unfained commeth charitie a vehement love of God and of man for Gods sake and therefore God describeth the righteous man whom he delivereth by those two markes of knowledge and of love saying p Psal 91.14 Because he hath set his love upon me therefore will I deliver him I will set him on high because hee hath knowne my Name This love is conjoyned with a great reverence and respectuous feare of God and the keeping of his most holy commandements in the simplicitie of an upright life Wilt thou then bee assured of Gods salvation q Psal 85.9 Surely his salvation is nigh them that feare him r Psal 103.17 18. The mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that feare him and his righteousnesse unto childrens children to such as keepe his Covenant and to those that remember his commandements to doe them Å¿ Psal 116.6 The LORD preserveth the simple Such righteous cannot with dry eyes behold the sinnes of the world whereby God is exceedingly offended but they mourne and weepe before God and in their weeping have a most sure marke of Gods love and care towards them When God turned the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes t 2. Pet. 2.7 8. He delivered the righteous Lot who was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked for that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soule from day to day with their unlawfull deeds When he was to destroy Ierusalem he gave commandement to his Angell saying v Ezech. 9.4 Goe thorow the midst of the Citie thorow the midst of Ierusalem and marke a marke upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the middest thereof If the righteous man sigheth for the abominations that be done in the world hee is no way a complice in them therefore God said to Elijah x 1. King 19 â—8 I have left me seven thousand in Israel all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal and every mouth which hath not kissed him If these markes of a righteous man be in thee they are sufficient to make thee partaker of Gods deliveries he looketh not to thy qualities which make thee to bee redoubted or contemned among men y Psal 147 10 11. He delighteth not in the strength of the horse he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man the LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him in those that hope in his mercy a Luk. 16.19 The purple and fine linne sumptuous and dainty fare musicke and dancing could not deliver the rich man from the torments of hell because he was wicked Povertie beggerie nakednesse pining sicknesse could not barre Lazarus from the everlasting pleasures of Paradise because he was righteous b Pro. 11.3 4 6. The integritie of the upright shall guide them but the perversenesse of transgressors shall destroy them Riches profit not in the day of wrath but righteousnesse delivereth from death The righteousnesse of the upright shall deliver them but transgressors shall be taken in their owne naughtinesse XVII The righteousnesse of the upright delivereth him not as a cause meritorious of deliverie as the Papists would perswade you for it is stained with many spots and blemishes of sinne as yee have learned in the first sermon but as a quality requisite in him whom the Lord will deliver for if we seeke the true causes of our deliveries God saith first negatively that c Deut. 9.4 it is not for our righteousnesse Next he saith affirmatively that it is d Ezech. 20.9 14 44 Ezec. 36.22 for his owne Names sake If temporall deliverie from the evill of affliction come not from our merits can eternall deliverie from sinne and hell bee the merite of any mans righteousnesse The bread for which we sweat before we can have it to eate is the gift of God and wee aske it of God in that qualitie and shall the bread of life be the reward of an hireling No no e Rom. 6.23 The gift of God is eternall life through Iesus Christ our Lord If Papists say that David praieth f Psal 7.8 Iudge me O LORD according to my righteousnesse and according to mine integritie that is in me and saith plainly g Psal 18.19 20. The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousnesse according to the cleannesse of my hands hath he recompensed me c. Answer that in these and such like places which are infinite he declareth that he was inriched with the qualities wherewith hee that waites on the Lords deliverance must bee graced but speaketh nothing of the causes of his deliverance which in the end of the 18. Psalme he acknowledgeth to bee Gods free mercy saying h Ver 50. Great deliverance giveth hee to his King and sheweth mercy to his anoynted to David and to his seed for evermore And else-where confesseth that it is Gods righteousnesse and not his when he prayeth thus i Psal 143.1 2. Answer me in thy righteousnesse and enter not into iudgement with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be iustified So he forsaketh all merits and asketh grace when in another part he prayeth k Psal 25.18 O bring thou me out of my distresses looke upon mine affliction and my paine and forgive all my sinnes Such prayers are they not most frequent in the Psalmes When the Papist singeth in the Church a de Profundis if hee understand what hee saith will he not be mooved to deny all merits when he considereth this prayer of righteous David l Psal 130.2 3 4 7. Lord heare my voice let thine eares be attentive to the voyce of my supplications If thou LORD shouldest mark iniquities O Lord who shal stand but there is forgivenesse with thee that thou mayest bee feared Let Israel hope in the LORD And why because forsooth there is a great deale of righteousnesse in Israel Not so why then because with the Lord there is mercy and with him is plentious redemption Let us also acknowledge and confesse with heart and mouth that m Iam. 3.22 it is of the LORDS mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions faile not XIIX Though this doctrine of the nullitie of the righteous mans merits and of the efficacie of the saving mercies of our righteous God be most true yet n 2. Thes 1.6 it is a righteous thing with God to deliver the righteous man 1. because being iust by nature o Psal 45.7 he loveth righteousnesse and hateth wickednesse and is as sensible of the one to protect it as of the other to punish it p Psal 34.15 16. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his eares are open unto their cry the face of the Lord is against them that doe evill to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth 2. Because the cause for which righteous men suffer is
poenae the Evills of offence and the Evills of punishment Those are sinnes These are the paine inflicted for sinne One of the most righteous men that ever was said of himselfe and of all his fellowes m 1. Ioh. 1.8 If we say that we have no sinne wee deceive our selves and the truth is not in us Neyther was there ever any of the most holy and perfect who was ashamed to begge of God to cry to heaven for forgivenesse of his sinnes and who did not esteeme that n Aug. de Civit. Dei lib. 19. cap. 26. Ipsa iustitia nostra quaÌ„vis veâ—a sit propter veâ—i boni finem ad quam refectur tamen tanta est in hac vitâ ut potius peccatorum remis sione constet quà m perfectione virtutum his righteousnesse consisted rather in the forgivenesse of his sins than in the perfection of his vertues For all the Saints which have beene before us had all the Saints which are in the world have and all those who shall come after us shall have in themselves the evill of sinne what marvell then if all had if all have torum remissione constet quà m perfectione virtutum if all shall have also the evill of paine Where the cause is present working no wonder if the effect follow hard tread it on the heeles The evill of sinne is in all why then should not the evill of paine be in all 2 Sinne is morally evill Punishment is but naturally evill Sinne is an offence to God the punishment of sin is an hurt and griefe to man What is man but a worm what is the sonne of man but a little worm what then are all the evils which all men suffer what is death it selfe o Rom. 6.23 death which is the wages of sinne death which is the last evill wherein all the evills that are incident to man doe meet and end what is the damnation of all Angels and all men compared to the least offence given unto the infinite Majestie of Almighty God Not so much as a drop of water matched with the great and huge Ocean Sinne is the destruction of the well-being of man which consisteth in his union with God through the conformitie of his will with the will of God The punishment of his sinne is but the destruction of his being consisting in the union of his body with his soule He that heeded not his well-being he that hath refused to remaine united to his God by obedience and holinesse of life deserved he not to lose his being which he received for his well-being Or to speak more popularly He who was created to knowe and serve God he whose felicitie consisted in the knowledge and service of God he who scorned to be happy after that maner merited he not by all right and reason to be deprived of his life which he received for that end and to be miserable and unhappy for ever Let men speake as they will to speak properly the afflictions of this life are evils in our feeling onely but sinne against God who is the soveraign good is evill in it selfe and the evill of evills whether we feele it or we feele it not Who then shall be allowed to complaine if the great evill which he hath committed be rewarded with the small evil which he suffereth 3 Yet the righteous man hath fewer sinnes than other men have and if ye will permit me so to speake lesse sinfull Sin reigneth in the men of the world it is weakened and mortified in Gods children Sinne in worldlings floweth from the stinking puddle of their hardned and malicious heart To do evill they finde nothing too hote nothing too cold p Psal 10. â— 3 4 5. The wicked blesseth the covetous because they are like himselfe he puffeth at all his enemies Through the pride of his countenance hee will not seeke after God for all his thoughts are that There is no God neither will he suffer to be admonished as yee may learn by the examples of Ahaz Ahab Manasses and of daily experience The spring of sinne in a righteous man is his infirmitie and therefore it is no sooner set before his eyes but he breaketh it off by repentance as David and Peter did If then we compare men with men not with God wicked mens sinnes are like unto q Mat. 7.3 beames whereas the righteous mans sinns are but motes and light faults God registreth in the book of his rigorous judgement the sinnes of the wicked and will r Psal 50.21 reprove them and set them in order before their eyes but hee hath made a covenant with the righteous Å¿ Ier. 31.34 that he will forgive their iniquity and will remember their sinne no more and that for Iesus Christ his deare Sonnes sake t Eph. 1.7 in whom we have redemption i. the forgivenesse of sinnes through his blood according to the riches of his grace And yet a strange thing and a matter of much astonishment the v Psal 10.5 wayes of the wicked prosper alwayes and Gods iudgements are farre above out of his sight On the other side Many are the Evils of the Righteous 4 His evills or as they are called in the translation his afflictions are so many that it is uneasie to number them all They hold one another by the hand and conspire together to swallow up the righteous yet wee may reduce them to two heads for they are eyther externall in losse of honour of goods and of life or internall in great heavinesse and anguish of minde The Divels first care is to darken with calumnies the reputation of the righteous man and as David speaketh x Psal 4.2 to turne his glory into shame that they who shine in the glorious light of their owne conscience being spotted and blemished by false reports may be rendred odious to all men and unprofitable for the setting forward of Christs kingdome in their callings The first accusation is against their Religion as being the fittest to stirre up and kindle the hatred of a superstitious people against them and to stop the course of the heavenly doctrine This accusation is stuffed with manie common places of antiquitie of multitude of glorie of honours of riches of succession of union of Kings Princes people of their agreement and combination to maintaine the old doctrine of the Fathers against the new Sect of the little flocke of a few poore snakes of an handfull of forlorne fellowes men of a vile condition of no birth of lesse gifts y 1. Pet. 3.20 Noah was esteemed a madde fellow because of his lowlinesse The citizens of Sodome rejected z Gen. 19.9 Lots admonition threatned him because he was a forreiner and so journer amongst them a Gen. 31.53 Laban swearing by the gods of Abraham the gods of Nacor that is by the gods of their father Thare laid covertly in Abrahams Isaacs and Iacobs dish the reproach of
thy chastening was upon them Look what the biting collyre is to the pinne in the eyes the scorching cauter to the headache and catharres the sharpe pricking of the Surgeons launcet bitter physick to a continual fever the Creuset and the fire to gold and silver the same are afflictions to the righteous mans sinnes which are a suffusion and web upon the eie of the mind a theume choaking Gods Spirit suffocating the heart the Pleurisie pestilent fever of the soule the dross tin of all godly affections So a Num. 12 1 2 10. Miriam was healed of her pride by leprosie So b 2. Sam. 12.11 David learned to be chaste by the incests of his owne sons so Ionas learned obedience in the Whales bellie So c Luk. 1.20 Zacharias by the losse of his speech was cured of his incredulity taught not to open his mouth in time to come but to praise and blesse the Lord his God So the whole Church of Iuda d Lev. 26.4 was humbled under the mightie hand of God and accepting of the punishment of her iniquitie learned to say with heart and mouth e Micah 7.9 I will beare the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him So the Churches of France by these last troubles were brought low and taught to walke in Gods presence with feare and trembling for howsoever they were innocent of the crime of rebellion laid to their charge their vanitie their ambition their pride their filthie covetousnesse their loathing of the Gospel their securitie was become so exceeding great that God could not beare with them any longer They trusted in their little paltrie holds and forts which they had raised as high as the clouds and said not onely in their hearts as Edom did but with their mouths also f Obad. 3. Who shall bring us downe to the ground The Lord heard the words of their pride in the turning of an hand turned them topsie turvie leaving onely some ruines as traces of his indignation whereby their Children may know that there dwelt their Fathers Then wee acknowledged then we said g Pro. 18.10 The Name of the Lord is a strong tower the righteous runneth into it and is safe For this cause S. Peter calleth Persecutions h 1. Pet. 4.17 Gods iudgements Christ calleth them i Rev. 3.19 his chastisements and S. Paul giveth the one and the other name to all kind of afflictions saying that k 1. Cor. 11.31 32. If wee would iudge our selves wee should not bee iudged But when we are iudged wee are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world I say then that the first cause of the righteous mans Evils is his owne sinnes and their first end is his correction and amendment IX Now he is not onely guiltie of sinnes past for which he is chastised but also hee is prone to fall in sin againe as bearing in his breast the seede of all iniquitie Alas Alas l Iob 15.16 how abominable and filthie is man which drinketh iniquitie like water Therefore God like an expert Physician mingleth unto him a cup of afflictions not onely to cure him of former diseases but also to preserve him from diseases to come For tribulations are not onely medicines but also antidotes preservatives against the poison of sinne They are bitter potions in taste but they either restore or preserve health m Iob 33.14 15 16 17 18. Elihu saith in the booke of Iob that God speaketh once yea twice yet man perceiveth it not He instructeth men by his word he sendeth to them his servants once twice thrice to advise them of their duetie and they yeeld not attention unto his admonitions Then hee openeth the eares of men and sealeth his chastisement upon them that he may withdraw man from his purpose and drive away pride from man So he keepeth backe his soule from the pit and his life from perishing by the sword seasoning him with the salt of afflictions that he rot not I will not enroll n Gen. 12.17 Pharao king of Egypt nor o Gen. 20.6 7. Abimelech king of Gerar among righteous men yet when they would have sinned against God by abusing Sara Abrahams wife God plagued them with so great plagues that they were affraide to touch her Surely David was a righteous man and ye may perceive how in Absolems rebellion against him God gave him with one stone two blowes he chastised him for the murther and adultery which hee had committed and restrained him from sinne for the time to come The one and the other for his good as he confessed saying p Psal 119.73 It is good for me that I have beene afflicted that I might learne thy statutes Who was more righteous then Paul yet confessing his owne infirmitie and acknowledging how he was by nature inclined to pride hee saith that q 2. Cor. 12.7 there was given to him a thorne in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet him lest he should be exalted above measure This Angell of Satan was not the divell himselfe but as r Chrysost ibi Homil. 1. ad popul Antiochen Chrysostome esteemeth wicked men inspired of the divell such as was Alexander the Copper-smith which did him much evill such as were also the Iewes the Gentiles the Tyrants and all Infidells which persecuted him beyond all measure This then is as if he had said The Lord might stay all persecutions and hand-fetter all those which vexe me but because I was caught up into Paradise and heard there unspeakeable words and might have waxed proude thorow the excellency of revelations be hath permitted these Angels of Satan to buffet me by divers persecutions and tribulations Because then that Peter and Paul and their mates howsoever they be wonderfull among men in holines in righteousnesse and in most rare gifts still are men and easie to be overtaken with sinne they have neede to be held in with the curbe of a sharpe and rigorous discipline lest they suffer themselves to be carried away by the boisterous wind of their owne vanitie and pride for as serpents are bred in man of that which is most inward to him even of the marrow of his bones so arrogancie and loftinesse of mind is ingendred in holy men of the knowledge which they have of their owne excellency and righteousnesse then they begin to looke too much at themselves and too little to themselves then they begin to rely upon their owne excellencie and to forget their maker as Adam and Eve did and as it befell the good king Å¿ 2. Chro. 32.31 Isa 38.2 Hezekiah when he shewed his treasures to the King of Babylons Ambassadors This is the high and broad way to hell and therefore God with bit and bridle draweth his chosen ones backe from it and manageth them with rods and spurres not for any sinne which they have done but for that
suffereth in us as when the head suffereth all the members suffer and when the members suffer the head suffereth Is not Christ the head are we not the members of his body This was the cause why the Apostles after they were beaten x Act. 5.41 reioyced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Christs name for this same cause the Apostle reioyced that he was y Eph. 4.1 the prisoner of the Lord that a Gal 6.17 he bare in his body the markes of the Lord Iesus that b Col. 1.24 hee filled up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ for though all Christs sufferings bee accomplished and c Ioh 19.30 finished in capite in the head for the redemption of the Church yet they are not all fulfilled in corpore in the body for the edification of the Church but as long as there shall be in the world one faithfull to suffer Christ shall have some evill to suffer because Christ and the faithfull are one S. Paul was scholed with this Iesson before his entry into the Church when the Lord Iesus cryed unto him d Act. 9.4 Saul Saul why persecutest thou me even as when ye tread a man upon the foot the head will cry Why treadest thou on me What wonder then if e Phil. 3.8 10. he counted all things but doung that he might know Christ and the fellowship of his sufferings that he might be made conformable unto his death and if hee rendred testimonie to all the Christians of his time that f Rom. 5.3 they gloried in tribulations O bonds more honourable than the Diadems of Kings O tribulations more glorious than the glory of Salomon Is there any golden chaine so glistering as the irons wherwith the Confessors are shackled for Christ Is there any glory to be matched with the glory of the blessed Martyrs suffering with Christ and in their sufferings made conformable to his image The Pagans say that it is sweete and honourable to dye for our countrey The souldiers glory in the wounds which they have received for the defence of their chimneyes And those which are led to the gallows for the service of their King feele glory in their shame and professe that they diâ—content seeing they die for their Soveraignes sake What is our native soyle compared with the Church what is the most glorious King of the earth paragoned with Christ Lesse than nothing We glory in our death for men which when we are dead cannot reward us and shall we bee ashamed to dye for Christ who when we are dead giveth us life and satiateth with immortall honours those which honor him for g Rom. 8.17 if we suffer with him we shall also be glorified with him For this cause h Tert. Apologet cap. 1.46 ult Iust Apol 1. the first Christians when they were condemned thanked their Iudges but principally they thanked God saying i Aug. ser de Cypriano Deo gratias Thankes be to God so did our fathers and so must we doe So then ye have heard the causes why God will have his children to suffer for their owne sakes He will eyther chastise them for the sinnes which they have committed or restraine them from the sinnes which they might perpetrate or try them to make knowne how they can carry themselves in affliction or put in practice the manifold graces wherewith hee hath endued them or honour them with the glory of his Confessors and Martyrs X. When they are thus afflicted God hath also regard to other men First their afflictions are meanes whereby the Elect are converted to God Christ when he was persecuted in one Towne fled into another and preached there He k Mat. 10.23 commanded his Disciples to doe the like By occasion of the persecution in Ierusalem l Act. 8.1 4 Act. 11.19 20. the brethren were scattered abroad throughout the Regions of Iudea of Samaria of Phenice of Cyprus of Antioch where they preached the Lord Iesus and the hand of the Lord was with them and a great number beleeved and turned unto the Lord. Why were n Act. 16.19 31. Paul and Silas cast into prison at Philippi The event shewed that God did it for the conversion of the Iaylor who was one of his Elect. And therefore Paul said o 2 Tim. 2 10. that hee endured all things for the Elects sake that they might also obtaine the salvation which is in Christ Iesus with eternall glory And writing to the Philippians from the prison at Rome where hee received the glorious crowne of Martyrdome he saith p Phil. 1.13 that the things which happened unto him had fallen out to the furtherance of the Gospel so that his bonds in Christ were manifest to all Cesars Court and in all other places For howsoever he was q 2. Tim. 2.14 bound the word of God was not bound The prison was his Church there he preached and there he converted many Thus the Albigenses of France being dispersed by a most furious and violent persecution went preaching the Gospel in Germanie in Bohemia in England All the flourishing Churches in Europe at this day are the harvest which they sowed but especially r Tert. Apologet ca. ult Idem ad Scapul cap. ult Clemens Alex Strom. 4. the seede of the Church is the bloud of Christians for those which behold their constancy wonder wondering they inquire the cause thereof inquiring they learne it learning it they are converted Å¿ Iustin Apolog 1. Euseb lib. 4. cap. 8. Iust Mart. beholding the unexpugnable constancie of Christians in the atrocitie and extremitie of their torments said to himselfe that such men which made no account of death could not bee men given to pleasures and wickednesse because voluptuous men being timorous and faint-hearted cannot suffer any thing which is grievous to be felt and above all things fear death therupon he was converted became of an Idolater a ChristiaÌ„ of a Philosopher a Martyr I might relate unto you a most true storie of a Noble man converted by the wonderfull constancy of those of whom I spake in my last Sermon and protesting at the houre of his death that hee dyed in their faith But by this which I have said ye see that the temporall death of Gods Saints is eternall life and salvation to many of Gods Elect. Likewise their constancie and wonderfull boldnesse to maintaine the Gospell against all the wisedome and power of the world their holy stoutnesse to die for it is no small comfort to the Church and a great confirmation to the weake brethren which use the Apostle found in his bonds as he saith That t Phil 1.14 by them many of the brethren in the Lord waxing confident were much more bold to speake the word without feare For this cause Saint Iohn saith that v 1. Ioh. 3.16 as Christ laid downe his life for us so wee ought to lay downe our lives for
are as a shadow and there is none abiding Earth is onely the place of their peregrination d Ioh. 17.11 16. They are saith Christ in the world but they are not of the world Heaven is their home e Heb. 13.14 For here have we no continuing citie but we seeke one to come Every day wee heare God saying vnto vs f Micha 2.10 Arise yee and depart for this is not your rest Therefore as g 1 Kings 19.8 Eliah walked forty dayes and fortie nights till he came unto Horeb the mount of God So we walke apace and goe still forward till we come to the heavenly Mannor whereof the Apostle saith that h Heb. 4.9 there remaineth a rest to the people of God i Matt. 6.21 There is our treasure there is our heart also As a way-faring mans heart is at home because at home are his wife his children and whatsoever he loveth There is k Phil. 3.20 our conversation though our bodies be here The wicked may see that which we beleeve and daily experience teacheth them to say with the women of Tekoah l 2 Sam. 14.14 We must needs die and are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up againe Yet notwithstanding they m Phil. 3.19 minde earthly things n Psal 49.11 Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for ever and their dwelling places to all generations They call their lands after their owne Names Therefore seeing they have nothing before their eyes no end of their thoughts and actions but the earth it is no wonder that they should be called the inhabitants of the earth Out of the earth were they taken In earth they dwell in earth they have their portion to earth shall their bodies returne and if hell be in the center of the earth as many say there shall they have their last and eternall habitation VI. For what cause will the Lord visite them so rigorously For their iniquitie that is to say for the excessivenesse of their most immoderate sinnes as the word must be taken here what sinnes were those Questionlesse too too many amongst a people enemies to God and to his Church but above all the persecution of the Church They thought undoubtedly that all the harme which they did to the Church was righteousnesse and good service done to their gods As Christ hath forewarned us that they who shall kill us will deeme o Ioh. 2.16 that they doe God service But God calleth this their pretended service iniquity a most hainous and enormous sinne and if ye desire a specification of the kind of this sin God in the text calleth it blood or according to the Hebrew word bloods for by that word God signifieth the extreame and unquenchable thirst of bloud wherewith these murtherers were so dry that when they had shed it all they would have gladly shed more and wished that each of those whom they had slaine had possessed a hundred lives to furnish to them more blood to spill They kill because they take pleasure in killing like unto the Tyrant Caligula who wished that the people of Rome had all one necke that at one blow he might cut it off VII O Tyrants O bloud-thirstie butchers ye slay the Saints of God under coolur of justice and ye think that not onely God will not avenge it but that he will rather allow and reward it Whereas God saith that the earth shall disclose her bloods and shall no more discover her slaine The earth it selfe shall open her wombe and unfold her bowells and cry to God Loe here is the innocent blood which thy enemies have shed Loe here are the bodies of thy beloved servants whom these Massacrers have slaine p Iob 26.6 Hell is naked before him and destruction hath no covering O then shall the earth conceale your murthers from him Have ye not read that q Psal 5.6 the Lord will abhorre the bloudy and deceitfull man Doubt not but that which is written is true r Psal 116 1â— Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of all his Saints and therefore hee will with an hand of yron thrust hard together the bellies of those horse-leeches which have drunke their bloud and straine them till they spue it out of their bloudy throats He hath said that Å¿ Gen. 9.5 6. he will require the life of man at the hand of every beast and at the hand of every mans brother How much more will he require the life of his deare servants at the hands of their murtherers Hee hath ordeined before the law of a most just and inexorable law that who so sheddeth mans blood by man his blood shall bee sbed whereof he rendreth two reasons The first that mens lives are in their bloud The second that in the image of God made he man Vnder the Law he confirmed this Law by another law and said t Num 35.33 that bloud unjustly shed defileth the land though it bee the blood of an ill man And the land cannot be cleansed of the bloud that is shed therein but by the bloud of him that shed it This law is irrevocable for Christ hath also said in the Gospell that v Mat. 26.52 all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword If men put it not in execution God will and till he doe it the land where the blood of his Saints who are restored to his image is shed shall remaine polluted x Gen. 4.10 The voice of Abels blood cryod unto him from the ground and hee listened unto it The soules of a great many Abels which are under the Altar cry unto him with a loud voyce y Rev. 6.9 10. How long O Lord holy and true doest thou not iudge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth And will hee not heare them He will he will z Rev. 13.10 for he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword Here is the patience and the faith of the Saints They expect with patience it shall be so because they know by faith it must be so IIX God who hath spoken it is truth it selfe he is strength it selfe a 1. Sam. 15.29 The strength of Israel will not lie nor repent for he is not a man that he should repent Therefore it must be so He is justice it selfe therefore it shall be so For howsoever we be sinners the cause for which we are molested and vexed is his His who is Almighty and just his who loveth it his who will not suffer it to bee overthrowne by the malice and wickednesse of men his who will defend them who maintaine it and destroy them who seeke to overthrow it This is the comfort which the Apostle giveth to the Thessallonians who bare a crosse as heavy then as your brethren beyond seas doe now saying unto them b 2. Thes 1.6 7. It is a righteous
indignation and he shall bee tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy Angels and the smoake of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever and they have no rest day nor night In vaine shall they strive and struggle to rid themselves from the eternall chaines of darkenesse wherewith they are tyed in that bottomlesse Mine for like unto fishprickt with the Anglers hooke the more they wrench and wriggle to escape faster and faster are they intangled and sinke deeper into the burning lake of death and damnation Are not darkenesse blood fire brimstone burning alive torments fearefull enough to make the haire to bristle and the stoutest heart to melt as waxe against the fire and yet all these are but shadowes and counterfeits of the extreamity of paine wherewith the damned are racked in hell If Nebuchadnezzars hot glowing furnaces if Antiochus caldrons of boyling oyle if Phalaris fierie brazen Bull if Davids sawes harrowes of yron and mortars if the needles the pinsers the burning yron grates and brazen chaires if the tympan the spits the flaying of living men and other torments practised by Tyrants against Christians were so fell and hideous if dayly men invent new tortures more fierce and terrible than those were doubtlesse the paines of hell which the divell deviseth or rather which are of Gods owne invention are ten thousand times more horrible than mans heart can imagine As in all Gods workes i Aug. epist 3. ad Volasianum Tota ratio facti potentia facientis Considera authorem tolle dubitanonē the reason of the doing is the power of the doer So in this let Atheists consider the author and all their doubts will cease God hath said it and will he not performe it XIIX As every member joynt and part of wicked men conspire together in sinne to offend God so the righteous and Almighty God hath bequeathed to each of them a severall torment The mind shall be racked with the consideration of the unexpugnable wrath of God and contemplation of its own endlesse infelicity The memory shall be continually tormented with the remembrance of the manifold and foule sinnes which were causes of such plagues The conscience shall feele a k Esa 66.24 Mar. 9.44 worme ever gnawing it with a most bitter but unfruitfull remorse of sinne The phantasie shall bee troubled with ghastly visions The eyes shall see nothing but ugly divells and damned persons The eares shall heare nothing but roarings of the infernall spirits but shriekes and dreadfull cryes of tortured malefactors What the palat shall taste what the nostrils shal smell what the hands shall catch hold of what the other parts of the body shall suffer in that dark dungeon of Gods wrath I know not This I know that as l 1. Cor. 3.9 eye hath not seene nor eare heard neither have entred into into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him in the kingdome of light with his owne selfe so no tongue can utter yea no heart can imagine the manifold and bitter plagues which the justice of God hath reserved for them that hate him in the kingdome of darkenesse with the m Iob 18.14 King of terrors XIX Happy would they thinke themselves if after many myriades of yeares they might hope for some reliefe but to fill up the unmeasurable measure of their miseries they know that God hath called the fire wherein they burne n Mat. 25.41 everlasting the death whereunto they are condemned o 2. Thes 1.9 everlasting destruction and qualifieth with the same title the worme which gnaweth their never-dying conscience saying that p Mark 9.48 it dyeth not They know that the entrance into hell is large and easie but the regresse impossible They know that the power and justice of God hath appointed unto them an immortall death an endlesse end everlasting darkenesse in the middest of an ay-burning fire poyson of dragons cruell venime of aspes bitternesse it selfe to eate and to drinke in the blackenesse of an eternall night whereupon the cloud of Gods curse and the shadow of death shall dwell for ever and the light of comfort shall never shine XX. This is the share allotted to all them that feare not God to q Luk. 16.19 the rich man who did no harme to Lazarus but onely refused to give him meate and to r Mat. 25.41 42. all his mates to ſ Mat. 25.30 the unprofitable servant to him who goeth to the marriage-feast without t Mat. 22.11 12 13. a wedding garment O then two and threefold more shall bee children of hell all those which throw the crummes of bread out of Lazarus mouth which are never weary of ill doing which have all their garments stained with the blood of Gods servants Shall it v Mat. 10.15 Mat. 11.22.24 be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of iudgement than for those who receive not the Preachers of the Gospell and refuse to heare the word Oh then how intolearble shall be then the plagues of God upon the Neroes Dioclesians all the persecuters of the Gospell x Psal 11.5 6. The Lord tryeth the righteous but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soule hateth Vpon the wicked hee shall raine snares fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest that shall be the portion of their cup. Then then y Rev. 16.10 they shall gnaw their tongues for paine then nothing shall be heard and seene amongst them but a Mat. 12.13 weeping and gnashing of teeth but crying b Rev. 6.16 to mountaines and rockes to fall upon them and to death to come and kill them when c Rev. 3.6 death shall flee from them d Aug. de Tempore serm 252. Quta quibus in hoc seculo vita offertur nolunt accipere in inferno quaerent mortem non poterint invenire When in this world life is offered unto them they refuse to accept it Therefore in hell they shall seeke death and shall not find it In that desire as there is a great sinne so there is in it a great paine It is a righteous thing with God to punish sinne therefore it is a sinne in the prisoners of hell to desire to shake off the punishment of sinne Againe e Quid tam poenale quā semper velle quod nūquam erit c. What is more penall saith Bernard than ever to desire that which never shall be and ever to be unwilling to that which shall never but be They shall never obtaine what they would and evermore sustaine what they would not XXI Adde unto all those punishments one which shall bee to all the persecuters of the Church a deadly wound ever bleeding for in that great day f Esa 26.19 Rev. 20.13 the earth the grave the sea death it selfe shall deliver up the dead which are in them the Martyrs whom these