are exercised under them 2. Think not strange of those fiery tryalls and that the best men are so often under them it were strange if it were not so Christianus Crucianus the Crosse is the Christians badge the Cognisance of a Disciple our Lord himself the Captain of our salvation was made perfect through sufferings he carried the Cross upon his own shoulders up Mount Calvary upon which himself was Crucified and we may not think much that come after him with Symon the Cyrenian to carry one end of it Shew me the man of any standing in the profession of Christianity that hath been constantly free from sufferings and I will say He is either a Miracle or a Monster in Religion 3. Think not the worse neither of your selves nor others in this case Crosses are not Curses nor the greatest Sufferers therefore the greatest Sinners The sufferings of the Saints are so farr from being Arguments of Gods displeasure towards them that clean contrary they are rather evidences of his love and favour So St. Paul Argues Heb. 12.6 Whom he loveth he chasteneth and correcteth every sonne whom he receiveth St. Jerom never feared his estate worse then when for three years together he lived in peace and was free from all trouble and adversity If thou faint in the time of adversity thy strength is small Remember all promises of blessings and good things made to Gods Children are made with exception of the Cross against which even grace and goodness piety and obedience holiness it self is no protection Sanctity and suffering may stand together They were holy ones of whom God spake Ps 89.32.33 Their iniquity will I visit with the rod and their sins with scourges but my loving kindness will I never take from them nor suffer my truth to faile 4. Beware of murmuring by no means suffer your hearts to break out in any evill thoughts against God and his Providence even in his most severe proceedings against you as if he dealt too hardly with you this were to charge God foolishly But let him be ever justified in his sayings and doings and clear when he is judged and to silence all clamour murmurings and mutinous thoughts In this case take with you these two considerations First See sin in all let the means by which you suffer be what it will and the Instruments of it what they can doe but look well into it and you shall finde Sinne lyes at the bottome David saw this Psal 25.18 Look upon my adversity and my trouble and forgive me all my Sinne. Jeremy saw it in his Lamentations cap. 3.39 Why doth living man complaine man suffering for his Sinnes as if he should say There is no reason for it let him consider well of it and he shall find his Sinnes are greater then his sufferings his sufferings less then his deservings Secondly See God in all though sin be the cause of all 't is God that is the Judge of all Is there any evill in the City and the Lord hath not done it And if it be the Lord let him doe what he will he neither can nor will doe unjustly When Moses told Aaron in a grievous Affliction that befell him Levit. 10. That it was from the Lord The Text sayes Aaron held his peace ver 3. he had no more to say If it be the Lords doing let him doe what is good in his eyes his will be done at well upon us as by us and as well in taking away as giving Ever say with holy Job in the like case Blessed be the Name of the Lord Job 1.22 5. In the sufferings of the Saints and servanâ—s of God here in this world let wicked and ungodly men reade their own doome and certainly conclude That they have a heavy reckoning to make to God in the day of account that great is the wrath of the Allmighty against them and fearefull the Judgements that doe await them Behold saith the Lord I visit the City upon which my name is called and doe you think to escape you shall not escape And if the righteous be scarely saved where shall the ungodly and the Sinner appeare Surely if he doe so severely scourge his own Children with Scourges he will torment them with Scorpions Solomon observed in his time Eccles 8.11 That because Judgement was not speedily executed upon evill doers therefore the hearts of the sonnes of men were wholly set upon wickedness But there is no reason for it if they knew all alas they see not that their day is comming they may make a Covenant with the Grave and with Hell be at agreement but that Covenant will not stand they may cry â—â—ace peace unto themselves where there is no peace and so sleep a while in their security but their damnation sleepeth not they may sing Requiems to their souls Ede bibe lude Eat drink and be merry but they see not the hand-writing on the Wall Mene Mene c. Thou art weighed in the ballance and art found too light they heare not the dreadfull noyse Stulte hac nocte This night shall they fetch away thy soule With what derision doth the wisedom of God speak to such Eccles 11.9 Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart cheere thee in the dayes of thy youth and walk in the sight of thine eyes and the wayes of thine heart but remember that for all these things God will bring thee into judgement But the Lord speaks terror to them by his royall Prophet David Psal 50.21 Thus and thus hast thou done and I held my tongue and thou thoughtest me such a one as thy selfe but I will reprove thee and set thy sinnes in order before thee Beloved take this for a most certaine observation 'T is the most dangerous state in the world for a man to goe on in sinne and prosper to live in sinne and to live at ease free from adversity and affliction Ephraim is given unto Idols let him alone saith the Lord by the Prophet Hosea c. 4.17 Nolo istam misericordiam saith St. Jerom Lord let me have none of that mercy to be let alone in my sinne Scinde ure seca ut in aeternum parcas Let me suffer any thing in this life that thou shalt please to lay upon me that I may be spared in the life to come and have nothing to suffer in the other world Let all secure sinners know There is a Pit digging up for them a very significant expression of the Prophet Psal 94.13 Vntill the Pit be digged for the ungodly Now the longer the Pit is in digging the deeper it will be and the deeper it is the greater will be the fall into it and the more impossible the recovery out of it and so deep it may be that it may let the sinner down into Hell it self I conclude this Point with that Advertisement of Saint Paul which he gives to all such secure sinners Rom. 2.4 Know ye not that the patience and long
suffering of God should leade to Repentance But thou out of thine hardness and heart that cannot repent treasurest up unto thy selfe wrath against the day of wrath and the declaration of the righteous judgement of God And what a miserable thing is this for a man to treasure up unto himself wrath against the day of wrath and all his dayes to be carrying fuell to that fire in which himselfe is eternally to burne Lastly From this truth let all men certainly conclude a Judge to come for he that is the Judge of all the world hath said it That he will render to every man according to his works Rom. 2.6 But we see that is not done in this life in this life here are cross dispensations of Providence by which it falls out oft times clean contrary Solomon observed this in his time Eccles 8.14 That there be righteous Men to whom it cometh according to the working of the wicked and there be wicked Men to whom it cometh according to the work of the righteous The royall Prophet David before him observed the same â—sal 73. and complineth of it That the wicked flourish when the righteous perish they live at ease and have all things that their hearts can wish When the righteous are under the Cross and under the Rod chastised every Morning and visited every moment Hic pietatis honos Is this the reward of piety Is this to render to every man according to his works surely no and if things should rest thus then well might Saint Paul complain That of all men the Saints and servants of God were most miserable If in this life onely we have hope then are we of all men most miserable But say not so and think not so but possesse your souls with patience for a time and mark the end and you shall finde it is not so Remember that of St. Paul Acts 17.31 That God hath appointed a day wherein to Judge the world in righteousness by his Sonne Jesus Christ when he will make all these crosse reckonings right and streight wherein he will render tribulation to them that have troubled his and to those that have been troubled rest with him when he will say to all those secure and sensuall sinners as to the rich Epicure in the Gospel Sonnes remember you in your life time received pleasure and these my servants received pain now they are comforted and you are tormented that 's the day wherein this word shall be made good That he will render to every Man according to his works therefore called The day of refreshing Acts 3.19 The day of restauration The day of the righteous judgement of God Rom. 2.5 Gods Judgements are alwayes righteous but they are not alwayes declared to be so but then they shall be declared to be so in the sight of all the world men and Angels and they shall all confesse and say as in the Psalme Verely there is a reward for the righteous doubtless there is a God that judgeth the earth And so we have done with the Prophets second Satis est the second of his enoughs spoken in reference to what he had suffered Satis Tuli I have suffered enough We now pass to the third spoken in reference to what he had done 3. Satis Feci I have done enough And this ariseth out of the first words of the 14. verse I have been very jealous or zealous for the Lord God of Hosts this word is very significant and comprehensive it containes in it much as the faithfull discharge of his duty in the Office of a Prophet whereunto he was called his care to maintaine the true Religion and Worship of God his courage in reproving the sinnes of the ten Tribes even in the greatest Ahab himselfe not excepted his zeale in convincing and silencing the Priests of Baall in those perillous times when they had the protection and countenance of Authority on their sides and much more and that he did not these things coldly negligently perfunctorily but with all earnestness and fervency as the word imports for it comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to hisse as Iron doth when being red hot it is dipt in Water such was his activity in the performance of these his duties and fervency of affection Quicquid egit valide egit as the Italians are said to doe The zeale of Gods House did even consume him as another Prophet speaks he did these duties with zeale as hot as fire neither in this testimony did he arrogate to himselfe any thing at all more then due nor commend himselfe above his measure the Story of his Life and Actions evidently declares the truth of what he here asserts That he had been very zealous for the Lord God of Hosts in doing his Will in seeking his Glory and in upholding and maintaining his true Worship against all opposers c. The Inferences from hence are these three The first Those that are for God must doe the will of God The second It is not enough to doe Operâ— operato but they must doe it as they should be done in due manner with due affections and they must doe it home or els it will never reach to Elijah's Satis est It is enough The third It shall be their greatest comfort in the evill day that they have done so the illation of these is cleare out of Elijah's Satis est in the Text compar'd with the first words of the 14. v. First Those that are for God must doe the will of God in that Place Calling and Condition of Life wherein God hath set them They must doe his will whether it be Prophet or Apostle or a common Christian Magistrate or Minister or common Beleever every one must in his Place doe the will of God It is our dayly Prayer That his will may be done in Earth as it is in Heaven And in this Prayer Is it fit that we should over-look our selves No as it is our dayly Prayer so it should be our dayly practise to doe his will Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven Not the hearers but the doers of the Law shall be justified If you know these things blessed are you if you doe them Christianity calls for Action it is not Logicall but Morall not speculative but practique it consists not in saying nor in knowing nor in professing but in working there must be a Feci in it Regnum Dei non datur otiosis as St. Bernard speaks the Kingdom of God is not given to idle professors and pretenders the Calling of a Christian is a laborious Calling a Building a Husbandry a Warfare all these call to work there is somthing to be done whereby we may bring glory to God good to men and comfort to our own souls The very Heathen were sensible of this That they were bound to doe some good in the Generation wherein
hollowness of them What is it that sustains the Clouds in the Aire infinitely greater and more weighty then they so as they fly to and fro but as bottles in the Aire as Job speaks or like bladders full of winde that they fall not down in great dashes enough to make another Deluge but the hollowness of them That such a hollowness there is in them appears by the Lightning the Thunder and the Thunder-bolts and the spirituall vapour that proceeds out of them when they break of such force that it penetrates and burns and breaks and tears in peeces all that it lights upon And who can deny but it is agreeable to reason that there may be such a hollowness in the heart of the earth whereby it may by the power and providence of the Creator be susteined in the place which he hath appointed for it and also be a fit receptacle of evill spirits where they may be secured as in a Prison and reserved unto the Judgement of the great day In the Apostolicall Creed we profess to beleeve That Christ descended into Hell And St. Paul tells us He descended 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the lower parts of the Earth This cannot be understood of the descent of his body by his buriall that scarce went into the Earth at all but was layd in the Sepulchre which Joseph of Arimathea had made for himselfe in his Garden which was above the ground or at least the most part of it if any part at all of it were under or within the ground it was not so low as that we may say of it It was in the lower parts of the Earth How then will you understand this Article of our Lords descent into Hell except you understand it of his Soule and of his Spirit And where will you finde this Hell more agreeable to Scripture and Reason then as I have described it and that by his Spirit he went to Preach to the spirits in prison there The third vast Prison wherein the evill Angells are secured unto the day of the generall Judgement is The Sea for there are Sea Spirits as well as Land Spirits or Aeriall Spirits When the Disciples being in a Ship saw Christ coming towards them walking upon the Sea the Text sayes They were troubled and thought they had seen a Spirit Mat. 14.26 whereby it appears That there were Spirts that did appear in the Sea as well as on the Land And in St. Mathew 8. we reade That the Devills being cast out of the man which they had possessed entred into an Heard of Swine and carried them headlong into the Sea by which it seems there was their abode And in Mark 5. which by many circumstances seem not to be the same story with this of St. Matthew we reade Of a whole legion of Devills entring into a Heard of no less then two thousand Swine and carrying them with great violence into the Sea these were Sea Spirits whose abode was in the Sea which is the third Prison wherein these evill Angells are secur'd and confin'd unto the Judgement of the great day and with them the souls of wicked men both to be brought in and judged at that general Assizes which though they be not till then cast into the Lake of everlasting burnings yet is their condition in the mean time woefull and miserable 'T is miserable to consider how wilfully they have forsaken their own mercy and what opportunity they have lost of preventing this their misery never to be recovered nor recalled 'T is miserable to lye in Prison in such a Prison and for such Crimes of which they know themselves they shall be found guilty at that day and condemn'd to suffer the vengeance of everlasting sire 'T is miserable to see Hell open before them and ready to receive them 'T is miserable in the mean time to lye under the wrath of the Almighty and under the torments of a wounded soule Yet neither are the torments of the souls of wicked men during this time of their separation from their bodies all aequall as neither shall they be after the generall Judgement as shall be shewed in the sequel of this Treatise but in the mean while having shewed you the state of the souls of wicked men It now rests that I should shew you What is the state of the souls of just men from the time of their separation from their bodies till the time of their re-union again with their bodies at the day of the Resurrection And in answering to this inquiry the Scripture gives us some light in foure expressions When the body returns to dust from whence 't was taken the spirit returns to God that gave it saith Soloman Eccles 12.7 The Angells receive it and carry it into Abraham's bosome saith St. Luke cap. 16.22 It is layd under the Altar saith St. John Rev. 6.9 It is carried into Paradise saith our Saviour to the penitent theese upon the Crosse Luke 23.43 All these are most comfortable and heavenly expressions setting forth the blessed and happy estate of the souls of the just which they enter into when they are delivered from the burden of the flesh the great impediment of their perfection yet they doe not all amount to this That upon their separation they pass into the highest Heaven and into the fruition of the immediate vision of God and that fulness of joy and glory that they shall enter into at the last day when it shall be said unto them Come ye blessed of my Father enter into the inheritance of the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world For we cannot imagine that these words are spoken onely in reference to the bodies then newly raysed out of their graves but to the whole man body and soule united together and so to the entire persons of them Come ye blessed enter into the Kingdom For that of Solomon That the soule returns to God that gave it it is true that is It is taken up into the higher Heavens and is in neerer communion with God then it was before it is admitted neerer into his presence it is taken into his more immediate care to dispose of it in a place and state of bliss and felicity of joy and glory even presently upon the separation of it from the body For that of Saint Luke That the Angells received the soule of Lazarus the meaning is That he was gathered unto the rest of the faithfull of which Abraham is said to be the Father and carried to a place of rest intimated by Abraham's bosome Sinus Patriarcharum recessus quidam est quietis aeternae Ambr. For that of St. John Rev. 6. Where he sees the souls of the Martyrs under the Altar the meaning is That they were in a place of security where no evill should touch them as in the third of the book of Wisedom The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God and no evill shall touch them v. 1. The Altar