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
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
World esteemed good great and desirable was with-held from him so that since Providence had thus undeservedly crowned him with a plentiful Revenue he could not unless wraped up in the Womb of Ingratitude have denied a small part of so vast an Income to this importunate Beggar much less have refus'd him that inconsiderable Request of his namely The crumbs which fell from his Table such Offel which his Dogs blowed upon But brutishly forgetting from whence his Riches sprang and greedily fixing his Heart upon them concludes it Prodigality and ill Husbandy to part with any thing though it were but a Rag to cover the Flesh or a morsel to sustain the Hunger or a draught to revive the languishing Spirits of a fainting Soul Such dangerous temptations are Riches if Men are not guarded with Grace and well consider the Design of God in bestowing them Hence our Saviour pronounces That it is easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a Needle than for a rich Man to enter into the kingdom of Heaven Not that Riches are Evils in themselves but they become such by an imprudent Management when Men suffer their Hearts to be drawn away by them They are commonly Blessings they were so to Abraham Lot Isaac and Jacob to Job David and Joseph of Arimathea but such was the stupid brutishness of this Miser he contracted such an inordinate love to his Estate that he had quite lost all Humanity and Compassion His only care was to keep what he had drowning his Senses in Gluttony Drunkenness and all kinds of Sensuality never once thinking of a life to come but O sad Catastrophe and dismal change of Things Riches tho' they defend from Hunger Thirst and other exterior contingencies yet they cannot bribe and stave off Death neither insinuate with the Judge Christ Jesus for a favourable Trial nor purchase a Mansion amongst the Saints he dies and awakes in the midst of soorching flames and bituminous smokes scar'd at the gastly Spectrums and hideous Noises he meets with among Devils and damned Fiends Lazarus also dies and is carefully conveyed into Abraham 's bosom a safe Repository and never to Hunger Thirst and want more But this I shall treat of in its proper place The words of the Text are properly divided into two special Parts The First is A brief Narrative of a Rich Man's General Course of Living he cloaths himself with rich gay and costly Raiment and fareth sumptuously every Day The Second Part is A description of the Calamities that attend Poverty Lazarus was full of Sores almost Naked and Famished he begs for a little Sustenance and that of the meanest kind but was most uncharitably denied it Now these two Generals demonstrate to us First of all That Riches are strong incentives to Luxury and Riotousness this Rich Man fared Sumptuously every Day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he Entertained himself every Day with Luxurious Delights Secondly That Riches tempt to Pride Haughtiness and Uncharitableness This Elated Miser thought it beneath his Grandeur either to look upon or commiserate afflicted and languishing Lazarus and therefore chides him by his Menial Servants and sends him away empty as he came Thirdly That Poverty is a despicable State and renders a Man most vile and mean in the Eye of others how much soever good he hath heretofore done with what God had blessed him with These are the three Topicks which will be the Subject of my ensuing Discourse only by the way it may not be improperly inserted That by the Rich Man and Poor Lazarus is figured out to us the different state of good and bad Men in this Life Good Men for the most part are in mean and low Circumstances and of small Account but are rich towards God precious in his sight and have their Portion treasured up with him according to that of St. James chap. 2.5 God has chosen the Poor of this World heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven The Wicked generally flourish the World's affluences tumble in upon them but they have their Portion in this Life hereafter Fire and Brimstone and an horrible Tempest shall be the Portion of their Cup Psal 11.6 But to proceed in order First Riches are strong Incentives to Luxury and Riotousness This Noble-man fared Sumptuously every Day he observed no Intervals for Mortification no time for holy Retirement for a strict Examination of himself for Prayer Repentance and other necessary Duties Nor was he so Morally useful to others as was St. Augustine who divided the Day into special Portions for needful businesses to reconcile disturbed Families and linck together enraged Neighbours in the Bonds of Amity to observe and minister to the Necessities of the Indigent to instruct the Ignorant counsel the less wary and such like No no this wealthy Wretch lived every Day to himself delighting his Palate with luscious Viands and Falernian Liquors loading his Stomach with Morsels without any regard to Moderation had no thoughts of nor any earning bowels after those who wanted and would be glad of the meanest bit at his Table After this Luxurious manner did he spend every Day such strong and irresistible temptations are Riches when Men are without Grace and consider not the wise and holy purpose of God in bestowing them for tho' they are the proper and peculiar Gifts of Heaven and were promised to and bestowed upon our Forefathers as illustrious instances of the Divine favour yet they are not to be prostituted solely to our selves that is to nourish and maintain our Lusts for then they change their nature and prove the manifest ruin of Soul and Body Upon which account it may not be improper to insert this Memorandum That they who are bless'd with Plenty and Store ought to be very importunate with God that he would moderate and rectify their Appetites keep and restrain their Hearts curb and limit their Desires that they may not be so taken up and charmed with their Wealth as to forget the Concernments of their Souls and suffer them to live out a long Eternity with the Damned Crew in the unhappy Residences of Misery Therefore our Saviour ever and anon is giving a special charge to Rich Men that they be very cautious and wary lest they should be Inchanted and betrayed by Superfluities which like the Syrens whom the Poets speak of as it were lie in wait for Men and seduce them by their pleasing and almost irresistible Charms It was an excellent Prayer that of Agurs Prov. 30.8 9. O Lord says he Give me neither poverty nor riches feed me with food convenient for me Lest I be full and deny thee and say Who is the Lord or lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain Having weighed in an even Ballance both a prosperous and an adverse state and considering what inconveniencies the extream of either condition would bring men into the one tempting them to Luxury Drunkenness and Gluttony the other to Theft Lying
of the House was so seer'd and impenetrable as to deny thy reasonable request surely the Servants might have accommodated thee with some of their Remains No! What suffer thee to perish for want of that which themselves would not eat O unheard of Cruelty O monstrous Barbarity But Secondly Another cause of Lazarus's Death was those Ulcers and putrifying Sores which had invaded and corrupted his flesh He was laid at the rich mans gate full of sores As he had no Friend to sustain his Hunger neither was there any found to bind up his Wounds These for want of application infected the whole Mass of Blood seized his Vitals and hasten'd the destruction of Nature O miserable Object Starv'd with Hunger and sull of Sores too Without Friend and without Pity Evil upon Evil The Holy Iesus could not but cure the Leper when he saw him full of Sores And Elisha could not but out of Humanity teach Naaman the Syrian to wash himself in Jordan that he might be whole but this Rich Man would not help Lazarus but left him to languish and die Doubtless it was a great addition of his misery to be full of Blotches and running Ulcers for as his Hunger tormented and gnaw'd upon his inwards so his Sores grieved and pained his flesh both the one and the other contriving to storm his Soul out of the Out-works of Nature But thus much for the first thing which was To consider what were the proper Causes of Lazarus ' s Death And from hence I proceed in the second place namely Secondly To consider what kind of treatment Lazarus met withal while he was languishing or dying We read of no Friends that came either to visit or to comfort him with Medicaments Thus generally the poor Servants of God are treated when retain'd by a Fit of Sickness and drawing near to a period many of them perish for want of reasonable applications None or very few vouchsafe them an hours consolation they groan they sigh they pant and die without pity Such usage as this Lazarus met withal in his dying hours Rich Men are supplied with Physicians furnish'd with Potions and when dying their Friends stand shrieking about the Bed and fill the Room with dolorous sounds They grieve for their approaching loss and enhance their sorrows with the repetition of former benefits if it were possible they would conquer Death and rescue their departing Friends out of his clutches But poor Lazarus as he had no inward applications so no outward comforts not a Bed to lie upon the Earth was his Pillow the Element was his Covering the Rich Man's Dogs were his Visitants not one of his Servants would vouchsafe him a reviving Draught or any thing that was comfortable but there he lay screeching with anguish sighing and groaning waiting till Death would strike and release him from his great wants and heavy conflicts Now his Throat growing dry with crying his Heart fainting for want of comfort his Tongue cleaving to the Roof of his Mouth being worn out with Fastings and Miseries he gave a groan and perished at this wretches Gate Was ever heart so hard Could it be imagined that a rational Creature could be guilty of such Cruelty and especially towards one of his Fellow-Creatures It was inhumane in thee O Dives to have no compassion upon poor Lazarus but it argues much more a sear'd Nature to suffer him to faint and die at thy very Door for want of a few fragments of Bread What was his request to thee He ask'd not for dainty food such which was thy daily Entertainment but only for those Scraps which neither thy Servants nor Dogs would eat to save his Life And was it such a matter to have granted him this his so reasonable desire Will it not be a blemish on thy Conscience that thou shouldst suffer a Soul to perish with hunger when thou hadst enough and abundantly to spare Couldst thou see Lazarus trembling and quaking with cold having only shatter'd Rags about him and not cover his nakedness when thou hadst store of Cast-off Garments Were his wounds so deep and gaping upon thee and neither thou nor thy Servants by thy order pour Oil into them If the Stones could speak they would cry fie on thee If thy Dogs could utter themselves they would charge thee with unmercifulness If Lazarus were alive his Sores would gush out afresh in thy Face and sound in thine Ears that thou art guilty of his Blood Behold the Sentence is gone forth against thee the blood of Lazarus like the blood of Abel cries aloud Let thy days be few and let another take thine Office Let thy Children be Fatherless and thy Wife a Widow Let thy Children be Vagabonds and beg their Bread let them seek it also out of desolate places Let the Extortioner consume all that thou hast and let the Stranger spoil thy labour Let there be no Man to pity thee nor to have compassion on thy Fatherless Children Let thy Memorial be clean forgotten and in the next Generation let thy Name be quite blotted out Let him be unsuccessful in every thing he taketh in hand let him be Accurs'd when he goeth out and when he cometh in Let the Creator abandon him the Heavens frown upon him and the Angels reject him let him be a woful Example to the World O Earth open upon him Hell receive him Spirits tear him Devils torment him Let no Mercy be expressed towards him who shut up his bowels of compassion against his distressed and afflicted Brother The sorrowful sighing of the Poor shall not always be forgotten God will avenge their injuries if not in this Life yet in that which is to come But thus much for the second thing which was to consider what usage poor Lazarus met with while he lay languishing while he was hastening to a period I am now to go on in the third place Thirdly To enquire what became of his dead Body And here we cannot suppose that his Body had any decent Interment because while living it had not wherewithal to sustain it He was Brow-beaten scoff'd at rejected a Companion for Dogs the very abject of the People those that pass'd by him upbraided his Poverty turn'd their Heads away from the stench of his Sores and stopp'd their Ears to his woful Complaints Now if his hungry Stomach ulcerous Body and fainting Spirits and dismal Out cries would not move to pity we may reasonably conjecture that his dead Body was not taken care of That it might not infect with strong and loathsome smells it may be it was cramm'd into some narrow hole in the Earth or thrown into some rapid River or other No Bell to proclaim his Death no Knell to usher him to the Grave no Friends to accompany his Corps which are the usual methods of a Funeral Thus poor Men slip silently into the Earth and have none to mourn over them but their distressed Widows and Orphans who miss those little Comforts they were
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
thy sin purged Isa 6.5 6.7 When our dearest Lord was strugling in a mighty Agony that he sweat as it were great drops of blood when the bitter cup was presented to him of which he was to drink and which he prayed if possible might be removed from him in the midst of his conflicts the Angels his Attendants came and strengthned him When in the Wilderness set on and tempted by the Devil those Celestical Spirits came and Ministred unto him When Lot was in danger of being torn apieces by some of the vicious Sodomites two Angels haled him into his House from their fury and struck those that encompassed him with blindness Gen. 19.10 11. Shadrach Meshech and Abednego those true Servants of the most High God being condemned by that Tyrant Nebuchadnezzar to be scorched to death in a Furnace seven times hotter than ordinary they were thrown in bound hand and foot but behold an Angel indemnisied them they were not singed neither had the flames any power on them Did we not says Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 3.24 25. cast three men bound into the fiery furnace Lo I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire and they have no hurt and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God When Daniel was doom'd to the Lions Den in order to be devoured by them an Angel by an irresistible power restrains the appetites of those voracious Beasts that he dwelt in safety in the midst of danger My God saith he has sent his Angel and hath shut the Lions Mouths that they have not hurt me for as much as before him Innocncy was found in me and also before thee O King have I done no hurt Dan. 6.22 To name no more When Peter was imprisoned by Herod and a strong watch ordered to keep him safe Behold an Angel came to him and unloosed his Chains burst open the Prison-door led him through the Wards and coming to the main Iron Gate that opened of its own accord This miraculous deliverance did so amaze Peter that he could scarce believe the truth of it till coming to himself he humbly accknowledged saying Acts 12.11 Now I know of a surety that the Lord has sent his Angel and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the People of the Jews Thus these Celestial Spirits encamp round about them that fear the Lord. But Secondly I am to consider the great love these Heavenly Courtiers bear to Mankind And here doubtless their affection is infinitely great For when the Son of God descended from above and Ecclipsed his glory with humane Nature to work the Redemption of man these Celestial Ambassadors gathered together expressing their joy for the Restauration of lapsed Mortals by a general shout and then joyning in a Chorus Sang Glory be to God on High and on Earth Peace good will towards men Luke 2.14 They could not but celebrate this stupendious act of Condescension and loudly eccho it in the Shepherds ears They seemed as it were transported that they had a message of this kind to deliver to undone Mortals who were groaning under their own burden When a stuborn sinner returns from the errour of his ways bethinks himself alters his mind and becomes a new Creature these Heavenly Spirits are all in a Rapture and Exstacy they break out into loud acclamations of joy Luke 15.10 There is joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner that repenteth And the Reasons of this are First Because their employment for God is encreased They are Ministring Spirits sent forth to Minister for those who shall be heirs of Salvation Secondly Because every converted sinner adds to their Communion In some respects even now Angels are a Saint's Familiar they have a special charge over them and pitch their Tents round about and Minister unto them but that which enhances their gladness they shall enjoy an everlasting Conversation with them Sing and praise the Lamb that sits upon the Throne together Behold the beauty meditae upon the glorious perfections of God and be swallowed up in holy wonder This it is which enjoins the Angels to take such care of the Saints in this life defending them from extraordinary mischiefs guarding them from the Power and Malice of the Devil directing them in ways of uncertainty and peril watching over them by night and conducting them by day namely that their Communion may be improved their Joys fulfilled in an everlasting harmony mutual concord And now if God has thus Commissioned his Angels to Minister to his Saints to defend and keep them to guard and shield them from dangers and mischiefs and if these glorious Harbingers bear so great a love to men as has been plainly proved doubtless they are very ready to receive and carry the Souls of good men into Heaven One of the Fathers calls the Angels Evocatores animarum The callers forth of Souls and such as shew them paraturam diversorii the preparation of those Mansions they are going to Hence we observe When good men are dying they are often in silent raptures and express a kind of impatience till they are dissolved And why because they spiritually see what they cannot utter as did St. Paul when he was wrapt up into the third Heaven There is a kind of a draught presented to them by their Guardian Angels of those transcendant joys they are almost ready to enter in possession of and therefore long and pine till they are conveyed into that place of Unspeakable Felicity These Heavenly Spirits succour and support them under their pain and sickness and when their Souls are stormed out of their Bodies they encompass and embrace them soaring through the Regions of evil Angels into Heaven As my Text speaks concerning Lazarus that he was safely carried by the Angels into Abraham's bosom And thus much for the Proposition I raised from the words of the Text namely That the Angels are employed to convey the Soul of true Believers as soon as separated from their Bodies into a fixed state of blessedness I now proceed to draw some practical Inferences from the whole and so conclude And here First We cannot but admire at Gods tender love to men that he should create such Beings to be our Guardians to help and succout us in the time of our Pilgrimage here What is Man that God should be so mindful of him or the Son of Man that he should so regard him What tongue can be silent upon a serious thoughtfulness of the honour God conferreth upon Man Let us then break out with St. Bernard Lord what is Man that thou thinkest thus on him Thou sendest to him thine only begotten Son thou sendest into him thy Holy Spirit thou promisest him the light of thy Countenance and that nothing in the Heavenly Region might be un-imployed in follicitude for him thou sendest forth also those blessed Spirits the Angels to Minister to us And with another of the
and gnashing of Teeth a never-dying Worm but flames that cannot be quenched And St. John describes Hell A Lake of Fire and Brimstone which torments the Damned day and night for ever and ever Rev. 20.10 The Second Reason is The same Bodies which are buried in the Earth must be raised again and be re-united to their particular Spirits and be made Immortal Now I cannot conceive how the Body can suffer pain so much as by Fire and that being of a piercing nature and most afflicting we may very reasonably conjecture that there is a fire prepared by God for impenitent Sinners to chastize their Bodies for their acts of Lust and in these flames all the outward Senses shall be tormented and all the Members particularly the Tongue which in this Life was used to Cursing and Swearing to Lying Cheating and Flattary which was accustomed to blaspheme God and Providence to ridicule his Religion and Worship and to speak evil of the Saints which was Instrumental of Gluttony Intemperance and obscene Discourses But how and in what nature the Tongue must suffer will be time enough for Sinners to understand when they come there Certain it is that Omnipotence has prepared the most exquisite miseries for those who live and die in sin In fine all that is evil and irksom all that is grievous and painful whatsoever may compleat and make up a miserable and woful Eternity is provided and made ready for all those unfortunate wretches who shall be sunk into the fatal Abyss by the weight of their own guilt And thus much for the fifth and last particular That the Tongue is a Member the abuse of which in another life will lie very heavy upon lost Souls And now I proceed to draw some Practical Inferences from what has been said and so conclude And here First What love and affection do we owe to Almighty God for his tender compassions towards us in bearing with our weaknesses and not revenging our stubborn perversenesses by suddenly casting us into this dismal place of Hell How many has he rigorously sent weeping into the fatal Abyss The Angels had no sooner committed the sin but they were immediately banished from their Happiness and now are reserved in Chains under Darkness unto the Judgment of the Great Day What multitudes of others are now suffering the dire effects of an unappeas'd vengeance for a less number of sins than we are guilty of and who if they had been permitted to live probably might have be thought themselves changed their Minds and Nature and become as eminent for Vertue as ever they were notorious for Vice Why does not Almighty Justice take the advantage and for our Iniquities tumble us into the Lake that burns with fire and brimstone Why does he yet bear with our insolent carriage and suffer the affronts we daily offer to his Majesty Wherefore does he spare the Blasphemous Person the Common Swearer who impudently rend his Sacred Name at every turn Wherefore does he who can by a word of his Mouth by a blast of the breath of his Nostrils crush proud Mortals into the unhappy Residences of Misery from whence there can be no Redemption still endure their treacherous Infidelities and many wilful Miscarriages What does he discern in us that should move him to such impunity and forbearance Nothing in us but it is his Goodness which dilates it self over the whole Earth Can such Clemency and Graciousness then slip out of our Minds and be buried in Oblivion Can we think any thing too much to do for such a benign Being who loveth us far beyond the love of Parents Might any of those cursed Spirits below be permitted to re-enter this World and live another life in this Mortal State how thankful would they be How wary and circumspect in their respective Vocations how tender of their Innocency how sincere in their Obedience They would pluck out a Right Eye cut off a Right Hand or Foot rather than to have all their Members and cast into Hell where the Worm dieth not and the Fire is not quenched they would celebrate the Memory of such a Redemption with a faithful and constant submission to the Will of God How then should we live live to him who yet spareth us and preserves us from the bottomless Pit Let us then shake off that improvidence which detaineth us bethink our selves renew our Spirits change our very Natures and no longer live to our selves but unto him who loveth us beyond measure Our Debts are many and great our Scores with God are large and numerous and he has not yet cast us into Prison from whence we must not come out till we have paid the uttermost farthing Let this merciful and gracious Creditor therefore be rever'd honoured esteemed and served by us so will he at length give us a clear discharge from all future demands and make us Rulers over all his Goods Secondly From the premises we learn to exercise our patience under the evils and miseries of this Life Worldly misfortunes are not to be compared to those unhappinesses which attend lost Souls the former either by the help of Friends or some means or other may be repaired or if not their malignity is abated by the consideration that they will not last always for we must die and there is an end of all Earthly troul les But the torments of Hell are durable and eternal no redemption from thence nor is there any thing that can ease the miserable wretches there There is no condition in this Life tho' never so uncomfortable never so despicable and grievous but the Damned would very gladly exchange their state for it and think themselves infinitely bettered as having parted with an eternally miserable condition which admits of no abatements for a temporally evil one and which may be accommodated by some Instruments or other When therefore thou fallest under Poverty and the World brow-beats thee think of the Poverty the Damned endure they are deprived of the summum bonum the chiefest good even God and in him of all other sensible goods When thou art despised and hated that thou art ready to be betrayed into dejection desperation and disconsolateness ponder with thy self how the tormented Souls in Hell are rejected despised reproached by God Angels and Saints and that World without end must undergo the unappeased vengeance of an offended Deity When thou art seized and oppressed with a Fever and thy blood in a violent ferment consider what heats and pains lost Souls feel in Hell inveloped in devouring flames and every part and member of their Bodies exposed to that scorching fire doubtless it would very much tend to the easement of Mens maladies and render the worst condition in this Life more tolerable if Men did often entertain themselves with the thoughts of those unspeakable preparations which Divine Justice has provided for impenitent sinners Who would not rather suffer an Eye to be plucked out an Arm or Leg to
That there is no commerce or intercourse between glorified Saints and damned Spirits The Papists passing from Purgatory to Heaven is a new found way for if Purgatory be a place as they fondly insinuate where Souls are tormented it is to be wondred at how they should pass over this gulf says Abraham between us and you there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great gulf fixed so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot neither can they pass to us that would come from thence But to begin with the former of these two First That it will be a great aggravation of the misery of the damned to consider and recollect the former means and advantages they have been under for Salvation if they have descended from godly Parents or have been Members of the Church of Christ initiated thereinto by Baptism and have made an open acknowledgment of its Faith and Doctrines Son says Abraham to the rich Man remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things As I have already hinted the interiour faculties as well as the outward senses shall be perplexed and tormented or otherwise Hell could not properly be termed a place wherein is the perfection of misery nor would wicked men be punished according to their offences There are some who are not visibly vicious and are probably in common esteem moral and regular but yet very unholy and untoward within in their thoughts recollections of memory in their desires and more secret wishes who fearing corporal punishments or the loss of a good reputation or the frowns and ill will of Relations or Acquaintance refrain from publick wickednesses Our blessed Saviour tells us that the Pharisees were such a sort of People they were very exact as to their outward Morals prayed devoutly fasted frequently gave alms cordially and went in a separate guard to distinguish themselves from the vulgar so that if we were to judge of them by external demonstrations we should conclude them the strictest Christians But the Holy Jesus lets us know that their ends and purposes were carnal and secular and that all their Ceremonies were only Cloaks to conceal their covetousness self-interest pride and lustfulness Now if this people were only to be judged for their Actions they would be immortalized and rewarded as Saints But the Scriptures inform us that men shall be accountable for their Thoughts Desires and Wishes as well as for their Actions Every secret thing shall be brought into Judgment says the wise Man Eccles 12. ult Upon which account men may appear innocent and harmless to the World and yet stand guilty before God by reason of their blasphemous revengeful impure unchast thoughts With these they may affront God abuse the Saints and in effect drag young Virgins to an Adulterous Bed and therefore it is but reasonable that they should be punished for them Now having made it manifest that the interiour faculties as well as the outward senses shall be tormented we will go on and consider what they are and particularly how and after what manner they shall be perplexed And here First of all The Understanding that shall be tormented with the sense of the loss sustained A Celestial Paradise forfeited a perpetual sequestration from God and in him from every created good an eternal exclusion from that rest and peace which makes the Saints happy and renders their fruition joyous and infinitely pleasant And as the Understanding shall ponder these things so it shall be actuated by the apprehension of the present evils it suffers and of those it must unhappily undergo to eternity chained in Hell fastened to unquenchable flames tormented by Devils baited by the damned Crew kept waking without intermission of sleep which would abate the pains every moment a fresh instance of misery a new scene of Torment and all this as long as there is a God to inflict and punish Doubtless this is a most exquisite Torment to be always followed with a quick sense of the loss of Heaven and of the least degree of comfort to exaggerate the evils present and those which must follow without intermission or end We may perceive this by some likeness of things of this life when a man discovers himself deprived of an Estate or Inheritance bequeathed him by the Will of his Parents or Relations or Acquaintance in what a turbulent commotion are all his senses How does he fret and fume so uneasie and nettled that food has lost its nourishing faculty with him a soft Bed which resteth the wearied bones and lulls a man into a refreshing slumber is irksom and tedious to him He sighs and pauzes upon his unfortunate hap and it may be by an uninterrupted musing falls into a frenzy or deep melancholy which preying upon his spirits in a short time sends him into another World before the time Now if the sense of the loss of finite and limited goods doth so much grieve the heart and makes a man his own unhappiness how much more will the sense of the loss of infinite and unlimited goods gall and torment and gnaw upon the interiour faculties An eternal loss cannot but produce an eternal sense of it especially if it be the greatest good because the greatest evil is always present the feeling of the latter revives the recognition of the former whereby the sense of what is last is much enhanced and aggravated But Secondly The Intellectual Memory whereby we record things and make those as present which were long ago committed This shall be tormented with a perpetual recordation of the many opportunities and advantages for Heaven which have been foolishly contemned and neglected The folly and vanity of those things which were preferred before the glories and felicities of the other happy World Then shall be sadly brought to remembrance the happy priviledge of a liberal Education the encouragement and example of pious and holy Parents the grave and wholesome counsels of God's Ministers the advantage of reading the Holy Bible and other religious Books and imitating the vertuous Conversation of the Saints All these priviledges and fair opportunities wholly disregarded for the pleasures of sin which are but for a moment if compared with a long Eternity which follows Thus shall the Torments of the Damned be multiplied by recollecting the Ways and Means they used to deprive themselves of the Inheritance of Heaven to which they might have had right if they had not disinherited themselves When a Son by his extravagant courses and repeated acts of disobedience has incensed his Father against him that he dashes him out of his Will and excludes him from the enjoyment of his estate after death to which he might have had a filial propriety when he feels the deprivation of the goods suffers the reproach and shame of a disinherited Prodigal and undergoes the infamy and scandal of a Cast-off how is he enraged against himself for his folly in violating the easie Commands and refusing the good Counsels of his tender and
whether in Gods Service or the Devils Drudgery and if upon an impartial survey we discover that we have hitherto erred from the right end of our Creation humbly to implore Gods pardon and to beg his grace for the time to come that joyning our own endeavours with it we may redeem the time we have lost by breaking off our sins and speedily applying our selves to the practice of true Religion It is very sad to continue in an unconverted state because we know not how soon it will be ere we be strip'd into naked Spirits and sent into an irreversible state And to be thus surprized and the Work of our Souls left unwrought would be the worst of evils and then what would we give if possible that we might have again such opportunities and advantages of being happy consider therefore in time repent and amend in this life of tryal shake off that impovidence which detaineth you make you a new heart and a new spirit mortifie and subdue your unruly will wean your affections from the pride of life manfully deny all ungodliness and wordly lusts and live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for without wavering the blessed hope and the glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works May God grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by Faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the height breadth length and depth and to know the love of Christ that ye may be filled with all the fullness of God Now unto the only wise God and our Saviour Jesus Christ be given the Kingdom the Power and the Glory now henceforth and for evermore Amen SERMON VIII Luke XVI 27 28 29. Then he said I pray thee therefore Father that thou wouldst send him to my Fathers House For I have five Brethren that he may testifie unto them lest they also come into this place of torment Abraham saith unto him They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them THe rich man having received a slat denyal of that which he requested that Lazarus might be sent with a drop of water to allay the heat and throbbing of his parched tongue and sadly perceiving himself a pitiless miserable Object is here brought in intreating Abraham to dismiss Lazarus to his Brethren who were yet alive and to give them an account of his deceased Brothers wretched and woful State Let him assume his Body and go and relate what Torments I endure that he saw me in the midst of Flames my Flesh broiling my Tongue swoln with heat and pain That he heard me weeping and sighing and bemoaning my comfortless and irreparable Condition That he saw the damned Fiends imployed in vexing and tormenting me and that I have all the Scenes and Images of Terror always in view Let him tell them how I curse my Folly for living secure and careless without thought of another World or what would become of me after death Let him assert my Resolution That if I was admitted to re-enter the World and live my Days over again that are past I would not be charmed with the flatteries of Lust and Sensuality nor spending my time in eating drinking and soft delights in cloathing my Body with gawdy Raiment nor bend my study to invent Recreations for my Appetite I would limit my Will Desires and Affections and by a prudent management bring my Flesh under that it might be corrective and govern'd by the insinuations of Reason I would set an inestimable value upon the means of Salvation which I foolishly slighted and turned into wantonness That I would live in a constant expectation of Death and Judgment Such a Relation as this Father Abraham would astonish my Brethren scare them from their Sins and caution them against those Imprudences which were my destruction and remediless ruine This would rouse them out of sleep make them unravel all that they have done and put them upon other Methods But is there any Charity in Hell Are there any in the Abyss of Misery who wish the Conviction Conversion and Salvation of Souls on Earth Do they not rather envy the Privileges and Advantages of Happiness they enjoy and desire that they may be as miserable as themselves It is the Opinion of some sage and learned Writers That the rich Man here prayeth not so much for the reformation and final Good of his Brethren as for himself that his Torments might not be the more aggravated with the perpetual sight and company of those who in this World were his near Relations or familiar Acquaintance and who were led and influenced by his base vicious Examples It will greatly add to the Afflictions of lost Souls to see those in Hell who when in the Body were seduced and drawn away from Christianity by their loose Practices But to the Answer which Abraham makes to the rich Man's Petition Thy Brethren have Moses and the Prophets those exact Transcribers of God's Will their Manuscripts are Truths delivered by the Holy Ghost and therein is dictated whatsoever God exacts from Men and Directions how they may please their Creator He will not grant Men needless and extraordinary Revelations to gratifie their vain Curiosity since he has acquainted them with every thing that is fit for them to know and practise Thy Brethren cannot plead Ignorance when they are daily excited and admonished by God's Ambassadors And if they will not be reformed by these Means and mighty Helps they cannot reasonably expect that God should send departed Souls with a special Commission and compel them to accept of the Terms of Happiness against their will His Word is sufficient to prepare them for Heaven if they will but believe its Propositions and live up to the Rule of Life prescribed therein But if this prove not effectual there is no probability of their being saved They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them From which I raise these Doctrines First of all That the Scriptures are the only means appointed by God for the Conviction Conversion and Salvation of Sinners Abraham argues the unreasonableness and impertinence of the Rich Man's request that he would dismiss Lazarus to his Brethren by urging the advantages and fair opportunities they had of making themselves for ever They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them There is no need of extraordinary revelations since they have such an eminent privilege of hearing the Counsels and Instructions of those worthy Men commissioned by and imployed under God Secondly That it is too plain an argument of great Infidelity and hardness of Heart when the Word of God doth not take place convince Men of their sins and
be an aerial Representation of his Companion who with a hollow Voice dreadful Visage and lamentable Utterance tells him that there is a God both just and powerful and that there is an eternally happy and miserable state and that it is his misfortune to be doomed to the latter which in his life-time he used all the means he could to banish from his thoughts and that if he does not speedily amend his life and heartily repent of the many wickednesses he has wilfully and presumptuously committed as they were formerly Companions in sin so they would be unhappy Fellow-sufferers in a lamentable Eternity I say I question not but if a Ghost should appear to any of us after this manner it would make some impression upon us But then whether or no this miracle wrought would so prevail with a man who has habituated himself to Wickedness as to work a Reformation in him It is to be supposed No For after the surprize is over those heats allayed which were at first stirred up in him he will quickly invent excuses and arguments why he should not effect that Reformation he has so much aversion from For First Tho' he was deeply touched at first and all his Powers in such a consternation that he was scarce himself yet being recovered from the fright the inclination he has to sin will put him upon doubt and scrutiny and to question the reality of the thing He knows not but the Vision was only the effect of Melancholy and a drooping Mind or the imagination of a distempered Brain He knows that when Persons lie under the extremity of a Fever their fancies are very whimsical and suppose they see frightful shapes a company of Fiends about their Beds or that they see Hell open and abundance of Souls tormenting there That some who are naturally frightful suppose an Apparition instead of their shadow and will scarce be beaten out of that strong Illusion and thus the World comes to be filled with relations of Ghosts or Apparitions He knows that some by strength of fancy will imagine a cluster of Clouds to be an Army of Men ingaged in a pitch'd Battel and why may not the Vision which he saw be only an imaginative shape nothing real but a thing framed in his disordered Mind It is easie for a Man who is not willing to believe any thing of this nature to bring himself to such an opinion to evade and shift off the thoughts of it that they might not disturb and trouble him in his wickednesses But then he is much more encouraged when he tells his idle and wanton Companions the relation who upon hearing it will not forbear jesting him out of the conceit nor will they want arguments to convince him that he was either in a Dream or was pensively musing or was imploying his thoughts about Stories which tell of Ghosts and Spirits and so giving way to them foolishly conjectured that his melancholy fancy metamorphos'd it self into form and shape But he must banish all such whimsical Notions and never credit any thing of that kind or otherwise he must forsake their Society and not din their ears with such Nonsence but those who are easie too credulous Persons who spend their time in carrying such ridiculous relations up and down the World But Secondly Supposing that notwithstanding all this he cannot easily baffle the credit of his Senses for tho' he has hitherto used all the means he could to banish the belief of the Vision yet he cannot be fully perswaded but that there was somewhat in it My blood says he would not so suddenly without some extraordinary cause fly in my face nor would my powers ruffle together in such confusion if something praeter-natural had not made towards me I was neither a sleep nor musing but perfectly in my senses when I saw the Apparition and therefore I cannot deny Matter of Fact But still the great love he bears to sin will put him upon framing another Argument It is true I was amazed at a Vision but how do I know that it was one risen from the Dead It might peradventure be a human Body dress'd up in Grave-cloaths imitating the walk and gesture of a Ghost who intended by this Religious fraud to scare me from my sins but it so confounded him that he could not distinguish truly between the Imposture or the Reality But supposing it is no fraud but indeed a Spirit yet he knows not whether it be his Friend if he was convinced of this he would credit his relation and immediately change upon it But for ought he knows it may be one of those evil Spirits in the Air who disturb and fluster Men and possess them with strange whimsies fancies and frightful imaginations and therefore till further conviction to the contrary he will not be influenced and wrought upon by any Spirit of that Order since I know and have heard that they are maliciously bent against us and would do us much more mischief than they do if they were not limited and restrained by a superior Power But Thirdly As it is not to be doubted that such a Man as I am now speaking of will create and raise many Arguments to withstand the force and influence of such a Miracle wrought in order to his Conversion so there is one more yet remaining which he may probably urge to sortifie himself against Conviction and Conversion And that is the unusualness of such kind of means as a Spirit or Apparition to bring Men to Repentance It is true he has been haunted but why he above the rest of Mankind The singularity of the thing will increase his doubt If the Neighbourhood where he lives were thus disturbed or if any of his near Acquaintance should come and tell him that at such a time they were surprized by a Ghost who told them That if they continued in that course of Life they so vigorously prosecuted they would be as miscrable as himself who suffers eternal torments for committing the very same sins they now live in this relation would indeed alarm him and make him suspect his present circumstances and leave those Vices he is diss waded from But since none that he knows of are thus handled he has no reason to credit the relation of the Spirit If such means of Conviction were rational and powerful doubtless others would be afforded them as well as he but since he hears nor knows of none he shall not take things upon trust but continue unperswaded as he is Thus we see how Men who withstand the Motives of Christianity refuse to be reformed by Moses and the Prophets by Jesus Christ and his Apostles will also find out shifts and ways to evade the force and argument of a Spirit should one be sent on purpose to convert them And thus is Abraham's Answer made good to the Rich Man who importunately desired him to send Lazarus from the dead to testifie to his Brethren for that they could