and condition where wilt thou go what wilt thou do to whom wilt thou call for help To return to life 't is impossible and to ease thy self thou wilt not be able In illa die occidet Sol in meridie tenebrescere faciam terram in die luminis c. Amos. 8. what shall become of thee when I will cause the Sun to go down at noon and when I will darken the Earth at mid-day what wilt thou say when I shall turn thy feasts into mourning and all thy Songs into lamentation when I will bring up Sackcloth upon all mens loins and baldness upon every head and when I shall make it as the morning for an only Son and the end thereof as a bitter day hast thou not therefore a far greater subject then Job to curse the day wherein thou wert born for he was so just a man that my eternal Father glori'd in having so good so gracious and faithful a Servant nay In omnibus his non peccavit Job labiis suis c. Job 1.22 the Holy Ghost avers that he sinned not in all what he had spoken in his troubles and calamities which I had permitted to come upon him not as a punishment for his Sins but as a trial of his patience to make him a worthy president to all mortals of virtue of constancy and of perfect resignation to my holy will in all their afflictions He himself does protest that his conscience did not accuse him yet he was so apprehensive of the strict judgment which a Soul is to undergo at her departing the body that amaz'd at the severity of my Justice he crys out protect me O Lord Dionys. Rikel Art 16. de novis and hide me in hell whilst thy fury passes Whereupon one of my devout Servants affirms that the instant wherein I give judgment of a Soul is not only more terrible then Death but more terrible then to suffer even the pains of hell for a certain time not only to those who are to be damn'd but even unto my very Elect. O man reflect seriously upon this and Judge what will become of a Sinner at the hour of his Death and at the lively representation of all his offences and crimes what a consternation he will be in how he will tremble and shake every limb of him at the very sight of me his Creator and Redeemer whom he had so often offended and injur'd in the course of his sinful life that very presence will be more dreadful to him then the suffering of the pains of hell it self MAN O Most gracious Redeemer I cann't deny what thou sayst of a dying man and of the Anguishes which he shall suffer at the departing of the Soul from his body she shall enter into Judgment alone naked poor and without any to patronize her cause except her good works if she has any to shew her Conscience will be the Deponent the Triall will be either for life or death not temporal but eternal and thou an injur'd Judge shall appear to her in a dreadful Throne to give sentence for her or against her either of Salvation or of her everlasting damnation If she be grievously indebted and not able to ballance her accounts O what a horrible confusion she will be in grief and sorrow sighs and tears dreadful lamentations and crys will be her woful entertainment and the only motives she can produce to mollify thee O Lord but all will be to no purpose her repentance comes too late 't is totally fruitless at that hour all her protestations of amendment will be in vain no bills or bonds of performance will be accepted of no bail shall be taken her lease is out she must remove her nobility her riches her honours cann't obtain for her a further respite of time the sentence is pronounc'd the decree is unavoidable she must submit O the unfortunate Sinner what will he do what will he say how can he express the greatness of his misfortune otherwise then by these words of thy Prophet Psa 18.4.5 The sorrows of Death have compassed me and the flouds of iniquity have made me afraid The sorrows of hell have compassed me about and the snares of Death have prevented me O what a woful circle is that into which his Sins have brought him and unexpected too when he had not the least thought of death what will his friends avail him now his dignities his riches his lands and all that he took most delight in they will remain after him to other Masters that will soon wast and consume 'em in a worse way perhaps then ever he gather'd them tho' that perchance was bad enough The Sins which he had committed in heaping them up are the only companions he is like to have along with him to another world where he is to be tormented for them according to their enormity If I should make my addresses to worldlings in hopes to be farther instructed in this so necessary a matter to Salvation Alas they know nothing of it and which is worse they will not believe it for they live as if they had no account at all to give after death and why should I think it strange being they live in Egypt that is in a land of darkness in a willful blindness overwhelm'd with all sorts of errors where scarcely two are found of one opinion in matters of Faith and manners I am then resolv'd to go farther off and streight into the land of Geshen where the light of verity is allways in its full splendour Non intres in Judicium cum servo tuo Domine quia non justiflcabitur in conspectu tuo omnis vivens Psa 143. and to consult with the Inhabitants thereof in this case they will certainly teach me not only by their words but also by their examples how much this dreadful day of so strict an account is to be fear'd The first I meet with is the holy'st man of his age a man according to thine own heart O Lord yet he is so terrifi'd even at the very remembrance of this accompting day that he begs thee with all the tenderness of a contrite heart not to enter into Judgment with thy Servant and the reason he gives for his request is that in thy sight shall no man living be justifi'd The second that appears to me In vitis Patrum Sect. 2.153 is that most renown'd and holy Arsenius a man of wonderful austerity a man always in prayer always in contemplation yet tho' he was so virtuous and so great a Saint tears were seen to trickle down his cheeks when he was a dying and all his body to tremble in his deep consideration of this reckoning day His Disciples that stood round his poor and hard bed setting him the question why he cry'd and whether he was afraid of death he made answer yes my dearly beloved Children I fear Death and I tremble at the approach of my dreadful Judge
apple but will not take the pains to come for it or like a Ship that is bound for a certain harbour and steers the quite contrary way or like a Cat that loves fish but will not wet her paw to fetch it out of the water I love â—â—ee O Lord but will not surmount the least difficulty to purchase thy glory I aim and my desire is to land in the safe harbour of Heaven but I run a quite contrary course Tuâ—es miser miserabilis pauper caecus nudus Apoc. 3.17 Non coronabitur nisi qui legittime certaverit 2 Tim. 2.5 Nonne haec opportuit Christum pari ita intrare in gloriam suam Lu. 24.26 I love a virtuous and godly life but will not make use of the means which thou hast prescrib'd to attain it I am created to trade in this world for the advantage of my Soul and to bring my vessel laden with good works to the Land of Promise But alas this forty nay fifty years I have bufi'd my self even about trifles and now I finde I am no better than that Bishop thou didst so severely reprehend in the revelations for I may be very well call'd miser miserable poor blind and naked as well as he was so that I have great reason to fear thou wilt remove my candlestick out of its place and turn me off with a nescio vos unless I speedily resolve upon a better course of life and fight more manlike for a Crown in Heaven which I shall never obtain otherwise then by traceing the same paths which thou wentst into thy glory SAVIOVR THe only way to be happy for ever is to lead a virtuous life without any intermission not in parts or with intervals for this is losing of ground Thou art to press on and persevere for if thou dost discontinue thy course when wilt thou come to pronounce these words I am a Conquerour not a Conquerour of barbarous Enemies and Salvage Nations but of my own predominant and unruly passions of my vicious and evil inclinations of my Avarice Ambition and Lusts which have subjected even the greatest of Conquerours Who was a greater then Alexander that extended his Empire from Thracia to the utmost bounds of the Earth but yet he burnt Persepolis at the request of a Prostitute to gratifie his Lust 'T is true he overcame Darius and slew many thousands of the Persians yet he has murther'd Calisthenes and that single blot has tarnish'd all the glory of his great and numerous victories All the wishes of mortals and all the benefits which they can either give or receive are very little available to a happy life Those things which the common People gape after are transitory and vain whereas happiness is permanent nor is it to be estimated by number measure or parts for it is full and perfect this is Seneca the moral Philosophers discourse which should make thee O Christian man blush to set so slender an estimate upon my glory and upon the everlasting happiness which I promise unto thee if thou wilt resolve to lead a virtuous and godly life and depress thy passions with the dint of mortification and Pennance but thou dost not answer my expectation and yet wouldst fain be admitted into my glory at a cheaper rate then I had it my self This Pagan Philosopher shall rise in Judgement against thee and his following expressions will certainly condemn the little care thou hast of thy Salvation I do not says he speak as if my self were arriv'd at that blessed state of repose but yet it is something to be on the mending hand It is with me as with a man that 's creeping out of a disease he feels yet some grudgings of it he is every foot examining his pulse and suspects every touch of heat to be a relick of his fevour Just at that rate am I jealous of my self The best remedy that I know in this case is to go on with confidence and not to be misled by the errors of other People It is with our manners as with our healths 't is a degree of virtue the abating of vice as it is a degree of health the abating of a fit Could a Christian speak better or more to the purpose could he take a more assured way to prevent the increase of vice then what he prescribes Hear him once more speak some says he will place their happiness in wealth some in the liberty of the body and others in the pleasure of the sense and Palate But what are mettals Tasts Sounds or colours to the minde of a reasonable creature he that sets his heart upon the riches of this world the very fear of poverty will be grievous to him He that 's ambitious shall be gall'd with envy at a man that 's prefer'd before him For in that case he that is not first is last I do not says he speak against Riches for if they hurt a man 't is his own folly they may be indeed the cause of mischief as they are a temptation to those that do it Instead of courage they may inspire a man with arrogance and instead of magnanimity with insolence which is in truth but the counterfiet of heroick mindes and where 's the happiness of Luxury when a man divides his life betwixt the Kitchen and the stews betwixt an anxious conscience and a naufeous Stomach Caliguia was born to shew the world what mischief might be done by a concurrence of great wickedness and a great fortune he spent near 10000 l. Sterling upon a Supper The works and inventions of Luxury are indeed prodigious not only in the counterfieting of nature but even in surpassing it The Romans had their brooks even in their very parlours and found their dinners under their Tables The Mullet was reckon'd stale unless it dy'd in the hand of the Guiest And they had their glasses to put them into that they might the better observe all the changes and motions of them in the last Agony betwixt life and Death So that they fed their eyes before their bodies These people would not have given themselves half this trouble with a dying friend nay they would leave a Father or a Brother at his last hour to entertain themselves with the barbarous spectacle of an expiring Fish O man thou art a Christian and one that pretends to the height of perfection which is to follow me and ground thy life as well upon my councels as upon my examples thou hast in thy Baptism made a solemn oath to have an everlasting abhorrence of the world the flesh and the Devil thou hast renounc'd them for ever thou hast declar'd thy self an Enemy to all sorts of vice yet thou art more a slave to them then ever the Romans were to their bellies so that I verily believe had this Pagan Philosopher been now alive and seen the liberty that Christians take to run headlong into disorders and debauchery he would conclude their Religion to be
such a thing may be expected in this World But all those calamities I now have mention'd are common as well to the good as to the bad Lassati sumus in via iniquitatis perditionis ambulavimus vias difficiles viam autem domini ignoravimus Sap. 5. because they both sail in the same Sea and are both likewise expos'd to the self-same fortune yet I can demonstrate many other miseries which are peculiar to the wicked alone and these are not improperly term'd the Daughters of iniquity whose description will be much to our present purpose because they render the life of the wicked most abominable and their body and minde both subject to a multitude of miseries Hear what they themselves do confess of them Alas say they we have wearied our selves in the way of iniquity and perdition We have walk'd in most difficult and sinister paths during our whole lives for We know nothing of the way of the Lord by this their own discourse we may very well conclude that even as the Just enjoy a kind of Paradise here upon Earth and do expect a far more happy one in the other life so the wicked have in this World their Hell to which a far more intollerable shall succeed in th' other for evil Consciences proceed from Hell without doubt and they steer their course directly to the same Haven where they shall be tormented eternally And their products have proportionable evils deriv'd from several causes some of them are the effects of thy Justice O Lord for thou art a most just Judge in all thy proceedings sometimes thou dost order the sin to be punish'd as soon as committed and tho' thou dost usually reserve the punishment thereof to the other life yet the wicked are very often afflicted even in this life for the same 'T is most certain that as thou dost govern the whole World with a general providence thou dost also moderate every particular therein with a peculiar Providence so that as the number of our Sins does increase our Punishments shall be multipli'd to the same degree This we know by our many and fatal experiences for what were all our disasters hitherto as so many Revolutions of Government such vast alterations and changes in matters of State and Religion the various fortune of so many Kings and Princes Such horrid disloialty in Subjects to their lawful Sovereigns so many stupendious and destructive Famines and Conflagrations such inhumane and bloudy Wars so many pestilential Distempers such cruel Murthers so many private and publick dissentions and jars They were certainly the just punishments of our manifold and most grevious offences to make good what I say that the punishment immediately follows the sin I produce what thou O Lord saidst to Cain for a confirmation Nonne si bene egeris recipies si autem male statim in foribus peccatum aderit Gen. 7. Deut. 7. If thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted but If thou dost ill Sin lieth at thy door that is to say the pain and punishment of the Sin is at hand and Moises in thy name says as much to the People of Israel know then that the Lord thy God he is God the faithful God which keeps Covenant and Mercy with them that love him and keep his Commandments to a thousand Generations and repays them that hate him to their face to destroy them He will not be slack to him that hates him he will repay him to his face This word Statim so often repeated in Scripture and which signifies a quick return assures me that besides the punishments thon hast reserv'd for the wicked in th' other World thou hast also some in store whereby to chastise them even in this life immediately after the transgression of thy Law So that as often as they fall into Sin so often they feel the heavy weight of thy just indignation they are tost from one misery into another from one tribulation they fall into another this day brought to the bar for their misdemeanours to morrow condemn'd to dye and the next day shamefully put to death without making any reflection upon what might be the fatal cause of their great misfortune For they do not believe the goods of nature to be thy benefits and consequently not deserving their thanksgiving for them neither do they impute their punishment to thy Wrath nor as laid upon them by thy appointment and this blindness it is which prevents the amendment of their lives If there were no other evil in the World then the afflictions and miseries which attend our bodys it were not so much to be hated neither should our fear be so great to trade and converse therein but seeing our correspondence and freedom with it is so pernicions to our Souls also which ought to be the subject of our greatest care as being the principal part of our essence Pluet super peccatores laqueos Psal 10.6 and a precious depositum whereof We must give a strict account to thee O Lord We are necessarily in all reason oblig'd to estrange our selves from it and more especially for fear to be intangl'd in its Snares which are so numerous that the Prophet says of thee upon the wicked thon shalt rain Snares O what an unspeakable number of snares must be in the world then since they are compared to the drops of Rain that fall from Heaven and they must fall upon Sinners too because they of all men have the least care of their hearts of their senses and consciences they are the least solicitons to avoid the occasions of Sin and the least concern'd for Spiritual Remedys so that being intimately acquainted with the World they can't avoid falling into these Snares which come like Rain upon Sinners O Lord thou dost pour down Snares upon Youth Snares upon old Age there are Snares in every state and condition Snares in Riches Snares in Poverty Snares in Honours Snares in opprobrys Snares in Frindship Snares in the Society of Men as well as in the company of Women Snares in the Solitary Wilderness Snares in Prosperity Snares in Adversity Snares in all our senses In fine the Prophet crys out Snares upon all the Inhabitants of the Earth O Lord hadst thou vouchsaf'd to open our eyes as thou didst those of blessed St. Anthony Athanas. in vita St. Antony We should see how the whole World is spread over with Snares and so close that they touch one another and we would also admire as he did that any one should escape what wonder is it then that so many Souls should perish dayly and that St. Bernard should fay of ten Souls that flote upon the tempestious Sea of this World scarce one shall be fav'd and who shall not hate so dangerous a World who should not fear to live in so dreadful a place who will not strive with all his might and skill to avoid those Snares who will dare go bare-foot among so many Serpents