goats severed asunder each from other Vse 1 And now see the parties thus summoned raised gathered severed is not here a world of men to be judged all in one day Multitudes multitudes in the valley of decision Joel 3 14. for the day of the Lord is neer in the valley of decision Ioel 3.14 Blessed God! what a multitude shall stands before thee all tongues all nations all people of the earth shall appear at once all we shall then behold each son of Adam and Adam our grand-father shall then see all his posterity Consider this high and low rich and poor one with another God is no accepter of persons Heark O beggar petitions are out of date and yet thou needest not fear thou shalt have justice this day all causes shall be heard and thou though a poor one must appear with others to receive thy sentence Heark O Farmer now are thy lives and leases together finished this day is the new harvest of thy Iudge who gathers his wheat into his garner Matth. 3.12 and burns up the chaffe in fire unquenchable no boon no bribe no prayers no tears can avail thy soul but as thou hast done so art thou sentenced at the first appearing Heark O Land-lord where is thy purchase to thee and thy heires for ever this day makes an end of all and happy were thy soul if thou hadst no better land then a barren rock to cover and shelter thee from the Iudges presence Heark O Captain vain now is the hope of man to be saved by the multitude of an host hadst thou command of all the armies on earth and hell yet couldest thou not resist the power of Heaven see the trump sounds and the alarum summons thee thou must appear Heark O Prince what is the crown and scepter against thunder the greatness of man when it comes to encounter with God is weakness and vanity Heark all the world Ecclus 40.3 4. From him that sitteth upon the glorious throne unto him that is beneath in earth and ashes from him that is cloathed in blue silk and weareth a crown even to him that is cloathed in simple linnen all must appear before him the Beggar Farmer Land-lord Captain King and Prince and every man when that day is come shall receive his rewards according to his works Vse 2 But O here is the misery Every man must appear but Every man will not think on it would you know the sign of that man which this day shall be blessed it is he and onely hee that again and again thinks on this day that Ierome-like meditates on this summons and resurrection and collection and separation Examine then your selves by this rule is your mind often carried to these objects soar you on high with the wings of faith and a sound eye to this hill why then you are right birds truly bred and not of the bastard brood I pray you mark it every cross and disgrace and slander and discountenance losse of goods disease of body or whatsoever calamity if you are the children of God and destined to sit at the right hand of our Saviour they will ever and anon be carrying your minds to those objects of Doomes-day And if you can but say that experimentally you find this true in your selves if ordinarily in your miseries or other times you think on this time of refreshing then be of good comfort for you are of the brides company and shall enter into the marriage-chamber to abide there there for ever But if you are destitute of these kinde of motions O then strive for these properties that are the inseparable breathings and movings of an holy heart sound mind and blessed person every day meditate that every man shall appear one day and receive his reward according to his works You see how we have followed the cause and wel-neer brought it to finall sentence the term is discovered the Iudge revealed the prisoners prepared and the next time we shall bring them to the bar to receive their rewards This time depart in peace and the God of peace keep your souls spotless without sin that you may be well prepared for this day of judgment According to his works VVEe have brought the prisoners to their triall and now to go on how should this triall be I answer not by faith but works by faith we are justified by works we are judged faith onely causeth but works onely manifest that we are just indeed Here then is the triall that every soul of man must undergo that day Works are the matter that must be first enquired of and is there any wicked man to receive his sentence let him never hope to be saved by anothers super-erogating the matter of enquiring is not aliena but sua not anothers but his works Or is there any good man on whom the smiling Iudge is ready to pronounce a blessed doom Let him never boast of meriting heaven by his just deservings see the reward given not propter but secundum as Gregory Greg. 1. in illa verba 7. Psal poenit Auditam fac mihi mane misericordiam tells us not for his works as if they were the cause but according to his works as being the best witnesses of his inward righteousness But the better to acquaint you with this triall there be two points of which especially we are to make inquiry First how all mens works shall be manifest to us Secondly how all mens works shall be examined by God 1. Of the manifestation of every mans work Revel 20.12 Iohn speaketh And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works Revel 20.12 God is said to have books not properly but figuratively all things are as certain and manifest to him as if he had registers in heaven to keep records of them Remember this O forgetfull you may commit add multiply your sins and yet run on score till they are grown so many that they are out of memory but God keeps them in a register and not one shall be forgotten there is a book and books and when all the dead shall stand before God to receive their sentence then must these books be opened That is the book of Gods memory Mans conscience Eternall life There is a book of Gods memory and herein are all the acts and monuments of all men whatsoever enrolled and registred A book of remembrance was written before God for them that feared the Lord and thought upon his name Malac. 3.16 Malach. 3.16 This is that which manifests all secrets whether mentall or actuall this is that which reveales all doings whether good or evill In these Records are found at large Abels sacrifice Cains murther Absolons rebellion Davids devotion the Iews cruelty the Prophets innocency good mens intentions and the
is but the image of death saith Cato Here is a true picture of our frailty life is like death indeed so like so near together that we cannot differ each from other See here the condition of our life what is it but a Rose a Grasse a Picture a Play a Show a Sleep a Dream an Image of death such a thing is life that we so much talk of Vse And if Nature give this light how blind are they that cannot see lifes frailty you need no more but mark the Destinies as Poets feign to spin their threds one holds another draws a third cuts it off what is our life but a thread some have a stronger twist others a more slender some live till near rot others die when scarce born there 's none endures long this thread of life is cut sooner or later and then our work is done our course is finished Are these the Emblemes of our life and dare we trust to this broken staff how do the heathen precede us Christians in these studies Their books were skuls their desks were graves their remembrance an hour-glass Awake your souls and bethink you of mortality have you any priviledge for your lives are not Heathens and Christians of one Father Adam of one mother Earth the Gospel may free you from the second not the first death onely provide you for the first to escape the second death O men what be your thoughts nothing but of Goods and Barns and many Years you may boast of Life as Oromazes the Conjurer of his Egge which he said included the felicity of the world yet being opened there was nothing but Wind Think what you please your life is but a Wind which may be stopt soon but cannot last long by the law of Nature But secondly as Nature so Scripture will inform you in this point The life of man is but of little esteem what is it but a Shrub or a Brier in the fire As the crackling of thorns under the pot so is the life or laughter of the fool momentary and vanity Eccles. 7.6 Eccles 7.6 Nay a shrub were something but our life is lesse no better then a leaf not a tree nor shrub nor fruit nor blossome We all fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have swept us away Esay 64 6. Esay 64.6 Yet a leaf may glory of his birth it is descended of a Tree life is a Reed sometimes broken at least shaken so vain so infirm so inconstant is the life of man What went you out to see a reed shaken with the wind Matth. 11.7 Matth. 11.7 Nay a reed were something our life is baser indeed no better then a rush or flag Can a rush grow without mire though it were green and not cut down yet shall it wither before any other herb Job 8 11 12. Job 8.12 What shall I say more what shall I crie a rush All flesh is grass and all the grace thereof as the flower of the field the grass withereth the flower fadeth surely the people is grass Esa 40.7 Esa 40.7 I am descended beneath just patience but not so low as the life of man as all these resemble life so in some measure they have life but life is a smoke without any spark of life in it thus cries David My dayes are consumed like smoke my bones are burnt like an hearth Psal 102.3 Psal 102.3 Yet is here no stay the smoke ingenders clouds and a cloud is the fittest resemblance of our life Our life shall passe away as the trace of a cloud and come to nought as the myst that is driven away with the beams of the Sun Wisd 2.4 Wisd 2.4 Neither is this all clouds may hang calm but life is like a tempest it is a cloud and a wind too Remember that my life is but a wind and that mine eye shall not return to see pleasure Iob 7.7 Job 7.7 Nay we must lower and find a weaker element it is not a wind but water said that woman of Tekoah We are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again 2. Sam. 14.14 2. Sam. 14.14 yet is water both a good and necessary element life is the least part of water nothing but a foam a bubble The King of Samaria that great King is destroyed as the foam upon the water Hos 10.7 Hos 10.7 I can no more and yet here is something lesse a foam or bubble may burst into a vapour and What is your life it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and afterwards vanisheth away Iam. 4.14 Jam. 4 14. Lesse then this is nothing yet life is something lesse nothing in substance all it is it is but a shadow We are strangers and sojourners as all our fathers were our dayes are like a shadow upon the earth there is none abiding 1. Chr. 29.15 1. Chr. 29.15 See whither we have brought our life and yet ere we part we will down one step lower upon a strict view we find neither substance nor shadow Psal 39.5 onely a meer nothing a verie vanitie Behold thou hast made my dayes as an hand breadth and mine age is nothing in respect of thee surely every man living is altogether vanitie Psal 39.5 Psal 39.5 Lo here the nature of our life it is a shrub a leaf a reed a rush a grasse a smoke a cloud a wind a water a bubble a vapour a shadow a nothing What mean we to make such ado about a matter of nothing I cannot choose but wonder at the vanitie of men that runne rid toil travell undergo any labour to maintain this life and what is it when they have their desire which they so much toyl for we live and yet whilest we speak this word perhaps we die Is this a land of the living or a region of the dead We that suck the air to kindle this little spark where is our standing but at the gates of death Psal 9.13 Psal 9.13 Where is our walk but in the shadow of death Luke 1.79 Luke 1.79 What is our mansion-house but the body of death Rom. 7.24 Rom. 7.24 What think ye Is not this the region of death where is nothing but the gate of death An non haec regio mortis ubi porta mortis umbra mortis corpus mortis and the shadow of death and the body of death Sure we dream that we live but sure it is that we die or if we live the best hold we have is but a lease God our chief Lord may bestow what he pleaseth to the rich man wealth to the wise man knowledge to the good man peace to all men somewhat yet if you ask Who is the Lessor God Who is the Lessee Man What is leased This world For what terme My life Thus Jacob tels Pharaoh as the Text tels you Few and evil have the dayes of my
sinners actions nothing shall be hid when this book is opened for all may run and read it stand and hear it How fond are we that imagine heavens eye such is this book to be shut upon us Do we not see many run to corners to commit their sins there can they say Let us take our fill of love untill the morning for darkness hath covered us and who seeth us who knoweth us Esai 29.15 Prov. 7.18 Esay 29.15 But are not the Angels of God about you 1 Cor. 4.9 We are a spectacle to the Angels saith the Apostle I am sure we must be to both to Angels and to men and to all the world O do not that before the Angels of God yea before the God of Angels which you would shame to do in the sight and presence of an earthly man Alas must our thoughts be known and shall not dark-corner sins be revealed must every word and syllable we speak be writ and recorded in Gods memorable book and must not ill deeds ill demeanours ill works of darkness be disclosed at that day yes God shall bring every work unto judgment with every secret thing be it good or evill Eccles 12.14 Eccles 12.14 Wail yee wicked and tremble in astonishment Now your closet-sins must be disclosed your private faults laid open Gods keeps the account-book of every sin every transgression Imprimis for adultery Item for envie blasphemy oaths drunkenness violence murther and every sin from the beginning to this time from our birth to our buriall the totall summe eternall death and damnation this is the note of accounts wherein are all thy offences written the debt is death the pay perdition which fury pays over to destruction But there is another book that shall give a more full I cannot say but a more fearfull evidence then the former which is the book of every mans conscience Some call it the book of testimony which every man still bears about him There is within us a Book and Secretary the Book is Conscience and the Secretary is our soul whatsoever we do is known to the soul and writ in our book of conscience there is no man can so much as commit one sin but his soul that is privy to the fact will write it in this book In what a wofull case will thy heart then be in what strange terrour and trembling must it stand possest when this must be opened and thy sinnes revealed It is now perhaps a book shut up and sealed Liber signatue clausus in die judicii aperiendus but in the day of judgement shall be opened and if once opened what shall be the evidence that it will bring forth there is a private Sessions to be held in the breast of every condemned sinner the memorie is Recorder grief an Accuser truth is the Law damnation the Judgement hell the Prison Devils the Jaylours and Conscience both Witnesse and Judge to passe sentence on thee What hopes he at the generall Assize whose conscience hath condemned him before he appear Look well to thy life thou bearest about thee a book of testimonie which though for a time it be shut till it be full fraught with accusations yet then at the Day of Doom it must be opened when thou shalt read and weep and read every period stop with a sigh every word be enough to break thy heart and every syllable reveal some secret thy own conscience upon the matter being both witnesse Judge accuser and condemner But yet there is another book we read of and that is the book of life Herein are written all the names of Gods elect from the beginning of the world till the end thereof these are the golden leaves this is that precious book of heaven wherein if we are registred not all the powers of hell or death or devils shall blot us out again Here is the glory of each devout souldier of our Saviour how many have spent their lives spilt their blouds runne upon sudden deaths to gain a perpetuall name and yet for all their doings many of these are dead and gone and their memories perished with them onely Christs souldier hath immortall fame he and onely he is writ in that book that must never perish Come hither ye ambitious your names may be writ in Chronicles yet lost writ in durable marble yet perish writ in a monument equall to a Colossus yet be ignominious O were you but writ in this book of life your names should never die never suffer any ignominy It is an axiome most true they that are written in the eternall leaves of heaven shall never be wrapped in the cloudy sheets of darknesse Here then is the joy of Saints at that Day of Doom this book shall be opened and all the elect whom God hath ordained to salvation shall see it read it hear it and greatly rejoyce at it The Disciples casting out devils return with miracles in their mouths O Lord say they even devils are subject to us through thy name True saith Christ I saw Sathan as lightning fall from heaven notwithstanding in this rejoyce not that the spirits are subject unto you but rather rejoyce because your names are written in heaven Luke 10.20 Luke 10.20 And well may the Saints rejoyce that have their names written in Gods book they shall see them to their comfort writ in letters of gold penned with the Almighties finger ingraven with a pen of a diamond thus will this book give in the evidence and accordingly will the Judge proceed to sentence Vse 1 Consider thou that readest what books one day must be set before thee a time will come when every thought of thy heart every word of thy mouth every glance of thy eye every moment of thy time every office thou hast born every companie thou hast used every sermon thou hast heard every action thou hast done and every omission of any duty or good deed thou hast left undone shall be seen in these books at the first opening of them thy conscience shall then be suddenly clearly and universally inlarged with extraordinary light to look upon all thy life at once Gods memory shall then shine forth and shew it self when all men looking on it as a reflecting glasse they shall behold all the passages of their misspent lives from their births to their burials Where is the wicked and deceitfull man wilt thou yet commit thy villanies treacheries robberies murthers debates and impieties Let me tell thee if so to thy hearts-grief all thy secret sinnes and closet villanies that no eye ever lookt upon but that which is a thousand times brighter then the Sunne shall then be disclosed and laid open before Angels men and devils and thou shall then and there be horribly universally and everlastingly ashamed never therefore go about to commit any sinne because it is midnight or that the doors are lockt upon thee suppose it be concealed and lie hid in as great darknesse as
and though men be so strong that they come to fourscore years yet is their strength then but labour and sorrow so soon passeth it away and we are gone Psal 90.10 Psal 90.10 Here is halfs of halfs and if we half it a while sure we shall half away all our time nay we have a custome goes a little further and tells us of a number a great deal shorter we are fallen from seventie to seven in lifes leases made by us Nay what speak I of years when my text breaks them all into dayes Few and evil have the dayes been so our former translation without any addition of years at all and if you mark it our life in Scripture is more often termed dayes then years the book of Chronicles which writes of mens lives are called according to the interpretation Words of dayes to this purpose we read David was old and full of dayes 1 Chron. 23.1 1 Chron. 23.1 and in the dayes of Iehoram Edom rebelled 2 Chron. 21.8 2 Chron. 21.8 So in the New Testament In the dayes of Herod the King Matth. 2.1 Matth. 2.1 and in the dayes of Herod the King of Iudea Luke 1.5 Luke 1.5 In a word thus Iob speaks of us our life is but dayes our dayes but a shadow we know nothing saith Iob and why so our dayes upon earth are but a shadow Iob 8.9 Job 8.9 Lo here the length of our little life it is not for ever no Adam lost that estate he that lived longest after Adam came short of the number of a thousand years nay that was halfed to somewhat lesse then five hundred and that again halfed to little more then two hundred Iacob yet halfs it again to a matter of seven score and Moses halfs that again to seventy or a little more nay our time brings it froÌ„ seventy to seven nay Iacob yet brings it from years to daies few and evil have the dayes of the year of my life been Vse 1 Teach us O Lord to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts unto wisdome Psal 90 12. Moses Arithmetick is worthy your meditation learn of him to number pray to God your teacher think every evening there is one day of your number gone and every morning there is another day of miserie coming on evening and morning meditate on Gods mercy and your own miserie Thus if you number your dayes you shall have the lesse to account for at that day when God shall call you to a finall reckoning Vse 2 But miserable men who are not yet born again their dayes run on without any meditation in this kind What think they of but of long dayes and many years And were all their dayes as long as the day of Joshuah when the Sun stood still in the midst of heaven yet it will be night at last and their Sun shall set like others True God may give some a liberall time but what enemies are they to themselves that of all their dayes allow themselves not one 1. Pet. 3.10 If any man long after life and to see good dayes let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile How live they that would needs live long and follow no rules of pietie many can post off their conversion from day to day sending Religion afore them to thirty and then putting it off to fourtie and not pleased yet to overtake it promise it entertainment at threescore at last death comes and allows not one hour In youth these men resolve to reserve the time of age to serve God in in age they shuffle it off to sicknesse when sicknesse comes care to dispose their goods loathnesse to die hope to escape maâ—tyrs that good thought O miserable men if you have but the Lease of a Farm for twenty years you make use of the time and gather profit but in this precious farm of Time you are so ill husbands that your Lease comes out before you are one penny worth of grace the richer by it Matth. 20.6 Why stand ye here all the day idle there are but a few hours or dayes that ye have to live at last comes the night of death that will shut up your eyes in sleep till the day of doom You see now the term of our Lease our Life lasts but Dayes and although we live many dayes Luke 19.42 Matth. 6.12 yet in this thy day saith Christ and Give us this day our daily bread say we as if no day could be called thy day but this day if there be any more we shall soon number them my text tells you they are not many but few Few and evill have the dayes of my life been Few OUr Lease is a Life our Life is but Dayes our Dayes are but Few The Phoenix the Elephant and the Lion fulfill their hundreds but man dieth when he thinks his Sun yet riseth before his eye be satisfied with seeing or his ear with hearing or his heart with lusting death knocks at his door and often will not give him leave to meditate an excuse before he comes to judgement Is not this a wonder to see dumb beasts outstrip mans life The Phoenix lives thousands say some but a thousand years are a long life with man Methushalem you saw the longest liver came short of this number and yet could we attain to so ripe an age what are a thousand years to the dayes everlasting If you took a little mote to compare with the whole earth what great difference were in these two and if you compare this life which is so short with the life to come which shall never have end how much lesse will it yet appear As drops of rain are unto the sea Ecclus 18.9 and as a gravell stone is in comparison to the sand so are a thousand years to the dayes everlasting But will you haue an exact account and learn the just number It was the Arithmetick of holy men to reckon their dayes but Few as if the shortest cut were the best account The Hebrews could subduct the time of sleep which is half our life so that if the dayes of men were threescore years and ten Psal 90.10 here 's five and thirty years struck off at one blow The Philosophers could subduct the time of weakness which is most of life so that if vivere be valere that onely a true life which enjoyes good health here 's the beginning and the ending of our dayes struck off at a second blow The Fathers could subduct all times not present and what say you to this account were the dayes of life at noon man grown to manhood look ye back and the time past is nothing look ye forward and the time to come is but uncertain and if time past and time to come stand both for ciphers what is our life but the present and what is that but a moment Nay as if a moment were too much look
it was committed till Dooms-day again yet then shall it out with a witnesse and be as legible in thy forehead as if it were writ with the brightest stars or the most glistring Sun beam upon a wall of chrystall Vse 2 As you mean the good of your souls amend your lives call your selves to account while it is called to day search and examine all your thoughts words and deeds and prostrating your selves before God with broken and bleeding affections pray and sue that your names may be writ in heaven in that Book of life This will be the joy of your hearts the peace of your souls the rest of your minds yea how glad will you then be to have * It is a question whether the sinnes of Gods people shall be manifested at that day some say they shall be manifested not for their ignominy or confusion but onely that the goodnesse and grace of God may be made the more illustrious and for this they urge Matth. 12.36 2 Cor. 5.10 Revel 20.12 Others say they shall not be manifested 1. Because Christ in his sentence onely enumerates the good works they had done but takes no notice of their sins 2. Because this agrees best with those expressions that God blotteth out our sins and that they are thrown into the bottome of the sea 3. Because Christ is their bridegroom friend advocate and how ill would it become one in such relations to accuse or lay open their sins which of these opinions is truest is hard to say Heb. 6.10 all these books laid open by this means I speak it to the comfort of all true hearted Christians shall your obedience and repentance and faith and love and zeal and patience c. come to light and be known God is not unrighteous to forget your works of labour and love No all must out especially at that day when the books shall be open our works manifested and as we have done so must we be rewarded for then he shall reward every man according to his works The books are opened and now are the matters to be examined there is first a view and then a tryall The Law-book whereby we are tryed contains three leaves Nature the Law and the Gospel the Gentiles must be tryed by the first the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles by the second and the faithfull Jews and Gentiles by the last Those that confesse no God but nature must be judged by the law of nature those that confesse a God no Christ must be judged by the Law of God without the merits of Christ those that confesse God the Father and believe in God the Sonne shall be judged by the Gospel which reconcileth us to God the Father by the merits of Christ Atheists by the law of nature infidels by the law of God Christians by the Gospel of our Saviour Christ To the statutes of the former who can answer our hope is in the latter we appeal to the Gospel and by the Gospel we shall have our tryall They that have sinned without the law Rom. 2.12 shall perish without the law and they that have sinned under the law shall be judged by the law Rom. 2.16 But God shall judge the secrets of all hearts of all our hearts by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel Rom. 2.12.16 Vse Vel te totaliter absolvit vel te capitaliter damnat John 16.9 Let this then forewarn us what we have to do It is the Gospel that will either throughly justifie thee or extremely condemn thee The Spirit shall convince the world of sinne saith Christ and why so but because they believe not on me John 16.9 There is no sinne but infidelitie no righteousnesse but faith not that adulterie intemperance malice are no sinnes but if unfaithfulnesse remain not all these sinnes are pardoned and so they are as if they were no sins indeed How quick a riddance true repenting faith makes with our sinnes they are too heavie for our shoulders and we cannot bear them faith onely turns them over unto Christ and we are disburthened of them whereas there would go with us to judgement an huge kennell of lusts an armie of vain words a legion of evil deeds faith instantly dischargeth them all and kneeling down to Jesus Christ beseecheth him to answer for them all howsoever committed O then make we much of faith but not of such a faith neither as goes alone without works it is nothing at this judgement to say I have believed and not well lived the Gospel requires both faith to believe and obedience to work not onely to repent and believe the Gospel Mark 1.15 Mark 1.15 but to obey from the heart that form of doctrine Rom. 6.17 Rom. 6.17 True indeed thou shalt be saved for thy faith not for thy works but for such a faith as is without works thou shalt never be saved we say therefore A justificando non à justificato works are disjoyned from the act of justifying not from the person justified heaven is given to us for Christs merits but we must shew him the fair copie of our lives O then let this move us to abound in knowledge and faith and repentance and love and zeal and clothing and feeding and lodging the poor members of Christ Jesus and howsoever all these can merit nothing at Gods hands yet will he crown his own gifts and reward them in his mercy Say then dost thou relieve a poor member of Christ Jesus dost thou give a cup of cold water to a Prophet in the name of Prophet Matt. 10.42 Christ doth promise thee of his truth he will not let thee lose thy reward certainly he will not so thy works be done in faith why this is the covenant the glad tidings the Gospel to live well and believe well O let not that which is a word of comfort to us be a bill of inditement against us albeit in our justification we may say Be it to us according to our faith yet in our retribution it is said as you have it before you in this Text read unto you Then he shall reward every man for manifestation of his faith according to his works A little to recall our selves The Prisoners are tryed the Verdict's brought in the inditement is found and the Judge now sits on life and death even ready with sparkling eyes to pronounce his sentence This we must deferre a while and the next time you shall hear what you have long exspected The Lord grant us an happy issue that when this day is come the sentence may be for us and we may be saved to our endless comfort Shall reward VVHat Assize is this that affords each circumstance of each prisoners triall the time is Then the Judge is He the Prisoners Men the evidence Works Non coronat Deus merita tua tanquam merita tua sed tanquam donasua Aug. lib. de grat lib. arbit cap. 7. which no sooner given in but
they enjoy God life and heaven And thus as they march along heaven opens unto them O infinite joy Tell mee O my soul what an happie hour will that be when thou shalt first enter into the gates of heaven when the Blessed Trinitie shall gladly entertain thee and with a Well done good and faithfull servant Matth. 25.21 bid thee Come and enter into thy Masters joy When all the Angels and Archangels shall salute thee when Cherubims and Seraphims shall come to meet thee when all the powers of heaven shall congratulate thy coming and joy for thy arrivall at the Port of peace Here is the end of the Godly the fruits of his end the Reward it self What can I say but live in GODS fear and the LORD reward you nay he will so if you live so for Then he shall reward every Man according to his works And now this Sermon done you see the Court is dissolved Stay but to receive A Writ of review and you shall hear in a word all the news of this Assize from the beginning to the ending What a strange Assize was this where every circumstance was to the wicked so terribly fearfull the Term full of horrour the Judge full of Majestie the Prisoners full of anguish the Triall full of fear the Doom full of grief to the wicked as of comfort to the elect 2 Pet. 3.11 Seeing therefore that all these things are thus what manner of Persons ought ye to be in holy conversation and godlinesse A word of judgement could make Jeremiah weep just Job be afraid Felix to tremble and cannot this usuall sound of the hammers a little mollifie our stony hearts Esay 1.22 how is the gold become drosse and the silver iron we run over reason and tread upon conscience and fling by counsel and go by the word and poste to death but will you not remember that for all these things you must come to judgement Eccles 11.9 Be sure there is a Term for our appearance Then there is a Judge that will sit upon us He. There is a band of Prisoners Every man There is a Bill of Indictment framed according to our works And last of all there is a sentence after which follows the Execution the reward due to us which then he will give us onely now bestow on us those graces of thy Spirit and then O Lord Reward us according to our works AMEN FINIS Hels horrour MATTH 13.30 Bind them in bundles to burn them THis Text is the harvest of Tares and that that you may know the husbandrie here is first the sowing vers 25. Vers 25. Secondly the coming up vers 26. 26. Thirdly the overseers of it vers 27. 27. Fourthly their intent to weed it vers 28. 28. Fifthly the sufferance of its growth till the harvest vers 29. 29. Sixthly the harvest it self vers 30. 30. Or yet to give you the Parable in a more ample wise here is a man sowes good seed in his field and the enemie whilest his servants sleep sows tares amongst the wheat the seeding done and the fertill soyl made fruitfull by heavens showres the blade of the corn springs up and the tares appear in their kind amongst them those heavenly Angels which are Gods stewards of this field pitching their watchfull eyes about first see then run to their Master with this message Master sowedst thou not good seed in thy field from whence then hath it tares God whose all-knowing wisdome can resolve all doubts tels them expressely an enemie had done this an enemie sure 1 Pet. 5.8 yea as Peter cals him a devouring enemie such is the fruit issuing from so bad an authour Yet see the sedulous care of Gods holy servants they will not spare to root up what envie sows and with a willing obedience exspect onely his command Wilt thou that we go and gather them up nay see the Almighty disparkling a while his beams of mercie all must stay till the harvest and then goes forth his royall command to the reapers Gather ye together first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them But me thinks I hear you say to me as the Disciples to our Saviour Declare unto us this Parable Vers 36. for the doing of which I shall place before you a field the world the reapers Angels the housholder God good men as corn the wicked as Tares the harvest that must gather all is the end of the world and then are the reapers enjoyned this heavie task Separate the bad from the good and cast them into hell fire to burn them See here the miserable condition of impenitent souls each circumstance aggravates their torment and that you may in this text view a Series of the causes here is first the efficient Bind the materiall them the formall in bundles the finall to burn them Every word like so many links makes up this fiery chain of torment Bind heavie doom to be fettered in hell fire them miserable souls to be captived in those bands in bundles cruell anguish to be crowded in throng heaps to burn them intollerable heats to be scorched blistered burned And yet see here at once this heavie miserable cruell intollerable doom fall on the wicked the command is out what Bind whom them how in bundles for what to burn them Not a word but it speaks horrour to the damned either Binding or bundling or burning Bind them in bundles to burn them The work you see is ordered now we put in our sickle onely God prosper our labour till we have done the harvest Them VVE will begin first with the subject that you may know of whom it is spoken Bind them Them whom If you will view the precedent words the text tels you they are Tares Gather ye first the Tares and bind them In Gods field there is Corn and Cockle and as for the one there is provided a barn so for the other there is nothing better then binding and burning The Greek word cals them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tares the Hebrews call them Hadul thistles or thorns and both are apt expressions of the matter in hand what are tares for but to be gathered bound and burned saith our Saviour and what are thorns for but to be rejected cursed and burned saith the Apostle Heb. 6.8 Heb. 6.8 Such is the penaltie of this weed of the earth for they are neither better that as men deal with thorns who first cut them up with bils then lay them up to wither and lastly burn them in the furnace so God deals with Tares he weeds them binds them burns them not a Tare escapes the fire but all come to combustion But onely to follow the Originall they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tares and that of a double derivation the first is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they hurt the corn wherewith they are joyned the second is 〈◊〉