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A14753 The life of faith in death· Exemplified in the liuing speeches of dying Christians. By Samuel VVard preacher of Ipswich. Ward, Samuel, 1577-1640. 1622 (1622) STC 25052; ESTC S111636 34,891 136

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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 ●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
equall tearmes haue embraced Death Whereas infinite of hers haue bin offered life with promotions and yet would not bee deliuered expecting a better resurrection If any shall challenge these for Thrasonicall flourishes or Carpet vaunts I appeale and call to witnesse not the Cloud now but the whole skye of witnesses such I meane as haue dyed either in the Lord or for the Lord who in the very poynt and Article of Death haue liued and expressed liuely testimonies of this their life partly in their incredible sufferings partly in their admirable sayings For their Acts and Monuments if they had all been penned all the world would not haue conteined their Histories the very summes would swell to large Volumes The valour of the Patients the sauagenesse of the Persecutours striuing together till both exceeding nature and beleefe bred wonder and astonishment in beholders and Readers Christians haue shewed as glorious power in the faith of Martyrdome as in the faith of Myracles As for their last Speaches and Apothegmes pitie it is no better marke hath been taken and memory preserued of them The choyce and the prime I haue culled out of ancient Stories and latter Martyrologies English Dutch and French The profite and pleasure hath paid me for the labour of collecting and the like gaine I hope shall quit the cost of thy reading Sweetly briefly they comprise and couch in them the foundation the marrow of large manifold precepts prescribed by the learned Diuines for preparation against Death The Art of dying well is easier learned by examples then by directions These chalk the way more plainely these encourage more heartily these perswade more powerfully these chide vnbeleefe with more authoritie if some worke not others may some will affect some some another Read them ouer to a sicke or to a dying Christian if they quicken not if they comfort not it is because there is no life of Faith in them if there be the least sparke these will kindle it cherish and maintaine it in the doore in the valley in the thought in the act of Death The Liuing Speeches of Dying Christians PART 1. OLd Simeons Swannes Song Lord let thy seruant depart in peace c. The good Theefe the first Confessor Lord remember me when thou commest into thy Kingdome Steuen the first Martyr Lord Iesus receiue my Spirit forgiue them c. Peter the Apostle None but Christ Nothing but Christ. Andrew the Apostle Welcome Oh Christ longed and looked for I am the Scholler of him that did hang on thee long haue I coueted to embrace thee in whom I am that I am Polycarpus to the Proconsull vrging him to deny Christ I haue serued him 86 yeares and hee hath not once hurt mee and shall I now deny him When hee should haue been tyed to the stake he required to stand vntyed saying Let me alone I pray you for hee that gaue mee strength to come to this fire will also giue me patience to abide in the same without your tying Ignatius I am the Wheat or Graine to be ground with the teeth of Beasts that I may bee pure Bread for my Masters tooth Let Fire Rackes Pulleyes yea and all the Torments of Hell come on mee so I may winne Christ. Lucius to Vrbicius a corrupt Iudge threaning death I thanke you with all my heart that free mee and release mee from wicked Gouernours and send mee to my good God and louing Father c. Pothnius Bishop of Lyons to the President asking him in the midst of torments what that Christ was answered If thou wert worthy thou shouldest know Cyprian God Almighty be blessed for this Gaole deliuery Ambrose to his Friends about him I haue not so liued that I am ashamed to liue longer nor yet feare I Death because I haue a good Lord. And the same to Calligon Valentinians Eunuch threatning death Well doe you that which becomes an Eunuch I will suffer that which becomes a Bishop Augustine Boughes fall off Trees and Stones out of Buildings and why should it seeme strange that mortall men dye Theodosius I thank God more for that I haue beene a member of Christ then an Emperour of the world Hilarion Soule get thee out thou hast seuentie yeares serued Christ and art thou now loath to dye or afrayd of Death Vincentius Rage and doe the worst that the spirit of malignity can set thee on worke to doe Thou shalt see Gods Spirit strengthen the Tormented more then the Deuill can doe the Tormentor Iubentius and Maximinus Wee are ready to lay off the last Garment the Flesh. Attalus answered to euery question I am a Christian being fired in an Iron Chaine Behold oh you Romans this is to eat mans flesh which you falsely obiect to vs Christians Basill to Valens his Viceroy offering him respite No I shall bee the same to morrow I haue nothing to lose but a few Bookes and my body is now so crazy that one blow will ende my torment Gordius To the Tyrant offering him promotion Haue you any thing equall or more worthy then the Kingdome of Heauen Babilas dying in Prison willed his Chaines should be buried with him Now saith he will God wipe away all teares and now I shall walke with God in the land of the Liuing Barlaam holding his hand in the flame ouer the Altar sung that of the Psalmist Thou teachest my hands to warre and my fingers to fight Iulitta Wee Women receiued not onely flesh from men but are bone of bone and therefore ought to be as strong and constant as men in Christs cause Amachus Turne the other side also Least raw flesh offend The like Lawrence Symeones Thus to dye a Christian is to liue yea the chiefe good and best end of a man Marcus of Arethuse hung vp in a basket annoynted with hony and so exposed to the stinging of Waspes and Bees to his persecutours that stood and beheld him How am I aduaunced despising you that are below on earth Pusices to Ananias an olde man trembling at Martyrdome Shut thine eyes but a while and thou shalt see Gods light Bernard Fense the heele voyd of Merite with Prayer that the Serpent may not finde where to fasten his teeth The second part EDWARD the 6. King of England Bring me into thy Kingdom free this Kingdome from Antichrist and keepe thine Elect in it Cranmer Archbishop Thrusting his hand into the fire Thou vnworthy hand saith hee shalt first burne I will bee reuenged of thee for subscribing for feare of Death to that damned scrowle Latimer Bishop To one that tempted him to recant and would not tell him his name Well saith he Christ hath named thee in that saying Get thee behinde mee Sathan And being vrged to abiure I will saith hee good people I once sayd in a Sermon in King Edwards time confidently that Antichrist was for euer expelled England but God hath shewed mee it was but carnall confidence To Bishop Ridley going before him to the Stake
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 Thiesse● 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
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