and scourges to no afflictions abroad nor strife at hope no prisons or Irons no hazard of shipwrack no violence of theeves or thy own familiarsnares no hunger cold nor nakednesse neither to scorching fire And alas wilt thou dread my exhortations I impose no bitter task on thee but on the contrary earnestly desire thee to set thy self free from a most tyrannicall captivity And when thou art ransom'd from this bondage of thy sinns to the happy liberty thou didst once enjoy thy eyes opened to behold what true bliss is Thou wilt confesse the merited paines of a dissolute life the unquiet and tormenting afflictions of a mind given over to carnall lusts and what the happinesse and content of such a godly life is as thou didst formerly leade It were no greater wonder that an Athiest who believ'd no resurrection from the dead should lie lull'd in his lethargick bestialitie without any sence of his condition But that believers that Christians who look after expect and foresee what is decreed both to the good and bad for them to live thus miserably unconcern'd in their own calamities nothing at all awakened with the remembrance of their future hopes or fears is most heavy dul and sencelesse stupidity When with their lipps men shall professe themselves believers but look into their waies they are by many degrees worse then infidells and commit greater abhomination then they For amongst the very heathens themselves there cannot be greater monsters in sinns then are some Christians Nay what is more which should severely advise us to amend amongst them there are often eminent examples of lives led morally so well that they are fit to be look'd upon for our instruction with what shame then shall we cover our faces when the actions of heathens and aliens to God may be precepts Merchants who have suffer'd great damages and losses fall not from their hopes but try the Seas again though there be the same danger of stormes and shipwrack which they know their greatest skill and care cannot sometimes avoid And shall we base unworthy cowards that suffer by sin and wickedness not dare the recovery of our lost soules nor attempt our future preservation though wee fall into dangerous lapses being wee know we are forbid to despair in the greatest extremities When indeed no evill has power over us unlesse we willingly our selves consent unto it And why remain we then so insensibly stupid why use we not our hands in this combat but lie as if they were tyed behind us or what is worse if they are employ'd it is against us our selves what madnesse is this that men entring the lists to fight their adversaries turne all their blowes upon themselves The Divell lies in ambush for us diligently observing the advantages hee has over humane weaknesse to make us destroy our selves Wee must have courage then with undaunted spirits to meet the cunning assaltant on every attempt against us or with our own negligence and carelesse fears he ruins us for ever As thou art fallen Theodorus so likewise fell blessed David he to adultery added the heynous murther of innocent Uriah But what follow'd did he lie under the burthen of his iniquities did not he attempt to rise again but overcome by Satan lay prostrate to his fury No! he couragiously resumes his arms against his enemy and fought him with so prevailing courage that his children after him were the trophies of his victory and receiv'd the benefits of his conquest For when Solomon his Sonn's heart was turn'd after other Gods by means of his wives 1 Kings 11. When he went after Ashtoreth the Goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon c. When he had with all his abhominations provok'd the Lord it is recorded in holy writ that for Davids sake God rent not his Kingdome from him ver. 11. I will surely rend thy Kingdome from thee and will give it to thy servant Notwithstanding in thy daies I will not do it for David thy fathers sake but I will rend it out of the hands of thy Son Howbeit I will not rend away all thy Kingdome but will give one tribe to thy Son for David my servants sake So likewise in the daies of Hezekias though he himself were a just man does the Lord alledge the same cause of his mercy to Jerusalem 2 Kings 19. 34. I will defend this City to save it for mine own sake and for David my servants sake Thus did the Lord continue the remembrance of Davids hearty penitence to shew us how effectually true repentance finds accesse to the tribunall of Heaven This servant of the Loreds disputed not against his redemption had he had the desperate opinion thou seemest to be of now that hee could not be reconcil'd to God He would have said perhaps God has done me mighty honors he has chosen me into the number of his Prophets has given me Empire and Dominion over my brethren and deliver'd me out of mighty dangers and how can I hope for his mercy whom after so manifold blessings I have thus infinitely offended Had the Prophet permitted such desperate conceptions to overcome him he had not onely excluded himselfe from Gods favour in that his sad condition at the present but had blotted out the remembrance of all his former life As the wounds of the body neglected grow altogether incurable so those of the soul if we seek not for their remedie lapse us into eternall perdition yet such is our folly that in the least distempers of our bodies we refuse no paines no troubles but submit to any tortures art can prescribe for our recovery but obstinately werefuse the medicins of our sick souls nay though wee are so ill that we are beyond all cure with what a longing desire we are attentive to what the Physician speakes in the last extreames willing to hear of comfort But in the disease of our soules wee despair and languish before we see reason for it since the most dangerous wounds there are not incurable And where the nature of the sicknesse is really desperate wee continue our hopes but miserably despaire where there is no need And where we are absolutely forbid it we are willfully diffident putting on the vanity of a confidence when 't is ridiculous and beyond all hopes but such is our naturall fond inclination to our bodies that wee look on their decayes with horror and affrightment and in the hazards of our pretious soules are sottishly insensible Me thinks in such a state those words of Christ may awake our heavy dull spirits Mat. 10. 28. Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill soul but rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Hell If these be not prevalent with thee to perswade thee as yet to return to thy integrity I shall labour in anguish and affliction of soul for thy deferring so long so acceptable and necessary a task as thy reforming
of the future but if the catching flames last till they are joyn'd they are never to be extinguish'd and unrepenting souls departing this life presently unite their sinfull fires with the revengefull flames appointed them in Hell for all eternity Now then consider how long thou canst possibly presume on the continuance of these felicities thou here enjoyst When thou canst not promise thy selfe any length for thy life fifty years were a great space to be assur'd of but indeed we so little know our ends that wee cannot tell but this evening may be our last how then can wee relie upon so many years Time is uncertain nor can we assure our selves any thing of the future And were it so that we were certain of a long life the pleasures still are uncertain wee might expect in it which sometimes are with us again in the twinkling of an eye But were a long life assur'd thee and thy pleasures to last with it that no chance or fortune had power to interrupt the continued course of thy contents which should be still equal to thy desires What a litle would this be to everlasting ages of bliss or eternity of punishment And hereafter we must expect the like everlasting durance of both joy and sorrow which soever be our lot though here delight and sadnesse have their vicissitude in the World to come neither shall ever end And as both for continuance are endlesse so in the extremities of value both incomprehensible CHAP. VI Hell fire expos'd to the terror of the impenitent with the torments and eternity thereof O Vainly deceived man most foolishly and sottishly deluded sinner who when thou heardst speak of Hell fire believest those dreadfull flames prepar'd for the vengeance on thy impenitency â—o be no other then some materiall pile that soon with it's own violence will of it selfe consume into ashes Thou must believe in time or thy experience will teach thee too late what those fires be which are prepared in Hell for the Devills and his Angells there and for thee unlesse thou sincerely repent they are immortall unconsuming flames flames that shall never extinguish or dy So that in fine the very damn'd may promise themselves eternity but it will prove the perpetuity of endlesse shame pains and confusion While the blessed shall be cloath'd with immortality but together with infinite joy and incomprehensible glory O vild impenitent wretch meditate on what thou art for ever forfeiting a Crown of immortall honor and what thou art assured to purchase with thy obstinate impieties Endlesse miseries and plagues torments in fires can never possibly consume which shall alwaies last and still supplyed ever encrease and never diminish or extenuate No mans tongue be he never so eloquent can teach us a way to comprehend the true knowledge of such unspeakable horror Yet in this as in other things impossible to be certainly known we may regulate our conjecture by the experience wee make on things of lesse moment As for example suppose thy selfe in an overheated Bath thy skin scalding thy veines and sinewes shrinking Or burning in a violent fevour at the insufferablenesse of these pains thou maist give some probable guesse and after think thou on Hell fire Thou wilt of necessity allow neither Bath or feaver possibly to be endur'd by the greatest and most invincible fortitude and argue thy self into an apprehension by degrees of the fearfull horror thou wilt have when for thy sins thou art flung into a torrent of mercilesse flames issuing from that dreadfull tribunall where the vengeance on impenitency is prepar'd There will be howling and gnashing of teeth punishments neither to be suffer'd nor redrest or comforted for no body shall help them So vain and fruitlesse will be those lamentations which cannot avail the lamenters any thing when their complaints can profit them nothing Their torments still encreasing with their desperation in a place where their eyes can fix on nothing to promise comfort for what shall they see there but the damned their companions and a vast desolation Next to add to the horror of eternall punishments know that these fires there as they can never dye neither can they afford light for they are most peculiarly and properly described to be utter darknesse Consider what it is thus to suffer in horrid and lothsome darknesse with terrors affrightings and tremblings in all thy members this must needs cause then the infinite multitude of thy tortures which will fall on thee faster then violent fleakes of snow upon the earth shall cruciate thy soule In so hideous and over-whelming a manner that humane capacity can not well comprehend how it is possible for the soule of man to bear them and not utterly consume and annihilate in so fierce and devouring destruction To make which more evident and plaine to our understandings we may call to remembrance what frequently happens in this world we are now in How many men have fallen into violent diseases and those as lasting as violent but neither their time nor force had the power to their soules dissolution till the decay and ruine of their materiall corruptible bodies the substance of the soule being proof against the keenest arrowes of death Even so shall it be at last with the miserable bodies of the damned which will be changed into a substance that the fiercest flames shall never be able to consume and though man be compos'd of such materialls as now cannot resist the violence but yeeld to the conquest of assaulting paines when the cursed immortality of the body shall be equall to that of the soul both together must suffer to all eternity Thou oughtest Theodorus rightly to consider this undeniable truth and not to give way to any fantastick dream that would perswade thee any end or period can be propos'd to the eternity of their sufferings who shall be thus prepar'd for everlasting fire And what are the pleasures the delights and vanities thou puts't into the contrary ballance to weigh against so heavy a doom How short the time of their continuance compar'd with eternity Couldst thou suppose that Hells torments were to end in a hundred or two hundred years the fury of them for such a space might prudentially affright thee from that dissolute and wild life thou art so besotted to Then certainly the thought of their eternity must needs deterre thee and to presse this nearer to thee I begg of thee to lay thy hand to thy heart and answer me whether thou canst or not exchange blessings and pleasures eternall for as everlasting punishments or forfeit an inestimable weight of glory for a dream and all the reputed happinesse of this life are no better What fool would bee content for one pleasing moment to lead all the rest of his life in miserie who is there so sottish as would willfully forfeit all his peace for a minutes pleasure yet thou doest far exceed such frantick beasts in thy madnesse But alas I dilate in vaine upon thy
very Wildernesse wild and desolate stript and naked rob'd and spoil'd of all thy riches and sumptuous Ornaments which were once so miraculously and divinely eminent in thy pious life that they were above humane faith these I say are ravish'd from thee and more to augment our sorrow wee see thee ruinated like a desert full of dangers which no body undertakes to keep Thou hast no Vertue left to bar the doors against assaulting temptations but lyest open to every corruption and wicked determination of thy fancy Whether it be pride or lust or drunkennesse or avarice what sin soever the Devill commands to storme thee there is nothing that defends the breach nothing that guards thy unman'd soule Yet once how much of heaven hadst thou in thee whilst like it the purity of thy thoughts was inaccessible to all manner of ill Mee thinks I speak wonders not to be believ'd by those who see thee in this thy forlorne and desperate condition which makes me pray lament and mourn continually that I may see thee return again to thy former integrity and piety which may perhaps seem to humane apprehension impossible but all things are easie in the hands of God For he it is that lifteth the beggar from the dust and exalteth the needy from the Dunghill that he may sit with Princes even with the Princes of his people Hee it is that maketh the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful Mother of Children Ps. 113. On this infinite and unsearchable love of our God to us build thou thy hopes and thou wilt find an impossibility a strange incapacity within thy self to despair at any time grace still working in thee to change thy heart into better and better desires For if the Devill had the power to pluck thee from so eminent a top and glory of Vertue into this Abysse of wickednesse Much more easily can our Omnipotent God raise thee up again restore thee to thy former liberty and honor and and not onely set thee free from this base captivity but make thy happinesse greater then ever yet it was Onely I beseech thee resolutely to break all snares that shall be lay'd in the way of thy return Let not thy hopes which are so full of certainty be cut off by any destructive fear or timorous perswasion lest those punishments light on thee which are due onely to the desperately wicked For neither the number nor the greatnesse of our sins does absolutely condemn us to a condition irrecoverable But resolv'd settlednesse and an intollerable composednesse in impious waies are the sure manifest signes of a soul so fall'n that it shall never rise again Wherefore Solomon does not speak generally of every man who transgresseth Pro. 18. but names that wicked man who when he comes into the depth of evill contemns his mercy It is onely a wicked purpose never to leave sin that plunges men into this dangerous Gulfe of despair and iniquity from whence they can never so much as look back and much more difficultly return For the deceiving weights of wickednesse lie like a heavy Collar on the necke of the soul and forcing our eyes upon the Earth forbids them to look up to our Lord that made them Know then it is the part of a generous and truly daring Christian spirit not to endure the Tyrants yoake valiantly to combate and destroy those officious guards his watchfull malice sits over us And with the Prophet to acknowledge our obedience there onely where it is onely due saying with him As the eyes of a Mayden unto the hand of her Mistresse so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God untill he have mercy upon us have mercy on us Lord have mercy on us for we are exceedingly fill'd with contempt Ps. 123. These are divine exhortations these are the doctrines of the most heavenly Philosophy we are fill'd with contempt we are shaken with infinite violent stormes of sad events Yet shall not this debar us from looking up to our God and imploring his assistance Nay till our Lord has granted our Petitions we must put on the confidence of importunate beggars and not let our prayers cease til our requests are granted This is the true Character of a pious daring soul not to be baffled from his hopes by the violence of ill successe not to start out of the way or goe back because as yet he has not found the expected issue of his prayers but to endure to the last till the Lord have mercy on him according to the precept and example of the Prophet David CHAP. II. The Devills endeavours and practices to undermine our hopes and raze the Foundation of our eternall happinesse The comparison betwixt a dying body and a perishing soul with an exhortation to be couragious in our conflicts with the Devill THE wily subtilty of Satan aimes at nothing more then to inveigle us in a Labyrinth of despair still feeding our naturall tottering inclinations with change and variety of doubts and once unsetled we are his certain prey for irresolution excludes us from our expectations in Heaven and relyance upon the benignity of our most mercifull God and Father it violently and too insensibly drives us from our hopes our surest Anchors By it wee lose the very essence of our lives the guide which leads us to God the Pilot which steers our forlorne and shipwrack'd soules into the Haven of Salvation For resolution and a constant hope never fail of assurance in the end by hope saies the word wee shall be sav'd that will to the last preserve us Hope is a stronge and Golden Chain let down to us from Heaven taking fast hold on it wee learn to subdue our soules most desperate rebellions Which our benign Lord finding us sure link'd to it has promis'd to raise and lift us by it above all the dangerous billowes of this present miserable life Whilst he who through idlenesse neglects to make his hold sure to this golden Anchor sinks and is certain to drown and perish in the deeps of his own wickednesse Which Satan that subtle Fox so well know's that he then makes his Hel-Harvest when he sees us laden with sin and overprest with the weight of our guiltiness this is the time hee so diligently watches for then falls he on us and presses our declinings with arguments of the immensity of our offences and deceives us with his cunning aggravations Then suggests he to our soules horror and despair in their extreames as there were no salvation left to us and the doors of mercy were lock'd against our cryes for ever And once in this dejected and base low condition how prone and precipitate is our descent into Hel forc'd still violently downwards by unresisted desperation having weakly lost our hold on hope that Golden Chain wee sink perpetually in the deepes both of sin and misery Thus is it with thee Theodorus who hast cast off thy obedience and subjection to a meek and mercifull Lord quite
rejecting his commands and art become a slave under the outragious Empire of that Tyrannous enemy to mankind who never rests day nor night from ensnaring us our selves to fight against our own hopes and expectations of Heaven Thus hast thou flung off a light and easie burthen freed thy self from a mercifull yoke to fasten thy neck in linkes of Iron And what is both base and ridiculous hast laid a Mill-stone the Asses burthen on thy owne shoulders What wilt thou think to do in the future that at present suffers thy most miserable soul to be swallow'd in this impetuous Gulfe of lusts Nay that wilfully has brough a kind of necessity on thy self which continually compels thee to fall into deeper extreams The woman in the Gospels when she had found her lost groat call'd all her neighbours together to partake of her joy with her saying Rejoyce with me because I have found the lost groat Lu. 15. 8. Thus will I call your friends and mine together but to a different end and purpose I will not bid them rejoyce with me but grieve and weep lament be truly sorrowfull and mourn with me For our losse is grievous and insupportable greater then if we had lost never so great a treasure or Magazine of Gold or Diamonds For we have lost a friend not to be valewed who sailing with us through this vast Ocean I know not by what means is fallen overboard and sunk into the bottomlesse Gulfe of perdition If any man should offer to disswade mee from my lamentations I would answer him with this passionate expression of the Prophet Isaiah Let me alone I will weep bitterly you cannot comfort me Is 22. Such is the sorrow which draws this flood of tears from my eyes Such a sorrow as doubtlessely would not shame Saint Peter or Saint Paul to own it though in such excesse as they denyed themselves all consolation or perswasion to the contrary They who deplore the naturall decreed death of the body may perhaps find coÌ„forters who by the strength of reason and argument may without much labour restore their dâ—ooping spirits to settledness tranqulity by religious precepts gently quiet and palliate their griefes But who can plead gainst his just deploring who laments the death of a soul fallen into perdition dead in sin and pierc'd with ten thousand arrows venom'd with Hells malitious poyson the beauty form and grace of most eminent Vertues and devotions lost and extinct in him These administer matter justly to provoke lawfull and lasting tears What flinty heart What rockie soul could in an agony so moving forbear lamentings or entertain an apparition of any delusion should forbid him his just sorrow At the fall of the body it is humane though not altogether rebellious to weep At the falling of a soul the extreamest lamentation is the greatest evidence of the truest piety He who had on Earth possession of Heaven in so much as hee contemn'd abhor'd and laught at the vanity of the World hee who beheld the greatest beauty but as a statue of stone or a fair picture That he who despis'd Gold as dirt pleasures and vanity as mire He it is who most unexpectedly falling into a raging feaver of burning lusts has lost his comliness and his courage is now turn'd a slave to his own bestiall appetites Shall not we then grieve for him shall we cease our lamentations till he return to himselfe again it is no more then our duty and tye of Christian charity if we have any sense of pitty or humanity in us What alas is the destruction of the body but an accomplish'd course in the order of nature yet such a losse finds dayly mourners and lamenters What ought we then to doe for his perishing soul which manifestly appears resolv'd on eternall damnation if our prayers bring him not to repentance but that he finish his course in obstinate sinning and obduratenesse of heart For in death there is no remembrance of thee in the grave who shall give thee thanks Psal. 6. How great a sin then is it against the rules and Laws of charity not to resent with the greatest pitty a soul thus everlastingly perishing Violent cries and abundance of tears cannot possibly recall the dead But frequent experience teaches us that a soule dying here in sin is not wept for in vaine For the humble requests of brotherly charity plead so effectually before the Throne of mercy that many hardned in obstinate impenitency have melted into floods of tears and have ow'd thee thanks for their contrition to the importunity of other mens prayers And by such meanes many both in our daies and the daies of our forefathers who have deserted the paths of righteousnesse and run headlong astray out of the waies of piety which is a spirituall dying at length have risen again with such heavenly alacrity their fall so hid and obscur'd by the glory of their rise that they have purchas'd the palme of recompence and crowned with the wreath of victory have triumph'd Conquerors on earth till they were summon'd to be numbred with the blessed for all eternity Yet infinite such examples prevail not with a man who wilfully continues in the flames and fires of his lusts Such a wretched perversenesse withstands his recovery and pleads an impossibility of mercy against him But if he chance to get a little way out of the fire and by degrees leave it still farther behind him the dimnesse which the flames caused will be taken from his eyes then how plainly wil he discern the way of salvation to be accessible and very plain smooth and easie having obtain'd grace for his guide And conquer'd those Troops the Devill laid in ambush for him But hee who wants the courage to undertake the combat in vain desires the conquest He may that 's willfull stay and burn in the fire nay shut the doors against himself that are open for him And whatman who is thus sotishly his own enemy can design any thing nobly and virtuously Wherfore this our common enemy makes it his onely businesse leaves nothing unattempted which may render us diffident of grace and mercy Nor needs he much labour to compasse that his end if we lie prostrate at his feet and take no counsell or resolution or order the battail against him it is an easie conquest to overcome us But he who violently breaks his fetters and betakes himself to the use of his strength with courage He I say who in so desperate a condition allows himselfe no cessation but with a continuall violence maintains the battell against him though hee have before lost the day a thousand times shall then recover his losses and gloriously triumph in his enemies overthrow When he who is dejected with despair and permits his spirits to fail and languish can never hope for conquest how can he overcome who makes no resistance at all but fearing the encounter lays down his armes and submits to his enemy CHAP.
III. Gods mercy to the greatest sinners an argument against despair THE mercies of our Lord so infinitely exceed our transgressions that meditating on them they cannot but greatly consolate our drooping spirits and arme us with courage against those temptations we ought strongly to resist lest they overcome our trust and confidence in God I mean those stupid apprehensions of the unpardonable immensity of our own guilt as if God were not able to forgive us our sins being so great and so many that to our imaginations they exceed the saving promises of his mercy Oh let us take heed of such desperate perswasions as these oh let us be careful that such thoughts as these do not quash and annihilate our hopes let not the Devill delude us with an opinion that our Lord is mercifull indeed but extends that goodnesse onely to small offenders to those onely who have provok'd him but with a few and those small faults For suppose a man justly branded with all the markes of those infamies and shames which are due to the greatest reprobates One who had committed all those wicked acts which most certainly unrepented fail not to shut the gates of Heaven against them who transgresse so highly in them And withall we must grant this person to be no stranger to the truth but to have been one of Christs Church Whatsoever was the cause of his fall Whatsoever the inveterate malice of the Tempter had chang'd him to be either whoremaster or adulterer nay perhaps Sodomite Were he theef drunkard or common calumniator one who had hug'd all these sinns with appetite and delight nay had made it his serious study to contrive his ends and hellish satisfaction in them For my part I would not be Author of despair to such a wretch as this no though he had continued in them many years For it is impious blasphemy to reflect upon the anger of God as if he were therefore displeas'd that we might be hardned for then wee justly should relinquish our hopes if we were assur'd the flames of his wrath set on â—â—â—e by so many sinns were not to be extinguish'd with the tears of true repentance But wee must look with more believing eyes on his mercy and admire the excellency of his justice and his clemency who in his punishments is quite free from passions and perturbations And any one but willfully blind offenders may plainly see that our Lord has no delight or contentment in his revenge but takes exceeding pleasure in his love and tenderness which is infinitely intent on our good Be thou therefore of good courage confidently and undauntedly rely upon the hopes of thy restauration to grace and happinesse in spite of all the machinations of the Devill Let him not deceive thee and possesse thee with so horrid an opinion as that God should at all delight in the punishment of sinners For he is a most indulgent Father carefully fond of us and directing all his actions towards us for our good even in the depth of our malice against him unwiling is he and loath to see the encrease of our perversenesse But of his owne Fatherly compassion keeps us off from contemning and despising his mercy If any one voluntarily of his own free motion forsakes the light who can accuse the light for that mans darknesse does not he want the benefit of that light through his own folly and willfullnesse So he that disdains submissively to adhere to the omnipotent power of God and to live in the light of grace which illuminates all true believers suffers not by the goodnesse of that power which is the originall Fountain of all blessings but the unrulinesse of of his own rashnesse and stupidity which so willfully brought him into his own ruin and destruction Our mercifull God sometimes lets us see the rod to frighten us but draws it back and puts it up again that his children may be sensible of his aversnesse to revenge and of his infinite propensity to allure and attract them to himself So a discreet Physitian afflicts not or troubles himself at the raging distempers of a man frantick but is himself the patient when he workes the cure He treats him gently he courts him into his own health and though the mad man fly in his very face hee uses meeknesse with art and skill and unmov'd endeavours to palliate the violence of his disease though perhaps he be justly enough incens'd to leave off the cure And as the distemper'd man recovers his senses the Physitian encreases his joy and prosecutes his intended cure having never return'd peevishnesse for fury but laying aside all self-respect applyed himself wholly to the good of the lunatick So our Lord when we arrive at the extreamest madnesse and rage in sinning takes no revenge of us even in the height of that fury but like our carefull Physitian most charitably applyes his mercies which are his medicines to cure our madnesse not any thing reflecting on those wild passions we provoke him with This is a truth to be justified by the testimonies of all right minded Christians who daily find the effects of his clemency and the records of holy writ are full of examples teaching us the verity of it CHAP. IV. The example of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon a coherence to the preceding Chapter WAs there ever any one so great a Monster as Nebuchadnezzar that King of the Babylonians And yet I beleeve the records of all ages cannot produce the man to whom God reveal'd himselfe more apparently both in his power and his mercies Observe his story how at first he honors the Prophet of the Lord even to the adoring him commanding sacrifice to be offer'd to him as God Then see how at last he returnes to his owne old pride which puffs him up to believe that he his self is the God to be only worshipp'd and who exalts not him above God is cast into the fiery Furnace Behold the infinite mercie and love of our Lord who forsakes not this strange beast for such was he rather to be esteemed then a man But still followes and pursues him with his favours in his most irrationall rebellions calls him back with profers of grace and loving invitations to repentance First shewing him his omnipotency by the miracle in the fiery Furnace then by the strange vision which the King saw and Daniel interpreted Wonders able to move a Rock could not mollifie his harder soul To these the Prophet joynes his pathetick counsell Wherefore O King let my counsell be acceptable unto thee and redeem thy sins by righteousnesse and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor if it may be a lengthning of thy tranquillity Dan. 27. What saist thou thou opinator of thy owne wisdome and happinesse Canst thou return yet canst thou repent after this thy strange fall Is thy diseast so desperate thou darest not hope for a recovery Can no wisdome regulate the passions of a mind so troubled The dumb-struck King
lay hold on mercy while we may Let us now acknowledge our Lord humbly faithfully and sincerely as we ought For while there is life there is hope by repentance and the benefits that never faile to accompany it are ready for us it is a physick for the sickest languishing soul nay a most sure remedy but it calls not the dead back again it is a salve cannot be applyed to their wounds who suffer in Hell where there is no cure from whence there is no redemption though in this World the last and weakest of our daies render us not so desperately ill but this Soveraign balme may cure us Wherefore the Devill uses all his power and subtlety to plant desperate apprehensions in our soules seeing the mercies of our Lord are free and open to the least repentance that is hearty and never let 's it passe unrewarded As he expresses his propensity to charity in the Gospell Even hee that gives a cup of cold water to one of these in my name shall not lose his reward saith Christ Mat. 10. 42. the same Christ's promise is that he who repents him of the sins he has committed though his repentance be infinitely beneath the merit of retribution the mercies of our Lord will find him out for the least good in us though never so small the benignity and compassion of so mercifull a Father will not neglect He who searches our sins with that severe curiosity that our very words and thoughts shall be arraign'd at the day of judgement much more carefully search and look upon the least good we do So infinitely his mercy and love to mankind exceeds his revenge He is a God of so great mercy as he will remember his bounty to the least good in us as well as his severity to the least ill Wherefore if thou findest thy strength so to flagge and faile thee when thou attempts an enterprize so difficile to our naturall corruption as is a reall repentance which is the totall change of our inclinations and deprav'd appetites yet do not faint in thy undertakings and weakly fall from trusting in the promises of a God that will never forsake thee but begin by degrees to stoppe the superfluous humors of this disease which so debilitates and infeebles thee then art thou ready for this spirituall combate the victory will soon follow when thou hast once valiantly resisted the fury of the assault But if like a coward thou dreadst the first appearance of the Enemy it is no wonder if every thing seem difficult and hopelesse to thee Before attempts and tryalls the most feasable and facile things that oppose may possibly look full of danger and horror which once resolutely attempted our confidence and our courage of our banisht fear and stupid weaknesse will assure us of those victorious wreaths which are prepar'd to incircle the Temples of all true Christian souldiers The Devill himselfe was fearfull to lose his Conquest even over Judas himself he keeps him down with despair knowing that repentance and contrition might have turn'd the day for that lost wretch For it is truth and it must be confest though it almost exceed belief that sin of Judas went not beyond the possibility of pardon could he but have repented Wherefore I pray and beseech thee to drive away and expell all these deceits of the Devill from thy soul that thou maist enter this Port of salvation I expect not at an instant that perswasions can give thee leave to think thy self so soon lifted up out of the pit of destruction to the possession of a Crown of glory it were too much presently to believe as thy condition hath made thee though to God nothing be impossible Therefore all that I desire of thee is to stop here and adde no more to thy former transgressions that thou wouldst turn thy eyes another way and not let them rest fixt on the dotage of thy beastlinesse to let us see that thou hast gone in those crooked meanders have quite tyred thee and thou beginst to be refresht and recover thy strength in better paths and art thou thy own hindrance Doest thou not know that many have dyed in their drunkennesse their lusts and other sinfull deluâ—sions of this age Where are some now who lately trac'd the streets in pride who fed their parasites with dainties and cloath'd themselves with the finest silkes they that presum'd the walkes they went in what is become of all this pomp and pride is it not vanish'd is it not past over like a dreame Their costly feasts their jollities their compleasing mirths and laughings had their period and are now no more their vanities their uncheckt thoughts and uncontrould liberties their delicious and insatiable luxuries are all fled What are become of those pamper'd bodies so studiously observ'd and fed so lusciously Pray look into the grave Contemplate on their dust and ashes on the wormes devour'd them the deformity of their charnell houses then sigh and bewaile that folly which took so great a care to preserve so litle a nothing And would to God this destruction there terminated where their ashes are consum'd But turn thy eyes from the grave and wormes there devouring them and reflect on that everlasting fire that can never be extinguish'd on that gnashing of teeth that utter darknesse on those streghts and irremediable afflictions declar'd to us in the Parable of Lazarus and the rich man who once was cloathed in purple and the Lord of unvalew'd treasures of riches that had no end and at last became so destitute of all necessaries that he could not purchase one drop of water to cool his tongue when he suffer'd in flames of fire and was condemn'd to the bitterest cruelties of all torments And how miserable a soul then is that which thinkes pleasures and the vain lights of this World to exceed the gain or Prophet of a dream suppose a man were condemn'd to work in Mines of Metalls or doom'd to undergo some harder punishment then fancie this miserable creature sunk under his labour and fallen asleep next in that sleepe imagine him to have a dream possessing him with the delusion of all pleasures and content which when hee awakes are with his sleep fled how little ows this poor soul to this mockery of felicity And truly that rich mans happinesse on Earth was no more then such a kind of dream If we consider how little it lasted and how it concluded in bitternesse and dreadfull punishments in everlasting fires There is no meditation so necessary to one besotted to his appetites as it is to compare one fire with the other the burning of the lusts with the eternall flames which are their decreed punishment and hee is worse then mad that will not quench the one to eschew the other For there is such nicety and dependance one on the other insomuch that hee who puts out the present fires of his concupiscence is certain to avoid the eternity
more terrible destruction All apprehension of ills that may befall us shall for ever dye and it will be with our happy soules as with the heir to a King who in his infancy and minority is kept severely and educated under fear and the lash of a Tutors discipline lest remisnesse in his education might let him fall into unprincely wildnesse and render him by having no government of himself uncapable of governing others and inheriting his Fathers dignities but growing in years and encreasing in vertues becoming the Royall Majesty of a Prince he is then let loose to the guidance of those engraftments becoming his high calling and a full possession of his liberty He is clad in purple and his Temples circled with a Diadem the fears and menaces of the masters of his younger years are no longer his terrors but every thing serves his magnificence and complies with his happinesse and pleasure so at the consummation of blisse shall it be with the Saints of God whom as his beloved children here he keeps under the rod of affliction to fit and prepare them for those immortal honors and crownes they shall inherit in the Kingdome of Heaven No assimilation indeed is sufficient to give us a guesse at those transcending joyes nor can the Arts of eloquence expresse them But let our thoughts ascend to that mount where our Lord was transfigur'd and behold him there shining as he then did with the eyes of devout contemplation and yet there we shall not find one full entire figure of the perfect glories of the world to come that appearance being such as was fitted for the discerning of our naturall opticks As appeare by the words of the Evangelist His face did shine like the Sun Mat. 17. that is like to that body which it selfe is subject to corruption but the glory of incorruptible bodies shall be of a nature farre excelling that which mortall eyes shall not be able to look upon to behold the which we shall have incorruptible and immortall eyes On the mount though there not appear'd not greater light then was probably possible for them to have beheld without detriment to their sight yet that they endur'd not For they fell on their faces Tell me I pray If any one should lead you into a glorious Theatre and present your eyes with the sight of a gallant number of persons cloath'd in Gold and adorn'd with all curiosities of value And amongst them should shew one infinitely exceeding the rest in glory and power who were able to bring thee into the happy number of that society wouldst thou not be obedient to all his commands to purchase such a glorious felicity Let thy soul fly up to Heaven on the wings of holy meditations and view their Theatre whose glory consists in the assembly of far more transcending persons whose ornaments exceed the lustre of Gold and Diamonds whose beauty excells the very light of the rayes of the Sun There is the seat of Angels Archangells Thrones Dominions and Powers and of what farre excells them For of the Kings of Heaven and his glory all tongues must be silent or not presumptuously attempt so unequall a task so much does hee superexcell all expressions so transcendent are his Lustre Glory Splendor Majesty and Magnificence And tell me how great madnesse it is to lose and forfeit so infinite blessings onely for the satisfaction of abusing a little time What if we were to die a thousand times in a day to endure the torments of Hell it selfe for a season Would it be too much for us when the reward would be see Christ comming in his glory and our selves receiv'd into the number of the blessed for ever Observe what blessed Saint Peter saies Mat. 17. 4. It is good for us to be here if hee who saw but in a manner the shadow of the glory to come emptied his soule of all other thoughts to give up the possession to the contentment and joyes of such a sight What shall we say when not the shadow but the reall truth of that happy vision shall possesse our selves When the Chambers of Heaven shall be opened and wee behold the King of Glory himself not obscurely as in a glasse but face to face not barely with the eyes of faith but as he shall bee then manifested in truth unto us Their spirits are base and abject who rejoyce they have escap'd Hell out of the apprehension of the horrors of it It is to be accounted certainly a greater torment then any is in Hell it selfe to lose Heaven and the glory of it So pressing a calamity it must needs be to the damn'd to thinke of the losse of Heaven that certainly it will punish them more then the paines of Hell Our eyes wander with amazement after their happinesse whom we see great in Princes favours and wonder what possibly they can want who pertake of the counsells of the mighty and share with them in their honors to them we allow the fullnesse of all happinesse and adjudge our selves miserable if wee want any thing our emulations can receive to contribute to their happinesse Though perhaps our condition may exceed theirs if we consider the the lubricity and unstablenesse of fortune How slippery they stand who are tottering on the top of pinacles how uncertain their honors be and greatnesse whose duration cannot be secur'd beyond the fate of battell or the ruins of domestick envy Certain it is All the pompe of the Earth will have a period And it is vanity to fix our soules on any imaginary happinesse in this world But what wee look for from God our Lord whose raign shall be for ever whose Kingdome has no bounds Isaiah 40. Who possesseth not a part but the whole compasse of the Earth Who hath measur'd the waters in the hollow of his hand and meteth out Heaven with his span who sustains all things with his power to whom all Nations are nothing and are reputed as a drop of water Hee it is whose powr and mercies can onely make us eternally happy Let the immensity of the joyes then which are the determined portion of the blessed argue our soules into a true apprehension of them and let us more dread the losse of future happinesse then all the terrors of future paines and more abhorre to bee excluded out of the doors and not admitted into the quire of the Angels and the blessed Saints of Heaven then to be doom'd to eternall flames CHAP. IX Of the day of judgement THE terrible and mighty King of Heaven and Earth shall not come to judgement drawn by white mules or appear to the condemn'd in robes of peace crown'd with a diadem of mercy But how he then wil come the tongue of man cannot expresse you can have no surer evident rule for you then out of the Prophets thundring forth the terrors of his approach Psal. 50. ver. 3. Our God shall come and shall not keep silence there shall go before him a
consuming fire and a mighty tempest shall be stirred up round about him He shall call the Heavens from above and the Earth that he may judge his people The Prophet Isaiah dilates thus on this dreadfull appearance Isaiah 13. 9. Behold the day of the Lord commeth cruel both with anger and fierceness to lay the land desolate and to destroy the sinners out of it for the starrs of Heaven Orion and the constellations there shall not give their light The Sun shall be darkned in his going forth and the moon shall not cause her light to shine And I will punish the whole Earth for their evils and the wicked for their iniquitie and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible And those that are left shall be more precious then fine Gold such a man shall be more esteem'd then a precious stone of Ophir for the Heavens shall be shaken and the Earth shall be removed out of her place for the anger of the Lord of Sabbath in the day when his wrath shall come And in another place the same Prophet The windowes of Heaven shall be opened and the foundations of the Earth shall be shaken the Earth shall be utterly broken down the Earth shall be cleane dissolved the Earth shall be moved excedingly it shal reel to and fro like a drunkard it shal be removed like a Cottage and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it and and it shall fall and not rise again Isa. 24. 18. For their iniquities have prevail'd against them To these adde the Prophet Malachi Behold saies he the Lord Almighty cometh but who shall abide the day of his comming and who shall stand when he appeareth for he is like a refiners fire and like fullers sope and he shall sit as a refiner of silver and gold Mal. 3. 2. And again saith he the day of the Lord commeth consuming like a furnace and it shall burn them up Mal. 4. 1. And they who are proud and all that do wickedly shal be as stubble the day commeth saith the Lord Almighty it shall leave them neither root nor branch And to the same purpose does the vision of the Prophet Daniel alarum us with the terrors of that day I beheld saith he till the Thrones were placed and the antient of daies did sit whose garment was white as snow and the hair of his head like the pure wooll his Throne was a flame of fire and his wheeles burning fire A fiery streame issued out before him Thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him The judgement was set and the Bookes were opened Dan. 7. 9. And a little after thus speakes the Prophet ver. 13. I saw a vision in the night and behold one like the Son of man came with the clouds of Heaven and came to the antient of daies and they brought him near before him And there was given him Dominion and glory and a Kingdome that all People Nations and languages should serve him his Dominion is an everlasting Dominion which cannot passe away and his Kingdome a Kingdome which cannot be destroyed ver. 15. I Daniel was grieved in my spirit and the visions of my head troubled me Let us consider these menaces of holy writ and instruct our soules how in that day the glory of Heaven shall be revealed the clouds shal separate the whole firmament open parting like a curtaine before a screen and discovering to us the Majestick prospect within which will fill all things created with fear amazement and horror Then shall the Angells themselves be full of fear with the Archangells Thrones and â—owers of Heaven not for themselves but because their fellowservants are brought to judgement and to give their strict accompt of their past life in this world For if they under whose tutelage we are grieve at the judgement pronounced against one sole City under their charge what will be the generall affrights and horrors when the Son comes against the whole world for though themselves they know exempt from the danger they will have a sence of them brought before a Judge whose alseeing eye needs no proof of witnesse or accusation Who will force the guilty to accuse themselves and lay their own offences open when every delinquent to Heavens justice shall produce his owne deeds his words and thoughts to condemn himself Will not this mighty and just severity of our Lord astonish the very powers of Heaven themselves If it had not in it the horror of an inundation of a river of fire and those terrible affrighting Angells ministers of his justice which assist the fury and rage of his revenge How would it move men to see the workmanship of the same creation call'd some to be highly preferr'd and honour'd Nay had in great admiration while others are blinded with disgrace lest they should see the glory of God Can you imagine a more tormenting Hel then this When the thought of that Heaven we have lâ—st will more sensibly cruciate our soules from the torments of that Hell wee suffer in The infinite losse our wilfully erring and self-abusing soules bring to themselves in the forfeiting those excellent great blessings ordain'd them are impossible to be apprehended by thought or in words comprehended Sad will be the experience of it to the impenitent Wherefore I beseech thee set before thy eyes the different ends of piety and impiety Behold the impious overwhelm'd with horrors and unspeakable punishments and even then when the truly pious children of God shall be cloath'd with immortality and eternall glories When the damn'd shall be deliver'd to cruell tormenting furies the blessed shall be adorn'd with crownes accompanied with Angells singing and rejoycing before the Kings Throne thus shal it be with them who on Earth have done good and justice and are found worthy of eternall life CHAP. X. The joyes of Heaven prosecuted give occasion to discourse of the felicities and blessings God has promis'd our soules the excellencies Wherewith they are enricht with and the vile contempt wee have of them preferring our bodies their slaves before them THE joyes of Heaven are beyond our dull perceptions while wee are loaden with earth in vain it were to undertake labour of their description Ineffable are those pleasures and delights the great profits unvaluable which will then bee ours in eternall possession when we are received into the number of the Saints glorified for ever When the immortall soule shall be invested with her own glory and eas'd of all her yoakes in happy freedome enjoy the pleasure to behold her Lord It cannot it cannot I say be exprest how great the extasies of her joyes must bee when she shall not onely be ravish't with contentments of her glorious condition for the present but rest likewise secur'd of their eternity that without lessning or decay but rather with encrease they shall endure for ever Nor is this
for them a better City or a more glorious Temple then the old Haggai 2. 9. The glory of this latter house shall be greater then the former saith the Lord of hosts in this wil I give peace saith the Lord of Hosts See thus often defil'd with her abhominations the Lord will not exclude this City from repentance nor shut the doors of his â—lemency against her No he will not nor will he forsake thee for ever though thy desperate condition by the suggestions of the Divell would perswade thee to it but with infinite desire and affection receive thee into mercy if thou returnest to him and he will lovingly embrace thy soule again though thus sunk in the deeps of wickednesse For no man no man I say though passionate even to madness can so truly affect the greatest beauty of the world as our Lord does the soul of man And if we look narrowly into the daily expressions of his love to every particular soul this truth will shew it self as clear to us as the light of the day And the Scriptures abound in testimonialls of this his infinite love to us Observe in Jeremiah and throughout the Prophets how the Lord has been wearied nay contemn'd and despised by his yet has restor'd the desertors and plac'd them again in his high favours this witnesse he bears of himself in the Gospell when he saies Mat. 23. 37. O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and you would not And Saint Paul 2 Cor. 5. 19. God saith he was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation Now when we are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us wee pray you in Christs stead be reconciled to God O let us lay these invitations to our hearts and the minute wee read them believe the holy Ghost calling us Nor let us think it enough that wee believe aright for alas infidelity is not the onely bane of the soul to believe well availes us nothing if we live ill if wee purifie not our soules from uncleannesse and bid a farwell to that lewdnesse of life which so incenses the mighty anger of the Lord against us Because that the fleshly mind is enmity against God for it is not obedient to the Law of God neither can be Rom. 8. 7. The concupiscence of the flesh stands like a separating wall betwixt our soules and mercy which wee must utterly raze and destroy or never hope to have a free passage to that happy reconciliation which will crown our soules with triumph and honor and make them lovely and acceptable to God himself Thou art now bewitcht with thy Hermion's face and thinkst nothing in the world comparable to such an excesse of beauty believ'st the Earth bears nothing like it thy selfe if thou pleasest maist be far more lovely then she nay excell her more then starres of Gold and inestimable workmanship doe images of clay and dirt If men are naturally amaz'd and ravisht with the sight of some extraordinary beauties how will they be extrasied with the splendour of a soule in glory For indeed the substance of the greatest beauties though in a greater excellence of composure is the same with the meanest and most contemptible things of nature And are nourisht by the same meanes and subject to the same decay if not preserv'd by most common contemptible and inferiour supplies What is the inside of her killing glittering eyes What lies under that sweet and lovely outside of thy Hermion's surpassing graces or her purpled cheeks If thou art once redeemed from thy dotage thou wilt confesse the greatest beauty but a Sepulcher fairly whited and painted over every thing within it being decreed to the certainty of ruine and dissolution for there is nothing soe lovely that turnes not into loathsome putrifaction But what was that former grace and beauty whilst thou wert in thy integrity in which thou didst so infinitely excell that was of another composition above al the glorious things of this world as much as the Heavens exceed the Earth in splendour nay far more glorious then the Heavens themselves for though the soul be undiscernable and wee are altogether strangers to her excellencies wee may behold her in the elevated expressions of those whose pious zeales have left their attempted descriptions to inflame us with the favour they had to possesse their thoughts with so amiable desires as the contemplation of future glory which they have severall waies aim'd to know especially by soaring high as they were able into the natures of Angelical and heavenly substances CHAP. XI Saint Chrysostome continues 〈◊〉 the glorious nature of the soul and from that excellence prosecutes his perswasives to Theodorus still striving to overcome the rebellions of his lusts with exhortation and pressing arguments HEar him whose desires would have showne the excellent substance of an happy soul but finding it unequall to all comparison he betakes himselfe first to illustrate it by an assimulation to the nature of metals whose gross being was too heavy in the purest of their extractions to give him a sufficient hint and light of it thence he rayses his contemplations and attempts his comparison with the brightness of lightning and next of Angelicall bodies whose glorified essence he finds of a nature so abstracted from our knowledge that he cannot expresse the curiosity and subtilety of their essences so transplendent are they And such shall the blessed be in their glory Mat. 22. They shall be as the Angells in Heaven saies our Saviour to the Sadduces In fine all examples deriv'd from materiall things can never expresse the beauty of a soule Heaven excells all the glories of the Earth fire surpasses water the starres in lustre excell the most pretious stones wee may admire the rainbow in Heaven the violets and lillies withall the pride and variety of the fields which are all nothing in a manner if compar'd with the glories of the soule and those ineffable honors she shall be clothed withall in the day of her blisse Let us not forfeit so much happinesse which a lively faith and constant hope can secure us Nay for this wee must wade through all the inconveniencies of this miserable world 2 Cor. 4. 17. For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternall weight of glory And as blessed Saint Paul teacheth us It is really easie to beare the greatest afflictions looking to the reward of our sufferings So is it equally easie to overcome the petulant passions of our lusts and the same reward is appointed for both the conquests For when I would draw thee from thy dissolute courses I invite thee not to dangers nor the horrors of eminent death nor to perpetuall plagues