done to so dealt with But had they but eyes in their heads that sight would move and make that their laughter be turned to mourning They would consider what Solomon saith Prov. 11. last verse Behold the Righteous shall be recompenced on the earth how much more the wicked and ungodly in the horrible lake of brimstone They would lay to heart that speech of a greater then Solomon which seems a commentary on that passage of Solomon who when he had said that the workers of wickednesse should cry to the mountains to cover them and to the rockes to fall upon them addeth this if this be done to a greene tree what shall be done to the dry They would conclude as Peter doth when Luke 23. 30. 31. he had told us that Iudgement begins at the house of God 1 Pet. 4. 17. 18. 19. If the Righteous scarce be saved where shall the wicked and sinner appeare And if it begin with us what shall be the end of those who obey not the Gospel of Christ And truly as our Saviour said to cleare the eyes and chear the heart of his dropping and drooping Apostles Consider the Lillies how they neither sow nor spin and yet your father feeds them are not ye better than they So would I speake to fire and fright wilfull men from their wicked maners Consider the Lillies among throns for they neither swear nor be drunke and yet the Father of heaven feedeth them with the bread of trials and tribulations and are not yee worse then they and are not worse things prepared for you in that terrible place of torments yes assuredly such unspeakeable woes and miseries as Solomon and Peter could not expresse Christ himself as he was the mediatour man in the flesh would not reveale to us and therefore they speak interrogatively How much more what and where For the second We are to believe that in hell all the wicked and ungodly all that prophane the Lords Sabbaths by selling their wares without necessity all that live in any sinne whatsoever without true and timely repentance All in this Citie Parish in this Citie in this kingdome in this world all that ever were that now are that hereafter shall be even all that forget God have no care to keep his commandments they shall all meet together all they and none but they not one of the Saints of the Lord no not one of his faithfull sonnes and servants shall there meet and be tormented in all extremitie to all eternitie And as this cryeth to such men as long as they are on earth O consider this you that forget God lest he teare you in pieces when there shall be none to deliver you Psalm 50. 22. So the Lord when he would expresse the horror of hell its extreme and most terrible torments names a catalogue of such cursed ones as must to the lake of fire and brimstone For instance Revel 21. 8. the fearfull and the unbeleeving and the abominable and Murtherers and whoremongers and sorcerers and Idolaters and all Lyars shall have part in the lake that burnes with fire and brimstone c. As if he should say when the Lord hath his foes as Nero of Rome desired to have his all together to cut off their heads all at a blow when as Iehu once made enquiry there is not one of the Lords Prophets there not one of his owne people for whose sake or at whose entreaty he used to stop or stay his sury here on earth when wicked mens sinnes made him send pestilences and plagues then he will put them to all extremity breath upon them with the utmost of his fury use no moderation in or mitigation of his heavy anger and hot displeasure But you will say it is true indeed that these reasons do make it manifest why hell torments shall be so terrible But why should they be perpetuall why should we who sinne but for a season suffer so long as Jehovah breaths that is to say for ever and ever To which I answer that temporary sins deserve eternall or infinite torments for divers just and weighty causes but I will onely insist on two First the Offendeds person Secondly the Offenders purpose For the first of these we are to know that sinne the least sinne the first sinne that ever we act is done against God the God of heaven against an Eternall an infinite God as David acknowledgeth even then when he had broken onely the second Table Against thee thee onely have I sinned Psal 51. And surely most pat to our purpose doth our book of Psalmes translate and turne into verse both that and that which follows For thee alone I have offended commiting evil in thy sight And if I were therefore condemned you were thy judgements just and right And to come and close with some of your consciences 〈◊〉 any here shall here after prophane the Sabbath by selling 〈…〉 base fellows who let their families fast at home who of doe you thinke you anger in this brother wicked wilfulnesse you will say a few Priests well it is true you anger me an unworthy preacher of the glorious Gospel for I tell you still I aime at your salvation in setting before you this death and damnation But doe you anger no man else yes one he who is God and man He who saith He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth mee will be certainly angry with you and is there none else angry yes it followeth in that very place and he that despiseth mee despiseth him that sent mee So that God the everlasting God is offended with you when you breake the Sabbath by that or any other prophanation by that or any other sinne or iniquity And how just it is with the Lord to make you know whose Law you breake by it by damning your souls eternally in hell for it you may see by that which is done by Kings and Princes when they are prouoked Doe not Kings when men commit treason which God Almighty preserve and keepe us from doe they not hang up the Traitors carcases and then hang up by and by Proclamation commanding in paine of the like punishment that none touch or take downe those Traitors carcases And why I pray you doe Kings doe thus not for further revenge on the lucklesse creature the livelesse carcasse No but to make it a lasting monument that the thought of it might not rade in an houre in a moment yea if he could he would have it hang there for ever and a day for ever and ever And why all this but as for our warning so to tell us that he is no peasant petty puny but a Prince a Potentate a Majesty a Monarch And in like manner the God of heaven as he is known by his executing judgement so he is known to be as he is an Everlasting an Infinite Majesty by appointing for such as offend him an everlasting an infinite punishment For the second the
are some so discontent with their present condition that they think to ease themselves with their owne destruction by making away themselves as they say and as it is called But out alas as they cannot doe it as they cannot make away themselves at all their eyes may be plucked out their hands and feet may be cut off but the souls within them cannot be torn or cannot possibly dye cannot at all be destroyed so could they doe it could they teare it out of their bodies and bowels what would they gain or get by it to what purpose or profit were it for then alas the same minute the same moment they drop downe to this Tophet to these torments where they must forever be in woe and misery unspeakable uncessable unconceiveable uncomparable And therefore to these impatient ones I may say as the Prophet Amos saith to others in some thing like them Amos 5. 18. 19. 20. Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord to what end is it for you the day of the Lord is darknesse and not light As if a man did fly from a Lion and a Beare met him or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall and a Serpent bit him Shall not the day of the Lord be darkenesse and not light even very dark and no brightnesse in it O how much better were it for them I am sure the other is much more terrible to keep out of hell as long as they can like him that did eate and drinke though he not much mind to his meat that he might keep as much as might be from the company of damned dead ones and not to run and rush in affection and to desire to doe it in action into the lake of fire and brimstone into the horrible place of torments where the breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone kindles it Now I come to the Use of Information which flows from the doctrine now delivered that the torments of hell are as long and as strong as the force of great Jehovahs breathings And these Informations have relations 1. To the High Priest 2. To the Preacher 3. To the People Concerning the first that is the high Priest the Lord Jesus the onely Priest if we speak strictly and every true Christian it a Priest as well as King if we take the words largely and not in such a retired meaning this doctrine informes us of these two things 1. How needfull it was for Christ to be God 2. How thankfull we should be for Christ to God For the first of these as the sufferings of Christ had not been proper to us so had they not been profitable for us if Christ had not been God For sith the torments of hell are so extreme and so everlasting what could the death of all the Apostles yea of all the Angels if it had been possible for them to be passible have done to the freeing of us from those extreme everlasting torments yea when we lye in the day of our deaths gasping and going towards heaven and hell for ever then will Sathan say unto us now you must be damnd for ever and ever No will we say we are redeemed and freed from it and that by the precious blood of Christ But he will reply unto us as deriding our helpe and hopes It is unpossible that Christ his bloud should free you from hell sith it is to last forever whereas the sufferings of Christ were In the Extremity but three dayes In his Ministry but three years In his whole Nativity but three and thirty years And what coherence or correspondence have the torments of hell with such kind of sufferings what now will an Arrian answere or any one else who is not akilled as well as schooled in the doctrine the excellent doctrine of Christs eternall Divinity or Deity surely then there will be no way to escape the eternall flames and Sathans furious fiery dart but by comforting his precious soul as the Lord commands us to comfort his people that is to say by telling and teaching them by that doctrine of Christ his Deity that the Lord hath received double for all our iniquities and abominations that is to say that by his sufferings who was an eternall person and by his suffering the wrath of his Father an eternall person the Lord hath freed us from an eternall lake of brimstone and brought and bought us an eternall weight of glory And therefore our Saviour when he had promised to his people to give them eternall life concludeth that promise with this confirmation I and my Father are one as if he should say as you by breaking my Fathers law who was an eternall God have deserved eternall torments by your temporary sinning here for a season so I being an eternall person have by my temporary sufferings in regard of time freed you from those eternall torments and provided for you an everlasting crown of glory sith I am as he is coeternall and coequall See therefore how meet it was that he should be God as well as man All the Apostles all the Angels not being able to free one soul from one sinne and that the least one and see how needfull also it is for us to say in the end of our lives In the beginning was the Word and that Word was with God and was God Secondly this truth teacheth us how thankfull we should be to God for Christ sith quanto gravior tanto suavior the deeper the misery the sweeter the mercy when we are freed from the feare of it as well as the danger And surely the thought of these unspeakable unquenchable flames sets an high price on that more then precious bloud which was shed for this very end that we may not be throwne to those endlesse torments And therefore as Paul when he sets himselfe to cry I thank God through Iesus Christ cryes first O wretched Rom. 7. 24. man that I am and O death where is thy sting O hell where 1 Cor. 15. 55. is thy victory So should we take a deep draught of the woefulnesse of hells horrour in our retiredst meditation that it may move us to praise the Lord for and prize the cratch and the crosse of our Saviour We should say as the Church in another case If the Lord himself had not been on our side if he had not endured extremities for us the waters had drowned us the Psal 124. deep waters had gone over our soules yea the fire the fire of hell had for ever burned our souls burned our bodies in the lake of brimstone the place of torments where the breath of the Lord is most hot and heavy and will burne to the very bottome without either brink or bottome But praised be God who hath not given us over as a prey unto their teeth Yea praised be God who by the precious blood of his Sonne hath freed us from those flames and purchased for us a
for wronging Vincent so Which thing I know he chiefly doth desire And then Gods greatnesse goodnesse will admire R. S. To all my Friends in St. GEORGE his Parish in Southwarke Mr Friends for I suppose I 've some such there Profit I pray you by these Sermons here And I will pray that God who must doe all Would make his Spirit on your spirits fall That so in truth and spirit you may doe What Presse as well as Pulpet moves you to For I must tell you by these presents here If you practice not what I preached there That not alone the words which then I spake Will you without excuses wholly make Not onely all the lines which now I print Will cry against you and will never stint But more and chiefly all the wrongs which then I did sustaine from those unruly men For preaching these unto you will complaine That they i th gracious sence were felt in vaine And surely then ith grievous sence you le see That not a word a line a blow can bee Receiv'd in vaine indeed but record beare Against all such as smite and see and heare And I would have you be assur'd as well If all shall help one precious soul from hell I will esteeme my suffrings there as sweet As any thanks wherewith I elsewhere meet Read Friends remember ruminate and doe So you le be safe from hell and crowned too Yours H. Vincent Nomine sum Vincens animas ego vincere quaero O vincam vincam gloria magna Deo The Summe of Mr. HUMFRY VINCENTS Sermons as they were preached and penned by his owne mouth and hand ISAIAH 30. last verse last branch The breath of the Lord as a streame of brimstone kindleth it THe whole verse containeth a short and sharpe description of Tophet that is to say by way of allusion or application of the torments of hell It is here two wayes setforth or here are two things set downe concerning it 1 The certainty of it 2 The Severity of it The Certainty of it is set downe by 1 The Antiquity of it in these words Tophet is prepared of old 2 By the Generality of it in these words it is even prepared for the King if he be wicked and willfull let us blesse the Lord that we have a good King not such an one as that was The Severity is shewed two wayes also by the 1. Extremity of it in these words he hath made it deepe and large the burning of it is fire and much wood 2. Eternity of it in these words the words of the text the breath of the Lord as a river of brimstone kindleth it Now the point of Doctrine taught from hence is this Doctrine As long as God breaths and as strong as God breaths so long and so strong shall the torments of hell endure Now because the Text is terrible and the doctrine dreadfull delivered thence I will first give these Cautions to take off the tartnesse of it so farre as is lawfull and possible from broken bruised bleeding consciences First I confesse I am an Adamite and have within mee an Adamant a rocky flinty steely heart or else I should like Origen with his text and teares at least speake so pittifully so pathetically so passionately so compassionately that this my teaching should have some coherence some correspondence with those torments I speak of O to see how merry or mad rather many millions of creatures are who as Doctor Hall hath taught us dance a galliard over the mouth of hell fire the lake of brimstone Where the breath c. Secondly No man can find a fault with me who finds not first a fault in himselfe sith as our Saviour seems to expound it their worme never dyeth and the fire goeth not out speaking in the third person as well as the plurall number those torments Marke 9. being so proper to the Reprobate that Gods Elect shall never be toucht with them And therefore as our Saviour said to the women fear not yee for yee seek Iesus when he Matt. 28. had made the Souldiers quake So I professing that my scope and aime is to make them quake who wage warre against the Heavens would not have Christs women to fear we men and women who seek the Lord in the very truth and uprightnesse of soule must not feare any whit at all at the mention of hells eternall torments sith they shall not be overwhelmed with them nor once feel them though it may be may fear them Thirdly as it was said by Christ to his Father thou wilt not leave my Soule in hell So I will not by Gods great blessing leave your souls in the lake of brimstone But I will shew you not onely your case but also the course you must take to get out of it I will first discover your miserie and after that deliver the remedy And therefore I cry concerning this discovery Hands off or heart on Heare all or heare none Fourthly if ever I preach unto you againe after I have finished the point in hand I will tell you God willing of life everlasting So that this Text like a Iohn Baptist as it comes roaring in the wildernesse of wickednesse so shall it be afore-runner of Jesus a way maker for life everlasting to make us the more to prize it and to praise the God of heaven for it and to doe every thing that we may attain it according to that of the wisest Solomon Prov. 15. 24. The way of life is above to the wise that he may escape hell below that is when a wise man considers that he must goe to hell below unlesse he goe the way of life that thought will be above objections and all outward and inward oppositions to the contrary to make him esteeme that way of life and all his life long to be walking in it Fifthly so long as we are hearing of hell so long we are yet out of hell If any man therefore should say I will stay no longer to heare of hell of the lake of fire and that breath of the Lord which as a river of brimstone kindleth it And the Lord should meet him at the Church doore and smite him dead and tumble him downe to hell he departing in discontent at the truth and text we treat on he will wish within this minute that he were here again hearing of hell and not there howling in hell O no doubt but there are there many millions who would give millions of worlds that they were not in hell not howling in hell Sixthly and lastly Let no man say that he will goe to disprove what I have said for as the Prophet said to the King If thou come againe God hath not spoken by mee 1 Kings 22. So say I to those that goe thither if ever you return from hell my doctrine is utterly false which saith that the Torments of hell shall endure forever and ever even as long as Jehovah breatheth In almost all
is the burden of the Psalmists song when he slew them then they sought him Psal 107. So many Manasses the Prodigall and many others have come to God in their poverty and misery who when they were wealthy waxed wanton and kickt up the heel against him And commonly ordinarily usually when poverty cannot part mens soules and their sinnes it parts them and his Spirit and he sayes I will smite you no more till I tumble you downe to the place of torments O that therefore for I say againe I say it for this that you might be warned O that ye poore would come in your povertie least after your earthly poverty you meet with that hellish misery where the breath of the Lord as a river of brimstone kindleth the fire So much to answer the objection in regard of mens Persons Now I come to that objection which respects Professions Object O say many this were true if it were preached among Pagans but we are Protestants and by being Protestants wee shall escape the lake of brimstone Answ To which I answer that as of all men Protestants indeed reall Protestants are most free most farre from Tophet such as stand for the Lord Jesus alone against the Devil the world and themselves so the wicked the wilfull Protestants such as call themselves so and thinke thereby to escape damnation and yet contrary to Gods commandment will sell their drinke to drunkards on the Sabbath whilst their poore families fast and famish in their owne houses I say such as say they are Protestants and are not shall above all the people in the world be sure to be damned severely tormented and that for these two reasons First from Gods Protestations Secondly From Gods Preparations For the first of these God hath protested solemnly sworne the damnation of such as have his voice sounding in their eares and will not hearken will not obey it It is every day read in our Church and wisely appointed by way of preparation to other parts of Gods word and holy worship To day if yee will hear his voice harden not your hearts and then to such as refuse and resist he saith I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest not into Canaan a type of the kingdome of heaven not into the kingdome of heaven and therefore necessarily must to hell I never read at least remember not that ever the Lord hath sworne the death and damnation of Pagans The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it and it will lie heavy and hard on their souls to doome and damne them to everlasting woe unlesse at length they get the knowledge and faith of the Lord Jesus But as there is a main and manifest difference in those words of our blessed Saviour Whosoever shall fall on that stone shall be broken but on whomsoever it shall fall it shall grind him to powder Matth. 21. So God himself turns Protestant for the cursing and confounding of such false Protestants as are and abide in their damned wayes untill they die as sure as he is truth who saith Verily Verily to such as professed the paths of pietie except a man be borne againe he cannot see the Kingdome of God For the second that is Gods preparations wee are to know that willfull Protestants are 1. Fitted for and then 2. Fatted for endlesse torments They are 1. Fitted with Sermons 2. Fatted with Sacraments First I say fitted with Sermons Gods Ministers words will make you without words their speeches will make you not cloke you but uncloke you their vocall trumpets will fit you to hear with horrour the reall trumpet at the last day if you wallow in the lusts of your souls and walke in your sinnes without repentance 2 Cor. 2. In a word the Word of life will be a savour of death to death to you as many of you as plead you are Protestants and live the lives of Pagans and Papists prophaning the sanctified Sabbaths of Christ by selling beer to such beastly base Belly-gods as make their wives for want of maintenance not feast but fast and ready to famish with their children and servants at home in their houses Secondly I say they are fatted with Sacraments Foolish false and feigned Protestants doe dayly drink down their own damnation in that most sacred Supper of the Lord so saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 11. 29. But because he foresaw that it would touch and so trouble many mens minds he saith before as I of this and of all my whole discourse concerning this dreadfull damnation What I delivered to you I received of the Lord verse 23. as if he had said if ye will needs quarrell quarrell with my Master not with me his messenger But you will say that in so saying I doom and damne without all remedie for past helpe past hope also if there be no cure there needs no care To which I answer that as I and that Apostle say no more then your Common Prayer book saith which hath these very words and syllables then we are guilty of the body and bloud of the Lord we eate and drink our own damnation c. So I my selfe did three or foure times eate and drink mine own damnation also even in the 17. 18. 19. 20 yeare of my life Now the way to prevent our going into this Tophet this place of torments is to take a deep vomit of sorrow to purge out this poyson and prevent everlasting perdition and as Solomon saith to his sonne above all thy gettings get understanding so say I to my selfe and every one above all our sorrow let our chiefest sorrow be this that we were guilty and guilty of Bloud yea and guilty of the bloud of the Lord as it is in the 27 verse And still I beseech you remember that I speak all by way of prevention Now I come to render the reasons of the doctrine delivered to you to shew you why the torments of hell are so extreame or as strong as the breath of the Lord is and then why they are everlasting or abide as long as the breath of the Lord abides For the first Those torments are so extreame because of the 1. Nature And then the 2. Number of those that must inhabite in that Tophet that place of torments And both these are set downe together in one and the same Psalme and verse Psal 9. 17. The wicked shall be turned to hell and all the Nations that forget God The wicked shall be turned into hell There is the Nature of the Inhabitants namely that they are foes not friends who must goe thither And all the Nations that forget God There is the Number of the Inhabitants For the first of these wee are to know that they are not Gods friends but his foes who must there be tormented in fire and brimstone Indeed here on earth God hath scourges for his very friends his owne servants and wicked men are jocund and joviall glad at heart when they see them so
othermatters it is best to speake from self experience but for the torments of hell and the Pestilence the Lord grant that we never know further then what wee learn from Gods book and mans reports And so much for the Cautions save onely that I make profession that what I speake of the torments of hell is to preserve and keep you out of hell that you knowing the danger may strive to escape the damnation 1. Now I come to answer a question 2. And then to remove an objection 3. And then to render a reason 4. And then to make application Quest. For the first of these the question is whether there be not degrees of torments Answ To which I answer that of the least degree of all that is true which is taught in my text that as long and as strong as God breaths so long and so strong hels torments abide But yet on these grounds or for these reasons there are degrees in that lake of fire and brimstone First Some commit more sinnes then others and so shall be sure to have more torments then others according to those texts Revel 18. Rom. 2. 4 5 6. And therefore I would not have you sinne at all yet as oft as I thinke on this I cry with Solomon Be not over wicked Ecclesiastes 2. Some have more meanes to restraine them then others have and so shall have a deeper damnation then others have according to that of our blessed Saviour Matth. 11. when he speaking of Bethsaida Chorazin and Capernaum who had abounded with means and mercies It shall bee easier for the land of Sodome in the day of Iudgement then for thee And herein as our Saviour informs us that if the blind lead the blind both shall fall into the ditch we may say applyingly and that most properly the people if they be blind shall fall up to the knees in it the Minister if he be blind shall fall up to the middle in it the Bishop if he be blind shall fall over head and eares in it 3. There are some who not onely have more means but also more formall knowledge according to that of our blessed Saviour Luke 12. That servant who knoweth his Masters will and doth things contrary thereto shall be beaten with many stripes Many internall stripes in their spirits whiles they abide here on earth many infernall stripes in hell in the lake of fire and brimstone 4 Some have more hypocrisie then others and accordingly shall have more torments as our Saviour hath also told us Matth. 23. Woe to you Hypocrites who under colour of long prayers devoure Widows houses you shall receive greater damnation A Covetous fellow would faine cover and cloake his Covetousnesse and how I pray thee wilt thou doe it why I le become a professour of Religion and so cover and cloake it entirely And see how fairly thou hast covered it before thou wast a professour thou hadst a great C written in thy forehead but now thou hast two Capitall letters written there even a great C and a great H a Covetous Hypocrite And when death and doome appears thou shalt have one degree of Torments for being a covetous person another for being an Hypocrite according to that of Ambrose Dissembled Pietie is double iniquitie 5 Some have more censoriousnesse then others and accordingly shall have deeper damnation as it is said by that son of Thunder Iames 3. 1. My Brethren be not many masters knowing that ye shall receive the greater damnation There are some such medling masters that they will tattle of and taske every one one is precise in their opinion because he loves not but loaths a Ceremonie another is prophane in their esteeme because he can endure a controverted circumstance Nay there are some so divilized that when they cannot impeach mens practises they will implead and improve their purposes as the Devil though he saw his good works and heard his good words would yet affirme that he did it for his hedge Iob. 1. But let us know that whosoever when his neighbour hath done good actions will yet suspect evil affections whereas in the same Chapter wherein Christ saith Iudge not he saith afterwards Ye shall know them by their fruits Matth. 7. 1. 15 16 shall as censurers as condemners have a deeper degree of torments Sixthly Some have more authority then others more power more high places and of these especially my Text speaketh as we may see by these words in the context It is even prepared for the King as I said at first so I say still let us praise God that we have a good King and not such an one as this was Now for the Objection it is of two sorts for First Some object their Persons Secondly Some object their Professions for the escaping of hell torments though they live lye and dye in their sinnes Concerning Persons First Some object their Prosperity Secondly Some object their Poverty The Divel perswadeth rich men that howsoever they live as they list yet they never shall be damned because they have place or power But they must know that for these causes they must needs be damned if they dye in their sinnes Remember still that I therefore shew you the danger that you may so escape the damnation First Because their consolation is received Secondly Because their conversation is perceived Thirdly Because Gods expectation is deceived Fourthly Because the Divel their master is damned already I say first hearken ye rich men you who are rich must needs be damned if you be not blest with a second birth because your portion is paid you already according to the speech of Abraham to Dives Remember sonne thou hast had thy good things and that of our blessed Saviour Woe to you who are Luke 16. rich for you have received your consolation And this I thinke makes many Gentlemen turne Papists that so proving a purgatory Luke 6. if it were possible they might escape the lake of fire sith living in their sinnes they cannot to heaven I say secondly give eare still you rich men you of power and place must needs be cast to that lake of fire unlesse you be cast in a new mould because the Divel through your sides draweth after him millions of souls if Dives give the poore man nothing the text will tell us that no man gave him And so if rich men give no bread of life to their poore souls will not hear repeat and read the Scriptures none of their family friends or familiars will feed their poore souls but make them fast and quite famish them Let Saul kill himselfe and his armour bearer will kill himselfe let rich men kill their souls and all their neighbours will kill theirs also if it be but for cursed company And this doth make the Divel so desirous to get Landlords and great ones on his side And this made Dives in hell so cager to have one sent to warn his five Brethren that they come
precepts who were never broken in heart for breaking those sacred saving precepts and breaking over those patterns and those promises These wanting that depth of earth can never got to heaven but must to hell if they doe not hereafter lament their not lamenting before they began to be knowne to be of that number which must escape the fiery flames which the breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone kindles For the third That obedience which goes for currant in the court of heaven and saith to such as professe it that they cannot be cast to tormenting Tophet is growing it daily encreaseth groweth duly bigger and better more and more savory sollid and setting downe all objections which strive to stop it in its holy paths of purity in the way in which he walketh in whom it is in life and power in truth and spirit But alas mens growings blinder baser back warder in all the things which helps towards heaven and would heave us higher had we hearts to them proves plainly to such as see it that most men are made of another kind of mould then they were composed of in respect of Christianity then they were in those primative purest holy dayes when Christians were so glewed together were so full of growing and groning Now search I beseech you your soules yee men and women who would not be damnd see whether your seeming obedience glew you to Christians as well as commandments have opened your hearts with such dew-distilling sorrow for sin ihat as plants refreshed with raine your soules grow more enamored with those paths which are pleasant as well as pure leading from hel to life everlasting Of a truth that I may grow nearer towards conclusion as they who are so qualified may not onely qualifie their feares concieved at the hearing of hell crying weepe and wail without end at the thoughts of Tophet whose torments haue no end but also make them truly merry at the very heart because they are free and far from the place and case in which Gods fury for ever kindles the fiery flames So they who cull and chuse in their doing duties take on them a profession without taking on or making confession of their false foolish filthy wayes or rather wandrings they that stand at a stay continually never growing or groning heavenwards but grow weary of precise and punctuall performances religious rules doctrines disciplines are traviling towards Tophet and will run unlesse they return into that fire which my text treats of and which the breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone kindles And this be spoken to all in generall search your selues yee search your selves O ye who would not be damned for ever before the decree come forth before ye be as chaffe before the fiercenesse of the Lord come upon you before the day of the Lords wrath come upon you Zeph. 2. 2. I am to speak to those being commonly the greatest number who are ignorant or disobedient in such sort as is here discovered and so should they dye in that case would be shortly in a dolefull dreadfull case howling in hell crying out that ever they were borne frying in the fire which The breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone kindles Now to these our blessed Saviour cryes again and againe And if thy hand offend thee out it off it is better for thee to enter into life maimed then having two hands to goe into hell into the fire that never shall be quenched Where their worme dieth not and the fire is not quenched And if thy foot offend thee cut it off it is better for thee to enter halt into life then having two feet to be cast into hell into the fire that never shall be quenched Where their worme dieth not and the fire is not quenched And if thy eye offend thee plucke it out is it better for thee to enter into the Kingdome of God with one eye then having two eyes to be cast into hell fire Where their worme dieth not and the fire is not quenched Mark that he would have the hand and foot off and the eye out but here 's not a word of the eare off men and women must have their ears on still as a speciall meanes to keepe them from the fire there is no cropping ears in heavens court but they who will not part with their hair how should wee think they will part with their hands yea it is to be greatly feared that sith these will come to our Churches and carry Bibles who will by no meanes leave their lusts as near as their hands as deare as their feet I say it is to be feared that they will be bound hand and feet and be throwne to utter darkenesse where is weeping and gnashing of teeth and then they will become speechlesse having nothing to say for themselves when their feet are bound which brought them to the temple when their hands are bound which handled the Bible when their hands are bound and then no fighting when their feet are bound and then no flying Mat. 22. 11. 12. 13. And I call upon you as loud as I can to doe that which my master means that is to say to avoid and abhor any thing every thing never so deare to you never so neare to you unlawfull profits pomps or pleasures which any wayes hurt or hinder from seeking the way of saluation that so you may escape those everlasting flames of fire yea I beg of you and beseech you to doe any thing every thing all things which will doe any thing in that matter of greatest moment towards the escaping of that Tophet that place of torments O put to all you are and all you haue all the powers of your souls and parts of your bodies imploy improve all your minutes as well as your mites in saving your selves from this froward generation and so from those unspeakeable unconceiveable unmatchable torments Doe as Solomon sheweth that you should doe as wee shewed at the begining The way of life is above to the wise that he may escape hel below Prov. 15. 24. As if the spirit had said if any man or thing shall arise in your hearts to hold from heaven shew to your souls the burning flames which are below in the lake of fire and brimstone and you will quickly shew your selves wise men you will esteeme the word and the preaching a speciall means to make us able to say in truth we shall not be damnd above objections above oppositions above all that stops or staies us from seeking striving struggling for life You will happily say what must wee doe that we may escape that place of torments To the which I answer that though time passeth swiftly I will shew you 1. What the word 2. What the world would would have you doe in the present case For the first The word in a few words bids us doe these three things as wee have them in three examples Or these three
A Ladder 3. Water For the first you would get Company you would call upon one the other crying Fire fire fire fire save us from it help to quench it And O that you would do so directly for the saving of your soules for the preserving of you from those torments which are extreme and endure for ever O that you would get together that you would goe one to another that you aske one the other the question How doth your soule and How doth your soule O would you say to each other thus What say you neighbour to that which we heard to day Is it true that there is an hell and that there are such torments in it that they are so terrible so everlasting that they never shall end but abide for evermore O what what shall we doe what will you doe what shall I do I feare I shall even be damned in hell even in hell and that in such extremity and that for all eternity But me thinkes I heare some of you say to me I can finde in my heart to goe to his house but not to this house he is a Puritan but I tell you if there were a fire such a fire in your towne or houses there would no word at all of Puritan but all the noise would bee Neighbour neighbour fire fire helpe neighbour help And O that the thought of this fire which the breath of the Lord for ever kindleth would take away all hostilitle all carnall crooked conceit of enmity and make you joyn hearts heads and hands for the quenching of it so farre as concernes your escaping for the preserving of you from it as Saul was forced to depart from David when he was neare him at the mouth of the Cave to the end he might save his kingdome which the Philistines then had invaded O that you would walke and talk together like yet living creatures and now loving neighbours how you might escape hell the everlasting lake of fire and brimstone I assure you it would much availe you towards your freedome from the fiery flames which The breath of the Lord like a streame of brimstone doth kindle it Secondly if there were fire in your Towne and houses which the Lord evermore keep same from you you would immediately seeke a Ladder And O that if any among you be stuck to the heart and stung with this Sermon at the hearing of these unspeakable unquenchable flames of hell O that you would goe to your Minister Ministers are Ladders Iacobs Ladders reaching from earth to the height of heaven and say to him when your soules are sinking Sir be good to us helpe us beale us heave us up from the sinks of sorrow we see death ready to seize on us hell ready to swallow us utterly Thus did that Jaylor those Pharisies those Converts before mentioned they roated and ranne to their Preachers crying Acts 16. Mat. 3. Acts 2. What shall we doe to be saved But O alas we the Ministers of the Gospel grow greedy of filthy lucre waxer wanton in spending our time upon trifling novelties niceties because we want worke or purer employment are not at all enquired after concerning the sores of your soules the bellowings and breathings of them the blemishes and breathes in them where is there almost a man among millions who makes the mone for a man of God one of a thousand to whom he may cry for counsell when his Conscience is almost confounded But you O people who have pretious soules in you and which soules must surely be turned to Tophet if you be not turned topsie-turvie from blindnesse and badnesse to true Religion and holy Righteousnesse doe you that which the fewest number doe they are many and often mighty ones which walke in the way which drawes to destruction get you Ladders and get upon them make your Ministers minde their studies when they heare you pouring out your hearts and posing them and putting them often times to their prayers for more wisedome to resolve your doubtaind difficulties But chiefly ah doe it as you doe not desire to be damned goe speedily to those Ministers by whose work men must be saved when you heare of hels extremitie and are afraid that you shall fall in it They will not with the Watchmen smite you they will reare you restore you recover you they have more leasure and more learning then I have more time to doe the thing which will stop your soules from sinking and stirre them from despaire as well as securitie when Satan sets before you your due desert of eternall damnation Above all I desire and require you that if any thing hath been spoken in my two Sermons which puts any of you to your plunges and puzzles your soules by saying you must be damned that you enquire of some Embassadour of Jesus Christ whether it were true as well as terrible holy Doctrine as well as threatned deepe damnation And I for my part if any of my Brethren being a word for it will be ready to recall and recant it and shew you a softer way if there be any such in the blessed Bible to escape this flaming fire of Tophet which The breath of the Lord like a streame of brimstone doth kindle it The third thing that you would doe would be to cry Water water should the noise of Fire fire be heard among you which the Lord to his good pleasure keep far from you And O that this cry of Fire Fire this extremely tormenting fire this everlastingly tormenting fire would cause you to cry for a double Water and double your cry for it with single hearts and earnest spirits O that you would cry for the water of pardon for forgivenesse of sinnes for the washing of your soules through his bloud who came by Water and bloud not by water only but by water and bloud out of whose more then precious side came Water and bloud for the soules 1 Joh. 5. 6. even of Publicans most prophane ones of vicious villanous men or miscreants O that the feare of this quenchlesse fire would make you cry Lord have mercy upon us not as many try it without any sence of miserie and so without capability of mercy tossing and tumbling the Name of the Lord as I would be loath to have my name tossed crying Lord have mercy upon us Christ have mercy upon us Lord have mercy upon us in such haste and show of heat as if they meant to sell their Lords have mercy upon us for money and would get as many of them into their hands as they could to sell them hereafter Whereas if they thought of hell of its extreme and eternall torments it would make them with deliberation yea with the utmost of their devotion to cry Lord have mercy upon us we are else undone for ever O I say that the feare of this fire would make you cry Christ have mercy upon us and to continue so crying till your hearts he sprinkled