conscience Or in case we have peace of conscience alas how often is it interrupted with anguish of spirit Now rejoyce we with joy unspeakable and glorious 1 Pet. 1. 8. but alas anon it falls out that we need to pray with David Restore unto us the joy of thy salvation Psal. 51. 12. but there is peace even full without want pure without mixture and perpetual without all fear of foregoing Dan. 2. 44. There shall be no concupiscence to tempt no flesh to lust against the spirit no law in our members to rebel against the law of our minds Now abideth Faith Hope and Charity these three now abide but in heaven Vision succeeds in the place of Faith attainment in the place of Hope and perfect fruition and delectation in the room of Charity There Promises shall end in performances Faith in sight and clear vision Hope in fruition and possession yea time it self shall be swallowed up in Eternity these are the Souls dowries in heaven where God shall be all in all to us Now he is but as it were something single as righteousness in Abraham temperance in Joseph strength in Sampson meekness in Moses wisdom in Solomon patience in Job for it is rare to find all these graces compleatly to meet in any one subject but then and there he shall be omnia in omnibus all these in every of his servants God shall be all in all even the fulness of him that filleth all in all things as the Apostle speaks Eph. 1. 23. The only knowledge of God shall fill up our understandings and the alone love of God shall possess our Affections God shall be all in all to us he will fill up our rational part with the light of wisdom our concupiscible part or appetite with a spring of righteousness and the irascible part with perfect peace and tranquillity as Bernard expresseth it That is a blessed state perpetual and unchangeable There is eternal security and secure Eternity as Bernard speaks or as Austin hath it There is blessed Eternity and everlasting Blessedness Let the end of our life then be to come to a life whereof there is no end unto which the Lord in his good time bring us that we who now sow in tears may then reap in joy the which he will be sure to do if we but for a short time serve him here in righteousness and sincerity But otherwise look we not for eternal happiness but for everlasting misery For it is an everlasting Rule No grace no holiness here no glory no happiness hereafter To sum up all in a word there is no joy here comparable to that in Heaven all our mirth here to that is but pensiveness all our pleasure here to that but heaviness all our sweetness here to that is but bitterness Even Solomon in all his glory and royalty to that was but as a spark in the chimney to the Sun in the firmament Absaloms beauty to that is but deformity Sampsons strength to that is but infirmity Methuselahs age to theirs is but minority and mortality Asahels speed and swiftness but a snails pace to their celerity Yea how little how nothing are the poor and temporary enjoyments of this life to those we shall enjoy in the next 1 Cor 2. 9. Yea Paradise or the Garden of Eden was but a wilderness compared with this Paradise And indeed if the gates of the City be of Pearl and the streets of Gold what then are the inner rooms the dining and lodging chambers the presence chamber of the great Monarch of Heaven and Earth what then may we think of the maker and builder thereof In fine that I might darkly shadow it out sith the lively representation thereof is meerly impossible this life everlasting is the perfection of all good things For fulness is the perfection of measure and everlastingness the perfection of Time and infiniteness the perfection of number and immutability the perfection of State and Immensity the perfection of Place and Immortality the perfection of Life and God the perfection of All who shall be All in All to us meat to our taste beauty to our eyes perfumes to our smell musick to our ears And what shall I say more but as the Psalmist saith Glorious things are spoken of thee thou city of God Psalm 87. 3. See Rev. 4. 2 3. and 21. 10. to the end Sect. 5. The glory of Heaven cannot be comprehended here only God hath vouchsafed to give us some small glimpses in the Scripture whereby we may frame a conjecture considerable enough to make us sell all we have to purchase that Pearl of â—rice It hath pleased God out of his fatherly condescension to â—oop to our capacity in representing Heavenly things under â—arthly types shadowing out the joys thereof by whatsoever is precious and desirable in this life as Cities Kingdoms Crowns Pearls Jewels Marriages Feasts c. which supereminent and superabundant felicity St. Paul that had been an only witness when he had been caught up in the third Heaven not able to describe much less to amplifie sums up all in these words A sure most excellent exceeding and eternal weight of transcendent glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. and 12. 2. But alas such is mans pravity that he is as far from comprehending it as his arms are from compassing it 1 Cor. 2. 9. Heaven shall receive us we cannot conceive Heaven Do you ask what Heaven is faith one When I meet you there I will tell you For could this ear hear it or this tongue utter it or this heart conceive it it must needs follow that they were translated already thither 2 Cor. 12. 2 4. Yea who can utter the sweetness of that peace of Conscience and spiritual rejoycing in God which himself hath tasted If then the beginning and first fruits of it be so sweet what shall the fulness of that beatifical Vision of God be If the earnest penny be so precious and promising here What shall the principal and full crop and harvest of happiness in Heaven be So that a man may as well with a coal paint out the Sun in all his splendor as with his pen or tongue express or with his heart were it as deep as the Sea conceive the fulness of those Joys and sweetness of those Pleasures which the Saints shall enjoy at Gods right hand for evermore Psal. 16. 11. In thy presence is the fulness of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore For quality they are pleasures for quantity fulness for dignity at Gods right hand for Eternity for evermore And millions of years multiplyed by millions make not up one minute to this Eternity 2 Cor. 4. 18. John 10. 28. The Eye sees much the Ear hears more the Heart conceives most yet all short of apprehension much more of comprehension of those pleasures Therefore it is said Enter thou into thy Masters joy for it is too great to enter into thee Mat. 25. 23. Neither will I
A serious and pathetical Description OF HEAVEN AND HELL According to the Pencil of the HOLY GHOST and the best Expositors sufficient with the blessing of GOD to make the worst of men hate Sin and love Holiness Being five Chapters taken out of a Book entituled The whole Duty of a Christian Composed by R. YOUNGE late of Roxwell in Essex Florilegus CHAP. XIX Section I. Tâ—us as the Unbeliever and Disobedient is cursed in every thing and where-ever he goes and in whatsoever he does Cursed in the City and cursed also in the held cursed in the fruit of his body and in the fruit of his ground and in the fruit of his cattel Cursed when he cometh in and cursed also when he goeth out cursed in this life and cursed in the life to come as is at large exprest Deut. 28. So the Believer that obeys the voice of the Lord shall be blessed in every thing he does wherever he goes and in whatsoever befals him as God promiseth in the former part of the same Chapter as I have proved in the eleven foregoing Sections Yea God will bless all that belong unto him for his children and posterity yea many generations after him shall fare the better for his sake Exod. 20. 6. Gen. 30. 27. Isai. 54. 15. and 65. 8. Rom. 11. 28. Gen. 18. 26. 29 31 32. and 26. 24. and 39. 5. 1 Kings 11. 12 32 34. and 15. 4. 2 Kings 8. 19. and 19. 34. Isai. 37. 35. 45. 4. Mat. 24. 22. yea the very place where he dwells perhaps the whole Kingdom he lives in Gen. 39. to 48. chap. Whereas many yea multitudes Num. 25. 18. Deut. 1. 37. 3. 26. Psal. 106. 32. even a whole Army Josh. 7. 4 to 14. yea his childrens children unto the third and fourth generation fare the worse for a wicked man and an unbeliever Exod. 20. 5. Besides his prayers shall profit many for he is more prevalent with God to take away a judgment from a people or a Nation than a thousand others Ex. 17. 11 12 13. And he counts it a sin to cease praying for his greatest and most malicious enemies 1 Sam. 12. 23. though they like fools would if they durst or were permitted cut him off and all the race of Gods people Ps. 83. 4. Esth. 3. 6. 9 13. Which is as if one with a hatchet should cut off the bough of a tree upon which he standeth For they are beholding to Believers for their very lives yea it is for their sakes and because the number of Christs Church is not yet accomplisht that they are out of Hell But to go on as all things viz. poverty imprisonment slander persecution sickness death temporal judgments spiritual desertions yea even Sin and Satan himself shall turn together for the best unto those that love God as you have seen So all things shall turn together for the worst unto those that hate God as all unbelievers do Rom. 1. 30. Joh. 15. 18. even the mercy of God and the means of Grace shall prove their bane and enhaunce their damnation yea Christ himself that only summum bonum who is a Saviour to all Believers shall be a just revenger to all unbelievers and bid the one Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Mat. 25. 41 46. Which shall be an everlasting departure not for a day nor for years of days nor for millions of years but for eternity into such pains as can neither be expressed nor conceived Iude 6. 7. Rev. 20. 10. Mat. 3. 12. Heb. 6. 2 Sect. 2. Wickedness hath but a time a short time a moment of time but the punishment of wickedness is beyond all time There shall be no end of plagues to the wicked man Prov. 24. 20. Their worm shall not die neither shall their fire be quenched Isai. 30. 33. 66. 24. Mat. 25. 41. Mark 9. 44. And therefore it is said The smoak of their torment doth ascend for ever and ever Rev. 4. 12. and 20. 10. So that if all the men that ever have or shall be created were Briareus-like hundred-handed and should at once take pens in their hundred hands and do nothing else for ten hundred thousand millions of years but sum up in figures as many hundred thousand millions as they could yet never could they reduce to a total or confine within number this trissyllable word Eternal or that word of four syllables Everlasting Now let such as forget God but seriously consider this it will not be an imprisonment during the Kings pleasure but during the King of Kings pleasure It is not a captivity of seventy years like that of the children of Israel in Babylon for that had an end nor like a captivity of seventy millions of generations for that also would in time be expired but even for ever The wicked shall live as long in Hell as there shall be a just God in Heaven Here we measure time by days months years but for Eternity there is no Arithmetician can number it no Geometrician can measure it For suppose the whole world were turned into a Mountain of sand and that a little Wren should come every thousandth year and carry away from that heap but one grain of the sand what an infinite number of years would be spent and expired before the whole heap would be fetcht away But admit a man should stay in torments so long and then have an end of his wo it were some comfort to think that an end will come But alas when she hath finished this task a thousand times over he shall be as far from an end of his anguish as ever he was the first hour he entred into it Now Suppose thou shouldst lie but one night grievously afflicted with a raging fit of the stone strangury tooth-ach pangs of travel or the like though thou hadst to help and ease thee a soft bed to lie on Friends about to comfort thee Physicians to cure thee all cordial and comfortable things to asswage thy pain yet how tedious and painful would that one night seem unto thee How wouldst thou toss and tumble and turn from one side to another Counting the Clock esteeming every minute a month and thy present misery unsupportable What then will it be to lie in flames of fire To which our fire is but air in comparison fire and brimstone kept in the highest flame by the unquenchable wrath of God world without end where thou shalt have nothing about thee but darkness and horrour wailing and wringing of hands desperate yellings and gnashing of teeth thy old Companions in vanity and sin to ban and curse thee the Devils insulting over thee with cruelty and scorn the never dying worm of conscience to feed upon thy soul and flesh for ever and ever O everlasting eternity a never-dying life an ever-living death Which yet is but just with God for if thou mightest have lived for ever thou wouldst have sinned for
wilt come surely As the Clock comes slowly and by minutes to the stroak yet it strikes at last That those are only true Riches which being once had can never be lost That Heaven is a Treasure worthy our hearts a Purchase worthy our lives That when all is done how to be saved is the best plot That there is no mention of one in the whole Bible that ever sinned without repentance but he was punished without mercy For then there would not be a Fornicator or prophane person as Esau who for a portion of meat sold his inheritance Heb. 12. 16. Then they would not be of the number of those that so doted upon Purchases and Farms and Oxen that they made light of going to the Lords Supper Luke 14. 18 19 20. Nor of the Gadarens mind who preferred their Hogs before Christ Then would they know it better to want all things than that one needful thing whereas now they desire all other things and neglect that one thing which is so needful They would hold it far better and in good sadness to be saved with a few as Noah was in the Ark than in good fellowship with the multitude to be drowned in sin and damned for company Nor would they think it any disparagement to their wisdoms to change their minds and be of another judgment to what they are CHAP. XXIII Sect. 2. SEcondly Are the Joys of Heaven so unspeakable and glorious How then should we admire the love and bounty of God and bless his Name who for the performance of so small a work hath proposed so great a Reward And for the obtaining of such an happy state hath imposed such an easie Task Yea more is Heaven so unspeakably sweet and delectable is Hell so unutterably doleful Then let nothing be thought too much that we can either do or suffer for Christ who hath freed us from the one and purchased for us the other Though indeed nothing that we are able to do or suffer here can be compared with those woes we have deserved in Hell or those joys we are reserved to in Heaven And indeed that we are now out of Hell there to fry in flames of fire and brimstone never to be freed that we have the free offer of Grace here and everlasting glory hereafter in Heaven we are only beholding to him We are all by nature as Traytors condemned to suffer eternal torments in Hell-fire being only reprieved for a time But from this extremity and eternity of torment Jesus hath freed and delivered us O think then yea be ever thinking of it how rich the mercy of our Redeemer was in freeing us and that by laying down his own life to redeem us Yea how can we be thankful enough for so great a blessing It was a mercy bestowed and a way found out that may astonish all the sons of men on Earth and Angels in Heaven Which being so let us study to be as thankful as we can Hath Christ done so much for us and shall we deny him any thing he requireth of us Nor can any one in common reason meditate so unbottomed a love and not study and strive for an answerable and thankful demeanour If a Friend had given us but a thousandth part of what God and Christ hath we should heartily love him all our lives and think no thanks sufficient What price then should we set upon Jesus Christ who is the Life of our lives and the Soul of our Souls Do we then for Christs sake what we would do for a Friends sake Yea let us abhor our selves for our former unthankfulness and our wonderful provoking of him Hearken we unto Christs voice in all that he saith unto us without being swayed one way or another as the most are Let us whom Christ hath redeemed express our thankfulness by obeying all that he saith unto us whatever it costs us since nothing can be too much to endure for those pleasures which shall endure for ever As Who would not obtain Heaven at any rate at any cost or trouble whatsoever In Heaven is a Crown laid up for all such as suffer for Righteousness even a Crown without cares without rivals without envy without end And is not this reward enough for all that Men or Devils can do against us Who would not serve a short Apprenticeship in Gods service here to be made for ever free in glory Yea who would not be a Philpot for a month or a Lazarus for a day or a Stephen for an hour that he might be in Abrahams bosome for ever Nothing can be too much to endure for those pleasures that endure for ever Yea what pain can we think too much to suffer What little enough to do to obtain eternity For this incorruptible Crown of Glory in Heaven 1 Pet. 5. 4. where we shall have all tears wiped from our eyes where we shall cease to sorrow cease to suffer cease to sin where God shall turn all the water of our afflictions into the pure wine of endless and unexpressible comfort You shall sometimes see an hired servant venture his life for his new Master that will scarce pay him his wages at the years end and can we suffer too much for our Lord and Master who giveth every one that serveth him not Fields and Vineyards as Saul pretended 1 Sam. 22. 7. c. nor Towns and Cities as Cicero is pleased to boast of Caesar but even an hundred-fold more than we part withal here in this life and eternal Mansions in Heaven hereafter John 14. 2. St. Paul saith Our light affliction which is but for a moment causeth us a far more excellent and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4. 17 18. Where note the incomparable and infinite difference between the Work and the Wages light affliction receiving a weight of Glory and momentany affliction eternal glory Suitable to the reward of the wicked whose empty delights live and die in a moment but their unsufferable punishment is interminable and endless Their pleasure is short their pain everlasting our Pain is short our Joy eternal Blessed is the man that endureth temptation for when he is tryed he shall receive the Crown of life James 1. 12. folly is it then or rather madness for the small pleasure of some base lust some paltry profit or fleeting vanity which passeth away in the very act at the taste of a pleasant drink dieth so soon as it is down to bring upon our selves in another world torments without end and beyond all compass of conceit Fourthly Is it so that God hath set before us life and death heaven and hell as a reward of good and evil leaving us as it were to our choice Whether we will be compleatly and everlastingly happy or miserable with what resolution and zeal should we strive to make our calling and election sure not making our greatest business our least and last care I know well thou hadst rather when thou diest go to reign