several passages of Scripture utterly overthrow it for how could Solomon have said Where the word of a King is there is power and who may say unto him what dost thou If by the constitution of their Government the Sanhedrin might have controlled him in what he said or did But have not several of the modern Iews said so Granting that some have yet so they have spoken many unreasonable and foolish things besides but yet none of these have said that it was in the power of the Sanhedrin to depose their Kings or put them to death all that they say is that in the cases expressed by the Law if the Kings do transgress the Sanhedrin had the power of inflicting the penalty of scourging which yet they deny to have had any infamy in it among them But did not David transgress the Law in his murder and adultery did not Solomon in the multitude of his wives and Idolatry yet where do we read that the Sanhedrin ever took cognisance of these things And the more ancient Iews do say that the King was not to be judged as is plain in the Text of the Misna however the Expositors have taken a liberty to contradict it but as far as we can find without any foundation of reason and R. Ieremiah in Nachmanides saith expresly That no creature may judge the King but the holy and blessed God alone But we have an Authority far greater than his viz. of Davids in this case who after he hath denied that any man can stretch forth his hand against the Lords Anointed and be guiltless In the very next words he submits the judgement of him only to God himself saying As the Lord liveth the Lord shall smite him or his day shall come to die or he shall descend into battel and perish He thought it sufficient to leave the judgement of those things to God whose power over Princes he knew was enough if well considered by them to keep them in awe We have now dispatched the first consideration of the words of the Text as they relate to the fact of Corah and his company 2. We ought now to enquire whether the Christian Doctrine hath made any alteration in these things or whether that gives any greater encouragement to faction and sedition than the Law did when it is masked under a pretence of zeal for Religion and Liberty But it is so far from it that what God then declared to be displeasing to him by such remarkable judgements hath been now more fully manifested by frequent precepts and vehement exhortations by the most weighty arguments and the constant practice of the first and the best of Christians and by the black character which is set upon those who under a pretence of Christian Liberty did despise dominion and speak evil of dignities and follow Corah in his Rebellion however they may please themselves with greater light than former ages had in this matter they are said to be such for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever It would take up too much time to examine the frivolous evasions and ridiculous distinctions by which they would make the case of the Primitive Christians in not resisting Authority so much different from theirs who have not only done it but in spight of Christianity have pleaded for it Either they said they wanted strength or courage or the countenance of the Senate or did not understand their own Liberty when all their obedience was only due to those precepts of the Gospel which make it so great a part of Christianity to be subject to Principalities and Powers and which the Teachers of the Gospel had particularly given them in charge to put the people in mind of And happy had it been for us if this Doctrine had been more sincerely preached and duly practised in this Nation for we should then never have seen those sad times which we can now no otherwise think of than of the devouring Fire and raging Pestilence i. e. of such dreadful judgements which we have smarted so much by that we heartily pray we may never feel them again For then fears and jealousies began our miseries and the curse so often denounced against Meroz fell upon the whole Nation When the Sons of Corah managed their own ambitious designs against Moses and Aaron the King and the Church under the same pretences of Religion and Liberty And when the pretence of Religion was broken into Schisms and Liberty into oppression of the people it pleased God out of his secret and unsearchable judgements to suffer the Sons of Violence to prevail against the Lords Anointed and then they would know no difference between his being conquered and guilty They could find no way to justifie their former wickedness but by adding more The consciousness of their own guilt and the fears of the punishment due to it made them unquiet and thoughtful as long as his life and presence did upbraid them with the one and made them fearful of the other And when they found the greatness and constancy of his mind the firmness of his Piety the zeal he had for the true interest of the people would not suffer him to betray his Trust for the saving of his life they charge him with their own guilt and make him suffer because they had deserved to do it And as if it had not been enough to have abused the names of Religion and Liberty before they resolve to make the very name of Iustice to suffer together with their King by calling that infamous company who condemned their Soveraign A High Court of Iustice which trampled under foot the Laws both of God and men But lest the world should imagine they had any shame left in their sins they make the people witnesses of his Murther and pretend the Power of the People for doing that which they did detest and abhor Thus fell our Royal Martyr a sacrifice to the fury of unreasonable men who either were so blind as not to see his worth or rather so bad as to hate him for it And as God gave once to the people of the Iews a King in his Anger being provoked to it by their sins we have cause to say that upon the same account he took away one of the best of Kings from us in his wrath But blessed be that God who in the midst of judgement was pleased to remember mercy in the miraculous preservation and glorious restauration of our Gratious Soveraign let us have a care then of abusing the mercies of so great a deliverance to quite other ends than God intended it for lest he be provoked to say to us as he did of old to the Iews But if ye shall still do wickedly ye shall be consumed both ye and your King And if we look on this as a dreadful judgement let us endeavour to prevent it by a timely and sincere reformation of
world that cannot over-reach his Brother and not be discovered or however in the multiplicity and obscurity of our Laws cannot find out something in pretence at least to justifie his actions by But if appeal be made to the Courts of Iudicature what arts are then used either for concealing or hiring witnesses so that if their Purses be not equal the adverse party may overswear him by so much as his Purse is weightier than the others I heartily wish it may never be said of us what the Orator once said of the Greeks Quibus jusjurandum jocus testimonium ludus they made it a matter of jest and drollery to forswear themselves and give false testimonies But supposing men keep within the bounds of justice and common honesty yet how unsatiable are the desires of men they are for adding house to house and land to land never contented with what either their Ancestors have left them or the bountiful hand of Heaven hath bestowed upon them Till at last it may be in the Prophets expression for their covetousness the stone cry out of the wall and the beam out of the timber answer it i. e. provoke God to give a severe check to the exorbitant and boundless desires of men as he hath done by this days calamity Thus while the City thought with Babylon to sit as a Lady for ever while she dwelt carelsly and said I am and there is none else beside me evil is come upon her and she knows not from whence it comes and mischief is fallen upon her and she hath not been able to put it off and desolation is come upon her suddenly which she did not foresee 3. Contempt of God and his Laws That we read of v. 4. where the Prophet speaks by an Irony to them Come to Bethel and transgress c. he knew well enough they were resolved to do it let God or the Prophet say what they pleased For these Kine of Bashan were all for the Calves of Dan and Bethel and some think that is the reason of the title that is given them These great men of Samaria thought it beneath them to own Religion any further than it was subservient to their civil interests They were all of Ieroboams Religion who looked on it as a meer politick thing and fit to advance his own designs by I am afraid there are too many at this day who are secretly of his mind and think it a piece of wisdom to be so Blessed God that men should be so wise to deceive themselves and go down with so much discretion to Hell These are the Grave and retired Atheists who though they secretly love not Religion yet their caution hinders them from talking much against it But there is a sort of men much more common than the other the faculties of whose minds are so thin and aiery that they will not bear the consideration of any thing much less of Religion these throw out their bitter scoffs and prophane jests against it A thing never permitted that I know of in any civilized Nation in the world whatsoever their Religion was the reputation of Religion was always preserved sacred God himself saith Iosephus would not suffer the Iews to speak evil of other Gods though they were to destroy all those who tempted them to the worship of them And shall we suffer the most excellent and reasonable Religion in the world viz. the Christian to be profaned by the unhallowed mouths of any who will venture to be damned to be accounted witty If their enquiries were deeper their reason stronger or their arguments more perswasive than of those who have made it their utmost care and business to search into these things they ought to be allowed a fair hearing but for men who pretend to none of these things yet still to make Religion the object of their scoffs and raillery doth not become the gravity of a Nation professing wisdom to permit it muche less the sobriety of a people professing Christianity In the mean time such persons may know that wise men may be argued out of a Religion they own but none but Fools and mad men will be droll'd out of it Let them first try whether they can laugh men out of their Estates before they attempt to do it out of their hopes of an Eternal happiness And I am sure it will be no comfort to them in another world that they were accounted Wits for deriding those miseries which they then feel and smart under the severity of it will be no mitigation of their flames that they go laughing into them nor will they endure them the better because they would not believe them But while this is so prevailing a humour among the vain men of this Age and Nation what can we expect but that God should by remarkable and severe judgements seek to make men more serious in Religion or else make their hearts to ake and their joints to tremble as he did Belshazzars when he could find nothing else to carouse in but the Vessels of the Temple And when men said in the Prophet Zephany chap. 1. 12. that God neither did good nor evil presently it follows therefore their goods shall become a booty and their houses a desolation the day of the Lord is near a day of wrath a day of trouble and distress a day of wastness and desolation as it is with us at this time Thus we see how sad the parallel hath been not only in the judgements of Israel but in the sins likewise which have made those judgements so severe 4. The severity of the Judgement appears not only from the Causes but from the Author of it I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah God challenges the execution of his Justice to himself not only in the great day but in his judgement here in the world Shall there be evil in a City and the Lord hath not done it When God is pleased to punish men for their sins the excution of his justice is agreeable to his nature now as it will be at the end of the world We all know that he may do it if he please and he hath told us that he doth and will do it and we know withal that without such remarkable severities the world will hardly be kept in any awe of him We do not find that Love doth so much in the World as Fear doth there being so very few persons of tractable and ingenuous spirits It is true of too many what Lactantius observes of the Romans Nunquam Dei meminerunt nisi dum in malis sunt they seldom think of God but when they are afraid of him And there is not only this reason as to particular persons why God should punish them but there is a greater as to Communities and Bodies of men for although God suffers wicked men to escape punishment here as he
preserve the peace of the Christian Church when they are to plant Churches how ready to go about it how diligent in attending it how watchful to prevent all miscarriages among them When they write Epistles to those already planted with what Authority do they teach with what Majesty do they command with what severity do they rebuke with what pity do they chastise with what vehemency do they exhort and with what weighty arguments do they perswade all Christians to adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour in all things So that such persons who after all these things can believe that the Apostles were acted only by some extravagant heats may as easily perswade themselves that men may be drunk with sobriety and mad with reason and debauched with goodness But such are fit only to be treated in a dark room if any can be found darker than their understandings are 2. But yet there may be imagined a higher sort of madness than these men are guilty of viz. That when men are convinced that these things could not be done by meer Mechanical causes then they attribute them to the assistance of Spirits but not to the holy and divine but such as are evil and impure A madness so great and extravagant that we could hardly imagine that it were incident to humane nature unless the Scripture had told us that some had thus blasphemed the son of man and either had or were in danger of blaspheming the Holy Ghost too And this is properly blaspheming the Holy Ghost which was not given as our text tells us till after Christs ascension when men attribute all those miraculous gifts which were poured out upon the Apostles in confirmation of the Christian doctrine to the power of an unclean Spirit For so the Evangelist St. Luke when he mentions the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost which shall not be forgiven immediately subjoyns their bringing the Apostles to the Synagogues and Magistrates and Powers and adds that the Holy Ghost even that which they so blasphemed in them should teach them in that same hour what they ought to say I deny not but the attributing the miraculous works of Christ who had the Holy Spirit without measure to an evil Spirit was the same kind of sin but it received a greater aggravation after the resurrection of Christ from the dead and the miraculous effusion of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles For now the great confirmation was given to the truth of all that Christ had said before he had some times concealed his miracles and forbid the publishing of them and to such he appeared but as the son of man of whom it is said that had they known him they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory and St. Peter more expresly and now Brethren I wote that through ignorance you did it as did also your Rulers But now since his resurrection and ascension when God by the effusion of the Holy Ghost hath given the largest and fullest Testimony to the doctrine of the Gospel if men after all this shall go on to blaspheme the Holy Ghost by attributing all these miracles to a Diabolical power then there is no forgiveness to be expected either in this world or the world to come Because this argues the greatest obstinacy of mind the highest contempt of God and the greatest affront that can be put upon the Testimony of the holy Spirit for it is charging the Spirit of truth to be an evil and a lying Spirit By which we see what great weight and moment the Scripture lays upon this pouring out of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles and what care men ought to have how they undervalue and despise it and much more how they do reproach and blaspheme it They might as well imagine that light and darkness may meet and embrace each other as that the infernal Spirits should imploy their power in promoting a doctrine so contrary to their interest For Heaven and Hell cannot be more distant than the whole design of Christianity is from all the contrivances of wicked Spirits How soon was the Devil's Kingdom broken his Temples demolished his oracles silenced himself baffled in his great design of deceiving mankind when Christianity prevailed in the world Having thus far asserted the truth of the thing viz. that there was such an effusion of the Holy Spirit now come to consider 2. The nature of it as it is represented to us by Rivers of living waters flowing out of them that believe by which we may understand 1. The plenty of it called Rivers of waters 2. The benefit and usefulness of it to the Church 1. The plentifulness of this effusion of the Spirit there had been some drops as it were of this Spirit which had fallen upon some of the Jewish nation before but those were no more to be compared with these rivers of waters than the waters of Siloam which run softly with the mighty River Euphrates What was the Spirit which Bezaleel had to build the Tabernacle with if compared with that Spirit which the Apostles were inspired with for building up the Church of God what was that Spirit of Wisdom which some were filled with to make garments for Aaron if compared with that Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation which led the Apostles into the knowledge of all Truth What was that Spirit of Courage which was given to the Iudges of old if compared with that Spirit which did convince the world of sin of righteousness and of judgement What was that Spirit of Moses which was communicated to the 70. elders if compared with that Spirit of his son which God hath shed abroad in the hearts of his people What was that Spirit of prophesie which inspired some Prophets in several ages with that pouring out of the Spirit upon all flesh which the Apostle tells us was accomplished on the day of Pentecost But these Rivers of Waters though they began their course at Ierusalem upon that day yet they soon overflowed the Christian Church in other parts of the world The sound of that rushing mighty wind was soon heard in the most distant places and the fiery tongues inslamed the hearts of many who never saw them These gifts being propagated into other Churches and many other tongues were kindled from them as we see how much this gift of tongues obtained in the Church of Corinth And so in the History of the Acts of the Apostles we find after this day how the Holy Ghost fell upon them which believed and what mighty signs and wonders were done by them 2. The benefit and usefulness of this effusion of the Spirit like the Rivers of Waters that both refresh and enrich and thereby make glad the City of God The coming down of the Spirit was like the pouring water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground Now God opened the Rivers in
dens who seemed to be designed rather to destroy than to conquer So sudden so numerous so irresistible in most places were the incursions they made But what was it which gave them so strange success was it their long practice and skill in military affairs No they were rude and unexperienced was it their mighty courage No they were despised by the Romans as great cowards and begged for peace when it was denyed them But as Salvian tells us who lived in those times and knew the manners of both sides the Goths and Vandals were of a very severe chastity among whom fornication was punished sharply and adultery a crime scarce heard of whereas all manner of uncleanness and licentiousness did abound among the Romans who yet were then called Christians The Goths were devout and pious acknowledging divine providence making their solemn supplications to God before their victories and returning him the praise of them afterwards but the Romans were fallen into that degree of irreligion and Atheism that nothing was more common among them than to droll upon Religion A nostris omnia fermè religiosa ridentur as Salvian speaks they thought all things managed by chance or fate and ascribed very little to God And where these sins abounded most they were carried up and down as by a divine instinct as they confessed themselves and where they conquered as he particularly speaks of the Vandals in Africa they purged all the stews of uncleanness and made so great a reformation by the severity of their Laws that even the Romans themselves were chast among them Thus we see how those great and mighty Empires have been broken to pieces by the weight of their impieties falling upon them May the consideration then of these things move us in time to a reformation of our lives before our iniquities grow full and ripe for vengeance We have seen many revolutions and God knows how many more we may see if that should be true of us which the same Author saith of the Romans in the midst of all their changes Sola tantum vitia perdurant their vices remained the same still Thanks be to God that things have a fairer appearance at present than they have had and never so good a time to amend as now but if men flatter themselves with present security and their sins increase as their fears abate the clouds which seem dispersed may soon gather again and the face of the Heavens will change if we do not And if it be not in our power to reclaim others from their sins let us endeavour to preserve the honour of our Church by amending our own and convince our enemies by living better than they And give me leave to say and so I conclude that among all the expedients which have been thought of for the peace of this Church and Nation that of leaving off our sins and leading vertuous and exemplary lives will at last prove to be the most successful SERMON XI Preached at WHITE HALL MRRCH 27. 1672. II CORINTH V. II. Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men IF ever any Religion was in all respects accomplished for so noble a design as the reformation of mankind it was the Christian whether we consider the Authority of those who first delivered it or the weight of the arguments contained in it and their agreeableness to the most prevailing passions of humane nature Although the world was strangely degenerated before the coming of Christ yet not to see great a degree but that there were some who not only saw the necessity of a cure but offered their assistance in order to it whose attemps proved the more vain and fruitless because they laboured under the same distempers themselves which they offered tâ—… cure in others or the method they prescribed was mean and trivial doubâ—ful and uncertain or else too nice and subtle to do any great good upon the world But Châ—istianity had not only a mighty advantage by the great holiness of thoâ—e who preached it but by the clearness and evidence the strength and efficacy of those arguments which they used to perswade men The nature of them is such that none who understand them can deny them to be great their clearneâ—s such that none that hear them can chooâ—e but understand them the manner of recommending them such as all who understood themselves could not but desire to hear them No arguments can be more proper to mankind than those which work upon their reason and consideration no motives can stir up moâ—e to the exercise of this than their own happiness and misery no happinoss and misery can deserve to be so much considered as that which is eternal And this eternal state is that which above all other things the Christian Religion delivers with the greatest plainnes confirms with the strongest evidence and enforces upon the consciences of men with the most powerful and perswasive Rhetorick I need not go beyond my text for the proof of this wherein we see that the Apostles sesign was to perswade men i. e. to convince their judgements to gain their affections to reform their lives that the argument they uâ—ed for this end was no less than the terrour of the Lord not the frowns of the world nor the fear of men nor the malice of Devils but the terrour of the Almighty whose Majesty makes even the Devils tremble whose power is irresisistible and whose wrath is insupportable But it is not the terrour of the Lord in this world which he here speaks of although that be great enough to make us as miserable as we can be in this State but the terrour of the Lord which shaâ—l appear at the dreadful day of judgement of which he peaks in the verse before the text For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad This is the terrour here meant which relates to our final and eternal State in another world whâ—n we must appear before the judgement seat of Christ c. And of this he speaks not out of Poetical Fables ancient traditions uncertain conjectures or probable arguments but from full assuâ—ance of the truth of what he delivers Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men In which words we shall consider these particulars 1. The argument which the Apostle makes choice of to perswade men which is the terrour of the Lord. 2. The great assurance he expresseth of the truth of it knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord. 3. The efficacy of it in order to the convincing and reforming mankind knowing therefore c. we perswade men 1. The argument the Apostle makes choice of to perswade men by viz. the terror of the Lord. In the Gospel we find a mixture of the highest
clemency and the greatest severity the richest mercy and the strictest justice the most glorious rewards and intollerable punishments accordingly we find God therein described as a tender Father and as a terrible Judge as a God of peace and as a God of vengeance as an everlasting happiness and a consuming fire and the Son of God as coming once with great humility and again with Majesty and great glory once with all the infirmities of humane nature and again with all the demonstrations of a Divine power and presence once as the Son of God to take away the sins of the world by his death and passion and again as Judge of the world with flaming fire to execute vengeance on all impenitent sinners The intermixing of these in the doctrine of the Gospel was necessary in order to the benefit of mankind by it that such whom the condescension of his first appearance could not oblige to leave off their sins the terrour of his second may astonish when they foresee the account that will be taken of their ingratitude and disobedience that such who are apt to despise the meanness of his birth the poverty of his life and the shame of his death may be filled with horrour and amazement when they consider the Majesty of his second coming in the clouds to execute judgement upon all and to convince all that are ungodly not only of their ungodly deeds but of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him And we shall easily see what great reason there is that this second coming of Christ to judgement should be called the terrour of the Lord if we consider 1. The terror of the preparation for it 2. The terror of the appearance in it 3. The terror of the proceedings upon it 4. The terror of the sentence which shall then be passed 1. The terror of the preparation for it which is particularly described by St. Peter in these words But the day of the Lord will come as a Thies in the night in which the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with servent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up This day will come as a Thief in the night by way of surprise when it is not looked for and that makes it so much the more dreadful A lesser calamity coming suddenly doth astonish more than a far greater which hath been long expected for surprisals confound mens thoughts daunt their Spirits and betray all the succours which reason offers But when the surprise shall be one of the least astonishing circumstances of the misery men fall into what unconceivable horrour will possess their minds at the appâ—ehension of it What confusion and amazement may we imagine the soul of that man in whom our Saviour speaks of in his parable who being pleased with the fulness of his condition said to his soul soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and be merry but God said to him thou fool this might thy soul shall be required of thee then whose shall those things be that thou hast provided Had God only said this night shall thy burns be burnt and thy substance consumed to ashes which thou hast laid up for so many years that would have caused a strange consternation in him for the present but he might have comforted himself with the hopes of living and getting more But this night shall thy soul be required of thee O dreadful words O the tremblings of body the anguish of mind the pangs and convulsions of conscience which such a one is tormented with at the hearing of them What sad reflections doth he presently make upon his own folly And must all the mirth and ease I promised my self for so many years be at an end now in a very few hours Nay must my mirth be so suddenly turned into bitter howlings and my ease into a bed of flames Must my soul be thus torn away from the things it loved and go where it will hate to live and can never dye O miserable creature to be thus deceived by my own folly to be surprised after so many warnings to betray my self into everlasting misery fear horrour and despair have already taken hold on me and are carrying me where they will never leave me These are the Agonies but of one single person whom death snatches away in the midst of his years his pleasures and his hopes but such as these the greatest part of the world will fall into when that terrible day of the Lord shall come For as it was in the days of Noe so shall it be also in the day of the Son of Man they did eat they drank they married wives they were given in marriage until the day that Noe entred into the Ark and the flood came and destroyed them all Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot they did eat they drank they bought they sold they planted they builded but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstome from Heaven and destroyed them all even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth If some of the è expressions seem to relate to the unexpected coming of Christ to judgement upon Hierusalem we are to consider that was not only a fore-runner but a figure of Christs coming to judge the world And that may be the great reason why our Saviour mixeth his discourses of both these so much together as he doth for not only the judgement upon that nation was a draught as it were in little of the great day but the symptoms and fore-runners of the one were to bear a proportion with the other among which the strange security of that people before their destruction was none of the least And the surprise shall be so much the more astonishing when the day of the Lord shall come upon the whole world as the terâ—or and consequents of that univerial judgement shall exceed the overthrow of the Jewish Polity But supposing men were aware of its approach and prepared for it the burning of the Temple and City of Hierusalem though so frightful a spectacle to the beholders of it was but a mean representation of the terror that shall be at the conflagration of the whole world When the Heavens shall pass away with a great â—oise or with a mighty force as some interpret it and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat i. e. when all the fiery bodies in the upper regions of this world which have been kept so long in an even and regular course within their several limits shall then be let loose again and by a more rapid and violent motion shall put the world into confusion and
a flame together For then the present frame of things shall be dissolved and the bounds set to the more subtile and active parts of matter shall be taken away which mixing with the more grâ—ss and earthy shall sever them from each other and by their whirling and agitation set them all on sire And if the Stars falling to the earth were to be understood in a literal sense none seems so probable as this that those aethereal fires shall then be scattered and dispersed thoughout the universe so that the earth and all the works that are therein shall be turned into one funeral Pile Then the foundations of the earth shall be shaken and all the combustible matter which lies hid in the bowels of it shall break forth into prodigious flames which while it rouls up and down within making it self a passage out will cause an universal quaking in all parts of the earth and make the Sea to roar with a mighty noise which will either by the violent heat spend it self in vapour and smoak or be swallowed up in the hollow places of the deep Neither are we to imagine that only the sulphureous matter within the earth shall by its kindling produce so general a conflagration although some Philosophers of old thought that sufficient for so great an effect but as it was in the deluge of water the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of Heaven were opened so shall it be in this deluge of fire as one of the ancients calls it not only mighty streams and rivers of Fire shall issue of out the bowels of the earth but the cataracts above shall discharge such abundance of thunder and lightning wherein God will rain down fire and brimstone from Heaven that nothing shall be able to withstand the force of it Then the Craters breaches made in the earth by horrible earthquakes caused by the violent eruptions of Fire shall be wide enough to swallow up not only Cities but whole Countries too And what shall remain of the spoils of this devouring enemy within shall be consumed by the merciless fury of the thunder and lightning above What will then become of all the glories of the world which are now so much admired and courted by foolish men What will then become of the most magnificent piles the most curious structures the most stately palaces the most lasting monuments the most pleasant gardens and the most delightful countries they shall be all buried in one common heap of ruines when the whole face of the earth shall be like the top of mount Aetna nothing but rubbish and stones and ashes which unskilful travellers have at a distance mistaken for Snow What will then become of the pride and gallantry of the vain persons the large possessions of the great or the vast treasures of the rich the more they have had of these things only the more fuel they have made for this destroying fire which will have no respect to the honours the greatness or the riches of men Nay what will then become of the wicked and ungodly who have scoffed at all these things and walked after their own lusts saying where is this promise of his coming because all things yet continue as they were from the beginning of the creation When this great day of his wrath is come how shall they be able to stand or escape his sury Will they flie to the tops of the mountains that were only to stand more ready to be destroyed from Heaven Will they hide themselves in the dens and the rocks of the mountains but there they fall into the burning furnaces of the earth and the mountains may fall upon them but can never hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. Will they go down into the deep and convey themselves to the uttermost parts of the Sea but even there the storms and tempests of these shours of fire shall overtake them and the vengeance of God shall pursue them to everlasting flames Consider now whether so dreadful a preparation for Christs coming to judgement be not one great reason why it should be called the terror of the Lord For can any thing be imagined more full of horror and amazement than to see the whole world in a flame about us We may remember and I hope we yet do so when the flames of one City filled the minds of all the beholders with astonishment and fear but what then would it do not only to see the earth vomit and cast forth fire every where about us and the Sea to boyl and swell and froth like water in a seething pot but to hear nothing but perpetual claps of thunder and to see no light in the Heavens but what the flashings of lightning give Could we imagine our selves at a convenient distance to behold the eruption of a burning mountain such as Aetna and Vesuvius are when the earth about it trembles and groans the Sea foams and rages and the bowels of the mountain roar through impatience of casting forth its burden and at last gives it self ease by sending up a mixture of flames and ashes and smoak and a flood of fire spreading far and destroying where ever it runs yet even this though it be very apt to put men in apprehensions and fears of this great day falls very far short of the terror of it Could we yet farther suppose that at the same time we could see fire and brimstone raining from Heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah the earth opening to devour Corah and his company Belshazzar trembling at the hand writing against the wall and the Jews destroying themselves in the fire of their Temple and City this may somewhat higher advance our imaginations of the horror of the worlds conflagration but yet we cannot reach the greatness of it in as much as the Heavens and the earth which are now are kept in store saith the Apostle reserved unto fire against the day of judgement and perdition of ungodly men even those heavens whole beauty and order and motion and influence we now admire and that earth whose fruitful womb and richly adorned surface affords all the conveniencies of the life of man must either be destroyed or at least purged and refined by this last and dreadful Fire The expressions of which in Scripture being so frequent so particular so plain in Writers not affecting the â—ofty Prophetical stile wherein fire is often used only to express the wrath of God make it evident that their meaning is not barely that the world shall be destroyed by the anger of God but that this destruction shall be by real fire which adds more to the sensible terror of it to all that shall behold it 2. The terror of Christs appearance in that day The design of the Scripture in setting forth the coming of Christ to judgement is to represent it in such a manner to us as is most
judgement to come cannot make us tremble and eternal misery leave no impression upon us what other arguments or methods can we imagine would reclaim us from our sins We have been too sad an instance our selves of the ineffectualness of other means of amendment by the mercies and judgements of this present life have ever any people had a greater mixture of both these than we have had in the compass of a few years If the wisest persons in the world had been to have set down beforehand the method of reforming a sinful nation they could have pitched upon none more effectual than what we have shewed not to be so First they would have imagined that after enduring many miseries and hardships when they were almost quite sunk under dispair if God should give them a sudden and unexpected deliverance meer ingenuity and thankfulness would make them afrid to displease a God of so much kindness But if so great a flash of joy and prosperity instead of that should make them grow wanton and extravagant what a course then so likely to reclaim them as a series of smart and severe judgements one upon another which might sufficiently warn yet not totally destroy These we have had experience of and of worse than all these viz. that we are not amended by them For are the Laws of God less broken or the duties of Religion less contemned and despised after all these What vices have been forsaken what lusts have men been reclaimed from nay what one sort of sin hath been less in fashion than before Nay have not their number as well as their aggravation increased among us Is our zeal for our established Religion greater Is our faith more firm and setled our devotion more constant our Church less in danger of either of the opposite factions than ever it was Nay is it not rather like a neck of land between two rough and boysterous seas which rise and swell and by the breaches they make in upon us threaten an inundation By all which we see what necessity there is that God should govern this world by the considerations of another that when neither judgements nor mercies can make men better in this life judgement without mercy should be their portion in another O the infatuating power of sin when neither the pity of an indulgent Father nor the frowns of a severe Judge can draw us from it when neither the bitter passion of the Son of God for our sins nor his threatning to come again to take vengeance upon us for them can make us hate and abhorr them when neither the shame nor contempt the diseases and reproaches which follow sin in this world nor the intollerable anguish and misery of another can make men sensible of the folly of them so as to forsake them Could we but represent to our minds that State wherein we must all shortly be when the bustle and hurry the pleasures and diversions the courtships and entertainments of this world shall be quite at an end with us and every one must give an account of himself to God what another opinion of these things should we have in our minds with what abhorrency should we look upon every temptation to sin how should we loath the sight of those who either betrayed us into sin or flattered us when we had committed it Could men but ask themselves that reasonable question why they will defie God by violating his known Laws unless they be sure he either cannot or will not punish them for it thy would be more afraid of doing it than they are for supposing both to do it is perfect madness to question his power who is Almighty or his will who hath declared it and is immutable is the height of folly 2. The condition of such is desperate whom no arguments can perswade to leave their sins For there can be no breaking prison in that other State no escaping tryal no corrupting the Judge no reversing the sentence no pardon after judgement no reprieve from punishment no abatement or end of misery How canst thou then hope O impenitent sinner either to fly from or to endure that wrath of God that is coming swiftly upon thee to arrest thee by death and convey thee to thy tormenting prison canst thou hope that God will discharge thee before that dreadful day comes when he hath confined thee thither in order to it Canst thou hope that day will never come which the vindication of Gods justice the honour of Christ the happiness of the blessed as well as the punishment of the wicked make so necessary that it should come or canst thou hope to defend thy self against an all seeing eye a most righteous Judge and an accusing conscience when that day doth come when all the mercies thou hast abused the judgements thou hast slighted the motions of grace thou hast resisted the checks of conscience thou hast stifled and the sins of all kinds thou hast committed shall rise up in judgement to condemn thee O that we had all the wisdom to consider of these things in time that the terror of the Lord may perswade us to break off all our sins by a sincere repentance and to live so that we may dye with comfort and be for ever with the Lord in his eternal Joy SERMON XII Preached at WHITE HALL FEBRUARY 18. 1672. MATTHEW XVI XXVI For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall he give in exchange for his soul IF we look into the twenty fourth verse of this Chapter we shall find our Saviour there laying down such hard conditions of mens being his Disciples as were to all appearance more likely to have driven away those which he had already than to have drawn any others after him For he requires no less than the greatest readiness to suffer for his sake and that to no meaner a degree than the loss of what is most precious to men in this world in their lives which is implyed in those words If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me If our Saviour had only designed to have made himself great by the number of his followers if he had intended a Kingdom in this world as the Jews imagined he would have made more easie conditions of being his Disciples He would have chosen another way to have attained his end and made use of more pleasing and popular arguments to have perswaded the people to follow him When the Eastern Impostor afterwards began to set up for a new Religion he took a method as contrary to our Saviours as his Religion and design was he knew the Greatness and Honour the pleasures and the pomp of this world were the things most passionately loved and admired by the generality of mankind and therefore he fitted his Religion to the natural