the manner of His death I except the Thieves upon the Crosse My meaning is that there may bee some I know nor how few but I am sure there is none except Hee have in Him the perfection of the madnesse of all the Bedlams that ever breath'd would run that hazard who formerly out of the way and unreformed may now at last being very extraordinarily and mightily humbled under Gods mighty hand cleaving to the Lord Iesus with truly broken hearts indeede follow by a miracle as it were the Thiefe upon the Crosse to an everlasting Crowne And here now I require the care conscience heavenly wisedome experimentall skill and all His ministeriall dexterity in the Physition of the Soule to discerne aright betweene these and seeming Penitents and then to apply Himselfe proportionably with all holy discretion and seasonablenesse to their severall different estates But to fright and fire every One for ever from that extremest folly of hoping to follow that miraculously penitent Thiefe and from going on in sinne and deferring Repentance upon such a deceiving and desperate ground let us consider 1. First what an holy and learned Man of God saith to this Point In great wisedome that men at the last gaspe should not utterly despaire the Lord hath left us but one example of exceeding and extraordinary mercy by saving the Thiefe on the Crosse. Yet the perversenesse of all our nature may bee seene by this in that this one serveth us to loosenesse of life in hope of the like whereas wee might better reason That it is but one and that extraordinary and that besides this One there is not one moe in all the Bible and that for this One that sped a thousand thousands have missed And what folly is it to put our selues in a way where so many have miscarried To put our selves into the hand of that Physition that hath murthered so many going cleane against our sense and reason whereas in other wee alwaies leane to that which is most ordinary and conclude not the Spring of one Swallow It is as if a Man should spurre His Asse till Hee speake because Baalams Asse did once speake so grossely hath the Divell bewitched us 2. Secondly the singularities about the good Thiefe first His heart was broken with one short Sermon as it were but thou hast or mightest have heard many and art yet hard-hearted Secondly the other Thiefe saw also that soveraigne Soule-healing blood gush freshly and abundantly out of His blessed side and yet was not strucke or stird at all Thirdly His example is onely for true Penitents but Thou upon this presumption despising in the meane time the riches of Gods goodnesse and forbearance and long-suffering leading Thee to repentance hardenest thy heart that thou canst not repent Fourthly His case was singular and such that the like is not to bee found in the whole Scripture A King sometimes pardons a Malefactour at the Place of execution wilt thou therefore runne desperately into some horrible villany deserving death hoping to bee that One amongst many thousands Fifthly It was a miracle saith an excellent Divine with the glory whereof our Saviour would honour the ignominy of the Crosse we may almost as well expect a second crucifying of Christ as such a second Thiefe Christ then triumphing on the Crosse did as Princes doe in the triumph of entring into their Kingdomes they pardon grosse offences before committed such as they pardon not afterwards 6. Having an eye upon this Thiefe that thou mayest more fully and freely follow thy pleasures Thou makest a covenant with death and an agreement with Hell and puts the evill Day farre from Thee But the Lord hath professed That thy covenant with death shall bee dis-annulled and thy agreement with Hell shall not stand when the overflowing scourge shall passe thorow then shalt thou bee trodden downe by it 3. Thirdly the ordinary impossibilities of following the blessed Thiefe in His miraculous Repentance First thou art cryed unto continually by Gods Messengers to come in now while it is called to Day yet thou standest out still out of this conceite onely or rather deceite to take thy fill of pleasure in the meane time and to seeke God sufficiently upon thy Bed of death by repenting with the Thiefe at last But know for thy terrour and timely turning that the longer thou puts off and deferres the more unfit thou shalt be to repent Thy custome in sinning will exercise more Tyranny over Thee The curse of God for thy going on still in thy trespasses will bee more heavy upon Thee The corruptions that lurke in thine owne bosome will be more strengthened against thee And this threefold cord is hardly broken These three Giants will be maistered with very much adoe The further thou walkest in the wayes of death the more unwilling and more unable wilt thou bee to returne and bee reformed Thine understanding will be more darkened with Hellish mists thy judgement more perverted thy will more stubborne thy memory more stuft with sensuall notions thine affections will become more rebellious thy thoughts more earthly thine heart more hardened thy conscience more feared thy selfe more sold to sinne and every day that comes over thine head in this state of darkenesse much more the Child of the Divell then thou wast before To refuse Christ upon this Point so freely and fairely offered is to receive Gods curse under Seale and to make sure thy covenant with Hell and League with death untill thou bee slaine by the one and swallowed up of the other without all mercy or recovery For in this time of delay God growes more angry Satan more strong thy selfe more unable to repent sinne more unconquerable thy conversion more hard thy salvation more impossible A ruinous house the longer thou lettest it run the more labor charge will it require in repairing If thou drive a naile with an hammer the more blowes thou givest to it the more hard will it bee to plucke it out againe It is just so in the Case of continuing in â—inne and every new sin is a new stroke with an hammer that drives the naile in further Secondly with what possibility art thou like to passe thorow the great work of saving repentance or with what heart canst thou addresse thy selfe unto it when upon thy sicke Bed thou art set upon at once if thy conscience bee waking with the ugly sight of all thy sinnes charging upon thee with insupportable horrour with the pangs of death with Satans utmost malice and His very Powder-Plot and with the terrour of that approaching strickt Tribunall Which dreadfull encounter is able to put to it the spirituall strength of many yeeres gathering Thirdly Resolution to deferre Repentance when grace is offered doth justly merit to bee deprived for ever after of all oportunity and ability to repent Fourthly it is just with God that that man who doth purposely put off repentance and provision
thou wert able to doe Him all the honour service and worship which all the Saints both militant and triumphant doe it would come infinitely short of the merit of the least of all His mercies unto Thee in Iesus Christ. 2. How unkindelylie God takes the neglect of His extraordinary kindenesses unto vs. 2. Sam. 12.7 c. 1. Sam. 27.28.31 Ezech. 16. 16. Marke well and be amaz'd of thine owne fearefull and desperate folly when thou fallest deliberately into any sinne Thou lajest as it were in the one scale of the Balance the glory of Almighty God the endles ioies of Heaven the losse of thine immortall Soule the pretious blood of Christ c. And in the other some rotten pleasure earthly pelf worldly preferment fleshly lust sensuall vanity And suffers this prodigious madnes Bee astonished O yee Heavens at this and bee horribly afraid to out-weigh all those 17. Vpon the first assault of every sinne say thus unto thy self If I now yeeld and commit this sin I shall either repent or not repent If I doe not repent I am vndone If I doe repent it will cost mee incomparably more hearts-greife then the pleasure of the sinne is worth 18. Consider that for that very sinne to which thou art now tempted suppose lying lust ouer-reaching thy Brother c. many millions are already damned and even now burning in Hell And when thy foote is upon the brinke stay and thinke upon the wages And know for a truth that if thou falelst into that sinne thou art fallen into Hell if God helpe not out 19. Never bee the bolder to giue way unto any wickednes to exercise thine heart with covetousnesse cruelty ambition revenge adulterjes speculative wantonnesse selfe-uncleannesse or any other solitary sinfulnesse because thou art alone and no mortall eie lookes upon Thee For if thine heart condemne thee God is greater then thine heart and knoweth all things and will condemne thee much more If thy conscience bee as a thousand witnesses God who is the Lord of thy conscience will be more then a million of witnesses And thou mayst bee assured Howsoever thou blessest thy selfe in thy secrecy that what sin soever is now acted in the very retyredst corner of thine heart or any waies most solitarily by thy Selfe tho in the meane time it bee concealed and lie hid in as great darknesse as it was committed untill that last and great Day yet then it must most certainly out with a witnesse and bee as a legible on thy forehead as if it were writ with the brightest Sun-beame upon a Wall of Christall Thou shalt then in the face of Heaven and Earth bee laide out in thy colours and without confessing and forsaking while it is called to Day bee before Angels Men and Diuels vtterly universally and everlastingly shamed and confounded 20. Consider the resolute resistance and mortifyed resolutions against sinne and all entisements thereunto of many upon whom the Sun of the Gospell did not shine with such beauty and fullnesse as it doth upon vs neither were so many heavenly discoveries in the kingdome of Christ made knowne unto them as our daies have seene For vpon our times which makes our sins a great deale more sinfull hath happily fallen an admirable Confluence of the saving light and learning experience and excellency of all former Ages besides the extraordinary additions of the present which with a glorious Noonetide of united illuminations doth abundantly serve our turne for a continued further and fuller illustration of the great mystery of godlinesse and Secrets of sanctification Heare Chrysostome But I thinke thus and this will I ever preach that it is much bitterer to offend Christ then to bee tormented in the paines of Hell Hee that writes the life of Anselme saith thus of Him Hee feared nothing in the world more then to sinne My conscience bearing mee witnesse I lie not For we haue often heard Him professe That if on the onâ— hand He should see corporally the horrour of sinne on the other the paines of Hell and might necessarily bee plunged into the one Hee would chuse Hell rather then sinne And an other thing also no lesse perhaps wonderfull to some Hee was woont to say To wit That Hee would rather haue Hell beeing innocent and free from sinne then polluted with the filth thereof possesse the kingdome of Heaven It is reported of an other ancient holy Man that He was woont to say Hee would rather bee torne in peeces with wilde horses then wittingly and willingly commit any sin Ierome also in one of His Epistles tells a story of a young Man of most invincible courage and constancy in the Profession of Christ under some of the bloody Persecuting Emperours to this sense They had little hope as it seemes to conqver Him by torture and therfore they take this course with Him They brought Him into most fragrant Gardens flowing with all pleasure and delight there they laid Him upon a Bed of Downe softly enwrapped in a net of silke amongst the Lillies and the Roses the delicious murmure of the streames and the sweet whistling of the leaves they all depart and in comes a beautifull strumpet and vseth all the abominable tricks of Her impure Art and whoâ—sh villanies to draw Him to her desire Whereupon the yong Man fearing that Hee should now bee conqvered by folly who was Conqverer over fury out of an infinite detestation of sinne bites off a peece of His Tong with His owne teeth and spits it in the face of the whore And so hinders the hurt of sinne by the smart of his wound I might haue begun with Ioseph who did so bravely and blessedly beate backe and trample under His feete the sensuall solicitations of His wanton and wicked Mistris Hee had pleasure and preferment in His eye which were strongly offered in the temptation but Hee well knew that not all the offices and honours in Egypt could take off the guilt of that filth and therefore Hee resolved rather to lie in the dust then rise by sinne How can I doe this great wickednesse and sinne against God I might passe along to the Mothâ—â— and seven brethren 2. Mac. 7. who chose rather to passe thorow horrible tortures and a most cruell death then to eate swines â—lesh against the Law And so come downe along to that noble Army of Martyrs in Q. Maries time who were contented with much patience and resolution to part with all wife children liberty livelihood life it selfe even to lay it downe in the flames rather then to submit to that Man of sinne or to subscribe to any one Point of His Devillish Doctrine Thus as you haue heard I haue tendred many reasons to restraine from sinne which by the helpe of God may serve to take off the edge of the most eager temptation to coole the heat of the most furious entisement to embitter the sweetest baite that drawes to any sensuall delight Now my most
as in a royall Throne Hee hath as it were two Thrones One in the Empyrean Heaven the other in a broken heart Isa. 57.15 But my heart lies groveling in the dust humbled under the mighty hand of God and trembling at his feete c. Therefore it is the mansion of Iehova blessed for ever Whosoever confesseth and forsaketh his sinnes shall have mercy Prov. 28.13 But I confesse and abominate all sinne resolved never to turne againe to folly Therefore mercy is most certainely mine Hee in whose heart the holy Ghost hath enkindled a kindly heate of affection to the Brethren hath passed from death to life 1. Ioh. 3.14 But by the mercy of God my heart is wholy set upon the Brother-hood which I heartily hated heeretofore Therefore I have passed from death to life These and the like Conclusions are in themselves as full of sound joy and true comfort as the Sunne of light or Sea of waters Open but the eye of thine humbled soule and thou maist see many glorious things in them Crush them but a little with the hand of Faith and much delicious sweetnesse of spirituall peace may distill upon thy Soule Lastly such considerations as these may contribute some matter of comfort and support to Him of weakest apprehension in this Case 1. If Hee consult with His owne Conscience Hee shall happily finde in His present syncere resolution an impossibility to turne backe againe to His former sinnefull life pleasures goodfellow-ship sensuall courses company Hee sayes and thinkes it that Hee will rather die then lie sweare prophane the Sabbaths put to usury doe wrong keepe any ill-gotten goods in his hands Haunt Ale-houses Play-houses Gaming-houses or willingly put His heart or hand to any kind of iniquity as Hee was formerly wont And doth nature thinke you keepe Him backe or grace and Gods Spirit 2. If Hee should now heare and have his eares fill'd with oathes blasphemies ribald talke rotten speeches filthy songs railing at Gods people scoffing at religion jesting out of Scriptures c. His heart would rise Hee would either reproove them or bee rid of them as soone as Hee could whereas heretofore Hee hath been perhaps a delightfull Hearer of them if not a notorious Actour Himselfe And whence doe you thinke doth this arise but from the seede of God remaining in Him 3. Thirdly If when you heare Him complaine That howsoever Hee hath cast Himselfe upon Christ as the Prophets have counselled Him yet sith thereupon Hee feeles no such comfort and peace in Believing as other Christians doe Hee begins to doubt whether Hee hath done well or no and to conceive that Hee hath layd hold upon the Promises too soone Nay and it may bee upon this discontent doth thus further enlarge His complaint Alas my sinnes have formerly been so great my heart is at this present so hard my sorrow so scant my failings so many c. that I know not what to say to my Selfe Mee thinkes I can neither pray conferre love the Brethren sanctifie the Sabbath rejoyce in the Lord c. as I see other of Gods Children doe And therefore I am affraid all is naught What heart can I have to hold on I say if to such a speech thou shouldest for triall give this reply Well then if it bee so even give over all strive no more against the streame trouble thy selfe no longer with reading prayer following sermons forbearing good fellowship and thine old companions And sith no comfort comes by casting thy selfe upon Christ cast thy selfe againe into the current of the times course of the world and merry company For there yet is there some little poore pleasure to bee had at least Oh! No No No would Hee say That will I never doe whatsoever comes of mee I will trust in my Christ tho Hee should kill mee for all these discouragements I will by no meanes cast away my confidence I have been so freshly stung with their guilt that I will rather be pull'd in peeces with wild horses then plunge againe into carnall pleasures I will put my hand to all holy duties in obedience to God tho I performe them never so weakely I will by the mercy of God keepe my face towards Heaven and backe to Sodome so long as I breath come what come will c. And whence doe you thinke springs this resolution but from a secret saving power supporting Him in the most desperate temptations and assaults of distrust Now this first secret saving power by which an humble Soule leaning upon Christ is supported when it is at the lowest secondly The seed of God and thirdly presence of grace doe every one of them argue a blessed state in which thou shalt bee certainely saved and therefore thou mayst lift up thine heart and head with comfort unspeakeable and glorious 3. Thirdly Many there are who much complaine of the great disproportion betweene the notorious wickednesse of their former life and their lamentable weakenesse of an answerable be wailing it Betweene the number of their sinnes and fewnesse of their teares the hainousnesse of their rebellions and little measure of their humiliation And thereupon because they did not finde and feele those terrours and extraordinary troubles of mind in their turning unto God those violent passions and pangs in their New-birth which they have seene heard or read of or knowne in others perhaps farre lesse sinners then themselves they are much troubled with distractions and doubts about the truth and soundnesse of their conversion Whereby they receive a great deale of hurt and hindrance in their spirituall state For Satan gaines very much by such a suggestion and grounds many times a manifold mischiefe upon it For by keeping this temptation on foot these doubts and troubles in their mindes whether they bee truly converted or no Hee labours and too often prevailes 1. To hinder the Christian in His spirituall Building With what heart can Hee hold on who doubts of the soundnesse and sure-laying of the foundation What progresse is Hee like to make in Christianity who continually terrifies Himselfe with fearefull exceptions and oppositions about the truth of His conversion A man in a long journey would jogge on but very heavily if Hee doubted whether Hee were in the right way or no. 2. To abate lessen and abridge His courage in standing on Gods side patience under the Crosse spirituall mirth in good company To keepe Him in dulnesse of heart deadnesse of affections distractions at holy exercises and under the raigne of almost a continuall sadnesse and uncomfortable walking To make Him quite neglect and never looke towards those sweete commands of the blessed Spirit Reioyce evermore Reioyce and I say againe Reioyce Bee glad in the Lord reioyce and shout for ioy all yee that are upright in heart 3. To fasten a great deale of dishonour upon God when He can make the Christian dis-avow as it were and nullifie in conceit so great a worke of mercy and grace
the disease is dangerously upon us for recovery There was given unto Paul a Thorne in the flesh c. If wee will take the interpretation of some learned Divines A wound in the spirit the sting of Conscience pressing Him downe to the nethermost Hell in His sense that was erst taken up to the highest Heaven upon purpose lest Hee should swell with spirituall pride bee puft up and exalted aboue measure with the abundance of revelations If wee well weigh the admirable story of that gracious and holy servant of Christ Mistris Bretâ—ergh wee may probably conceive that a principall end why those most grievous spirituall afflictions of Soule upon Her last Bed were laide upon Her was in Gods just judgement to blind yet more those bloody Papists about Her and because they wilfully shut their eies against that glorious Light of true religion which shee so blessedly and fruitfully exprest in her godly life to let them thereby sincke yet deepelier into strong delusion that they might sticke still more stiffely to Popish lies According to that Prophecy of the Antichristians a Thess. 2.10.11.12 Because they received not the love of the truth that they might bee saved For this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie That they all might bee damned who believed not the truth c. Which wee see at this day verified with a witnesse in Popish Doctours even their greatest Schollers as Bellarmine and other Polemicall Writers And therefore let us never marvaile that tho they bee loaden with much learning yet that they should lie â—gregiously and defend with infinite obstinacy and clamour the Doctrine of Divels that accursed Hydra of Heresies in their voluminous Dunghils Now Gods judgement in hardning them hereby as I have said was the more iust because they were so farre from beeing wrought upon and wonne by Her heavenly conversation that they were extraordinarily enraged against Her goodnesse and Profession of the Gospell As appeares in that besides their continuall rayling and roaring against Her as an eminent Light like so many furious Bedlams they barbarously wreckt their malice and spite upon the dumbe and innocent creatures by killing at two severall times Her Husbands Horses and Cattell in the night That her fiery Triall thorow which shee passed as purest gold into Abrahams bosome did thus harden them is manifest by the Event For as the reverent Pen-man of that story reports Those of the Romish faction bragged as though an Oracle had come from Heaven to proove them Catholicks and us Hereticks Prodigious folly Damnable delusion It is so then that God in His inflicting of afflictions doth not ever aime at sinne as at the principall end And yet doe not mistake Tho Hee punishes sometimes and not for sinne yet never without sinne either inherent or imputed There is ever matter enough in our sinnefull Soules and Bodies and lives to afflict us infinitely The best of us brought with us into this world that corruption which might bring upon us all the plagues of this and the other life Every man hath in Himselfe sufficient fewell for the fire of Gods wrath to worke upon still if it pleased Him in justice to set it on flame As in the present Point of spirituall terrours and troubles of minde if God should out of His just and causefull indignation put the full sting but into the least sinne it were able to put a man into the very mouth of Hell But I speake of Gods more ordinary wayes and dealings with the Sonnes of men And so I say God may sometimes for some hidden and holy ends seene and seeming good to His heavenly wisedome bring a lesse hainous sinner thorow extraordinary horrour out of his naturall state into the good way 2. Aggravation of horrour is occasioned terrours and troubles may bee multiplyed and enlarged in our enlargement from the state of darkenesse and Chaines of the Divell by 1. Some precedents and preparatives which God sometimes in His unsearchable wisedome doth immediately premise or suffer to fall out As 1. Some heavy crosse and grievous affliction to make the power of the Law more passable and fall more heavily upon our stubborne and stony hearts This wee see in Manasses who was as it were fired out of His bloody and abomiable courses by the heavinesse and horrour of His chaines And so was humbled greatly before the God of His Fathers Gods extraordinary angry visitations make men many times cry with troubled and grieved hearts Come Let us turne unto the Lord Hee hath wounded us c. a. Strange terrours sometimes arising from externall Accidents yea hidden naturall causes uncouth visions and apparitions full of amazement and feare Bodily distempers horrible injections hideous thoughts c. Whereby they are mightily affrighted before hand and prepared to passe thorow the Pangs of the New-birth more terribly 3. Some hainous and crying sinne which He suffers some to fall into and immediately upon it awakes the Conscience That Almighty Physition who is able to bring health out of poison death out of life Light out of darkenesse Heaven out of Hell may by accident as they say prepare One to conversion by giving Him over to the height of some One or moe abhorred abominations and crimson sinnes As wee may see in Peters Hearers Act. 2. Paul Manasses the sinnefull Woman Publicans and Harlots left to the killing of Christ spilling the blood of the Saints those horrible out-rages extreme filth extorsions pollutions Physitions by ripening diseases make way to heale them For sicke matter is never more easily removed then when it exceedeth in ripenesse and quantity 4. Lying long in ignorance sensuality dissolute life without profitable and powerfull meanes In this Case upon the first awaking and affrighting the Conscience for sinne it may bee exposed to many terrible perplexities and longer continued terrours For the light of Naturall Conscience bred with them in their owne bosomes may in the meane time serve to enrage and torture as wee see in many guilty Heathens but there is no naturall light to leade us to Christ and Evangelicall comforts The commandements have ground in nature but the mysterie of the Gospell is wholly supernaturall Wee finde it by manifold experience what an hard and heavy Taske it is to undertake a poore ignorant Soule troubled in minde The Cure is many times very difficult dangerous and long The darkenesse of their ignorance beeing now distressed in Conscience is very fit and fearefull matter for Satan to worke in hideously and to play his pestilent prankes of most grosse impostures and much Hellish cruelty His malicious maine Plot against such ordinarily is and His utmost endeavour to drive them to Selfe-destruction if it bee possible before they get understanding in the waies of God of wee can get any competent light and comfort into their consciences 2. Some concurrent circumstances As 1. The melancholike and sad constitution of the Party That
an heavenly hoard of grace good conscience Gods favour c. happily treasured up while it is called Today hath the sole and sacred property and priviledge to hold up our hearts In times of horrour inabling us in the meane time patiently and profitably to master all miseries passe thorow all persecutions conquer all Commers and at length by the helpe of God to pull the very heart as it were out of Hell with confidence and triumph to looke even death and the Divell in the face and to stand with boldnesse before the terrour of the last Day like an unmooveable Rock when the Sonnes and daughters of confusion who have slept in harvest and mispent the gratious Day of their visitation shall intreate the mountaines and Rockes to fall upon them I say it being thus let every one of us like Sonnes and daughters of wisedome in this short Sommers Day of our abode upon earth and in this glorious Sun-shine of the Gospell and pretious seasons of grace imploy all meanes improove all oportunities to gather in with all holy greedinesse and treasure up abundantly much spirituall strength and lasting comfort against the evill Day To which let us be quickned by such considerations as these 1. This wise and happy treasuring up of heavenly hoards and comforts of holinesse afore hand will sweetely mollisie and allay the bitternesse and smart of that heavinesse and sorrow of those fearefull amazements and oppressions of spirit naturally incident to times of trouble and feare which ordinarily doe very grievously sting and strike thorow the hearts of carnall and secure Worldlings with full rage and the very slashes and fore-tastes of Hell Of all other passions of the Soule sadnesse and griefe grates most upon the vitall spirits dries up soonest the freshest marrow in the bones and most sensibly suckes out the purest and refinedst bloud in the heart All the Obiects of lightsomnesse and ioy are drowned in an heauy heart even as the beauty of a Pearle is dissolved in vineger Now the onely Cordiall and Counter-poyson against this dampe of light-heartednesse and Cut-throate of life is the secret sweetenesse and shining pleasure of that One pearls of great price three orient raies whereof are righteousnesse and peace and ioy in the holy Ghost treasur'd up in the Cabinet of a good conscience The glory pretiousnesse and power of which hidden treasure purchased with the sale of all sinne doth many times shine faireliest upon the Soule in the saddest times inspires for the most part into the hearts of the owners the greatest courage and constancy of spirit even in the dayes of adversity and vexation inables them to digest and beare without any great wound or passion those crosses and cruelties which would breake the backe and crush the heart of the stoutest Temporizer Was there not a great deale of difference thinke you betwixt the heart of Hezekiah who had walked before God in truth and with a perfect heart when He heard the newes of death from the mouth of the Prophet and the heart of Belshazzar when he saw the hand-writing upon the wall Giue me a great man who carries a way the credit and current of the times with all bravery and triumph wallowes and tumbles himselfe in the glory and pleasures of the present Throw Him from the transitory top of His heaven upon earth upon His last bed present unto His eye at once the terrible paÌ„gs of approaching death the ragefull malice of the powers of Hell the crying wounds of His bleding conscience the griesely fourmes of His innumerable sinnes His finall farewell with all worldly delights the pit of fire and brimstone into which He is ready to fall And I tell you true I would not endure an houres horrour of His wofull heart for His present Paradise to the worlds end But on the other side let me be the man whom the corruptions of the time confine to obscuritie who mournes in secret for the horrible abominations and crying sinnes that raigne amongst us who thinkes that day best spent wherein Hee hath gathered most spirituall strength against that last and sorest combate and by the mercies of God and humble dependance upon His omnipotent arme I will looke in the face the cruellest concurrence of all those former terrors with â—â—â—fidence and peace 2. Secondly By this spirituall hoarding of comfortable provision against the Evill day we may prevent a great deale of impatiency dependance upon the Arme of flesh base feares sinkings of heart un-manly deiections of spirit desperate resolutions and many passionate distempers of such raging and distracted nature which are woont to seize upon and surprise unholy and unprepared hearts when the Hand of God is heavy upon them How bravely and Heroically did patient Iob beare and breake thorow a matchlesse variety and extremity of calamities and conflicts The softest of whose sufferings would have strucke full cold to the heart of many a Carnalist and made it to dye within Him like a stone as Nabals did One of the least the losse of His goods I am perswaded would have caused many covetous worldlings to have laid violent and bloudy hands upon themselues For instance Ahitophel onely because the glory of his state-wisedome was obscur'd and overtopt at the counsell-Bord sadled His Asse gate Him Home put His houshold in order and hanged Himselfe The onely cause of His fainting in the day of disgrace and dis-acceptation was His false and rotten heart in matters of religion While the Crowne sate with security and safety upon Davids head He walked with Him as a companion unto the House of God But when the winde begun to blow a little another way and upon Absoloms side like a true Temporizer He followes the blast and turnes his sailes according to the weather And therefore His hollow heart having made the Arme of flesh His Anchor and a vanishing Blase of honour His chiefest blessednesse shrinkes at the very first sight and suspition of a tempest and sinkes this miserable Man into a Sea of horrour But now on the contrary what was the cause that Iobs heart was not crusht into pieces under the bitter concurrence of such a world of crosses of which any one severally was sufficient to have made a Man extreamely miserable The true reason of His patient resolution amid so many pressures was the spirituall riches He had hoarded up in the time of His happines Amongst which the divinest and dearest Iewel lay nearest unto His heart as a counterpoyson to the venome and sting of the Divels deadliest malice I meane a sound and strong faith in Iesus Christ the Lambe slaine from the beginning of the world which now began to shine the fairest in the darkest Midnight of His miseries and sweetly to dart out many heavenly sparkles of comfort and such glorious eiaculations as these Though he slay me yet will I trust in Him Cap. 13.15 And that cap. 19 23 c. Oh that my words were
other hereafter in the meane time every day spent so sensually is a true Purgatory And every day passed in the contrary Christian course is an earthly Paradise 2. Secondly Let them marke well the different Ends of these men Tho the one now carries away the credite and current of the times and with all bravery and triumph tumbles Himselfe in the pleasures riches and glory of the world and the other is kept as they say under batches neglected and contemptible to carnall eyes trampled upon with the feete of pride and malice by the prouder Pharisees and hunted with much cruelty and hate by Men of this World Yet watch but a while and you shall see the End of this upright man whatsoever his sorrowes and sufferings troubles and temptations have beene in this life to be most certainly peace at the last Marke the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace Psal. 37.37 He either passeth fairely and calmely thorow the Port of Death to the Land of everlasting rest and reioycing or else if a tempest of extraordinary temptation seize upon Him in the Haven when He is ready to set foote into heaven which is the Lot of many of Gods dearest Ones for ends seeming best to the ever-blessed Majesty as perhaps to harden those aboue Him that hate to be reformed c. Yet all the hurt he hath thereby is upon the matter besides serving Gods secret holy pleasure an addition to His happinesse for an immediate translation from the depth of temporary horrour as in Maister Peacocke and Mistris Bretlergh to the height of endlesse joy makes even the joyes of Heaven something more joyfull Hee feeles those never-ending pleasures at the first entrance more delicious and ravishing by reason of the suddaine change from that bitternesse of spirit in the last combate to the excellency and eternity of heavenly blisse His Soule in this case after a short eclipse of spirituall darkenesse upon His Bed of death enters more lightsomly into the full Sunne of immortall glory But what doe you thinke shall bee the end of the other Man He is in the meane time it may be in great power and spreading Himselfe like a greene Bay tree revelling in the ruffe and top of all worldly jollity and wealth wallowing dissolutely in choisest delights and vamest pleasures yet waite but a while and you shall see him quickely cut downe like grasse and wither as the greene herbâ— For God shall suddenly shoote at Him with a swift arrow It is already in the bow even a bow of steele shall send forth an arrow that shall strike Him thorow and shall shine on his gall His power and his pride shall bee overthrowne in the turne of an Hand All his imperious boisterousnesâ—e shall melt away as a vaine foame The eye which saw Him shall â—â—e him no more neither shall hiâ— place any more behold him He must downe into the grave naked and stript of all power and pompe all beauty and strength a weaker and poorer worme then when he fâ—â—st came out of the wombe Here further for this purpose and fuller exprâ—ssion of my meaning in this point how a worthy friend of mine instancing in the exemplary and dreadfull downe-falls of Haman Shebnah and others labours to fright gracelesse great Ones out of their luxury and pride security and sinfull pleasures by consideration of their Ends. Oh then saith he ye rich and great ye proud and cruell Ambitious and honourable take from their wofull examples the true estimate of your riches and your power your pleasure and your honour wherein ye trust and whereof yee boast but as Israell in Aegypt of a broken reede Consider that like sinnes will have like ends That God is to day and yesterday and the same for ever That the pride and cruelty oppression and luxury of these times have no greater priviledge then those of the former But when for a while you have domineered farre and neare Had what you would and done what you liâ—t dispeopled Parishes and plaines for your Orchards and walkes pulld downe many houses to set one up from betweene whose battlements and turrets at the top you can see no end of your meadowes your fields and your lands the measuring whereof as the Poet speakes would weary the very wings of the kite When your Clientary traine hath bin too long for the streete and your bare respect hath shooke the hat from the head and bent the knee afarre off when you have clapt whole Manours on your backs or turnd them downe your throates when you have scoured the plaineâ— with your horses the fields and woods with your bounds and the heaven with your hawkes when with pheasantâ— tongues you have furnisht whole feasts and with the Queene of Aegypt drunke dissolved pearle even fifty thousand pounds at a draught and then laide your headâ— in Dalilaâ—s lappe When if it were possible yoâ— have spent your whole lives in all that royall pompe and pleasure which that most magnificent King and Queeâ—â— did Hist. 1. for an hundred and fourescore dayes 〈◊〉 word when you have wallowed in all delights and stood in pleasures up to the chin Then even then the pit is digged and death of whom you dreame not stands at the doore Where are you now Or what is to bee done Come downe saith Death from your pleasant Prospects Alight from your Iades Hood your kites Cupple up your curres bid adew to pleasure out of your beds of lust Come naked forth and downe with mee to the chambers of death Make your beds in the dust and lay downe your cold carkasses among the stones of the pit at the roots of the Rockes And you great and delicate Dames who are so wearied with pleasure that you cannot rise time enough to dresse your heads and doe all your trickes against dinner To wash your bodies with muske and dawbe your faces with vermilion and chalke To make ready your pleasant baites to poyson mens eyes and their soules You whorish lezabels thinke you now you are meate for men Nay come head-long downe to the dogs If not suddenly so yet dispatch and put off your caules eare-rings and round tyres your chaines bracelets and mufflers your rings wimples and crisping pinns your hoods vailes and changeable sutes your glasses sine linnen with all your Mundus muliebris Isa. 3. And put on stinke in stead of sweete smell baldnesse in stead of well-set haire burning in stead of beauty Wormes shall make their nests in your brests and shall eate out those wanton windowes and messengers of lust Yea rottennesse and stinch slime and filth shall ascend and sit downe in the very Throne of beauty and shall dwell betweene your eie-browes All this is very wofull and yet there is a thousand times worse Besides all this Thou that now laies about the for thee world and wealth for transitory pelfe and rotten pleasures that lies soaking in luxury and pride vanity and all kinde
at last with everlasting kindnesse will Hee have mercy on Him And that Hee will never utterly and finally forsake any of His. Thus died those blessed Servants of God Mistris Bretergh Master Peacock c. Mistris Bretergh in the heate of temptatioÌ„ wished that she had never bin borne or that she had bin made any other creature rather then a woman But when that Hellish storme was over-blowne by the returne of the glorious beames of the Sun of righteousnesse into Her Soule She turnd her tune and triumphed thus Oh happy am I that ever I was borne to see this blessed Day I confesse before the Lord his loving kindnesse and his wonderfull workes before the sons of men For hee hath satisfied my Soule and filled my hungry Soule with goodnesse Master Peacocke in the height of His dreadfull Desertion told those about Him that hee converst with Hell-â—ounds That the Lord had cursed him That Hee had no grace That it was against the course of Gods proceeding to save Him c. But when that horrible tempest of spirituall terrours was happily disperst and the light of Gods comfortable countenance begun to shine againe upon His most heavy and afflicted spirit Hee dis-avowed all inconsiderate speeches as hee called them in his temptation and did humbly and heartily aske mercy of God for them all And did thus triumph What should I extoll the magnificence of God which is unspeakeable and more then any heart can conceive Nay rather let us with humble reverence acknowledge His great mercy What great cause have I to magnifie the great goodnesse of God that hath humbled Nay rather exalted such a wretched miscreant of so base condition to an estate so glorious and stately The Lord hath honored mee with his goodnesse I am sure hee hath provided a glorious Kingdome for mee The joy which I feele in my heart is uncredible 4. Some of Gods worthiest Champions and most zealous servants doe not answere the unreprooveable sanctity of their life and unspotted current of their former conversation with those proportionable extraordinary comforts and glorious Passages upon their beds of death which in ordinary congruity might be expected as a conuenient conclusion to the rare and remarkeable Christian cariages of such blessed Saints So bottomlesse and infinitely un-fathomable by the utmost of all created vnderstandings are the depths of Gods most holy waies and His inscrutable Counsells quite contrary many times to the probable conclusions of Man's best wisdome But every one of His sith he certainly passes thorow those pangs into pleasures and joyes endlesse and unspeakeable must be content to glorifie God to be seruiceable to His secret ends with what kinde of death Hee please whether it bee glorious and untempted or discomfortable because of Bodily distempers and consequently interpretable by undiscerning spirits or mingled of temptations and Triumphs or ordinary and without any great shew or remarkeable speeches after extraordinary singularities of an holy life which promised an end of speciall note and admiration Why may not some worthy heavenly-minded Christians sometimes by strong mortifying meditations and many conquering fore-conceits of death in their life time make it before-hand so familiar and easie unto them an by continuall conversing above and constant peace of conscience taste so deepely of spirituall ioyes that that dreadfull Passage out of this life as it may breede no great sense of alteration in themselves so no extraordinary matter of speciall observation to others Of the wicked and those who were ever strangers to the mystery of Christ and truth of godlinesse Some die desperately Tho thousands perish by presumption to One of these who despaire yet some there are to whom upon their beds of death all their sins are set in order before them and represented to the eie of their awaked consciences in such griesly formes and so terribly that at the very first and fearefull sight they are presently struck starke dead in soule and spirit utterly over-whelmed and quite swallowed up with guilty and desperate horrour So that afterward No counsell or comfort no consideration of the immeasurablenesse of Gods mercy of the unvaluablenesse and omnipotency that I may so speak of Christs bloud shed of the variety excellency of gracious promises of the losse of their owne immortall soules can possibly drive and divert from that infinitely false conceite and cursed Cry My sinnes are greater then can bee pardoned Whereupon most miserable and forlorne wretches they very wickedly and willfully throw themselves into Hell as it were upon earth and are damned above ground Thus the Lord sometimes for the terror of others glorifying his owne iustice bringing exemplary confusion upon impenitent obstinacy in sinne and willfull opposition to grace doth in greatest indignation by the hand of divine vengeance unclaspe unto them the Booke of their owne Conscience and of His owne holy Law In one of which they find now at length all their innumerable iniquities transgressions and sinnes engraven with the Point of a diamond enraged with Gods implacable wrath aggravated with the utmost malice of Satan And never to bee razed out or remitted but by the bloud of the Son of God in which they peremptorily professe themselves to have no part In the other they see the fiercenes and fulnesse of all the curses plagues and torments denounced there and due unto all impenitent sinners ready to bee poured upon their bodies and soules for ever And no possibility to prevent them no waies to decline them but by Gods infinite bounty thorow Iesus Christ in which they also utterly disclaime all right and interest And therefore they are now finally and desperately resolved to looke for no mercy But in their owne judgement and by their owne confession stand reprobates from Gods covenant and voide of all hope of His inheritance expecting with unspeakeable terrour and amazement of spirit the consummation of their miserie and fearefull sentence of eternall damnation They are commonly such as have been grosse Hypocrites like Iudas and lien in some secret abomination against the knowledge of their hearts all their life long that have followed still their owne sensuall wayes and course of the world against the light of the Ministry standing like an armed man in their consciences to the contrary who have been Scorners and Persecutours of the power of godlinesse and the good way who have abjured the Gospell of Iesus Christ and forsaken the Truth for honour wealth or worldly happinesse To whom the Lord in their life-time vouchsafed many mercies much prosperity great meanes of salvation long forbearance c. And yet they stood out still they still hated to bee reformed set as naught all His counsell and would 〈◊〉 of His â—â— proofe Wherefore the Day of gratious visitation beeing once expired a thousand Worlds will not purchase it againe Heaven and Earth cannot recall it No mercy no comfort no blessing can then bee had tho they seeke it with teares
cause of damnation is their false persuasion and groundlesse presumption of salvation Of all the foure kindes of death which ordinarily befall such as are not saved this is the fairest in shew but yet of greatest imposture to those about them and of most pestilent consequence to harden especially all of the same humour that heare of it 4. Some die Penitently But I meane seemingly so not savingly Many having served their appetites all their lives and lived in pleasure now when the Sun of their sensuall delights begins to set and the darke midnight of misery and horrour to seize upon them would very gladly bee saved And I blame them not If they might first live the life of the wicked and then die the death of the righteous If they might have the earthly Heaven of the worlds Favourites here and the Heauen of Christs Martyrs in the world to come These Men are woont in this last extremity to take on extremely But it is but like their Howling upon their Beds Hos. 7.14 Because they are pinched with some sense of present horror and expectation of dreadful things They cry out mightily for mercy But it is no other then their early seeking Prov. 1.28 Because distresse and anguish is come upon them They enquire eagerly after God and would now bee gladly acquainted with Him But just like them Psal. 78. When Hee slew them then they sought Him and they returned and enquired early after God And they remembred that God was their Rocke and the high God their Redeemer Neverthelesse they did flatter Him with their mouth And they lyed unto Him with their Tongs For their heart was not right with Him They promise very faire and protest gloriously what mended men they will bee if the Lord restore them But all these goodly promises are but as a morning cloud and as the early dew They are like those of a Thiefe or murtherer at the Barre which beeing now cast and seeing there is now no way but one O what a reformed man would Hee bee if Hee might bee reprieved Antiochus as the Apocryphall Booke of the Maccabees reports when the hand of God was upon Him horribly vowed excellent things O what Hee would doe so and so extraordinarily for the people of God! yea and that He Himselfe also would become a Iew and goe through all the world that was inhabited and declare the power of God But what was it thinke you that made this raging Tyrant to relent and thus seemingly repent A paine of the bowells that was remedilesse came upon Him and sore torments of the inner parts So that no man could endure to carry him for His intolerable stinke And He himselfe could not abide His owne smell Many may thus behaue themselves upon their Beds of death with very strong shewes and many boisterous representations of true turning unto God whereas in truth and triall they are as yet rotten at heart roote And as yet no more comfort upon good ground belongs unto them then to those in the fore-cited Places And if any spirituall Physition in such a case doe presse it hand over head or such a Patient presume to apply it it is utterly misgrounded mis-applied Heare what One of the worthiest Divines in Christendome saith Now put case One commeth to His ghostly Father with such sorrow of minde as the terrours of a guilty conscience usually doe produce and with such a resolution to cast away His sinnes as a Man hath in a storme to cast away his goods not because Hee doth not love them but because Hee feareth to lose His life if Hee part not with them doth not hee betray this mans soule who putteeh into His head that such an extorted repentance as this which hath not one graine of love to season it withall will qualifie Him sufficiently for the receiving of an absolution c. And another excellently instructed unto the Kingdome of Heaven Repentance at death is seldome sound For it may seeme rather to arise from feare of iudgement and an horrour of Hell then for any griefe for sinne And many seeming to repent affectionately in dangerous sicknesse when they have recovered have been rather worse then before It is true that true Repentance is never too late but late Repentance is seldome true For here our sinnes rather leave us then wee them as Ambrose sayes And as Hee addes Woe bee unto them whose sinne and life end together This received Principle among the ancient Fathers That late Repentance is rarely true implyes that it is often false and unsound and so by consequent confirmes the present Point Too manifold experience also makes it good Amongst many for my part I have taken speciall notice of two The one beeing laboured-with in prison was seemingly so extraordinarily humbled that a reverend Man of God was mooved thereby to bee a meanes for his reprive whereupon a Pardon was procured And yet this so extraordinary a Penitent while death was in his eye having the terror removed returned to His vomit and some two yeeres after to the same Place againe as notorious a Belial as Hee was before Another having upon His Bed of sicknesse received in His owne conceite the sentence of death against Himselfe and beeing pressed to humiliation and broken-heartednesse for Hee had formerly been a stranger and enemy to purity and the power of godlinesse answered thus My heart is broken and so broke out into an earnest confession of particular sinnes Hee named uncleannesse stubbornnesse obstinacy vaine-glory hypocrisie dissimulation uncharitablenesse covetousnesse luke-warmenesse c. He compared himselfe to the Thiefe upon the Crosse. And if God saith Hee restore mee to health againe the world shall see what an altered man I will bee When hee was prest to syncerity and true-heartednesse in what hee said Hee protested that hee repented with all his heart and Soule and minde and Bowels c. And desired a Minister that stood by to bee a witnesse of these things betweene the world and Him And yet this Man upon His recovery became the very same if not worse then Hee was before Now sith upon this Perusall of the different deaths incident to the godly and the wicked it appeares that some men never soundly converted may in respect of all outward representations die as confidently and comfortably in the conceite of the most as Gods dearest Children and that Christs best servant sometimes may depart this life uncomfortably to the eye and in the opinion of the greatest part And wee heard before that our last and everlasting Doome must passe upon us according to the syncerity or sensuality the zealous forwardnes or formality of our former courses and not according to the seeming of our last carriage upon Bed of death and enforced behaviour in that time of extremity I say these things beeing so I hold my conclusion still and resolution not much to alter my censure and conceit of a mans spirituall state for
for his soule untill his last sicknes should for that sin alone bee snatcht out of the world in great anger even suddenly so that there bee scarce a moment betwixt the height of His temporall happinesse and depth of his spirituall misery That His foolish hope may bee frustrated and His vaine purpose come to nothing Hee may bee cut off as the Top of an care of corne and put out like a candle when hee least thinkes of death and dreames of nothing lesse then departure from His earthly Paradise They are exalted for a little while saith Iob but are gone and brought low they are taken out of the way as all other and cut off as the tops of the eares of corne Fifthly a long continued custome is not woont to bee shaken off in an instant Is it like that a Blackamore should change his skinne and a Leopard his spots in three or foure dayes which they have contracted in forty or threescore yeeres Therefore I marvell that any should bee so blindfolded and baffeld by the Divell as to embolden Himselfe to drive off untill the last by that Place before Confession At what time soever a sinner doth repent him of his sinne from the bottome of his heart I will put all his wicked out of my remembrance saith the Lord Especially if Hee looke upon the Text from whence it is taken which Mee-thinkes beeing rightly understood and the conditions well considered is most punctuall and precise to fright any from that desperate folly The words runne thus Ezech. 18.21.22 But if the wicked will turne from all his sinnes which hee hath committed and keepe all my Statutes and doe that which is lawfull and right hee shall surely live hee shall not die All his transgressions c. Hence it appeares that if any man expect upon good ground any portion in this pretious promise of mercy and grace Hee must leave all his sinnes and keepe all Gods Statutes Now how performest thou the condition of leaving all thy sinnes when as in this last extremity having received the sentence of death against thy selfe Thy sinnes leave Thee and not Thou thy sinnes that I may speake in the Phrase of an ancient Father And what space is left to come to comfort by keeping all Gods Statutes when thou art presently to passe to that highest and dreadfull Tribunall to give an exact and strickt account for the continual breach of all Gods Lawes all thy life long Sixthly many seeme to bee passingly penitent and promise exceeding faire in the evill day and upon their sicke Beds who beeing recovered and restored to their former state are the very same they were before if not worse I never knew nor heard of any un-wrought upon under conscionable meanes who after recovery performed the vowes and promises of a new life which Hee made in his sicknesse and times of extremity For if Hee will not bee mooved with the Ministry God will never give that honour unto a crosse to doe the deede Nay Father Abraham saith the rich Glutton but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent And hee said unto him If they heare not Moses and the Prophets neither will they bee perswaded the one rose from the dead Luke 16.30.31 It would amaze thee much if one of thy good-fellow companions should now rise from the dead and tell thee that Hee who was thy Brother in iniquity is now in Hell and if thou follow the same sensuall courses still thou must shortly most certainely follow Him to the Place of torment And yet even this would not worke at all if thou bee a despiser of the Word It may bee while the dead Man stood by Thee Thou wouldst be extraordinarily mooved and promise much but no sooner should He bee in His Grave but thou wouldst bee as gracelesse as thou wast before Seventhly what wise man seeing a fellow who never gave his name to religion in his life time now only troubled about sinne when hee is sure Hee must die will not suspect it to be wholly slavish and extorted for feare of Hell My sentence is saith Greenham that a man lying now at the Point of death having the snares of death upon him in that straite of feare and paine may have a sorrow for His life past but because the weakenesse of flesh and the bitternesse of death doth most commonly procure it wee ought to suspect c. Eighthly painefull distempers of body are wont to weaken much and hinder the activenes and freedome of the Soules operations nay sometimes to distract and utterly over-throw them Many even of much knowledge grace and good life by reason of the damp and deadnesse which at that time the extremity and anguish of their disease brings upon their spirits are able to doe no great matter if anything at all either in meditation or expression How then doest thou thinke to passe thorow the incomparably greatest worke that ever the Soule of Man was acquainted with in this life I meane the new-birth at the Point of death It is a wofull thing to have much worke to doe when the power of working is almost done When wee are come to the very last cast our strength is gone our spirits cleane spent our senses appalled and the powers of our Soules as numbe as our senses when there is a generall prostration of all our powers and the shadow of death upon our eyes then something wee would say or doe which should doe our Soules good But alas How should it then bee 3. When the spirituall Physition powres the baulme of mercy and oyle of comfort into a wounded conscience 1. Too soone The Surgeon that heales up a dangerous Sore and drawes a skinne over it before His corrosives have consumed the dead flesh before Hee hath opened it with his Tents ransackt it to the roote and rent out the Core is so farre from pleasuring that hee procures a great deale of misery to His Patient For the rotten matter that remaines behind will in the meane time rankle and fester underneath and at length breake out againe perhaps both with more extremity of anguish and difficulty of cure They are but Mountebankes as they call them Smatterers in Physicke and Surgery upon the matter but plaine Cheaters and Couseners who are so ready and resolute for extemporary and palliate Cures Sudden recoveries from rooted and old distempers are rarely sound If it be thus in bodily Cures what a deale doe you thinke of extraordinary discretion heavenly wisedome precise and punctuall ponderation of circumstances well-advised and seasonable leasure both speculative and experimentall skill heartiest ejaculations wrastlings with God by Prayer for a blessing is very convenient and needfull for a true and right methode in healing a wounded conscience Which doth passe immeasurably all other maladies both in exquisitenesse of paine tendernesse of touch deceitfulnesse of Depth and in highest and greatest consequence either for the
mighty Lord of Heaven and Earth to have Hee offers to us in the Ministry His owne blessed Sonne to be our deare and everlasting Husband His Person with all the rich and royall endowments thereof the glory and endlesse felicities above His owne thrice glorious and ever-blessed Selfe to bee enjoyed thorow all eternity which is the very soule of heavenly Blisse and life of eternall life c. Doe you thinke it then reasonable or likely that Hee will ever accept at our hands an heartlesse formall outwardnesse a cold rotten carcasse of religion That wee should serve our selves in the first Place and Him in the second That wee should spend the prime and flower of our loues ioyes services upon some abominable bosome-sinne and then proportion-out to the everlasting God mighty and terrible Creator and Commander of Heaven and Earth only some outward religious formes and conformities and those also so farre onely as they hurt not our temporall happinesse but may consist with the entier enjoyment of some inordinate lust pleasure profit or preferment Prodigious folly nay fury to their owne soules This very one most base and unworthy conceit of so great a God and His due attributions meriteth justly exclusion from the Kingdome of Heaven with the foolish Virgins for ever My Counsell therefore is when the spirituall Patient hath passed the tempestuous Sea of a troubled conscience and is now upon termes of taking a new course That by all meanes Hee take heed that Hee runne not upon this Rocke It is better to bee key-cold then luke-warme and that the milke boile over then bee raw 7. Tho it bee an ordinary yet it is a dangerous and utterly un-doing errour and deceite To conceive that all is ended when the afflicted Party is mended and hath received ease and enlargement from the terrible pressures of his troubled conscience To thinke that after the tempest of present terrour and rage of guiltinesse bee allayed and over-blowne there needes no more to bee done As tho the New-birth were not ever infallibly and inseparably attended with new-obedience As tho when once the soule is soundly and savingly strucke thorow humbled and prepared for Christ by the terrifying power of the Law revealing the foulenesse of sinne and fiercenesse of divine wrath which set on by the spirit of bondage is able like a mighty thunder to breake and teare in pieces the iron synewes of the most stubborne and stony-heart there followed not hearty shewers of repentant teares never to bee dried up untill our ending houre as I taught before when all teares shall bee everlastingly wiped away with Gods mercifull hand And that the Sunne of righteousnesse did not presently breake forth upon that happy Soule to dispell the Hellish clouds of sensuality lust lying in sinne c. and to illighten inflame and fill it with the serenity and cleare sky as it were of sanctification and purity a kindly fervour of Zeale for Gods glory good causes good men keeping a good conscience and fruitfull influence of sobriety righteousnesse and holinesse for ever after And therefore if upon recovery out of trouble of conscience there follow not a continued exercise of Repentance both for sinnes past present and to come as you heard before an universall change in every power and part both of Soule and Body tho not in perfection of degrees as the Schooles speake yet of Parts an heart-rising hatred and opposition against all sinne a shaking-off old companions brethren in iniquity all Satans good-fellow Reuellers a delight in the word waies services Sabbaths and Saints of God a conscionable and constant endeavour to expresse the truth of protestations and promises made in time of terrour as I told you before c. In a Word if there follow not a new life if all things doe not become new there is no New-birth in truth all is naught and to no purpose in the Point of salvation They are then miserable Comforters Physicions of no value nay of notorious spirituall blood-shed who having neither acquaintance with nor much caring for the manner meanes methode any heavenly wisedome spirituall discretion or experimentall skill in managing aright such an important businesse if any waies they can asswage the rage and still the cries of a vexed guilty Conscience they thinke they have done a worthy worke Tho after their dawbing there bee nothing left behind in it but a senselesse skarre Nay and perhaps more brawnednesse benummednesse brought upon it because it was not kindlily wrought-upon in the furnace of spirituall affliction and rightly cured I feare mee many poore soules are fearefully deluded who beeing recovered out of terrours of Conscience too suddenly unseasonably or one way or other unsoundly conceive presently they are truly converted tho afterward they bee the very same men of the same company and conditions they were before or at best blesse themselves in the seeming happinesse of an halfe conversion For a more full discovery of this mischiefe and prevention of those miseries which may ensue upon this last miscarriage Let mee acquaint you with foure or five Passages out of Pangs of Conscience which still leade amisse and leave a man the Divel 's still And for all his faire warning by the smart of a wounded spirit drowne Him in the workes of darkenesse and waies of death 1. Some when by the piercing power and application of the Law their consciences are prest with the terrible and intolerable waight of their sinnes and the worme that neuer dies which hath been all this while dead-drunke with sensuall pleasures is now awaked by the hand of divine justice and begins to sting They presently with unspeakeable rage and horrour fall into the most abhorred and irrecoverable Dungeon of despaire The flames of eternall fire seize upon them even in this life They are in Hell upon Earth and damned as it were above ground Such they are commonly who all their life long have been contemners of the conscionable Ministry Scorners of the good way Quenchers of the Spirit Revolters from good beginnings and Profession of grace Harbourers of some secret vile abominable lusts in their hearts against the light of their conscience close Agents for Popery and Prophanenesse plausible Tyrants against the power of godlinesse and such other like notorious Champions of the Divell infamous Rebels to the highest Majestie Whom sith they have bin such and have so desperately and so long despised the riches of His goodnes and forbearance and long-suffering leading them to Repentance God most justly leaves now in the evill day when once the hot transitory gleame of worldly pleasures is past and His judgements begin to grow upō their thoughts like a tempestuous storme and death to stand before them unresistable like an armed Man and sinne to lie at the doore like a Bloodhound and the guilty conscience to gnaw upon the heart like a Vulture c. I say then Hee leaves them in His righteous iudgement
the Cardinals the Sicilian Even-song and the Parisian Mattins nay the wish of Nero that Rome had but one Head which hee might cut off at one blow came farre short of this invention which spared neither age sexe nor degree Well then if thou shouldest have approved and consented unto the suggestion of this most execrable and unheard-of villany for which Hell hath not a fit Name nor the World a sufficient punishment thou hadst made thy selfe the most prodigious Beast that ever breathed an abhorred Monster of Mankinde and justly merited to have passed presently from most exquisite tortures here to endelesse torments in another World But now if all the while the motion was making thy heart had risen against it with indignation and loathing thou protested'st to the Party thy abominating any thought that way from the heart roote to the pit of hell and immediately running to the King shouldest have discovered and disclaimed it as a most detestable and hellish plot I say then what Man could have justly blamed thee or wherein could thy conscience any way accuse thee It is so in the present Point As that other incarnat Divell in his kinde so the Divell himselfe throwes into thine imagination most hideous thoughts and horrible blasphemies even against the dreadfull Majesty of Heaven the thrice blessed and ever-glorious Trinity the holy Humanity of the Lord Iesus c. To which if thou shouldest understandingly assent and approve indeed thou mightest expect most worthily to become ten times fouler then the ougliest Fiend in Hell But sith thou knowest in thine owne conscience that thy heart trembles with horrour and amazednesse when they are offered nay violently thrust into thy minde That thou resists and rejects them with all the power and prayer thou canst possibly canst not chuse but out of a pang of infinite detestation and heart-rising turne thus or in the like manner upon the Tempter Most malicious enemie to the glory of my God and good of my Soule thou troubles thy selfe and mee in vaine I doe infinitely acknowledge my blessed Creatour Redeemer and Sanctifier to bee one incomprehensibly glorious wise gracious God Heaven to be wholly filled embroidered impaled with nothing but holinesse and happines All the Creatures to be good as they issued out of the hands of God and Remembrancers to us of his power wisedome and goodnesse Gods blessed Booke to be all most holy most true a rich treasury of heavenly wisdome and sweetest knowledge c. And thy cursed self to be the onely Authour and Brocher of all sinne hurt and uncomâ—linesse And to thee and thine alone they belong Mingle not thou thy malice with my lowliest most deare and reverend thoughts of my Father my Saviour my Comforter c. And thou art also woont presently to presse in private into Gods glorious presence and prostrate thy selfe before his righteous Throne there to discover this hellish malice to complain how villanously the Divell deales with thee to protest thine innocency and infinite hatred of those horrible blasphemies to cry heartily for pardon patience and power against them And therefore it being thus with thee thou maist upon good ground bee more then infinitely assured that they are not imputed unto thee at all but wholly set upon Satans score Hence it is and from this ground that I have many times told some thus tempted That when they have passed a day prest upon violently and pestred with the furious intrusion of such un-utterably foule and fearefull injections they have in all likelyhood spent that day with farre lesse sinne in their thoughts and more freedome from guilt and provocation of divine anger then if they had been free Because they being so earnestly and vehemently deprecated withstood with such aversion and loathing protested against unfainedly and that upon such termes that they would rather bee torne in pieces with wild Horses die ten thousand deathes doe or suffer any thing then yeeld the least assent or approbation thereunto they are then I say not their transgressions but afflictions Not their iniquities but miseries Not their sinnes but crosses Nay and further for their comfort If they should bee haunted by them untill their ending houre which God forbid and beat backe such accursed and hatefull spight from every humble soule yet cleaving close unto the Lord Iesus hating all sinne and having respect to all Gods commandements they are not able at all neither can any whit hinder hurt or any way prejudice their spirituall state and everlasting salvation 3. Every servant of Christ hath his share in some affliction or other and is ever made in some good measure conformable to him in his sufferings Those who have the raines laide and left upon their neckes without curbe or correction are Bastards and not Sonnes They may as the holy Ghost tells us prosper in this World and passe peaceably out of it and have no bands in their death like other men they may live and become old and bee mighty in power Their seede may bee established in their sight with them and their off-spring before their eyes their houses may be safe from feare neither may the rod of God bee upon them Their Bull may gender and faile not their Cow may calve and not cast her Calfe they may send forth their little Ones like a flocke and their Children dance They may take the Timbrell and Harpe and reioyce at the sound of the Organ they may spend their dayes in wealth and in a moment go downe to the Grave At last die even like a Lambe as they say But when all is done they are utterly undone and everlastingly By reason of the horrour and angvish that shall come upon their soules the affliction the worme-wood and the gall for horrible is the end of the unrighteous generation they are immediately throwne downe from the top of their imaginary felicity and untroubled bed of seeming peace to the depth of extremest misery and bottome of the burning Lake But it is not so with the servants of God He scourgeth every sonne whom hee receiveth Hee hath onely one Sonne with out sinne none without suffering saith an ancient Father But here take notice that in this dispensation of fatherly corrections amongst his Children He ever out of his unsearchable mercifull wisedome singles out and makes choise of those which are most punctuall and simply the fittest for their spirituall good And therefore both for the kinde and particular let us ever humbly and thankfully submit and wholly referre our selves to the sweet and wise disposing of our most loving and dearest Father Who ever knowes best what is best for us in such Cases both in regard of his service and our sufferings his glory and our gaine what wee are able to beare How hee hath furnished us before-hand with spirituall strength to goe through temptations and troubles what spirituall Physicke is most quicke and operative and apted to the prevention cure and
it is now a dayes taken by common phrase of speech As we say that a right Politâ—tian is a very Machiavell so it may bee said that in Politicall government or Machivellian policy none goeth beyond the Iesuites at this day Decacord Quodlib 3. Art 4 pag. 64. No no their course of life doth shew what their study is And howsoever they boast of their perfections holinesse meditations and exercises yet their platforme is heathenâ—sh tyrannicall and able to set Aretöne Lucian Machiavell and the Divell himselfe in a sort to Schoole Ibid. Quodlib 3. Art 3. pag. 62. The Iesuites manage matters more Machiavellianly then Machiavell himselfe Answer to the Iesuited Gent. pag. 70. Iesuites are Fathers of mischiefe friends to themselves benefactours to seditious persons Masters of Machiavellisme Traytours to England and to their Prince An Answer by one of our Brethren a Secular Priest to Blackwels letter written to Cardinall Cajetan 1596. Circa Med. g The Iesuites are to be marked out for the most malicious trayterous and irreligious Calumniatours that ever lived on earth unworthy that ever the earth should beaâ—â— them Quodl 4. Art 2. pag. 99. h But Mariana likes better to have a Tyrant poysoned by his Chaire or by his Apparell and Robes after the example of the Mauriâ—â—nian Kings that beeing to poysoned onely by sent or by contact Hee may not bee found guilty of Selfe-fellony and the Soule of the poore Tyrant in the flight out of the Body may be innocent of the fact O Hell-hounds O diabolicall wretches O infernall Monsters How long then How long shall Kings whom the Lord hath called his Annointed Kings the breathing Images of God upon earth Kings that with a wry or frowning looke are able to crush these earth-wormes in pieces How long shall they suffer this viperous brood scot-free and without punishment to spit in their faces King Iames Remonst pag. 227. Such is the religion of these Reverend Fathers the Pillars of the Pontifician Monarchy In comparison of whose religion and holinesse all the impiety that ever was practised among the Infidels and all the barbarous cruelty that ever was perpetrated among the Cannibals may passe henceforth in the Christian World for pure clemency and humanity Ibid. pag. 235. Adue religion of the Iesuites For to speake truth To deale in State-matters and to practise the death of Princes are as essentiall parts of their function as their confession it selfe Iesu. Catech. lib. 3. cap. 13. i Tantum relligio potuit suadere malorum But what would hee have done if hee had knowne the massacre of France or the Powder-treason of England c. They make the cause of Religion descend to the execrable actions of murthering of Princes butchery of people and fiering of States Sir Francis Bacon Essaie Of Religion Hest. 3.8 c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Pet 2.17 Da mihi Christianum sâ—â—t quid dico d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Cor. 1.26 g Fidi imperator bus manete sed anie hos Deo propter quem ijs quibus commissi aâ— traditi estis Nazian Orat. 12. At quî propter Deum Quia si Deum mâ—tuetis studiosè dabitis operam ut eius mandata servetis fideles his etiam Dei causâ eritis Elias l All vertues turne to vices when they become the servants of impiety King Iames Remonst pag. 249. m O the vanity of great Men who thinke it to bee the chiefe fruit of their greatnesse to abuse their power insolently to the ruine of their inferiours Not remembring being blinded by their passion that they have a Superiour over them to make them yeeld an account of their unjust proceedings forcing to make restitution with interest Histor. of France In Lewis the tenth n Qui eateros dignitate praestat authoritate debet maiori etiam pietate in Deum effulgere quò caeteris exemplosit virtutem colendi divina mandata servandi Cyr. Alexand lib. 8. in Ioan. Eccles. 12.5 o Parete ijs qui praesunt vâ—bâ— conceâ—dite Nam ille vigilant pro animis vestrâ—s tametsi prius tam dine dictum est tamen ne nunc quidem reticebo Huius enim comminationis terror animum mihi concutit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Sacerdot lib. 6. in princ Nam illi vigilant pro animis vestris tanquam ratione reddituri Hiccine exiguus tibi videtur comminationis terror Equidem illum quantus sit verbis exprimere non possum Ibid. Lib. 3. Ad fin p 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Primùmigitur persvadeamus ut iurament â—rum fuga in melius mutationem faciat etsi enim heri nudiustertiùs de hac vobis locutus sum materiâ— neque tamen hodiè desistam neque crà s neque perendiè eadem persvadere Chrysost. Ad pop Antioch Hom. 5. About the beginning of His Homilies upon Genesis Hee tells them that Heri Yesterday I handled this or that or to the like sense And the same Chrysostome preached in the Afternoone as appeares by these words Hom. 11. in 1. ad Thess. Qúemadmodum si quis lucis Lychnaeo aquam aspergeret aut oleum duntaxat eximeret lucemexting veret ita habet donum Spiritus Hee tooke a resemblance from the Lampe that burnt by Him when Hee was preaching And sayes You may qvench this Lampe by putting in water and you may qvench it by taking out the oyle c. And so did Great Basil also as appeares by these words Hexam Hom. 2. ad fin Facta est igitur Vespera factum est mane dies unus Sed hi nostri de illâ Vesperâ sermones aâ— hac Vesperâ ià moccupati hic orationi nostrae finem imponunt And so did Austâ—n that mighty Disputer as appeares by these words In Psal 88. as Hee counts Conc 2. Ad reliqua Psalmi de quo in matutino locuti sumus animum intendite q Vnde Episcopum necessecst in singulos ut sic dicam dies sementem facere ut ipsâ saltem assuetudine Doctrinae sermonem Auditorum animi retinere possint De Sacerd. Lib. 6. r Sane Aulica vita per se est status Deo placens interìm tamen est vitae genus lubricum periculosum ac varijs Lipsious obnoxium in quo multa fiunt contra Creatoreâ— propter conservandum humanum savorem In Aulis praecipâ—e negotiosus est Satan Obâ—cit spectra disgratiae favoriâ— principalâ—s ut iâ—sdem exterriti â—uliciomittant facienda faciant omittenda Qui in Aulâ constans est in veritatis confessione iustitiae observatione ille candem cum Christo experitur sortem qui in Aulâ Pontificis Herodis contemptus illusus percussus fuit Qui meticulosus est in gratiam Magnatum à regulaÌ„ veritatis iustitiae recedit is facilimè in abnegationem Christi incidit Gerhard In Harmo Hist. Evang. cap. 5. In aulà quò quis corrupâ—â—or moribus aut corrumpentior muneribus còbcatior Satis bur In Policrat Bernard was wont to complaine