the Whale meet God is the Maker of them all and the same power went to the production of the least as greatest from him come winds and seasons and without him nothing is that is nor shall be that he wills not this is the sum of what we can reach to in the folio of Contemplation and practice for whatever helps Art Nature give us come far shorter of the utmost extent of Gods Works than the shortest ladder is short of the Heaven we see or the impurest soul of that better Heaven we hope for The best Meditation we can make is that of the Father Si tale Artificium qualis Artifex si tale est quod fecit qualis est quifecit If the courage of the Lion strength of the Elephant capacity of the Whale prudence of the Ant continence of the Dove If the world be so variously fitted with necessaries for delight support and exercise of man and his Nature so adapted to search into and blessed to find out and improve the secrets and several qualities of things creatures and continents in some proportion sutable to his being and Gods designment hath he not great cause to cry out with that Kingly Prophet Psal 139.14 19.1 O how fearfully and how wonderfully am I made for who can confess less then this The Heavens declare the glory of God and the Firmament shewes his handy Work But O man wander not too wildly in this wilderness wherein are beasts of Prey uncouth paths dismal upshots thine errand and end is to admire the works of God that thou maist do it is thy duty and Gods exact of thee so to do and thou thy selfe art a fair Text to such pious Meditations God created thee something of nothing a Man not a Toad a Christian not a Heathen of clear intellect not brutish of right shape not deformed and consider this calls for Gratitude God hath beautified thee with a bright Sun refreshed thee by a sweet gale of wind in thy sayls thou art at the wished Port supported by a miraculous hand of Providence he hath discovered to thee thy dangers conducted thee in thy way ministred to thy wants when others not less his nor less themselves then thou go mourning all the day long are on their duty John 5.4 waiting with the Cripple when the good Angel will come to their comfort but all in vain No Butter sticks on their bread their cake is dough as the Proverb is All is fruitless Remember the more thou receivest the more thou must return Cui plus datur ab illo plus exigitur in fine rather labour to improve wel that thou hast then to covet more to misuse it and abuse thy soul for God expects from all men as he sowes so to reap and thou art an Unthrift on his Bounty if thou returnest him not obedience and love who hath crowned thee with Honour and Plenty above thy fellowes But O man above all things Deut. 32.15 be not like Jesurun spurn not with the heel when thou art fat forget not the hand that feeds thee and the paps of Providence that suckle thee nor let thine hornes be exalted to worry and plague thy fellow servants of a lower Form then thou art This is not to be like God good gentle and nigh unto all those that call upon him but liker the servant in the Gospel Matth. 32.32 who took his fellow servant by the throat when he himself was forgiven by his Lord the greater Debt yea this is not to admire God but to reproach him as misgiving Power and Greatness and trusting it in the hands of those who by it prey upon not protect the Sheep This is not to admire the Works of God but to admire thy self and to sacrifice to thine own Ambition and inordinacy and so to dishonour God who commands Phil. 4.5 Our Moderation should be known to all men yea this is to be unworthy of Acquaintance with God who is Shepherd of his Sheep and delights in Lillyes things harmless and benigne and those that are not such shall do well to consider that of the Prophet Jer. 30.16 I will spoil the Spoiler and steer another course for the future even to emendation of life which brings up the rear of what God requires from those that wil be acquainted with him and calls for my next Meditation 5. Lastly Renovation of Life is a chief adjunct to Acquaintance with God Light and darkness Christ and Belial Dagon and the Ark do not agree new cloth and old garments sute not nor will generous Wine endure crazy bottles nor a Kingly mind brook the thatched cottage There is nothing more averse to the pure Nature of God then the impure life of a sinner his eye loathes his hand corrects his heart relucts his Word reproves his Spirit labours against it he cannot but call with a loud voice Jer. 44.4 Rom. 1.18 O do not that abominable thing which I hate and correct by revealing his wrath from Heaven against the ungodliness of men Till thou O man return to him by Repentance there is no peace with God to be hoped for no amity to be attained The means to gain God is to own thy self and to return to thy fathers love Luke 15.18 to weep over thy wandrings and to drown thy sins in penitent tears as did Mary Magdalen and Peter Then then only are we worthy to be friends of God when we are not profane as Esan but holy as Abraham not rude as Nimrod but meek as Moses not rebellious as Absolom but devout as David not treacherous as Judas but penitent as Peter not vexatious as Saul but couragious as Paul not embracing the world as did Demas but contemning it and our selves as ought the Disciple of Christ who must deny himselfe and take up the Cross This this is to be born again Mark 8.34 John 3.3 Ephes 4.23 Isai 1.16 Rom. 13.14 Ephes 5.11 Nichodemus his lesson this is to be renewed in the spirit of our minds this is to cease to do evil and learn to do well this is to put on the Lord Jesus and to take no thought for the flesh this is to have no fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness but rather to reprove them this is to put off the old man and to put on the new man Ephes 4. 22,24 which after God is created in Righteousnesse and true Holinesse this is to lay the burthen of our sins upon Christ and to take the beauty of Holiness from him this is to gain heavens amnesty to remove our sins far from us as the East is from the West and to cause them to come no more in remembrance before God yea this is to be throughly acquainted with God and to have him the souls Sun and Shield who will give Grace and Glory Psal 84.11 and withhold no good thing from it These are the bona notabilia which God keeps as the reward of Piety as his
mundifying Afflictions and external quassations are like thunder purgations to the air The Soul is never better then when out of the Sun-shine Then it gathers up its garments and crowds close to God Hos 5.15 In their afflictions they will seek me early Nor have the wicked prosperity and peace in peace Aliquando sub hilari vultn tristis animus Solomon tels us Pro. 14.13 Dan. 5.5 In the midst of laughter the heart is sorrowfull sometimes there is an hand on the wall a red Crosse of Gods displeasure on the fronts of our peace There is peace peace and no peace Midas his misery Erysickthons thirst a coveting eye and a nauseating stomack a grand estate and a penurious soul Eccles 6.2 here is the evil under the Sun Solomon speaks of Sometimes prosperity and peace as Riches is given to the hurt of the Owners Eccles 5.3 sometimes there is denyed somewhat with it for which it is appetible as Heires Health Friends Gen. 15.2 Prov. 10.22 and ever there is denyed to wicked men Gods blessing on it which brings no sorrow with nor after it the absence of which causeth the dregs in the bottom of all worldly peace to worldly minds for it makes them cry out of Prosperity as captived Craesus did of Solon O Solon Solon had I hearkned to thy premonitions I had never been so unprovided for bonds and captivity Of these then that which the Apostle sayes of the Unchaste widdow is most true they are dead when they live 1 Tim. 5.6 But to the Godly it is far otherwise their peace outward is ever sanctified not as to the present use of it for they may faint in the Sunshine they may be lifted up through abundance of Revelation but as to the Sacred end and ultimate result of it God shall turn this by the Sacred Chymistry of Omnipotency into Good Rom. 8.28 This is within the pale of All things work together for good to them that love God Away then thou Accuser of the Brethren avoid thou Tempter to Evil and thou Mortar Piece of Divine Fury Satan Away yee children of Darkness who hate those of Light because your deeds are evil forbear your tauntings of those whom the Lord hath smitten justifie not those whose Iniquitous Ballances have made themselves onely weighty and all others too light the Standard of Justice is coming round Dan. 5.25 your doom is Mene tekel Vpharsin the glory of your forged Sanctimony is defaced God will humble the pride of men and polish his rusted Saints by the arising beams of the Sun of Righteousness The Churches Soveraigne is at hand and though his first coming was in humilitie his next will be in glorie to ride in triumph over all feigned Piety and to set these Goats of Lust and Rage on his lest hand Lift up O holy ones your heads Your Redemption draws nigh Hee that dyed for you will owne you and expects you should owne him in preserving his seamlesse coat from rents and in keeping unity of Spirit though there be difference of Language Peace be O holy souls to you the peace of this world not by its gifts but by Donation of him who hath subjected all things prepare your selves by holy love to deal out your Riches to those that want freely ye receive freely give O far be it from you to give vinegar and gall to your brethren since your Father in Heaven gives you the generous liquor of Love and bids you do as you would be done by Take your fils of the waters of outward plenty Marah is cured the bitterness of death is past Christ hath by his Cross so crucified the worâ—d to you that it is now become your Vassal not your Lord remember there is the portion of Peace annexed to Acquaintance with God So do and so have But is this all are the grains of allowance only in Externals Is my Carcass more worthy then my Soul What shall be done to that animula blandula 2 Pet. 1.4 which is after a sort Partaker of the DIVINE Nature is there no accrewment to that Doth God take care of Sparrowes and of the haires of our heads and is there no provision made for that which is the Nightingale of Eternity Surely yes two for one the double portion for this first-born One portion respects its conjunction here with the body and the other its separation from and glorification with the body in Heaven the first in Grace the second in Glory the first in via the Comfort and Peace of a good Conscience and the latter and better in Patria of a good God in a glorious Kingdom Heaven 2 Peace Internal not Physical sans Palpitation of the Heart sans exclamation of the Passions or their crowing shrils in the brain but peace Metaphysical the peace of God in the brest of man God as it were incarnate sitting on the Tribunal of a Mortal Judicatory Now the winter is past the stormes are over the singing of birds is come the voice of the Turtle of the Primum Mobile is heard O Extatick Elamire O Seraphick Ela O Note stept aside from the Quire of Angels to entice our Admirations Doth God dwell with man can these houses of clay contain him that is whatever is Infinite and Incomprehensible which he is Be thou O Lord with my pen and let it be thine Instrument to decipher this which is so rare which is whatever Nature can aspire to value Peace of Conscience a Jewel which abates not price a child of light admired in all Ages Persons Countries sought after when not had cherished where possessed deplored when lost whom Patriarks Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors Christians valued and to which they peered nothing Peace of conscience the Salt that seasons Mirth sweetens Sorrow and the Plummet that sounds the bottom of every coast and discovers Shipwrack and safety Peace of Conscience the Touchstone of our innocency the probate of our Zeal the Furnace of our Charity for then only can we love God and our Neighbor when his love is shed abroad in our hearts by his holy Spirit who works this peace in us Peace of Conscience that Phenix nest made up of the Perfumes of Graces out of which expiring rises peace of Eternitie Peace of Conscience heaven on earth glory in weakness light in obscuritie Abrahams bosom in Lazarus sores Peace of Conscience Goshen in Egypt Gods Segullah to the Alchimy of the worlds Admirables the fat kine of holy serenity that by a miraculous transposition swallow up all the lean kine of worldly cares and confounds the wisdom of secular interests Peace of Conscience the Lily of the vallies in which Christ nestles the Rose of Sharon on which the Sun of Righteousness smiles to which Solomons bravery is but Beggery and Herods oratory but babling Peace of Conscience compared with which Balm of Gilead is but like the trifling Compound of a Quack Salve and the Gold of Ophir but as dross
evil one From his Power 1 Pet. 5.8 Ephes 6.11 as the Lion that goes about seeking whom he may devour From his Policy for we know his Methods his pious Fraudes his Scriptum ests his Lamblike Angellick manifestations 2 Cor. 11.14 Matth. 24.24 his transformations into shews of Light and external sanctity and all to deceive if possible the very Elect. From his Agents who Ape-like act his part to much perfection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make Merchandise of Faith and a good Conscience care not what they do to make Proselytes and pervert souls This crafty Policrates Satan 2 Pet. 2.3 moves every stone to his advantage and hath flags of all colours to hang out for our surprize he hath Instruments that with the Zeal of old Arsenius seem to forsake their Countries and Fortunes to devote themselves to God his Luciferians that come in the vests of innocency but inwardly are ravening wolves having the poison of Asps under their tongues Matth. 7.15 and the rancour of Divels in their hearts whom Christ commands us to beware of Mat. 10.17 He hath his Artemova's that have such convicting deportments that they lead men which way they list by their suaviloquius charmes and compleasant influences his Pharisees that swallow downe Widowes houses in the hollow of long Prayers that are all to all men that they might reduce all men to be nothing to any but themselves his Saduces that deny Resurrection Angels Spirit but what is theirs those they cry up as Ocular execrating all that are not of their party and cry not Grace Grace to this Apollyon of their designing Lord what a Gallamaufry of Frauds hath this great Engineere on foot How is he furnished to deceive who hath not only the tongues and pens of many men Learned but lying Wonders and miraculous Artifices at his service But we know his methods and may see this Apicius gaping to devour all contented with nothing but ruine and disorder though he cry out with Jehu Behold my Zeal And it were well if men would try the spirits that now are abroad for Satan is often a Lying spirit in the mouth of Prophets and a Prophecying spirit in the mouth of Lyers and if he durst mingle himself with the Sons of God when they came before him of old may he not now be well mistrusted Job 1.6 though he quote Scripture with the zeal of a Seraphim and in the meetings of Christians pray and speak with notable evidence he who durst appear before Christ with Scripture abused to his own purpose Matth. 4.6 dare do the like to Christians whose weakness is more opportune to his Conquest He is that Evil one who in his whites is a Divel of Deceit in his blacks a Divel of Malice in his Crimsons a Divel of blood a Divel in all shapes actions senses and happy is it for us that we know his Methods And Agents not men of triffling talents who need vulgar helps to make them eminent but men of great parts noble wits yea often noted lives speaking to wonder writing to amazement living to envy and example the Leaders of Israel sometimes caused them to err The Priests divined a falsehood Isai 9.16 the Divel of Sauls heart in Samuels flesh as it were is potent enough to misguide millions O Lord what a Progress hath the mystery of iniquity made when the Serpent stings the Dove to death Religion becomes politized What an Egypt will Canaan be when Mannah is exchanged for Garlick and Onions when the Screech Owl extrudes the Turtle and that be upon us which the Jewes feared John 11.48 The Romane come and take away our Religion and I pray God not our place and Nation Is not this evil of the Divels designing Is not the hand of hells Joab Satan in it but the sword of the Lord and of his Gideon Christ Jesus shall prevent this though none stand in the gap no Moses intercedes no Phineas executes Judgment yet this Plague shall cease God for his own namesake will turn those Locusts the Jesuits back to their quarters and make their Design as a red sea to bury themselves in The Thumbs of these Adonibezeks shall be cut off the Pride and Policy of these Absoloms become their ruines So let all thine enemies perish O Lord. Well we have a sight of Satan in his power and agents now see him in his Policy and end which is to cut off Samsons locks to destroy the Males of Israel to ruine all the Smithes and Forges by which our Spiritual weapons should be edged to oppose him and defend our selves against his assaults thus did the Philistims of old to Israel 1 Sam. 13.9 But I hope God will turne this Wisdom into Folly and this Babel of Hope into a Babel of Defeat yea I will bespeak these Gates of Hell to give way to the Rock of Ages and to Christ the Corner stone who is with his Church to the end of the world and I will pray that the iniquity of their hearts may be forgiven them who hate the Church of England without a cause and endeavour to subvert the Religion of it against Scripture that asserts it And now is not custody from this evil an unspeakable Blessing Is it not as rain to the parched grass and ought we not to receive this Mercy with the joy of Harvest Is it not a serious collect which deprecates Satans success while he with Herod acts a Tragedy on Innocents and labours to steal away the Babe Christ out of his mothers lap the Church his mother the Church not to rob the blessed Virgin of her Crown All Generations call her Blessed because she bare his body in her womb but to right the Church against her Rival the Synagogue of Satan which disowns her and seeks Christ out of her who spiritually is only formed in her from which evil and the infatuation of it good Lord deliver us This is the first Evil Satan from which the Peace of God shields us the next is from Sin like father like child a chip of the old block a branch of that Lye which was from the beginning From sin the evil of inquination that which defiles the man defaces Gods image passes an eternal exile twixt the soul and him for he hath no fellowship with unfruitful works of Darkness His eye is on them that are upright but he cutteth off the wicked from the earth and rooteth out the Transgressors Prov. 2. ult From sin the Evil of Angels for because of folly beheld in them they were cast from Heaven 1 Pet. 2.4 Isai 30 33. the evil of Kings and great men for whom Tophet is prepared of old Sin the evil of men of low degree sin the evil of all 1 John 5.19 for the whole world greaneth under it and lies in it From sin the eyes grief prevailed against Eve Gen. 3.6 6 6. by that against the sons of God of
the old world Sin the hearts ake thus in Saint Paul crying out Rom 7.24 Psal 39.1 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Sin the feets snare against which David cautions I said I wil take heed to my ways Sin the tongues temptation to speak unadvisedly Sin the Catholick Cross to all that are crucified with Christ and mystical members of him Sin the breach of Gods Law the grief of his Spirit the price of his Son the torment of his Combatant and the triumph of his Crowned ones Sin the Monster of Paradise for there it was plotted the first born of life for therein it is acted the plague of this world on whose Stage it is attyred and thence maturated Sin something of nothing a tumourous bubble of pestilent pride scorching Lust and empty vanity evaporating in nothing but the Lust of the flesh Lust of the eye and the Pride of life Sin an evil inward in the thought outward in the act upward against God whom it contemnes and downward against earth whom it burthens and all to gratifie him who is Prince of the Air and rules in the hearts of the Children of disobedience Sin against the Creation whom it disorders against Redemption which it frustrates against Sanctification which it defies against Preservation which it contradicts against Salvation which it abjures Sin against which as the greatest evil God protests to prevent which Angels watch to recal from which the Spirit sollicites to direct how to avoid which the word is positive against which to practise the holy men of all ages are presidents yea to expiate which the blood of Christ the Lamb of God was shed and his soul for it made an Offering What shall I say more against this which is so dishonourable to God and ought to be execrable to his people but in the words of Moses Cursed be he that continues not in all the words of the Law to do them that is who desires not to give sin the foil by a contrary and constant course of virtue according to the will of God in his Word and the assistance he hath from God in this Race to complete this resolution for without that we can do nothing Wel then to be helped from this evil is a mercy a consequent of Gods peace with the soul that is clear from the Prophet Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace or neerer the Original in peace peace whose heart is stayed on thee because hee trusteth in thee He. O holy soul that keepeth thee never slumbereth his eye is on thy feet to keep them He keepeth the feet of his Saints saith Hannah On thine eye to hinder thy lust on thy hand to prevent thy cruelty on thy tongue to suspend thine obscenity on thy whole man to keep thee from sin that it raign not in this mortal body of thine He was with Noah in the Ark to keep him from despair of out-living the Floud which drowned the world with Moses in the wilderness to preserve him from disbanding his rude multitude whom God designed for Canaan and inclining him to bear the petulancies of popularities rather then chuse the contents of a private retirement He was with David in his flights from Saul and fights with Philistims And kept him from desponding upon assurance of a Kingdom for his reward He was with Jeremy in the Dungeon and with Jonah in the Whales belly to sweeten straights to his and to make them more pure in their enlargements He was with Peters tongue converting thousands at a Sermon and making his pride do pennance where it offended yea weep out its own retraction He was with Paul by grace sufficient for him when he saw the messenger of Satan tempted him by abundant revelations to be lifted up above measure In the fire he is with his and in the water he is with his yea with you O holy souls he is alwayes to the end of the world With you O holy souls to keep you in all your wayes to secure you in all your dangers to resolve you in all your doubts to support you under all your sufferings and with you to deliver you out of them With you as a Sun to enlighten as a shelld to defend as an Anchor to rest on as a Pilot to guide you and as a Champion to overcome your feares With you to keep you in your Race that you faint not and with you to reward you with fulness of joy in his presence This is second to the former priviledge the peace of God keeps from Evil. 1. Satan 2. Sin The third Viol is not yet past but behind that is Sorrow and Sufferings those it also preserves against not that they dash not on us but that they overwhelm us not not that they come not nigh but that they come not over us to overcome us Christ in the Ship priviledgeth not from tossing but drowning I will not fear the ranting Seas if my rebuking Saviour whose voice those waves and winds obey be embarqued with me Mistake not O holy soules your Lesson it is the voice of your Beloved that sayes In the world yee shall have Tribulation Job 16. last the Cross is your Saviours Sheep-mark and those that are of his flock brook his Eare mark their ear must not refuse the Tryal Christs side had if that was pierced they must expect like measure and those that will not follow him in the Regeneration have little cause to conclude him theirs in his Kingdome What O man wilt thou with thy Saviour wear the Crown of Glory and refuse that other of Thornes with him Wilt thou be acclamated for a Co-heir a King and Priest with Christ and not be spit upon and derided with him here Wilt thou drink the new wine with him in his Kingdom and decline the Vinegar and Gall here given him Dost thou hope to be drawn up after him and not resolve here to tread the Wine-press of wrath to endure the contradiction of sinners with him If this thou lookest for thou art on thy wander far from thy Mark thou art of the rich young mans pack who would keep Christ and his Wealth too or no Christ Cresianus es non Christianus there is one thing necessary which thou needest Deny thyself take up the Cross and follow Christ to Mount Calvary before thou come to Mount Zion And O that this Meditation were but canon with many such Zelots as Julian was who grasp Power and worldly greatness with as eager tallons as Lions and Panthers do Lambs and Infants and think they never have enough till they have too much Mammon for Christ to cohabit with These are they that are Saints as Peter was a Penitent after many denyals and perjuries not Saints because penitent as was he whom a Cock wakened when these stop their eares against good counsel and harden their hearts against reproof yea hate him that reproveth in the Gate These are they who
love Christ when he is with those in Princes Courts cloathed in soft Rayment sat in Royal Apparel on the Throne when the people cry him up but when he is traduced when in the High Priests Hall when trampled upon then they are gone like Summer birds in Winter they are all for a Pompous Reign on earth before that more glorious Reign in Heaven and therefore they will secure themselves by might and main against all danger and diminution here Do these consider Christ had never been glorious but by sufferings nor the Church been victorious but by the red Cross How much of holy Writ do these men make Apocryphal while they entail external prosperity to Saintship and think none worthy to live but those who look upon the Cross as a curse servile supplicium What think they of those words of the Lord Jesus In the world yee Who my holy Apostles as pure Saints as any such none excepted nay to whom compared those are but as Jewish Sepulchers shall have affliction not be afflicted but have affliction in the Abstract there shall be a kind of connaturality betwixt you and affliction What judge they of Saint Pauls peremptory position All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shal suffer persecution What of Saint Peters prediction of fiery Tryals and Encouragements to prepare for them Nay what of our Saviours Benediction on those that suffer for Righteousness sake Are these Tales and Figments Are these Legends and Foysts Are these Lillies of his field not to be compared to the Solomons of their fancy in all his Royalty I trow there is no man so fond but sees self more set up then Christ in this Pageant for take away sufferings and where is Faith where Charity where Martyrdome nay where is or to what purpose that animative reference of the Holy Ghost displaying Christ glorious in witnessing a good confession before Pentius Pilate his Judg who could wash his hand and protest Christs innocency and yet durst not deliver him from the rage of the multitude No wonder they cry down Scripture and Fathers and Church Stories who cry up such wild excentrick worldly subtilties for Religion and own Christ with their mouthes as the Jewes did him on the Cross only the more to reproach him Well let these stray from the fold as wildly as they will it is thy part O holy foul to keep close to thy colours Voti tunc Curistianis crat pro Christi nomine gladio percuti S. Hieâ—on in vita Pauli Eremitae de Temp. Decii Christ looketh thou shouldst not only he ready to own but of need be to dyefor him thou must expect sorrows perhaps not such as with Spira will make thee despair turn thy back on Gon as Ephraim did in the day of Battel but such as may exercise thy Grace correct thine out-goings mind thee of thine end admonish thee of thy duty rouze thee to get thine Evidence ready to make thy Calling and Election sure and by a holy end prepare thee for a blessed Exchange The Promise is to be secure not exempt not that yee shall not to be assaulted but not be overcome not that ye shall not be chastned but that ye shall not be condemned not that evils shall not come neer you but that they shall not domineer over you not that ye shall not be buâ—fetted by Satan but that Divine Grace shal be sufficient for you The Peace of God gained by Acquaintance with him is no plea of prescription against trouble and evil but this it doth it modifies evil so that it comes not noxiously neer a godly man as it is evil so it s kept at distance as it is a Mark of Divine love as it is a voice to reclaim as it is commanded to be Gods Monitor to us so we must welcome it as did David It is good for me that I was afflicted and pray for it as preventive Physick that keeps us from Plethorick Distempers Many men may thank God for their crosses without which they had never come to Heaven there is a most notable Story in the Legend of a blind woman who besought Saint Bridget to give her sight the Saint so called at her intreaty Quo presentor sum mundo co absenâ—ior sum Christo did and when she had seen four dages she desired Saint Bridget that she would take away her sight again adding this for reason The more I see of the world the less am I conversant with Christ 4. Lastly The peace in Acquaintance with God will keep thee from thr Evil of Evils Death eternal God suffers not his to fall into that pit out of which there is no redemption His as they have no part in the sin of the Damned so shall they not partake in the torment of the Damned 'T is not Go ye Blessed but Go ye Cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Divel and his Angels And indeed this is the Mercy of Mercies this is one part of the Recompence of Vertue and Godly life that it shall not only have comfort in seeing God gloriously waving the Banner of love over it but becoming its Guard to Heaven and nullifying Satans attempts on it this is that in which the mercy of God shines as at noon tide and comfortably exalts its self above Justice as that which crowns God and renders him Beloved and admired of all that know him But perhaps O man thou art curious to know what this Death Eternal is This is a vanity and if thou beware not may be the vexation of thy spirit but if thou wouldest ken the scantling of it our blessed Lord hath defined it to be utter darkness Matth. 8.12 where is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth it is exile from God and judgment to the society of damned spirits for ever Death Eternal what is it not that is absolute tristicity it is a living death and a dying life it is the wages of sin the sentence of Justice the utmost period of Plagues a most exquisite misery a most Merciless Torment an Eternal Passion Eternal Death it is misery to the eye for it shall not see God it is a worm gnawing on the heart for it shall consider the evil it hath done for which is inflicted that evil it suffereth it is a vexation to the senses which to augment the tortures of their condition shal be renewed and made more sensible it is an excess which shall never have end but be eternally what it is and impossible to be what it is not Death Eternal it is the region of Blasphemy the Caldron of Nimrods Nero's Judasses those chambers of ruine into which they descend who desert God by sin and are deserted by God in just Judgment Death Eternal it is a gulfe without bottom a doom beyond ransome a fire that burnes and is never extinguished and a restless craver never satisfied What shall I say other then that of the Psalmist Remember this yee that frrget