will you do whither will you go to whom will you pray the Angels are offended and they will not guard you God is dishonoured and he will not hear you onely the Devil had your service and onely hell must be your wages Consider this ye that forget God Psal 50.22 lest ye be torn in pieces and there be none to deliver you It is cruel for your souls thus to suffer to be torn and torn in pieces and so torn in pieces that none may deliver you Better this Worldling had been a worm a toad an adder any venomous creature then so to live and thus to have died yet hither it is come his sickness is remediless his riches comfortless his torments easeless still he must suffer and there is none to deliver he is torn torn in pieces and none may deliver him What need you more now we are come to this period his glasse is run his Sunne is set his day is finished and now this night the verie night of Death his soul is required and received of him Lo here the dismall dreadfull terrible time of this mans departure it was in the night a night of darkness drowsiness sadness sinne death and destruction Vse 1 Who will not provide each day against this fearfull night howsoever we passe away our time in sinne we must of necessitie ere it be long lie gasping for breath upon our dying beds there shall we grapple hand to hand with the utmost powers of death and darknesse what should we do then but sow our seed while the seed-time lasteth we have yet a day and how short this day is God onely knows be sure the night cometh wherein none can work Joh. 9.4 and then what a fearfull time will come upon us I know there be some that dream of doing good in another world or at least will deferre it longer till some time hereafter such vain hopes of future performances hath undone many a soul I must work the work of him that sent me Joh. 9.4 while it is day saith our Saviour The way-faring man travels not in darknesse but while the day shines on him then he knows he is under the protection of the Laws the light of the Sunne the blessing of heaven Joh. 11.9 Are there not twelve hours in the day if any man walk in the day he stumbleth not because he seeth the light of this world but if a man walk in the night he stumbleth because there is no light in him Do good then and lay hold of every season which may get you to heaven Let the whole course of your life be a conscionable preparative against death Suppose every day your last as if at night you should be called to account before that high and great tribunall in a word whatsoever you think or speak or do say thus with your self Would I do thus and thus if I knew this night to be my last Who is it would sinne if he thought at that instant he must go to judgement Vse 2 But if we neglect the day be sure the night will come to our condemnation where be those wonders that so dazled our eies while the day shone on them Where is Absaloms beautie Jezabels paint Sauls personage nay where is this wretched Worldling he had a day to work out his own salvation and that being lost at last came night before he had gone two steps toward heaven Joh. 12.35 O beloved walk while yee have light that ye may be children of the light You may be sure the meanest soul that hath the work of grace upon it death is to him no night but the day-break of eternall brightnesse This may make us in love with the sincerity of religion this may make us to labour and never cease labouring till we have gotten out of the state of nature into the state of grace O that I could say of every one of you as Paul of the Ephesians Ye were once darkness but now are ye light in the Lord. Ye were once carnall but now are ye spirituall ye were once unregenerate Ephes 5.8 but now are ye a first-fruits dedicated to God If it were thus with you then to your comfort upon your dying beds you should meet with a glorious troop of blessed Angels you should feel the glorious presence of the sweetest comforter you should see the glorious light of Gods shining countenance you should have a night if it were night turn'd all into a mid-day Now the Lord give you such a day whensoever you dye through Christ our Lord. You have heard the time of Deaths arrest This night Now for the party wee 'll make a privy search and if we stir one word we shall finde him at next doore it is thy soul Thy Soul THe party under arrest is the rich mans Soul no warranty could prevail no riches satisfie no strength rescue death now demands it and there 's none can redeem it therefore This night they will have his soul Every man hath a jewell better worth then a world Observ and the loss of this is so much more dear by how much it is more precious What profits it a man to gain a world and to lose his soul said our Lord and Saviour Mat. 16.26 Mat. 16.26 Nay what are a thousand worlds when the soul is valued Give me leave to ope the cabinet and you shall see the jewell that is arrested it is the Soul The Soul what 's that Substantia creata invisibilis incorporea immortalis Deo similima imaginem habens creatoris sui Aug. in lib. de definitione animae Dicearchus it is saith Austin a substance that is created invisible incorporeall immortall most like to God as bearing the image of its Creator Please you that we illustrate this description and you shall see how every word shews forth some excellencies as the glorious lustres of this glorious pearle the Soul First if you ask what is the Soul 't is a substance How fond were the opinions of some Philosophers one would have it to be nothing vox praeterea nihil and how many of us are of this opinion Doe not we live as if we had no souls at all The epicure is for his belly the ambitious for his body but who is he that provides for his soul Sure we imagine it to be nothing valuable or how should our estimation of it be so grosse and vile to prefer the body to neglect the soul There were other Philosophers vvent a pace yet further and they gave it a being Galen but vvhat no better then an accident that might live or dye vvithout death of the subject this they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 humorum a certain temper composed of the elements or nothing but the harmony of those humours in the body Is this the soul then of all creatures are men say vve 1 Cor. 15.19 of all men are we saith the Apostle most miserable most unhappy
may bring forth Prov. 27.1 Prov. 27.1 thy day is this present day and therefore saith the Apostle To day if you will hear his voice Heb. 3.7 Heb. 3.7 nay to speak further this day saith Iob is past already we are but of yesterday Job 8.9 Job 8.9 nay as if a day were too long for the life of man most resembles it to the grasse that grows up in the morning and is cut down in the evening Psal 90.6 Psal 90.6 and Gregorie compares it to Ionahs gourd that came up in a night and perished ere the day was come Jonah 4.10 Jonah 4.10 The evening and the morning make but one day Gen. 1.5 but * Quem dies videt veniens superbum hunc dies videt abiens jacentem our day is oft times an evening without a morning and oft times a morning without an evening Nay yet to go lower as if half a day were more then our life could parallell Moses compares it to a watch which is but the fourth part of a night Psal 90.4 Psal 90.4 yea and as if this were longer then our life doth last the Scripture calls it but an hour John 5.25 John 5.25 The hour is coming and now is saith Christ nay our life is but a minute or if we can say lesse a moment in a moment they go down to the grave saith Iob Job 21.13 Job 21.13 and in a moment shall they die saith Elihu Job 34.20 Job 34.20 And a lying tongue is but for a moment saith Solomon Prov. 12.19 Prov. 12.19 and our light affliction is but for a moment saith Paul 2 Cor. 4.17 2 Cor. 4.17 Lo here the length of our little life this is the gradation that God makes of it at first a matter of seventie years but these were tythed from seventie to seven this number again was made no number one single year a year nay a moneth nay a day nay an hour nay a minute nay a moment as soon as we were born we began to draw to our end Wisd 5.13 Wisd 5.13 There 's but one poor moment which we have to live and when that is spent our life is gone How but one and a moment one is the least number that is and a moment the shortest time that ever was O what mean men to plot and project for the time to come as if this life would never be done O consider of the littleness of the time that thou hast to live O consider of the greatness of the matter that depends upon it thy body soul heaven and hel all hangs on this thread a short life a few dayes Few and evill have the dayes of my life been You have learned Moses Arithmetick to number your dayes practise a while and you find this use Vse 1 God shortens your time you that are unregenerate lest you defer your repentance it is said of the Devil that he is busie because his time is short Revel 12.12 Rev. 12.12 and are you worse then Devils is not your time shorter and yet are you more negligent how do you give way to that old serpent he delayes no time to bring you to hell and ye neglect all times to get you heaven What is your life but a Jonas gourd suddenly sprung up and by and by withered again and gone whatsoever ye do your wheel whirls about apace in a word ye die daily and you all know thus much that you have every one of you a poor soul to save I have wondered at men that desire time after time one time after another why if your souls perish the day will come soon enough It makes me weep said one of a better stamp when my hour-glasse is beside me and I see every drop of sand follow other so speedily Your dayes are but few and yet who knows whether this day his sunne may set Take heed you unregenerate if death come unawares it is the price of your souls how you are provided Who alas would defer to be good that knows not how soon he may go to judgement The enemie keeps a daily watch a friend prepares for your welcome and are you such enemies to your selves that never are prepared to welcome death Vse 2 But to speak to thee whosoever thou art that readest regenerate or unregenerate the best counsel thou canst learn is to be still in a readinesse think every day thou risest to be thy day of death and every night thou goest to bed that thou art laid down in the grave if thou shouldest forget will not each object be a remembrancer thy sheets of thy winding-sheet thy coverings of thy clasping dust thy sleep of thy death with whom I may say truly thou shakest hands every night who can forget his grve that lies him down in his bed and who then would not so provide himself as if every night he went to his grave Our dayes are but few and the night will be ere long that we die indeed What are we but Tenants at will in this Clay Farm the foundation of all the building is a small substance alwayes kept cold by an intercourse of air the pillar is but a little breath the strength some few bones tied together with dry strings howsoever we piece and patch this poor cottage it will at last fall into the Lords hands and we must give surrender onely in this tenour Few and evill have the dayes of my life been You now see the time of our Lease to the full out life lasts but dayes our dayes are but few who is so fond to settle his care on this Lease that so soon is exspired nay with a blast is gone out The man that is wedded to this world enjoyes neither length of dayes nor a day of joy as he is mortall so is he miserable you shall see my Text joyn both the hands nothing indeed but death can loose the bonds the dayes of my life are few the few dayes of my life are evill few in number evill in nature neither many nor good but few and evill Evill OUr life is but dayes our dayes are but few our few dayes but evil Into what a sea of misery have I now rushed sail Evill life evill dayes but few yet evil There waits on our life Sinne Punishment Both these are evil Sinne as the father playes the Bankrupt Jam. 1.15 and Punishment the sonne must pay the debt first Lust conceives and brings forth sinne then sinne being finished brings forth death Here is both the work and wages first we commit and then we suffer evil The evils we commit are sinnes and see what a troop of enemies march about us if you exspect the battel in array what say you to those evils originall these are the inheritance which we have from our first parents it is the same infection that distilled from them abides in us and therefore the same punishment is due to us that fell on them
his own knowledge Jer. 10.14 Jer. 10.14 Blessed God! what a world of evils are within us Orat. Manass We have sinned O Lord above the number of the sands of the seas our transgressions O Lord are multiplied our offences are exceeding many Many sure that contain these streams and yet how many are the rivolets that issue from them There be evils of weakness against God the Father whose attribute is Power there be evils of ignorance against God the Son whose attribute is Wisdome there be evils of malice against God the holy Ghost whose attribute is Love Can we adde any more Mark but our thoughts our delights our consents to evil or if these be not enough see a swarm indeed that continually assault us anger hatred envy distrust impatience avarice sacriledge pride despair presumption indevotion suspition contention derision exaction give me leave to breathe in the numbring of this bedroll perjurie blasphemie luxury simony perplexitie inconstancy hypocrisie apostasie here is a number numberless gross sins little sins known sins hid sins Who can understand his errours O Lord cleanse me from my secret faults Psal 19.12 Psal 19.12 The dayes of life are few but the evils God knows how many he that would number them may tell a thousand and yet not tell one of a thousand Can the proudest Pharisee justifie himself Remember the swarms that lurk in thy venomed conscience number thy wanton words thy carnal thoughts thy unchristian gestures thy outragious sins come they not in by troops and herds thicker then the frogs in Egypt well may we stand amazed at their number and as convicted prisoners cry for that Psalme of mercie Miserere mei Lord have mercy on us most evil wretched sinners Thus you see Beloved how evil be our dayes sith every day we do evil then to wander no further now we have found such a world of them will you see them in a map here is evils originall evils actuall evils of omission evils of commission evils of the body evils of the soul well may we pray Deliver us from evil what so many evils of sin now the Lord deliver us Vse 1 Remember your selves and who will not sing Davids burthen Psal 38.4 Mine iniquities are gone over my head and as a weighty burthen they are too heavy for me to bear There is in sin saith Austin both weight and number and is any one so dull or dead that he is sensible of neither go ye to the balance and what a mass lies upon you enough and enough again to sink you down to hel go ye to the count and what a swarm comes upon you a million and a million of millions to keep you out of heaven when all your sins must be called to account before that Judge of the world what account shall be given of this account that is endless see them like the stars onely these set and rise but your sins rise and never set see them like your hairs onely these shed and lose but your sinns grow ever more and more see them like the sands onely these are covered with the flouds and waters but your sins lie still open and are ever before you think on these stars these hairs these infinite innumerable sands of sins and when all is done let your tears be the floud to hide them over Psal 6.6 It was Davids saying Every night wash I my bed and water my couch with my tears if your daies be evil let not your night slip without repentance go not to bed but beat your breast with the Publican lay you not down but withall lift up your voice Lord be mercifull unto me a sinner How sweet a rest doth that night bring whose sleep is prevented with the consideration of our sins though we are begirt with a thousand devils this would be as the watch of our souls and the safeguard of our persons Vse 2 But I must speak with a difference I stand over some of you who are so far from * When I speak thus of tears or repentance I argue not a causality or merit onely I inferre a necessarie presence of repentance in those that obtain pardon of sin All that I positively affirm is this that repentance is the means or way which God hath appointed antecedently to to pardon Act. 3.19 Jer. 4.14 washing away your sins with tears that I fear you never took much notice of the multitude of your sins should I tel you that you brought sin enough with you to damn you when you first came into this world should I tell you that you have everie one committed thousands and thousand of thousands of actuall sins and yet any one of those thousands is enough to send you packing to hell You would think these strange points but if God be true there is no sin of man either originiall or actuall either of omission or commission either of the bodie or of the soul which without repentance will not produce eternall death and therefore in Gods fear take notice of your sins set before you the Commandments of God and thereto comparing your life you may find out such a catalogue of your sinnes that will throughly convince you of your damnable estate You may ask to what end should we be so carefull to find out our sins I answer to a very good end both in respect of the Unregenerate Regenerate First in respect of the unregenerate this is the first step of repentance this is one of those paces that will lead you towards heaven You may be sure without repentance no heaven without confession no repentance and without finding out sin there can be no confession It were good therefore and a singular means to bring you out of corruption into Christianity and out of the state of nature into the kingdome of grace that you would everie one of you have a Catalogue of your sins If you will not I can tell you who will there is an adversary called Sathan the adversary of mankind that stands at your back and I may say figuratively with a scroll in his hands wherein he writes down your sins not a day passeth on but he can easily tell how many sins you have committed all day Lord that men would think on 't Are you about any sin at that very time Sathan is registring the act and time and place and everie circumstance now wo wo to man that lets Sathan do his work for him Would you do this your self would you but study for a Catalogue of your own sins that so you might confess them to God and repent you thereof this would be a dash in the devils book so that he could not have whereof to accuse you but if still you go on securely in sin and never go about to call your sins to remembrance a day will come wo worth the day when that roring Lion shall set all your sins and transgressions in order before you then shall you read
how it is required when this night a fearfull sound unlookt-for message speedy dispatch no more delays nor days onely this night for then must his soul be taken from him You see all his losses and now to contract them there is one griefe more then all that all is lost on a sudden Losses that come by succession are better born with but all on a sudden is the worst of all yet such is the misery of man when he goes all goes with him and he and all pass away on a sudden As in the days of Noah they ate and drunk married and gave in marriage and knew nothing tell the floud came and took them all away so is the coming of the Son of man Matth. 24.38 Mat. 24.38 How many have been thus took tripping in their wickedness Belshazzar in his mirth Herod in his pride the Philistims in their banquetting the men of Ziklag in their feasting Jobs children in their drunkenness the Sodomites in their filthiness the Steward in his security this Churle in his plenty miserable end when men end in their sin Call to mind this O my soul and tremble sleep not in sin lest the sleep of death surprize thee The hour is certain in nothing but uncertainties for sure thou must dye yet thou knowest not on what day nor in what place Certa mors incerta hora. nor how thou shalt be disposed when death must be entertained Do you not see most dye whiles they are most busie how to live he that once thought but to begin to take his ease was fain that very night whether he would or no to make his end would you have thought this Psal 37.35 39 he but now flourished like a green bay tree his thoughts full of mirth his soul of ease but I passed by and loe he was gone gone whether his body to the grave his soul to hell in the middest of his jollity God threats destruction Devils execution death expedition and thus like a Swan he sings his funerals There is that saith I have found rest and now will I eat continually of my goods and yet he knoweth not what time shall come upon him and that he must leave those things to others and dye Ecclus 11.19 Eccles 11.19 The higher our Babel-tower of joy is raised the nearer it is to ruine and confusion Sodome in the heat of their sins had that showr of fire poured on their heads Nebuchadnezzar in the height of his pride became suddenly a beast that ruled before as a King once for all here was a man solacing singing warbling out pleasant songs of ease and pastime but O the misery in the middest of his note here is a suddain stop he dreames of longs and larges he hears of briefes and semi-briefes no longer a day but this very night and then shall thy soul be taken from thee See here the many losses of one man his goods his grounds his houses his friends his time his soul and all on a sudden whilest the word is spoken this night Vse 1 Our neighbours fire cannot but give warning of approaching flames Remember his judgment thine also may be likewise Ecclus 38.22 unto me yester-day and unto thee to day Whose turn is next God onely knows who knows all Is not madness in the hearts of men whiles they live Eccles 9.3 In the least suspition of loosing worldly riches all watch and break their sleep you shall see men work and toyl and fear and care and all too little to prevent a losse but for all these losses which are linked together our riches lands houses friends time and soul and all we have there is few or none regards them O that men are so carefull in trifles and so negligent in matters of a great importance It is storied of Archimedes that when Syracuse was taken he onely was sitting secure at home and drawing circles with his compass in the dust Thus some we have that when the eternall salvation of their souls is in question they are handling their dust nothing but suites or mony-matters are their daily objects but alas what will your goods or grounds or houses or friends avail you when death comes Where did ever that man dwell that was comforted by any of these in that last and sorest conflict Give me a man amongst you that spends the span of his transitory life in grasping gold gathering wealth growing great inriching his posterity without any endeavour or care to treasure up grace against that fatall hour and I dare certainly tell him whensoever he comes to his deaths bed he shall find nothing but an horrible confusion extremest horrour and heaviness of heart nay his soul shall presently down into the kingdome of darkness and there lye and fry in everlasting fires Nor speak I only to the covetous though my text seem more directly to point at them but whosoever thou art that goest on daily in a course of sin in the fear of God unbethink thee of mortality some of you may think I speake not to you and others I speake not to you the truth is I speake to you all but to you more especially that to this day have sinned with delight but never as yet felt the smart for sin upon your souls or consciences O beloved this is it I call for and must call for till you feel a change a thorow-change in you would but some of you at this present examine you consciences and say whether have I not been inordinate in drunkenness or wantonness or coveteousness whether have I not sworn an oath or told a lye or dissembled in my heart when I have spoken O who can say amongst you I am clean I am clean and assure your selves if you are guilty you must either feel hearts grief or you can never be provided for deaths dismall arrest If you were but sensible of sin if you felt but the weight and horrour of Gods wrath for sin I am verily perswaded you would not take a quiet sleep in your beds for fear and horrour and heaviness of heart what is it but madness of a man to lye down in ease upon a feather bed and to lodge in his bosome that deadly enemy sin But horrour of horrours what if this night whilest you sleep in your sin death should arrest you on your beds This I tell you is no wonder are not sudden deaths common and ordinary among the sons of men How many have we heard that went to bed well over night for ought any man could tell and yet were found dead in the morning I will not say carried away out of their beds and cast into hell fire whether it be so or no the Lord our God knows but howsoever it is with them if we for our parts commit sin and repent not thereof by crying and sobbing and sorrowing for sin it may be this night and that is not long to you may sleep your last in this world and
then shall your souls be hurried by Devils to that infernall lake whence there is no redemption O beloved O wretch whosoever thou art Canst thou possibly sleep in such a case as this Canst thou go to bed with a conscience laden with sin Canst thou take any sleep which is the brother of death when thou lyest now in danger of eternall death Consider I pray what space what distance how far off is thy soul from death from hell from eternity no more but a breath one breath and no more no more but a step one step and more O beloved were not this lamentable that some one of us that now are standing or sitting should this night sleep his last and to morrow have his body brought to be buried yea and before to morrow morning have his soul which the Lord forbid cast from his bed of feathers to a bed of fire and yet alas alas if any of us this night dye in his sin or in a state unregenerate thus will it be with him whosoever he be to morrow may his body lye could under earth and his soul lodg in hell with this miserable rich man Vse 2 But let me speake to you of whom I hope better things it is good counsell for you all to exspect death every day and by this means death fore-seen cannot possibly be sudden no it is he onely dyes suddenly that dyes unpreparedly Watch therefore saith our Saviour be ever in a readiness and finally that this rich man may be your warning you that tender your souls learn that lessen of our Saviour Lay not up for your selves treasure upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break thorow and steal but lay up for your selves treasures in Heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break thorow nor steal Mat. 6.19 20. Mat. 6.19 20. You will say What treasures are those I answer These treasures are those stocks of grace that will last for ever it is that circumspect walking Ephes 5.15 Ephes 5.15 that fervency of spirit Rom. 12.11 Rom 12.11 that zeal of good works Tit. 2 14. Tit. 2.14 that purity which St. Iohn makes a property of every true hearted professour 1 Joh. 3.3 1 Joh. 3.3 In a word it is the work the life the power of that prayer that the rest of our life hereafter may be pure and holy these are heavenly hoords indeed O that we would treasure up such provision against the day of calamity If while it is called to day we would make our peace with his heavenly Highness by an humble continued exercise of repentance if in this time of grace we would purchase Gods favour and those rarest jewells of faith and a good conscience if now before we appear at the dreadfull Tribunall we would make God and his Angels our friends in the Court of Heaven O then how blessed would out deaths be to us came it never so suddenly still should death find us ready and if ready no matter how suddenly yea though it were this this night I have broke ope the writ and you see when it must be served this night but in this Quando there is both suddenness and sadness it is not this day but this night Let this end this dayes discourse and the next day we will lay open the nights dark sadness it is a dismall time and God give us grace so to provide that we may be ready with oyle in our lamps and enter with our Saviour into his blessed Kingdome Night HE sins all day and dyes at night and why at night This you know is frequent and there is reason most are begot and born and therefore dye at night but we must further then the lists of nature this night was more then ordinary as being the fittest time to aggravate his griefe weigh but the circumstances First It was a night of darkness and this may encrease the horrour of his judgment think but what a fear seized on the Aegyptians Wisd 17.5 when no power of the fire must give them light nor might the clear flames of the stars lighten the horrible night that fell upon them The Husband-men the Shepherds the work-men Exod. 10.23 all were bound with one chain of darkness No man saw another neither rose up from the place where he was for three days Exod. 10.23 Was not this fearfull darkness you may guesse it by the effects they were troubled and terrified and swooned as though their own souls should betray them Wisd 17.18 19. Whether it were an hissing wind or a sweet noyse of birds among the spreading branches or a pleasing fall of waters running violently or a terrible sound of stones or the running of skipping beasts or the noyse of cruell beasts or the eccho that answereth again in the hollow mountains these fearfull things made them to swoon for fear And if thus the Egyptians how was it with this Worldling a darknesse seized on him that engendred a thousand times more intolerable torments Wisd 17.21 This was the image of that darkness which should afterward receive him and yet was he unto himself more grievous then the darknesse It was not an outward but an utter darknesse not onely to be not seen but to be felt and feared Imagine then what visions what sounds what sights what sudden fires appeared unto him Unhappy Worldling look round about thee although it be dark here is something to be seen above is the angry Judge beneath is the burning lake before is gloomy darknesse behind is infallibe death on thy right and left hand a legion of evil angels exspecting every moment to receive the prey Here is a sight indeed able to break the very heart-strings of each seer If some have lost their wits by means of some dreadfull sight yea if the very suspicion of Devils have caused many men to tremble and the hairs of their heads to stand staring upright what then was the fear and terrour of this man when so many dreadfull horrible hellish monsters stood round about him now readie to receive him O ye sonnes of men stand in aw and sinne not Psal 4.4 commune with your own heart and in your chamber and be still Will not this fear you from your sinnes Suppose then you lay on your beds of death were the Judge in his throne your souls at the Barre ths accuser at your elbows and hell ready open to shut her mouth upon you O then how would you curse your selves and bewail your sins What horrible visions would appear to you in the dark horrible indeed In so much saith * Cyril de vitae beati Hieron ad fin Epist one that were there no other punishment then the appearing of Devils you would rather burn to ashes then endure their sights Good God that any Christian should live in this danger and yet never heed it till he sees its terrour How many have gone thus
brought us all those things are passed away as a shadow or as a Poste that passeth by Look on this man as he lies on his bed of death here is neither smile nor dimple All the daughters of musick are brought low Eccles. 12.4 His voice is hoarse his lips pale his cheeks wan his nostrills run out his eyes sink into his head and all the parts and members of his body now lose their office to assist him Is this the merrie man that made such pastime Sweet God! what a change is this Esa 3.24 In stead of sweet smell there is a stench in stead of a girdle a rent in stead of well-set hair baldness in stead of beauty burning in stead of mirth mourning and lamentation weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth Must not sadnesse seize on that soul which incurs this doom Here is a malefactour stands at bar indited by the name of Fool charged with the guilt of treason condemned by the Judge of heaven and this night the saddest that ever he saw is that fearfull execution that his soul is taken And yet more horrour It was a night of sinne and this doth encrease the sorrow Psal 116.13 How dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints and we may say on the contrary How abominable in the sight of the Lord is the death of the wicked Was not this a grief to be took thus tripping in his wickedness even now whilest he was busily plotting his ease and pastime death stands at his door and over-hears all his plots and projects It was a death to his soul to be took in his sinne hear how he roars and cries O that I had lived so virtuously as I should had I embraced the often inspirations of Gods blessed Spirit had I followed his Laws obeyed his Commands attended to his will how sweet and pleasant would they now be unto me We and alas that I had not fore-seen this day what have I done but for a little pleasure a fleeting vanity lost a Kingdome purchased damnation O beloved what think ye of your selves whilest you hear this voice you sit here as senseless of this judgement as the seats the pillars the walls the dust nay as the dead bodies themselves on which you tread but suppose and it were a blessed meditation you that are so fresh and frolick at this day that spend it merrily use it profanely swearing revelling singing dancing what if this night while you are in your sin the hand of death should arrest you Could I speak with you on your death-beds I am sure I should find you in another case how but sorrowing grieving roaring that your time were lost and these words not heeded whiles the time well served how would you tear your hair gnash your teeth bite your nails seek all means possibly to annihilate your selves and can nothing warn you before death seize on you take heed if you go on in sinne the next step is damnation It was the Apostles advice Rom. 13.11 Now it is high time to wake out of sleep for now is our salvation nearer then when we believed Rom. 13.11 If this wretched man had observed the present time how happy had he been this hour of his departure But as Officers take malefactours drinking or drabbing so is he nearest danger when deepest in the mire of pleasure Look at all those that are gone before us and which of them thought their end so near while they lived so merrie I must needs tell you there is a fire a worm a sting a darkness an hell provided for all wicked wretches and there most certainly must you be this night if you die this day in your naturall state of sinne Lord that men should be so strangely bewitched by the Prince of the air as for the momentarie enjoyment of some glorious miseries bitter-sweet pleasures heart-vexing riches desperately and wilfully to abandon God and to cast themselves headlong into the jaws of Satan Such a prodigious madnesse seized on this Worldling he sings he revels he dallies Plin. l. 7. c. 23. then dies Thus greatest euils arise out of greatest joyes as the ears vvith vehement sounds and the eyes vvith brighter objects so many by felicity have lost both their sense and being Gallus dies in the act of pleasure 2 Sam. 4.7 Num. 11.33 Ishbosheth dies in the middest of sleep the Israelites die in their day of lust this Worldling dies in that night of sinne even then on a sudden his soul is taken And yet more horrour it vvas a night of death and this vvas the vvorst of all the darkness drowsiness sadness sin all vvere nothing to this all nothing in themselves if death had not follovved Aristot lib. 3. mor. cap. 6. this is that most terrible of all terribles all fears griefs suspicions pains as so many small brooks are svvallovved up and drovvned in this Ocean of misery Novv rich man vvhat saiest thou to thy barns buildings riches lands Do these pleasure thee in this thy extreme and dying agonie Thou liest this night on thy departing bed burthened vvith the heavie load of thy former trespasses the pangs come sore and sharp upon thee thy brest pants thy pulse beats short thy breath it self smels of earth and rottennesse vvhither vvilt thou go for a little ease or succour vvhat help canst thou have in thy heaps of gold or hoord of vvealth Discip de temp serm 118. ex Hum. in tract de septuplici timore should vve bring them to thy bed as vve read of one dying commanded that his golden vessels and silver plate should be set before him which looking on he promised to his soul it should have them all on condition of his stay with him but the remedie being silly at last most desperately he commends it to the Devil seeing it would not stay in his body and so gave up the ghost Alas these trifling treasures can no more deliver thee from the arrest of that inexorable Serjeant then can an handfull of dust Wretched men vvhat shall be your thoughts vvhen you come to this miserable case full sad and heavie thoughts Lord thou knovvest you may lie upon your beds like vvild buls in a net full of the furie of the Lord In the morning thou shalt say would God it were evening and at even thou shalt say would God it were morning for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see Deut. 28.67 Deut. 28.67 Here is the terrour of that night of death vvhen you may vvish vvith all your hearts that you had never been born if the Lord once let loose the cords of your conscience vvhat account vvill you make of crovvns of possessions all these will be so far from healing the wound that they will turn rather into fiery Scorpions for your further torments Now now now is the dismall time of death what
of torments which like infinite rivers of Brimstone feed upon his soul without ease or end What avails now his pompous pride at his dolefull funerals the news is sounded hee is dead friends must lament him passing-peales ring for him an hearse-cloth wrap him a tombe-stone lye over him all must have mourning suites and may be rejoycing hearts but all this while his soul his going to judgment without one friend or the least acquaintance to speak in his cause O that his soul were mortall and body and soul to be buried both together in one grave must his body die and his soul live in what world or nation in what place or region it is another world another nation where Devils are companions brimstone the fire horrour the language and eternall death the souls eternall life never to be cured Bernard in Medit. and never must be ended O my soul saith Bernard what a terrible day shall that be when thou shalt leave this Mansion and enter into an unknown region who will deliver thee from these ramping Lyons who can defend thee from those hellish monsters God is incensed hell prepared justice threatned onely mercy must prevent or the soul is damned View this rich man on his deaths-bed the pain shouts through his head and at last comes to his heart anon death appeares in his face and suddenly falls on to arrest his soul Is it death what is it he demands can his goods satisfie no the world claims them must his body goe no the worms claim that what debt is this which neither goods nor body can discharge Habeas animam ejus coram nobis Gods warrant bids fetch the soul O miserable news the soul committed sin sin morgaged it to death death now demands it and what if he gain the world he must lose his soul This night thy soul shall be required of thee Vse 1 Animula vagula blandula said the heathen Emperour Pretty Adrian little wandring soul whither goest thou from me wilt thou leave me alone that cannot live without thee O what conflicts suffers the poor soul when this time is come must the soul be gone help friends physick pleasure riches nay take a world to reprive a soul so different are the thoughts of men dying from them living now are they for their pleasure or profit the body or the world but then nothing is esteemed but the soul what can we say but if you mean your souls must be saved O then let these precious dear everlasting things breathed into your bodies for a short abode scorn to feed on earth or any earthly things it is matter of a more heavenly metall treasures of an higher temper riches of a nobler nature that must help your souls Do you think that ever any glorified soul that now looks God Almighty in the face and tramples under foot the Sun and Moon is so bewitcht as was Achan with a wedge of gold no it is onely the Communion of Saints the society of Angels the fruition of the Deity Iosh 7.21 the depth of eternity which can onely feed and fill the soul So live then as that when you die your souls may receive this blisse and the Lord Iesus our Saviour receive all your souls Vse 2 I must end but gladly would I win a soul If the reward be so great as you know it to recover a sick body Si magnae mercedis est a morte eripere carnem quanti est meriti à morte liberare animam Ambros Offic. 1. Quid est quod velis habere malum nihil omnino Aug. in quod serm which for all that must die of what reward is that cure to save a soul which must ever ever live O sweet Jesu why sheddest thou the most precious and warmest bloud of thy heart but onely to save souls thou wast scourged buffetted judged condemned hanged was all this for us and shall we do nothing for our selves What is it thou wouldest have bad if thou couldest wish it good not thy house nor thy wife nor thy children nor thy good nor thy cloaths but no matter for thy soul I beseech you value not you souls at a less price then your shooes you can please the flesh with delicates which is naught but worms meat but the soul pines for want which is a creature invisible incorporeall immortall most like to God are we thus carefull of pelf and so careless of this pearl certainly I cannot choose but wonder when seeing the streets peopled with men that follow suits run to Courts attend and wait on their Councellors for this case and that case this house or that land that not one of these no nor one of all us will ride or run or creep or go to have counsell for his soul I must confess I have sometimes dwelt on this meditation and Beloved let me speak homely to you be our Counsellors in this Town every week solicited by their Clients and have we no Clients in soul-cases not one that will come to us with their cases of conscience sure you are either careless of your souls or belike you have no need of particular instructions O let us not be so forward for the world and so backward for the soul yet I pray mistake not I invite you not for fees as noble Terentius when he had petitioned for the Christians and saw it torn in pieces before his face gathered up the pieces and said I have my reward I have not sued for gold silver honour or pleasure but a Church so say I in middest of your neglect I have not sued for your good or silver for your houses or lands but for your souls your precious souls and if I cannot or shall not woe them to come to Christ God raise up some child of the Bride-chamber which may do it better if neither I nor any other can prevail O then fear that speech of Elies sons they hearkened not unto the voice of their father because the Lord would slay them 1 Sam. 2.25 In such a case O that my head were full of water and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for your sins O that I could wash your souls with my tears from that filth of sin wherewith they are besmeared and defiled O that for the salvation of your souls I might be made a sacrifie unto death But the Lord be praised for your souls and my soul Christ Jesus hath died and if now we but repent us of our sins and believe in our Saviour if now we will but deny our selves and take up his cross and follow him if now we will but turn unto him that he may turn his loving countenance unto us if now we will but become new creatures and ever-hereafter walk in the holy path the narrow way which leads unto heaven why then may our souls be saved This is that we had need to care for Cur carnem adornas animam non
Matth. 24.28 Wheresoever the dead carkasse is thither saith our Saviour will the Eagles resort and wheresoever a damned soul is thither with a lacrity will these spirits come O how they fly and flutter round about him what fires do they breathe to enkindle them on his soul what clawes do they open to receive her at the parting and what astonishment is that poor soul in that perceives these Sergeants even ready to clasp their in her burning armes See O Cosmopolite what thy sin hath caused lust hath transported thine eyes blasphemy thy tongue pride thy foot oppression thy hand covetousness thy heart and now Death and Devils they are the Sergeants that require thy soul Vse Reflect these thoughts on your own souls and consider with your selves what may be your cases it may be as yet thou standest upright without any changes hitherto thou hast seen no days of sorrow but even washed thy steps with butter and the rock hath poured thee out rivers of oyle Deut. 32.13 14. Alas was not this the case of this wretched worldling yet for all this you see a night came that paid for all and so may it be with thee a day an hour Casaub Dies hora momentum c. a moment is enough to overturn the things that seem to have been founded and rooted in Adamant who can tell whether this night this storm may fall upon thee art thou not strangely nailed and glued unto sence art thou not stupidly senceless in spirituall things that for pelf vanity dung nothing wilt run headlong and willfully into easelesse endlesse and remediles torments Yet such is thy doing if thou beest a worldling to get riches to thy body and let death and devils have thy soul O beloved consider in time and seeing you have such a terrible example set before you let this worldling be your warning We have done with the Sergeants but what 's their office to beg to sue No but to force to require thy soul is required How requried is any so bold to approach his gates and make a forcible entry Yes God hath his speciall Bailiffs that will fear no colours riches cannot ransome castles cannot keep hollows cannot hide hills nor their forts protect Sits Herod on his Throne there 's a Writ of Remove and the worms are his Bayliffs is Dives at his Table Death brings the Mittimus and Devils are his Jaylours sits Lazarus at his gates the King greets him well we may say and Angels are his keepers poor rich good bad all must be served at the Kings suit no place can priviledge no power secure no valour rescue no libertie exempt with a non omittas propter aliquam libertatem runs this Warrant 2. Sam. 22.5 O rich man what wilt thou now do The sorrows of death compasse thee and the flouds of Belial make thee afraid What no friends to help no power to rescue is there no other way but yield and die for it O miserie enough to break an heart of brasse again Imagine that a Prince a while possessed some royall City where if you walk the streets you may see peace flourishing wealth abounding pleasure waiting all his neighbours offering their service and promising to assist him in all his needs and affairs if on a sudden this city were besieged by some deadly enemie who coming like a violent stream takes one hold after another one wall after another one castle after another and at last drives this Prince onely to a little Tower and there sets on him what fear anguish and misery would this Prince be in If he looks about his holds are taken his men are slain his friends and neighbours now stand aloof off and they begin to abandon him were not this a wofull plight trow you even so it fares with a poor soul at the hour of her departure the body wherein she reigned like a jolly Princesse then droops and languishes the keepers tremble Eccles 12.3 the strong men bow the grinders cease and they wax dark that look out at the windows no wonder if fear be in the way when the arms the legs the teeth the eyes as so many walls wherein the soul was invironed are now surprized and beaten to the ground her last refuge is the heart and this is the little Tower whither at last she is driven But what is she there secure no but most fiercely assailed with a thousand enemies her dearest friends youth and Physick and other helps which soothed her in prosperity do now abandon her what will she do the enemy will grant no truce will make no league but night and day assayls the heart which now like a Turret struck with thunder begins all to shiver here is the wofull state of a wicked soul God is her enemy the Devil her foe Angels hate her the earth groans under her hel gapes for her the reason of all sin struck the alarm and death gives the battel it is but this night a minute longer and then will the raging enemie enter on her Death is no beggar to entreat no suiter to wo no petitioner to ask no soliciter to crouch and crave a favour she runs raging Quaque ruit furibunda ruit ruling charging requiring hark this rich mans arrest thy soul shall be required It shall yes the word is peremptory what be required yes it comes with authority Here 's a fatall requiring when the soul shall be forced by an unwilling necessitie and devils by force hurrie her to her endless furie Adieu poor soul the Writ is served the Goal prepared the judgement past and Death the Executioner will delay no longer This night thy soul shalt be required of thee Vse 1 But to whom speak I Think of it you miserably covetous that joyn house to house and call the lands after your own names You may trust in your wealth and boast your selves in the multitude of your riches but none of you call by any means redeem his brother no nor himself Psal 49.6 Psal 49.6.7 When Death comes I pray what composition with the Lord of heaven could ever any buy out his damnation with his coyn howsoever you live mirrily deliciously go richly yet Death will at last knock at your doors and notwithstanding all your wealth honours tears and groans of your dearest friends will take you away as his prisoners to his darkest dungeon Your case is as with a man who lying fast asleep upon the edge of some steep high rock dreams merrily of Crowns Kingdoms Possessions but upon the sudden starting for joy he breaks his neck and tumbles into the bottome of some violent sea Thus is your danger every hour Sathan makes you a bed lulls you asleep charms you into golden dreams and you conceive you are wallowing in the Sea of all wordly happiness at last death comes against which there is no resistance and then are you suddenly swallowed up of despair and drowned in that pit of eternall death and
grones and suddain cryes the fire slakes not the worm dies not the chains loose not the links wear not revenge tyres not but for ever are the torments fresh and the fetters on fire as they came first from their Forge What a strange kind of torture falls upon the wicked they are bound to fiery pillars and Devils lash at them with their fiery whips Is there any part of man scapes free in such a fray the flesh shall fâ—â— the blood boil the veins be scorcht the sinews rackt Serpents shall eat the body furies tear the soul this is that wofull plight of Tares which he bound in Hell The sick man at Sea may go from his ship to his boat and from his boat to his ship again the sick man in his bed may tumble from his right side to his left and from his left to his right again onely the Tares are tied hand and foot bound limme and joynt their feet walk not their fingers move not their eyes must no more wander as before loe all his bound O these manacles that rot the flesh and pierce the inward parts O unmatchable torments yet most fit for Tares sin made them furious hell must tame their Phrensie the Judge thus commands and the Executioners must dispatch fetter them fire them Bind them in bundles to burn them I have lead you through the Dungeon let this fight serve for a terrour that you never come nearer To that purpose for exhortation consider Alas all hangs on life ther 's but a twine thread betwixt the soul of a sinner and the scorching flames who then would so live as to run his soul into hazard the Judge threatens us Devils hate us the bonds exspect us it is onely our conscience must clear us or condemn us Search then thy waies and stir up thy remembrance to her Items hast thou dishonoured God blasphemed his name decayed his image subduing thy soul to sin that was created for heaven repent these courses ask God forgiveness and he will turn away thy punishments I know your sins are grievous and my soul grieves at the knowledge many evills have possessed too many drunkenness and oathes and malice and revenge are not these guests entertained into all houses banish them your hearts that the King of glory may come in Ezek. 33.11 As I live saith the Lord I desire not the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live Would God bestow mercy and should we refuse his bounty as you love heaven your souls your selves leave your sins Vse 2 And then here is a word of consolation the penitent needs not fear hell Gods servant is freed from bonds yea if we love him who hath first loved us Ephes 5.2 all the chains and pains of hell can neither hold nor hurt us Vse 3 O then ye Sons of Adam suffer a reproof what do ye that ye do not repent you of your sins is it not a madness above admiration that men who are reasonable creatures having eyes in their heads hearts in their bodies understanding like the Angels and consciences capable of unspeakable horrour never will be warned untill the fire of that infernall Lake flash and flame about their eares Let the Angels blush heaven and earth be amazed all the Creatures stand astonished at it I am sure a time wil come when the Tares shal feel what now they may justly fear you hear enough such weed must be bound thus straight is the Lords command Binde them in bundles to burn them But all is not done Chains have their links and we must bring all together Sinners are coupled in hell as Tares in Bundles But of these when we next meet in the mean while let this we have heard Binde us all to our duties that we hear attentively remember carefully practice conscionably that so God may reward accordingly and at last crown us with his glory The tares must be bound up in bundles but Lord make us free in Heaven to sit with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in thy blessed kingdome In bundles THe command is out what Bind whom them how in bundles The tares must on heaps which gives us a double observation Generall Speciall In the generall it intimates these two points the gathering of the weed and its severing from the wheat both are bound in bundles but the wheat by it self and the tares by themselves as at that doom when all the world must be gathered and severed some stand at the right hand others at the left so at this execution some are for the fire and others for the barn they are bundled together yet according to the difference of the severall parties each from the other Observ 1 First the tares must together Woe is me saith David that I am constrained to dwell with Mesech Psal 120.4 and if David think it wofull to converse with his living enemies then what punishment have the wicked whom the Devill and damned the black angels and everlasting horrour must accompany for ever The tares must be gathered and bundled and the more bundles the more and more miseries Company yields no comfort in hell fire nay what greater discomfort then to see thy friends in flames thy fellowes in torments the fiends with flaming whips revenging each others malice on thy self and enemy It was the rich mans last petition when he had so many repulses for his own ease to make one suit for his living brethren he knew their company would encrease his torment to prevent which he cries out I pray thee father Abraham Luk. 16.27 28. that thou wouldest send Lazarus to my fathers house for I have five brethren that he may testifie unto them lest they also come into this place of torment Why it may be God will hear him for them especially making such a reasonable request as this was that Lazarus might onely warn his brethren of future judgment no but to teach you if you sell your souls to sin to leave a rich posterity on earth you shall not onely your selves without all remorse and pity be damned in hell but your posterity shall be a torment to you whilest they live and a greater torment if they come to you when they are dead To converse with Devils is fearfull but altogether to accompany each other is a plague fit for tares In this life they flourished amongst the wheat Let them grow both together corn and tares untill the harvest But the harvest come God will now separate them both asunder and as in heaven there are none but Saints so in hell there are none but reprobates to encrease this torment as they grow together so all their conference is to curse each other Moab shall cry against Moab father against son son against father what comfort in this company The Devill that was authour of such mischiefs appears in most grisly forms his angels the black guard of hell torture poor souls in flames there live swearers
off the burthen Matth. 11.28 Rev. 21.6 do they thirst after righteousness just then is the fountain of the water of life set wide open unto them are they contrite and humble in spirit Esay 57.15 just then are they become thrones for the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity to dwell in for ever O then come and welcome Christ excepts none that will not except themselves He died for all and be would have all men to be saved But yet let us be cautelous secondly he purged our sinnes and ours with a limitation the vse of Physick we say consists in application and howsoever our Saviour hath purged our sins yet this purge of his is nothing beneficiall to us unlesse there be some means to apply it As then it is in all other Physick so in this we must first take it secondly keep it 1. Take it for as the best plaister if not laid to can cure no wound so Christ himself and all his precious merits are of no virtue to him that will not apply them by faith when you hear the Gospel preached believe it on your parts believe Christ is yours believe that he lived and died and sorrowed and suffered and all this for you to purge your souls of your sinnes 2. But having taken it you must secondly keep it as men take Physick not onely in belief that it will do them good but in hope to keep it by the virtue and strength of the retentive parts so we take Christ by faith but we retain him by holiness these two faith and holiness are those two bonds wherewith Christ is united unto us and we unto Christ so that if we be of this number then truly may we say that he purged our sinnes for the both died for us and by virtue of our faith and holinesse through him his death is applied to us to us I say not in any generall acception but as we are of the number of his Saints for we had sinned and they were our sinnes onely that he effectually purged and washed away Vse And this lesson may afford us this use that howsoever the free grace and mercie and goodnesse of Christ Jesus is revealed and offered to all men universally yet our Saviour takes none but such as are willing to take upon them his yoke he gives himself to none but such as are readie to sell all and follow him he saves none but such as deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and live soberly righteously and godlily in this present world in a word he purgeth none or cleanseth none by his bloud from all sin but such as walk in the light as God is in the light who make conscience of detesting and declining all sins and sincerely set their hearts and hands with love and carefull endeavour to every duty enjoyned them why these are the men onely to whom his death is effectuall and therefore as we mean to partake of his merits or to have good by his death let us become new creatures It is true indeed and we cannot but maintain it that to justification nothing but faith is required but this caution must be added it must be a faith that purifies the heart that works an universall change that shews it self in the fruits if therefore any of us would come in let us have ready our answer as a late Divine speaks the dialogue betwixt Christ and a true Christian on this manner First saith he when God hath enlightened the eyes of a man that he can see where this treasure is what then Why saith the Christian I am so enflamed with the love of it that I will have it whatsoever it cost me yea saith Christ but there is a price upon it it must cost thee dear a great deal of sorrow and trouble and crosses and afflictions Tush tell me not of price saith the Christian whatsoever I have shall go for it I will do any thing for it that God will enable me Why saith Christ wilt thou curb thine affections wilt thou give up thy life wilt thou be content to sell all thou hast I will do it saith the Christian with all my heart I am content to sell all that I have nothing is so dear unto me but I will part with it my right hand my right eye nay if hell it felf should stand between me and Christ yet would I passe through it unto him This beloved this is that violent affection which God puts into the hearts of his children that they will have Christ whatsoever it cost them yet understand me I pray you It is not to sell our houses or lands or children but our sinns that I mean the Lord Jesus and one lust cannot lodge together in one soul no if we are but once truly incorporated into Christ we must take him as our Husband and Lord we must love honour and serve him we must endeavour after sanctification puritie new obedience abilitie to do or suffer any thing for Christ we must consecrate all the powers and possibilities of our bodies and souls to do him the best service we can we must grieve and walk more humbly because we can do no better and thus if we do though I cannot say but still we shall sin so long as we live on this earth yet here is our comfort 1. Joh. 2.1 2. We have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sinnes I say for our sinnes effectually if we believe in his Name for it was for us he died and they were our sinnes he purged and this is that great benefit we receive from our Saviour in that he by himself hath purged our sinns And now our sinnes being purged our souls recovered I may well end this Text onely I shall give it one visit more and so Farwell You see the maladie Sin the remedie a purge the Physician he the patient himself our selves for our infirmities were laid on him and his sores became our salves by whose virtue we are healed Blesse we then God for the recovery of our souls and be we carefull for the future of any relapse whatsoever these relapses are they we had need to fear indeed for in them the diseases are more dangerous sinns are more pernicious Matth. 12.44 and men become seven times more the children of Sathan then ever they were before Now then we are healed be we studious to preserve it all the dayes of our life and we shall find at our death that he that purged our sinns will save our souls we need not any other Purgatory after death no when our souls shall take their flights from our bodies then are the Angels readie to conduct them to his Kingdome and thither may we come for his sake and his onely who by himself in his own person hath purged our sinnes AMEN FINIS Heavens happiness LUKE 23.43 To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise HE that purged our sinns is
ULTIMA The last things in reference to the First and Middle things OR CERTAIN MEDITATIONS on Life Death Judgement Hell Right Purgatory and Heaven Delivered by ISAAC AMBROSE Minister of the Gospel at PRESTON in AMOUNDERNES in LANCASHIRE Deut. 32.29 O that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end Ecclus. 7.36 Whatsoever thou takest in hand remember the end and thou shalt never do amiss LONDON Printed for J. A. and are to be sold by Nathanael Webb and William Grantham at the Grey-hound in Pauls Church-yard 1650. To the Reader READER NOt to stay thee too long at the doore come in and thou mayst in this fabrick see these severall partitions Here is Mans misery in his Life Ser. 1. Death Ser. 2. Judgement Ser. 3. The Execution Ser. 4. Gods mercie in our Redemption Ser. 5. Salvation Ser. 6. The first part may bring thee to a sight and sense and sorrow for sin the second to a sight of Christ and a comfort in Christ and these are the principall means of conversion Nor is the work unprofitable if thou beest converted use them as daily Meditations and they will keep thee from sin and help thee towards heaven One of our Worthies can tell thee that Nothing more strongly bends men to sin then securitie or incogitancie of these things If thou ask what things he answers The end of our creation and redemption the certaintie of death the uncertaintie of life the severe account we must give the just retribution we shall have the miserie of the damned in hell the blessedness of the Saints in heaven these things being sadly and frequently thought upon would quench our burnings and lustings after sinne And true thou mayest find it that such good thoughts and an inordinate life are scarce consistible Will you hear another A serious and fruitfull meditation on these things so blessed M. Bolton hath ever been holden very materiall and of speciall moment to make us by Gods blessing more humble unworldly provident and prepared for the evil day And I take it every one of these following subjects would be an excellent theam or matter for our deliberate meditation See the Middle things Chap. 7. Sect. 4. Read then and practise these Meditations and I trust by these means thy end will be Heavens happiness So ends this work and to that end solely next to Gods glory I built it for thee Farewell Thine in all services I may for thy souls salvation I. A. Lifes Lease GEN. 47.9 Few and evil have the dayes of my life been WHen Pharaoh was Egypts King Joseph Pharaohs Steward and Jacob Josephs father there was a great famine which Pharaoh had dreamed Joseph fore-told and Iacob suffered God that sent Ioseph to Pharaoh brings Iacob to Ioseph the same providence so disposing of all that yet some food must be in Egypt when nothing was found in all the land of Canaan Thither come welcome as you may see in the storie Pharaoh salutes Iacob with this question What is thy age How many are thy dayes How many alas but few what are they alas but evil Thus we find Iacob at his Arithmetick the bill is short and the number but a cyphar Will you hear him cast his accounts First they are dayes and without all rules of falshood by subtraction few by addition full of evil contract all and this is the sum of all Few and evil have the dayes of my live been This Text briefly is the Lease of Iacobs life God the chief Lord inricht his substance yet limits the grant of his time will you question the Lease for what time no more but my life saith Iacob but a life what years no years but dayes saith Iacob but dayes how many not many but few saith Iacob but few how good not good but evil saith Iacob who can blaze the arms of life that finds not in it Crosse and Croslet the lease but a life the tearm but dayes the number few the nature evil nay when all is done we see all is out of date the dayes are not but are past they have been Few and evil have the dayes of my life been We must you see invert the Text and begin with that on which all hangs it is but my life saith Iacob Life VVOuld you know what is that take but a view of Nature and Scripture these will sufficiently describe our life First Nature whose dimme eye sees thus far what is it but a Rose Ut rosa Paestano languet adepta jugo Tifernas Ut herba solstitialis Plaut saith Tifernas which if you view in its growth the cold nips it heat withers it the wind shakes it be it never so fair it withers be we never so lively immediately we die and perish A Rose that is too beautifull Life is but grasse saith Plautus green now withered anon thus like the flower that is cut in Summer as soon as we are born Death is ready with his Sythe as soon as we are dead Angels gather in the harvest on whose wings we are carried to that Barn of Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philemon Grasse no saith Philemon life is no better then a counterfeit picture what if the colours be fair and the resemblance near the shadow of death Scena est ludus quoque vita Luscin Cum parumper se ostendisset mox se abscondit Anonymus Rodol Agric. Tu quicscis securus in modum gliris sepultus jaces Philonius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristophanes and the Curtains of our grave will darken all A picture that is too honourable life is a worse resemblance but a Play saith Luscinius we enter at our birth and act all our life presently there is an exit or a back return and away we go shutting all up with a sudden Tragedie A Play that is too large Anonymus being asked what was life he shews himself a little then hides himself amain his meaning was this our life is but a little show and no sooner are we seen but immediately are we hid and gone A show that is too pleasant life is nothing but a sleep saith Philonius we live secure and Dormise-like we slumber away our time when all is done as if all this were too little we sleep again and go from our grave the bed to that bed our grave A sleep that is too quiet it is nothing but a dream saith Aristophanes all our worldly pleasures are but waking dreams at last Death rouzeth our souls that have slept in sinne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pind. in Pyth. Vita quid nisi mortis imago Cato then lifting up our heads and seeing all gone we awake sorrowing A dream or the dream of a shadow saith Pindarus the worst the weakest dream that can be imagined sure one step further were to arrive at deaths door and yet thus farre are we lead by the hand of Nature nay if you will lower death suâ—ceeds life and life
perforce your sinnes originall and actuall of omission and commission of your bodies and souls And I must tell you herein is a great policie of Sathan he lets you alone in your securitie a while if you will not trouble him he will not trouble you if you will not tell your own sinnes neither will he tell you of them but he will change his note at furthest when your few evil dayes finish it is the very case as many creditours deal with their debtors while they have any doings as they say and are in trading they will let them alone in policie they will say nothing but if once down the wind in sickness povertie disgrace or the like then comes Serjeant after Serjeant arrest upon arrest action upon action just thus is Satans dealing with the unregenerate man if you will but sinne and never call your selves to a reckoning inpolicie he will say nothing but when the score is full and death comes to arrest you then will he bring out his black book of all your sinnes committed all your dayes O I tremble to speak of it then shall your sins fall as foul on your souls as ravens on the fallen sheep and keep you down for ever in the dungeon of despair Secondly in respect of the regenerate that you have readie by you or by heart a catalogue of your sinnes is necessary in many respects First to humble you for no sooner shall the poor soul look on all the sinnes he hath committed both before and after his regeneration but confessing them in prayer it will pull down his heart and make the wound of his remorse to bleed a fresh as before and therefore this catalogue is most necessary in dayes of humiliation Secondly it is necessarie to prepare you for the receiving of the Sacrament for indeed I would have none to presume to taste on that Supper but first to view over all his sinnes and to confess them in payer to his heavenly Father there be many that in Confession look on their sinns as they do on the stars in a dark cloudie night they can see none but the great ones of the first or second magnitude it may be here one and there one but if they were truly illightened and informed aright they might rather behold their sinns as those innumerable stars that appear in a fair frostie winters night they are many and many and therefore take a little pains in composing your catalogue that so you may confess all at least for the kinds before you presume to come near that Table of the Lord. Thirdly it is necessarie in times of desertion or visitation yea if the Lord shall please to exercise you with any crosse or disgrace or discountenance losse of goods disease of bodie terrour of soul or the like you may be sure as no miserie comes but for sinne so then the enumeration of your sinns from a bleeding broken heart is the prime and first means to cause that Sun of mercie to break through the clouds and to beget a clear day alas our dayes are evil and sure we have as good reason as ever Jacob had to confess it for my part though I keep my catalogue to my self yet in the generall I cannot but confesse to you all My dayes have been evil evil evil Few and evil And now we have done with the work it rests that you should know your wages there be dayes of sinn and then dayes of sorrow as you have spent your dayes so must you have your rewards first we trespasse and then we pay for it first we sin and then we suffer evil 2. The evils that we suffer may be ranked in this order first evils originall fill up the scene and what a multitude of evils do enter with them No sooner had Adam sinned but a world of miseries fell on man so that as the infection in like manner the punishment distills from him Rom. 5.12 By one man saith the Apostle entred sin into the world what sin alone no but death by sinne and so death went over all men Rom. 5.12 Infants themselves bring their damnation with them from their wombs or if that be omitted how many are the miseries of this life as the fore-runners of that judgement Look at the mind and what think ye of our ignorance not onely that of wilfull disposition but as the Schools distinguish of pure negation if it be not a sin what is it but a punishment for sinne that our understanding should be obscured and darkened our knowledge in things naturall wounded in supernaturall utterly extinguished O the miserable issue of that monster Sin But as evils come by heaps so of the same parent here is another brood Ignorance and Forgetfulness and is not this a miserie after all our time and studie to get a little knowledge quickly to forget that we are so long a learning Man in his whole state before the fall could not forget things taught him but now as the hour-glass we receive in at the one ear and it goes out at the other or rather like the sieve we alwayes keep the bran but let the flowre go so apt are we to retain the bad but we verie easily forget the good And is this all nay yet more evils see but our affections and to what a number of infinite sorrows griefs anguishes suspicions fears malices jealousies is the soul of man subject So prone are we to these miserable passions that upon any occasion we fall into them or for want of cause from any other we begin to be passionate with our selves Why hast thou O Lord set me against thee I am become irksome and burdensome even unto mine own self Job 7.20 Job 7.20 Alas poor man how art thou beset with a world of miseries and yet as if all these summed up together could not make enough look at the body and how many are its sufferings In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread said God Gen. 3.19 Gen. 3.19 The Spider spins and weaves and wastes her very bowels to make her net and when all is done to what purpose serves it but to catch a flie If this be vain work how vain is man in his fond imitation the birds and beasts can feed themselves without any pains onely man toils night and day on sea and land with bodie and mind yet all is to no purpose but to catch a flie to protract a life or to procure some vanitie And yet as if miserie had no mean besides our industry how is this bodie stuffed with many an infirmitie all the strength of man is but a reed at best shaken perhaps broken howsoever weakened by every wind that blows upon it The Physicians distinction of Temperamentum ad pondus justitiam gives us thus much to learn that no constitution is ever so happie to have a just temper according to its weight some are too hot others too cold all have some defects and so
Angels on both sides waiting whether of them should have the prey now alas then wouldst thou say The soul to depart from the body were a thing intollerable to continue still therein were a thing impossible and to deferre this departure any longer supposing this hour thy last hour no Physick could prevail it were a thing unavoydable what then would thy poor soul do thus invironed with so many straights O fond fools of Adams sinne that neglect the time till this terrible passage how much wouldst thou give if thus it were for an hours repentance at what rate wouldst thou value a dayes contrition worlds are worthlesse in respect of a little respite a short truce would seem more precious then the Treasures of Empires nothing would then be so much esteemed as a trice of time which before by moneths and years thou lavishly mis-spent Think on thy sinns nay thou couldst not choose but think Satan would write them on the curtains of thy bed and thy agashed eyes would be forced to look upon them there wouldst thou see thousands committed not one confessed or throughly repented then too late thou wouldst begin to wish O had I lead a better life and were it to begin again O then how would I fast and pray how repent how live Certainly certainly if thou goest on in sinne thus would be thy departure thy carkass lying cold among the stones of the pit and thy soul by the weight of sinne irrecoverably sinking into the bottome of that bottomless burning lake Vse 2 But to prevent this evil take this use of advice for thy farwell whilest yet thy life lasteth whilest yet the Lord gives thee a gracious day of visitation ply ply all those blessed means of salvation as prayer and conference and meditation and Sermons and Sacraments and fastings and watchings and patience and faith and a good conscience in a word so live that when this day or night of death comes thou mayest then stand firm and sure as yet thou art in the way of a transitory life as yet thou art not entred into the confines of Eternitie if now therefore thou wilt walk in the holy path if now thou wilt stand out against any sin whatsoever if now thou wilt take on thee the yoke of our Saviour Christ if now thou wilt associate thy self to that sect and brotherhood that is every where spoken against if now thou wilt direct thy words to the glorifying of God and to give grace unto the hearers if now thou wilt delight in the word the wayes the Saints the services of God if now thou wilt never turn again unto folly or to thy trade of sin though Satan set upon thee with his baits and allurements to detain thee in his bondage but by one darling delight Psal 116.15 one minion-minion-sin then I dare assure thee dear right dear would be thy death in the sight of the Lord with joy and triumph wouldst thou passe through all the terrours of death with singing and rejoycing would thy soul be received into those sacred mansions above O happy soul if this be thy case O happy night or day vvhensoever the nevvs comes that then must thy soul be taken from thee You may think it now high time that we bid this far-wel-funerall Text adieu then for conclusion let every word be thy warning Lest this be thy time provide for this and everie time 1. Thess 5.6 lest the night be dreadfull Do not sleep as do other but watch and be sober lest thy soul should suffer desire the sufferings of thy God to satisfie lest death require it of thee by foree offer it up to God with a cheerfull devotion and lest this of thee be fearfull who hast lived in sin correct these courses amend your wayes and the blessing of God be with thee all thy life at the hour of death now henceforth and for ever AMEN FINIS Doomes-day MATTH 16.27 Then shall he reward every man according to his works THe dependance of this Text is limited in few lines and that your eyes wander no further then this verse therein is kept a generall Assize the Judge Officers Prisoners stand in array the Judge is God and the Son of man the Officers Angels and they are his Angels the Prisoners men and because of the Gaol-delivery every man If you will have all together you have a Iudge his circuit his habit his attendants his judgments a Iudge the Son of man his circuit he shall come his habit in the glory of his Father his attendants with his Angels what now remains but the execution of justice then without more adoe see the Text and you see all the scales in his hande our works in the scales the reward for our works of just weight each to other Then hee shall reward every man according to his works This Text gives us the proceeding of Doomes-day which is the last day the last Sessions the last Assize that must be kept on earth or is decreed in heaven if you exspect Sheriffs or Judges Plaintiffs or Prisoners all are in this verse some in each word Then is times Trumpet that proclaims their coming Hee is the Judge that examins all our lives Reward is the doom that proceeds from him in his Throne Man is the malefactour every man stands before him as a prisoner Works are the inditements and according to our works must go the triall howsoever we have done good or evill Give me yet leave this Judge sits on trials as well as prisoners it is an high Court of appeal where Plaintiffs Counsellors Judges all must appear and answer would you learn the proceedings there is the Term Then the Judge hee the sentence shall reward the parties very man the triall it self which you may finde in all to be just and legall every man his rewards according to his works We have opened the Text and now you shall have the hearing Then THen when the answer is Negative Positive First Negative Then not on a sudden or at least not at this present This life is no time to receive rewards the rain and Sun pleasure both the good and bad nay oftentimes the bad fare best and Gods own children are most fiercely fined in the furnace of affliction Job 9.24 Matth. 16.24 The earth is given into the hands of the wicked saith Iob but if any man will follow mee he must take up his cross saith our Saviour Ioy and pleasure and happiness attend the ungodly while Gods poor servants run thorow the thicket of briers and brambles to the kingdome of heaven but shall not the Iudge of all the world do right Gen. 18.25 a time shall come when both these must have their change Mark the upright and behold the just for the end of that man is peace but the transgressours shall be destroyed together and the end of the wicked shall be cut off Psal 37.38 Psal 37.37 38. The effect of things is best known to
sinners actions nothing shall be hid when this book is opened for all may run and read it stand and hear it How fond are we that imagine heavens eye such is this book to be shut upon us Do we not see many run to corners to commit their sins there can they say Let us take our fill of love untill the morning for darkness hath covered us and who seeth us who knoweth us Esai 29.15 Prov. 7.18 Esay 29.15 But are not the Angels of God about you 1 Cor. 4.9 We are a spectacle to the Angels saith the Apostle I am sure we must be to both to Angels and to men and to all the world O do not that before the Angels of God yea before the God of Angels which you would shame to do in the sight and presence of an earthly man Alas must our thoughts be known and shall not dark-corner sins be revealed must every word and syllable we speak be writ and recorded in Gods memorable book and must not ill deeds ill demeanours ill works of darkness be disclosed at that day yes God shall bring every work unto judgment with every secret thing be it good or evill Eccles 12.14 Eccles 12.14 Wail yee wicked and tremble in astonishment Now your closet-closet-sins must be disclosed your private faults laid open Gods keeps the account-book of every sin every transgression Imprimis for adultery Item for envie blasphemy oaths drunkenness violence murther and every sin from the beginning to this time from our birth to our buriall the totall summe eternall death and damnation this is the note of accounts wherein are all thy offences written the debt is death the pay perdition which fury pays over to destruction But there is another book that shall give a more full I cannot say but a more fearfull evidence then the former which is the book of every mans conscience Some call it the book of testimony which every man still bears about him There is within us a Book and Secretary the Book is Conscience and the Secretary is our soul whatsoever we do is known to the soul and writ in our book of conscience there is no man can so much as commit one sin but his soul that is privy to the fact will write it in this book In what a wofull case will thy heart then be in what strange terrour and trembling must it stand possest when this must be opened and thy sinnes revealed It is now perhaps a book shut up and sealed Liber signatue clausus in die judicii aperiendus but in the day of judgement shall be opened and if once opened what shall be the evidence that it will bring forth there is a private Sessions to be held in the breast of every condemned sinner the memorie is Recorder grief an Accuser truth is the Law damnation the Judgement hell the Prison Devils the Jaylours and Conscience both Witnesse and Judge to passe sentence on thee What hopes he at the generall Assize whose conscience hath condemned him before he appear Look well to thy life thou bearest about thee a book of testimonie which though for a time it be shut till it be full fraught with accusations yet then at the Day of Doom it must be opened when thou shalt read and weep and read every period stop with a sigh every word be enough to break thy heart and every syllable reveal some secret thy own conscience upon the matter being both witnesse Judge accuser and condemner But yet there is another book we read of and that is the book of life Herein are written all the names of Gods elect from the beginning of the world till the end thereof these are the golden leaves this is that precious book of heaven wherein if we are registred not all the powers of hell or death or devils shall blot us out again Here is the glory of each devout souldier of our Saviour how many have spent their lives spilt their blouds runne upon sudden deaths to gain a perpetuall name and yet for all their doings many of these are dead and gone and their memories perished with them onely Christs souldier hath immortall fame he and onely he is writ in that book that must never perish Come hither ye ambitious your names may be writ in Chronicles yet lost writ in durable marble yet perish writ in a monument equall to a Colossus yet be ignominious O were you but writ in this book of life your names should never die never suffer any ignominy It is an axiome most true they that are written in the eternall leaves of heaven shall never be wrapped in the cloudy sheets of darknesse Here then is the joy of Saints at that Day of Doom this book shall be opened and all the elect whom God hath ordained to salvation shall see it read it hear it and greatly rejoyce at it The Disciples casting out devils return with miracles in their mouths O Lord say they even devils are subject to us through thy name True saith Christ I saw Sathan as lightning fall from heaven notwithstanding in this rejoyce not that the spirits are subject unto you but rather rejoyce because your names are written in heaven Luke 10.20 Luke 10.20 And well may the Saints rejoyce that have their names written in Gods book they shall see them to their comfort writ in letters of gold penned with the Almighties finger ingraven with a pen of a diamond thus will this book give in the evidence and accordingly will the Judge proceed to sentence Vse 1 Consider thou that readest what books one day must be set before thee a time will come when every thought of thy heart every word of thy mouth every glance of thy eye every moment of thy time every office thou hast born every companie thou hast used every sermon thou hast heard every action thou hast done and every omission of any duty or good deed thou hast left undone shall be seen in these books at the first opening of them thy conscience shall then be suddenly clearly and universally inlarged with extraordinary light to look upon all thy life at once Gods memory shall then shine forth and shew it self when all men looking on it as a reflecting glasse they shall behold all the passages of their misspent lives from their births to their burials Where is the wicked and deceitfull man wilt thou yet commit thy villanies treacheries robberies murthers debates and impieties Let me tell thee if so to thy hearts-grief all thy secret sinnes and closet villanies that no eye ever lookt upon but that which is a thousand times brighter then the Sunne shall then be disclosed and laid open before Angels men and devils and thou shall then and there be horribly universally and everlastingly ashamed never therefore go about to commit any sinne because it is midnight or that the doors are lockt upon thee suppose it be concealed and lie hid in as great darknesse as
fire Alas to what end there is no help to extinguish fire that must burn for ever your Buckets may quench other fires not this no milk nor vinegar can extinguish that wild-fire it is a fire which no means can moderate no patience can endure no time can for ever change but in it whosoever wofully lies their flesh shall frie their bloud shall boil their hearts consume yet they shall never die but dying live and living die death in life life in death miserable ever This is that consideration which shall bring all the damned Reprobates to shriek and houl everlastingly were they perswaded that after millions of years they should have one year of pleasure or after thousands of millions they should have some end of torment here would be a little hope but this word Ever breaks their hearts asunder this ever ever gives new life again to those insufferable sorrows and hence it is that when all those millions of years are done and gone then God knows must the wheels of their torment whirl about and about Alas the fire is durable the heat continuall the fuell immortall and such is the end of Tares they must burn without end Bind them in bundles to burn them Lo here the fire of hell which compared to ours on earth it differs in heat in light in fuell in durance Let your souls work on these objects that they never come nearer to those flames Vse 1 Who amongst us would dwell with devouring fire who amongst us would dwell with everlasting burnings Esay 33.14 Beloved as you tender your souls and would escape the flames reform your lives whiles you have yet a little time You hear it sounded in Synagogues and preached in pulpits what sound but heaven or hell joys or torments the one befalling the good and the other the just end of the wicked Do we believe this truth and dare we commit sinne whose reward is this fiery death upon due consideration how is it that we sleep or rest or take a minutes ease lesser dangers have bestraught some out of their wits nay bereaved many of their lives how is it then that we run headlong into this fire yet never weigh whither we are going till we are dropping into the pit whence there is no redemption Look about you while it is called to day or otherwise wo and alas that ever you were born be sure a time will come when miseries shall march Angels beat alarms God sound destruction and the tents of his enemies be all set on fire Bind them in bundles to burn them Vse 2 Or yet if comparisons can prevail suppose one of you should be taken brought along to the mouth of an hot fiery furnace then comparing sinne with its punishment might I question you how much pleasure would you ask to continue there burning but one year how much would you say surely not for all the pleasures and treasures that all this world can afford you How is it then that for a little sinne that endures but a moment so many of you so little regard eternall punishment in hell fire If we should but see a little child fall into the fire and his very bowels burnt out how would it grieve us and make our very hearts bleed within us how much more then should it grieve you to see not a child but your own bodies and souls cast away for a momentany sinne into the lake of fire that never shall be quenched If a man should come amongst us and cry Fire Fire thy house is all on Fire thy corn thy cattell thy wife thy children and all thou hast are burning all together how would this astonish us making both the hair to stand upright on our heads and the tears to gush out of our eyes Behold then and see the spirit of God cries out Fire fire even the dreadfull fire of hel gapeth ready to devour not thy house thy corn or thy cattel but tâ—â— poor soul and that for evermore O then how should this break your flinty hearts asunder and make your souls bleed again and again if you have any spark of grace this me thinks should move you to a strict 〈…〉 if you have any care of your souls this me thinks should make you to walk humbly and purely carefully and consciâ—â—â—â—bly towards God and towards man if not what remains but fire fire Bind them in bundles to burn them Or yet if example can perswade us more meditate on the miserable condition of that namelesse rich man Suppose you saw him in hel torments compast about with furies fires and all that black guard below his tongue flaming his eyes staring his conscience biting his soul suffering his body all over-burning in that fire of hel O lamentable fight but to make it more lamentable hearken how he roars and cryes through the extremitie of pains O torment torment how am I tormented in this fire my head my heart my eies my ears my tongue my tongue is all on fire what shall I do whither shall I flie for succour within me is the worm without me is fire about me are devils above me is Abraham and what glorious star is yond I see but Lazarus poor Lazarus in his bosome what is a beggar exalted and am I in torments Why Abraham father Abraham have 〈◊〉 on me See here a man burning schorching frying in hel 〈◊〉 one dram of mercy one drop of water to a tormented soul Oh I burn I burn I burn without ease or end and is there none to 〈◊〉 me Come Lazarus if Abraham will not hear let me beg of thee â— beggar and howsoever I denied thee a 〈◊〉 â—f bread yet be so good so charitable as to dip the tip of thy finger in water and cool my tongue It is a poor suit I ask not to dive but dip not thy hand but finger not all but the tip of it not in sâ—â—â— but water not to quench but to cool not my body but my least member be it my tongue onely no ease so little no grant so poor no remedy so small but happy were I if I could obtain it though I begged it with tears and prayers of a thousand thousand years continuance But see Abraham and Lazarus denie my suits I burn and neither God nor Saint nor Angel takes pitie on me and shall I cry for help on devils alas they are my tormentors that lash me and cut me with their whips of burning steel and iron O beloved what shall we say to the roaring rage of this tormented wretch Alas alas how little do men think on this they can passe away time sporting and playing as if they went to prison but for a few weeks or dayes just like men who having the sentence of death past upon them run fooling and laughing to the execution but when once hell mouth hath shut her self then shall they find nothing but eternity of torments in the fear of God take heed in time of this
eternitie eternity lest you also come into this place of eternity eternity of torment it is the doom of Tares wo to them whosoever that are of the number for they they must be gathered and bound and bundled and burned We have now done our task and ended the harvest if you please to cast back your eie upon the particulars delivered they amount to this summe Whatsoever a man sowes that shall he reap Gal. 6.7 Gal. 6.7 If the enemy sow Tares and we nourish the seed what think you is the Harvest Gather ye together first the Tares saith our Saviour to the Angels they are branded in their name Tares sped in the time first curst in their doom gathered but worst in the hands of their executioners it is by Angels and yet what is all this to the latter work in hand If the Tares weeded up might rot in the furrows the punishment were lesse but as they are gathered so they must be bound Is that all nay as they are bound so they must be bundled Is that all nay as they are bound and bundled so they must be burned Bind them in bundles to burn them I must end this Text yet am loath to leave you where it ends As there is an harvest of Tares so there is a better harvest of Wheat Psal 126.5 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy if we repent us of our sinns we shall have a blessed harvest indeed how fourty grains for one nay by the promise of our Saviour an hundred fold A measure heapen and shaken and thrust together Luke 6.38 and yet running over Every Saint shall have joy and glory fountains of pleasure and rivers of delight where they may swim and bathe their souls for ever and ever what though Tares must to the fire the Wheat is gathered into Heaven Pray you then with me that we may be Wheat not Tares and God so blesse the seed that every soul of us may have a joyfull harvest in the kingdome of Heaven AMEN FINIS Right Purgatorie HEB. 1.3 When he had by himself purged our sins THe point is not full but to make it up the Text stands compast with words of wonder concerning the word our Saviour he that is the Sonne of God heir of all things creatour of the world the brightnesse of his glory the image of his person and upholder of all things by the word of his power stands here as the subject of humilitie and glory he purged our sins and sits on the right hand of the majesty on high He purged our sins by his suffering on the crosse he sits on Gods right hand by obtaining the crown he purged our sinnes by dying for them he sits on Gods right hand by ruling with him what need we more here is his passion and session in the same order he performed them for then he sate down on the right hand of his Father when he had by himself purged our sins But to come nearer the words they are as the drugs of an Apothecary and we will examine the ingredients O I am sick of love saith the Church in Canticles Cant. 5.8 Cant. 5.8 Sick indeed not of love onely but of sinne also a disease that infatuates the mind gripes the conscience distempers the humours disturbs the passions corrupts the body indangers the soul Is not he blessed that can help this maladie Come then ye that labour of sin and to your endlesse comfort see here the manner of the cure there is a Physitian he the patient himself the physick administred when he had purged the ill humours evacuated when he had purged our sinnes Or to gather up the crumbs lest in this costly receit or physick any thing be lost see here the remedie girt and compast with each necessary circumstance the time when the person he the matter purged the manner by himself the disease sinne the extent of it ours Observe all and you find no time more dismall then this when no person more humbled then this he no physick more operative then this purge no disease more dangerous no plague more spreading then sinne our sinne for which he suffered When he by himself had purged our sins We have opened the body of the Text now look on the parts and you may see the Anatomie of our Saviour in every member of it When Ne sedendo videatur purgare Annot. Erasm in text THe Text begins with the time When he had purged and this time saith Erasmus according to the originall denotes the time past lest that we had thought he had purged our sinnes by his sitting him down at the right hand of God First therefore saith the Apostle he purged and then sate he first purged by his death and when that was done he sate at the right hand of the Majesty in the highest places Whence observe Doctrine The time that Christ purged was in the dayes of his humiliation Then was he born Matth. 1.18 Matth. 1.18 then was he tempted Matth. 4.1 Matth. 4.1 then was he circumcised Luke 2.21 Luke 2.21 then was he traduced Matth. 11.19 Matth. 11.19 then was he persecuted John 8.59 John 8.59 then was he betrayed Matth. 26.16 Matth. 26.16.50 then was he apprehended Matth. 26.50 then was he mocked Matth. 27.29 Matth. 27.29 35. then was he crucified Matth. 27.35 But all his life was full of infirmitie so according to the nature of all infirmities he had those four times mentioned by Physitians in his life the beginning the increase the Akmen or state and declination Give me leave but to prosecute these times and by that time we have done the hour I know will summon us to a conclusion First then he had his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his beginning and that was the first time of his purging even at his birth then took he our infirmities upon him and in some measure evacuated the brightnesse of his glory to become for us a poor a weak a silly babe on earth Mark I pray how this purge works with him at his first entrance into the world it brings him into so poor and low estate that heaven and earth stand amazed at so great a change where was he born but at Bethlehem a little citie where did the shepherds find him but in a poor sory cottage and there if we look after majestie we find no guard but Joseph no attendants but Mary no heralds but Shepherds none of the bed-chamber but beasts and oxen and howsoever he is styled King of the Jews yet the Jews cry out They have no King but Cesar His mother indeed descended of kings and he himself gives crowns to others of victory of life of glory but for his own head no crown is prepared but a crown of thorns Rev. 4.10 anon you may see him clothed in purple anointed with spittle but for the crown we speak of they can afford him no richer then of the hedge no easier
them all if patience be in our calamities they are no calamities but comforts this is that comfort that keeps the heart from envie the hand from revenge the tongue from contumely and often overcomes our very enemies themselves without any weapons at all Come then and do you learn this lesson of our Blessed Redeemer are you stricken so was Christ of the Jews are you mocked so was Christ of the Souldiers are you betrayed of your friends so was Christ of his Apostle are you accused of your enemies so was Christ of the Pharisies why complain you of being injured and maligned when you see the Master of the house himself called Beelzebub Hereunto ye are called saith Peter for Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps 1. Pet. 2.21 1. Pet. 2.21 Vse 3 Thirdly as Patience from his life so we may learn Remorse from his Passion Is it nothing to you all ye that passe by Lament 1.12 O look on him and let this look breed in you a remorse and sorrow for your sinnes Our Saviour labours in the extremities of pangs his soul is sick his bodie faints and would you know the reason Why thus is the head wounded that he might renue health to all the body we sinne and Christ Jesus is heavie and sore and sick and dies for it his soul was in our souls stead his body endured a Purgatory for us that we both in body and soul might escape hell-fire which our sinns had deserved who but considers what evils our sinnes have done that will not grieve and mourn at the sinne he hath committed Oh that my head were a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the sinnes of the daughters of my people We have sinned we have sinned and what shall we say to thee O Saviour of men Alas our sinnes have whipped thee scourged thee crowned thee crucified thee and if I have no compassion to weep for Thee yet O Lord give me grace to weep for my self who have done thus to Thee O my Saviour O my sinnes It is I that offend it is thou must smart for it Fourthly we may yet learn another lesson Christ saith Paul humbled himself and became obedient to the death even the death of the Crosse Phil. 2.8 Philip. 2.8 and is it not our parts to be obedient to him who became thus obedient for us We may gather Humility from his birth and Patience from his life and Remorse from his Passion and to make up the posie here is one flower more Obedience which that Tree also yielded whereon he suffered Iohn 14.15 If you love me saith our Saviour keep my Commandments How blessed Saviour If you love me Who will not love thee who hast so dearly loved us as to give up thy dearest life for the ransome of our souls But to tell us that there is no better testimonie of our love then to obey his commands he woes us with these sugared words whose lips like Lillies Cant. 5.13 are dropping down pure Myrrh if you love me If you love me learn obedience of me keep my Commandments and to move us the more if all this cannot what love and obedience was there in him think you Consider and wonder That the Sonne of God would banish himself thirty three years from his glorious Majestie and what more would be born man and what more would be the meanest amongst men and what more would endure the miseries of life and what more would come to the bitter pangs of death Quò descendit humilitas Aug. medit 7. and what more would be made obedient to the death even the death of the Crosse a degree beyond death O Sonne of God whither doth thy humility descend but thus it must be the Prophets had foretold it and according to their prophesies the dayes were accomplished When he himself must be purged He was born he lived he suffered he died and thus runne round the vvheels of those miserable times When he had by himself purged our sinnes You see the Time's past and a nevv Time must give you the remainder of the Text the Time is when the Person He and he it is that in order vvill next come after onely have you the patience till vve have the leisure to dravv out his picture and then you shall see him in some mean proportion Who had by himself purged our sinnes He VVE have observed the time When he purged and now time it is that you know the Physician who administers it the Apostle tells you it is He that is Christ our Saviour who seeing us labour in the pains and pangs of sinne he bows the heavens and comes down he takes upon him our frailty that we through him might have the remedie to escape hell fire Come then and behold the man who undertakes this cure of souls Cant. 2.8 He cometh leaping upon the mountains skipping upon the hils saith Solomon in his Songs and would you know his leaps saith Gregory Greg. hom 39. See then how he leaps from his Throne to his Cratch from his Cratch to his Crosse from his Crosse to his Crown downwards and upwards like a Roe or a young Hart upon the mountains of spices His first leap downwards was from heaven and this tels us how he was God from everlasting so said the Centurion Surely this man was the Sonne of God Mark 15.39 Mar. 15.39 How else the sinne of man could no otherwise be expiated but by the Sonne of God man had sinned and God was offended therefore God became man to reconcile man to God Had he been man alone not God he might have suffered but he could not have satisfied therefore this man was God that in his man-hood he might suffer and by his God-head he might satisfie O wonderfull Redemption that God must take upon him our frailty had we thus far run upon the score of vengeance that none could satisfie but God himself could not he have made his Angels Embassadours but he himself must come in person no Angels or Saints could neither super-erogate but if God will save us God himself must come and die for us it were sure no little benefit if the King would pardon a Thief but that the King himself should die for this Malefactor this were most wonderfull and indeed beyond all exspectation and yet thus will the King of heaven deal with us he will not onely pardon our faults but satisfie the Law we sinne against God and God against whom we sin must die for it this is a depth beyond founding an height above all humane reach what is he God But we must fall a note the Creatour is become a Creature if you ask what Creature I must tell you though it were an Angel yet this were a great leap which no created understanding could measure what are the Angels in respect of God he is their Lord they but his servants
ministers messengers and howsoever it would dazle us to behold their faces yet cannot the brightest Angels stand before God but they are fain to cover their own faces with a pair of wings the difference may appear in Revel 5.13 14. Rev. 5.13 14. where the Lambe is said to sit upon the Throne but the four Beasts and four and twenty Elders fall down and worship him Esai 6.2 Is not here a great distance betwixt the Lamb in his Throne and the Beasts at his feet and yet thus farre will the Lamb descend that for our sakes he will disthrone himself reject his state take the office of an Angel to bring us the glad tidings of salvation in purging our sinnes And was he an Angel nay that was too much he was made saith the Apostle a little lower then the Angels for the suffering of death Heb. 2.9 Heb. 2.9 What the Son of God to be made lower then the Angels here was a leap beyond the reach or compass of all humane thoughts he that made the Angels is made lower by a little then the Angels the Creator is not onely become a creature but inferiour to some creatures that he did create O yee Angels how stand yee amazed at this humility that God your Master should become meaner then his servants that the Lord of heaven should deny the dignity of powers principalities Cherubims Seraphims Arch-Angell or Angell O Iesu how contrary art thou to thy aspiring Creatures some Angels through pride would needs be as God but God through humility is made lower then the Angels not equall with them but a note below them as David that sweet singer of Israel sung thou madest him little lower then the Angels Psalm 8.9 Psal 8.9 cited also in the person of Christ Heb. 2.7 But how much lower by a little saith Paul and if you would know what that little was he tels you again that he took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham Heb. 2.16 Heb. 2.16 Here is that great abysse which all the powers of heaven could no less but wonder at Abrahams Lord is become Abrahams Son the God of Abraham the God of Jsaac and the God of Iacob hath took upon him the seed of Abraham the seed of Isaac and the seed of Iacob wonder above wonders that God should take the shape of Angels is more then we can think but to take on him the nature of man is more then the tongue of Angels can express that the King of heaven should leave his glorious mansion and from the bosome of his Father come into the womb of his mother from that company of Angels and Arch-Angels to a rude rout of sinfull men Tell ye the daughters of Sion behold thy King cometh unto thee saith the Prophet Esay in the 62. Chap. 11. vers Isai 62.11 what could he lesse and what canst thou more wonderfull love that he would come but more wonderfull is the manner of his coming he that before made man a soul after the image of God now makes himself a body after the image of man and he that was more excellent then all Angels becomes lesser lower then the Angells even a mortall miserable wretched man But what man as he is King of heaven let him be King of all the world if he be man let him be the ruler of Mankinde no thou art deceived O Jew that exspectest in thy Saviour the glory of the world fear not Herod the loss of thy Diadem for this child is born not to be thy successor but if thou wilt believe to be thy Saviour was he a King on earth alas look through the Chronicles of his life and you finde him so far from a King that he is the meanest subject of all men where was he born but at Bethlehem a little City where did the shepherds find him but in a sorry cottage who were his Disciples but poor Fisher-men who his companions but Publicans and sinners is he hungry where stands his Table but on plain ground what are his dainties but bread and a few fishes who are his guests but a rout of hungry starved creatures and where is his lodging but at the stern of a ship here is a poor King without either presence or bed-chamber The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests but the Son of man hath not whereon to lay his head Matth. 8.20 Matth. 8.20 Descend we a little lower and place him in our own rank what was he but a Carpenter say the Jews in scorn Is not this the Carpenter Maries son Mark 6.3 Mark 6.3 A poor trade sure but to shew us that he was man and how much he hated idleness some time he will bestow in the labours of mans life but O wonder if he will reject majesty let him use at least some of those liberall arts or if he will be mechanicall let him choose to some noble trade Thy Merchants were the great men of the earth said the Angell to Babylon Apoc. 18.23 Apoc. 18.23 Ay but our Saviour is no Adventurer neither is he so stockt to follow any such profession once indeed he travelled into Aegypt with Ioseph and Mary but to shew us that it was no prize you may see Mary his mother steal him away by night without further preparation what gone on a suddain it seems there was no treasure to hide no hangings to take down no lands to secure his mother needs do no more but lock the doors and away what portion then is for the Lord of heaven O sweet Jesu thou must be content for us to hew sticks and stocks besides which after his coming out of Aegypt about the seventh year of his age untill his baptisme by Iohn which was the thirtieth we find little else recorded in any Writers profane or Ecclesiasticall And are we now at our just Quantum alas what quantity what bounds hath the humility of our Saviour is he a Carpenter that were to be master of a trade but he took on him saith the Apostle the form of a servant not a master Phil. 2.7 Phil. 2.7 It is true he could say to his Apostles Ye call me master and Lord and yee say well for so I am Ioh. 13.13 Ioh. 13.13 and yet at that very instant mark but his gestures and you may see their Lord and Master become a servant to his servants his many offices express his services Ioh. 13.4 5. when he rose from supper and laid a side his upper garments and took a towell and girded himself and after that he had poured water in a basen begun to wash his disciples feet and to wipe them with the towell wherewith he was girded O ye blessed spirits look down from heaven and you may see even the Almighty kneeling at the feet of men O yee blessed Apostles why tremble ye not at this so wonderfull sight of your lovely lowly Creatour
8.34 Iohn 8.34 it is my Father that loveth me Ioh. 10.17 Iohn 10.17 it is my Father that dwelleth in me Ioh. 14.10 Iohn 14.10 and howsoever others forsake mee and leave me alone as himself proclaims it yet I am not alone because the Father is with mee Ioh. 16.32 Iohn 16.32 Is it so sweet Saviour whence then was that sorrowfull complaint of thine My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Matth. 27.46 Leo it is that first reconciled it and all antiquity allow of it the union was not disolved but the beames the influence was restrained Non solvit unionem sed subtraxit visionem Scotus 4. sent D. 46. Q. 4. resp ad princip argum Affectione justitiae saith Scotus he was ever united to his Father because he ever loved trusted and glorified him but affectione commodi that delight ever emergent from that divine vision was for a time suspended and therefore was it that his body drooped his soul fainted he being even as a scorched Heath-ground without any drop of dew of the divine comfort on it Yet be it that his Father now forsakes him will he forsake himself O yes he burns in the fiery furnace of affliction without all manner of refreshing and this was it that was figured in the Law by those two Goats offered for the sins of the people whereof the one was the Scape-Goat and the other was the Offering the scape-goat departed away and was sent into the wilderness but her companion was left alone in the torments and made a Sin-Offering for the people even so was this Sacrifice of God-man man-God blessed for ever the humanity was offered but the divinity escaped the humanity suffered for the sins of the world but the divinity departed away in the midst of sufferings and left her sister and companion all alone in the torments thus he purged himself himself onely in his humanity no other with him all other left him the Gentiles Jewes Disciples Apostles Mary his mother and God his Father nay he himself is bereaved of himself Levit. 16.10 the humanity of his divinity if not in respect of the union yet as touching the consolation When he had by himself in his humane nature without any comforter purged our sins Thus far you have seen Christ drink the cup of his bitter pains pure and without mixture of any manner of ease what now remains but that vve make some use of it Vse I will take the cup of salvation saith David and call upon the Name of the Lord Psal 116.13 Psal 116.13 and vvhat can vve less if our Saviour hath begun to us in pains shall not vve afford him our thanks the Cup of death could not passe from him and must the Cup of Salvation be removed from us Psal 148.2 O praise him praise him all his Hosts hovvsoever he vvas alone in his sufferings let us all bear the burdens in a song of thanksgiving and in this song let us singing vveep and vveeping sing our sins may dravv the tears vvhich vvere the cause of his sufferings and our salvation may make us sing vvhich those his sufferings did effect vvhat needs more he suffered by himself the cause our sins the effect our salvation let us mourn for the one and praise him for the other praise him and him alone for he had no partner in his sufferings nor vvill he have any in our thanks he had no comforter in his miseries nor must any share vvith him in the duty vve ovve him of praising his Name Alas have vve not reason think you to give all the glory unto him it vvas he that suffered that vvhich vve deserved he purged by himself vvhen vve our selves lay sick of sin in perill of death and damnation thus gracious is he to us that vvhen there vvas no other remedy for our recovery then he by himself in our stead came and purged our sins Thus far you have seen the Patient and order novv requires that vve prepare the Receit the Patient vvas himself the Receit is a Purge but to confect this Purge vve must crave a further time and in the mean vvhile and ever remember him in your thoughts vvho hath done all this for you and the Lord make you thankfull Had purged YOu see vvho it is that hath freed us from sin to vvit Christ our Saviour vvithout a Compurgator he purged by himself but vvhat did he by himself do vve say he purged vvhat need he to purge vvho never committed any sinn in thought vvord or deed it is vvithout doubt he needs not and yet do it he vvill not to clear himself but us But this Purge doth imply a medicine and so vve must apply it a medicine it was and many medicines he used for the curing of mans soul the first by diet when he fasted fourty days and foruty nights Matth. 4.2 Matth. 4.2 the second by Electuary when he gave his most precious body and bloud in his last Supper Matth. 26.26 Matth. 26.26 The third by sweat when great drops of bloud issued from him falling down to the ground Luk. 22.44 Luk. 22.44 The fourth by plaister when he was spit upon by the Iewes Mark 15.19 Mar. 15.19 The fifth by potion when he tasted vinegar mingled with gall Matth. 27.34 Matth. 27.34 The sixth by letting of bloud when his hands and feet were pierced yea when his heart vein was stricken and his side goared with a Spear Ioh. 19.34 Joh. 19.34 the last which contains all the rest was by purge when by all his sufferings and especially by his bloud-shed he washed us from our sins Revel 1.5 Revel 1.5 Here was the cures of all cures which all the Galenists in the world may admire with reverence that our Lord and Saviour should become our surety that our soul-Physician should become our Purger how not by giving us Physick but by receiving it for us we miserable wretches lay sick of sin and he our Physician hath by himself purged and delivered us of it But that we may the better see how this Purge wrought with him we must know that purging in generall Observ is taken for any evacuation whatsoever and to say truth in a word the evacuation of Christs bloud was the right purging of our sins Hence is it that as Scriptures affirm the bloud of Christ doth redeem us cleanse us wash us justifie us sanctifie us Yee were redeemed by his bloud 1 Pet. 1.19 1 Pet. 1.19 and his bloud cleanseth us from all sin 1 Joh. 1.7 1 Ioh. 1.7 and he washed us from our sins in his bloud Revel 1.5 Rev. 1.5 and being now justified by his bloud Rom. 5.9 Rom. 5.9 and therefore Iesus suffered that he might sanctifie the people with his own bloud Heb. 13.12 Heb. 13.12 This bloud was it that was believed by the Patriarchs witnessed by the Sacrifices shadowed in the figures of the
of this sin it is mine yours Ours every ones What is it but Sin which our Saviour purged this is that ill humour derived from our Parents inherent in our selves imputed to our Saviour and therefore saith the Prophet he bare the sins of many Esay 53.12 Esay 53.12 to whoâ— agrees the Apostle that he his own self bare our sins in his own body 1 Pet. 2.24 1 Pet. 2.24 What a load then lay on his shoulders when all our sins the sins of all the world were fastened upon him one mans sin is enough to sink him into hell and had not our Saviour intervened every one of us had known by a wofull experience how heavy sin would have been upon the soul of each man but O happie we the snare is broken and we are delivered To prevent sins effect Christ Jesus hath purged and washed it away And is this all the matter wherefore our Saviour suffered was sinne all the disease of which he laboured when he had by himself purged yes it was all and if we consider it rightly we may think it enough to cause sufferings in him when merely for its sake God was so wroth against us O loathsome sinne more ugly in the sight of God then is the foulest Creature in the sight of man he cannot away with it nor so righteous are his wayes could he save his own Elect because of it but by killing his own sonne Imagine then what a sicknesse is sinne when nothing but the bloud of the sonne of God could cure it imagine what a poyson is sin when nothing but a spirituall Methridate compounded and confected of the best bloud that ever the world had could heal it we need not any further to consider its nature but onely to think of it how hatefull it was to God how hurtfull to his Sonne how damnable to men Vse And was it Sinne he purged this may teach us how hatefull sinne is that put him thus to his Purge Every sinne is a nail a thorn a spear and every sinner a Jew a Judas a Pilate howsoever then we may seek to shift it on others yet are we found the principall in this act our selves you know it is not the Executioner that properly kils the man sin onely is the murtherer yea our sinnes onely are the crucifyers of the Lord of glory yea if you will please to hear me I will yet say more our sinnes onely did not crucifie him but do crucifie him afresh Heb. 6.6 Heb. 6.6 and herein how farre do we exceed the crueltie of the Jews then his body was passible and mortall but now it is glorified and immortall they knew not what they did 1 Cor. 2.8 for had they known they would not have crucified the Lord of glory but we know well enough what we do and say too they buried Christ in the earth and the third day he rose again from the dead but we through sinne so bury him in oblivion that not once in three dayes three weeks he ariseth or shineth in our hearts O shame of Christians to forget so great a mercie O sinne past shame to crucifie afresh the Sonne of God! Think of it beloved sin is the death of Christ and would you not hate him that kills your brother your father your Master your King your God beware then of sinne that does it all at a blow and if you are tempted to it suppose with your selves that you saw Christ Jesus coming towards you wrapt in linnens bound with a kercher and crying after you in this gastly manner beware take heed what you do once have your sinnes most vilely murthered me but now seeing my wounds are whole again do not I beseech you rub and revive them with your multiplyed sinnes pity pity me your Jesus save me your Saviour once have I dyed and had not that one death been sufficient I would have dyed a thousand deaths more to have saved your souls why then do you sin again to renew my sufferings O my Saviour who will not leave to sinne that but hears thy voice in the gardens Cant. 7.13 lo the companions hearken unto thy voice cause me to hear it it is I that have sinned and if this be the fruit of it let me rather be torn of beasts be devoured of Worms be violently pulled or haled with racks then wittingly or wilfully commit a sinne Secondly he purged sinne whose but our sinne and this tels us of the universality of this gracious benefit together with its limitation First of the universality he tasted of death for every man Heb. 2.9 Heb. 2.9 and he gave himself a ransome for all men 1 Tim. 2.6 1 Tim. 2.6 and he purged our sinnes saith my Text what ours onely no saith the Apostle he is the propitiation not for our sinnes onely but for the sinnes of the whole world 1 John 2.2 1 John 2.2 You will say all do not actually receive the fruit of his death you say indeed truly but I wonder through whose default Our blessed Saviour what is he but like a Royall Prince who having many of his subjects in captivity of thraldome under a Forrein enemie pays a full ransome for every one of them and then sending forth his Embassadours he woes them to return to their home and to enjoy their libertie some there are that reject the offer they will rather serve the enemy then return to the freedome of their Lord and are these all the thanks they give their Redeemer O sweet Saviour he made upon the crosse a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice oblation and satisfaction for the sinnes of the world but not all receive the benefit because many by their own demerit have made themselves unworthy and yet howsoever some despise liberty Num. 11.23 is the arm of the Lord shortned no see his arms spread on the Crosse to embrace all and here is the universality of this gracious benefit Vse The use hereof is full of comfort if any man any sinner will now come in with a truly penitent soul thirsting heartily for Christ Jesus and resolve unfeignedly to take his yoke upon him there is no number or notoriousnesse of sinne that can possibly hinder his gracious enterment at Gods mercy seat O then how heinously do they offend who refuse to take Christ Jesus offered thus universally if you ask who are they I answer they are offenders on both hands First those that too much despair secondly those that too much presume to begin with the latter Some there are that howsoever Christ and heaven and salvation be offered unto them yet so close do they stick and adhere to their sinnes that they are loath to leave them and they hope God is so mercifull that they can have Christ and their sinnes too Alas deceive not your selves though the dearnesse and sweetnesse and freenesse and generality of Christs offers be a doctrine most true we propound it unto you as a
this be his case who will not say with Balaam Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his Num. 23 10. O let us I beseech you present unto our souls the blessed condition to come and this will be effectuall to stir us up to every good duty and to comfort us in all conditions whatsoever what will a man care for crosses and losses and disgraces in the world that thinks of an heavenly Kingdome What will a man care for ill usage in his Pilgrimâ—ge when he knows he is a King at home we are all in this time of our abâ—ence from God but even strangers upon â—â—rth here then must we suffer in dignities yet here is the comfort we have a better estate to come and all this in the mean time is nothing but a fitting of us to that heavenly Kingdome â—s Davids time between his anointing and investing was a very preparing of him that he might know himself and that he might learn fitnesse for to govern aright so we are anointed Kings as soon as we believe we have the same blessed anointing that is poured on our head and runnes down about us but we must be humbled and fitted before we are invested 〈◊〉 time and but a 〈◊〉 we have yet here to spend and let this be our comfort howsoever we 〈◊〉 here it is not long ere we inherit Alas the 〈◊〉 of this life are not worthy of the glory that shall be shewed us Rom. 8.18 Rom. 8.18 and therefore Igâ—â—â—â—â— iâ— a burnâ—â—g 〈…〉 say 〈…〉 gallows Hieron in catalogo beasts breaking of my bones quartering of â—y 〈…〉 â—â—â—â—sâ—â—ng of my body all the torments of devils let them come upon me so I may enjoy the treasure of Heaven and well â—â—gâ—â— he say it that knew what a châ—nge would be one day 〈◊〉 never was cold shadow so pleasant 〈◊〉 hot Summer never was 〈◊〉 so delightfull after â—â—â—our as shall be this â—eâ—t of heaven to an afflicted â—our coming thither out of this valley of tears O then what service should we do what pain should we suffer to attain this â—est were it to runne through fire and water were it as Augustine said to suffer every day torments you Aug. serm 31. de sanct the very torments of Hell yet should we be conâ—enâ— to aâ—â—â—e it and how much more when we may buy it without money or money-worth we need not to part with any thing for it but sin This Thief now a blessed Saint in glory * I speak of suffering and repenting as means not as the cause for a dayes suffering an half dayes repenting was thus welcomed to Heaven imitate we him in his repentance not in his delay he indeed had mercy at the last cast but this priviledge of one inferres not a common law for all one finde mercie at the last that none should despair and but one that none should presume Be then your sins as red as Scarlet you need not despair if you will but repent and lest your repentance be too late let this be the day of your conversion now abhorre sinnes past sue out a pardon call upon Christ with this Thief on the Crosse Lord remember me remember me now thou art in thy Kingdome thus would we do how blessedly should we die our consciences comforting us in deaths pangs and Christ Jesus saying to us at our last day here our day of death our day of dissolution To day shalt thou be with me in paradise We have dispatcht with expedition this dispatch this expedition to day the next day you shall hear the happinesse of this grant which is the societie of our Saviour thou shalt be with whom with me in paradise With me ANd is he of the Societie of Jesus yes though no Jesuite neither for they were not then hatcht but what noble order is this where the Saints sing Angels minister Archangels rule Principalities triumph Powers rejoyce Dominations govern Virtues shine Thrones glitter Cherubims give light Seraphins burn in love and all that heavenly company ascribe and ever give all laud and praises unto God their Maker here is a Societie indeed I mean not of Babylon but Jerusalem whither Jesus our Saviour admits all his servants and whereto this Thief on the Crosse was invited and welcomed thou shalt be with me in paradise For if with me then with all that is with me and thus comes in that blessed company of Heaven we will onely take a view of them and in some scantling or other you may guesse at Heavens happinesse With me and therefore with my Saints blessed man that from a crew of thieves by one houres repentance became a companion of Saints and now he is a Saint amongst them what joy is that he enjoys with them O my soul couldst thou so steal Heaven by remorse for sinne then mightst thou see what all those millions of Saints that ever lived on earth and are in Heaven Heb. 12.22 there are those holy Patriarchs Adam Noah Abraham and the rest not now in their pilgrimage tossed to and fro on earth but abiding for ever on Mount Sion the City of the living God there are those goodly Prophets Esay Jeremy Ezekiel and the rest not now subject to the torments of their cruell adversaries but wearing Palms and Crowns and all other glorious Ensigneâ— of their victorious triumphs there live those glorious Apostles Peter Andrew James John and the rest not now in danger of persecution or death but arrayed in long robes washed and made white in the bloud of the Lamb Revel 7.14 there live those women-Saints Mary Martha and that Virgin-mother not now weeping at our Saviours death but singing unto him those heavenly songs of praise glory world without end there are those tender infants an hundred forty four thousand Revel 14.1 Revel 14.1 3 4. not now under Herods knife bleeding unto death but harping on their harps and following the Lamb whithersoever he goeth there lives that noble armie of Martyrs they that were slain upon the earth Revel 18.24 Revel 18.24 not now under the mercilesse hands of cruell tyrants but singing and saying their Hallelujahs salvation and glory and honour Revel 19.1 and power be unto the Lord our God tâ—ere dwell all the Saints and servants of God both small and great Revel 19.5 Revel 19.5 not now sighing in this vale of tears but singing sweet songs that eccho through the Heavens as the voice of many waters as the voice of mighty thunderings so is their voice saying Hellelujah Revel 19.6 for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth And is not here a goodly troop a sweet company a blessed societie and fellowship of Saints O my soul how happie wer't thou to be with them yea how happie will that day be to thee when thou shalt meet all the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Disciples Innocents Martyrs the Saints and servants of the King of Heaven why thus happie