be tormented for ever and ever Non habebunt requiem die vel nocte sed cruciabuntur inaeternùm Each of the former torments is of it selfe intolerable and all of them most insufferable yet all must bee endured without all meanes of ease or hope of release the banishment is perpetuall the chaines everlasting the worme immortall the fire unquenchable No losse so great as of the Kingdome of Heaven no prison so loathsome as the dungeon of Hell no sight so gastly as of the ougly fiends no shreeking so lamentable as of damned ghosts no stench so loathsome as of the lake of brimstone no worme so biting as the remorse of conscience no fire so hot as the wrath of God but such losses never to be recovered such chaines never to bee loosed such darknesse never to be enlightened such sights never to be removed such noyse never to be stilled such fumes never to be dispelled such a worme never to be pluckt off such fire never to be quenched such torments never to be released such misery never to be ended maketh up such a punishment as exceedeth all humane eloquence to expresse patience to endure What shall I say more Who of us is able to hold out long with a vehement fit of a burning feaver or colicke or stone though lying in a sweet roome upon a soft bed having the best meanes of physicke to mitigate the paine and comfort of friends to strengthen our patience If the Physician should tell us that after a moneth or a yeere we should be out of our extreme fits he would be so farre from chearing us up that hee would neere drive us to despaire how then shall wee bee able to endure the scorching flames of the brimstone lake in the darke dungeon of Hell where we have no other comforters about us than insulting Divels or perhaps some of our dearest friends and kinred tormented with us Yet if these paines lasted but for a yeere or an age or a thousand yeeres or the duration of the world though so great misery could admit of no possible comfort yet there might bee some hope but now after many ages and millions of yeeres spent in this insufferable torment to endure as many more and againe as many more and after all this to be nothing neerer to the end than at the first day of their entrance into that place of durance O this is able to breake an heart even as hard as Adamant Happy are we that we have time to think on and means to prevent these endlesse paines for which the damned soules would give a thousand lives if they had them for their neglect thereof while the time served them they now pierce their hearts and rend their soules with these and the like lamentations Woe worth our brutish sottishnesse and beastly folly whereby for painted shewes and vanishing shadowes of sinfull pleasures we have forgone everlasting joyes and the glory of a celestiall Kingdome O that we should be so retchlesse as never to fore-thinke of the wretchednesse we are now come to O that wee should refuse the meanes freely offered unto us to escape these torments for which wee would now give the price of our dearest hearts bloud O that we might be released but for a while out of these torments If we might returne to life againe what would we not doe what would we not suffer that we might not come to this dismall place But alas all is too late the irrevocable sentence is pronounced the time of repentance is past but the time of our sorrow shall never passe All our prayers are now fruitlesse our complaints bootlesse our mourning regardlesse our griefe remedilesse our woe comfortlesse our torments endlesse If the consideration of these things move us not beloved brethren we beleeve them not if we beleeve them not we are not what we professe to be that is Christians If there be no such torments in Hell as I have in part described then which to thinke and much more to utter deserveth a thousand Hells there is no truth in the Gospel upon the expresse Text whereof I have all this while enlarged my selfe Nay yet further I shall be able to demonstrate unto you that if ye beleeve there is no Hell that ye are no men because ye have no conscience There is no conscience if no religion no religion if no God no God if no providence no providence if no justice no justice if no torments to be endured after this life by them who have violated all humane and divine lawes and received no condigne punishment in this world Nature hath given us an image of Hell in Aetna and other hills that continually burne and of the damned in the Salamander and Pyrausts that live in the fire The ancient Grecians and Romans yea the Barbarous Indians that have no learning among them yet acknowledge a kind of Hell so witnesseth the Relator of the * Hist Virgin Animae immortalitatem agnoscunt eamque putant post mortem pro meritis transferri aut ad deorum sedes aut ad ingentem sero bem igne ardentem Popogusso dictam quam in extremis mundi partibus sitam ex itimant Virginia voyage The Virginians saith he acknowledge the immortality of soules and they beleeve that after death according to their desert they are either translated from hence into the seats of the gods or are carried to a huge ditch burning with fire called Popogusso An evident argument that God hath engraven the image of Hell so deep in mens consciences to deterre them from ungodlinesse that the Divell cannot raze it cleane out though he desireth nothing more But I speake to Christians with whom this reason alone is sufficient to enforce their assent If there be no Hell Christ descended not into it nor triumphed over it If no second death Christ hath not redeemed us from it But hee hath certainly i Apoc. 20.6 redeemed all that beleeve and have part in the first resurrection Other things we beleeve because they are so this is undoubtedly so if we beleeve it O what an easie condition is this to have our debts paid for us if by faith we take the summe laid downe for our discharge and tender it unto God and be carefull to run into no more arrerages He is most worthy to lye in the prison of Hell till he pay the uttermost farthing of his debts who can have them paid for him upon so easie termes and will not Wee have looked long enough downe upon Hell and Death let us now looke up to our Saviour who triumphed over both Let the sight of the one as much raise us up in hope as of the other dejecteth us in feare let the serious meditation upon the everlasting flames of Hell kindle in us an everlasting hate of sinne and love of our Saviour who by his fasting hath famished the worme of conscience that now it shall bite no more and by his bloud hath quenched
us they may receive us into everlasting habitations 5. To seeke the Lord whilest hee may bee found and not to deferre our repentance from day to day 6. To be sure to provide for our eternall state whatsoever becommeth of our temporall and to preferre the salvation of our soule before the gaining of the whole world 7. To examine daily our spirituall estate and to informe our selves truly how we stand in the Court of Heaven in Gods favour or out of it 8. To observe to what sinnes wee are most subject and where wee are weakest there continually to fortifie against Sathans batteries 9. In all weighty occasions especially such as concerne our spirituall estate to aske counsell of God and take direction from his Word 10. To consider the speciall workes of Gods providence in the carriage of the affaires of this world and make use thereof to our selves 11. Lastly to meditate upon the Law of God all the dayes of our life and consider their blessed end that keep it with their whole heart and their accursed death that transgresse it And so I fall upon the second branch of my Text Observ 3 They would consider I have already proposed wisedome to your desires now I am to commend consideration to your wisedome The Schoole Divines make this the speciall difference between the knowledge of men and Angels that the knowledge of Angels is intuitive but of men discursive they see all things to which the beame of their sight extendeth as it were on the sudden with one cast of the eye but we by degrees see one thing after another and inferre effects from causes and conclusions from principles and particulars from generalls they have the treasures of wisedome and knowledge ready alwayes at hand we by reading hearing conference but especially by meditation must digge it out of the precious mynes where it lyeth In which regard Barradius alluding to the sound of the word though not to the Grammaticall originall saith meditatio est quasi mentis ditatio meditation is the enriching of the soule because it delves into the rich mynes of wisedome and maketh use of all that wee heare or reade and layeth it up in our memories Seneca fitly termeth it rumination or chewing of the cud which maketh the food of the soule taste sweeter in the mouth and digest better in the stomacke By the Law of God the u Levit. 11.3 7. beasts that chewed not the cud were reckoned among the unclean of which the people of God might not eate such are they in the Church that never ruminate or meditate upon those things they take in at the eare which is the soules mouth I know no difference more apparent between a wise man and a foole than this that the one is prometheus hee adviseth before the other is epimetheus he acteth first and deliberateth afterwards and * Hesiod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wardeth after hee hath received the wound the one doth all things headily and rashly the other maturely and advisedly A man that hath an understanding spirit calleth all his thoughts together and holdeth a cabinet councell in the closet of his heart and there propoundeth debateth deliberateth and resolveth what hee hath to doe and how before hee imbarke himselfe into any great designe or weighty affaire For want of this preconsideration most men commit many errours and fall into great inconveniences troubles and mischiefes and are often caught unawares in the Divels snare which they might easily have shunned if they had looked before they leaped and fore-casted their course before they entred into it It is a lamentable thing to see how many men partly through carelesnesse and incogitancie partly through a desire to enjoy their sensuall pleasures without any interruption suffer Sathan like a cunning Faulkner to put a hood upon their soules and therewith blind the eyes of the understanding and never offer to plucke it off or stirre it before hee hath brought them to utter darknesse O that men were wise to understand this cunning of the Divell Application and consider alwayes what they doe before they doe it and be they never so resolutely bent and hot set upon any businesse yet according to the advice of the x Cic. Orat. pro Pub. Quint. Si haec duo solùm verba tecum habuisses Quid ago respirasset credo cupiditas c. Orator to give their desires so long a breathing time till they have spoken these two words to themselves Quid agimus what doe we what are we about is it a commendable worke is it agreeable to the Word of God and sutable to our calling is it of good report and all circumstances considered expedient if so goe on in Gods name and the Lord prosper your handy-workes but if otherwise meddle not with it and put off all that the Divell or carnall wisedome can alledge to induce you unto it with these checkes of your own consciences saying to your selves Shall we offend God shall we charge our consciences shall we staine our reputation shall we scandalize our profession shall we despite the Spirit of grace shall we forfeit our estate in Gods promises and foregoe a title to a Kingdome shall wee pull downe all Gods plagues and judgements upon us in this life and hazzard the damnation of body and soule in hell and all this for an earthly vanity a fading commodity a momentary pleasure an opinion of honour a thought of contentment a dreame of happinesse Shall we bett with the Divell and stake our soules against a trifle shall we venture our life and put all the treasures of Gods grace and our crowne of glory in the Divels bottome for such light and vile merchandize as this world affordeth Is it not folly nay madnesse to lay out all upon one great feast knowing that we should fast all the yeere after to venture the boiling in the river of brimstone for ever for bathing our selves in the pleasures of sinne for an houre We forbid our children to eate fruit because we say it breedeth wormes in their bellies and if wee had the like care of the health of our soules as of their bodies wee would for the same reason abstaine from the forbidden fruit of sinne because it breedeth in the conscience a never dying worme O that we were wise to understand this and to Consider our later end I have proposed wisedome to your desires in the first place and in the second referred consideration to your wisedome now in the last place I am to recommend your later end to your consideration A wise man beginneth with the end which is first in the intention but last in the execution and as we judge of stuffes by their last so of all courses by their end to which they tend It is not the first or middle but the last scene that denominateth the play a tragedy or a comedy and it is the state of a man at his death and after upon which wee are to
sed spe debemus indubitatâ praesumere Gregory impropriateth not this assurance to himselfe or some few to whom God extraordinarily revealeth their state hereafter but extendeth it to all making it a common duty not a speciall gift saying Being supported with this certainty wee ought nothing to doubt of the mercy of our Redeemer but bee confident thereof out of an assured hope By the coherence of the text in the eighth to the Romans we may infallibly gather that all that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit and have received the first fruits thereof and the testimony within themselves are the Sonnes of God know that all things worke together for their good Have wee not all received the spirit of adoption doe we not come to God as children to a most loving father doe wee not daily in confidence of his love cry Abba Father If so then the Apostle addeth farther that the Spirit testifieth to our spirit that we are the sonnes of God And lest any hereticall doubt cast in might trouble the spring of everlasting comfort as if we were indeed made sonnes for the present but might forfeit our adoption and thereby lose our inheritance the Apostle cleareth all in the words following v. 17. If sonnes then heires heires of God and joynt heires with Christ God adopteth no sonne whom he intendeth not to make his heire neither can any that is borne of him cease to be his sonne because the ſ 1 Pet. 1.23 Being borne againe not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible seed of which he is borne is incorruptible and this seed still remaineth in him 1 John 3.9 Whosoever is borne of God doth not commit sinne for his seed remaineth in him There are three means of assurance among men 1 Earnests 2 Seales 3 Witnesses In bargaines earnests in deeds seales in trialls witnesses First to secure summes of money or bargaines we take earnests of men or some pledge behold this security given us by God even the t 2 Cor. 1.22 earnest of his Spirit in our hearts On which words St. u Chrysost in secund ad Cor. hom l. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostome thus plainely glosseth He saith not the Spirit but the earnest of the Spirit that thou mayst be every way confident for if he meant not to give thee the whole he would never have given this earnest in present For this had beene to lose his earnest and cast it away in vaine Secondly to confirme all grants licences bonds leases testaments and conveyances seales are required behold this confirmation also Ephes 1.13 In whom ye are sealed by that holy Spirit of promise and 4.30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed to the day of redemption Whether we speake of the seale sealing or the seale sealed we have both For we are sealed by the Spirit of grace as by the seale sealing and by the grace of the Spirit as the seale sealed that is printed upon us In reference to which place Daniel x Chamierus de fid l. 10. c. 13. Sigillorum varii sunt gradus alia simpliciter ad rei pertinent certitudinem indefinité sic Reges sigillis suis muniunt diplomata sic contrahentes sigillis schedam suam muniunt sed alia spectant personae certitudinem quae obsignari dicitur id est signo peculiari insigniri ut eo sciat se in numerum eorum ascriptum ad quos tale aliquod jus pertinet ut cum Rex Equitibus suis torques concedit ut procerto habeat se Equites esse Chamierus rightly noteth that there are seales put to things for their confirmation and certaine signes or badges answerable to seales given to persons at their investiture as a collar of S's and a blew ribbon with a George to the knights of the Garter c. We have both these seales sigillum rei by the Sacrament and sigillum personae by the Spirit which sealeth us to the day of our redemption Thirdly to prove any matter of fact in Courts of justice witnesses are produced behold this proofe of our right and title to a kingdome in heaven proofe I say by witnesses beyond exception the holy Spirit and our renewed consciences The Spirit it selfe beareth witnesse with our Spirit that wee are the children of God Rom. 8.16 On which words St. Chrysostome thus enlargeth himselfe y Chrysost in epist ad Rom. c. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If a man or an Angel or an Archangel had promised thee this honour to be the Sonne of God thou mightest peradventure have made some doubt of it but now when God himselfe giveth thee this title commanding thee to call him Abba Father who dare question thy title If the King himselfe pricke a Sheriffe or send him the Garter or the Seale what subject dare gainesay it Lastly as the Planets are knowne by their influence and the Diamond by his lustre and the Balsamum by his medicinall vertue and the soule by her vitall operations so the gift here promised is most sensibly knowne by the effects 1 Exceeding love 2 Secure peace 3 Unspeakable joy 4 Invincible courage He that is not certain that he hath or ever shall receive any benefit by another or comfort in him loveth but a little He that was condemned to die and cannot tell whether he hath a pardon for his life or no can be at no peace he that heareth glad tidings but giveth little credit to them rejoyceth but faintly he who hath no assurance of a better life will be advised how he parteth with this But the Saints of God and Martyrs of Jesus Christ are exceedingly enflamed with the love of their Redeemer in comparison whereof they esteeme all things as dung they enjoy peace that passeth all understanding they are ravished with spirituall joy they so little passe for this present life that they are ready not onely to be bound but to dye for the Lord Jesu they rejoyce in their sufferings they sing in the middest of the flames they lie as contentedly upon the racke as upon a bed of doune they prove masteries with all sorts of evill they weary both tortures and tormentors and in all are more than Conquerours therefore they know assuredly how they stand in the Court of heaven they feele within them what Christ hath done for them they have received already the first fruits of heavenly joyes and doubt not of the whole crop they haue received the earnest and doubt not of their full pay they have received the seales and doubt not of the deeds of their salvation they have received the testimonie of the Spirit and doubt not of their adoption they have received the white stone in my text and doubt not of their absolution from death and election to a kingdome in heaven What doe their dying speeches that ought to live in perpetuall memory import lesse First St. y 2 Tim. 4.6 7 8. Pauls I am now ready to be
of our religion dare tell the world that wee are all for faith and that wee hold workes to salvation as a parenthesis to a sentence Heaven and earth shall witnesse the injustice of this calumniation and your consciences shall be our compurgatours this day which shall testifie to you both now and on your death-bed that wee have taught you there is no lesse necessitie of good workes than if you should bee saved by them and that though you cannot be saved by them as the meritorious causes of your glory yet that you cannot be saved without them as the necessary effects of that grace which brings glory Indeed we doe not hover over your expiring soules at your death beds as Ravens over a carkasse we doe not beg for a covent nor fright you with Purgatorie nor chaffer with you for that invisible treasure of the Church whereof there is but one key keeper at Rome but we tell you that the making of friends with this Mammon of unrighteousnesse is the way to eternall habitations They say of Cyrus that he was wont to say He layd up treasure for himselfe when hee made his friends rich but we say to you that you lay up treasures for your selves in heaven whilest you make the poore your friends on earth Hee shall never be Gods heire in heaven who lendeth him nothing on earth As the wittie Poet sayd of extreme tall men that they were like Cypresse trees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so may I say of a straithanded rich man and these Cypresses are not for the Garden of Paradise None shall be ever planted there but the fruitfull and if the first Paradise had any trees in it onely for pleasure I am sure the second which is in the midst of the new Jerusalem shall have no tree that beares not twelve fruits yea whose very leaves are not beneficiall Doe good therefore O yee rich and shew your wealth to be not in having but in doing good and so doe it that wee may thanke you not your death-bed for it Late beneficence is better than none but so much as early beneficence is better than late He that gives not till he dies shewes that he would not give if he could keepe it That which you give thus you give it by your testament I can scarce say you give it by your will The good mans praise is dispersit dedit he disperses his goods not he left them behinde him and his distribution is seconded with the retribution of God His righteousnesse endureth for ever Psal 112.9 Our Saviour tells us that our good workes are our light Let your light so shine that men may see your good workes Which of you lets his light goe behind him and hath it not rather carried before him that he may see which way it goes and which way himselfe goes by it Doe good therefore in your life that you may have comfort in your death and a crowne of life after death Here the Preacher filled up his border with the gifts of this Citie as it were so many precious stones in stead whereof because I am not appointed to rehearse your deeds but the Preachers Sermon I will fill it up with the praises of the Speaker His sentences were verè lineae aureae according to Junius his translation of my text cum punctis argenteis the latter whereof interlaced his whole discourse It remaineth that as I have done in the former so I worke the embleme of the giver in his gift The Image shall be Marcus Callidius the Motto or words the words of Tullie De claris Oratoribus Orator non unus è multis sed inter multos singularis reconditas exquisitasque sententias mollis perlucens vestiebat oratio Nihil tam tenerum quam illius comprehensio verborum quae ita pura erat ut nihil liquidius ita liberè fluebat ut nusquam adhaeresceret nullum nisi in loco positum tanquam emblemate vermiculato verbum structum videres accedebat ordo rerum plenus artis actio liberalis totumque dicendi genus placidum sanum THE THIRD BORDER OR HORTUS DELICIARUM The third border of gold with studs of silver which the third Speaker offered to the Spouse was wrought upon those texts Gen. 2.15 16 17. And the Lord God tooke the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dresse it and to keepe it And the Lord God commanded the man saying Of every tree of the Garden thou mayest freely eate But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evill thou shalt not eat of it for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die And thus he put it on THis Scripture containeth in it seven particulars of which by Gods assistance in order The third Sermon preached by Dr. Hacket sometimes fellow of new Colledge in Oxon abridged 1 Who tooke The Lord God 2 Whom The man Adam 3 What he did with him He placed him in Paradise 4 To what end To dresse and keepe it 5 God his large permission to the man To eat of all other trees 6 His restraint from the tree of knowledge 7 His punishment if he refraine it not Thou shalt die the death 1. Who tooke The Lord God Jehovah Elohim In Jehovah note the Unitie Elohim the Trinitie of persons Jehovah signifieth that he is of himselfe and giveth to all other to be for he is as Damascene teacheth the beeing of them that be the life of all that live Elohim signifieth which ruleth and disposeth all Of this Almighty Maker and Disposer of all the more wee speake the more we have to speake the more we thinke of him the more wee finde him greater than our thoughts and therefore with silence admiring that majesty which neither tongue of men nor Angels can expresse I passe to the second particular The Man Man consisteth of a body and a soule 2. Whom his body was made of the earth his soule was inspired by God not propagated by generation The soule doth neither beget nor is begotten saith Chrysostome but is infused by God who is said by the Preacher to give the soule a Eccl. 12.7 The Spirit shall returne to God that gave it and in this respect is called by the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrewes The b Heb. 12 9. Father of Spirits Upon which words St. Jerome inferreth Ridendi sunt qui putant animas cum corporibus seri and St. Austine refelleth that opinion by Adams words concerning Eve This is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh he saith not soule of my soule In this part of man man is said to be made according to Gods own Image for the c Epiphan haeres 70. Audians heresie which attributed the corporall lineaments of man to God is long agoe exploded and that in a threefold respect 1. In respect of the faculties of the soule 1. Understanding 2. Will. 2. In regard of the qualities of the soule