under our feet which was predominant in our hearts and how hard a task is this there must be calling off the love of the heart from Sin which was as our right Eye or right Hand unto us and how difficult a work is this there must be a loving above all what we hated more than all and an hating above all what we loved most of all and thus to turn the stream of a man's Affections is exceeding difficult There must be striving to an Agony Luk. 13.24 25. there must be wrestling with Devils Eph. 6.12 with God himself so as not to let him go except he bless us Gen 32.24 26. there must be fighting and watching and maintaining our spiritual Warfare 2 Tim. 4.7 there must be running as for life 1 Cor. 9.24 all this to get the Blessing when the Lord shall come all hard and laborious But it is the easiest thing in the world to come under the Curse and Wrath of God Nay it is hard not to have it come upon us What mean then the most of men to take so much pains to bring the Curse of God upon them what need you be at so much labour to undo your selves what needs such swearing sweating in a way of Sin as if you were striving to get to Hell as if you thought you could not go thither fast enough nor get thither soon enough what need you rail at the People of Christ and revile the ways of Christ and rent and tear his holy Name in your prophane polluted Mouths Hell might be had with lesser pains and if cursed you WILL be cursed you MAY be without wearying of your selves in committing of Iniquity Sit still and you will run to Hell do nothing and you will soon be there It is but letting Faith and Repentance and Christ alone it is but forbearing what you ought to do and the Curse will fall upon your Soul and stick fast to you for ever It is easie to do what you should not to love the World more than Christ It is easier not to do what you should not to love Christ and for the easier of these you may be as sure of Hell as if you were there already therefore hold your Hands and Tongue and Feet from sinning so fast from making such speed and haste from committing sin manibus pedibusque with all our might and power for if not loving of Christ not believing on him not repenting for sin will and doth expose you to the Wrath and Curse of God Good Lord how easie a thing is it to be overtaken with it VII Must such as want love to Christ be thus accursed Then what great care and Conscience should Ministers have to preach the Lord Jesus Christ unto the People with that plainness and power that Christ might have their love and they might have the blessings of Christ Cursed must the People be that do not love Jesus Christ then cursed must the Preacher be that preacheth himself and not Christ and studieth to set out his own Gifts and Parts that men might admire him for an Eloquent Orator for his lofty Style for his fruitful pregnant Fancy and as the Phrase now prevails for his fine English or for a profound Philosopher or a great polemical Divine while by his starched Sentences seraphical Notions and needless Pulpit Disputations and manner of Expressions he soars aloft above the Peoples Capacities and casts a vail upon their Eyes as if he studied in preaching of Christ to hide Christ from their Vnderstandings while he preacheth to instruct them in the knowledge of Christ he clouds the Doctrine of Christ and makes the plain necessary Truths to be obscure that after his polite Discourse poor ignorant Souls remain as ignorant as before as if he stood amongst a thousand People that must be damned and cursed with everlasting Curses if they love not Christ to flourish his Parts to get the name of a great Scholar in making easie things hard and hard more hard when the true use of Learning and great Learning it is to make hard things easie and to bring things sublime and lofty down to the capacity of the meanest in the Congregation that hath a Soul that must be damned or saved Alas it would make a serious man to tremble when he thinks all these People stand upon the brink of Eternity and if Death jog them they fall and enter into it and when he heareth the Preacher speak with lofty Rhetorical Strains great swelling Words as if he were making an Oration in the Schools not considering the Ignorance the weak Capacity of hundreds of his Auditors Can he think that Servants that have precious Souls and many ignorant and unlearned Trades-men that are taken up with the matters of the World all the Week can be profited on the Lord's Day with such a Style or manner of expressing the great things of God that though it be their Mother-tongue transcends their Apprehension almost as much as if he spake in an unknown Language and so indeed is no better than an English Barbarian to the People What cursed Pride is this to seek Applause from men when he should be gaining Sinners to Christ to seek to have their perishing breath when he should seek to save their Immortal Souls What cursed doing is this to stand in Christ's stead and commend himself instead of commending Christ What though Christ be the Subject of his Discourse when his Discourse upon that Subject is so managed that it glides from Christ unto himself both as the Subject and the End In hatred to such doings I was about to say What cursed Preaching is this wherein dying Self is sought to be advanced in the esteem of dying People when Blessed Jesus should be so set forth that he might be magnified in the hearts of all be loved by all be received by all and immortal Souls so loving and receiving of him might be for ever saved and blessed by him And what is the end of all that he might be reverenced for his Parts extolled for his profound adorned Language and have the common Vogue of a man of more than ordinary Wisdom A Wise man and through his wisdom ignorant Souls do perish a Wise man and by his preaching with the enticing words of man's Wisdom even by the preaching of the only Saviour in the words which man's Wisdom teacheth and not the Holy Ghost the Devil goes away with and makes a prey of the Hearers Souls who in hearing do not hear neither do they understand not because the Hearers are such Fools but because the Preacher is so wise Let him pass for a Wiseman in his own Conceit let him be esteemed a Wiseman by them that do admire him because they do not understand him nor the worth of Souls nor the weighty work and end of Preaching but with me he shall never pass for a wise Preacher who had rather be a Fool for Christ than wise for my self for in such a place
Lord Jesus Christ 3. For Examination or Trial distinguishing the Non-Lovers of Christ from such as do sincerely love him 4. By way of Entreaty or Exhortation That as you would escape this Curse be careful that you get this Love to Christ 5. For the Comfort Encouragement and Joy of such as love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity above all CHAP. VII Vnder the first Vse we might learn these Lessons or deduce these Ten Corollaries I. GOD only hath power to curse any of his Creatures He that made us can only really and effectually make us a Blessing or a Curse Sin might meritoriously subject us to the Curse but God only can inflict all the Curse that Sin doth deserve Wicked men might wish others accursed and do but their wishing them to be so doth not make them so By cursing others they might sooner bring a Curse upon themselves than upon those whom they do curse let them beware of this that cannot speak of some persons but with a Curse in their mouths Psal 109.17 As he loved cursing so let it come unto him as he delighted not in blessing so let it be far from him 18. As he clothed himself with cursing like as with a garment so let it come into his bowels like water and like oyl into his bones That Cursings as well as Blessings belong to God Balaam himself did teach Numb 23.7 And he took up his parable and said Balaak the King of Moab hath brought me from Aram out of the mountains of the East saying Come curse me Jacob and come defie Israel 8. How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed or how shall I defie whom the Lord hath not defied Therefore when we find holy men of God in Scripture using Imprecations and Curses we must not draw them into Example to fill our Mouths with Curses against any for there is not the same reason betwixt us and them 1. When they cursed they had the gift of discerning of Spirits whereby they perceived such were designed by God unto destruction as a Reward of their cursed Sinnings against whom they used such fearful Imprecations of Eternal Damnation Acts 8.20 Peter said unto him Thy money perish with thee because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money 21. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter for thine heart is not right in the sight of God 23. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity The like is to be said of David's cursing of his slanderous Enemies under the person of Doeg Achitophel or Judas praying against his Person Family Name Honour Estate and Eternal Salvation Psal 109.6 Set thou a wicked man over him and let Satan stand at his right hand 7. When he shall be judged let him be condemned and let his prayer become sin 8. Let his days be few and let another take his office 9. Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow 10. Let his children be vagabonds and beg let them seek their bread in desolate places 11. Let the extortioner catch all that he hath and let the stranger spoil his labour 12. Let there be none to extend mercy unto him neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children 13. Let his posterity be cut off and in the generation following let their name be blotted out c. 2. The Imprecations of such men in Scripture might be taken rather as Predictions than as Curses or at least imprecating Predictions They speaking by the Spirit of God foretold what Curses would be inflicted by God upon them for their Sin and in a way of sin overtake them 3. There is a Ministerial and a Magisterial cursing The one is to make any thing or person accursed as the desert of Sin the other is to pronounce wish or declare any thing or person accursed and this is all that men can do Therefore though men pronounce Anathema against some without cause as the Pope and his Councils against Protestantâ— we need not be terrified therewith else the most happy men might be the most accursed 2 Sam. 16.12 It may be the Lord will look on mine affliction and that the Lord will require me good for his cursing this day II. This doth teach us the evil nature of Sin and what a cursed thing it is as being the meritorious cause of all the Curses that befall any of the Creatures of God If Sin had been kept out of the World curses had never come into it But Sin made way for the Curse and brought it in the commission of sin was the introduction of the Curse Gen. 3.14 And the Lord said unto the serpent Because thou hast done this thou art cursed above all cattel and above every beast of the field 17. Cursed is the ground for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life Sin and the Curse are so linked together that Christ only that can take away the Sin can remove the Curse Gal. 3.13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us If Curses be heavy Sin cannot be light and if the Curses be great that are due to Sin Sin that procures them cannot be so small a matter as the most make of it Would you flee from the Curse and yet run into Sin would you escape the Curse and yet live in Sin what is this but as if you would drink poyson and hope you shall live run into the fire and imagine you shall not be burnt Do you cry out under the Curse as a grievous pain and yet look upon Sin as the greatest pleasure Is the Curse dreadful and do you look upon Sin as delightful Is the Curse intolerable and can Sin be profitable Oh learn to look upon Sin through the Curse and then Sin will appear to be a cursed thing indeed III. Sin doth cross and thwart the natural Principles which are graven by the finger of God upon the hearts of all men If you ask whether Sin be now in man's lapsed state according to the nature of man I answer with this distinction there is the corruption of Nature and so Sin is according to our Nature as natural for man to sin as it is for light things to ascend and heavy to descend and there are the Principles left in corrupt Nature and so Sin is still against Nature In corrupted Nature there are yet remaining Principles that beget an aversation from Misery and an inclination for the obtaining of Happiness desires to avoid the Curse and to procure Blessedness but Sin is a thwarting of both these that you cannot sin but you go against the very Principles left in corrupted Nature as preservatives to keep down the Corruption of Nature Who is there among you all but hath innate Desires to escape the Curse of the Great God or can you desire to be accursed by him Who is among you that hath
Christ and few blessed by Christ Most are void of love unto him and most shall be accursed at his coming Is it an hard saying If hard yet true Is it a hard saying But it will be harder feeling when the Curse shall fully be inflicted XI Shall every one that loves not Christ be Anathema when Maran-atha accursed when the Lord shall come then the day of Christ's coming will be a doleful day to the Non-Lovers of Christ Then all the World shall be divided into cursed ones and blessed ones You love not Christ and yet bless your self but I pray you consider Maran-atha the Lord comes You glory in your Estate though Christ hath not your Heart but I beg of you that you would remember Maran-atha You put the Curse and the Evil day far from you but I beseech you let Maran-atha sound in your ears Then Oh then you shall curse the day that ever you were born you shall curse the time that you lived under the Gospel and heard of Christ but did not love him You shall curse your self for your wickedness madness and folly that so lovely a Christ was set before you and you had not an heart to set your love upon him and say Oh cursed heart that would love the World and not love yonder glorious Christ Oh cursed Will that didst chuse the Vanities of the World before the Son of God! Oh cursed was that love which I gave unto the Creature and did deny to Christ How can I hold up my head now to behold that Christ whom I never had an heart to love How can I hear that Voice and yet it is so great so thundring and so loud that I cannot but hear it commanding me to depart like a cursed Wretch when I never did and never would hearken to his Voice calling to me to love him and to give my Heart and Affections to him Wo is me now Maran-atha and now I am Anathema Wo is me the Lord is come and with him wrath is come and banishment from Heaven is come Wo wo wo is me the Lord is come and I feel fear and trembling is come ten thousand woes to me for the Lord is come and now compleat damnation comes the Lord is come and I must go I poor Wretch must go go Whither must I go to a cursed place to whom Alas to cursed Company But how wo is me like a cursed Wretch Cursed most bitterly cursed finally totally Body and Soul and all eternally for I had no Love for Christ and now Christ hath no Blessing for me When it is said throughout the World Maranatha then the World will ring with this Cry every one that loves not Christ is now Anathema CHAP. VIII Twenty Aggravations of want of Love to Christ THE Second Use doth bring a Charge and an Accusation against you for not loving the Lord Jesus Christ Some openly declare by their actions and manner of conversation That they do not love him Some openly pretend Love to Christ but really have no love unto him Ezek. 33.31 And they come unto thee as the people cometh and they sit before thee as my people and they hear thy words but they will not do them for with their mouth they shew much love but their heart goeth after their covetousness Love to Christ is in their mouth but love to the world is in their heart Some say they love him but God knows they do not John 5.42 But I know you that ye have not the love of God in you No! Do you know how great a sin this is Why then do you make so light of it Why then are you no more ashamed that you want this love Would you not be ashamed if this report went of you That you did not love your Wife your Children or your Neighbour And is it not an incomparably greater sin and shame that you do not love the Lord Jesus The only Son of God the only Saviour of lost sinners How is it that you do so seldom or never bewail the want of love to Christ in your Prayers or scarce put it in amongst the Confession of your Sins What do you love your Gold and not your God Or do you make your Gold your God and then love your Gold instead of loving the true God Can you love your Silver and not the precious Saviour Are you bound to love your very Enemies and yet have no love to him that would be your surest greatest and most faithful friend What shall I say Good Lord I am ashamed and blush to say which yet is true of too many of the sons of men that they both can and do love their very beasts their dog their horse and all their cattel and yet will not be prevailed with to love thy Son thy only Son and by thee beloved Son Nay what shall I say That you do love your very lusts and filthy sins that will destroy and damn you for ever and yet not love that only Lord and Jesus that would save you from your sins and from Hell for ever What can I say but that you love not Christ because you love your sin so much Oh horrid shame Love Deformity and not Beauty Where are your eyes Surely your love to sin is blind O monstrous Lover Love that which is worst of all and not him that is best of all Where is your reason Have you lost the understanding of a man Hath sin bereaved you of your wits Then oh Madness and Folly Are you so fond of sin as to be damn'd for it Are you so foolishly fond of this world as for the love of it to be hated of God and banished out of his Glorious Presence for ever Is your Soul so clogg'd with flesh and sunk so deep into it that it can rise no higher in its love than sensual earthly and fleshly delights and pleasures Will this love be so sweet in the review as you think it is in the present taste thereof Is this so vile a thing so base and sordid love that sets you below the rank of men not to be reproved For this are you not justly blamed Blamed yea and justly reckoned an Anathema that hath such an incomparable Object as Christ propounded to him and yet will nor love him Whose Excellencies are set forth and yet he seeth no Beauty in him That when there is nothing in the world so suitable to a sinner as Christ and yet will you be so perverse as to imagine and your heart maintain that Riches are more suitable and Pleasures are more suitable and Christ and the things of Christ the only inconvenient things for you If you do not think so why do you do so as you do in denying him your love Are you not to be blamed that when yet you might have Christ are not past a capacity a possibility of having Christ and all his benefits and good by him that you do not turn your love unto him Are you not to be
the Lord pronounceth his Oath negatively then it is to be understood as an affirmation as Isa 14.24 The Lord of hosts hath sworn if not so it shall come to pass that is it shall certainly come to pass But when he setteth it down affirmatively then it is to be understood negatively as Psal 95.11 If they shall enter into my rest that is they shall never enter into my rest When God sweareth thus by himself he mentioneth not the Curse because no Execration or Curse can fall upon him that is God necessarily infinitely and eternally blessed and therefore not to be expressed because it cannot come upon him neither should such a form of speech be supplied as some do prophanely use then let me not be God or such like It is sufficient to alarm Sinners that God doth swear if they continue to the death without love to and saith in Christ they shall not enter into his rest 1. A man loves not Christ that hath 1. an understanding to know the excellencies of Christ the necessity of Christ the danger of being without Christ and the everlasting good and benefits that are to be had by Christ 2. A man that hath a Will to be guided by the Understanding a Will to chuse good and refuse evil 3. A man that hath Affections of love desire and delight and shall not place them upon their proper primary principal Object 4. A man that hath a Conscience to walk and act by to accuse and condemn him when his Affections are not rightly fixed and to comfort him and to testify for him when they tend to and rest in their proper Object 5. A man that is capable of knowing loving and enjoying the best good 6. A man that hath heard of Christ that professeth Christ and hath frequently and earnestly been intreated to give Christ his love 7. A man that is a sinful man a lost man a diseased polluted man that stands in need of washing cleansing and recovering healing Grace Shew me the man that needs not Christ and let him deny him his love 8. A man that is a dying man a man leaving this World going out of Time and entring into Eternity that must shortly be a damned or saved man within a few years months weeks days or houts be eternally happy or everlastingly miserable 3. Any man especially where the Gospel is preached where the joyful sound is heard to whom the tydings of a Saviour and Eternal Life are brought The Heathen cannot love him because they do not know him because they hear not of him but any man especially that lives under the means of Grace any mean man any noble man any ignorant man any learned man any man of any sort of any age of any calling of any place or Nation where they have so often and so long heard of Christ that his blessed name is become too common in their prophane polluted mouths If any such man 4. Love not tho he often talk of him tho he pray to God mentioning his Name tho he profess him hear daily from him suffer or dye for him and not love him that is 5. The Lord the Lord of Lords the only Potentate the Lord that hath the power of Life and Death able to take up to Heaven and cast down to Hell to damn and save that reigns over Men and Devils that hath all Power committed to him that is 6. Jesus the only mighty alsufficient Saviour that came from Heaven to Earth to get and purchase for men a passage from Earth to Heaven that suffered bled and died to save Sinners from Sin from Hell from Everlasting Burnings when there is no other Name under Heaven by which Sinners can be saved than the Name of Jesus who is also 7. Christ anointed of the Father designed from all Eternity and sent in the fulness of time to bring about and accomplish the work of man's Redemption that was furnished with all manner of qualifications to bring Souls to Eternal Glory and yet those that have their Names from him called Christians from Christ and yet not love him shall be 8. Anathema cursed Wretches miserable Caitiffs devoted to damnation separated from God cast to Devils when 9. Maran-atha the Lord comes to be Anathema when Maran-atha is to be accursed indeed and for ever then cursed Men must be with cursed Devils to all eternity CHAP. II. SECT I. The Doctrine and Method FRom this Text thus explained Doct. this Doctrine clearly resulteth That whatsoever man hath not sincere love to the Lord Jesus Christ is in a deplorable condition and shall be accursed when the Lord comes For his Sin is great his Mind is blind his Will perverse his Heart is hard and carnal his Affections corrupt and base and vile and his Soul and Body shall then be doomed down to blackness of darkness to extremity and eternity of misery to pains and punishment that no Tongue can express no Heart conceive no Pen can write how great how terrible how intolerable it will be found to be The method in treating on this Subject is cast into these five general Heads 1. What is the nature of this love to Christ what kind or manner of Love it is without which if man be found he is Anathema and shall be plagued with this heavy Curse at the coming of the Lord 2. That whosoever is without this love to Christ is in such a miserable condition and dying without it shall be damned when Christ shall come is to be demonstrated 3. What are the properties of this Curse that will make it so exceeding grievous and intolerable 4. Why so great a stress is put upon such Love why the Lord insists so much upon the love of man unto his Son that whosoever wants it shall be thus accursed 5. The improving of this Doctrine by practical application In opening of the nature of this Love to Christ I shall not only mention the formal reason of it but also what is presupposed and necessarily requisite to the raising or producing of it in the heart of man my Apprehensions concerning it I shall give you in these twelve following Particulars which being taking up and laid together will contain a description of this Love 1. This Love supposeth the goodness of the Object 2. It includes or implies the illumination of the Understanding to see and discern this incomparable goodness in Christ 3. It includes a discovery of the suitableness of Christ unto the Soul in all respects 4. As also a sight of the communicability of that good that is discerned to be so suitable 5. Highest valuation of Christ greatest estimation of him which is called appretiating Love 6. It contains the permanent volition of the Will the setled inclination of the heart towards the Lord Jesus Christ 7. It includes the prevailing and predominant degrees of our love to be to Christ more than to any thing else whatsoever 8. In this Love is the election of the Will choosing Christ
love his filthy unclean doings still Let him remain under hardness of heart to his dying day What should I do with him my Ministers have begged on him to give me his Love and he will not my Spirit hath strived with him but he will not What will he not not love me No then let him love what he will This is a great Curse upon the Soul of a Sinner while Christ defers his coming Rev. 22.11 He that is unjust let him be unjust still and he which is filthy let him be filthy still Some have had great Parts and with them they have not loved Christ and their Parts have withered away Christ hath cursed them Some have performed many Duties and were forward Professors but all this while they prayed and heard and received they loved not Christ and Christ hath cursed them and they are turned prophane Some are given to Swearing and Whoring and Drinking and it is not only their Sin but the Curse of God upon their Souls that he hath given them over because they have refused to love his Son Psal 81.11 My people would not hearken to my voice and Israel would none of me 12. So I gave them up unto their own hearts lust and they walked in their own counsels Hos 4.17 Ephraim is joined to idols let him alone My Spirit let him alone my Ministers let him alone my Ordinances let him alone Conscience let him alone let all let him alone he is stubborn wilful and perverse his heart is joined to his Profits and to his Pleasures Let him alone let him take his course and walk in the foolish imagination of his owne vil heart An heavy Curse in this life But when Maran-atha the Lord comes these Curses on the Soul shall be setled fixed never removed This was the man that never loved me now let him never repent except it be with a vain empty self-tormenting Repentance Now let him be without Holiness for ever and without Love to me for ever 3. To be Anathema when Maran-atha shall be to be cursed with a bitter Curse without any ingredient of the least Blessing to allay or mitigate the bitterness of it Then shall he have sorrow without joy mourning without mirth darkness without light pain without ease misery without mercy all evil without the least good and all this without end and therefore without hope this Cup of Cursing because it shall be so pure without mixture shall be so exceeding so inconceivably bitter Rev. 14.10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of his holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever and they have no rest day nor night A bitter Cup a bitter Curse more bitter than the water of Jealousie that caused the Curse which a woman drank that had given her love to another man and had trespassed against her husband the Water was bitter Water and the Curse a bitter Curse for it made her belly to swell and her thigh to rot and she was a curse among the people Numb 5.27 This bitter Curse at the coming of Christ shall come into thy bowels like water and like oil into thy bones it shall be unto thee as the garment which covereth thee and for a girdle wherewith thou shalt be girded continually Psal 109.18 19. It shall imbitter thy thoughts thy soul thy very being and make thee cry out Oh this is a bitter place this is a bitter state a bitter condition exceeding bitter My loving of the World and Sin was not so sweet as this is bitter That seemed to me once as sweet as Honey but this is more bitter than Gall. But here is my Wo which makes it still more bitter the sweet is gone and the bitter remains the sweet will never return and the bitter will never be gone I did put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter but now I cannot The bitter is so bitter that I cannot put it for sweet nor imagine it to be so Oh I never thought the sweet delight I took in what I loved would have brought upon me this bitter Curse or me to these bitter Torments 4. To be Anathema when Maran-atha will be to be accursed publickly and openly before all the world to be accursed before blessed Angels and cursed Devils to be accursed before the blessed Saints and other cursed men Thou didst openly declare thy love of Pleasures thou didst openly follow such courses that all might see are inconsistent with sincere love to Christ and thou shalt be openly accursed Or though thou didst openly pray and publickly hear and profess the ways of Christ but didst secretly in thy heart love something else more than Christ yet for thy secret hypocrisie thou shalt be publickly accursed Before the greatest Congregation that ever eyes beheld before a greater number than ever yet at once were gathered together even before Millions of Angels before all that shall be found alive at Christ's coming and all that have been dead that shall then be made alive even all People of all Nations and before them shalt thou stand and be declared a cursed wretch because thou didst never love the Blessed Son of God What shame shall then confound thee and what confusion shall then cover thy face when thou that thoughtest thy self a blessed man and others thought thee to be blessed that thou and they were quite mistaken When Christ before them all shall pronounce a sentence upon thee whereby thou art published to be accursed and commanded with all the Plagues and Curses of God upon thy soul and body to depart into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels Mat. 25.41 5. To be Anathema when Maran-atha is to be cursed Positively sentenced down to positive pains to real politive torments so great so grievous so many so extreme continual and universal that shall wring out a confession from thee Now I am accursed indeed To lye in these flames that cannot be quenched to burn in this fire in which I cannot be consumed is such a Curse so intolerable that will make thee curse the day in which thou wast born and curse the time thou ever livedst in this world because not better improved to escape that Curse thou liest under in that world When thou shalt cry out and roar Wo is me poor miserable wretch I am tormented in this place and cannot have one drop of water to refresh and cool my parched tongue Wo is me poor cursed Caitiff I am in pain in pain in extremity of pain and here is no ease alas here is no ease I toss and tumble in this bed of flames and cannot rest If I wander from one side of Hell unto another I cannot find one corner where I might have a little rest O cursed creature
that sinned but cast them down to Hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment And Epistle of Jude ver 6. The Angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day Not a word of a Saviour for them but of Mankind the Scripture speaks of abundance of love and mercy Joh. 3.16 God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life Tit. 3.4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared and denieth that concerning Angels which it doth affirm concerning Man Heb. 2.16 For verily he took not upon him the nature of Angels but he took upon him the seed of Abraham Hath he done that for you which he hath not done for Devils and is not then want of love in you to him a greater evil than it is in Devils Let this shame you that ye are not lovers of Christ XII Not love Christ What do ye make of this but the beginning of Hell By the same reason as love to Christ is the beginning of Heaven Love to Christ is the employment of the Saints in Glory and to be without love to Christ is the frame of the Damned in misery So much of hatred to Christ is in you so much of Hell is in you before you be in Hell XIII Want of love to Christ Is not this the Daughter and the Off-spring of many foul abominations that are reigning in thy heart Doth it not suppose the predominancy of many other sins As 1. Doth it not suppose Ignorance of thy misery Sins deformity and of Christs beauty excellency and necessity 2. Doth it not suppose preceding Infidelity That thou dost not believe what God saith concerning Christ nor what shall be thy portion and thy everlasting miserable condition without Christ 3. Doth it not suppose a conceit of thy own Righteousness which if thou sawest to be insufficient would Christ be thus slighted and disregarded by thee 4. Doth it not suppose Self-willedness Thou wilt love what thou wilt love and not him thou shouldst love come on it what will Is it not plain wilfulness when thou canst give no reason why thou wilt not love Christ But because thou wilt not 5. Doth it not suppose predominancy of sinful Self love Carual Self thou wilt love and because this in dominion is inconsistent with the love of Christ thou dost omit the loving of him 6. Doth it not suppose fearlesness of God and of his Indignation If this did awe thee could Christ be thus neglected by thee 7. Doth it not suppose forgetfulness of Death and Judgment Of Heaven and Hell Couldst thou without horror think of dying without love to Christ When to dye so once would be to dye for ever Without trembling couldst thou think of Judgment when for want of love to Christ thou shalt certainly be damned whenever thou appearest at his Judgment-bar Or of Heaven when thou must never enter into it Or of Hell when thou must certainly be cast into it for want of love to Christ 8. Doth it not suppose great carelesness of thine own Soul For canst thou love thy Soul and not love Christ the Saviour of the Soul Canst thou take care of the Salvation of thy Soul and take no care to love him that is the purchaser and the donor of eternal Salvation Is such a litter of sins in the heart void of the love of Christ And wilt thou after this make so light a matter of it XIV Want of love to Christ Is it not the Mother of many horrid transgressions and the Nurse Maintainer and Fomenter of them Love to Christ shuts the door of the heart against the temptations of Satan the inticements of Sinners and the allurements of the World but the want of it sets it open unto all Love to Christ would be a Dam to the stream of Sin but the want of it is the plucking up the Floodgates thereof that Sin might run out of the heart into the life with a swift current Is not the absence of love to Christ the cause of many commissions of Evil Would it not bridle thy Tongue restrain thine Hands shut thy Eyes stop thy Ears and keep all these from being defiled with finful actings upon sinful objects Is it not the cause of the omission of good Of praying hearing meditation holy discourse What goeth before and what followeth after the want of love to Christ as flowing and proceeding from it maketh it a sin exceeding sinful XV. Love not Christ Have not then all the Ordinances of God been ineffectual as to thee Have not Ministers preached in vain and spent their labour for nought And hast not thou heard in vain And followed the means of Grace in vain when by all the means thou hast not got this Grace of Love What though thou hast obtained knowledge is not that knowledge without love to Christ vain knowledge What though thou art able to discourse of God and Christ and Heaven and the workings of the Spirit without love to Christ is it not though concerning such great and weighty matters yet vain discourse Have not all the calls of Mercy the workings of Conscience the wooings of Grace the pleadings of Ministers the intreaties of Love the knocking 's of Christ the strivings of the Spirit the waitings of Patience been all slighted and disregarded by thee Are not all thy Prayers lost and will not all thy Profession come to nothing and thy hopes of Heaven perish when for want of love to Christ thy Soul shall never enter into Heaven but perish everlastingly XVI Want of love to Christ Is it not a mark and brand of a graceless Man Is not the absence of love to Christ inconsistent with the presence of any other saving Grace Psal 31.23 O love the Lord all ye his Saints No love no Saint No Saint no Grace in thee If Loveless altogether Graceless for then 1. Thou art faithless for didst thou believe on him thou wouldst have sincere love unto him for where there is Faith it worketh by love Gal. 5.6 2. Thou art fearless of God Love and fear of God do sweetly concur Love is afraid to offend 3. Thou art sorrowless that is as to any holy godly sorrow For love to Christ would make thee sorrow for thy sin for the absence of Christ and love would cause thee to sorrow that thou lovest no more 4. Thou art also hopeless for there can be no solid ground of hope in him when there is no love unto him He that hopes for Heaven by the merits of Christ without love to the person of Christ his hope is a Fabrick without a foundation the Fools Paradise It is hope without a warrant and in the end when he misseth of the end of his expectation will be found to be no
better than rash confidence bold and damnable presumption For the greatest Professor without love to Christ is a Self-deluding Hypocrite whose hope shall be cut off and prove as weak though spun as fine as a Spiders web Job 8.13 And shall be as the giving up of the ghost Job 11.20 And is the want of all Grace no evil in thine Eyes when it brings punishment that shall be endless easeless and remediless upon all that were totally and finally Graceless XVII Not love Christ Gods own Son How then is God thy Father Joh. 8.42 Jesus said unto them if God were your father ye would love me If ye be his creatures and not love him it is an aggravation of your sin not to have love to him that gave Being to you but though ye are his Creatures without love yet ye are not his Children but better never had been his Creatures if not his Children for though ye should every day with great confidence say Our Father without love to Christ God will never own you as Children nor give you Childrens Portions XVIII Not love Christ How canst thou then excuse all the love thou hast to other things from being sinful Love So that the more thou lovedst the more thou sinnest because thy love to others is not subordinate to the love of Christ but separate from it To love other things and persons in Subordination to the love of Christ is not a Sin but Duty to love other things and persons and not Christ or more than Christ is not a Duty but a Sin and thus the love of your Estates is sinful Love And the love of Husband Wife Children and of your Selves is therefore sinful Love because it is above the love of Christ for these should be loved in Christ and for Christ but you love them without Christ and more than Christ therefore all your love without love to Christ though materially good is sinful love Mat. 10.37 XIX Not love Christ Art thou not all this while treasuring up terrible Accusations in Conscience against the hour of Death and day of Judgment The time will come and is at hand when thou and all thou lovedst besides Christ must be separated Thou hast loved the World and thou must leave it thou hast loved thy Pleasures and thou must bid adieu unto them thou hast loved thy Relations and thou must take thy sarewel of them and then oh then if conscience be awakened if thou dost not go blindfold and hood wink'd by the Devil out of this World wilt in the bitterness of thy Soul lament thy woful case and say Oh! What have I done What is this that I have done to love what I must leave I loved my Riches and now Death will take me from them I have set my heart more upon my earthly Relations than upon Christ and now Death is come to tear and carry me away from them I have loved my life more than Christ and now Death will put an end unto my life And all these things that I have loved now must lose Oh! Had I loved Christ as I have loved them Christ would not have left me Death could not have separated him from me but should have removed me nearer unto him But this I did not woe is me that this I never did for now all my love proves vexatious love to think and find that what I have loved in one moment I have for ever lost XX. Want of love to Christ Doth not this make Damnation unavoidable and the escaping of Hell to be impossible For when thou dyest whither wouldst thou have thy Soul to go To one whom thou never lovedst While thou didst live thou didst not wouldst not love him and after Death canst not Canst not love him Is Heaven a place for them that cannot love Christ Heaven is a place of Love the Imployment of Heaven is to love and praise him whom they do love Without love to Christ thou wouldst not find imployment there and the life of Heaven will be no idle life where all shall live and love and love as long as they shall live therefore such as do not now and hereafter cannot love shall never enter to live in that place of Love Now Sirs What do ye think Is the want of love to Christ so small a sin as ye have hitherto supposed it to be when you have spent and past the greatest part of your lives without love to Christ and without sorrow for want of that love What do ye mean To cease to live before ye do begin to love What shift have ye made to live in mirth and joy when the love of Christ hath not liv'd nor reign'd in your hearts Let Conscience be Judge between God and you but if Conscience be dead and will not give its judgment let God himself be Judge have ye done well to love that which ye should have hated and hated him whom ye should have loved Done well God knows it is not well done and Devils themselves know you have not well done and ye your selves sooner or later God grant before it be too late shall know in this ye have not done well Done well No ye have done foolishly ye have done wickedly nay in this ye have done Devilishly in what ye have done call to mind the things that have been said ponder them in your hearts weigh them in the ballance of right reason and it will tell you ye have done abominably in what ye have done But I suspect this thought is rising in your hearts If we had not loved Christ we should yield we had done so great an evil as this is aggravated in it self and by its circumstances to be But God forbid that we should live without love to Christ we think it is pity that Man should live that doth not love Christ This supposed love I fear will keep you off from repenting for want of real love to Christ and make you set light by all these aggravations of this Sin because ye think and hope ye do love Christ and some are so ignorant of their sinful state by Nature and so vainly confident of the goodness of their hearts that they bless God they have loved Christ ever since they were born and will be ready to spit in that mans face that shall question their love to Christ Come then ye that are so confident that ye love him come unto the Trial bring it to the Touchstone of the Word of God and try of what Mettal is your Love What if it should prove but counterfeit instead of real Or suppose in some sense it should be real and not counterfeit yet should not be sincere and saving love for the discovery whereof I shall neâ—â— proceed to the third Use CHAP. IX Ten Questions by way of Conviction that many very many have no sincere Love to Christ from whence also Characters of sincere love to him by the right resolving of these Questions might be gathered and our
consent of lost Souls to become the Spouse of his Son Jesus with this relief That if Sinners be not willing nor will accept the motion I shall be released from the Woe I have made preparation though less and weaker than such a weighty matter doth require and have Prayed that the Lord God would send me good speed this day And now I am standing by the Well of the Water of Life and some of the City are come to draw Water out of the Well of Salvation and upon enquiry made I find they are the Children of the Kindred of Jesus who forasmuch as the Children were partakers of flesh and blood himself also took part of the same to whom my message is so important that I can willingly forbear to eat till I have told my errand and therefore in your Audience desire to speak on saying I am the Lords Servant who is not made great or blessed by any other for he is great and blessed above all and over all for ever the earth and all that therein is is his the Sea and all therein is his the Heavens and all therein is also his And he hath a Son one only Son Jesus and he hath given him all that he hath even all power in Heaven and in Earth and hath set him at his own right hand far above all Principalities and Powers and Might and Dominion and every Name that is named not only in this World but that which is to come and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be Head over all things the Judge of all the World And this great Lord hath sent me to ask and beg your Hearts and Love in order to an indissoluble Marriage to his own only Son and now if ye will deal truly with my Master tell me if not tell me Oh now who saith the thing is of the Lord and proceedeth from his grace and mercy we cannot gainsay we will not refuse this Message And when you are asked who will have this Jesus Who will love this Jesus methinks one should say I will another should say and I will One and Another What! no more Methinks every one should say I will that there should not be another that should say but I will not Let who will but I will not No Why Because no better a Servant is sent to gain thy consent Or doth manage this great affair with no more zeal and skill Do thou pray for the pardon of my weakness and folly and I will pray that thou mightst have more wisdom to discern when a good proposal is made unto thee but whether thou regardest me or not regardest me I regard not so thou wouldst but have regard to Jesus Christ and to thine own immortal Soul If thou dost despise me do not despise my Master nor his Son for though I am not so good as Abrahams Servant yet my Lord and Master is better infinitely better and greater than Abraham to whom he was Servant and my Masters Son Jesus is better incomparably better than Isaac Abrahams Son and would certainly prove a richer match to thy Soul than Isaac was to Rebekah Consider therefore again before thou dost again deny him thy love for hast thou not denied him thy heart long enough already but wilt thou do so still Hath not thy love run waste upon the Creature to this day And shall it do so still Art thou not weary yet in loving of the World Art thou not yet tired in setting thy heart upon Vanity Hath it answered thine expectation Hast thou found that sweetness in the Creature which thou lookedst for when thou didst first set thy heart and love upon it Thou hast tried what is the love of the Creature oh now try what is the love of Christ and if thou dost not find it better if thou dost not find it sweeter than all thy former love provided thou lovest him sincerely return to it again Behold whose cause do I plead this day Christs or mine own For whom do I ask your Love for my self or for Christ Slight me as you will but do not slight Christ Vilifie me but do not undervalue Christ Count me unworthy of your love or look but do not so by the blessed Son of the most glorious God Say I am not fit to be regarded I bless God I have learnt to bear it but I beseech you say not so of Christ Revile and hate me if you will if you will but love that Jesus that out of Love did dye for you If you would but love him that then would certainly save you and bring you to eternal Glory and Happiness for ever If you love the World never so much can the World do so much for you If you love your Honours your Pleasures your Relations never so much can they bless you as Christ will bless you Nay the more you love them the more miserable the love of them will make you Should I call you to love the World you would do it or your Pleasures Self or Sin you would do it Nay when I or any more skilful than I am have called to you to wean your Love from these yet still in love you cleave unto them What! Is Christ the only unlovely object in your Eyes Can you find Love for any thing but Christ What is it in Christ that doth displease you What do you see in him that is offensive to you Either love him or give a reason why you will not Do you blame me for my Importunity I thought since I began this Use you did refuse because I was not urgent enough with you You will not love except you be entreated if that were it that you love to be entreated to Love and would love Christ after much intreating I would study Night and Day to think how I might entreat you and what Arguments to use to prevail and obtain your love for Christ But why should you look for such long entreaties Do you know who it is that doth entreat you Is it I or God himself by me I pray you view one Text and then let him that doth entreat you wait no longer for your answer and for shame put him not to entreat you longer What place is that It is 2 Cor. 5.20 Now then we are Embassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God What say you now I from God and God by me beseech you A Minister of God stands among you in Christs stead to beg entreat beseech that from you which if Christ stood in this place this day he would Preach unto you and desire and command from you that ye would be reconciled unto God after the enmity to him you would love him God Christ by his Servant doth beseech entreat pray you to love him Oh the astonishing condescention of the holy God! That he will iâ—treat Oh the amazing stupidity and folly of the sinful Sinner that
too if thou dost with-hold it from him If it be due so many ways what Injustice will it be in thee to deny to Christ that which is his due Art thou not careful to give to every one their own And is it not an ease to thy mind that though thou art not Rich yet thou hast to give every one his due Dost thou not Trade Work Cark and Care to give all their own and shall Christ be the only Person to whom thou wilt be Unjust If thou hast not enough to satisfie all thy Creditors yet of one whom thou lovest and bearest more respect unto thou sayest If it please God such a one shall lose nothing by me Poor Sinner wilt thou say Though I cannot do what I should yet Christ shall not be so far a Loser by me as not to have my Heart and Love Look to it that he do not for if he do thou wilt lose thy Soul and then who will be the greatest loser XIV Is it not great condescention in Christ that he will so kindly accept of thy Love One so great accept the Love of one so mean One so holy accept the love of one that is so sinful One so glorious of one so vile Do great Men value the love of Beggars or Princes the love of Peasants Would a Man of great Birth and Estate give leave to one cloathed in Rags to love him in order to Marriage Or would he not scorn and reject both the person and her love Methinks considering what Christ is and what thou art thou shouldst say If Christ will give me leave I will love him Give thee leave Not only so but gives the command and that upon pain and peril of everlasting Damnation if thou dost not He doth give thee leave and charge to love him but no leave to live without love to him though for thy long refusal he might justly leave thee to live without love to him XV. Should you ever have any cause or reason to be ashamed of your love to Christ Is not the time coming and the day hastning when covetous men shall be ashamed of their loving of the World and voluptuous men ashamed of loving their Pleasures and the ambitious of their Honours but the time will never come the day will never be that a gracious Soul shall be ashamed of his sincere love to Jesus Christ For what is said of Hope is true of Love Rom. 5.5 it maketh not ashamed but as all Sin is matter of shame Rom. 6.21 What fruit have ye of those things of which ye are now ashamed so especially the Lovers of Sin shall be ashamed that they loved not Christ For is it not an horrid shame that a rational Creature should be such a Sot as to love Sin that is most loathsom and not love Christ that is most lovely To love deformity and not beauty A real evil under the notion and appearance and paint of a seeming good and not a Christ that is a real good without appearance of the least evil O shame shame I am ashamed that Sin should have such esteem and Christ so great contempt put upon him but shame shall ere long confound these now shameless Wretches when they shall cry out We are ashamed that we loved Profits and not Christ House Lands Lusts and not Christ This is the confusion of our Faces and shame doth cover us that we should be so foolish and so blind that we had not Wit nor Reason to distinguish betwixt the greatest and most lovely good and the greatest and most odious evil XVI Is there any love so profitable as the love of Christ Gain draweth Love by the love of other things more than Christ you will lose more than you gain By such love God Christ Heaven and your own Soul will be for ever lost and should your gains of the World be proportionable to your love of the World yea and exceed it to the gaining of the whole World to your self which never man yet did your gain would prove your loss and when you come to cast up your Accompt at Death or Judgment you will find your self cast much behind hand because from Gods face and favour Mat. 16.26 What is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul But by the loving of Christ you shall have gain that no man can value no Wit can estimate no Arithmetician by all his Numbers and Figures can compute even pardon of innumerable Sins the favour of an infinite God deliverance from unconceiveable Torments possession of endless Life and more than I or any man can describe or comprehend XVII Is there any love so universally necessary as the love of Christ One man loves one thing and a second another and a third another but there is no necessity that all men should love any one thing but Christ and things appertaining to our having and enjoying of him and love to Christ is necessary for poor and rich for great and small for noble and ignoble for learned and unlearned for bond and free Oh then what doings are these that that love which is necessary not only for the most but for all should be neglected not only by the most but almost comparatively by all XVIII Do not you want one great help against the temptations of Satan while you are void of love to Christ Is not Satan your Enemy Is not your heart forward to yield to him Doth it not concern you to resist him when if you yield you deserve to dye But this love would Garrison your Hearts Fortifie your Souls make you Couragious and Resolute against all the batteries of Satan assaults of Sin and watchful against the Assurements and Ambushments of the World and that you would say Shall I offend my dearest Lord Shall I displease him that hath had such good pleasure to do me such good such everlasting good Oh! how can I do this or that great evil and sin against him whom I do love For do you not find that Love forbids and exceedingly restrains from grieving offending or wronging him whom you do entirely love XIX Will you ever be able to hold your profession of Christ without sincere love unto him When trials come will not such as have no saving love to Christ turn their backs upon him Will they that love Riches Ease Liberty Honours Life or any thing more than Christ lease lose lay down these for Christ What you love most will you not endeavour to keep longest These must be harboured but Christ then shall be abandoned Mat. 19.21 22. but if you have not that love that will keep you stedfast and constant in suffering for Christ on Earth for want of that love you shall suffer eternally in Hell XX. Is it not possible for you to set your love upon Christ Is it not attainable Devils cannot love him but you can Damned Souls cannot love him
but you can if you would for have you not the means to help you to love him Is not he Preached to you Is not the Spirit striving with you Will you say you cannot love him though you would That I utterly deny for if you were really willing to love him you could love him nay if you do unfeignedly Will to love him you do love him for what is Willing but Loving And what hinders you from Loving but your not willing to love him Will you say you want power What power do you mean The Natural faculty or power of the Will That you have how else do you Will any thing you do Will you say you want a power of Willing to love Christ What is that but that you are unwilling to love him And if you cannot because you will not the more you plead your Cannot the more you aggravate your Will not A Natural Power God hath given you that is a Will if you lye under a Moral Impotency that is your Sin and what is this Moral Cannot or Impotency but the averseness of the Will from Christ Therefore though without the powerful workings of the Grace and Spirit of God you cannot love Christ sincerely yet this Cannot is your Will not for if by the Grace of God you were enabled to Will you could and if you were as willing to love Christ as some now are that once were as unwilling as now you be you could love him as well as they Why should you stand off and say If it were possible for me to love Christ I would How Possible What! Is there no difference betwixt you and a Devil Betwixt you and the Damned in Hell You can love the World can you do that You can love your Self can you do that Yes And I suppose you can love Sin too can you not To our Grief and your Shame we find it But why can you love World and Self and Sin Is it not because you will Do you do it against your Will I wish you did then there might be more hopes you would be perswaded to love Christ You can and do love Sin because you are willing have but as great willingness to love Christ as the World and Sin and then it may be said Not only that you can but do love Christ However though I am no Asserter of the Liberty and Power of the Will in things Supernatural nor an opposer of the necessity of the workings of the Spirit to enable a Sinner to love Christ yet it is most manifest that your unwillingness is the hinderance of such Love and this unwillingness is your weakness since then your unwillingness certainly by Grace might be removed your Love is possible therefore cease not till it be actual Are ye at length convinced of the Necessity of love to Christ And are ye at length perswaded to seek it and willing to get love to him I shall then next proceed to the Directions whereby ye might through Grace fall in love with Jesus Christ CHAP. XII Ten Directions to get sincere Love to Christ shewing the way of Love to him I. CLearly understand and be throughly convinced of thy lost Estate and miserable Condition for Conviction sight and sense of Sin and of our lost Estate thereby usually goes before the setting of the Heart and Love upon Jesus Christ though God doth not deal with all Sinners in all circumstances alike in working and begetting in them consent and love unto his Son in divers persons the measure of Conviction is different as in the Natural Birth some are born after more pangs and throws than others are so in the Spiritual Birth in which the Love is turned unto and set upon Christ the day of this Birth being the day of Espousals some God dealeth with more gently with some more roughly Some he melts like Wax and some he hews like knotty Wood some he carrieth by the Gates of Hell to the Door of Heaven and some he brings to Christ and leads to Heaven with lesser Terrors To gain your love to Christ he expresly threatens Damnation that is so great it cannot be fully expressed and lets the Sinner know that Consent and Love he must or be Damned he must He doth let in such light into the Mind that the Soul doth see there is is no way to escape the darkness of Hell than by consenting to Christ that came from Heaven and Christ presseth hard upon the Conscience of the Sinner whom he Wooeth for his Love saying Poor Sinner What dost thou mean To be Damned rather than to have me for thy Saviour To go to Hell with thy Lusts than to Heaven with me the Lord What wilt thou do Shall I have thy Love or No Wilt thou at last consent or wilt thou still refuse I tell thee plainly if I and thou part Hell and thou must meet I have been Wooing long and Waiting long but now it is come to a parting or a closing point and it is time for thee to come to a resolution This is the Case Deny my Suit and God will Damn thy Soul If thou hear not me thou shalt howl in Hell If I leave thee God will leave thee and Mercy will leave thee and all Misery will come upon thee Poor Sinner Consider the issue of thy final refusal of me and of denying thy love to me 1. Will it not be thy being cast into pain of greatest extremity And how wilt thou do to bear it If God do but touch thee with his Finger thou dost sigh and sob thou dost cry and roar and canst not rest O how wilt thou rest when God shall lay on blows with his Almighty Arm If pain in thy Head or sickness at thy Heart or Gripings in thy Bowels make thee cry out like a Distracted Man what wilt thou do to bear the wrath of God in a place prepared on purpose to shew his indignation against Christ-refusing Sinners When the sorest affliction in this Life is but as the pricking of a Pin to the piercing of a Sword if compared to the Torments of the Damned 2. Will it not be Misery joined with endless Eternity And hadst thou rather bear pains extream and eternal too than Love me that would deliver thee from them Doth not a small affliction make one Day or Night seem long much more if it be heavy Then in the Night thou askest Is it not Day Thou countest the Clock thou numberest the Hours and think'st that Time doth pass but slowly on Would it were but break-a-break-a-day that I might rise But all the time between the Creation and the Dissolution of the World is but a moment to Eternity Where there is no striking of Clocks no telling of Hours no returns of Night and Day but always Night and never Day never shall be break-a-day A thousand years shall pass and never the less to come Nay nothing past and nothing to come and yet more to come than is already past an everlasting