Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n
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A41030
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The character of the last daies a sermon preached before the King / by John Fell.
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Fell, John, 1625-1686.
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1675
(1675)
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Wing F607; ESTC R6424
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13,719
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28
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the Scripture will the tender and delicate women who would scarce adventure to put their feet unto the ground thro delicacy Deut. 28. be content to be despoil'd of their rings and jewels the changeable suits of apparell the mantles the wimples and the crisping pins the glasses and fine linen the hoods and veiles Isa 3. and as he adds take in exchange insted of a sweet smell a stink insted of a girdle a rent iusted of well-set hair baldness and burning insted of beauty But this is not all will they be willing to come to the Tribunal of their Maker and render an account of all the words the thoughts the actions and omissions of an ill led life answer for their noon-day insolence and mid-night revels answer for their own and others guilts the sin of their rebellion and greater sin of their impenitence the accusations of offended justice and deeper charge of slighted Mercy Or lastly can they after the confusion and horror of having all their guilts set in aray before them enhanc'd by the no less numerous overtures of grace and mercy out-brave that dreadful sentence of Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepar'd for the Devil and his Angels Mat. 25. Will they maintain the jolly humor there and like the three Children in the Babylonian furnace sing in the midst of flames and resemble them in being untoucht by pain as they shall in not being wasted and devour'd Will they find arguments of mockery and laughter in the place of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth If they can do this on Gods name let them mock on deny a future Judgment or what is more generous and brave let them provoke and dare it But if they cannot dwell with the devouring fire nor abide with everlasting burnings Isa 33. If they cannot wrestle with Omnipotence nor have an arm like God t will be advisable to take a timely warning and according to the counsel given to Job Chap. 41. 8. to think upon the battell and do no more I shall close all with the inference and in the words of St. Peter pursuant to my Text. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in the which the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolv'd what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God wherein the Heavens being on fire shall be dissolv'd and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwelleth righteousness Wherefore beloved seeing that ye look for such things be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless and account that the long-suffering of the Lord is Salvation Ye therefore seeing you know these things before beware least ye also being led away with the error of the wicked fall from your own stedfastness But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ to him be glory both now and for ever Amen FINIS a ad Nicom Eth. lib. 1. a Epig. lib. 5. a Ptolem. Campanel a Thalmud Abod Zara. c. 1. fol 9. R. Ketina in Ps 92. Hilar. in 17 Mat. Just Mart. in Dial. cum Tryph. quaest ad Orthod 71. Iren. l. 5. c. 28. 30. Cypr. l. de exhort Mart. Lactant. l. 7. c. 14. b Abyden Beros Nic. Damasc Plat. in Tim. Suidas in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex Apollin a Plat. in Tim. Senec. Nat. quaest 3. 13. Ep. ad Polyb. Minut. Fel. Ovid. Metam l. 1. f. 7. Lucan l. 1. Hystasp in Euseb Praep. Justin in Apol. a Suid. in Diag Diog. Laert. Corn. Nep. in Alcib a Arist Rhet. l. 3. Quintil. Instit l. 6.
date shall not be permitted to run out and for the Elects sake those daies shall be shortned Luk. 24. 22. But for a farther confutation of these Disputers the Apostle by a memorable instance that of the Flood an event confest by the whole heathen world the notice of it being transmitted down by general tradition by Histories of all Nations and by the Rites and Ceremonies of their Religions makes it manifest that all things have not as they suggest continued as they were from the beginning of the Creation This saies the Apostle ver 5. they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God the Heavens were of Old and the Earth standing out of the water and in the water whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perisht But the Heavens and the Earth which are now by the same word are kept in store reserv'd unto fire against the day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly men That is men unless wilfully blind must acknowledg the Creation to be an unaccountable riddle of Omnipotence the habitable Earth being so placed that it indeed stands out of the waters but yet so as to be really within the waters the surface of the liquid Element being convexe and in its workings demonstrably above the level of the shores that bound it and nothing but the word of God that said unto the waves Thus far shall you go and no farther during the first Ages of the world with-held that general inundation which afterward succeeded when as the Scripture expresses it the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windowes of Heaven till then shut up were open'd Gen. 7. 11. whereupon immediatly the waters prevail'd upon the Earth And on the other side the force of the Promise of the sâ—me God of truth set down at the 21 verse of the 8 Chapter is the only dam and fence which ever since secures from a repeted ruine Therefore the Heaven and Earth subsist because they are reserv'd against the general conflagration Which by the way was the common expectation of the Heathen World according to that known perswasion of Platonics Stoics and Epicureans also and celebrated frequently by the Doctors of Heathen Theology the Poets In the same manner we see Prisons made strong and safely guarded that the Malefactors may be forth coming at the Assize and goal delivery And therefore upon a true account the preservation of the world is so far from being an argument against a future Judgment that in reference to it its fabric is kept up and hitherto continued In like manner also whereas ill men please themselves much in their impunity and because they have liv'd long without controul think they shall for ever do so they have all reason to consider that this success is of ominous abode unto them their condition is the same with that of the guilty prisoner who is therefore fed upon the public charge and carefully secur'd because he is reserv'd to be brought forth to Execution when in the interim the honest man is left at large without that care or any notice taken of him T is true indeed God has besides another more kind intendment when he indulges this impunity if wicked men would be receptive of it they therefore are repriev'd that they may have an opportunity to sue their pardon out and reconcile themselves to their offended Judg for so it followes in the context ver 9. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men account slackness but is long-suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance And this consideration is of an astonishing importance that the best argument men can frame against the existence of Almighty God and his future Judgment is that he is infinitly good and that he passes over those indignities which in the opinion of the guilty Authors are beyond all sufferance They would not have him be a revenger of their foul demerits no more would he himself he would be a God to bless to save and pardon but not to punish and destroy and therefore wretched as they are they would not have him be at all and madly throw away their hopes when they would rid themselves of fear To such a miserable issue do's brutish guilt engage makes it the interest of men that there should be no Omnipotence to support the world or Providence to guide it no power in Heaven to bless and to protect and what is yet more desperate no mercy there to pardon and forgive But farther suppose no promise had bin made of a future coming to Judgment it will by no means follow that there will be none or that such a dreadful tho but contingent possibility should reasonably be laught at and contemn'd Many things are daily don by us which we never engag'd before hand that we would do and sure t is equal that the most free agent should be allowed the self same liberty But lastly to make the most advantagious supposal for these Disputers of the Text that God had said nay sworn that he would not come to Judgment with what face can they who frequently do what they have bound themselves by horrid execrations never to attemt expect a greater veracity from others then they exercise themselves Moreover since in all things else they disbelieve Almighty God why should they credit him in this or if they will let him be veracious in this one instance how are they sure he meant in earnest what he spoke and did not rally as they love to do T is certain the time will come when he will transcribe their practice and in their fatal exigence laugh at their calamity and mock when their fear comes nor can they easily be sure that he has not begun to treat them in their own way already Now all this being put together can any thing be more unaccountable then that men should by such ropes of sand let themselves down to Hell by such pitiful inconsequences which yet are the best proofs the matter can afford think they have baffled all the expectations and fears nay all the possibilities for nothing else can give security of future Judgment Yet so it is these stupid Arguers have voted themselves to be the Masters of Reason and so they are resolv'd to be A dull inconsequence pointed with a blasphemous scoffe in despight of Logic and common sense is Wit and demonstration to boot and all they that own an awe of God a love of Vertue and fear of Hell are fools and mad men and t is lost labor to dispute against it These Doctors of the scorners Chair are if it may be more infallible then that of Rome I shall not therefore any farther attemt to undeceive them but having thus unravel'd the disputings of the Text in point of consequence and argument I shall now take leave to look upon them in another light as they are a recital of a Prophecy and