now art thou arrayed in the shining robes of Heaven and all the Host do triumph at thy corronation Sweet soul how am I ravished to think upon thee What joy is this The Patriarchs salute thee the Prophets welcome thee the Apostles hug thee all hands clap for joy all harps warble all hearts are merry and glad O thou Creatour of men and Angels help us all to Heaven that when our dayes have been we may all meet together in thy blessed Kingdome I have done turn back by the same thread that led you through this labyrinth and you shall have in two words the summe of this whole Text. The time of our Lease what is it but our Life what is this Life but a number of few dayes what are these dayes but a world full of evil But a life but dayes but few but evil can we adde any more Yes Life is life howsoever we live and better you think to have a bad lease in being then our life to be quite extinguished nay be not deceived this life is but death the dayes that we spend they are past and done few and evill they have been Thus ends the Text with the exspiration of our Lease yet is not all done when we loose this life we have another free-hold prepared in Heaven and this is not leased but purchased not for a life but inheritance not for dayes but for ever Crosse but the words of my Text and many and happy shall the ages of thy life be in Heaven for ever and ever Amen FINIS Deaths Arrest LUKE 12.20 This night thy soul shall be required of thee MAns Bodie we say is closed up within the Elements his Bloud in his Bodie his Spirits in his Bloud his Soul in his Spirits and God or Sathan in his Soul Who holds the possession we may guesse in life but then is it most apparent when we come to death The tree may bend East or West or North or South but as it falleth so it lieth Our affections may look up or down towards heaven or hel but as we die we receive our doom and then whose we are shall be fully made manifest to all the world There is a parable of poor Lazarus Luke 16. whose life was nothing but a catalogue of miseries his body full of sores his mind full of sorrows what spectacle could we think more pitifull whose best dainties were but broken crumbs and his warmest lodging but the rich mans gates Here is a parable of a certain rich man who enjoyes or at least purposeth a delicious fare he hath lands vers 16. Vers 16. fruits vers 17. 17. buildings vers 18. 18. and if this be the Inventorie what is the summe see it collected in the verse succeeding Soul 19. thou hast much goods laid up for many years now live at ease Eat drink and take thy pastime These two estates thus different how should they be but of divers tenures Matth. 6.24 No man can serve God and Mammon See Lazarus dying and the Angels carry him in-Abrahams bosome See this rich man dying and they that is devils require his soul God receives one and his soul is in heaven Sathan takes the other and drags down his soul to hel he is comforted that received pains and thou art tormented that wast full of ease this is the doom and that he may undergo this death now gives the summons This night thy soul shall be required of thee The Text we may christen Deaths Arrest it is we that offend his Majestie of heaven and his precepts are given unto Death to attach our souls See here a president a rich man taken on a sudden who must instantly appear before the Judge of heaven when this night What thy soul Why it is required Of whom of thee Or if this will not find the offender see yet a more narrow search every word is like some dark closet therefore we will open the windovvs that you may have full light This Text is Deaths Arrest vvhich as it must be executed so it admits of no other time but This This what this day whilest the Sun gives light to the vvorld and the light gives pleasure to the eie this vvere some comfort no but then suddenly vvhilst all sleep securely not This day but This night And vvhat this night Is it to attach the bodie of some great personage vvhose looks might affrighten Officers had they come by day No let his bodie rot in dust vvhilest the Soul must ansvver his defaults it is not thy body 't is thy soul And what of his soul Is this a subject liable to arrests rather can they beg it at his hands or vvill he yield it at their fair intreaties no it is neither begg'd nor intreated but by vertue of Gods Writ it is required And hovv required of his sureties bound for his good appearing he hath many friends and all either have or vvould have entred bonds no he must go vvithout bail or main-prize it is not required of his sureties but himself not of others but of thee is thy soul this night required You hear the Texts harmonie of each string vve vvill give a touch and first note the time this night This. Doctrine NO other but This were it a fortnight a seven-night any but This night and his griefs were lessened the news is more heartlesse in that it comes more sudden You may observe Then are the greatest losses when they come on us by heaps and without fear or suspicion of any such matter Here was a man swimming in his fulnesse and a sudden death robs him of all his treasures To give you a full view see his possessions and how great was the losse because of the suddennesse This night First those goods whereof he boasted are now confiscate not a peny not a dram not a mite shall be left him save onely a token of remembrance I mean his winding-sheet which he carries along with him to his grave Secondly his goods and grounds both were took from him at his death he that commanded so much of earth must now have no more earth to pleasure him but a grave what a change was this his grounds were fertile Vers 16. and they brought forth plenteously but a blast of death hath struck both the fruit and ground and nothing is now left him but a barren Tombe Thirdly his lands and houses both went together You may guesse that great demeans must have stately Halls we read of his building and especially of his Barns when these were too little for his store he tells us he will pull them down and he will build greater He never thinks of any little room in the bowels of the poor Was his harvest so great that his barns would not hold it Whence came the blessing but from God How is it then he forgets God that bestowed this blessing It is written When ye reap the harvest of the Land ye shall not reap
Look at beasts and in this respect we and they are even as one condition Eccles 3.19 Eccles 3.19 Eccles 11.3 Mat. 27.51 Look at trees and in their corruption you may see the like constitution both of us and them Look at stones and by their dissolution we may argue this temper of composition in them also if then our soul were nothing but this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not onely men but beasts and plants and stones and metalls have a soul far be this from your thoughts whose souls are prized to be of more worth then a world there being nothing in the world that may give a recompence for our souls Matth. 16.26 Mat. 16.26 Others have gone a little further Antiqui Philosophir and they suppose it to be a substance but how onely bodily and not spirituall such grosse conceits have many idolaters of the Deity as if this our image were of Gods own substance and this substance nothing else but a bodily being A spirit saith our Saviour hath not flesh and bones Luk. 24.39 as you see me have It is the body is the flesh but the soul is the spirit the body you may see and handle but the soul is not seen not handled as the Disciples then did erre in supposing a spirit when they saw his body no lesse is their errour in supposing a body where is onely a spirit Anima pessima melior optimo corpore Aug. de verb. Dom. Quid tibi cum carne Bern. in meditat Plurimi Patres The worst soul is better then the best of bodies O precious soul saith Bernard espoused to thy God indowed with his spirit redeemed by his Son what art thou to the flesh whose being is from heaven Others again have passed this opinion and they call it a form but what onely materiall not substantiall and such as are the souls of beasts that dye with their bodies as being deduced from the matter of some bodies pre-existent It is not so with the souls of men which though for a while they are knit and united to this house of clay yet may they be separated from it and subsist without it this is that goodness of God that as our souls are intellectuall so their being is perpetuall Dionys c. 4. de divin nom aliquantulum à principio 1 Cor. 4.7 not but that our souls might dye seeing every thing that is of nothing may return into the same nothing whence it sprung but that God so sustains them by his glorious goodness that as he gave the first being so he would continue that he gave What have we that we have not received Or to speake of the soul what are we that God and God onely hath not bestowed upon us our parents begot our bodies God onely gave our souls our bodies are buried again in the wombe of our common mother but our souls return to God as to their chiefest good So immateriall is the soul that neither will nor understanding depends on the dying organ What then is the soul a nothing an accident a body a form onely materiall no but on the contrary an ens a substance a spirit a form a substantiall being of it self subsisting But wee 'll ascend a little higher it is a substance created not traduced as some would have it I must confess the opinion was not a little strong that as our bodies so our souls were both propagated from our parents Tertullian In epist ad Marcellin and the Fathers of the West as Ierome witnesseth were most on that side the reason of this opinion was because of originall sin which defileth the soul as well as the body of each man sprung from Adam they could see no means how both were corrupted except withall the soul were propagated But are not our souls as the Angells and therefore if our souls then may the Angels beget one another nay if this were true what soul were generated but another were corrupted for the rule is infallible There can be no generation without a transmutation and so would every soul be subject to corruption Concerning that objection of originall sin if the soul were not traduced from the loyns of Adam Magis credi debet quam quaeri quaeri facilius quam intelligi melius intelligitur quam explicatur Whitak l. 1. de peccat origin c. 8. Fallacia divisionis how then should that sin be imputed to our souls I must confess the question is intricate we should rather believe it then enquire of it and we may better enquire of it then understand it and yet more easily understand it then expresse it But so well as we can we shall untie the knot First then we say 't is a fallacy to divide soul and body for not the soul without the body nor the body without the soul but the whole man sinn'd in Adam as the whole man is begot of Adam so soon therefore as the soul is conjoyn'd to the body and of the soul and body is constituted whole man that man being now made a member of Adam is said to sin with him and to derive that sin from him But for a further satisfaction although the soul depend on God according to its substance yet is it created in that body which is produced of the parents thus in some sort we may say that the soul is begotten non quoad essentiam sed quoad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God onely gives the essence but to exist comes from the parents Arist de anima 2. l. c. 1. What is the soul but a form of the body and of what body but of that which is organicall as being apt for the soul This aptness then whereby it is prepared for the form being received from the parents we may say of the soul that thus it is generated as not beginning to subsist before the body is prepared This is true in some sort though not properly Consider then the excellency of mans soul which is not born but created and howsoever now it is bespotted with sin yet was it then pure and undefiled as the untouched virgin how is it but pure which the hands of God hath made it was the devill that caused sin but all that God made was good and very good Gen. 1.31 Gen. 1.31 and such a soul hath every man Sedibus aethereis spiritus ille venit It is created by God infused by his Spirit of nothing made something and what something but an excellent work befitting such an excellent workman And yet there be more staires to ascend it is thirdly invisible Hath any man seen God or hath any man seen Gods image which is the soul and lived Substances that are more pure are less visible We see but darkly through a glasse nay the best eye upon earth looks but through a lattice a window an obscuring impediment mortall eyes cannot behold immortall things how then should this corruptible sight see a spirituall
soul the object is too clear for our weak eyes our eyes are but earthly the soul of an heavenly nature O divine being not onely heavenly but heaven it self as God and man met both in Christ so heaven and earth met both in man would you see this earth that is the body Out of it wast thou taken and into it must thou return Gen. 4.19 Gen. 4.19 would you see this heaven that is the soul the God of heaven gave it and to the God of heaven returns it Eccles 12.7 Eccles 12.7 The body is but a lump but the soul is that breath of life of earth came the body of God was the soul thus earth and heaven met in the creation and the man was made a living soul Gen. 2.7 Gen. 2.7 the sanctified soul is an heaven upon earth Est coelum sancta anima habens solem intellectum lunam fidem astra virtutet Bern super Cantic where the sun is understanding the moon is faith and the stars gracious affections what heaven is in that body which lives and moves by such a soul yet so wonderfull is Gods mercy to mankinde that as reason doth possesse the soul so the soul must possesse this body Here is that union of things visible and invisible as the light is spirituall incorruptible indivisible and so united to the air that of these two is made one without confusion of either in like manner is the soul united to this body one together distinguished asunder onely here 's the difference the light is most visible the soul is invisible she is the breath of God the beauty of man the wonder of Angels the envie of devils that immortall splendor which never eye hath seen never eye must see And yet we must up another step it is fourthly incorporeall as not seen with a mortall eye so neither clogg'd with a bodily shape I say not but the soul hath a body for his organ to which it is so knit and tyed that they cannot be severed without much sorrow or strugling yet is it not a body but a spirit dwelling in it the body is an house and the soul the inhabitant every one knows the house is not the inhabitant and yet O wonder there is no roome in the house where the inhabitant lives not would you please to see the roomes the eye is her window the head is her tower the heart is her closet the mouth is her hall the lungs her presence chamber the senses her cinque-ports the common-sense her custome-house the phantasie her mint the memory her treasury the lips are her two leav'd doores that shut and open and all these and all the rest as the motions in a Watch are acted and mooved by this spring the Soul See here a composition without confusion the soul is in the body yet it is not bodily as in the greatest world the earth is more solid the water less the ayr yet lesser the fire least of all so in this little world of man the meaner parts are of grosser substance and the soul by how much more excellent by so much more spirituall and wholly with-drawn from all bodily being And yet a little higher it is fiftly immortall It was the errour of many Fathers Scaliger notae in nov Test That bodies and souls must both die till doomes-day and then the bodies being raised the souls must be revived Were that true why then cryes Stephen Lord Iesu receive my spirit or why should Paul be dissolved that he might be with Christ Act. 7.59 Philip. 1.23 Blessed men are but men and therefore no wonder if subject to some errour Others more absolutely deny the souls immortality We are born say they at all adventures and we shall be hereafter as though we had never been Why so for the breath is a smoke in our nostrils and the words as a spark raised out of our hearts Wisd 2.2 3. which being extinguished the body is turned into ashes and the spirit vanisheth as soft ayre What is the soul a smoak and the spirit no better then the soft vanishing ayre Matth. 22.32 wretched men Have you not read what is spoken of God saying I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Iacob now God saith Christ is not the God of the dead but of the living Abraham Isaac Iacob they are not dead then in the better part their souls but passed indeed from the valley of death unto the land of the living Whosoever liveth and believeth in mee saith our Saviour shall never die Iohn 11.26 John 11.26 Not die against some never die against others what can we more onely live and believe in him that redeemed us and be sure his promises shall never fail us our souls must live live for ever Sweet soul blessed with the felicity of eternall life here 's a joy unspeakable that this soul now clogged with cares vexations griefs passions shall one day enjoy those joyes immortall not for a day or two Nullus erit defectus nullus terminus though this were more then we can imagine but through all eternity There shall be no defect nor end after millions of ages the soul must still live in her happiness it is not of a perishing but an everlasting substance And yet the perfection of the soul goes higher it is most like to God so far it transcends all earthly happiness I cannot say but in some sort all creatures have this likeness every effect hath at least some similitude with its cause but with a difference some onely have a being as stones others being and life as plants but man above all hath a being life and reason and therefore of all other the most like unto his Creatour Can we any more yes one step higher and we are at the top of Jacobs ladder The soul is not onely like God but the image of God I cannot denie but there is some apparance of it in the outward man and therefore the bodie in some measure partakes of this image of the Deity it was man and whole man that was corrupted by sin and by the law of contraries it was man and whole man that was beautified with this image Please you to look at the body is it not a little world wherein every thing that God made was good as therefore all goodness comes from him so was he the pattern of all goodness that being in him perfectly which onely is in us partly This is that Idaea whereby God is said to be the exemplar of the world man then in his body being as the worlds map what is he but that image in which the builder of the world is manifest but if you look at the parts of his body how often are they attributed though in a metaphor yet in resemblance to his Maker our eyes are the image of his wisdome our hands are the image of his power our heart is the image of his
knowledge and our tongue the lively image of his revealed will God therefore before he made the body said Let us make man in our own image Gen. 1.26 and what was the meaning but that soul and body should both bear the image of his Majestie Be astonished then ye men of the earth If this dust this clay this bodie of ours be so glorious what think ye of the soul whose substance faculties qualities dignities every way represents Gods omnipotent Essence Look on this glass and first for substance is the soul invisible why so is God No man hath seen him at any time Joh. 1.18 John 1.18 Is the soul incorporeall why so is God We ought not to think him like unto gold or silver or stone graven with art Acts 17.29 Acts 17.29 Is the soul immortall why so is God He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords who onely hath immortality 1. Tim. 6.16 1. Tim. 6.16 Is the soul spirituall why so is God God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit John 4.24 John 4.24 Is the soul one essence why so is God There is one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all Ephes 4.6 Ephes 4.6 See here the lively image of God in every soul of man But there is another character imprinted in every faculty so that not onely the substance but the powers of the soul bear this image in them As there is one God and three persons so there is one soul and three faculties the Father Son and holy Ghost are but one God the Vnderstanding Will and Memory are but one soul the Father is not the Son nor the Son the holy Ghost so the Vnderstanding is not the Will nor the Will the Memory and yet the Father is God the Son is God and the holy Ghost is God so the Vnderstanding is the soul the VVill is the soul and the Memory is the soul I dare not say but there is some difference Trinitatem in nobis videmus potius quà m credimus Deum verò esse Trinitatem credimus potiùs quà m videmus Aug. de Trin. l. 15. c. 6. Psal 45.13 Ecclus 17.6 This trinity in us we rather see it then believe it but that Trinity of Persons we more believe it then see it Howsoever then our soul is no proof of the Godhead yet is it a true sign of that image of God in the soul Nay yet as if this stamp were of a deeper impression see the dowrie of Gods Spouse and who wonders not at the qualities conditions with which the soul is arrayed The Kings daughter is all glorious within her clothing is of broydered gold What say you to that heavenly knowledge inspired into us God that created man filled him with knowledge of understanding and shewed them good and evil Ecclus 17.6 What say you to those heavenly impressions that are stampt upon us Ephes 4.24 such are the new mans marks which after God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse Ephes 4.24 These make the soul like God and God loving to the soul is it not clad with righteousness as with a garment witnesse the integrity of Adam in that sweet subjection his soul to the Lord his affections to the soul his body to the affections the whole man to God as to the chiefest good and as truth and mercy meet together so righteousnesse and holinesse kisse each other this righteousness to God is it that makes us righteous afore God and this is that holiness wherein we are created O blessed image how nearly dost thou resemble thy Creatour he is the pattern of perfection and we bear the image of that pattern Be ye holy for I am holy 1. Pet. 1.15 1. Pet. 1.15 And yet again as if this picture were of deeper die how like is the soul to its Creatour in her full dominion over all the creatures Cant. 6.3 Thou art bountifull O my soul as Tirzah comely as Jerusalem terrible as an army with banners What is it will not stoop to this Gods Vice-gerent Beasts and birds and serpents and things of the sea are tamed and have been tamed of the nature of man Jam. 3.7 Jam. 3.7 What a thing is this soul she can came the wild command the proud pull down the loftie do what she will by compounding comparing contemplating commanding O excellent nature that sittest on earth canst reach to heaven mayest dive to hell nothing being able to resist thy power so long as thou art subject to that power of God Psal 8.6 Is this the soul Lo what is man that thou art mindfull of him thou hast made him to have dominion in the works of thy hands thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet Psal 8.6 O my soul my soul what can we say of such a creature to summe up all she is in nature a substance created by God invisible of men incorporeall with Angels immortall through grace most like to God in a way of nearness and bearing his image in the glorious stamp of her created likeness Is this the darling of our Lord where then is the rich man that hath lost this pearl he that could tell his soul Soul Vers 19. thou hast much goods laid up for many years live at ease eat drink and take thy pastime Now on a sudden his soul is taken and whose shall those things be which he hath provided The loss of all losses is the loss of a soul without which had we never so much we could truly enjoy nothing what trust then in your earthly treasures what stay in such broken staves of reed one day you shall finde them most deceitfull leaving your naked souls to the open rage of wind and weather to the scourges and scorpions of guiltiness and fear Could you purchase a monopoly of all the world had you the gold of the West the treasures of the East the spices of the South the pearles of the North all is nothing to this incarnate Angell this invaluable soul O wretched worldling what hast thou done then to undoe thy soul was it a wedge of gold an heap of silver an hoord of pearl to which thou trustest see they are gone and thy soul is required Alas poor soul whither must it go to heaven to its Creator to God that gave it no there is another way for wandring sinners Go yee into everlasting fire Mat. 25.41 prepared for the Devill and his Angels thither must it go with heaviness of heart into a kingdome of darkness a lake of burning a prison of horrible confusion of terrible tortures O poor soul what a misery is this darkness burning confusion torments are these the welcomes of his soul to hell what meant the rich man in his unhappy fore-cast he propounded to his soul a world of ease of pleasure of pastime it proves far otherwise this other world is a world
of torments which like infinite rivers of Brimstone feed upon his soul without ease or end What avails now his pompous pride at his dolefull funerals the news is sounded hee is dead friends must lament him passing-peales ring for him an hearse-cloth wrap him a tombe-stone lye over him all must have mourning suites and may be rejoycing hearts but all this while his soul his going to judgment without one friend or the least acquaintance to speak in his cause O that his soul were mortall and body and soul to be buried both together in one grave must his body die and his soul live in what world or nation in what place or region it is another world another nation where Devils are companions brimstone the fire horrour the language and eternall death the souls eternall life never to be cured Bernard in Medit. and never must be ended O my soul saith Bernard what a terrible day shall that be when thou shalt leave this Mansion and enter into an unknown region who will deliver thee from these ramping Lyons who can defend thee from those hellish monsters God is incensed hell prepared justice threatned onely mercy must prevent or the soul is damned View this rich man on his deaths-bed the pain shouts through his head and at last comes to his heart anon death appeares in his face and suddenly falls on to arrest his soul Is it death what is it he demands can his goods satisfie no the world claims them must his body goe no the worms claim that what debt is this which neither goods nor body can discharge Habeas animam ejus coram nobis Gods warrant bids fetch the soul O miserable news the soul committed sin sin morgaged it to death death now demands it and what if he gain the world he must lose his soul This night thy soul shall be required of thee Vse 1 Animula vagula blandula said the heathen Emperour Pretty Adrian little wandring soul whither goest thou from me wilt thou leave me alone that cannot live without thee O what conflicts suffers the poor soul when this time is come must the soul be gone help friends physick pleasure riches nay take a world to reprive a soul so different are the thoughts of men dying from them living now are they for their pleasure or profit the body or the world but then nothing is esteemed but the soul what can we say but if you mean your souls must be saved O then let these precious dear everlasting things breathed into your bodies for a short abode scorn to feed on earth or any earthly things it is matter of a more heavenly metall treasures of an higher temper riches of a nobler nature that must help your souls Do you think that ever any glorified soul that now looks God Almighty in the face and tramples under foot the Sun and Moon is so bewitcht as was Achan with a wedge of gold no it is onely the Communion of Saints the society of Angels the fruition of the Deity Iosh 7.21 the depth of eternity which can onely feed and fill the soul So live then as that when you die your souls may receive this blisse and the Lord Iesus our Saviour receive all your souls Vse 2 I must end but gladly would I win a soul If the reward be so great as you know it to recover a sick body Si magnae mercedis est a morte eripere carnem quanti est meriti à morte liberare animam Ambros Offic. 1. Quid est quod velis habere malum nihil omnino Aug. in quod serm which for all that must die of what reward is that cure to save a soul which must ever ever live O sweet Jesu why sheddest thou the most precious and warmest bloud of thy heart but onely to save souls thou wast scourged buffetted judged condemned hanged was all this for us and shall we do nothing for our selves What is it thou wouldest have bad if thou couldest wish it good not thy house nor thy wife nor thy children nor thy good nor thy cloaths but no matter for thy soul I beseech you value not you souls at a less price then your shooes you can please the flesh with delicates which is naught but worms meat but the soul pines for want which is a creature invisible incorporeall immortall most like to God are we thus carefull of pelf and so careless of this pearl certainly I cannot choose but wonder when seeing the streets peopled with men that follow suits run to Courts attend and wait on their Councellors for this case and that case this house or that land that not one of these no nor one of all us will ride or run or creep or go to have counsell for his soul I must confess I have sometimes dwelt on this meditation and Beloved let me speak homely to you be our Counsellors in this Town every week solicited by their Clients and have we no Clients in soul-cases not one that will come to us with their cases of conscience sure you are either careless of your souls or belike you have no need of particular instructions O let us not be so forward for the world and so backward for the soul yet I pray mistake not I invite you not for fees as noble Terentius when he had petitioned for the Christians and saw it torn in pieces before his face gathered up the pieces and said I have my reward I have not sued for gold silver honour or pleasure but a Church so say I in middest of your neglect I have not sued for your good or silver for your houses or lands but for your souls your precious souls and if I cannot or shall not woe them to come to Christ God raise up some child of the Bride-chamber which may do it better if neither I nor any other can prevail O then fear that speech of Elies sons they hearkened not unto the voice of their father because the Lord would slay them 1 Sam. 2.25 In such a case O that my head were full of water and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for your sins O that I could wash your souls with my tears from that filth of sin wherewith they are besmeared and defiled O that for the salvation of your souls I might be made a sacrifie unto death But the Lord be praised for your souls and my soul Christ Jesus hath died and if now we but repent us of our sins and believe in our Saviour if now we will but deny our selves and take up his cross and follow him if now we will but turn unto him that he may turn his loving countenance unto us if now we will but become new creatures and ever-hereafter walk in the holy path the narrow way which leads unto heaven why then may our souls be saved This is that we had need to care for Cur carnem adornas animam non
Matth. 24.28 Wheresoever the dead carkasse is thither saith our Saviour will the Eagles resort and wheresoever a damned soul is thither with a lacrity will these spirits come O how they fly and flutter round about him what fires do they breathe to enkindle them on his soul what clawes do they open to receive her at the parting and what astonishment is that poor soul in that perceives these Sergeants even ready to clasp their in her burning armes See O Cosmopolite what thy sin hath caused lust hath transported thine eyes blasphemy thy tongue pride thy foot oppression thy hand covetousness thy heart and now Death and Devils they are the Sergeants that require thy soul Vse Reflect these thoughts on your own souls and consider with your selves what may be your cases it may be as yet thou standest upright without any changes hitherto thou hast seen no days of sorrow but even washed thy steps with butter and the rock hath poured thee out rivers of oyle Deut. 32.13 14. Alas was not this the case of this wretched worldling yet for all this you see a night came that paid for all and so may it be with thee a day an hour Casaub Dies hora momentum c. a moment is enough to overturn the things that seem to have been founded and rooted in Adamant who can tell whether this night this storm may fall upon thee art thou not strangely nailed and glued unto sence art thou not stupidly senceless in spirituall things that for pelf vanity dung nothing wilt run headlong and willfully into easelesse endlesse and remediles torments Yet such is thy doing if thou beest a worldling to get riches to thy body and let death and devils have thy soul O beloved consider in time and seeing you have such a terrible example set before you let this worldling be your warning We have done with the Sergeants but what 's their office to beg to sue No but to force to require thy soul is required How requried is any so bold to approach his gates and make a forcible entry Yes God hath his speciall Bailiffs that will fear no colours riches cannot ransome castles cannot keep hollows cannot hide hills nor their forts protect Sits Herod on his Throne there 's a Writ of Remove and the worms are his Bayliffs is Dives at his Table Death brings the Mittimus and Devils are his Jaylours sits Lazarus at his gates the King greets him well we may say and Angels are his keepers poor rich good bad all must be served at the Kings suit no place can priviledge no power secure no valour rescue no libertie exempt with a non omittas propter aliquam libertatem runs this Warrant 2. Sam. 22.5 O rich man what wilt thou now do The sorrows of death compasse thee and the flouds of Belial make thee afraid What no friends to help no power to rescue is there no other way but yield and die for it O miserie enough to break an heart of brasse again Imagine that a Prince a while possessed some royall City where if you walk the streets you may see peace flourishing wealth abounding pleasure waiting all his neighbours offering their service and promising to assist him in all his needs and affairs if on a sudden this city were besieged by some deadly enemie who coming like a violent stream takes one hold after another one wall after another one castle after another and at last drives this Prince onely to a little Tower and there sets on him what fear anguish and misery would this Prince be in If he looks about his holds are taken his men are slain his friends and neighbours now stand aloof off and they begin to abandon him were not this a wofull plight trow you even so it fares with a poor soul at the hour of her departure the body wherein she reigned like a jolly Princesse then droops and languishes the keepers tremble Eccles 12.3 the strong men bow the grinders cease and they wax dark that look out at the windows no wonder if fear be in the way when the arms the legs the teeth the eyes as so many walls wherein the soul was invironed are now surprized and beaten to the ground her last refuge is the heart and this is the little Tower whither at last she is driven But what is she there secure no but most fiercely assailed with a thousand enemies her dearest friends youth and Physick and other helps which soothed her in prosperity do now abandon her what will she do the enemy will grant no truce will make no league but night and day assayls the heart which now like a Turret struck with thunder begins all to shiver here is the wofull state of a wicked soul God is her enemy the Devil her foe Angels hate her the earth groans under her hel gapes for her the reason of all sin struck the alarm and death gives the battel it is but this night a minute longer and then will the raging enemie enter on her Death is no beggar to entreat no suiter to wo no petitioner to ask no soliciter to crouch and crave a favour she runs raging Quaque ruit furibunda ruit ruling charging requiring hark this rich mans arrest thy soul shall be required It shall yes the word is peremptory what be required yes it comes with authority Here 's a fatall requiring when the soul shall be forced by an unwilling necessitie and devils by force hurrie her to her endless furie Adieu poor soul the Writ is served the Goal prepared the judgement past and Death the Executioner will delay no longer This night thy soul shalt be required of thee Vse 1 But to whom speak I Think of it you miserably covetous that joyn house to house and call the lands after your own names You may trust in your wealth and boast your selves in the multitude of your riches but none of you call by any means redeem his brother no nor himself Psal 49.6 Psal 49.6.7 When Death comes I pray what composition with the Lord of heaven could ever any buy out his damnation with his coyn howsoever you live mirrily deliciously go richly yet Death will at last knock at your doors and notwithstanding all your wealth honours tears and groans of your dearest friends will take you away as his prisoners to his darkest dungeon Your case is as with a man who lying fast asleep upon the edge of some steep high rock dreams merrily of Crowns Kingdoms Possessions but upon the sudden starting for joy he breaks his neck and tumbles into the bottome of some violent sea Thus is your danger every hour Sathan makes you a bed lulls you asleep charms you into golden dreams and you conceive you are wallowing in the Sea of all wordly happiness at last death comes against which there is no resistance and then are you suddenly swallowed up of despair and drowned in that pit of eternall death and
Reapers at the generall harvest Vse O then having yet a little time how should we labour to escape Hels horrour let the Proud be humbled the Epicure fast the Drunkard pray the Adulterer chastise himself to pull down his body and for the Covetous wretch let him with all holy greedinesse lay out his bags for the eternal good of his soul Alas one foot in heaven is better then all your lands on earth I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God Psal 84.10 then to dwell in the Tents in the houses in the Palaces of the wicked Now then in the fear of God reform your lives and your harvest without question shall be the joy of heaven or if Tares will be Tares what remains but Binding and Bundling Bind them Bundle them Burn them The harvest is done and the Angels sing and shout for their ended task the Tares are reaped the furrows cleansed the sickles laid aside the sheaves Bundled and to shut up all they must be Burned But stay we them a while and at our next meeting we will set them on fire God make us better seed that we may receive a better crop even that Crown of glory in the highest heavens To burn them VVE have followed the Prisoners from the Barre and brought them to the stake what remains further but to kindle the Faggots and so to shut up all with the burning Hell-fire at the first naming makes my soul to tremble and would the bouldest courage but enter into a serious meditation what it were to lie everlastingly in a red hot scorching fire how could he chuse but stand astonished at the consideration it is a furious fire Rouze up beloved for either this or nothing will awake you from the sleep of sin wherein you snort too securely Some differences there are about this fire many think it a Metaphoricall others a materiall fire be it whether it will it is every way fearfull and farre above the reach either of humane or Angelicall thoughts to conceive If it be Metaphoricall as Gregory and Calvine are of mind then is it either more or nothing lesse terrible when the Holy Ghost shadows unto us the joys of heaven by gold and pearls and precious stones Revel 21. Rev. 21. there is no one thinks but those joys do farre surpasse these shadows and if the pains of hell are set out by fire and flames and brimstone and burning what pains are those to which these are nothing but dumb shows or types Or if hell fire be materiall as Austine and Bullenger do conjecture yet is it farre beyond any fire on earth mark but the difference our fire is made for comfort hell-fire is created for nothing else but torment our fire is blown with some ayrie breath of man but hell fire is blown with the angry breath of God our fire is fed with the fuell of Wood or Cole but hell fire is tempered with all the terrible torturing ingredients of Sulphur and Brimstone or to cut the way nearer I will reduce all the differences to some of these four and so proceed in their order they differ first in heat secondly in light thirdly in their object fourthly in durance First in heat The pile thereof is fire and much wood and the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it Esai 30.33 Esai 30.33 This fire is not made by the hand of man nor blown from the bellows of some forge nor fed with any fuell of combustible matter no it is the arm of God and the breath of God and the anger of God that kindles it sharply and continues it everlastingly and I pray if the breath that kindles it be like a stream of brimstone what is the fire it self you know there is a great difference betwixt the heat of our breath and the fire in our chimnies now then if the breath of God that kindles hell fire be dissolved into brimstone What a fearfull fire is that which a great torrent of burning Brimstone doth ever mightily blow A torrent of Brimstone said I no it is not Brimstone but like Brimstone like to our capacity although for the nature this like is not like nay could we know exactly what this breath were you would say I warrant you it were far more hotter then ten thousand Rivers of Brimstone were they all put together Our God saith the Apostle is a consuming fire Heb. 12.29 Heb. 12.29 And if God be a fire what then is hell fire kindled by the breath God O my soul how canst thou but tremble at the thought of this fire at which the very Devils themselves do quake and shiver Pause a while and consider wert thou arraigned at some earthly bar thy doom past the execution at hand and thy body now ready to be cast as many a Martyrs was into some burning fire or boyling Caldron O how wouldest thou shout and roar and cry through the extremity of torment but what is a boyling Caldron to that boyling sea of fire and brimstone pitch and sulphur boyl altogether were not this enough see there the perplexing properties of such heats they burn as Brimstone darkly to grieve the sight sharply to afflict the sense loathsomly to perplexe the smell it is a fire that needs no bellows to kindle it nor admits of the least air to cool it the fuell wasts not the smoke vents not the chimnies are but Reprobate credits where they lie scorching burning houling their lullabies and their nurses furies The flames of Nebuchadnezzars fire could ascend forty nine Cubits but if hell be a bottomless pit sure these flames have an endless height how hot then is that glowing Oven where the fire burns lively the blasts go strongly the wheeles turn roundly and the darkned fuell are those damned souls that burn in an heat surpassing ours unspeakable of us here is one difference Secondly as hell fire differs from ours in heat so in light Cast that unprofitable servant saith our Saviour into utter darkness Mat. 25.30 Matth. 25.30 Vtter to perplexe the mind Darkness to confound the eye Consider but the terrour of this circumstance if a man alone in darkness should suddenly hear a noise of ghosts and spirits coming towards him how would his hair bristle his tongue faulter his blood run to the heart yea I dare say although he felt never a lash from them on his body yet the onely houling of devils would make his very inmost heart to shake and shudder O then what horrour is that when darkness must surround thee and devills hollow to thee and reprobates shrick at the lashing of their bodies and all hell be filled with the cries and ecchoes of Woe woe woâ— for their torments and the darkness May be you will object if there be fire there is assuredly light nay without question this fire hath heat no light it is a dark smoaky flame that burns dimm to the eye yet sharp to the
fâ—nce oâ— it may beâ— as some do imagine this fire affords a 〈…〉 pâ—â—iâ—eous oâ— obscure light but how not for comforts but confusion Conceive it thus he that in twilight sees deformed Images or in the night beholds shapes of Ghosts and spirits by a dimm dark light why better he saw nothing then suck tâ—â—â—â—le visâ—â—ns such fears nay a thousand times worse are preseâ—ved to the 〈◊〉 of Reprobates they may discern through darkness the ugly faceâ— of fiend â—f the foul visages of Reprobates the furious torments of their friends or parents while all lye together in the same condemnation What comfort affords this light where nothing is seen but the Judges wrath and the prisoners punishment O will they cry that our eyes were out or the flames were quenched or that some period were put to this endlesse night of darknesse but all in vain lo pillars of smoak arise out of the infernall pit which darken the light as the fire lightens the darknesse and this the second difference Thirdly there is yet another difference in the fuell or object of this fire ours burns not without materialls this works also on spirituals It is I confesse a question whether devils suffer by fire and how may that be some are of opinion that they are not onely spirits but have bodies not organicall as ours but aereall or somewhat more subtil then the air it self this opinion howsoever most denie yet Austin argues for it for if men and devils saith he are punished in the same fire and that fire be corporeall how are Devils capable of the suffering unlesse they have bodies like men fit for the impression And yet if we deny them to have bodies I see no impossibilitie but that spirits themselves may suffer in hell fire August de civit dei lib. 21. cap. 10. is it not as easie with God to joyn spirits and fire as souls and bodies as therefore the soul may suffer through the body so likewise may those spirits be tormented by fire I will not argue the case either with or against Austin yet safely may we put this conclusion not onely men in their bodies but devils and souls must together be tormented in hell fire thus our Saviour couples them in that last heavy doom Matth. 25.41 Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his Angels What a fire is this it tryes the reins it searcheth the bowells it pierceth the very soul and inmost thoughts O fire above measure where spirits are the tormentors damnation the punishment men and devils the fuell and the breath of an offended God the Bellows Think not on your fires that gives you heat for warmth or light for comfort neither fear you him that kils your bodies but hath no further commission to hurt your souls here is another fire another Judge a fire that kindles souls a Judge that sends bodies and souls to everlasting fire such heats such darknesse such objects accompanie this fire the heat is intollerable darknesse palpable bodie and soul both combustible all burn together that have sinned together This the third difference Lastly there is a difference in durance our fire dyes quickly but hell fire lasts for ever This is done saith Austin admirably Miris sed veris modis Aug. ibid. Aug. de civit dei l. 21. yet actually the burning bodies never consume the kindled fire never wasts with any length of time We read of a certain salt in Sicilia that if put into the fire it swims as in water and being put into water crackles as in fire we read of a fountain in Libya that in a cold night is so hot that none can touch it in a hot day so cold that none could drink it If God thus work miracles on earth dost thou seek a reason of Gods high and heavie judgement in hell I see the pit I cannot find the depth there is a fire that now stands as it was created it must be endured yet never never must be ended The custome of some countreys that burn malefactours use the least fires for greatest offenders that so the heat being lessened the pains might be prolonged but if this be so terrible to them whose fire is but little and whose time cannot be long what an exceeding horrible torment is this in hell where the fire is extreme great and the time for ever and ever lasting Suppose you or any one of you should lie one night grievously afflicted with a raging fit of the Stone Collick Strangurie Toothach Pangs of travail and a thousand such miseries incident to man how would you tosse and tumble how would you turn your sides tell the clock count the houres exspect every moment for the gay-bright morn and till then esteem every hour a year and every pang a misery matchlesse and intollerable O then what will it be think you to lie in fire and brimstone kept in highest flame by the unquenchable wrath of God world without end how tedious will be that endlesse night where the clock never strikes the time never passes the morn never dawns the Sunne never rises where thou canst not turn nor tosse nor tumble nor yet take any rest where thou shalt have nothing about thee but darknesse and horrour and wailing and yelling wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth for evermore Good Lord that for a smile of present pleasure men should run upon the rock of eternall vengeance Come ye that pursue vanitie and see here the fruit of sin at this harvest of Tares Pleasures are but momentany Momentaneum quod delectat aeternum quod cruciat but the pangs are eternall Eternall how long is that Nay here we are silenced no Limner can set it forth no Oratour can expresse it if all times that ever were and ever shall be should be put together they would infinitely come short of this fiery eternitie the latitude thereof is not to be measured neither by houres nor dayes nor weeks nor moneths nor years nor Lustra's nor Olympiads nor Indictions no Jubilees nor ages nor Plato's years nor by the most slow motions of the eighth sphear though all these were multiplied by thousands or millions or the greatest multiplyer or number numbering that can be imagined Plainly in a word count if you please ten hundred thousand millions of years and adde a thousand myriads of ages to them and when all is done multiply all again by a thousand thousand thousand of thousands and being yet too short count all the thoughts motions mutations of men and Angels adde to them all the sands of the sea piles on the earth starres in the Heavens and when all this is done multiply all again by all the numbers squares cubicks of Arithmetick and yet all these are so farre short of eternity that they neither touch end nor middle nor the least part or parcell of it what then is this which the damned suffer eternall fire we had need to cry out Fire fire
1.12 His infirmities are now at full and the symptomes which make it evident unto us are some inward some outward inward in his soul outward in his body we 'll take a view of them both Matth. 26.37 Mar. 14.33 Luk. 22.44 Ioh. 12.27 First his soul it began to be sorrowfull saith Matthew to be amazed and very heavy saith Mark to be in an agony saith Luke to be troubled saith Iohn Here is sorrow and heaviness and agony and trouble the estimate whereof we may take from his own words in the garden My soul is exceeding sorrowfull Matth. 26.38 John 12.77 even unto death Now was the time he purged not onely in his body but his soul too now is my soul troubled and what shall I say Father save me from this hour but for this cause came I unto this hour A fatall hour sure of which it was said before often his hour was not yet come but being come he could then tell his Disciples the hour is at hand and after tell the Iewes Matth. 26.45 Luk. 22.53 this is your very hour and the power of darkness Now was it that Christ yielded his soul for our souls to the susception of sorrow perpession of pain and dissolution of nature and therefore even sick with sorrow he never left sweating Heb. 5.7 weeping and crying till he was heard in that which he feared Secondly as his soul so his body had her symptoms of approaching death Our very eye will soon tell us no place was left in his body where he might be smitten and was not his skin was torn his flesh was rent his bones unjoynted his sinews streyned should we summe up all See that face of his fairer then the Sons of men Psal 45.2 Revel 1.14 how it is defiled with spettle swoln with buffets masked with a cover of gore-bloud see that head white as white wooll and snow how is it Crowned with thorns beaten with a reed and both head and hair dyed in a sanguine red that issued from it see those eyes that were as a flame of fire how they swim with tears are dim with bloud and darken at the sad approach of dreadfull death Revel ibid. see that mouth which speak as never man spake hovv it is vvan vvith stroaks grim vvith death John 7.46 and embittered with that tartest potion of gall and vinegar Should we any lower See those arms that could embrace all the power of the world how they are strained and stretched on the Crosse those shoulders that could bear the frame of Heaven how they are lasht with knotty cords and whips those hands that made the world and all therein how are they nailed and clenched to a piece of wood that heart where never dwelt deceit nor sinne how it is pierced and wounded with a souldiers spear those bowels that yearned with compassion of others infirmities how they are drie and pent with straining puls those feet that walked in the wayes of God how they are boared and fastened to a Crosse with nayls from hand to foot there is no part free but all over he is covered in a mantle of cold bloud whose garments were doft before and took of them that were his hangmen Poor Saviour what a wofull sight is this A bloudy face thornie head watery eyes wan mouth strained arms lashed shoulders nayled hands wounded heart griping bowels boared feet Here is sorrie pains when no part is free and these are the outward Symptomes of his state that appear in his Body We have thus far seen our Sun the Sunne of righteousnesse in the day-break and rising and height of his suffering Mal. 4.2 what remains further but that we come to the Declination and so end our journey for this time This Declination say Physicians is Galen lib. 3. de Cris cap. 5. when Nature overcomes sicknesse so that all diseases attain not this time but those and those onely that admit of a Recovery yet howsoever saith my * Senert institution medicinae lib. 2. par 1. cap. 12. de morb temp Authour there is no true declination before death there is at least a seeming declinatian when sometimes the symptoms may become more remiss because of weak nature yielding to the fury and tyrannie of death overcoming it I will not say directly that our Saviour declined thus either in deed or in shew for neither was the cup removed from him nor died he by degrees but in perfect sense and perfect patience both of body and soul he did voluntarily and miraculously resigne his Spirit as he was praying into the hands of his Father Here then was the true declination of this Patient not before death but in death and rightly too for then was it that this Sunne went down in a ruddy Cloud then was it that this Patient received the last dregs of his Purge then was it that Gods Justice was satisfied the consummatum est was effected all was finished as for his buriall resurrection and asscension which follow after this time they serve not to make any satisfaction for sinne but onely to confirm it or apply it after it was made and accomplished Vse 1 But what use of all this Give me leave I pray to shake the tree and then do you gather the fruit from the first part his birth we may learn Humility a grace most prevailing with God for the obtaining of all graces this was it that made David King Moses a Governour nay what say we to Christ himself who from his first entrance untill his departure to his Father Matth. 11.29 was the very mirrour of true Humility it felf Learn of me saith he to be humble and lowly in spirit and you shall find rest unto your souls Hereunto accorded his Doctrine when he pronounced them Blessed who were poor in spirit Matth. 5.3 hereunro accorded his reprehension when he disliked their manners who were wont to choose out the chief rooms at feasts Luke 14.7 Iohn 13.5 hereunto accorded his practice when he vouchsafed to wash his Disciples feet and to wipe them with the towell wherewith he was girded O Humility how great are thy riches that are thus commended to us thou pleasest men delightest angels confoundest devils and bringest thy Creatour to a Manger where he is lapped in raggs and cloathed in flesh Had we Christian hearts to consider the Humility of our Redeemer and how far he was from our haughty dispositions it would pull down our Pharisaicall humours and make us farre better to remember our selves Vse 2 Secondly as we learn humility from his birth so we may learn patience from his life Matth. 16.24 If any man will come after me saith our Saviour let him deny himself and take up his crosse and follow me Dear Christian if thou wilt be saved mind thy Christ Art thou abused by lies reproaches evil sayings or doings we cannot more shew how we have profited in Christs School then by enduring
its fear the field hath its toyl the Countrey hath its frauds the Citie hath its factions the Church hath its Sects the Court hath its envie here is every place a field where is offered a battell or if this were better consider but your states the Beggar hath his sores the Souldier hath his scarres the Magistrate hath his troubles the Merchant his travels the Nobles their crosses the great ones their vexations here is every state a sea tossed with a world of tempests or yet if this were happier bethink you a little longer of your fleeting joys the sweet hath its sower the Crown hath its care the world hath its want pleasure hath its pain profit hath its grief all these must have their end here is a dram of sugar mixt with an Epha of bitter Is this manhood that is subject to all these miseries Nay what are these in comparison of all it suffers It is deformed with sinne defiled with lust outraged with passions over-carried with affections pining with envie burthened with gluttony boyling with revenge transported with rage all mans body is full of iniquitie and his soul the bright image of God through sinne is transformed to the ugly shape of the Devil And if this be our Autumn what I pray is the Winter then our Sun grows low and we begin to die by degrees shew me the light which will not darken shew me the flower which will not fade shew me the fruit which will not corrupt shew me the garment which will not wear shew me the beautie which will not wither shew me the strength which will not weaken behold now is the hour that thy lights shall darken thy cheeks wrinckle thy skinne be furrowed thy beautie fade and thy strength decay Here is the ambition of a long life thy lease lies a bleeding and death raps at the door of thy heart to take possession O forcible entrie will not pleasures delay cannot riches ransome dares not strength defie Is neither wit nor wealth able to deceive nor bribe what may rent this house that the soul may but lodge there one night longer Poor soul that dies or departs in unremedied pangs our sinnes may run on score and repentance forget her dayes of payment Yet our lease shall end the date exspire this body suffer and the soul be driven from her house and harbour See the swift course of our mortall Sun at North and South in our mothers womb and tomb both in one year Vse Consider this yet that forget God you have but a year to live and every season yields some occasion to tell you ye must die In childhood what is your chest of clouts but a remembrance of your winding sheets In youth what is your mirth and musick but a summons to the knell In manhood what is your house and enclosure but a token of the coffin In age what is your chair or litter but a shew of the beer which at last shall convey you to your graves Man ere he is aware hath drest his herse every season adding something to his solemnitie Where is the Adulterer Murtherer Drunkard Blasphemer Are you about your sinnes look on these objects there is a sunne now setting or a candle burning or an hour-glasse running or a flower decaying or a Traveller passing or a vapour vanishing or a sick man groaning or a strong man dying be sure there is something puls you by the sleeve and bids you beware to commit such enormities Who dares live in sinne that considers with himself he must die soon And who will not consider that sees before his eyes so many a remembrancer Alas we must die and howsoever we passe from childhood to youth from youth to manhood Senectutem nemo excedit from manhood to age yet there is none can be more then old here is the utmost of our life a Spring a Summer an Autumn a Winter and when that is done you know the whole Year is finished The summe is a Year the Items are Dayes And what Dayes can ye exspect of such a Year my text in relation to these dayes gives us two attributes the first is few the second is evil if you consider our dayes in regard of the fewnesse which this word seems rather to intimate you may see them in Scripture brought to fewer and fewer till they are well near brought to nothing If we begin with the beginning we find first that the first man Adam had a lease of his life in fee and as Lawyers say To have and to hold from the beginning to everlasting but for eating the forbidden fruit he made a forfeiture of that estate of this he was forewarned In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death Gen. 2.17 Gen. 2.17 And this he found too true Because thou hast eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee Thou shalt not eat what then amongst other curses this was one Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Gen. 3.19 Gen. 3.19 After him the longest life came short of the number of a thousand years The dayes of Methusalem saith Moses were nine hundred sixtie and nine years Gen. 5.27 Gen. 5.27 and had he come to a thousand which never was attained by man yet a thousand years are but one day with God 2. Pet. 3.8 2 Pet. 3.8 yea but as yesterday saith Moses A thousand years in Gods sight are but as yesterday Psalme 90.4 Psal 90.4 But what speak I of a thousand years no sooner came the floud but the age of man of every man born after it was shortened half in half These are the generations of Sem saith Moses Gen. 11.10 Gen. 11.10 to wit Arphaxad and Selah and Eber none of which three could reach to the number of five hundred years the longest liver was Eber and yet all his dayes before and after his first-born Peleg were but four hundred sixtie and four years Gen. 11.16 17. Gen. 11.16 17. nay as if half a thousand were more then too much you may see God halfs their ages once again Peleg lives as long as any man after him and yet his dayes were neither a thousand nor half a thousand nor half of half a thousand no no more then two hundred thirtie and nine years Gen. 11.18 19. Gen. 11.18 19. but this was a long life too If we come to arrive at the time of Jacob we shall find this little time well-near halfed again when he spoke this text he tells he was one hundred and thirtie years old and after this he lived no longer then seventeen years more so that the whole age of Iacob was but seven score and seven an hundred fortie and seven years Gen. 47.28 Gen. 47.28 Nay to leave Iacob a while and to come a little nearer our selves in Moses time we find this little time halfed again he brings seven score to seventie The dayes saith he of our age are threescore years and tenne
at Scripture and you will see it brought to a lesser passe Job for his part goes about to subduct the time of his birth which is the bud of life Let the day perish saith he wherein I was born nay let it not be joyned unto the dayes of the year nor let it come into the count of moneths Job 3.6 Job 3.6 Solomon could subduct not onely childhood but the time of youth too which is the strength of life Take away grief out of thine heart and cause evill to depart from thy flesh for childhood and youth both are but vanity Eccles 11.10 Eccles. 11.10 Paul could subduct the time of sinne which is the joy of life She that lives in pleasure lives not nay she is dead while she is alive 1. Tim. 5.6 1. Tim. 5.6 Summe all and suppose that the time of birth and childhood and youth and sin were gone to what an epitome were mans life come Think of this all ye that travell towards heaven had we not need to make haste that must go so long a journey in so short a time How can he choose but run that remembers his dayes are few nay that every day runs away with his life The workman that sets a time for his task he listens to the clock and counts the houres not a minute must passe but his work goes onwards how then do we neglect our time while we should serve God Work while it is day John 9.4 2. Cor. 6.2 saith Christ and this is the day of salvation saith the Apostle Would you know your task you must work would you know the time it is this day a great task a short time had we not need with Moses to number our dayes lest we loose a minute It is true of all numbers we cannot skill to number our dayes we can number our sheep our oxen our fields our coyn but we think our dayes are infinite and never go about to number them The Saints that went before us cast another account Moses had his tables Job had his measures all agree both for measure and number magnitude and multitude our life is but short our dayes are but few Few and evil they have been Give me leave a little to amplifie on this point would we throughly know the shortness of out time the fewness of our dayes I shall then set before you the magnitude of the one and the multitude of the other And first for the magnitude of the time of our life A man say the Philosophers is Microcosmus a little world little for goodness but a world of wickedness Of this world if you 'l have the dimensions according to the rules of Geometricians the length breadth and depth of our short life then first for our length from East to West from our birth to our buriall I need not to take so many paces as will make mille passus a mile our little life bears no proportion to such a length I dare not say as Stobaeus relates that our life hath the last of a cubits length Psal 39.5 for that 's more then the Scripture will afford it it is but a span or hand breadth saith David that 's little nay Alcaeus in carmine Lyrico saith it is but an inch long that 's lesse nay Punctum est quod vivimus adhuc puncto minus saith Plutarch All our life is but a prick a point yet lesse saith Seneca it is a point that we live and lesse then a point that 's less then either I can say or you conceive What is it not a mile but a cubit but a span but an inch but a point nay less then that here 's little longitude of life Well but our latitude perhaps is greater no take a measure if you please from one pole to another as we stand betwixt the terms of life and death and weresoever we are death is within an hand-breadth of our life if we be on the sea there 's but a thick board betwixt us and drowning if on the land there 's but a shoe-sole betwixt us and our grave if we sleep our bed is our bodies grave and there 's but a sheet perhaps a winding-sheet betwixt us and it when we are awake our bodie is our souls grave and there 's but a few skins as say Physicians betwixt death and us What is it but the breadth of an hand of a board of a shoe-sole of a thin sheet of a small skinne there 's little latitude you see Well but our profundity may help all this go to therefore and see what that is I shall not lead you down many steps for indeed there are not many steps to lead you down in one word come to the centre of the heart of man The Grecians to expresse the shallowness of this life give the same name to the heart that they do to death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the heart the authour of life and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is destiny the worker of death to shew that as every man hath an heart so death hath a dart for every man Christians mortals consider your magnitude in all these dimensions alas how is it that many of you make your selves so great what mean those titles which you take upon you Your Greatnesse Your Highnesse your I know not what O consider the mortalitie of your bodies and that will tell you the just * Mors sola fatetur quantula sunt hominum corpuscula Juvenal Psal 90.10 scantling of your selves 2. For the multitude of our dayes he was branded with the name of a fool that thought he had many years to live Moses tells us The dayes of our years are threescore years and ten Psal 90.10 But now as you heard we value our life but at seven years as if six years we had to labour and to do all we had to do but the seventh were a Sabbath to rest with God Revel 14.13 Revel 14.13 nay yet the Scripture comes somewhat lower and because a plurality might cause a securitie it bestows but a unitie upon our years thus Jacob in this text reckons of a great number of one year The dayes of the year of my life are an hundred and thirty year Gen. 47.9 Gen. 47.9 nay Austin comes shorter and compares our life to a quarter of a year like Jehoahash reign which lasted about three moneths time 2 Kings 23.31 2 Kings 23.31 nay the Scripture descends from moneths to dayes Few and evil are my dayes saith Iacob implying that this life is but a few dayes or but * Vita nostra non diuturna sed diurna one day as some would have it which is the meaning of Christs prayer Give us this day our dayly bread Matth. 6.11 Matt. 6.11 And yet that we may not think our death a great way off the Scripture tells us it is not a day to come no boast not of to morrow for thou knowest not what a day
may bring forth Prov. 27.1 Prov. 27.1 thy day is this present day and therefore saith the Apostle To day if you will hear his voice Heb. 3.7 Heb. 3.7 nay to speak further this day saith Iob is past already we are but of yesterday Job 8.9 Job 8.9 nay as if a day were too long for the life of man most resembles it to the grasse that grows up in the morning and is cut down in the evening Psal 90.6 Psal 90.6 and Gregorie compares it to Ionahs gourd that came up in a night and perished ere the day was come Jonah 4.10 Jonah 4.10 The evening and the morning make but one day Gen. 1.5 but * Quem dies videt veniens superbum hunc dies videt abiens jacentem our day is oft times an evening without a morning and oft times a morning without an evening Nay yet to go lower as if half a day were more then our life could parallell Moses compares it to a watch which is but the fourth part of a night Psal 90.4 Psal 90.4 yea and as if this were longer then our life doth last the Scripture calls it but an hour John 5.25 John 5.25 The hour is coming and now is saith Christ nay our life is but a minute or if we can say lesse a moment in a moment they go down to the grave saith Iob Job 21.13 Job 21.13 and in a moment shall they die saith Elihu Job 34.20 Job 34.20 And a lying tongue is but for a moment saith Solomon Prov. 12.19 Prov. 12.19 and our light affliction is but for a moment saith Paul 2 Cor. 4.17 2 Cor. 4.17 Lo here the length of our little life this is the gradation that God makes of it at first a matter of seventie years but these were tythed from seventie to seven this number again was made no number one single year a year nay a moneth nay a day nay an hour nay a minute nay a moment as soon as we were born we began to draw to our end Wisd 5.13 Wisd 5.13 There 's but one poor moment which we have to live and when that is spent our life is gone How but one and a moment one is the least number that is and a moment the shortest time that ever was O what mean men to plot and project for the time to come as if this life would never be done O consider of the littleness of the time that thou hast to live O consider of the greatness of the matter that depends upon it thy body soul heaven and hel all hangs on this thread a short life a few dayes Few and evill have the dayes of my life been You have learned Moses Arithmetick to number your dayes practise a while and you find this use Vse 1 God shortens your time you that are unregenerate lest you defer your repentance it is said of the Devil that he is busie because his time is short Revel 12.12 Rev. 12.12 and are you worse then Devils is not your time shorter and yet are you more negligent how do you give way to that old serpent he delayes no time to bring you to hell and ye neglect all times to get you heaven What is your life but a Jonas gourd suddenly sprung up and by and by withered again and gone whatsoever ye do your wheel whirls about apace in a word ye die daily and you all know thus much that you have every one of you a poor soul to save I have wondered at men that desire time after time one time after another why if your souls perish the day will come soon enough It makes me weep said one of a better stamp when my hour-glasse is beside me and I see every drop of sand follow other so speedily Your dayes are but few and yet who knows whether this day his sunne may set Take heed you unregenerate if death come unawares it is the price of your souls how you are provided Who alas would defer to be good that knows not how soon he may go to judgement The enemie keeps a daily watch a friend prepares for your welcome and are you such enemies to your selves that never are prepared to welcome death Vse 2 But to speak to thee whosoever thou art that readest regenerate or unregenerate the best counsel thou canst learn is to be still in a readinesse think every day thou risest to be thy day of death and every night thou goest to bed that thou art laid down in the grave if thou shouldest forget will not each object be a remembrancer thy sheets of thy winding-sheet thy coverings of thy clasping dust thy sleep of thy death with whom I may say truly thou shakest hands every night who can forget his grve that lies him down in his bed and who then would not so provide himself as if every night he went to his grave Our dayes are but few and the night will be ere long that we die indeed What are we but Tenants at will in this Clay Farm the foundation of all the building is a small substance alwayes kept cold by an intercourse of air the pillar is but a little breath the strength some few bones tied together with dry strings howsoever we piece and patch this poor cottage it will at last fall into the Lords hands and we must give surrender onely in this tenour Few and evill have the dayes of my life been You now see the time of our Lease to the full out life lasts but dayes our dayes are but few who is so fond to settle his care on this Lease that so soon is exspired nay with a blast is gone out The man that is wedded to this world enjoyes neither length of dayes nor a day of joy as he is mortall so is he miserable you shall see my Text joyn both the hands nothing indeed but death can loose the bonds the dayes of my life are few the few dayes of my life are evill few in number evill in nature neither many nor good but few and evill Evill OUr life is but dayes our dayes are but few our few dayes but evil Into what a sea of misery have I now rushed sail Evill life evill dayes but few yet evil There waits on our life Sinne Punishment Both these are evil Sinne as the father playes the Bankrupt Jam. 1.15 and Punishment the sonne must pay the debt first Lust conceives and brings forth sinne then sinne being finished brings forth death Here is both the work and wages first we commit and then we suffer evil The evils we commit are sinnes and see what a troop of enemies march about us if you exspect the battel in array what say you to those evils originall these are the inheritance which we have from our first parents it is the same infection that distilled from them abides in us and therefore the same punishment is due to us that fell on them
his own knowledge Jer. 10.14 Jer. 10.14 Blessed God! what a world of evils are within us Orat. Manass We have sinned O Lord above the number of the sands of the seas our transgressions O Lord are multiplied our offences are exceeding many Many sure that contain these streams and yet how many are the rivolets that issue from them There be evils of weakness against God the Father whose attribute is Power there be evils of ignorance against God the Son whose attribute is Wisdome there be evils of malice against God the holy Ghost whose attribute is Love Can we adde any more Mark but our thoughts our delights our consents to evil or if these be not enough see a swarm indeed that continually assault us anger hatred envy distrust impatience avarice sacriledge pride despair presumption indevotion suspition contention derision exaction give me leave to breathe in the numbring of this bedroll perjurie blasphemie luxury simony perplexitie inconstancy hypocrisie apostasie here is a number numberless gross sins little sins known sins hid sins Who can understand his errours O Lord cleanse me from my secret faults Psal 19.12 Psal 19.12 The dayes of life are few but the evils God knows how many he that would number them may tell a thousand and yet not tell one of a thousand Can the proudest Pharisee justifie himself Remember the swarms that lurk in thy venomed conscience number thy wanton words thy carnal thoughts thy unchristian gestures thy outragious sins come they not in by troops and herds thicker then the frogs in Egypt well may we stand amazed at their number and as convicted prisoners cry for that Psalme of mercie Miserere mei Lord have mercy on us most evil wretched sinners Thus you see Beloved how evil be our dayes sith every day we do evil then to wander no further now we have found such a world of them will you see them in a map here is evils originall evils actuall evils of omission evils of commission evils of the body evils of the soul well may we pray Deliver us from evil what so many evils of sin now the Lord deliver us Vse 1 Remember your selves and who will not sing Davids burthen Psal 38.4 Mine iniquities are gone over my head and as a weighty burthen they are too heavy for me to bear There is in sin saith Austin both weight and number and is any one so dull or dead that he is sensible of neither go ye to the balance and what a mass lies upon you enough and enough again to sink you down to hel go ye to the count and what a swarm comes upon you a million and a million of millions to keep you out of heaven when all your sins must be called to account before that Judge of the world what account shall be given of this account that is endless see them like the stars onely these set and rise but your sins rise and never set see them like your hairs onely these shed and lose but your sinns grow ever more and more see them like the sands onely these are covered with the flouds and waters but your sins lie still open and are ever before you think on these stars these hairs these infinite innumerable sands of sins and when all is done let your tears be the floud to hide them over Psal 6.6 It was Davids saying Every night wash I my bed and water my couch with my tears if your daies be evil let not your night slip without repentance go not to bed but beat your breast with the Publican lay you not down but withall lift up your voice Lord be mercifull unto me a sinner How sweet a rest doth that night bring whose sleep is prevented with the consideration of our sins though we are begirt with a thousand devils this would be as the watch of our souls and the safeguard of our persons Vse 2 But I must speak with a difference I stand over some of you who are so far from * When I speak thus of tears or repentance I argue not a causality or merit onely I inferre a necessarie presence of repentance in those that obtain pardon of sin All that I positively affirm is this that repentance is the means or way which God hath appointed antecedently to to pardon Act. 3.19 Jer. 4.14 washing away your sins with tears that I fear you never took much notice of the multitude of your sins should I tel you that you brought sin enough with you to damn you when you first came into this world should I tell you that you have everie one committed thousands and thousand of thousands of actuall sins and yet any one of those thousands is enough to send you packing to hell You would think these strange points but if God be true there is no sin of man either originiall or actuall either of omission or commission either of the bodie or of the soul which without repentance will not produce eternall death and therefore in Gods fear take notice of your sins set before you the Commandments of God and thereto comparing your life you may find out such a catalogue of your sinnes that will throughly convince you of your damnable estate You may ask to what end should we be so carefull to find out our sins I answer to a very good end both in respect of the Unregenerate Regenerate First in respect of the unregenerate this is the first step of repentance this is one of those paces that will lead you towards heaven You may be sure without repentance no heaven without confession no repentance and without finding out sin there can be no confession It were good therefore and a singular means to bring you out of corruption into Christianity and out of the state of nature into the kingdome of grace that you would everie one of you have a Catalogue of your sins If you will not I can tell you who will there is an adversary called Sathan the adversary of mankind that stands at your back and I may say figuratively with a scroll in his hands wherein he writes down your sins not a day passeth on but he can easily tell how many sins you have committed all day Lord that men would think on 't Are you about any sin at that very time Sathan is registring the act and time and place and everie circumstance now wo wo to man that lets Sathan do his work for him Would you do this your self would you but study for a Catalogue of your own sins that so you might confess them to God and repent you thereof this would be a dash in the devils book so that he could not have whereof to accuse you but if still you go on securely in sin and never go about to call your sins to remembrance a day will come wo worth the day when that roring Lion shall set all your sins and transgressions in order before you then shall you read
perforce your sinnes originall and actuall of omission and commission of your bodies and souls And I must tell you herein is a great policie of Sathan he lets you alone in your securitie a while if you will not trouble him he will not trouble you if you will not tell your own sinnes neither will he tell you of them but he will change his note at furthest when your few evil dayes finish it is the very case as many creditours deal with their debtors while they have any doings as they say and are in trading they will let them alone in policie they will say nothing but if once down the wind in sickness povertie disgrace or the like then comes Serjeant after Serjeant arrest upon arrest action upon action just thus is Satans dealing with the unregenerate man if you will but sinne and never call your selves to a reckoning inpolicie he will say nothing but when the score is full and death comes to arrest you then will he bring out his black book of all your sinnes committed all your dayes O I tremble to speak of it then shall your sins fall as foul on your souls as ravens on the fallen sheep and keep you down for ever in the dungeon of despair Secondly in respect of the regenerate that you have readie by you or by heart a catalogue of your sinnes is necessary in many respects First to humble you for no sooner shall the poor soul look on all the sinnes he hath committed both before and after his regeneration but confessing them in prayer it will pull down his heart and make the wound of his remorse to bleed a fresh as before and therefore this catalogue is most necessary in dayes of humiliation Secondly it is necessarie to prepare you for the receiving of the Sacrament for indeed I would have none to presume to taste on that Supper but first to view over all his sinnes and to confess them in payer to his heavenly Father there be many that in Confession look on their sinns as they do on the stars in a dark cloudie night they can see none but the great ones of the first or second magnitude it may be here one and there one but if they were truly illightened and informed aright they might rather behold their sinns as those innumerable stars that appear in a fair frostie winters night they are many and many and therefore take a little pains in composing your catalogue that so you may confess all at least for the kinds before you presume to come near that Table of the Lord. Thirdly it is necessarie in times of desertion or visitation yea if the Lord shall please to exercise you with any crosse or disgrace or discountenance losse of goods disease of bodie terrour of soul or the like you may be sure as no miserie comes but for sinne so then the enumeration of your sinns from a bleeding broken heart is the prime and first means to cause that Sun of mercie to break through the clouds and to beget a clear day alas our dayes are evil and sure we have as good reason as ever Jacob had to confess it for my part though I keep my catalogue to my self yet in the generall I cannot but confesse to you all My dayes have been evil evil evil Few and evil And now we have done with the work it rests that you should know your wages there be dayes of sinn and then dayes of sorrow as you have spent your dayes so must you have your rewards first we trespasse and then we pay for it first we sin and then we suffer evil 2. The evils that we suffer may be ranked in this order first evils originall fill up the scene and what a multitude of evils do enter with them No sooner had Adam sinned but a world of miseries fell on man so that as the infection in like manner the punishment distills from him Rom. 5.12 By one man saith the Apostle entred sin into the world what sin alone no but death by sinne and so death went over all men Rom. 5.12 Infants themselves bring their damnation with them from their wombs or if that be omitted how many are the miseries of this life as the fore-runners of that judgement Look at the mind and what think ye of our ignorance not onely that of wilfull disposition but as the Schools distinguish of pure negation if it be not a sin what is it but a punishment for sinne that our understanding should be obscured and darkened our knowledge in things naturall wounded in supernaturall utterly extinguished O the miserable issue of that monster Sin But as evils come by heaps so of the same parent here is another brood Ignorance and Forgetfulness and is not this a miserie after all our time and studie to get a little knowledge quickly to forget that we are so long a learning Man in his whole state before the fall could not forget things taught him but now as the hour-glass we receive in at the one ear and it goes out at the other or rather like the sieve we alwayes keep the bran but let the flowre go so apt are we to retain the bad but we verie easily forget the good And is this all nay yet more evils see but our affections and to what a number of infinite sorrows griefs anguishes suspicions fears malices jealousies is the soul of man subject So prone are we to these miserable passions that upon any occasion we fall into them or for want of cause from any other we begin to be passionate with our selves Why hast thou O Lord set me against thee I am become irksome and burdensome even unto mine own self Job 7.20 Job 7.20 Alas poor man how art thou beset with a world of miseries and yet as if all these summed up together could not make enough look at the body and how many are its sufferings In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread said God Gen. 3.19 Gen. 3.19 The Spider spins and weaves and wastes her very bowels to make her net and when all is done to what purpose serves it but to catch a flie If this be vain work how vain is man in his fond imitation the birds and beasts can feed themselves without any pains onely man toils night and day on sea and land with bodie and mind yet all is to no purpose but to catch a flie to protract a life or to procure some vanitie And yet as if miserie had no mean besides our industry how is this bodie stuffed with many an infirmitie all the strength of man is but a reed at best shaken perhaps broken howsoever weakened by every wind that blows upon it The Physicians distinction of Temperamentum ad pondus justitiam gives us thus much to learn that no constitution is ever so happie to have a just temper according to its weight some are too hot others too cold all have some defects and so
that it might shine in heaven But this was but the beginning of his dayes now they are past they have been Go a little further we left him at school but how learned he Christ 1. Cor. 2.2 Psal 8.2 and him crucified this was the knowledge taught him by the Spirit of God in a wonderfull manner Out of the mouthes of babes and sucklings hast thou O God ordained strength To consider again his religious words his upright actions his hearty devotions his fear of God all then concluded as they did of John Luke 1.66 What manner of child shall this be No question the grace of God was with him If I should instance in any of these his frequencie in prayer his reading of Scripture his reasoning with others to get knowledge to himself we may wonder at Gods power in this childs poor weakness Excuse me whiles I tell nothing but truths and I hope they will tend to our own instruction In the morning he would not stir out of doors before he had poured out his prayers at noon he would not eat any meat before he had given the Lord thanks at night he would not lie down on his bed before he had kneeled down on his knees we may remember those times when sometimes that he had forgotten this dutie no sooner had he been in bed but up he would have got again and so kneeling down on his bare knees covered with no garment but his linens he would ask God forgiveness for that sinne of forgetfulness neither have his brothers escaped without his reprehension for had they eat any meal or meat without a grace his check was usuall Dare you do thus unless God be mercifull unto us this bit of bread might choke us The wise sentences the religious words which often dropt from his mouth like honey can we remember them and not grieve at the death of him that spake them What comfort had we in those dayes What sorrow have we to think those dayes are done Surely we cannot speak it without bitterness of soul they are gone they have been Thus he lived will you know how he died First a lingring sickness seized upon him against which to comfort him one tells him of possessions that must fall to his portion And what are they said he I had rather have the Kingdome of Heaven then a thousand such inheritances Thus he minds Heaven and God so minding him presently sent him his sickness that should summon him thither And now how should I repeat his words with the life that he spake them dying No sooner had God struck his body with that fatall sickness but he asks and needs would know his souls estate I have heard of the soul said he but what is the soul the mind he questions and questioning answers better I fear then many too many gray headed amongst us but the answer given how the soul consisted of the Will and the Understanding he sayes he is satisfied and now understands better then he did before Another comes to him and then he begins another question now he knows the soul he desires yet to know further How his soul may be saved O blessed soul how wisely couldst thou question for thine own souls good The answer given by faith applying Christs merits he heard it and had it anon telling them who before had taught it him Resolved in these questions he questions no further but will now answer them that go about to question him One asks him whether he had rather live or die he gives the answer and not without Pauls reason I desire to die said he that I might go to my Saviour O blessed Spirit bow didst thou inspire into this child thy wisdome and goodnesse This done his pain begins again to afflict him and this occasions another thus to question him whether he would rather still endure those pains or forsake his Christ Alas said he I know not what to say as a child for these pains might stagger a strong man but I will strive to endure the best I can Upon this he presently calls to mind that Martyr who being in prison Thom. Bilney the night before his burning put his finger in the candle to know how he could endure the fire O said he had I lived then I would have runne through the fire to have gone to Christ Sweet resolution of a silly child who can hear and not wonder wonder and not desire to hear that he may wonder still Blessed child hadst thou lived that we might have wondred at thy wisdome but his daies were determined and now is the number turned to this poor cypher they are not they have been I cannot leave him yet his sicknesse lasts long and at least three dayes before his death he prophesies his departure and how strange a prophecie not onely that he must die but fore-telling the very day On the Lords day said he look to me Neither was this a word of course which you may guesse by his often repetition every day asking till the day came indeed What is Sunday come At last the lookt-for day came on and no sooner had the Sun beautified that morning with his light but he falls into a trance What think ye meant his blessed soul whilest the body it self used such an action his eyes were fixed his face chearfull his lips smiling his hands and arms clasping in a bow as if he would have received some blessed Angel that there was at hand to receive his soul but he comes to himself and tells them how he saw the sweetest boy that ever eyes beheld and bids them Be of good chear for he must presently go with him One standing near as now suspecting his time of dissolution bids him say Lord into thy hands I commend my spirit Psal 31.5 Yes said he Into thy hands Lord I commit my spirit which is thy due for why thou hast redeemed it O Lord my God most true Who will not believe this child now sings in Heaven that so soon had learned this Davids Psalm on earth I cannot hold my self nor will I hold you long but how may I omit his heavenly ejaculations Beloved I beseech you pardon me whilest I speak his words and I will promise you to speak no word but the very same formally which were his own Pray pray pray nay yet pray and the more prayers the better all prospers God is the best Physician into his hands I commend my spirit O Lord Jesus receive my soul Now close mine eyes forgive me father mother brothers sister all the world Now I am well my pain is almost gone my joy is at hand Lord have mercy on me O Lord receive my soul unto thee Where am I whilest I speak these words Blessed Saint now thou singest in Heaven God hath bid thee welcome the Angels are hugging thee the Saints rejoyce with thee this day is the Crown set on thy head this day is the Palm of victory in thy hand
how it is required when this night a fearfull sound unlookt-for message speedy dispatch no more delays nor days onely this night for then must his soul be taken from him You see all his losses and now to contract them there is one griefe more then all that all is lost on a sudden Losses that come by succession are better born with but all on a sudden is the worst of all yet such is the misery of man when he goes all goes with him and he and all pass away on a sudden As in the days of Noah they ate and drunk married and gave in marriage and knew nothing tell the floud came and took them all away so is the coming of the Son of man Matth. 24.38 Mat. 24.38 How many have been thus took tripping in their wickedness Belshazzar in his mirth Herod in his pride the Philistims in their banquetting the men of Ziklag in their feasting Jobs children in their drunkenness the Sodomites in their filthiness the Steward in his security this Churle in his plenty miserable end when men end in their sin Call to mind this O my soul and tremble sleep not in sin lest the sleep of death surprize thee The hour is certain in nothing but uncertainties for sure thou must dye yet thou knowest not on what day nor in what place Certa mors incerta hora. nor how thou shalt be disposed when death must be entertained Do you not see most dye whiles they are most busie how to live he that once thought but to begin to take his ease was fain that very night whether he would or no to make his end would you have thought this Psal 37.35 39 he but now flourished like a green bay tree his thoughts full of mirth his soul of ease but I passed by and loe he was gone gone whether his body to the grave his soul to hell in the middest of his jollity God threats destruction Devils execution death expedition and thus like a Swan he sings his funerals There is that saith I have found rest and now will I eat continually of my goods and yet he knoweth not what time shall come upon him and that he must leave those things to others and dye Ecclus 11.19 Eccles 11.19 The higher our Babel-tower of joy is raised the nearer it is to ruine and confusion Sodome in the heat of their sins had that showr of fire poured on their heads Nebuchadnezzar in the height of his pride became suddenly a beast that ruled before as a King once for all here was a man solacing singing warbling out pleasant songs of ease and pastime but O the misery in the middest of his note here is a suddain stop he dreames of longs and larges he hears of briefes and semi-briefes no longer a day but this very night and then shall thy soul be taken from thee See here the many losses of one man his goods his grounds his houses his friends his time his soul and all on a sudden whilest the word is spoken this night Vse 1 Our neighbours fire cannot but give warning of approaching flames Remember his judgment thine also may be likewise Ecclus 38.22 unto me yester-day and unto thee to day Whose turn is next God onely knows who knows all Is not madness in the hearts of men whiles they live Eccles 9.3 In the least suspition of loosing worldly riches all watch and break their sleep you shall see men work and toyl and fear and care and all too little to prevent a losse but for all these losses which are linked together our riches lands houses friends time and soul and all we have there is few or none regards them O that men are so carefull in trifles and so negligent in matters of a great importance It is storied of Archimedes that when Syracuse was taken he onely was sitting secure at home and drawing circles with his compass in the dust Thus some we have that when the eternall salvation of their souls is in question they are handling their dust nothing but suites or mony-matters are their daily objects but alas what will your goods or grounds or houses or friends avail you when death comes Where did ever that man dwell that was comforted by any of these in that last and sorest conflict Give me a man amongst you that spends the span of his transitory life in grasping gold gathering wealth growing great inriching his posterity without any endeavour or care to treasure up grace against that fatall hour and I dare certainly tell him whensoever he comes to his deaths bed he shall find nothing but an horrible confusion extremest horrour and heaviness of heart nay his soul shall presently down into the kingdome of darkness and there lye and fry in everlasting fires Nor speak I only to the covetous though my text seem more directly to point at them but whosoever thou art that goest on daily in a course of sin in the fear of God unbethink thee of mortality some of you may think I speake not to you and others I speake not to you the truth is I speake to you all but to you more especially that to this day have sinned with delight but never as yet felt the smart for sin upon your souls or consciences O beloved this is it I call for and must call for till you feel a change a thorow-change in you would but some of you at this present examine you consciences and say whether have I not been inordinate in drunkenness or wantonness or coveteousness whether have I not sworn an oath or told a lye or dissembled in my heart when I have spoken O who can say amongst you I am clean I am clean and assure your selves if you are guilty you must either feel hearts grief or you can never be provided for deaths dismall arrest If you were but sensible of sin if you felt but the weight and horrour of Gods wrath for sin I am verily perswaded you would not take a quiet sleep in your beds for fear and horrour and heaviness of heart what is it but madness of a man to lye down in ease upon a feather bed and to lodge in his bosome that deadly enemy sin But horrour of horrours what if this night whilest you sleep in your sin death should arrest you on your beds This I tell you is no wonder are not sudden deaths common and ordinary among the sons of men How many have we heard that went to bed well over night for ought any man could tell and yet were found dead in the morning I will not say carried away out of their beds and cast into hell fire whether it be so or no the Lord our God knows but howsoever it is with them if we for our parts commit sin and repent not thereof by crying and sobbing and sorrowing for sin it may be this night and that is not long to you may sleep your last in this world and
then shall your souls be hurried by Devils to that infernall lake whence there is no redemption O beloved O wretch whosoever thou art Canst thou possibly sleep in such a case as this Canst thou go to bed with a conscience laden with sin Canst thou take any sleep which is the brother of death when thou lyest now in danger of eternall death Consider I pray what space what distance how far off is thy soul from death from hell from eternity no more but a breath one breath and no more no more but a step one step and more O beloved were not this lamentable that some one of us that now are standing or sitting should this night sleep his last and to morrow have his body brought to be buried yea and before to morrow morning have his soul which the Lord forbid cast from his bed of feathers to a bed of fire and yet alas alas if any of us this night dye in his sin or in a state unregenerate thus will it be with him whosoever he be to morrow may his body lye could under earth and his soul lodg in hell with this miserable rich man Vse 2 But let me speake to you of whom I hope better things it is good counsell for you all to exspect death every day and by this means death fore-seen cannot possibly be sudden no it is he onely dyes suddenly that dyes unpreparedly Watch therefore saith our Saviour be ever in a readiness and finally that this rich man may be your warning you that tender your souls learn that lessen of our Saviour Lay not up for your selves treasure upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break thorow and steal but lay up for your selves treasures in Heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break thorow nor steal Mat. 6.19 20. Mat. 6.19 20. You will say What treasures are those I answer These treasures are those stocks of grace that will last for ever it is that circumspect walking Ephes 5.15 Ephes 5.15 that fervency of spirit Rom. 12.11 Rom 12.11 that zeal of good works Tit. 2 14. Tit. 2.14 that purity which St. Iohn makes a property of every true hearted professour 1 Joh. 3.3 1 Joh. 3.3 In a word it is the work the life the power of that prayer that the rest of our life hereafter may be pure and holy these are heavenly hoords indeed O that we would treasure up such provision against the day of calamity If while it is called to day we would make our peace with his heavenly Highness by an humble continued exercise of repentance if in this time of grace we would purchase Gods favour and those rarest jewells of faith and a good conscience if now before we appear at the dreadfull Tribunall we would make God and his Angels our friends in the Court of Heaven O then how blessed would out deaths be to us came it never so suddenly still should death find us ready and if ready no matter how suddenly yea though it were this this night I have broke ope the writ and you see when it must be served this night but in this Quando there is both suddenness and sadness it is not this day but this night Let this end this dayes discourse and the next day we will lay open the nights dark sadness it is a dismall time and God give us grace so to provide that we may be ready with oyle in our lamps and enter with our Saviour into his blessed Kingdome Night HE sins all day and dyes at night and why at night This you know is frequent and there is reason most are begot and born and therefore dye at night but we must further then the lists of nature this night was more then ordinary as being the fittest time to aggravate his griefe weigh but the circumstances First It was a night of darkness and this may encrease the horrour of his judgment think but what a fear seized on the Aegyptians Wisd 17.5 when no power of the fire must give them light nor might the clear flames of the stars lighten the horrible night that fell upon them The Husband-men the Shepherds the work-men Exod. 10.23 all were bound with one chain of darkness No man saw another neither rose up from the place where he was for three days Exod. 10.23 Was not this fearfull darkness you may guesse it by the effects they were troubled and terrified and swooned as though their own souls should betray them Wisd 17.18 19. Whether it were an hissing wind or a sweet noyse of birds among the spreading branches or a pleasing fall of waters running violently or a terrible sound of stones or the running of skipping beasts or the noyse of cruell beasts or the eccho that answereth again in the hollow mountains these fearfull things made them to swoon for fear And if thus the Egyptians how was it with this Worldling a darknesse seized on him that engendred a thousand times more intolerable torments Wisd 17.21 This was the image of that darkness which should afterward receive him and yet was he unto himself more grievous then the darknesse It was not an outward but an utter darknesse not onely to be not seen but to be felt and feared Imagine then what visions what sounds what sights what sudden fires appeared unto him Unhappy Worldling look round about thee although it be dark here is something to be seen above is the angry Judge beneath is the burning lake before is gloomy darknesse behind is infallibe death on thy right and left hand a legion of evil angels exspecting every moment to receive the prey Here is a sight indeed able to break the very heart-strings of each seer If some have lost their wits by means of some dreadfull sight yea if the very suspicion of Devils have caused many men to tremble and the hairs of their heads to stand staring upright what then was the fear and terrour of this man when so many dreadfull horrible hellish monsters stood round about him now readie to receive him O ye sonnes of men stand in aw and sinne not Psal 4.4 commune with your own heart and in your chamber and be still Will not this fear you from your sinnes Suppose then you lay on your beds of death were the Judge in his throne your souls at the Barre ths accuser at your elbows and hell ready open to shut her mouth upon you O then how would you curse your selves and bewail your sins What horrible visions would appear to you in the dark horrible indeed In so much saith * Cyril de vitae beati Hieron ad fin Epist one that were there no other punishment then the appearing of Devils you would rather burn to ashes then endure their sights Good God that any Christian should live in this danger and yet never heed it till he sees its terrour How many have gone thus
fearfully out of this miserable world I know not what you have seen but there is very few which have not heard of many too many in this case What were Judas thoughts when he strangled himself that his bowels gushed out again What were Cains visions when he ran like a vagabond roaring and crying Gen. 4.14 Whosoever findeth me shall slay me What are all their affrights that cry when they are a dying they see spirits and Devils flying about them coming for them roaring against them as if an hell entred into them before themselves could enter it I dare instance in no other but this wretched miser What a night was that to him when on a sudden a darknesse seized on him that never after left him Thus many go to bed that never rise again till they be wakened by the fearfull sound of the last Trumpet and was not this a terrour whose heart doth not quake whose flesh doth not tremble whose senses are not astonished whilest vve do but think on it And then vvhat vvere the sufferings of himself in his person He might cry and roar and vvail and vveep yet there is none to help him his heart-strings break the blessed Angels leave him Devils still exspect him and novv the Judge hath pronounced his sentence This night in the dark they must seiz upon him Yet this was not all the horrour it was a night both of darkness and drowsiness or security in sinne He that reads the life of this man may well wonder at the fearfull end of so fair beginnings walk into his fields and there his cattel prosper come nearer to his house and there his barns swell with corn enter into his gates and there every table stands richly furnished step yet into his chambers and you may imagine doun-beds curtain'd with gold hangings nay yet come nearer we will draw the curtains and you shall view the person he had toiled all day and now see how securely he takes his rest this night he dreams golden dreams of ease of mirth of pastime as all our worldly pleasures are but waking dreams but stay a while and see the issue just like a man who starting out of sleep sees his house on fire his goods ransacked his family murthered himself near lost and not one to pitie him when the very thrusting in of an arm might deliver him this and no other was the case of this dying miser at that night while his senses were most drowsie most secure death comes in the dark and arrests him on his bed Awake rich Cormorant what charms have lulled thee thus asleep Canst thou slumber whilest death breaks down this house thy bodie to rob thee of that jewell thy soul What a deep dull drowsie dead sleep is this O fool this night is thy soul assaulted see death approaching Devils hovering Gods justice threatning canst thou yet sleep and are thine eyes yet heavie Behold the hour is at hand and thy soul must be delivered into the hands of thine enemies heavie eies he sleeps still his care all day had cast him into so dead a sleep this night that nothing can warn him untill death awake him That thief is most dangerous that comes at night such a thief is death a thief that steals men Latro hominis which then is most busie whilest we are most drowsie most secure in sinne Heark the sluggard that lulls himself in his sinnes Yet a little more sleep a little more slumber is not his destruction sudden and poverty coming on him like an armed man Prov. 6.11 Prov. 6.11 Watch saith our Saviour for you know not when the master of the house cometh at even or at midnight at the cock-crow or in the morning lest coming suddenly he should find you sleeping Mark 13.35 Mark 13.35 36. Was not this the wretchednesse of the foolish virgins how sweetly could they slumber how soundly could they sleep untill mid-night they never wake nor so much as dream to buy oyl for their lamps imagine then how fearfull were those summons to these souls Behold the Bridegroom go ye out to meet him Matth. 25.26 Sudden fears of all others are most dangerous was it not a fearfull waking to this rich man when no sooner that he opened his eyes but he saw deaths uglinesse afore his face what a sight was this at his door enters the King of fear accompanied with all his abhorred horrours and stinging dread on his curtains he may read his sinns arrayed and armed in their grisliest forms and with their fieriest stings about his bed are the powers of darknesse now presenting to his view his damnable state his deplorable miserie what can he do that is thus beset with such a world of wofull work and hellish rage his tongue faulters his breath shortens his throat rattles he would not watch and now cannot resist the crie is made the mid-night come God sounds destruction and thus runs the proclamation This night so drowsie thy soul must be taken from thee And yet more horrour it was a night of drowsinesse and sadnesse How is he but sad when he sees the night coming and his last day decaying Read but the copy of this rich mans Will and see how he deals all he hath about him he bequeaths his garments to the moth his gold to rust his body to the grave his soul to hell his goods and lands he knows not to whom Whose shall these things be Here is the man that made such mirth all day and now is he forced to leave all he hath this night It is the fruit of merry lives to give sad farwels You that sport your selves and spoyl others that rob God in his members and treasure up your own damnations will not death make sorrie hearts for your merry nights a night wil come as sad as sadnesse in her sternest looks and then what a lot will befall you O that men are such cruell Caitiffs to their own souls Is this a life think ye fit for the servants of our God revelling swearing drinking railing what other did this miser he would eat and drink and revell and sing and then came fear as desolation and his destruction on a sudden as a whirl-wind If this be our life how should we escape his death Alas for the silly mirth that now we pleasure in you may be sure a night will come that must pay for all and then shall your pleasures vanish your griefs begin and your numberlesse sins like so many envenomed stings run into your damned souls and pierce them through with everlasting sorrow away with this fond Prov. 14.13 foolish sottish vanitie The end of mirth is heavinesse saith Solomon Prov. 14.13 What will the sonnes and daughters of pleasure do then all those sweet delights shall be as scourges and Scorpions for your naked souls Then though too late will you lamentably cry out Wisd 5.8.9 What hath pride profited us or what profit hath the pomp of riches
brought us all those things are passed away as a shadow or as a Poste that passeth by Look on this man as he lies on his bed of death here is neither smile nor dimple All the daughters of musick are brought low Eccles. 12.4 His voice is hoarse his lips pale his cheeks wan his nostrills run out his eyes sink into his head and all the parts and members of his body now lose their office to assist him Is this the merrie man that made such pastime Sweet God! what a change is this Esa 3.24 In stead of sweet smell there is a stench in stead of a girdle a rent in stead of well-set hair baldness in stead of beauty burning in stead of mirth mourning and lamentation weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth Must not sadnesse seize on that soul which incurs this doom Here is a malefactour stands at bar indited by the name of Fool charged with the guilt of treason condemned by the Judge of heaven and this night the saddest that ever he saw is that fearfull execution that his soul is taken And yet more horrour It was a night of sinne and this doth encrease the sorrow Psal 116.13 How dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints and we may say on the contrary How abominable in the sight of the Lord is the death of the wicked Was not this a grief to be took thus tripping in his wickedness even now whilest he was busily plotting his ease and pastime death stands at his door and over-hears all his plots and projects It was a death to his soul to be took in his sinne hear how he roars and cries O that I had lived so virtuously as I should had I embraced the often inspirations of Gods blessed Spirit had I followed his Laws obeyed his Commands attended to his will how sweet and pleasant would they now be unto me We and alas that I had not fore-seen this day what have I done but for a little pleasure a fleeting vanity lost a Kingdome purchased damnation O beloved what think ye of your selves whilest you hear this voice you sit here as senseless of this judgement as the seats the pillars the walls the dust nay as the dead bodies themselves on which you tread but suppose and it were a blessed meditation you that are so fresh and frolick at this day that spend it merrily use it profanely swearing revelling singing dancing what if this night while you are in your sin the hand of death should arrest you Could I speak with you on your death-beds I am sure I should find you in another case how but sorrowing grieving roaring that your time were lost and these words not heeded whiles the time well served how would you tear your hair gnash your teeth bite your nails seek all means possibly to annihilate your selves and can nothing warn you before death seize on you take heed if you go on in sinne the next step is damnation It was the Apostles advice Rom. 13.11 Now it is high time to wake out of sleep for now is our salvation nearer then when we believed Rom. 13.11 If this wretched man had observed the present time how happy had he been this hour of his departure But as Officers take malefactours drinking or drabbing so is he nearest danger when deepest in the mire of pleasure Look at all those that are gone before us and which of them thought their end so near while they lived so merrie I must needs tell you there is a fire a worm a sting a darkness an hell provided for all wicked wretches and there most certainly must you be this night if you die this day in your naturall state of sinne Lord that men should be so strangely bewitched by the Prince of the air as for the momentarie enjoyment of some glorious miseries bitter-sweet pleasures heart-vexing riches desperately and wilfully to abandon God and to cast themselves headlong into the jaws of Satan Such a prodigious madnesse seized on this Worldling he sings he revels he dallies Plin. l. 7. c. 23. then dies Thus greatest euils arise out of greatest joyes as the ears vvith vehement sounds and the eyes vvith brighter objects so many by felicity have lost both their sense and being Gallus dies in the act of pleasure 2 Sam. 4.7 Num. 11.33 Ishbosheth dies in the middest of sleep the Israelites die in their day of lust this Worldling dies in that night of sinne even then on a sudden his soul is taken And yet more horrour it vvas a night of death and this vvas the vvorst of all the darkness drowsiness sadness sin all vvere nothing to this all nothing in themselves if death had not follovved Aristot lib. 3. mor. cap. 6. this is that most terrible of all terribles all fears griefs suspicions pains as so many small brooks are svvallovved up and drovvned in this Ocean of misery Novv rich man vvhat saiest thou to thy barns buildings riches lands Do these pleasure thee in this thy extreme and dying agonie Thou liest this night on thy departing bed burthened vvith the heavie load of thy former trespasses the pangs come sore and sharp upon thee thy brest pants thy pulse beats short thy breath it self smels of earth and rottennesse vvhither vvilt thou go for a little ease or succour vvhat help canst thou have in thy heaps of gold or hoord of vvealth Discip de temp serm 118. ex Hum. in tract de septuplici timore should vve bring them to thy bed as vve read of one dying commanded that his golden vessels and silver plate should be set before him which looking on he promised to his soul it should have them all on condition of his stay with him but the remedie being silly at last most desperately he commends it to the Devil seeing it would not stay in his body and so gave up the ghost Alas these trifling treasures can no more deliver thee from the arrest of that inexorable Serjeant then can an handfull of dust Wretched men vvhat shall be your thoughts vvhen you come to this miserable case full sad and heavie thoughts Lord thou knovvest you may lie upon your beds like vvild buls in a net full of the furie of the Lord In the morning thou shalt say would God it were evening and at even thou shalt say would God it were morning for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see Deut. 28.67 Deut. 28.67 Here is the terrour of that night of death vvhen you may vvish vvith all your hearts that you had never been born if the Lord once let loose the cords of your conscience vvhat account vvill you make of crovvns of possessions all these will be so far from healing the wound that they will turn rather into fiery Scorpions for your further torments Now now now is the dismall time of death what
will you do whither will you go to whom will you pray the Angels are offended and they will not guard you God is dishonoured and he will not hear you onely the Devil had your service and onely hell must be your wages Consider this ye that forget God Psal 50.22 lest ye be torn in pieces and there be none to deliver you It is cruel for your souls thus to suffer to be torn and torn in pieces and so torn in pieces that none may deliver you Better this Worldling had been a worm a toad an adder any venomous creature then so to live and thus to have died yet hither it is come his sickness is remediless his riches comfortless his torments easeless still he must suffer and there is none to deliver he is torn torn in pieces and none may deliver him What need you more now we are come to this period his glasse is run his Sunne is set his day is finished and now this night the verie night of Death his soul is required and received of him Lo here the dismall dreadfull terrible time of this mans departure it was in the night a night of darkness drowsiness sadness sinne death and destruction Vse 1 Who will not provide each day against this fearfull night howsoever we passe away our time in sinne we must of necessitie ere it be long lie gasping for breath upon our dying beds there shall we grapple hand to hand with the utmost powers of death and darknesse what should we do then but sow our seed while the seed-time lasteth we have yet a day and how short this day is God onely knows be sure the night cometh wherein none can work Joh. 9.4 and then what a fearfull time will come upon us I know there be some that dream of doing good in another world or at least will deferre it longer till some time hereafter such vain hopes of future performances hath undone many a soul I must work the work of him that sent me Joh. 9.4 while it is day saith our Saviour The way-faring man travels not in darknesse but while the day shines on him then he knows he is under the protection of the Laws the light of the Sunne the blessing of heaven Joh. 11.9 Are there not twelve hours in the day if any man walk in the day he stumbleth not because he seeth the light of this world but if a man walk in the night he stumbleth because there is no light in him Do good then and lay hold of every season which may get you to heaven Let the whole course of your life be a conscionable preparative against death Suppose every day your last as if at night you should be called to account before that high and great tribunall in a word whatsoever you think or speak or do say thus with your self Would I do thus and thus if I knew this night to be my last Who is it would sinne if he thought at that instant he must go to judgement Vse 2 But if we neglect the day be sure the night will come to our condemnation where be those wonders that so dazled our eies while the day shone on them Where is Absaloms beautie Jezabels paint Sauls personage nay where is this wretched Worldling he had a day to work out his own salvation and that being lost at last came night before he had gone two steps toward heaven Joh. 12.35 O beloved walk while yee have light that ye may be children of the light You may be sure the meanest soul that hath the work of grace upon it death is to him no night but the day-break of eternall brightnesse This may make us in love with the sincerity of religion this may make us to labour and never cease labouring till we have gotten out of the state of nature into the state of grace O that I could say of every one of you as Paul of the Ephesians Ye were once darkness but now are ye light in the Lord. Ye were once carnall but now are ye spirituall ye were once unregenerate Ephes 5.8 but now are ye a first-fruits dedicated to God If it were thus with you then to your comfort upon your dying beds you should meet with a glorious troop of blessed Angels you should feel the glorious presence of the sweetest comforter you should see the glorious light of Gods shining countenance you should have a night if it were night turn'd all into a mid-day Now the Lord give you such a day whensoever you dye through Christ our Lord. You have heard the time of Deaths arrest This night Now for the party wee 'll make a privy search and if we stir one word we shall finde him at next doore it is thy soul Thy Soul THe party under arrest is the rich mans Soul no warranty could prevail no riches satisfie no strength rescue death now demands it and there 's none can redeem it therefore This night they will have his soul Every man hath a jewell better worth then a world Observ and the loss of this is so much more dear by how much it is more precious What profits it a man to gain a world and to lose his soul said our Lord and Saviour Mat. 16.26 Mat. 16.26 Nay what are a thousand worlds when the soul is valued Give me leave to ope the cabinet and you shall see the jewell that is arrested it is the Soul The Soul what 's that Substantia creata invisibilis incorporea immortalis Deo similima imaginem habens creatoris sui Aug. in lib. de definitione animae Dicearchus it is saith Austin a substance that is created invisible incorporeall immortall most like to God as bearing the image of its Creator Please you that we illustrate this description and you shall see how every word shews forth some excellencies as the glorious lustres of this glorious pearle the Soul First if you ask what is the Soul 't is a substance How fond were the opinions of some Philosophers one would have it to be nothing vox praeterea nihil and how many of us are of this opinion Doe not we live as if we had no souls at all The epicure is for his belly the ambitious for his body but who is he that provides for his soul Sure we imagine it to be nothing valuable or how should our estimation of it be so grosse and vile to prefer the body to neglect the soul There were other Philosophers vvent a pace yet further and they gave it a being Galen but vvhat no better then an accident that might live or dye vvithout death of the subject this they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 humorum a certain temper composed of the elements or nothing but the harmony of those humours in the body Is this the soul then of all creatures are men say vve 1 Cor. 15.19 of all men are we saith the Apostle most miserable most unhappy
adornas Hugo de claustro animae not so much for the body as for the souls good to this purpose saith Hugo Why cloath we the body in silks which must rot in the grave and adorn not the soul with faith and good works which one day must appear before God and his Angels O think of this day this night this hour of death for then must your Souls be taken from you Thus far you see the rich mans arrest God injoyns it death serves it the time was this night and the party is his Soul God give us grace to provide our souls that when death arrests we may be ready and then O God have thou mercy on our Souls Shall be required THe originall is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They shall require it wherein you have the Sergeants Arrest The Sergeants They and the arrest it self They require his soul Wee 'll first take a view of the Sergeants They who not God he knows not sinners what should he do with a drunken profane covetous sensuall soul he that never so much as thought on God in this life will God accept of the commending of his soul to him at his death no the Lord of heaven will none of it he that forsook God is justly forsaken of God See the true weight of this balance he would not receive Gods grace into his soul and God will not receive his graceless soul into heaven But who then will the Angels take it no they have nothing to do with the soul of a dying sinner the Angels are onely porters for the souls of the just Poor Lazarus that could neither go nor sit nor stand for sores it is he must be carried on the wings of Angels but for this rich man not the lowest Angell will do him poorest service Who then will the Saints receive it no they have no such commission to receive a soul that blind opinion which every one may blush at that Saint Peter should be heavens porter and that none may go in but to whom he will open if it be true why may not a Saint help a departing soul Away with this dreaming folly not Peter nor Paul nor all the Saints of heaven have any such priviledg if God will not hear us what will our prayers do to Saints Heaven is too far off they cannot hear or were it nearer they will not cannot help it is God must save us or we perish ever Who then are the Sergeants not God nor Saints nor Angels no there is another crew Death and Devils stand in a readiness and they are the parties that arrest this prisoner Stay what would death have the soul cannot die and for the body no matter who receives it O yes there is a death of the soul as well as of the body I mean not such a death whereby it may be annihilated but a second death that shall ever accompany it this is a death of the soul that will always keep it in deaths pangs But not to speak of this death there is another death temperall that shall sever the soul and body each from other these two twins that have lived together since their first espousall these two lovely ones that were made and met and married by the hands of God these two made one till death them depart and make them two again now is their rufull time of divorce when death comes he gives over the body to the grave and arrests the soul to appear in presence before Gods high Tribunall Such a Bayliffe hath now laid hands on this rich mans soul when he least thought on 't death comes on a sudden and arrests his person O wretched worldling who is this behinde thee call we this Gods Sergeant What grim ugly monstrous visage is this we see have ever any of you seen the grisly picture of death before you how was it but with hollow eyes open skull grinning teeth naked ribs a few bones knit together with dry strings as presenting to your eyes the most deformed image of a man in moldes But what 's that in his hands an hour-glass and a dart the one expressing the decreasings of our life and the other deaths stroke that he gives us in our death Such emblemes are most fit to express mortality and imagine such a thing to arrest this rich man would it not terrifie him whilest looking back death suddenly claps him on his shoulder away he must with this messenger all the gold and pearl of East and West cannot stay him one hour now rich man what avails all thy worldly pleasure Hadst thou in thy hands the reigns of all earthly kingdomes wert thou exalted as the Eagle Obad. 1.4 and thy nest set among the starrs yet all this and whatsoever else thou canst imagine is not worth a button where did that man dwell or of what cloth was his garment that was ever comforted by his goods or greatness in this last and sorest conflict See worldling death requires thy soul no bribe will be taken no entreatie will prevail no riches rescue nothing at all redeem death death is impartiall But O horrour death is not all see yet more Sergeants Devils and Dragons are about thy bed and these are they that will hurrie away thy soul to hell How Devils O worldling stay thy soul and never yield it better to die a thousand deaths then to leave it in their hands but alas thou canst not choose thy last hour is come and here is neither hope nor help nor place of any longer terrying See but the misery of a miserable soul what shall it do whither shall it fly from these damned Furies would they take it and teare it into nothing it were somewhat tollerable but to teare it in pieces and never to make end of tearing to give it torments without all patience or resistance this is that load which it cannot bear and yet O extremity it ever ever must be born Think on this O my soul and whilest thou hast a minutes stay in this body call upon God to prevent this arrest of Devils was it not think yee a terrour to this rich man when so many hell hounds waited for his soul we read of one man Hartmundus Schedel in vit Pap. who being took away with a Devill through the air was said so to roar and yell that many miles distant his noise was heard to many a mans trembling And if a soul had but the organs of a sound what a shreek would it make being seized on by a Devil witness the cries of many desperate souls when as yet they are safe in their beds how do they roar and rage how do they call and cry Help help us save us deliver us from these fiends about us these are those evening wolves enraged with hellish hunger these are those ramping Lyons ever ready to devour our souls these are those walkers up and down the earth which are now come and entred into this rich mans lodging
perdition I have read of some whom in some sort we might parallel with this rich man concerning their fearful horrid departure out of this miserable world yea I suppose the Books are so working that any man whosoever he is that would but read them and ponder them in a serious way they would certainly work in him much matter of humiliation and make him to flie sin as the very sting of a scorpion William Rogers The Young mans warning-piece by Rob. Abbot One of them I mean to speak of was an Englishman Abbot that relates the story tells indeed of two in one year that died thus uncomfortably the one so many wayes looking homewards that he died miserably rich the other so lashing outward that he died miserably poor both of different wayes of life yet both of uncomfortable passages out of the world The one coming to his deaths-bed the Authour reports of him that first the Devil presented himself unto him to be his Physician and after Christ appeared to him sitting on the Throne condemning his unprofitable life and bidding him shift for himself for he would have nothing to do with him The other of whom I mean to speak as if he would prevent Christ condemned himself to hell for ever and ever O said he that I might burn along time in that fire so I might not burn in hell I have had said he a little pleasure and now I must go to the torments of hell for ever Then praying to God as he was pressed by others to forgive him his sins and to have mercy upon him he would adde but I know God will not do it I must go to hell for evermore Whatsoever came between whiles this was the close I must be burned in Hel I must to the furnace of Hel millions and millions of ages The Authour of this story who was Minister of the place where he lived went to him offered him the comforts of the Gospel opened to him the promises of the largest size shewed him that God was delighted to save souls and not to destroy them and that his sweet promises were without exception of time place person or sinne except that against the holy Ghost which he assured him too was not committed by him and what was the issue all this could not fasten on him but still he would answer Alas it is too late I must be burned in hell That man of God the Shepheard of his soul seeing his soul in this danger came to him again and again and at last secluding the company he presses him with tears in his eyes not to cast away that soul for for which Christ died he told him that Christ rejected none that did not reject him but for all this he could have no other answer but that he had cast off Christ and therefore must go to hell The Minister replies Yet pray with me saith he that Christ would come again there is yet an hour in the day and if Christ come he can and will assist you to do a great deal of work on a sudden no he would not hear of that former counsels and prayers might have done me good said he but now it is too late O horrour that ever any soul should suffer these conflicts for sinne But what sinnes were they He was saith the Authour no Swearer no VVhoormonger no Thief no scoffer at Religion no perjured wretch no wilfull lyar at all onely Drunkennesse and neglect of mens bodies for he was an Apothecarie neglect of Prayer Gods Word and his Sacraments so awakt his trembling Conscience that he was forced to passe this fearfull doom upon his soul I must be burned in the furnace of hell millions of millions of ages and at last the Lord knows in idleness of thoughts and talk he ended his miserable-miserable life The other I mean to speak of was an Italian A relation of the fearfull estate of Fr. Spira 1548. under the Jurisdiction of Venice called Francis Spira who being excessively covetous of money and for fear of the world having renounced the truth which before he professed he thought at last he heard a direfull voice speaking to him Thou wicked wretch thou hast denied me thou hast broken thy vow hence Apostate and bear with thee the sentence of thy eternall damnation at this voice he trembling and quaking fell down in a swoon and after recovering himself he professed that he was captivated under the revenging hand of the great God of heaven and that he heard continually that fearfull sentence of Christ now past on his own soul his friends to comfort him propounded many of Gods promises recorded in Scripture Oh but my sinne said he is greater then the mercy of God nay answered they the mercy of God is above all sinne God would have all men to be saved it is true said he he would have all men that he hath elected to be saved but he would not have Reprobates to be saved and I am one of that number after this roaring out in the bitterness of his spirit he said It is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God These troubles of mind brought him to a distemper of body which the Physicians perceiving they wisht him to seek some spirituall comfort those comforters come and observing the distemper to arise from the sence and horrour of hell pains they ask him Whether he thought there were any worse pains then what he endured he said He knew there were farre worse pains yet do I desire nothing more said he then that I may come to that place where I may be sure to feel the worst and to be freed from fear of worse to come As on this manner he was speaking he observed saith my Authour divers flies that came about him and some lighted on him whereat presently remembring how Belzeebub signifies the God of Flies Behold said he now also Belzeebub comes to his Banquet you shall shortly see my end and in me an example to many of the justice and judgement of God Then he began to reckon up what fearfull dreams and visions he was continually troubled withall That he saw the Devils come flocking into his chamber and about his bed terrifying him with strange noyses and that these were not fancies but that he saw them as really as the standers by and that besides these outward terrours he felt continually a racking torture of his mind and a continuall butchery of his conscience being the very proper pangs of the damned wights in hel But of all the rest most desperate was that last speech of his when snatching a knife as intending to mischief himself but stopped by his friends he roared with indignation I would I were above God for I know he will have no mercy on me and thus living a while he appeared at length a very perfect anatomie expressing to the view nothing but sinews and bones vehemently raging for drink ever pining yet fearfull to live long
dreadfull of hel yet coveting death in a continuall torment yet his own tormentour consuming himself with grief and horrour impatience and despair till at last he ended his miserable-miserable life And now beloved if such be the departure of a sinnfull soul O who would live in sinne to come to such a departure For my part I dare not say these parties thus miserable in their own apprehensions are now among Devils in hell I find the Authours themselves to incline to the right hand besides what am I that I should sit in Gods Chair onely this I say that their miserable deaths may verie well give warning to us all nor need you think much at me for uttering these terribilia terrible stories for if sometimes you did not hear of Gods judgements against sinne a day might come that you would most of all crie out on the Preacher To this purpose we have a story of a certain rich man who lying on his death-bed My soul said he I bequeath to the Devil who owns it my wife to the Devil who drew me to my ungodly life and my Chaplain to the Devil who flattered me in it I pray God I never hear of such a Legacy from any of you sure I had better to tell you aforehand to prevent it then not telling you to feel it And let this be for my Apologie in relating these stories Vse 2 But for a second Use give me leave I pray you to separate the precious from the vile Now then to sweeten the thoughts of all true penitents the souls of Saints are not required but received Rejoyce then ye righteous that mourn in Sion what though a while ye suffer death is a Goal-delivery to your souls not bringing in but freeing out of thraldome Here the good man finds sharpest misery the evil man sweetest felicity therefore it is just that there should be a time of changing turnes The rich mans Table stood full of delicates Lazarus lacks crums but now he is comforted and thou art tormented Luke 16.25 Wo unto you that laugh for you shall mourn Luke 6.25 Luke 6.25 Blessed are you that mourn for you shall rejoyce Matth. 5.4 Matth. 5.4 Happy Lazarus who from thy beggary and loathsome sores wert carried by Angels into Abrahams bosome happy Thief who upon thy true repentance and unfeigned prayer wert received from the Crosse to the Paradise of thy Saviour happy are all they that suffer tribulation Death shall lose their souls from bonds and fetters and in stead of a Bayliff to arrest them shall be a Porter to conduct them to the gates of heaven There shalt thou tread on Serpents trample on thine enemies sing sweet Trophies were not this enough thy Conquests shall be crowned by the hands of Seraphims triumphed with the sound of Angels warbled by the Quire of Spirits confirmed by the King of Kings and Lord of Hosts Happy Soul that art not required by Devils but received by Angels and when we die Lord Jesus send thine Angels to receive our Souls You see now Deaths Arrest and what remains further save to accept of some Bail But what Bail where you have the Kings Commandment from his own mouth this requiring is not of any other but himself of no suretie but of thee saith God must thy Soul be required Of thee ONce more you see I have brought this rich man on the stage his doom is now at hand and Death Gods messenger summons him to appear by Requiring of his soul but of whom is it Required had he any Sureties to put in or was any Bail sufficient to be taken for him no he must go himself without all help or remedie it was he that sinned and it is he must pay for it Of thee it is required How of thee Sure Death mistakes we can find thousands more fit none more fearfull there stands a Saul near him his armour-bearer behold a Judas such will outface deaths fury nay rather then if fail in its office they will not much question to be their own Deaths-men but this Of thee who art at league with hell in love with earth at peace with all is most terribly fearfull Stay Death there stands a poor Lazarus at the gates like Job on his dung-hil his eyes blind his ears deaf his feet lame his bodie struck with Boyls Job 7.15 and his Soul choosing rather to be strangled and die then to be in his bones were not this a fit object for deaths crueltie would he spare the rich he should be welcome to the poor but Death is inexorable he must not live nor shall the Beggar beg his own death for another Of thee it is required But Death yet stay thy hand here 's a better surety what needs death a presse when he may have volunteers there stands an old man as ready for the grave as the grave for him his face is furrowed his hairs hoary his back bowing his hammes bending and therefore no song is fitter then old Simeons Luke 2.29 Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Youth is loath but Age is merry to depart from misery let Death then take him that standeth nearest deaths-door No the old must die but the young may he must die soon yet be sure thou shalt not live long Of thee it is required Cannot this serve let death yet stay his hand there stands a servant waiting at this rich mans beck as if he would spend his own life to save his Masters he can make a Pageant of Cringes act a whole speech of flatteries every part owes him service feet to run hands to work head to crouch and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of a Mistris so the eyes of his servants look unto the hands of their Master but where be these attendants when death comes was ever any Master better then Christ were ever any servants truer then his Apostles yet see their fidelitie must their Saviour die one betrayes him another forswears him all run from him and leave him alone in midst of all his enemies what then is the trust of servants the rich man may command and go without if death should require them they would not or if they should desire death hee will not his arrest concerns not the servants it is for the Master himself he that command others now death commands him Of thee it is required Will not all do Let death but stay this once there stands a friend that will loose his own to save his life Greater love then this hath no man saith our Saviour when any man bestoweth his life for his friends John 15.13 John 15.13 Riches may perhaps procure such love and get some friend to answer deaths quarrel which he ows this man Jonathan loves David David Absolon and sure it was a love indeed when Jonathan preserves the life of David and David wisheth a death to himself in the stead of Absolon O my sonne Absolon 2.
Sam. 18.33 would God I had died for thee O Absolon my sonne my sonne But where be any friends so respective of this Worldling He wants a Ionathan a David upon a strict enquirie we find no friend no father no sonne neither heirs nor assignes to whom he may bestow his lands But what if he had friends as near to himself as himself no man can die or another Psal 49.7 8. or as the Psalmist No man may deliver his brother nor make agreement unto God for him for it cost more to redeem their souls so that he must let that alone for ever Should the poor man beg the old man pray his servants kneel his friends lie at deaths feet and all these offer up all their lives for this rich mans recovery all were but vain it is thy Soul is arrested and it is thy self that must yield it Of thee it is required You see there is no way but one with him to conclude then wee 'l bid him his farewel this is the last friendship we can do this rich man and so wee 'l leave him The hour is come and the dawning of that dreadfull day appeareth now he begins to wish that he had some space some piece of time to repent him and if he might obtain it O what would he do or what would he not do Releive the weak visit the sick feed the hungry lodge the stronger cloath the naked give half his goods to the poor and if he had done any wrong restore it him again seven-fold but alas all is too late the candle that but follows him cannot light him to heaven a sudden death denies his suit and the increasing of his sickness will give him no leasure to fulfill those duties what cold sweats are those that seiz upon him his senses fail his speech falters his eyes sink his breast swels his feet die his heart faints such are the outward pangs what then are the inward griefs if the body thus suffers what cares and conflicts endures the soul had he the riches of Croesus the Empires of Alexander the robes of Solomon the fare of that rich man who lived deliciously every day what could they do in the extremity of these pangs O rich man thou couldst tell us of pulling down barns and building greater but now imagine the vast cope of heaven thy Barn and that were large enough and all the riches of the world thy grain and that were crop enough yet all these cannot buy a minute of ease now that death will have thy body hell thy soul O dark dungeon of imprisoned men whose help wilt thou crave whose aid wilt thou ask what release canst thou exspect from such a prison the disease is past cure the sickness wants remedie alas what may recover now the heart strings break asunder thy date exspires thy last breath goes and now is thy Soul and Body required of thee I have hitherto with Nathan beat sinfull David on a strangers coat You must give me leave to take off the mask and shew you your own faces in this glass Believe thou O man who readest this that shortly there will be two holes where thine eyes now stand and then others may take up thy skull and speak of thee dead as I have done to thee living how soon I know not but this I am sure of Thy time is appointed thy moneths are determined Job 14.14 Job 14.5 Psal 90.12 John 11.9 thy dayes are numbred thy very last hour is limited And what follows but that thy bodie lie cold at the root of the rocks at the foot of the mountains Go then to the graves of those that are gone before us and there see are not their eyes wasted their mouths corrupted their bones scattered where be those ruddy lips lovely cheeks sparkling eyes comely nose hairy locks are not all gone as a dream in the night or as a shadow in the morning alas that we neglect these thoughts and set our minds wholly upon the world and its vanity we are carefull fearfull and immoderately painfull to get transitorie riches like children following Butter-flies we run and toyl and perhaps misse our purpose but if we catch them what is it but a flie to besmear our hands Riches are but empty and yet be they what they will be all at last will be nothing Saladine that great Turk after all his conquests gets his shirt fastened to his spear in manner of an Ensigne this done a Priest makes Proclamation Knolls Turkish History pag. 73. This is all that Saladine carryes away with him of all the riches he hath gotten Shall a Turk say thus and do Christians forget their duties Remember your selves ye sons of earth of Adam what is this earth you dote on be sure you shall have enough of it when your mouths must be filled and crammed with it and as your souls desire it so at that day shall your bodies turn to it O that men are thus given to gasping greediness there is a generation and they are too common amongst us that we may preach and preach as they say our hearts out yet will not they stirre a foot further from the world or an inch nearer unto God but could we speak with them on their death-bed when their consciences are awaked then should we hear them yell out those complaints What hath pride profited us or what good hath riches with our vaunting brought us Wisd 5.8 Assure your selves this day or this night will come and imagine I pray that the ten twentie thirty fourty years or moneths or dayes or hours which you have yet to live were at an end were you at this present stretched on your beds wearied with struggling against your wearied pangs were your friends weeping your Physicians parting your children crying your wives houling and your selves lying mute and dumb in a most pitifull agony Beloved Christian whosoever thou art stay a while I pray thee and practise this meditation Suppose thou now feeledst the cramp of death wresting thy heart-strings and ready to make that rufull divorce betwixt thy body and thy soul suppose thou lyest now panting for breath swimming in a cold fatall sweat suppose thy words were fled thy tongue struck dumb thy soul amazed thy senses frighted suppose thy feet beginning even to die thy knees to wax cold and stiff thy nostrils to run out thine eyes to sink into thy head and all the parts of thy body to lose their office to assist thee upon this supposall lift up thy soul and look about thee O I can tell thee if thou livest and diest in sinne there would be no where any comfort but a world of terrour and perplexity look upwards there shouldst thou see the terrible sword of Gods justice threatning look downwards there shouldst thou see the grave in exspectation ready gaping look within thee there shouldst thou feel the worm of conscience bitter gnawing look without thee there shouldst thou see good and evill
Angels on both sides waiting whether of them should have the prey now alas then wouldst thou say The soul to depart from the body were a thing intollerable to continue still therein were a thing impossible and to deferre this departure any longer supposing this hour thy last hour no Physick could prevail it were a thing unavoydable what then would thy poor soul do thus invironed with so many straights O fond fools of Adams sinne that neglect the time till this terrible passage how much wouldst thou give if thus it were for an hours repentance at what rate wouldst thou value a dayes contrition worlds are worthlesse in respect of a little respite a short truce would seem more precious then the Treasures of Empires nothing would then be so much esteemed as a trice of time which before by moneths and years thou lavishly mis-spent Think on thy sinns nay thou couldst not choose but think Satan would write them on the curtains of thy bed and thy agashed eyes would be forced to look upon them there wouldst thou see thousands committed not one confessed or throughly repented then too late thou wouldst begin to wish O had I lead a better life and were it to begin again O then how would I fast and pray how repent how live Certainly certainly if thou goest on in sinne thus would be thy departure thy carkass lying cold among the stones of the pit and thy soul by the weight of sinne irrecoverably sinking into the bottome of that bottomless burning lake Vse 2 But to prevent this evil take this use of advice for thy farwell whilest yet thy life lasteth whilest yet the Lord gives thee a gracious day of visitation ply ply all those blessed means of salvation as prayer and conference and meditation and Sermons and Sacraments and fastings and watchings and patience and faith and a good conscience in a word so live that when this day or night of death comes thou mayest then stand firm and sure as yet thou art in the way of a transitory life as yet thou art not entred into the confines of Eternitie if now therefore thou wilt walk in the holy path if now thou wilt stand out against any sin whatsoever if now thou wilt take on thee the yoke of our Saviour Christ if now thou wilt associate thy self to that sect and brotherhood that is every where spoken against if now thou wilt direct thy words to the glorifying of God and to give grace unto the hearers if now thou wilt delight in the word the wayes the Saints the services of God if now thou wilt never turn again unto folly or to thy trade of sin though Satan set upon thee with his baits and allurements to detain thee in his bondage but by one darling delight Psal 116.15 one minion-sin then I dare assure thee dear right dear would be thy death in the sight of the Lord with joy and triumph wouldst thou passe through all the terrours of death with singing and rejoycing would thy soul be received into those sacred mansions above O happy soul if this be thy case O happy night or day vvhensoever the nevvs comes that then must thy soul be taken from thee You may think it now high time that we bid this far-wel-funerall Text adieu then for conclusion let every word be thy warning Lest this be thy time provide for this and everie time 1. Thess 5.6 lest the night be dreadfull Do not sleep as do other but watch and be sober lest thy soul should suffer desire the sufferings of thy God to satisfie lest death require it of thee by foree offer it up to God with a cheerfull devotion and lest this of thee be fearfull who hast lived in sin correct these courses amend your wayes and the blessing of God be with thee all thy life at the hour of death now henceforth and for ever AMEN FINIS Doomes-day MATTH 16.27 Then shall he reward every man according to his works THe dependance of this Text is limited in few lines and that your eyes wander no further then this verse therein is kept a generall Assize the Judge Officers Prisoners stand in array the Judge is God and the Son of man the Officers Angels and they are his Angels the Prisoners men and because of the Gaol-delivery every man If you will have all together you have a Iudge his circuit his habit his attendants his judgments a Iudge the Son of man his circuit he shall come his habit in the glory of his Father his attendants with his Angels what now remains but the execution of justice then without more adoe see the Text and you see all the scales in his hande our works in the scales the reward for our works of just weight each to other Then hee shall reward every man according to his works This Text gives us the proceeding of Doomes-day which is the last day the last Sessions the last Assize that must be kept on earth or is decreed in heaven if you exspect Sheriffs or Judges Plaintiffs or Prisoners all are in this verse some in each word Then is times Trumpet that proclaims their coming Hee is the Judge that examins all our lives Reward is the doom that proceeds from him in his Throne Man is the malefactour every man stands before him as a prisoner Works are the inditements and according to our works must go the triall howsoever we have done good or evill Give me yet leave this Judge sits on trials as well as prisoners it is an high Court of appeal where Plaintiffs Counsellors Judges all must appear and answer would you learn the proceedings there is the Term Then the Judge hee the sentence shall reward the parties very man the triall it self which you may finde in all to be just and legall every man his rewards according to his works We have opened the Text and now you shall have the hearing Then THen when the answer is Negative Positive First Negative Then not on a sudden or at least not at this present This life is no time to receive rewards the rain and Sun pleasure both the good and bad nay oftentimes the bad fare best and Gods own children are most fiercely fined in the furnace of affliction Job 9.24 Matth. 16.24 The earth is given into the hands of the wicked saith Iob but if any man will follow mee he must take up his cross saith our Saviour Ioy and pleasure and happiness attend the ungodly while Gods poor servants run thorow the thicket of briers and brambles to the kingdome of heaven but shall not the Iudge of all the world do right Gen. 18.25 a time shall come when both these must have their change Mark the upright and behold the just for the end of that man is peace but the transgressours shall be destroyed together and the end of the wicked shall be cut off Psal 37.38 Psal 37.37 38. The effect of things is best known to
judgment seat the rosie wounds of our Saviour still bleeding as it were in the prisoners presence These are the wounds not as tokens of infirmity but victory Aquin. supplem Q. 90. A. 2. ad secundum and these now shall appear not as if he must suffer but to shew us he hath suffered See here an object full of glory splendor majesty excellency and this is He the man the judg the rewarder of every man according to his works The Judge we have set in his Throne and before we appear let us practice our repentance that we answer the better Vse 1 Think but O sinner what shall be thy reward when thou shalt meet this Iudge The adultery for a while may flatter beauty the Swearer grace his words with oathes the Drunkard kiss his cups and drink his bodies-health till he bring his soul to ruine but remember for all these things God will bring thee to judgment Eccles 11.9 Cold comfort in the end the Adulterer shall fatisfie his lust when he lies on a bed of fire all hugged and embraced with those flames the swearer shall have enough of wounds and blood when Devils torture his body and rack his soul in hell the Drunkard shall have plenty of his Cups when scalding lead shall be poured down his throat and his breath draw flames of fire in stead of air as is thy sin so is the nature of thy punishment the just Iudge shall give just measure and the ballance of his wrath poize in a just porportion Vse 2 Yet I will not discomfort you who are these Iudges dearest favorites Now is the day if you are Gods servants that Sathan shall be trod under your feet and you with your Lord and Master Christ shall be carried into the holiest of holies You may remember how all the men of God in their greatest anguishes here below have fetcht comfort by the eye of faith at this mountain Iob rejoyced being cast on the Dung-hill that his Redeemer lived and that he should see him at the last day stand on the earth Iohn longed and cried Come Lord Iesus come quickly and had we the same precious faith we have the same precious promises why then are we not ravished at the remembrance of these things certainly there is an happy faith wheresoever it shall be found that shall not be ashamed at that day Now therefore little children abide in him 1 Joh. 2.28 that when he shall appear we may have confidence Confidence what else I will see you again saith our Saviour-Iudge and your heart shall rejoyce Joh. 16.22 and your joy no man taketh from you O blessed mercy that so triumphes against judgment our hearts must joy our joyes endure and all this occasioned by the sight of our Saviour for Hee shall reward every man according to his works We have prepared the Iudge for sentence he hath rid his circuit in the Clouds and made the Rain-bow his chair of state for his judgment seat his Sheriffes are the Saints that now rise from the Dust to meet their Iudge whom long they have exspected the summons is sent out by a shout from heaven the cry no sooner made but the graves flie open and the dead arise stay a while till I ready them you have seen the Iudge and now we prepare the judged He is the Iudge every man the judged and He shall reward every man according to his works Every man THe persons to be judged are a world of men all men of the world good and bad elect and reprobates but in a different manner To give you a full view of them I must lead your attentions orderly through these passages there must be a Citation Resurrection Collection Separation follow me in these pathes and you may see both the men and their difference before they come to their judgments First there is a summons and Every man must hear it it is performed by a shout from heaven and the voice of the last Trump Surgite mortui venite ad judicium Jeronymus super Mathaeum Verc vox tubae terribilis cui omnia obediunt elementa petras scindit inferos c. Chrysost 1. ad Corin. 15. the clangor of this Trump could ever sound in Ieroms eares Arisr yee dead and come to judgment the clangor of this Trump will sound in all mens eares it shall wake the dead out of their drouzy sleep and change the living from their mortall state make devils tremble and the whole world shake with terrour A terrible voice a Trumpet shall sound that shall shake the world rend the rocks break the mountains dissolve the bonds of death burst down the gates of hell and unite all spirits to their own bodies What say you to this Trump that can make the whole Universe to tremble no sooner shall it sound but the the earth shall shake the mountains skip like Ramms and the little hills like young sheep it shall pierce the waters and fetch from the bottome of the Sea the dust of Adams seed it shall tear the rocky Tombes of earthly Princes and make their haughty minds to stoop before the King of heaven it shall remove the center and tear the bowels of the earth open the graves of all the dead and fetch their souls from heaven or hell to reunite them to their bodies A dreadfull summons of the wicked whom this suddain noise will no less astonish then confound the dark pitchy walls of that infernall pit of hell shall be shaken with the shout when the dreadfull soul shall leave its place of terrour and once more re-enter into her stinking Carrion to receive a greater condemnation what terrour will this be to the wicked wretch what wofull salutations will there be between that body and soul which living together in the height of iniquity must now be re-united to enjoy the fulness of their misery Joh. 5.28 29. The voice of Christ is powerfull the dead shall hear his voice and they shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evill unto the resurrection of condemnation You hear the summons and the next is your appearance death the Goaler brings all his prisoners from the grave and they must stand and appear before the Judge of heaven The summons is given and every man must appear Death must now give back all their spoils and restore again all that she hath took from the world What a gastly sight will this be to see all the Sepulchers open to see dead men rise out of their graves and the scattered dust to flie on the wings of the wind till it meet together in one compacted body Ezekiels dry bones shall live thus saith the Lord I will lay sinewes upon you and make flesh grow upon you and cover you with skin and put breath in you and you shall know that I am the Lord Ezek. 37.6 Ezek. 37.6 This dust of ours shall be
in some to receive but others to depart this must needs be a disgracefull vexation so when the glory of heaven and those unvaluable treasures shall be opened and dealt about to the faithfull what horrour will it be to the reprobates to be cast off with a depart no share accrues to them no not so much as one glimpse of glory must chear their dejected countenances but as ill-meriting followers they are thrust from the gates with this watch-word to be gone Depart But whence there is the losse from me and if from me then from all that is mine my mercy my glory my salvation Here is an universall spoil of all things of God in whom is all goodnesse of the Saints in whom is all solace of the Angels in whom is all happinesse of heaven wherein all pleasures live ever and ever Whither O Lord shall the cursed go that depart from thee into what haven shall they arrive what Master shall they serve is it thought so great a punishment to be banished from our native soils what then is this to be banished from Almighty God and whither but into a place of horrour to whom but to a cursed crew of howling reprobates Depart from me Who are they Ye cursed Christ hath before invited you with blessings but these refused now take you the curse to your despight Psal 109.17 the wicked man saith the Prophet as he hath loved cursing so let it come unto him hath he loved it let him take his love as he hath cloathed himself with cursing as with a garment so let it come into his bowels like water and like oyl into his bones Psal 109.18 Psal 109.18 No sooner our Saviour cursed the Fig-tree but leaves and boughs body and root all wither away and never any more fruit grows thereon and thus shall the wicked have a curse like the Ax which put to the root of the tree Matth. 3.10 shall hew it down and cast it into the fire Go ye cursed But whither must they go into everlasting fire O what a bed is this for delicate and daintie persons no feathers but fire no friends but furies no ease but fetters no light but smoak no Chimes nor Clock to passe away the night but timelesse eternitie A fire intollerable a fire burning never dying O immortall pains Esai 33.14 which of you saith the Prophet is able to dwell in the burning fire who can endure the everlasting flames it shall not be quenched night nor day the smoak thereof shall go up evermore the pile is fire and much wood Esai 30.33 and the breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone kindles it What torment what calamitie can be compared with the shadow of this the wicked must be crowded together like brick in a fiery Furnace there is no servant to fanne cold air on their tormented parts not so much as a chink where the least puff of wind might enter in to cool them it is a fire an everlasting fire For whom prepared for the Devil and his Angels heavy companie for distressed souls the Serpents policie could not escape hell nor can the craft of our age so deal with this Serpent as thereby to prevent this fire it was sure prepared for some as some have prepared themselves for it burning in lust in malice in revenge untill themselves their lust malice revenge and all burn together in hell Tophet is prepared of old Esai 30.33 whither that day-starre as fallen from heaven and a black crew of Angels guard him round in that lake of hell there must these howling reprobates keep their residence the last sentence that never is recalled is now pronounced what Go Who ye cursed Whither into everlasting fire to what companie to a crew of Devils and their Angels O take heed that ye live in Gods fear least that leaving his service he give you this reward Depart ye cursed Vse And is not this worthy your meditation Consider I pray you what fearfull tremblings seiz on their souls that have their sentence for eternall flames If a Lord have Mercy on thee Take him away Jaylour will cause such shedding of tears folding of arms and wringing of hands what will this sentence do Go ye cursed c. O which way will they turn or how will they escape the Almighties wrath to go backward is impossible to go forwards intolerable whose help will they crave God is their Judge heaven their fo the Saints deride them Angels hate them all creatures cry for vengeance on them God Lord what a world of misery hath seized on these miserable souls their Executioners are Devils the Dungeon Hell the earth stands open and the cruell Furnace ready-boyling to receive them into what a shaking fit of distractions will these terrours drive them every part shall bear a part in this dolefull ditie eyes weep hands wring breasts beat hearts ake voyces cry horrour dread terrour confusion are lively equipages of this tragick Scene Now O man of earth what will all thy wealth avail thee what can all thy pleasures profit thee one drop of water to cool thy fiery tongue in hell is more worth then a world of treasures all the gold and precious stones the world affords will not buy one bottle of water all thy golden gods and silver plates cannot prevail one drammme of comfort but rather as they were thy bane on Earth so they will aggravate thy pain in Hel. Who pities not the vilest creature to see it suffer torments and no way to release it who then will not pitie this end of the wicked when they must suffer and suffer yet never feel ease of pain nor end of torments A sentence not to be revoked yet unsufferably to be endured torment on torment anguish on anguish fire upon fire and though a River nay a sea of tears drop from their eyes yet cannot one spark be quenched the worm never dies Mark 9.44 the fire never goes out Go ye into everlasting fire not piled of consuming wood or the black moulds turning to white ashes but kindled by the Judges breath of pitch and sulphure Rivers of boyling Brimstone runne from everlasting springs in these hot Bathes was that Dives dived when those fierie words came flaming from his mouth as spitting fire Luke 16.24 Let Lazarus dip the tip of his finger in water to cool my tongue Alas what should a drop of water do on a finger when rivers cannot quench the tip of his tongue he lies on a bed of never-dying flames where brimstone is the fuel devills the kindlers the breath of an offended God the bellows and hell the furnace where bodie and soul must ever lie and frie in scorching torments O let the heat of these flames quench the heat of our sinne if once the sentence passe there is no reprieve to be hoped for this is the last Day of Doom when our sinns must be revealed our Reward proportioned and as we have
spit fire from their mouthes and Wolves all devour mens souls and Lions roar for the prey and Vipers sting and strike with their Tayls O fearfull Jailers what strange kind of furies live in hell You see the Jailer now turn your eyes from so bad a spectacle and let us view the Den where this Monster lies The Hebrews call it Sheol a great Ditch or Dungeon the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even darkness it self the Latins Infernus a place under ground all agree it is a Dungeon under earth containing these two properties Deepness Darkness 1. It is deep as heaven is high so most probable it is that hell is deep Iohn calls it a bottomless pit Revel 9 1. Revel 9.1 as if Reprobates were alwaies falling yet never could find bottome where to rest or howsoever this be a Metaphor yet without question heaven and hell are as opposite as may be and whether the Center be the place of torment or as others think all the gulfes of the Sea Kecker Syst Theo. de inferno and hollows of the earth as being more capable to contain the damned I leave it to the Schools as for the Pulpit I think this prayer more fit Lord shew us what it is but never where Secondly the deepness is yoaked with darkness such a dungeon fits the Tares they committed works of darkness and are cast into utter darkness a darkness that may be felt thick Clouds that may be handled dampes and mists that strike at their hearts with sensible griefs This is that bottomless pit in the heart of the earth there shines no Sun no Moon nor Stars there is no light of Candle Torch or Taper shine the Sun never so fair it is still night there the Dungeon is dark and this makes the place more sad more uncomfortable Let Poets faign of Tantalus tortures Prometheus Vultures Ixions Wheel and Charons rowing these come far short to express the pains of those that rage in hell there plagues have no ease cryes have no help time has no end place no redemption it is the dark prison where the Tares are chained and the wicked bound in fetters of fire and darkness Could men have a sight of hell whiles they live on earth I doubt not their hearts would tremble in their bosomes yet view it in a way of meditation and see what you find are there not wonderfull engines sharpe and sore instruments of revenge fiery Brimstone pitchy Sulphur red hot chains flaming whips scorching darkness will you any more the worm is immortall cold intolerable stench indurable fire unquenchable darkness palpable This is that prison of the damned then whose eyes dare behold such amazing objects but if not see yet listen with your eares is there any charm in hell to conjure away Devils or to ravish souls what musick affords the place but roaring and crying and houling cursing their Hymnes wailing their tunes blasphemies their ditties lachrymae their notes lamentations their songs scrieching their streins these are their evening and their morning songs Moab shall cry against Moab one against another all against God O fearfull Prison what torments have the Tares that lye here fettered their feet are chained in the stocks and the Iron pierceth their souls it is a Dungeon where the light never shined but the walls are as black as pitch the vaults are smoaked as Chimneys the roof as dark as hell nay the Dungeon is hell where the Tares lie bound and fettered Think of this Iayle yee offenders of Gods Law and Majesty the Angels see our doings the Judge now exspects our returning the Tares grow till the harvest and if still they offend death apprehends them God will judge them the Iayler take them Hell imprison them there are they bound You hear the Evidence brought in and the sentence gone out Take them Binde them binde them in bundles to burn them And if this be the Iaylers Goal what then be the Bonds or Chains The Angles which kept not their first estate saith Iude God hath reserved in everlasting Chains Iude 6. and God spared not the Angels that sinned saith Peter but cast them down to hell 2 Pet. 2.4 and delivered them into Chains of darknes Thus Christ doomed him that had not on his wedding garment Binde him hand and foot Matth. 13.22 and what may these Chains and Bonds insinuate but that the Tares are tyed to their torments might they but remove from place to place this would afford some ease might they but stir a foot or but turn about or have any little motion to refresh their tormented parts this would yield some comfort but here is an universall binding hand and foot body and soul all must be bound with everlasting Chains The Reprobates are packt and crowded together like Bricks in a fiery furnace having not so much as a Chink where any winde may enter in to cool them O yee that live in the sinfull wealth of this world consider but this one punishment of hell and be afraid if a man injoying quietment of mind and health of body should lie chained on a soft Down-bed for a month or a year how would he abide it but this is nothing If a man should lye sick of a Fever swoln in a Dropsie pained with the Gout and though it were for the recovery of his health without any turning tossing stirring this were a great torture sure and a question it were whether the disease or the physick were more intollerable Vermis conscientiam ignis comburet carnem witnesse poor Patients who change their sides wish other beds seek other rooms and all these shifts but to mitigate their pains how wretched then are the Tares bound in Chains they are not in health nor bound for a month nor sick of a Fever nor lye for a year their pain is grievous their bonds heavy their torments durable their restlesse rest eternall The worm shall gnaw their spirit the fire torture their flesh were these nothing yet small sorrows grow great with continuance the fire shall torture yet never cease worms gnaw the heart yet never gnaw in sunder the strings wretched souls are bound indeed whose bonds are never out of date A seven years prentiship would ere long exspire but what are seven years to a world of ages the reprobates must serve years ages even to a million of millions and yet are never free O bondage not to be uttered yet must be endured Is it not a Bedlam fury that must have such bonds a little to express their torments by our sufferings which yet are nothing nothing in comparison what means these Chains and whips and links and scourges Iron Chains whips of steel fiery linkes knotty scourges furies shake their bolts to afrighten souls the Irons strike through their eares and the hooked Engines tear their Bowels as if the torment of Tares were the delight of Devils Here is a prison indeed where is nothing heard but yells and
grones and suddain cryes the fire slakes not the worm dies not the chains loose not the links wear not revenge tyres not but for ever are the torments fresh and the fetters on fire as they came first from their Forge What a strange kind of torture falls upon the wicked they are bound to fiery pillars and Devils lash at them with their fiery whips Is there any part of man scapes free in such a fray the flesh shall fâ—â— the blood boil the veins be scorcht the sinews rackt Serpents shall eat the body furies tear the soul this is that wofull plight of Tares which he bound in Hell The sick man at Sea may go from his ship to his boat and from his boat to his ship again the sick man in his bed may tumble from his right side to his left and from his left to his right again onely the Tares are tied hand and foot bound limme and joynt their feet walk not their fingers move not their eyes must no more wander as before loe all his bound O these manacles that rot the flesh and pierce the inward parts O unmatchable torments yet most fit for Tares sin made them furious hell must tame their Phrensie the Judge thus commands and the Executioners must dispatch fetter them fire them Bind them in bundles to burn them I have lead you through the Dungeon let this fight serve for a terrour that you never come nearer To that purpose for exhortation consider Alas all hangs on life ther 's but a twine thread betwixt the soul of a sinner and the scorching flames who then would so live as to run his soul into hazard the Judge threatens us Devils hate us the bonds exspect us it is onely our conscience must clear us or condemn us Search then thy waies and stir up thy remembrance to her Items hast thou dishonoured God blasphemed his name decayed his image subduing thy soul to sin that was created for heaven repent these courses ask God forgiveness and he will turn away thy punishments I know your sins are grievous and my soul grieves at the knowledge many evills have possessed too many drunkenness and oathes and malice and revenge are not these guests entertained into all houses banish them your hearts that the King of glory may come in Ezek. 33.11 As I live saith the Lord I desire not the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live Would God bestow mercy and should we refuse his bounty as you love heaven your souls your selves leave your sins Vse 2 And then here is a word of consolation the penitent needs not fear hell Gods servant is freed from bonds yea if we love him who hath first loved us Ephes 5.2 all the chains and pains of hell can neither hold nor hurt us Vse 3 O then ye Sons of Adam suffer a reproof what do ye that ye do not repent you of your sins is it not a madness above admiration that men who are reasonable creatures having eyes in their heads hearts in their bodies understanding like the Angels and consciences capable of unspeakable horrour never will be warned untill the fire of that infernall Lake flash and flame about their eares Let the Angels blush heaven and earth be amazed all the Creatures stand astonished at it I am sure a time wil come when the Tares shal feel what now they may justly fear you hear enough such weed must be bound thus straight is the Lords command Binde them in bundles to burn them But all is not done Chains have their links and we must bring all together Sinners are coupled in hell as Tares in Bundles But of these when we next meet in the mean while let this we have heard Binde us all to our duties that we hear attentively remember carefully practice conscionably that so God may reward accordingly and at last crown us with his glory The tares must be bound up in bundles but Lord make us free in Heaven to sit with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in thy blessed kingdome In bundles THe command is out what Bind whom them how in bundles The tares must on heaps which gives us a double observation Generall Speciall In the generall it intimates these two points the gathering of the weed and its severing from the wheat both are bound in bundles but the wheat by it self and the tares by themselves as at that doom when all the world must be gathered and severed some stand at the right hand others at the left so at this execution some are for the fire and others for the barn they are bundled together yet according to the difference of the severall parties each from the other Observ 1 First the tares must together Woe is me saith David that I am constrained to dwell with Mesech Psal 120.4 and if David think it wofull to converse with his living enemies then what punishment have the wicked whom the Devill and damned the black angels and everlasting horrour must accompany for ever The tares must be gathered and bundled and the more bundles the more and more miseries Company yields no comfort in hell fire nay what greater discomfort then to see thy friends in flames thy fellowes in torments the fiends with flaming whips revenging each others malice on thy self and enemy It was the rich mans last petition when he had so many repulses for his own ease to make one suit for his living brethren he knew their company would encrease his torment to prevent which he cries out I pray thee father Abraham Luk. 16.27 28. that thou wouldest send Lazarus to my fathers house for I have five brethren that he may testifie unto them lest they also come into this place of torment Why it may be God will hear him for them especially making such a reasonable request as this was that Lazarus might onely warn his brethren of future judgment no but to teach you if you sell your souls to sin to leave a rich posterity on earth you shall not onely your selves without all remorse and pity be damned in hell but your posterity shall be a torment to you whilest they live and a greater torment if they come to you when they are dead To converse with Devils is fearfull but altogether to accompany each other is a plague fit for tares In this life they flourished amongst the wheat Let them grow both together corn and tares untill the harvest But the harvest come God will now separate them both asunder and as in heaven there are none but Saints so in hell there are none but reprobates to encrease this torment as they grow together so all their conference is to curse each other Moab shall cry against Moab father against son son against father what comfort in this company The Devill that was authour of such mischiefs appears in most grisly forms his angels the black guard of hell torture poor souls in flames there live swearers
with their flaming tongues usurers with talent hands drunkards with scorched throats all these tares like fiery faggots burning together in hell flames this is the first punishment all the tares must meet they are bundled together Observ 2 Secondly as the tares must together so they must together by themselves thus are they bundled and severed bundled all together but from the wheat all asunder Quia damni poenam infert Basil Ascer in c. 2. p. 255. Chrysost in Matth. Hom. 24. Bern. de inter domo cap. 38. Hell is called damnation Because it brings Heavens losse and this by consent of most Divines is the more horrible part of hell so Basil To be alienated or separated from the presence of God his Saints and Angels is farre more grievous then the pains of hell So Chrysostome The pain of hell is intolerable indeed yet a thousand hels are nothing to the losse of that most glorious kingdome So Bernard It is a pain far surpassing all the tortures in hel not to see God and those joyes immortall which are prepared for his children O then what hels are in hell when besides the pains of sense there is a pain of losse the losse of God losse of Saints losse of Angels losse of Heaven losse of that beatificall vision of the most Sovereigne Good our ever-blessed Maker Consider with your selves if at the parting of the soul and body there be such pangs and gripes and stings and sorrows what grief then will it be to be severed for ever from the Highest and supreamest Good Suppose your bodies as some Martyrs have been used should be torn in sunder and that wild horses driven contrary wayes should rack and pul your arms and legs and heart and bowels one piece froÌ„ another what an horrible kind of death would this be think you and yet a thousand rentings of this member from that or of the soul from the body are infinitely lesse then this one separation of the soul from God When Jacob got rhe blessing from his brother Esau Gen. 27.31 it is said in the Text that he roared with a great cry and bitter saying to his father Hast thou not reserved one blessing for me also Imagine then when the wheat must have the blessing how will the tares figured in Esau roar and crie and yell and howl again and yet notwithstanding this unspeakable rage all the tears of hell shall never be sufficient to bewail the losse of heaven Hence breeds that worm that is alwayes gnawing at the conscience a worâ—â— saith our Saviour that dies not Mark 9.44 Mark 9.44 It shall lie day and night biting and gnawing and feeding upon the bowels of the damned persons O the stings of this worm no sooner shall the damned consider the cause of their miserie to wit the mis-spending of their time the greatnesse of their sinne the many oportunities lost when they might have gotten Heaven for a tear or a sigh or groan from a penitent heart but this worm or remorse shall at every consideration give them a deadly bite and then shall they roar it out Miserable wretch what have I done I had a time to have wrought out the salvation of my soul many a powerfull searching Sermon have I heard any one passage whereof had I not wickedly and wilfully forsook mine own mercie might have been unto me the beginning of the new birth but those golden dayes are gone and for want of a little sorrow a little repentance a little faith now am I burning in hell fire O precious time O dayes moneths years how are ye vanished that you will never come again And have I thus miserably undone my self Come Furies tear me into as many pieces as there are moats in the Sun rip up my breast dig into my bowels pull out my heart leave me not an hair on my head but let all burn in these flames till I moulder into nothing O madnesse of men that never think on this all the dayes of your visitation and then when the bottomlesse pit hath shut her self upon you thus will this worm gnaw your hearts with unconceivable griefs Be amazed O ye Heavens tremble thou Earth let all creatures stand astonished whilst the Tares are thus sentenced Bundle them and burn them Thus farre of the word in generall but if we look on it with a more narrow eye it gives to our hands this speciall observation The tares must have chains proportionable to their sinns Observ Bind them in bundles saith my Text not in one but in many faggots an Adulterer with an Adulteresse a Drunkard with a Drunkard a Traytor with a Traytor as there be severall sins so severall Bundles all are punished in the same fire but all are not punished in the same degree some have heavier chains and some have lighter but all in just weight and measure The Proud shall be trod under foot the Glutton suffer inestimable hunger the Drunkard feel a burning thirst the Covetous pine in wants the Adulterer lie with Serpents Dragons Scorpions Give me leave to bind these in bundles and so leave them for the fire they are first bundled then burned Where is Lady Pride and her followers see them piled for the furnace Esay 3. you that jet it with your bals and bracelets tyres and tablets rings and jewels and changeable suits think but what a change will come when all you like birds of a feather must together to be bound in bundles What then will your pride avail or your riches profit or your gold do good or your treasures help Job 20.26 when you must be constrained to vomit up again your riches the increase of your house departing away and a fire not blown utterly consuming you and them The rich man in the Gospel could for a time go richly fare sumptuously and that not onely on Sabbaths or Holy-dayes but as the text every day yet no sooner had death seized on his body but he was fain to alter both his suit and diet hear him how he begs for water that had plentie of wines and see him that was cloathed in purple now apparrelled in another suit yet of the same colour too even in purple flames O that his delicate morsels must want a drop of water and that his fine apparrell must cost him so dear as the high price of his soul why rich man is it come to this the time was that purple and fine linnen was thy usuall apparrell that banquets of sumptuous dishes were thy ordinarie fare but now not the poorest beggar even Lazarus himself that would change estate with thee Change said I marrie no Remember saith old Abraham that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented Luke 16.25 Luke 16.25 But there are other Bundles where is Gluttonie and her surfetters Do we not see how the earth is plowed the sea furrowed and all to
fire Alas to what end there is no help to extinguish fire that must burn for ever your Buckets may quench other fires not this no milk nor vinegar can extinguish that wild-fire it is a fire which no means can moderate no patience can endure no time can for ever change but in it whosoever wofully lies their flesh shall frie their bloud shall boil their hearts consume yet they shall never die but dying live and living die death in life life in death miserable ever This is that consideration which shall bring all the damned Reprobates to shriek and houl everlastingly were they perswaded that after millions of years they should have one year of pleasure or after thousands of millions they should have some end of torment here would be a little hope but this word Ever breaks their hearts asunder this ever ever gives new life again to those insufferable sorrows and hence it is that when all those millions of years are done and gone then God knows must the wheels of their torment whirl about and about Alas the fire is durable the heat continuall the fuell immortall and such is the end of Tares they must burn without end Bind them in bundles to burn them Lo here the fire of hell which compared to ours on earth it differs in heat in light in fuell in durance Let your souls work on these objects that they never come nearer to those flames Vse 1 Who amongst us would dwell with devouring fire who amongst us would dwell with everlasting burnings Esay 33.14 Beloved as you tender your souls and would escape the flames reform your lives whiles you have yet a little time You hear it sounded in Synagogues and preached in pulpits what sound but heaven or hell joys or torments the one befalling the good and the other the just end of the wicked Do we believe this truth and dare we commit sinne whose reward is this fiery death upon due consideration how is it that we sleep or rest or take a minutes ease lesser dangers have bestraught some out of their wits nay bereaved many of their lives how is it then that we run headlong into this fire yet never weigh whither we are going till we are dropping into the pit whence there is no redemption Look about you while it is called to day or otherwise wo and alas that ever you were born be sure a time will come when miseries shall march Angels beat alarms God sound destruction and the tents of his enemies be all set on fire Bind them in bundles to burn them Vse 2 Or yet if comparisons can prevail suppose one of you should be taken brought along to the mouth of an hot fiery furnace then comparing sinne with its punishment might I question you how much pleasure would you ask to continue there burning but one year how much would you say surely not for all the pleasures and treasures that all this world can afford you How is it then that for a little sinne that endures but a moment so many of you so little regard eternall punishment in hell fire If we should but see a little child fall into the fire and his very bowels burnt out how would it grieve us and make our very hearts bleed within us how much more then should it grieve you to see not a child but your own bodies and souls cast away for a momentany sinne into the lake of fire that never shall be quenched If a man should come amongst us and cry Fire Fire thy house is all on Fire thy corn thy cattell thy wife thy children and all thou hast are burning all together how would this astonish us making both the hair to stand upright on our heads and the tears to gush out of our eyes Behold then and see the spirit of God cries out Fire fire even the dreadfull fire of hel gapeth ready to devour not thy house thy corn or thy cattel but tâ—â— poor soul and that for evermore O then how should this break your flinty hearts asunder and make your souls bleed again and again if you have any spark of grace this me thinks should move you to a strict 〈…〉 if you have any care of your souls this me thinks should make you to walk humbly and purely carefully and consciâ—â—â—â—bly towards God and towards man if not what remains but fire fire Bind them in bundles to burn them Or yet if example can perswade us more meditate on the miserable condition of that namelesse rich man Suppose you saw him in hel torments compast about with furies fires and all that black guard below his tongue flaming his eyes staring his conscience biting his soul suffering his body all over-burning in that fire of hel O lamentable fight but to make it more lamentable hearken how he roars and cryes through the extremitie of pains O torment torment how am I tormented in this fire my head my heart my eies my ears my tongue my tongue is all on fire what shall I do whither shall I flie for succour within me is the worm without me is fire about me are devils above me is Abraham and what glorious star is yond I see but Lazarus poor Lazarus in his bosome what is a beggar exalted and am I in torments Why Abraham father Abraham have 〈◊〉 on me See here a man burning schorching frying in hel 〈◊〉 one dram of mercy one drop of water to a tormented soul Oh I burn I burn I burn without ease or end and is there none to 〈◊〉 me Come Lazarus if Abraham will not hear let me beg of thee â— beggar and howsoever I denied thee a 〈◊〉 â—f bread yet be so good so charitable as to dip the tip of thy finger in water and cool my tongue It is a poor suit I ask not to dive but dip not thy hand but finger not all but the tip of it not in sâ—â—â— but water not to quench but to cool not my body but my least member be it my tongue onely no ease so little no grant so poor no remedy so small but happy were I if I could obtain it though I begged it with tears and prayers of a thousand thousand years continuance But see Abraham and Lazarus denie my suits I burn and neither God nor Saint nor Angel takes pitie on me and shall I cry for help on devils alas they are my tormentors that lash me and cut me with their whips of burning steel and iron O beloved what shall we say to the roaring rage of this tormented wretch Alas alas how little do men think on this they can passe away time sporting and playing as if they went to prison but for a few weeks or dayes just like men who having the sentence of death past upon them run fooling and laughing to the execution but when once hell mouth hath shut her self then shall they find nothing but eternity of torments in the fear of God take heed in time of this
eternitie eternity lest you also come into this place of eternity eternity of torment it is the doom of Tares wo to them whosoever that are of the number for they they must be gathered and bound and bundled and burned We have now done our task and ended the harvest if you please to cast back your eie upon the particulars delivered they amount to this summe Whatsoever a man sowes that shall he reap Gal. 6.7 Gal. 6.7 If the enemy sow Tares and we nourish the seed what think you is the Harvest Gather ye together first the Tares saith our Saviour to the Angels they are branded in their name Tares sped in the time first curst in their doom gathered but worst in the hands of their executioners it is by Angels and yet what is all this to the latter work in hand If the Tares weeded up might rot in the furrows the punishment were lesse but as they are gathered so they must be bound Is that all nay as they are bound so they must be bundled Is that all nay as they are bound and bundled so they must be burned Bind them in bundles to burn them I must end this Text yet am loath to leave you where it ends As there is an harvest of Tares so there is a better harvest of Wheat Psal 126.5 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy if we repent us of our sinns we shall have a blessed harvest indeed how fourty grains for one nay by the promise of our Saviour an hundred fold A measure heapen and shaken and thrust together Luke 6.38 and yet running over Every Saint shall have joy and glory fountains of pleasure and rivers of delight where they may swim and bathe their souls for ever and ever what though Tares must to the fire the Wheat is gathered into Heaven Pray you then with me that we may be Wheat not Tares and God so blesse the seed that every soul of us may have a joyfull harvest in the kingdome of Heaven AMEN FINIS Right Purgatorie HEB. 1.3 When he had by himself purged our sins THe point is not full but to make it up the Text stands compast with words of wonder concerning the word our Saviour he that is the Sonne of God heir of all things creatour of the world the brightnesse of his glory the image of his person and upholder of all things by the word of his power stands here as the subject of humilitie and glory he purged our sins and sits on the right hand of the majesty on high He purged our sins by his suffering on the crosse he sits on Gods right hand by obtaining the crown he purged our sinnes by dying for them he sits on Gods right hand by ruling with him what need we more here is his passion and session in the same order he performed them for then he sate down on the right hand of his Father when he had by himself purged our sins But to come nearer the words they are as the drugs of an Apothecary and we will examine the ingredients O I am sick of love saith the Church in Canticles Cant. 5.8 Cant. 5.8 Sick indeed not of love onely but of sinne also a disease that infatuates the mind gripes the conscience distempers the humours disturbs the passions corrupts the body indangers the soul Is not he blessed that can help this maladie Come then ye that labour of sin and to your endlesse comfort see here the manner of the cure there is a Physitian he the patient himself the physick administred when he had purged the ill humours evacuated when he had purged our sinnes Or to gather up the crumbs lest in this costly receit or physick any thing be lost see here the remedie girt and compast with each necessary circumstance the time when the person he the matter purged the manner by himself the disease sinne the extent of it ours Observe all and you find no time more dismall then this when no person more humbled then this he no physick more operative then this purge no disease more dangerous no plague more spreading then sinne our sinne for which he suffered When he by himself had purged our sins We have opened the body of the Text now look on the parts and you may see the Anatomie of our Saviour in every member of it When Ne sedendo videatur purgare Annot. Erasm in text THe Text begins with the time When he had purged and this time saith Erasmus according to the originall denotes the time past lest that we had thought he had purged our sinnes by his sitting him down at the right hand of God First therefore saith the Apostle he purged and then sate he first purged by his death and when that was done he sate at the right hand of the Majesty in the highest places Whence observe Doctrine The time that Christ purged was in the dayes of his humiliation Then was he born Matth. 1.18 Matth. 1.18 then was he tempted Matth. 4.1 Matth. 4.1 then was he circumcised Luke 2.21 Luke 2.21 then was he traduced Matth. 11.19 Matth. 11.19 then was he persecuted John 8.59 John 8.59 then was he betrayed Matth. 26.16 Matth. 26.16.50 then was he apprehended Matth. 26.50 then was he mocked Matth. 27.29 Matth. 27.29 35. then was he crucified Matth. 27.35 But all his life was full of infirmitie so according to the nature of all infirmities he had those four times mentioned by Physitians in his life the beginning the increase the Akmen or state and declination Give me leave but to prosecute these times and by that time we have done the hour I know will summon us to a conclusion First then he had his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his beginning and that was the first time of his purging even at his birth then took he our infirmities upon him and in some measure evacuated the brightnesse of his glory to become for us a poor a weak a silly babe on earth Mark I pray how this purge works with him at his first entrance into the world it brings him into so poor and low estate that heaven and earth stand amazed at so great a change where was he born but at Bethlehem a little citie where did the shepherds find him but in a poor sory cottage and there if we look after majestie we find no guard but Joseph no attendants but Mary no heralds but Shepherds none of the bed-chamber but beasts and oxen and howsoever he is styled King of the Jews yet the Jews cry out They have no King but Cesar His mother indeed descended of kings and he himself gives crowns to others of victory of life of glory but for his own head no crown is prepared but a crown of thorns Rev. 4.10 anon you may see him clothed in purple anointed with spittle but for the crown we speak of they can afford him no richer then of the hedge no easier
them all if patience be in our calamities they are no calamities but comforts this is that comfort that keeps the heart from envie the hand from revenge the tongue from contumely and often overcomes our very enemies themselves without any weapons at all Come then and do you learn this lesson of our Blessed Redeemer are you stricken so was Christ of the Jews are you mocked so was Christ of the Souldiers are you betrayed of your friends so was Christ of his Apostle are you accused of your enemies so was Christ of the Pharisies why complain you of being injured and maligned when you see the Master of the house himself called Beelzebub Hereunto ye are called saith Peter for Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps 1. Pet. 2.21 1. Pet. 2.21 Vse 3 Thirdly as Patience from his life so we may learn Remorse from his Passion Is it nothing to you all ye that passe by Lament 1.12 O look on him and let this look breed in you a remorse and sorrow for your sinnes Our Saviour labours in the extremities of pangs his soul is sick his bodie faints and would you know the reason Why thus is the head wounded that he might renue health to all the body we sinne and Christ Jesus is heavie and sore and sick and dies for it his soul was in our souls stead his body endured a Purgatory for us that we both in body and soul might escape hell-fire which our sinns had deserved who but considers what evils our sinnes have done that will not grieve and mourn at the sinne he hath committed Oh that my head were a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the sinnes of the daughters of my people We have sinned we have sinned and what shall we say to thee O Saviour of men Alas our sinnes have whipped thee scourged thee crowned thee crucified thee and if I have no compassion to weep for Thee yet O Lord give me grace to weep for my self who have done thus to Thee O my Saviour O my sinnes It is I that offend it is thou must smart for it Fourthly we may yet learn another lesson Christ saith Paul humbled himself and became obedient to the death even the death of the Crosse Phil. 2.8 Philip. 2.8 and is it not our parts to be obedient to him who became thus obedient for us We may gather Humility from his birth and Patience from his life and Remorse from his Passion and to make up the posie here is one flower more Obedience which that Tree also yielded whereon he suffered Iohn 14.15 If you love me saith our Saviour keep my Commandments How blessed Saviour If you love me Who will not love thee who hast so dearly loved us as to give up thy dearest life for the ransome of our souls But to tell us that there is no better testimonie of our love then to obey his commands he woes us with these sugared words whose lips like Lillies Cant. 5.13 are dropping down pure Myrrh if you love me If you love me learn obedience of me keep my Commandments and to move us the more if all this cannot what love and obedience was there in him think you Consider and wonder That the Sonne of God would banish himself thirty three years from his glorious Majestie and what more would be born man and what more would be the meanest amongst men and what more would endure the miseries of life and what more would come to the bitter pangs of death Quò descendit humilitas Aug. medit 7. and what more would be made obedient to the death even the death of the Crosse a degree beyond death O Sonne of God whither doth thy humility descend but thus it must be the Prophets had foretold it and according to their prophesies the dayes were accomplished When he himself must be purged He was born he lived he suffered he died and thus runne round the vvheels of those miserable times When he had by himself purged our sinnes You see the Time's past and a nevv Time must give you the remainder of the Text the Time is when the Person He and he it is that in order vvill next come after onely have you the patience till vve have the leisure to dravv out his picture and then you shall see him in some mean proportion Who had by himself purged our sinnes He VVE have observed the time When he purged and now time it is that you know the Physician who administers it the Apostle tells you it is He that is Christ our Saviour who seeing us labour in the pains and pangs of sinne he bows the heavens and comes down he takes upon him our frailty that we through him might have the remedie to escape hell fire Come then and behold the man who undertakes this cure of souls Cant. 2.8 He cometh leaping upon the mountains skipping upon the hils saith Solomon in his Songs and would you know his leaps saith Gregory Greg. hom 39. See then how he leaps from his Throne to his Cratch from his Cratch to his Crosse from his Crosse to his Crown downwards and upwards like a Roe or a young Hart upon the mountains of spices His first leap downwards was from heaven and this tels us how he was God from everlasting so said the Centurion Surely this man was the Sonne of God Mark 15.39 Mar. 15.39 How else the sinne of man could no otherwise be expiated but by the Sonne of God man had sinned and God was offended therefore God became man to reconcile man to God Had he been man alone not God he might have suffered but he could not have satisfied therefore this man was God that in his man-hood he might suffer and by his God-head he might satisfie O wonderfull Redemption that God must take upon him our frailty had we thus far run upon the score of vengeance that none could satisfie but God himself could not he have made his Angels Embassadours but he himself must come in person no Angels or Saints could neither super-erogate but if God will save us God himself must come and die for us it were sure no little benefit if the King would pardon a Thief but that the King himself should die for this Malefactor this were most wonderfull and indeed beyond all exspectation and yet thus will the King of heaven deal with us he will not onely pardon our faults but satisfie the Law we sinne against God and God against whom we sin must die for it this is a depth beyond founding an height above all humane reach what is he God But we must fall a note the Creatour is become a Creature if you ask what Creature I must tell you though it were an Angel yet this were a great leap which no created understanding could measure what are the Angels in respect of God he is their Lord they but his servants
8.34 Iohn 8.34 it is my Father that loveth me Ioh. 10.17 Iohn 10.17 it is my Father that dwelleth in me Ioh. 14.10 Iohn 14.10 and howsoever others forsake mee and leave me alone as himself proclaims it yet I am not alone because the Father is with mee Ioh. 16.32 Iohn 16.32 Is it so sweet Saviour whence then was that sorrowfull complaint of thine My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Matth. 27.46 Leo it is that first reconciled it and all antiquity allow of it the union was not disolved but the beames the influence was restrained Non solvit unionem sed subtraxit visionem Scotus 4. sent D. 46. Q. 4. resp ad princip argum Affectione justitiae saith Scotus he was ever united to his Father because he ever loved trusted and glorified him but affectione commodi that delight ever emergent from that divine vision was for a time suspended and therefore was it that his body drooped his soul fainted he being even as a scorched Heath-ground without any drop of dew of the divine comfort on it Yet be it that his Father now forsakes him will he forsake himself O yes he burns in the fiery furnace of affliction without all manner of refreshing and this was it that was figured in the Law by those two Goats offered for the sins of the people whereof the one was the Scape-Goat and the other was the Offering the scape-goat departed away and was sent into the wilderness but her companion was left alone in the torments and made a Sin-Offering for the people even so was this Sacrifice of God-man man-God blessed for ever the humanity was offered but the divinity escaped the humanity suffered for the sins of the world but the divinity departed away in the midst of sufferings and left her sister and companion all alone in the torments thus he purged himself himself onely in his humanity no other with him all other left him the Gentiles Jewes Disciples Apostles Mary his mother and God his Father nay he himself is bereaved of himself Levit. 16.10 the humanity of his divinity if not in respect of the union yet as touching the consolation When he had by himself in his humane nature without any comforter purged our sins Thus far you have seen Christ drink the cup of his bitter pains pure and without mixture of any manner of ease what now remains but that vve make some use of it Vse I will take the cup of salvation saith David and call upon the Name of the Lord Psal 116.13 Psal 116.13 and vvhat can vve less if our Saviour hath begun to us in pains shall not vve afford him our thanks the Cup of death could not passe from him and must the Cup of Salvation be removed from us Psal 148.2 O praise him praise him all his Hosts hovvsoever he vvas alone in his sufferings let us all bear the burdens in a song of thanksgiving and in this song let us singing vveep and vveeping sing our sins may dravv the tears vvhich vvere the cause of his sufferings and our salvation may make us sing vvhich those his sufferings did effect vvhat needs more he suffered by himself the cause our sins the effect our salvation let us mourn for the one and praise him for the other praise him and him alone for he had no partner in his sufferings nor vvill he have any in our thanks he had no comforter in his miseries nor must any share vvith him in the duty vve ovve him of praising his Name Alas have vve not reason think you to give all the glory unto him it vvas he that suffered that vvhich vve deserved he purged by himself vvhen vve our selves lay sick of sin in perill of death and damnation thus gracious is he to us that vvhen there vvas no other remedy for our recovery then he by himself in our stead came and purged our sins Thus far you have seen the Patient and order novv requires that vve prepare the Receit the Patient vvas himself the Receit is a Purge but to confect this Purge vve must crave a further time and in the mean vvhile and ever remember him in your thoughts vvho hath done all this for you and the Lord make you thankfull Had purged YOu see vvho it is that hath freed us from sin to vvit Christ our Saviour vvithout a Compurgator he purged by himself but vvhat did he by himself do vve say he purged vvhat need he to purge vvho never committed any sinn in thought vvord or deed it is vvithout doubt he needs not and yet do it he vvill not to clear himself but us But this Purge doth imply a medicine and so vve must apply it a medicine it was and many medicines he used for the curing of mans soul the first by diet when he fasted fourty days and foruty nights Matth. 4.2 Matth. 4.2 the second by Electuary when he gave his most precious body and bloud in his last Supper Matth. 26.26 Matth. 26.26 The third by sweat when great drops of bloud issued from him falling down to the ground Luk. 22.44 Luk. 22.44 The fourth by plaister when he was spit upon by the Iewes Mark 15.19 Mar. 15.19 The fifth by potion when he tasted vinegar mingled with gall Matth. 27.34 Matth. 27.34 The sixth by letting of bloud when his hands and feet were pierced yea when his heart vein was stricken and his side goared with a Spear Ioh. 19.34 Joh. 19.34 the last which contains all the rest was by purge when by all his sufferings and especially by his bloud-shed he washed us from our sins Revel 1.5 Revel 1.5 Here was the cures of all cures which all the Galenists in the world may admire with reverence that our Lord and Saviour should become our surety that our soul-Physician should become our Purger how not by giving us Physick but by receiving it for us we miserable wretches lay sick of sin and he our Physician hath by himself purged and delivered us of it But that we may the better see how this Purge wrought with him we must know that purging in generall Observ is taken for any evacuation whatsoever and to say truth in a word the evacuation of Christs bloud was the right purging of our sins Hence is it that as Scriptures affirm the bloud of Christ doth redeem us cleanse us wash us justifie us sanctifie us Yee were redeemed by his bloud 1 Pet. 1.19 1 Pet. 1.19 and his bloud cleanseth us from all sin 1 Joh. 1.7 1 Ioh. 1.7 and he washed us from our sins in his bloud Revel 1.5 Rev. 1.5 and being now justified by his bloud Rom. 5.9 Rom. 5.9 and therefore Iesus suffered that he might sanctifie the people with his own bloud Heb. 13.12 Heb. 13.12 This bloud was it that was believed by the Patriarchs witnessed by the Sacrifices shadowed in the figures of the
off the burthen Matth. 11.28 Rev. 21.6 do they thirst after righteousness just then is the fountain of the water of life set wide open unto them are they contrite and humble in spirit Esay 57.15 just then are they become thrones for the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity to dwell in for ever O then come and welcome Christ excepts none that will not except themselves He died for all and be would have all men to be saved But yet let us be cautelous secondly he purged our sinnes and ours with a limitation the vse of Physick we say consists in application and howsoever our Saviour hath purged our sins yet this purge of his is nothing beneficiall to us unlesse there be some means to apply it As then it is in all other Physick so in this we must first take it secondly keep it 1. Take it for as the best plaister if not laid to can cure no wound so Christ himself and all his precious merits are of no virtue to him that will not apply them by faith when you hear the Gospel preached believe it on your parts believe Christ is yours believe that he lived and died and sorrowed and suffered and all this for you to purge your souls of your sinnes 2. But having taken it you must secondly keep it as men take Physick not onely in belief that it will do them good but in hope to keep it by the virtue and strength of the retentive parts so we take Christ by faith but we retain him by holiness these two faith and holiness are those two bonds wherewith Christ is united unto us and we unto Christ so that if we be of this number then truly may we say that he purged our sinnes for the both died for us and by virtue of our faith and holinesse through him his death is applied to us to us I say not in any generall acception but as we are of the number of his Saints for we had sinned and they were our sinnes onely that he effectually purged and washed away Vse And this lesson may afford us this use that howsoever the free grace and mercie and goodnesse of Christ Jesus is revealed and offered to all men universally yet our Saviour takes none but such as are willing to take upon them his yoke he gives himself to none but such as are readie to sell all and follow him he saves none but such as deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and live soberly righteously and godlily in this present world in a word he purgeth none or cleanseth none by his bloud from all sin but such as walk in the light as God is in the light who make conscience of detesting and declining all sins and sincerely set their hearts and hands with love and carefull endeavour to every duty enjoyned them why these are the men onely to whom his death is effectuall and therefore as we mean to partake of his merits or to have good by his death let us become new creatures It is true indeed and we cannot but maintain it that to justification nothing but faith is required but this caution must be added it must be a faith that purifies the heart that works an universall change that shews it self in the fruits if therefore any of us would come in let us have ready our answer as a late Divine speaks the dialogue betwixt Christ and a true Christian on this manner First saith he when God hath enlightened the eyes of a man that he can see where this treasure is what then Why saith the Christian I am so enflamed with the love of it that I will have it whatsoever it cost me yea saith Christ but there is a price upon it it must cost thee dear a great deal of sorrow and trouble and crosses and afflictions Tush tell me not of price saith the Christian whatsoever I have shall go for it I will do any thing for it that God will enable me Why saith Christ wilt thou curb thine affections wilt thou give up thy life wilt thou be content to sell all thou hast I will do it saith the Christian with all my heart I am content to sell all that I have nothing is so dear unto me but I will part with it my right hand my right eye nay if hell it felf should stand between me and Christ yet would I passe through it unto him This beloved this is that violent affection which God puts into the hearts of his children that they will have Christ whatsoever it cost them yet understand me I pray you It is not to sell our houses or lands or children but our sinns that I mean the Lord Jesus and one lust cannot lodge together in one soul no if we are but once truly incorporated into Christ we must take him as our Husband and Lord we must love honour and serve him we must endeavour after sanctification puritie new obedience abilitie to do or suffer any thing for Christ we must consecrate all the powers and possibilities of our bodies and souls to do him the best service we can we must grieve and walk more humbly because we can do no better and thus if we do though I cannot say but still we shall sin so long as we live on this earth yet here is our comfort 1. Joh. 2.1 2. We have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sinnes I say for our sinnes effectually if we believe in his Name for it was for us he died and they were our sinnes he purged and this is that great benefit we receive from our Saviour in that he by himself hath purged our sinns And now our sinnes being purged our souls recovered I may well end this Text onely I shall give it one visit more and so Farwell You see the maladie Sin the remedie a purge the Physician he the patient himself our selves for our infirmities were laid on him and his sores became our salves by whose virtue we are healed Blesse we then God for the recovery of our souls and be we carefull for the future of any relapse whatsoever these relapses are they we had need to fear indeed for in them the diseases are more dangerous sinns are more pernicious Matth. 12.44 and men become seven times more the children of Sathan then ever they were before Now then we are healed be we studious to preserve it all the dayes of our life and we shall find at our death that he that purged our sinns will save our souls we need not any other Purgatory after death no when our souls shall take their flights from our bodies then are the Angels readie to conduct them to his Kingdome and thither may we come for his sake and his onely who by himself in his own person hath purged our sinnes AMEN FINIS Heavens happiness LUKE 23.43 To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise HE that purged our sinns is
fast asleep on the edge of a Rock he dreams merrily of Crowns and Kingdomes and will not off it but on a sudden starting for joy he tumbles into the bottome of the Sea and there lies drowned in the deep that assurance which is ever secure is but a dream whereas the testimony of Gods Spirit is sometimes mixed with doubts and sometimes to our unspeakable comfort with a secret still heart-ravishing voice thus speaks to our consciences thou shalt be thou shalt be with me in paradise You see the testimonie of Gods Spirit how it works in us and how it is discerned by us it works in us by a particular application of the promises in the Gospel and is discerned by us by the word by our love our prayers our fears our joys at some times while we are a doing our duties Vse O blessed man that feels in his soul this blessed testimonie what is here comparable to it riches are deceitfull pleasure is a toy the world is but a bubble onely our assurance of Heaven is the onely reall comfort that we have on earth who then would not studie to make this certain if we purchase an inheritance on earth we make it as sure and our tenure as strong as the brawn of the Law or the brain of Lawyers can devise we have conveyance and bonds and fines no strength too much and shall we not be more curious in the setling our eternall inheritâ—nce in Paradise a man can never be too sure of going to Heaven and therefore in Gods fear let us examine the testimonie of our spirits by the inward tokens and by the outward fruits let us examine the testimonie of Gods Spirit by the means and the difference and if we find both these testimonies to accord within us how blessed are we in this vale of tears it is an heaven upon earth a Paradise in a wildernesse in a word a comfort in all miseries be they never so embittered See a Thief hanging on the Crosse an Engine of most grievous torture but who can tell the joy that entred into him before he entred into Heaven you may guesse it by his desire to be remembred of Christ when he came into his Kingdome he begs not for life nor pleasure nor riches nor honour no there is one thing necessary give him Heaven and he cares for nothing to this purpose doth he addresse himself to our blessed Saviour Luke 23.37 39. and he asks what if thou be Christ save thy self said the Jews in derision and if thou be Christ save thy self and us said the other Thief to him but this was onely for the bodies safetie and here is a man quite of another mind let the Jews rack him tear him break all his bones and pull him into atomes if our Saviour will but do so much as remember him in his kingdome he desires nothing more O blessed Christ speak comfortably to his soul that begs it thus vehemently at thy hands but why do I prevent the bowels of our Saviour yearn to hear him remember him yes he will remember him and he shall be with him comfortable news how leaps his heart at these so blessed words his desire is granted and Heaven is assured and the Spirit of God yea the God of Spirits thus testifies it to him to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Thus farre of the certainty of his salvation thou shalt be but as the grant is sweet that is certain so is it yet more acceptable if done with expedition and here is both the certainty and expedition thou shalt be when to day with me in paradise To day OUr Saviour deferres not that he promises but as he quickly hears and quickly grants so he quickly gives him Paradise and a kingdome This sudden unexspected joy makes all more gratefull to tell us of Crowns and Kingdomes that we must inherit and then to put us off with delayes abates the sweetnesse of the promise men that go to suits for lands and livings though Lawyers feed them with hopes yet one order after another spinning out time to a multitude of Terms makes them weary of the businesse it is the happinesse of this suitour that he comes to an hearing but the highest degree of his happiness was the expedition of his suit no sooner he motions Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdome but the Lord gives him that he asks upon his first motion to day ere the Sun be down the Kingdome shall be thine thou shalt be with me in Paradise But you may object Was there no Limbus Patrum no Purgatory to run through but the very same day he died he must then go to Paradise no unlesse Limbus or Purgatorie be Paradise it self there is no such thing at all Some there are that rather then say nothing speak thus Christ giving up the ghost Mox ut Deus exspiravit ipse secundum animam ad infernos descendit Guliel Paris cap. 21. secundum verbum his soul descended into hel and the very same day was this Malefactour partaker of Christs beatificall vision with the other Patriarchs in Limbus But of how great difference is Paradise and Limbus we shall hear another time sure it is Christ promised not a Dungeon in stead of a Kingdome nor is Paradise a place of pleasure of any such imaginary melancholy nature we conclude then To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise it is all one as to say To day thy day of death thou shalt be with me in Heaven and there enjoy me in my Kingdome But again you may object That Christ rather that day descended into hel then ascended into heaven The Creed teacheth that after he was crucified dead and buried he descended into hell To answer the objection some go about thus by hel say they is meant Paradise where the soul of Christ was all the time that his body lay in the grave If this be not a misconstruction I am sure it is no literall Exposition and me thinks a very strange kind of figure it is to expresse Christs ascent into Paradise by his descent into hell Others more probably understand Christs abode in the grave for the space of three dayes Aug. Epist 57. Austin after some turns and wrenches concludeth thus Est autem sensus multò expeditior c. It is a farre easier sense and freer from all ambiguity if we take Christ to speak thesc words This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise not of his Manhood but of his Godhead for the man Christ was that day in the grave according to the flesh and in hell as touching his soul but the same Christ as God is alwayes every where Thus he But this will not satisfie all Perkins on the Creed and therefore they argue thus against it These words say they must be understood of his Manhood not his God-head and why so For they are an answer unto a demand and unto it they must be
and blessed is this penitent Thief no sooner entred he into the gates of Heaven but there meets him with musick and dancing Luke 15.25 all the quire of Heaven and Lord what a joy entred into his soul when his soul entred into his masters joy Tell me could I speak with thee that dwellest in the Heavens what a day was that when stepping from the Crosse and conducted to Paradise thou wast there received with all honourable companies and troops above there did the Patriarchs meet thee and the Prophets hug thee and the Martyrs struck up their Harps to bid thee welcome to the Tabernacle of Heaven Such honour have all his Saints that attain the fellowship of the Saints in glory But more then so thou shalt be with me and therefore with my Angels Lo here a blessed companie indeed these are the heavenly Choristers eternally singing Jehovahs praise The Seraphims cry aloud Esay 6.3 Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts an Army answer to the antheme Glory to God on high The whole Quire of heaven add the burthen Revel 4.11 Thou art wortby O Lord to receive honour and glory and power for thou hast created all things and for thy sake they are and were creâ—â—â—d O heavenly harmony consisting of ten thousand times ten thousand various sorts of Musick Revel 5.11 I heard saith John the Divine that 〈◊〉 of many Angels round about the throne and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand thousand of thousands these are the shining and singing Starres of which God told his servant Job Job 38.7 The morning starres sing together and the serâ—â—â—â—â— of God shout for joy These are the winged Châ—risters of 〈◊〉 whom John the Divine heard singing their song of Hallelujah and Hosanna Revel 19.6 I heard saith he the voice of a great multitude as the voice of many waters the voice of â—any Angels singing and saying Hallelujah and again Hallelujah these are the nimble Posts of heaven Gen. 28.12 whom Jacob sayâ— thing 〈◊〉 and down the Ladder these are the Protectours of the godly whose aid God promised the Israelites Exod. 23.20 Behold I send an Angel before thee to keep thee in the way and to bring thee to the place which I have prepared These are the Guardians of sucking Infants of whom our Saviour told his Disciples that in Matth. 18.10 Heaven their Angels alwayes behold the face of his Father these are the armies of God who meeting Jacob in his journey Gen. 32.2 he said this is Gods Hosts these are the Spirits and Ministers of God whom David describing by the purity of their substance and readinesse of their obedience he calls the Angels spirits and his Ministers a flame of fire Psal 104.4 They are shining and singing stars winged choristers nimble Posts of heaven Protectours of the godly guardians of children the armies of the Almighty the Spirits and Ministers of the great Jehovah What blessed companie is this we shall enjoy in heaven there is nothing in them but is amiable nothing in them but is admirable O that this clay of ours should come to dwell with thâ—se incorporeall spirits and yet see here a man a thief 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of men by his confession and contrition and faith in Christ is now become a companion with Angels Nor is that all thou shalt be with me not onely with my Saints and Angels but with me with my soul in Paradise His soul indeed was there though his body at that time was in the grave and if the soul be it that makes us men what a passing great joy is that when men standing amongst the Angels shall see their Lord the Lord of heaven not to be an Angel but a man Here is the solace of Saints when they shal see say who is yond that rules on the Throne of heaven who is yond that sits on the right hand of God the Father and they shal answer themselves again it is he that for us became man for the salvation it is he that of our souls hath took upon him a body soul And think now with thy self whosoever thou art that readst if thou wilt but spend thy few evil dayes in his fear so die in his favour what a comfort will it be unto thee to see that Lamb sitting on his seat of state If the wise men of the East came so far and so rejoyced to see him in the Manger what will it be to thee to see him sitting and glittering in his glory If John Baptist did leap at his presence in his mothers belly what shall his presence do in his royall and eternall Kingdome It passeth all other glories saith Austin to be admitted to the inestimable sight of Christ his face August and to receive the beams of glory from the brightnesse of his Majestie nay should we suffer torments every day or for a time the very pains of hell it self thereby to gain the sight of Christ and of his Saints it were nothing in comparison No wonder then Phil. 1.23 if Paul desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Alas who would not be so O most sweet Saviour saith one devoutly when shall this joyfull day come when shall I appear before thy face when shall I be filled with thy excellent beautie when shall I see that countenance of thine which the very Angels themselves are so desirous to behold an happie time sure will it be to each faithfull soul And thus happie was this man he parted sorrowfully with our Saviour on the Crosse but he met him joyfully in his Kingdome those sweet souls that both left the world at one time no sooner had heaven gates opened unto them but with mutuall kisses they embraced each other in unspeakable manner Nor was this all thou shalt be with me not onely with my soul but with my God-head this indeed was the height of blisse the very soul of heavens joy it self set aside this and crown a man with the Empire of all the earth the splendour of heaven the royall endowments of a glorified soul the sweetest company of Saints and Angels yet still would his soul be full of emptinesse and utterly to seek for the surest Sanctuary whereon to rest onely once admit him to the face of God and then presently and never before his infinite desire exspires in the bosome of his Maker I denie not but the other joyes in heaven are transcendent and ravishing but they are all no better then accessories to this principall drops to this Ocean glimpses to this Sunne If you ask how can our souls enjoy this God-head I answer two wayes first by the understanding secondly by the will The understanding is filled by a clear glorious sight of God 1 Cor. 12.12 called Beatificall vision we shall see him face to face saith Paul 1 Cor. 13.12 We shall see him as he is saith John 1 John 3.2 1 John
3.2 For as the Sunne by his beams and brightnesse illightens the eye and the air that we may see not onely all other things but also his own glorious face so God blessed for ever in whose presence ten thousand of our suns would vanish away as a darksome mote doth by the light of his Majestie so irradiate the minds of all the blessed that they behold in him not onely the beautie of all his Creatures but of himself and thus shall we see and know that glorious mystery of the Trinitie the goodnesse of the Father the wisdome of the Sonne the love and comfortable fellowship of the holy Spirit nothing that can be known but in him we shall know it in most ample manner Secondly the will is for ever satisfied with a perfect inward and eternall communion with God himself Christ that is God and man by his Man-hood assumed uniteth us unto God and by his God-head assuming uniteth God unto us so that by this secret and sacred communion we are made partakers and as it were possessours of God himself O bottomlesse depth and dearest confluence of joyes and pleasures everlasting here is the perfection of all good things the Crown of glory the very life of Life everlasting And well may it be so for what can the soul desire God will not be unto her It is he that is eminently in himself beauty to our eyes musick to our ears honey to our mouthes perfume to our nostrils light to our understanding delight to our will continuation of eternitie to our memorie in him shall we enjoy all the varieties of times all the beautie of creatures all the pleasures of Paradise Blessed Thief what a glory was this to be admitted to the societie of Christ in his Deitie thou shalt be with me how then should he be but happie Where could he be ill with him Vbi malè poterat esse cum illo ubi bene poterat esse sine illo Aug. Psal 16.11 where could he be well without him In thy presence there is fulnesse of joy and at thy right hand there are pleasures evermore joy and fulnesse of joy pleasures and everlasting pleasures Blessed are all they that live in thy house O Lord for they shall praise thee eternally world without end Psal 84.4 Psal 84.4 You see now Heavens societie they are Saints and Angels and Christ and God blessed for ever and ever Vse 1 Who then would not forsake Father and Mother the dearest fellowship of this world to be with Christ in his Kingdome You that love one another in the deepest bonds who cannot part out of this life but with the survivours grief and hearts break tell me what a merry day will that be when you shall not onely meet again never more to part asunder but when Christ our Saviour shall gladly welcome you every one of you into his societie thou shalt be with me and let me speak to the joy of us all I mean all broken-hearted Christians as for you that are profane ones you have your portion here therefore stand you by and let the Children come to their share a day will come I trust in the Lord when I shall meet you and you me in the Kingdome of heaven a day will come I trust in the Lord when you and I shall be all admitted into the societie of God and of Christ and of his Saints and of the Aagels a day will come I trust in the Lord when with these eyes we shall behold our Redeemer together with that Thief that was crucified with him a day will come I trust in the Lord when we shall meet again with all the Saints that are gone afore us and is not this a comfort what shall we say when we see our Saviour in his Throne waited on with Mary his Mother and Magdalen and Martha and Lazarus and Paul and Peter and all the Apostles and Disciples of our Lord and Saviour yea when this Thief shall be presented to our view the wounds in his hands and his feet shining like Starres and Pearls and Rubies all his body glittering in glory and his soul magnifying the Lord for his conversion and salvation world without end Vse 2 But stay least we be lead too forward there is no such thing for us if now we are not in the Covenant of grace heaven is both happie and holy and if we would enjoy heaven then we must fit our selves to that estate to which God hath preserved us to this purpose saith the Apostle Our conversation is in heaven from whence we look for the Saviour Phil. 3.20 Phil. 3.20 He was assured of heaven and therefore he conversed as a Citizen of heaven before he came there every way he â—â—rried himself as much as earth would suffer him like them that live in heaven and thus must we if ever we go to heaven become like to those that are in that place Deceive not your selves neither Whoremongers no Adulterers nor Extortioners nor the like shall enter into the Kingdome of God 1 Cor. 6.9 1 Cor. 6.9 Do men who live in these sinnes without all remorse or repentance ever think to go to heaven is it possible that ever any flesh should go out of the puddle into Paradise Matt. 25.41 no no Away ye workers of iniquitie I know you not saith our Saviour let no man cherish presumptions of an heavenly Kingdome except he abstain from all sinnes against Conscience What then but so live we here as becomes his servants and thus when we part it is but for better companie we lose a few friends but we shall find him that welcomes all his with this heavenly harmonie thou shalt be with whom with me in Paradise Hitherto of the Society The last thing considerable is the place or Vbi where his soul arrived but of that hereafter as the Lord shall inable me God give us all grace â—o to live here that howsoever we go hence one after another yet at last we may all meet together with our Lord and Saviour in his heavenly Paradise In Paradise ANd where was that our Adversaries say in Limbus and yet to give them their due Bellarmine so means not as that Limbus was Paradise Illa enim verè Paradisus deliciarum est non corporalis aut localis sed spiritualis coelestis Bellar. de 7. verbis Domini l. 1. cap. 4. but that in Limbus this thief had his Paradise to wit the vision of God The vision of God saith Bellarmine is a true Paradise indeed not locall but spirituall But with Bellarmines leave we have no such sense of Paradise in any part of holy Writ In the old Testament we read of an earthly Paradise wherein Adam lived in the new Testament we read of an Heavenly Paradise whither Paul was caught yet both these were locall for the one saith Moses was a garden Eastward in Eden Gen 2.8 Gen. 2.8 and the other saith Paul was in heaven
both give their lights that Lambe that was slain from the beginning of the world that body of his once crucified now brighter then ten thousand Suns O how infinitely glorious doth it make this Paradise this Citie of God His countenance is as the Sun that shineth in his strength saith Iohn Revel 1.16 Revel 1.16 But what starres are those in his hands and his feet Where the nayls pierced now it sparkleth where the spear entred now it glittereth gloriously if we look all over him Ibid. v. 14 15. his head and his hairs are as white as snow his eyes are as a flame of fire his feet like unto fine brasse as if they burned in a furnace no wonder then if such beams come from this Sun the Sun of righteousnesse that all heaven shines with it from the one end to the other And yet again the Lambe and the Saints all give their lights for we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him 1. Joh. 3.2 1. John 3.2 how like why he shall change our vile bodies that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body Phil. 3.21 Phil. 3.21 In what like even in this very quality for they that be wise shall shine Dan. 12.3 Dan. 12.3 How shine as the brightnesse of the Firmament nay more as the starres saith Daniel nay more as the Sun saith our Saviour nay yet more saith Chrysostome howsoever the righteous in heaven Heaven are compared to the Sun Matth. 13.43 Matth. 13.43 Chrysost in Matth. Hom. 6 It is not because they shall not surpasse the brightnesse of it but the Sun being the most glittering thing in this world he takes a resemblance thence onely towards the expressing of their glory Now then what a masse of light will arise in Paradise where so many millions of Sunns appear all at once If one Sunne make the morning sky so glorious what a bright shining and glorious day is there where 's not a body but 't is a Sunn Sure it is Revel 21.23 There shall be no night there no need of candle no need of Sunne or Moon or Star O that this clay of ours should be partakers of such glory what am I O Lord that being a worm on earth thou wilt make me a Saint in heaven this body of earth and dust shall shine in heaven like those glorious spangles in the firmament this body that shall rot in dust and fall more vile then a Carrion shall arise in glory and shine like the glorious body of our Saviour in the mount of Tabor To come neer my Text See here a Saint-Thief shining gloriously he that was crucified with our Saviour at whose death the Sun hid her face with a veil now he reigns in glory without need of Sunn for he is a Sunn himself shining more clearly then the Sun at noon he that one day was fastened to a Crosse now walks at liberty through the streets of Paradise and all the joyes all the riches all the glory that can be is poured upon him What else He is in Paradise and what is Paradise but a place of pleasure where sorrow is never felt complaint is never heard matter of sadness is never seen evil success is never feared but in stead thereof there is all good without any evil life that never endeth beauty that never fadeth love that never cooleth health that never impaireth joy that never ceaseth what more could this penitent wish then to hear him speak that promised Paradise and perâ—â—â—â—â—ed his promise To day thou shalt 〈…〉 with me in Paradise And thus in a Map have I 〈…〉 Paradise for quantitie great for quality glorâ—â—â—◠〈…〉 better when you shall walk through the 〈◊〉 observe the towers fully contemplate the glory 〈◊〉 that you may not wâ—â—â— of application before I 〈◊〉 Vse 1 Meditate then with what sweet delight everyâ—â—â— servant of God may bath himself before hand even in this valley of tears Did we but think on this gloriâ—â—â— place 〈…〉 â—hose heavenly mansions prepared for us did we spend many thoughts upon it and ever and anon sigh and seek after it until we came to the fingering and possession of it O how would these heavenly meditations ravish our souls as if Heaven 〈…〉 before we entred into Heaven Consider of this in what â—â—se soever we are whether we are vexed or injured or oppressed or persecuted for the name of Christ there is nothing so imbittered that a thought of heaven will not sweeten Yet I say not that wâ— are onely to think of it withall let us strive and strain to get into this golden Citie where streâ—â—◠〈◊〉 â—â—teâ— â—nd all is gold and pearl nay where pearl 〈…〉 noâ—hing worth in comparison of those things which shall be revealed unto 〈◊〉 faithfull soul Vse 2 On the other side Consider with your selves what fools are they who deprive themselves willingly of this endlesse glory who bereave themselves of a room in this City of Pearl for a few carnall pleasures what Bedlams and humane beasts are they who shut themselves out of Paradise for 〈…〉 rie pelf What sots and senselesse wretches are they who wittingly and wilfully bar themselves out of this Palace for the short fruition of wordly trash and 〈◊〉 As for you of whom I hope better things let me advise you for the love of God for the love of Christ for the love that you bâ—â—â— to your own soule that you will settle your affections or things above and not on things beneath and then you shall find oâ—â— lâ—y the comfort of it when leaving this world the Spirit of Gâ—â—st shall whisper to your souls this happy tidings To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Here is an end Shall I now cast up the accounts of what I have delivered you The Total is this Every sinner that repents and believes shall be saved you need no other instance then this Thief on the Crosse at one hearty tear one penitent prayer Lord remember me in thy Kingdome the Lord gives him his desire see here the fiat thou shalt be the expedition to day his admission with me the place whither he is inducted it is into Paradise and there now he officiates doing service to God without ceasing world without end O Lord give me grace so to repent and believe that whensoever I go hence that day I may be with thee in Paradise AMEN SOâ—â— DEO â—Lâ— Printed for Nath. Webb and William Grantham at the Grey-hound in Pauls Church-yard MDCL