shold they all bee wearied and the world come to an end before they should end their description make a perfect declaration what is comprehended in each one of these points This faith informeth thee also that the debts and duties which we owe to almightie God are so great that albeit a man had so many lives as there bee sands in the sea yet would they not suffice if they were all employed in his service And this faith likewise telleth thee that vertue is such an excellent treasure that all the treasures of the world and al that mans heart can desire are in no sort comparable unto it Wherefore if there be so many and so great respects that doe invite us unto vertue how commeth it to passe that there bee so few lovers and followers of the same If men be mooved with gaine and commodity what greater commoditie can there be than to attaine life everlasting If they be moved with fear of punishment what greater punishment can bee found than the most horrible everlasting dreadfull torments in the lake of fire and brimstone to continue even world without end If that bonds of debts and benefites what debts are greater than these which we owe unto the almightie God as well for that hee is which he is as also for that which wee have received of him If the feare of perils doe move us what greater perill can there bee than death the houre thereof being so uncertaine and the account so strait If thou be moved with peace libertie quietnes of mind and with a pleasant life which are things that all the world desires it is certaine that all these are found much better in the life that is governed by vertue and reason than in that life which is ruled by the affections and passions of the mind forsomuch as man is a reasonable creature and no beast Howbeit in case thou account all this as not sufficient to move thee thereunto yet let it suffice thee to consider further that even Almightie God so abased himselfe for thy sake that he descended from heaven unto the earth and became man and whereas he created the whole world in sixe dayes hee bestowed three and thirtie yeares about thy redemption yea and was also contented for the same to leese his life Almightie God died that sinne should die and yet for all this doe wee endeavor that sinne might live in our hearts notwithstanding that our Lord purposed to take away the life of sinne with his owne death If this matter were to be discussed with reason surely this alreadie spoken might suffice to prevaile with any reasonable creature for not onely in beholding Almightie God upon the crosse but whether soever we doe turn our eyes we shal find that every thing crieth out to us and calleth upon us to receive this so excellent a benefite for there is not a thing created in the world if we duly consider it but dooth invite us to the love and service of our Saviour Iesus Christ insomuch that looke how many creatures there be in the world so many preachers there are so many bookes so many voices and so manie reasons which doe all call us unto almighty God And how is it possible then that so many callings as these are so many promises so many threatnings and so many provocations should not suffice to bring us unto him What might almightie God have done more than hee hath done or promised more greater blessings than he hath promised or threatened more greevous and horrible torments than he hath threatned to draw us unto him and to pluck us away from sinne And yet all this notwithstanding howe commeth it to passe that there is so great I will not say arrogancie but bewitching of men that doe beleeve these things to bee certainely true and yet bee not afraid to continue all the dayes of their life in the committing of deadly sinnes Yea to goe to bed in deadly sinne and to rise up againe in deadly sinne and to embrue themselves in every kind of lothsome detestable and odious sinne even as though all their whole endeavours intended by the practise of sinne to resist all grace and favour in the sight of God And this is done in such sort so without feare so without scruple of mind so without breaking of one houres sleepe and without the refraining of anie one delicate morsell of meat for the same as if all that they beleeved were dreames and olde wives tales and as if all that the holy Evangelists have written were meere fiction and fables But tel me thou that art such a desperate wilfull rebell against thy Creator and Redeemer which by thy detestable life and dissolute conversation doest evidence thy selfe to be a firebrand prepared to burne in those everlasting and revenging horrible fires of hell What wouldest thou have done more than thou hast done in case thou haddest beene persuaded that all were meere lies which thou hast beleeved For although that for feare of incurring the daunger of the princes lawes and the execution of their force upon thee thou hast somewhat brideled thine appetites yet doth it not appeare that for any feare of Almightie God thou hast refrained thy will in any one thing neither from carnall pleasures nor from taking revenge of thine enemies nor from backbiting and slandering thy neighbours nor yet from fulfilling thine inordinate lusts and desires in case thine abilitie served thee thereunto Oh what dooth the worme of thy conscience say unto thee whiles thou art in such a fond securitie and confidence continuing in such a dissolute and wicked life as thou doest Where is now become the understanding judgement and reason which thou hast of a man Why art thou not afraid of so horrible so certaine and so assured perils and daungers If there were a dish of meat set before thee and some man albeit he were a lier should say unto thee refraine to touch and eat thereof for it is poysoned durst thou once adventure to stretch out thy hand to take a tast thereof though the meat were never so savorie and delicate and hee never so great a lier that should beare thee thus in hand If then the Prophets if the Apostles if the Evangelists yea if Almightie God himselfe doe crie out unto thee and say Take heed thou miserable man for death is in that kind of meat and death dooth lie lurking in that gluttonous morsell which the devill hath set before thee Howe darest thou reach for everlasting death with thine owne handes and drinke thine owne damnation Where is the applying of thy wits thy judgement and the discourse and reason which thou hast of a spirituall man Where is their light where is their force Sith that none of them doe bridle thee anie whit from thy common usuall vices Oh thou wretched and carelesse creature be witched by the common enemie Sathan adjudged to everlasting darkenesse both inward and outward and so doest goe from one darkenesse
beg his bread in summer and no man shall give him to eat And in another place hee sayth He that gathereth in summer is a wise sonne but hee that giveth himselfe to sleeping at that season is the sonne of confusion For what confusion can there be greater than that which that miserable covetous rich man suffereth who with a fewe crums of bread that fell from his table might have purchased to himselfe abundance of everlasting felicitie and glorie in the kingdome of heaven But because he would not give so small a thing he came to such an extreame necessitie that hee begged yea and shall for ever beg in vaine onely one drop of water and shall never obtaine it Who is not mooved with that request of that unfortunate damned person who cried O father Abraham have compassion on me and send down Lazarus vnto mee that hee may dip the tip of his finger in water and touch my tongue for thâ—se horrible flames doe torment mee exceedingly What smaller request could there bee desired than this Hee durst not request so much as one cup of water neither that Lazarus should put his whole hand into the water nor yet which is more to bee wondered at did he request so much as the whole finger but onely the tip of it that it might but touch his tongue and yet even this alonely would not be granted unto him Whereby thou maiest perceive how fast the gate of all consolation is shut up and how universall that interdict and excommunication is that is there laid upon the damned sith this rich glutton could not obtaine so much as this small request So that wheresoever the damned persons doe turne their eyes and on which side soever they stretch their hands they shall not find any manner of comfort bee it never so small And as hee that is in the sea choaked and almost drowned under the water not finding any stay wherupon to set his foot stretcheth foorth his hands oftentimes on every side in vaine because all that hee graspeth after is thinne and liquid water which deceives him even so shall it fare with the damned persons when they shall bee drowned in that deepe sea of so many miseries where they shall strive and strug gle alwayes with death without finding any succour or place of stay whereupon they may rest themselves Now this is one of the greatest paines wherewith they be tormented in that cursed place for if these torments shold have their continuance liâ— mitted but for a certaine time though it were for a thousand yea a hundred thousand millions of years yet even this would bee some little comfort unto them for nothing is perfectly great in case it have an end But alas they have not so much as this poore and miserable comfort but contrariwise their paines are equall in continuance with the eternity of almightie God and the lasting of their miserie with the eternitie of Gods glorie As long as almightie God shall live so long shall they die and when Almightie God shall cease to be God then shall they also cease to be as they are O deadly life ô immortall death I know not whether I may truly tearme thee either life or death for if thou be life why dost thou kill And if thou be death why doest thou endure Wherefore I will call thee neither the one nor the other for so much as in both of them there is contained something that is good as in life there is rest and in death there is an end which is a great comfort to the afflicted but thou hast neither rest not end What art thou then Marry thou art the worst of life and the worst of death foâ— of death thou hast the torment without any end and of life thou hast tâ—e continuance without any rest O bitter composition ô unsavorie purgation of our Lords cup of the which all the sinners of the earth shall drinke their part Now in this continuance in this eternitie I would wish that thou my deare Christian brother wouldst fixe the eyes of thy consideration a little while and that as the clean beast cheweth the cud even so thou wouldest weigh this point within thy selfe with great deliberation And to the intent thou maiest do it the better consider a little the paines that a sicke man abideth in one evill night especially if he be vexed with any vehement greefe or sharpe disease Marke how oft hee tumbleth tosseth in his bed what disquietnes he hath how long and tedious one night seemeth unto him how duly hee counteth all the houres of the clocke and how long he deemeth each houre of them to bee how hee passeth the time in wishing for the dawning of the day which notwithstanding is like to helpe him little towards the curing of his disease If this then bee accounted so great a torment what torment shall that bee trowyee in that everlasting night in hell which hath no morning nor so much as any hope of any dawning of the day O darknesse most obscure ô night everlasting ô night accursed even by the mouth of almightie God all his Saints That one shall wish for light and shall never see it neither shall the brightnesse of the morning arise any more Consider then what a kind of torment shall that bee to live everlastingly in such a night as this is lying not in a soft bed as the sicke man dooth but in a hote burning furnace foming out such terrible raging flames What shoulders shall be able to abide those horrible heats If it seeme to us as a thing intollerable to have onely some part of our feet standing upon a panne of burning coales for the space of repeating the Lords prayer What shall it bee thinke you to stand bodie and soule burning in the midst of those everlasting hot raging fires in hell in comparison of which the fires of this world are but painted fires Is there any wit or judgement in this world Have men their right sences do they understand what these words import or are they peradventure persuaded that these are onely the fables of Poets or doe they thinke that this appertaineth not to them orels that it was onely meant for others None of all this can they say for so much as our faith assureth us most certainely herein And our Saviour Christ himselfe who is everlasting trueth crieth out in his Gospell saying Heaven and earth shall faile but my word shall not faile Of this miserie there followeth another as great as it which is that the paines are alwaies continuing in one like degree without any manner of intermission or decreasing All manner of things that are under the cope of heaven doe moove and turne round about with the same heaven and do never stand still at one state or beeing but are continually either ascending or descending The sea and the rivers have their ebbing and flowing the times the ages and the mutable fortune of men and of kingdomes
to the other Thou art blind to see thine owne miserie insensible to understand thine owne perdition and harder than any Adamant to feele the hammer of Gods word Oh a thousand times most miserable thou art woorthie to be lamented with none other teares than with those wherewith thy damnation was lamented when it was said Luke 19. Oh that thou knewest this day the peace quietnesse and treasures which Almightie God hath offered unto thee that doe now lie hidden from thine eyes Oh miserable is the day of thy nativitie and much more miserable the day of thy death forsomuch as that shall bee the beginning of thine everlasting damnation Oh how much better had it beene for thee never to have beene borne if thou shalt bee damned in the horrible pit of hell for ever where the torments are perpetually durable How much better had it beene for thee never to have beene baptised nor yet to have received the Christian faith if through the abusing thereof by thy wicked life thy damnation shall therby be the greater For if the light of reasâ—n onely sufficeth to make the Heathen Philosophers inexcuseable because they knowing God in some degree did not glorifie him nor serve him as the Apostle sâ—yth in the first to the Romanes how much lesse shall he be excused that hath received the light of faith and the water of Baptisme yea and the holy Sacrament of the bodie bloud of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ hearing dayly the doctrine of the Gospell if hee doe nothing more than those Pagan Philosophers have done Now what other thing may wee inferre of the premisses but breefely to conclude That there is none other understanding none other wisdome none other counsell in the world but that setting aside all the impediments and combersome daungerous wayes of this life wee follow that onely true and certaine way whereby true peace and everlasting life is obtained Hereunto are wee called by reason by wisedome by law by heaven by earth by hell and by the life death justice and mercie of Almightie God Hereunto are wee also very notably invited by the holy Ghost speaking by the mouth of Ecclesiasticus in the sixt chapter in this wise My sonne hearken to instruction even from the first yeares of thy youth and in thy latter dayes thou shalt enjoy the sweet fruit of wisedome Approch unto it as one that ploweth and soweth and with patience expect the fruitfull encrease which it shall yeeld unto thee The paines that thou shalt take shall be but little and the benefites that thou shalt speedily enjoy shall be great My son hearken to my words and neglect not this my counsell which I shall give thee put thy feet willingly into her fetters and thy necke into â—er chaines bow downe thy shoulders and carrie her upon thee and bee not displeased with her bonds approch neare unto her with all thy heart and follow her wayes with all thy strength seeke for her with all thy diligence and shee will make her selfe knowne unto thee and after that thou hast found her never forsake her for by her shalt thou find rest in thy latter daies and that which before did seeme so painefull unto thee will afterwards become very pleasant Her fetters shall be a defence or thy strength and a foundation of vertue and her chaine shall bee a robe of glorie for in her is the beautie of life and her bonds are the bonds of health Hetherto Ecclesiasticus Whereby thou maiest understand in some degree howe great the beautie the delights the libertie and riches of true wisdome are which is vertue it selfe and the knowledge of Almightie God whereof wee doe intreat But if all this bee insufficient to mollifie our stonie hearts lift up thine eyes and fix thy thoughts constantly to behold our omnipotent God in his mercie and love towards sinners upon his dying crosse where hee made full satisfaction for thy sins There shalt thou behold him in this forme his feet nayled fast looking for thee his armes spread abroad to receive thee and his head bowing downe to give thee as to another prodigall sonne new kisses of peace and attonement From thence hee calleth thee if thou wouldest heare with so manie callings and cries as there bee wounds in his whole bodie Hearken thou therfore unto these voyces and consider well with thy selfe that if his praier bee not heard that hearkeneth not unto the cries of the poore how much lesse shall he be heard that maketh himselfe deafe to such cries as these beeing the most mercifull cryings of our loving saviour and intended for our soules salvation Who is hee that hath not cause to resolve himselfe wholly into teares to weepe and bewaile his manifold offences Who is he that can lament and will not lament at this Vnlesse hee bee such a one as seeth not nor careth not what great shipwrack wast and havocke he maketh of all the riches and treasures of his soule FINIS