in some respects that is fitted for vengeance and not able to resist it when it comes upon them as Stubble is fit for fire and cannot resist its violence or the like R. 'T is to be noted that the Scripture sometimes useth such words as do exceed their signification Nahum 3.9 His fifth Exception p. 20. as in Nahum 't is said That the Æthiopian Army was infinite that is very great Answer 1 But first At this rate it would follow that the Everlasting Punishments of the Wicked after the Day of Judgment must be Punishments of very long continuance for doubtless Everlasting is as proper to signifie very long as Infinite is to signifie very great Yet this will not suit with the Theologie of Mr. R. his Masters or Brethren as may be shewed in time and place nor doth it well agree with that Opinion which he would promote by his Comparison of the quick dispatch which the Stubble receives from the fire it 's cast into Answer 2 Secondly he saith well that it is sometimes so for therein he gives us to understand that it is not always so and by consequence that there is no necessity of expounding it so in the words of our Saviour in Matth. 25. ult M. 25.46 And that the word Everlasting
in the Grek to give vengeance to those that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And can he be said to give vengeance to them when he takes away their very Beings and so maketh them uncapable of receiving any punishment at all Surely not The lawful Magistrate under Christ is appointed to act the part of a Revenger upon them that do evil * Rom. 13.4 And that vengeance which according to God's Ordinance he inflicts upon Malefactors is commonly such as they are very sensible of And shall not ungodly sinners feel their punishment to the purpose as we say when the Supream Law-giver shall set himself purposely to execute wrath and render vengeance to them yea doubtless they shall For when He will execute vengeance upon them Ezek. 25.17 they shall then know that He is the Lord as the Prophet speaks But 't is plain they could not do so if his vengeance did consist in taking away their Being that which is not cannot know any thing 2. Destruction is not used in Scripture in reference to Men to signifie any such thing as the Total abolishment of their Natures Let any of my Author's Opinion disprove this by any Text whatsoever Indeed 't is said of the old World that the Flood came Matth. 24.39 and took them all away but 't is omnes only not totos it took away All those Persons viz. out of the Land of the Living But it did not take away the whole Natures Their Souls are living still And God will be so far from destroying the Souls of the wicked as to their Nature and Being as that he will quicken and raise their Bodies which Death and Worms had destroyed formerly Acts 24.15 There shall be a Resurrection of the just and the unjust saith St. Paul in the Acts. And they shall be raised for good and all as we say so as to see corruption no more for ever 1 Cor. 15.52 3. That to destroy signifies in respect of the wicked a state of real Misery and Torment as when it is said Matth. 10.28 that God is able to destroy Body and Soul in Hell that is to fill them with perfect Misery And if it were meant of destroying their Beings then that dreadful word Hell which is added as an aggravation of the destruction would signifie just nothing in point of Terror for if a Man be turned into nothing it is all one whether it be in the one or the other for nothing is no nearer to something in Heaven than in Hell And thus also the word is used very often in our own Language As when we say of Oppressors that they have destroyed whole Families we do not mean that they have turned them into nothing but that they have brought them into a calamitous condition And this I hope may be enough for that Text and I think it is not too much A third place I shall offer Matth. 25.41 urged for it to prove the everlastingness of the Punishment of the wicked is Matth. 25.41 He shall say unto them on his left hand Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels 1. They must depart viz. really by changing place as Christ is departed or gone into Heaven in 1 Pet. 3. 1 Pet. 3. ult last vers where it is the same Greek Verb that is used in both places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so supposeth the continuance of their Being 2. They must depart not into Nothing or such a state if I might so call it as the World was in before its Creation but into Fire 3. And this Fire of what sort soever it be God knoweth is an everlasting Fire in the same sense as the Life and Happiness of the Righteous is everlasting Life in 46. verse yea it is that everlasting Fire which the Devils shall be for everlasting punished with v. 41. as in the Text it self and therefore certainly is everlasting in the saddest sense or without end And if any Man shall say they may be cast into this everlasting Fire but not suffer everlastingly in it he had need have no less than Mr. Richardson's Learning to enable him to give a good Account of his speech And he that can conceive any such thing as probable may by the same degree of acuteness perswade himself 2 Pet. 1.11 that the Saints may go into the everlasting kingdom of Christ and yet possibly not dwell everlastingly in it which yet they will hardly question in the least measure while they have so many faithful promises of a Happy Eternity * 1 Thess 4.17 Rev. 22.5 c. A fourth Text of Scripture which may conveniently be urged for the everlastingness of the punishment of the wicked is Daniel 12.2 Daniel 12.2 urged and opened Many that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt But before I come to speak of that which most directly concerns my present purpose Many how understood it will not be amiss to explain the word many for some have gathered from thence that there shall be no general Resurrection The weakness of which Opinion to speak no worse of it I might shew from a great many places These two for brevity sake I shall content my self with Jo. 5.28 29. The hour is coming wherein All that are in the Grave shall hear his Voice Jo. 5.29 and come forth c. So then there are none excepted And in the 24. chap. of the Acts it was the Apostles belief Acts 24.15 That there shall be a Resurrection of the just and the unjust that is of all and every one of them for if the just there do mean All the just the unjust must mean All the unjust for the phrase is alike of both of them so that he that grants the one may not deny the other And therefore that Text in Daniel cannot tend to strengthen that Opinion which that we may the better perceive these three things may be considered 1. That the Multi ex dormientibus many of them that sleep vid. Synops crit in loc is in substance the same as if it were said Multi dormientes i. e. Those many that are sleeping in the Dust of the Earth And then it will be no less than if it were said All of them 2. That the Proposition is particular only and therefore will not warrant a Universal Negative to be inferred from it Many Saints or Multitudes of Saints shall be caught up together to meet the Lord Jesus 1 Thess 4.17 at his coming to Judgment is a Truth Yet we cannot truly conclude that All shall not Doubtless their Lord will receive them all as well as any And St. Paul makes no difference between himself and the rest of the faithful in respect of that priviledge 3. Many sometimes put for All. By
Hell They will be Blasphemers Revel 16.9 11. when they cannot be Atheists Drunkards and Cheaters c. and will hate God's people when they cannot hurt them They will always be destitute of true Holiness and be enemies to it when they are in Hell though they will be hindred from following the sins they like of Hell will be as full of sin as of Torment yea and a great part of its Torment will be by sin as well as for sin Will it not fill the Hypocrites hollow heart with vexation to think with himself what a silly Dissembler he hath been to remember what care he took to deceive others and what pains he used to deceive himself and how careless he was of that time which was given him to prepare for Eternity Will it not torment the Drunkard to think how he served the Devil till he could not stand on his Legs how he valued a Barrel above Heaven and the company of Sots before communion with Christ in his ways and so of the rest In a word when a reasonable creature comes to see that he hath been his own Ruine by following the ways of his own heart and hath lost at once the world and Heaven by his wilful wickedness when he was also warned of the danger time after time and beseeched to turn that he might be saved who knows whether this very Remembrance of his former follies as the Means and Causes of his uncurable Miseries will not be as great a Torment to him as hell-fire it self Doubtless we cannot here comprehend what a Hell sin it self will prove to the sinner that lives and dies under the guilt thereof To conclude this Section 't is observable that the Jesuits themselves who of all the Men in the World are least apt to think the worst of sin since they have found out ways to make satisfaction for it themselves yet I say these very Men do constantly own the Doctrine of the Everlasting Punishment of the wicked hereafter as Bellarmin Valentia Vid. Baronii Disp. de peccato Mortali part 2. sect 3. and the like Sophisters And therefore Reader if thou can'st see no Reason for it but judgest it unjust that they should be so punished thou wilt shew thy self more Blind than these Sons of Darkness And so much for the Proof of the Doctrine asserted CHAP. II. SECT I. A Tast of Mr. Richardson's Grapes in the beginning of his Garden or the Sophistry and Impertinencies of the former Pages of his Pamphlet discovered HAving laid down some Proofs of the Doctrine asserted and vindicated those Proofs from Mr. R. and his Fellow's Evasions and Exceptions I shall now proceed with God's permission and assistance to examine his Book and encounter the Enemies of this Truth whether great or small that are to be found therein And though we may call them Legion for that they are many yet I trust thou wilt find Reader in due season that their united strength is far enough from being insuperable My Author was wise enough to foresee that all good Christians would not have a good Opinion of Him or his Work and therefore supposeth in his Epistle to the Reader that in this unthankful Age those that are in the Dark themselves might reject and undervalue the new Light he hath afforded them and say of Him as some did of Christ He hath a Devil and is mad why hear ye him And truly if they shall say so of him I shall not much reprove them for it For in the entrance of his Book he writes as though madness were in his heart as 't is expressed in Ecclesiastes As though a Spirit of vanity and impertinency had guided his valiant Pen For he begins with a discourse of Christ's Descent into Hell and seems to please himself abundantly in setting his Betters at variance with each other I mean by reckoning up the different Expositions of that Article amongst Protestant Divines And what I pray you is that to the purpose he aims at For what if Vrsinus and Mr. Perkins were not altogether of the same Opinion with Bucer and others as to the sense of that Article yet 't is sufficiently known that they were far from thinking with Mr. R. that there is no Hell nor no Everlasting Punishment for the Wicked hereafter Or what if Hell in that Article do not signifie the place of Torment for the Enemies of God yet how will it follow that it doth not signifie such a thing in those places where mention is made of Hell-fire and of destroying Body and Soul in Hell and the like To his Impertinency may be added his Impiety for I find not any thing of that sentence in the place cited out of Dr. Fulk his Defence of the English Translation which he alledgeth for His in the 5. Page of his Book Afterwards he brings in the Opinions of some learned Men about the word Sheol which is as much to the purpose as the other He tells us that it sometimes signifies the Grave and what thanks shall we give him for such a discovery but yet alas he had not shewed more of his Learning in the two former Pages than he hath shewed of his folly in two Lines following in p. 11. where he tells us that Sheol cannot signifie Hell in their speech that believe there is no Hell As much as if he had said The Devil is not conceived to be an Enemy to Mankind by those that believe there is no Devil which hath been the Ale-house Doctrine of some Damners and Sinkers in our days And then he adds The Greeks say plainly that Mens Souls shall vanish like smoke If they do the more ignorant are they and if English Men think so too they would be so much the fitter to hear and believe the Doctrine of his Book which is no better than the other His Head hath as much of Atheism in it which can by the force of imagination turn Hell into a Dream and Everlasting Punishment into a Bug-bear and Scare-crow as he that fancies the Soul to be turned into smoke But enough of this Let us see a little of his Sophistry in his Cavil at Dr. Ames his speech if it be his indeed His Sophistry Dr. Ames saith Mr. R. tells us in his Marrow of Divinity p. 4. that the Scripture speaks nothing distinctly of the place of Hell or the manner of Torture there Whereupon he thus replies upon the Doctor If so then it speaks nothing of these things for what the Scripture speaks it speaks distinctly But while he thus makes game at Doctor Ames he doth another mischief viz. make himself ridiculous for none but a Caviller would gather Mr. R.'s conclusion from it His meaning I dare say was only this that it speaks nothing distinctly concerning its scituation In what part of the World it is placed how far distant from the Sun or Stars or what compass it is of or the like But doth not mean that it speaks
nothing of that place which is commonly called by that Name Scripture assures us that there was a Garden in Eden Gen. 2.8 in which Man was placed yet I might say without absurdity That it speaks nothing distinctly of that place for it tells us only that it was East-ward in the general but saith not what part of the World it was in how long or how broad or how near to the place where Jerusalem stood or the like So in p. 6. He gives us another chip of the same Block Page 6 for he tells us that the word Hell is not found in the Hebrew or Greek And that the word Sheol which is so translated signifies properly the Grave A very precious Revelation and such as might be well accepted if my Author or any of his Judgment would but impart it kindly to those Noble spirited Gentlemen that are Inamorato's to a play and frequent those Places where all things are common For might they not go the more pleasantly thither when they are assured that if they dye when they are at worst they shall go to no worse a place than the Grave and that there is no other nor worser Hell than it for that which precise Men have rendered by the word Hell doth properly signifie the Grave But yet let them not trust too much to this kind of Learning for if they please to consider what I have to say unto it they will find it is not worth one Glass of good Wine Mr. R.'s invention to prove no Hell will prove as strongly that there is no Devil For if this were a proof that there is no Hell viz. that the word so rendered signifies another thing sometimes then I say at the same rate of arguing we might prove as well and as wisely that there is no Devil neither for the word Devil is not found in the Greek Testament since an English word is not a Greek word And that which is translated Devil in the 4th of Matth. and other places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is known to signifie an ill-conditioned Man a Detractor Railer Accuser and such like This I say is the proper importance of the original word And yet sobâ—r Christians will believe in spight of all Mr. R.'s subtilty that it signifies in that Chapter the same that we use to call by that name even the great implacable adversary of Mankind and cannot doubt of it if they read the 10. and 11. Verses of that Chapter And this is that which he hath offered us upon the word Sheol He adds something like it upon the word Gehenna But of that with God's leave in the next Section CHAP. II. SECT II. Mr. R. his Observations upon the word Hell-Fire Damnation of Hell c. Of the Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16. Of Tophet Of the Worm that never dyeth censured R. Hell-Fire in Matth. 5. and other places signifies the Fire that was in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom And the word Gehenna which is used for Hell P. 12. and 14. is borrowed from the Valley of Hinnom BUT by his leave the former is denied Hell-Fire in the Gospel doth only allude to that Fire in the Valley of Hinnom Jer. 7.31 where as the Prophet Jeremy sheweth the People most cruelly sacrificed their Children in the Fire Of Hell to the Idol Moloch And is it not very fit for the place of Torment for the Enemies of God to be expressed by this place of Wickedness and Torture As the word which notes a mischievous Person is fitly used to signifie the Devil as was noted before And that the casting into Hell-fire cannot signifie the casting into the Fire of Hinnom aforesaid is manifest because that Fire had been put out long ago and the place turned to another use by the good King Josiah as we find in 2 King 23.10 Gehenna what And for the word Gehenna we confess it is borrowed from the Vally of Hinnom that place of Torture aforesaid and therefore is very fit to express the place appointed for the Punishment of the Wicked c. And that it only alludes to that place Per Metaphoram uti Piscator in Scholiis super Matth. 5.22 Matth. 10.28 but doth not mean the place it self is manifest by what was now said neither was that a place for the Soul to suffer in or for the Body after its Death as the Hell which our Saviour speaks of most certainly is Matth. 10. but rather fear him who is able to destroy Soul and Body in Hell and that too after the Body is killed Luke 12.5 that is He can quicken the dead Body and make it live in the Torments of Hell Of the Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke the 12. Having pleased his Humour upon the word Gehenna in the 16. and 17. Pages to as little profit to himself or his Reader as can well be desired He proceeds in the following Pages to darken the Light of the word Everlasting from thence to the 22 page of his Book p. 16 17. and 23. which they that admire for good and sound may conveniently Read the foregoing Chapter where I have examined them severally This Reader I thought fit to mention that thou mayst not think I do wilfully pass over any thing in his Pamphlet that is not grosly impertinent Then in the 23 page he passeth his grave censure upon that Text in St. Luke cap. 16. concerning the Rich man and Lazarus where he tells us that it is but a Parable And that I am confident was no new discovery of his own it was found out long before the world had any benefit by this Book of his Then having time and paper to spare he undertakes to prove it by no less than Ten Reasons as the Socinians of old urged 30 Arguments against Infant Baptism But as all theirs were deceitful arguments so Nine of his Ten Reasons are needless ones for in such a case one may be sufficient And when he hath gained what he contends for that it is a Parable yet he hath gained very little as to the cause he hath undertaken For as the Learned Mr. Baxter saith very well If that of the Rich man in Hell and Lazarus should be no more than a Parable Saints Rest part 2. cap. 10. Sect. 4. yet it seems very unlikely that Christ would teach them by such a Parable as seemed so evidently to intimate the Souls Happiness or Misery immediately after death if there were no such thing So say I in like manner it were very strange that Christ should teach them by such a Parable as seems so plainly to intimate a Hell or Torment for the Souls of the ungodly that dye such though they dye Rich if there were no such matter The next place of Scripture he hath taken a view of is Esay 30.33 Of Tophet Esay 30.33 p. 26. c. where he tells us we must understand by Tophet only the Valley of
Hinnom aforesaid This he enlargeth upon to little purpose for several pages together but that is the substance of his discourse so far as it opposeth my Doctrine and where he doth not oppose the Truth I can let him alone very contentedly nor need I be large upon this point we have enough for the upholding the Doctrine asserted whether this Text will serve to that end or not and that it need not be judged altogether impertinent to our purpose notwithstanding that which he hath said may be gathered in part from that which was said but now upon the word Gehenna upon which he had plaid the same Critick Mr. Calvin and Vatablus who could see as far as an ordinary man into a Text of Scripture whether they may compare with Mr. Richardson or not They I say count it no absurdity to interpret it of Hell for that place of Torture is as fit by a common figure to denote the place of Torment for the ungodly Vid. Synops Crit. in Esay 30 as Paradise the place of Pleasure was to signifie the place appointed for the Saints happy Mansions Of the Worm that never dyeth As Logicians say of an Absurdity that one being granted a thousand will follow it So Mr. R. being so vain as to discourse as he hath done upon other particulars was not afraid to shew himself so absurd as to give a suitable gloss upon these words of our Saviour where their Worm never dieth telling us that this is in this present life he means only in this life if he mean any thing to his purpose And to make it good he citeth Mark 9.44 Mark 9.43 44. p. 32. misprinted Mark 6. and Revelations 14.10 11. wherein he hath shewed himself very impartial for he hath not spared himself and his Cause There being hardly any Scriptures more apparently destructive of it than those the latter I have mentioned before the former I shall now insist on The words are these Mark 9.44 opened p. 32. to go into hell into the fire that never shall be quenched where viz. in which Hell their Worm speaking of the wicked never dyeth this is only in this life saith Mr. R. strange certainly for our Lord tells us 't is in Hell And I hope Mr. R. himself will not be so bold as to interpret Hell in this Text of the Grave For there is no Worm in the Grave but such as dyeth in a little time And this is so remarkable that it is set down three times within six Verses and therefore seems to note something more than a Punishment in this life only If he take it to be meant properly of a real and natural Worm 't is a sign he hath a Worm in his own Pate if he take it figuratively of the Worm of Conscience or the furious Reflections thereof upon its own wilful wickedness and its fierce Accusations c. as 't is commonly understood then he may not deny it to be after this present life is ended Those Accusations and Terrors of Conscience that Judas found in himself a little before he hang'd himself were doubtless continued in his Soul after its separation from the body and my Author cannot handsomly deny it unless he have entertained the sottish Dream of the Socinians That the Soul is asleep after the death of the Body And thus I have spoken to all that is in any tolerable sense considerable in the former part of his Book to the 32 page of it In that page he deals with another Text of Scripture but seeing it is such as I would not urge to prove Everlasting Punishments by and seeing his Discourse upon it is in a great part wild and extravagant I shall not trouble my self or my Reader with it but rather proceed to the 36 page where he hath something fit to be examined as of the Burning the Tares in Matth. 13. of the word Cursed c. which will be the Subject in part of the next Paragraph CHAP. II. SECT III. Mr. R's Inventions upon the Parable of the Tares Of the Tares in Matth. 13. of the word Cursed of Eternal Damnation of the word Fire and of the Corporeity of Hell-fire Mr. R. The Burning of the Tares p. 36. Matth. 13. i. e. at the end of the World v. 39. The Tares are the wicked the Harvest is the end of the World by which it appears that the Wicked with the Earth shall be consumed by fire v. 40.42 2 Pet. 3.7 BUT what will not those men venture to say that are resolved to maintain a bad Cause by the strength of their own ungodly wits The Wicked shall be consumed with the Earth it self and by this it appears saith he No such matter say I this is false in it self and therefore cannot appear to be true by that Text in St. Matth. That it is false in it self I need name no more than that formerly insisted on in 1 Cor. 15. the dead shall be raised incorruptible 1 Cor. 15.52 Those of the Wicked that are now dead shall be raised to life again at Judgment yea to a state of Incorruption and Immortality Of Burning the Tares and that these places do not speak the contrary is evident to those that duly consider them The former runs thus v. 40. c. As the Tares are gathered and burned in the Fire so shall it be with the wicked in the end of this world The Son of man shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather out of his Kingdom them that do Iniquity and v. 42. shall cast them into a Furnace of fire c. For my part I cannot conceive how he should make an Argument for it from hence unless it be from the comparison between them as thus The Tares are burned so as to remain no longer Tares But so shall it be at the end of the world in respect of the wicked And if he would reason so there is little reason we should much regard it They shall be burned as the Tares viz. as they shall in some respects i. e. certainly irresistibly as worthless things and the like But it follows not that they shall burn in the same manner in every thing as the Tares burn or that the fire shall have the same effects upon them which it hath upon the Tares 't is manifest it shall pain them and Torment them make them weep and gnash their teeth for vexation but surely it shall not make the Tares do so Esay 42. The Lord is as a man of War saith the Prophet shall I therefore apply Mr. R's Logick to that saying and infer in spight of Religion and good sense that the Lord is not in many places at once because a man of War is not or that the Lord is mortal because a man of War is so God forbid It is enough that he is like a man of War in other things or terrible as a man of War and as it were ready armed against his
and shall easily grant him that Hell in that place doth not signifie the Lake of Fire though it doth elsewhere And for the sense of it either Death and Hell may be said figuratively to be cast into the Lake because they are conquered and triumphed over by Christ and as it were condemned and so may by a figure be spoken of as of Persons condemned in that respect or else Hell may be taken by a common figure for the Devil and his Angels Matth. 16.18 As when it is said in Matth. 16. That the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against his Church That is the power and policies of all the Devils shall not be able to ruine it Vide Piscatorem in loc The gates being as places of strength to a City so the places also where the chief Council was held 48. c. In the 48 49 50. pages His Pen dropped so much Vanity as that I shall not think it worth while to trouble mine with it But afterwards he speaks thus p. 51. Mr. R. Others say plainly they cannot tell where Hell is as some had held it was in one place some in another Thus being full of Mirth at their different Opinions he expresseth himself very freely in these following words R. As it is reported of Father Cotton the Jesuit p. 52. that he could not find out a plain place of Scripture to prove Purgatory by and therefore asked the Devil for one So they are at as great a loss to prove their Hell of Torments by a plain Text. O admirable man Well might he be a Ring-leader among the Anabaptists and his name be an honour to their Printed Confession whose wit was so far from being cursed or unfruitful as that it brought forth with ease such a blessed comparison as this But first he might have left out his story of the Jesuits enquiring of the Devil c. For he dares not say our Ministers enquire of the Devil for a Text to prove Hell by Nor secondly have they any need to enquire of him for that purpose The Scripture is plain enough in the case Matth. 10.28 Matth. 10.28 to name no more at present is very full for it Fear not them that can kill the body but rather fear him who can destroy Body and Soul in Hell Mr. R. shall be a Prophet if this do not prove a Hell of Torment For to destroy in this place doth not signifie to turn into nothing or destroy their Being * See Cap. 1. Sect. 3. for the Soul shall remain for ever as all but Atheists confess besides what was noted upon the word Destroy in the place before cited in the Margin To Destroy therefore in that place is to punish And to punish in Hell is manifestly spoken as an aggravation of that Punishment or destruction Hell cannot mean the Grave in that place For the Soul is not destroyed in any sense in the Grave what then can it mean but a place of Torment so called the Valley of Hinnom is no receptacle for Souls and therefore Gehenna or Hell in that Text doth not mean that very place but only as was said alludes to it p. 53. In the next page he gives us a proof of his confidence and concludes with such passages as Crown the work and are the Cream of the whole Jest R. Line 8 See ye not the great uncertainty they are at His Rhetorical Query Do ye not see by their Reeling Staggering and Stumbling that they are so drunk that they can find no ground to stand upon c. Than which a sober man can hardly speak any thing that savours of more profaneness pride and sottishness And if we weigh the speech aright we shall find defective in its Naturals as well as its Morals in point of Truth as well as Goodness For 't is more true to say that Orthodox Divines are at a certainty in the case than that they are at an uncertainty For they are certain in the matter though uncertain in one of the smallest circumstances They are perfectly agreed that Hell is no Fancy though they differ about the place where it is fixed and they may differ still without any danger to the Souls of men unless they are so unreasonable as to conclude that That is in no place whose place is not certainly known And Secondly They cannot rightly be said to Reel and Stagger that differ from each others in such small matters Such differences are no signs of Drunkenness yet if my Author will call it so so let him do And if he had but given them a more particular name and said the Black coats or the Covetous Priests instead of They and These men and then talked of their Reeling Staggering and Stumbling the Quakers might have called him an upright man and almost have sworn by the Light within them that he was come out of the Darkness and the Witchcraft and spake very honestly as the Spirit moved him Soon after he applies that Text in Esay 44. p. 54. He frustrates the tokens of Lyars and maketh Diviners mad c. And if we were uncertain whether there be a Hell or not yet we may be very certain that there is a Devil when they that are pretenders to Religion are so shameless and profane as to abuse the Scriptures in this manner CHAP. II. SECT V. Mr. Richardson's Combate with Mr. Ed. Leigh and his Triumph over him p. 54 c. to 74. THE said Mr. Ed. Leigh I can say little of any farther than his Works discover him and thereby I think he hath shewed himself a man of considerable Learning Parts and Painfulness For he hath wrote more than a little and the least Book he ever wrote is much better as well as bigger than this I am opposing of And doubtless if he had not been a man of some note Mr. R. would have thought it somewhat below him to give him such a large consideration as he hath done I shall now undertake his vindication and endeavour to make good several of his Arguments for the present point against Mr. R. his Exceptions and Answers p. 54 55. Mr. Leigh The Consciences of men are many times afraid of a Punishment after this life Therefore there is such a Punishment to be feared p. 55. Mr. R. Replies p. 55. That 's no proof of it for mens Consciences are as they are instructed according to the Proverb Such as the Doctor such the Scholar And hence it is that the Conscience of a Papist tells him 't is a sin to eat meat on Friday Yet that 's no proof of its being so Conscience a proof of a Punishment after this Life I answer as follows The Comparison he useth about the Papists Conscience will not argue any thing but only illustrate that which he spake before the instance of which if I mistake not is thus That mens Consciences tell them there is a Punishment for the wicked
after this life meerly because they are so instructed viz. by those unskilful Preachers whom they had the unhappiness to hear so that the only reason why they fear such a Punishment is because of the Instructions they have had about it The 1. Evidence Now this I deny It is not meerly from the Instructions of others that men apprehend and fear a Punishment after Death For the Heathens of old who were far from being instructed by our Preachers had strange and powerful thoughts of a Punishment for bad men after death Witness their Expressions about Sisyphus Tantalus Rhadamanthus and the Stygian Lake several passages in Virgils Æneids c. And how many might we hear of that in the days of their health and strength were as confident as could be and feared no sin that they liked of that were also grosly ignorant and cared for no Instructions unless it were how to get money and enrich their Land c. that yet have been in great fear when a dangerous sickness seized upon them O they shall dye they shall die and what shall become of them then And how should they have such Impressions upon their Spirits if they had not a sense of this Truth as ignorant as they are The 2. Evidence And what if the Instructions they had about it be a means of the Terror upon their Consciences this rather confirms the point than confutes it for sometimes the thoughts of an Everlasting state of Punishment hereafter is so powerful upon them and so terrible to them that they can neither eat nor drink nor sleep nor take any comfort in wealth and friends in Wine or Musick or any of those things they naturally most delight in Yea fills their mouths with horrid cryes and groans and hath put them into such violent shakings as hath shook the Beds yea the Chambers they lay in Read the memorable History of Francis Spira and others and you will see what Agonies and Terrors the Apprehension of Everlasting miseries hath caused in them Now hence I would offer Mr. R. this Dilemma to deal with Either these unspeakable Terrors were natural works of Conscience The Authors Argument as awakened by its God and Judge or else they were occasioned by the Instructions they formerly had about this matter If he say the former then he doth as good as grant what I contend for for that 's the only reason of his denial of the proof because Conscience doth not act so of it self but by vertue of some former teachings And whether he grant it or no it must needs be a proof of it for the natural workings of Conscience are from God and therefore suppose the certainty of their objects in their respective kinds As because it is natural to the Conscience to urge a man to pay what he owes while he is able thence it follows unavoidably that it is a real duty so to do If he say the latter that these extreamest terrors are occasioned by those Instructions about a future Everlasting punishment then he is cast also For what can he think makes those Instructions so powerful upon him they have not naturally such effects for many hear them often and regard them not And if it be from a supernatural power it must be Gods work or the Devils not the Devils for he would rather make men forget and slight such Instructions lest they should be frighted out of his slavery If from God it must needs follow that there is such a state for God would not deceive them Mr. Leigh his second Argument vindicated Mr. Leigh adds The Heathen believed a Punishment for bad men after this Life Therefore there is such a Punishment Mr. R. Answers in these words 1. Why did you not say and prove that they held they should be in Torments without end The Heathens do not believe any such Punishment after this Life p. 56-59 for they deny the Resurrection of the Body And then he goes on after his own way from the 56 to 59 page telling us a story of Pythagoras the Philosopher for so he calls him as though there had been a Pythagoras the Divine from whom to be distinguished and also of Plato and his Sacrifice c. which are not fit for my paper to be filled with and therefore I leave them p. 58. as more proper for his own Pamphlet and for the Book that he so gravely mentioneth I mean Mr. Jesse his Almanack And if Mr. Richardson had spent that time in making Almanacks which he spent in composing this precious piece it might have been more for his comfort or at least less for his sorrow when he comes to dye But to come to the point why did not Mr. Leigh say and prove that the Heathens believed a Punishment for bad men never to end Since I have undertaken this Task I must suppose my self obliged to make Mr. R. some Answer in the case and it is thus in short It was in all probability because he thought there was no need of saying it or proving it nevertheless if it may be any Satisfaction to Mr. R. or his Proselytes I shall be content to say it and prove it too The former is in effect done already the latter I shall now endeavour to do by citing some passages out of some of their writings If he please to read Seneca the Tragedian In Amphitryone he shall find something to that purpose Sanguine Humano abstine c. Then he adds The Testimony of Heathens Seneca Certus inclusos tenet Locus nocentes utque fert fama Impios Supplicia vinculis saeva perpetuis domant Where he may fitly note that expression ut fert fama which speaks it to have been the common apprehension of men in those days how strange soever he is pleased to make of it Ovid also in some of his Books if I mistake not in his Book de Ponto hath these two remarkable Verses Nec mortis poenas mors altera finiet hujus Ovid. de Ponto Horaque erit tantis ultima nulla malis i. e. This Death all times doth far transcend Its pains shall never know an end And we may find upon tryal that he was as much mistaken in saying that the Heathens deny the Resurrection of the Body Heathens Testimony of the Resurrection for if he mean it universally I can affirm the contrary for some of them did speak of it not obscurely speaking of the Souls of men Mille peractis Oblitae ditem redeunt in corpora lustris Syllius Italicus And the other Seneca hath somewhere a speech very plain for it Lucius An. Seneca Veniet iterum qui nos in lucem reponet dies In English thus Another Day shall bring to light Those whom pale Death drew out of sight 2. He Answers p. 59. what if the Heathens do hold as you say p. 59. His second Answer examined must we believe in Religion as the Heathens
the Popish iniquity have thought it their best Policy to be silent concerning it since that time But my Author will go higher than so aâ—d shake the Authority of the Hebrew and Greek Copies that are extant in the world And well might he contend with the London Ministers as his friends boasted he should if he could prove the word that they preached to be uncertain and their Greek Testaments supposititious Books but though he cannot prove them to be so yet he will give men occasion to suspect them for such witness his Speech aforementioned possibly he might remember the Counsel of the Poet Horatius Si vis esse aliquis facinus aliquod Audeas egregium c. i.e. If thou wouldst be a man of Fame Thou must do something of great name Other Considerations to prove the Purity of the Original Copies of Scripture And now Reader That thy heart may be throughly antidoted against Mr. R's most pestilent suggestion I shall offer thee these following Considerations 1. That Books of another nature are seldom questioned after this manner when did you hear any man making any doubt whether the Books of Plato of Aristotle Hippocrates and of Pliny and Galen Plutarch of Theophrastus and Cicero of Homer and Hesiod of Suetonius and Florus Tacitus and Livy were the writings of those men whose names they bear or whether they are agreeable to those Copies which they wrote at first So that the Writings of Philosophers and Poets Physicians Historians Naturalists Moralists though very ancient shall pass currantly for theirs whose names they go under and are not imagined to be corrupted or altered from what they were at first Mr. R. doth not insinuate any doubt in that case But when it comes to that which concerns our precious Souls that word which contains our rules in Life our comforts at death and our foundations of hope as to a better world hereafter O then his patient heart is moved his Doubts and Fears and Suspicions are suggested he kicks and flings and lays about him extreamly he throws his blackest dust in our Faces that we may have no eyes to see nor no reason to apprehend that those Copies of the Bible which we have among us are the same in sense and substance with them that the Pen-men of Scripture wrote And all because we have not those Original Copies to shew as we have not of the other for he cannot shew us any of Plato's c. hand-writing Is it not manifestly the work of the Devil to cast doubts in mens minds about the one while he raiseth no doubts about the other It seems he can be content to have us believe that other Books are what they pretend to be but he is not so willing that we should believe the same of God's Book and no wonder for he knoweth the belief of that will be more likely to do us good than the belief of the other Argu. 2 2. If the Scripture were corrupted in the Originals it must be by such as believed it to be the word of God or such as did not If he say by them that believed it so to be then I would fain know how those that had so much Religion as to believe it should at the same time have so much profaneness as to go about to corrupt the Copies of it Would not the heart of the wickedest man fail him when he was about such a horrid design if he had but the least thought that it was the Word of his Maker that he set himself to corrupt If he say it was corrupted by those that did not believe it to be the Word of God but looked upon it as a piece of deceit and a politick innovation to keep fools in awe then why should they trouble themselves to corrupt it doubtless they would think it were corrupt enough already and would not much envy the holy Christians any of those delights and comforts which they had in it or from it And if they should ever have undertaken such a work it being that which would require much time and pains to do it to any purpose it must be supposed that they must have had some considerable motives from credit or profit of which no rational account I dare say can ever be given Nor can it be proved that ever any such thing was designed by the enemies of Christian Religion Julian the Apostate Emperor Acerrimus ille Christi hostis as an excellent Author styles him * Zanchius in Tom. 8. Orat. 1. He I say is well known to have been as fit a man to manage such a work as most ever was in the world for he had wit and learning in abundance he had also great power without him and an impenitent hardned heart within him and employed all his power and policy to the ruine not only of Christians but Christianity and accordingly he proceeded in mischiefs by Banishments and Imprisonments fire and Sword and by pulling down Churches and by putting down all Schools of Learning the two latter of which some that go for Christians among us could have wished him good success in yet I have not found that ever he did any such thing as this we are speaking of or that he employed any others about it to corrupt the Copies of Scripture that were in the hands of Christians or to counterfeit it by any other writing He was crafty enough to take other courses against Christianity that were easier to be followed And if any such thing were done how soon would it be discovered If a Protestant should Print some Mass-Books with some considerable alterations leaving out a prayer to the Virgin Mary and putting in a Prayer to Christ instead of it how quickly would the Romanists espy the change how soon would the Bulls roar from Babylon * Revel 17.5.9.18 How many Declarations Manifesto's and Testimonies would be published speedily in the world to prevent the intended mischief and to assure all that were concerned that those Books were not Authentick or Catholick or allowed under the Hands of the Pope's Holiness And do ye think that the Christians in the Primitive times were not as zealous for the Scriptures as the Papist's are for the Mass-Books or that they would not have been as careful to discover such forgeries in or about them if any such things had been A 3d. Argument for the Purity of Scripture c. 3. If the Scripture were counterfeited or the Original Copies corrupted by any it must be by blockish and ignorant Persons or by Men of considerable Wit and Learning The former would not undertake such a work or if they should they could not manage it and carry it on Nor may we well imagine the latter for certainly Men of wit in any tolerable sense could not but apprehend the difficulty of such a work the Copies being dispersed among Christians that valued them more than all the wealth of the World and would be as careful to preserve
wise man that is of his Opinion R. 4. This Opinion maketh many to murder themselves that they may not live to encrease their sin and consequently their Punishment in another world This Opinion saith he maketh this mischief But as he doth not prove it so I deny it For 't is not this Opinion but their mistakes about it and other Delusions and Temptations that maketh them so to do And it would be no hard matter to prove that this Doctrine rightly believed would be a powerful Preservative against self-murder for if Murderers are so much in danger of such * Rev. 21.8 misery he that believes so will not easily be perswaded to murder himself to bring this misery upon him yet we must not judge that all self-killers are self-murderers or damned persons R. 5. The contrary Opinion tends most to comfort those persons whose friends have dyed and left no testimony of their conversion to God This Reader is the present case what course we should take to comfort those persons who are afraid their friends shall suffer the everlasting punishments as dying without any signs of a true Conversion My Author thinks it the best way to tell them that there is no such thing for any man to suffer though finally wicked and impenitent This indeed were a very quick and easie way if it were but as safe too but certainly it is not as my first Chapter hath sufficiently shewed where the proof of the point is given at large and far above all that Mr. R. or all his Brethren can ever Answer to it The surer and more warrantable ways for men to quiet their minds in that case are as follows 1. To judge charitably and hope the best of their deceased Friends The Case of those that fear the worst of their deceased Friends considered and not too confidently to perswade themselves of their everlasting misery because they could not see such signs of true Conversion as might be wished For though we may be sure that all they are lost for ever and beyond all hopes of recovery that die unconverted yet we cannot be so sure of such and such particular persons that they did die unconverted for God's Judgments are a great deep and his Ways past finding out God may work his gracious work in the Soul at the last minute of life if he so please and we cannot prove that he will not do so Object Obj. But if a man should not shew any signs of Repentance to his last hour 't is very doubtful if he be ever converted indeed and we have much more grounds for our Fears than for our Hopes concerning him Answer 'T is very true and cannot justly be denyed if a man be not godly 'till his dying day 't is ten to one but he will dye an ungodly man and if he do so he is certainly undone for ever in 2 Pet. 3.7 The day of Judgment is called a day of perdition to such persons But then consider 1. That if your Friends have lived and dyed ungodly and so are fallen into everlasting Punishment yet it was God that cast them into that Punishment He alone hath the Keys of Hell and of Death and none but he could adjudge them to it and therefore they must not murmur at it since it was He that hath done it Thus the Psalmist Psal 39. I was dumb Ps 39.9 and opened not my mouth in a way of impatience he means for thou Lord hast done it 2. As it was God that hath done it so he hath never done it but when it was fit to be done he is perfectly just in this severe Dispensation of casting the impenitent into Everlasting Punishment The proof of which I have given in the end of my first Chapter Assuredly The Lord is holy in all his ways and Righteous in all his works Psal 145.18 and if we doubt of it now there shall hereafter be a Revelation of his Righteous judgment Rom. 2. If they continued his Enemies must he save them because they were your friends or must their Relation to you hinder the Judge of the world from doing Right Surely not 3ly Your excessive sorrow from the fear of your Friends misery will do no good at all but only disquiet your hearts in vain for it will not please God nor profit them but rather unfit you for the duties that are incumbent upon you and therefore submit to God and pray to him to abate your sorrows 4ly Instead of murmuring at God's Dispensations in any kind give him thanks for his patience and forbearance towards you and the means of grace that are afforded you And be assured what ever be the state of the Dead your selves shall be happy enough if you turn to him in sincerity Esay 55.7 while you live on Earth 5ly Study the vile nature of sin view it in the Glass of God's holy Law and in the Sufferings of Christ c. See how it crosses the will and dishonours the Name of the great God See how it breaks his Law resists his Power denies his Soveraignty disparages his Wisdome despises his Threatnings and abuses his Mercy c. If we did rightly apprehend these things we should be so far from murmuring at our Maker for condemning some that we should greatly admire that he doth not condemn all sinners in the World Proof 7 R. We read in Esay 57. v. 16. The words of the Lord himself saying I will not contend for ever neither will I be always wroth c. Therefore he will not punish for ever B. If he were deservedly looked upon as an absurd fellow that made his Answer concerning Onyons when the question was proposed concerning Garlick only what an intolerable absurdity is my Author guilty of when he urgeth such a Text for the Impunity of the wicked which manifestly speaks of the Mercy of God to the Saints In the foregoing Verse he tells us He will look with an eye of favour that is to him that is of an humble and a contrite Spirit v. 15. And then he adds I will not contend for ever viz. with such a one But will this prove that he will not contend for ever with any others with them that are so proud that they care not for God that go on wilfully in the ways that his Soul hateth and will not be reformed surely not If Mr. R. will see no difference between the godly and the wicked the humble Christian and the proud-hearted Hypocrite yet our God will and will also make others see the difference hereafter when the one shall be separated from the other Mal. 3.18 as the Sheep from the Goats Matth 25. setting the one on his right hand and the other on his left Doubtless the boldest Hypocrite will tremble then and their hopeless cries be far louder in another World than their scornfullest laughter was in this CHAP. III. SECT IV. The remaining part of his Infallible Proofs examined Proof 8 R. God hath
that be unto them It was grievous to them to be banished from their friends in the world to be shut up close in a Prison or Pest-house from the comfort and Society of their old acquaintance c. But how grievous will it be to be banished from Christ and be separated everlastingly from all the comforts of his Presence and Favour This this will be a bitter thing indeed and more dreadful than a Thousand Deaths for Consider O Christian Rev. 25.23 't is He that is the Glory of Heaven the Eternal Light of that City of God 't is He that is the Angels Joy and at whose Birth they sang an Hymn of Praise a little of His Divine Consolations have revived the drooping Spirits of his Servants have Crowned their Souls with blessed Peace and turned the Shadow of Death into the Morning as the Prophet elegantly expresseth himself How bravely did the Holy Martyrs Triumph over the saddest and sharpest of humane miseries filling their mouths with Glorious Praises when they were ready to be filled with Smoke and Flames and all through the sense of their interest in Christ and the lively hopes of happiness with him after this life ended And in many others of later times The joy of their Lord hath made them more than Conquerers over all the fears and sorrows of Death Millions of Praises to the Lord our God let Heaven and Earth praise Him for he hath remembred us in our low estate and hath redeemed us to himself said that worthy man * Mr. Janway a little before he gave up the Ghost But now those Consolations of Christ which his Saints partake of in Heaven are doubtless far beyond all that they were sensible of here on Earth Phil. 1.21 for to be with him there is far better as St Paul assures us and yet these Consolations shall be no comfort to them that dye in their sins for they shall have nothing to do with them he will say unto them Matth. 25.4 Depart from me ye cursed And O how cursed will their case then be and how miserable will they then account themselves for they will then lose all other comforts with him which is the next thing to be spoken to 2 In their loss of all other comforts Secondly the wicked in the world to come shall lose all other comforts too whatsoever here they took comfort in shall then be taken from them Now they make a good shift without spiritual Consolations and though they seldom think of Christ and his Kingdom with any seriousness yet the thoughts of present enjoyments delight their Souls and Sensual Contentments do supply the want of Spiritual ones unto them But if they come to Hell as they needs must if they go on still in their sins they will miss of all their Sensual enjoyments But to come to some particulars 1. Wealth and Honour 1. They will lose their worldly wealth and honour they that minded their mony more than Heaven shall lose both Heaven and money too Their Riches will not profit saith the Scripture in the day of wrath the heat of that day will melt their best coin for all things of this inferior world shall be dissolved and burnt up 2 Pet. 3.10 They shall see all their pleasant things in flames before themselves are cast into the fiery-lake How speedily will their stately Buildings curious Gardens costly Clothes and richest Jewels then be spoiled and destroyed for ever Their meat and drink will also be denyed unto them because they despised the Bread of Life and wilfully starved their precious Souls and desired not in truth of heart the sincere milk of the Word that they might grow thereby 1 Pet. 2. Their Minds and Memories and Consciences will have many foul sins to feed on but their mouths will have no fine bits to feed on for whatsoever Sensual good may be expected in the Turks Airy Paradise 't is sure there is no such thing to be hoped for in the Devils fiery prison Their honours also will be then at an end since they must arise to shame and everlasting contempt Dan 12.2 2. Loss of rest and ease 2. The Damned will lose all bodily rest and ease and sleep The place of Torment they must be cast into will admit of no refreshment at all They that wearied others with their wickedness before will then be wearied with it themselves and though they could sleep very soundly in God's house of Prayer yet they shall not sleep so much as one wink in his house of punishment That saddest word Go ye cursed will keep them awake for evermore They shall lose also all their carnal Mirth and Worldly Joy 3. Mirth Here they had it many of them in abundance their hearts were light when their Consciences were loaded with guilt And though they said unto God Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways yet the Pipers and Singers were more welcome to them Job 21. they take pleasure in the Timbrel and Harp and rejoyce at the sound thereof yea rather than want Mirth they will laugh at Religion and make Doctrine and Use the matter of their Sport But then these things will be at an end the Candle of the wicked will be put out They that would not take up Religion nor chuse God's Fear lest it should make them dull and melancholy shall then be merry no more for the Matter of their Mirth we have seen will then be taken from them and God will distribute Sorrows in his Anger yea their own eyes shall see their destruction Job 21.17.20 and they shall drink of the Wrath of the Almighty as it is set forth in that Chapter Quest But how shall they live may some say in such a condition For will not so much misery break their hearts and will not life fail when it hath no means to support it no food nor sleep c. Answer I Answer No that may not be imagined They must needs live still because God will not suffer them to dye they that lived on earth as though they had thought their Souls were mortal shall in Hell find their bodies to be immortal they shall be raised incorruptible 1 Cor. 15. and what if they want the natural means of Life as food and sleep yet the principal cause of Life will still remain even the will and pleasure of the Almighty But I shall not say any thing more of this point here having spoke unto it already and maintained it against the wisest of Mr. R's oppositions Object But say some the Saints themselves must part with their worldly comforts at last as well as the ungodly the universal flames will burn up their dwellings c. as surely as the dwellings of the wicked Sol. True indeed But though they must part with these things yet they shall be no losers thereby because they shall have better instead of them Instead of Natural delights they
shall have Spiritual instead of the weak comforts of the creatures they shall have the strong consolations of God instead of Temporal habitations on Earth they shall have eternal Mansions in their Fathers house Joh. 14.2 instead of Food and Physick Rev. 21.4 they shall have perfect and perpetual health and ease and the joy of their Lord shall be their strength instead of Psalms and Thanksgivings in the Churches they shall have the Hallelujahs of Heaven the High Praises of their God and the full fruition of their Fathers love But the wicked in Hell shall have none of these things their cursed state will exclude all Blessednesses as 't is evident and needs not now be proved by me 4. Peace 4. They shall lose all their peace which before they had for though there be no peace to the wicked as the Prophet saith that is no true sound well-grounded peace that may deserve to be called peace yet a kind of peace they have in their sins yea some kind of peace from their sins as from their ignorance and hardness of Heart but in hell their peace will leave them and they will have as little quietness as before they had Religion and Conscientiousness If Doctrine and Application can disturb them in some measure Damnation and Torment will do it much more 5. Hopes 5. They will then lose their hopes also wicked men as I said before are unreasonable men and therefore will hope for that which God hath not promised them the Word doth not promise Heaven unto them otherwise than in case of true Repentance and Conversion but they will hope to come thither though they are yet in love with those sins that they should repent of I believe there are few of them but have a strange hope to be happy at last though destruction and misery are in their ways And therefore they will not be at the pains of being seriously Religious because they hope to do well enough without so much ado But those of them that dye such as they have lived and so come to Hell will fail of what they hoped for and lose all the hopes of it The hope of unjust men perisheth Prov. 11. Prov. 11.7 Job 27.9 And Job in like manner What is the hope of the Hypocrite when God taketh away his Soul And if his hope shall perish when God takes his Soul from his Body how far must he be from all hope when he casteth him Body and Soul into Hell The hope of the Righteous shall be gladness but the hope of the wicked shall be shame and confusion A Continuation of the Positive part of the Damneds misery HAving spoken of the Privative part of the Damneds misery Positive Misery or the losses they shall sustain I shall now Treat with God's Assistance of the Positive misery that they shall suffer And first Bodily Pain they shall suffer extream pain in their Bodies The extremity of it is plainly intimated in this that they shall go into everlasting fire Matth. 25.41 Fire we know is the most Tormenting creature the pains that are caused by it are most sharp of any and therefore the Papists have so much delight to torture the Hereticks as they call them by Burning and to oppose their obstinacy with Faggot-Arguments And doubtless if they had not had a good God and a good Cause on their side they could not possibly have withstood them A small fire can fill a man with pains intolerable though no more but one finger be scorched with it A man would not be content to live one year in a burning Brick Kiln if he might gain the wealth of a hundred Kingdoms and be sure to enjoy it a hundred years And we may easily assure our selves that Hell fire will be more grievous than any other for these following Reasons 1. Because it is such as is prepared on purpose for punishment Hell-fire worse than any other and the product of God's fiercest wrath and therefore must needs be of a more tormenting nature than our ordinary fire which is the effect of his gracious Providence and was made for the help and comfort of mankind 2. Because the Saints themselves may be afflicted with other fire and the greatest of them have been so but Hell fire is proper and peculiar to the wicked and sure that evil must needs be worser which is proper to the enemies of God than that which his Servants may be afflicted with To which I may add this also that it is such a fire as the evil Angels shall suffer in Matth. 25.41 prepared for the Devil and his Angels If any shall say perhaps Hell-fire is not a real corporeal Fire but somewhat else figuratively expressed by the name of fire I answer 'T is lawful to suppose that it is real fire and the absurdities that my Author would fasten upon that Opinion are nothing but the irregularities of his own imaginations as you may see in that Chapter where I have examined them And if the word Fire were figurative it would be no matter of relief to the Damned's miseries but rather an aggravation of them For those things that are figuratively expressed in Scripture do commonly exceed those things by which they are expressed As God who is called a Father for his love to his People is more loving than any earthly Father and Heaven which is called Paradise is more glorious and blessed than ever Paradise was Names of Hell And as Hell is called Fire absolutely in that Text so it is called elsewhere a Furnace of Fire a terrible word indeed and which is more terrible a Lake that burneth with Fire and Brimstone O how dreadful must that place and state be supposed to be which is set forth unto us by such dreadful names in holy Scripture See Matth. 13.41 42. Revel 21.8 So to name no more it is called a Prison As Heaven is set out by things delightful so Hell is set out by that which is distastful and loathsome amongst which a Prison is one and Hell is called so in 1 Peter 3.19 And it is the worst of Prisons if we consider the properties of it A Prison 1. It is a dark Prison Darkness is naturally an uncomfortable thing They that fear nothing in the light yet are apt to be afraid of every thing when they are alone in the dark Paul and his Companions had but an unpleasant sailing when neither Sun nor Moon nor Stars appeared to them for several Days together And the Egyptians were little less than astonished at that Plague of thick Darkness that was upon them for three Days time Exod. 10. they were in such an amazement at it that they rose not from their places all that time And if God should take away the Sun or command it to with hold its Beams and Light we should take little pleasure in living upon the Earth But the Darkness of Hell is worse than all this Jude
13. The blackness of darkness for ever 2. It is a fast Prison such as they that are once in shall never be able to get out of The Doors of it are shut upon them by the Justice Truth and Power of the Almighty 3. It is a tormenting Prison Other Prisons are places where the Malefactors are reserved for Punishment but may have some ease and comforts during their aboad therein But Hell-Prison is the place of Punishment where the wrath of God is executed continually upon his Enemies I say continually for they shall be punished with an everlasting and therefore an ever-continuing destruction 2 Thess 1.8 9. The Doctrines of the Holy God were grievous to them though they heard of them but now and then What intolerable grief may the displeasure of God cause in them when they lye under it continually And the more dreadful will this Prison be to the Slaves of Satan because it will be if I may so call it a convincing Prison unto them Therein they shall be made to see their deserts as well as to feel their Punishment Though they shall have no light of comfort there yet they shall have a light of conviction The Lord Jesus at the Day of Judgment shall come from Heaven to convince all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds And doubtless Jude 14.15 that conviction will remain upon them when they are in Hell They will then be able to know what it was that they are sent thither for and that they are so miserable not meerly for God's good pleasure but for their own evil doings for obeying the Devil more than God for chusing the ways of wickedness before his holy pleasant Paths for rejecting the counsels of his Word and refusing to return that they might live They will then be able enough to understand that it was their loving of Darkness or Ignorance better than Light that made Christ say unto them I know you not and to cast them into that blackness of Darkness eternally Their mischievous designs and spightful dealings that hath laid them under the Vengeance of God and the malice of the Devil their mocking at Religion and laughing at Reproofs that hath moved God to laugh at their Calamity and mock at all their Woes and Cries Their Heathenish liberty on God's Holy-day that hath made them to be bound in those Chains of Damnation The Pride and Profaneness and Unconscionableness of their Hearts the cruelty and injustice of their hands the Deceit Hypocrisie and Baseness of their Tongues with all their witty fine-mouth'd Railings that brought them to that place of Torment and made their Bloud and Bones so Hot in that everlasting fiery Prison I might add more of their Bodies misery but I shall pass to that which is greater the miseries of their Souls for as they were most in sin so they will be also most in Punishment If a Man were never so full of pain in his Body The misery of their Souls yet if his Soul have some rest and comfort he is very far from perfect misery But alas it will not be so with the damned in Hell their Souls will be as far from ease as their Bodies for they will be afflicted perpetually with all sorts of tormenting passions and that 1. By sorrow in the saddest sense our Blessed Lord 1. By sorrow when he stood in the place of sinners had great experience of sorrow he was a Man of sorrows Esay 53. and acquainted with griefs and said that his Soul was exceeding sorrowful Matth. 26.28 O what sorrows then may we think will fall upon the Souls of the wicked in Hell If the Soul of that Holy One were so afflicted when he stood in the room of others what will be the case of them that must bear their own sins and answer the demands of Justice themselves Psal 32.10 The Psalmist tells us that many sorrows shall be to the wicked and as it is sometimes verified here in this World so certainly it will be most eminently fulfilled in the World to come How merry soever they may be on Earth our Lord assures us that they will be weeping and wailing Matth. 8.12 when they come to Hell And how happy would they think themselves to be if they might come out of Punishment when they have wept as many Tears as there be Drops in the Ocean 2. By shame Secondly By shame The boldest sinner of them all will then be ashamed when his eyes are open to see his sins and God's Majesty against whom they were committed with all the shameful aggravating circumstances of them How will they be confounded to see the Judge of the World set them on his left hand in the sight of Men and Angels and assign them their Portion amongst unclean Spirits And surely their confusion in Hell will not be less than that confusion that they suffered before they were there That punishment to which they are judged cannot be less than that which they suffered while they were brought forth to be judged They that gloried in their shame and made their Boast of their sins in the Day of God's patience will not do so in the Day of his Wrath. 3. By rage Thirdly They will be afflicted in their Souls by fury and rage these passions they were often tormented with on Earth upon small occasions yea many times upon no just occasion at all If a Man did but speak against the sins that they love yea if he did but admonish them soberly in private and entreat them for the love of Jesus to forsake those ways which his Soul hateth presently what a rage are they in and how mightily do storms of wrath arise in their Breasts and if they could kill them with a wish or burn them in their Beds with a fierce and fiery word they were likely to live but a few Hours longer If they have lost but a little of their estates or but so much as missed of a good Bargain they are ready to fret beyond measure at it But what will it be to lose their Souls and Heaven and endure the pains of Hell for the love of their foolish Lusts on Earth what unspeakable vexation will this be unto them when they have nothing at all to make up the loss to asswage their pain or abate their misery in any respect And thus our Saviour assures us the wicked will have as weeping so gnashing of teeth too when they shall see Abraham Isaac Matth. 8.11 12. and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven and they themselves shut out Fourthly In Hell they will be tormented by Desperation 4. Despair This is a fearful thing indeed and almost the only thing that wicked Men are much afraid of When we labour to beat down their false hopes of salvation and tell them they cannot be saved without that holiness that they yet hate they have no more compendious way to make our Sermons odious than to report that
they were born for nothing but to eat and drink and snort and sport c. or as the worthy Author of the Discourse of the Decay of Piety that live in the world as the Leviathan in the Sea to take their Pastime in it and to make up the parallel delight themselves to devour their Underlings Matth. 6. Col. 3. c. or as the Scripture Phrases it that be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God that set their affections mainly on things upon earth and not the things that are above that mind nothing seriously but Heathen like what they shall eat and what they shall drink and with what they shall be cloathed These I call Sensual Gentry and I will be content to be judged by any but themselves whether I may not fitly call them so and may lawfully say somewhat the more to them because others say so little Yet lest I should lye open to too many Censures for it and lest my plainness should be interpreted to be folly pride or peevishness or the like I think it meet to mention some passages out of several Writers that speak as bluntly to these men as I can do and yet will be confessed to be such as knew well what belongeth to Learning Grace and good manners First the famous Cambridge Orator speaks thus in his Poem Mr. G. Herberts Church Porch O England full of sin but most of sloth Spit out thy Phlegm and fill thy Breast with glory Thy Gentry bleats as if thy native cloath Transfus'd a Sheepishness into the Story Not that they all are so but that the most Are gone to grass and in the Pasture lost That worthy Divine of Broughton * Mr. R. Bolton in Northhampton-shire in his excellent Assize Sermon at the end of his four last things complained of the great degeneration of the modern Gentry speaking to this effect They are so vainly brought up and so strangely pufft up with insolency and Self-esteem c. that commonly by such time as they come to strength of body and mind corrupt affection obtains its full strength and height and hardness in their hearts and I am afraid if we go on meaning without a Reformation our Posterity will find in the next age the basest Generation of English that ever breathed in this famous Kingdom So he in p. 217 and 218. of the said work And whether this thing he feared be now come to pass or not I do not say let others judge The forementioned excellent Doctor also in that very Sermon makes as bold with them Dr. Saunderson speaking to those Gallants that do nothing for the good of humane Society but live as if they were made for no other ends but to eat and drink and sleep and game c. tells them however they might take it that the poorest contemptible creature that cryes Oysters in the streets for a livelihood deserves his Bread better than these brave men and his course of life is better approved of God and every wise man than theirs And as he adds a Horse that is not good for the Cart nor the Way nor the Race nor the Wars nor any other service though he be never so well made never so well shaped and never so well clothed yet is but a Jade still and after the Application of it adds the titles of honour which in courtesie we give you we bestow upon their memories whose degenerate off-spring you are and they no more belong to you than the Reverence the good man did to Isis belonged to the Asse that carried her Image And thus having cleared my way I shall now come directly to my intended work to exhort the brave Gentile sinners to consider the things that concern them which I take to be one of the fittest Uses that can be made of the Doctrine of Hell Torments The Exhortation c. Since there is a state of extream and everlasting punishment for the ungodly in another world 't is high time Sirs to look about you and to take care of your neglected Souls before you have lost them O consider this you that forget God and use all diligence to escape this wrath to come your Estates are better than other mens and your Breeding too as you would have us to think and are your Selves more contemptible or less worthy of your care and Religious regard Surely not You know that your time is passing and will return no more Death is at your backs as it were that pale horse will shortly overtake you and tread your honour in the dust and can you doubt of this or make light of it You are not sure to live another day you know nothing to the contrary but your Souls may be called for this very night Luke 12.20 though you have built your Barns never so largely to lay up your substance in and can you think the remembrance of the pleasures of a Sensual careless life will make death more safe or comfortable to you or if it could yet we are well assured it cannot make Hell Torments the more tolerable and as you are not more capable of escaping them if you dye in a state of sin unconverted so if you fall into them they will be as terrible to you as to other men though you are a little better armed against the crosses of this world than other men yet you have no more security against the curse of the Law and the wrath of God You have no musick that can charm the Devil or abate the fury of his Malice no Playes or Romances that can delight you after death no Clothes that can adorn you in the eyes of God no money that can bribe your Judge or purchase a Pardon at his hand In a word no Courage that can bear up your Spirits against the Terrors of Judgment if it find you in an unrenewed state and destitute of that Grace and Holiness that naturally you disregard O that you did but know any ways but by experience what a sad creature a Gentleman in Hell will be And that you may never know it in that way give me leave I beseech you to caution you against some special sins that are most likely to bring Great men thither 1. Pride and haughtiness of mind 1. Pride What if you speak great swelling words and look as big as a blown bladder scorning God and man at once yet you must come down a little lower if ever you dwell in the high and lofty place you must of necessity lay aside your loftiness and stoop so low as to take up that poor despised thing Religion and walk humbly with your God before you can see the Kingdom of Heaven Esay 2.12 Mic. 6.8 The day of the Lord of Hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty And the proud shall be as the stubble in the day of his Anger Mal. 4.1 and pride goes before destruction saith Solomon And how apt the heart
of man is to it when it is attended with wealth and worldly greatness I need not say 2. Take heed of fleshly lusts which war against the Soul 2. Fornication as St. Peter speaks in 2 Pet. 2.9 10. The Lord knoweth how to reserve the unjust to the day of judgment but chiefly them that walk in the lust of uncleanness c. So St. Paul Heb. 13.4 Adjudicabit exitio Piscat in Loc. 3. Idleness and unprofitableness Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge i. e. condemn They that would not be divorced from their Harlots shall be married to Hell-fire See Rev. 21.8 3. If you would escape the miseries of another world be sure to take heed of an idle and unprofitable life in this Surely Sirs they are like to partake of little good hereafter that care not to do good here If Plays and Romances have not thrust the Gospel out of your minds Matth. 25.30 I shall not need to tell you of the dreadful doom of the unprofitable Servant Is it not sad to see how little good is done in the World by many of those that are best able to do most and how many there be among us who have hundreds it may be thousands a Year that yet do not give all the Year round so much as the price of a good Periwig toward the Relief of their poor distressed Brethren as though such as are raised to such high fortunes were gotten above the Law of Charity or as if they thought the greatness of their wealth would well excuse them in the neglect of those good works it was given for or as though they had thought it an honour to them to have the Papists say that they are Solifidians The neglect of this is no such harmless Peccadillo as these Men may be apt to account it We read in the Gospel that our Lord will condemn Men at the great Day for this sin especially and make a particular mention of it as a procuring cause of Condemnation Matth. 25.41 c. He will say unto them Depart from me c. For when I was an hungred in his members he means ye gave me no meat when I was thirsty ye gave me no drink c. So then they that were able to do good to their poor Christian Brethren and were not willing to do it in some conscionable way will be punished for ever for this sin if they dye such as they lived and when they have lost their Souls and Heaven it will be no satisfaction to them to remember that they kept or saved their Money they that would not live as Christians shall not be spared because they were Gentlemen I might also caution you against Cruely and Oppression scorning of Reproofs and scoffing at Religion in the serious faithful Followers of it but I have not time to say all that might be said unto you 4. Mispending of Time The next thing that I would entreat you to be heedful against is mis-spending of your time He that is careless of that is therein careless of his God his Soul his Duty and every thing that most concerns him and therefore is most apparently as yet in the ready way to Hell See that ye walk circumspectly redeeming the time is no Precept of mine but of the Apostle * Eph. 5.15 16. or rather of God by him and if Gentlemen are not concerned with it it would be hard to prove that any others are Believe me Sirs your time is one of your choicest Treasures nor can you name any thing besides God's grace and your Souls that can be compared with it for preciousness What would you not give for another years time in order to your preparation for an endless life in case you were to dye to morrow And though I am not concerned to accuse you of mispending your time yet I may lawfully put you in mind of it and desire you to call your selves to account for it before your God doth Compare I beseech you the time that you spend in excessive sleeping in trimming and adorning in feasting and long meals in pomp and state and vain curiosity in vain thoughts and worldly cares in Cards and Dice and other Games at home and abroad in fruitless and unedifying Books in idle company and needless visits in vain discourses and delights in doing ill or doing nothing I say do but compare this time that is spent in these ways with that time which is spent in a serious seeking and serving of God in reading of good Books in thinking of good things in governing your Families religiously in relieving the poor in encouraging your Charge in the ways of God or any thing else that tends to the promoting of piety in your selves or others And let your own consciences tell you which is most For in many of our Gentry the time that is spent in the latter is no more in comparison of that which is spent upon the former than the poor Man's wages for a days work to their Yearly Incomes Their whole business and work is sports and pastimes so that we might describe them in those words in Exod. 32. They are a People that sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play But such provide but ill for themselves nor can it be safe for them to be so prodigal of time that have Death and Judgment before them a Hell to escape and a Heaven to prepare for 5. There is another sin that some who go for Gentlemen are sadly in love with Rash Imprecations and must not be forgotten in this Discourse I mean horrid Swearing and Imprecations Damning Sinking and the like And surely if Damnation be a real thing and not a Dream it must needs be a damnable thing in the highest sense rashly and profanely to imprecate it upon themselves What wonder is it if these Men have Hell for their portion that commonly have Damnation it self for the matter of their prayer And if they did only shame themselves by this wickedness the matter were not so much but they alas shame their profession also and bring a grievous reproach upon the holy Prayers of our Church 'T is the corrupt Lives and cursed Speeches of such Professors that harden the deluded Separatists in their prejudice against them as the Quakers and such like I read not many Moneths ago a passage to this purpose more than plain enough in a Quaker's Pamphlet where speaking to some Persons of this bad quality he expresseth himself after this manner You cry out God damn us and God confound us and soon after you go to your Church and say We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. Thus Reader this clause in our Letany We beseech thee to hear us good Lord than which it is hard to imagine any thing more humble or pious or better becoming a serious Christian is matter of greatest scorn and contempt to these poor Creatures and all because it is Profaned and Unhallowed
publick Duty and to hear that word often that is able to save their Souls Shew your Zeal for the Solemn Service of your God and let them know how greatly you love the Habitation of his House and the place where his Honour dwelleth This would be a means to bring them often thither if not for love yet for shame and fear and if they come within the sound of God's Word whatsoever it be that moves them so to do there is hopes they may be the better for it or at least not so bad so blind and bold and hardened in sin as if they had been drinking or prating with their ungodly Companions when they should be hearing the Word of their Lord. 2. To shew your Zeal against Drunkenness common Swearing and all other gross sin by punishing it according to the Laws of the Land and to shew most of your favour and kindness to those Persons or Families that seem to have the greatest kindness for Religion 3. To discourse with your Neighbours in an edifying way Let your speech savour of Grace and discover your seriousness for your God and Souls Let them know by your words the holy temper of your hearts Tell them how glad you would be to be more holy than you are to be perfectly conformed to the will of Christ and how little you value all this World 's good in comparison of his love and the enjoyment of it in Heavenly glory Tell them what thoughts you have of the state of an ungodly Professor and that you would not be in such a case for all the Wealth in the Earth Tell them of the preciousness of Time and the greatness of that work which they must do for their Souls therein and if they seem careless of it ask them seriously some awakening Questions As 1. Do you not know that you are Men and that your reason was given you to make you capable of serving your God with a reasonable service that is a ready willing and conscionable service And do you not know that he is always present with you and pondereth all your goings 2. Do you not know you must shortly dye and your Souls enter immediately into an endless state of joy or sorrow according as you dye godly or ungodly Christians 3. Doth not God deserve infinitely more than your highest love your best obedience The Heavens declare his glory and may it become you to forget him and live to his dishonour Do you not admire the beauty and brightness of the starry Heaven and will you venture to lose all the glory and joy which dwells in the Heaven of Heavens for the transitory pleasures or profits of sin O how much good might a few of such questions or speeches do from a Gentleman's mouth upon his Tenents or Neighbours Souls 4ly Engage them in the reading of Scripture and such Books as open and apply the great truths and duties in it as Bishop Taylor 's Rules of Holy Living the Whole Duty of Man Mr. Baxter's Books of Death and Judgment or any other that your Prudence and Piety shall think fit for them Such private innocent companions I doubt not have been a means of saving many a Soul Engage them also to a constant course of Prayer by themselves and with their Families for the often approaching to God in so holy a work whether with a Book or without will shame them from gross sins and make them more serious in their provisions for Eternity 5. Do all you advise them to your selves and be ready to do good to their Bodies and Names in any reasonable way as well as to their Souls and then there is no doubt but your good Examples and good Counsels may do them good And your labour in all will not be too much in so great a work as the saving of Souls from the second Death My next work is to Exhort All in general high and low rich and poor one with another Surely my Brethren you had need be heedful to your selves since Hell is real O consider your ways and use all possible means to escape the Damnation of Hell I hope I shall not need to add any Motives to it if you believe its dreadfulness and your own deservings And as for Directions for it the following Section will supply you with them CHAP. IV. SECT IV. Containing some Directions to escape Hell Torments Presupposition THis part of my Discourse is designed for such especially as are yet in the ready way to Hell as common Swearers Lyars Drunkards Sabbath-breakers and such like to which I may add our factious spightful Professors that mix very wisely as they think their Malice and their Religion together whose wicked spight against their Parish-Ministers is most blessedly turned into a pure zeal for private Meetings abhorring Churches as profane places and crying out when the time and company is fittest Down with them down with them even to the ground And in a word Hypocrites Worldlings careless and ungodly Persons To such I now speak and to them I would give these following Advices in order to the escaping of Hell-torments Dir. 1 After you have remembred how well you deserve them and how worthy the least sin makes you of them Rom. 6. last vers The wages of sin is Death viz. Eternal Death or Damnation for to Eternal Life it is opposed in the verse much more all your sins together with your obstinacy and impenitency in and under them c. I say having considered your deservings consider carefully the danger of your present state of sin O think a little yea think much how uncertain your life is and how impossible it will be to scape Hell if you dye in an unconverted unsanctified state see Matth. 18.3 Hebr. 12.14 and other places And withall how intolerable its miseries will be to you if for the love of sin you be sent thither The light afflictions of this World are greatly dreaded by many and carefully provided against by sober and prudent Men How much more should the extremity of endless Torments O consider what it is to be for ever I say for ever under the insupportable wrath of the great God and whether the utmost that sin can do for you may rationally encourage you to run the hazard of so great a misery This is the first thing that I would advise you to in this case and if the escaping of everlasting misery be not a thing worthy of our most serious thoughts that may tend that way nothing in the World is nor will Men be apt to provide against a danger till they see and consider the reality and certainty of it and the like Except But say some this is harsh counsel and we cannot take it To consider of such sad matters alas we cannot do it we dare not do it if we should think much of such things we are afraid it might make us mad Answer But Sinner take heed in time and do not deceive thy self thou knowest thou hast
a great adversary that delights in nothing more than in his hopes of seeing thee in the same Hell with himself do not joyn with him in working out thy own destruction He will surely do it if he can nor hath he any more compendious way and Method to undo thy Soul than to keep thee from considering thy State seriously and the dreadful danger thou art in while thou givest thy self up to the service of Sin and dost not chuse the fear of the Lord But to come directly to the point in hand Thou darest not spend any serious thoughts upon such matters lest it should distract thee It seems then thou takest thy self to be well in thy wits as yet and if thou art so indeed I may hope thou wilt not think it unreasonable to make use of thy Reason for the good of thy Soul I mean by answering for this particular these following Queries 1. Whether there can be any more dreadful or damnable distraction than for a man to follow his sins and not consider his danger to rebel against the King of Heaven wilfully and deliberately and not to take time to consider what he is doing and which way he is tending I think there can be no greater madness than this unless a greater degree of the same kind and I hope Reader thou art of the same opinion 't is sad to see a man that is thus mad for his Soul to neglect it still and plead that he doth so for fear of being mad O what monstrous madness is this 2. Whether thou wouldst Reason at this rate in other matters of far smaller moment Suppose thou hadst passed through some infected houses where the most were dead of the Disease and one say unto thee Alas man O how fearful is thy case consider the danger and seek out for help for those houses had the Plague and 't is ten to one but thou art infected c. wouldst thou reply I dare not consider of it lest the thoughts of my danger and death should dull my Spirits and make me Melancholy And why should not men Reason so in such cases but that they less mind their Souls concerns than their Bodies 3. Whether thy Reason was not given thee to consider of the state of thy Soul in order to its eternal welfare and whether God doth not require thee to consider thy ways what they are and what they tend to Hag. 1.5 Thus saith the Lord of Hosts consider your ways and Esay 1.3 he complains that his people did not consider And can you think that 't is the way to be mad to consider of them or that God will take away the use of your reason because you use it according to his will and command A Caution Yet think not of thy danger despairingly nor draw any sadder conclusions from the consideration of thy present state than the Scripture alloweth of Say not I must needs be damned because I am not yet in a state of Salvation or that thou must certainly go to Hell because thou hast been hitherto in the way to it c. 'T is not despairing of Salvation but returning from thy sins that is the work thou hast to mind and if thou returnest in Truth as sure as there is a Hell so surely thou shalt escape it through the Mercies of the Living God Read for thy comfort Esay 55.7 Dir. 2 Be sure to shun all gross and scandalous sins and all such company how merry soever that may be likely to draw thee to them or to harden thee in them 'T is as vain to promise your self Heaven while you walk in any way of gross wickedness as to promise your selves life and health when you resolve to take the rankest poyson I have told you in times past saith the Apostle and now tell you also that they that do such things not only those there mentioned but such like shall not inherit the Kingdom of God And especially Take heed of such courses as are injurious to men vengeance from God is most plainly intimated to be the Reward of such doings 1 Thess 4.6 That no man go beyond or defraud his brother in any matter for the Lord is the Avenger of all such as we also have forewarned you and testified Yea this course hath brought men to a hell here on earth Spira a famous Gentleman of Cittadella a Civil-Lawyer who was almost a Miracle of Spiritual misery and breathed out Woes and Terrors to himself continually discovered the sad thoughts that he had of his former practises in that kind confessing his sin with a most sorrowful heart His words are these Spira 's life p. 3. lin 1. translated I was exceedingly covetous of money and accordingly I applied my self to the getting of it corrupting justice by deceit and inventing ways to delude it Good causes I either defended deceitfully or sold them to the Adversary perfidiously Bad causes I maintained with all my might opposing often the known truth c. He saw That money was too hardly earned which was gotten with the loss of Justice and Truth Noverint universi caveant universè Dir. 3 Take heed of your Company Make not the known enemies of Religion and holiness your ordinary familiar Companions But mistake me not I am not perswading you to forsake your necessary Relations but your unnecessary wicked Companions and there is no hope of your Salvation till you are heartily willing to forsake them a companion of fools or wicked men that are notoriously such shall be destroyed Prov. 13.20 These are likely to frustrate as far as is possible the means of grace and Salvation to thy Soul keeping thee from Hearing or Reading or other duties when thou shouldst be about them and hardening thy heart against God's fear O how many that seemed very hopeful for Heaven a long time have yet at last been taken and overcome by this snare of the Devil and went to hell for company shun them carefully as you love your souls forsake the foolish live Pr. 9.6 better leave them than perish with them Dir. 4 If you would escape hell content not your selves with a false and ungrounded hope of escaping do not conclude your safety from false and insufficient grounds He that lyeth in an infected bed and hopeth that he is in no danger of the Disease because his Smell and Taste is good or on any the like insufficient ground and reason is not only never a whit the safer for his hope but is really so much the more in danger because he contents himself with his dangerous condition and concludes his safety from that which will not warrant any such conclusion Just so in the present case He that is in the way towards hell and yet hath a strong hope upon unsound grounds that he is not in danger of it is not the safer because he hopes but the more in danger because he hopes upon unsound grounds here therefore I shall name some sandy foundations upon which