the ancient Aegyptians that in their great feasts they caused a Deaths head to be carryed about the Table to put them in mind of their mortality a frolick that the Epicures and Belly-gods of our times that sit-down to eat and drink and rise up to play are not acquainted with it s reported of one of the Fathers and I think it is Hierome That he seemed alwaies to hear that saying sounding in his ear Surgite mortui venite ad judicium arise you dead and come to judgement The meditations of death and judgement are excellent corosives to eat out the heart of sin and no less Soveraign preservatives to keep us upright If we adde two more unto them which this Scripture prompts us to take in it will be more than a double fence it wil be a double bar to keep out sin and a double cord to draw to God and duty The second that my Text adds are Hell and Heaven Salvation and Damnation and these four put together are quatuor novissima the four last things and will furnish us with excellent matter for profitable meditation Some advise to meditate of Death some to think of Judgement some advise that we should remember Hell others that above all we should not forget Heaven but if they are of such force single to kill sin and quicken grace to help the Spirit and mortifie the flesh vis unita fortior when they joyn forces they will do their work more effectually I shall therefore lay and leave them before you as the fittest subjects of daily serious Meditation 1. Death shal be the first in order because it is first in time the great Statute of the Churches Magna Charta the Scriptures is recorded thus Heb. 9.27 It is appointed unto all men once to dye The Scriptures tell us examples tell us all former generations tell us experience tells us our own infirmities tell us that there is not that man living that shall not see death O what should dying men have to do with sin surely not to hugg it in their bosomes and lodge it next their hearts and let it reign in their mortal bodies and serve it in the lusts of it but to kill and crucifie and mortifie it to kill it before they dye to kill it which otherwise will kill them sin is the sting of death and it makes death to be the King of fears to a man in his sins O death how bitter is thy remembrance to such a one We dare not dye in our sins Balaam that lived the life of the wicked did choose to dye the death of the righteous sin unrepented of is the worst pillow that a mans head can lye upon on a dying bed and sinners if they can by the help of a seared or flattering conscience make a shift to dye quietly that no bonds appear in their death no desperate horrour open them an entrance into Hell yet the wicked shall not be able to stand in the Judgement nor the sinners in the congregation of the righteous they may elude humane justice or out-face and out-brave it in mens courts greatness may carry them off with power or poverty with pitty but righteous judgement shall be there dispensed by the searcher of hearts to high and low according to their works And this is certain that no unclean thing can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven ther 's no Purgatory to scour such as dye polluted but as death leaves them so shall Judgement find them Ther 's no knowledge nor wisdom nor invention in the grave saith Solomon O that they were wise to consider this that they would remember their latter end saith Moses on the behalf of Israel noting what David saith the onely way to apply a mans heart to wisdom is to pray to God to teach him to number his daies Psal 90.12 And in another place the Prophet notes that Jerusalems filthiness was in her skirts because she remembred not her latter end Lament 1.9 The onely way to have all in a readiness at death to have calling and election made sure and to have nothing to do but to dye when death comes is to write it in our memories and to be often drawing it out by meditation and conference some will wear a ring with a deaths-head upon their fingers some will keep a dead mans scull in tâ—eir studyes or closets some will have death pictured on their walls or windows some will have their Coffins in their chambers some will write Memento mori upon their books as their Motto remember death all to help our dulness and slowness of heart in believing that our end is near and our dissolution at hand but those that have gotten it deeply rooted in their hearts and are carefull to keep the memory of death alive and quick in their meditations are the onely champions that are like to give death a valiant encounter and to come off with victory and triumph Oh death where is thy sting Oh grave where is thy victory These are likelyest to give Paul's farewell to the world I have fought I have finished I have kept c. henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness 2 Tim. 4.7 8. and Rom. 8.38 I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor any other creature shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus The frequent Meditation of death is an excellent means to make us dye daily 2. Judgement is the second because it is deaths second after death cometh the judgement and it is sure that we must all come to judgement as that we must once dye We must all appear before the judgement Seat of Christ to receive according to things done in the flesh whether they be good or evil The word of God is abundant in setting this before us with all appurtenances that do accommodate it as 1. The Judge and his throne and attendants and his work 2 Thes 1.7 8. The Judge the the Lord Jesus 2. His throne Heaven shall be revealed from heaven 3. His attendants with his mighty Angels 4. His work of justice to render vengeance in flaming fire to them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and his gracious work to be made glorious in them that believe 2. The books by which we must bâ— judged of Scripture and Conscience Revel 20.12 And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened i. e. of Scripture and Conscience and another book was opened i. e. the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works 3. The causes that must be heard and tryed good and bad just and unjust Ecles 12.14 God shall bring every work into judgement with every secret thing whether it be good or evil 4. The whole process and final sentence Gods dealing with the good and evil to convict the one of sin unto Damnation
will let fly against the oversights of such overseers O you caterers for the Devil your houses should have been nurseries for the Church and they have been sties and kennels to breed up hel-hounds in you should have brought up your children in the fear and nurture and admonition of the Lord and done your indevour to make your servants Gods servants you should have read the word of God to them and talked of it with them at your down-lying and uprising you should have sought God early and late with them and for them and according to the Commandment should have preserved the Sabbath in your Families as well as observed it in your selves But there was nothing but Prayerlesness all the week and profaneness all the Sabbath when you hired us you gave us your carelesness for our earnest and now have brought upon your selves and us Damnation for our wages The neglected wife will say to the neglecting husband as Zipora once to Moses Thou hast been a bloody husband to me and the graceless child to the graceless father thou hast been a bloody Butcher to me and the unprofitable servant to the ungodly Master thou hast been a cruel Master to me God will say to careless Brethren The voice of your Brothers blood cries for vengeance and those that live here as neighbours and friends in their dull carnal way of neighbour-hood friendship will cry sin and shame upon one another as the greatest foes and most cruel enemies O the heart-burnings that hell-fire shall kindle the everlasting grudges that shall find Fomentations there 's the malice that burns and boyls in that fiery lake in the breasts of the damned 'T was not for nothing that Dives desired his brethren should be kept out of that place of torment one reason amongst the rest may be conceived to be this that their sins being augmented by his and they hardned in them by his society and example his torments at their coming to hell should receive an augmentation 2. As there is no joy in hell there is Greif with a witness yea with a thousand thousand witnesses Men count it their Solomon upon earth to have fellow-sufferers but this will be no palliation to the pangs of hell but augmentations rather especially by the sins of others which have been made ours by accessoriness Here they would not greive with godly sorrow but there they shall greive though with sorrow as far from godly sorrow as the heaven is from hell How many with worldly sorrow have grieved themselves to death taking up Rachells Lamentation perhaps for children or some other relation in the flesh mourning refusing to be comforted But this hellish sorrow doth far exceed it every pang of it is a heart-breaking sorrow we usually say were it not for hope the heart would break and all the mourning in hell is mourning without hope Ezekiel makes mention of a book written within and without with Lamentations and mournings and We and the Damned have no other book to read in If they look to their book without the book of Scriptures by that they stand condemned and according to that sentence is past upon them If they look to the book of conscience the book within that contains nothing but matter of mourning and everlasting Lamentation nothing but what will cause Weeping and howling and gnashing of teeth 3. As there is no hope in hell so there is fear horour in such superabundant measure that like a thousand Milstones or Mountains of lead they would sink the Soul to the bottom of that Sea of wrath were it not bottomless They shall be raging mad with fear and desperate horrour at the fearful sights that their eyes shall see and the fearful things that their ears shall hear They had no fear of God before their eyes while they lived in the flesh they could fear the face and frowns of man who was but Dust and Ashes but the dreadful everliving God that ought to be feared he was not feared we could never bring them to the beginning of wisdom the fear of the Lord with all that we could say or do though we have studyed to speak words that might cut like swords and have preacht them Sermons as keen as Razors Though we have improved all our wit and skill in handling that Sacrificing knife that pierces to the dividing asunder of the Soul and Spirit and Joynts and Marrow though we have in our severe denunciations of certain judgements spoken thunder claps and fire-brands and thrown heâ—l fire amongst them in many and many a Sermon yet they were so cross-grain'd and knotty that they were fearless in the midst of real fears though they could fear where no fear was but now the case is altered before they would not fear alwaies to purchase blessedness Pro. 28.14 and now they shall fear alwaies with Gods curse to boot now they shall fear vvith a vengeance and God shall set a marke upon them even Cain's marke a perpetual quaking not a horn in 's forehead as the Master of Fancy the Jewish Rabbies have some of them thought but a hornet in his conscience The curse that God threatned to the Rebellious children of disobedience Deut. 28.65 shal be inflicted upon them God shall give them a trembling heart They vvould not sanctifie the Lord in their hearts nor make him their fear and dread vvhen he vvould have undertaken to be for a Sanctuary against all other fear Isay 8.13 14. and therefore novv a confluence of all other fears shall flovv in upon them like the billovvs of the raging Sea which cannot rest one in the neck of another Here the very name of the Devil is like a Bug-bear to children if they have but thoughts of seeing him in their solitary vvalks especially vvhen they are in the dark they are ready to creep into corners to hide themselves If they do but dream of him how do their thoughts trouble them till they awake and if they see him indeed though he do not appear in the most formidable shape they are ready to fall dead or mad Oh what will they do when they shall be cast into the same prison with all the Devils in hell and they must continue shut up with them for ever What fear and trembling shall then come upon them what Tribulation and anguish shall fill their Souls to the very brim What horrour and desperation shall over-whelm the damned when the King of fears the death natural hath delivered them up unto the Second death when fear anguish is still coming upon them and they shall never know when Wrath is come upon them to the uttermost it shall all be so to the uttermost and all without end despairing Cain's Language differs now in the several readings one runs thus My punishment is greater than I can bear Gen. 4.13 the other thus Mine iniquity is greater than that it can be forgiven then both these shall be true of all the damned their Sins are
the Covenant of grace hath been exhibited under two dispensations First to the Jewes under the old Testament-dispensation in tipes and shadowes when the Ceremoniall Law was the Jewes Gospel And secondly to Jewes and Gentiles under the new Testament dispensation in truths and and substances and this is that Salvation that the Apostle seemes here to commend and exalt above other Salvations that Salvation which in the manifestation of it is grown up to more ripenesse of yeares and perfection of Statâ—e since the fullnesse of time than ever it was before And since we are speaking comparatively of it let us take in one consideration more though it may serve only for a pleonasme for having spoken of the greater we need not doubt of the lesse It may be called great Salvation if compared with temporall and corporall deliverances such as those from Aegypt and Babylon those were great deliveraâ—ces and great Salvations but that was of bodies thâ—s of soules that was temporall and this aeternall and therefore in every respect 1. If compared with Salvation by the law 2. If compared with the old Testementmanifestations 3. If compared with temporall deliverances We must give acclamation to it to be great Salvation And as for dreaming of any other Salvation properly and strictly so called we must keep close to those true sayings of God Acts 4.12 Neither is there Salvation in any other for there is none other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved and 1. Tim. 2.5 unicus est mediator There is one onely mediatour betwixt God and man the Man Christ Jesus The doubt being cleared we proceed to clear the doctrine 1. By improving the Text. 2. By Testimonies of Scripture 3. By pregnant and ponderous Reason First by improving the Text where the spirit of God gives it a rise three degrees high 1 Salvation 2 great Salvation 3 so great Salvation which last is a sic without a sicut as one saith of Gods love from that Scripture God so loved the World so that the tongues of men or Angells are not able to expresse nor the imaginations of men or Angells able to comprehend Or what if we suppose it better to illustrate those three gradations by the three degrees of comparison we may shew you at large how Gospel-Salvation is 1. Positively great Salvation 2. Comparatively greater than all other 3. Superlatively the greatest of all 's But all this was hinted in that that went before Secondly to shew you the consent of Scripture and how harmoniously they attest unto this truth Psal 130.7 Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy and with him is plenteous redemption let redemption but lead us to a redeemer and we shall find such plenty of it in Jesus Christ that out of his fullness we may be all receivers and grace for grace Luke 1 69. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel that hath raised up for us an horne of Salvation in the house of his servant David It s a figurative expression taken from beasts whose strength is in their hornes It is such mighty Salvation that it can push down all power that opposes it the Apostle applies it Rom. 8.33 34. It is God that justifieth who is it that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who sitteth at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us who shall separate us from the love of Christ c. Hebr. 7.25 He is able to save to the uttermost all those that come unto God by him seeing be ever liveth to make intercession for them Put all these together 1. Plentifull redemption 2. A horne of mighty Salvation 3. Salvation to the uttermost And they do univocally bear wittness to this great truth that Gospel-Salvation is great Salvation Thirdly to come to Reasons take into close consideration these three things 1. Ab hoc From what 2. Ad hoc To what 3 Per hoc By what we are saved And from hence we shall lay downe these three Reasons to prove it to be great Salvation 1. Because it saves us from great evills 2. Because it advances to great happiness 3. Because it doth all by great meanes 1 Ab hoc 1 Reason It saves from great Evills as is easy to shew in a multitude of particulars 1. From the wrath of God which buâ—nes like a conâ—uming fire and all the wicked upon earth are huâ—â— straw and stubble before it It burnes to the bottome of hell and setts on fire the foundations of the Mountaines and burnes up the earth with its increase The burning Tophet is kindled with his displeased breath as with a river of brimstone Isay 30.33 the old World was drowned in it and the new shall be burned in it It tumbled the Angels that fell out of Heaven and hurled them into Hell to be reserved in chaines under darkness to the judgment of the great day It brought such a curse upon the whole creation for Adams sin that the whole creation groanes under it Rom. 8.22 Man sweats under it and Woman is in labour of it It hath tumbled Monarchy upon Monarchy the Assyrian Persian Graecian Roman it hath reprobated the greatest part of men and women that ever were in the World are or shall be It hath cast off the Jewes and unchurhed many famous churches of the Gentiles It hath layed flourishing states on ruinous heapes and hath brought to pass those desolations even to wonder and aston shment by sword famine and pestilence which our fathers have told us of It hath done that worke that strange worke in our daies and in these parts of the World which our eyes have seen and may long be for a Lamentation In a word it brought that confluence of indignation upon Christ Gods only begotten and only beloved Son when he stood in our roome and became our surety that it made him sweat blood and cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me We may say of all the punishments personall and nationall that have befallen us or can befall us of all things that we feel or fear as the prophet doth Is there any Evil in the City Land World and the Lord hath not done it Ames 3.6 Ex ungue leonem all that see it may say This hath God done for they cannot but see that it is his work we may know it to be the Lord by his very footsteps for as none can deliver and save like him so none can punish and destroy like him Solomon tells us the wrath of a King is like the roring of a Lion Prov. 19.12 but Moses tells us that he cannot tell us the pâ—wer of Gods wrath Psal 90.11 Who knoweth the power of thine anger even according to thy fear so is thy wrath and this wrath we are saved from by this great Salvation 2. It saves from the curse of his law that binds over to that wrath cursed is every one that continueth not in
all things that are written in the booke of the Law to do them Deut. 27.26 It s this malediction that makes sin to be the sting of death and makes the hornet of an accusing conscience to sting self-condemned sinners like the pangs of death This put Adam upon that impossibility to run away and hide himselfe from God and made Cain to be à corde suo fugitivum a runnagate if it had been possible from himselfe This curse of the law sets the never-dying worme a gnawing and layes upon evill doers that intolerable burden of a wounded conscience which none can bear Cursed is the impenitent Drunkard Swearer Sabboth-breaker Lier Whoremonger prayerless Christless person saith the Law but I am such and such saith the conscience therefore thou art cursed thou art the man saith right reason in the conclusion It was the dreadfull impulse of this evill spirit that drave Judas first to despair and then to the gallows and furiously poasted him through an hell internall into an hell eternall T was this that doom'd despairing Spira to an hell above ground and fill'd him so brimfull with hellish horrour that he was the very monster of his time and the most dreadfull spectacle of the age he lived in Nay to come neerer to the quick It was the consciousness of this curse that set David upon the rack and put his bones out of joynt and brought him into a consumption that he complaines that his flesh was dryed up for want of fatness and his moisture was like the droughth in Summer These terrours of the Law and plunges of conscience were the stormes and flouds and mire and deepes that he so deeply complained of and made one deep to call upon another the deep of his misery to the deep of Gods mercy T was this venome that so pointed those arrows of the allmighties wrath that drank up Jobs spirits And made Hezekia to mourne like a dove and chatter like a Craine and complaine that from morning to evening God made an end of him T was this that pickled up Peter in his bitter tears and put blessed Paul so to it that he cryed aloud to Heaven for a deliverer Me miserum quis liberabit O wrethed man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death and this curse we are saved from by this great Salva 3. It saves from the tyranny and dominion of Satan Its mans hell above ground to be under the divells dominion and principality The Apostle notes that the unbeleveing and impenitent are held captive by Satan at his will 2. Tim. 2.26 and the Ephesians while they were dead in trespasses and sinns were said to be acted by the Prince of the power of the ayre the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience Eph. 2.2 Satan is therefore called The God of this World 2. Cor. 4.4 who blinds the minds of them that beleeve not least the light of the glorious Gospell of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them He goes about like a roring Lion seeking whom he may devour 1. Pet 5.8 And compasses the earth Job 1.7 yea he goes about with great wrath knowing that his time is but short Revel 12.12 He is called therefore the strong man armed that keepes peaceable possession till the stronger come Luke 11.21 but when that stronger comes and God and Christ come in with this mighty Salvation when the grace of God which brings Salvation once appeares then the weapons of our warfare are not Carnal but mighty through God to the pulling downe of strong holds When he that hath the key of David will open ther 's none that can keep shutt As the graves must open to his Surgite mortui and the Earth and Sea must give up their dead at his word of command so when he will give sinners their blessed part in the first Resurrection the Divel World and Flesh shall not be able to detaine their Captives If God will but give Paul a commission to go to the Gentiles he shall open their Eyes and translate them from darkness to light from the power of Satan to God Act. 26.17 18. When God will shine upon the labours of his planting and watering servants and come in with that increase which the Apostle calls the increase of God then not only gates of brass and barrs of Iron shall fly open and breake in sunder as they did before Cyrus when God would use him as an instrument towards his peoples enlargement but even the chaines of darkness shall snap asunder before the mighty word and almighty spirit of the Churches great Redemer like Sampsons cords when the Philistins were upon him And here is the comfort of all comforts they that are set at liberty by this great Salvation have so full a rescue that they shall never be led captive more though they have been pulled like brands out of the fire like the prey out of the paw of the Lion rampant out of the hands of the strong man by a stronger yet now they are in safe hands because there cannot come a stronger Christ saith none can take his sheep out of his hand and his father that gave them him is greater than all and none can take them out of his fathers hand Iohn 10.28 29. Though he consider and study Job Job 1.8 and resist Josua Zech. 3.1 Though be desire to have the Apostles to winnow them Luke 22.31 and wresties with beleivers about Heavenly things Eph. 6.11 12. Though he hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 devices plots machinations stratagems 2 Cor. 2.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wiles methods snares laid at unawares way layings as the word properly signifies traps artificially set to catch the prey and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Revel 2.24 the depths of Satan those poor deluded Soules like those in our times that are under strong delusions and the efficacy of error called their opinions the deep things of God in allusion probably unto that expression 1 Cor. 2.10 The spirit searcheth all things even the deep things of God and there the spirit tells them they were the deep things of the divel and not of God they were not fetcht from Heaven but from the depth of hell and though he hath such weapons as the word calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 6 16. The fiery darts of the Divel yet though he set all his infernall powers on worke and imploy all his heads and hornes all his stratagems and strength and joyne his serpentine subtilty with his Lyon-like power yet the least of God's little ones shall be saved from him though the Dragon cast Flouds out of his mouth after the woman and the remnant of her seed yet they shall have a hiding place provided They have a Captain generall that is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The cheife Captain and Finisher of their Faith Heb. 12.2 Who in that he himselfe hath suffered being tempted h◠is ble to succour them that are tempted Heb.