Heaven won by Violence OR A TREATISE Upon MAT. 11.12 Compendiously containing very nigh The Whole BODY OF Practical DIVINITY And shewing VVhat a Sacred Violence is and how it must be used and offered in Believing Repenting and all the Duties of your High Calling Together with A New and Living Way of Dying upon Heb. 11.1 added thereunto By Christopher Jelinger And Published with the Dedications thereof by some Christian Friends London Printed in the Year 1665. To the Right Worshipful ANTHONY REEVE The Mayor And his Brethren The MAGISTRATES And to all the Inhabitants of the populous Town of TOTNES Mercy and Peace from God the Father and from our Lord Saviour Jesus Christ I Have been much sollicited earnestly written to to communicate these my Labours because when I preached them first at your Town it pleased God of his infinite Mercy thereby to convert a poor soul then present and one more elsewhere from Darkness to Light and from the power of Satan to God which hath occasioned the coming forth of this Treatise unto the publick view of the VVorld by a Friend whose desire it was to publish the same For who can tell whether it may not be the Beneplacit and will of God that more souls be thereby won to God The subject matter thereof you see is as apt as any by the good blessing of God to subject souls to the mighty Power of that VVord which here I hold forth and press to make you press toward the Mark for the Price of the High Calling of God in Christ Jesus to strive that you may enter into the narrow Way which leads to Life to offer a Sacred Violence to Heaven to your selves nay to God himself blessed for ever to take to win to get that great that glorious that spacious Kingdom of Heaven by Force forcing your selves to leave the VVorld to abandon Sin to fight against Satan and to lay hold on eternal Life O Sirs here is work for all your Town for all this Country for all England for all your dayes The Ancient of dayes so diffuse his holy Spirit into your hearts that you may all become men of another spirit labouring for Heaven Heaven is worth the striving the strugling the pains-taking which in this Treatise is required that you may be saved Townsmen commonly are more at leisure to listen to such a discourse as this is because they are not under such a pressure of worldly work as those are which mansion in the Country therefore I hope you wil afford some of your spare hours to read that Lecture which here is read from so precious a Scripture and that you will not put off these tenders of my Love and such a Theam as this is like that unwise King of Macedon who when one tendred unto him a Treatise tending to Immortality said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is I am not at leisure I beseech you Sirs by the Mercies of God in the Bowels of Christ Jesus that you will be serious once and set your selves in earnest to that great VVork which is here proposed working out your Salvation with fear trembling for your time runs out apace in the Glass of time and I have this confidence in you all 2 Cor. 2.3 that you would not willingly have the silver Cords of your lives broken before your hearts with sorrow for sin be broken nor would depart this evil world before ye depart from sin and have left the vanities of the world and gotten a sound assurance of an other better world nor yet cease to be retainers to the Sun created before ye be retainers to the Sun of Righteousness nor take your farewel of the Elements before you have bid farewel to this present life's Allurements And therefore why do ye linger why do ye not break away from Satan by force why do ye not once begin to have a low and abject esteem of this common way of existence this retaining to the Elements and become the Servants of Holiness why do ye not strive to be the Children of Light before ye cease to be maintained by the usury of light Usura Lucis why do ye not set all things apart to have your part in that holy taking of that great glorious Kingdom of Heaven by Violence I for my part when I take a full veiw and circle of my self do conceive that without this I am nothing my life nothing my performing of duties nothing Do you conceive so too and then be doing as wel as reading the things in this Book contained Nay my Beloved do this especially before ever you take this Treatise in hand to peruse it resolve to be Assaulters urgers Pressers Forcers of your selves and of Heaven by it but withal beg and pray before you read one line that upon your bended knees seriously and ardently that the great God of Heaven himself will write these lines in your hearts which I have written in this Book that you may do them O that you would hear me in this For how many Books have been read in vain without this This this must make this my labour of love auspicious your reading prosperous and your laudable endeavours salutiferous But I also my self will pray for you O my God bedew theresore these silent lines with thy Benediction so as that this populous Town of T may consider in this her day the things which belong to her peace and tend to immortality as they are tendered to it in this Book for all eternity So prayeth Your most humble Orator to the Throne of Grace Christopher Jelinger ORATIO SIVE POEMA Authoris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ad Jesum Christum Regem Coeli ac Terrae Potentissimum Dominum suum Clementissimum MAgno Nate Deo Magni Dominator Olympi Verbum subsistens et Patris ore potens Summum Sanctorum Caput Illustrissime Regum Qui Mundum fulcis Numine perpetuo Irrecitabiliter manans de Corde Parentis Quo Mundus sumpsit Principe Principium Ut Philomela suis attemperat Organa Cannis Fitque repercusso dulcior aura melo Sic mea Musa cupit te decantare per Orbem Terrarum totum Divitiasque tuas Non me linque ergo Rex Prestantissime Regnam Qui praesto es Sanctis dasque Salutis opem Sed me sustenta dextrae virtute potenti Quae fulcit Sanctos angelicosque Viros Et mihi Dux esto Cortus Cursumque per auras Dirigito in Caelos Christe beate Tuos Ut ceu constructura favos apis omnia linquens Floribus Instrepitans poplite mella rapit Sic rapere ipse queam Coelestia mella beatis Promissa in Coelis Optime Christe tuis Pierides Christo nune vestras dicite laudes Qui Sermo est Magni Progeniesque Dei Christo Cujus amor suavis mihi Crescit in horas Dicite sit semper Gratia Magnatibi Sit lans excellens celebris sit fama per Orbem Atque in perpetuum Gloria summa tibi
us and saile with us and go and take Heaven and take it freely or thus as I alleadged the words above Let him that is athirst come and whosoever will let him take the Water of Life freely and therefore how may we suppose that poor needy souls and such as have no money that is nothing of their own to stand upon Isa 55.1 2. and have any desires to be saved and to be so well seated and provided for will by God's blessing going with our preaching strive and stir and use all means possible to purchase such an estate and such a stately seat at so cheap and easie a rate going with us and going away from all that they have and from whatsoever is near and dear to them to be so near to God 3. Ground It cries up Zeal saying as it is written Enter ye at the strait Gate for wide is the Gate and broad is the Way that leads to Destruction and many there be which go in thereat because strait is the Gate and narrow is the Way which leads to Life and few there be that find it Mat. 7.13 14. And so run that you may obtain 1 Cor. 9.24 and be zealous and repent Rev. 3.19 which when it is earnestly powerfully preached and pressed upon a people and sounds into their ears so awakeneth their slumbering Consciences as that they cannot sleep as they were wont in their Pues nor be quiet but must needs stir and needs look about and begin with God's blessing to take the same course that Saints take that they may take Heaven it being with them then as it was with those dead dry bones in Ezekiel for as there when the Prophet prophesied There was a noise and behold a shaking and the bones came together bone to his bone ver 7. So here when God's Ministers prophesie and preach with power there usually will be a noise whereas before all was quiet one crying one thing another another and behold a shaking for such Ministers make Drunkards and Usurers and unclean persons and careless ones shake in their seats and then bone comes to his bone my meaning is this men come together crying and saying What shall we do to be saved as the Jaylor Acts 16.30 Again bone comes to his bone in that those which are out of joynt and out of order and out of the Body of Christ come to be restored joyned jointed united with God with Christ with Christians I mean good Christians that they may be saved or thus as when there is a fire in a house seen and cryed by night men will be startled at it and roused and raised so when the Fire of Zeal is kindled in God's House and cryed and seen by such as were asleep it being night and dark with them by reason of the darkness which is in them they must needs be awakened excited troubled like those in Acts 2.37 4. Ground It will take away the * For all men before they come to Christ are vailed us Rebecca before she came to Isaac Gen. 24.65 and like the Jews See 2 Cor. 3. 14 15 16. Vail which is over all mens faces in that it will make men see what they never saw by reason of that blindness and ignorance which was in them opening their eyes through the Knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Acts 26.18 by the plain and light-bringing Manifestation of the everlasting Gospel preached as it ought to be preached that all men that hear it may see clearly what they are and how it is with them and especially shewing them the Lord Christ with these or the like words Loc the fairest of all men Psal 45.2 or Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world John 1.29 which when poor sinners hear and see O how they are taken with it O how it works upon their spirits O how they begin to long to love to desire to be with the Father of spirits and how they be ravisht with the Beauties of Christ seeing what had not been shewen and told them so before and considering what they had not heard so before as it is written For that which had not been told them shall they see and that which they had not heard shall they consider Isa 52.15 5. Ground It takes away all excuses vain conceits and opinions which hinder the coming of Christ into their hearts for some will say that they cannot yet come to Christ to be saved by Christ either by reason of business or because they are intangled with a wife I mean Mistris Pleasure or Lust like those Luke 14.13 19 20. And besides these there are many in many places who have a conceit and opinion that they are come to Christ already and do beleive in Christ when they do not but are deceived by a mist or black †ibi oculus qui per nebulam aut aquam inspicit res metitur falso modo sic animus qui per opinionis nubem Lips de Const l 1. cap. 5. Cloud of confused knowledge and mistaken grounds now this is done away in Christ by a Christ-Preaching-Ministry which brings them to yea into Christ 2 Cor. 3.19 For this Ministry tells them that no such excuses pretences lets will serve to keep them from Jesus Christ who is better than Ground better than Cattel better than all the profits of all the world and is infinitely to be preferred before Wives Sons and Daughters for he can save us but they cannot so that he may better say the words of Elkanah than any man breathing or thing existing Am not I better to thee than Ten Sons and better than Ten Wives and better than Ten Livings nay better than Ten thousand Worlds if there were so many See 1 Sam. 1.8 Again saith this Ministry to take down their high Conceits and good Opinions of their present estates and conditions You are meerly deceived as those 2 Tim. 3.13 for you * As the Disciples took Christ to be a Spirit so they contrariwise take that evil spirit and his deceits to be Christ Mat. 14.26 take Satans delusions to be Christ and a temporary or dogmatical faith for saving Faith having your minds and consciences defiled and denying God in your deeds though you be Professors and because you are to every good work Reprobates as those who want that true saving Faith which is so far above your temporary and dogmatical Faith as Heaven is above the Earth Tit. 1.15 16. Moreover saith this Ministry to such as think that they are in the state of Salvation when they are all the while in the state of Hell and Damnation Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Effeminate nor Abusers of themselves with mankind nor Theeves nor â—…tous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor â—…tortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.9 10. and such are some of you And it come to pass saith this Ministry further if there be any
imbibed all this into their hearts and ears cut off all their members which they have upon earth Col. 3.5 I mean their dearest sins as Fornication Uncleanness inordinate affectiō evil concupiscence and Covetousness which is Idolatry and that they will go as far as their legs I mean the legs of Faith will carry them even so far as to the loving of their very enemies the giving of their bodies to be burnt the losing of their estates their ease their sinful and sensual delights and the incurring of the hatred of all their friends yea of all the world rather than go from Christ and go from Life and go from the World which is to come The uses of the point will be these 1. use will be one of Information Then how desirable must needs such a Ministry be You do all desire and covet to have such servants and workmen as do their work so faithfully so painfully and so well as that you may perceive and see your selves how much they do advance your estates on Earth and if so how much to be desired then is that painful and powerful Ministry which doth so labour to advance your spiritual estates and your soules that they may win Heaven We read John 5.4 that An Angel went down at a certain time into that Pool and troubled the waters and that whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of what disease soever he had and how much longed for the comming down of such an Angel was to the people then especially to the lame and to the blind and to the impotent and to the withered ver 3. I leave to you to judge Now every powerful and Christ-preaching-Minister is such an Angel so he comes into the Pulpit so he troubles the water making the Word which he preacheth to be troublesome to obstinate and impenitent sinners and so he causes it by God's blessing to become wholesome to many a poor creature that is blind or lame or impotent or withered which then and thereupon can and will being made whole and sound even offer a Sacred Violence to Heaven it self and strive to take it by force and therefore O how lovely O how amiable O how desirable O how much to be loved and longed for must needs be a powerful Christ-preaching-Ministry and those Gospel-Angels which come to us in the Name of the Lord O how welcome must they needs be to sin-sick and sin-lame souls though they trouble them a little first because they come with healing in their preaching and cure them at last and make them to make out for Heaven 2. Use is one of Exhortation Is it so Then 1. Encourage such a Ministry Quest How I answer 1. Hear it carefully as Mat. 3.5 they came from all parts to hear the Baptist preach even from Jerusalem and from Judea and all the regton round about Jordan So when such Johns teach let all the people that can come and hear them stirring up one another as those in Isaiah saying Come ye and let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord to the House of the God of Jacob and he will teach us his wayes for out of Zion shall go forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem Isa 2.3 2. Follow and do what such a Ministry teacheth according to that famous Scripture Jam 1.22 But be ye doers of the Word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves Mark deceiving your own selves so that you do but deceive your own souls when you but come and sit before us and do none of the things which are taught by us when you say What will this babler say when having heard us press the forwardness of the Saints ye will not live as Saints when having been told how ye must force Heaven ye mind nothing less than Heaven when after ye have drunk in our Sermons tending to Life and Glory ye will not so much as wag one foot nor stir at all that ye may drink in those ineffable Pleasures which flow and stream from Jehova's Face in the Kingdom of Glory And besides what encouragement do ye give us as long as ye regard our words no more than fables after they have been with all seriousness and sadness tenderness trueness earnestness and eagerness powerfulness and piercingness faithfulness and ferventness delivered uttered and preached by us O it must needs be a deading of our affections a cooling of our courage a stupifying of our spirits when after all our Gospel-Reports made by us we must take up that sad complaint of Isaiah the Prophet Who hath beleived our Report Isa 53.1 Wherefore as those Sorcerers which heard Paul preach were so affected with and wrought upon with his preaching as that they kindled a fire and burnt their books before all men not at all regarding the price thereof which amounted to fifty thousand pieces of Silver nor the loss which thereby they sustained because they would rather lose their Books and lose their Gain and lose all their Silver than lose their Souls and lose Life and lose Heaven Heaven being far more valued more esteemed more prized of them than all their books which were burned by them So do ye now go and do likewise ye need not kindle a fire for it for I have kindled a fire for you already by this my preaching for is not my Word like Fire saith God Jer. 23.29 Do ye only bring I 'l not say your books but your sins which I have preached against in this Sermon and burn them before all men that is let the Word which I have taught you now so burn them up as that we may see them no more hear of them no more be troubled about them and with them no more as when a thing is burnt we are troubled with it no more O Sirs where are those your books I should say yoursins which must be burnt bring them hither and burn them here before me in and by this Fire which I have made for you bring hither your Usury your Pride your Lusts your Uncleanness your Lasciviousness your Anger your onvious dispositions your idle courses your Drunkenness your Gurmandizing your Laziness your Slothfulness your Covetousness which is Idolatry and all the evils of your tongues which though little are such unruly members and let them all be eaten up by this Fire which I have now kindled crying and saying Lord burn up these our Corruptions by this Sermon O Sirs do not your hearts already burn as the Disciples hearts when Christ opened the Scriptures to them Luke 24.32 Do ye not feel this Fire O that God would work now upon your souls O that he would blow this Fire O that he would cause his holy Spirit to blow upon your spirits O that he would by his co-operation make this Word of his which I preach and which is indeed like Fire effectual to your salvation O that he would make it burn up all
and roar in prayer and yet in vain unless we continue in prayer and though we contend never so much yet is it to no end unless we contend so long by our violent Intreaties with God till we have our errands end O my Brethren this is the very Life the Soul the Art the Master-peice of right Praying by it we must needs carry Heaven nay with it we shall win the very God of Heaven even by Force Force your selves therefore my Brethren so to invocate the Name of God and to draw near to the Throne of Grace for Grace even Grace to help in a time of need Heb. 4.16 nay go and strive by many Prostrations before the Throne of Grace and mighty and uncessant Encountrings with God to become Overcomers of God saying to God as once Jacob said I will not let thee go tili thou bless me Gen. 1. By Violent Intreaties for the Effectual Fervent Prayer of a righteous Man availes much Jam. 5.17 O it presseth into the Presence of God it breaks through whole Hosts of hostile Powers it chargeth through the thickest Troups of Oppositions it mounts up beyond the Stars it penetrates the Heavens nay it towrs up beyond all aspectable Heavens and never ceases towring till it enters the very Heaven of Heavens where it wrestles with the God of Heaven for Heaven and never gives him over till by Force it hath won Heaven And therefore let this mighty Champion which we call Wrestling enter the Lists with God for you that Heaven may be taken by you Which God in mercy grant unto you 2. With uncessantly Violent Intreaties For Pray continually saith Christ Luke 18. 1. and With all Perseverance saith the Apostle Ephes 6.18 which is much more For in this Direction is a Climax or Gradation from much to much more For to pray uncessantly is as much beyond Violent Intreaties as the Sun is beyond the Moon in that as the Moon can have no light without the Sun so we without Perseverance in Prayer can see no light of God's Countenance beaming upon us no help to assist us no strength to enable us for high things to be attempted by us there we may cry and roar in prayer and yet in vain unless we continue in prayer and though we contend never so much yet is it to no end unless we contend so long by our violent Intreaties with God till we have our errands end O my Brethren this is the very Life the Soul the Art the Master-peice of right Praying by it we must needs carry Heaven nay with it we shall win the very God of Heaven even by Force Force your selves therefore my Brethren so to invocate the Name of God and to draw near to the Throne of Grace for Grace even Grace to help in a time of need Heb. 4.16 nay go and strive by many Prostrations before the Throne of Grace and mighty and uncessant Encountrings with God to become Overcomers of God saying to God as once Jacob said I will not let thee go tili thou bless me Gen. 32.26 When a City or Citadel is beleagured the great Guns go off often and when they cease the Country concludes that it is taken And so must our Prayers which are our Canons as * Bombardae Christianorum Luther Luther was wont to call them go off often when we go to win Heaven that is even indesinently the same time when we are about it crying as the little Children did once Mat. 21.9 Hosanna Hosanna that is Now save now save even again and again first here in this Temple from your very hearts and when ye are come home from your Closets your doors being shut and never give over crying so and discharging your great Canons so till you have won Heaven that is never come out of your Chambers after they have been shut till you have gotten some assurances from Heaven that you shall have Heaven concluding so because God hath heard them and as it were told them that Heaven is taken by them But here I must resolve two Cases of Conscience 1. Case The first is Sir we have heard all this and yet there is no stirring after all this some will say and therefore what shall we do in this Case To this I answer in four Conclusions 1. There may be no stirring with some of you because you are not yet effectually called and spoken to nor yet blown upon by the Spirit of God John 6.44 like those dry bones in Ezek. 37.2 even very dry so as that there was no stirring among them at all till after when the Prophet prophesied to them and the Wind that is the Spirit of God which is like Wind did breath upon them 2. Conclusion There may be no stirring with some of you as yet because your time is not come yet some are called the third some the sixth hour some the ninth some the eleventh hour Mat. 20.3 5 6. 3. Conclus If there be no stirring with you because you are not yet effectually called nor have been blown upon by the Spirit of God then you must pray to the Lord that this my preaching now at last may work upon you and there may be a stirring among you as thus O our God say Let this man's preaching to us belike Ezekiels prophesying For Lord hast not thou sent him saying Go and prophesie to these dead dry bones which are in that Town of T that they may live and wilt not thou bless his prophesying to our souls O that there were a shaking among us as there was among those bones O most mighty God let there be such a shaking and such a stirring among us now at last after all this prophesying that we may stand upon our feet as a great and terrible Army with Banners Cant. 6.11 and take Heaven by Force Or thus As Moses prayed Numb 14.17 And now I beseech thee let the Power of my Lord be great according as thou hast spoken So let every one of you now cry and say to Lord And now I beseech thee let the Power of my Lord be great according as thou hast spoken So let every one of you now cry and say to the Lord And now I beseech thee let the Power of my Lord be great according as thou hast spoken saying I will cause breath to enter into you and ye shall live Ezek. 37.5 and Verily verily I say unto you the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the Voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live John 5.24 Lord I am dead cause me to hear his Voice this hour this time that I may stir and live O this stirring it is that which must work must move our hearts must remove our affections must elevate our spirits must collocate our souls in a capacity and ability to attain to high atchivements and therefore I advise you so much and perswade you so earnestly to beg it 4. Conclus But if your time
do thou work upon this peoples hearts and let the Spirit of Life come into the wheels of their souls let him so move their affections as that they may be lifted up like those Wheels in Ezekiel Ezek. 1.20 21. because the Spirit of Life is in them O let not all these my labours be utterly lost but let some poor souls be now won to the Shepherd of souls O Souls Souls are ye nothing moved yet with all this I hope you are nay methinks you are by your attention if ye be then move and move indeed I mean so strongly so vigorously so effectually towards Heaven to take it by Force as that the world may see your change your zeal your forwardness your labouring for Heaven Heaven ye see is even at hand as the Baptist said once The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand when he so preached it up Mat. 3.2 it was so and so it is now and divers enter into it nay take it by Force O do you so likewise and so live for ever So be it To God alone be all Honour and Glory A New and Living Way OF DYING OR A TREATISE Shewing how Saints after they have comfortably overcome Sin the World by Faith and after a New and Living Manner have lived an Holy and Heavenly Life by Faith may die at last after a New and Living Way by in and according to Faith Upon that Famous Scripture HEBREWS 11.13 These all dyed in Faith And provided especially for Preparation to be made by all men against the Approach of Death in these Sickly Times By Christopher Jelinger And Published by some Christian Friends London Printed in the Year 1664. To The Vertuous Lady The Lady ANNE SEYMOUR Grace and Mercy be multiplied MADAM MY great Respect and thankful Mind which I bear to your Worthy-Self and to your Noble Family for many Favours received hath caused and compelled me to Dedicate this Tract to your much-honoured Name and if it may but find entertainment and acceptance I shall count my labour well bestowed Only give me leave Much Honoured Lady to give you a short Account of this my present Undertaking These late Times are and have been very sickly and many every where are fallen asleep and when the time of our departure will be the Lord only knoweth and we our selves also know this that it cannot be long before we likewise shal go to our long home and be no more seen at our present homes because our life is but a vapour Jam. 4.14 and we flie away Psal 90.10 which not with standing how few are there which prepare themselves for that time Cogitantes de fine infinito ut vivant in infinitum VVhence it cometh to pass that most men when after they have lived a careless life they come to be unmanned by Death they go Imparati in locum paratum Unprepared to a place prepared idque in aeternum and that for ever for that which ends All is without end And their nearest friends are much the cause of it for the common fashion of Friends is to put their friends in mind of Death when they doubt that they can live no longer Zenas the Lawyer and Luke the Physician must have given them over before they will send for Barnabas to give them good Counsel and solid Consolation against their dissolution But I for my part will not deal so with my Christian Friends My design in this Tract is this To tell men plainly that shortly they must put off their caribly Tabernacles shew them evidently How they must die whilst they live that they may live when they die dying in by and according to Faith This this I aimed at when I penned this Treatise which if it be acted by Faith will so work upon mens and womens precious souls and do them so much good as that they will even long to enjoy the chiefest good and when their work here is done will shew them Heaven open for them where there is health only and no sickness living and no dying incorruption and no corruption ease and no pain singing and no sorrowing For the former things are passed away Rev. 21.4 Many I confess have written on this subject of Death but you will find that I have left the common road as much as I might for my principal aim in this Tract is To put men upon that New and Living Way which the Apostle speaks of Heb. 10.20 and which must be taken by Faith according to which we must die to live for ever That Great God and Saviour who can do whatsoever he will in Heaven and on Earth so bless these my Labours to you Madam and to al that shal read them as that both you and they may fare the better for them here and hereafter for ever So prayeth Your Ladiships Most humble Servants CHRISTOPHER JELINGER A New and Living Way of Dying HEB. 11.13 These all Dyed in Faith ALmighty God as one saith well hath given to men three Mansions of a diverse Quality 1. The World wherein they live 2. The Grave wherein they corrupt 3. Either Heaven wherein they are crowned or Hell wherein they are tormented In the World their Companion is Vanity In the Grave the Worms In Heaven the blessed Angels and in Hell cursed Devils I add For like and like sute best one with an other Good Men I mean with good Angels and evil Men with Angels-Transgressors and yet such is the folly of most men that they would have perpetual habitations and an ever-during happiness in this vain World where neither such felicity nor perpetuity is to be expected for as all have sinned so all for Sin must be by Death dissolved even the best not excepted as by those Worthies which my Text speaketh of it appeareth So that men should rather forecast what course it were best for them to take that being thrust out of those earthly Tabernacles in which now they mansion they might mount up into that most blessed and blissful House of God which is not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 What this Course is which men should take you will understand by my future Discourse wherewith I shall God willing entertain your Christian Patience declaring FAITH to be that most happy Instrument which must bring you to such a firm durable and glorious settlement This ushered and conveyed those gracious Saints which my Text speaks of out of their earthly and unstable habitations into those heavenly Mansions above and places of unexpressable Delights for they all dyed in Faith and the end of Faith is as St. Peter tells us the salvation of our Souls 1 Pet. 1.9 I shall therefore call the whole ensuing Discourse A New and Living Way of Dying and shew therein how we may in a most sweet comfortable manner after an holy and heavenly walking die at last by in and according to Faith Faith I mean unfeigned lively and saving In which the antient Patriarchs dyed according
evidently seen of all The Fourth Prosecution Now for Application 1. Use This may inform us of the Greatness of the Wrath of God against Sin seeing that the very best cannot be exempted from Deaths Tyranny which God's flaming Wrath against and for Sin hath subjected us all unto It is almost 6000 years agone that Adam sinned by eating of the forbidden Tree and yet could not all this length of time make him forget that one Offence no no Manet alta mente repostum judicium Paridis said Virgil in another case and we may say as much in this The Lord remembers that Sin still and keeps his Anger against it still so as that no intervening Grace or Goodness in the holiest person can make him let go his Wrath or remit his first Mulct or Penalty Death I mean once menaced and decreed and yet as Moses complained once Psal 90.11 so may we now Who knoweth or understands considereth and believeth as Luther in Dutch rendreth the Original the power of thine Anger though we be even consumed by it ver 7. Wherefore in the first place let us learn and lay to heart the Power of the Lord's Anger for you see by Moses's complaint that scarce any knoweth it or considereth of it Whereupon it cometh to pass that Sin is 1. So slighted as it is in your Judgements 2. So embraced in your Affections 3. So multiplied in your Conversations because you do not once seriously consider the Powerfulness and Greatness of God's Wrath by which we are consumed one by one the very best not exempted The Second use Must godly Men who are like precious Wheat die like other men Then woe to the Ungodly which are but Chaff for what will become of them if God so deal with the green wood what will he do to the dry if he be so severe against his own for that old sin of Adam how rigorous then will he be against Aliens if they that are reconciled unto him by the death of his Son yet must taste of Deaths cup what will be the end then of you that are yet unreconciled Certainly my tongue is not able to express that unutterable and unspeakable Wrath which will most certainly seize on you unreconcil'd Adulterers Boasters Idolaters Lyars Cozeners and on you fierce proud envious worldly and covetous Men and Women for you must taste of a double Death the first and the second Rev. 21.8 Now how fearful and formidable the very first Death is you know all who ever saw a man unmann'd and laid in the dust to putrifie and to be meat for Worms whereby you may easily conceive how dreadful needs must be and will be both when one after another as it were shall require your souls as it is written Luke 12.19 20. Thou fool this night they shall require thy Soul from thee as the Original hath it Mark They shall require it and who be They but the first and the second Death as I conceive one seconding the other O think on this double Death all ye Drunkards and Fornicators Swearers Usurers Epicures Gurmands Atheists and Hypocrites and imagine in what a woful plight your Souls will be when those two Deaths shall so require them and they shall be forthwith thrown and cast into that formidable Lake that burneth with Fire and Brimstone which is the second Death Rev. 21.8 Lamentable was the case of the Men of Sodom when suddenly they saw and felt both Fire and Brimstone dropping down from Heaven upon their Bodies but infinitely more grievous woful and deplorable will be your condition then when these your immortal Souls shall begin to feel in a moment after their departure that ever-during Fire and Brimstone which the Lord in his Fury will rain upon them in that infernal Pit for as the †Bonavent Brevis cap. 6. pag. 7. peccant Spirit or Soul of man subjects it self to the baseness of sin perverting the Dignity of its Noble Nature so the order of God's Justice requireth that it as well as the Body should burn in the very dregs of worldly bodies corporeal Fire and Brimstone I mean which never shall be quenched This will be the Catastrophe of all your sports and delights and profits of your sinful Life It was a witty saying of a learned man That Marriage was a short and sweet song but that it hath a long and doleful close So of all the Pleasure we take in sin we may truly say that it is a Song short for the time and sweet for tune as long as it lasteth for it runneth much upon Quavers and Semiquavers of Mirth and Jubilation but the time suddenly changeth and the tune is altered for then followeth without rest the Sarges and Songs of sorrow and lamentation which cannot be measured by any time or uttered by any humane tongue Hence when one who had lived but a lewd and ungodly life was departing as one * Doctor Hill in his Direction to dye well p. 123. relates it of him he cryed out even in this World most lamentably O lamentable Destiny O infinite Calamity O Death without Death O those contiual Cryings which shall never be hearkened unto our eyes can see nothing but sorrowful Spectacles and intolerable Torments our ears can hear nothing but Wo Wo without end woful O thou Earth why dost not thou swallow O ye Mountains why do not ye cover us from the presence of the Judge How far do the Torments of Hell exceed all the tortures of this Life O ye bewitching Pleasures of this World how have ye led us blindfolded to the Horrors of Hell Wo wo for ever unto us who without hope are cast from the Favour of God so that after ten thousand years we might be delivered O that in any time we might have an end But it cannot be Our Temporal Pleasures have Eternal Pains our Mirth is now turned into Mourning and we are cast into Everlasting Fire Thus he I do not speak this to drive you to desperation but to perswade you to an alteration that you may change your Estates and Lives for better praying God All-powerful to turn you that you may be turned from your sins and he from the fierceness of his Wrath and so consequently may not come into that woful woful place of Torments which shall never have an End The Lord touch your Hearts that you may consider both your own Misery and this blessed Remedy and so may flie from that wrath which is to come The Third use If the Godly must die like other men then let every one of us that is Godly be more mindful of his own death then usually the very best are and let him make his particular application to himself Then I also must die as well as other men and moulder away into rottenness and dust see Deut. 23.29 Plato that Princeps Philosophia or Prince of Philosophy saith There is Nulla Salutatis Philosophia no wholsom Philosophy sed perpetua Mortis Meditatio but