consuming fire and a mighty tempest shall be stirred up round about him He shall call the Heavens from above and the Earth that he may judge his people The Prophet Isaiah dilates thus on this dreadfull appearance Isaiah 13. 9. Behold the day of the Lord commeth cruel both with anger and fierceness to lay the land desolate and to destroy the sinners out of it for the starrs of Heaven Orion and the constellations there shall not give their light The Sun shall be darkned in his going forth and the moon shall not cause her light to shine And I will punish the whole Earth for their evils and the wicked for their iniquitie and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible And those that are left shall be more precious then fine Gold such a man shall be more esteem'd then a precious stone of Ophir for the Heavens shall be shaken and the Earth shall be removed out of her place for the anger of the Lord of Sabbath in the day when his wrath shall come And in another place the same Prophet The windowes of Heaven shall be opened and the foundations of the Earth shall be shaken the Earth shall be utterly broken down the Earth shall be cleane dissolved the Earth shall be moved excedingly it shal reel to and fro like a drunkard it shal be removed like a Cottage and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it and and it shall fall and not rise again Isa. 24. 18. For their iniquities have prevail'd against them To these adde the Prophet Malachi Behold saies he the Lord Almighty cometh but who shall abide the day of his comming and who shall stand when he appeareth for he is like a refiners fire and like fullers sope and he shall sit as a refiner of silver and gold Mal. 3. 2. And again saith he the day of the Lord commeth consuming like a furnace and it shall burn them up Mal. 4. 1. And they who are proud and all that do wickedly shal be as stubble the day commeth saith the Lord Almighty it shall leave them neither root nor branch And to the same purpose does the vision of the Prophet Daniel alarum us with the terrors of that day I beheld saith he till the Thrones were placed and the antient of daies did sit whose garment was white as snow and the hair of his head like the pure wooll his Throne was a flame of fire and his wheeles burning fire A fiery streame issued out before him Thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him The judgement was set and the Bookes were opened Dan. 7. 9. And a little after thus speakes the Prophet ver. 13. I saw a vision in the night and behold one like the Son of man came with the clouds of Heaven and came to the antient of daies and they brought him near before him And there was given him Dominion and glory and a Kingdome that all People Nations and languages should serve him his Dominion is an everlasting Dominion which cannot passe away and his Kingdome a Kingdome which cannot be destroyed ver. 15. I Daniel was grieved in my spirit and the visions of my head troubled me Let us consider these menaces of holy writ and instruct our soules how in that day the glory of Heaven shall be revealed the clouds shal separate the whole firmament open parting like a curtaine before a screen and discovering to us the Majestick prospect within which will fill all things created with fear amazement and horror Then shall the Angells themselves be full of fear with the Archangells Thrones and â—owers of Heaven not for themselves but because their fellowservants are brought to judgement and to give their strict accompt of their past life in this world For if they under whose tutelage we are grieve at the judgement pronounced against one sole City under their charge what will be the generall affrights and horrors when the Son comes against the whole world for though themselves they know exempt from the danger they will have a sence of them brought before a Judge whose alseeing eye needs no proof of witnesse or accusation Who will force the guilty to accuse themselves and lay their own offences open when every delinquent to Heavens justice shall produce his owne deeds his words and thoughts to condemn himself Will not this mighty and just severity of our Lord astonish the very powers of Heaven themselves If it had not in it the horror of an inundation of a river of fire and those terrible affrighting Angells ministers of his justice which assist the fury and rage of his revenge How would it move men to see the workmanship of the same creation call'd some to be highly preferr'd and honour'd Nay had in great admiration while others are blinded with disgrace lest they should see the glory of God Can you imagine a more tormenting Hel then this When the thought of that Heaven we have lâ—st will more sensibly cruciate our soules from the torments of that Hell wee suffer in The infinite losse our wilfully erring and self-abusing soules bring to themselves in the forfeiting those excellent great blessings ordain'd them are impossible to be apprehended by thought or in words comprehended Sad will be the experience of it to the impenitent Wherefore I beseech thee set before thy eyes the different ends of piety and impiety Behold the impious overwhelm'd with horrors and unspeakable punishments and even then when the truly pious children of God shall be cloath'd with immortality and eternall glories When the damn'd shall be deliver'd to cruell tormenting furies the blessed shall be adorn'd with crownes accompanied with Angells singing and rejoycing before the Kings Throne thus shal it be with them who on Earth have done good and justice and are found worthy of eternall life CHAP. X. The joyes of Heaven prosecuted give occasion to discourse of the felicities and blessings God has promis'd our soules the excellencies Wherewith they are enricht with and the vile contempt wee have of them preferring our bodies their slaves before them THE joyes of Heaven are beyond our dull perceptions while wee are loaden with earth in vain it were to undertake labour of their description Ineffable are those pleasures and delights the great profits unvaluable which will then bee ours in eternall possession when we are received into the number of the Saints glorified for ever When the immortall soule shall be invested with her own glory and eas'd of all her yoakes in happy freedome enjoy the pleasure to behold her Lord It cannot it cannot I say be exprest how great the extasies of her joyes must bee when she shall not onely be ravish't with contentments of her glorious condition for the present but rest likewise secur'd of their eternity that without lessning or decay but rather with encrease they shall endure for ever Nor is this
rejecting his commands and art become a slave under the outragious Empire of that Tyrannous enemy to mankind who never rests day nor night from ensnaring us our selves to fight against our own hopes and expectations of Heaven Thus hast thou flung off a light and easie burthen freed thy self from a mercifull yoke to fasten thy neck in linkes of Iron And what is both base and ridiculous hast laid a Mill-stone the Asses burthen on thy owne shoulders What wilt thou think to do in the future that at present suffers thy most miserable soul to be swallow'd in this impetuous Gulfe of lusts Nay that wilfully has brough a kind of necessity on thy self which continually compels thee to fall into deeper extreams The woman in the Gospels when she had found her lost groat call'd all her neighbours together to partake of her joy with her saying Rejoyce with me because I have found the lost groat Lu. 15. 8. Thus will I call your friends and mine together but to a different end and purpose I will not bid them rejoyce with me but grieve and weep lament be truly sorrowfull and mourn with me For our losse is grievous and insupportable greater then if we had lost never so great a treasure or Magazine of Gold or Diamonds For we have lost a friend not to be valewed who sailing with us through this vast Ocean I know not by what means is fallen overboard and sunk into the bottomlesse Gulfe of perdition If any man should offer to disswade mee from my lamentations I would answer him with this passionate expression of the Prophet Isaiah Let me alone I will weep bitterly you cannot comfort me Is 22. Such is the sorrow which draws this flood of tears from my eyes Such a sorrow as doubtlessely would not shame Saint Peter or Saint Paul to own it though in such excesse as they denyed themselves all consolation or perswasion to the contrary They who deplore the naturall decreed death of the body may perhaps find coÌ„forters who by the strength of reason and argument may without much labour restore their dâ—ooping spirits to settledness tranqulity by religious precepts gently quiet and palliate their griefes But who can plead gainst his just deploring who laments the death of a soul fallen into perdition dead in sin and pierc'd with ten thousand arrows venom'd with Hells malitious poyson the beauty form and grace of most eminent Vertues and devotions lost and extinct in him These administer matter justly to provoke lawfull and lasting tears What flinty heart What rockie soul could in an agony so moving forbear lamentings or entertain an apparition of any delusion should forbid him his just sorrow At the fall of the body it is humane though not altogether rebellious to weep At the falling of a soul the extreamest lamentation is the greatest evidence of the truest piety He who had on Earth possession of Heaven in so much as hee contemn'd abhor'd and laught at the vanity of the World hee who beheld the greatest beauty but as a statue of stone or a fair picture That he who despis'd Gold as dirt pleasures and vanity as mire He it is who most unexpectedly falling into a raging feaver of burning lusts has lost his comliness and his courage is now turn'd a slave to his own bestiall appetites Shall not we then grieve for him shall we cease our lamentations till he return to himselfe again it is no more then our duty and tye of Christian charity if we have any sense of pitty or humanity in us What alas is the destruction of the body but an accomplish'd course in the order of nature yet such a losse finds dayly mourners and lamenters What ought we then to doe for his perishing soul which manifestly appears resolv'd on eternall damnation if our prayers bring him not to repentance but that he finish his course in obstinate sinning and obduratenesse of heart For in death there is no remembrance of thee in the grave who shall give thee thanks Psal. 6. How great a sin then is it against the rules and Laws of charity not to resent with the greatest pitty a soul thus everlastingly perishing Violent cries and abundance of tears cannot possibly recall the dead But frequent experience teaches us that a soule dying here in sin is not wept for in vaine For the humble requests of brotherly charity plead so effectually before the Throne of mercy that many hardned in obstinate impenitency have melted into floods of tears and have ow'd thee thanks for their contrition to the importunity of other mens prayers And by such meanes many both in our daies and the daies of our forefathers who have deserted the paths of righteousnesse and run headlong astray out of the waies of piety which is a spirituall dying at length have risen again with such heavenly alacrity their fall so hid and obscur'd by the glory of their rise that they have purchas'd the palme of recompence and crowned with the wreath of victory have triumph'd Conquerors on earth till they were summon'd to be numbred with the blessed for all eternity Yet infinite such examples prevail not with a man who wilfully continues in the flames and fires of his lusts Such a wretched perversenesse withstands his recovery and pleads an impossibility of mercy against him But if he chance to get a little way out of the fire and by degrees leave it still farther behind him the dimnesse which the flames caused will be taken from his eyes then how plainly wil he discern the way of salvation to be accessible and very plain smooth and easie having obtain'd grace for his guide And conquer'd those Troops the Devill laid in ambush for him But hee who wants the courage to undertake the combat in vain desires the conquest He may that 's willfull stay and burn in the fire nay shut the doors against himself that are open for him And whatman who is thus sotishly his own enemy can design any thing nobly and virtuously Wherfore this our common enemy makes it his onely businesse leaves nothing unattempted which may render us diffident of grace and mercy Nor needs he much labour to compasse that his end if we lie prostrate at his feet and take no counsell or resolution or order the battail against him it is an easie conquest to overcome us But he who violently breaks his fetters and betakes himself to the use of his strength with courage He I say who in so desperate a condition allows himselfe no cessation but with a continuall violence maintains the battell against him though hee have before lost the day a thousand times shall then recover his losses and gloriously triumph in his enemies overthrow When he who is dejected with despair and permits his spirits to fail and languish can never hope for conquest how can he overcome who makes no resistance at all but fearing the encounter lays down his armes and submits to his enemy CHAP.
sincere repentance though we sin most malitiously against him if we most humbly return to him his sweet embraces are ready to receive us Nay though we should be unwilling he often contends with our perversenesse and forces our recovery Nay helpes the defects of our falling inclinations with his preserving grace which raises us above our selves to pious desires which he both gives and prepares their reward What greater argument can there be of the benignity of an incens'd God then when we have provok'd him to anger to accept of our sorrow and though our repentance be not so long and so full as it ought though it want something of the circumstances of form and time or other properties our Lord helps us in our humiliations and sends his blessings on very weaknesse and frowardnesse As in the Prophet Isaiah you may find it He went on frowardly in the way of his heart I have seen his waies and will heal him I will lead him also and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners Isaiah 57. 17 18. Let us remember the story of that most wicked King who by a womans perswasion had given himselfe over to all abhomination when he once repented and putting on sackcloth acknowledg'd his sins he so mov'd the compassion of God that he escap'd all those evills which then threatned him For God spake to Elias upon his submission saying Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me I will not bring this evill in his daies 2 Kings 21. 29. And after him Manasses exceeds all the former Kings in madnesse and Tyranny he overthrows the Law shuts the Temple sets up the worship of Idoll's to confront the Majesty of God outstripping all that went before him in wickednesse 2 Chron. 33. He after his repentance was receiv'd into the number of Gods elect friends Had Manasses when he saw the deformity of his impiety despair'd of his restauration to grace and believ'd an impossibility of his change to a new man he had certainly never partaken of those blessings afterward befell him but when he weigh'd how little the excesse of his sins was put in the ballance with Gods immense and infinite mercies hee cast the the fetters off wherewith the Devill had made him fast became Conqueror and finish'd his good course Nor has the Scripture furnish'd us with these examples alone to preserve us from splitting on the dange-Rockes of our own harden'd hearts But by his commands God calls us continually and forewarns us of our destruction To day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts as in the day of temptation in the Wildernesse Psa. 95. 8. 9. This day to us may be any day of our life from the tendernesse of our youth to the extremity of our age Wee must imagine the Lord alwaies speaking to us and calling us to him who proportions not his mercies to the circumstances of time but the affections of our hearts The Ninivites had not many daies for repentance and to pray to God to forgive them their crying sins yet could a little portion of one day blot out all their iniquities and in how short a time was Paradise assur'd the theefe upon the Crosse In how small a time did his contrition purchase him Heaven even before Christs followers and Apostles Many have obtain'd the honor of Martyrdome and purchas'd Crownes of glory in lesse then few years in a few daies nay some in lesse then one day Let us be alwaies and in all conditions undejected and cheerfull confident and assur'd in our soules of Gods infinite mercies which will intice and allure us to prepare our confidences for such a tendernesse as will dread and abhorre sinne as will make us shake off our infirmities and violently suppresse the malice of temptation Our own election will lead us into better paths with Gods assisting grace waies quite contrary and opposite to our lusts such as God commands us to walke in such as he rejoyces to see us tread in whose end is rewarded with eternity to which course the shortnesse of time can be no obstacle for many that were last have got to be first in this spirituall race by the eager feavour of their desires Our fallings are not our miseries but this is our calamity when we are sunk under the weight of sin that we lie under the heavy burthen and never strive to rise again that wee sleep under it and those litle intervalls we awake dispute our soules into despair against such as are thus sottishly bewitch'd to their own destruction the Prophet cries out in the heat and height of passion Shall they fall and not arise shall he turn away and not return Why then is the People of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetuall back-sliding They hold fast deceipt they refuse to return Jer. 8. 4. Whoever it is that wilfully refuses humbly and with his whole heart to accept the grace of the spirit offer'd him after his wandring from out of the waies of God is concern'd in this of the Prophet For it cannot be said he fell who never stood or that he went out of it who never was in the way Many things to confirme this truth are evident in parables and other manifestations of holy writ That sheep which was lost from the nintynine and after found and brought back to the rest Mat. 18. 12. what did it signifie but the going astray and the return of the faithfull For the sheep belong'd not to another Shepheard it was of the same flock and under the same Shepheard it wandred through the Mountaines and the deserts it stray'd far from the fold And what did the Shepherd neglect the wanderer No he brought him back nor did he angerly drive and beate it before him but laid it on his owne shoulders and so brought it home Observe the best Physicians how in some fierce and dangerous diseases they please and humour their patients dispensing with the set rules of their art to comply with these distempers so God uses not the fiercenesse of his wrath against the greatest sinners but his meeknesse heales them hee applyes the gentle cure of his compassion like the good Shepheard hee layes them on his own shoulders like the Physitian he heales them with forbearance lest they wander for ever lest their woundes prove incurable Next followes the parable of the prodigall to justifie this truth Luke 15. 12. Who when hee had run into extraordinary exorbitancies wilfully and on purpose by his own folly wandred to purchasing shame and misery whilst his brother stay'd at home ever pleasing his Father he that was rich free and nobly borne became more despis'd then the worst of his Fathers hirelings Yet at last was restor'd to his former honour and repossest of his Fathers favour Had he in that miserable condition despair'd of life and those enjoyments he afterwards found he had nere known blessing but had perish'd perhaps in the Wildernesse with famine of all deaths the most miserable
more terrible destruction All apprehension of ills that may befall us shall for ever dye and it will be with our happy soules as with the heir to a King who in his infancy and minority is kept severely and educated under fear and the lash of a Tutors discipline lest remisnesse in his education might let him fall into unprincely wildnesse and render him by having no government of himself uncapable of governing others and inheriting his Fathers dignities but growing in years and encreasing in vertues becoming the Royall Majesty of a Prince he is then let loose to the guidance of those engraftments becoming his high calling and a full possession of his liberty He is clad in purple and his Temples circled with a Diadem the fears and menaces of the masters of his younger years are no longer his terrors but every thing serves his magnificence and complies with his happinesse and pleasure so at the consummation of blisse shall it be with the Saints of God whom as his beloved children here he keeps under the rod of affliction to fit and prepare them for those immortal honors and crownes they shall inherit in the Kingdome of Heaven No assimilation indeed is sufficient to give us a guesse at those transcending joyes nor can the Arts of eloquence expresse them But let our thoughts ascend to that mount where our Lord was transfigur'd and behold him there shining as he then did with the eyes of devout contemplation and yet there we shall not find one full entire figure of the perfect glories of the world to come that appearance being such as was fitted for the discerning of our naturall opticks As appeare by the words of the Evangelist His face did shine like the Sun Mat. 17. that is like to that body which it selfe is subject to corruption but the glory of incorruptible bodies shall be of a nature farre excelling that which mortall eyes shall not be able to look upon to behold the which we shall have incorruptible and immortall eyes On the mount though there not appear'd not greater light then was probably possible for them to have beheld without detriment to their sight yet that they endur'd not For they fell on their faces Tell me I pray If any one should lead you into a glorious Theatre and present your eyes with the sight of a gallant number of persons cloath'd in Gold and adorn'd with all curiosities of value And amongst them should shew one infinitely exceeding the rest in glory and power who were able to bring thee into the happy number of that society wouldst thou not be obedient to all his commands to purchase such a glorious felicity Let thy soul fly up to Heaven on the wings of holy meditations and view their Theatre whose glory consists in the assembly of far more transcending persons whose ornaments exceed the lustre of Gold and Diamonds whose beauty excells the very light of the rayes of the Sun There is the seat of Angels Archangells Thrones Dominions and Powers and of what farre excells them For of the Kings of Heaven and his glory all tongues must be silent or not presumptuously attempt so unequall a task so much does hee superexcell all expressions so transcendent are his Lustre Glory Splendor Majesty and Magnificence And tell me how great madnesse it is to lose and forfeit so infinite blessings onely for the satisfaction of abusing a little time What if we were to die a thousand times in a day to endure the torments of Hell it selfe for a season Would it be too much for us when the reward would be see Christ comming in his glory and our selves receiv'd into the number of the blessed for ever Observe what blessed Saint Peter saies Mat. 17. 4. It is good for us to be here if hee who saw but in a manner the shadow of the glory to come emptied his soule of all other thoughts to give up the possession to the contentment and joyes of such a sight What shall we say when not the shadow but the reall truth of that happy vision shall possesse our selves When the Chambers of Heaven shall be opened and wee behold the King of Glory himself not obscurely as in a glasse but face to face not barely with the eyes of faith but as he shall bee then manifested in truth unto us Their spirits are base and abject who rejoyce they have escap'd Hell out of the apprehension of the horrors of it It is to be accounted certainly a greater torment then any is in Hell it selfe to lose Heaven and the glory of it So pressing a calamity it must needs be to the damn'd to thinke of the losse of Heaven that certainly it will punish them more then the paines of Hell Our eyes wander with amazement after their happinesse whom we see great in Princes favours and wonder what possibly they can want who pertake of the counsells of the mighty and share with them in their honors to them we allow the fullnesse of all happinesse and adjudge our selves miserable if wee want any thing our emulations can receive to contribute to their happinesse Though perhaps our condition may exceed theirs if we consider the the lubricity and unstablenesse of fortune How slippery they stand who are tottering on the top of pinacles how uncertain their honors be and greatnesse whose duration cannot be secur'd beyond the fate of battell or the ruins of domestick envy Certain it is All the pompe of the Earth will have a period And it is vanity to fix our soules on any imaginary happinesse in this world But what wee look for from God our Lord whose raign shall be for ever whose Kingdome has no bounds Isaiah 40. Who possesseth not a part but the whole compasse of the Earth Who hath measur'd the waters in the hollow of his hand and meteth out Heaven with his span who sustains all things with his power to whom all Nations are nothing and are reputed as a drop of water Hee it is whose powr and mercies can onely make us eternally happy Let the immensity of the joyes then which are the determined portion of the blessed argue our soules into a true apprehension of them and let us more dread the losse of future happinesse then all the terrors of future paines and more abhorre to bee excluded out of the doors and not admitted into the quire of the Angels and the blessed Saints of Heaven then to be doom'd to eternall flames CHAP. IX Of the day of judgement THE terrible and mighty King of Heaven and Earth shall not come to judgement drawn by white mules or appear to the condemn'd in robes of peace crown'd with a diadem of mercy But how he then wil come the tongue of man cannot expresse you can have no surer evident rule for you then out of the Prophets thundring forth the terrors of his approach Psal. 50. ver. 3. Our God shall come and shall not keep silence there shall go before him a
the deepest abysse of Hell Nor does this discourse alone aver this For the records of holy writ most amply testifie the same The Evangelist Saint Matthew shewes it Matth. 16. 27. He shall render saith he every man according to his workes Nor in Hell onely but in Heaven also shall there be difference of reward John 14. 2. In my Fathers house are many mansions saies our blessed Saviour And again 1 Cor. 15. 41. There is one glory of the Sun another of the the Moon another of the Starrs for one Star differeth from another Star in glory so likewise in the Resurrection of the dead Let him who considers this value the expence of his labour and be continually employ'd in good deeds If we attain not the glory of the Sun or the Moon wee get to be little starrs if we discharge the duty of good Christians so far as to get there at all If we shine not in glory like Diamonds or like Gold wee may like Silver But we must be carefull we are not found of materialls fitter for the fire then a place in his Heavenly mansions And if wee are not able to discharge the highest actions of perfection let us not neglect the due observance of lesser things which we may perform For it is most desperate madnesse to do no good at all because we are not in the state of the most excelling perfection For as worldlings grow rich by saving every little trifle encreasing their store so are spirituall riches attain'd by a circumspect laying hold on every occasion wherein we may serve our Lord It is wonderfull and something strange to humane sence that God has appointed so great a reward as the Kingdome of Heaven to him that shall but give a cup of cold water in his name yet are men so foolish that unlesse they can atchieve the greatest they neglect lesser matters which are likewise very profitable He that neglects not his duty in things but small in their appearance will learn to be able to performe greater But he that is negligent in a little will be a weak discharger of greater duties And to prevent this humane inclination Christ has left us great proposalls of certain reward for things to be compast with very little trouble What is more easie then to pay the labourer his hire which is but a part of thy own gain and yet large are the promises of our Lord for that See then the way to lay hold on Everlasting salvation enter into it delight in our Lord pray incessantly unto him again submit thy self to his easie yoak take on thy shoulders the light burthen thou bearst in a more happy condition and let the end of it prove worthy the beginning of thy life Do not O do not despise such infinite riches which freely flow unto thee And they are all for ever lost to thee if thou perseverest to exasperate our Lord with those ill courses thou art in For if thou yet stopst the channells and hinder'st this deluge in time before it has made too great a breach thou maist repaire thy losses to thy great advantage When thou hast considered and meditated seriously on this as thou oughtest fling away the filth and mud which hangs upon thy soule rise from out of the mire wherein thou hast wallowed And see how formidable thou wilt be to thy adversarie who believ'd he had cast thee down never to rise again it will amaze him to see thee again provoke him to the battaile surpriz'd with thy recovery and astonisht at such an undaunted resolution how fearfull will the coward the Devill be to attempt again the ensnaring thee If other mens calamities be proper lessons for us shall not all our owne instruct us I believe that I shall see this shortly in thee and that thou wilt appear in the sight of Heaven a person restor'd to grace a more excellent and clearer soul then ever thou were one that shall give testimonies of such perfection and integrity that thou maist be ranckt amongst the best men if not preferr'd before them Onely despair not fall not againe This is my counsell do thou as my custome is When ever I hear any thing from others may profit me I make no delay to embrace and follow it and if thou receivest with a good purpose these my admonitions thy sick and languishing soule will need no other Physick FINIS Erata Page 1. l. 5. for this r. the l 7. of dissolute r. of a dissolute p. 3. l. 4. of sin r. of any sin l. 13. for for prepared r. so prepared l. 20. for committing every thing that was dedicated r. committing every thing to the flames that was dedicated p. 6. l. 7. for intollerable r. in alterable p. 9. l. 5. r. linkd to p. 12. l. 16. for rebellious r. religious p. 14. l. 15. for wretched r. wretches p. 23. l. 1. leave out and promised p. 24. l. 6. r. like a loving father p. 26. l. last for peruses r. persues p. 31. l 11. for confidences r. consciences p. 44. l. 28. r. delights for lights p. 46. l. 17. for again r. gone again p. 60. l. 7. r. there appeared not p. 62. l. 22. for receive r. conceive p. 67. l. 11. for screen scaene p. 70. l. 4. for undertake labour r. undertake the labour p. 72. l. 5. for choosed r. crost p. 79. l. 12. for Hermions r. Hermiones p. 79. l. 17. for starrs r. statues p. 80. l. 7. for Hermion's r. Hermione's p. 84. l. 6. for hope r. home ibid. l. 23. for greater r. great p. 87. l. 3. for were r. wore p. 103. l. 13. Chap. is intitled the 5. ibid l. 3. I knew a young Phoenix r. I knew a young man Phoenix p. 104. l. 3. for religions r. religious Reader this multitude of faults in so small a treatise I can attribute to nothing but my own ill hand which deceived the printer which I entreat thee to correct The Contents of every Chapter CHAP. I. SAint Chrysostome passionately describes the great esteem and value we ought to have of our own soules and on that basis he raises the fabrick of this treatise to perswade Theodorus plung'd into extream sinns and bewitch't with the vanity of a dissolute life to return to vertue and piety in which he had once been an eminant example CHAP. II. The Devil endeavours and practices to undermine our hopes and raze the foundation of our eternall happiness The comparison betwixt a dying body and a perishing soul with an exhortation to be couragious in our conflicts with the Devill CHAP. III. Gods mercie to the greatest sinners an argument against despair CHAP. IV. The example of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon a cohaerence to the preceding Chapter CHAP. V. That sincere repentance is alwaies acceptable to God declar'd out of Holy writ by example precept and parable CHAP. VI That we ought carefully to cleanse our soules from the filth of sin which must by no meanes be slighted or neglected since in this word we cannot presume on to morrow every thing is so subject to mutability And then the pleasures of the Earth being so short and so quickly vanishing we ought to fix our thoughts upon that eternity in which we shall be crown'd with glory or plagued in torments CHAP. VII Hell fire expos'd to the terror of the impenitent with the torments and the certainty thereof CHAP. VIII Of the beatitude of the Saints glorified in Heaven pressing Theodorus farther to amendment by arguing that Heaven is rather to be sought after then Hell to be fear'd the glory of the one being a more moving object then the terriblenesse of the other CHAP. IX Of the day of judgement CHAP. X. The joyes of Heaven prosecuted give occasion to discourse of the felicities and blessings God has promis'd our soules the excellencies wherewith they are enricht and vile contempt we have of them preferring our bodies their slaves before them CHAP. XI Saint Chrysostome continues here the glorious nature of the Soule and from that excellence prosecutes his perswasions to Theodorus still striving to overcome the rebellions of his lusts with exhortations and pressing arguments CHAP. XII The story of the Ninivites repenpentance the proeme to St. Chrysostomes farther urging Theodorus to his conversion collecting thence that the greatest sinners may return to God he prosecutes his perswasives alledging that many so converted have become the best and most zealous people CHAP. XIII Sant Chrysostome relates a story of Phoenix a young Gentleman of his time another of an Hermit another of a Disciple of Johns the Son Zebedeus and of Onesimus out of Saint Paul with which he continues his perswasives to fallen Theodorus CHAP. XIV The sum and conclusion of this treatise FINIS No comparison betwixt the death of the body and the soul St. Chrysostom's application to Theodorus The Hermet The schooler of John In Eusebius Eccles. Hist. lib. 5. c. 2.
very Wildernesse wild and desolate stript and naked rob'd and spoil'd of all thy riches and sumptuous Ornaments which were once so miraculously and divinely eminent in thy pious life that they were above humane faith these I say are ravish'd from thee and more to augment our sorrow wee see thee ruinated like a desert full of dangers which no body undertakes to keep Thou hast no Vertue left to bar the doors against assaulting temptations but lyest open to every corruption and wicked determination of thy fancy Whether it be pride or lust or drunkennesse or avarice what sin soever the Devill commands to storme thee there is nothing that defends the breach nothing that guards thy unman'd soule Yet once how much of heaven hadst thou in thee whilst like it the purity of thy thoughts was inaccessible to all manner of ill Mee thinks I speak wonders not to be believ'd by those who see thee in this thy forlorne and desperate condition which makes me pray lament and mourn continually that I may see thee return again to thy former integrity and piety which may perhaps seem to humane apprehension impossible but all things are easie in the hands of God For he it is that lifteth the beggar from the dust and exalteth the needy from the Dunghill that he may sit with Princes even with the Princes of his people Hee it is that maketh the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful Mother of Children Ps. 113. On this infinite and unsearchable love of our God to us build thou thy hopes and thou wilt find an impossibility a strange incapacity within thy self to despair at any time grace still working in thee to change thy heart into better and better desires For if the Devill had the power to pluck thee from so eminent a top and glory of Vertue into this Abysse of wickednesse Much more easily can our Omnipotent God raise thee up again restore thee to thy former liberty and honor and and not onely set thee free from this base captivity but make thy happinesse greater then ever yet it was Onely I beseech thee resolutely to break all snares that shall be lay'd in the way of thy return Let not thy hopes which are so full of certainty be cut off by any destructive fear or timorous perswasion lest those punishments light on thee which are due onely to the desperately wicked For neither the number nor the greatnesse of our sins does absolutely condemn us to a condition irrecoverable But resolv'd settlednesse and an intollerable composednesse in impious waies are the sure manifest signes of a soul so fall'n that it shall never rise again Wherefore Solomon does not speak generally of every man who transgresseth Pro. 18. but names that wicked man who when he comes into the depth of evill contemns his mercy It is onely a wicked purpose never to leave sin that plunges men into this dangerous Gulfe of despair and iniquity from whence they can never so much as look back and much more difficultly return For the deceiving weights of wickednesse lie like a heavy Collar on the necke of the soul and forcing our eyes upon the Earth forbids them to look up to our Lord that made them Know then it is the part of a generous and truly daring Christian spirit not to endure the Tyrants yoake valiantly to combate and destroy those officious guards his watchfull malice sits over us And with the Prophet to acknowledge our obedience there onely where it is onely due saying with him As the eyes of a Mayden unto the hand of her Mistresse so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God untill he have mercy upon us have mercy on us Lord have mercy on us for we are exceedingly fill'd with contempt Ps. 123. These are divine exhortations these are the doctrines of the most heavenly Philosophy we are fill'd with contempt we are shaken with infinite violent stormes of sad events Yet shall not this debar us from looking up to our God and imploring his assistance Nay till our Lord has granted our Petitions we must put on the confidence of importunate beggars and not let our prayers cease til our requests are granted This is the true Character of a pious daring soul not to be baffled from his hopes by the violence of ill successe not to start out of the way or goe back because as yet he has not found the expected issue of his prayers but to endure to the last till the Lord have mercy on him according to the precept and example of the Prophet David CHAP. II. The Devills endeavours and practices to undermine our hopes and raze the Foundation of our eternall happinesse The comparison betwixt a dying body and a perishing soul with an exhortation to be couragious in our conflicts with the Devill THE wily subtilty of Satan aimes at nothing more then to inveigle us in a Labyrinth of despair still feeding our naturall tottering inclinations with change and variety of doubts and once unsetled we are his certain prey for irresolution excludes us from our expectations in Heaven and relyance upon the benignity of our most mercifull God and Father it violently and too insensibly drives us from our hopes our surest Anchors By it wee lose the very essence of our lives the guide which leads us to God the Pilot which steers our forlorne and shipwrack'd soules into the Haven of Salvation For resolution and a constant hope never fail of assurance in the end by hope saies the word wee shall be sav'd that will to the last preserve us Hope is a stronge and Golden Chain let down to us from Heaven taking fast hold on it wee learn to subdue our soules most desperate rebellions Which our benign Lord finding us sure link'd to it has promis'd to raise and lift us by it above all the dangerous billowes of this present miserable life Whilst he who through idlenesse neglects to make his hold sure to this golden Anchor sinks and is certain to drown and perish in the deeps of his own wickednesse Which Satan that subtle Fox so well know's that he then makes his Hel-Harvest when he sees us laden with sin and overprest with the weight of our guiltiness this is the time hee so diligently watches for then falls he on us and presses our declinings with arguments of the immensity of our offences and deceives us with his cunning aggravations Then suggests he to our soules horror and despair in their extreames as there were no salvation left to us and the doors of mercy were lock'd against our cryes for ever And once in this dejected and base low condition how prone and precipitate is our descent into Hel forc'd still violently downwards by unresisted desperation having weakly lost our hold on hope that Golden Chain wee sink perpetually in the deepes both of sin and misery Thus is it with thee Theodorus who hast cast off thy obedience and subjection to a meek and mercifull Lord quite