properties If you aske me Who they are that shall suffer this Damnation of hell I will tell you in brief not only who they are but also why they are Damned Who they are that shall suffer these paines of hell the Prophet David tells us in generall terms Psal 9.17 The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the people that forget God All wicked and impenitent Sinners shall be Damned because they forget God and neglect to serve Him and fulfill his commands But to speak more particularly The first that was cast into hell was Lucifer And the cause why was his disobedience of God arising from his abominable pride The Devil was the first Rebell and for that rebellion lost his part in the unconceiable joyes of heaven and suffered the eternall paines of hell And they that take part with him in that or any other sinne shall be sure to suffer the same punishment that he and his Angels doe Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels That is the doom of the wicked pronounced by our Saviour at the last judgement as you may see Mat. 25.41 It was prepared for the Devil and his Angels even all those that disobey God's commands and preferre their owne will before His. For The whole and onely cause of Damnation saith Tertullian is Perversa administratio conditionis à conditis the ill-managing of the Creation by the Creatures that they are the things of this world not according to God's commands but according to their owne will Which gave just occasion to one of the antient Fathers to say That nothing doth burne in hell so much as the stuborne will of a Sinner And hence it is that the sinne of an obstinate and impenitent mind is punished eternally although committed in time and that perhaps a short time because that which was short in acting was long in respect of his stuborne will So that if such Sinners should never die they would never leave off to sinne yea they would alwaies live that they might alwaies sinne As in this life they would not cease from sinne although God did exhort threaten intreat and use all meanes possible So in the other life God will not leave off to punish them although they howle and lament grievously But that which makes the torments of the Damned to be endlesse is a continuall hatred which they have of Almighty God whose justice thus punisheth them And as long as they continue to hate God what mervaile is it if God persevere to punish them As their sinne is so likewise is their punishment without any end Then shall that be truly fulfilled which is written Revel 9.6 In those daies shall men seek death and shall not find it and shall desire to die and death shall flee from them Never was sleep so welcome to a drowsie head Jer. 51.57 as death such as the Prophet Jeremie calls a perpetuall sleep would be to those tormented soules It would be as Justine Martyr calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unexpected gaine For never did any condemned wretch at the houre of death so much desire life as the Damned amidst their everliving torments doe desire death such a death as might deprive them of all manner of beeing They would most willingly cease to Bee on condition that they might not be thus miserable Faction may drive men into strange opinions little lesse than blasphemie such as their's is who affirme that it is better to be eternally miserable than not to be at all But our Saviour's doctrine will alwaies be true Mat. 26.24 that it had been good for such men if they had never been borne that they never had any beeing at all It is in a case farre more tolerable onely in respect of the miseries of this life that Job wisheth Job 3.16 That he had been as an hidden untimely birth that he had not been as Infants which never saw light Accounting it much better not to have been at all than to suffer the miseries of this short and transitory life How much more were it to be desired by the Damned that they had no beeing at all than that they should alwaies suffer the unspeakable torments of endlesse burnings It is not more certaine that I speake or that you doe heare than it is sure that there is such a Damnation of Hell and that the paines thereof are more dreadfull than any tongue is able to utter or any heart to conceive But the greatest of all those torments is that which I have already told you and doe willingly touch it once againe to the end that you may alwaies remember it That after many thousand millions of ages the Damned are no neerer to the end of their torments than they were the very first minute that they entered into them Once into Hell and never out Then we cannot but now we may Escape this Damnation of Hell III. For unlesse there were a possibility for them to whom Christ spake to Escape this damnation of which He speaketh He would never have preached this Doctrine to them The end of Christ's preaching was the same which ought to be of all ours not to tell men that they are unavoidably damned but to teach them how they may be saved to shew them the meanes how they may escape this damnation The manner of speech which Christ here useth by way of question doth not argue an absolute impossibility but onely a a great difficulty to Escape this damnation of hell Although straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life Mat. 7.14 and few there be that find it yet some there are that find it and our fault it is and onely ours if we be not some of those few who find that way to heaven and so escape this damnation of hell For God would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth They are Saint Paul's owne words 1 Tim. 2.4 Seing his will is that all men should be saved questionlesse he hath not absolutely decreed that any man should be peremptorily damned These two imply no lesse than a meere contradiction God forbid that Satan should so farre possesse the heart of any man as to perswade him that it were impossible for him to Escape the damnation of hell this were to make him cast off all the meanes which God in his word hath prescribed to that end This were to make all the exhortations admonitions promises and threatnings of God to be of none effect For why should God propose unto men or why should they use the meanes of obtaining salvation if it be not possible for them to Escape damnation God's promises are true and his threatnings serious As he is not mocked so neither doth he mock any man when he tells him Ezek. 18.28 that if he resent and turne from all his transgressions he shall surely live he shall not die God doth not will
houre that he entred into them This cannot chuse but strike the most hard heart that is into horrour When he shall consider that if all the lives of all creatures that have been from the beginning of the world with all those that shall be to the end of it were as I may say spun into one life it would be as nothing in respect of Eternitie When you meditate as I hope you often doe upon the paines of Hell doe but seriously thinke upon this one word Ever and you need say no more to expresse the paines of Hell that they are endlesse Mar. 9.44 That their worme dieth not neither is their fire quenched It is the property of this fire so to consume that it doth alwaies preserve And those that are punished with it doe so die that they doe alwaies live As the least paine in Hell is much more grievous than all the torments that can be suffered here on earth So the Eternitie of those paines and the continuall remembrance of it is more terrible than all those paines be they never so many and grievous I will not so much wrong this Christian audience as to go about to prove this truth unto you that the paines of hell are Endlesse That were to accuse you as either not knowing or not believing that which the very Heathen did acknowledge To signifie this they feigned one to be carried about continually in a wheele another to role a stone to the top of an hill which still returned back upon him others to fill a bottomlesse tub with water another to have his liver devoured by a Vulture all the day long and in the night-time to grow againe that it might alwaies be eaten but never consumed The Prophet David seemes to make the like allusion Psal 49.14 They lie in hell like sheep death gnaweth on them Signifying that as the grasse which is eaten by the cattell springeth and groweth againe because the root thereof which is the beginning of life still liveth So the damned being alwaies fed upon by the devouring fire shall never die because their soule the principall fuell of this fire is immortall Such as their soule is such shall be their torments immortall and endlesse The pasture of this field is immortall though it be alwaies eaten it alwaies springeth againe If you demand how it can stand with God's justice to punish a finite sinne with an infinite punishment Why he who hath sinned a few yeares should suffer eternall torments I answer that this dealing of God with impenitent sinners is most just not onely in respect of God against whom they have sinned whose Person is infinite and therefore the sinne against Him deserves the like punishment an infinite justice to be satisfied by an infinite torment But even in respect of the Sinner himselfe the punishment ought to be eternall For the paines of Hell are proportioned not only to the act of a Sinner which he hath done but to his will what he would have done if he might have lived for ever And then what wonder is it if he that would have sinned against God everlastingly if it had been in his power be everlastingly punished by God who hath power so to doe God does by him no otherwise than he would doe by God Neither are the torments of Hell more grievous to man than the sinnes of man are offensive to God Sinne is as much displeasing to the essence of God as torment is grievous to the nature of man And therefore no mervaile it is if God punish that with infinite torment which is infinitely displeasing to Him For in Hell the condition of the sinne and of the Sinner seeme to be somewhat alike in this respect that as the sinne may alwaies de punished but never cleansed so neither shall the torments in their body ever be ended nor the body be extinguished There the damned shall ever live to die and ever die to live That as there are eternall joyes prepared in heaven for those that love and serve God so there are everlasting torments ordained in Hell for those that disobey Him Which is the Damnation here spoken of How can ye Escape the Damnation of Hell II. Having shewed you not onely that there is a Hell but what this Hell is I need not stand to prove that there is a Damnation of this Hell that will follow by a necessary consequence No house is built but for some Inhabitant no punishment is prepared but for some Offender If there neither were nor would be Malefactors it were needlesse to build any Prisons God would never have made Hell but that in his infinite wisdome he foresaw that there would be some who would deserve it how intolerable so ever it were There have been and are some so malitious and obstinate in their sinnes that Hell it selfe if it were not infinitely miserable were not miserable enough to punish them for their wickednesse The Heathen who did acknowledge a Hell did believe that there was a Condemnation of all such as had lived wickedly in this life Those three Kings Aeacus Minos and Radamanthus who were famous for their justice here on earth were therefore feigned to have been Judges in the other world and to have rewarded each man according to his deserts the virtuous with faire Elysian fields and the wicked with burning and stinking rivers For seeing many who had committed notorious wickednesse as murder adultery rapine and the like haynous offences not onely to suffer no punishment in this life but even to enjoy great prosperity all their life long they did conclude as well they might that there was some time and place when and where God would execute upon them the effects of His justice and reward them according to their doings This opinion of theirs is very agreeable to the Christian doctrine which teacheth that justice is as proper to God as mercy that as by the one he doth reward the Godly with the joyes of Heaven so by the other he doth punish the Wicked with the eternall torments of Hell and Damnation Paravit coelum sed paravit tartarum c. God saith Saint Cyprian hath prepared heaven but he hath also prepared hell the one for the good the other for the bad He hath prepared everlasting rest but he hath also prepared everlasting torments He hath prepared unconceivable light but he hath also prepared the unspeakable darknesse of a perpetuall night As there are good and bad sheep and goates so there is heaven and hell Unto the eternall joyes of the one the good are mercifully Elected unto the endlesse miseries of the other the wicked are justly Condemned The Catholique Faith admits of a just Condemnation to the pains of hell as well as of a mercifull Election to the joyes of heaven Whereof the one depends on Gods mercy the other on his justice And they that deny either the one or the other of these two estates doe rob God of one of his essentiall
unlawfull pleasures of this present life I thinke it not unprofitable in this point to relate unto a discurse which I have read between a Frier and a young Gallant The young Man seeing the Frier go bare-foot and to looke pale with fasting ask'd him why he did undergo all this austerity and deprive himselfe of the pleasures of this world The Frier answered him that he did it to the end that he might thereby appease God's anger and to escape the eternall torments of Hell But saies the young Man what if there be no Hell art not thou then a great foole who dost do and suffer all this to no purpose To which the Frier replies But if there be as I verily believe there is a Hell a place of unsufferable and endlesse torments is not your worship a greater Foole who to enjoy the sinfull pleasures of this world for a short season doe hazard the eternall damnation of your body and soule And indeed what greater madnesse can there be than to refuse the short paines which are to be undergone by those that will live godly in this life and chuse the everlasting punishment prepared for the Devil Thinke upon the grievous paines of Hell and you will think no paine grievous which is undergone for the love of God and a good conscience The assured hope which we have to escape that dreadfull torment will make all the exercises of religion how irksome soever to flesh and blood to seeme light unto us 4. A fourth meanes to escape the damnation of Hell is To keep our selves in the unity of God's Church that Church which we believe to be the Holy and Catholique Holy in the practice of all godlinesse Catholique in the unanimous profession of the true faith Whereof the one excludes all prophane and wicked Livers the other all Schismaticks and Mis-believers In this Church and the communion thereof if we preserve our selves by living righteously and believing aright we need not feare but that we may and shall escape the damnation of Hell Of this Church not of the Church of Rome or any particular Congregation whatsoever but of this Holy and Catholique Church is Saint Cyprian to be understood That he cannot have God for his Father who hath not the Church for his Mother and that other That without the Church there is no salvation As at the first destruction of the world for sinne all that were found out of the Arke perished by water So at the last day all that shall be found out of the Church whereof the Arke was a type shall be destroyed by everlasting fire But as many as shall be found within the Church shall be free from the damnation of Hell Of this Holy and Catholique Church is that promise to be understood which our Saviour made Mat. 16.18 That the gates of Hell shall not prevaile against it neither against it nor any member of it Whosoever doth abide in the unity of this Church shall never come into the condemnation of eternall fire 5. And all this by meanes of Faith in Christ and his merits who for our sakes descended into Hell that we might never come there For by vertue of Christ's death and passion and his glorious resurrection from death and hell we are made free from the one and the other both from the power of death and the torments of hell If we be members of Christ we shall together with Him partake of eternall blisse and glory Because Wisd 3.1 the soules of the righteous are in the hand of God and there shall no torment touch them No torment shall touch them because they are the members of Christ who hath satisfied for us whatsoever we should have suffered Who hath the keyes of Hell and of death Revel 1.18 that neither Death nor Hell should prevaile over us Let us seriously consider these things in our hearts That there are eternall torments prepared for all those that sinne against God and repent not of those sins 6. This very consideration is a sufficient motive to work is us a 1 Serious and 2 Speedy Repentance 1. Serious considering we believe the torments of Hell to be as they are indeed endlesse and intolerable If we stedfastly believe and seriously consider this we will not esteem any thing of this world which may endanger our estate of eternity Let them take care of this present life and of the transitory goods of this world who have no hope to enjoy the life to come and the everlasting pleasures thereof Let them take their pleasure in this world who have no hope to escape the paines of the other 2. So likewise will it worke in us a Speedy Repentance not suffering us to delay the time lest the damnation due to our sinnes should overtake us before we have repented of them Considering that we cannot begin too soone to prevent that which shall never have an end This should be our first only care that we may escape this damnation We should regard nothing in comparison of this We should be carefull of falling into this fire that we should beware of every action that we doe every word that we speak and every thought that we thinke lest it should prove unto us an occasion of falling into sinne and so into hell If of all the posterity of Adam there should but one onely man suffer these horrible torments of which we have spoken yet ought we to be exceeding carefull every one of us ought to beware lest it might be his lot to suffer them How much more carefull ought we to be seing the number of those that perish is infinite and few there be that shall be saved Seing scarce one of ten thousand shall escape this damnation what manner of men ought we to be in all holy and vertuous conversation 1 Pet. 4.18 For If the Righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and Sinners appeare Ought not every one of us us who are guilty of many and grievous sinnes ought not we to use all possible meanes to escape this damnation Ought we not earnestly to enquire with the young man Mat. 19.16 What good thing shall I doe that I may have eternall life With the Goaler Act. 16.30 What must I doe to be saved Suppose this question to be proposed to us any of us in particular as it was to the Scribes and Pharisees How can Ye ye Adulterers ye Drunkards ye Blasphemers ye covetous ye malitious ye envious ye Schismaticks ye Traytors ye Hypocrites ye sacrilegious Robbers of God and his Church ye that are guilty of these many and grievous sins or of any of them or of any like unto them How can Ye Escape this Damnation of Hell Impossible it is for you to escape these torments which I have described unlesse ye use the meanes which I have prescribed unto you Now God of his infinite mercy assist us with his Holy Spirit that we may use those meanes and so escape this damnation Amen Printed in the Yeare 1649. The End
death not the death of any man not the death of a wicked man Those Infidels that will not believe God upon his word may heare him confirme this truth with an oath Ezek. 33.11 As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turne from his way and live It is Gods wil that all men should Escape this damnation that some Escape it is his great mercy but that many fall into it Wisd 1.13 Vers 16. is from their owne hard and impenitent heart which will not lay hold on Christ and use those meanes which God mercifully affordeth unto them God made not death neither hath he pleasure in the destruction of the living But ungodly men with their works and words called it unto them And as for Hell it was prepared not for us men * Primarily but for the Devil and his Angels It is the observation of one of the antient Fathers upon those words of Christ Mat. 25.41 So generall that it is contradicted by none of them all But I may seeme to wrong this Christian auditory in that I insist upon the confirmation of that which I am perswaded none here will because I am sure none should deny This I dare assure you confidently that there is not any one of you to whom I speake but may Escape this damnation if he will use the meanes requisite thereunto And that is the next and last particular of which I am to treat How we may Escape c. IV. I doubt not but that this point of doctrine will be glad tidings to every Christian's heart Every one that believeth as every Christian ought to believe that there is a Hell would be very willing to escape the eternall damnation of it And the first meanes to escape this damnation Hell is this 1. Stedfastly to believe that there is such a place of torments where all wicked and impenitent Sinners shall be punished eternally Let it not seeme strange to any that I propose the beliefe of Hell as a meanes to avoid it For certainly if men did stedfastly believe that there are eternall torments prepared for the wicked they would not live thus wickedly It was a just complaint of one of the Heathen that in his time when wickednesse did greatly abound the opinion of Hell was accounted as a Fable onely to affright little Children And it is to be doubted that even among them that professe the Name of Christ there are too many who would willingly perswade themselves that the torments of Hell are but a fiction a thing invented onely to deterre men from sinne For can we imagine that a foule Adulterer a prophane Swearer a common Drunkard a covetous Usurer or any the like wicked man who perseveres in his knowne sinnes would commit those sinnes if he did seriously believe that he should suffer such punishment Would he incurre the eternall paines of Hell for a moment of sinfull pleasure Doubtlesse he would not commit the one if he did believe the other 2. Especially if he did Often and seriously Meditate upon it Which is a second and that a very soveraigne meanes to Escape this damnation of Hell For certainly as I have told you already a very effectuall meanes to prevent our descending into Hell in body and soule is Often to descend thither in our thoughts and meditations He that doth stedfastly believe that there is such a place of torment prepared for the wicked and also frequently meditate upon the eternall horror of that place can hardly commit that finne which should bring him into that place of intolerable and endlesse torment It was the just complaint of Saint Cyprian in his time and it will fit ours much better Nemo futurorum metum cogitat c. No man doth thinke upon the feare of those things that are to come the day of the Lord and the anger of God No man doth consider the punishments which shall be inflicted on the wicked and the eternall torments which are appointed for Vnbelievers Which our conscience would fear if it did believe Because it doth not at all believe it it doth not feare But if it did believe it it would beware of it if it would take heed of it it would escape it Where you see that a good meanes to escape Hell is to believe that there is such a place of horrible torments and often to think upon the horror thereof This if any thing will prevaile with us is most likely to restraine us from sinne and consequently preserve us from damnation For I am strongly of Saint Bernard's opinion that nothing doth preserve us so free from sinne as doth the Love of God and the Feare of Hell As one naile doth drive out another so the fire of Hell doth oftentimes expell the fire of lust and suffers us not to commit that which would make us liable to eternall damnation If we would often call to mind and seriously ponder in our hearts that question which is asked by some Isa 33.14 Who among us shall dwell with the devouring sire Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings It is very likely that we would use all possible meanes to escape that devouring fire those everlasting burnings And let no man thinke it an irksome thing to meditate upon so dismall a subject It is much better to be troubled with the thought of it here than to be stung with the torment of it hereafter For if it be grievous to thinke on it onely how intolerable will be to suffer it for ever Thinke upon Hell often and you will not so often commit sinne By frequent and serious meditation upon Hell you are in a right way to avoid sinne and by avoiding sinne to escape damnation Often present unto your selves the dreadful countenance of that just and angry Judge who will condemne all impenitent Sinners to suffer eternall torments Thinke upon that countenance at which the Angels themselves cannot chuse but tremble Consider the unspeakable paines of that devouring fire those everlasting burnings and above all consider that they are everlasting that shall never have an end Meditate upon these things often and consider them seriously and this meditation will prove a soveraigne preservative against sinne and damnation 3. But you must be carefull to use your utmost endeavour to eschew all the allurements of the Devill whereby he laboureth to draw men into perdition Luke 13.24 and strive you must to enter in at the straight gate which leadeth into the kingdome of heaven how straight so ever it be Let not the honours wealth of pleasures of this world divert you from that way and draw you into that broad way which leadeth unto destruction This is a most profitable and necessary meanes to avoid the damnation of Hell when we shun all those things which are likely to bring us thither He that will escape the eternall torments of the life to come must carefully avoid the