greater then Solomon means when he saith This is eternall life that men know thee the onely true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent It is not the knowledge of quickes and John 17. 3. quiddities foolish frivolous frothy phrases but such knowledge as he wished to Jerusalem with weeping eyes when he said unto her O if thou hadst knowne in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace that is to say seasonable knowledge in this thy day and reasonable knowledge the things that belong Luke 9. 41. to thy peace For the second he must see that it be feeling knowledge such knowledge as is experimentall and so more excellent knowledge then Satan hath for Sathan can read that which is written Rom. 8. 1. There is no damnation to them that be in Christ in the third person but he cannot say in the first person as it followeth verse 2. The Law of the Spirit of life hath freed me from the law of sinne and death No that is the proper priviledge the peculiar prerogative of him that must not be damned that can say We speake what we know as he said by whom we are saved from the wrath to come 1 Thess 1. 10. and of whom it is also said in respect of his felt experience forasmuch as he was tempted he is able to succour those that are tempted Heb. 2. 18. For the third that knowledge which is breathed by that Spirit by which we are sealed to the day of Redemption from endlesse torments is a feebling knowledge such a knowledge as makes a man humble nothing lesse and worse nothing in his owne eyes and apprehension It is contrary to the common knowledge which the Apostle saith We all have and whereof he speaks as followeth Knowledge puffeth up 1 Cor. 8. It is a knowledge of God and our selves how glorious and gracious he is great in himselfe good to us how grievous we are to him by our continuall sinnes and iniquities and what unspeakable unsufferable torments are prepared for us if we live and lye in them It makes a man cry out with Isaiah Woe to me I am undone for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of hosts Isai 6. For from both these sorts of knowledge the knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves slows and follows exceeding humility a faithfull free and full casting down a man to the dust of the earth and a lovely lowly laying on a mans soul the due desert of being cast down to the dungeon of hell It makes a man say with sobs and sorrow my breath is exceeding unsavoury I have righteously rightly merited to be thrown to that fire of hell which the breath of the Lord c. Now then let us search our souls if we hope to escape hell because we thinke we have knowledge whether it be the knowledge of fundamentall truths or foundation tenents and whether we feel the power of it in working faith in the Lord the giver of it and love to him and to that word by which as by an instrument he conveigheth it and whether we can say from the force of the same feeling that the Lord is our God who will keep us from the lake of fire whatsoever becomes of those who doe not put their trust in him because they doe not know his name as the Prophet David delivers it And finally whether our faith which is thus ushered in by knowledge be attended by that humility which bends and birds us to praise the Lord and please him in all things with selfe deniall for freeing us from this Tophet this place of terrible torments If it be such knowledge alas I know the most are without it though alas and alas they doe not know it you must know this also that you must not quake when you heare of hell and how terribly tormenting it is But if you have no knowledge of God at all or have onely such as all have who professe the paths of piety if it be such as is superficiall onely and puffe you up with pride and presumption then know that you have no knowledge none worth the having none worth the heeding for of such there can be no hearting If the Breath that blessed wind which bloweth where it listeth doth not breath on you doe not blesse you before you die this naturall death you must then dye eternally goe to hell be thrown to the fire which the breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone kindleth it But that you may either be comforted or convinced concerning your ignorance it is fit to follow you further in the matter of disobedience And because our time is short and you would take it ill at his hands who should take you of disobedience I will confine my speech herein to three Characters of true Obedience Know therefore that that obedience which will help from hell as being indeed obedience and not a shadow not a shew of it is 1. Glewing 2. Groning 3. Growing For the first true obedience is glewing it gleweth or tyeth together as all the ends why we must work Glory of God thankfulnesse to Christ evidence for heaven escaping of hell credit profit each in his order So it glueth the commandements themselves aimeth at one as well as another though most at those which the Lord most earnestly enjoyneth and which it finds and feels it self most backward to goe about He that said thou shalt not commit Adultery saith the sonne of thunder said also thou shalt not kill James 2. 11. Now then whosoever shall kill doth and delights in any soul-killing sinne though he doth not commit Adulterie or doth any other evil act or action as fire as he is a transgressour of the Law whiles he lives so sure shall he when he dieth if he doe not repent before he dyeth be thrown to those fiery flames which the broath of the Lord c. 2. That obedience which secureth from death and damnation is a groning obedience that is to say they that have it doe not onely doe their duties hereafter but also take a purge or potion of bitter sighings sobs and sorrows for omitting former duties neglected or contemned and doing things contrary to the commandement of the living Creatour loving Redeemer O this this is the fount the very foundation of all Apostasie and so at last of all tortures and torments Men and women say to their sinnes as those men said to our Saviour when they besought him to depart their coasts because by his coming they lost their swine as they supposed But they doe not receive a potion for their formerly drunk in poyson some for carnall love to their Landlords leave some sinnes though they doe not loath them some for feare of their friends and famillars doe such duties as they doe not delight in many for many ends doe many things which may not be blamed but are commanded yea and commanded unto their practise by patterns and promises as well as
Bs. 1. Beleeve 2. Beware 3. Bewaile First carry the honey of this instruction and exhortation First the word bids us Beleeve thus S. Paul said to the Jaylor who put him and his fellow in the inner prison when he Acts 16. had a commission to put them in prison that Jaylor after his putting them in the inward prison was himselfe put in the inmost prison his very soul was set in the stocks he was afraid of the flames of hell and cryed out in the anguish thereof even to those whom he had misused Sirs what must I doe to bee saved O how how shall I doe I fear the terrible torments of hell what course must I take to escape them To this Paul answers as I doe to those of you if there are any here among you in the like case Beleeve in the Lord Iesus and then shall be saved from that lake of fire and brimstone which otherwise will destroy and devoure thee sinke thee swallow thee in for ever And I from this very ground call upon you to cleave the clouds to work wonders to reach the right hand of that Majesty on high passing by all the Apostles and Angels and there to single out him who is all in all with God to become all in all to us to apprehend him for your owne Saviour to apply him to your owne souls to take downe his person his passion his promises to make him your owne by the lively saith of Gods Elect. And I beseech you O ye who have soules and have a Saviour who shed his blood to redeeme those precious souls doe not despair for any of your sinnes be they never so many millions be they never such mighty mountains I cannot stand to shew you the order which God useth in working faith in you How first he tells you that it is possible and then probable that God will pardon you after fears falling in in the middest and after a while will say to you sweedy your faith hath saved you your sins are forgiven you But this I say to you that there is such infinite mercy in God and such infinite merits in Christ that if you can but beleeve in him and the Lord looke upon you to make you able to say hold on him you shall surely be saved from hell you shall not be over whelmed with those extreme everlasting torments shall not be cast to the fiery flames which the breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone kindles Secondly for there is no time to tell you how you must attaine to that Beleeving namely by hearing the word of God which is able to save your souls I say secondly if you would Rom. 10. James 1. escape the everlasting terrible torments you must Beware that you walk in the way which the Saints and the Saviour trod in So saith Iohn when he saw the Pharisees seek to avoid the wrath to come Bring forth fruits saith he unto them when their Consciences cryed against them and set the torments of hell Matth 3. before them Bring forth fruits fit for amendment saith he and begin not to say in your selves we have Abraham to our father And doe not you I beseech you dream that you can stop the cry of hell in your Consciences by any foolish frivolous fig-leaves or if you could so curb and crush them that yet you are able to avoid that brimstone by pleading Pedegrees pretending prerogatives No there is no way but one with you if ye walk not the way of fruitfulnesse be not carefull conscionable circumspect in all Conversation in all acts of Christianity Though it be Christ even Christ alone who hath freed us from hell and fitted us for heaven and for his sake shall all that be chosen be kept from those ever-burning flames yet it is they they alone none but they who are fruitfull as well as faithfull shall escape the lake of brimstone all the rest all that walk not warily worthily must be extremely and eternally hell-tormented That is the way and the means to escape those are the persons who must be preserved from that most terrible place of torments In that and after that men must fly from the wrath to come And therefore you must be such must be so fruitfull must bring forth fruits fit for a Christian calling if you would not be thrown to Tophet to that extremely tormenting fire of hell which the breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone kindles Thirdly whosoever of you would not be damned for ever and ever must look back with godly sorrow like those foure beasts in that fourth Chapter of Iohns Revelation who had Eyes behind as well as before on his former foolish false behaviour So saith Peter to those three thousand who when they had been pricked in their hearts frighted with feare of those fiery flames of hell feeling a kind of foretast of it in their very inwards cryed out what shall we doe with sighing soule and Acts 2. 37. 38. sorrowfull spirits Repent saith he be ye truely touched sincerely sweetly terrified troubled that ye were so proud and presumptuous that you duest provoke the mighty Jehovah who is able to tumble you down to hell to the place of torments Make your hearts bleed that your sinnes made him bleed who shed it to keep you from hells eternall flames And surely forgivenesse of sinnes and faith in Christ to conceive it and receive it without which to escaping of hell nothing at all but being extreamly eternally damned 〈◊〉 must be attained with any fruitfull force and feeling till a Converts soul become such an one as will suck it in and that it cannot be capable of till it be soked in brinish tears or bitterer terrours till is bee afraid of Tophet that so fearing it it might not feele that unquenchable fire of hell which the breath of the Lord as a river of brimstone kindles And these be the three Bs which have the honey These be the things which the sacred Scripture commends to such as have in their hearts wormwood and gall for feare of hells extreme eternalls when it counselleth them by comforting and comforteth them by counselling Now what the World would doe and that both lawfully and laudably if a noyse of fire should fright them we all know by much experience Suppose which the Lord keepe from you that there should be a noise of fire in your Towne what course would ye take for the quenching of it I know generally and negatively what you would doe that is to say what you would not doe for you world certainly hear mee no longer but would leave mee alone as they did Christ and his chosen vessel Paul and yet you should not for I would goe along with you remembring what is written I will have mercie and not sacrifice Hosea 6. 6. But what would you doe when you came to it and sought to quench it I suppose you would get three things 1. Company 2.
A Ladder 3. Water For the first you would get Company you would call upon one the other crying Fire fire fire fire save us from it help to quench it And O that you would do so directly for the saving of your soules for the preserving of you from those torments which are extreme and endure for ever O that you would get together that you would goe one to another that you aske one the other the question How doth your soule and How doth your soule O would you say to each other thus What say you neighbour to that which we heard to day Is it true that there is an hell and that there are such torments in it that they are so terrible so everlasting that they never shall end but abide for evermore O what what shall we doe what will you doe what shall I do I feare I shall even be damned in hell even in hell and that in such extremity and that for all eternity But me thinkes I heare some of you say to me I can finde in my heart to goe to his house but not to this house he is a Puritan but I tell you if there were a fire such a fire in your towne or houses there would no word at all of Puritan but all the noise would bee Neighbour neighbour fire fire helpe neighbour help And O that the thought of this fire which the breath of the Lord for ever kindleth would take away all hostilitle all carnall crooked conceit of enmity and make you joyn hearts heads and hands for the quenching of it so farre as concernes your escaping for the preserving of you from it as Saul was forced to depart from David when he was neare him at the mouth of the Cave to the end he might save his kingdome which the Philistines then had invaded O that you would walke and talk together like yet living creatures and now loving neighbours how you might escape hell the everlasting lake of fire and brimstone I assure you it would much availe you towards your freedome from the fiery flames which The breath of the Lord like a streame of brimstone doth kindle it Secondly if there were fire in your Towne and houses which the Lord evermore keep same from you you would immediately seeke a Ladder And O that if any among you be stuck to the heart and stung with this Sermon at the hearing of these unspeakable unquenchable flames of hell O that you would goe to your Minister Ministers are Ladders Iacobs Ladders reaching from earth to the height of heaven and say to him when your soules are sinking Sir be good to us helpe us beale us heave us up from the sinks of sorrow we see death ready to seize on us hell ready to swallow us utterly Thus did that Jaylor those Pharisies those Converts before mentioned they roated and ranne to their Preachers crying Acts 16. Mat. 3. Acts 2. What shall we doe to be saved But O alas we the Ministers of the Gospel grow greedy of filthy lucre waxer wanton in spending our time upon trifling novelties niceties because we want worke or purer employment are not at all enquired after concerning the sores of your soules the bellowings and breathings of them the blemishes and breathes in them where is there almost a man among millions who makes the mone for a man of God one of a thousand to whom he may cry for counsell when his Conscience is almost confounded But you O people who have pretious soules in you and which soules must surely be turned to Tophet if you be not turned topsie-turvie from blindnesse and badnesse to true Religion and holy Righteousnesse doe you that which the fewest number doe they are many and often mighty ones which walke in the way which drawes to destruction get you Ladders and get upon them make your Ministers minde their studies when they heare you pouring out your hearts and posing them and putting them often times to their prayers for more wisedome to resolve your doubtaind difficulties But chiefly ah doe it as you doe not desire to be damned goe speedily to those Ministers by whose work men must be saved when you heare of hels extremitie and are afraid that you shall fall in it They will not with the Watchmen smite you they will reare you restore you recover you they have more leasure and more learning then I have more time to doe the thing which will stop your soules from sinking and stirre them from despaire as well as securitie when Satan sets before you your due desert of eternall damnation Above all I desire and require you that if any thing hath been spoken in my two Sermons which puts any of you to your plunges and puzzles your soules by saying you must be damned that you enquire of some Embassadour of Jesus Christ whether it were true as well as terrible holy Doctrine as well as threatned deepe damnation And I for my part if any of my Brethren being a word for it will be ready to recall and recant it and shew you a softer way if there be any such in the blessed Bible to escape this flaming fire of Tophet which The breath of the Lord like a streame of brimstone doth kindle it The third thing that you would doe would be to cry Water water should the noise of Fire fire be heard among you which the Lord to his good pleasure keep far from you And O that this cry of Fire Fire this extremely tormenting fire this everlastingly tormenting fire would cause you to cry for a double Water and double your cry for it with single hearts and earnest spirits O that you would cry for the water of pardon for forgivenesse of sinnes for the washing of your soules through his bloud who came by Water and bloud not by water only but by water and bloud out of whose more then precious side came Water and bloud for the soules 1 Joh. 5. 6. even of Publicans most prophane ones of vicious villanous men or miscreants O that the feare of this quenchlesse fire would make you cry Lord have mercy upon us not as many try it without any sence of miserie and so without capability of mercy tossing and tumbling the Name of the Lord as I would be loath to have my name tossed crying Lord have mercy upon us Christ have mercy upon us Lord have mercy upon us in such haste and show of heat as if they meant to sell their Lords have mercy upon us for money and would get as many of them into their hands as they could to sell them hereafter Whereas if they thought of hell of its extreme and eternall torments it would make them with deliberation yea with the utmost of their devotion to cry Lord have mercy upon us we are else undone for ever O I say that the feare of this fire would make you cry Christ have mercy upon us and to continue so crying till your hearts he sprinkled
from an evill conscience and your bodies washed with pure water And I Heb. 10. 22 beseech you as you would not suffer these unspeakeable unquenchable flames doe as our Saviour bids and binds you that is to say Aske Seeke and Knock for that holy water Mat. 7. 7. and the Spirit without which he telleth and teacheth us that there is no comming to the glorious Kingdome and so by consequence no escaping of hell Aske earnestly and if no answer seeme to come Seeke more earnestly and if you heare no answer yet Knock most earnestly for the water of the Spirit to regenerate renew and restore you from the death of sinne and the danger of death eternall death and dreadfull damnation Yea I would Knock downe the gates of heaven why should not I doe a thing impossible to escape the lake of fire and brimstone at well as the Lord bids us doe a thing impossible to be free from eternall damnation saying Make Eze. 18. 31. you a new heart and a new spirit for why will ye die though he knoweth that we cannot move an hand towards making new hearts therfore promiseth by the same Prophet yea and that Eze. 11. 19 and 36. 26. once and again that he will give us new hearts and new spirits rather then feele the fury of God in the fiercenesse and fulnesse of it in that Tophet that place of torments that hell of hels which hath such fire in it that The breath of the Lord like a streame of brimstone doth kindle it And thus much be spoken to such as have hitherto abode in darkenesse by not thinking on the place of torments too much considering the time not halfe enough in regard of the thing you may now depart at your pleasure I having shewed you the case you are in and the course you must take to come out of it I have onely two words to speak now to you who have such knowledge and such obedience wrought with in you either before this day it some good and Christian perfection or on this day in the beginnings of it in the seeds or desires of it or sound preparations to it Now to you who are soundly wrought on and so are freed from those extreme everlasting torments I am to perswade with you 1. To praise the Lord for your owne mercy 2. To pitty others in their misery For the first of these as oft as you thinke on the extremitie and eternitie of the torments of hell it must make you one by one cry with the sweet Singer of Israel Psal 86. 12. 13. I will praise thee O Lord my God with all my heart and I will glorifie thy Name for evermore For great is thy mercy towards me and thou hast delivered my soule from the lowest hell And to provoke you to this duty of praise which when we come to heaven and shall see that we cannot to hell we shall continually be employed in and which we are so more backward to bring our hearts to whiles we are in earth let us briefly think on these things 1. First if our Graces be well grounded strongthned and stablished we shall be sure without peradventures that wee shall not be thrown to the lake of brimstone Revel 21. 7. 8. 2. If we had been dead only and revived recovered to life again yea if we had been but deadly sick and had been restored to health again we should say with good Hezekiah The living Isai 38. 19. the living they shall praise thee How much more are we bound to doe it at the freeing our souls from the place of torments 3. Consider how many millions nobler richer learneder then we are are left to themselves and their soules to Satan to be extremely eternally damned And God hath made choise of us filly simple wormes who were first Elected and then Selected and after Neglected of all meere morall men and often in our owne soules Dejected in our owne apprehensions 1 Cor. 1. 26. 27. 4. Consider how many times how many thousand times the God of heaven did call and cry to us and yet we refused and often resisted He sent not only his Son and after his Son his Word to reveale his Sonne but also his Spirit from Sabbath to Sabbath from Sermon to Sermon and still we withstood our owne escape our owne deliverance our own freedome from those flames which have none end or ease at all in them 5. He fetched us from it called culled converted our soules from it when we were loath to come out of hell loathest of all to come out of the way to it loather it may be some of us then ever in all our lives before O the Lord dealt with us as he did in fetching Lot from Sodome whiles we lingred hee laid hands on us the Lord being exceedingly mercifull to us saying Fly for your lives Escape towards the mountaine lest ye be consumed in the lake of fire and brimstone And the cause why we so contemned our owne mercy in that our misery was our ignorance our not knowing what case we were in our thinking our selves safe and in the way to the Kingdome of Heaven when alas we were almost in hell in the very path the very porch of it 6. And lastly that as he sent when we never sought pardon so he hath not only knockt off the bolts and bonds not onely freed us from hels most fierce and fiery flames but also fitted us in some measure for the wearing of Royall Crownes of Glory So that now we can think on hell without horrour without astonishment because we can say with Paul to his Thessalonians God hath not appointed us to wrath but to abâ—â—inâ— Salvation by Iesus Christ 1 Thess 5. 9. The thought of these things should fill us full of joy and comfort and make us breathe out holy praises and breake forth into blessing the blessed Majesty crying with Paul Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spirituall blessings in heavenly places in Ephes 1. 3. Christ According as he hath chosen us before the foundation of the world when he rejected millions of millions to be extremely eternally damned And with Peter Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy in freeing us from those torments which know neither end nor ease hath begotten us again to a lively hope of an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us 1 Pet. 1. 3. 4. And wherein we shall shine as the Sunne in the Kingdome of our Father when all the wicked of the world shall be cast into Matth. 13. 42. 43. that furnace of fire which The breath of the Lord like a streame of brimstone doth kindle it And thus much be spoken to you concerning your owne mercie Now a word of Information concerning others misery The Prophet Ieremie in one verse Ier.
20. 13. breaketh forth into this holy pang this heavenly passage Sing unto the Lord praise ye the Lord and in the very next verse unto it he breatheth forth this dolefull dismall out-cry Cursed be the day wherein I was born The Apostle Paul peradventure more proper and pat to our purpose when he had said I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height Rom. 8. 38. 39. nor depth nor any other creature shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord as looking on his owne most blessed condition being engrafted into the blessed body of Christ and endued with the blessed Spirit of Christ and so free from condemnation as it is in the 1. verse looking on his former familiars and friends and seeing them subject to death and damnation hath these words in the very next verse Rom. 9. 1. 2. 3. I say the truth in Christ I lie not my conscience also bearing me witnesse in the holy Ghost That I have great heavinesse and continuall sorrow in my heart For I could wish that my selfe were accursed from Christ for my brethren my kinsmen according to the flesh And surely sith the torments of hell are so unconceiveable so uncessable wee should after we have rejoyced and praised God for our owne deliverance grone and grieve for our carnall friends case and more then cursed condition But as that Paul when he had sighed and sobbed with remembrance of and respect to the terrible torments that they must be throwne to if they abode in their wicked wilfulnesse addeth in the 1. verse of the next Chapter his Prayer to that his Pitty saying Brethren my hearts desire Rom. 10. 1. and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved So must we not onely weepe and waile for feare of our friends damnation but also doe the best we can use our true and utmost endevour that such sinners may bee converted and so escape everlasting torments And though I could shew did not time take me off what speciall course fathers and mothers must take to help their children from hell and set it downe in divers particulars yet I will onely shew in grosse or generall termes what we are to doe even you people as well as wee Preachers for all that dwell about us and to whom we have any accesse toward their escaping that fire which The breath of the Lordlike a river of brimstone kindles And to passe by our holy walking with which wee may draw them to like that Word which is able to save our soule Jam. 1. 21. from that fearefull wrath to come And not to presse you to presse hardest by Exhortation when you receive most kindnesse from them Luke 10. Luke 11. Luke 14. O who would not endure any thing to keepe any one from wanting water who will not see us here want drinke but will provide before we petition nor to call on them to number their dayes which will make them to become wise if anything will and not rush on their owne deep destruction for dayes and yeares and ages past numbring Psal 90. 12. Nor to shew you who must be reproved and who must not be reproved which is not to be done in this time were it never so incident to the Text I will onely shew what rules every one must use in speaking to such as we are to speake to and that in these three words only namely you must use 1. Pietie 2. Pollicie 3. Pittie Concerning Pietie Yee must 1. Take the Word of Grace to them 2. Speake to the Throne of Grace for them In doing the first of these ye must do two things carefully 1. Bring with you the Lords Authoritie 2. Leave them with a possibilitie of mercy 1. For the first ye must be carefull that ye doe not vent or utter your owne words but the words of the living God to shew them their duly deserved damnation and its extremitie and eternitie Ye must shew them the words of the Lord in the very Chapter and verse as well as Booke And say How O how will ye answer in the dreadfull dayes of death and of doome these words which are the words which you must bee judged by What will you say when the Bookes shall be Joh. 12. 48. opened and this text be brought against you which telleth us that every one who lives and dies in the course you walke in must be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power when he comes to render vengeance in flaming fire what must the Lord teare out this leafe for love of you which saith as ye evidently see The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God must He be so farre enamored of you as for your sakes to be false of his Word who are so farre out of love with him that you hourely not onely transgresse but trample also under your feet his sacred Precepts saving Promises Surely this is the way to win them to worke upon them if there be any way to say with the Prophets and the Apostles Thus saith the Lord The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it and What I delivered to you I have received from the Lord. And I also that I may awake and affect you will follow the footsteps which I set before you and to my sixe Rules premised I will adde this as it were a seventh that is to say that what I have said they are not my words but the words of the Lord he was the Master I but the poore Messenger the words I meane which I have had in the present Discourse concerning Tophet or those torments or fiery flames of hell which The breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone kindles 2. For the second when ye have told them of the terrible torments due to them and almost at hand to swallow them up and sink them down to the bottomlesse pit ye must at length least they grow resolute and wickedly desperate crying past help past hope past cure past care Let us eate and drink for to morrow we shall dye Let us revell and riot we can but be damned I say ye must at length let them know that if they come in there is yet hope in Israel concerning this very matter Ezra 10. 2. Prov. 1. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. ye must give them to understand that Wisdome cryeth even to scorners yea to those who have long how long delighted in scorning yea let them know that she cryes not burne ye as we would imagine and would doe in the like case also But turne yee and after Behold I will poure my Spirit on you As I will pawne my precious soul that none of you all shall goe to Tophet if you yet repent and cleave to Christ following the rules set before you let your sinnes
and lives in time past be never so many never so wicked And be sure to put together what the Lord hath there conjoyned to make them readily receive mercy when the Lord in exceeding tender mercy tenders it Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched forth my hand and no man regarded I will laugh at your destruction and mock when your fear commeth when death beginneth to seize on you and hell begins to swallow you when you fall to that fearfull Tophet to that unmatchable unquenchable fire which The breath of the Lord as a river of brimstone kindles 2. But as you must take the word of grace when you do go to them so you must goe to the throne of grace before you goe to them Before you speak to them on Gods behalf speak to God on their behalf to blesse your councels and comforts to them And surely as those Ministers who following their masters footsteps use to pray in private before they preach in publick have the secrets of God reveald to them and exceedingly edifie and profit their people whereas they doe little good yea have their gifts and graces wither who make not their prayers in chambers before they meddle with Scriptures in Churches O 't is 't is the powring out the soul to God which makes a man speak with power to God So yee if in self-deniall ye cast down yourselves before the Lord and before his footstoole when you see a fit person a meet man or woman to worke on saying Lord thou hast hearts in thy hands and hast wisdome and words irresistable O tell mee shall I speak to him and if yea make me able to speak to him give me an heart and words of weight worth the speaking and give him grace to receive my warning from thee in deepest mercie from mee in dearest love O blesse them sweet father breath with them that they may help that precious soul from the lake of fire and brimstone thou hast freely given mee an heart to desire and seek their escaping hell But thou desirest and seekest it infinitely more then I or any man or all men who hast said and that as thou livest I desire not the death of Ezek. 18. the wicked O be with us be all to us in speaking hearing doing that the poore precious soul to whom I am now going may not goe to the fire of hell which the breath of the Lord as a river of brimstone kindles And thus of the Pietie which must be used in your helping poor neighbours from hell Now the Pollicie which must be used consisteth also in two particulars Ye must 1. Give them their own Commendations 2. Draw from them their owne Condemnation For the first of these ye must alwayes remember to observe what good thing they have in them or what they doe that is worthy of praise though it be but morally or civilly good towards the Church or the Common-wealth And be carefull to commend the good before ye begin to discover their danger or tell them what dreadfull damnation awaits them if they be not bettered before their deaths Thus not onely did Paul deale with his people of Corinth crying to them I commend you Brethren before he cryeth I commend you not when he speaks of their abuse of the sacred Supper wherein they drinke their owne damnation 1 Cor. 11. 2. But also our Lord sixe times in two Chapters together cryes thou hast done Rev. 2. and 3. Chapters these and these things well before he cryes I have somewha◠against thee And surely this will 〈…〉 all the wormewood and gall in the words though they favour never so strongly of extreme and eternall damnation This will make them clearly conceive that ye doe not vent any malice in anger when they see you as willing as ready to commend what is good as condemn the evil And as ye must reward any good in your children as well as correct them when they doe evil which correction is the way to keep them that they goe not to hell below as the wisest of men hath taught us seven times in his book of his Proverbs so let every man say to his neighbour in whom he sees any shew or shadow of good when he goeth to be a means to five him from hell Surely Sir I must commend you you governe well your wife and children I doe not see in them any loytering nor heart from any of them any swearing or lying you are carefull for them couvteous to us free of your purse full of honest hospitality But I must tell you that commending the good makes way opens the care to receive any thing from the commender that for all this you are not regenerate you know not what appertains to a sanctified heart which you must needs get before you dye or be sure to be damned when you dye had you more common gifts and graces then had Herod or Iehu or Iudas Yea sure you must soundly be converted truly touched and troubled for sinne or all your formall fairnesse cannot keep you from the unspeakable unquenchable flames which The breath of the Lord as a river of brimstone kindles 2. For the other of the acts of holy pollicie ye must make them condemne themselves by some pretty proper simile such as this is Say to him I pray you neighbour if your house were burning which God keep you from and you were fast asleep on a bed or your body like to be burned if you be not away and then if one should come by you and find you asleep in that danger ought he to a wake you yea or no must he awake you or let you be burned He cannot chuse but answer you ought or else you shew your selfe an enemy and then reply ye as the Prophet Nathan did to David Thou art the man to your selfe belongs the simile alas I see you asleep in your sinnes your soul and body both are about to be seized on by death and damnation And surely I should betray you if I should not awake you and shew you your danger Or suppose you were asleep and your body ready to be burned and two men should come by you and see it and the one of them should say to his fellow let him alone doe not awake him doe not stirre him for if you doe he will swear and storm raile and revile you with all vile and villanous reproches the other replies I fear not his anger I care not one jot for his raging and railing all my feare is that he will be burned all my care is that he be not burned Now which of these two was the truely mercifull truly pittifull man why as sure as the Lawyer said He was neighbour who shewed mercy as sure as Simon said He to whom he for gave much will love most So sure would he say to him that asked him such a question He was the mercifull man who awaked mee and he cruell who would not