it not to me and in denying of them ye deny'd me and their cause I will espouse and therefore go ye carsed into everlasting fire But Thirdly From the death of Lazarus we learn to be content with our Condition tho' never so mean and to keep our selves in the Exercise of Religion tho' we are deprived of this Worlds goods Lazarus tho' he was Hungry and Thirsty his Soul fainted in him tho' he was Naked and full of Sores yet he murmured not but committed himself to God to whom his Soul was carried by the Angels as soon as separated from his Body It is excellent to be Poor and Virtuous for it argues the strongest Faith the best Hope and the best Affections because there are not those outward encouragements to Goodness in Adversity as Prosperity Poverty is look'd upon as a kind of Judgment as if God hates the Person and therefore makes him an Object of Scorn and Infamy so that he is apt to be discouraged and can do nothing else but bewail and lament his unhappy circumstances sit drooping and pausing on his low condition But however the Scripture has well inform'd us that God Almighty means no ill towards his Creatures and that when he changes things and removes Prosperity from the Door it is only to try them how they will manage themselves upon an alteration what kind of nature they will appear to have whether they will make application to him and carry themselves in all Duty and Allegiance towards him And since such is God's Wise design it is but very reasonable that we should be as Good and Vertuous when poor as well as when rich especially considering that we deserve nothing at the Hands of God nothing but Fury and everlasting Damnation Besides the advantage of Piety Is a Man poor and low in the World it doth improve and sweeten even that State It keepeth his Spirits up above dejection desperation and disconsolateness it frees him from all grievous solicitude vnd anxiety shewing him that altho' he seemeth to have little yet he may be assured to want nothing he having a certain Succour and never-failing supply from God's good Providence that notwithstanding the present straightness of his condition or scantiness of outward things he has a title to goods infinitely more precious and more considerable To conclude Let it be our main imploy to improve our Judgments and Understandings in things Spiritual that we may have right notions of God such as become the perfections of his Nature and the excellency of his Goodness that in whatsoever state and condition we are we may glorifie his Name And thus when we have conquer'd our selves and brought our Minds to a settlement in the ways of Holiness we shall resign our Concernments with more freedom to God's wise disposal and be submissive to his Laws whatever our condition be May God assist us by the influences of his Grace and blessed Spirit so to order and govern our Natures that we may love him freely believe in him stedfastly and serve him faithfully to our lives end And this for Jesus Christs sake to whom with the Father and ever blessed Spirit be given all Honour Praise Thanksgiving and Obedience now henceforth and for ever more Amen SERMON IV. Luke XVI part of the 22 Verse And was carried by the Angels into Abrahams bosom HAving in my last Discourse treated of the Death of Lazarus and particularly considered what were the immediate causes of his death the manner and circumstance of his dying and how his dead body was probably disposed of My Text now leads me to consider the state and condition of his Soul after separation from the Body It was carried by the Angels into Abrahams bosom Many differ in their sentiments about this Expression and have conceived Witty and Learned Notions of it but yet seem to agree in this that by Abrahams bosom is meant Heaven and the Reason of this phrase is Abraham is stiled The Father of the Faithful and while he lived a very Hospitable person to him was the Soul of Lazarus convey'd as a Sanctuary of Rest and Peace the just reward of his patience during his great want and heavy conflicts Some urge it as a Metaphor from Parents who imbosom and hug their Children when tired by running to and fro or have met with some hurtful mischance and come weeping and lamenting themselves A very adapt Parallel The Soul of poor Lazarus was grieved and wearied with Fastings and Miseries perplexed and overwhelm'd with sorrows for the cruel treatment he met with in the world it was therefore conducted by the Heavenly Courtiers into Abraham's bosom to be succour'd and made amends for past indignities He was carried by the Angels As if they contended who should usher it into Paradise Now Lazarus thou recountest with triumph the difficulties thou hast rubb'd through the afflictions thou hast endured the shame pain and ignominy thou hast undergone for Christs sake Now thou art made acquainted with the Arcana Imperii the secrets of the other happy World and rejoycest with joy unspeakable and full of glory Nothing shall interrupt thy peace nor call thee off from thy enjoyments but there thou shalt swim in rapturous pleasures for evermore This may serve to prevent those who are in sorrow trouble or any other adversity from reflecting upon the Divine Justice as if he unequally distributed his Mercies In this life it matters not whether his Servants be accommodated with sublunary affluences or no since he has prepared a wide and capacious Heaven to receive and replenish them wherein are all the instances of Joy all the ingredients of felicity and nothing else to the contrary all that can caress our powers all that can ravish our hearts all that is good lovely desirable is there to be compendiously enjoyed But to traverse the Text The Soul of Lazarus was carried by the Angels into Abrahams bosom or Heaven Which words afford us this matter First That the Angels are imploy'd to convey the Souls of true Believers into a fixed state of blessedness And to prove this granting that there are such Beings as Angels because the Scriptures often speak of them I shall First of all Undertake to shew their Offices as relating to God's faithful Children in this life Secondly The great love and kindness they have for mankind First then I am to distinguish their Offices as relating to God's faithful Children in this life They are called in Heb. 1. ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation The word Angel signifies an Ambassador which is sent upon another's Errand and in Scripture sense it is restrainedly taken for a select divine sort of Emissaries Spiritual Beings created commissioned and employed by and under God Now first it is part of the Angels Employment upon any urgency to reveal God's mind and will and to bring Embassies from him to us for our instruction and
either of eternal happiness or misery But such was the stupid folly of Dives that to dye was the least of his care and the least in his mind His chief study was what he should eat drink and put on what sort of pleasures would best suit with and accommodate his senses In sine his happiness was fixed in these perishing enjoyments and so fondly imagined his condition immutable But behold a woful change of things In the midst of his carnal security death steps in an unwelcome Guest a frightful Spectrum and irresistably hauls him from all his darling repasts and crouds him into the Region of damned Spirits Now he that was cloathed with Purple and fine Linnen is inveloped in devouring and unquenchable flames he that fared sumptuously and deliciously every day is confined to a loathsom dungeon and doomed to suster those intolerable preparations And to enhance his Misery Lazarus whom he uncharitably denyed the crumbs which fell from his Table and without any reluctancy permitted to faint languish and dye at his Gates is at a distance presented to his view lying in Abrahams bosom crowned with glory and encircled with the rades of eternal bliss To Abraham he addresses himself Pity my hard fate consider my woful condition see how the flames scorch and torment me see how my tongue is parched with heat I am so miserably afflicted that I cannot express my self I pray thee therefore to send Lazarus with a drop of water to abate the anguish and allay the throbbing of my enflamed tongue So great and vehement are the plagues of Hell that the damned Spirits there cry continually for help and succour but are not pitiable Objects having withstood the frequent tenders of grace and mercy Now from the words of the Text we learn First That as the Souls of true Believers when they go out of their Bodies launce into a fixed state of happiness so the Souls of wicked men immediately upon separation go into a fixed state of misery We no sooner read of the Rich Man being dead and buried but it follows And in Hell he lifted up his eyes being in torment Secondly That it will be a great part of the misery of the damned to understand those to be in Heaven whom they in this life scorned reproached and abused and it may be were instruments of hastening them to those blessed Mansions It was doubtless an aggravation of the rich Mans torments to see Lazarus in Abrahams bosom that Lazarus whom be did brow-beat and suffered to perish with hunger at his own Gates Thirdly That there will come a time when the most proud and ambitious sinners would gladly be relieved by the meanest Saints Father Abraham says the rich Man send Lazarus the very same who begg'd at my Gates for the crumbs which fell from my Table Fourthly That the state of the damned will be void of the least degrees of comfort The rich Man desired but the cooling of his tongue with as much water as could be brought upon the tip of Lazarus's finger Lastly That the Tongue is a Member the abuse of which in another life will lye very heavy upon lost Souls The chief member which the rich man complained was most afflicted was his Tongue send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and could my tongue Intolerable are those preparations in the other miserable world But concerning the former of these First That the Souls of wicked men as-soon as they go out of their bodies pass into a fixed state of misery Which we learn from the former part of the Text The rich man also dyed and was buried and in Hell he lift up his eyes being in torments That is his Soul was hurried by evil Spirits into a state of misery His Body we read dyed and was honourably and splendidly buried in the Earth and there must rest till the great Creator bids it rise in the last day and then shall be re-united to its particular Spirit and both share alike in those unconceivable torments which God has prepared for ungodly men It is therefore an idle fancy of some who conceit that the Soul sleepeth together with the Body and remaineth unactive and insensible as the body The Soul being a Spirit cannot be subject to death and though its agility is much restrained while confined in the body yet as soon as it is delivered it swiftly returns to its own place carried either by good Angels into a state of happiness or by evil Spirits into a place of torments And such is the opinion of the wise man Eccles 12.7 The dust that is the body so termed from the matter of which it is compounded returneth to the Earth again as it was and the Soul to him that gave it to be sentenced either to dwell with God or damned Spirits for ever And though the happiness and misery of departed Souls is not compleat at the highest perfection till that day wherein Christ will come in the glory of his Father with the Holy Angels to judge all the world yet this no way favours the Romish Doctrine which insinuateth a Purgatory a place where departed Spirits are purged by fire and by the fervency of prayer may be redeemed from thence a most pernicious principle As the tree falls so it lyes After this life which is the time of Tryal and Probation a fixed state either of bliss or torment commences And a good Soul cannot then be deprived of happiness tho' not yet in the highest degree but with exceeding joy and a kind of holy impatience it waiteth for the Day of Judgment then to enter on the possession of those good things which God hath prepared for them who continue stedfast unmoveable always abounding in his work Nor on the other hand can a wicked Soul be ransomed from Hell tho' it be not yet in the midst of most exquisite torments but with dread and fear sadly looks for the great and terrible day wherein it must change its unhappy condition for a much worse Those Angels which kept not their first estate are reserved in chains under darkness unto the Judgment of the great Day that is they are not yet afflicted with those punishments which they shall feel and endure when Christ comes to separate the Sheep from the Goats They are therefore said to tremble at the thoughts of a Judgment when Sentence shall pass upon them to be confined in those unhappy Residencies of Misery and to undergo the utmost fury of an Omnipotent God And tho' it is expressed that the Rich man being dead and buried in Hell he lift up his Eyes being in torments we are not to understand him in that place of Misery which wicked men shall be doomed to in the General Judgment but in a state of despair of Mercy without any intermission of hope weeping and wailing for the loss of Heaven which Lazarus whom he reproached reviled and suffered to perish has a sure hope of A state of dread
learn to humble our selves with the consideration of our own deserts Observe we our petulant Follies obstinate Perverseness and treacherous Infidelities Nay our daily wilful Miscarriages the many Affronts we offer to the Majesty of Heaven our unmindfulness of his good Providences our unthankfulness for his Benefits our neglect of holy Duties our backwardness in praying to and acknowledging our dependance upon him Were we but pregnant with such considerations as these we should not be so much puffed up nor value our selves upon Riches remembring they are the Emanations of Divine Goodness not the just Retributions of our Merits Should the quantum meruit be the Question how much the best of us deserve it may be answered Nothing but Hell and an eternal Separation from God and the sorest Punishments he can inflict a morsel of Bread a draught of Water even the least Blessing we enjoy is far beyond our Demerits Let not therefore Riches elate and swell but humble us like loaded Trees bend the lower In fine let the Christian Religion have its perfect influence upon us that the same Mind that was in Christ be also in us following his Humility his Meekness his Contempt of this World and Worldly things his Heavenly mindedness and all other his imitable Vertues that at length we may live with him be like him partake of his Glory and never be separated from him more Amen SERMON III. Luke XIV Ver. 22. And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the Angels into Abraham's bosom THE former Part of this Parable has entertain'd us with the miserable and afflicted Life of Lazarus depainting it in all the Instances of Pity he was cloathed with Rags tormented with painful Sores and rack'd and griped with Hunger Such a comfortless Condition enough to make one weary of Life and wish for a sudden Exit and the more when Succour is deny'd From this poor wretch all outward comforts were with-held not so much as the crumbs allowed him which fell from the Rich Man's Table It encourages and bears a Man up under languishing circumstances when he is caress'd with pity and gets some relief tho' but the fragments of a Meal But such was the unfortunate Fate of poor Lazarus that notwithstanding his importunate cries ghastly looks shatter'd cloaths and ulcerated flesh none gave unto nor condol'd with him hungry and thirsty his Soul fainted in him no Friends nor wherewithal to support him in this his distressed condition But tho' he was thus inhumanely dealt with we read not that he reflected upon Providence or charg'd God foolishly but humbly submitted himself to him who disposeth all things patiently waiting for a happy change either a sufficient competency while he lived or a translation out of this World into a better My Text therefore presents us with a sudden but happy alteration of Lazarus's condition It came to pass that the Beggar died An end of all his wants sorrows and conflicts God has ever a gracious regard to the lamentable groans and afflicted state of his poor Servants and tho' he sometimes seem long ere he answers their request and expectation yet in a time besitting his most excellent Wisdom he graciously crowns them with their hearts desire Lazarus not only died but was carried by Angels into Abrahams bosom His Soul not his Body probably that was exposed to ravenous Beasts or Fowls or else to innumerable Vermine in the Grave if any were so charitably dispos'd to bury it tho' reason enough there is to believe the contrary For while he lived he could not get sustenance his hunger nakedness and sores no body regarded much less his dead Body to give it a decent Interment But no matter his Soul was return'd to him that gave it and his Body too tho' never so much mangled and dispers'd into never so many Atoms shall be compacted together made vivid and formable at the command of the great Creator Now the Text contains two Parts The First is A Description of the Death of Lazarus And it came to pass that the Beggar died The Second Gives an account of the condition and state of his Soul And was carried by Angels into Abrahams bosom From whence these two great Points are proved First That the Soul is capable of an Existence separated from the Body Let that fond conjecture then of those be condemn'd who imagine that the Soul together with the Body declineth in the Earth Secondly That the Souls of the Faithful when they depart from their Bodies immediately pass into a fixed state of Blessedness But that which I shall at this time treat on will be the Death of Lazarus and in descanting upon this I shall First of all Consider what were the immediate Causes of his Death Secondly What kind of treatment he met with while languishing And then Lastly What became of his Body after Death First then I am to consider what were the immediate Causes of Lazarus ' s Death And here if we reflect upon his circumstances while living we may soon conjecture For First He wanted the Staff of Life namely Bread He desired to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the Rich Man's Table but was uncharitably refus'd them Hunger is a sharp Thorn it dries up the Blood it decays those rarer Ornaments of Nature Beauty and a sanguine Complexion it preys upon the Spirits and makes them faint and droop In a word Hunger destroys the Marrow weakens the Bones and puts the whole frame of Nature into a grand disorder And here the griping pains the gnawings this poor wretch endur'd the lamentable sighs and groans he fetch'd the doleful complaints he made what a gbastly countenance be had reduc'd to such a degree of weakness that he could not stand for he lay at the Rich Man's Gates Such a condition as this doubtless makes Life burthensom and Death more eligible We observe by constant Experience that some who are of cholerick and furious Dispositions vent themselves in wishes for a speedy Exit when some less dangerous accidents befal them how much more therefore intolerable is it to live and if I may so say stand and see ones self die as properly speaking they do who suffer Hunger and have not intermissions of a reasonable satiety This was the ill fortune of poor Lazarus he was reduced to that extremity that he would have been glad of the crumbs the portiuncula the least and worst fragments which dropp'd under the Rich Man's Table It is to be presum'd that there are scarce any or at least very few who are in such extremity but doubtless this was one cause which hasten'd Lazarus's Death namely Hunger For since nourishment upholdeth Nature reviving the Blood recruiting the Spirits feeding the Bones and Marrow whereby Life is prolonged the want of this must soon decay and overthrow the whole frame of Nature Poor Lazarus So hungry and no body to feed thee Not one Morsel from a plentiful Table If the Master
the Authors of but yet poor Mens Souls are as precious in the sight of God as rich Mens The World distinguishes Men by their Rank and Quality but God by their Goodness and how mean soever his Servants may be in this Life yet they shall be hereafter Kings and Priests and reign with God for ever It matters not then O Christian tho' thou art poor and despicable thou art not to live here always the time is coming when all things will be set to rights when thou shalt have amends made thee for thy scanty Portion and those Indignities offer'd thee for thy Poverty then every Man shall be rewarded according to his Works A Nebuchadnezzar a Nimrod a Belteshazzar a lofty Felix and an ambitious Herod and other Grandees of the World shall be no more respected than thou For God is no respecter of persons It is no matter whether thy Body be honourably buried or no if thy Soul be but vertuous and found in the ways of holiness then both shall be gloriously re-united and live together in Paradise for ever Poor Lazarus lived miserably died so and his Body probably thrown into some Pit or other but yet his Soul was carried by the Angels into Abrahams bosom And thus much for the death of Lazarus I now proceed to make some special Use of what has been said and then conclude And here First From hence we may learn that it is very often the lot of God's dear Children to suffer Affliction in this Life Not that he delights in the Miseries of his People but because he would fit them for himself draw their Affections from things here below let them see the vanity and emptiness of all Worldly satisfactions and put their confidence in him as a sure Refuge in time of trouble Such are the wise and holy ends of God towards his faithful Servants Job a just Man and one that feared God and eschewed evil was wofully punished his Children suddenly slain his Plenty turned into Scarcity his Body afflicted with Swellings and Carbuncles his Friends became his Enemies his Wife in the midst of sufferings tempting him who would but conclude that this was a Judgment upon him for some great sin or other And yet is it left upon Record that this change of things was only to try him who yet retaining his Integrity was blest with much more than ever he had S. James 1.2 says Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations As if he had express'd himself thus Be not disheartned and cast down if Calamities besiege you provided they be not of your own seeking but by God's Providence for he has no other end upon you but to make you yet better and to fit you more exactly for his heavenly Kingdom And St. Paul 12. Heb. 6. makes affliction a special mark of God's love Whom he loves he rebukes and chastens every Son whom he receives Then Christian bear up under thy sufferings Hast thou but a scanty Portion hardly enough to keep thee alive Be content Heaven will be thine and tho' it may seem long ere thou be in possession of it yet it will infinitely make thee amends when thou comest there Art thou friendless Dost thou suffer Reproach Calumnies Do Men despise thee Does the World deny thee Peace Hast thou none that will take thy part Sink not under this calamity for God is thy Friend he hears thy Sighs and Groans records thy Prayers and bottles up thy Tears and will abundantly recompence thee when thou comest into his Kingdom Put thy trust in him keep covenant with Christ and get an interest in him and fear not what Man can do unto thee It was this which encouraged the Martyrs under their Sufferings and made them even rejoice in the midst of their bitter conflicts they made their Calling and Election sure all was well between God and their Spirits and therefore fainted not at the thought of being sent to him tho' by the most violent and cruel death It is recorded of Ignatius that when he was condemned by that imperious Tyrant Trajan to be torn apieces by wild Beasts he replied I am not afraid to go out of the World this way nor at the suddenness of my departure for I care not how soon nor by what means I hasten to my dear Redeemer whom I love more than Life for that I can freely part with all for his sake who did so much for me he did groan and sigh sweat bleed and die for me and therefore I can never forget him Secondly From the death of Lazarus we learn to be pitiful and compassionate towards those that are Poor Lazarus died with hunger Had his Necessities been supplied he might have lived longer but wanting Nourishment he died What a sad Consideration is it to send the hungry and thirsty away empty when Men have to spare This argues an ungrateful Mind towards God and an insensibility of our own Demerits If God Almighty should deal with us proportionably to our deserts Hell would become our Lot but he deals not with us after our Sins nor rewards us according to our Iniquities he overlooks our manifold Weaknesses passes by our many wilful Miscarriages forgives the Affronts we offer to his Divine Majesty and crowns us with his Goodness his providential Hand is always heaping Blessings upon us his Mercy triumphs over Judgment Now the meer Consideration of this methinks is enough to make Men of flexible condescending Humours of compassionate charitable Dispositions and oblige them to be as forward to give as the Poor is to ask them that is according to their Abilities What a lamentable thing is it when a poor Man almost famished his Face wan his Countenance ghastly his Spirits fainting and his Tongue cleaving to the roof of his Mouth and begs for God's sake for Christ Jesus sake to satisfie his craving Stomach and thirsly Soul or else he must perish to send him away empty as he came Suppose this pining Wretch should drop and die at thy Door upon a denial tho' this be not Murder in the sense of ours yet it is in the judgment of God's Laws and his Blood thou must answer for and O woful Account in the Day of Inquisition Christ who is the ordained Judge has threatned to revenge the Indignities of his poor Servants in Matth. 25. Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels for I was an hungred and ye gave me no meat I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink I was naked and ye cloathed me not I was a stranger and ye took me not in I was sick and in prison and ye visited me not Then will the uncharitable answer and say Lord when saw we thee an hungred or a thirst or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister unto thee Then shall he answer them In as much as ye did it not unto one of the least of these my poer servants ye did
Ancients who studiously contemplating this Subject and reflecting upon his own unworthiness thus uttered himself When I remember these things O Lord I confess before thee and praise thee for thy great benefits wherewith thou hast honoured us Thou hast given us all things under Heaven and yet countedst that but a small provision unless thou hadst also given us the things above even those Angels of thine as Ministring Spirits unto us What is man that thou thus respectest him Secondly The consideration that the Angels are about us should fill us with a reverential awe and dread and oblige us to be circumspect and innocent in our transactions When Jacob saw a Ladder reaching from Earth to Heaven and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon it he said How dreadful is this place his spirit was struck with fear And certainly if we confidered that these Heavenly Courtiers were attending us curiously observing our actions and taking cognizance of our behaviour we should be much more cautious and wary in our prosecutions especially in our demeanour while in God's House The Angels are our Guardians directing and guiding us to good it should therefore be our care to manage our spiritual concernment with such Christian prudence that they may continue our Keepers while we live here and receive our Souls at our deaths and convey them into Abraham 's bosom It is the highest ingratitude to slight their directions besides a woful disadvantage For being not under their protection the Evil Spirits have the opportunity of exercising their Wiles and Arts upon us of filling us full of all iniquity and bringing us to destruction both of Body and Soul The Devil is called the Prince of the Air and why he doth us no more mischief because the Angels of God encamp round about us to keep and preserve us from his power If then we foolishly throw our selves from under their care and protection by adhering to the lusts of the flesh this Prince of the Air with his Diabolical Crew having no obstruction enters into us and our latter end becomes worse than the beginning Thirdly The consideration that the Angels are our Guardians should encourage us to persevere in our duty and not be discouraged at difficulties remembring that we have more for than against us Being compassed with so great a cloud of witnesses and mighty helpers we are to lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us and to run with patience the race that is set before us And having so great encouragement and consolation we are not at any time to be weary of well doing or frightened from it but to be sledfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord as it becomes Persons of such hopes for hereafter the Heirs of Salvation and such security in the interim attended with the Holy Angels Lastly The consideration that these Heavenly Courtiers are our Attendants and Guardians should engage us to honour and esteem the meanest of Gods Servants not to despise reproach and load them with oppressing calumnies How darest thou to contemn and slight one of Gods poor Servants when they have Celestial Spirits attending them They are the Sons and Daughters of the great King of Heaven and Earth and born to a fair Inheritance a transcendantly Rich and Glorious Kingdom And in the mean while however thou mayst look upon them as destitute and forsaken they have an invisible Guard about them upon occasion to Minister for their supply defence and vindication Such honour have all his Saints The Angels smote the Men of Sodom with blindness because they disturbed and provoked Lot And though now a-days God does not so ordinarily resent the indignities of his poor Servants by open Judgments yet he will be sure to right them in the other world by condemning their Enemies Our Saviour has represented the danger of contempt and uncharitableness towards the poor in the case of the Rich Man In Hell he lifted up his eyes sees Lazarus afar off whom he suffered to perish at his Gates Of whose succour he would have been glad Send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my Tongue for I am tormented in this flame Besides in despising the poor we despise also Christ himself who became poor that we might be made rich And what punishment shall they be thought worthy of who trample under foot the Son of God Let us therefore since we all are partakers of one hope of being Heirs of Salvation High and Low Rich and Poor learn to respect and honour the meanest among us especially remembring that God has given them a mighty priviledge of being attended and guarded by his Angels But to conclude Since these heavenly Guardians are holy unspotted and undefiled Beings and delight continually to sing Praise Honour and Glory unto the Lamb that sits upon the Throne let us endeavour to emulabe them as much as is possible in this our frail state let us love and seek after those things which belong to our everlasting peace Let us exercise our selves in Religion chearfully and frequently If thou delight in the word of God and prayer says devout Gerard thou shalt be gratified with the Holy Angels patronage While I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel saith the Prophet Daniel and presenting my suplication before the Lord my God for the Holy Mountain of my God Yea while I was speaking in prayer the Man Gabriel whom I had seen in the Vision at the beginning being caused to fly swiftly touched me about the time of the evening-oblation Dan. 9.20 21. This exercise the Holy Angels delight in May God grant that we may be governed and guided by those Celestial Spirits whom he has commissioned and charged to encamp about us that they may succour and defend us while in this life and when we dye receive and carry our Souls into Abrahams bosom And this we beg for Jesus Christs sake Amen SERMON V. Luke XVI 22 23 24. Ver. 22. The rich man also dyed and was buried Ver. 23. And in hell he lift up his eyes being in torments and seeth Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom Ver. 24. And he cried and said Father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame DEath is the Lot of us all He invadeth the rich Man's Palace as well as the poor Man's Cottage he storms the Princes Court as well as the Peasants meaner Habitation High and Low all must submit when this grim Serjeant makes a demand Neither Wealth nor Honour neither beauty nor wisdom nor any secular regard can plead against death or priviledge a Man from the Grave Which consideration should insinuate with Men to be less in love with this world and more thoughtful of that time when they must go into a fixed state
and fear being too well convinced that he must take up his Eternal Abode with Devils and damned Fiends A state of Torment too his Conscience sadly bringing to his remembrance that he played away the Day of Grace and wilfully rejected the Methods of Eternal Happiness That he was too much taken up with the Pomp and Pride of life spending all his time in catering for his Body cloathing it with Purple and fine Linnen and gorging it with delicious fare but had no regard to his Soul which must live for ever This is Torment inexpressible to reflect on those things which cannot possibly be retrieved to repent and wish he had not been so foolish without the least hope of pardon to sigh and sob groan and howl without pity We may in some measure conceive the uneasiness of this kind of Torment in some who are so unfortunate to be in such an ill frame of spirit as to imbibe unworthy thoughts of God that he is an inxorable Being that he delighteth in the Miseries of his People and will not be intreated for pardon after such an advancement in sin no though they seek it with flouds of tears with many prayers and penitential groans What an Hell is there within the Breasts of these dejected Souls What an abundance of melancholy and frightful thoughts invade their minds how do they wander hither and thither like despairing Ghosts as if Sentence was already past upon them Humane Conversation or other sublunary delights and pleasures become dull and flatulent Now if in this life such an unhappy frame of spirit occasioned either by strength of fancy or too much tenderness of spirit does disorder and confuse the mind and make men their own Tormentors tho' there is yet hopes of forgiveness from God how infinitely more vexatious and afflicting must it needs be in the other World to reflect that the time of Mercy is past and that God will certainly pass Sentence of Eternal Death upon the Soul having no Advocate to plead nor any Vertues to render it an Object of Mercy And here by way of Digression we will suppose the Cryes the woful Complaints of the Rich man's Soul in the other World he is unexpectedly snatched away from all his Pomp and Greatness and surpriz'd into the wide World of Despairing Ghosts Whither am I hurried Oh the doleful sighs and unutterable groans I hear Mercy Mercy but there is none Cursed be my folly in living without a thought of this unhappy Region Cursed be my heart for loving so much the World and worldly things cursed be my avaricious humour in retaining of pelf as if I was never to die cursed be my hands that would not liberally dispence to poor Lazarus O that I was but to live my time over again I would alter my very Nature and make amends for all the wrongs I have done Father Abraham be moved by my recantation pity me who am thus tormented Let Lazarus whom it repenteth me that I did not consider and relieve when it was in my power come with some cooling drops and allay my anguish O that I had never been born that I had given a groan and dyed in my Mothers Womb May that day be darkness wherein it was said I was brought forth Cursed be my Father that begat me cursed be my Mother that bare me cursed be the Place wherein I was Educated cursed be the Purple and fine Linnen that cloathed me the delicious Meats which nouvished me and the Estate that made me live secure and thoughtless till I was surprized into this place of weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth But thus much for the first thing namely that the Souls of wicked Men as soon as they go out of their Bodies pass into a fixed state of misery tho' not the extremity of it till the day of Judgment yet it is irreversible for there is no returning into this life again I pass on to the second general thing namely Secondly That it will be a great part of the misery of the Damned to understand those to be in Heaven whom they in this life scorned reproached and abused and it may be were Instruments of hastening them to those blessed Mansions It was doubtless an aggravation of the Rich Man's torments to see Lazarus in Abraham's bosom that Lazarus whom he formerly Brow-beat and suffered to perish with Hunger at his Gates This Vision could not but enhance his rage he that was but a Beggar the very abject of Mankind he that bowed and cringed for a little sustenance and was the most despicable Object in Nature he that would have been glad of the crumbs which fell from my Table Is he thus advanced into Glory And I who once was of great repute and had all things that were great good and desirable thus sunk into the depth of Disgrace and inveloped in a sad and woful Eternity O wretched change of things Doubtless it will be brought to the memory of the Damned how cruelly despitefully and disdainfully they have treated the Servants of God in this Life and fill them with rage and passion For if Hell be a place wherein are all the instances of torment the perfection of misery it must follow that whatsoever may tend to the unhappiness of those cursed inhabitants will be eternally present with them not only the outward Senses such as the Sight the Ear the Smell the Taste and Touching shall be proportionably tormented but the inferior faculties also First The Imaginative Faculty shall be perplexed with horrid Idea's more terrible and affrighting than the most melancholy fancy in their Dreams and shall be hurried into strange consternations surprized into a kind of convulsive delirium it shall never conceive a Notion but what may disturb disquiet and make it unconceiveably uneasie Secondly The Appetites shall be tormented with the fury of their own passions and shall issue out after a vehement manner namely fears heaviness irksomness agonies anger desperations envyings out-rages with such a cruel War among themselves that they shall clash and make most horrid noises Thirdly The Intellectual Memory shall be tormented with a continual and fixed Recordation of the many opportunities and advantages there once were of getting to Heaven the many offers of Grace which have been stubbornly refused the many affronts and injuries that have been offered to God and his Saints the good things it formerly possessed the evils it suffers at present and those it must painfully endure to all Eternity So that it cannot think or imagine any thing but what will grieve and torment it Fourthly The Understanding shall be darkned without being able to discourse or understand any thing that may please it it shall be full of Errors and Illusions pondering and exaggerating his own Evils and judging with a furious boldness that God Almighty doth him wrong Fifthly The Will shall be obstinate and obdurate in his sins and in the hatred of God and his Saints without being able to be appeased or
changed or to repent what it does and desiring to do his own Will he shall never be able to do it in any thing that may be for his comfort whereupon a Man 's own Will not being fulfilled shall be the Hell of it self to chastize it for those manifold times that in this Life it was fulfilled contrary to the Will of God But furthermore It may chance to be objected How shall the Damned know that those are in Heaven who in this Life they scorned and abused and possibly were Instruments by some violent means of hastening them thither I answer That in the day of Judgment when every Man's actions shall be disclosed they shall see those whom they oppressed or reviled or murdered and shall be Witnesses against them Our Saviour speaks in allusion to this Matth. 12.41 42. The men of Nineveh shall rise up in judgment with this generation and condemn it they shall appear as so many Witnesses against the Scribes and Pharisees and the other unbelieving Jews of this Age and shall be Instruments as to that Condemnation which God shall that day pronounce against them because they repented not at the preaching of Jonah but these would not at the preaching of Christ Then shall appear Shadrach Meshech and Abednego against a wicked Nebuchadnezzar who caused them to be bound hand and foot and cast into a fiery Furnace for their Love and Loyalty to their God the Martyrs against their Executioners and shall be visibly condemned and haled into their residences of Misery in the presence of the Saints And O the unconceiveable rage and fury of those condemned Spirits when all their Villanies are brought fresh to their memories to add to those other torments which Divine Justice has prepared in the Regions below O how will they curse and blaspheme that God that has Doomed them to Hell and burn with anger against their Accusers And that which enhances their torments is That it is out of their power to harm them Hell is therefore represented in Scripture A place where is gnashing of Teeth which betokeneth rage malice and envy And thus much for the second thing we learn from the words of the Text namely That it will be a great part of the misery of the Damned to understand that they are in Heaven who in this Life they scorned reproached and abused and it may be were Instruments of hastening them thither The other remaining Heads namely Thirdly That the time is coming when the most proud and ambitious Sinners would gladly be relieved by the meanest Saints gathered from the Petition of the Rich Man to Abraham Father Abraham send Lazarus the same whom I denied the crumbs which fell from my Table Fourthly That the state of the Damned will be void of the least degree of comfort And Lastly That the Tongue is a Member the abuse of which in this Life will lie very heavy upon lost Souls These by Divine permission shall be my business to prove the next opportunity I shall proceed now to make some special use of what has been said and so conclude And here First Has God prepared a Hell for ungodly Men A place where shall be eternal weeping wailing and gnashing of Teeth Let it then be our greatest Industry so to live as to avoid it Certainly the pleasures of Sin are not so profitable and ravishing as to charm Men into endless Misery For alas what will it avail a damned Ghost that he once had his fill of sensual Delights and Satisfactions that he lived in Ease and Security since now all Objects are removed from him wherein he solaced himself and he doomed to suffer the dire effects of an unappeased Vengeance for ever To be wracked and tormented by the never-dying Worm and to endure the vehement heat of an unquenchable Fire Is there any compare between the pleasures of Sin which are but for a moment and a lamentable Eternity An Hell which is a fixed state of Misery wherein Men have bid adieu to the pleasures of Earth and all hopes of Heaven the memory of past Pleasures doth but increase their Pain and what is beyond all the misery of this World they enjoy not so much as the deceitful dreams of flattering hopes An Hell where there is no delight nor ease nor God nor any harmless pleasure to divert the pain a moment An Hell where only the wretched Objects of an incensed God do for ever weep and wail Are you able to live out an eternity among these dreadful Preparations And why therefore will you love and practise Sin which is threatned with eternal death Is there any greater Folly imaginable than to hug our own Ruine and to play with Hell Consider I beseech you how terrible it is to be for ever banished from God Angels and Saints confined in the Regions of Darkness and tormented in Flames which cannot be quenched To be whipped with Snakes stung with Scorpions and to have all the Instruments of Torture applied to the Body These are infinitely more tolerable than those Pains which God has provided for ungodly Sinners O that Men were so wise to consider these things and labour by a prudent management of their Concerns to avoid them Secondly And in consideration that the Soul passes into a fixed state as soon as it goes out of the Body it is Folly in the highest degree to delay and put off our Repentance and Preparation for a long Eternity because we hang but by slender Strings a little Breath that expires every minute over the bottomless Pit We are subject to so many Accidents and Casualties that as it were we carry our Lives in our Hands And what a sad Consideration is it to be surprised into another World and the work of our Souls left unwrought and imperfect Then the time of Trial is over and as we died so will our Portion be The tenders of Grace and Mercy then cease and we wait with the sad expectation of a general Judgment then to receive according to that we have done in the Flesh How terrible O impenitent Sinner will Death be to thee and what a concern wilt thou be in at its approach when thou must leave all the pleasures of thy Sins and the remembrance of them fills thee only with Terror and Astonishment when all their false Charms and meretricious Looks whereby they have before pleased and enchanted thee go off and they now look ghastly and frightful and stare thee in the Face with a scaring appearance and with the sad apprehension of what they are like to end in When a dreadful Eternity presents it self before thee and is like to swallow thee up in a horrid Abyss of Misery when thou comest so nigh to the other World that thou canst look over as it were to it and see the sad reception thou art like to have there when thou seest Hell open before thee the bottomless Pit gaping to receive thee and some of the Flames of it flashing as it
were out upon thee when Death like an Executioner comes to seise and apprehend thee and hurry thee before the dreadful Tribunal where all thy past Actions must be examined all thy secret Sins laid open and a dreadful Sentence shall be immediately pronounced upon thee Is not the Consideration of this enough to prevail with Men who have their Wits about them to break off their Sins timely by Repentance and apply themselves to a serious thoughtfulness of their latter end Should a damned Spirit be permitted to come from the Region of Misery to tell thee how intolerable those Preparations are what Pain and Anguish those wretched Ghosts endure thou saist it may be that thou wouldst repent but if thou wilt not be convinced by the assertions of the Gospel it is to be presumed nothing besides can have effect upon thee as Abraham answered the rich Man in that Parable who desired him to send some Spirit to his surviving Bretheren to scare them to Repentance If they will not believe Moses and the Prophets they will not be persuaded though one rose from the dead Lastly And since we are promised all the assistance imaginable to fit us for those Mansions of Bliss let us not be so injurious to our selves as to be lacking on our parts Let us offer violence to our stubborn Wills wean our Affections from the objects of Sin and mortifie the Flesh till it is brought in subjection to the Spirit and intirely submissive to the Law of Reason Let us improve the means of Grace and be purely governed by the motions of God's Spirit What a comfortable Death will such a regular and well-managed Life produce All slavish fears misgivings frightful thoughts and terrible apprehensions will flee away and a prospect of the Heavenly Canaan will present it self we shall have a view of that glorious reception we are like to have which will sweeten the agonies of Death lift us up under the pressure of a sore Disease and carry us out of the World with a solid hope of entering into our Masters joy And here the Soliloquy of a Soul that is ready to pass out of this World into a better I a poor Creature of this World below I who have felt the troubles of this Mortal State been tortured by the Passions of Flesh and Blood Fears and Cares Despair and Hopes even I am going into a Heaven where none of these can enter where I shall be made happy with these Enjoyments which make God and Angels so I shall be made equal to the Angels in Heaven how far above them in my Happiness For what a value will the Experience of this World make me set upon the joys of another The sence and memory of Misery will make my Heaven double Oh! The mighty Raptures and Extasies this holy Soul falls into till it is swallowed up in uninterrupted Joys and holy Wonder And since there is far less trouble in Virtue than in Sin and since the Reward of each is so vastly different how blameable and worthy of Condemnation are they who refuse the former and chuse the latter Let none of us then for the sake of a few short-liv'd Pleasures run our selves in danger of being cast into a miserable Eternity wherein we shall sorely repent of our Inadvertencies and stubborn Perversenesses and wish we had been perswaded in time Let us therefore with our Church pray O Almighty God the Protector of all that trust in thee without whom nothing is strong nothing is holy increase and multiply upon us thy Mercy that thou being our Ruler and Guide we may so pass through things Temporal that we finally lose not the things Eternal And thus we beg for Jesus Christ's sake to whom with the Father and the ever Blessed Spirit be given all Honour Praise Thanksgiving and Obedience now henceforth and for evermore Amen SERMON VI. Luke XVI latter part of 22 verses The Rich man also died and was buried And in Hell he lift up his Eyes being in torments and sees Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom And he cried and said Father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my Tongue for I am tormented in this flame WHen I enter'd upon these words you may remember I raised these following particulars from them As First That as the Souls of true Believers when they go out of their Bodies launch into a fixed state of Blessedness so the Souls of wicked men pass into a fixed state of Misery We no sooner read of the Rich man's being dead and buried but in Hell he lift up his Eyes being in torment Secondly That it will be a great part of the misery of the damned to understand those to be in Heaven whom in this life they scorned reproached and abused and it may be were Instruments of hastening them to those blessed Mansions It was doubtless a great aggravation of the Rich man's misery when he saw Lazarus in Abraham's bosom that Lazarus whom he suffered to perish with hunger at his Gates Thirdly That the time will come when the most proud and ambitious Sinners would gladly be relieved by the meanest Saints Father Abraham says the Rich man send Lazarus the very same who begg'd for the crumbs which fell from my Table Fourthly That the state of the damned will be void of the least degrees of comfort The Rich man desired but the cooling of his Tongue but with as much Water as could be brought upon the tip of Lazarus 's finger Fifthly and lastly That the Tongue is a member the abuse of which in another life will lie very heavy upon lost Souls The chief member which the Rich man complained was most afflicted was his Tongue Send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue As concerning the former of these That the Souls of wicked Men when they go out of their Bodies pass into a fixed state of misery I urged that though their punishment will not be compleat till the day of Judgment when Soul and Body shall be re-united and sentence pass upon them yet their condition is irreversible no changing it for a better but there they weep and howl for the loss of Heaven reproach themselves for their obstinate perversenesses in neglecting the opportunities and slighting the means of happiness and sadly expect the day of Judgment having too much Reason to believe they shall be cast and condemned at that formidable Audit Hence I told you the Devils are said to fear and tremble being convinced that they shall at the last reckoning be thrown into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone And therefore it is spoken by St. Jude concerning the fallen Angels that kept not their first Estate having violated those everlasting Laws given to them by their Creator They are reserved in chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day That is they are not in