Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	die_v	fear_v	life_n	8,855	5	5.0708	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42547	God's soveraignty displayed from Job 9. 12. : Behold he taketh away, who can hinder him? &c., or, A discourse shewing, that God doth, and may take away from his creatures what hee pleaseth, as to the matter what, the place where, the time when, the means and manner how, and the reasons thereof : with an application of the whole, to the distressed citizens of London, whose houses and goods were lately consumed by the fire : an excitation of them to look to the procuring causes of this fiery tryal, the ends that God aims at in it, with directions how to behave themselves under their losses / by William Gearing ...	Gearing, William.; Gearing, William. No abiding city in a perishing world.	1667 (1667)	Wing G435A; ESTC R18630	101,655	265

these fading helps he placed all his trust and hope in God who would heartily embrace those that came unto him and never forsake those that trusted in him SECT IV. A fourth end God aims at in taking away these things from us is to have us to be instructed in this that mans life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth Luk. 12. 15. By life two things are understood 1. That a mans happiness doth not consist in the abundance of the things he doth enjoy only Christ and a right to assurance of heaven that is a mans happiness in this life and the fruition of Christ and heaven hereafter is the eternal happiness of a man Lazarus was an happy man though he had nothing and Dives a miserable man though he had abundance Earthly-minded persons seek for satisfaction from earthly things therefore there be many that say Who will shew us any good 1. Such a satisfying good as may make our souls happy they look downward and think to find this happiness in outward things But David opposeth his resolved choice to their vain wandring desire Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me as if he had said I know where to have enough Lord let me enjoy thee and have the light of thy countenance shineing upon me and I am satisfied Then he speaks of his former experience that formerly he had found satisfaction from God Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine encreased Psal 4.6 7. as if he had said the fullest Barns and Wine-cellars cannot yeeld that content to an earthly heart that my soul hath formerly found in thee when they are as full as they can hold yet their immortal soul is not satisfied but I by enjoying thee am fully satisfied Then David compareth the satisfaction he had found in God not only with the abundance of these things but with the encrease of them for it is the encrease of outward things that is apt to win the heart a lesser estate encreasing doth more win the hearts of natural men than a greater estate not encreasing But David found more content in God than worldlings did not only in the abundance but also in the encrease of corn and wine Lastly saith he Thou hast put gladness into my heart Thou hast infused it into my soul it is God that sheddeth sweet consolation into the spirit of a man he doth not only give matter of joy and ground of comfort to a believer but giveth as it were the very affection of it to the soul As for earthly things they put not comfort into our hearts if a man will have any good from them he must extract and draw it out and when the heart and the world do close most yet it then falls short of satisfaction but God doth put gladness into the heart and he can satisfie it 2. By life is meant likewise that although a man had never so many possessions had an house full of gold and silver yet all his wealth cannot prolong his daies nor adde a minute to his life as if our Saviour should reason thus I wonder to see men take such great pains for the things of this life to toil and labour in a restless manner if every pound they got and had would adde a day or year more to their lives there were some reason why men should thus toil for riches but can a rich man redeem his life from death with thousands of gold and silver for a day would not a rich man that feareth death and hell give a world if he had it that he might not die and be damned and yet ten thousands of worlds cannot redeem a mans soul from death and hell therefore why are men so greedy after these things that cannot make their lives any longer Let us take a view of the Parable which our Saviour spake upon this very occasion of a rich Farmer wherein several things are to be observed 1. His Trade was very gainful intimated by his ground which brought forth plentifully the world was coming on upon him apace 2. He had heaped together abundance of riches he had so much he could not tell where to lay them 3. See what he resolved upon viz. to follow his pleasures and contentments without all controul as the Proverb is What is a Gentleman more than his pleasure he would take his pleasure as well as the best man in his Country he would play the Glutton and Hunt and Hawk and Whore and Drink and Swear and Swagger and let him see what man would dare controll him he would make the Town and Country too hot for him Thus saith he to himself Soul thou hast riches enough and that not for a day or a moneth or a year but for many years go take thy pleasure eat drink and be merry thy abundance of riches will maintain thee in it here you see the prosperity of a rich covetous fool Mark now the end and conclusion of him behold the lamentable Tragedy of an Earth-worm behold what God saith unto him Thou fool He was but a fool for his labour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 insipiens an unwise man so the word signifies one that lived by sense like a bruit not forecasting for the future This night they shall take away thy soul Mark the words This night Thou hast to day promised thy self long life mirth and pleasure thou art deceived thy riches shall not lengthen thy life for this night thou shalt die They i. e. the Devils shall come and take away my soul And thou that didst dream of many years pleasure shalt burn in hell to Eternity Salvian hath a good meditation on this place With his goods he prepareth happiness for others misery for himself mirth for others tears for himself a short pleasure for others everlasting fire for himself His Heirs that enjoyed his riches did game eat drink and were merry and this poor covetous wretch was howling and roaring weeping and wailing in hell Now see our Saviours use of this Parable So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God that is so is every covetous wretch that laboureth more for temporal riches than for grace and godliness such a one is a fool though he gets abundance of riches such a one will God cross in his plots and purposes and when he thinks to enjoy his pleasures then God will cut him off and throw him into hell his children after him shall spend his wealth he shall be tormented in hell when they are merry and jovial upon earth SECT V. A fifth end is that thereby we may learn to mortifie our selves Clemens Alexandrinus spake to the purpose The Vine turneth wild and degenerateth unless it be pruned man proveth exorbitant except he be scourged for as the luxuriancy of the Vine-tree runneth out into wilde branches except it be cut and curbed and bringeth forth

shaking Ague makes the strong-bodied and the stout-hearted men to tremble so likewise the Fever is of Gods appointment which wasteth the spirits dries up the radical humor and puts men into a scorching flame The like is threatned Deut. 28.22 The Lord shall smite thee with a Consumption and with a Fever and with an Inflammation and with an extreme burning And ver 27. The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt and with the Emerods and with the scab and with the itch whereof thou canst not be healed Ver. 28. The Lord shall smite thee with madness and blindness and astonishment of heart Ver. 59. The Lord will make thy plagues wonderful and the plagues of thy seed great plagues and of long continuance and sore sicknesses and of long continuance Ver. 60. Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt which thou wast afraid of and they shall cleave unto thee Also every sickness and every plague which is not written in this book will the Lord bring upon thee Thus you see every disease in the world is the stroke of God Men may attribute it as Pagans do to ill luck you may attribute it to the unseasonableness of the weather to extremity of heat or cold to drought or moisture to the illness of the seasons All these are of God it is he that changeth times and seasons it is he that maketh the constellations of the Heavens to meet in such and such conjunctions it is he that causeth a distemper in the air it is not the unseasonableness of the year the illness of diet that can bring diseases upon the body unless God appoints them over a sinful people Yea sometimes God imployeth Angels to execute his wrath upon mens bodies he permits the Angels to infest the air and so plagues and pestilential diseases are over a people it is the Lord that sends forth these destroying Angels sometimes he suffereth the Devil to smite men as he did permit him to smite the body of Job with sores whom or whatsoever you may look upon as the causes of diseases they are of Gods appointment it is he that taketh away the health and strength of any person or people SECT II. He takes away life Psa 90.3 Thou turnest man to destruction and sayest Return ye Children of Adam to the dust dust ye are and to dust ye shall return When the living God saith Return there is no nay in his hand is our life and breath and all our wayes Dan. 5.23 The Chaldee Paraphrast renders my Text thus Si rapuerit hominem è mundo If he shall snatch man away out of the world So S. August if he will stop thy breath and deliver thee up to death who can hinder him as if Job should have said thus He hath taken away my Children my Cattel my substance my health my strength and all my outward comforts and if he now come and take away my life too I cannot hinder him God threatned the old world Gen. 6.6 7. I will destroy man from the face of the earth The Original word signifies as Pareus observeth upon the place I will steep him as a man steepeth a piece of earth in water till it turn to dirt man is but clay a speaking piece of clay and is apt to forget his Maker and the matter whereof he is made none but God can reduce man to his first principles and original matter whereof he was made there is no dust so high but the great God is able to give it a steeping In the City of Jerusalem during the time of the siege by the Romans there died and were killed eleven hundred thousand and there were taken by the Romans ninety and seven thousand at which time there were slain in all Judea in several places to the number of twelve hundred and forty thousand Jews besides an innumerable multitude who perished with famine exile and other miseries In the second Carthaginian War in Italy Spain and Cicily in seventeen years fifteen hundred thousand men were consumed The Civil War of Caesar and Pompey swallowed down three hundred thousand Pompey the Great wrote it upon the Temple of Minerva that he had scattered chased and killed twenty hundred eighty and three thousand men and one Cains Caesar gloried in it that eleven hundred ninety and two thousand men were killed by him in the Wars King Mithridates by one Letter caused eighty thousand Roman Citizens to be slain who were dispersed through Asia for traffique In Judea in the time of King David one Pestilence in a very short time swept away seventy thousand men Under Gallus and Volusianus Emperours a Plague arose from Ethiopia and invaded the Roman Provinces and emptied them for fifteen years together and sent an innumerable company of mortals to their graves In the time of Justinian the Emperours in the City of Constantinople and the places adjoyning the Pestilence raged so much that every daylit dispatched five thousand and some daies ten thousand to their long home In Numidia eight hundred thousand persons died of the Plague in the Sea-Towns of Africa two hundred thousand In Greece Anno Christi 1359 there was such a Pestilence that the living were scarce able to bury the dead In Athens the Pestilence raged for twelve years together When Italy was wasted by the Gothes in Picene only fifty thousand persons were starved with hunger At Fidenae under Tiberius the Emperour by the fall of the Amphitheatre there perished the number of twenty thousand Spectators How many thousands were swept away the last year in the great City of this our Land by the Pestilence and yet in many other Cities Towns and Villages of this Kingdome the Plague devoureth at noon-day the Plague cries with a loud voice still to us Death is neer Death is in your streets Death is creeping in at your houses and entring in at your windows Now whosoever or whatsoever be the Instrument of Death it is God only that takes away the lives of men at his pleasure See now that I even I am he and there is no God with me I kill and I make alive Deut. 32.39 SECT III. He takes away the spirits and courage of men that albeit they have opportunities put into their hands of doing this or that yet their hearts shall fail them and they shall not be able to effect it He is said to cut off the spirits of Princes Psa 76. ult Princes are usually men of the stoutest spirits but God sometimes cuts off the spirit of Princes When Belshazzar that Babylonish Monarch was in the midst of his jollity drinking Wine with a thousand of his Princes in the Vessels of gold which his Father brought from the Temple of Jerusalem he suddenly saw a hand-writing upon the wall at which sight the King was amazed so that his countenance was changed and the joynts of his loyns were loosed and his knees smote one against the other What was the cause of

this so great affrightment He saw a hand what hand the hand of a man What could one hand of a man saith one terrifie so mighty a Monarch Had he seen the paws of a Lion of a Bear or Dragon there had been some cause of terrour but need such a puissant Prince fear the hand of a man so much at whose beck and command an hundred Troops of Armed Horse would presently fly to his assistance What dreadful weapon could that one hand wield or mannage None but a Pen with which it wrote No other man would much less a King be afraid of a writing pen. Had he beheld the three darts of Joab or the Fiery Sword of the Flaming Cherub brandished directly against him he had then had some argument of astonishment But one hand one pen one piece of writing which he understood not this was that which daunteth him Sometimes the imagination that this or that evil will befall them doth so disturb them that they are presently over-whelmed with fear There are more things which affright us than there be which oppress us some things do torment us more than they ought some things do afflict us before they ought some do disturb us which ought not We often give place to our imaginations and do not give a check to those things which lead us into fears but feeding our fears by our fancy we turn our backs and fly and many times fly when none pursueth I have read of certain Souldiers who being amazed at a little dust raised up by a flock of sheep turned their backs as if the Enemy had been at their heels The French History tells us that the men of Burgundy were so affrighted at the apprehension of the approach of their Enemies that they thought long Thistles to be men with Lances We read that in the daies of Ahaz King of Judah that Rezin the King of Syria and Pekah the Son of Remaliah King of Israel went up to Jerusalem to war against it but could not prevail against it and it was told the house of David that Syria was confederate with Ephraim hereupon the heart of Ahaz was moved and the heart of his people as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind Isa 7.1 2. This kind of fear fills the heart with all confusion leaving a man without memory judgement or will to encounter any danger that threatens his ruine it dis-spirits a man and enfeebleth his spirits that whereas fear is a spur to generous spirits to strengthen them stirring them up to the use of the most effectual means to avoid the danger it doth so deject the faint-hearted and fearful man as he remaineth like a meer block or stone uncapable at all of any action There is a slavish fear when the dread of evil drives us to desperateness in evil and forceth us to fly from the presence of God This is the worst plague of all other no terrour is like inward terrours arising from a guilty Conscience The Conscience of sin is the Mother of fear saith Chrysostome sin is horrours fuel This was the ground of Cains fear the accusation of a guilty Conscience followed him where-ever he went he knowing that blood required blood feared lest every one that met him would kill him Gen. 4. 14. Such a fear surprized Caligula the Roman Emperour of whom it is written that when it thundered he would get into a Vault he had under the earth to hide himself from the wrath of God Such was the fear of some whom Aulus Gellius speaks of who thought there was a plurality of Gods and they divers in quality so some good some bad some good to whom they sacrificed and prayed to help them and some bad also whom they desired to please that they might not hurt them Sin makes in man an Assizes where the soul standeth arraigned and condemned before a terrible Judge The Heathen said that the greatest terrour was earthquakes thunderbolts burnings deluges the earth gaping but what is all this to a trembling heart to the thunderbolts of Gods Judgements to the burning Lake to the inundations of the waters of bitterness to the yawning of the gulf of hell this and worse is the condition of that man whose heart is the habitation of terrour such a man is Magor Missabib he is compassed about with terrour on every side yea he is a terrour to himself he feels a deadly arrow wounding him to the very heart there is both a fire burning and a knife sticking in his tender heart SECT IV. He takes away beauty from man Beauty is but momentaneum corporis accidens If the body fall to ruine the accident cannot stand Among all the qualities that flee away with the body of man there is none more swift than beauty When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth Psa 39.11 David complained that when Gods hand lay heavy upon him his moisture was turned into the drought of Summer Psa 32.4 The radical moisture or chiefest sap of his body was dried up wasted and worn away so as he was even brought to deaths door and become little better than an Anatomy or bag-full of bones The radical moisture is an airy and oily substance dispersed through the body whereby the life and vigor of the body is fostered which being spent death ensueth And Solomon tells us that a sorrowful spirit drieth the bones Prov. 17.22 the gathering together of much blood about the heart extinguisheth the good spirits or at least dulleth them and that humor having seized on the heart it cannot well digest the blood and spirits which ought to be diffused through the whole body but turneth them into melancholly the which humor being dry and cold drieth up the whole body and consumeth the beauty thereof for cold extinguisheth heat and driness moisture which two qualities do principally concern the life of man The passion of fear hath likewise wrought strange effects upon some mens bodies I have read of some to whom the sentence of death hath been brought in the Evening whose hair hath turned white before the next morning Beauty is but skin-deep a very slender vail a painted flower that soon withereth although thy hair doth now flourish thy flesh doth shine like ivory though thy Rofial face be beautified with the twinkling gems of thy rolling eyes though the health of thy body doth now minister ability though youthful age doth promise space of longer life though reason springeth and the bodily senses are nimble and vigorous though the sight be quick the hearing ready the going right and strait the face and countenance most pleasant and delectable yet a violent Fever will debilitate thy body and a few fits of a Quartan Ague turn thy beauty into swarthy deformity old age and the space of a few years will shew the slightness of it and death will utterly consume it If vain

no dangers nor enemies for I am thy shield fear no wants nor losses for I my self am thy reward Are any dangers so great any enemies so strong that I cannot shield thee against them who am ready to cover thee with my wings and defend thee against all the wicked of the world and against all the legions of hell canst thou be undone by any losses or be sunk by any wants when I my self am thy exceeding great reward Hast thou the possessor of heaven and earth in thy possession and hast thou cause to fear any wants if the earth cannot supply thee heaven shall if neither heaven nor earth can yet I will who am the Lord of heaven and earth I my self am thy exceeding great reward So Gen. 17 7 8. I wil establish my covenant between me thee thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant to be a God to thee and unto thy seed after thee He doth not say only to be a helper to thee or a friend to thee but to be a God to thee I will give myself to thee as I am essentially God so I will be a God to thee thou shalt have me for thy own those that are in Covenant with God they are in possession of an infinite good and they have him in everlasting possession CHAP. VI. Vse 1 THis may serve to discover to us the extreme folly of those whose chiefest care and greatest labour is about the getting worldly goods that may soon be taken from them their shops their trading their wares their plate their jewels their money their corn and wine and oyl their houses lands and possessions their wealth and substance are in their thoughts and God is seldome or not at all in all their thoughts heaven is not in their desires and grace which is the riches of heaven is nothing lookt after these things are the least of their thoughts and endeavours when they are to leave the world then is their time to think of God and to take care for grace and for their immortal souls when they are dying then is their time to study how they may become godly while they are strong and healthy and fit for labour their main care and labour is for the meat that perisheth and to try who can outstrip one another in worldly riches although God can soon clap a pair of wings to them and make them to flee away from them These things are the summum bonum the chiefest good the very God of the world the Paradise the All in All of this world the great Diana that all the world magnifies they think it better to be out of the world than to have no riches esteeming them the only miserable men that are poor and needy Jeroboams golden Calves are still the worldlings God the world is of Jeroboams Religion to this day no lusts are more unsatiable than worldly lusts they are green and vigorous even in old age the love of the world is a sin that never waxeth old when men should think most on the world to come yet then are old earth-worms too mindful of this present evil world O what unspeakable folly is this so eagerly to thirst after and pursue such perishing vanities which may soon be taken from us and which only serve us while we are in this world for if once our soul be taken from us then whose shall all these things be while the rich Glutton lived in the world he fared deliciously every day and wore Purple and fine linnen every day but when he died he left all these things behind him Death turned him out of the comforts and possession of these things He that drank Wine in Bowls is now drinking of the Cup of Gods wrath in hell he that had all things to the full doth now want a drop of water to cool his flaming tongue he that was cloathed with Purple and fine linnen every day is now bound with chains of darkness and cloathed with woe curses and unspeakable wrath he that maintained Hawks and Hounds for his delight and pleasure is now howling and roaring with cursed Fiends and damned Hell-hounds Thus he that had the worlds goods only while he was in the world he hath nothing in hell to enjoy but Gods wrath that is his everlasting portion So again rich Abraham and Job that had this worlds goods have now no need of them in heaven there is no need of the Sun by day nor of the Moon by night for the Lord God is the light thereof What a folly is it in men therefore to labour so eagerly after this worlds goods and to set their minds upon them and to neglect the good of their immortal souls to love riches more than grace and love dross and dung more than Christ when as Christ and Grace will bee their comfort in this world at death and in the world to come when this worlds goods shall be taken from them though your houses and goods be burnt and consumed to ashes yet Grace is a good that fire will not burn nor water drown Justly did our Saviour call the rich man in the Gospel fool and in him all such fools that had more care for this world than for heaven Who ever seeks the world for their bed shall at best find it but short and ill made and a stone and thorns under their sides to keep them waking rather than a soft Pillow to sleep upon O that it were written upon the bags upon the doors upon the chests tables counting-houses of worldlings which holy Job said Naked came I forth of my Mothers womb and naked shall I return I must appear before God not in the worlds goods but in the sins which I have done in this world It pitieth me many times to see the industrious Bees to take such great pains all the Summer to get a little honey for the winter they go abroad daily from flower to flower to suck honey and carry it to their Hives and are burnt in their Hives perhaps before winter cometh and others take the honey Thus worldlings toil and spend their lives and strength for the goods of this world and think in their old age to take their ease and give up themselves to a devout solitude but before that it may be God takes away their goods by fire or water or suffereth thieves and robbers to break in upon them and take away all their wealth and riches from them or it may be death cometh and exerciseth dominion over them and turneth them into hell and there they burn and others enjoy their goods upon earth Will ye then spend most of your care thoughts strength and time for the things of this world and have no care and thoughts for grace and heaven Will ye like Martha cumber your selves about many things that may quickly be taken from you and neglect the one thing necessary that shall never be taken away from you if once you have

God the end of your coming to them Psa 42.1 2. My soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come before God i. e. To enjoy God in his Ordinances seek not so much the enjoyment of Ordinances as of God in them 3. It implies an application of our selves to an holy and heavenly conversation An holy life is the strait way which leadeth to heaven heaven is the reward of an holy and heavenly Conversation it is not every foul dog with his soul feet that shall tread upon the pure pavement of the New Jerusalem He that doth not seek holiness doth not seek heaven heaven is to be sought for in an heavenly manner heaven is a City hard to be won the righteous wil scarcely be saved hell is prepared for unholy persons forus canes without ate dogs 4. It consisteth in a constant use of all means all holy duties without fainting or desisting until you have found a title and obtained a claim to heaven The woman in the Parable did not desist from seeking till she had found her groat and the Spouse in the Canticles never gave over seeking Christ till she had found him whom her soul loved He that is slothful in seeking may never find heaven 5. It consisteth in an early and timely seeking begin to day while it is called to day The greatest part of the world do but play with Religion they think it an easie thing to be a Christian and that to seek God and heaven is at the next door and that they will be found at any time No no the foolish Virgins lost heaven by seeking it too late Many do eternally lose heaven by delay of seeking I make no doubt but all do desire heaven nor do I make any question but all or most of us do purpose to set some time apart to seek heaven Why then not presently who knoweth what a day may bring forth who knows how soon death may arrest him heaven is not easily found it is not gotten with a few words or faint wishes SECT III. Consider I beseech you your continuance here is but short By what elegant comparisons doth the Scripture set forth the shortness of mans life it is but a vapour saith S. James it is but a dream it is but the shadow of a dream said an Heathen It is as grass or as a flower it is as a tale as a thought as a bubble it is but a Race but as a Weavers Shuttle but for a little moment all which things are of a very short continuance Have we not need then to day while it is called to day without delay to seek heaven and life which continueth for evermore But the misery of man is great upon him because we flatter our selves with a kind of immortality none so sick and weakly but hopeth for a recovery none so aged but thinketh he shall live a while longer 2. How long you shall continue here is uncertain who knoweth when and how soon he shall depart hence It may be to morrow it may be this night or this hour who can tell We do not 〈◊〉 ●ither the day nor the hour when death will come therefore seek heaven We have need to make haste the time present is yours only the time to come is uncertain the time past is irrecoverably gone who can tell what to morrow will bring forth Peradventure death and damnation The present time is thine only this hour this Sermon this opportunity this call from heaven this very exhortation to seek heaven presently 3. Or suppose our continuance upon earth to be long even as long as Methusaleh continued suppose thou hadst the Reign of Time in thy hands and couldst slack the pace of Time at thy pleasure yet there were no continuance for thee alwayes here but die you must and die you shall But certainly you have not Time at your command you cannot command the Sun of Time to stand still one moment nor to go back fifteen degrees time is irrecoverable if it be lost Lost money may be recovered but occasions neglected are irrecoverable and will never return again 4. Consider that properly we have no continuance here because our lives do not stand at a stay but like 〈◊〉 we are continually going to our graves as fast as the wings of Time can carry us No motion more swift than that of the Sun our lives do run away as swift as the Sun it self The Sun that is the measurer of time once stood still in Joshua's daies and returned ten degrees in Hezekiah's sickness yet time it self ever past forward and did never stand with the Suns standing nor return with his returning 5. Consider what is the reward of our neglect of seeking heaven even an eternal abode in hell For as heaven is a continuing City so hell is a continuing Fiery Dungeon these flames are of eternal continuance these Chains of darkness are everlasting Chains there is the Worm that never dies the Fire that never goes out there is everlasting destruction Isai 30.33 Tophet is ordained of old Hell is as old as sin God made hell as soon as the creature became sinful He hath made it deep and large here is the vastness of this prison it is large enough to hold all wicked men and Angels it is deep there is the impossibility of escaping of getting out of it it is so deep that it hath no bottom therefore it is called the Bottomless Pit the Pile thereof is fire and much wood there is the super-abundance of punishment and the extremity of torment and the breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone doth kindle it Here is the Eternity of torment while God breathes the fire of hell shall burn Now if you will escape hell seek heaven while you may find it we are all hastening to a continuing City or to a continuing prison to an everlasting heaven or an everlasting hell this glorious City and that burning Prison will shortly divide the whole world of men and women between them beware of too earnest seeking riches they have wings and will flee away from you seek not houses and Lands for they will not abide for ever let not your inward thought be that your houses shall continue for ever and your dwelling places to all Generations Go to Christ walk in heavens way get an entrance into that everlasting Kingdome for that and that only is the continuing City Now my Brethren up and be doing seek ye first the Kingdome of God seek heaven first of all it is worth finding worth enjoying it will make amends for all your toil and labour heavenly seeking is a comfortable kind of life there is no comfort like that which is to be found in seeking heaven What comfort will it yeeld to a Christian in the hour of death who can say I have sought and I have found heaven and what horrour will it be to a dying sinner that hath neglected to seek after heaven when