bait the hooke of Prose with Poetry Fishers of men must put on every guise Winners of Soules must study to be wise If Poetry be goats hair and no more Yet it may serve to vail the Temple dore I le not detaine you lâ—nger in the Porch Nor light you to the Sun with such a Torch What furnitures within is now made free The Curtain 's drawne you may go in and see ERRATA Pag. 17. line 15. read able p. 34. l. 3. biot out and make figure 1 before the next word p. 36. l. 24. r. mankind p. 50. l. 11. r. the for their p. 59. l. 15. r. sink p. 62. l. 5. r. vassalls p. 69. l. 18. r. fold p. 76. l. 2. r. I count l. 14. r. maine thing p. 91. l. 21. r. great wickednesse p 24. l. ult r. Apostaticall p. 127. l. 10. r. certainty in the same line r. assert p. 128. l. 5. r. Apostates p. 128. l. 18. r. road p. 129. l. 23. r. preacher p. 135. l. 1. r. word p. 139. l 7. Jsay 1. p. 144. l. 5. r. bring p 150. l. 9. r. wet finger p. 151. l 17. r. as his right eye c. p. 186. l. 15. r. when p. 192. l. 16. read puluerem p. 196. l. 14. r. refuge p. 200. l. 8. read so obdurate p. 209. l. 3. r. Solamen p. 211. l. 11. read Masters p. 216 l. 23. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 218. l. 11. blot out if p. 230. l. 5. r. stony heart p. 236. l. 5. r. desponde p. 237. l. 22. r. owne deceived and deceitfull hearts p. 238. l. 8. r. whelpe A breife TABLE Of the CONTENTS A Short Introduction pag. 1. 2. 3. The rule of Gods dealing with the Refusers of his mercy upon which is grounded the whole Method of the Treatise in these 3 particulars 1. Ingentia Beneficia 2. Ingentia Flagitia 3. Ingentia Supplicia p. 4 Whence are raised 3 suitable Doctrines 1. Gospel Salvation is Great Salvation 2. Setting light by this great Salvation is great Sin 3. The neglect of this great Salvation brings great Damnation 1. Doct. proved and made plaine p. 5 1. By comparing it with Salvation by the Law 2. By comparing it with the old Test manifestations 3. By comparing it with temporall deliverances p. 5 It is also proved by improving the Text in its elegant Climax or Gradation 3 stories high 1. Salvation 2. Great Salvation 3. So great Salvation Illustrated further by alluding to the 3 degrees of comparison wherein is shewed to be 1. Positively great 2. Comparatively greater than other 3. Superlatively the greatest of all p. 8 Proved also from three pregnant Scriptures Psal 130.7 Plentifull Redemption Luke 1.69 A horn of mighty Salvation Hebr. 7.25 Salvation to the uttermost p. 8 9. Proved lastly by three Reasons p. 9. 1. Reason Drawn from the ab hoc shewing from what we are saved 2. Reason Drawn from the ad hoc shewing to what we are saved 3. Reason Drawn from the per hoc shewÌ„ing by what we are saved 1. Reason Because it saves from great Evills As 1. From the wrath of God p. 10. 11. 2. From the curse of the Law p. 12. 13. 3. From the tyranny and dominion of Satan p. 14. c. 4. From the evill of sin 1. From the condemning power p. 21 2. From the commanding power p. 21 5. From the evills of Punishment from a 3 fold Death 1. Internall of the Soul 2. Externall of the Body 3. Eternall of both Soul and Body p. 23. c. 2. Reason Because it advances to great Happines p. 6 1. Before time in Election 2. In time in Iustification and sanctification 3. After time in Glorification p. 27. Two bunches of Beatitudes belonging to Gods saved ones 1 Bunch 1. Justification wherein of ungodly they are made righteous 2. Reconciliation wherein of Enemies they are made Friends 3. Adoption wherein of Aliens they are made Sons 4. Sanctification wherein of Sinners they are made Saints 5. Glorification wherein of imperfect Saints they are made perfect 2 Bunch 1. They are entitled unto the love of God the Father 2. The Grace of God the Son 3. The Communion of God the holy Ghost 4. The Protection of the Trinity 5. The Guardianship of Angells 6. The comforts of an appeased conscience 7. The comfortable enjoyment of the things of this life 8. The believing expectation of the life to come p. 28. It s further shewed that Salvation advances its heires unto two Kingdoms at once 1. The Kingdome of Grace p. 29. 2. The Kingdome of Glory p. 31. to 35. 3. Reason Because we are saved by great meanes 1. The wisdom and love of God the Father p. 36. c. 2. The sufferings and Righteousness of God the Son p. 39. c. 3. The Revelation and Application of the holy Ghost p. 41. c. The other subord nate meanes laid down in 2 paires The 1 Pair is 1. Graces 2. Duties p. 45. 46. The 2 Pair is 1. Ordinances 2. Providences p. 47 48. c. 1. Vse Of Consideration 1. What it is 2. How great it is p. 51. to 54. 2. Vse Of Proclamation p. 54. 55. 56. 3. Vse Of Reproof p. 57. to 65. 4. Vse Of Consolation p. 65. to 70. 5. Vse Of Exhortation p. 70. to 77. 2 Doctrine Setting light by this great salvation is great sin p. 79. 1 Positively great p. 84 to 88. 2 Comparatively greater than other p. 88 to 95. 3 Superlatively the greatest p. 95. 1 Reason Because an accumulated sin p 95. Proved to be so because it is a refusing of Christ in all his Offices as p 98. 1 His Priestly office p. 100. c. 2 His Propheticall office p. 102. c. 3 His Kingly office p. 105. c. 2 Reason Because its an aggravated sin by three circumstances p. 110. 1 Of Person p. 111 to 114. 2 Of Time p. 114 to 116. 3 Of Place p. 117. 118. 3 Reason Because it is a State confounding sin p. 119 c. 4. Reason Because it is a Church confounding sin p. 123. c. 1 Vse of Information to shew wherin it consists p. 131. Viz. 1 In taking no care for salvation p. 132. c. 2 In taking but little care conjunct with greater care p. 137. c. 3 In not making it our greatest care p. 139. c. 2 Vse of Direction in 4 things p. 142. 1 There must be great thoughts of heart p. 143. 2 Great searchings of heart about it p. 145. 3 Great humblings of heart about it p. 147. c. 4 Great chainges of heart about it p. 151. c. 3 Use of consideration in order to consolation in two things 1 That only is Gospel refusing which is finall p. 153. c. 2 Gospel-mercy will pardon all Gospel-refusing which is not finall p. 156. c. â— Doctrine The neglect of great Salvation brings great Damnation p. 161. Damnation that is 1 Positively great p. 164. c. 2 Comparatively
the wages of all and every sin so that sin will find the sinner suffering enough death with all its appurtenances 1 with all its forerunners diseases aches paines c. 2 With all its concomitants of tribulation and anguish desperation and horrour 3 and all its followers death after death fire and brimstone which is the second death Revel 21.8 Let us distinguish of a threefold death which is the wages of sin and all will be plaine when we have clear'd it that Salvation saves us from all the three Death 1 Internall of the Soul 2 Externall of the Body 3 Eternall of the Body and Soul 1 It saves from death internall as Eph. 2.1 You hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sinns Iohn 5.25 The time shall come and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and those that hear shall live and Iohn 5.24 He that heareth my words and beleiveth in him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life and Revel 20.6 Blessed is he that hath his part in the first Resurrection on such the second death hath no power which expositors do interpret of the resurrection of the Soul from the death of sin to the life of grace as the second resurrection of the body from death to life immortall 2. It saves from death externall though not from the stroak of death for it s appointed unto all men once to die Hebr. 9.27 Yet from the sting of death for blessed are the dead which die in the Lord Revel 14.13 Paul tells us if in this life only we had hope in Christ we were of all men the most miserable 1 Cor. 15.19 noting that the hope that we have in Christ for another life is the best part of our hope and that which maketh not ashamed and in order to this Solomon saith the righteous hath hope in his death Prov. 14.32 Though beleivers die yet they are not kill'd with death as that deadly phrase is Revel 2.23 It is but their dust that sees corruption Their head having kill'd death Oh death I will be thy death Hos 13.14 nothing hinders but that on the account of that victory they may triumph as more than conquerors and say with the Apostle O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory 1 Cor. 15.55 3 It saves from death eternall Iohn 11.25 26. He that beleiveth in me though he were dead yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and beleiveh in me shall not die for ever Death is therefore call'd the King of feares because there is a more terrible death stands behind it as the Apostle saith after death cometh the judgement so we may say after judgement cometh the death Observe but how the Apostle sends out bold challenges and even bids defiance to all adversary power upon this very score of being protected and secured from the second death Rom. 8.33 Who shall condemn What shall separate I am perswaded that neither death nor life c. nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus c. Let all these be laid together that it saves us 1 From the wrath of God 2 From the curse of his Law 3 From the tyranny of Satan 4 From sin both condemning and commanding and then from punishment death internall externall and eternall and these make up a pregnant proof that Gospel-Salvation is great Salvation from the ab hoc the great evills it saves 〈◊〉 from 2 Ad hoc 2 Reason It saves us to great happiness I meane that by this great Salvation we are advanced to great happiness It were endles to handle all the particulars of that blessedness to which Salvation doth entitle us Moses brings in that blessedness in huddles that is prepared for the children of obedience and heyres of Salvation Deut. 28. blessings of all sorts and sizes in every state and condition David saith Psal 1.1 Blessednesses belong unto them or as the originall doth more emphatically render it ô beatitudines oh the blessednesses that belong unto such as he there describes and Psal 144.15 gives their blessedness a rise above all other blessedness yea above all that can be spoken or conceived yea blessed are the people which have the Lord to be their God Paul saith they begin in election and end in glorification Rom. 8.30 Whom he did predestinate them he called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified In which words he sets downe the priviledges of Gods saved ones 1. Before time In predestination 2. In time In calling and Justification 3. After time In Glorification Let us if we can run back to the beginning of eternity end run forward to the end of it and if we cannot as we cannot let us run to our witts end and then cry out ô altitudo ô profunditas oh the length and bredth and height and depth of the love of God which passeth knowledge The measure of Heaven is heaped up and pressed downe and running over Yet though the excellencies of that Land of promise which flowes with better blessings than milk and hony cannot be told you we shall not pass it by so slenderly as to say no more of it but shall do as those faithfull spies that were sent to survey the Land of Canaan present you with a bunch or two that you may have a tast at least of the fruits of the Land though the full feast be reserved till the time of our fruition 1. Those that are the heyres of this great Salvation are adopted into the family of Heaven and received into the glorious liberty of the Sonns and Daughters of the Lord God Allmighty which giving us union with Christ gives us right also to all the priviledges of Communion Justification Reconciliation adoption Sanctification and glory 1. Justification wherein of ungodly we are made righteous 2. Reconciliation wherein of enemies we are made freinds 3. Adoption wherein of aliens we are made Sonns 4. Sanctification wherein of Sinners we are made Saints 5. Glorification wherein of imperfect Saints and such as are sanctified but in part we are made perfect grace being but glory begun and glory nothing else but grace perfected 2. Those that are adopted into these priviledges are thereby entitled 1. Unto the love of God the Father 2. The grace of God the Son 3. The Communion of God the Holy Ghost 4. The protection of the Trinity 5. The guardianship of Angells 6. The comforts of an appeased conscience 7. The comfortable enjoyment of the things of this life 8. The beleiving and hopefull expectation of the life that is to come These are two bunches of the beatitudes that this great Salvation doth advance us to But the most excellent are behind this great Salvation doth advance the heirs of it unto two Kingdoms at once 1. The Kingdome of grace 2.
the other of righteousness unto life and the sentence passed on them both you shall find very punctually recorded Mat. 25. from 31. to the end Wherefore is the word so exact in all these but to assure us that there is nothing of greater certainty than death and judgement O what should those have to do with sin that must be brought to judgement If they be brought to judgement in their sins that is before they have confessed forsaken their sins before they have accused and condemned themselves they cannot stand in the judgement Can dust stand before a whirlwind or stubble before a consuming fire Solomon throws this judgement as a stumbling block in the way of licentious youth to stop them in their full careere and to be a means to teach the young man how to cleanse his way Eccles. 11.9 Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart cheer thee in the daies of thy youth and walk in the waies of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know that for all these things God will bring thee to judgement The former part of that verse looks lovely in the eyes of a libertine and speaks to his very heart but it hath as sad a farewell as ever was heard In the former part the preacher speaks Ironically and in jest but in the last he speaks plainly and in good earnest thou maist if thou wilt do as thy list but do if thou darest for know this take it home with thee take it home to thy heart receive the point of this sword into the very heart of thy beloved sin and if it kill it not or give it a deaths wound tell thy self that thou hast a strong heart a heart that is sermon-proof tell God so desire him day night to take away thy heart of stone and to give thee an heart of flesh 3. Hell and condemnation is commended as the third subject of our Meditation for as after death cometh the judgement so after judgement cometh the death Had not men need to fear double least they dye a double death If men be so scared at the face of the death naturall what should they be at the thoughts of death eternal in comparison whereof the other death is but a shadow of death It was said of Jezebells children Revel 2.23 I will kill her children with death Though all dye yet believers are not kill'd with death as the Spirit directed John to say unto Sardis Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead Rev. 3.1 We may say the contrary of sound believers they have but a name to dye and are alive that 's the thing which kills the Soul that is but the name which kills the body This death beyond death is that which the Scripture calls the second deathâ— Revel 21.8 The fearfull and unbelieâ—â—ng and abominable and murderers and Whoremonâ—ers and Sorcerers and Idolaters and all Lyars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death and Revel 20.6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second death hath no power O what should men do with sin when if they will have it they must have hell to boote durst a malefactour play his pranks if the Judge lookt on him that must condemne him and the torments were in sight that were prepared for him If sinners did but see God frowning upon them and hell gaping for them if they did but see death before them and Judgement beyond death and hell beyond Judgement they could not surely sin with such a swinge as they do they could not sin so damnably without check and controule Sinners do but go aside once a day and seriously meditate on the great damnation that you have heard of and the Eternity of it but one half hour and if you do not walke the more warily humbly and circumspectly say I am a Lyar. One that writes the life of Mr. Mâ— Fuâ—â—â—r it his Holy State Perkins reports of him that he did pronounce the word Damn with such an emphasis that it left an Echo in the ears of his hearers a long time after Oh that I could make such an impression of this Doctrine upon your Memories that it may stick like a barbed Arrow in your consciences that may never be shaken out untill you break off your sins and unfainedly turn to God who is ready to forgive abundantly and to give liberally 4. Heaven and Salvation is proposed as the fourth matter of meditation and both these last do follow Judgement which sends the Goats on the left hand to hell and the Sheep on the right hand to heaven The Libertines of the age would perswade us that there is neither Hell nor Heaven but what is in the conscience but let us assure our selves if there were no other Hell or Heaven there would be none there if a conscience excusing in well doing did not flow from a Heaven in hope and a conscience accusing for evil doing did not proceed from a hell in fear surely there would be no such consciences let the fancies of these vain men pass for strong delusions and let us mind the true sayings of the everlasting Gospel which tell us that as the wicked go into everlasting punishment so the righteous into life eternall Matth. 25. ult How positively and alluringly doth the Scripture speak of this blessed blessed making place calling it the third Heaven 2 Cor. 12.2 The throne of God I say 66.1 we are directed to prefer our petitions to him as our Father dwelling heaven Mat. 6.9 An house not made with hands eternall in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 the seat of the blessed The kingdom prepared for them from the beginning of the world Matth. 25.34 shadowed out by the Mount Sion Heb. 12.22 23 24. and the new Jerusalem Revel 21.10 to the end wherein many excellent things are spoken of this City of God But I have spoken so largely both of the Prison of Hell and the Paradise of Heaven in the antecedent Doctrines of Salvation Damnation that the less may serve here O what should those do with sin that make it their refuge to lay hold on the hope that is set before them Ther 's no sin in heaven and if unclean sinners should be carryed thither in their uncleanness heaven would not be heaven to them It s the Saints holiness that makes heaven their happiness and the grace they bring thither that prepares them for that Joy unspeakable and glorious When we meet with temptations to sin let us remember Hell with its forerunners death and judgement and that will prompt us to say with Joseph How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God Gen. 39.9 And when we meet with temptations from sufferings let us remember Heaven and that will prompt us to say with Paul I count that the afflictions of this present world are not
confluence of choicest provisions such is God's free entertainment of his Servants and Favourites Mine Oxen and Fallings are killed and all things in a readiness come unto the Marriage Mat. 22 4. And Come yee blessed of my Father receive the Kingdome prepared for you Mat. 25 34. But when men are to prosecute their deadliest Enemies they will do it with the uttermost rigour that their possibility can reach unto Such and infinitely greater is Gods anger against his Adversaries he takes pleasure at their overthrow and laughs at their destruction Ah I will ease me of mine enemies and be avenged on mine Adversaries Isay 1.24 And as if his mercy were utterly at an end and he had forgotten to be gracious he will denounce that everlasting excommunication as the triumph of his glorious justice Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Divel and his Angels Mat. 25.41 5 Reason Because it hath a great and a long reach 1. It reacheth to the Soul 2. And it reacheth to eternity 1 It reacheth unto the Soul other sentences reach but to the body name estate family relations liberty life as was before hinted but this reacheth the Soul Fear not them which kill the body and when they have done that have no more that they can do but fear him who when he hath killed is able to cast into Hell yea I say unto you fear him Luke 12 4. How do malefactors that are arraigned for some capitall offences tremble before an earthly Judge when he is pronouncing sentence of death upon them but how will corrupt Judges themselves tremble as Faelix did when he heard Paul reasoning of judgement to come yea a more than either he or Belshazzar did when the hand was writing him a divorce from his Kingdome when this sentence of Damnation is going out how will blackness cover all faces when a World of selfe condemned sinners shall stand before the dreadfull Tribunall of the Lord Jesus which in the last Assize he is sitting upon life and death when nothing is left them but a certaine fearfull looking for of judgement and fiery indignation which shall devour the Adversaries Hebr. 10.27 'T was a sad hearing to the rich glutton Thou foole this night shall thy Soul be taken from thee Luke 12.20 The Soul is more worth than the World in his esteem that laid down his life to save Soules Mat. 16.26 And in this damnation this jewell is lost and this darling of ours must be delivered to the roring Lion The Saints do lay all at stake to save their souls Profsâ—s Pleasures Honours Friends Liberty Life it self and think all to be an easie exchange which will more than conclude the loss of the soul to be the loss of all losses 2. And that which makes this so great a loss and that we are treating of so great Damnation is because it is for ever and ever It reacheth to Eternity The sinner under convictions thinks he shall dy no other death looks upon himself as in a very hell upon earth David after deliverance out of such a deep saith O Lord thou hast delivered my Soul from the nethermost hell and Saint Augustine having in his confessions taken shame unto himself for a multitude sins in the depth of his humiliation calls out of the deep of misery to the deep of mercy Lord pitty my Soul in the lowest hell such in Scripture-sense are called lost Christ came to seeke save the lost but this loss shall- be their gain and I may say in this case as the Word in another he that loseth his life shall find it and the Apostle Paul desired to be lost in himself that he might be found in Christ this is but a seeming loss nor will it last long heaviness may indure for a night but joy cometh in the morning for a moment have I hid my face in mine anger saith the Lord but with everlasting mercy will I return and have compassion but the lose we are speaking of is reall and irreparable The soul under desertion thinks it self in a wofull case and hath much ado to distinguish betwixt it self and a cast-away as appears in Davids case Psal 77.7 8 9. Will the Lord absent himself for ever and will he be favourable no more c. and Job complained in the bitterness of his soul that God had set him up as his marke to shoot at and the venome of his arrows drank up his Spirit and Hezekiah did mourn like a Dove and chatter like a Crane and complained that from morning to night God did make an end of him But though it were now winter with them and the sap was gone down into the root yet the Suns return brought their spring again and the light of Gods countenance made all whole but in that desertion which Damnation causes the deserted soul is deserted for ever When the body loses the soul at the death naturall it s a sad loss but the Resurrection will bring them together again but where the soul and God are parted in the spirituall death and the naturall death finds them in this case eternall death presently seizes that soul and that separation wil be everlasting that soul and happiness will never meet 6. Reason The last reason to prove this Damnation to be exceeding great is Because it consists in great and dreadfull punishments We shall make use of this old and common distinction of 1. Poena Damni The punishment of loss 2. Poena Sensus The punishment of sense All evil is distinguished into 1. Malum culpae The evil of sin 2. Malum poenae The sin of punishment All evill of sin may be distinguished into 1. Inherent our own sins 2. Adherent our other mens sins All evil of punishment as afore into 1. Poenam Damni the punishment of loss 2. Poenam Sensus the punishment of sense Man is a compound creature consisting of a soul and body a Coelestiall and Terrestriall part as God is Lord both by Creation Preservation and Purchase so he requires to be honoured with both with all of both all the parts of our bodys and all the powers of our souls If the Apostles inference hold concerning one viz Gods right of purchase ye are bought with a price and therefore ought to glorifie God c. It will conclude much more strongly if we take in all ye are created with his power preserved by his providence as well as bought with a price therefore ye ought to glorifie God both with your bodies and souls which are Gods Here is the very quâ—nâ—essence of reason that God should have his own that which is so much his own by a manifold right Give unto Caesar that which is Caesars and give unto God that wich is Gods Now for such as give up themselves wholly to God in a way of grace and duty taking him to be their â—â—rtion and his Son to be their Lord preferring their interests before all others serving them in the
have run to our wits end we are but at the beginning of it if that Ever and Never though short in syllables and sound yet are so long in sense and signification that they are the savour of life and death to the saved and damned ever with the Lord and never taken out of his Hands is the savour of life to life to the one ever with the Devil and never redeem'd from hell is the savour of death unto death to the other Eternity is the very bottom of the bottomless pit though the torments were easless yet if they were not also endless they might be the better indured But when thousands and ten thousands and Millions and thousands of Millions and Millions of Millions and all the numbers in Arithmetick are added and put into one sum total when the drops and sands of the Sea and stars of the Firmament and all hairs upon all heads from the worlds creation to the day of Judgement shal be compared with the years of Eternity Nondum finis nondum medium nondum principium aeternitatis designatur they are so far from reaching to the end that they cannot reach the Middle no not the Beginning of eternity Sic parvis magna thus have I given you a Slender account of those great punishments which constitute this Great Damnation and so endeth the last of the Reasons USE The onely proper use to be made of a Sermon of Damnation that it may be the power of God through faith unto Salvation is a use of Terrour set home by a Son of thunder unto the consciences of secure sinners that are settled on their lees frozen in theis dreggs and lye soaking in their lusts As the Doctrine of Salvation may be the savour of death and aggravate the Damnation of unprofitable hearters so the Doctrine of Damnation may be the savour of life and tend to the furtherance of Salvation to such as hear in hearing that hear and understand and are converted and healed The Doctrine of Salvation like a pleasant Song may lull sinners into a Spiritually Lethargy when the Doctrine of Damnation may awake them and discover to them their danger to prevent it Oh that I could now speak with the tongue of Angels or rather that the Lord would speake unto you by the words of a man of like infirmities with your selves your fellow-creature and servant who is but dust and ashes oh that the Lord would either give me the tongue of the Learned or speake effectually by my Stammering tongue and open me a wide door of utterance and enterance Though I speake of a dreadfull Theme no less than Great Damnation yet afford me the hearing It s better to hear it than to feel it you had better hear a man coolly telling you of the greatness of the thing than to hear an angry God terribly denouncing the greatness of the sentence I may bespeake your attention as Elihu did Jobs Job 33 6 7. Behold I am according to your wish in Gods stead I also am formed out of the clay Behold my terrour shall not make you afraid neither shall my hand be heavy upon you But here I must lift up my voice and cry aloud or else I cannot wake you and he had need to have a stronger voice than mine that shall speake loud enough for the dead to hear When sinners are so supine and negligent that they can hear the wise and powerful charmes of the Gospel with Adders ears and so dead asleep that they can hear the words of the curse and bless themselves in their hearts and promise themselves peace when God proclaimes War and saith again and again no peace to the wicked I say 48.22 and 57.21 When you can come to the ordinances and sit as Gods people do as if you did delight to know his waies and enquire after the ordinances of justice and yet are no more moved with the sad or glad tidings of the law or Gospel than the Seats you sit upon or the Stones you tread upon no more moved with a discouse of judgement to come or shaken with the breath of Gods displeasure than the Walls or Pillars that you leane unto The dead under-ground are as sensible of what is spoken as the dead above ground how justly may we fear that the Lord will answer you according to your Idolls What need have the Lords servants to step into the gapp and step betwixt you and danger and seeke the Lord that he may not give a hardning commission to his word and ministry for if he once bind ther 's no loosing and if he shut none can open The proper effect of this great Damnation is to strike terrour through the spirits of such as are within reach of it And I have to do with men and women that have reasonable Souls into which God hath put the affections of fear and love and the same God hath put into his word promises and threatnings suitable to these affections that they may be drawn with the promises as with the cords of love or driven with the threats as with the rod of men you have heard of great Salvation a mighty motive to draw you and great Damnation a mighty engine to drive you I have set before you life and death blessing and cursingâ— oh that the Lord would perswade you to make Maries choise to choose life that your Souls your precious Souls may live and live for ever Since I have undertaken this expedition as David did his against Goliah not having any confidence in Sword or Spear but laying all the stress upon the Name and power of the living God I will not despair but that the Doctrine here delivered may take hold upon some hearts that may be savingly bettered by it Sinners remember that the time is at hand when the Lord Jesus must be revealed and the great Judge is even ready to take the Throne to sit upon life and death and all both quick and dead must be gathered before him and those that have made light of Salvation offered Christ will make light of their Damnation inflicted Those that take counsel against the Lord and against his Christ saying let us breake their bonds asunder and cast their cords from us He that sitteth in heaven shall laugh them to scorn the Lord shall have them in derision Then he shall speak unto them in his wrath and vexe them in his sore displeasure yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Sion The despisers of Christ shal be confounded and he alone shal be exalted in that day It is reported of Philip King of Macedon that he caused his Page to come every morning to his Chamber door with this good morrow Memento Philippe te esse mortalem O Philip remember that thou art a man and must dye like a man as Moses saith in Psal 82.6 7. I have said ye are Gods but ye shall dye like men and you Princes shall fall like others It s reported of
beautie of holiness and power of Godliness giving up themselves bodys souls and spirits unto God upon the account of the Covenant desiring nothing more than that their hearts may be whole with God and they could be stedfast in his Covenant making God and Jesus Christ the joy of their hearts and breath of their lives and resolve to continue so doing to the death God hath provided for them suitable joyes and pleasures in the life to come Rationall delights for their reasonable souls and sensible delights for their glorified bodys Mistake not far be it from me to say or you to imagine that the glorified Saints shall enjoy such carnall delights in heaven which sensuall and flesh pleasing men do make their heaven upon earth that were a conceite better beseeming a Turk than a Christian the Proselytes of Mahomet have dreamed of such an earthly or rather hellish heaven by fancying such an Utopian Paradise into which the unclean may enter and the pleasures of sin shall meet them The sensible pleasures to be enjoyed there are such as sort and suite with the sublimated senses of glorified bodies and no other And as God hath prepared such suitable joyes and pleasures for such as love and serve him in sincerity even joyes for Soules and pleasures for bodâ—es for those that glorify him with Soules 〈…〉 so on the contrary those that will 〈…〉 â—ting call nor close with his 〈…〉 in accepting his dear Son 〈…〉 great Salvation offered with him but remaine sworne vassalls to the Divell World and Flesh giving up the parts and powers of their Soules and Bodies to serve sin in the lust of it These shall receive wages according to their work as they polluted themselves with filthiness of the flesh and spirit and dishonoured God with their Soules and Bodies so God will punish them accordingly their Soules with rationall punishments tribulation and anguish shall be upon the Soul of every one that doth evill and their bodies with sensible which the word shaddows out by fire and brimstone These two sorts of Torments are breifly contained in those Scriptures Isay 66.24 Mark 9.44 In the worme that dyeth not and the fire that never goeth out In which expressions expositors conceive the holy Ghost alludeth unto two Kinds of burialls of dead corpses some were interred in the earth and out of those wormes would breed which would eat them up and never leave devouring till all were consumed an Ancient gives this account of the degrees of that annihilation which resolves the body into its principle of nullity Caro in putredinem putredo in vermes vermis in pulvere pulvis in nihilum redigitur The flesh is turn'd into rottenness that rottenness into wormes those wormes into dust and that dust is reduced to nothing Other bodies were not buryed in the earth but were burned with fire and reduced to ashes and those ashes were reserved in urnes Only here is the difference this worme is not like that that devours bodies for when the body is consumed that worme dies nor is this fire like that that burnes carcasses for when the carcases are burnt that fire goes out but this is ignis inextinguibilis unquenchable fire By this never dying worme we are to understand the worme of an accusing and tormenting conscience that is ever gnawing and hereby we may understand all rationall torments of which the buffetings of conscience are the cheifest And by this fire that never goes out we are to understand the torments of sense set off by burning because that was the most torturing death that was inflicted by the Jewes but to open these a little more fully we will take them as they lie before us and speak of them apart 1 Rationall torments provided for damned Soules are a part and the greatest part of the torments of Hell for which this deserves to be called Great Damnation Now as the Soul is distributed into the understanding will and affections so we may assigne unto these soveral faculties their peculiar torments I only intend to touch upon them to give you a tast and not to enter upon any topicall and methodicall discourse concerning them 1 They shall be plagued in their understandings by seing and knowing and feeling themselves to be irrecoverably lost and intolerably miserable Here the messengers of the Lord knowing the terrors of the Lord did cry alowd to give warning of their sin and danger and duty they did throw Hell-fire in their faces and so gaster them with the thunder and lightning of Hell and damnation that they could never be at quiet but were even tormented before their time and when they had done their uttermost when they had studyed and preacht and prayed and waited and wept themselves into consumptions in seeking to them and to God for them that they might be saved they could make no better a report of their embassy to him that sent them but to this effect Lord who hath believed our report or to whom hath the arme of the Lord been revealed In which seat doth that Souâ— siâ— in what town is his habitation or in what family dwells he that was dead and is alive that was lost and is found Some of us thy unworthy servants Lord have through undeserved mercy been preachers ten some twenty some thirty some forty yeares and more to such and such congregations we have preacht some hundreds some of us thousands of Sermons and through grace we have indeavoured to do it faithfully in our measure we have taught publikly and from house to house we have spoken with authority and dealt personally and familiarly with the soules of refusers and all was but lost labour upon them though not a labour in vaine to our selves Will not this be a sad hearing for thousands when those that have been watchmen for their souls must come to give up this account with griefe But what will the Lord say to this Will he say to those that would not be taught be ignorant still and to those that would not be reformed be disobedient still no surely it may well be doubted whether the Lord had not formerly seared them up in their ignorance and prophaneness with such an hardning of their hardness by inflecting senslesness for their affecting senslesness But now it shall be otherwise the ignorant shall be no longer ignorant the drunkard swearer who monger sabboth-breaker shall be so no longer they shall see with their eyes and hear with their eares and understand with their hearts though they shall never be converted nor be healed Lord thy hand is lifted up said the Prophet Isay and they will not see thy wrath was in the threatning they saw a black clowd rising and a driving storme coming and would not beware but now they shall see volentes nolentes willing or nilling they shall hear and understand and be ashamed and confounded Then shall the damned know good and evill as the Angels that kept not their first estate know it and as the
pleasures and honours of the world but these are passed away as if they had never been Transit voluptas dolor manet nothing remains but the doleful remembrance of them They had a door of hope once opened to them and a prize in their hands if they had had hearts to use it but now it s shut and barr'd and shall never be opened more and they are left to mourn as without hope and without God in that world They had no desire of God and Christ and happiness while they lived here or no more but a carnal desire as Balaam desired the death of the righteous without their life so they desired happiness without holiness and glory without grace and there the desire of their Souls shall never be towards his name or if they could never so much desire to get out of the bottomless pit there can be no redemption The tormented and tormenting passions which will find the damned suffering work in their Souls world without end are those that are contrary to these forementioned affections I shall trouble you but with three 1. Hatred which is loves contrary 2. Greif which is joys contrary 3. Fear or despair which is hopes contrary 1. As there is no love in Hell so there is all Hatred and if hatred envy and malice do gnaw so greedy like hellish vultures upon the hearts of the malicious here If implacable anger Ira furor brevis est which is more than furor brevis do so macerate the Sons of violence when their blood-thirsty rage is not satisfied How will this passion work when they come to hell If they hate God and the Saints and one another with such bitter hatred upon earth surely the matter will not be mended when they come to hell besides that that they shall hate God as God abhors them and that they shall hate the Saints that are gathered to the congregation of the first-born whom God hath secured in his pavilion from the strife of tongues They shall like mad Dogs or enraged Lions discharge their invenom'd spleens upon one another Those that have been fratres in malo brethren in iniquity and have walked hand in hand in the counsel of the ungodly and have enticed one another into Satans snares and accompanyed and incouraged and hardned one another in the waies of sin and hindred one anothers repentance and conversion those that could go in troopes to the harlots houses and bear one another company daies and nights at an Ale-house and could swear and be drunk and whore and revel and rant together like so many hellish furies that had broke prison or hell had spued them out upon earth and cast them up as the foam and scumme of the bottomles pit with what dejected and fell countenances will these looke upon one another in hell People that have been lost by the neglect of Magistrates cursing their Magistrates O you Princes of Sodome you should have been nursing fathers to us and you have cut our throats your care should have been that your subjects should have lived under you in all godliness honesty but you like the unjust Judge that neither feared God nor reverenc't man gave up your Kingdoms and power to the Beast or Dragon the Pope or Devil Whereas you should have served God with your might and if it had been possible have set a Candle upon every Candlestick and countenanc't and protected a godly and learned and laborious Ministry and not muzled their mouths and have stopped the mouths of gâ—insayers and seducers of blasphemers and hereticks and should have been copies for your subjects to live by but you were taken up in minding and plotting high things for your selves and relations but the things of God and heaven the highest things were none of them oh you cut-throats both of Churches and Commonwealths you are justly in this condemnation and we that have perisht through your base negligence and notorious ungodliness must be here with you cursing and banning you for evermore Souls that have been lost through the neglect of Ministers will do the like by their Ministers oh you daubers with untempered mortar you cursed time-servers and men-pleasers you Wolves in sheeps clothing that insteed of feeding did devour the flock you cryed peace peace and made us flatter our selves with mercy mercy what peace is to the wicked now what mercy for us and you whether had it been better believing God or your lying visions oh you soul-murderers our blood is required at your hands but we must be damned with you world without end The Quakers and the Devils agents the Factours for Rome and Hell do rail at good Ministers now and call them hirelings and limbs of Antichrist but the bad Ministers that have fed upon the milke and clothed themselves with the fleeces of the flock and have neither fed nor taught the sheep and lambs of their fold they wil be ready to tear out their own throats they will then take shame unto themselves and befool and bebeast themselves and the Souls that have perisht by their neglect will heap worse reproches upon them for ever and ever Hearers that have been deceived by the damnable doctrines of seducers that have been led away by the errours of the wicked into Blaspemies and Heresies they will say to their Sect-Masters as Paul said to Elimas the Sorcerer Act. 13.10 O full of subtlety and all mischeife you children of the Devil and enemies of all righteousness you have not ceased to pervert the right waies of the Lord You have cumbred the Church with your wranglings about circumstances while the substantials and vitals of invisible Christianity have been left languishing you have tithed Mint Anniss and Cummine and neglected justice and judgement you have filled the world with doubtful disputations de lanâ caprinâ of things of nought while the great truths of the Law and Gospel are unknown and unbelieved and unpractised you do but beat your drums and fill the Church with calmour like the Idolaters at Tophet while the children are a burning that the cry may not be heard whiles you are robbing the Church of its Fundamentals and poysoning the people with false doctrine and Heterodox principles you were the men that taught others to fight with shadows while you carryed away the substance and perplexed people about Church-member-ship and Baptisme and questions about the Law till you had left them neither Church Saviour nor Gospel Then shall the poore silly Women that were led captive by House-creepers as the Apostle calls them let fly against these seducers O you sons of the Deceiver-General and daughters of the Sorceress and the whore oh ye children of Belzebub and sons of Which-craft you are they that have dealt with us as the Devil dealt with our first Parents or Jacob with Esau that gave us an apple for Paradise and a mess of Pottage for a Birth-right Family-Members that have been lost through the carelesness of Family-masters they
the ancient Aegyptians that in their great feasts they caused a Deaths head to be carryed about the Table to put them in mind of their mortality a frolick that the Epicures and Belly-gods of our times that sit-down to eat and drink and rise up to play are not acquainted with it s reported of one of the Fathers and I think it is Hierome That he seemed alwaies to hear that saying sounding in his ear Surgite mortui venite ad judicium arise you dead and come to judgement The meditations of death and judgement are excellent corosives to eat out the heart of sin and no less Soveraign preservatives to keep us upright If we adde two more unto them which this Scripture prompts us to take in it will be more than a double fence it wil be a double bar to keep out sin and a double cord to draw to God and duty The second that my Text adds are Hell and Heaven Salvation and Damnation and these four put together are quatuor novissima the four last things and will furnish us with excellent matter for profitable meditation Some advise to meditate of Death some to think of Judgement some advise that we should remember Hell others that above all we should not forget Heaven but if they are of such force single to kill sin and quicken grace to help the Spirit and mortifie the flesh vis unita fortior when they joyn forces they will do their work more effectually I shall therefore lay and leave them before you as the fittest subjects of daily serious Meditation 1. Death shal be the first in order because it is first in time the great Statute of the Churches Magna Charta the Scriptures is recorded thus Heb. 9.27 It is appointed unto all men once to dye The Scriptures tell us examples tell us all former generations tell us experience tells us our own infirmities tell us that there is not that man living that shall not see death O what should dying men have to do with sin surely not to hugg it in their bosomes and lodge it next their hearts and let it reign in their mortal bodies and serve it in the lusts of it but to kill and crucifie and mortifie it to kill it before they dye to kill it which otherwise will kill them sin is the sting of death and it makes death to be the King of fears to a man in his sins O death how bitter is thy remembrance to such a one We dare not dye in our sins Balaam that lived the life of the wicked did choose to dye the death of the righteous sin unrepented of is the worst pillow that a mans head can lye upon on a dying bed and sinners if they can by the help of a seared or flattering conscience make a shift to dye quietly that no bonds appear in their death no desperate horrour open them an entrance into Hell yet the wicked shall not be able to stand in the Judgement nor the sinners in the congregation of the righteous they may elude humane justice or out-face and out-brave it in mens courts greatness may carry them off with power or poverty with pitty but righteous judgement shall be there dispensed by the searcher of hearts to high and low according to their works And this is certain that no unclean thing can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven ther 's no Purgatory to scour such as dye polluted but as death leaves them so shall Judgement find them Ther 's no knowledge nor wisdom nor invention in the grave saith Solomon O that they were wise to consider this that they would remember their latter end saith Moses on the behalf of Israel noting what David saith the onely way to apply a mans heart to wisdom is to pray to God to teach him to number his daies Psal 90.12 And in another place the Prophet notes that Jerusalems filthiness was in her skirts because she remembred not her latter end Lament 1.9 The onely way to have all in a readiness at death to have calling and election made sure and to have nothing to do but to dye when death comes is to write it in our memories and to be often drawing it out by meditation and conference some will wear a ring with a deaths-head upon their fingers some will keep a dead mans scull in tâ—eir studyes or closets some will have death pictured on their walls or windows some will have their Coffins in their chambers some will write Memento mori upon their books as their Motto remember death all to help our dulness and slowness of heart in believing that our end is near and our dissolution at hand but those that have gotten it deeply rooted in their hearts and are carefull to keep the memory of death alive and quick in their meditations are the onely champions that are like to give death a valiant encounter and to come off with victory and triumph Oh death where is thy sting Oh grave where is thy victory These are likelyest to give Paul's farewell to the world I have fought I have finished I have kept c. henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness 2 Tim. 4.7 8. and Rom. 8.38 I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor any other creature shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus The frequent Meditation of death is an excellent means to make us dye daily 2. Judgement is the second because it is deaths second after death cometh the judgement and it is sure that we must all come to judgement as that we must once dye We must all appear before the judgement Seat of Christ to receive according to things done in the flesh whether they be good or evil The word of God is abundant in setting this before us with all appurtenances that do accommodate it as 1. The Judge and his throne and attendants and his work 2 Thes 1.7 8. The Judge the the Lord Jesus 2. His throne Heaven shall be revealed from heaven 3. His attendants with his mighty Angels 4. His work of justice to render vengeance in flaming fire to them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and his gracious work to be made glorious in them that believe 2. The books by which we must bâ— judged of Scripture and Conscience Revel 20.12 And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened i. e. of Scripture and Conscience and another book was opened i. e. the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works 3. The causes that must be heard and tryed good and bad just and unjust Ecles 12.14 God shall bring every work into judgement with every secret thing whether it be good or evil 4. The whole process and final sentence Gods dealing with the good and evil to convict the one of sin unto Damnation