greater than other p. 167. c. 3. Superlatively the greatest p. 170. c 1 Reason Because it comes from so great a God p. 174. c. 2 Reason Because it is for despising so great a Saviour p. 177. 3 Reason Because inflicted for resisting the spirit p. 180. c. 4 Reason Because prepared for great Enemies p. 182. 5 Reason Because it hath a long reach p. 185. 1 It reacheth to the Soul p. 185. c. 2 It reacheth to eternity p. 187. c. 6 Reason Because it consists of great Punishments p. 189. 1 The Punishment of Loss 2 The Punishment of Sense p. 189. c. 1 Noted by the worm that dyeth not p. 192. 2 By the fire that never goes out p. 193. 1 Rationall Torments inflicted upon 1 The understanding 〈◊〉 2 The conscience in three things p. 1 Remembrance of things past 2 Sense of present misery p. 197. c. 3 Fear of wrath to come 3 The Will p. 200. 4 The Passions p. 221. c. 2 Sensible Torments for the Body p. 213. c. Use of Terrour p. 219. Prompting us to a 4 fold Meditation 1 Of Death p. 224. c. 2 Of Judgement p. 227. c. 3 Of Hell p. 230. c. 4 Of Heaven p. 232. c. The Conclusion from pag. 234. to the end GREAT SALVATION BY JESVS CHRIST Tendered to the greatest of Sinners c. Hebr. 2 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation SAlvation is so sweet a subject that its pitty it should meet with any but faithfull handlers and profitable hearers I may say of the very sillables of it as once holy Bernard did of that saving Name Jesus in which it was founded Mat. 1.21 That it is Mel in ore melos in aure jubilum in corde Hony to the mouth Musick to the eare and rejoycing to the heart Words of Salvation are breath of life and its pitty any of that should be likâ— breath scattered in the ayre they are water of life and its pitty it should be like water spilt upon the ground we should deal by such doctrine as goldsmiths do by the filings of their gold secure every dust of it As God saith to ungodly teachers so may we say unto ungodly hearers What have you to do to take my word into your mouthes or eares when it takes no hold upon your hearts Whereas you hate to be reformed and have cast my words behind you Psal 50.16 17. Salvation is such a mystery of miraculous mercy that the very Angells do delight to pry into is 1. Pet. 1.12 And as they were ministring Spirits to the great Saviour when he was upon Earth so they are glad to be Ministring Spirits to the heyres of this great Salvation Heb. 1.14 A Messenger coming from the dead and from that triumphant community of just and perfect Soules were fitter to speak to you of such a theam than one that 's going to the dead and is yet clothed with the raggs of mortality and corruption If such a one should hear us expressing our low conceptions of such sublime mysteries as accompany Salvation he wouldsay as the Queen of the South of Solomons wisdome that one half is not told you in your own Country If the Divell and damned Soules might hear but one Sermon more of Salvation with hope of obtaining it can you think that they would be so regardles and negligent as the common sort of hearers are Do you think that the divells themselves which beleeve the dreadfullness of perfected damnation and tremble to beleeve it would say to such a preacher as Foelix did to Paul Acts 24 25. Go thy way for this time and when I have a more convenient season I will call for thee This is the unum magnum the unicum maximum the great thing that the Apostle indeavours to secure in this place that none of Christs blood may be lost that none of his own Ministeriall labour may be labour in vaine In a word his drift and scope is that that Salvation which was so great in the operation and in the Revelation should be as great in the Worlds acceptation Christ had wrought it out who was the Son of God higher than Angells the great Prophet and Priest and King of his Church as this Epistle declares at large The Gospel had brought it to light which is the glorious Gospel of the blessed God 1. Tim. 1.11 which makes Salvation neerer and clearer than the law did And therefore if we accepâ— it not how shall we escape that is to say there is no possibâ—â—ity of escaping One of the Ancients hath laid down this Rule as Gods method of dealing with the refuiers of his mercy Ingentia beneficia flagitia supplicia Where God offers or bestowes great meâ—cies there the setting light by those mercies are sinns with an high hand and those great sinns draw down proportionable punishments Now according to this Rule 1. What mercy â—reater than Gospel-mercy 2. What sin can be greater than to set light by such mercy 3. What punishment can be greater than that that such sin deserves The Apostles words here considered as related to the context may be exactly reduced to hat rule we shall therefore from such premises draw these three naturall conclusions as the plaine results of this Scripture 1. That Salvation brought to light by the Gospel is great Salvation 2. That setting light by such Salvation is great sin 3. That the neglect of such great Salvation brings great damnation The First Doctrine Gospel Salvation is great Salvation BEfore we open the doore to let you into a clear sight of this truth it may not be impertinent to remove an objection that lies as a stumbling block at the very entrance and that is this In that we proclaime Gospel-Salvation to be great Salvation some may demand whether there be any other Salvation that may stand in competition with Gospel-Salvation To which we answer that God never revealed but two wayes unto mankind for Salvation The first was by a Covenant of workes manifested unto the first Adam as the Worlds representative wherein the condition was Hoc fac vive do this and thou shalt live or do this and be saved But that Law being transgressed and that Covenant broken and Adam and his posterity being under the curse of that Covenant and the wrath of God abiding on them God was pleased to enter into another Covenant of grace with mankind through the second Adam proposing unto them another condition Hoc crede vive whosoever beleeveth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life Iohn 3.16 Though there was an old way to Salvation by working held out by the law yet now the new and living way brought to light by the Gospel is the way of beleeving and this Salvation by the Covenant of grace doth as farr excell that by the Covenant of workes as the second Adam doth excell the first I may further adde that
beautie of holiness and power of Godliness giving up themselves bodys souls and spirits unto God upon the account of the Covenant desiring nothing more than that their hearts may be whole with God and they could be stedfast in his Covenant making God and Jesus Christ the joy of their hearts and breath of their lives and resolve to continue so doing to the death God hath provided for them suitable joyes and pleasures in the life to come Rationall delights for their reasonable souls and sensible delights for their glorified bodys Mistake not far be it from me to say or you to imagine that the glorified Saints shall enjoy such carnall delights in heaven which sensuall and flesh pleasing men do make their heaven upon earth that were a conceite better beseeming a Turk than a Christian the Proselytes of Mahomet have dreamed of such an earthly or rather hellish heaven by fancying such an Utopian Paradise into which the unclean may enter and the pleasures of sin shall meet them The sensible pleasures to be enjoyed there are such as sort and suite with the sublimated senses of glorified bodies and no other And as God hath prepared such suitable joyes and pleasures for such as love and serve him in sincerity even joyes for Soules and pleasures for bodâ—es for those that glorify him with Soules 〈…〉 so on the contrary those that will 〈…〉 â—ting call nor close with his 〈…〉 in accepting his dear Son 〈…〉 great Salvation offered with him but remaine sworne vassalls to the Divell World and Flesh giving up the parts and powers of their Soules and Bodies to serve sin in the lust of it These shall receive wages according to their work as they polluted themselves with filthiness of the flesh and spirit and dishonoured God with their Soules and Bodies so God will punish them accordingly their Soules with rationall punishments tribulation and anguish shall be upon the Soul of every one that doth evill and their bodies with sensible which the word shaddows out by fire and brimstone These two sorts of Torments are breifly contained in those Scriptures Isay 66.24 Mark 9.44 In the worme that dyeth not and the fire that never goeth out In which expressions expositors conceive the holy Ghost alludeth unto two Kinds of burialls of dead corpses some were interred in the earth and out of those wormes would breed which would eat them up and never leave devouring till all were consumed an Ancient gives this account of the degrees of that annihilation which resolves the body into its principle of nullity Caro in putredinem putredo in vermes vermis in pulvere pulvis in nihilum redigitur The flesh is turn'd into rottenness that rottenness into wormes those wormes into dust and that dust is reduced to nothing Other bodies were not buryed in the earth but were burned with fire and reduced to ashes and those ashes were reserved in urnes Only here is the difference this worme is not like that that devours bodies for when the body is consumed that worme dies nor is this fire like that that burnes carcasses for when the carcases are burnt that fire goes out but this is ignis inextinguibilis unquenchable fire By this never dying worme we are to understand the worme of an accusing and tormenting conscience that is ever gnawing and hereby we may understand all rationall torments of which the buffetings of conscience are the cheifest And by this fire that never goes out we are to understand the torments of sense set off by burning because that was the most torturing death that was inflicted by the Jewes but to open these a little more fully we will take them as they lie before us and speak of them apart 1 Rationall torments provided for damned Soules are a part and the greatest part of the torments of Hell for which this deserves to be called Great Damnation Now as the Soul is distributed into the understanding will and affections so we may assigne unto these soveral faculties their peculiar torments I only intend to touch upon them to give you a tast and not to enter upon any topicall and methodicall discourse concerning them 1 They shall be plagued in their understandings by seing and knowing and feeling themselves to be irrecoverably lost and intolerably miserable Here the messengers of the Lord knowing the terrors of the Lord did cry alowd to give warning of their sin and danger and duty they did throw Hell-fire in their faces and so gaster them with the thunder and lightning of Hell and damnation that they could never be at quiet but were even tormented before their time and when they had done their uttermost when they had studyed and preacht and prayed and waited and wept themselves into consumptions in seeking to them and to God for them that they might be saved they could make no better a report of their embassy to him that sent them but to this effect Lord who hath believed our report or to whom hath the arme of the Lord been revealed In which seat doth that Souâ— siâ— in what town is his habitation or in what family dwells he that was dead and is alive that was lost and is found Some of us thy unworthy servants Lord have through undeserved mercy been preachers ten some twenty some thirty some forty yeares and more to such and such congregations we have preacht some hundreds some of us thousands of Sermons and through grace we have indeavoured to do it faithfully in our measure we have taught publikly and from house to house we have spoken with authority and dealt personally and familiarly with the soules of refusers and all was but lost labour upon them though not a labour in vaine to our selves Will not this be a sad hearing for thousands when those that have been watchmen for their souls must come to give up this account with griefe But what will the Lord say to this Will he say to those that would not be taught be ignorant still and to those that would not be reformed be disobedient still no surely it may well be doubted whether the Lord had not formerly seared them up in their ignorance and prophaneness with such an hardning of their hardness by inflecting senslesness for their affecting senslesness But now it shall be otherwise the ignorant shall be no longer ignorant the drunkard swearer who monger sabboth-breaker shall be so no longer they shall see with their eyes and hear with their eares and understand with their hearts though they shall never be converted nor be healed Lord thy hand is lifted up said the Prophet Isay and they will not see thy wrath was in the threatning they saw a black clowd rising and a driving storme coming and would not beware but now they shall see volentes nolentes willing or nilling they shall hear and understand and be ashamed and confounded Then shall the damned know good and evill as the Angels that kept not their first estate know it and as the
impardonable and their torments unsuffereable Christs merit cannot then satisfie for their sins neither can Gods mercy pardon them God and Christ can as soone cease to be what they are as to do it The case of the damned for ever shall be much like that of the wicked that shall be alive immediately before Christ's coming to judgement Luk. 21.25 26. There shal be signs in the Sun and in the Moon and in the Stars that is if we consult Mat. 24.29 The Sun shal be darkned and the Moon shall not give her light and the Stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the Heavens shal be shaken c. When upon the world God shall rain Stars and the ungodly may ever expect when he shall rain snares fire and brimston storm and tempest to be the portion of the wicked to drink When these are but the beginning of sorrows more pangs are coming upon them as upon a woman in travel as the Evangelist Luke goes on upon the earth there shal be distress of Nations and perplexity the Sea and Waves roaring Mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming for all the judgements that are come they shall still be eaten up with fear of further wrath and indignation that is still a coming 2. Sensible torments provided for the bodies of the damned are also a part of those punishments which do denominate this to be GREAT DAMNATION As the former were comprehended under the Worm that dyeth not so these under the fire that never goeth out As the torments of conscience were put for all rational torments belonging to the Soul so the torments of the sense of feeling here signified by fire is put for all sensible torments belonging to the body I shall first discover unto you why the torments of hell are compared to fire The Jews before their Jurisdiction was taken away by Herod who was sur-named the great primus ex alienigenis Rex Judeorum the first of forraigners that was King of the Jews had three Courts of Judicature one was ruled by three men wherein were tryed money matters and lesser causes The 2 did consist of 23 Judges who heard decided weighty affairs and matters of life and death And these two were called the lesser Shanedrim The highest of all which was called the great Shanedrim had 71 Judges who had the hearing of most weighty affairs as the matter of a whole Tribe or an high Priest or a false Prophet Now the punishments that their Judicatories did infl ct were of four Sorts 1. Hanging 2. Beheading 3. Stoning 4. Burning And because burning was the most dreadful therefore doth our Saviour â—llude unto that in compâ—ring of hell-torments to fire Neither is it every kind of fire but the fire of Gehenna now that Gehenna was the Vally of Hinnom a place in the suburbs of Jerusalem where Idolaters offered their children halfe burnt to Idols Which place was also called Tophet from a word in the Hebrew tongue which signifies a Drum because they did beat drums to deaden the cries of the Infants while they were a burning Indeed those half burnings do best shadow out unto us those of hell where the dâ—mned shall be fuel for everlasting fire ever burning and never consumed ever dying and never dead It s also called fire and brimstone as if fire it self were not hot enough to shadow out the terrour of it I might here enlarge upon all the senses as we did before upon the faculties but the very torments of the Soul are the very Soul of torments and do as far surpass bodily torment as the Soul doth the body And I have enlarged so much upon that that its time to think of contracting here Yet for all the hast know that as Heaven is likened to a Kingdom where there is a confluence of Pleasures so Hell is compared to a Prison where there is an inundation of Miserys It s called in the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 utter darkness being furthest from God the Fountain of life and glory say some Because compared to a prison say others and prisons were usually without the gates of Cities and they were dark places especially the dungeons where malefactours were as it were buryed alive Without are doggs saith John of the new Jermsalem Revel 22.15 Within are children but without doggs And the Apostle calleth Infidels such as are without Col. 4.5 without indeed if you read all those withouts Eph. 2.12 Without Christ without the Commonwealth of Israel without the Covenant of promise without hope and without God in the world and surely those that are in hell are and everlastingly shal be without in all these respects Now as in a Prison all the senses have their punishments The Eyes are punished with darkness the Ears with complaints of fellow prisoners the Smell with loathsome stinks the Palate with the hunger or coursest provisions the Touch with the hard earth and cold and nakedness So in the prison of hell ther 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the blackness of darkness for the sight besides that cursed crue of the Devils and damned the displeased countenance of the Almighty and the sight of him whoâ— their sins have pierced Their ears shalâ—â— filled with roarings and howlings and gnashing of teeth besides the curses and blasphemies of the damned Their smell shall be suffocated with fire and brimston their tast glutted with Gall and Worm-wood and the dreggs of the Cup of the Lords Fury And their touch with fire with fire unquenchable Observe lastly that our Enquiries concerning Hell are here answered by fire to note out unto us the extremity of hell-torments Fire is as great a torment as our capacities can reach unto but if they can reach higher the terrours of those infernal torments are still out of our reach As a fire painted on a wall in the story of Dives and Lazarus is nothing in comparison of our Culinary fire so that fire that burns upon our hearths is but like a painted fire for heat to the flames of hell Suppose a woman should lye in the extreamest pangs of child-birth for 100 years or a man should lye languishing under the continual pains of stone and goute and collick for 1000. Suppose a Traytour should be upon the Rack as many years as there are drops in the Sea or a Malefactour should be a burning as many years as there are Sands on the Sea-shore Suppose Captives should be detained in the Turkish Gâ—llies or in that hell upon earth the Devils Slaughter-house the Spanish Inquisition for as many years as there are Stars in the Firmament These if they were real would be amazing and confounding considerations able to shake to pieces the stoutest heart of the most daring Nimrod but these that we have been speakâ—ng of are so infinitly beyond them ut nihil supra that nothing can be more transcendedently inconceivable and unspeakable AETERNITY is of such a length that when we
Divel perswaded our first parents to know it to know the excellency of good by the misery of evill by a wofull experimentall knowledge as light is known by darkness or sweetness by bitterness Then they shall be fully convinc'd in their judgements of that which no art of ours no evidence of the spirit could prevaile with them to believe that Gods justice is as infinite as his mercy and his mercy no larger than his truth That Christ is only a refuse for humble penitent believing sinners and none else that Hell is as hot and eternity full as long as Gods word and Ministers have told them 2 They shall be plagued in their consciences The conscience is taken to be a part of the practicall understanding Scientia cum scientia a reflex knowledge joyn'd with a direct knowledge and most of the rationall torments of the damned are discharged upon conscience and therefore the worme of conscience as instar omnium is synechdochically put for for all If a wounded conscience were an intolerable burden upon earth surely a damned conscience will be much more intolerable in Hell Some do cut this worme of conscience into three peices but cut it into an hundred and it will never die 1. Memoria praeteritorum 2. Sensus praesentium 3. Metus futurorum 1. The remembrance of things past 2. The sense of present misery 3. The fear of wrath to come But I may not enlarge upon these particulars least it swell this part of our discourse that it will not hold proportion with the rest While they lived here though the mighty word mannaged by Sons of thunder did often grate upon conscience that their sins were hardly the pleasures of sin for a season yet the spirit of slumber did often fall upon them and they might perhaps fall into some pleasing dream while that sleep lasted or they might be sear'd with an hot iron and made past feeling but when the pit shuts her mouth upon the sinner the conscience opens hers and opens it wide opens it so as it shall never be shut more the conscience is all feeling the sinner can never hope for any flattering anodine from his bribed conscience but must indure conscience as Judge Jury Witnes Executioner for ever ever When a sinner in hell shall look back upon his time upon earth and consider that God made him a reasonable creature fit to perform unto him reasonable service and reveal'd his righteous will in his law and Gospel both for matter and manner of his service and gâ—ve him his lot of being not onely in the bosome of his Church and in Gospel times but in reforming times when the Sun was broken out of a cloud and shined in strength and did strive with him by his Spirit in ordinances and providences making many gracious offers of Christ and with Christ himself and Spirit and all things belonging to their peace saying and swearing that he takes no delight in the death of sinners intreating and beseeching them to be reconciled to return and live expostulating with them why they will dye why they will not be gathered waiting with invincible patience and a very miracle of long-suffering when it will once be yet after all this after Christ and mercy and grace have been offered and refused after sin hath been reproved and yet continued in Faith and other graces have been pressed of as absolute necessity to Salvation and never heeded duty hath been taught and never performed seasons opportunitys have been offered and all neglected and frustrated and now to consider that there shall never be one call more one offer of grace more one opportunity to be saved more they are all lost and lost for ever this makes the heart to sinke and dye and this is the worm of consciencâ— that never dyes Sinners believe it though you can now slight Christ at your pleasure and wilfully neglect this great Salvation and deipise the riches of Gods patience and long-suffering and will not be brought to repentance all the cords of Love cannot draw you to it and neither scourges nor scorpions can drive you when this shal be lookt back upon in hell and the time is near it will prove the most torturing torment in the bottomless pit the most tormenting torture that the damned can meet with through all eternity Then let the stundiest sinner refuse to submit to the sentence of Damnation if he can let him turn away his ear from the clamours of his conscience if he can let him break prison get out of hell if he can or if he cannot as it is more than infinitely impossible then let men set themselves sericusly and seasonably to the preventing of it and make use of Gods gracious warnings that they never come into those torments 3. They shal be plagued in their Wills with stubborness and wilfulness God would and they would not here they would and God would not when they were departing hence but neither they nor God will when they come to hell the sinner that could not be wrought upon to be made willing in the time of Love shal be of obdurate that he shal be wilfull in the day of his wrath sins of the damned do partake much of that wilfulness that is in the sinners against the Holy Ghost here as here they sin willingly so there they sin wilfully As by Adam's sin mankind was bound up to good let loose to evil and that is all the moral freewil they have till through regeneration the Son hath made them free indeed so after judgement is past upon them the damned are utterly disabled from all good and their hearts are set in them to do wickedly so that they are sinning and yet suffering suffering and yet sinning for ever and ever The damned could well enough away with a hell of sin but they cannot indure a hell of suffering if that might but be abated it were the haven where they would be Objection But if sin be their delight is this wilfulness in sinning their plague and punishment Answer yea and as great as any for as Pharoah's hard heart was the biggest plague in Egypt that pull'd down all the rest so this sining frame of Spirit this sinning wilfully and with a hard heart is one of the greatest plagues of hell for if the sins of a sinners life were not more than enough this would find fuel to supply the fire for ever and ever 4. I shall but touch upon some of the passions and pass over to the next Love Joy Hope Desire being bereft of their objects the damned are bereft of them they would not love God nor what God loves here and there they cannot they would not joy in believing here with joy unspeakable and glorious the joy of grace and Salvation would not relish with them and now they have nothing to rejoyce in while they lived they made a kind of a mock-consolation of the pleasures of sin of the Profits
or can they indure everlasting burnings Can the conflict with the wrath of God which is a devouring fire burning to the bottome of Hell dare they provoke the Lord to jealousy oh foolish people and unwise Ah t is a fearfull thing to fall into the sin revenging hands of the living God Can they undergo the curse of that fiery Law that was given with thunder and lightning and the sound of the trumpet or indure the appearing of the Lord Jesus when he shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angells and in flaming fire to render vengeance to them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power Can they grapple with the strong man armed without a stronger then he to their second How will they withstand their sinns when they shall be gathered together in a generall muster and set in battle arey in a most formidable army and armed with the teeth of Dragons and stings of Scorpions to kill their Bodies and Souls in Hell When the numberless number of their notorious provocations shall breake in furiously like a Sea of Billows to drive away the wicked in his wickedness and another sea of wrath shall be tumbling in after it When evills unrepented of like a kennel of Hell-hounds shall hunt the wicked persons to destruction When God shall be so severe to observe euery thing that is done amisse and shall set in order before us the things that we have done how shall we then answer to one of a Thousand Can you give battle to the King of feares or secure yourselves from a heart-quake when death hangs out his black colours and gives you an alarme will not your hearts then die like a stone or fall asunder in your brests like drops or water when your consciences are clamorous and speak bitter things against you will not Belshazzers palsy seize upon your joints and when you think of that judgement that follows death that fire and brimstone which is the second death will not this make you with Foelix to quake and tremple Oh do but forethinke with yourselves that you shall be as unable to stand in the day of the Lords wrath as chaff to stand before a whirlewinde or stubble before a consuming fire O consider this you that forget God least ye be torn in peices and there be none to deliver you 4 USE Is of Consolation to all such as have cordially closed with this great Salvation As the refusers of it deserve to be stigmatiz'd for notorious fooles for so wise Solomon declaims against them Prov. 1.22 How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity and the scorners delight in their scorning and fooles hate knowledge So such as thankfully accept and embrace this great Salvation deserve the reputation of the wisest of men no foole to the willfull sinner and no wisedome comparable to that that makes wise unto Salvation How was Timothy renowned and his fame rings as far as the Gospel is preached for searching the scripture which were able to make him wise unto Salvation 2 Tim 3.15 To be wise unto Salvation is to be wise indeed all wisedome that comes short of this leaves the possessors of it short of the beginning of wisedome To be wise for the world and wise after the flesh is in Gods esteem to be but fooles and rather a barr to keep men out of Heaven than a door to let them in and therefore our first lesson is selfe-deniall which consists in a denyall of our witts as well as a denyall of our wills and of our worth which the Apostle hints when he saith If any man will be wise let him become a foole that he may be wise As the wisedome of God is foolishesness with the world and God saves men by the foolishness of preaching 1 Cor. 1.21 So the wisedome of the world is foolishness with God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8.7 The wisedome of the flesh is enmity with God To be wise to do wickedly is the most foolish of all wisedome are not they without understanding that worke wickedness Ps 14.4 This wisedome is not from above but carnall sensuall and divelish To be wise according to art in Phisicks Ethicks Politicks Oeconomicks c. and to want the wisedome from above which Gods word and spirit do teach is but umbra sapientiae the shaddow of wisedome and can make men no better than learned fooles all amounting to no more than erudita ignorantia a finer sort of ignorance but to be wise for God for Heaven for our Soules for Salvation this is to be wise indeed A true Israelite indeed a true Christian indeed and true wisedome indeed are much worth when such as are so in shew are but like cyphers in Arithmetick joyne as many together as will fill a volume and they will signifie nothing O consider that when you have layd out your money for that that is not bread and have spent time and strength for that which cannot profit you will be the first that shall befoole your selves as soon as God shall anoint your eyes with eye salve from above then you will say with David so foolish was I and ignorant even as a very bruit before thee Psal 73.22 And my wounds stinke and are corrupt through my foolishness Psal 38.5 Yea the time is coming when those that thought the children of God to be fooles because they set their hearts upon a wisdome that was above the world shall condemne their own wretched folly and magnify the others wisedome as Wisd 5.4 5. We fooles thought his life madnesse and his end without honour how is he counted among the Children of God and his portion is among the Saints To draw towards a conclusion of this use they shall not only gaine the reputation of wisedome but as Solomon when he desired an understanding and religions heart in the first place had riches and honour given in ex abundanti as more than measure so shall these And therefore they are called heyres of Salvation Heb. 1.14 a title next in dignity and riches unto his who is called in the second verse of that chapter the heir of all things All Gods Sonns are heyres and fellow-heyres with Jesus Christ Rom 8.17 and being received into the glorious liberty of Gods adopted Sonns by their union with Christ they communicate in all the priviledges of Justification reconciliation adoption sanctification and glory They have a right to all the priviledges of the Sonns of God The love of the Father the grace of the Son The Communion of the holy Spirit The protection of the Trinity The guardianship of Angells The comforts of an appeased conscience The comfortable enjoyment of the things of this life and the beleiving expectation of the good things of the life to come We looke upon him as honourably and richly provided for that is a Kings
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