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A59770
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Practical meditations upon the four last things viz. I. Death, II. Judgment, III. Hell, IV. Heaven / by R. Sherlock ...
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Sherlock, R. (Richard), 1612-1689.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing S3245; ESTC R9873
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61,623
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132
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remember how momentany were their sinful pleasures but never to be ended their pains Then shall they curse their Parents that begat and the womb that bare them and the paps they sucked so terrible shall be the Torment of this never dying ever-gnawing Worm that they shall curse themselves that they do still live yea and curse God himself who is blessed for ever I have called but ye have refused Prov. 1.24 Ezek. 33.11 Mat. 11.28 Joh. 6.37 44 56. saith the Lord called saying Turn ye turn ye unto me with all your heart Come unto me all ye that are weary But we vain men slight and neglect nay too many contemn such gracious invitations they are not affected or delighted with the presence of God or if they come to his house and approach his presence there 't is not either with that internal Devotion and external Reverence 't is not with such pure hearts and clean hands as becomes the presence of so great and glorious so holy and pure a Majesty and is it not then most just and equal that all such irreligious irreverent and profane persons be banish'd the blissful presence of God for ever And so hath the Lord threatned Isai 65.12 Because when I called ye did not answer when I spake ye did not hear but did evil Therefore thus saith the Lord my servants shall eat but ye shall be hungry my servants shall drink but ye shall be thirsty my servants shall rejoyce but ye shall be ashamed Behold my servants shall sing for joy of heart but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart and shall houl for vexation of spirit Whatever therefore be the guise of the multitude to walk every one after the lusts of their own hearts and to follow their own imaginations in the contempt of the Lord's admonitions and commands Psal 5.7 yet as for me whilst I have life and liberty I will come into thy house even upon the multitude of thy mercies and in thy fear will I worship towards thy holy Temple My heart hath talked of thee and of this gracious command of thine Psal 27.9 Seek ye my face Thy face Lord will I seek O hide not thou thy face from me under the cloud of my sins and the thick cloud of my transgressions nor cast away thy servant in displeasure but vouchsafe that my approaches to thy divine Majesty may be so frequent and fervent and with such Humility Reverence and Devotion performed that my person and my services may in this life be accepted before thee that I hear not at the last day that dismal doom of the wicked Depart from me ye cursed MEDITAT II. Of the Darkness of Hell TO be banished the presence of God who is the Fountain of Light is to be involved in the terrors of Darkness Mat. 22.13 Ca. 25.30 Job 10.21 22. and therefore after Take him away it follows cast him into outer darkness And so is the place of Hell described A land of darkness and of the shadow of death a land of darkness as darkness it self and of the shadow of death without any order and where light is as darkness And this must needs be so because Hell is farthest remote from Heaven the Region of Light being seated as 't is generally believed in the centre of the earth where neither Sun Moon nor Stars display the least ray or glimmering of their Light and where not the least beam of the divine Mercy shall ever appear There is Fire indeed in Hell but such a Fire as burns without shining a Fire without light not unlike whereunto is the Fire of blind Zeal Jam. 3.6 the tongue whereof setteth on fire the course of nature and is set on fire of Hell All the light which the sulphurous Fire of Hell affords serves only to discover the ghastly sight of infernal Fiends reviling scourging tormenting the damned without mercy without intermission and there perhaps may the wicked see some of their friends and acquaintance and of their companions in their sins involv'd with them in the same punishment which are sights so dreadful as shall augment their Torments Here is darkness then and no darkness such darkness as shall hide from the eyes whatever is pleasant and desirable and yet no darkness to hide from the dismal sight whatever is vexatious and adds the greater anguish to the aking heart This dismal darkness of Hell is call'd The outward darkness respecting the inward darkness of humane Souls and those manifold deeds of darkness which issue from the one and run head-long to the other If then thou hast followed the lusts of thine own darkned heart and obeyed the suggestions of Satan the Prince of darkness if thou hast loved and acted the works of darkness of sinfulness and error more than the sacred acts and influences of Grace and Truth it is most just that thy portion be with blackness of darkness for ever Joh. 3.19 Vouchsafe blessed Lord of light and life vouchsafe to display the sacred beams of thy Celestial light into my darkned Soul dispel and dissipate thence all the black stain and guilt of sin contracted by my daily back-slidings from thee all those clouds of ignorance and error which darken my understanding all those noisom lusts of the world and of the flesh which incessantly infest and infect my Soul that I pass not from these inward to that outward darkness where is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth MEDITAT III. Of the Fire of Hell OF all the Torments invented and practised by the malice of men or devils that by Fire is the most fierce and frightful how does it amaze the minds of men when they see it flaming in their houses and consuming their habitations and estates and yet the Fire of Hell is far more dreadful and tormenting as differing from our ordinary fire especially in three respects 1. Our fire feeds only upon gross and corporeal substances but Hell fire feeds upon spirits and damned souls and 't is therefore as much more fierce and piercing than our fire as a spirit is more quick and active than a gross heavy body Be not deceived O my Soul with any fond conceits of vain men that this fire is only metaphorical or fantastical allegorical or poetical because 't is prepared for the Devil and his Angels who are spirits and not liable to visible flames But the word of God which cannot lie and many undeniable reasons by the learned deduced thence Mat. 3.12 cap. 13.42 cap. 25.41 Mark 9.43 47. do confirm it to be a real yea a material fire but more spiritual and refined and so more eating piercing and tormenting than the fire which burns upon our hearths 2. Our fire doth alway burn and torment after the same manner but Hell-fire being the instrument of divine Justice doth more or less rage and afflict according as the persons condemned thereunto have been more or less guilty And 't is observable that the sinful Souls
doomed to these flames are represented by our Lord unto those Tares that are bound in bundles to be burnt Matth. 13.30 denoting all kind of sinners to be punished with them that are of their own rank and quality e.g. The proud with the proud The drunkard with his good fellow The adulterer with the unclean and so in all others according to the enormities of their lives shall be their susterings after death And although in this life 't is some mitigation of sorrow to have companions therein of the same quality yet in Hell 't is far otherwise for there the more sinners with their sins the more fuel is added to that dismal fire So that when I consider all the sins that have been committed against the Majesty of Heaven since the beginning of the world to the end thereof are as so many faggots to feed the fire of Hell I cannot but tremble at the greatness of its force and fury and carefully avoid the society of sinners in this life that I suffer not with them to the encrease of our mutual torments in the other world 3. Our fire may be quenched Mat. 3.12 Isa 66. ult Isa 30. ult nay 't will quench it self when its fuel is wasted but the fire of Hell is unquenchable because First The breath of the everlasting God like a stream of Brimstone doth enkindle it Secondly The fuel that feeds this fire shall never be consumed viz. Immaterial Immortal Beings of whom being tormented in these flames 't is affirmed Rev. 9.6 that they shall seek death and shall not find it they shall desire to die but death shall fly from them Miserable wretches whilst they had time and leisure to seek life they neglected it nay it is too common Ut cujus vita mortua fuit in culpa illic mors vivat in poena Greg. that when life in Christ is offered unto many in the blessed food of their Souls they slight and contemn it and therefore 't is most just as the Father observes that they whose life in this world was no other than a death in sin their death hereafter should be a life in punishment for sin everlastingly But as to the unquenchable fire of Hell Remember O my Soul that there is now a fire within thee the which if it be not quencht in this life will bring thee to fire unquenchable in the other world and this is the rank and fulsom fire of Concupiscence Thy carnal lusts and thy worldly lusts being now followed and fulfilled are the fuel that feeds that dismal fire of the Infernal Lake and the worm also that never dieth is bred of the same corruption even in the dunghil lusts of the heart actuated by the hot suggestions of Satan And as the fire of Concupiscence doth now more or less rage in thy heart so as to follow the sway thereof so shall the fire of Hell be more or less raging hereafter if these lusts do not die within thee before the death of nature seize thee Take then the advice of the Wise Syracides Eccl. 7.17 Humble thy self greatly for the vengeance of the wicked is fire and worms And of S. Col. 3.5 Paul Mortifie therefore your members that are upon earth fornication uncleanness inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetousness which is Idolatry For which things sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience Blessed Jesus by the merits and mysteries of thy Circumcision I humbly beg the true Circumcision of the Spirit and by the virtue of thy Crucifixion strengthen me to crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts lest any of those exorbitant fires being not opportunely quenched involve me in those flames of Hell which are unquenchable MEDITAT IV. Of the extent of Hell-Pains Greg. mor. WHen I consider righteous Job on the Dunghil the holy Baptist hungring in the Wilderness S. James beheaded S. Peter crucified the Torments and Deaths of innumerable Martyrs the manifold Afflictions of the holy and elect people of God I cannot but consider and know assuredly that very great and many shall be the Torments of the wicked in the world to come since God suffereth those whom he dearly loves to be so much afflicted in this life The Pains of Hell in the extent of them do herein differ from all present bodily pains that these are partial only in some particular parts joynts and members of the body whilst other parts are free from pain But in Hell the whole man in all the Senses internal and external in all the parts of his body and powers of his soul yea the most spiritual faculties shall be tormented with fire and brimstone rage and despite grief and anguish misery and malediction For the pains of Hell are a concourse of all kinds of pain of all at the same time and of all of them for ever The Taste shall be punished with bitterness the Appetite with hunger and the Tongue with thirst the Sight with horror the Hearing with astonishment the Smell with stench the Heart with anguish the Imagination with fear the Reason with madness the Judgment with confusion and in the very Bowels fire unquenchable And this is most just that as the wicked have employed all the powers and parts both of Soul and Body as weapons of unrighteousness unto sin so should their punishment be in all their Senses Members Faculties that as each hath transgrest by sinful Pleasure and inordinate Delight so each should have its peculiar afflicting Torment There is no sin unrepented in this life but shall have its proper peculiar torment in Hell There the proud shall be filled with confusion The slothful shall be pricked forward with burning goads The covetous shall be pinched with penury The glutton and the drunkard shall be pined with a perpetual hunger and thirst The envious shall howl like mad dogs for rage and grief The luxurious and lovers of Pleasures more than lovers of God shall wallow in burning pitch and stinking brimstone And in a word in whatsoever thing a man hath in this life offended in the same shall he be tormented if not by a true and timely Repentance prevented And this the miserable Dives felt when he wanted a drop of cold water to cool his Tongue in Hell who whilst upon earth had fared sumptuously every day 'T is undoubtedly true that all persons condemned to the flames of the nether Hell are not equally tormented therein for though the fire of Hell be one and the same yet it torments not all after the same manner nor in the same degree of torture but every man shall therein more or less feel the smart of its fury as by the nature quality and frequency of his sin he hath less or more deserved the same Gen. 18.25 for shall not the Judge of all the world do right The more high peremptory and presumptuous as also the less obstinate and impenient sinner shall both suffer under the torment of