would have all men to be saved it is true said he God would have all the Elect to be saved he would not have damn'd Reprobates to be saved I am one of that Number I know it for I willingly denyed Christ and I feel that he hardens me and will not suffer me to hope Being asked whether he did believe that Doctrine to be true for which he was accused before the Legate he aswered I did believe it when I denyed it but now I neither can believe that nor the Doctrine of the Roman Church I believe nothing I have no Faith no Trust no Hope I am a Reprobate like Cain or Judas who casting away all hope of mercy fell under despair and my Friends do me wrong that they suffer me not to go to the place of Unbelievers as I justly deserve The mercy of God said he is exceeding large and extends to all the Elect but not to me or any like me who are sealed to Wrath I tell you I deserve it my own Conscience condemns me what needeth any other Judge if Peter grieved and repented it was because Christ beheld him with a merciful Eye and in that he was pardoned it was not because he wept but because God was gracious to him but God respects not me and therefore I am a Reprobate I feel no Comfort can enter into my Heart there 's place only for Torments and Vexings of Spirit I tell you my Case is properly mine own no Man was ever in the like plight and therefore my Estate is fearful And then roaring out in bitterness of Spirit he said It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Some said with a whispering Voice that he was possessed he over-hearing it said Do ye doubt it I have a whole Legion of Devils that take up their dwelling in me and possess me as their own and justly too for I have denyed Christ Christ will not be denyed no not in a word and therefore it is enough in Heart I never denied him He said when asked that he knew there were worse far worse pains than those that he then suffered for the wicked shall rise to their Judgment but they shall not stand in Judgment this I tremble to think of yet I desire nothing more than that I might come to that place where I may be sure to feel the worst and to be freed from fear of worse to come Being bid to believe the Truths he had denied he replied I cannot God will not suffer me to believe them nor to trust in his mercy what would you have me to do I would but I cannot tho' I presently be burnt for it I find I can neither believe the Gospel nor trust in Gods Mercy I have sinned against the Holy Ghost and God by his immutable Decree hath bound me over to perpetual Punishment God will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardneth God hath taken away from me all power of Repentance and brings all my sins to remembrance and guilty of one guilty of all therefore it is no matter whether my sins be great or small few or many they are such that Christs Blood nor the Mercy of God belongs not to me he hath hardened me I find that he daily more and more doth harden me and therefore I am without hope I feel it therefore cannot but despair I tell you there was never such a Monster as I am never was any man alive a spectacle of such exceeding Misery I know that Justification is to be expected by Christ and I have denyed and abjured it to the end I might keep my frail Life from Adversity and my Children from Poverty and now behold how bitter my Life is to me and God only knows what will become of this my Family but sure no good is likely to betide it but worse and worse and such at length as one stone shall not be left upon another Said he The Spirit of God often admonished me when at Cittadella I did as it were set my Seal the Spirit of God often suggested to me Do not write Spira do not Seal yet I resisted the Holy Ghost and did both and at that very time I did evidently feel a wound inflicted my very will c. David was Elected and dearly Beloved and tho' he fell yet God took not utterly away his holy Spirit and therefore was heard when he prayed Lord take not thy holy Spirit from me But I am in another Case being for ever accursed from the presence of God neither can I pray as he did because the Holy Spirit is quite gone and cannot be recalled O that I might feel but the least sense of the Love of God to me tho' but for one small moment as I now feel his heavy Wrath that burns like Torments of Hell within me and afflicts my Conscience with pangs unutterable Very Desperation is Hell it self you perswade me to believe how fain would I do it but I cannot Then violently grasping his Hands together and raising himself Behold said he I am strong yet by little and little I decay and consume and my Servants would fain preserve this weary Life but at length the Will of God must be done and I shall perish miserably I see said he my Damnation and I know my remedy is only in Christ yet I cannot set my self to take hold of him Such are the Punishments of the Damned they repent of their loss of Heaven they cannot amend their ways Now also Belzebub comes to his Banquet you shall see my End and in me an Example to many of the Justice and Judgment of God What Hell can be worse than Desparation or what greater Punishment than the gnawing worm and unquenchable Fire Horror Confusion and which is worse than all Desparation it self continually tortures me and now I count my present-Estate worse than if my Soul were separated from my Body and were with Judas and the rest of the damned therefore I desire to be there rather than alive in the Body God hath taken Faith from me and left me other common Gifts for my deeper Condemnation by how much the more I remember what I had and hear others discourse of what they have by so much the more is my Torment in that I know what I want and there is no way to be relieved Thus spake he the Tears trickling down professing that his Pangs were such as that the Damned in Hell endure not the like Misery That his Estate was worse than that of Cain or Judas and therefore he desired to dye yet Behold said he the Scriptures are accomplished in me They shall desire to dye and Death shall fly from them SOME PASSAGES Of the Fearful Estate of John Child MR. John Child was a Preacher and when he was young a very zealous Asserter of the Doctrine of Gods Free-Grace Namely of Personal Election and of the Saints final Perseverance and was a
not a little of it but a River this serves so Illustriously to set it forth that as one hints as some of the Ancient Fathers expressed it if one of the damned might pass out of Hell flames into the fiercest fires here it were to exchange a torment for a refreshment Fifthly It will be intolerable because the punishment of Hell is to satisfie Divine Justice to pay the just Debt owing to God for the breach of his holy Law true because sin is an infinite wrong and the Creature is but finite they can never pay the Debt nor make a satisfaction for the injury done to God therefore they must suffer eternally they are always a paying but can never fully pay what they owe Justice requiring the utmost farthing Nothing can surely set forth the dismalness of their torment more than this Oh take a view of Divine Wrath in the sufferings of our Blessed Saviour when he stood in our stead and was to satisfie for the Sins of all the Elect how did it bring him down prostrate to the ground and made him sweat great drops of blood and to Cry out My Soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto Death Tho' he was God as well as Man and had the Strength of the infinite Deity to support him Ah Sirs this wrath laid upon finite Creatures will sink them down to the lowest Hell and grind them to Powder Sixthly It will be Wrath-amazing and very terrible Wrath because it will seize on the Soul of the Sinner it will put the Soul into the fire The Soul hath been the chief sinner here and therefore shall be the chief sufferer in those Regions of Sorrow and how unsupportable is that Wrath which is let out on the Soul or Spirit of man you have had a taste in Spira and Child If Sirs a spark of Divine Displeasure when it falls upon the guilty Conscience tears it to pieces what will be those floods of Divine Wrath poured forth in Hell on the Souls of Men and Women who can stand here whilst in this World before an Angry God or encounter with Offended Omnipotency such is the sharpness of his Sword the heaviness of his Rod when laid on by the hand of his Wrath that every stroak is deadly and no doubt Satan greatens the wounds on the Conscience he charges the guilt upon their Spirits with all the Soul-killing aggravations and strives to hide Divine Mercy and Rob the Soul of the precious Blood of Christ the only lenitive and choice balm to heal a wounded Spirit O what visions of horror what sence of fear and perplexity were presented to the distressed minds of these two miserable Creatures before mentioned the guilty Conscience turns all Joy into Sorrow all Light into Darkness the sweet Promises of the Gospel that assure of favour and pardon to believing Sinners afford no relief but are turned into arguments of Despair by reflecting on their former Iniquities and abuse of Mercies so that Christ himself they see is become their Accuser Whatever the wounded Sinner sees and hears saith a worthy Minister afflicts him whatever he thinks of torments him all the diversions in the World Business Pleasures Merry Conversations Comedies are as ineffectual to give him freedom from those stings and furies in his breasts as the sprinkling of holy Water is to expel the Devil from a possessed Person those who in their Pride and Jollity have despised serious Religion either as a fond Transport and Extasie or a dull Melancholly and Dejection about the Soul c. yet when God has set their sins with all their killing circumstances before their Eyes how changed how confounded are they at that apparition how restless in the dreadful expectation of the doom that attends them But alas alas what is internal Wrath let out on the Soul in Hell as he notes for the Aprehensions of the Soul will be enlarged and their spirits work with the quickest activity Here tho' they have no hope at present yet they know not what God may do in a moment to turn their Sorrow into Joy and their Night into Noon-day here are many things to divert their thoughts and they meet with some intermission of their horror and perplexity as Mr. Child intimated but in Hell there 's none of this Seventhly It will be intolerable misery because it shall be Torments on the Body and Soul too not on the Soul only but on both O it will be a dismal Meeting when they two old Companions meet together at the last day I mean the miserable Soul and Body of a wicked man at the Resurrection and hear the dolesom Sentence Go ye cursed Spira and Child had diteful Sorrow and Anguish in their Souls but their Bodies were not much tormented they both being in a state of Health as to the outward man but the fire of Gods Wrath will extend to and seize upon the Body as well as on the Soul in that day every Faculty of the Soul and Member of the Body which have been Instruments of Sin shall then be in Pain and under fearful Torture and Misery Now the Spirit of a man may support or sustain his bodily Infirmities and Afflictions but in Hell the Spirit cannot afford any Relief to the Body because it cannot sustain its own misery both must and shall suffer Eighthly All the Perplexing Passions and Faculties will then be let out upon the wicked beyond whatever they have been here whilst in this World 1. The Conscience in a fearful manner shall torment the damned May we not conclude Conscience will terrifie them after this manner O thou Wretch what a God hast thou lost who is a most infinite suitable seasonable and a Soul-satisfying Good what a Christ art thou deprived of who died for poor Sinners how often did he knock at thy Door calling upon thee intreating thee to let him in who stood with his Arms spread open to embrace all that came to him and what a Heaven and endless Joy hast thou contemned and this for one base Lust for bruitish Pleasure for a moment for a little Earthly Profit and sinful Honour How didst thou hearken to thy vile Companions and close in with them rather than adhere to me who accused thee for thy cursed Evils thou wouldst not mind those Checks and Lashes thou hadst from me in thy Bosom did not I tell thee what thy Pride thy Lying thy Swearing thy Whoreing thy Theft thy Cheating thy Covetousness and Cruelty to the Poor or Unmercifulness thy Neglect of the means of Grace and of Gospel or Christian Duties thy Hardness of Heart thy Unbelief thy Hypocrisie and Formality would bring thee to in the End This is the gnawing Worm that dyeth not O how fearfully will Conscience terrifie and torment the Soul of the Damned then now it is Blinded Misled Deceived may be seared with a hot Iron but then it will be throughly awakened and all Vails taken off it will lay unmerciful
Christ and to live godly Lives that so they may never feel Gods eternal Wrath the Hearts of Men can more easily conceive of the Torments of Hell than of the Joys of Heaven And as it may be of use by way of Information so also by way of Terror and that to many sorts of Persons 1. Tremble ye wordly Professors who have earthly Spirits that set your Hearts on things below and neither cloath the Naked nor feed the Hungry Weep and howl for the misery that shall come upon you ye have heaped Treasure together against the last day how will your Folly gall your Consciences when you lye in Hell-Torments whilst you heap up Gold and Silver in your Bags and Chests you heap up Wrath against the last day Remember what Christ says unto you And these shall go away into everlasting punishment What will your Profession signifie if you love the World above God which be sure you do if you see a Brother or Sister in want and do not give them such things that they need Remember Mr. Child I have made this World saith he my God 2. Tremble you proud and vain-glorious Persons Pride cryes poor Mr. Child hath undone me The Proud and all that do wickedly shall be as stubble and the day that comes shall burn them up Will you glory in your Riches Honours Gifts Knowledge or any thing you have will you not be reclaimed to throw off your God-provoking Fashions whatsoever comes of it but plead to uphold your Lusts and Vanity tho' the Name of God be dishonoured and Religion brought into Contempt and the Godly grieved 3. Tremble you vain young Men and Women who forget your Creator in the days of your Youth that secretly resolve your own Hearts shall choose your ways who will seed your carnal Appetites and wanton Desires and will run on in wicked Courses let Ministers say what they will Godly Parents say what they will yet you will swear lye be drunk commit Uncleanness O know as you feed your Lusts here and that burns in you so shall Hell feed on you and that fire like Chaff burn you up hereafter Will a few merry Hours with your filthy Companions make a compensation for the loss of your precious and immortal Souls Are you willing to suffer the Wrath of God for ever rather than to forgo your vain and wicked Courses 4. Tremble ye that harbour Atheistical Thoughts in your Hearts and are ready to think or hope there is no God O how soon may you feel him within you by his terrible Wrath as Mr. Child in bitterness of Soul cryed out 5. Tremble ye Lyars that love to make a lye for you shall have your portion in the Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death 6. Tremble ye who are light and frothy persons also you that are Back-biters Busie-bodys that vilifie and reproach the Servants of God out of Malice and Prejudice you will be as Chaff that shall burn in Hell for ever 7. Tremble all ye that slight Christ and his Gospel and neglect those convictions you have either of Sin or Duty and that slight all serious thoughts of Eternity or how things will go with you in another World and who stiffle your Consciences or turn a deaf ear to it's rebukes God may awaken you er'e long in his Wrath and tear you to pieces when there is none to deliver you 8. Tremble all ye Hypocrites whose Hearts condemn you for harbouring some Sin or another in your bosoms who are not what you seem to be but strive to cover your vileness under a cloak of a visible Profession Fearfulness will soon surprize you Who amongst us shall dwell with devouring fire who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burning Hell is that place that is prepared for Hypocrites and Unbelievers It seems by the word of our Blessed Saviour that they above all are in a dangerous Estate and shall not escape eternal burning 9. Tremble ye Apostates ye who have backsliden from God O fear lest God let out his Wrath upon you here and it burn within you whilst you are alive in the body and if it prove a final Apostacy Wo be to you as ever you were born then there remains no more sacrifice for sin but a certain fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery indignation that shall devour the adversaries Exhort O Repent Repent haste to Christ believe on him 1. Motive The God of mercy exercises much Patience towards poor Sinners O how doth he wait O how willing is he they should be saved and not come into the place of Torment 2. He tells you what your End will be if you believe not if you accept not his Son fly not for Refuge to take hold of Jesus Christ if ye believe not in Christ ye shall dye in your sins that is you shall be damned for ever He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned He sets out the Torments of the damued by the most amazing figures to move upon mens Spirits and work upon their Minds so that they being deterred from evil Practices may flee from the Wrath to come by laying hold on the hope set before them he gives warning before he strikes tells you of your danger Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish he that believeth on the son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see Life but the Wrath of God abideth on him the wicked shall be turned into Hell with all the Nations that forget God You may know how it will go with you at the last day if you hear but Gods warning-pieces in his Word Know ye not the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor effeminate Persons nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor Thieves nor Drunkards nor Extortioners c. Compared with Rev. 21. 8. 3. God calls nay cries to you sinners O ye simple ones why will ye love simplicity and fools hate knowledge turn ye at my reproof and behold I will pour out my spirit upon you c. 4. He gives sinners time and space to repent or a day of Grace O how unex cusable will he leave every ungodly man at the last day their destruction shall appear to be of themselves be sure God will be clear when he judges none shall have any thing to charge him with all mouths shall be stopped The man That wanted the Wedding-Garment was speechless 5. God hath sent his Son to die for Sinners God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life 6. He sends his Ministers to call you to invite you who tell you all things are now ready Sinners will your sinful Honours Riches or Pleasures