quake and tremble to thinke of them How faine would I snatch thy soule out of this fire Vndoubtedlie know that if this warning doe thee no good it is because thou art of old iustlie ordained to perish in thy impenetency and to bee a fire-brand in these euerlasting flames Now on the contrarie if thou beest a vessell of mercie and honour it will doe thee no hurt but driue thee to Christ in whom there is no condemnation who onelie is perfectlie able to saue and deliuer thee out of this Lake If thou be est alreadie in him it will cause thee to reioyce in thy Lord and Sauiour who hath deliuered thee from the feare of two such enemies that now thou mayst with the Ostrich in Iob despise the horse and his rider and triumph by Faith ouer Hell and Death O Death where is thy sting Oh Hell where is thy victorie Death is to men as he comes attended To Diues he comes followed with Diuells to carrie his soule to Hell To Lazarus with troopes of Angels to conuey him to Abrahams bosome So that we may in earnest say that Death is the Atheists feare and the Christians desire Diogines could iestingly call it The Rich mans enemie and the Poore mans friend This this is that which makes death so easie so familiar and dreadlesse to a belieuer he sees Death indeede but Death is not Death without Hell follow him and Hell he sees not but onely as escaped and vanquished and therefore is said not to see Death Now sayes the belieuer comes death and the Prince of this world with him but he hath no part in mee all the bitternesse and teares of death lye in the feare of Hell which thanks be to Christ hath nothing to do with me nor I with it and therefore I taste not of death now comes Gods Sergeant pale death whom I know I cannot auoyde but this I know he comes not to arrest me to carry me to prison but only to inuite me to a feast attend and conuey me thither Let such feare him as are in debt and danger mine are all discharged and cancelled he comes with his horse to take vp me behind him and to fetch me to my fathers ioyes to a Paradice as full of pleasures as he carries the wicked to a prison full of paines Pharaohs Baker and Butler were sent for out of prison the one to promotion the other to execution hee that had the ill Dreame expected the Messenger with horror the other longed for him with comfort The latter is my case therefore though I be reasonably wel in this world as a child at board yet home is home therefore will I waite till this pale horse comes and bid him heartily welcome and with him the Angels of my Father who haue a charge to lay my body in a bed of rest and to bestow my soule vnder the Altar as it followes in the next seale which is so pleasing a vision that we neede no voice or preface such as we had in the former inuiting vs to Come and see the very excellency of the obiect it self is of force enough to draw and hold the eies of our minds vnto it The second Sermon VERSE 9. And when hee had opened the first Seale I saw vnder the Altar the Soules c. WHen Death hath bin viewed in the palest and Hell in the blackest colors that may be yet if wee haue Faith enough to see Soules in their White roabes vnder the Altar there is comfort enough against the horror of both enough to enable the belieuer to despise and trample ouer them â—ooth In the opening of this fifth Seale I hope to finde more sollid Antidotes more liuely Cordialls against the feare of Death then in all the dead and drie precepts of Bellarmines doting Art of dying For this part of the vision was shewed Iohn of purpose to sweeten the harshnesse of the former that his spirit grieued and amazed with the sight of the calamities and mortalitie vnder the persecuting Butchers rather then Emperours might yet be relieued and refreshed with a sight of the blessed estate of such as died either in or for the Lord. Wherein was proposed to his sight and to our consideration these seuerals First the immortall subsistence of soules after their seperation from the body Secondly their sure and secure condition vnder the Altar Thirdly their dignity and felicitie clothed with white robes Fourthly their compleate happinesse at the last day when the number of their bretheren shall be accomplished Of all these Christ meant Iohn should take notice and al beleeuers by his testimony to their full consolation First Iohn being in the spirit could see spirits men indeed clad in flesh can hardly imagine how a soule can haue existence out of the flesh Eagles can see that which Owles cannot so is that visible and credible to a spirituall man which to a naturall is inuisible incredible And yet euen natures dimme eyes haue beene cleere enough to see this truth Nature I say pure and meere nature not only the Platonists and other learned ones who resolutely concluded it and aptly resembled it to the distinct being of the waggoner after the breaking of the Coach the swimming out of the Mariner in the wreake of the ship the creeping of the snayle out of the shell the worme out of the case not vnto the learned Grecians and ciuilized Romans But euen the rudest Scythians and vnlettered Sauages yea though there bee many Languages and sundrie Dialects in the world yet is and hath this euer been the common voyce of them all That soules die not with the body And howeuer the bodies resurrection hath to them been a Problem and Paradoxe yet is the soules eternitie an inbred instinct sucked from natures breast or rather an indelible principle stamped in the soules of men by the finger of God And indeed to right reason what difficulty or absurditie is there in it What lets mee to conceiue a being of it in the Ayre in the Heauen or in any other place as well as in the compasse of my body is not one substance as capable of it as another Can it liue in the one and not in another Hath it not euen whiles it is in the bodie thoughts motiues passions by it selfe of it owne different from the body many crosse and contrarie to the disposition of the body chearefull ones when that is in paine or melancholie Cholericke ones when that is flegmaticke Doth it waite vpon the body for ioy sorrow anger and the like doth it not more often begin vnto it Not to speake of Martyres innumerable who haue beene exceedingly pleasant in the middest of torments as if they had beene spirits without flesh How many auncient stories and dailie examples haue wee of chereful minds in distempered pained languishing dying bodies Reason will then conclude that the Soule may well be and be sensible after death without the body which euen in the body can bee wel
when that is ill cheerely when that is hurt or sicke grieued and troubled when that is in perfect temper and health And on the contrary small reason haue wee to thinke it sleepes out of the bodie which neuer slumbers in the body or that it is seazed by death out of the body which neuer was ouercome by sleep which is but deaths Image and younger brother in the body but euer was working and discoursing in the deepest and deadest sleepes of the body Besides is it likely God would enrich it with such noble and diuine dowries to bee salt onely to the bodie to exhale with it as Bruits doe The admirable inuention of Arts Letters Engines the strange fore-casts prospects and presages of the vnderstanding part the infinite lodgings the firme reteinings of the memorie doe they not argue an immortalitie Doe men ingraue curiously in Snow Yce or transient stuffe What meanes the great anxietie of men about their suruiuing name if the minde perished with the bodie if Death were the cessation of the man and destruction of the whole substance What should nature care for an ayery accident without a subiect whereof no part of him should be sensible What meanes the very feare of Death if that were the end of all feares and cares and sorrowes if nothing remained sensible and capable of any thing to bee feared Lastly the fresh vigor the vnimpayred abilitie that nimble agilitie of the minde in sicknesse yea manie times the freer vse of the faculties of it in the confines yea in the act and Article of Death then in former health doe they not tell the body the soule meanes not to fall with the carkase which hath the name of falling lyes not a dying with it but errects it selfe meanes onely to leaue it as an Inhabitant doth a ruinous House or as a Musition layes downe a Lute whose strings are broken a Carpenter a worne instrument vnfit any longer for seruice and imploiment and as a Guest makes haste out of his Inne to his long home and place of abode Loath I am to mingle Philosophicall Cordialls with Diuine as water with wine least my Consolations should bee flash and dilute yet euen these and such like arguments haue taught all Phylosophie the brutish schoole of the Epicure excepted to see and acknowledge that the soule is not a vapour but a spirit not an accident but a substance and elder and more excellent sister to the body immixt and seperable a guest that dyes not with it but diuerts out of it intending to reuisite and reunite it againe vnto it selfe But Diuinitie certainely knowes all this to bee most certaine that it is a particle of diuine breath inbreathed into the redde lome at the first not arising out of it but infused from heauen into it and therefore may as wel exist without the clay after it as it did before it and when the dust returnes to the dust heauen goes to heauen both to their originals the soule first because first and principall in euery action the body after as an accessary and second and so the day of death to the body is the birth day of eternity to the soule This vndying and euer-liuing condition of the soule throughly rowled in the minde firmely embraced and vndoubtedly apprehended by Faith workes admirable effects as in life so in the approach of death Seneca that saw it but through Clouds cranies and creuises with yfs and ands yet professeth that when hee thought but a little of it and some pleasant dreames of it he loathed himselfe and all his trifling gratnes But most diuinely and resoluedly Iulius Palmer He that hath his soule linked and tyed to the body as a thiefes feete to a Clogge with guyues and fetters no maruell hee knowes not how to dye is loath to endure a Diuision but he that vseth and can by Faith separate the spirit from the body to him it is to drinke this and with that drinkes off a Cup of Wine in his hand and within a while after as cheerefully drinks of Deaths cup in the sight of the same Witnesses Euen Socrates himselfe sweetened his Cup of poyson with this discourse of the soules immortalitie to the amazement of the beholders Such Soules indeede as place all their felicitie to bee in a full fedde and well complexioned body and to partake of the senses corporeall delights hath not accustomed it selfe to it owne retyred delights of obstracted meditations knowes not how to bee merry without a play-fellow no maruell though it bee as loath to part with the body as a crooked deformed body to part with rich robes and gorgeous apparell which were it onely ornaments But such noble and regenerate spirits as know their owne Dowries haue inured themselues to sublimate contemplations and to haue their conuersation in Heauen whiles they were in the body such I say though they do not Cynically reuile the body as a Clog a prison a lumpe of myre c. but know it to bee the Temple of the Holy Ghost yet are they willing yea and sigh to be vncloathed to sowe it a while in the earth being a dark and thick lanterne hindering the cleare sight of it till they may reassume it clarified a spirituall an Angelified body made apt and obsequious to all diuine seruices to Celestiall Offices without wearinesse intermission and such like vanitie which here it is subiect vnto as willing as Dauid to lay aside Sauls cumbersome Armour and to betake him to such as hee could better weeld and command at pleasure This is the first and lowest helpe Faith hath to comfort the soule withall in the approach of Death when the strong men buckle the Keepers of the house faile they waxe dimme that looke out at the windowes when the whole outward man decayes that the inner man ages not faints not languisheth not but rather lifts vp the head is more fresh then formerly and excepts to bee vnburdened and to bee at libertie freed from Corporeall tedious vnpleasing workes of sleeping eating drinking and other meaner drudgery that it may once come to higher and more spirituall imployments better suiting with it natiue condition euen as the Lyon longeth to bee out of the grate and the Eagle out of the cage that they may haue their free scope and fuller libertie Vnder the Altar Now if this much reuiued Iohn as no doubt it did to see the Soules continuance after Death how much more to see their safety and rest vnder the Altar that is vnder Christs protection custody vnder the shadow of his wings Who makes them gratefull to his Father couers them from his wrath safeguards them from all molestation procures them absolute quiet and security The phrase alluding to the Altar in the Tabernacle which gaue the Offerings grace and acceptation and partly to the safety of such as fled from the Auenger to the Altar Christ is our Altar and all the Soules of such as dye in his Faith are as
you will make more guiltie of it Fredericke Anuill of Bearne to the Fryers that willed him to call on the Virgin Mary three times repeated Thine O Lord is the Kingdome thine is the power and glory for euer and euer Let 's fight Let 's fight Auaunt Sathan Auaunt Godfrey Varal of Piedmont Hangman doe thine office my death will be fruitfull to my selfe and others Halewine of Antwerp and Harman of Amsterdam to the Markgraue of Antwerpe offering mittigation of Torments vpon abiuration Wee are resolued these Momentany afflictions are not worthy that exceeding weight of glory that shal be reuealed Peter and Nicholas Thiesseâ— brethren vsed the like speech Annas Burgius in the middest of his torments Lord forsake mee not lest I forsake thee Peter Clarke with the root of hi Tongue plucked out pronounced audibly to shew that none euer wanted a tongue to praise God Blessed be the name of God as of old Romanus the Martyr mentioned in Prudentius Godfrey de Hammele to one that called him Heretique No heretique but an vnprofitable seruant yet willing to die for his Lord and reckoning this death no death but a life Bucer No man by talke shall withdraw my mind from Christ crucified from heauen my speedy departure vpon which my soule is fixed When one aduised him to arme himselfe against Sathans temptations Hee hath nothing to doe with mee God forbid but now my soule should be sure of sweet consolation Tremelius a Christian Iew Let Christ liue and Barrabas perish Ferdinand Emperour If mine Ancestors and Predecessors had not dyed how should I haue beene Emperour I must that others may succeed mee Frederick the third Elect. Palat. to his friends about him wishing him recouery I haue liued enough to you let mee now liue to my selfe and with my Lord Christ. Leonard Caesar Oh Lord doe thou suffer with me Lord support me and saue me Windelmuta to one that told her shee had not yet tasted how bitter Death was No said shee neither euer shall I for so much hath Christ promised to all that keepe his word neither will I forsake him for sweete life or bitter death Henry Voes If I had ten heads they should all off for Christ. God forbid I should reioyce in any thing saue in his Crosse. The Minister of Brisgo This skinne which scarce cleaues to my bones I must shortly haue layde off by necessitie how much more willingly now for my Sauiour Christ. Adolphus Clarebachius I beleeue there is not a merrier heart in the world at this instant then mine is Behold you shall see mee dye by that Faith I haue liued Alexander Cane when a fooles Cappe was put on his head Can I haue a greater Honour done me then to bee serued as my Lord CHRIST before Herod Lord seeing my Persecutors haue no mercy haue thou mercy on mee and receiue my soule Almondus a Via My body dyes my Spirit liues Gods Kingdome abides euer God hath now giuen mee the accomplishment of all my desires Giles Tilman vrged to know what hee beleeued of Purgatory Purgatorie and Hell I leaue to you but my Hope is directly to goe into Paradise Neither feare I this great pyle of Wood whereof some might haue been spared to warme the poore but will passe through it purged for my Sauiour Peter Bruse I thanke God my broken legge suffered mee not to flye this Martyrdome Marion the wife of Adrian seeing the Coffin hooped with Iron wherein shee was to bee buryed aliue Haue you prouided this Pasty-crust to bake my flesh in Lewis Paschalis It s a small matter to die once for Christ if it might be I could wish I might die a thousand deaths for him Iohn Buisson I shall now haue a double Gaole deliuery one out of my sinnefull flesh another from the loathsome Dungeon I haue long lyen in Hugh Stallour to Iohn Pike his fellow Martyr Yet a little while and wee shall see one another before the Throne and face of God Levine de Blehere To his friends that offered to rescue him by tumult Hinder not the Magistrates worke nor my happinesse Father thou soresawest this Sacrifice from eternall now accept of it I pray thee Christopher Fabrianus First bitter then sweet first battell the victory when I am dead euery drop of my bloud shall preach Christ and set foorth his praise Francisce Soet You depriue me of this life and promote mee to a better which is as if you should rob mee of Counters and furnish me with Gold Guy de Bres The ringing of my Chaine haue beene sweet Musicke in mine eares my Prison an excellent Schoole wherein Gods spirit hath bin my Teacher all my former Discourses were as a blinde mans of colours in comparison of my present feeling Oh what a precious Comforter is a good Conscience Dionysius Peloquine To the Inquisitour telling him his life was now in his owne handes Then said hee It were in an ill keeping Christes Schoole hath taught mee to saue it by loosing it and not by the gaine of a few dayes or yeares to lose Eternitie Lewis Marsake Knight seeing his other brethren goe with Halters about their necks which they offered not him because of his dignity Why I pray you quoth hee deny me not the Badge and ornament of so excellent an order is not my cause the same with theirs which obtayning hee marched valiantly to the Stake with them Symon Laloeus to one Siluester his Executioner Neuer saw I man in all my life whose comming was more welcome to mee then thine So cheerfull was his death that Syluester amazed at it left his office became a Conuert and a Christian himselfe went to Geneua for further instruction in the Gospell Kilian a Dutch Schoolemaster to such as asked him if hee loued not his wife and children Yes said hee if all the world were golde and were mine to dispose of I would giue it to liue with them though it were but in prison yet my soule and Christ are dearer to me then all Giles Verdict Out of my Ashes shall rise innumerable Christians which Prophecy God so verified by the effect that it grewe a by-word after his death That his ashes flewe abroad all the Countrey Anthony Verdict brother to the former condemned to bee eaten with Beastes to preuent the like Prouerbe sayd to his Father Oh Father how hath God enabled you to haue two Sonnes honoured with Martyrdome Iohn Barbevill to Fryers that called him ignorant Asse Well admit I were so yet shall my Bloud witnesse against such Balaams as you bee Francisce Coluer to his two Sons massacred together with himselfe Sheepe wee are for the slaughter this is no new thing let vs follow millions of Martyrs through temporall death to eternall life By all these which are but an handfull of Christs Campe Royall it sufficiently appeares they had their Faith fresh and liuely in the face of this graund enemy and by Vertue of their Faith their Spirits Wits and Tongues
policie and our grossest simplicity and euen this is the cause of our sottish and foolish liuing and dying Oh that my head were a Fountaine of teares to weepe for and bewayle the stupiditie yea the desperate madnesse of infinite sorts of people that rush vpon Death and chop into Hell blindling How bruitish and beastly are the preaemises and conclusion of the Epicure and his brood Let vs eate and drinke for to morrow we shall dye Who knowes whether the soule of the beast descend and mans ascend who euer saw the one goe downeward and the other vpward and then what matter if the life of the one differ not from the other What need a man care whether hee bee a Sadduces Swine an Epicures Horse or himselfe The one many times hath lesse care and more pleasure then the other if Death be the last line the full point and finall cessation of the Creature These â—ruits thanke Phylosophie that 〈◊〉 taught them not to feare any such Hobgoblins spirits or old Wines tales as Hell But such Phylosophie Socrates Plato and the wiser sort euen of the Heathen haue hissed out of Schooles as belluine Yea the most sauage and vnlittered peoplè the lesse soiled with Art the more confidently doe they out of Natures instinct and diuine impression conclude of an eternall place of well and ill being after death for the soules of men But these Monsters wilfully shut their eyes deface and obliterate these stamps and principles of nature and so dance hood-winke into perdition Miserable it is to see how boldly and blindly they thinke and venture on Death Theramenes he writes Bookes in praise of Death as the end of all calamities Augustus hee dyes in a iest calling for a Plaudite Tiberius â—n dissimulation Diogines hearing Antisthenes cry out in his paines Who shall ease mee offers him a â—nife to dispatch himselfe withal Caninus called to execution bids his Fellow remember hee had the best of the Game The Earle of Kildare seeing his Writ of Death brought in when hee was at shouelboard throwes his cast with this in his mouth Whatsoeuer that is this is for a huddle Little list would these blind bayards haue for such idle mirth if their eyes were opened to see this follower of Death How pittifull is the frenzie of those braue Spirits as they deeme and terme themselues as much as they scorne pittie our Duellists I meane who as if they neuer had heard of Hell are as Prodigall of their liues as Cockes or Dogs are of theirs powring them out vpon euerie drunken quarrell I pittie not the losse or misse of such good for little but to seâ— in the front of a Battell or tâ— stop breaches and Canons withal but I pitty the losse of their soules who serue themselues as the Iesuite in Lancashire followed by one that found his Gloue with a desire to restore it to him but pursued inwardly with a guilty conscience leapes ouer an Hedge plunges into a Marlepit behind it vnseene and vnthought of wherein he was drowned I maruell not that they feare not a Rapier or Pistoll Who would not chuse it before a lingring and paineful sicknesse Were it not for the after-claps of Death No Coward need feare the encounter of it alone in a single combat But Death hath a Second a Page tenne times more dreadful then himself with whom we haue to begin when we haue done with Death which is but the beginning of sorrowes Death is pale but his follower is a blacke Fellow a terrible monster neuer enough feared In which respect how lamentable also is the blindnesse of all selfe-murderers who make Death the remedie of euery griefe and cure of euery violent passion If they finde themselues inwardly vexed or perplexed in Conscience they seeke Death as a present ease not considering how they leape out of the smoake into the flame out of the flame into the fire out of a curable momentany disturbance into an endlesse inrecouerable woe without the extraordinary mercy of God to which vsually the Deuill speeds them that hee might get them into his clutches and so passe out of doubt all meanes of preuention and euasion by Faith and Repentance Oh senseles Achitophell how did thy wisedome fayle and befoole thee when thou settest thine house in order and disposest of thy goods forgettest thy soule hangest thy selfe which durst thou or wouldest thou haue done had but one belieuing thought of an eternall fire come into thy head How blockish is the manner of dying of many a Naball who strucken with the feare of Death and Hell become as insensate as stocks and stones haue no mind nor power to thinke of one thing or other Cannot abide to heare any mention of the danger of that which they feare whose senses the Deuill bewitches and benumms lest they should see and auoyde such was Lewes the eleuenth who straightlie charged his Seruants that when they sawe him sicke they should neuer once dare to name that bitter word Death in his eares So doe Cowards and Crauens shut their eyes and chuse rather to feele blowes then to see and shunne them Little better is the common course that most people take Scared some are with a confused and preposterous feare of Death and flashes of Hell in their Consciences and yet take no course to get pardon and Faith in CHRIST but either taking it to bee some melancholly humour send for merry companions to driue it away or being giuen vp to hardnesse of heart and impenitencie wilfully shake off all thoughts of repentance shut their eyes and eares against all good aduise and desperately put all at aduentures and chop into the iawes of that roaring Lyon Some of them ridiculously fearing Death they knowe not why more for the pangs of it which often are lesse then of the Tooth-ake then for the Hell following like fooles that feare the thunder Cracke and not the Bolt the Report of the Peece and not the Bullet the Serieants arrest and not the Gaolers Imprisonment Labour to escape Death which they cannot and Hell which they might Others of them scarred with some terrible apparisions affrighted as Cardinall Crescentius a little before his death with a blacke Dog in his Chamber A Presage and Preludium of Hell approaching they crie out they are damned the Deuill the Deuill doe they not see him c. And so Spira-like desperately and disconsolately depart in hellish horrour Other of them a little wiser and yet little the better for it admit a colde thought or two and it may bee a little parley about the matter but when they haue fetched a sigh or put all vpon a Lord haue mercie on them trust it shall goe as well with them as with others euen as God will haue it and thinke they doe much if they send to a Minister to pray with them or for them neuer giuing all diligence to make their saluation sure and to escape so great a condemnation Oh if wee could consider how
fearefully such finde themselues deluded when their soules awake worse then Ionas in the Tempest euen in a gulfe of fire and brimstone How would it awaken and arouse vs to fore-see Death and Hell in their shapes and to fore-appoint our selues throughlie not against the first Death which wee cannot but against the second wee may if we get our part in the first resurrection This Text mee thinkes speakes to euery sicke man bound on his bedde with the Cords of Death as Dalilath to Sampson vp and arise for the Philistims are at hand Death is at the doore and behind the doore the Fiends waight to fetch away thy soule Bellarmine is of opinion that one glympse of Hell were enough to make a man not only turne Christian and sober but Anchorite and Monke to liue after the strictest rule that can be I am of beliefe that Gods spirit cooperating a thorow meditation of it might be a meane to keep one from it For a man to wish to haue a sight of it or that one might come thence make report of the vntolerable and vnutterable paines of it is superfluous superstitious if it should be granted yet being not Gods ordinance and allowance it might goe without his blessing and doe one no good Thy best course is well to ponder what wee that are Gods Ministers report of it out of Moses the Prophets Christ and the Apostles descriptions And if God meane thee any good our warning may doe thee some good Popish writers are too bold in making Maps of Heauen and Hell as if they had surueyed them and their regions and inhabitants but most I thinke are one the other hand to breefe and summarie in their meditations and writings To paint it in it owne natiue colours is impossible or by any contemplation to comprehend the horror of it Shaddowes and parables the Scripture vseth by which thou mayest and oughtest to helpe thy coniectures and to worke on thy affections withall after this or the like manner Heere God hath allowed thee on his earth a pleasant habitation commodiously situate in a good Ayre richly decked with furniture compassed with delightfull Gardens Orchards and Fieldes where thou hast liberty to walke and ride at thy pleasure How would it trouble thee to thinke of being layd vp all thy life in some streight and loathsome prison by this consideration how ill thou wilt brooke to be cast into a dolefull disconsolate Dungeon to lye in vtter darkenesse blacknesse of darkenesse in eternall chaines in little ease for euer Heere a great part of thy contentment is to liue among good Neighbours with a louing wife with cheerefull companions and loath thou art at any time to bee long in the house of mourning to bee among melancholy malecontented complayning feeble or brawling people in Hospitals or Bridwels or Bedlams How will then thine eares indure to be tyred with continuall howling scritching and gnashing of teeth to liue among Dogges Enchanters vncleane Birds reprobate Spirits worse then so many Toades Tygers or Serpents Here if thy Father should in displeasure bid get thee out of sight or thy Prince banish thee his court and presence as Dauid did Absolon for some offence thou wouldest take it heauily how shall thine eares tingle to heare God say depart out of my presence Goe thou cursed into the lake prepared for the Diuell and his Angels Here thou shrinkest to thinke of the gout collick stone or strangurian shiuerest to heare of the strappado the racke or the Lawne how then wilt thou beare vniuersal tortures in all the parts of thy body exquisite anguish and paines such as of which the pangs of child-birth burnings of materiall fire and brim stone gnawings of chestwormes drinkes of Gall and Wormwood are but shaddowes and to which they are all but sports and fleabitings euen to the torments thy body shall suffer for it sinnes against the Creator But hast thou euer here in this world tasted of a troubled spirit of the griefe and feares of a wounded Conscience possessed with bitter things strucken and pierced with the venom of Gods arrowes feares of the Almighty by these thou mayst make the best gesse how it wil fare with thy soule when God shall powre al the vials of his wrath into a vessell of his fury and vexe the soule in his sore displeasure scourge thee with the rods of scorpions make thee drunk with the gall of Aspes and Cockatrices make thy mind heauy vnto the death holding it euer in those Agonies which made his owne Sonne sweate cloddes of water and blood Oh how fearefull a thing is it to fall into the handes of God who is a consuming fire Thinke of it whiles there is hope you that forget God Heauen and Hell least you come there where there is no redemption no hope of ease or end which is that that makes Hell Hell indeed For if all these paines might haue an end were it after million and millions of yeares as many as there bee sands in the Sea shore yet mightest thou nourish some miserable comfort of a release in the long runne But this night hath no day this Ague no intermission his death no death to end it withal Here thou wouldest be loath to lye on the Racke from morning to night to be wroung with the Collick for a few dayes or hours to be haunted with a Quartan from Michael to Easter Oh then adde eternity to insupportable torments and let thine eares tingle and thine hart melt to think of it Were it not for hope in small pressures wee say heart would burst Oh then this word euer and euer if thou couldest duly belieue and consider it how would it breake that hard heart of thine which knowes not how to repent nor cares to preuent the wrath to come What thinkest thou are these things tales and fables is Hell but a name and word a scarbug for to keepe fooles in awe Hath not God thinkest thou a day of reckoning a prison and power to punish Rebels and Traitors or are not his punishments like to his Iustice infinite and eternall Know these things to be as true as God is truth saue that they are short of the truth it selfe Why dost thou not then take thy soule apart and ruminate of these things by thy selfe iudging thy selfe here that thou mayst not bee condemned in the world to come Art thou afraid of a melancholy fit and fearest thou not this gulfe and whirlpoole and sorrow Art thou not loath to bee tormented before thy time and fearest not to bee tormented time without end I wonder how the soules of wicked men and vnbelieuers goe not out of their bodies as the Diuels out of demoniaks rending raging tearing and foaming I wonder how any can dye in their wits that die not in the faith of our Lord Christ. Verily if these things moue thee not thou art in a worse plight then Foelix and Baltashar yea the verie Diuels themselues who belieue them yea
ship in the healthfullest body that euer was neuer had so calme a passage but that it hath had cause enough often to wish it selfe on shoare What with selfe groaning phantasies and iniected temptations how little respit or rest is here to be found Is there any Palace or Tower here so high or strong that can keepe diseases from the body how much lesse cares sorrows feares and Sathans assaults from the Soule Were there but such an Iland as some haue dreamed of heere on earth that might free our bodies or mindes from disquiet but for the space of the moment of this life how would people couet to dwell in it In the times of the late warres in Netherlands how did the Boares forsake their Farmes and flye into walled Cities for securitie from dangers What violence then should our heauenly Ierusalem suffer of our wishes and desires were it but for the sweet and amiable name of peace whereof it is denominated hauing indeed the God of Peace for the King and Keeper of it Wals many Cubits high into which no Zenacherib can shoote an arrow nor the Dragon Beast nor the false Prophet to seduce or to accuse strong gates and barres excluding all enemies and annoyances and so affording perfect tranquility to all the Inhabitants out of which they insult ten times more saferly then the Iebusites ouer the blinde and lame ouer the pale horse and his riders Death and Hell Consider and compare a little the simplicitie of the worldling with the wisdom of the Christian the happy stabilitie of the one with the wofull vncertaintie of the other at the time of their departure Euen Foxes and Hares and other such vermine fore-acquaint themselues with Muses Thickes and Burroes into which when they are chased and hunted they may repaire for safety but these fooles while they liue in health and prosperity neuer thinke of the euill day and when away they see they must goe how vnshystable are they Some of the meaner sort they take care for their winding-sheet or if richer for a marble or painted sepulchre which yet cannot preserue their bodies or names from putrifaction the superstitious sort to bee buryed in a Fryers Cowle or vnder an Alter of stone the desperater sort wishing the Mountaines might couer them from the wrath of the Lambe An harbour or receptacle for their soules they neuer thinke of whence it is that they are as loath to haue them turned out of their bodies as Hagar and Ismael to be out of doores and exposed to misery and dangers or rather as Cain to be cast as a Vagabond out of Gods presence fearing lest euery one that met him next should cut his throat for a cursed Caitiffe And indeed what else can they looke for but instantly to bee deuoured of the roaring Lyon that waites at the doore of Death to fetch away their soules into the place where there is no night nor day Onely the wise beleuer he hath prouided a Sanctuary or Citie of refuge against time of danger hath learned wisdome of the Conies who though a little nation yet wise and forecasting haue their refuge in the Rocks Christ is the beleeuers Rocke and his strong Tower his Altar and therfore he feares not what Death can doe vnto him Christ hath assured him on his word that hee shall haue all teares wiped away and the Spirit secured him that he shall rest from his labors In which regard he is so farre from lingring and hankering after a continuance in this Baca of teares this wildernes of feares that he studies rather to enter into this rest Cries out with Dauid Wo is me that I dwell in Meshek and Kedar when I think of peace there is warre at hand With Ieremy Woe is mee that I dwell with a contentious people With Elias I am weary of my life an end good Lord. Or with blessed Simeon Now Lord let thy seruant depart in peace into that land of peace heere I haue seene that there is no peace to bee had all here is vanity vexation of spirit For a minute of peace moneths of vanity for a dram of hony pounds of aloes and gall Soules here find no resting place for the soles of their feete till they come to the mount Ararat whither their works follow them where their sorrowes leaue them And so conclude with Vidus Bressius Oh that my soule had I the wings of the Doue to flie and make haste to that mountain of God and hill of tranquilitie and eternitie Thus th' one dies howling the other singing because the one knowes he changeth for the better the other for the worse the one takes Death for a gulfe of sorrow the other for a port of libertie and ease the one because he is stript for a scourging the other because hee layes off his clothes to go to bed after his toile If Queene Elizabeth whiles she was a prisoner in her sisters dayes could haue been fully assured and had clearely foreseene her owne long glorious and prosperous reigne ensuing would she haue wished her selfe a Milke-maid for the present No it had bin impossible All our feares doubts arise from infidelitie and the vncertaintie or else from the deadnesse and dulnesse of our hopes To put life into which there can bee no better no other help then first to ground and root our Faith in Christ through the word and spirit And then of ten to be setting before our eyes a state condition happy aboue all that Cities Kingdoms Crownes Pearles and Iewels Marriages Feasts and all other Metaphors and Parables of Scripture doe but shaddow out vnto vs. Which supereminent and super aboundant felicity Paul that had been an eye witnes not able to describe much lesse to amplifie summes it vp An exceeding exceeding eternall weight of Glory A superlatiue transcēdent phrase such as is not to be found in all the Rhetoricke of the Heathens because they neuer wrote of such a Theame nor with such a Spirit If any of vs had but halfe the strength of Pauls Faith or life of his hope or chearefull fore-imaginations which he had of this felicitie woe could not but haue the same desires and longings for our dissolution and fruition of them If we throughly beleeued and remembred this to bee the state of our selues and dead friends would we or could we so feare for our selues or mourne for them in Blackes whiles they are in whites as Iacob for Ioseph thinking him deuoured by some euill beast when he was Lording it in Aegypt No verily but thinke of it and looke for it we would with the same affections that Children do for their playes Prentises their freedome Spouses their mariage Labourers their wages Husbandmen their Haruest Heyres their Inheritance Princes their Kingdomes Mongst many thousands I chuse to instance and end with Monicah and Augustines examples the mother vsing this speech to her sonne All that I haue desired to liue to see is that which I now see thee my sonne a Christian. And now what doe I any longer in this base and impure world And hee of his mother What cause haue I to mourne for a mother of whose happinesse I may be so well assured When I awake I shall be satisfied Write O Christ these Meditations in our hearts imprint these Patternes so fast in our memories that wee may all the dayes of our liues haue frequent fore-thoughts of our appointed change chiefely in that last and solemne day of our death when the Prince of this world will be busie and wee shall be weake let thy Comforter then bring them to minde that by faith we may ouercome and hauing the Arke of thy Couenant in eye cheerefully passe through the waters of Iorden and so take possession of that land which flowes with all varietie of delights without either end or sacietie euen so Come Lord Iesus come quickly FINIS Dr. Tayler Tho. Hawkes Beza Perbins Hall Byfield 2. Kings 19. 15. Ezek. 32.