our onely employment But yet letting alone our intent and respecting this excellent event the clearing Gods Justice and just judgement the removing all shew of crueltie in the Lords damning his destroying of his creatures we say our preaching is very powerfull exceedingly effectuall could we say but as our Saviour said now they have no cloke for their sinnes John 15. 22. could we doe but as he did make the wedding garment wanters Speechlesse Matth. 22. Did we bring but dew to water the ground which will bring forth briars and thorns that so it may be near to cursing whose end is to be burned Heb. 6. 6. 7. 8. did we onely fit them for the fire which the breath of the Lord at a river of brimstone kindles And thus of those Informations which concerne the High Priest and the Preachers I now come to those which more properly concerne the People and because I see time begin to slide away I will turne those informations to Exhortations saying thus onely by the way that as I will have done as neer as I can at the end of the houre so whosoever of age and discretion gets not faith by the preaching of the word where it may be had and will not stay one sand when the glasse is runne if extremity or occasion urge him he may depart with Gods leave and my love the Divel when he dyeth will not stay one sand for his soule but immediately it must to the fire which the breath c. Now that which for this Text and truth I am to enforme the people of and exhort them to is of three sorts or I am to speake to three sorts of people 1. To all both within and without 2. To such alone as are without 3. To such alone as are within For the first that which I would speake to all is to advertise advise and admonish them to make a serious enquiry in their souls whether they be under this dreadfull damnation or else be free and farre from it and so need not to quake and quiver at my medling with it or mentioning of it And here had I time I would give some motives to make you serious and settled in it one or two I cannot but name 1. The fewest part of Professours at large shall escape this lake of fire the most part must be thrown into it so saith our Saviour Matth. 7. 13. 14. Matth. 22. 14. Now if one which the Lord keep you from should tell you that most of your houses are on fire would you not leave me alone as Christ and Paul were left would you not be jealous and suspicious saying with the Apostles when the Lord told them one of them twelve should betray him Is it my house is it my house Nay I think you would rather speak peremptorily saying it is my house my house is burned every one of you one by one 2. As we have but a short or a small time to provide our selves of what will preserve us from those endlesse easlesse torments this life being a moment of great moment upon which depends our eternall abiding so many are many wayes deceived concerning their certificates of escaping everlasting destruction and that through want of serious searching O this is the height of our woe we doe not use to think of hell till at length we be in hell and then it is too late to come out of hell Much Copper-ware is abroad which is wholly counterfeit nothing currant but it lyeth us on our lives yea on the eternall estate of our souls to see that ours be not copper but currant for he to whom we must pay it as he will not take a graine of copper so he knows currant from copper Out alas wee see Professors yea and Preachers yea in the dayes of death and doom saying We have eaten and drunke in thy presence and thou hast taught in our streets you we have prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out Divels and then Christ professing saying Then will I professe unto you I know you not We had no secret sacred acquaintance no chamber no closet converse together you did not search your souls to see how it was you or what was to be done by you but for forme and fashion onely sometimes met in the Congregation Depart from me Mat. 7. 22. 23. Luk. 13. 25 26. 27. to everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels yee workers of iniquity be you preachers or be you professours These and many other motives or matters should perswade us and prevaile with us to be serious and solemn in the examination whether we be under these torments yea or no but alas the extremity it selfe the easlesnesse and endlesnesse of the woes in the lake of brimstone is enough to make us intent in it and want of time forbids to prosecute my further intent in it But you will say by what signes or symptomes may we discover whether by Jesus we be delivered from the wrath to come To which I answer that as I beleeve that you have heard that whosoever beleeveth not shall be damned Mark 16. So if I should prosecute that text which saith The wicked shall be turned to hell and all the Nations that forget God Psal 9. 17. I should be thought to forget my selfe by taking too tedious a taske upon me I will therefore confine my selfe to one most precious portion of Scripture wherein two sorts of persons are doomed and damned to everlasting and extreme woe and miserie if they abide in that state and condition 1. The Ignorant 2. The Disobedient God shall come from heaven saith Paul 2 Thess 1. 7 8 9. in flaming fire to render vengeance to them that know not God and that obey not the Gospell of Iesus Christ which must be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power First therefore here is discovered the most dolefull dreadfull condition of such as want the true knowledge of God they must bee punished with everlasting destruction and who reading this can chuse to say with Perkin Poore people I pitty you But you will say as Saint Paul brings us iâ— saying We have all knowledge 1 Cor. 8. 1 2 3. and therefore cannot be damned among the Idiots among the ignorant And I say with the same S. Paul If any man say he knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing as he ought to know But if any of you would approve your selves to have such knowledge as will keepe you from hell from those endlesse easlesse torments they must see that the knowledge they boast of have these three properties or qualities that it be 1. Feeding for the matter of it 2. Feeling for the manner of it 3. Feebling for the effect of it For the first he must see that it be feeding sound sollid substantiall knowledge such knowledge as Solomon speaks of when he saith a righteous mans lips feed many And that which a
is the burden of the Psalmists song when he slew them then they sought him Psal 107. So many Manasses the Prodigall and many others have come to God in their poverty and misery who when they were wealthy waxed wanton and kickt up the heel against him And commonly ordinarily usually when poverty cannot part mens soules and their sinnes it parts them and his Spirit and he sayes I will smite you no more till I tumble you downe to the place of torments O that therefore for I say againe I say it for this that you might be warned O that ye poore would come in your povertie least after your earthly poverty you meet with that hellish misery where the breath of the Lord as a river of brimstone kindleth the fire So much to answer the objection in regard of mens Persons Now I come to that objection which respects Professions Object O say many this were true if it were preached among Pagans but we are Protestants and by being Protestants wee shall escape the lake of brimstone Answ To which I answer that as of all men Protestants indeed reall Protestants are most free most farre from Tophet such as stand for the Lord Jesus alone against the Devil the world and themselves so the wicked the wilfull Protestants such as call themselves so and thinke thereby to escape damnation and yet contrary to Gods commandment will sell their drinke to drunkards on the Sabbath whilst their poore families fast and famish in their owne houses I say such as say they are Protestants and are not shall above all the people in the world be sure to be damned severely tormented and that for these two reasons First from Gods Protestations Secondly From Gods Preparations For the first of these God hath protested solemnly sworne the damnation of such as have his voice sounding in their eares and will not hearken will not obey it It is every day read in our Church and wisely appointed by way of preparation to other parts of Gods word and holy worship To day if yee will hear his voice harden not your hearts and then to such as refuse and resist he saith I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest not into Canaan a type of the kingdome of heaven not into the kingdome of heaven and therefore necessarily must to hell I never read at least remember not that ever the Lord hath sworne the death and damnation of Pagans The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it and it will lie heavy and hard on their souls to doome and damne them to everlasting woe unlesse at length they get the knowledge and faith of the Lord Jesus But as there is a main and manifest difference in those words of our blessed Saviour Whosoever shall fall on that stone shall be broken but on whomsoever it shall fall it shall grind him to powder Matth. 21. So God himself turns Protestant for the cursing and confounding of such false Protestants as are and abide in their damned wayes untill they die as sure as he is truth who saith Verily Verily to such as professed the paths of pietie except a man be borne againe he cannot see the Kingdome of God For the second that is Gods preparations wee are to know that willfull Protestants are 1. Fitted for and then 2. Fatted for endlesse torments They are 1. Fitted with Sermons 2. Fatted with Sacraments First I say fitted with Sermons Gods Ministers words will make you without words their speeches will make you not cloke you but uncloke you their vocall trumpets will fit you to hear with horrour the reall trumpet at the last day if you wallow in the lusts of your souls and walke in your sinnes without repentance 2 Cor. 2. In a word the Word of life will be a savour of death to death to you as many of you as plead you are Protestants and live the lives of Pagans and Papists prophaning the sanctified Sabbaths of Christ by selling beer to such beastly base Belly-gods as make their wives for want of maintenance not feast but fast and ready to famish with their children and servants at home in their houses Secondly I say they are fatted with Sacraments Foolish false and feigned Protestants doe dayly drink down their own damnation in that most sacred Supper of the Lord so saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 11. 29. But because he foresaw that it would touch and so trouble many mens minds he saith before as I of this and of all my whole discourse concerning this dreadfull damnation What I delivered to you I received of the Lord verse 23. as if he had said if ye will needs quarrell quarrell with my Master not with me his messenger But you will say that in so saying I doom and damne without all remedie for past helpe past hope also if there be no cure there needs no care To which I answer that as I and that Apostle say no more then your Common Prayer book saith which hath these very words and syllables then we are guilty of the body and bloud of the Lord we eate and drink our own damnation c. So I my selfe did three or foure times eate and drink mine own damnation also even in the 17. 18. 19. 20 yeare of my life Now the way to prevent our going into this Tophet this place of torments is to take a deep vomit of sorrow to purge out this poyson and prevent everlasting perdition and as Solomon saith to his sonne above all thy gettings get understanding so say I to my selfe and every one above all our sorrow let our chiefest sorrow be this that we were guilty and guilty of Bloud yea and guilty of the bloud of the Lord as it is in the 27 verse And still I beseech you remember that I speak all by way of prevention Now I come to render the reasons of the doctrine delivered to you to shew you why the torments of hell are so extreame or as strong as the breath of the Lord is and then why they are everlasting or abide as long as the breath of the Lord abides For the first Those torments are so extreame because of the 1. Nature And then the 2. Number of those that must inhabite in that Tophet that place of torments And both these are set downe together in one and the same Psalme and verse Psal 9. 17. The wicked shall be turned to hell and all the Nations that forget God The wicked shall be turned into hell There is the Nature of the Inhabitants namely that they are foes not friends who must goe thither And all the Nations that forget God There is the Number of the Inhabitants For the first of these wee are to know that they are not Gods friends but his foes who must there be tormented in fire and brimstone Indeed here on earth God hath scourges for his very friends his owne servants and wicked men are jocund and joviall glad at heart when they see them so
from an evill conscience and your bodies washed with pure water And I Heb. 10. 22 beseech you as you would not suffer these unspeakeable unquenchable flames doe as our Saviour bids and binds you that is to say Aske Seeke and Knock for that holy water Mat. 7. 7. and the Spirit without which he telleth and teacheth us that there is no comming to the glorious Kingdome and so by consequence no escaping of hell Aske earnestly and if no answer seeme to come Seeke more earnestly and if you heare no answer yet Knock most earnestly for the water of the Spirit to regenerate renew and restore you from the death of sinne and the danger of death eternall death and dreadfull damnation Yea I would Knock downe the gates of heaven why should not I doe a thing impossible to escape the lake of fire and brimstone at well as the Lord bids us doe a thing impossible to be free from eternall damnation saying Make Eze. 18. 31. you a new heart and a new spirit for why will ye die though he knoweth that we cannot move an hand towards making new hearts therfore promiseth by the same Prophet yea and that Eze. 11. 19 and 36. 26. once and again that he will give us new hearts and new spirits rather then feele the fury of God in the fiercenesse and fulnesse of it in that Tophet that place of torments that hell of hels which hath such fire in it that The breath of the Lord like a streame of brimstone doth kindle it And thus much be spoken to such as have hitherto abode in darkenesse by not thinking on the place of torments too much considering the time not halfe enough in regard of the thing you may now depart at your pleasure I having shewed you the case you are in and the course you must take to come out of it I have onely two words to speak now to you who have such knowledge and such obedience wrought with in you either before this day it some good and Christian perfection or on this day in the beginnings of it in the seeds or desires of it or sound preparations to it Now to you who are soundly wrought on and so are freed from those extreme everlasting torments I am to perswade with you 1. To praise the Lord for your owne mercy 2. To pitty others in their misery For the first of these as oft as you thinke on the extremitie and eternitie of the torments of hell it must make you one by one cry with the sweet Singer of Israel Psal 86. 12. 13. I will praise thee O Lord my God with all my heart and I will glorifie thy Name for evermore For great is thy mercy towards me and thou hast delivered my soule from the lowest hell And to provoke you to this duty of praise which when we come to heaven and shall see that we cannot to hell we shall continually be employed in and which we are so more backward to bring our hearts to whiles we are in earth let us briefly think on these things 1. First if our Graces be well grounded strongthned and stablished we shall be sure without peradventures that wee shall not be thrown to the lake of brimstone Revel 21. 7. 8. 2. If we had been dead only and revived recovered to life again yea if we had been but deadly sick and had been restored to health again we should say with good Hezekiah The living Isai 38. 19. the living they shall praise thee How much more are we bound to doe it at the freeing our souls from the place of torments 3. Consider how many millions nobler richer learneder then we are are left to themselves and their soules to Satan to be extremely eternally damned And God hath made choise of us filly simple wormes who were first Elected and then Selected and after Neglected of all meere morall men and often in our owne soules Dejected in our owne apprehensions 1 Cor. 1. 26. 27. 4. Consider how many times how many thousand times the God of heaven did call and cry to us and yet we refused and often resisted He sent not only his Son and after his Son his Word to reveale his Sonne but also his Spirit from Sabbath to Sabbath from Sermon to Sermon and still we withstood our owne escape our owne deliverance our own freedome from those flames which have none end or ease at all in them 5. He fetched us from it called culled converted our soules from it when we were loath to come out of hell loathest of all to come out of the way to it loather it may be some of us then ever in all our lives before O the Lord dealt with us as he did in fetching Lot from Sodome whiles we lingred hee laid hands on us the Lord being exceedingly mercifull to us saying Fly for your lives Escape towards the mountaine lest ye be consumed in the lake of fire and brimstone And the cause why we so contemned our owne mercy in that our misery was our ignorance our not knowing what case we were in our thinking our selves safe and in the way to the Kingdome of Heaven when alas we were almost in hell in the very path the very porch of it 6. And lastly that as he sent when we never sought pardon so he hath not only knockt off the bolts and bonds not onely freed us from hels most fierce and fiery flames but also fitted us in some measure for the wearing of Royall Crownes of Glory So that now we can think on hell without horrour without astonishment because we can say with Paul to his Thessalonians God hath not appointed us to wrath but to abâ—â—inâ— Salvation by Iesus Christ 1 Thess 5. 9. The thought of these things should fill us full of joy and comfort and make us breathe out holy praises and breake forth into blessing the blessed Majesty crying with Paul Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spirituall blessings in heavenly places in Ephes 1. 3. Christ According as he hath chosen us before the foundation of the world when he rejected millions of millions to be extremely eternally damned And with Peter Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy in freeing us from those torments which know neither end nor ease hath begotten us again to a lively hope of an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us 1 Pet. 1. 3. 4. And wherein we shall shine as the Sunne in the Kingdome of our Father when all the wicked of the world shall be cast into Matth. 13. 42. 43. that furnace of fire which The breath of the Lord like a streame of brimstone doth kindle it And thus much be spoken to you concerning your owne mercie Now a word of Information concerning others misery The Prophet Ieremie in one verse Ier.
and lives in time past be never so many never so wicked And be sure to put together what the Lord hath there conjoyned to make them readily receive mercy when the Lord in exceeding tender mercy tenders it Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched forth my hand and no man regarded I will laugh at your destruction and mock when your fear commeth when death beginneth to seize on you and hell begins to swallow you when you fall to that fearfull Tophet to that unmatchable unquenchable fire which The breath of the Lord as a river of brimstone kindles 2. But as you must take the word of grace when you do go to them so you must goe to the throne of grace before you goe to them Before you speak to them on Gods behalf speak to God on their behalf to blesse your councels and comforts to them And surely as those Ministers who following their masters footsteps use to pray in private before they preach in publick have the secrets of God reveald to them and exceedingly edifie and profit their people whereas they doe little good yea have their gifts and graces wither who make not their prayers in chambers before they meddle with Scriptures in Churches O 't is 't is the powring out the soul to God which makes a man speak with power to God So yee if in self-deniall ye cast down yourselves before the Lord and before his footstoole when you see a fit person a meet man or woman to worke on saying Lord thou hast hearts in thy hands and hast wisdome and words irresistable O tell mee shall I speak to him and if yea make me able to speak to him give me an heart and words of weight worth the speaking and give him grace to receive my warning from thee in deepest mercie from mee in dearest love O blesse them sweet father breath with them that they may help that precious soul from the lake of fire and brimstone thou hast freely given mee an heart to desire and seek their escaping hell But thou desirest and seekest it infinitely more then I or any man or all men who hast said and that as thou livest I desire not the death of Ezek. 18. the wicked O be with us be all to us in speaking hearing doing that the poore precious soul to whom I am now going may not goe to the fire of hell which the breath of the Lord as a river of brimstone kindles And thus of the Pietie which must be used in your helping poor neighbours from hell Now the Pollicie which must be used consisteth also in two particulars Ye must 1. Give them their own Commendations 2. Draw from them their owne Condemnation For the first of these ye must alwayes remember to observe what good thing they have in them or what they doe that is worthy of praise though it be but morally or civilly good towards the Church or the Common-wealth And be carefull to commend the good before ye begin to discover their danger or tell them what dreadfull damnation awaits them if they be not bettered before their deaths Thus not onely did Paul deale with his people of Corinth crying to them I commend you Brethren before he cryeth I commend you not when he speaks of their abuse of the sacred Supper wherein they drinke their owne damnation 1 Cor. 11. 2. But also our Lord sixe times in two Chapters together cryes thou hast done Rev. 2. and 3. Chapters these and these things well before he cryes I have somewha◠against thee And surely this will 〈…〉 all the wormewood and gall in the words though they favour never so strongly of extreme and eternall damnation This will make them clearly conceive that ye doe not vent any malice in anger when they see you as willing as ready to commend what is good as condemn the evil And as ye must reward any good in your children as well as correct them when they doe evil which correction is the way to keep them that they goe not to hell below as the wisest of men hath taught us seven times in his book of his Proverbs so let every man say to his neighbour in whom he sees any shew or shadow of good when he goeth to be a means to five him from hell Surely Sir I must commend you you governe well your wife and children I doe not see in them any loytering nor heart from any of them any swearing or lying you are carefull for them couvteous to us free of your purse full of honest hospitality But I must tell you that commending the good makes way opens the care to receive any thing from the commender that for all this you are not regenerate you know not what appertains to a sanctified heart which you must needs get before you dye or be sure to be damned when you dye had you more common gifts and graces then had Herod or Iehu or Iudas Yea sure you must soundly be converted truly touched and troubled for sinne or all your formall fairnesse cannot keep you from the unspeakable unquenchable flames which The breath of the Lord as a river of brimstone kindles 2. For the other of the acts of holy pollicie ye must make them condemne themselves by some pretty proper simile such as this is Say to him I pray you neighbour if your house were burning which God keep you from and you were fast asleep on a bed or your body like to be burned if you be not away and then if one should come by you and find you asleep in that danger ought he to a wake you yea or no must he awake you or let you be burned He cannot chuse but answer you ought or else you shew your selfe an enemy and then reply ye as the Prophet Nathan did to David Thou art the man to your selfe belongs the simile alas I see you asleep in your sinnes your soul and body both are about to be seized on by death and damnation And surely I should betray you if I should not awake you and shew you your danger Or suppose you were asleep and your body ready to be burned and two men should come by you and see it and the one of them should say to his fellow let him alone doe not awake him doe not stirre him for if you doe he will swear and storm raile and revile you with all vile and villanous reproches the other replies I fear not his anger I care not one jot for his raging and railing all my feare is that he will be burned all my care is that he be not burned Now which of these two was the truely mercifull truly pittifull man why as sure as the Lawyer said He was neighbour who shewed mercy as sure as Simon said He to whom he for gave much will love most So sure would he say to him that asked him such a question He was the mercifull man who awaked mee and he cruell who would not