attain the end of our faith the salvation of our souls and the conscience of our well spent life shal at that dismall day replenish our souls with abundance of consolations Then all our tears shall be wiped from our eys what we have sowed in sorrow we shall reap in joy when we have finished our course and ended our combate with sinne and death then shall our crown be sure our victory glorious and our triumph Eternall our grave shall be but as a sweet refreshing place to our wearied bodies and death shall be our day-starre to everlasting brightnesse But on the other side if we have in the whole course of our warfare here expended our precious time in the service of sinne and Satan and crumbled away the best and choicest of our years in the desires of the flesh and sports of vanity if our lusts have been our law and we have traded in pleasure all our dayes then heare our dreadfull doom Our mirth will be turned into wormwood and our joy into heavines all our delights in this earth shall vanish as the flower our sun shall set in a cloud and our daies of jollity and contentation shall irrecoverably be involved and turned into perpetuall darknesse CHAP. V. Containing a short digression touching the eternity of the damned ANd here it will not be unseasonable nor any digression from the point in hand to consider with our selves for our better encouragement to the wayes of holinesse the condition of that eternity which the damned have in Hell O the unhappy and ever deplorable state of those poor souls who feel nothing for the present but wrath and vengeance and can expect nothing to come but the vialls of Gods indignation to be poured on them in a fuller measure for ever hereafter And that which addes abundant weight to their miseries Nec qui torquet aliquando fatigatur nec qui torquetur aliquando moritur Bernard meditat cap. 3 is they shall burn but not diminish they shall lye buried in their flames but not consume they shall seek death but shall not finde it they shall desire it but it shall flee from them their punishment consists not in the indurance of any proper or peculiar pain but in the accumulation and heap of innumerable torments together All the faculties of the soul all the senses of the body shall have their severall punishments and that which is more unseparable and more then that eternall There shall be degrees in their torments but the least shall be infinite For as the wrath and displeasure of God toward them is everlasting so shall their pressures be They enjoy an eternity like the Saints but not the Saints eternity for their eternity shall beginne in horror and proceed in confusion their eternity shall purchase and yeeld to them no other fruit but yellings and lamentations and woe Their eternity is such as turns all things into its own nature for all things where the damned do inhabit are eternall The fire is eternall for the breath of God like a river of brimstone hath kindled it and it shall never goe out night nor day but the smoak thereof shall ascend for ever The worm is eternall for the conscience of the damned shall be everlastingly tormented with the sense of their sinne Their worme dyeth not saith the Prophet and their fire never goeth out The prison wherein they are inclosed is eternall The prayers of the Church could open the prison doors to Peter but no prayers can pierce these walls no power can overthrow them no time can ruine them out of Hell is no redemption no ransome no delivery Cruciantur damnati cruciantur in aeternum This is the last sentence of the Judge his irrevocable decree his immutable and eternall Judgement on the damned which shall nevever be reversed Adesse intolerabile abesse impossibile there is no appeal will lye from this Judge there is no reversing this judgement when the sentence is once past it stands for eternity Hence it was that the ancient Church repeated this sentence often in their divine service Peccantem me quotidie non penitentem timor mortis conturbat quia ex inferno nulla est redemptio Whil'st I daily sinne but repent not daily as I ought the fear of death amazeth me because after this life ended out of Hell is no redemption The blood of Christ shed on Golgotha is fully sufficient to save all man-kinde but it belongs not to the damned If therefore the yoak of repentance seem not sweet to thee saith St Bernard think on that yoak which thou shalt be sure to suffer which is Goe ye cursed into eternal fire But the most deplorable thing which is eternall in hell is the irrevocable losse of the beatificall presence of God the eternall privation of Gods sight the uncomfortable want whereof doth more grieve their hearts and wound their afflicted souls then all their bodily torments Thus we see the unhappy estate and condition of the damned in the other world and how the highest link in all this chain of sorrows wherewith they are environed is the miserable perpetuity of their torments when their restlesse thoughts have carefully runne thorow many thousands of years yet will they not then enjoy one day one little houre one minute of rest and respiration Everlasting darknesse is their portion they beginne and end alike with weeping and gnashing of teeth Now since this is certainly true is it possible for man so to degenerate into a beast as to beleeve these things and not to tremble Can the knowledge of these things swim in our brain without a serious and found digestion of them into our hearts when we know and stand convinced that inexplicable eternall endlesse easelesse horrors without true and unfeigned repentance abide us hereafter and on the other side we know not nor can possibly discerne with how speedy and swift a foot our end approacheth nor how suddenly we shall be summoned to give the world our everlasting farewell How can so sad and important consideration as this possesse our thoughts not torment them Or how can this chuse but imbitter our dearest pleasures and crosse our indulgence to our sensuall affections Did we but reason a while with our souls and every one of us in a particular application say within himself I am here floating like a ship in the sea of this world ballasted on every side with the cares and disquietings and miseries of this life and I saile on with full course towards the haven of Eternity one little blast is able to plunge me irrecoverably into this bottomlesse gulf where one houres torment will infinitely exceed for the pain of it an hundred years bitter repentance And shall I now thus standing upon the very battlements of hell melt in my delights cheer up my self in the dayes of my youth shall I tire out my spirits trifle out my precious time rob mine eyes of their beloved sleep for such things
Make no long tarrying to turn to the Lord and put not off from day to day For suddainly shall the wrath of the Lord break forth and in thy security thou shalt be destroyed and thou shalt perish in time of vengeance But alas farre otherwise it is with us in our practice * Magna pars vitae elabitur male agentibus maxima nihil agētibus tota aliud agentibus A great portion of our time is crumbled away in doing ill a greater part in doing nothing and our whole life in doing that which we should not or in matters as we say upon the by And as Archimedes was secure and busy about drawing lines on the ground when Syracuse was taken so is it with us Now that our eternall safety lyes at stake we lye puzling in our dust I mean in our worldly negotiations But for our eternity shortly approaching we seldom or rarely think of it We are like Martha trouble about many things when one thing is necessary But this one thing is that which of all other things is least regarded and in the last place We seldom seek heaven till death doth summon us to leave the earth we have many evasions to gull our own hearts many excuses to procrastinate our repentance like Dionysius the Sicilian king who to excuse himself for the present delivery of the golden garment which he took from his god Apollo answered that such a robe as that was could not be at any season of the year usefull to his god it would not keep him warm in the winter and it was too heavy for the summer So many there be saith S. Ambrose who play with God and with their own soul You must not say they seek for the vigour and life of Religion in the hearts of young men For youth as the proverb is must have his swinge neither can you expect it in the company of the aged for their age and those distempers which accompany it make them a burden to themselves and dulls the edge of their intentions unto all their serious undertakings Thus both the summer and the winter of our age are unfit for Gods service But let us not thus cheat ourselves If God be God let us follow him let us not put off the day of reconciliation and say in our hearts To morrow we will do it when yet we cannot tell vvhat shall be to morrovv for vvhat is our life It is even a vapour that appears for a little time and afterwards vanisheth away Hence it was that Macedonius being invited a day before to a feast replyed to the messenger Why doth thy Master invite me for to morrow whereas for this many years I have not promised to my self one daies life Nemo mortem satis cavet nisi qui semper cavet No man dreads death as he ought but he that alwaies expects his summons and therefore we may truly judge such men wofully secure and wilfull contemners of the future good who can go to their beds and rest on their pillows in the apprehension of their known sins without a particular humiliation for them For how oft doth a sudden and unexpected death arrest men We see and know in our daily experience many lay themselves to sleep in health and safety yet are they found dead in the morning Thus suddenly are they rapt from their quiet repose to their irrecoverable judgement perchance from their feathers to flames of fire such is the frail condition of our brittle lives vvithin the small particle of an hour live and sicken and die yet so grosse is our blindnesse that from one day to another nay from one yeer to another we triflingly put off the reformation of our lives untill our last hour creepes on us unlookt for and dragges us to eternitie Saint Augustine striving with all his endeavours against the backwardnes and slownes of his own heart to turne to the Lord bitterly complained within himself Quamdiu quamdiu cras cras Quare non hâc horâ finis turpitudinis meae How long saith he ô how long shall I delude my soule with to morrows repentance Why should not this hour terminate my sinfulnesse We are every minute at the brink of death every hour that we passe thorow might prove for ought we know the evening of our whole life and the very close of our mortalitie Now if it should please God to take away our souls from us this night as suddenly falls out to some what would then become of us In what Eternitie should we be found Whether amongst the damned or the blessed Happie were it for us if we were but as carefull for the welfare of our souls as we are curious for the adorning of our bodies if our clothes or faces do contract any blot or soiling we presently endeavour to cleanse the same But though our souls lie inthralled in the pollutions of sin this alas we feel not it neither provokes us to shame nor moves us to sorrow Wherfore let us look into our hearts with a severer eye Let the shortnesse of our dayes stir us up to theamendment of our sinful lives and let the hour wherein we have sinned be the beginning of our reformation according to that of Saint Ambrose Agenda est paenitentia nō solum sollicirè verumetiam maturè Our repentance must be not onely sincere but timely also whilest we have the light let us walk as children of the light Let us not any longer cheat our souls in studying to invent evasions or pretences for our sins but rather lay open our sores and seek to the true Physician that can heal them All the creatures under the sun do naturally intend their own preservation and desire that happinesse which is agreeable to their nature onely man is negligent and impiously carelesse of his own welfare We see the Hart when he is striken and wounded looks speedily for a certain herb well known unto him by a kinde of naturall instinct when he hath found it applies it to the wound The swallow when her young ones are blinde knowes how to procure them their sight by the use of her Celandine But we alas are wounded yet seek for no remedy we go customarily to our beds to our tables to our good company but who is he that observes his constant course of praier of repentance of hearty and sincere humiliation for his sins We go forward still in our old way and jogge on in the same rode Though our judgement hasten hell threaten death stand ar the door yet we thrust onward still in dulcem declinanamus lumina somnum But alas miserable souls as we are can we embrace quiet rests and uninterrupted sleeps with such wounded consciences Can we be so secure being so near our ruine But you will say we have passed already many nights without danger no sicknesse in the night hath befalne us hitherto why then should any fear of death amaze or trouble us Admit
all this yet be not too confident one hour may accomplish that which a thousand years could not produce and think with your selves what a little distance there is between your souls and death Let me ask the strongest of men on earth what certainty of life canst thou promise thy self seeing that either a little bone in thy throat may choak thee or a tile from thy house may brain thee or some malignant ayre may poison thee Tu te prius abreptum miraberis quam metueres abripiendum and then where art thou There are a thousand waies whereby suddenly a man may come to his end and certain it is that Mors illa maxime improvisa est cujus vita praecedens non fuit provida i.e. that death is the suddenest which is not ushered in with a foregoing preparation It is therefore a speciall point of wisdom to think every day our last yea to account every hour the period of our lives For look how many pores there are in the bodie so many windows are there to let in death yea we carry our deaths continually about us in our bosomes and who can promise himself his life till the evening Death doth not alwayes send forth her harbingers to give notice of her coming she often presseth in unlookt for and suddenly attacheth the unprovided soul Watch therefore because ye know neither the day not the hour work whilest ye have the day for the night comes wherein no man can work look towards thy evening and cast thy thoughts upon that long Eternitie Death first or last will apprehend thee expect it therefore at every turn and of this assure thy self * Qâ—alis quisque in hac vita moritur talis in die novissimo judicabitur as death leaveth thee so shal judgement finde thee How improvidently secure then are those who set up their rest in the comforts of this life and overly-regard their eternall welfare This is the generall carelesnesse of our times If a man have a perpetuitie but of five shillings yearly rent what travel and pains and sweat what beating of his braine and exhausting of his treasure wil he run thorow before he will lose one dram of his right Yet our eternall inheritaÌ„ce is cast behinde us undervalued as a trifle not worth the seeking this shews our small love to our home for we little esteem of that which we take small pains for All other things which conduce to our temporall well being we seek with circumspection and enjoy them with content but matters of Eternitie we conceive of as things far distant from us we scarcely entertain them in our thoughts We busie not our understandings in the search of those things which we see not things present obvious to our sight do best affect us We are ill sighted upward weak and dim eyes have we towards heaven The truth of this appeares even in children who presently even from the cradle drink in the rudiments of vice they learn to swear riot drink and the like enormities with the smallest teaching but they are utterly indisposed to any vertuous inclinations They soon apprehend what belongs to the curiositie of behaviour and deportment of the body and the fashions of the times Hoc discunt omnes ante Alpha Beta puelli but for Heaven and that Eternity they are wholly averse from it they are utterly uncapable of the things above they carry about them as the liverie of their first parents not only an indisposition but a very opposition to goodnesse And whereas for other imployments and undertakings they have certain naturall notions in them bending their intentions to naturall works some one way and some another yet they have not so much as any apprehension of the things of God * Homo sine gratia praeter carnem nihil sapit intelligit aut potest Thus it is with children and thus it is with all men even those of the ripest and most piercing understanding untill the light of Gods Spirit hath shined on the hearts and powerfully wrought some spirituall holy dispositions in in them The naturall man saith the Apostle neither doth nor can discern the things that are of God O how infinitely miserable and deplorable is his state who having neither knowledge of the true life nor possibilitie of himselfe to finde it out * Cum exul sit a patria exultat in via yet runnes on securely in his damned way untill he fall wofully and irrecoverably into the pit wher he will not have no not when he hath uncomfortably worne out millions of years the least intermission of sorrow or drop of comfort or hope of pardon Here on earth malefactors condemned to die have this comfort though wretched that one hour commonly terminates all their griefes in this life but the torments of the damned are not concluded in an age nay the end and period of ten thousand yeers will not end their sorrow And this is it which adds more to their sufferings even their unhappie knowledge of the perpetuitie of them they have not so much as any hope of releasment Hope in this life hath such a power in it that it can yeeld some comfort in the middest of trouble the sick man whilest his soul is in him he hath hope but after this life this small refreshment is denied the damned all their hope is turned into desperation The prophet Daniel cap. 4.14 heard the voice of an holy one crying Hew down the tree and cut off his branches shake off his leaves and scatter his fruit nevertheles leave the stump of his root in the earth Thus it is with men in this world saith Ambrose their leaves and their flowers are shaken their delights are taken from them but the roots remain and their hope is not abolished But it is not so in hell saith he There both flower stump nay even all hope too are banished away froÌ„ them The day of the Lord saith the prophet Malachi shall burn them up leave them neither root nor braÌ„ch The very hope saith SalomoÌ„ of the wicked shal perish what should this teach us but whilst our hope remains to improve our few daies to our best advaÌ„tage to make straighter paths to our selves to abridge our inordinate appetites in some measure of their vain and fruitlesse joyes and with all the power of our affections strive to attain that haven where no billow shall affright us no storms astonish us no perils indanger us Then shall our dissolution prove our gain and our death our glory if otherwise we persist wilfully in the paths of our voluptuousnes and solace our selves in the vain ioyes of our own hearts in the sight of our eyes certainly it will be bitternes in the later end * Extâ—ema gaudii luctus occupat All our earthly delights will glide away lik a swift river The rejoycing of the wicked is short saith Iob and the joy of a sinner is but for
shut up and when it was too late namely when he was thrown to hell then began he to look upward and about him So many now adaies they goe on in a pleasing and easie way And * In via nemo errat sed in fine viae via pluribus placet sed displicet terret viae tâ—rminus they are never sensible that they are out of the way till they arrive at the end of their journey All the misery lies in the close of the day For out of the pit is no redemption when once the soul is split upon this rock it gives to the world his everlasting farewell according to that of Job cap. 7.9 as the cloud vanisheth and goeth away so he that goes down to the grave shall come up no more he shall return no more to his house neither shall his place know him any more VII It is recorded of Lazarus that after his resurrection from the dead he was never seen to laught The stream of his affections were now turned into another chanell his thoughts were fixt in heaven though his body was on earth and therefore * Aeternis inhianti in fastidio sunt omnia transitoria Bern. he could not but slight temporall things when his heart was bent towards eternall Oh that we could work our hearts and souls to a vehement thirst after Christ the true eternity For if Christ be our end our joy shall be endlesse nullo fine regnabis cum Christo si Christus tibi finis VIII The minde of man is so much the more sensible of the evil present by how much lesse it meditates on the good to come For he that looks towards the reward will vilify the sufferings Saint Austin runs on sweetly in his meditations upon this subject Eternall labour saith he is but an equall compensation for an eternall rest But if thou shouldest endure this eternall labour thou couldst never arrive at that eternall rest Therefore hath the mercy of God ordained thy sorrows to be temporall that thy joys may be eternall and yet saith he * Ubi est cogitatio Dei nimis profundae factae sunt cogitationes Dei Aug. who is there that thinks on God as he ought Such thoughts are irksome to us But for temporall vanities we think of them with delight and enjoy them with contentment Now saith he look in and about thy self Noli gaudere ut piscis qui in sua exultat esca nondum enim traxit hamum piscator Aug. see where thou art God hath his hook in thy nostrills and can pluck thee up when he pleaseth and though he suffer thee according to thy calculation a long time yet what is the longest time of man to eternity Yea though thou shouldest lengthen out thy dayes to many hundred of years yet still thou art transitory and exposed to the common condition of all men Then fix thy heart on God and so enjoying that eternity thou shalt make thy self eternall and be not discouraged for thy tribulations and daily disquietings in this world for such is gods love such his abundant kindnes towards his elect that he * Ideo Deus terrenis faeli citatibus amaritudinem miscet ut alia quaeratur faelicitas cujus dulcedo non est fallax corrects them to the end they might not be condemned with the world hereafter Be not therefore I say cast down with any crosses whatsoever that may befall thee in this life for the things that are present are temporall but the things to come are eternall When we see the friends of this world the eager embracers of the comforts of this life upon every summons of death strive to deferre what they cannot utterly avoid their corporall dissolutions oh how great care what indefatigable diligence what restlesse endeavours should we use that we might live for ever Let us again and again meditate on these things and with due care foresee eternity before we unexpectedly fall into it Certain it is * Omnia transeunt fola restat non transibit aeternitas all things passe away in this life only eternity hath no period let us redeem the time and work while we have the day for if we neglect good duties here we shall never regain the like opportunity hereafter This life saith Nazianzen is as it were our fairday or market-day let us now buy what we want while the faire lasts while we have time let us doe good unto all men * Tu dormis sed tempus tuum non dormit sed ambulat imo volat Bene illis qui sic vivunt sicut vixisse se volunt cum motiendum erit faciantque eaquae in aeternitate constituti fecisse se gaudebuÌ„â— Amb. Happy is the man that so lives here that the remembrance of his well-spent life may yeeld him joy hereafter For otherwise levis hic neglectus aeternum fit dispendium i.e. A small neglect in the ordering of our time in this world will be seconded with an eternall losse in the world to come IX Death is the ending of our dayes not of our life For when our day shall close and our time shall be no more then shall our death conduct us to a life which will last for all Eternity For we dye not here to dye but to live for ever Therefore the best guide of our life is the consideration of our death and he alone leads a life answerable to his Christian profession who daily expects to leave it Me thinks ' its strange men should be so industriously carefull to avoid their death and so carelesly improvident of the life to come when as nothing makes death bad but that estate which follows it but the reason is we are spiritually blinde and see not nor know in this our day the things that belong to our peace We have naturally neither sight nor feeling of the joyes to come But when God shall enlighten the darknesse of our mindes and reveal his sonne in us vvhen once the day dawneth and that day-starre ariseth in our hearts ô then our death will be our joy and the rejoycing of our hearts then shall we infinitely desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Let us therefore with unwearied endeavours labour to bring Christ home to our hearts and to keep him there Let us dye to our selves and to our lusts here that so in the world to come we may everlastingly live unto Christ and in him Some directions for the better ordering of our lives in the way to a happy eternity SInne and grace are both eternall both reach to eternity and so doe all the actions that proceed from either Hence it follows that a gracious life is the beaten path-way to a glorious eternity Therefore to the end thy Being hereafter may be as happy as it must be long take in these directions In all thy dealings amongst the sonnes of men be that thou seemest amuse not the world with flourishes labour not to be
more outwardly glorious then inwardly sincere Alas what a melancholy peece of busines will it prove in the end to be a man of praises as it were for a day and afterwards if repentance prevent it not to be a man of sorrows for ever to have this life comfortable and eternity miserable What ever thy hand shall finde to be done cast first in thy thoughs Whether durst I act this same thing were I now to die * Quicquid agis quicquid suscipis tecum prius cogita num tale aliquod ageres si hac hora esset moriendum It s good to live by dying principles A frequent arraignment of thy heart will render thy life comfortable thy death peacefull thy eternity glorious and shelter thee from many snares and temptations which otherwise sin and Satan would cast upon thee When thou settest upon any religious duty seriously weigh with thy self what the temper of thy heart is towards it Oh what a sad thing is it if judiciously balanced to think I have begun and ended a holy duty before a most holy God but felt not what I spake My heart was sealed up labour therefore above all things whilst thy soul in any exercise is in communion with God to keep thy affection on the wing and strive not so much to be long winded as heart-wounded in thy petitions as knowing assuredly that when once thy devotion is flatted though thy speech doe continue thy prayer is done We live in dismall dayes fire and sword rage round about us yet our greatest enemies lodge in our bosome Labour thou by thy prayers and pains to master thy corruptions Then cruell cut throats though they may pull thy heart from thy body can never take God from thy heart then death it self that king of terrors need not affright thee because hereby thy soul is but let out of a cage and her out going from this life is but an in going to a better When once thou hast devoted thy self to the service of God thou wilt finde thy heart to be a very busy thing Thou wilt ever and anon be forcing thy self upon vows and resolution to doe more for God to fight more eagerly more effectually against thy worser self but remember this by the way that self-confidence is an inlet to often failings Therefore ingage Christ with thee in all thy purposes and let S. Pauls profession in this particular be thy instruction and digest it into practice I can doe all things through Christ that strengthens me There is now adayes much wording of religioÌ„ in the world but favour and frowns like strange byasses doe frequently twist men round and this is the garb of these unhappy times but to avoid intanglements of this nature study to be quiet and meddle with thine own busines and as it is said of humble men be thou more troubled with thy self then with all the world besides Live as thou canst a disingaged man Innocency and Independency are prevalent means to keep the soul close to God I have done with directing thee the Lord direct us all that our reformation may be answerable to our incoms of mercy otherwise though all our enemies were destroyed yet shall we finde divisions enough at home to ruine us X. Now that we may be the better incouraged to raise up our endeavours to the attainment of this happy eternity Let us in a word consider the abundant and the ever-flowing happines in the world to come Neither eye hath seen nor eare hath heard nor tongue can expresse the joys that God hath provided for them that love him Saint Augustine being ravished with the desire of this life breaketh out with an inflamed affection Uâ—â—nullum erit malum nullum latebit bonum how great shall that happines be where there can be no unclean thing where no good can be wanting where every creature doth praise and admire his Creatour who is all in all things How great shall that reward be Fraemiun virtutis critipse qui virtutem dedit where the river of vertue shall be himself the reward of vertue how great shall that abundance be where the author of all plenty shall be unto me life and soul and rayment health and peace and honour and all things yea the end and compleat object of all my desires For in his presence is the fulnes of joy and at his right hand there is pleasure for evermore How great shall that blessednesse be where we shall have the Lord our debtor who hath promised to reward our good deeds where we shall have the Lord for our portion who will be to us as he was to Abraham our exceeding great reward How great shall that light be where the Sunne shall no more shine by day nor the moon by night where God shall be our light and the Lord our glory How great shall that possession be where the heart shall possesse whatsoever it shall desire and shall never be deprived of its possessions Here will be to the Saints an abundant everlasting overflowing banquet no grief can accompany it no sorrow succeed it Here is joy without sadnesse rest * Quies motus noÌ„ appetitus without labour wealth without losse health without languor abundance without defect life without death perpetuity without corruption Here is the beatificall presence of God the company of Saints the society of Angels Here are pleasures which the mindes of the beholders can never be wearied with they alvvaies see them and yet alwaies rejoyce to see them These are the flagons of wine vvhich comforted up David when he cried out According to the multitude of the sorrowes which I had in my heart thy comforts have refreshed my soul In coelo est vita verâ— vitalis In heaven and onely in Heaven is the true life For there our memories shal live in the joyfull recordation of all things past our understandings shall live in the knowledge of God our wills shall live in the fruition of all excellencies that they can wish for all our senses shall abound in their severall delights Here is that white stone which Saint Iohn speakes of even glory and immortality to them that overcome Here is that water of life which our Saviour speakes of whereof whosoever drinks shall never thirst again Here is that river the springs whereof make glad the hearts of men And how earnestly are we invited to these delights come buy wine and oil without money Heaven is at sale and thou maist buy if thou wilt and shrug not at the greatnesse of the price give but thy self to God and thou shalt have it And who would not abandon his honours his pride his credit his friends nay himself Who would not be willing to passe thorow the gates of hell and endure infernall torments for a season so he might be certain of so glorious and eternall an inheritance hereafter Let all the devils in hell saith Saint Augustine beset me round let fastings macerate my body
A DISCOVRSE OF ETERNITIE Collected and Composed for the Common good Being necessary for all seasons but especially for this time of calamitie and destruction The sinners in Zion are afraid a fear is come upon the Hypocrites who amongst us shall dwell with the devouring fire who amongst us shall dwel with the everlasting burnings Esay 33.4 He that beleeveth in the Son hath everlasting life and he that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Ioh. 3.36 Printed at London by George Miller for Christopher Meredith at the signe of the Crane in Pauls Church-yard 1646. To the Christian Reader IF any man would know the Patron of this discourse let him understand that it belongs to Every body For there is not a man under heaven be he King or Subject Noble or Ignoble Barbarian Scythian Bond or Free but lives unavoidably under the law of Death and within the Pale of Eternity Now as all men are equally inrolled into this book of Eternity so must they of consequence be equally interessed in this discourse Therefore I commend these short Meditations of a long Eternity for the favour of protection as in right they appertain to Every body But will every one countenance them with a friendly welcom Certainly such entertainment may rather be wisht then hoped for This Eternitie whereof I treat findes for the most part but slender countenance and cold respect amongst the sons of men For where is the man of so setled and well composed temper that can fix and terminate his thoughts upon that everlasting state which abides him in the life to come That can orderly frame readily dispose his heart to search into it and his tongue to discourse of it and his will to affect it I doubt not but flashes of Eternitie and transient thoughts thereof doe often swim in the brain and straggle about the heart of a sensuall worldling but there they lodge not they take not up their rest The covetous man soon strangles them in his money bagges the drunkard drowns them in his fulcups the Epicure swallows them with his daintie and superfluous fare every man in his way strives to keep that from his heart here which he cannot possibly deliver his soul from hereafter his endlesse Eternity Thus are we unhappily ingenious to deceive our selves wittie to invent new waies to put off the melancholy consideration of the evil day We plod daily onward towards our long home but we think not of any reckonings till we come to our journeyes end we fear not the pit till we be irrecoverably plunged into it we never know the true worth of time nor price to the desert our golden hours untill they be everlastingly lost and gone and then alas those precious dayes which we have prodigally expended in the lusts of our flesh and vanity of our eye we shall infinitely desire to redeem were it possible even with tears of blood Oh then whosoever thou art examine with due care the state of thy soul if thy lust be thy life and thy sensuality thy joy then gull not thy soul with hope of pardon Imagine not to finde two heavens one upon earth another above it assure thy self though thou make with the Eagle thy nest on high and seat thy habitation as it were in the clouds yet thy highnesse will not free thee from the stroak of death nor deliver thy soul from the nethermost hell Now if there be any man so unmercifull to his soul that notwithstanding all that is or shall be said will desperately on in his cursed way I say no more but this He that is filthy let him be filthy still The smart of this Eternity they that will not beleeve shall feel The Contents of the first Book CHAP. 1. Containing an Introduction to the ensuing discourse 2. Containing a discription of Eternity with a brief declaration of the nature and condition of it 3. Expressing how all men doe naturally beleeve this Eternity 4. Explaining how nature hath represented and shadowed out Eternity to us in some of the Creatures 5. Containing a short digression touching the Eternity of the damned 6. Wherein the question is answered Wherefore a finite sinne is recompensed with an infinite punishment Wherein also is further shewed that the Severity of Gods Justice therein doth no way diminish the greatnesse of his Mercy The Contents of the second Book CHAP. 1. Containing an Exhortation to Holinesse grounded upon the consideration of Eternity 2. Shewing that there is no other way nor possible means to attain to the true Eternity but by a confident affiance upon the Mercy of God in Christ 3. Certain conclusions drawn from the serious and devout consideration of Eternity 4. Directions for the better ordering of our lives in the way to a happy Eternity By the word procure p. 76. l. 22. I reâ—ate to a reward of grace not of debt THE FIRST CHAPTER Containing an Introduction to the ensuing Discourse Fecisti nos ad te domine inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in te Aug. lib. 1. Conf. cap. 1. THere is nothing can fully satisfie the minde of Man but that which is above man all the treasures and riches under Heaven cannot make up a proportionable object for the soul For that which must terminate the desires of so excellent and divine a nature must bee of a correspondent and like condition with it that is infinite and immortall Now no sublunary blessings extend thus farre All worldly happinesse and earthly delights have their changes and have their death They are short in their continuance and uncomfortable in their end For they leave us when we leave the world and they nothing availe us in the day of triall when our bodies shall descend into the slimie valley and our souls returne to God that gave them then all the choicest comforts of this life glide away from us as the stream and the sunne of our joy will set for ever Our beautie wherein we have so much prided our selves shall turne into rottennes our mirth into wormewood our glory into dust Now if this be the condition if such the state of our best pleasing contentations here below how undiscreetly improvident of our soules welfare should we be to bound ouâ— affections on the things of this world what a madnesse beyond admiration were it in us to trifle out our time to waste and weare out our most precious daies in the vanities under the funne as if God had placed us here on earth like the Leviathan in the Sea to take our pastime in it to ingulfe our soules into the sensuall pleasures of this life as if we had neither hope nor expectation of a life to come what an intolerable stupiditie were it for the short fruition of a momentary content here to plunge our selves for everlastingnes into a sea as it were of fire and brimstone where we shall see no â—ankes and feele no bottome Me
God crown us here with the blessings of his left hand the comforts of this life and length of years yea though all things favour our longer continuance in this world yet in the end time and age will ruine us We shall bring our years to an end like a tale that is told and shall vanish away like a shadow Though we live many years and in them all we rejoice yet in the end we shall remember the daies of darknesse saith Solomon and the time shall come that the eye which saw us shall see us no more * Soles occidere redire possunt nobis cum occidet semel brevis lux nox est perpetuò una dormienda Cat. The sunne sets and riseth again but we alas when our glasse is runne and the short gleam of our summers day is spent shall never return till our last summons when the dead shall hear the voice of the Sonne of God and they that heare it shall live and come forth of their graves they that have done good to the resurrection of life and they that have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation both to Eternity and then shall follow that large day that shall never shut in that infinite continuation of time that shall never end that unlimited Eternity which ever hath been and is and will be the same for ever when the Sunne shall no more yeeld her light by day nor the Moon her brightnesse by night but God shall be our light and the Lord our glory But oh the unhappy condition of our age who is there that ponders these things with a digested meditation that looks into the state of his soul with a serious eye and considereth his wayes That endeavours to lay a good foundation for the time to come we stand at the door of Eternity and while we live we are every day entring into it it s but a stroak of death and we are gon even in a moment and whither from our short and fading delights to an endlesse easelesse gulfe where our worme shall never die nor our fire shall never out Now let all those who swim in the streams of their voluptuousnesse putting far from them the evil day who labour to expell from their hearts and to stifle in the bud the sad consideration of their approaching infelicities let them I say know that they may fall into this vast gulf of Eternity when they least suspect it into which when once they have unhappily plunged themselves they may desire redemption but shall not finde it * Postquam istinc excessum fuerit nullus poenitentiae locus nullus satisfactionis effectus Cyp It shall be one of their torments to know they shall never be out of torment All the gold of Ophir cannot purchase them one minute of relief from their unexpressible miseries But now even now is the jubile now is the accepted time now is the promulgation of pardon there remains nothing for our parts but to sue it forth we need not many hundred of years or number of dayes to redeem our mispent time and to wash out our contracted pollutions no one day will through Gods gracious favour and loving indulgence procure more mercy here then Eternity of time can obtain hereafter one sigh from a true sorrowfull heart here shall prevail to discharge more debts then infinite ages shall acquit or satisfie for hereafter Here God with patience expects our repentance but if we abuse his forbearance and come not in hereafter with trembling we shall abide his judgement Let us therefore be wise in time remember our Creatour in the dayes of our youth before the evil daies come and the years approach wherein we shall say we have no pleasure in them before our dust returne into the wombe from whence it came and our lungs be locked up into the breathles earth before that black and gloomy day the day of death and dissolution appeare to us the which if our timely repentance here prevent not our doom will seal up our souls to eternall darknesse Let us consider that wheresoever we are whatsoever we goe about Immanifestuâ— omnia autem manifestans per omnia apparet in omâ—ibus we stand every minute of our time in the glorious presence of an * incomprehensible majestie whose bright and most piercing eye is ten thousand times clearer then the Sunne who knows all hearts sees all actions understands all counsells views all persons there 's not a word in the tongue not a thought in the heart not a spark of lust in the flesh though never so softly blown and secretly kindled but he beholds it altogether he is all ear to hear all hand to punish and when and where he please all power to protect and all grace to pardon he that findes not his mercy shall feel his fury and who amongst us can dwell with devouring fire who amongst us can dwell with everlasting burnings CHAP. III. Expressing how all men doe naturally beleeve this Eternity VVIthin these hundred years many nations have been discovered and many are discovered still which were unfound in former ages Amongst them some have been found to live without law without King but yet none without some knowledge of God and of some everlasting being in the world to come What moved the Brackmans in India and the Magies amongst the Persians to begin and end their undertakings with prayers to God What moved Publius Scipio never to enter into the Senate house before he had ascended the Capitol avowing that principle as constantly in his practice as he did in his knowledge A Jove principium What made Caligula which threatned the aire if it rained on his game-plaies yet to runne under his bed and wrapp his cap about his head at a clap of thunder What moved Attillius Regulus who had no other teacher then a naturall illumination to preferre the obligation of his oath before the safety of his life and rather then he would break his ingaged word and promise to the Carthaginians expose himself to all the torments that the cruelty and malice of his enemies could inflict upon him What moved the Saguntines a people of Arragon to that undaunted resolution of theirs who having plighted their faith and loyalty by solemn oath to the Romans chose rather to entomb themselves voluntarily in a fire which they made in their Market place then to break their faith to the said Romans which they had so solemnly swore and sacredly avowed under their protection what I say could move these meer naturalists to such a fear of an oath to such a trembling at Gods judgements to such austerity and care and censorious circumspection in all their waies and actions but that they naturally apprehended what they truly and distinctly understood not viz. Some immortall happinesse and everlasting being and this they conceived was beyond the mountaines or above them or in some other world they knew not where according as their severall fancies led
soul for thy sinnes against God in this world that so thou mayest comfortably receive thy sentence of absolution in the world to come Let us learn to be wise in time let our sorrow for sinne anticipate and prevent our punishment satius est suavius fonte purgari quà m igne In inferno exomlogesis non est nec paenitentia tunc tritibui potest consumpto tempore paenitendi He that grieves not heartily for his transgressions here shall woefully smart for them hereafter In hell there is no redemption for the time past no confession no repentance but a sad and heavy exchange and most uncomfortable translation from a short and passing joy to an endlesse easelesse punishment Surely all the pressures and vexing distempers that befall us in this life all the crosses which the envy either of men or evil Angels can throw upon us are nothing if compared to eternall miseries Sapienti nihil magnum videri potest cui aeternitatis nota est magnitudo What if with Saint Paul I underwent labours and perills hunger and thirst iniuries and reproaches what is all this to eternitie What if I did bear in my flesh the most exquisite pains and bitter torments that created nature is capable of yet what were all this to eternitie For all the adversities and alterations which happen to us under the sun have their periods which they cannot passe however they disquiet us for the time yet as the Prophet Daniel saith the end shall be at the appointed time God will perform that which he hath appointed for me saith Iob yet usque ad tempus haec omnia the end shall be at the appointed time But of this eternitie there will be no end no bounds can limit it no time shall determine it Certainly first or last there will happen to thee such an evening as shall have no morning to follow or else such a morning as shall never see the close of the sun And therefore let not the vanishing cares trāsitorie disquietings of this world over deeply possesse thy heart but rather let the whole stream of thy meditations run upon thy latter end that at the time of thy dissolution thy affection being wholy alienated from the world thy thoughts may ascend before whither thy soule is coming after So shall thy sufferings here make way for thy crown hereafter But how few ô how few I say are there that weigh these things How few do make it their daily task to meditate on the evils to come They credit not such reports for they care not to beleeve what they are unwilling to practise Hence it is that they go on so securely in their course as if there were no heaven no hell no God no eternity Thus we naturally desire our dayes should be as happy as they are long and being miserably insensible of the sorrows to come we rashly expose our selves to an irrevocable downfall * Nos tales qui mortis nostrae neque negotium ridentes exequimur Greg. Without sense or sorrow wee run merrily to hell where we shall everlastingly feel what we did never fear death and darknesse weeping and gnashing of teeth O how different are our times from those of our Ancestors They were not more rigidly superstitious then we are vainly secure How did they pine their bodies and afflict their souls crucifie their most precious lusts forsake their friends their lands their inheritance yea their Crowns and Kingdoms nay which is more through the rigid and austere observation of their strict and severe laws expose themselves to the hazard and danger of their dearest lives and thrust themselves as it were out of the world and forgo all societie with men And wherefore all this but that they might disburden themselves the better by these means from all earthly allurements settle and dispose their hearts in a good preparation towards their home and to enliven their affections and inflame their mindes to a more serious contemplation of the joyes to come Me thinks the consideration of these former times should strongly invite us to a more serious meditation of our future state especially if we remember how swiftly our dayes draw to an end and how soon we are involved into everlasting darknesse For alas what is our life here Tota haec vita unius horulae mors est one hour at the last will swallow up all our live-long daies Let us thē not fear being so near our home let no storms affright us being so near our haven let us examine our accounts and cast up our reckonings that we may be able to give up a good account at the last day Certain it is what ever we goe about whatsoever be the scope of our endeavours we every day come nearer to the end of our course every houre is a nevv step onvvard So soon as ever a man enters this mortall life he beginnes a constant journey unto death quicquid temporis vivitur de spatio vivendi tollitur i. e. Each part of time that we passe cuts off so much from our life and the remainder still decreaseth So that our whole life is nothing but a course or passage unto death wherein one can neither stay nor slack his pace This we know our daily experience doth confirm this truth and yet do we persist as securely as ever in our trade of sinne Aegrè abstrahimur ab ijs quibus assuescimus i. e. we are hardly drawn from those things which custom and time hath inured us unto It is a grievous burthen to a licentious heart to be drawn off from dainty fare full cups and good company We lye as dead men and senseles in our damned pollutions even drowned in our voluptu ousnes like brute beasts filled up and pampered for the day of slaughter Thus with the full stream of our endeavours we plod on in the habituall course of provoking the patience of a long suffering God without any sense of our sinne untill our short dayes begin to shut in and our evening approach at which time the weaknesse of our bodies and the strength of our sinnes make us as unable to repent as we were before unwilling We many times through the incitement of some good motion beginne well but fail in the execution * Fatemur crimina sed sic fatemur ut in ipsa confessione non dolemus Calv. we make faire promises but we doe not second them in our practice but let us not deceive our selves God will not be mocked non verbis paenitentia agenda sed actu let us not promise God better obedience with our lips then we perform with our hearts Be not rash to vow a thing before God but when thy word hath past thy lips then be as carefull to perform as thou wast forward before to promise Lastly let us alwaies follow that holy counsell given in Ecclesiasticus In all thy actions think upon thy latter end and thou shalt never doe amisse and that of the Prophet David