Eternity Perfection infinite but that poor we With mind heart mouth acknowledge and confess His glory as he doeth it express In all his Works and in his holy Word And in the face of Jesus Christ our Lord And that in eating drinking in each thing We do God's Glory we may still design But surely it is wonderfully sweet To see Gods Glory and man's good unite In these same acts by which they glorifie The Lord they do enjoy his company And these same acts which do unite the soul Unto the Lord his Glory do extol By acting Faith and hoping in his Word They praise the Grace Truth Power of the Lord By acting Faith they in their heart receive The Lord to dwell in them great peace they have Whose mind and heart upon the Lord is staid Of evil tidings they are not afraid When they themselves most quietly do hide Under the shade of his wings and abide In the most secret place of the most high What harm of evil can to them come nigh Munition of Rocks doth them secure Their bread and water are to them made sure God with broad Rivers them surrounds that so No Ship nor Galley can against them go Since in them God is Glory and a wall Of sire about them surely they have all Glory within their mind and heart to fill A fire without to guard them from all ill How can they but be safe who have salvation For VValls and Bulwarks for their preservation The more they trust the more they glorifie God and his wondrous loving kindness see Which he to them hath greatly magnified Within a city that is fortified No outward force disturbeth their solace When they thus guarded see and taste his grace Love doth at once the Lord himself embrace And glorifies his goodness love and grace While we above all things the Lord do love We in our heart set him all things above While we desire him and do in him joy We move to him and God himself enjoy Yea every act whereby we glorifie The Lord in it we do the Lord draw nigh And God to us Thus are his servants blest For all their service is their interest Christ from himself servants sent not away His word is come follow me with me stay If any serve me let him follow me And where I am there shall my servant be Since Christ is foremost sure the way is right Since he 's the way the Leader and the Light The way is safe take courage talk no more Of fear and danger since God is before The way is pleasant it 's a sight most sweet To see the steps of Jesus lovely feet And to walk in them in them to walk on Since our fore-runner in these paths hath gone Tho he be gone before yet he is near He 's on the front and also on the rear And still on thy right hand thee to uphold Yea in thy heart to make thee humbly bold As he walks in them this of them is crav'd That they walk in him as they him receiv'd It is his promise to be with them still That they be still with him is his good will. Thus all the service he to them commends To Glory Union and Communion tends Their Master's Service is their interest In glorifying God they 're truly blest This is thy chief end God to glorifie And to enjoy him to eternity Come to the Mediator Jesus Christ In him alone the Lord with man's well-pleas'd Come unto God by him though thou be'st lost He will thee save unto the uttermost Come take himself and take his fulness all Deny thy self follow upon his call Follow him fully follow him with delight His yoke is easie and his burden light His holy Ordinances are most sweet His Rod is needful and his Cross is meet All service he requires is reasonable All Rods and Crosses needful seasonaable It 's only for a time if need there be That trials come in great variety And though they sadning be yet they are blest And tend to Holiness Praise Glory Rest Come come thy service all all thy distress Is for God's Glory and thy Happiness Now since by God the Father and the Spirit Thou art from sin and torments infinite Called to come through Christ the living way To Fellowship with God which lasts for aye Behold by whom from what through whom to whom Thou called art all calls on thee to come The Spirit and the Bride say Come let all who hear Say Come and let them come who thirsty are Here is Life's Fountain whosoever will Of living water freely take thy fill That all who hear may come Lord draw that we May come and run and follow after thee Come with thy Grace and Glory speedily Lord Jesus come Amen So let it be FINIS Twenty Five CONSIDERATIONS OF THE PAINS prepar'd for SIN After this Life WITH A SERMON Preached on Acts VII 60. I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me Write From henceforth Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord even so saith the Spirit for they rest from their labours and their works follow them Rev. 14.13 LONDON Printed for Richard Butler in White-Lion-Court in Barbican 1688. Twenty Five CONSIDERATIONS OF THE PAINS prepared for SIN After this Life I. AMongst all the means which God useth towards the Children of Men to move them to this Resolution whereof I treat the strongest and most forcible to the common sort of men is the consideration of Punishments prepared by him for rebellious sinners and transgressors of his Commandments Wherefore he useth this Consideration often as may appear by all the Prophets who do nothing else almost but threaten plagues and destruction to Offenders And this means hath often times prevailed more than any others that could be used by reason of the Natural Love which we bear towards our selves and consequently the Natural Fears we have of our own danger So we read that nothing could move the Ninevites so much as the foretelling them of their imminent destruction And St. John the Baptist John the 5th Matth. the 3d. altho he came in a simple and contemptible way yet preaching unto the people the terror of Vengeance to come and that the Axe was now put to the Trees to cut for the fire all those which repented not he moved the very Publicans and Soldiers to fear which otherwise are people of very hard metal who came unto him upon his terrible Embassage and asked what they should do to avoid these punishments II. After then that we have considered of Death and of God's severe Judgment which ensueth after Death and wherein every man hath to receive according to his works in this life as the Scripture saith it followeth that we consider also of the punishments which are appointed for them that shall be found faulty in that account Hereby at leastwise no other consideration will serve to induce Christians to this Resolution of serving God For as I have noted before If
Conscience lie within us griping and tormenting us for ever And this worm of remorse shall principally consist in bringing to our minds all the means and causes of our present extream calamities as our negligences whereby we lost the felicity which other men have gotten And at every one of these Considerations this worm shall give us a deadly bite even unto the heart as when it shall lay before us all the occasions that we had suffer'd to avoid this misery wherein we are now fallen and to have gotten the glory which we have lost How easie it had been to have done it how nigh were we oftentimes to resolve our selves to do it and yet how ungraciously we left off that Cogitation again How many times we were foretold of this danger and yet how little care and fear we took in the same How vain the worldly trifles were wherein we spent our time and for which we lost Heaven and fell into this intolerable misery How are they exalted whom we thought Fools in this world and how are we now proved Fools and laughed at which thought our selves wise These things I say and a thousand more being laid before us by our own Conscience shall yield us infinite grief for that it is now too late to amend them This grief is called the Worm or remorse of our Conscience which worm shall enforce men more to weep and howl than any torment else considering how negligently foolishly and vainly they are come into those insupportable torments and that now there is no more time to redrefs their Errors These are the Cogitations of the damned in Hell. XXIII Now only is the time of weeping for these men and their lamenting but all in vain Now shall they begin to fret and fume and marvel at themselves saying Where were our Wits where was our Understanding where was our Judgment when we followed vanities and contemned these things This is the talk of sinners in Hell. Saith the Scripture What hath our pride or what hath the glory of Riches profited us they are all now vanished now like a shadow We have wearied our selves in the way of iniquity and perdition but the way of the Lord we have not known This I say must be that Everlasting Song of the damned worm eaten Conscience in Hell. Mark good Reader Eternal Repentance without profit whereby we shall be brought to such desperation as the Scripture noteth as he shall turn into fury against himself tear his own flesh rent his own soul if it were possible and invite the Fiends of Hell to torment him seeing he hath so beastly behaved himself in this world as not to provide in time for this principal matter O! if he could have another life to live in this world again how would he pass it over with what diligence with what severity But it is not lawful We only which are yet alive have that singular benefit if we know it or would resolve our selves to make the most of it one of these days we shall be past it also and shall not recover it again no not one hour if we would give a thousand worlds for the same as indeed the damned would do if they might Let us now therefore so use the benefit of our present time as when we are past hence we have not need to wish our selves here again XXIV Now is the time we may avoid all now is the time we may put our selves out of danger of these matters I say now if we resolve our selves out of hand for we know not what shall become of us to morrow It may be to morrow our hearts will be as hard and careless of these things as they have been heretofore and as Parcab's heart after Moses's departure from him O that he had resolved himself throughly whilst Moses was with him how happy had he been If the Rich Glutton had taken the time while he was in prosperity how blessed a man had he been He was foretold of his misery Luke 16. as we are now by Moses and the Prophets as Christ signifieth but he would not hear Afterwards he was in such admiration of his own Folly that he would have had Lazarus sent from Abraham's bosome unto his brethren to warn them of his success But Abraham told him it was bootless for they would not have believed Lazarus but rather have persecuted him as a Liar and defamer of their honourable Brother's death if he should have come and told them of his torments Indeed so would the wicked of this world do now if one should come and tell them that their Parents and Friends were damned in Hell for such and such things and do beseech them to look better to their Lives to the end that their coming they do not increase the others pains for being some cause of their damnation for this is only the cause of care which the damned have towards the living and not for any love they now bear them If I say such a message should come from Hell to the flourishing sinners in this World would not they laugh at it Would not they persecute eagerly the parties that should bring such news What then can God devise to do for the saving of these men What way what means may he take when neither Warning nor Example of others nor Threats nor Exhortations will do any good We know or may know that leading the life that we do we cannot be saved We know or ought to know that many before us have been damned for less matters We know and cannot chuse but know that we must shortly die and receive our selves as they have received living as they did or worse We see by this laid down before us that the pains are intolerable and yet Eternal which do expect us for the same we confess them most miserable that for any pleasure or commodity of this world are now fallen into those pains What then should let us then to resolve to dispatch our selves quickly of all impediments to break violently from all bonds and chains of this wicked world that do let us from this true and zealous work and service of God Why should we sleep one Night in sin seeing that might be our last Night and so the everlasting cutting off all hope for the life to come XXV Resolve thy self therefore my dear Brother if thou be wise and clear thy sell from this imminent danger while God is willing to receive thee and moveth thee there unto by these means as he did the rich man by Moses and the Prophets while he was yet in his prosperity Let his Example be often before thine eyes and consider it throughly and it shall do thee good God is a wonderful God and to shew his patience and infinite goodness he wooeth us in this life seeketh unto us and layeth himself as it were at our feet to move us unto our own good to win us to draw us and save us from perdition But after this
not obtain it A small refreshing it seemeth it would have been unto him if he had obtained the same but to shew the straitness of the place it was denied him O you that live in the sinful wealth of the world consider but this one Example of God's severity and be afraid This man was in great Royalty a little before and nothing regarded the extream misery that Lazarus was in But would he give a thousand worlds if he had them for one drop of water to cool his Tongue What demand could be less than this He durst not ask to be delivered thence or to have his torments diminished or to ask a great Vessel of water to refresh his whole body therein but only so much as would stick on the top of a man's finger to cool his Tongue To what need was this man driven that was so rich before What a great imagination had he of the force of one drop of water To what a pitiful change was his Tongue now come unto that was wont to be so diligently applied with all kinds of pleasant Liquors O that one man could take example by another Either this is true or else the Son of God is a Liar And then what men are we that seeing our selves in danger of this misery do not seek with more diligence to avoid the same XVII In respect of these extremities and strait dealings of God in denying all comfort and consolation at this day the Scripture saith that men shall fall into rage fury and utter impatience blaspheming God and cursing the day of their Nativity with eating their own Tongues for grief and desiring the Rocks and Mountains to come and fall on them to end them of their pains XVIII Now if we add to this the eternity and everlasting continuance of these torments we shall see that it increaseth the matter greatly for in this world there is no torment so great but that time either taketh away or diminisheth the same for either the tormentor or the tormented dieth or some occasion or other happeneth to alter or mitigate the matter but here is no such hope or comfort but saith the Scriptures they shall be tormented for ever in a pool burning with fire and brimstone As long as God is God so long shall they burn there shall neither the tormentor or the tormented die but both live eternally for the eternal misery of the parties to be punished XIX Oh! saith one of the Fathers in a godly Meditation if a sinner damned in Hell did know that he had to suffer those torments there no more thousands of years than there be Sands in the Sea and Grass-piles on the ground or no more thousands of millions of Ages than there be Creatures in Heaven and Earth he would greatly rejoice thereof for then he would comfort himself at the least with this Cogitation that once the matter would have an end But now saith this good man this word never breaketh his heart when he thinketh on it And after an hundred thousand millions of Worlds there suffered he hath as far to his end as he had at the first day of his entrance to these torments Consider good Christians what a length an hour would seem to thee if thou had'st but to hold thy hand in fire and brimstone only during the space thereof We see if a man be grievously sick tho he be laid on a very soft bed yet one Night seemeth a long time unto him he turneth and tosseth himself from side to side telling the Clock and counting the hours as they pass which seemeth to him a whole day And if a man should say unto him that he were to abide that pain but seven years together he would go well nigh to despair for grief Now if one Night seem so long and tedious to him that lieth on a good soft bed and afflicted only with a little Ague what will the lying in fire and brimstone do when he shall know evidently that he shall never have end thereof O dear Brother the satiety of continuance is loathsome even in things that are not evil of themselves if thou shouldest always be bound to eat one meat it would be displeasant to thee in the end if thou should'st be bound to sit still all thy life in one place without moving it would be grievous unto thee albeit no man did torment thee in that place What then will it be to lie eternally that is world without end in most exquisite torments Is it any way tolerable What Judgment then what Wit what Discretion is there left in man which makes no more account of this matter than they do XX. I might here add another circumstance which the Scripture addeth to wit that all these torments shall be in darkness a thing dreadful of it self to man's Nature For there is not the stoutest man in the world if he be found himself alone and naked in extream darkness and should hear a noise of Spirits coming towards him but he would fear albeit he felt never a lash from them on his body I might also add another circumstance that the Prophet addeth which is that God and good men shall laugh at them that day which will be no small affliction For as to be moaned by a man's friends in time of adversity is some comfort so to be laughed at especially by him who only may help him is a great and intolerable increase of his mifery XXI And now all this that I have spoken of hitherto is but one part of a damned man's punishment only called by Divines Poena Sensus the pain of sence or feeling that is the pain or punishment sensibly inflicted on the soul and body But yet besides this there is another part of punishment called Poena damni the pain of loss or damage which by all Learned mens Opinions is either greater or no less than the former And this is the infinite loss which a damned man hath in being excluded for ever and ever from the sight of his Creator and his Glory which sight only being sufficient to make happy and blessed all them that are admitted unto it must needs be an infinite misery to the damned man to lack that eternally And therefore this is put as one of the chiefest and first plagues to be laid upon him Isa 26. Let the wicked man be taken away to Hell to the end he may not see the Glory of God. And this loss containeth all other losses and damages in it as the loss of Eternal Bliss and Joy as I have said of Eternal Glory of Eternal Society with the Angels and the like which losses when a damned man considereth as he cannot but consider them still he taketh more grief thereof as Divines do hold than by all the sensible torments that he abides beside XXII Whereunto belongs the Worm of Conscience in Scripture so called For as a Worm lieth eating and gnawing wood wherein she lieth so shall the remorse of our