Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A44433
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Discourses, or, Sermons on several Scriptures by ... Ezekiel late Lord Bishop of London-Derry.
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Hopkins, Ezekiel, 1634-1690.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing H2729; ESTC R31535
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75,889
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298
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Misery wherein Horrour Despair and Torture for ever dwell and are in their most proper Seat and Habitation It is called a drowning of Men in Destruction and Perdition 1 Timothy 6.9 One would think that to be drowned might signify Death enough of it self but to be drowned in Perdition and Destruction signifies moreover the fatalness and the depth of that Death into which they are plunged It is called a being cast bound Hand and Foot into utter Darkness Mat. 22.13 Matth. 22.13 A being thrown into a Furnace of Fire to be burnt alive Matth. 13.42 50. It is called a Lake of Fire Rev. 20.15 Rev. 20.15 into which wicked Men shall be plunged all over where they shall lye wallowing and rowling among Millions of damned Spirits in those infernal Flames And this Lake is continually fed with a sulphurous stream of Brimstone Rev. 19.20 And this Fire and Brimstone is that which never shall be quenched Mat. 3.12 Matth. 3.12 He will burn up the Chaff with unquenchable Fire And lastly to name no more it is called everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Matth. 25.41 Mat. 25.41 And now we are arrived at the highest pitch of what Sence can feel or Imagination conceive Or if it be possible that in your deepest Thoughts you can conceive any thing more dreadful than this you may call it a Sea of molten Brimstone set all on fire and continually spewing out sooty dark Flames wherein endless Multitudes of sinful Wretches must lye tumbling to all Eternity burnt up with the fierceness of a tormenting and devouring Fire scourged with Scorpions stung with fiery Serpents howling and roaring incessantly and none to pity much less to relieve and help them grinding and gnashing their Teeth through the extremity of their Anguish and Torture If now you can fancy any thing more terrible and dreadful than this Hell is that yea and much more For these things are Metaphorical and though I cannot deny but some of these may be properly and litterally true yet the litteral sense of these Metaphors do but faintly and weakly shew us what the least part of those everlasting Torments are Secondly Another Demonstration of the dreadfulness of this Vengeance is this That it is a Wrath that shall come up unto and equal all our Fears You know what an inventive and ingenious thing Fear is what horrid Shapes it can fancy to it self out of every thing Put but an active Fancy into an Affright and presently the whole World will be filled with strange Monsters and hideous Apparitions The very shaking of a leaf will sometimes rout all the Forces and Resolutions of Men And usually it is this wild Passion that doth inhance all other Dangers and make them seem greater and more dreadful than indeed they are But now here it is impossible for a wicked Man to fear more than he shall certainly suffer Let his Imaginations be hung round with all the dismal Shapes that ever frighted Men out of their Wits let his Fancy dip its Pencil in the deepest Melancholy that ever any Soul was besmeered with and then strive to pourtray and express the most terrible things that it can judge to be the Objects of Fear or the Instruments of Torment yet the Wrath of the great God vastly exceeds all that Fear it self can possibly represent See that strange Expression Psalm 90.11 Who knows the Power of thine Anger according to thy Fear so is thy Wrath. That is according to the fear Men have of thee as dreadful and as terrible as they can possibly apprehend thy Wrath to be so it is and much more Let the Heart of Man stretch it self to the utmost bounds of Imagination and call into its Aid all the things that ever it hath heard or seen to be dreadful let it as that Painter who to make a beautiful Piece borrowed several of the best Features from several beautiful Persons borrow all the dreadful all the direful Representations that ever it met with to make up one most terrible Idea yet the Wrath of God shall still exceed it He can execute more Wrath upon us than we can fear Some wicked Men in this Life have had a Spark of this Wrath of God fall upon their Consciences when they lye roaring out under Despair and fearful Expectations of the fiery Indignation of God to consume and devour them But alas this is nothing to what they shall hereafter feel God now doth but open to them a small chink and crevice into Hell he now doth but suffer a few small drops of his Wrath to fall upon them And if this be so sore and smart that their Fears could never think of any thing more dreadful than what they now suffer O what will it be then when he shall overwhelm them with a whole deluge of his Wrath and cause all his Waves to go over them Fear him says our Saviour who is able to destroy both Soul and Body in Hell yea I say unto you Mat. 10.28 fear him And yet when we have feared according to the utmost extent of our narrow Hearts yet still his infinite Power and Wrath is infinitely more fearful than we can fear it Thirdly Consider the principal and immediate Subject of this Wrath of God and that is the Soul and this adds much to the dreadfulness of it The acutest Torments that the Body is capable of are but dull and flat things in comparison of what the Soul can feel Now when God shall immediately with his own Hand lash the Soul that refined and spiritual Part of Man the principle of all Life and Sensation and shall draw Blood from it every Stripe how intolerable may we conceive those Pains and Tortures to be To shoot poison'd Darts into a Man's Marrow to rip up his Bowels with a Sword red hot all this is as nothing to it Think what it is to have a drop of scalding Oyl or melted Lead fall upon the Apple of your Eyes that should make them boyl and burn till they fall out of your Heads such Torment nay infinitely more than such is it to have the burning Wrath of God to fall upon the Soul We find that Spirits which are infinitely inferiour unto God can make strange Impressions upon the Souls of Men and shall not the great God much more who is the Father of Spirits Yes he can torture them by his essential Wrath. And that God who as the Prophet Nahum speaks Nahum 1.6 can melt Mountains and make Hills and Rocks flow down at his Presence can melt the Souls of the Damned like lumps of Wax for in his Displeasure he doth sometimes do it to the best of Men even in this Life Psal 22.14 Psalm 22.14 My Heart is melted like Wax in the midst of my Bowels Fourthly The Dreadfulness of this Wrath of God may be demonstrated by this That the Punishment of the Damned is reserved by God as his last Work It is a Work