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
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
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
a Million of Gold I would exchange it with him for one drop of water But it is too late to wish and too late to beg for mercy the sentence is past and I am condemned to suffer the extremity of it Doubtless it will be brought to the memories of the Damned how cruelly despitefully and disdainfully they have used the Saints how industrious they were in raising evil reports of them how forward to revenge injuries upon them how bitter in denying them a morsel of bread to sustain their hunger how they mocked and scoffed at them and triumphed over them in their extremity Every thing shall be brought to their remembrance which may enhance their rage and add to their torments Methinks I hear one of those unhappy wretches thus accusing himself How many times might I have prayed but foolishly spent that time in play but now I pay for it How often ought I to have humbled and mortified my flesh with fasting but neglected it to gratifie my unsatiable appetite How many Objects of pity might I have relieved but Epicure like spent their portions in revells and excess What opportunities have I had of forgiving my Enemies but indulging a spleenfull and deadly Spirit rather chose to be revenged How many fair invitations have I had to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper but not willing to quit the occasion of sinning refused to be a guest at his Table There never wanted any means of serving God but I inconsiderate wretch had no inclination to use them being too much inamoured with the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life Now it repenteth me that I was so thoughtless and took so little care of my future state were I admitted to live the days that are past over again I would consult new methods and be very exact just and sincere in all my actions relating to God and Man But these resolves are fruitless my state is fixed the sentence is gone forth and I doomed to suffer the most horrid and intolerable effects of it Thus in Hell shall every thing be revived and brought afresh to remembrance which may add to the torment of the interiour faculties and this is signified by that expression in Scripture They shall be cast into Hell where the worm dyeth not and where shall be everlasting weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth And thus much may suffice for the third thing namely That the time will come when the most proud and ambitious Sinners would gladly be relieved by the meanest Saints in Heaven And this leads me on to the fourth 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 One of the Antients describes Hell to be a place where there is neque lumen neque Deus neque bonum minimum no light no God nor any harmless pleasure to divert the pains there one moment As Heaven is separate from from all evils where those glorified Inhabitants swim in rapturous pleasures without interruption nothing shall call them off from their enjoyments no sad circumstances to imbitter their delights no fears or sollicitudes to abate their gladness nor temptation to disturb or molest them So Hell is separate from every and the least good those damned wretches there shall have nothing in view but frightful shapes and amazing appearances nothing in Hearing but dismal groanings screechings the thunderings of God's unappeased anger and other unutterable noises the sense of Touching shall be tortured with the quick and piercing heat of unquenchable flames their cryes shall never move the Almighty to dismiss either Angels or Saints to asswage their pains or to shorten their Eternity when a thousand years are past in that lothsome and fiery Dungeon they will be but as one day There they shall desire without satisfaction wish but not obtain repent without effect and live out a long eternity in unmixed perplexities Aelian writes of Trizus the Tyrant that he was such an Enemy to the Liberty and Comfort of his Subjects that he prohibited all Conversation one with another and using signatures or tokens whereby they might understand each others purposes and meanings he forbad that also they lying under the burden of this unparallel'd Tyrany met together at the Market-place to weep for their misfortunes he interdicted this too lest they should mitigate their sorrows by condoling of one another But greater shall be the rigour in Hell where ungodly Sinners shall not be permitted to speak one word of comfort nor ease their Maladies with Tears Jeremiah the Prophet lamented the unhappiness of Jerusalem that she was brought into Bondage and became a Vassal and Tributary But what Tears are sufficient to bewail the damnation of a poor Soul who from an Heir of the Kingdom of Heaven hath made himself a Slave to the Devil and those eternal Punishments in Hell unto which he is to pay as many Tributes as he hath Senses Powers and Members And thus much for the Fourth Particular namely That the state of the Damned will be void of the least degrees of Comfort which we learn from the rich Man's desiring but the cooling of his Tongue with as much Water as could be brought upon the tip of Lazarus 's Finger I go on therefore to the Fifth and last Particular namely Fifthly That the Tongue is a Member the abuse of which in another Life will lie very heavy upon lest Souls The Rich Man complained that his Tongue in chief was tormented Father Abraham says he send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my Tongue Whereby we are advised that the Damned suffer torments proportionable to their offences as this wicked wretch suffered four exceeding terrible The first of Flames which covered him all over from the Feet unto the Head I am tormented in this flame because of the vanity of the soft and purple Garments wherewith he had been cloathed The second of his Tongue which as it was the Instrument of his Gluttony Intemperance and Talkativeness so was it burnt in the fire and tormented with most terrible Hunger and enraged Thirst The third of Envy seeing by revelation the comfortable and blessed Lott of Lazarus of whom he durst demand nothing but of Abraham The fourth of Contempt and Dereliction of every one in chastisement of his cruelty for which he found no mercy at the hands of Abraham not affording him the drop of Water which he requested because he had denied those crumbs of Bread which fell from his Table to poor Lazarus nor did he deserve mercy who shewd none Whether there be a Material Fire in Hell I cannot positively determine yet there are two Reasons to be given which fairly argue that there is The First is Our Blessed Saviours discoursing of the pains of Hell not only terms them weeping and wailing
we come to dye we forrowfully discover that we are nothing the better for these mighty helps not a whit qualified for the enjoyment of God no more than if we never heard of a Gospel or Jesus Christ Then it will enrage us against our selves that from the hopes of Heaven we have precipitated our selves into a desparate state and for the gratification of a foolish lust have plunged our selves into the Ocean of misery It is therefore necessary that now I proceed in the last place to draw some Practical Inferences from what has been said and then close my Discourse And here First Will it 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 let then the consideration of this warn us from slighting mis-using and neglecting these priviledges and happy advantages and lay a necessity upon us to joyn our own endeavours with these means that they may be a favour of life to us Neither the eminence of a fair and ingenuous Education nor the honour of being a Member of the Christian Church nor an open acknowledgment of its Institutions will be of any avail unless they work together by our own studious industry to the reforming of our lives correcting of our ruder passions and the reducing us to the evennesses of vertue and a good disposition Doubtless there are a great many in the Regions of despair and sorrow who had godly Parents and the advantage of a liberal Education were baptized into the Church of Christ and made an ample profession of its Doctrines and Truths Their torment is so far from being lessened because of these priviledges that it is infinitely enhaunced and aggravated as sadly remembring how happy they might have been what means of Salvation are quite lost and thrown away upon them It will not so much be the enquiry in the day of Judgment whether we were baptized as whether we have lived up to the Rule of God's word He is not a Jew who is one outwardly neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh but he is a Jew which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart in the Spirit and not in the letter whose praise is not of men but of God says St. Paul Rom. 2.28 29. Thou mayest go down into Hell with the water of baptism in thy fore-head with the name of God in thy mouth for he is not affected with the ceremonial without the internal part of Religion Bodily worship separate from the concurrence of the heart he terms Impudent and bare-faced Hypocrisie as he speaks concerning the Oral Worship of the Pharisees Matth. 15.8 9. This people draweth nigh unto me with their Mouth and honoureth me with their lips but their heart is far from me and in vain do they worship me Tho' thou speakest with the tongue of Men and Angels though thou hast the gift of Prophecy and understandest all Mysteries and all Knowledge and though thou hadst all Faith so that thou couldst remove Mountains though thou bestowedst all thy goods to feed the poor and though thou givest thy body to be burned yet if thou doest not truly love God if thou art not conformable in Will and Affection to his Will and Law all this will profit thee nothing 1 Cor. 13.1 2 c. It must be a renewed mind estranged from the lusts and vanities of the world a new birth a life of grace and faith that will intitle us Heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven and qualifie us for the society of Angels and beatified Spirits Secondly And is there no commerce or intercourse between glorified and damned Spirits The consideration of this should engage us to honour esteem reverence and kindly treat the Saints of God in this life To love them for their piety to converse with them for their example to be thankful to them for the many devout prayers they put up to God for our Reformation and Salvation to vindicate and justifie them against all the cavils slanders and reproaches of unreasonable and heady Men. How do they evidence their respect to us in fasting and praying in weeping and sighing and expostulating with God to avert his Judgments we deserve and bless us by pardoning of our sins and crowning us with Glory hereafter Let not a good man's poverty be a motion to contemn him for though he want the Accommodations of this life yet he is a chosen Heir to the Kingdom of Heaven and remember the good Offices he daily does for us If he be hungry feed him if he be thirsty give him drink if he be naked cloath him if he be sick minister to his infirmity if in prison visit him with comfortable refreshment For he that giveth to drink to one of these little ones a cup of cold water in the name of a Disciple shall in no wise lose his reward Matth. 10.42 It is a sad consideration that goodness shall not be preferred before riches that wealth must take place before piety What will that avail thee when thou art bidding adieu to the pleasures of earth and preparing to make thy personal appearance before the Judgment-seat of Christ Thou must bring nothing there but thy vertues or thy vices the Judge is no respecter of persons If thou be condemned there is nothing to prevent the execution of that irreversible sentence Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Poverty is honourable because Christ our Head chose to be poor and to despise that is to fling dirt into his face and reproach him from whom we expect eternal life Therefore how mean soever the Servants of God appear in this World how scanty soever their portion be let us respect them and do them all the kind Offices we can then at the last and final reckoning they will appear for us and declare the special acts of civility the tender compassionate services we have done them the respect and fingular regard we had for them and the generous treatments we exercise towards them then in the face of the whole world shall the Judge pronounce Come ye blessed Children of my Father receive a Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the World For I was hungry and ye gave me meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was naked and ye cloathed me I was a stranger and ye took me in I was sick and in prison and ye came unto me for as much as ye have done it unto the least of these my Brethren ye have done it unto me Thirdly and Finally We knowing the terrours of the Lord let us be prevailed with to consider our present State to be perfectly acquainted with our selves how we have spent the former part of our lives
not withstand the force of such a Miracle wrought for their Reformation No says Abraham If they will not believe Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead And now I proceed to make some special application of the whole and then conclude And here First We learn the danger of refusing to be reformed by the publick and standing revelation of God's Will that we become so de perately hardened that nothing else no not a Miracle would have any influence upon us because we dis-believe that Word which is so well attested by Moses and the Prophets by Jesus Christ and his Apostles and the blood of Martyrs and an Apparition doth not carry along with it such a rational Conviction Besides we have already heard how many ways the force of an argument drawn from ones appearance from the dead may be evaded but now none of these pretences can be made against the evidence of a standing revelation so well attested and confirmed by Miracles Signs and Wonders It is the fond and vain fancy of some that if they had lived in our Saviours time and had seen him work Miracles restore the Lame and Paralytick raise the Dead to Life open the Eyes of those that never saw and the like or if they had seen him hanging on the Cross in a great agony and giving up the Ghost or if they had seen him after his Resurrection they should certainly have been Converted and become eminently holy Persons What a gross illusion is this If now they will not be reformed by the Motives of the Gospel which in time was faithfully penned by the Evangelists who both knew and conversed with our Saviour heard his Sermons and saw those mighty Wonders that he wrought who were Witnesses of his Resurrection and held Conferences with him after he rose from the Dead I say if they will not be reformed by the Writings of the Evangelists neither would they if they had lived in the days of our Saviour Again some wait for the powerful influences of the Blessed Spirit that is sin on till God shall please to turn their hearts Wherefore look they for any other means than the Rule of the Scriptures which though indeed they are not absolutely converting without the assistance of Divine Grace yet they are in order to it And we know not any who prize and venerate the Word of God make it their constant study and earnest desire to believe the Propositions and live up to the Rule of Life therein prescribed but are enabled and wonderfully assisted in their pious endeavours And if Men are void of Grace it is because they make not a right use of the written VVord which bids them ask and they shall receive to seek and they shall find to knock and it shall be opened which bids them humbly to read and search and in them they shall find eternal life It is Mens wilfully shutting their Eyes and hardening their Hearts against the knowledge of the truth which makes them so little benefited by the Gospel Secondly From what has been said we learn how guilty and inexcusable they are who still continue in Insidelity or are vicious in their Lives and Conversations notwithstanding the goodness of God in vouchsafing them the light and liberty of the Gospel What will these kind of Men be able to plead for themselves when they are by the sound of the last Trump summoned to Judgment Will they vainly pretend that the Word of God was not influential enough or the Motives used therein too weak to work upon them Their own Hearts will confute them and too plainly manifest their own stubbornness How faithless or perverse soever Men be in this life yet in the other they will be more slexible and believing and to their own shame confess that God Almighty did all that became such a Being to make them happy that nothing was left undone or that was necessary to convince their Reason and Understanding but it was their petulant follies obstinate perversenesses and treacherous infidelities presumptuously shutting their eyes and hardening their hearts which were the cause of their unhappiness How will the Rich Man and his five Brethren rise up in Judgment against such Infidels They would not believe Moses and the Prophets but these would not believe neither Moses nor the Prophets nor Jesus Christ nor his Apostles The Pagans Turks and the rest of those ignorant People whom Moses never watered with the Dew of Heavenly Doctrine will rise up in Judgment against them who having no more knowledge of their Creator than they learn from the Book of Nature live more morally than many of us do Certainly such Men have no thought how they shall be able to stand before the Son of Man when he comes to Judgment they do not consider what it is to appear before the tremendous Bar of Justice unprepared there to give an Account of the Sins of a whole Life and not one of them repented of To appear before an earthly Judge in a bad Cause and to be too well convinced that there are Witnesses enough to condemn us this is Matter of great Trouble and Concern and makes a Man very uneasie But to appear before the Judge of Judges who sits upon eternal Life and Death as a Malefactor who lived and died so and to have the glorious Company of the Apostles the goodly Fellowship of the Prophets and the noble Army of Martyrs a great Cloud of Witnesses against us is infinitely more furprising and terrible And O the great Condemnation of those who have a long time lived under the sound and preaching of the Gospel and have had the tenders of Salvation again and again offered to them It had been better for them if they had never been born it shall be much more tolerable in the day of Judgment for the Sodomites and Sidonians than for them To conclude As we hope to fare well when Jesus Christ comes to Judge the World as we would that he should say unto us Well done good and faithful Servants enter ye into the Joy of your Lord Let us be all convinced by the publick and standing Revelation of God's Will that is by the Gospel of Jesus Christ So when he who is our Life shall appear we also shall appear with him in Glory Now to God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost be given all Honour Praise Thanksgiving and Obedience now henceforth and for evermore Amen FINIS There is lately Published by Mr. Stevens the Author of this Book viz. A Narrative of the extraordinary Penitence of Robert Maynard who was Condemned for the murder of John Stockton late Victualler in Grub-street and Executed at Tyburn May 4. Together with several Conserences held with him in Newgate As also a Copy of the Paper which he left to be published after his Death Printed for John Dunton at the Raven in Jewen-street Price 6d Books lately printed for John Dunton THE
perfect and promulge the intent and meaning of his Laws that we might not be be-wildred in Fancies and Illusions grovel in the Dark and perish in Ignorance If notwithstanding this Pharos or great Illuminary which would light and guide us to Heaven's Gates we still wander and stray from the Truth expecting a miraculous Revelation that God will convert us by some other means which we have no warrant for nor have the least reason to suppose we shall be grosly deceived and obstinately plunge our selves into remediless Ruine he having appointed no other means for our Conviction Conversion and Salvation than his Holy Word which he has commissioned his Ministers to preach and propagate And thus much may suffice for the first thing which I proposed to speak to namely That the Word of God is the only Means appointed to convert and bring us to the enjoyment of him Which is the Argument Abraham urges to the rich Man to excuse the grant of his request That Lazarus might be sent to his Brethren to testifie unto them No they have Moses and the Prophets the appointed means for Salvation let them give heed to them It is but in vain for them to expect extraordinary Revelations and for you to desire them From hence I proceed to the second general Thing namely Secondly That it is too plain an argument of a seared Heart and strong Infidelity when the Word of God doth not take place convince Men of their Sins and happily bring them from under the power of Satan unto God And this Abraham implies in his Answer to the rich Man Thy Brethren have Moses and the Prophets who are sufficient to reclaim and work a reformation in them unless their Heart be like an Adamant stubborn and impenetrable For their Commission is immediately from God and that which they preach is by his special Inspiration St. Paul asserts Heb. 4.12 That the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit that is it is convincing and influential of mighty force and sagacity active and searching Now it evidently follows that Men must be prodigiously hardened and arrived to a very high pitch of Infidelity when this quickening and converting Word of God loseth its Vertue and seems no more than an idle Tale to them For no more it is in effect while Men continue in sin and live secure and thoughtless under the sound and preaching of it The Eunuch who had but a small sense of God as he was journying accidentally pitching upon Isai 53.7 where he read He was led as a Sheep to the slaughter and like a Lamb dumb before his Shearers so he opened not his Mouth In his humiliation his judgment was taken away and who shall declare his generation For his life is taken from the Earth Being affected with the Expression asketh Philip of whom the Prophet spake Philip answered Of Jesus and preaching him to him and the necessity of being admitted into his Fold he seeing a large Pool saith What doth hinder me to be baptized And Philip said If thou believest thou maist He answered I do believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and was immediately baptized Acts 8. from 30 to 39. Of such Force and Energy is the Word of God when it is read with Care heard with Attention and received into a flexible and unprejudiced Heart While St. Peter was Expounding and preaching the Scriptures about three thousand Souls at once were converted from Judaisin and made eminent Proselites of the holy Jesus Acts 2.41 While St. Paul was preaching to Felix the Governor concerning Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come the Text saith he fell a trembling Acts 24.25 The Word preached searched him to the bottom and filled him with a sense of his own guilt it dictated to him that he was the Man tho' his own perverseness defeated its healing Operation upon him It is Mens infidelity and stubbornness of Heart which they have contracted by customary sinning which choaks the Word that it becometh unfruitful Or otherwise could they read and hear God speaking to them to break off their Sins and exert new and vertuous Habits beseeching and intreating them to be wise for themselves that God who can every moment by an invisible and irresistable Power revenge himself on disobedient Man and send him roaring into the infernal Pit I say could Men live under the constant sound of the Word of God and yet remain unconvinced and unaffected unless they were seared against Reproof and impregnable to good Advice did a Man absolutely without any reserve believe that God will certainly punish all proud Contemners of his Laws that his threatnings without any respect of Persons will be executed upon every one that shall be found in Rebellion against him would he think you dare to love his Sins and spend his time in vain Sports and Pastimes Would he not rather presently bethink himself change his mind and resolve to be conformable in Action and Affection to the Word of Truth Did a Man fear God as he ought which implies a belief in him in the construction of the Scriptures he would dread his displeasure and prudently withdraw himself from those Vices which will incur it As a Man fears thee so is thy displeasure says the Psalmist Psalm 90.11 Or more plainly according as Mens Thoughts are of God so are their Lives And from hence we may without being censured as uncharitable conclude whether Men revere or contemn God by the general course of their Actions It is an andeniable Argument of a profound love belief and fear of God when a Man makes the Scripture his Rule when he avoids those things it interdicts and chearfully doth those it commands As on the contrary when Men Swear blaspheme God and and his Religion Cheat Oppress Lye commit Adultery and the like and allow themselves herein with delight and complacency This is Proof beyond all contradiction that God is not in all their Thoughts that his Word is as a Cypher that they either conclude him a Being which does not disturb himself by taking cognizance of Things committed here below or if he does yet will not be so rigid to call them to Account and thus give themselves encouragement to follow their own Inventions and to sin without Concern or Thought And when once Men are deaf to the Calls of the Gospel despise its Promises and contemn its Threatnings when neither Moses nor the Prophets nor Christ Jesus nor his Substitutes can work upon them to renounce their Impieties and to order their Conversation as becomes Christians I say if these mighty Helps prove ineffectual it is is to be reasonably presumed that nothing besides no not an Angel from Heaven nor a damned Spirit from beneath could ever reach or have any influence upon them And thus much for the second Thng namely That it is too great an Argument of a seared Heart and strong
Infidelity when the Word of God doth not take place convince Men of their Sins and happily bring them from under the power of Satan unto God And now I proceed to draw some Inferences from the whole and so conclude And here First We learn what a mighty Privilege and Advantage we are partakers of that Almighty God should honour us sinful Creatures with the declaration of his Will the which is a guide to conduct us through cragged and uneven ways a glass to discover our nakedness the spots and stains upon our Souls that we may wipe them out by repentance and a new life and a Lamp to light us to Heaven We might still have been bewildered with foolish fancies and gross illusions have followed the ignis fatuus of our heady Minds and run violently into the Ocean of Misery if God who careth for us and highly values our good had not set out this great illuminary his Word to bring us back and call us from the destruction we were ignorantly posting to What an esteem and veneration ought we to have then for the Scriptures How dear should they be to us We cannot read and meditate on them too often we cannot be too wise for Heaven nor too much acquainted with our selves Our selves are a great Mystery which requires a good Judgment a discerning Spirit and a sagacious Mind to comprehend and the Scriputres mightily help us in the knowledge of our selves by them as one of the Fathers has it all Men may be amended the weak strengthened and the strong confirmed so that surely there are none who are enemies to the reading of God's Word but such as either be so ignorant that they know not how wholsom and salvisick it is or else be so sick that they loath and stomach at the most comfortable and adapt Medicines to heal their malady or so ungodly that they would with all persons might continue in blindness and gross ignorance of God and themselves It is a lamentable consideration that the Bible which treateth of Mens salvation and teacheth them how they may make sure of Heaven should be so much slighted as it is that Novels Romantick Hisicries and Pedantick Poetry all but human Wit and Invention should be read with such attention and curiosity with an eager appetite and a well-pleased fancy and the Word of God which hath brought light and immortality into the World hurried over and slovenly perused as if it were a dull sapless and heavy composition not worth Mens while to carry in their memories It will turn to a dismal after-reckoning when God shall judge the contemners and despisers of his Oracles when they shall be tried by that Word which now they disdain and the threatnings therein denounced which now they laugh at shall be put in full execution better they had never heard of a Gospel or a Jesus Christ better they had lived in some dark corner of the earth where the Sun of righteousness never shined Secondly If we hope and wish for the continuance of God's Word among us if we would that it may be a savour of life unto life to us in fine if we would have that righteousness wherein we must stand before the Son of Man when he comes attended with his mighty Angels to judge the World and to determine every Mans final state then it highly concerns us to put a separate value upon the Scriptures to read them as the Oracles of God to believe them as the contents of his Will concerning us and to order our Lives and Conversations according as they direct us To revere them as they bring the glad tidings of Salvation and to admire them as they contain wonderful expressions of the Divine Love to us They instruct us how to behave our selves in all conditions of Life If we are rich they counsel us to be humble meek and condescending to be indifferently affected with our Wealth that we may not be too much incumbered with cares fears and uneasie jealousies which disturb the Mind distract the Thoughts and make Men unapt for the Kingdom of Heaven If we be poor the Bible even improves and sweetens an adverse state by counselling us to cast all our care upon God who careth for us to put our confidence in him to present our Pravers to him who if he grant not those things we pray for yet some other he knows most suitable and convenient for us and at last will reward us with the felicities of his Kingdom for our faith patience and continuing in well-doing In fine the Bible has a Salve for every Sore Medicaments of all sorts it cures blindness of Heart weakness of Judgment the inconstancy of Faith and makes a Christian such a one as God would have him to be Is then this Book to be slighted and thrown by as useless Can Men be unwilling to peruse and meditate upon it or think their time ill spent in reading it Can they be better imployed than in acquainting themselves with God's Will and searching how they may fullfil it How they may pass through this troublesom and vexatious World blameless that they may commence a happy and blessed Eternity What can be compared with the Soul And what loss so irreparable as the loss of it Insomuch that our Saviour says What will it avail a Man if he had the Worlds wealth every thing that is great good and desirable in it and lose his Soul All that he has cannot make him satisfaction or repair his damage What therefore should be every Mans study so much as to provide for the after state of his Soul to read and ponder the ways and means he must use to prepare his Soul for the embraces of the Father of Spirits How melancholy soever Men may think it is to fill their Minds with the thoughts of Death Judgment and Eternity yet when they come to die they will earnestly wish themselves well provided for their Voyage into another World Let them therefore lose no time in health but read diligently meditate seriously and practise conscionably the Word of God which by Divine Grace and their own endeavours will make them wise unto Salvation Finally and to conclude As we are Christians let us have a special regard to God's Word and with the Psalmist hide it in our hearts that we may not sin against our Maker Let it be our Counsellor our Guide and Director that all our Actions Words and Thoughts may be pure and blameless And that we may thus order our steps let us pray as our Church O Blessed Lord who hast caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our Learning grant that we may in such-wise hear them read mark learn and inwardly digest them that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting Life which thou hast given us in thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with the Father and the ever Blessed Spirit be given all