Learning with Diligence and Delight is intent in his Studies and though ingaged in other Affairs yet his Thoughts are still conversant about Learning In short the fear of Hell may be only a natural Affection that recoils from what is tormenting to the Body and is consistent with the Love of Sin but the hope of Heaven as 't is revealed in the Scripture is a spiritual Affection and always joined with the hatred of Sin Now the great design of the Gospel is by the fear of Hell as a powerful preparative to make way for the love of Heaven If carnal indulgent Sinners are not roused by a quick apprehension of Hell they will securely enjoy their pernicious Pleasures and grow old in Sin and at last die impenitent No offers of Mercy will prevail till they are storm'd by the Terrors of the Lord. But when the fear of eternal Misery has made a breach divine Grace victoriously enters and takes Possession The convinced and contrite Sinner most humbly and willingly embraces the precious Promises wherein not only Pardon and Indemnity is offered but the richest favour the advancing him into a State of Eternal Glory Thus the sweetest Hopes succeed tormenting Fears and the Obedience which before had a mixture of involuntary flows from the intire consent of the Soul with filial Freedom Before the particular Description of the pains of the Damned I shall observe in General That the full representation of Hell is beyond all human Expression nay our most fearful Thoughts cannot equal the Horror of it Who knows the Power of thine Anger What are the prepared Plagues by infinite Justice and Almighty Wrath for obstinate Sinners It is impossible for the most guilty and trembling Conscience to inlarge its sad apprehensions according to the degrees of that Misery The Lord will shew forth his Wrath and make his Power known in the Vessels fitted for Destruction None can tell what God can do and what Man shall suffer when made capable to endure such Torments for ever as now would presently consume him As the Glory of Heaven cannot be fully understood till enjoyed so the Torments of Hell cannot be comprehended till felt But we may have some discovery of those unknown Terrors by the following Considerations 1. The Wisdom of God requires that the Punishment threatned in his Law as it must so be firmly decreed that all obstinate Rebels shall of necessity undergo it so it must incomparably exceed all temporal Evils to which Men may be exposed for their Obedience to the divine Commands Otherwise the threatning would not be an effectual restraint from Sin For the propinquity of an Evil makes a strange impression on the Mind and present Fear makes a Person sollicitous to avoid the incursion of a danger ready to seize on him without forecasting to prevent an evil look'd on at a distance Therefore that the sanction of the divine Law may preserve the Precepts inviolable that there may be a continual reverence of it and a fixed resolution in the Heart of Men not to transgress the penaly threatned must be in its own nature so terrible that the fear of it may conquer the apprehension of all present Evils that can be inflicted to force us to Sin As on the other side to confirm our purpose to please God in all things the Reward of Obedience must be of infallible assurance that all and only those who serve him faithfully shall enjoy in the future State and so excellent that all the allurements of the World may in comparison with it be of no consideration to divert us from our Duty They command the Heart and have its most prevailing Respects from whom is expected the most desireable Good and feared the most terrible Evils Therefore our Saviour warns his Disciples Fear not them that can kill the Body make that part die that is mortal but fear him that after he has killed has power to cast into Hell yea I say unto you fear him All the exquisite Tortures that the most cruel contriving and powerful malice of wicked Men can inflict is so much less than the Wrath to come that avoid the one and venture on the other is more brutish Stupidity than that of the Horse or Mule that starts at the shadow of a Bush and springs over a Precipice 2. The Judgments of God executed here are light and tolerable in comparison of the punishment of Sinners in the next Life 1. Temporal Evils of all kinds and degrees as Pestilence Famine War are designed for the bringing of Men to a sight and sence of their Sins and are common to Good and Bad here And if his anger be so terrible when he chastises as a compassionate Father what is his fury when he punishes as a severe Judg If the correcting Remedies ordered by his Wisdom and Love for the conversion of Sinners be so sharp what is the deadly revenge of his irreconcileable Hatred 2. The Miseries of the present State are allayed with some enjoyments None are so universally afflicted so desolate but something remains to sweeten the sence of their Sufferings Judgments are tempered with Mercies No Man is tortur'd with all Diseases nor forsaken of all Friends nor utterly without Comfort And when the Affliction is irremediable yet if our grief produces Sympathy in others 't is some ease to the troubled Mind and by that assistance the Burthen is made lighter But in Hell the Damned are surrounded with Terrors encompast with Flames without any thing to refresh their Sorrows not a drop of Water to a Lake of Fire All that was esteemed Felicity here is totally withdrawn Death puts a period to their Lives and the Pleasures of Sin for ever For 't is most just that those Objects which were abused by their Lusts and alienated their Hearts from their Duty and Felicity should be taken away And which is extream Misery in their most pitiful State they are absolutely unpitied Pity is the cheap and universal Lenitive not denied to the most guilty in their Sufferings here for the Law of Nature instructs us to pity the Man when the Malefactor suffers But even this is not afforded to the Damned All their Agonies and Crys cannot incline the Compassion of God and the blessed Spirits in Heaven towards them for they are not compassionable Objects their Misery being the just effect of their perverse obstinate Choice And in Hell all human tender Affections are extinguisht for ever Now 't is the perfection of Misery the excess of desolation to be deprived of all good things pleasing to our Desires and to suffer all Evils from which we have the deepest aversation and abhorrence As in Heaven all good is eminently comprised and nothing but Good so in Hell all Evil is in excessive degrees and nothing but Evil. 3. Temporal Evils are inflicted by the mediation of second causes that are of a limited power to hurt but in the next World he more immediately torments the Damned by
assistance that will make it finally victorious over all opposition Thus the two leading Faculties being turn'd from the Creature to God the inferior Wheels will follow their motion and the Conversation be intirely chang'd In order to this happy work the following Discourses were composed wherein are represented those reasons from the Dignity Capacity and Immortality of Man's Soul and from the essential conditions of his Felicity that impartially considered by the Men of the World who prefer Earth before Heaven will discover the vanity of their Designs and check the fury of their Prosecutions and turn their Aims and endeavours to that that is infinitely more worthy of them But the real effecting this belongss solely to his Divine Power who purchased Heaven for us O thou Sun and Life of Souls shed abroad thy Light and Vital Heat the belief of the Truth of unseen things and the love of their superlative Goodness in the Minds and Hearts of Men that they may not frame to themselves an imaginary Happiness in the injoyments of this perishing Life but with that zeal and vigour in their Affections and Actions seek after the real Blessedness of the future Life as becomes an Object so glorious and eternal In treating of this Subject our first inquiry is What is the blessed End for which Man was created This we may clearly discover by considering three things 1. The Wisdom and Goodness of the Creator who made all things in order to some End worthy his Perfections 2. The Human Nature in its highest Faculties and their utmost Capacities 3. The Revelation of it in God's Word Natural Light gives a real signification of God's Intention by the two first but the most clear and full is in the Holy Scriptures I will treat of them in their order First The working of God is always with some design of High Providence He did not create the World and Man by chance nor as a Seal impresses its Figure without knowing what is stampt But he works always by Counsel and Election knowing what he does and for what End Now the last Period wherein all his Works determine is his own Glory that being the chiefest Good He made great variety of Creatures and bountiful Provisions for their Happiness ultimately for his own Pleasure According to his Wisdom and most free Goodness he was pleased that the World should not only be filled with material and sensitive Beings that objectively glorify him by the reflex of the Divine Perfections appearing in them but to frame a higher rank of Creatures wherein the Image of his Excellencies was more conspicuous and that might actively glorify him by understanding and magnifying by loving and obeying Him And as the several kinds of things have degrees of Excellency they are subordinate in their use the simple to the compounded the dead to the living the lower Natures to the more Noble By this we may take an estimate of their Dignity and Order Now for whom was this vast Fabrick raised and furnished with as many Miracles as Creatures for whose use were the Lights of Heaven and the innumerable Forms of lower Beings Plants and Beasts on the Earth If we regard their Operations 't is evident they were intended for the benefit of Man He that understands himself and will not forfeit the Prerogative of the reasonable Nature must readily acknowledg that the Preservation and Comfort of Man was their final Rule in the mind of the Creator and their mutual usefulness to one another is referred to his advantage He is the Center of the Universe wherein the several Orders of visible Beings as Lines drawn in a Circle unite And is Man alone left without an end worthy his excellent Nature 'T is not to be conceived without vile Thoughts even the casting an imputation on the Wisdom of his Maker Secondly The Frame of Man's Nature and his Capacity is an indication of the End for which he was created For of things made with design the End is present in the Mind of the Agent that directs and regulates all the parts of the Work as the prime reason of it In a Ship the Matter the Form the Tackling the number and diversity of Instruments are all in order to Sail. Now Man consists of two parts an Earthly and Spiritual and to make a right Judgment of his last and happy End we must consider him with respect to the Soul that is capable of nobler Operations and higher enjoyments than the Body is for the true notion of Happiness consists in the perfection and satisfaction of his principal and most receptive Faculties the Understanding Will and Affections and consequently both in Action and Fruition with respect to the most excellent Objects Hence it necessarily follows that he is made for a more worthy purpose than the pursuit and enjoyment of sensible things that please the inferior Part and only content the natural Appetites To make this evident 't is requisite to discover the defects and undervalues of all Worldly Things how miserably they fail in the essential conditions of Felicity that is proper to Man and this will convincingly prove that the divine Maker who is infinitely Wise and Good endowed him with intellectual and immortal Powers to advance and enjoy his Glory wherein the intire Blessedness of the reasonable Creature consists 1. Worldly Things are not perfective of his highest Faculties Man is but one degree lower than the Angels and carries the Image of God indelibly ingraven in his Spiritual Immortal Soul And accordingly the order of things in the visible World is establish'd Thou hast set him over the Works of thy Hands and put all things under his Feet By Nobility of Nature and the condition of his state he is incomparably above them And can inferior things make him better can Gold be more precious by incorporating with a baser Metal or Light more resplendent by mixing with Clouds and Smoak All the Bona adventitia the good things of this World Honours Riches Pleasure cannot denominate him truly Wise and Holy cannot add the least intellectual or moral Good wherein the rectitude and brightest excellence of Man is truely plac'd Nay they are consistent with all those sordid Lusts that blemish and defame the humane Nature and sink it below it self External Honour is no Character of real Desert and considered absolutely confers no more to Vertue than to Vice As Varnish in Painting serves only to give Lustre and Vavacity to the Colours whether the Design be regular or ill the Picture deformed or beautiful and makes the Beauty or Deformity more visible Splendor of Extraction renders the good or bad qualities of a Person more conspicuous Folly set in high Degree is more observed than in a low Condition And usually Titles of Honour are an occasion of absurd Pride to ignorant Souls that understand not that Vertue incomparably excells Nobility as the Light is more glorious and radiant where it springs than where 't is reflected Riches are often joined with
in the Work of the Lord knowing our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. I know the carnal Will is impetuous and impatient of delay and earnest for what is present with the neglect of the future Glory But the unreasonableness of this is evident to all for 't is not a new and strange thing to sow in hopes of reaping a Harvest for Men to be industrious and active on Land and Sea for future Advantage Nay 't is the constant practice of the World The Merchant the Husbandman the Student the Souldier and every Man in the circle of his Calling are visible instances of this and though many times the most flourishing hopes are blasted they are not discouraged And is it not a sight full of wonder to observe Men chearful in Labours and Hardships in the Service of the World to carry it so lightly as if they had Wings and all for a poor and uncertain Recompence and to be slow and languid in their endeavours for a Reward as great and as sure as God is glorious and true How many ambitiously strive to please a Prince and wait long in his Service who is but a Man and therefore variable in his Temper and State sometimes is not willing to do what he can and sometimes cannot do what he would to reward his Servants and is there not infinitely more reason we should labour to please God who is the most liberal and rich and certain Rewarder of all that seek him 3. Consider How gracious the terms are upon which Heaven is promised in the Gospel Our Saviour's Laws are so holy just and in their own Nature so good to Men even in their present performance that their own excellence and equity and sweetness is sufficient to recommend them without a respect to the glorious Reward of Obedience For what can be more desireable than conformity to the Nature of the blessed God What Pleasure is comparable to that which springs from a pure Conscience from a godly righteous and sober Conversation How joyful is the performance of that Service which more immediately is directed to the honour of the Divine Majesty in Prayer and other sacred actions we draw near to the Fountain of Felicity and receive from his fulness In the affectionate Praises of God we are Companions of the Angels And is not Integrity and Honesty in our dealings with Men more easy and comfortable than Fraud and Oppression Is it not troublesome to be always under a Mask to use arts and disguises to avoid the reproach and revenge that attends unjust actions when discovered Are Temperance and Chastity as hurtful to the Body as Luxury and Lasciviousness the essential parts of carnal Felicity How miserably distracted is Man when the Heart is rent with numberless Vanities the Affections divided between various Objects how quiet and composed when the Heart is united to God as the supream Good and the Affections joyfully conspire in his Service Can it then be pretended that the Yoke of Christ is heavy and his Law hard Or are his Promises uncertain and his Reward small No his Commands are not grievous in the keeping them there is a great Reward a present Paradise Religion will make us happy hereafter in the enjoyment of God and happy here in Obedience to his Holy Will Such is his Goodness that our Duty and Happiness are the same But it will be said that the Gospel requires us to pluck out the right Eye and to cut off the right Hand and to take up the Cross of Christ that is to mortify the dearest Lusts and to submit to the sharpest Sufferings for his Honour that we may be eternally Happy To this I answer 'T is true the human Nature in this depraved State only relishes such Objects as pleasantly insinuate with the carnal Senses and 't is bitter as Death to bind up the Affections from them But Grace gives a new divine Nature to the Soul and makes it easy to abstain from fleshly Lusts. To make this more clear by a sensible Instance Suppose a diseased Person whose Stomach is opprest with corrupt Humours and his Throat and Mouth so heated with Choller and continual Thirst that he thinks it impossible though for his Life to abstain from immoderate Drinking If a Physician by some powerful Medicine cleanses the Stomach and tempers the internal heat he then can easily restrain himself from Excess Thus a carnal Man that is full of false Estimations and irregular Desires while there are Pleasures without and Passions unsubdued within though his Salvation depends on it thinks it impossible to restrain the exorbitant Appetites of Flesh and Blood The Gentiles thought it strange Christians did not run with them to the same excess of Riot But Divine Grace so clarifies and inlightens the Mind so purifies and elevates the Affections that 't is not only possible but easy to abstain from unlawful Pleasures St. Austin before his Conversion was astonisht that many in the vigour of Youth and in a frail World lived Chastly and reflecting upon himself was encouraged by this Thought that which such and such observe why shall it be impossible to me to observe and upon serious trial by the prosperous influence of Heaven was a Conqueror over all carnal Temptations Nay after his holy Change the withholding his Heart from vitious Delights was inexpressibly more sweet than his former enjoying of them And are there not many visible examples of holy heavenly Christians to whom grosser sensual Pleasures are unsavory and contemptible You may as well tell the number of the Stars as of those who have practised Religion in its strictness and purity and by their enlightned Conversations directed us in the way to Heaven And are their Bodies taken from the Vein of a Rock and not composed of Flesh and Blood as well as others Are their Passions like Solomon's brazen Sea unmoveable by any Winds of Temptations Are they entirely exempted from the impression of Objects and the lower Affections No they are alive and sensible of those things that ravish the Affections of carnal Men but by the power of Grace despise and overcome them And this Grace is offered in the Gospel to all that sincerely desire it so that 't is a vain wretched pretence that Religion binds to hard Service To the other part of the Objection that sometimes Religion exposes the Professors of it to heavy Sufferings I answer Indeed the Gospel is plain and peremptory in this if we will reign with Christ we must suffer with him when we are called forth to give a noble testimony to his Truth 'T is no extraordinary Elevation no point of Perfection but the duty of every Christian to be always ready in the disposition and resolution of his Mind and by actual Martyrdom to sacrifice his Life when the honour of Christ requires it But 't is no hard condition to suffer transient Afflictions for the obtaining a Happy Immortality to be conformable to the
Christians the convictions of a future State are not so clear and strong as to govern their Hearts and Lives How many of eminent intellectual Faculties are stupid as to their great Interest and spend themselves about Trifles and are equally tractable to Eternal Ruine as the Ox to the Slaughter He that is destitute of the illuminating Grace of the Spirit is blind and cannot see afar off Now by the Analogy between the corporal and the intellectual Faculties we may understand in some measure how the Mind is illuminated by the Spirit of God For as to the act of Seeing two things are requisite 1. External Light in the Air without which the Colours Figures and Beauties of Objects are not visible to the sharpest Eye but lie obscur'd under impenitrable Darkness 2. Internal Light in the Eye in which the visive Power consists if this be extinguish'd the clearest Light of Heaven is of no use for the discovery of Things Thus the Understanding is enabled to see Spiritual Things 1. By the revelation of the Object in this respect Life and Immortality are brought to Light by the Gospel Till that bright discovery was made of Eternal Blessedness it was above the desires and hopes of sinful Man Coelum homo nec optare poterat ex ignorantia nec sperare ex propriae miseriae conscientia 2. By the inward inlightning from the Spirit of Wisdom that removes the Ignorance Prejudice and Inadvertency of the Mind which as Scales darkned its Sight and disposes it to perceive the verity and excellency of spiritual and future Things though not with comprehensive evidence yet with that assurance that no doubtfulness or suspence remains concerning them 'T is observable that Faith is exprest in Scripture by Prudence Wisdom and Knowledg whereby a Man knows the grounds and motives of his Judgment and Actions And Sin is called Folly For as when the understanding Faculty either from the indisposedness of the Organs as in Idiots or from the disorder of Fancy by the inflammation of the Humours as in distracted Persons cannot weigh and compare and therefore makes a perverse judgment of things so the carnal Mind by not due measuring and pondering judges falsly of Spiritual Things If something no bigger than the Hand were put before the Eye it would intercept the Sight of the Heavens and he that not considering the properties of things near and distant should conclude that piece to be bigger than the Heavens were justly reputed a Fool. And the Folly of carnal Men is more gross who prefer things present to Sense before what is future and of everlasting consequence to the Soul But there are some actions which if done by a Natural would be counted Folly yet being done by those who in the reputation of the World are Wise are esteemed Prudent but they are the most deplorable Folly Now as the restoring the Laesum principium the broken Mind to its sound State whereby 't is able to consider discern and conclude of things according to their Nature such is the action of God's Spirit upon the corrupt Mind clarifying and enlightning it so that it receives full conviction by the clearest marks of divine Authority shining in the Gospel of the Truth of all the great and precious Promises therein contained and causing it by a steddy application of the Thoughts to see the vast difference between what is Temporal and Eternal how despicably light all the Vanities of this World are found when put in the Ballance against the infinite inestimable Happiness of the next In short the renewed Mind knows Spiritual Things according to their Nature and Qualities believes esteems and determins that they are of Eternal moment and absolutely necessary for the Happiness of Man And as when the natural Faculty of seeing is perish'd 't is irreparable by human Skill and without a Miracle can never be restored so the intellectual Faculty when darkned by sinful Lusts without the renewing power of the Spirit can never know Spiritual Things as they ought to be known Therefore as the blind Men in the Gospel who dispair'd of help from the Physicians hearing of the miraculous Power of Christ importunately begg'd his healing Mercy so let us pray to the Light and Saviour of the World but in a more noble and higher Sense Lord that we may receive our sight Let us with the most zealous Affections call upon the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Glory that he would give unto us the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledg of him the Eyes of our understanding being inlightned that we may know what is the hope of his Calling and what the Riches of the Glory of his Inheritance in the Saints 2. The efficacious Influence of the Holy Spirit is requisite to change the Will that with a free and full consent it may desire and prosecute the Spiritual Eternal Good Without this the conviction of the Mind is not powerful enough to convert the Soul from the love of the World to choose Heaven There may be an inlightned Conscience without a renewed Heart Though the Judgment assents that God is the Supream Good yet till the Heart be circumcised the sensuality of the Affections taken away divine Love that directs the Life to God as our blessed End can never possess it Suppose that Men had a sensible and strong assurance of the Eternal State hereafter if all those who lived godly in a visible manner ascended with Elias to Heaven and if all who continued in their Sins visibly descended into Hell as Corah and his Company were swallowed up alive by the Earth before the Israelites if Men could hear the joyful Exultations of the Saints above their high Praises of God and hear the desperate Crys and deep Complaints of the Damned if one according to the desire of the rich Man were sent from Hell and with his Fiery Tongue should preach a Sermon of those Torments not describing them at a distance but by a sensible demonstration in himself yet this alone were not sufficient to draw off their Hearts from the deceitful Happiness of this World and fasten them on the perfect and Eternal Happiness in the next Indeed they could not then indulge their Lusts so securely but they would be Strangers to the Life of God such an inveterate alienation of Heart is in Men from real Holiness Till the sanctifying Spirit by a directive persuasive Light that represents the Truth and Goodness of Spiritual Things transforms the Soul and makes it Spiritual in its Valuations and Affections 't is inwardly averse from Grace and Glory The Lord direct our Hearts into the Love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ when he shall come to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that believe FINIS * Beatitudo est bonorum omnium complexio secretis omnibus malis Cicer. †Quicquid illis congesseris non finis erit cupiditatum sed gradus Sen. ‖ Nullum