The Saints Everlasting Rest
There is no persuading them of their misery till they feel it, except the Spirit of the Almighty do persuade them.
Oh, but when they find themselves suddenly in the land of darkness, and perceive by the execution of the sentence that they were indeed condemned and feel themselves in the scorching flames, and see that they are shut out of the presence of God forever, it will then be no such difficult matter to convince them of their misery: This particular Application of God's Anger to themselves, will then be the easiest matter in the world: then they cannot choose but know and apply it whether they will or no. If you come to a man that hath lost a leg or an arm, or a child, or goods, or house, or his health, is it any hard matter to bring this man to apply it? and to acknowledge that the loss is his own? or that the pain which he feels in his sickness is his own? I think not. Why, it will be far more easy for the wicked in hell, to apply their misery in the loss of heaven, because their loss is incomparably greater. O this Application which now if we should die we cannot get them to, for prevention of their loss, will then be part of their torment itself: O that they could then say, It is not my case! But their dolourous voices will then roar out these forced confessions; O my misery! O my folly! O my inconceivable unrecoverable loss!
SECT. IV.
4. AGain, as the Understandings and Consciences of sinners will be strengthened against them, so also will their Affections be then more lively and enlarged then now they are: As Judgment will be no longer so blinded, nor Conscience stifled and bribed, as now it is; so the Affections will be no longer so stupefied and dead. A hard heart now makes Heaven and Hell to seem but trifles; And when we have shown them everlasting Glory and Misery, they are as men half asleep, they scarce take notice what we say, our words are cast as stones against a hard wall, which fly back in the face of him that casteth them, but make no impression at all where they fall We talk of terrible astonishing things, but it is to dead men, that cannot apprehend it: We may rip up their wounds, and they never feel us; we speak to Rocks rather then to men, the earth will as soon tremble as they: O but when these dead wretches are revived, what passionate sensibility! what working Affections! what pangs of horror! what depth of sorrow will there then be! How violently will they fly in their own faces! How will they rage against their former madness! The lamentations of the most passionate wife for the loss of her husband, or of the tenderest mother for the loss of her children, will be nothing to theirs for the loss of heaven. O the self-accusing, and self-tormenting fury of those forlorn wretches! How they will even tear their own hearts, and be God's Executioners upon themselves! I am persuaded, as it was none but themselves that committed the sin, and themselves that were the only meritorious cause of their sufferings, so themselves will be the chiefest executioners of those sufferings: God will have it so for the clearing of Justice, and the aggravating of their distress: even Satan himself, as he was not so great a cause of their sinning as themselves, so will he not be so great an instrument as themselves of their torment. And let them not think here, that if they must torment themselves, they will do well enough, they shall have wit enough to ease and favor themselves, and resolution enough to command down this violence of their passions: Alas poor souls, They little know what passions those will be! and how much beyond the power of their resolutions to suppress! Why have not lamenting, pining, self-consuming persons on earth so much wit or power as this? Why do you not thus persuade despairing soul, who lie as Spira, in a kind of Hell upon earth, and dare not eat, nor drink, nor be merry, but torment themselves with continual terrors? Why do you not say to them, Sir, why will you be so mad, as to be your own Executioner? and to make your own life a continual misery, which otherwise might be as joyful as other men's? Cannot you turn your thoughts to other matters, and never think of Heaven or Hell? Alas, how vain are all these persuasions to him? how little do they ease him? you may as well persuade him to remove a mountain, as to remove these hellish thoughts that feed upon his spirit, it is as easy to him to stop the stream of the Rivers, or to bound the overflowing waves of the Ocean, as to stop the stream of his violent passions, or to restrain those sorrows that feed upon his soul. O how much less then can those condemned souls, who see the Glory before them which they have lost, restrain their heart-renting, self-tormenting Passions! So some direct to cure the Toothach, Do not think of it, and it will not grieve you; and so these men think to ease their pains in Hell: O, but the loss and pain will make you think of it whether you will or no. You were as Stocks or Stones under the threatenings, but you shall be most tenderly sensible under the execution: O how happy would you think yourselves then, if you were turned into Rocks, or anything that had neither Passion nor Sense! O now how happy were you, if you could feel as lightly as you were wont to hear! and if you could sleep out the time of Execution, as you did the time of the Sermons that warned you of it! But your stupidity is gone, it will not be.
SECT. V.
5. MOreover, it will much increase the torment of the damned▪ in that their Memories will be as large and strong as their Understandings and Affections; which will cause those violent Passions to be still working: Were their loss never so great, and their sense of it never so passionate, yet if they could but lose the use of their Memory, those passions would die, and that loss being forgotten, would little trouble them. But as they cannot lay by their life and being, though then they would account annihilation a singular mercy; so neither can they lay aside any part of that being: Understanding, Conscience, Affections, Memory, must all live to torment them, which should have helped to their Happiness: And as by these they should have fed upon the Love of God, and drawn forth perpetually the Joys of his Presence; so by these must they now feed upon the wrath of God, and draw forth continually the dolours of his absence. Therefore never think, that when I say the hardness of their hearts, and their blindness, dullness, and forgetfulness shall be removed, that therefore they are more holy or more happy then before: No, but Morally more vile, and hereby far more miserable. O how many hundred times did God by his Messengers here call upon them, Sinners, consider whether you are going: Do but make a stand a while, and think where your way will end; what is the offered Glory that you so carelessly reject? will not this be bitterness in the end?
And yet these men would never be brought to consider. But in the later days (saith the Lord) they shall perfectly consider it; when they are ensnared in the work of their own hands; when God hath Arrested them, and Judgment is past upon them, and Vengeance is poured out upon them to the full, then they cannot choose but consider it, whether they will or no. Now they have no leisure to consider, nor any room in their Memories for the things of another life: Ah, but then they shall have leisure enough, they shall be where they have nothing else to do but consider it; their Memories shall have no other employment to hinder them; it shall even be engraven upon the Tables of their Hearts. God would have had the Doctrine of their eternal State to have been written on the posts of their doors, on their houses, on their hands, and on their hearts; He would have had them mind it, and mention it, as they rise and lie down, as they sit at home, and as they walk abroad, that so it might have gone well with them at their latter end: And seeing they rejected this counsel of the Lord, therefore shall it be written always before them in the place of their thralldom, that which way soever they look, they may still behold it.
Among others, I will briefly lay down here some of those Considerations which will thus feed the anguish of these damned wretches.
SECT. VI.
FIrst, It will torment them to think of the greatness of the Glory which they have lost. O if it had been that which they could have spared, it had been a small matter: or If it had been a loss repairable with anything else; If it had been health, or wealth, or friends, or life, it had been nothing; But to lose that exceeding Eternal weight of Glory! —
SECT. VII.
SEcondly, It will torment them also to think of the possibility that once they were in of obtaining it. Though all things considered there was an impossibility of any other event then what did befall; yet the thing in itself was possible, and their will was left to act without constraint. Then they will remember, The time was when I was in as fair possibility of the Kingdom as others: I was set up on the stage of the world; If I had plaid my part wisely and faithfully, now I might have had possession of the inheritance: I might have been amongst yonder blessed Saints, who am now tormented with these damned fiends! The Lord did set before me life and death, and having chosen death, I deserve to suffer it; The prize was once held out before me If I had run well, I might have obtained it, If I had striven, I might have had the mastery, If I had fought valiantly, I had been crowned.
SECT. VIII.
THirdly, It will yet more torment them to remember, not only the possibility, but the great Probability that once they were in, to obtain the Crown and prevent the misery. It will then wound them, to think, Why I had once the gales of the spirit ready to have assisted me. I was fully purposed to have been another man, to have cleaved to Christ, and to have forsook the world; I was almost resolved to have been wholly for God: I was once even turning from my base seducing lusts; I was purposed never to take them up again, I had even cast off my old companions: and was resolved to have associated myself with the godly; And yet I turned back, and lost my hold, and broke my promises, and slacked my purposes; Almost God had persuaded me to be a real Christian, and yet I conquered those persuasions; What workings were in my heart when a faithful Minister pressed home the truth? O how fair was I once for Heaven? I had almost had it, and yet I have lost it; If I had but followed on to seek the Lord, and brought those beginnings to maturity, and blown up the spark of desires and purposes which were kindled in me, I had now been blessed among the Saints.
Thus will it wound them, to remember what hopes they once had, and how a little more might have brought them over to Christ, and have set their feet in the way of peace.
SECT. IX.
FOurthly, Furthermore, it will exceedingly torment them, to remember the fair opportunity that once they had, but now have lost. To look back upon an age spent in vanity, when his salvation lay at the stake. To think, How many weeks▪ and months, and years did I lose, which if I had improved, I might now have been happy? Wretch that I was! Could I find no time to study the work for which I had all my time? Had I no time among all my labors, to labor for eternity? Had I time to eat, and drink, and sleep, and work; and none to seek the saving of my soul? Had I time for sports, and mirth, and vain discourse, and none for prayer, or meditation on the life to come? Could I take time to look to my estate in the world? And none to try my title to Heaven, and to make sure of my spiritual and everlasting state? O precious time, whither art thou fled? I had once time enough, and now I must have no more! I had so much that I knew not what to do with it; I was fain to devise pastimes; and to talk it away, and trifle it away, and now it is gone, and cannot be recalled! O the golden hours that I did enjoy! Had I spent but one year of all those years, or but one month of all those months, in through examination, and unfeigned conversion, and earnest seeking God with my whole heart, it had been happy for me that ever I was born; But now its past, my days are cut off, my glass it run, my Sun is set, and will rise no more; God himself did hold me the candle, that I might do his work, and I loitered till it was burnt out; And now how fain would I have more, but cannot? O that I had but one of those years to live over again! O that it were possible to recall one day, one hour of that time! Oh that God would turn me into the world, and try me once again, with another lives time! How speedily would I repent! How earnestly would I pray! And lie on my knees day and night! How diligently would I hear! How carefully would I examine my spiritual state! How watchfully would I walk! How strictly would I live! But its now too late; alas, too late. I abused my time to vanity whilst I had it, and now I must suffer justly for that abuse.
Thus will the remembrance of the time which they lost on earth, be a continual torment to these condemned souls.
SECT. X.
FIfthly, And yet more will it add to their calamity, to remember how often they were persuaded to return, both by the ministry in public, and in private by all their godly faithful friends; every request, and exhortation of the Minister will now be as a fiery dart in his spirit. How fresh will every Sermon come now into his mind? even those that he had forgotten, as soon as heard them. He even seems to hear still the voice of the Minister, and to see his tears; O how fain would he have had me to have escaped these torments! How earnestly did he entreat me! With what love and tender compassion did he beseech me! How did his bowels yearn over me! And yet I did but make a jest of it, and hardened my heart against all this. How oft did he convince me, that all was not well with me! And yet I stifled all these convictions. How plainly did he rip up my sores! And open to me my very heart! And show me the unsoundness and deceit • fullness of it! And yet I was loath to know the worst of myself, and therefore shut mine eyes, and would not see. O how glad would he have been after all his study and prayers and pains, if he could but have seen me cordially entertain the truth, and turn to Christ! He would have thought himself well recompensed for all his labors and sufferings in his work, to have seen me converted and made happy by it. And did I withstand and make light of all this? Should any have been more willing of my happiness then myself? Had not I more cause to desire it then he? Did it not more nearly concern me? It was not he, but I, that was to suffer for my obstinacy: He would have laid his hands under my feet to have done me good, he would have fallen down to me upon his knees to have begged my obedience to his message, if that would have prevailed with my hardened heart. O how deservedly do I now suffer these flames, who was so forewarned of them, and so entreated to escape them! Nay my friends, my parents, my godly neighbors did admonish and exhort me; They told me what would come of my willfulness and negligence at last, but I did neither believe them, nor regard them; Magistrates were fain to restrain me from sinning by Law and punishment; Was not the foresight of this misery sufficient to restrain me!— Thus will the Remembrance of all the means that ever they enjoyed, be fuel to feed the flames in their consciences. O that sinners would but think of this, when they sit under the plain instruction and pressing exhortations of a faithful Ministry! How dear they must pay for all this, if it do not prevail with them! And how they will wish a thousand times in the anguish of their souls, that they had either obeyed his doctrine, or had never heard him. The melting words of exhortation which they were wont to hear, will be hot burning words to their hearts upon this sad review. It cost the Minister dear, even his daily study, his earnest prayers, his compassionate sorrows for their misery, his care, his sufferings, his spending, weakening, killing pains; But O how much dearer will it cost these rebellious sinners? His lost tears, will cost them blood, his lost sighs, will cost them eternal groans, and his lost exhortations, will cause their eternal lamentations. For Christ hath said it, that if any City or people receive not, or welcome not the Gospel, the very dust of the messengers feet (who lost his travail to bring them that glad tidings) shall witness against them, much more then his greater pains: And it shall be easier for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Judgment then for that City. That Sodom which was the shame of the world for unnatural wickedness, the disgrace of mankind: that would have committed wickedness with the Angels from Heaven; that were not ashamed to prosecute their villainy in the open street; that proceeded in their rage against Lots admonitions yea under the very miraculous judgment of God, and groped for the door when they were stricken blind; That Sodom which was consumed with fire from Heaven, and turned to that deadly Sea of waters, and suffers the vengeance of eternal fire ( Jud. 7.) even that Sodom shall scape better in the day of Judgment, then the neglecters of this so great Salvation. It will somewhat abate the heat of their torment, that they had not those full and plain offers of grace, nor those constant Sermons, nor pressing persuasions, nor clear convictions, as those under the sound of the Gospel have had. I beseech thee who Readest these words, stay here a while, and sadly think of what I say. I profess to thee from the Lord, it is easier thinking of it now, then it will be then; What a doleful aggravation of thy misery would this be, that the food of thy soul, should prove thy bane? And that That should feed thy everlasting torment, which is sent to save thee, and prevent thy torments?
SECT. XI.
SIxthly, Yet further, it will much add to the torment of these wretches to remember, that God himself did condescend to entreat them, That all the intreatings of the Minister were the intreatings God: How long he did wait, How freely he did offer, how lovingly he did invite, and how importunately he did solicit them. How the spirit did continue striving with their hearts, as if he were loath to take a denial. How Christ stood knocking at the door of their hearts, Sermon after Sermon, and one Sabbath after another; crying out, Open, sinner, open thy heart to thy Savior, and I will come in, and sup with thee, and thou with me, Rev. 3.20. Why sinner • Are thy lusts and carnal pleasures better then I? Are thy worldly Commodities better then my everlasting Kingdom? Why then dost thou resist me? Why dost thou thus delay? What dost thou mean, that thou dost not open to me? How long shall it be till thou attain to innocence? How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee? Woe to thee, O unworthy sinner; wilt thou not be made clean? Wilt thou not be pardoned, and sanctified, and made happy? When shall it once be? O that thou wouldst hearken to my word, and obey my Gospel! Then should thy peace be as the river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the Sea: though thy sins were as red as the Crimson, or Scarlet, I would make them as white as the Snow, or Wooll. O that thou were but wise, to consider this! and that thou wouldest in time remember thy latter end! before the evil days do come upon thee, and the years draw nigh when thou shalt say of all thy vain delights; I have no pleasure in them! Why sinner! Shall thy Maker thus bespeak thee in vain? shall the God of all the world beseech thee to be happy, and beseech thee to have pity upon thy own soul, and wilt thou not regard him? Why did he make thy ears, but to hear his voice? Why did he make thy understanding, but to consider? Or thy heart, but to entertain the Son in obediential Love? Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, consider thy ways.—
O how all these passionate pleadings of Christ, will passionately transport the damned with self-indignation! That they will be ready to tear out their own hearts! How fresh will the remembrance of them be still in their minds? lancing their souls with renewed torments! What self-condemning pangs will it raise within them, to remember how often Christ would have gathered them to himself▪ even as the Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings, but they would not? Then will they cry out against themselves, O how justly is all this befallen me! Must I tire out the patience of Christ? Must I make the God of Heaven to follow me in vain, from home to the Assembly? from thence to my Chamber? from Alehouse to Alehouse? Till I had wearied him with crying to me, Repent, Return? Must the Lord of all the world thus wait upon me? and all in vain? O how justly is that Patience now turned into fury? which falls upon my soul with irresistible violence? when the Lord cried out to me in his word▪ How long will it be before thou wilt be made clean and holy? My heart, or at least my practice answered, Never; I will never be so precise; And now when I cry out, How long will it be till I be freed from this torment, and saved with the Saints? How justly do I receive the same answer? Never, Never ? — O sinner, I beseech thee for thy own sake, think of this for prevention, while the voice of mercy soundeth in thine ears: Yet patience continueth waiting upon thee: Canst thou think it will do so still? yet the offers of Christ and life are made to thee in the Gospel; and the hand of God is stretched out to thee: But will it still be thus? The spirit hath not yet done striving with thy heart; But dost thou know how soon he may turn away, and give thee over to a reprobate sense, and let thee perish in the stubbornness and hardness of thy heart? Thou hast yet life, and time, and strength, and means; But dost thou think this life will always last? O seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near; He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what Christ now speaketh to his soul. And today, while it is called today, harden not your hearts; lest he swear in his wrath that you shall never enter into his Rest. For ever blessed is he, that hath a Hearing heart and ear, while Christ hath a Calling voice.
SECT. XII.
SEventhly, Again, it will be a most cutting consideration to these damned sinners, to remember on what easy terms they might have escaped their misery; and on what easy conditions the Crown was tendered to them. If their work had been, to remove Mountains, to conquer Kingdoms, to fulfill the Law to the smallest tittle, then the impossibility would somewhat asswage the rage of their self-accusing conscience: If their conditions for heaven had been, the satisfying of Justice for all their transgressions, the suffering of all that the Law did lay upon them, or bearing that burden which Christ was fain to bear; Why this were nothing but to suffer Hell, to escape hell: but their conditions were of another nature; The yoke was light, and the burden was easy which Jesus Christ would have laid upon them, his commandments were not grievous. It was but to repent of their former transgressions, and cordially to accept him for their Savior and their Lord; to study his will, and seek his face; to renounce all other happiness, but that which he procureth us, and to take the Lord alone for our Supreme Good: to renounce the government of the world and the flesh, and to submit to his meek and gracious government; to forsake the ways of our own devising, and to walk in his holy delightful way, to engage ourselves to this by Covenant with him, and to continue faithful in that Covenant. These were the terms on which they might have enjoyed the Kingdom: And was there anything unreasonable in all this? Or had they anything to object against it? Was it a hard bargain to have Heaven upon these conditions? When all the price that is required, is only our Accepting it in that way that the Wisdom of our Lord thinks meet to bestow it? And for their want of ability to perform this, it consisteth chiefly in their want of will: If they were but willing, they should find that God would not be backward to assist them, If they be willing, Christ is much more willing.
O when the poor tormented wretch, shall look back upon these easy terms which he refused, and compare the labor of them with the pains and loss which he there sustaineth, it cannot be now conceived how it will rent his very heart! Ah (thinks he) how justly do I suffer all this, who would not be at so small cost and pains to avoid it! Where was my understanding when I neglected that gracious offer! When I called the Lord, a hard Master! and thought his pleasant service to be a bondage, and the service of the Devil and my flesh, to be the only delight and freedom! Was I not a thousand times worse then mad, when I censured the holy way of God, as needless preciseness! And cried out on it as an intolerable burden! When I thought the Laws of Christ, too strict! and all too much that I did for the life to come! O, what had all the trouble of duty been, in comparison of the trouble that I now sustain? Or all the sufferings for Christ and well-doing, in comparison of these sufferings that I must undergo forever? What if I had spent my days in the strictest life that ever did Saint? what if I had lived still upon my knees? What if I had lost my credit with men? and been hated of all men for the sake of Christ? and born the reproach and scorn of the foolish? What if I had been imprisoned, or banished, or put to death? O what had all this been to the miseries that I now must suffer? Then had, my sufferings now been all over, whereas they do but now begin but will never end: Would not the heaven which I have lost, have recompensed all my losses? and should not all my sufferings have been there forgotten? What if Christ had bid me do some great matter? as to live in continual tears and sorrow, to suffer death a hundred times over? (which yet he did not) should I not have done it? How much more, when he said but, Believe and be saved? Seek my face, and thy soul shall live: Love me above all, walk in my sweet and holy way, take up thy Cross and follow me, and I will save thee from the wrath of God, and I will give thee everlasting life. O gracious offer! O easy terms! O cursed wretch, that would not be persuaded to accept them.
SECT. XIII.
EIghthly, Furthermore, this also will be a most tormenting Consideration; to remember what they sold their eternal welfare for, and what it was that they had for heaven? when they compare the value of the pleasures of sin, with the value of the recompense of reward which they forsook for those pleasures: how will the vast disproportion astonish them! To think of a few merry hours, a few pleasant cups, or sweet morsels, a little ease, or low delight to the flesh, the applauding breath of the mouth of mortal men, or the possession of so much gold or earth; and then to think of the everlasting glory! what a vast difference between them will then appear? To think, This is all I had for my soul, my God, my hopes of •• lessedness! It cannot possibly be expressed how these thoughts will tear his very heart. Then will he exclaim against his folly, O deservedly miserable wretch! Did I set my soul to sale on so base a price? Did I part with my God for a little dirt and dross? and sell my Savior, as Judas, for a little silver? O for how small a matter have I parted with my Happiness? I had but a dream of delight, for my hopes of heaven; and now I am awaked, it is all vanished: where are now my honors and attendance? who doth applaud me, or trumpet out my praises? where is the Cap and Knee that was wont to do me reverence? my Morsels now are turned to Gall, and my Cups to Wormwood: They delighted me no longer then while they were passing down, when they were past my taste, the pleasure perished. And is this all that I have had for the inestimable treasure? O what a mad exchange did I make? what if I had gained all the world and lost my soul? would it have been a saving match? But alas, how small a part of the world was it, for which I gave up my part in Glory? —O that sinners would forethink of this, when they are swimming in delights of flesh; and studying how to be rich, and honorable in the world! when they are desperately venturing upon known transgression, and sinning against the checks of Conscience!
SECT. XIV.
NInthly, Yet much more will it add unto their torment, when they consider that all this-was their own doings, and that they most willfully did procure their own destruction: Had they been forced to sin whether they would or no, it would much abate the rage of their consciences; Or if they were punished for another man's transgressions; or if any other had been the chiefest author of their ruin; But to think, that it was the choice of their own will; and that God had set them in so free a condition, that none in the world could have forced them to sin against their wills, this will be a griping thought to their hearts. What (thinks this wretched creature) had I not enemies enough in the world, but I must be an enemy to myself? God would neither give the devil nor the world so much power over me, as to force me to commit the least transgression: if I had not consented, their temprations had been in vain, they could but entice me, it was myself that yielded, and that did the evil; and must I needs lay hands upon mine own soul? and imbrew my hands in my own blood? who should pity me, who pitied not myself, and who brought all this upon mine own head? When the enemies of Christ did pull down his Word and Laws, his Ministry and Worship, the news of it did rejoice me; when they set up dumb, or seducing, or ungodly Ministers, instead of the faithful Preachers of the Gospel, I was glad to have it so; when the Minister told me the evil of my ways, and the dangerous state that my soul was in, I took him for mine enemy, and his Preaching did stir up my hatred against him and every Sermon did cut me to the heart, and I was ready to gnash my teeth in indignation against him. If a drunken Ceremonious Preacher did speak me fair, or read the Common Prayer, or some toothless Homily instead of a searching plain-dealing Sermon, why, this was according to my own heart; never was I willing of the means of mine own welfare; never had I so great an enemy as myself; never did God do me any good, or offer me any for the welfare of my soul, but I resisted him, and was utterly unwilling of it: he hath heaped mercy upon me, and renewed one deliverance after another, and all to entice my heart unto him, and yet was I never heartily willing to serve him: He hath gently chastized me, and made me groan under the fruit of my disobedience, and yet, though I promised largely in my affliction, I was never unfeignedly willing to obey him: Never did a good Magistrate attempt a Reformation, but I was against it, nor a good Minister labor the saving of the Flock, but I was ready to hinder as much as I could; nor a good Christian labor to save his soul, but I was ready to discourage and hinder him to my power, as if it were not enough to perish alone, but I must draw all others to the same destruction. O what cause hath my wife, my children, my servants, my neighbors, to curse the day that ever they saw me! As if I had been made to resist God, and to destroy my own and other men's souls, so have I madly behaved myself. Thus will it gnaw upon the hearts of these wretches, to remember that they were the cause of their own undoing; and that they willfully and obstinately persisted in their Rebellion, and were mere Volunteers in the service of the Devil; They would venture, they would go on, they would not hear him • hat spoke against it: God called to them, to hear and stay, but they would not; Men called, Conscience called, and said to them (as Pilate's wife,) Have nothing to do with that hateful sin, for I have suffered many things because of it, but they would not hear, their Will was their Law, their Rule and their Ruin.
SECT. XV.
TEnthly and lastly, It will yet make the wound in their Consciences much deeper, when they shall remember, that it was not only their own doing, but that they were at so much cost and pains for their own damnation: What great undertakings did they engage in for to effect their ruin? To resist God, to conquer the Spirit, to overcome the power of Mercies, Judgments, and the Word itself, to silence Conscience! all this did they take upon them, and perform. What a number of sins did they manage at once? what difficulties did they set upon? even the conquering of the power of Reason itself. What dangers did they adventure on? Though they walked in continual danger of the wrath of God, and knew he could lay them in the dust in a moment; though they knew they lived in danger of eternal perdition, yet would they run upon all this. What did they forsake for the service of Satan, and pleasures of sin? They forsook their God, their Conscience, their best Friends, their eternal hopes of salvation▪ and all. They that could not tell how to forsake a lust, or a little honor or ease for Christ; yet can lose their souls, and all, for sin. O the labor that it costeth poor wretches to be damned! Sobriety they might have at a cheap rate, and a great deal of health and ease to boot; and yet they will rather have Gluttony and Drunkenness, with poverty, and shame, and sickness, and belchings, and vomitings; with the outcries and lamentations of wife, and children, and Conscience itself. Contentedness they might have with ease and delight; yet will they rather have Covetousness and Ambition, though it cost them study and care, and fears and labor of body and mind, and 〈◊〉 continual unquietness and distraction of spirit, and usually a shameful overthrow at the last Though their anger be nothing but a tormenting themselves, and Revenge and Envy do consume their spirits, and keep them upon a continual • ack of disqu • et, though uncleanness destroy their bodies, and states, and names; and though they are foretold of the hazard of their eternal Happiness, yet will they do and suffer all this▪ rather then suffer their souls to be saved. How fa • t runs Gehazi for his Leprosy? what cost and pains is Nimrod at to purchase an universal confusion? How doth an Amorous Amnon pine himself away for a self destroying lust? How studiously and painfully doth Absalom seek a hanging? Ahitophels reputation and his life must go together; even when they are struck blind by a Judgment of God, yet how painfully do the Sodomites grope and weary themselves to find the door? what cost and pains are the Idolatrous Papists at for their multifarious Wilworship? How unweariedly and unreservedly have the Malignant enemies of the Gospel among us, spent their estates and health, and limbs, and lives, to overthrow the power of Godliness, and set up Formality? to put out the light that should guide them to heaven? and how earnestly do they still prosecute it to the last? How do the Nations generally rage▪ and the people imagine a vain thing? The Kings of the Earth setting themselves, and the Rulers taking counsel together▪ against the Lord, and against his Christ? that they may break the bonds of his Laws asunder, and cast away the cords of his Government from them, though he that sitteth in heaven do laugh them to scorn, though the Lord have them in derision; though • e speak to them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure, and re • solve them that yet in despite of them all, He will set his King upon his holy Hill of Zion ? Yet will they spend and tire out themselves as long as they are able to stir against the Lord. O how the reviews of this will feed the flames of Hell? With what rage will these damned wretches curse themselves? and say, Was dam • nation worth all my cost and pains? was it not enough that I perished through my negligence, and that I sit still while Satan played his game, but I must seek so diligently for my own perdi • tion? Might I not have been damned on free-cost, but I must purchase it so dearly? I thought I could have been saved without so much ado; and could I not have been destroyed without so much ado? How well is all my care, and pains, and violence now requited? Must I work out so laboriously my own damnation, when God commanded me to work out my Salvation! O if I had done as much for Heaven, as I did for Hell, I had surely had it. I cried out of the tedious way of Godliness, and of the painful course of Duty and Self-denial; and yet I could be at a great deal more pains for Satan, and for death. If I had loved Christ as strongly as I did my pleasures and profits, and honors, and thought on him as often, and sought him as painfully, O how happy had I now been! But justly do I suffer the flames of Hell, who would rather rather buy them so dear, then have Heaven on free cost, when it was purchased to my hands! —
Thus I have shown you some of those thoughts, which will aggravate the misery of these wretches forever. O that God would persuade thee, who readest these words, to take up these thoughts now seasonably and soberly for the preventing of that inconceivable calamity, that so thou mayest not be forced in despite of thee, to take them up in Hell as thy own Tormentor.
It may be some of these hardened wretches, will jest at all this, and say, How know you what thoughts the damned in Hell will have?
Ans. First, Why read but the 16 of Luke, and you shall there find some of their thoughts mentioned.
Secondly I know their understandings will not be taken from them, nor their conscience, nor Passions: As the Joyes of Heaven are chiefly enjoyed by the Rationall soul in its Rationall actings: so also must the pains of Hell be suffered. As they will be men still, so will they act as men.
Thirdly, Beside, Scripture hath plainly foretold us as much, that their own thoughts shall accuse them, Rom. 2.15. and their hearts condemn them. And we see it begun in despairing persons here.
CHAP. III. They shall lose all things that are comfortable, as well as Heaven.
SECT. I.
H Aving shown you those considerations which will then aggravate their misery, I am next to show you their Additonall losses which will aggravate it. For as Godliness hath the promise both of this life and that which is to come, and as God hath said, that if we first seek his Kingdom and Righteousness, all things else shall be added to us: so also are the ungodly threated with the loss both of spiritual and of corporal blessings; and because they sought not first Christ's Kingdom and righteousness, therefore shall they lose both it, and that which they did seek; and there shall be taken from them even that little which they have. If they could but have kept their present enjoyments, they would not much have cared for the loss of Heaven: let them take it that have more mind of it; But catching at the shadow and loosing the substance, they now find that they have lost both, and that when they rejected Christ, they rejected all things. If they had lost and forsaken all for Christ, they would have found all again in him; for he would have been all in all to them: But now they have forsaken Christ for other things, they shall lose Christ and that also for which they did forsake him.
But I will particularly open to you some of their other losses.
SECT. II.
FIrst, They shall lose their present presumptuous conceit and belief, of their Interest in God, and of his favor towards them, and of their part in the merits and sufferings of Christ. This false Belief doth now support their spirits, and defend them from the terrors that else would seize upon them; and fortify them against the fears of the wrath to come. Even as true Faith doth afford the soul a true and grounded support and consolation, and enableth us to look to Eternity with undaunted courage: So also a false ungrounded Faith doth afford a false ungrounded comfort; and abates the trouble of the considerations of Judgment and damnation. But alas, this is but a palliat salve, a deceitful comfort; what will ease their trouble when this is gone? When they can Believe no longer, they will be quieted in mind no longer, and rejoice no longer. If a man be near to the greatest mischief, and yet strongly conceit that he is in safety; his conceit may make him as cheerful as if all were well indeed, till his misery comes, and then both his conceit and comforts vanish. An ungrounded persuasion of happiness, is a poor cure for real misery. When the mischief comes, it will cure the mis-belief; but that belief can neither prevent nor cure the mischief. If there were no more to make a man happy, but to believe that he is so, or shall be so, happiness would be far commonner then now it is like to be. It is a wonder, that any man who is not a stranger both to Gospel and Reason, should be of the Antinomian faith in this; who tell us that faith is but the believing that God loveth us, and that our sins are already pardoned through Christ; that this is the chief thing that Ministers should preach; that our Ministers preach not Christ, because they preach not this; that every man ought thus to believe, but no man to question his Faith, whether he believe truly or not, &c. But if all men must believe that their sins are pardoned, then most of the world must believe a lie; And if no man ought to question the truth of his faith, then most men shall rest deluded with an ungrounded belief. The Scripture commandeth us first to believe for remission of sins, before we believe that our sins are remitted: If we believe in Christ, that is, accept him cordially for our Savior, and our King, then we shall receive the pardon of sins. The truth is, we have more ado to Preach down this Antinomian faith, then they have to Preach it up; and to Preach our people from such a believing, then they have to preach them to it. I see no need to persuade people so to believe, the generality are strong and confident in such a belief already. Take a congregation of 5000. persons, and how few among them all will you find, that do not believe that their sins are pardoned, and that God loves them? Especially of the vilest sinners, who have least cause to believe it? Indeed, as it is all the work of those men to persuade people to this belief • so is it the hardest task almost that we meet with, to convince men 〈◊〉 the ungroundedness of this belief, and to break that peace 〈…〉 maintaineth in their souls. Neither do I know a 〈…〉 of men's destruction, then such a misbelief. Who will • eek for that which he believes he hath already? This is the great engine of Hell, to make men go merrily to their own perdition. I know men cannot believe Christ, or believe in, or upon Christ, either too soon, or too much. But they may believe, or judge that themselves are pardoned, adopted, and in favor with God, too soon, and too much. For a false judgment is always too much and too soon. As true grounded Faith is the master grace in the Regenerate, and of greatest use in the Kingdom of Christ; so is a false ungrounded faith, the master vice in the unregenerate soul, and of greatest use in the Kingdom of Satan. Why do such a multitude sit still, when they might have pardon for the seeking? but that they verily think they are pardoned already? Why do men live so contentedly in the power of the devil, & walk so carelessly in the certain way to Hel? but that they think their way will have no such end, and that the Devil hath nothing to do with them? they defy him, they spit at the mention of his name. If you could ask so many 1000 as are now in Hell, What madness could cause you to come hither voluntarily? or to follow Satan to this place of torment? when you might follow Christ to the land of Rest? They would most of them answer you, We believed that we had followed towards Salvation; and that the way which we were in, would have brought us to Heaven: We made sure account of being saved, till we found ourselves damned; and never feared Hell, till we were suddenly in it▪ we would have renounced our sinful courses and companions, but that we thought we might have them, and heaven too; We would have sought after Christ more heartily, but that we thought we had part in him already; We would have been more earnest seekers of Regeneration, and the power of godliness, but that we verily thought we were Christians before O if we had known as much as now we know! what lives would we have led! what persons would we have been! But we have flattered ourselves into these unsufferable torments: We were told of this before from the word of God: but we would not believe it, till we felt it; and now there is no remedy. — Reader, do but stop, and think here with thyself, how sad a Case this is? That men should so resolutely cheat themselves of their Everlasting Rest? The Lord grant it never prove thy own case. I would be very loath to weaken the true faith of the meanest Christian, or to persuade any man that his faith is false, when it is true: God forbid, that I should so disparage that precious grace which hath the stamp of the spirit! or so trouble the soul that Christ would have to be comforted! But I must needs in faithfulness tell thee, that the confident belief of their good estate and of the pardon of their sins, which the careless, unholy, unhumbled multitude amongst us, do so commonly boast of, will prove in the end but a soul-damning delusion. It hath made me ready to tremble many a time, to hear a drunken, ungodly, unfaithful Minister, as confidently in his formal prayers in the Pulpit, give God thanks for Vocation, Justification, Sanctification, and assured hope of Glorification, as if he had been a most assured Saint! when it may be his Sermon was intended to reproach the Saints, and to jeer at Sanctification! Me thoughts I even heard the Pharisee say, I thank thee that I am not as other men: Or Corah ; Are not all the people holy, everyone? How commonly do men thank God for these, which they never received, nor ever shall do? How many have thanked God for pardon of sin, who are now tormented for it! and for Sanctification and assured hope of Glory, who are now shut out of that Inheritance of the Sanctified? I warrant you, there's none of this believing in hell: nor any persuasions of pardon or happiness, nor any boasting of their honesty, nor justifying of themselves: This was but Satan's stratagem, that being blindfold they might follow him the more boldly, but then he will uncover their eyes, and they shall see where they are.
SECT. III.
2. ANother addition to the misery of the damned will be this; That with the loss of heaven, they shall lose also all their hopes. In this life, though they were threatened with the wrath of God, yet their hope of escaping it did bear up their hearts; And when they were wounded with the terrors of the Word, they lickit all whole again with their groundless hopes; but then they shall part with their hopes and heaven together: We can now scarce speak with the vilest Drunkard, or Swearer, or covetous Wordling, or scorner at Godliness, but he hopes to be saved for all this: If you should go to all the Congregation, or Town, or Country, and ask them one by one, whether they hope to be saved? how few shall you meet with, that will not say yea? or that make any great question of it? But, O happy world, if Salvation were as common as this Hope! Even those whose hellish nature is written in the face of their conversation, that he that runs may read it, whose tongues plead the cause of the devil, and speak the language of hell▪ and whose delight is in nothing but the works of the flesh, yet these do strongly hope for heaven, though the God of heaven hath told them over and over again in his Word, that no such as they shall ever come there. Though most of the world shall eternally perish, and the Judge of the world himself hath told us, that of the many that are called, yet but few are chosen, yet almost all do hope for it, and cannot endure any man that doth but question their hopes: Let but their Minister Preach against their false hopes; or their best friend come to them, and say. I am afraid your present hopes of heaven will deceive you, I see you mind not your soul, your heart is not set upon Christ and heaven, you do not so much as pray to God, and worship him in your Family; and the Scripture gives you not the least hope of being saved in such a condition as this is: How ill would they take such an admonition as this? and bid the Admonisher look to himself, and let them alone, he should not answer for them, they hope to be saved as soon as these preciser men, that pray, and talk of heaven so much.—Nay, so strong are these men's hopes, that they will dispute the case with Christ himself at Judgment, and plead their eating and drinking in his presence, their Preaching in his Name, and casting out devils, (and these are more probable Arguments, then our Baptism, and common Profession, and name of Christians) they will stiffly deny that ever they neglected Christ in hunger, nakedness, prison, &c. (and if they did, yet that is less then stripping, imprisoning, banishing, or killing Christ in his Members,) till Christ confute them with the sentence of their condemnation: Though the heart of their hopes will be broken at their death, and particular Judgment, yet it seems they would fain plead for some hope at the general Judgment. But O the sad state of these men, when they must bid farewell to all their Hopes! when their Hopes shall all perish with them! Reader, if thou wilt not believe this, it is because thou wilt not believe the Scriptures. The holy Ghost hath spoke it as plain as can be spoken, Prov. 11.7. When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish, and the hope of unjust men perisheth, Prov. 10.28. The hope of the righteous shall be gladness, but the expectation of the wicked shall perish. See Isai. 28.15, 18. Job 27.8, 9. For what is the hope of the Hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul? Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him? Job 8.12, 13, 14. Can the Rush grow up without mire? Can the Flag grow without water? whilst it is yet in its greeness, not cut down, it withereth before any other herb; So are the paths of all that forget God, and the Hypocrites hope shall perish; whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a Spiders Web; He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand, he shall hold it fast, but it shall not endure. Job 11.20. But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope shall be as the giving up of the Ghost : The giving up of the Ghost is a fit, but terrible resemblance of a wicked man's giving up of his hopes. For first, As the soul departeth not from the body without the greatest terror and pain, so also doth the hope of the wicked depart. O the direful gripes and pangs of horror that seize upon the soul of the sinner at Death and Judgment, when he is parting with all his former hopes! Secondly, The soul departeth from the body suddenly, in a moment, which hath there delightfully continued so many years; Just so doth the hope of the wicked depart. Thirdly, The soul which then departeth, will never return to live with the body in this world anymore; and the hope of the wicked when it departeth, taketh an everlasting Farewell of his soul. A miracle of Resurrection shall again conjoin the soul and body, but there shall be no such miraculous Resurrection of the damned's hope. Me thinks it is the most doleful Spectacle that this world affords, to see such an ungodly person dying, and to think of his soul, and his hopes departing together! and with what a sad change he presently appears in another world? Then if a man could but speak with that hopeless soul, and ask it; what, are you now as confident of salvation as you were wont to be? Do you now hope to be saved as soon as the most godly? O what a sad answer would he return▪ They are just like Corah Dathan, and their Companions; while they are confident in their Rebellion against the Lord▪ and cry out, Are not all the people holy? They are suddenly swallowed up, and their hopes with them: Or like Ahah, who hating and imprisoning the Prophet for foretelling his danger, while he is in confident hopes to return in peace, is suddenly smitten with that mortal Arrow, which let out those hopes, together with his soul: Or like a Thief upon the Gallows, who hath a strong conceit that he shall receive a Pardon, and so hopes, and hopes, till the Ladder is turned: Or like the unbelieving sinners of the world before the Flood, who would not believe the threatenings of Noah, but perhaps deride him for preparing his Ark so many years together, when no danger appeared, till suddenly the Flood came and swept them all away. If a man, had asked these men when they were climbing up into the tops of Trees and Mountains, Where is now your hope of escaping? Or your merry deriding at the painful preventing preparations of godly Noah? Or your contemptuous unbelief of the warnings of God? What do you think these men would then say? when the waters still pursued them from place to place, till it devoured their hopes and them together? Or if one had asked Ahab, when he had received his wound, and turned out of the battle to die; what think you now of the Prophesy of Micaiah ? will you release him out of prison? do you now hope to return in peace? Why, such a sudden overthrow of their hopes will every unregenerate sinner receive. While they were upon earth, they frustrated the expectations (as I may say) of God and man: God sent his messengers to tell them plainly of their danger, and said, It may be they will hear, and return and escape: but they stiffened their necks and hardened their hearts: The Minister studied, and instructed and persuaded, in hope: And when one Sermon prevailed not, he labored to speak more plainly and piercingly in the next, in hope that at last they would be persuaded and return: till their hopes were frustrate, and their labor lost, and they were fain to turn their exhortation to lamentation, and to sit down in sorrow for men's willful misery; and take up the sad exclamation of the Prophet, Isai. 53.1. Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? So did godly parents also instruct their children in Hope; and watch over them, and pray for them, hoping that at last their hearts would turn to Christ. And is it not meet that God should frustrate all their hopes, who have frustrated the hopes of all that desired their welfare? O that careless sinners would be awaked to think of this in time? If thou be one of them, who art reading these lines, I do here as a friend advise thee from the word of the Lord, that, as thou wouldst not have all thy Hopes deceive thee when thou hast most need of them, thou presently try them whether they will prove currant at the touchstone of the Scripture; and if thou find them unsound, let them go, what sorrow soever it cost thee. Rest not till thou canst give a reason of all thy hopes: till thou canst prove that they are the hopes which grace and not nature only hath wrought, that they are grounded upon Scripture-promises and sound evidences, that they purify thy heart: that they quicken, and not cool thy endeavors in godliness; that the more thou hopest, the less thou sinnest; and the more painful thou art in following on the work; and not grow more loose and careless by the increasing of thy hopes: that they make thee set lighter by all things on earth, because thou hast such hopes of higher possessions: that thou art willing to have them tried, and fearful of being deceived: that they stir up they desires of enjoying what thou hopest for, and the deferring thereof is the trouble of thy heart, Prov. 13.12. If thou be sure that thy hopes be such as these; God forbid that I should speak a word against them, or discourage thee from proceeding to hope thus to the end: No, I rather persuade thee to go on in the strength of the Lord; and what ever men or devils, or thy own unbelieving heart shall say against it, go on, and hold fast thy hope, and be sure, it shall never make thee ashamed. But if thy hope be not of this spiritual nature, and if thou art able to give no better reason why thou hopest, then the worst in the world may give, That God is merciful; and thou must speed as well as thou canst, or the like; and hast not one sound evidence of a saving work of grace upon thy soul to show for thy hopes; but only hopest that thou shalt be saved because thou wouldest have it so, and because it is a terrible thing to despair; If this be thy case, delay not an hour; but presently cast away those hopes, that thou mayest get into a capacity of having better in their stead. But it may be thou wilt think this strange doctrine, and say, What, would you persuade me directly to despair? Answ. Sinner; I would be loath to have thy soul destroyed by willful self-delusion. The truth is, There is a hope (such as I have before shown thee of) which is a singular grace and duty▪ and there is a hope which is a notorious dangerous sin. So consequentely there is a despair which is a grievous sin: and there is a despair which is absolutely necessary to thy salvation. I would not have thee, despair of the suffi • ciency of the blood of Christ to save thee, if thou believe and heartily obey him: Nor of the willingness of God to pardon and save thee, if thou be such a one: Nor yet absolutely of thy own salvation; because while there is life and time, there is some hope of thy conversion, and so of thy salvation, Nor would I draw thee to despair of finding Christ, if thou do but heartily seek him: Or of God's acceptance of any sincere endeavors, nor of thy success against Satan, or any corruption which thou shalt heartily oppose, nor of anything whatsoever God hath promised to do, either to all men in general, or to such as thou art. I would not have thee doubt of any of these in the least measure, much less despair. But this is the despair that I would persuade thee to, as thou lovest thy soul: That thou despair of ever being saved, except thou be born again; or of seeing God without Holiness: or of escaping perishing, except thou soundly Repent: Or of ever having part in Christ, or salvation by him, or ever being one of his true Disciples, except thou love him above Father, mother, or thy own life: Or of ever having a Treasure in Heaven, except thy very heart be there: Or of ever scaping eternal death, if thou walk after the flesh, and dost not by the spirit mortify the deeds of the flesh; or of ever truly loving God, or being his servant, while thou lovest the world, and servest it. These things I would have thee despair of; and what ever else God hath told thee shall never come to pass. And when thou hast sadly searched into thy own heart, and findest thyself in any of these cases, I would have thee despair thyself of ever being saved in that state thou art in; Never stick at the sadness of the conclusion, man, but acknowledge plainly, If I die before I get out of this estate, I am lost forever. It is as good deal truly with thyself as not: God will not flatter thee, he will deal plainly, whether thou do or not. The very truth is, This kind of despair is one of the first steps to Heaven. Consider, if a man be quite out of his way, what must be the first means to bring him in again? Why, a despair of ever coming to his journeys end in the way that he is in. If his home be Eastward, and he be going Westward, as long as he hopes he is the right, he will go on; and as long as he so goes on hoping▪ he goes further amiss. Therefore when he meets with somebody who assures him that he is clean out of his way, and brings him to despair of coming home, except he turn back again; then he will return, and then he may hope and spare not. Why, sinner, Just so it is with thy soul: Thou art born out of the way to Heaven; and in that way thou hast proceeded many a year; Yet thou goest on quietly, and hopest to be saved, because thou art not so bad as many others. Why, I tell thee, except thou be brought to throw away those hopes, and see that thou hast all this while been quite out of the way to Heaven, and hast been a child of wrath, and a servant of Satan, unpardoned, unsanctified, and if thou hadst died in this state, hadst been certainly damned; I say, till thou be brought to this, thou wilt never return and be saved. Who will turn out of his way, while he hopes he is right? And let me once again tell thee, that if ever God mean good to thy soul, and intend to save thee, this is one of the first things he will work upon thee: Remember what I say, till thou feel God convincing thee, that the way which thou hast lived in, will not serve the turn, and so breaking down thy former hopes, there is yet no saving work wrought upon thee; how well soever thou mayest hope of thyself. Yea, this much more, If anything keep thy soul out of Heaven (which God forbid) there is nothing in the world liker to do it, then thy false hopes of being saved, while thou art out of the way to salvation. Why else is it that God cries down such hopes in his word? Why is it that every faithful, skillful Minister doth bend all his strength against the false faith and hope of sinners? as if he were to fight against neither small nor great, but this prince of iniquity? Why alas, they know that these are the main pillars of Satan's Kingdom; Bring down but them two, and the house will fall. They know also the deceit and vanity of such hopes: that they are directly contrary to the Truth of God, and what a sad case that soul is in, who hath no other hope, but that God's word will prove false: when the truth of God is the only ground of true hope. Alas, it is no pleasure to a Minister to speak to people on such an unwelcome subject; no more then it is to a pitiful Physician, to tell his patient; I do despair of your life, except you let blood, or there is no hope of the cure, except the gangrened member be cut off. If it be true, and of flat necessity, though it be displeasing, there is no remedy. Why, I beseech you think on it reasonably without prejudice or passion, and tell me, Where doth God give any hope of your salvation till you are new Creatures? Gal. 6.15. Nay, I have shown you where he flatly overthroweth all such hope. And will it do you any good for a Minister to give you hope, where God gives you none? or would you desire them to do so? Why, what would you think of such a Minister, when those hopes forsake you? or what thanks will you give him, when you find yourself in Hell? would you not there lie and curse him for a deceiver forever? I know this to be true, and therefore I had rather you were displeased with me here, then curse me there. For my own part, if I had but one Sermon to preach while I lived, I think this should be it; to persuade down all your ungrounded hopes of Heaven; not to leave you there in despair, but that you may hope upon better grounds which will never deceive you. God hath told us what we shall say, Isai. 3.10, 11. Say to the Righteous, It shall be well with him, and to the wicked, It shall be ill with him And if I shall say, it shall be well with thee, when God hath said, it shall be ill with thee, what the better were thou for this? Whose word would stand, think you, God's or mine? O, little do carnal Ministers know what they do, who strengthen the hopes of ungodly men? They work as hard as they can against God, while they stand there to speak in the name of God. God layeth his battery against these false hopes, as knowing that they must now down, or the sinner must perish: And these teachers build up what God is pulling down: I know not what they can do worse to destroy men's souls. There are false teachers in regard of application, though they are true in regard of doctrine. This is partly through their flattering men-pleasing temper, partly because they are guilty themselves, and so should destroy their own hopes, as well as others; and partly because being graceless, they want that experience which should help them to discern betwixt hope and hope. The same may be said of carnal friends. If they see a poor sinner but doubting whether all be well with him, and but troubled for fear least he be out of the way: What pains do they take to keep up his old hopes? What, say they, If you should not be saved, God help a great many: You have lived honestly, &c. Never doubt, man; God is merciful. — Alas silly creatures! You think you perform an office of friendship, and do him much good! Even as much as to give cold water to a man in a Feaver, you may ease him at the present, but it afterward inflames him. What thanks will he give you hereafter, if you settle him upon his former hopes again? Did you never read Prov. 24.24. He that saith to the wicked, Thou art righteous; him shall the people curse, Nations shall abhor him. If you were faithful friends indeed, you should rather say thus to him; Friend, if you perceive the soundness of your hopes for Heaven to be doubtful, O do not smother those doubts; but go and open them to your Minister, or some able friend; and try them thoroughly in time; and hold no more of them now, then will hold good at Judgment: It is better they break while they may be built more surely, then when the discovery will be your torment, but not your remedy. — This were friendly & faithful counsel indeed. The Proverb is, If it were not for hope, the heart would break: And Scripture tells us, that the heart must break that Christ will save. How can it be bound up, till it be broken first? So that the hope which keeps their hearts from breaking, doth keep them also from healing and saving.
Well, if these unwise men (who are as we say, penny wise, and pound foolish, who are wise to keep off the smart of a short, conditional, necessary, curable despair, but not wise to prevent an eternal, absolute, tormenting, uncurable despair) do not change their condition speedily, these Hopes will leave them, which they would not leave; and then they that were now resolved to hold fast their Hopes, let all the Preachers in the world say what they would, shall let them go whether they will or no. Then let them hope for heaven if they can.
So that you see it will aggravate the misery of the damned, that with the loss of heaven, they shall lose all that hope of it, which now supporteth them.
SECT. IV.
THirdly, Another Additional loss will be this. They will lose-all that false peace of Conscience, which maketh their present life so easy. The loss of this must necessarily follow the loss of the former. When Presumption and Hope are gone, Peace cannot tarry. Who would think now that sees how quietly the multitude of the ungodly live, that they must very shortly lie roaring in everlasting flames? They lie down, and rise, and sleep as quietly, they eat and drink as quietly; they go about their work as cheerfully, they talk as pleasantly as if nothing ailed them, or as if they were as far out of danger as an obedient Believer; like a man that hath the Falling-sickness, you would little think while he is laboring as strongly, and talking as heartily as another man, how he will presently fall down, and lie gasping, and foaming, and beating his breast in torment; So it is with these men: They are as free from the fears of Hell as others, as free from any vexing sorrows, not so much as troubled with any cares for the state of their souls, nor with any sad or serious thoughts of what shall become of them in another world; yea, and for the most part they have less doubts or disquiet of mind, then those who shall be saved. O happy men, if it would be always thus! and if this peace would prove a lasting peace! But alas, there's the misery, it will not. They are now in their own Element, as the Fish in the water, but little knows that silly creature, when he is most fearlessly and delightfully swallowing down the Bait, how suddenly he shall be snatched out, and lie dead upon the Bank! And as little think these careless sinners, what a change they are near. The Sheep, or the Ox is driven quietly to the slaughter, because he knows not whither he goes; if he knew it were to his death, you could not drive him so easily. How contented is the Swine, when the Butchers Knife is shaving his throat? little thinking that it is to prepare for his death. Why, it is even so with these sensual careless men: they fear the mischief least, when they are nearest to it, because they feel it not, or see it not with their eyes: As in the days of Noah (saith Christ) they were eating and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage, till the day that Noah entered into the Ark, and knew not till the Flood came and took them all away ; So will the coming of Christ be; and so will the coming of their particular judgment be: For (saith the Apostle) when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travel upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape, 1 Thes. 5.3. O cruel Peace, which ends in such a War! Reader, If this be thy own case; if thou hast no other peace in thy Conscience then this ungrounded, self-created peace; I could heartily wish for thy own sake that thou wouldst cast it off. As I would not have any humble gracious soul to vex their own consciences needlessly, nor to disquiet, and discompose their spirits by troubles of their own making, nor to unfit themselves for duty, nor interrupt their comfortable communion with God, nor to weaken their bodies, or cast themselves into Melancholy distempers to the scandal of Religion: so would I not have a miserable wretch, who lives in daily and hourly danger of dropping into Hell, to be as merry and as quiet, as if all were well with him: It is both unseemly and unsafe; more unseemly then to see a man go laughing to the Gallows; and more unsafe then to favor the Gangrene'd member which must be cut off, or to be making merry when the enemy is entering our Habitations: Men's first peace is usually a false peace; it is a second peace which is brought into the soul upon the casting out of the first, which will stand good, and yet not always that neither; for where the change is by the halves, the second or third peace may be unsound as well as the first: as many a man that casteth away the peace of his Profaneness, doth take up the peace of mere Civility and morality, or if he yet discover the unsoundness of that, and is cast into trouble, then he healeth all with outward Religiousness, or with a half Christianity, and there he taketh up with peace: This is but driving Satan out of one room into another, but till he be cast out of possession, the peace is unsound. Hear what Christ saith, Luke 11.21.22. When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace; but when a stronger then he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his Armor wherein he trusted, and devideth his spoils. The soul of every man by nature is Satan's Garrison; all is at peace in such a man, till Christ comes; when Christ storms this heart, he breaks the peace, he giveth it most terrible Alarms of Judgment and Hell, he battereth it with the Ordnance of his Threatenings and Terrors; he sets all in a combustion of Fear and Sorrow, till he have forced it to yield to his mere mercy, and take him for the Governor, and Satan is cast out; and then doth he establish a firm and lasting Peace. If therefore thou art yet but in that first peace, and thy heart was never yet either taken by storm, or delivered up freely to Jesus Christ, never think that thy peace will endure. Can the soul have peace which is at enmity with Christ, or stands out against him, or thinks his Government too severe, and his Conditions hard? Can he have peace against whom God proclaimeth war? I may say to thee, as Jehu to Joram, when he asked, Is it peace? What peace while the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel remain? So thou art desirous to hear nothing from the mouth of a Minister but peace; but what peace can there be till thou hast cast away thy wickedness, and thy first peace, and made thy peace with God through Christ? Wilt thou believe God himself in this Case? Why, read then what he saith twice over, Isai. 48.22. and 57.21. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. And hath he said it? and shall it not stand? Sinner, Though thou mayest now harden and fortify thy heart against Fear, and Grief, and Trouble, yet as true as God is true, they will batter down thy proud and fortified spirit, and seize upon it, and drive thee to amazement: This will be done either here or hereafter. My counsel therefore to thee is, that thou presently examine the grounds of thy peace, and say, I am now at ease and quiet in my mind; but is it grounded? and will it be lasting? Is the danger of eternal Judgment over? Am I sure my sins are pardoned, and my soul shall be saved? If not, alas, what cause of peace? I may be in hell before the next day for ought I know. —Certainly, a man that stands upon the Pinacle of a Steeple, or that sleeps on the top of the main Mast, or that is in the heat of the most bloody fight, hath more cause of peace and carelessness then thou. Why, thou livest under the wrath of God continually, thou art already sentenced to eternal death, and mayest every hour expect the execution, till thou have sued out a pardon through Christ. I can show thee a hundred threatenings in Scripture which are yet in force against thee; but canst thou show me one Promise for thy safety an hour? What assurance hast thou when thou goest forth of thy doors, that thou shalt ever come in again? I should wonder, but that I know the desperate hardness of the heart of man, how a man that is not sure of his peace with God, could eat, or drink, or sleep, or live in peace! That thou art not afraid when thou liest down, lest thou shouldst awake in hell; or when thou risest up, lest thou shouldest be in hell before night; or when thou sittest in thy house, that thou still fearest not the approach of death, or some fearful Judgment seizing upon thee, and that the threats and sentence are not always sounding in thy ears. Well, if thou were the nearest friend that I have in the world, in this case that thou art in, I could wish thee no greater good, then that God would break in upon thy careless heart, and shake thee out of thy false peace, and cast thee into trouble; that when thou feelest thy heart at ease, thou wouldest remember thy misery, that when thou art pleasing thyself with thy estate, or business, or labors, thou wouldest still remember the approaching woe; that thou wouldest cry out in the midst of thy pleasant discourse and merry company, O how near is the great and dreadful change ; that what ever thou art doing, God would make thee read thy sentence, as if it were still written before thine eyes: and which way soever thou goest, he would still meet thee full in the face with the sense of his wrath, as the Angel did Balaam with a drawn sword, till he had made thee cast away thy groundless peace, and lie down at the feet of Christ whom thou hast resisted, and say, Lord, what wouldest thou have me to do and so receive from him a surer and better peace, which will never be quite broken, but will be the beginning of thy everlasting Peace, and not perish in thy perishing, as the groundless peace of the world will do.
SECT. V.
FOurthly, Another additional loss, aggravating their loss of Heaven, is this; They shall lose all their carnal Mirth. Their merry vein will then be opened and emptied: They will say themselves (as Solomon doth) of their laughter, Thou wast mad; and of their Mirth, What didst thou? Eccl. 2.2. Their witty jests, and pleasant conceits are then ended, and their merry tales are all told. Their mirth was but as the crackling of throns under a pot, Eccles. 7.6. It made a great blaze and unseemly noise for a little while, but it was presently gone, and will return no more. They scorned to entertain any saddening thoughts; the talk of death and Judgment was irksome to them, because it damped their mirth; they could not endure to think of their sin or danger, because these thoughts did sad their spirits: They knew not what it was to weep for sin; or to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God: They could laugh away sorrow, and sing away cares, and drive away these Melancholy thoughts: They thought, if they should live so austerely, and meditate, and pray, and mourn, as the godly do, their lives would be a continual misery, and it were enough to make them run mad. Alas, poor souls! What a misery then will that life be, where you shall have nothing but sorrow? Intense, heart-piercing, multiplied sorrow? When you shall have neither the Joyes of the Saints, nor your own former Joyes? Do you think there is one merry heart in hell? or one joyful countenance? or jesting tongue? You cry now, A little mirth is worth a great deal of sorrow: But sure a little godly sorrow, which would have ended in eternal Joy, had been more worth then a great deal of your foolish mirth, which will end in sorrow. Can men of gravity run laughing and playing in the streets, as little children do? or wise men laugh at a mischief, as fools and mad men? Or men that are sound in the brain, fall a dancing, as they will do in a Viti Saltus, till they fall down dead with it? No more pleasure have wise men in your pitiful mirth: For the end of such mirth is sorrow.
SECT. VI.
FIfthly, Another additional loss will be this, They shall lose all their sensual contentments and delights. That which they esteemed their chiefest good, their heaven, their God, that must they lose as well as Heaven and God himself. They shall then in despite of them fulfil that command, which here they would not be persuaded to obey, Rom. 13.14. of making no provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. O what a fall will the proud ambitious man have, from the top of his honors! As his dust and bones will not be known from the dust and bones of the poorest beggar; so neither will his soul be honored or favored anymore then theirs. What a number of Right Honorable Lord's, Right Worshipful Kinghts and Gentlemen, Right Reverend Fathers and Learned Doctors are now shut out of the presence of Christ? If you say, How can I tell that? Why I answer, because their judge hath told me so: Hath he not said by his Apostle, 1 Cor. 1.26. That not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called? And if they be not called, they be not predestinate, or justified, or glorified. Rom. 8.30. Sure that rich man, Luk. 16. hath now no humble obeisance done him, nor titles of honor put upon him; nor do the poor now wait at his gates to receive of his scraps. They must be shut out of their well-contrived houses, and sumptuous buildings; their comely Chambers, with costly hangings, their soft beds, and easy couches. They shall not find there their gallant walks, their curious Gardens, with varity of beauteous odoriferous fruits and flowers; their rich Pastures and pleasant Meadows, and plenteous Harvest, and Flocks, and Herds. Their tables will not be so spread and furnished, nor they so punctually attended and observed. They have not there variety of Dainty fare, now several courses, nor tempting dishes, prepared to please their appetites to the full: the rich man there fareth not deliciously every day: Neither shall he wear there his purple and fine linen: The jetting gorgeous well dressed gallant, that must not have a pin amiss, that stands as a picture set to sale, that take themselves more beholden to the Tailor or Semster for their comeliness, then to God, they shall then be quite in a different garb; There is no powdering or curling of the hair, nor eying of themselves, nor desirous expecting the admiration of beholders. Sure our voluptuous youths must leave their Cards and Dice behind them; as also their Hawks, and Hounds, and Bowls, and all their former pleasant sports: They shall then spend their time in a more sad employment, and not in such pastimes as these. Where will then be your Maygames, and your Morrice dances? your Stage Plays, and your Shewes? What mirth will you have in remembering all the Games, and Sports, and Dauncings which you had on the Lord's Days, when you should have been delighting yourselves in God and his work? O, what an alteration will our Joviall roaring swaggerers then find? What bitter draughts they will have instead of their Wine and Ale? If there were any drinking of healths, the Rich man would not have begged so hard for a drop of water: The heat of their lust will be then abated: They shall not spend their time in courting their Mistresses, in lascivious discourse, in amorous songs, in wanton dalliance, in their lustful embracements, or brutish defilements: Yet they are like enough to have each others company there; But they will have no more comfort in that company, then Zimri and Cozbi, in dying together; or then lewd companions have in being hanged together on the same Gallows: O the doleful meeting that these lustful wantons will have there? How it will even cut them to the heart to look each other in the face! And to remember that beastly pleasure for which they now must pay so dear! So will it be with the Fellowship of Drunkards, and all others that were play-fellows together in sin, who got not their pardon in the time of their lives: What a direful greeting will there then be? Cursing the day that ever they saw the faces of one another! Remembering and ripping up all their lewdness, to the aggravation of their torment? O that sinners would re • member this in the midst of their pleasure and jollity! And say to one another. We must shortly reckon for this before the jealous God. Will the remembrance of it then be comfortable, or terrible? Will these delights accompany us to another world? How shall we look each other in the faces, if we meet in Hell together for these things? Will not the memorial of them be then our torment? Shall we then take these for friendly actions? Or rather wish we had spent this time in praying together, o • admonishing one another? O, why should we sell such a lasting, incomprehensible Joy, for one taste of a seeming pleasure? Come, as we have sinned together, let us pray together before we stir, that God would pardon us: And let us enter into a promise to one another, that we will do thus no more, but will meet together with the godly in the worship of God, and help one another toward Heaven, as oft as we have met for our sinful metriments, in helping to deceive and destroy each other.—This would be the way to prevent this sorrow, and a course that would comfort you when you look back upon it hereafter. Who would spend so many days and years, and thoughts, and cares, and be at so much cost and pains, and all to please this flesh for a moment, which must shortly be most loathsome stinking rottenness; and in the mean time neglect our precious souls, and that state which we must trust to forever and ever? To be at such pains for that pleasure which dies in the enjoying, and is almost as soon gone as come, and when we have most need of comfort will be so far from following us as our happiness, that it will be perpetual fuel to the flames which shall torment us! O that men knew but what they desire, when they would so fain have all things suited to the desires of the flesh! They would have Buildings, Walks, Lands, Clothes, Diet, and all so fitted as may be most pleasing and delightful. Why, this is but to desire their temptations to be increased, and their snare strengthened: Their Joyes will be more carnal; and how great an enemy carnal Joy is to spiritual, experienced men can quickly tell you. If we took the flesh so much for your enemy as we do profess, we could not so earnestly desire, and contrive to accommodate it, and so congratulate all its contentments as we do.
CHAP. IV. The greatness of the torments of the damned discovered.
SECT. I.
H Aving thus shown you how great their Loss is who are shut out of Rest, and how it will be aggravated by those Additional losses which will accompany it: I should next here show you the greatness of those Positive sufferings which will accompany this loss. But because I am to Treat of Rest rather then of Torment, I will not meddle with the Explication of the quality of those sufferings▪ but only show their greatness in some few brief discoveries, l • st the careless sinner, while he hears of no other punishment but that of loss, before mentioned, should think he can bear that well enough by his own resolvedness, and so flatter himself •• hop • of a tolerable hell. That there are, besides the loss of Happiness, such actual sensible Torments for the damned, is a matter beyond all doubt, to him that doth not doubt of the truth of the Scripture; and that they will be exceeding great, may appear by these Arguments following.
First, From the principal Author of them, which is God himself: As it was no less then God whom the sinner had offended, so it is no less then God that will punish them for their offenses. He hath prepared those torments for his Enemies; His continued Anger will still be devouring them; His Breath of Indignation will kindle the flames; His Wrath will be an intolerable burden to their souls. O, if it were but a creature that they had to do with, • hey might better bear it, for the Penalty would be answerable to the Infirmity of him that should inflict it: A child can give but an easy stroke, but the strokes of a Giant will be answerable to his strength: Woe to him that falls under the strokes of the Almighty! They shall feel to their sorrow, That it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God: It were nothing in comparison to this, if all the world were against them, or if the strength of all creatures were united in one to inflict their penalty. They had now rather venture upon the displeasure of God, then to displease a Landlord, a Master, a Friend, a Neighbor, or their own Flesh; but then they will wish a thousand times in vain, that they had lost the favor of all the world, and been hated of all men, so they had not lost the favor of God; for as there is no life like his Favor, so is there no death like his displeasure; O what a consuming fire is his Wrath? If it be kindled here, and that but a little, how do we wither before it, as the grass that is cut down before the Sun? How soon doth our strength decay and turn to weakness? and our beauty to deformity? Churches are rooted up, Commonwealths are overthrown, Kingdoms depopulated, Armies destroyed, and who can stand before his wrath? Even the Heavens and the Earth will melt at his Presence, and when he speaks the word at his great Day of Account, they will be burnt up before him as a scroll in the fire. The flames do not so easily run through the dry Stubble, or consume the Houses where its violence hath prevailed, as the wrath of God will feed upon these wretches. O, they that could not bear a Prison, or a Gibbet, or Fire for Christ, no nor scarce a few scorns from the mouths of the ignorant, how will they now bear the devouring fire?
SECT. II.
2. THe place or state of torment is purposely ordained for the glorifying of the Attribute of God's Justice. As all the Works of God are great and wonderful, so those above all, which are specially intended for the eminent advancing of some of his Attributes: When he will glorify his Power, he makes the worlds by his Wisdom: The comely order of all and singular creatures declare his Wisdom; His Providence is shewn in sustaining all things, and maintaining Order, and attaining his excellent ends, amongst the confused, perverse, tumultuous agitations of a world of wicked, foolish, self-destroying Miscreants: When a spark of his Wrath doth kindle upon the earth, the whole world, save only eight persons, are drowned; Sodom Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim are burnt with fire from heaven to ashes; The sea shuts her mouth upon some; The earth doth open and swallow others; The Pestilence destroyeth them up by thousands: The present deplorable estate of the Jews may fully testify this to the world: And yet the glorifying of the two great Attributes, of Mercy and Justice, is intended most eminently for the life to come. As therefore when God will purposely then glorify his Mercy, he will do it in a way and degree that is now incredible and beyond the comprehension of the Saints that must enjoy it; so that the blood of his Son, and the enjoyment of himself immediately in Glory shall not be thought too high an honor for them: So also, when the time comes that he will purposely manifest his Justice, it shall appear to be indeed the Justice of God: The everlasting flames of Hell will not be thought too hot for the Rebellious; and when they have there burned through millions of Ages, he will not repent him of the evil which is befallen them. O, woe to the soul that is thus set up for a Butt, for the wrath of the Almighty to shoot at! and for a Bush that must burn in the flames of his Jealousy, and never be consumed!
SECT. III.
3. THe torments of the damned must needs be extreme, because they are the effect of Divine Revenge: Wrath is terrible, but Revenge is implacable: When the great God shall say, I will now be righted for all the wrongs that I have born from rebellious creatures; I will let out my wrath, and it shall be stayed no more, you shall now pay for all the abuse of my Patience! Remember now how I waited your leisure in vain, how I stooped to persuade you; how I, as it were, kneeled to entreat you: did you think I would always be slighted by such miscreants as you? — O, who can look up when God shall thus plead with them in the heat of Revenge? Then will he be revenged forever mercy abused, for his creatures consumed in luxury and excess; for every hours time misspent; for the neglect of his word, for the vilifying of his messengers, for the hating of his people, for the profanation of his ordinances, and neglect of his worship, for the breaking of his Sabbaths, and the grieving of his Spirit, for the taking of his Name in vain, for unmerciful neglect of his servants in distress. O the numberless bills that will be brought in! And the charge that will overcharge the soul of the sinner! And how hotly Revenge will pursue them all to the highest! How God will stand over them with the rod in his hand (not the rod of fatherly chastisement, but that Iron rod wherewith he bruiseth the rebellious) and lay it on for all their neglects of Christ and grace! O that men would foresee this! And not put themselves under the hammer of revenging fury, when they may have the treasure of happiness at so easy rates! And please God better in preventing their woe!
SECT. IIII.
SECT. IIII.
4. COnsider also how this Justice and Revenge will be the delight of the Almighty. Though he had rather men would stoop to Christ and accept of his mercy, yet when they persist in rebellion, he will take pleasure in their execution. Though he desire not the death of him that dieth, but rather that he repent and live; yet when he will not repent and live, God doth desire and delight in the execution of Justice: conditionally, so that men will repent, he desires not their death, but their life, Ezek 33.11. yet if they repent not, in the same place he uttereth his resolution for their death, verse. 8.13. He tells us, Isai. 27.4. That fury is not in him, yet he addeth in the next words, Who would set the briars and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together. What a doleful case is the wretched creature in, when he shall thus set the heart of his Creator against him? and he that made him will not save him, and he that formed him will not have mercy upon him, Isai. 27.11. How heavy a threatening is that in Deut. 28.63. As the Lord Rejoyced over you to do you good, so the Lord will Rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to naught. Woe to the soul which God Rejoiceth to punish. Yea, he tells the simple ones that love simplicity, and the scorners that delight in scorning, and the fools that hate knowledge, That because he called and they refused, he stretched out his hand and no man regarded, but set at naught all his counsel, and would none of his reproof, therefore he will also laugh at their calamity, and mock when their fear cometh; when their fear cometh as desolation, and their destruction as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon them, Then shall they call upon him, but he will not answer, they shall seek him early, but shall not find him; for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord, Prov. 1.22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29. I would entreat thee, who readest this, if thou be one of that sort of men, that thou wilt but view over seriously that part of the Chapter, Prov. 1. from the 20. verse to the end, and believe them to be the true words of Christ by his Spirit in Solomon: Is it not a terrible thing to a wretched soul, when it shall lie roaring perpetually in the flames of Hell, and the God of mercy himself shall laugh at them? When they shall cry out for mercy, yea, for one drop of water, and God shall mock them instead of relieving them? When none in Heaven or earth can help them but God, & he shall rejoice over them in their calamity? why, you see these are the very words of God himself in Scripture: And most just is it, that they who laughed at the Sermon, and mocked at the Preacher, and derided the people that obeyed the Gospel, should be laughed at, and derided by God. Ah poor ignorant Fools, (for so this Text calls them) they will then have mocking enough, till their heart ache with it! I dare warrant them them forever making a jest of Godliness more, or making themselves merry with their own slanderous reports. It is themselves then that must be the woeful objects of derision, and that of God himself, who would have crowned them with glory. I know when the Scripture speaks of God's laughing and mocking, it is not to be understood literally, but after the manner of men: but this may suffice us, that it will be such an act of God to the tormenting of the sinner, which we cannot more fitly conceive or express under any other notion or name, then these.
SECT. V.
5. COnsider who shall be God's Executioners of their Torment; and that is, First, Satan. Secondly, Themselves. First, He that was here so successful in drawing them from Christ, will then be the Instrument of their punishment, for yielding to his temptations. It was a pitiful sight to see the man possessed, that was bound with chains, and lived among the Tombs; and that other that would be cast into the fire, and into the water: but alas, that was nothing to the torment that Satan puts them to in Hel: That is the reward he will give them for all their service; for their rejecting the commands of God, and forsaking Christ, and neglecting their souls at his persuasion. Ah, if they had served Christ as faithfully as they did Satan, and had forsaken all for the love of him, he would have given them a better reward. Secondly, and it is most just also, that they should there be their own tormentors, that they may see that their whole destruction is of themselves; and they who were willfully the meritorious cause, should also be the efficient in their own sufferings; and then who can they complain of but themselves? and they will be no more able to cease their self-tormenting, then men that we see in a deep Melancholy, that will by no Arguments be taken off from their sorrows.
SECT. VI.
6. COnsider also how that their torment will be universal, not upon one part alone, while the rest are free, but as all have joined in the sin, so must they all partake of the torment. The soul, as it was the chief in sinning, shall be chief in suffering; and as it is of a more spiritual and excellent nature then bodies are, so will its torments as far exceed our present bodily sufferings. As the joys of the soul do far surpass all sensual pleasures, and corporal contentments, so do the pains of the soul surpass these corporal pains; and as the Martyrs did triumph in the very flames, because their souls were full of joy, though their bodies were in pain; so though these damned creatures could enjoy all their bodily pleasures, yet the souls sufferings would take away the sweetness of them all.
And it is not only a soul, but a sinful soul that must suffer; The guilt which still remains upon it, will make it fit for the wrath of God to work upon; as fire will not burn except the fuel be combustible, but if the wood be dry, or it light upon Straw, how fiercely will it burn them? Why, the guilt of all their former sins will be as Tinder or Gunpowder to the damned soul, to make the flames of hell to take hold upon them with fury.
And as the soul, so also the body must bear its part; that body that must needs be pleased whatsoever became of its eternal safety, shall new be paid for all its unlawful pleasures: That body which was so carefully looked to, so tenderly cherished, so curiously dressed; that body which could not endure heat, or cold, or an ill smell, or a loathsome sight; O what must it now endure! How are its haughty looks now taken down! How little will those flames regard its comeliness and beauty! But as Death did not regard it, nor the Worms regard it, but as freely feed upon the face of the proud and lustful Dames, and the heart of the most ambitious Lord's or Princes, as if they had been but beggars or bruits; so will their tormentors then as little pity their tenderness, or reverence their Lordliness, when they shall be raised from their graves to their eternal doom. Those eyes which were wont to be delighted with curious sights, and to feed themselves upon beauteous and comely objects, must then see nothing but what shall amaze and terrify them; an angry, sin-revenging God above them, and those Saints whom they scorned enjoying the Glory which they have lost; and about them will be only Devils and damned souls: Ah then how sadly will they look back and say, Are all our merry Meetings, our Feasts, our Plays, our wanton Toyes, our Christmas Games, and Revels come to this? Then those Ears which were wont to be delighted with Music, shall hear the shriekes and cries of their damned companions, Children crying out against their Parents, that gave them encouragement and example in evil, but did not teach them the fear of the Lord: Husbands crying out upon their Wives, and Wives upon their Husbands, Masters and Servants cursing each other; Ministers and People, Magistrates and Subjects charging their misery upon one another, for discouraging in Duty, conniving at sin, and being silent or formal, when they should have plainly told one another of their misery, and forewarned them of this danger. Thus will Soul and Body be companions in Calamity.
SECT. VII.
7. ANd the greater by far will their Torments be, because they shall have no one comfort left to help to mitigate them. In this life when a Minister foretold them of Hel, or Conscience begun to trouble their peace, they had Comforters enough at hand to relieve them▪ Their carnal friends were all ready to speak comfort to them, and promise them that all should be well with them, but now they have not a word of comfort, either for him or themselves. Formerly they had their business, their company, their mirth, to drive away their fears, they could drink away their sorrows, or play them away, or sleep them away, or at least time did wear them away; but now all these remedies are vanished: They had a hard, a presumptuous, unbelieving heart, which was a wall to defend them against troubles of mind, but now their experience hath banished these, and left them naked to the fury of those flames: Yea, formerly Satan himself was their comforter▪ and would unsay all that the Minister said against them, as he did to our first Mother; Hath God said, Ye shall not eat? Yea shall not surely die. So doth he now, Doth God tell you that you shall lie in Hell It is no such matter, God is more merciful, he doth but tell you so to fright you from sinning: Who would lose his present pleasures, for fear of that which he never saw? Or if there be a hell, what need you to fear it? Are not you Christians? And shall you not be saved by Christ? was not his blood shed for you? Ministers may tell you what they please, they delight to fear men, that they may be masters in their Consciences, and therefore would make men believe that they shall all be damned, except they will fit themselves to their precise humor. —Thus as the Spirit of Christ is the Comforter of the Saints, so Satan is the Comforter of the wicked, for he knows if he should now disquiet them, they would no longer serve him; or if fears and doubts should begin to trouble them, they would bethink themselves of their danger, and so escape it: never was a thief more careful lest he should awake the people when he is robbing the house, then Satan is careful not to awake a sinner: And as a cutpurse will look you in the face, and hold you in a tale, that you may never suspect him while he is robbing your pockets, so will Satan labor to keep men from all doubts or jealousies or sorrowful thoughts. But when the sinner is dead, and he hath his prey, and his stratagem hath had success, then he hath done flattering and comforting them: While the sight of sin and misery might have helped to save them, he took all the pains he could to hide it from their eyes: but when it is too late, and there is no hope left, he will make them see and feel it to the utmost. O, which way will the forlorn sinner then look for comfort? They that drew him into the snare and promised him safety, do now forsake him, and are forsaken themselves. His ancient comforts are taken from him, and the righteous God, whose forewarnings he made light of, will now make good his word against him to the least tittle.
SECT. VIII.
8. BUt the great aggravation of this misery, will be its Eternity. That when a thousand millions of ages are past, their Torments are as fresh to begin as the first day. If there were any hope of an end, it would ease them to foresee it; but when it must be forever, that thought is intolerable: much more will the misery itself be so. They were never weary of sinning, nor ever would have been, if they had lived eternally upon earth; And now God will not be weary of plaguing them. They never heartily repented of their sin; and God will never repent him of their sufferings; They broke the Laws of the eternal God, and therefore shall suffer eternal punishment; They knew it was an Everlasting Kingdom which they refused when it was offered them, and therefore what wonder if they be everlastingly shut out of it; It was their immortal souls that were guilty of the trespass, and therefore must immortally suffer the pains. O now what happy men would they think themselves, if they might have lain still in their graves, or continued dust, or suffered no worse then the gnawing of those worms! O that they might but there lie down again! What a mercy now would it be to die? And how will they call and cry out for it? O death whither art thou now gone? Now come and cut off th • s doleful life! O that these pains would break my heart, and end my being! O that I might once at last die! O that I had never had a being!—These groans will the thoughts of Eternity wring from their hearts. They were wont to think the Sermon long, and prayer long; how long then will they think these Endless torments? What difference is there betwixt the length of their pleasures, and of their pains? The one continued but a moment, but the other endureth through all eternity. O that sinners would lay this thought to heart! Remember how Time is almost gone: Thou art standing all this while at the door of Eternity; and death is waiting to open the door, and put thee in: Go sleep out yet but a few more nights, and stir up and down on earth a few more days, and then thy nights and days shall end; thy thoughts, and cares, and pleasure, sand all, shall be devoured by eternity: thou must enter upon that state which shall never be changed. As the Joyes of Heaven are beyond our conceiving, so also are the pains of Hell. Everlasting Torment is inconceivable Torment.
SECT. IX.
[ 9] BUt I know if it be a sensual unbeliever that readeth all this, he will cast it by with disdain, and say, I will never believe that God will thus Torment his Creatures: What, to delight in their torture! And that for everlasting! And all for the faults of a short time! It is incredible: How can this stand with the infiniteness of his mercy? I would not thus Torment the worst enemy that I have in the world, and yet my mercifulness is nothing to God's. These are but threats to awe men: I will not believe them.
Answ. Wilt thou not believe? I do not wonder if thou be loath to believe so terrible tidings to thy soul as these are; which if they were believed and apprehended indeed according to their weight, would set thee a trembling and roaring in the anguish of horror day and night: And I do as little wonder that the Devil who ruleth thee, should be loath, if he can hinder it, to suffer thee to believe it: For if thou didst believe it, thou wouldest spare no cost or pains to escape it. But go to: If thou wilt read on, either thou shalt believe it before thou stirrest, or prove thyself an Infidel or Pagan. Tell me then, Dost thou believe Scripture to be the word of God? If thou do not, thou art no more a Christian then thy horse is, or then a Turk is: For what ground have we besides Scripture to believe that Jesus Christ did come into the world, or die for man? If thou believe not these, I have nothing here to do with thee, but refer thee to the second part of this book, where I have proved Scripture to be the word of God. But if thou do believe this to be so, and yet dost not believe that the same Scripture is true, thou art far worse then either Infidel or Pagan: For the vilest Pagans durst hardly charge their Idol God's to be liars: And darest thou give the lie to the God of Heaven? And accuse him of speaking that which shall not come to pass? and that in such absolute threats, and plain expressions? But if thou darest not stand to this, but dost believe Scripture both to be the word of God, and to be true; then I shall presently convince thee of the truth of these eternal Torments. Wilt thou believe if a Prophet should tell it thee? Why read it then in the greatest Prophets, Moses, David, and Isaiah, Deut. 32.22. Psal. 11.6. & 9, 17. Isai. 30.33. Or wilt thou believe one that was more then a Prophet? Why hear then what John Baptist saith, Mat. 3.10. Luk. 3.17. Or wilt thou believe if an Apostle should tell thee? Why hear what one saith, Jud. 7.13. where he calls it the vengeance of eternal fire; and the blackness of darness forever. Or what if thou have it from an Apostle that had been wrapped up in Revelations into the third Heaven, and seen things unutterable? Wilt thou believe then? Why take it then from Paul, 2 Thess. 1.7, 8, 9. The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven, with his mighty Angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. And 2 Thess. 2.12. That they all might be damned, who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. So Rom. 2.5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Or wilt thou believe it from the beloved Apostle, who was so taken up in Revelations, and saw it, as it were, in his visions? Why see then, Rev. 20.10, 15. They are said there to be cast into the lake of fire, and tormented day and night forever. So Rev. 21.8. So 2 Pet. 2.17. Or wilt thou believe it from the mouth of Christ himself the judge? Why read it then, Mat. 7.19. & 13.40, 41, 42, 49, 50. As therefore the Tares are gathered and burnt in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world: the Son of man shall send forth his Angels, and they shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, &c. So Mat. 18.8, 9. So Mark 9.43, 44, 46, 48. Where he repeateth it three times over, Where their worm never dieth, and their fire is not quenched. And Mat. 25.41, 46. Then shall he say to them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels: For I was, &c. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, and the righteous into life eternal.
What sayest thou now to all this? Wilt thou not yet believe? If thou wilt not believe Christ, I know not whom thou wilt believe: and therefore it is in vain to persuade thee any further: Only let me tell thee the time is at hand when thou wilt easily believe, and that without any preaching or arguing: when thou seest the great and terrible day, and hearest the condemning sentence past, and art thyself thrust down to Hell (as Luk. 10.15.) then thou shalt believe, and never doubt again: And do not say but thou wast told so much. Surely he that so much dissuades thee from believing, doth yet believe and tremble himself. Jam. 2.19.
And whereas thou thinkest that God is more merciful; why sure he knows best his own mercifulness. His mercy will not cross his Truth. Cannot God be infinite in mercy, except he save the willful and rebellious? Is a judge unmerciful for condemning malefactors? Mercy and Justice have their several objects: Thousands of humble, believing, obedient souls shall know to their eternal comfort that God is merciful, though the refusers of his grace, shall lie under Justice. God will then force thy conscience to confess in Hell, that God who condemned thee was yet merciful to thee. Was it no mercy to be made a reasonable creature? And to have Patience endure thy many years provocations, and wait upon thee from Sermon to Sermon, desiring and entreating thy repentance and return? Was it no mercy to have the Son of God, with all his blood and merits freely offered thee, if thou wouldest but have accepted him to govern and to save thee? Nay when thou hadst neglected and refused Christ once, twice, yea a hundred times, that God should yet follow thee with invitations from day today? And shalt thou willfully refuse mercy to the last hour, and then cry out that God will not be so unmerciful as to condemn thee? Thy conscience will smite thee for this madness, and tell thee, that God was merciful in all this, though such as thou do perish for your willfulness. Yea the sense of the greatness of his mercy, will then be a great part of thy torment.
And whereas thou thinkest the pain to be greater then the offense, that is because thou art not a competent Judge; Thou knowest what pain is, but thou knowest not the thousand part of the evil of sin; shall not the righteous Judge of the world do justly? Nay, it is no more then thou didst choose thyself: Did not God set before thee Life and Death? and tell thee, If thou wouldest accept of the Government of Christ, and renounce thy Lusts, that then thou shouldest have eternal Life? And if thou wouldest not have Christ▪ but the World or Flesh to rule over thee, thou shouldest then endure eternal torments? Did not he offer thee thy choice? and bid thee take which of these thou wouldest? yea, and entreat thee to choose aright? And dost thou now cry out of Severity, when thou hast but the consequents of thy willful choice? But it is not thy accusing God of cruelty that shall serve thy turn; instead of procuring thy escape, or the mitigation of thy torments, it will but make thy burden the more heavy.
And whereas thou sayest that thou wouldest not so torment thy own enemy; I Answ. There is no Reason that thou shouldest: For is it all one to offend a crawling Worm of the earth, and to offend the eternal glorious God? Thou hast no absolute dominion over thine enemy, and there may be some fault in thyself as well as in him, but with God and us the case is contrary: Yet thou makest nothing of killing a Flea if it do but bite thee, yea a hundred of them though they did not touch thee, and yet never accusest thyself of cruelty: Yea, thou wilt torment thy Ox all his life time with toilsome labor, and kill him at the last, though he never deserved ill of thee, nor disobeyed thee & though thou hast over him but the borrowed authority of a superior fellow creature, and not the sovereign power of the absolute Creator: Yea, How commonly dost thou take away the lives of Birds and Beasts and Fishes? Many times a great many of lives must be taken away to make for thee but one meal? How many deaths then have been suffered in obedience to thy will from thy first Age to thy last hour? and all this without any desert of the creature? And must it yet seem cruelty, that the Sovereign Creator, who is ten thousand times more above thee, then thou art above a Flea or a Toad, should execute his Justice upon such a contemner of his Authority? But I have given you some Reasons of this before.
SECT. X.
BUt methinks I perceive the obstinate sinner desperately resolving, If I must be damned, there is no remedy, rather then I will live so precisely as the Scripture requireth, I will put it to the venture, I shall scape as well as the rest of my neighbors, and as the most of the world, and we will even bear it as well as we can.— Answ. Alas, poor creature! would thou didst but know what it is that thou dost so boldly venture on: I dare say thou wouldest sleep this night but very unquietly. Wilt thou leave thyself no room for Hope? Art thou such a malicious implacable enemy to Christ and thy own soul? And dost thou think indeed, that thou canst bear the wrath of God? and go away so easily with these eternal Torments? Yet let me beg this of thee, that before thou dost so flatly resolve, thou wouldest lend me thine attention to these few Questions which I shall put to thee, and weigh them with the reason of a man, and if then thou think thou canst bear these pains, I shall give thee over and say no more.
1. Who art thou, that thou shouldest bear the wrath of God? Art thou a God? or art thou a man? what is thy strength to undergo so much? Is it not as the strength of Wax or Stubble to resist the Fire? or as Chaff to the Wind? or as the Dust before the fierce Whirlwind? Was he not as stout a man as thyself, who cried to God, Job 13.25 Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble? and he that confesseth, I am a worm and no man, Psal 22.6. If thy strength were as iron, and thy bones as brass, thou couldest not bear; If thy foundation were as the Earth, and thy power as the Heavens, yet shouldest thou perish at the breath of his Indignation: How much more when thou art but a little piece of warm, creeping, breathing Clay, kept a few days from stinking▪ and from being eaten with Worms, by the mere support and favor of him whom thou thus resistest?
2. If thou art able to wrestle with the indignation of the Almighty, why then dost thou tremble at the signs of his Power, or Wrath? Do not the terrible Thunder-claps sometime fear thee? or the Lightning flashes? or that unseen Power which goes with it, in renting in pieces the mighty Oaks, and tearing down the strongest buildings? If thou hadst been in the Church of Withicombe in Devonshire, when the lightning broke in, and scorched and burnt the people, and left the brains and hair upon the pillars, would it not have made thee afraid? If thou be but in a place where the plague doth rage, so that it comes to so many thousand a week, doth it not astonish thee to see men that were well within a few days to be thrown into the graves by heaps and multitudes? If thou hadst stood by when Pharaoh and his people were so strangely plagued, and at last drowned together in the Sea, or when the earth swallowed up Dathan, Abiram and their companies, and the people fled away at the cry, lest the earth should swallow them up also: or when Elias brought fire from Heaven to consume the Captains and their compaines; would not any of these sights have daunted thy spirit? Why, how then canst thou bear the hellish plagues?
Thirdly, Tell me also, if thou be so strong, and thy heart so stout, why do those small sufferings so dismay thee which befall thee here? If thou have but a tooth ache, or a fit of the gout, or stone, what groans dost thou utter? What moan dost thou make? The house is filled with thy constant complaints: Thy friends about thee are grieved at thy pains, and stand over thee condoling thy miserable state: If thou shouldest but lose a leg or an arm, thou wouldest make a greater matter of it; If thou lose but a friend, if thou lose thine estate, and fall into poverty, and beggary, and disgrace, how heavily wouldest thou bear any one of these: And yet all these laid together will be one day accounted a happy state, in comparison of that which is suffered in Hel. Let me see thee shake off the most painful sickness, and make as light of Convulsive, Epileptick, Arthritick, Nephritick pains, or such like diseases when they self upon thee, and then the strength of thy spirit will appear. Alas, how many such boasters as thyself, have I seen made stoop and eat their words? And when God hath but let out a little of his wrath▪ that Pharaoh who before asked, Who is the Lord, that I should let all go for him? have turned their tune, and cried, I have sinned.
Fourthly, If thy stout spirit do make so light of hell, why then doth the approach of death so much affright thee? Didst thou never find the sober thoughts of death to raise a kind of dread in thy mind? Wast thou never in a fever, or a consumption, or any disease wherein thou didst receive the sentence of death? If thou wast not, thou wilt be before long: and then when the Physician hath plainly told thee that there is no hopes, O how cold it strikes to thy heart? Why is death to men the King of terrors else? and the stoutest champions then do abate their courage? O but the grave would be accounted a palace or a Paradise, in comparison of that place of Torment which thou desperately slightest.
5. If all this be nothing, go try thy strength by some corporal torment: As Bilney before he went to the stake, would first try his finger in the candle: so do thou; Hold thy finger a while in the fire, and feel there whether thou canst endure the fire of Hell: Austin men • tioneth a chaste Christian woman who being tempted to uncleanness by a lewd Ruffian, she desireth him for her sake to hold his finger an hour in the fire; he answereth, It is an unreasonable request; How much more unreasonable is it (saith she) that I should burn in Hell for the satisfying of your lust? Lo say I to thee: If it be an intolerable thing to suffer the heat of the fire for a year, or a day, or an hour, what will it be to suffer ten thousand times more forever? What if thou were to suffer Lawrence his death, to be roasted upon a Gridiron? or to be scraped or pricked to death as other Martyrs were? Or if thou were to feed upon toads for a year together? If thou couldest not endure such things as these, how wilt thou endure the eeternal flames?
6. Tell me yet again, if Hell be so small a matter, why canst thou not endure so much as the thoughts or the mention of it? If thou be alone, thou darest scarcely think of Hel, for fear of raising disquietness in thy spirit: If thou bein company, thou canst not endure to have any serious speech of it, lest it spoil the sport and mar the mirth, and make thee tremble as Felix did when Paul was discoursing of the Judgment to come. Thou canst not endure to hear a Minister preach of Hell, but thou gnashest thy teeth; and disdainest him, and reproachest his Sermon, as enough to drive men to desperation or make them mad. And canst thou endure the Torments, when thou canst not endure so much as to hear of them? Alas, man, to hear thy Judgment from the mouth of Christ, and to feel the execution, will be another kind of matter them to hear it from a Minister.
7. Furthermore, what is the matter that the rich man in Hell mentioned in, Luk. 16. could not make as light of it as thou dost? Was not he as likely a man to bear it as thyself? Why doth he so cry out that he is tormented in the flames? and stoop so low as to beg a drop of water of a beggar that he had but a little before despised at his gates? and to be beholden to him that had been beholden to the dogs to lick his sores?
8. Also what aileth thy companions who were as resolute as thyself, that when they lie a dying their courage is so cooled, and their haughty expressions are so greatly changed? They who had the same spirits and language as thou hast now, and made as light of all the threats of the word, yet when they see they are going into another world, how pale do they look? how faintly do they speak? how dolefully do they complain and groan? They send for the Minister then, whom they despised before, and desire to be prayed for, and would be glad to die in the state of those, whom they would not be persuaded to imitate in their lives. Except it be here and there a desperate wretch, who is given over to a more then Hellish hardness of heart. Why cannot these make as light of it as thou?
9. Yet further, if thou be so fearless of that eternal misery, why is the least foretaste of it so terrible? Didst thou never feel such a thing as a tormenting conscience? If thou hast not, thou shalt do. Didst thou never see and speak with a man that lived in desperation? or in some degree of these wounds of spirit, that was near despair? How uncomfortable was their conference? How burdensome their lives? Nothing doth them good which they possess; The sight of friends, or house, or goods which refresh others, is a trouble to them: They feel no sweetness in meat or drink: They are weary of life, and fearful of death: What is the matter with these men? If the Misery of the damned itself can be endured, why cannot they more easily endure these little sparks?
10. Again, tell me faithfully; What if thou shouldest but see the Devil appear to thee in some terrible shape? Would it not daunt thee? What if thou shouldest meet him in thy way home? Or he should show himself to the at night in thy bed-chamber? would not thy heart fail thee? and thy hair stand an end? I could name thee those that have been as confident as thyself, who by such a sight have been so appaled, that they were in danger of being driven out of their wits. Or what if some damned soul of thy former acquaintance should appear to thee in some bodily likeness? Would not this amaze thee? What fears do people live in, whose houses or persons have been but haunted with spirits? Though they have only heard some noises, and seen some sights, but never felt any hurt upon their bodies? Alas, what is this to the Torments of Hell? Canst thou not endure a shadow to appear before thee? O how wilt thou endure to live with them forever? Where thou shalt have no other company but Devils and the damned; and shalt not only see them but be tormented with them, and by them? And as incredible a matter as this seems to thee▪ if thy through conversion prevent it not, thou knowest not how few months thou shalt be out of this estate.
11. Lastly, Let me ask thee one more Question: If the wrath of God be to be made so light of, as thou dost; Why did the Son of God himself make so great a matter of it? When he who was perfectly innocent himself, had taken upon him the payment of our debt, and stood in our room▪ and bore that punishment that we had deserved, it makes him sweat forth water and blood, it makes the Lord of Life to cry, My soul is heavy, even to the death: It makes him cry out upon the cross, My God, my God Why hast thou forsaken me: Surely if any one could have born these sufferings easily, it would have been Jesus Christ: He had another measure of strength to bear it then thou hast.
And let me tell thee one thing, which everyone understandeth not: Thou wilt have sins of a more heinous nature and degree to suffer for, then ever were laid upon Jesus Christ, and consequently a punishment of a sorer degree? For Christ suffered only for the breaches of the Covenant of works, and not for the violation of the Covenant of grace (properly so called, that is, not for the final non-performance of the conditions of this Covenant,) There was no man's final unbelief or impenitence, or resisting the Spirit, that did lie upon Christ: Howsoever the aggregation of all men's sins might aggravate his burden, yet the punishment due to those sins particularly, was not like the punishment which is due to thine: For as the first Covenant gave not so great a reward, so neither did it threaten so great a penalty as the later doth: And the penalty which the new Covenant threateneth, Christ never underwent. So that the punishment which thou must suffer, is that which the Apostle speaks of Heb. 10.26. Of how much sorer punishment, &c. and that fearful looking for of Judgment, and fire which devoureth the adversaries, Heb. 6.8. Woe to poor sinners for their mad security! Do they think to find it tolerable to them, which was so heavy to Christ? Nay, the Son of God is cast into a bitter agony, and bloody sweat, and dolorous complaints, under the curse of the law alone▪ and yet the feeble foolish creature makes nothing to bear also the curse of the Gospel! the good Lord bring these men to their right minds by Repentance, lest they buy their wit at too dear a rate.
LECT. XI.
ANd thus I have shown you somewhat of their misery, who miss of this Rest prepared for the Saints. And now Reader, I demand thy resolution, what use thou wilt make of all this? Shall it all be lost to thee? or wilt thou as thou art alone consider of it in good earnest? Thou hast cast by many a warning of God, wilt thou do so by this also? Take heed what thou dost, and how thou so resolvest; God will not always stand warning and threatening; The hand of revenge is lifted up; the blow is coming, and woe to him whoever he be on whom it lighteth; Little thinkest thou how near thou standest to thy eternal state, and how near the Pit thou art dancing in thy greatest jollity; if thy eyes were but opened, as they will be shortly, thou wouldest see all this that I have spoken before thine eyes without stirring from the place (I think) in which thou standest. Dost thou throw by the Book, and say, It speaks of nothing but Hell and Damnation? Thus thou usest also to complain of the Minister; but wouldst thou not have us to tell thee of these things? should we be guilty of the blood of thy soul, by keeping silent that which God hath charged us upon pain of death to make known▪ wouldst thou perish in ease and silence? and also have us to perish with thee, rather then to awake thee, or displease thee by speaking the truth? If thou wilt be guilty of such inhumane cruelty, yet God forbid we should be guilty of such most sottish folly! There are few Preachers so simple, but they know that this kind of Preaching is the ready way to be hated of their Hearers: And the desire of applause, and the favor of men is so natural to all men, that I think there is few that delight in such a displeasing way: Our temptations to flattery and Man-pleasing are too strong for that. But I beseech the consider; Are these things true, or are they not? If they were not true, I would heartily join with thee against any Minister that should offer to Preach them, and to affright poor people when there is no cause; and I should think such Preachers did deserve Death or Banishment: But if every word of these threatenings be the words of God, and if they be as true as thou livest and readest this, what a wretch art thou that wouldest not hear it, or consider it? Why, what is the matter? If thou be sure that thou art one of the People of God, this Doctrine will be a comfort to thee and not a terror; but if thou be yet carnal and unregenerate, methinks thou shouldest be as fraid to hear of Heaven as of Hell, except the bare name of Heaven or Salvation be sufficient; sure there is no Doctrine concerning heaven in all the Scripture, that can give thee any comfort but upon the supposal of thy conversion. What comfort is it to thee to hear that there is a Rest remaining for the people of God, except thou be one of them? Nay, what more terrible then to read of Christ and Salvation for others, when thou must be shut out? Therefore except thou wouldest have a Minister to preach a lie, it is all one to thee for any comfort thou hast in it, whether he Preach Heaven or Hell to thee: His Preaching Heaven, and Mercy to thee, can be nothing else but to entreat thee to seek them, and not neglect or reject them, but he can make thee no promise of it, but upon the condition of thy obeying the Gospel; and his preaching Hell▪ is but to persuade thee to avoid it: And is not this Doctrine fit for thee to hear? Indeed if thou were quite past hope of escaping it, then it were in vain to tell thee of hell, but rather let thee take a few merry hours whilst thou mayest; but as long as thou art alive there is some hope of thy recovery, and therefore all means must be used to awake thee from thy Lethargy. O that some Jonas had this Point in hand to cry in your ears [Yet a few days, and the Rebellious shall be destroyed] till you were brought down on your knees in sackcloth and in ashes! Or if some John Baptist might cry it abroad, Now is the Ax laid to the root of the Tree, every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down and cast into the fire ; O that some son of Thunder, who could speak as Paul, till the Hearers tremble, were now to Preach this Doctrine to thee! Alas, as terribly as you think I speak, yet is it not the thousand part of what must be felt; for what heart can now possibly conceive, or what tongue can express the dolours of those souls that are under the wrath of God? Ah, that ever blind sinners should willfully bring themselves to such unspeakable misery! You will then be crying to Jesus Christ, O mercy! O pity▪ pity, on a poor soul,! Why, I do now in the name of the Lord Jesus cry to thee; O have mercy, have pity, man, upon thine own soul; shall God pity thee who wilt not be entreated to pity thyself? If thy horse see but a pit before him, thou canst scarcely force him in; Balaam's Ass would not be driven upon the drawn Sword, and wilt thou so obstinately cast thyself into hell, when the danger is foretold thee? O who can stand before the Lord, and who can abide the fierceness of his anger ? Nah. 1.6. Methinks thou shouldest need no more words, but presently cast away thy soul-damning sins, and wholly deliver up thyself to Christ. Resolve on it immediately, man, and let it be done, that I may see thy face in Rest among the Saints. The Lord persuade thy heart to strike this Covenant without any longer delay: but if thou be hardened unto death, and there be no remedy, yet do not say another day, but that thou wast faithfully warned, and that thou hadst a friend that would fain have prevented thy damnation.
CHAP. V. The Second Use, Reprehending the general neglect of this Rest, and exciting to diligence in seeking it.
SECT. I.
I Come now to the Second Use which I shall raise from this Doctrine of Rest. If there be so certain and glorious a Rest for the Saints, why is there no more industrious seeking after it in the world? One would think that a man that did but once hear of such unspeakable glory to be obtained, and did believe what he heareth, to be true, should be transported with the vehemency of his desires after it, and should almost forget to eat or drink, and should mind and care for nothing else, and speak of, and inquire after nothing else, but how to get assurance and possession of this Treasure! and yet people who hear of it daily, and profess to believe it undoubtedly as a fundamental Article of their Faith, do as little mind it, or care, or labor for it, and as much forget and disregard it, as if they had never heard of any such thing, or did not believe one word that they hear; And as a man that comes into America, and sees the Natives regard more a piece of Glass, or an old Knife, then a piece of Gold, may think, sure these people never heard of the worth of Gold, or else they would not exchange it for toys: so a man that looked only upon the lives of most men, and did not hear their contrary confessions, would think, either these men never heard of Heaven, or else they never heard of its excellency and glory; when alas, they hear of it till they are weary of hearing; and it is offered to them so commonly, that they are tired with the tidings, and cry out as the Israelites, Numb. 11.6. Our soul is dried away, because there is nothing but this Manna before our eyes : And as the Indians who live among the golden Mynes do little regard it, but are weary of the daily toil of getting it, when other Nations will compass the world, and venture their lives, and sail through storms and waves to get it: So we that live where the Gospel groweth, where heaven is urged upon us at our doors, and the Manna falls about our tents, do little regard it, and wish these Mynes of gold were further from us, that we might not be put upon the toil of getting it, when some that want it, would be glad of it upon harder terms: Surely, though the Resurrection of the Body and Life everlasting be the last Article in their Creed, it is not the least, nor therefore put last, that it should be last in their desires and endeavors.
SECT. II.
I shall apply this Reproof more particularly yet to 〈◊〉 several sorts of men. First, To the carnal worldly-minded man, who is so taken up in seeking the things below, that he hath neither heart nor time to seek this Rest.
May I not well say to these men, as Paul to the Galatians in another case? Foolish sinners! who hath bewitched you? It is not for nothing that Divines use to call the world a Witch▪ for as in Witchcraft men's lives, senses, goods, or cattle are destroyed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 secret unseen power of the Devil, of which a man can give no natural Reason; so here, men will destroy their own souls in a way quite against their own knowledge; and as Witches will make a man dance naked, or do the most unseemly, unreasonable actions; so the world doth bewitch men into brute beasts, and draw them some degrees beyond madness. Would not any man wonder that is in his right wit, and hath but the spiritual use of Reason, to see what riding and running, what scrambling and catching there is for a thing of naught, while eternal Rest lies by neglected! what contriving and caring, what fighting and bloodshed to get a step higher in the world then their brethren, while they neglect the Kingly dignity of the Saints! what insatiable pursuit of fleshly pleasures, whilst they look upon the Praises of God, which is the joy of Angels, as a tiring burden! what unwearied diligence there is in raising their posterity, in enlarging their possessions, in gathering a little silver or gold? yea, perhaps for a poor living from hand to mouth? while in the mean time their Judgment is drawing near; and yet how it shall go with them then? or how they shall live eternally, did never put them to the trouble of ones hours sober consideration; what rising early, and sitting up late, and laboring, and caring year after year to maintain themselves and their children in credit till they die, but what shall follow after that they never think on, as if it were only their work to provide for their bodies, and only God's work to provide for their souls, whereas God hath promised more to provide for their bodies without their care, then for their souls; though indeed they must painfully serve his Providence for both; and yet these men can cry to us; May not a man be saved without so much ado? And may we not say with more reason to them? May not a man have a little Air, or Earth? a little credit or wealth without so much ado? or at least, may not a man have enough to bring him to his grave without so much ado? O how early do they rouse up their servants to their labor? up, come away to work, we have this to do, or that to do; but how seldom do they call them, Up, you have your souls to look to, you have Everlasting to provide for, up to prayer, to reading of the Scripture; Alas, how rare is this language! what a gadding up and down the world is here, like a company of Ants upon a Hillock? taking uncessant pains to gather a treasure, which death, as the next passenger that comes by, will spurn abroad? as if it were such an excellent thing, to die in the midst of wealth and honors! or as if it would be such a comfort to a man at death, or in another world, to think that he was a Lord, or a Knight, or a Gentleman, or a Rich man on earth? For my part, whatever these men may profess or say to the contrary, I cannot but strongly suspect that in heart they are flat Pagans, and do not believe that there is an eternal glory and misery, nor what the Scripture speaks of the way of obtaining it; or at least, that they do but a little believe it, by the halves, and therefore think to make sure of Earth, lest there be no such thing as Heaven to be had; and to hold fast that which they have in hand, lest if they let go that, in hope of better in another world, they should play the fools and lose all. — I fear, though the Christian Faith be in their mouths, lest that this be the faith which is next their hearts; or else the lust of their Senses doth overcome and suspend their Reason, and prevail with their Wills against the last practical conclusion of their Understanding. What is the excellency of this Earth, that it hath so many Suiters, and Admirers? what hath this World done for its Lovers and Friends, that it is so eagerly followed, and painfully sought after, while Christ and Heaven stand by, and few regard them? or what will the world do for them for the time to come? The common entrance into it is through anguish and sorrow: The passage through it is with continual care, and labor, and grief; the passage out of it is with the greatest sharpness and sadness of all. What then doth cause men so much to follow & affect it? O sinful, unreasonable, bewitched men! Will mirth and pleasure stick close to you? Will gold and worldly glory prove fast friends to you in the time of your greatest need? will they hear your cries in the day of your calamity? If a man should say to you at the hour of your death, as Elias did to Baals Priests, Cry aloud, &c. O, Riches, or Honor, now help us! will they either answer, or relieve you? will they go along with you to another world, and bribe the Judge, and bring you off clear? or purchase you a room among the blessed? why then did so rich a man want a drop of water for his tongue? or are the sweet morsels of present delight and honor, of more worth then the eternal Rest? and will they recompense the loss of that enduring Treasure? Can there be the least hope of any of these? why, what then is the matter? Is it only a room for our dead bodies, that we are so much beholden to the world for? why, this is the last and longest courtesy that we shall receive from it: But we shall have this, whether we serve it or no; and even that homely dusty dwelling, it will not afford us always neither: It shall possess our dust but till the great Resurrection day. Why, how then doth the world deserve so well at men's hands, that they should part with Christ and their salvation to be its followers? Ah, vile deceitful world! How oft have we heard thy faithfullest servants at last complaining, Oh the world hath deceived me, and undone me! It flattered me in my prosperity, but now it turns me off at death in my necessity! Ah, if I had as faithfully served Christ, as I have served it; He would not thus have cast me off; nor have left me thus comfortless and hopeless in the depth of misery! Thus do the dearest friends and favorites of the world complain at last of its deceit, or rather of their own self • deluding folly: and yet succeeding sinners will take no warning. So this is the first sort of neglecters of Heaven which fall under this Reproof.
SECT. III.
2. THe second sort to be here reproved, are the profane, ungodly, presumptuous multitude, who will not be persuaded to be at so much pains for salvation, as to perform the common outward duties of Religion. Yea though they are convinced that these duties are commanded by God, and see it before their eyes in the Scripture, yet will they not be brought to the constant practice of them. If they have the Gospel preached in the town where they dwell, it may be they will give the hearing to it one part of the day, and stay at home the other: or if the master come to the congregation, yet part of his family must stay at home. If they want the plain and powerful preaching of the Gospel, how few are there in a whole Town that will either be at cost or pains to procure a Minister; or travel a mile or two to hear abroad? Though they will go many miles to the market for provision for their bodies. The Queen of the South shall rise up in Judgment with this generation, and condemn them: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth, to hear the wisdom of Solomon ; and behold a greater then Solomon doth by his messengers preach to them. The King of Nineveh shall rise up in Judgment with them, and shall condemn them; for he repented at the preaching of Jonas, but when Jesus Christ sendeth his Ambassadors to these men, they will sarce go to hear them, Mat. 12.41, 42. And though they know that the Scripture is the very Law of God, by which they must live, and by which they must be acquit or condemned in Judgment, and that it is the property of every blessed man, to delight in this law, and to meditate in it day and night, Psal. 1.2. Yet will they not be at the pains to read a chapter once in a day, nor to acquaint their families with this doctrine of Salvation: But if they carry a Bible to Church and let it lie by them all the week, this is the most use that they make of it. And though they are commanded, to pray without ceasing. 1 Thes. 5.17. And to pray always and not wax faint, Luk. 18.1, 2, 3, &c. to continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving, Col. 4.2. Yet will they not be brought to pray constantly with their families, or in secret: Though Daniel would rather be cast to the Lions, then he would forbear for a while praying openly in his house where his enemies might hear him three times a day; yet these men will rather venture to be an eternal prey to that roaring Lyon that seeks to devour them, then they will be at the pains thus to seek their safety. You may hear in their houses two oaths for one prayer. Or if they do anything this way, it is usually but the running over a few formal words, which they have got on their tongues end, as if they came on purpose to make a jest of prayer, and to mock God and their own souls. If they be in distress, or want anything for their bodies, they want no words to make known their mind; but to a Physician when they are sick, to a griping Landlord when they are oppressed, to a wealthy friend when they are in want, they can lay open their case in sad complaints, and have words at will to press home their requests: Yea every beggar at their door can crave relief, and make it their daily practice and hold on with importunity, and take no denial; necessity filleth their mouths with words, and teacheth them the most natural prevailing Rhetoric: These beggars will rise up Judgment against them and condemn them. Doubtless if they felt but the misery and necessities of their souls, they would be as forward to beg relief of God, and as frequent, as fervent, as importunate, and as constant till they were past their straits. But, alas, he that only reads in a book that he is miserable, and what his soul stands in need of, but never felt himself miserable, nor felt particularly his several wants, no wonder if he must also fetch his prayer from his book only, or at furthest from the strength of his invention or memory. Solomon's request to God was, That what prayer or Supplication soever should be made by any man, or by all the people, when every man shall know his own sore and his own grief, and shall spread forth his hands before God, that God would then hear and forgive, &c. 2 Chron. 6.29, 30. If these men did thus know and feel everyone the sore and the grief of his own soul, we should neither need so much to urge them to prayer, nor to teach them how to perform it, and what to say: Whereas now they do invite God to be backward in giving, by their backwardness in asking; and to be weary of relieving them▪ by their own being weary in begging relief; and to be seldom and short in his favors, as they are in their prayers; and to give them but common and outward favors, as they put up but common and outside requests; Yea their cold and heartless prayers do invite God to a flat denial: for among men it is taken for granted, that he who asks but slieghtly & seldom, cares not much for that he asks. Do not these men judge themselves unworthy of Heaven, who think it not worth their more constant and earnest requests? If it be not worth asking for, it is worth nothing. And yet if you should go from house to house through Town and Parish, and inquire at every house as you go, whether they do morning and evening call their family together, and earnestly and reverently seek the Lord in prayer? how few would you find that constantly and conscionably practice this duty? If every door were marked where they do not thus call upon the name of God, that his wrath might be poured out upon that family, our towns would be as places overthrown by the plague, the people being dead within, and the mark of judgment on the door without: I fear where one house would escape, there's ten would be marked out for death: and then they might teach their doors to pray, Lord have mercy on us ; because the people would not pray themselves. But especially if you could see what men do in their secret chambers, how few should you find in a whole Town, that spend one quarter of an hour morning and night in earnest supplication to God for their souls? O how little do these men set by this eternal Rest? Thus do they slothfully neglect all endeavors for their one welfare, except some public duty in the congregation, which custom or credit doth engage them to. Perswade them to read good books, and they will not be at so much pains: persuade them to learn the grounds of Religion in some Catechism, and they think it a toilsome slavery, fitter for Schoolboyes or little children then for them: Perswade them to Sanctify the Lord's day in holy exercises, and to spend it wholly in hearing the word, and repeating it with their families, and prayer, and meditation, &c. and to forbear all their worldly thoughts and speeches; And what a tedious life do they take this to be? and how long may you preach to them, before they will be brought to it? as if they thought that heaven were not worth all this ado. Christ hath been pleading with England these fourscore years and more by the word of his Gospel, for his worship and for his Sabbaths, and yet the inhabitants are not persuaded. Nay, he hath been pleading these six years by threatenings, and fire, and sword, and yet can prevail but with very few: And though these bloody arguments have been spread abroad, and brought home to people from Parish to Parish, almost as far as the word hath gone, so that there is scarce a Parish in many counties where blood hath not been shed & the bodies of the slain have not been left, yet the generality of England is no more persuaded, then they were the first day of their warning; and they have not heard the voice of the rod, which hath cried up and down their streets, Yet O England, will ye not sanctify my Sabbaths, nor call upon my name, nor regard my word, nor turn from your worldliness and wickedness? God hath given them a lash and a reproof, a wound and a warning; he hath (as it were) stood in their blood with the sword in his hand, and among the heaps of the slain hath he pleaded with the living, and said, What say you? Will you yet worship me, and fear me, and take me for your Lord? And yet they will not: Alas, yet to this day England will not; Let me here write it, and leave it upon record, that God may be justified, and England may be shamed; and posterity may know, if God do deliver us, how ill we deserved it, or if he yet destroy us, how willfully we procured it: And if they that pass by shall ask, Why hath God done thus to a flourishing and prosperous land? You may give them the true, though sad answer, They would not hear, they would not regard: He smit them down, he wounded them, he hewed them as wood, and then he beseeched the remainder to consider and return, but they never would do it: They were weary of his ways, they polluted his Sabbaths they cast his word and worship out of their families, they would not be at the pains to learn and obey his will, nay they abhorred his Ministers, and servants, and holy paths, and all this to the last breath: When he had slain five thousand or eight thousand at a fight, the rest did no more reform, then if they had never heard of it: Nay, such a spirit of slumber is fallen upon them, that if God should proceed and kill them all save one man & ask that one man, Wilt thou yet seek me with all thy heart, he would rather slight it. Lord have mercy upon us! What is gone with men's understanding and sense? Have they renounced Reason as well as Faith? Are they dead naturally as well as spiritually? Can they not hear, nor feel, though they cannot believe? That sad judgment is fall • upon them, mentioned in Isai. 42.24, 25. Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel (England) to the robbers? Did not the Lord? He against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient to his Laws: Therefore he hath poured upon them the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle, and it hath set them on fire round about, yet they knew it not; it burned them, yet they laid it not to heart. Yea this much more let us leave upon Record against England. They have been so far from Reforming, and taking up the Worship of God with delight, after all this, that they have contrarily abhorred it at the very heart, and fought against it as long as they could stand, and when they have been wounded and overthrown in one Fight, they have been as forward to the next; and when they have been quite subdued in all parts of the Land, they are as ready again for another war, as if they had never felt the hand of God at all; and to root out the sincere Worshippers and Worship of God, they are ready to die to the last man. Lord, how hast thou deserved so much ill at these men's hands! what harm hath praying, and reading, and preaching painfully, and sanctifying the Sabbath, and fearing to offend done to England ? Have they suffered for these, or for their enmity to these? what evil do these wretches discern in the everlasting Kingdom, that they do not only refuse to labor for it, but so detest and resist the holy way that leads to it? It is well for them that they live in Gospel times, when the patience of God doth wait on sinners, and not in those severer days, when fire from heaven destroyed the Captains and their Companies that were commanded by the King to bring but one Prophet before him; or when the Lions destroyed forty two children for calling a Prophet of God Bald-head: Or rather it had been better for these men to have lived in those times, that though their temporal Judgments had been greater, yet their eternal plagues might have been the less. Yet this much more let me leave upon Record to the shame of England ; That all this is not merely through idleness, because they will not be at the pains to serve God, but it is out of a bitter enmity to his Word and ways; for they will be at more pains then this in any way that is evil, or in any worship of man's devising: They are as zealous for Crosses, and Surplices, Processions and Perambulations, reading of a Gospel at a cross way, the observation of Holidays, and Fasting days, the repeating of the Litany, or the like forms in the Common Prayer, the bowing at the naming of the word Jesus (while they reject his Worship) the receiving of the Sacrament when they have no right to it, and that upon their knees, as if they were more revererent and devout then the true laborious servants of Christ; with a multitude of things which are only the traditions of their Fathers; I say, they are as zealous for these, as if eternal life consisted in them. Where God forbids them, there they are as forward as if they could never do enough; and where God commands them, they are as backward to it, yea as much against it, as if they were the commands of the Devil himself; and for the discipline of Christ, though all parts of the world have much opposed it, yet where hath it been so fiercely and powerfully resisted? The Lord grant that this hardened, willful, malicious Nation fall not under that heavy doom, Luke 19.27. But those mine enemies which would not that I should reign over them, bring them hither and slay them before me.
SECT. IV.
3. THe third sort that fall under this Reproof, are those self-couzening, formal, lazy Professors of Religion, who will be brought to any outward duty, and to take up the easier part of Christianity, but to the inward work, and more difficult part, they will never be persuaded: They will Preach, or hear, or read, or talk of heaven, or pray customarily and constantly in their Families, and take part with the persons or causes that are good, and desire to be esteemed among the godly, but you can never bring them to the more spiritual and difficult duties, as to be constant and fervent in secret Prayer, to be conscionable in the duty of self-examination, to be constant in that excellent duty of Meditation, to be heavenly minded, to watch constantly over his heart, and words, and ways; to deny his bodily senses their delights, to mortify the flesh, and not make provision for it to fulfil its lusts, to love and heartily forgive an enemy, to prefer his brethren heartily before himself, and to think meanly of his own gifts and worth, and to take it well of others that think so too, and to love them that have low thoughts of him, as well as those that have high; to bear easily the injuries or undervaluing words of others against him, to lay all that he hath at the feet of Christ, and to prefer his Service and Favor before all; to prepare to die, and willingly to leave all, to come to Christ, &c. This outside Hypocrite will never be persuaded to any of these. Above all other, two notable sorts there are of these Hypocrites. First, The superficial, opinionative Hypocrite. Secondly, The worldly Hypocrite. First, The former entertaineth the Doctrine of the Gospel with Joy, but it is only into the surface of his soul, he never gives the seed any depth of earth; It changeth his opinion, and he thereupon engageth for Religion, as the right way, and sides with it as a party in a Faction, but it never melted and new molded his heart, nor set up Christ there in full Power and Authority; but as his Religion lies most in his Opinion, so he usually runs from Opinion to Opinion, and is carried up and down with every wind of Doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in weight to deceive; and as a child is tossed too and fro; for as his Religion is but Opinion, so is his Study, and Conference, and chief business all about Opinion: He is usually an ignorant, proud, bold, irreverent enquirer and babbler about controversies, rather then an humble embracer of the known truth, with love and subjection; you may conjecture by his bold and forward tongue, and groundless conceitedness in his own Opinions, and slighting of the Judgments and persons of others, and seldom talking of the great things of Christ with seriousness and humility, that his Religion dwelleth in his brain, and not in his heart; where the wind of Temptation assaults him, he easily yieldeth, and it carrieth him away as a Feather, because his heart is empty, and not ballaced and stablished with Christ and Grace. If the Temptation of the Times do assault men's Understandings, and the sign be in the Head, though the little Religion that he hath lies there, yet a hundred to one but he turneth Heretic, or catcheth the Vertigo of some lesser errors, according to the nature and strength of the seducement: If the wind do better serve for a vicious conversation, a hundred to one but he turns a purveyor for the flesh, and then he can be a Tipler, and yet religious, a Gamster, a Wanton, a neglecter of Duties, and yet religious: If this man's Judgment • ead him the Ceremonious way, then doth he employ his chiefest zeal for Ceremonies, as if his Religion lay in Bowing, Kneeling, observation of Days, number, and form of words in Prayer, with a multitude of Traditions and Customs of his Forefathers. If his Judgment be against Ceremonies, then his strongest zeal is employed against them, studying, talking, disputing against them, censuring the users of them, and perhaps fall into a contrary superstition, placing his chief Religion in Baptism, Church Combinations, and forms of Policy, &c. For having not his soul taken up with the essentials of Christianity, he hath only the Mint and Cumin, the smaller matters of the Law, to lay out his zeal upon. You shall never hear in private conference any humble and hearty bewailings of his souls imperfections, or any heart bleeding acknowledgments of his unkindnesses to Christ, or any pantings and longings after him, from this man,; but that he is of such a Judgment, or such a Religion, or Party, or Society, or a Member of such a Church, herein doth he gather his greatest comforts; but the inward and spiritual labors of a Christian he will not be brought to.
Secondly, The like may be said of the worldly Hypocrite, who choketh the Doctrine of the Gospel, with the thorns of worldly cares and desires; His Judgment is convinced, that he must be Religious, or he cannot be saved, and therefore he reads, and hears, and prays, and forsakes his former company and courses; but because his belief of the Gospel-Doctrine is but wavering and shallow, he resolves to keep his hold of present things, lest the promise of Rest should fail him, and yet to be religious, that so he may have heaven when he can keep the world no longer, thinking it wisdom to have two strings to his bow, lest one should break. This man's Judgment may say, God is the chief good; but his heart and affections never said so, but look upon God as a kind of strange and disproportionate Happiness, to be tolerated rather then the flames of hell, but not desired before the felicity on earth. In a word, the world hath more of his Affections then God, and therefore is his God, and his Coveteousness is Idolatry. This he might easily know and feel, if he would judge impartially, and were but faithful to himself: And though this man do not gad after Opinions and Novelties in his Religion as the former, yet will he set his sails to the wind of worldly advantage, and be of that opinion which will best serve his turn▪ And as a man whose spirits are seised on by some pestilential malignity, is feeble, and faint, and heartless in all that he does; so this man's spirits being possessed by the plague of this malignant worldly disposition, O how faint is he in secret prayer! O how superficial in Examination and meditation! How feeble in heart-watchings, and humbling, mortifying endeavors! how nothing at all in loving and walking with God, rejoicing in him, or desiring after him! so that both these, and many other sorts of lazy Hypocrites there are, who though they will trudge on with you in the easy outside of Religion, yet will never be at the pains of inward and spiritual duties.
SECT. V.
4. ANd even the godly themselves deserve this Reproof, for being too lazy seekers of their everlasting Rest. Alas, what a disproportion is there betwixt our Light and our Heat? our Professions and Prosecution? who makes that haste, as if it were for heaven? How still we stand! how idly we work! how we talk, and jest, and trifle away our time! how deceitfully we do the Work of God! how we hear, as if we heard not, and pray, as if we prayed not, and confer, and examine, and meditate, and reprove sin as if we did it not, and use the Ordinances as if we used them not, and enjoy Christ, as if we enjoyed him not, as if we had learned to use the things of heaven, as the Apostle teacheth us to use the world! Who would think that stood by us, and heard us pray in private or public, that we were praying for no less then everlasting glory? should heaven be sought no more earnestly then thus? Me thinks we are none of us all in good-sadness for our souls. We do but dally with the Work of God, and play with Christ, as children, we play with our meat when we should eat it, and we play with our clothes, and look upon them, when we should put them on and wear them; we hang upon Ordinances from day today, but we stir not up ourselves to seek the Lord: I see a great many very constant in hearing and Praying, and give 〈1 page duplicate〉 〈1 page duplicate〉 us some hopes that their hearts are honest, but they do not hear and pr • y as i • it were for their lives: O, what a frozen stupidity hath benumbed us! The judgment of Pharaoh is among us, we are turned into Stones and Rocks, that can neither feel nor stir; The plague of Lots wife is upon us, as if we were changed into lifeless, immovable Pillars: we are dying▪ and we know it, and yet we stir not; we are at the door of eternal Happiness or Misery, and yet we perceive it not: Death knocks and we hear not, Christ calls and knocks, and we hear not, God cries to us, To day if you will hear my voice, harden not your hearts; work while it is day, for the night cometh, when none shall work; Now ply your business, now labor for your lives, now lay out all your strength and time, now do it, now or never, and yet we stir no more then if we were half asleep; What haste doth Death and Judgment make? how fast do they come on? they are almost at us, and yet what little haste make we? what haste makes the Sword to devour, from one part of the Land to another? what haste doth Plague and Famine make? and all because we will not make haste: The Spur of God is in our sides, we bleed, we groan, and yet we do not mend our pace; The Rod is on our backs, it speaks to the quick; our lashes are heard through the Christian world, and yet we stir no faster then before: Lord, what a senseless, sottish, earthly, hellish thing is a hard heart! that we will not go roundly and cheerfully toward heaven without all this ado! no nor with it neither! where is the man that is serious in his Christianity? Methinks men do everywhere make but a trifle of their eternal state; they look after it but a little upon the by, they do not make it the task and business of their lives. To be plain with you, I think nothing undoes men so much as complementing, and jesting, in Religion. O, if I were not sick myself of the same disease, with what tears should I mixed this Ink? and with what groans should I express these sad complaints? and with what hearts-grief should I mourn over this universal deadness? Do the Magistrates among us seriously perform their portion of the work? Are they zealous for God? Do they build up his House? and are they tender of his Honor? Do they second the Word? and encourage the Godly? and relieve the Oppressed? and compassionate the Distressed? and let fly at the face of sin and sinners, as being the disturbers of our peace, and the only cause of all our miseries? Do they study how to do the utmost that they can for God? to improve their power and parts, and wealth, and honor, and all their interests for the greatest advantage to the Kingdom of Christ, as men that must shortly give account of their Stewardship? or do they build their own houses, and seek their advancements and stand upon, and contest for their own honors, and do no more for Christ then needs they must, or then lies in their way, or then is put by others into their hands, or then stands with the pleasing of their friends, or with their worldly interests? which of these two courses do they take? and how thin are those Ministers that are serious in their work? Nay, how mightily do the very best fail in this above all things! Do we cry out of men's disobedience to the Gospel in the evidence and power of the Spirit, and deal with sin as that which is the fire in our Towns and houses? and by force pull men out of this fire? Do we persuade our people, as those that know the terrors of the Lord, should do? Do we press Christ and Regeneration, and Faith, and Holiness, as men that believe indeed, that without these they shall never have Life? Do our bowels yearn over the Ignorant, and the Careless, and the obstinate Multitude, as men that believe their own Doctrine? that our dear people must be eternally damned if they be not timely recovered? When we look them in the faces, do our hearts melt over them, lest we should never see their faces in Rest? Do we, as Paul, tell them weeping, of their fleshly, and earthly disposition? and teach them publicly, and from house to house night and day with tears? And do we entreat them, as if it were indeed for their lives and salvation? that when we speak of the Joys and Miseries of another world, our people may see us affected accordingly, and perceive that we do indeed mean as we speak? Or rather, do we not study words, and neat Expressions, that we may approve ourselves able men in the judgment of critical Hearers? and speak so formally, and heartlessly of Eternity, that our people can scarcely think that we believe ourselves? or put our tongues into some affected pace? and our language into some forced Oratorical strain? as if a Ministers business were of no more weight, but to tell them a smooth tale of an hour long, and so look no more after them till the next Sermon! Seldom do we fit our Sermons, either for Matter or Manner to the great end, our people's salvation; but we sacrifice our studies to our own credit, or our people's content, or some such base inferior end; Carnal discretion doth control our fervency; It maketh our Sermons like beautiful Pictures, which have much pains and cost bestowed upon them, to make them comely and desirable to the eye; but life, or heat, or motion there is none: Surely as such a conversation is an Hypocritical conversation; so such a Sermon is as truly an hypocritical Sermon. O the formal frozen lifeless Sermons which we daily hear preached upon the most weighty piercing Subjects in the world! How gently do we handle those sins, which will handle so cruelly our poor people's souls? And how tenderly do we deal with their careless hearts? not speaking to them as to men that must be wakened or damned. We tell them of heaven and hell in such a sleepy tone, and sleighty way, as if we were but acting a part in a Play; so that we usually preach our people asleep with those subjects which one would think should rather endanger the driving of some besides themselves if they were faithfully delivered. Not that I commend, or excuse that real indiscretion, and unseemly language, and nauseous repetitions, and ridiculous gestures, whereby many do disgrace the work of God, and bring his ordinances in contempt with the people, nor think it fit that he should be an Embassador from God on so weighty a business, that is not able to speak sense or reason: But in a word, our want of seriousness about the things of Heaven, doth charm the souls of men into formality, and hath brought them to this customary, careless hearing, which undoes them: The Lord pardon the great sin of the Ministry in this thing; and in particular, my own.
And are the people anymore serious then Magistrates and Ministers? How can it be expected? Reader, look but to thyself, and resolve the question. Ask conscience, and suffer it to tell thee truly: Hast thou set thine Eternal Rest before thine eyes, as the great business which thou hast to do in this world? Hast thou studied and cared, and watched, and labored, and laid about thee with all thy might, lest any should take thy Crown from thee? Hast thou made hast, lest thou shouldest come too late, and die before the work be done? Hath thy very heart been set upon it, and thy desires and thoughts run out this way? Hast thou pressed on through crowdes of opposition towards the Mark, for this price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus? still reaching forth unto those things which are before? When you have set your hand to the work of God, have you done it with all your might? Can conscience witness your secret cries, and groans, or tears? Can your families witness that you have taught them the fear of the Lord? and warned them all with earnestness and unweariedness to remember God and their souls, and to provide for Everlasting? Or that you have done but as much for them, as that damned Glutton would have had Lazarus do for his brethren on earth, to warn them that they come not to that place of Torment? Can your Ministers witness, that they have heard you cry out, What shall we do to be saved? and that you have followed them with complaints against your corruptions, and with earnest enquiries after the Lord? Can your neighbors about you witness, that you are still learning of them that are able to instruct you? and that you plainly, and roundly reprove the ungodly, and take pains for the saving of your brethren's souls? Let all these witnesses Judge this day between God and you, Whether you are in good sadness about the affairs of Eternal Rest. But if yet you cannot discern your neglects; Look but to yourselves, within you, without you, to the work you have done: you can tell by his work, whether your servant have loytered, though you did not see him; so you may by yourselves: Is your love to Christ, your faith, your zeal, and other graces strong or weak? What are your joys? what is your Assurance? Is all right, and strong, and in order within you? Are you ready to die, if this should be the day? Do the souls among whom you have conversed, bless you? Why, Judge by this, and it will quickly appear whether you have been Laborers, or Loyterers.
O Blessed Rest! how unworthily art thou neglected! O glorious Kingdom! how art thou undervalued! Little know the careless sons of men, what a state they set so light by! If they once knew it, they would sure be of another mind.
CHAP. VI. An Exhortation to Seriousness in seeking Rest.
SECT. I.
I Hope, Reader, by this time thou art somewhat sensible, what a desperate thing it is to trifle about our Eternal Rest; and how deeply thou hast been guilty of this thyself. And I hope also, that thou darest not now suffer this Conviction to die; but art resolved to be another man for the time to come: What sayst thou? Is this thy Resolution? If thou were sick of some desperate disease, and the Physician should tell thee, [ If you will observe but one thing, I doubt not to cure you, ] wouldst thou not observe it? Why, if thou wilt observe but this one thing for thy Soul, I make no doubt of thy Salvation: If thou wilt now but shake off thy sloth, and put to all thy strength, and ply the work of God unweariedly, and be a down-right Christian in good sadness; I know not what can hinder thy Happiness. As far as thou art gone from God, if thou wouldst but now return and seek him with all thy heart, no doubt but thou shalt find him. As unkindly as thou hast dealt with Jesus Christ, if thou didst but feel thyself sick and dead, and seek him heartily, and apply thyself in good earnest to the obedience of his Laws; thy Salvation were as sure as if thou hadst it already. But as full as the Satisfaction of Christ is, as free as the Promise is, as large as the Mercy of God is; yet if thou do but look on these, and talk of them, when thou shouldst greedily entertain them, thou wilt be never the better for them; and if thou loiter when thou shouldst labor, thou wilt lose the Crown. Oh fall to work then speedily and seriously, and bless God that thou hast yet time to do it; and though that which is past cannot be recalled, yet redeem the time now by doubling thy diligence. And because thou shalt see I urge thee not without cause, I will here adjoin a multitude of Considerations to Move thee; yet do I not desire thee to take them by number, but by weight: Their intent and use is, to drive thee from Delaying and from Loytering in seeking Rest: And to all men do I propound them, both Godly and ungodly: Whoever thou art therefore, I entreat thee to rouse up thy spirit, and read them deliberately, and give me a little while thy attention as to a message from God; and (as Moses said to the people, Deut. 32.46.) Set thy heart to all the words that I testify to thee this day, for it is not a vain thing, but it is for thy Life: Weigh what I here wright with the Judgment of a man; and if I speak not Reason, throw it back in my face; but if I do, see thou entertain and obey it accordingly; and the Lord open thy heart, and fasten his counsel effectually upon thee.
SECT. II.
1. COnsider; Our Affections and Actions should be somewhat answerable to the Greatness of the Ends to which they are intended. Now the Ends of a Christians Desires and Endeavors are so Great, that no human understanding on earth can comprehend them; whether you respect their proper Excellency, their exceeding Importance, or their absolute Necessity.
These Ends are, The Glorifying of God, The Salvation of our own and other men's Souls, in our escaping the Torments of Hell, and Possessing the Glory of Heaven. And can a man be too much affected with things of such Moment? Can he Desire them too Earnestly? or Love them too Violently? or Labor for them too Diligently? When we know, that if our prayers prevail not, and our labor succeed not, we are undone forever! I think it concerns us to seek and labor to the purpose. When it is put to the Question, Whether we shall live forever in Heaven or in Hell? and the Question must be resolved upon our Obeying the Gospel, or our disobeying it, upon the Painfulness or the Slothfulness of our present Endeavors; I think it is time for us to bestir ourselves! and to leave our trifling and complementing with God.
SECT. III.
2. COnsider; Our diligence should be somewhat answerable to the Greatness of the work which we have to do, as well as to the Ends of it. Now the Works of a Christian here are very Many, and very Great: The Soul must be renewed; Many and great Corruptions must be mortified: Custom, and Temptations, and worldly Interests must be conquered: Flesh must be mastered; Self must be denied: Life, and friends, and credit, and all must be slighted: Conscience must be upon good grounds quieted; Assurance of Pardon and Salvation must be attained. And though it is God that must give us these, and that freely, without our own merit; yet will he not give them so freely, as without our earnest Seeking and Labor. Besides, there is a deal of knowledge to be got, for the guiding of ourselves, for the defending of the Truth, for the direction of others; and a deal of skill, for the right managing of our parts: Many Ordinances are to be used, and duties performed, ordinary and extraordinary: Every Age, and year, and day, doth require fresh succession of duty; Every place we come in, every person that we have to deal with; every change of our own Condition, doth still require the renewing of our labor, and bringeth duty along with it: Wives, Children, Servants, Neighbors, Friends, Enemies, all of them call for duty from us: And all this of great importance too; so that for the most of it, if we miscarry in it, it would prove our undoing.
Judge then yourselves, whether men that have so much business lying upon their hands, should not bestir them? and whether it be their Wisdom either to Delay, or to Loiter?
SECT. IV.
3. COnsider; Our diligence should be somewhat quickened, because of the shortness and uncertainty of the Time allotted us, for the performing of all this work, and the many and great impediments which we meet with. Yet a few days, and we shall be here no more. Time passeth on: Many hundred diseases are ready to assault us: We that now are preaching, and hearing, and talking, and walking, must very shortly be carried on men's backs, and laid in the dust, and there left to the worms in darkness and corruption; we are almost there already: It is but a few days, or months, or years: and what is that when once they are past? We know not whether we shall have another Sermon, or Sabbath, or hour. How then should those men bestir them for their Everlasting Rest, who know they have so short a space for so great a work? Besides, every step in the way hath its difficulties; the gate is straight, and the way narrow: The righteous themselves are scarcely saved; Scandals and discouragements will be still cast before us: And can all these be overcome by slothful Endeavors?
SECT. V.
4. MOreover; Our diligence should be somewhat answerable to the diligence of our Enemies in seeking our destruction. For if we sit still while they are plotting and laboring, or if we be lazy in our defense, while they are diligent in assaulting us, you may easily conceive how we are likely to speed. How diligent is Satan in all kind of temptations, Therefore, be sober and vigilant, (saith 1 Pet. 5.8.) because your adversary the Devil, as a roaring Lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour; Whom resist steadfast in the Faith. How diligent are all the Ministers of Satan? False Teachers, scorners at godliness, malicious persecutors, all unwearied; And our inward Corruption the most busy and diligent of all: Whatever we are about, it is still resisting us; depraving our duties, perverting our thoughts, dulling our Affections to good, exciting them to evil: And will a feeble resistance then serve our turn? Should not we be more active for our own preservation, then our Enemies for our ruin.
SECT. VI.
5. OUr Affections and Endeavors should bear some proportion with the Talents which we have received, and means which we have enjoyed. It may well be expected, that a horseman should go faster then a footman; and he that hath a swift horse, faster then he that hath a slow one: More work will be expected from a sound man, then from the sick; and from a man at age, then from a Child: And to whom men commit much, from them they will expect the more. Now the Talents which we have received are many and great: The means which we have enjoyed are very much, and very precious: What people breathing on earth have had plainer Instructions? or more forcible Perswasions? or more constant Admonitions? in season and out of season? Sermons till we have been weary of them; and Sabbaths till we profaned them? Excellent Books in such plenty, that we knew not which to read; but loathing them through abundance have thrown by all? What people have had God so near them, as we have had? or have seen Christ, as it were, crucified before their eyes, as we have done? What people have had Heaven and Hell, as it were, opened unto them, as we? Scarce a day wherein we have not had some spur to put us on. What speed then should such a people make for Heaven? And how should they fly that are thus winged? and how swiftly should they sail that have wind and tide to help them? Believe it Brethren, God looks for more from England, then from most Nations in the World; and for more from you that enjoy these helps, then from the dark untaught Congregations of the Land. A small measure of grace beseems not such a people; nor will an ordinary diligence in the work of God excuse them.
SECT. VII.
6. THe Vigour of our Affections and Actions should be somewhat answerable to the great cost bestowed upon us, and to the deep engaging mercies which we have received from God. Surely we owe more service to our Master from whom we have our maintenance, then we do to a stranger to whom we never were beholden. Oh the cost that God hath been at for our sakes! The riches of Sea and Land, of Heaven and Earth, hath he poured out unto us. All our lives have been filled up with Mercies: We cannot look back upon one hour of it, or one passage in it, but we may behold Mercy. We feed upon Mercy; we wear Mercy on our backs, we tread upon Mercy: Mercy within us, common and special; Mercy without us, for this life, and for that to come: Oh the rare Deliverances that we have partaked of! both national and personal! How oft, how seasonably, how fully have our prayers been heard, and our fears removed? What large Catalogues of particular Mercies can every Christian draw forth and rehearse? To offer to number them, would be an endless task, as to number the stars, or the sands of the shore. If there be any difference betwixt Hell (where we should have been) and Earth, (where we now are) yea or Heaven, (which is offered us) then certainly we have received Mercy. Yea, if the Blood of the Son of God be Mercy, then are we engaged to God by Mercy; for so much did it cost him to recover us to himself. And should a people of such deep engagements be lazy in their returns? Shall God think nothing too much nor too Good for us; and shall we think all too much that we do for him? Thou that art an observing sensible man, who knowest how much thou art beholden to God, I appeal to thee: Is not a loitering performance of a few heartless duties, an unworthy requital of such admirable kindness? For my own part, when I compare my slow and unprofitable life, with the frequent and wonderful mercies received, it shames me, it silenceth me, and leaves me inexcusable.
SECT. VIII.
7. A Gain consider; All the Relations which we stand in toward God, whether common or special, do call upon us for our utmost diligence. Should not the pot be wholly at the service of the Potter? and the creature at the service of his great Creator? Are we his Children? and do we not owe him our most tender affections, and dutiful obedience? Are we the Spouse of Christ? and do we not owe him our observance, and our Love? If he be our Father, where is his honor? and if he be our Master, where is his fear? Mal. 1.6. We call him Lord and Master, and we do well: but if our industry be not answerable to our assumed relations, we condemn ourselves in saying we are his children or his servants. How will the hard labor and daily toil that servants undergo to please their Masters, judge and condemn those men who will not labor so hard for their Great Master? Surely there's none have a better or more honorable Master then we; nor can any expect such fruit of their labors, 1 Cor. 15. ult.
SECT. IX.
8. COnsider; What haste should they make, who have such Rods at their backs as be at ours? And how painfully should they work, who are still driven on by such sharp Afflictions? If either we wander out of the way, or loiter in it, how surely do we prepare for our own smart? Every creature is ready to be God's Rod to reduce us, or to put us on: Our sweetest mercies will become our sorrows: Or rather then he will want a Rod, the Lord will make us a scourge to ourselves: Our diseased bodies shall make us groan, our perplexed minds shall make us restless; our conscience shall be as a Scorpion in our bosom. And is it not easier to endure the labor then the spur? Had we rather be still thus afflicted, then to be up and going? Alas, how like are we to tired horses, that will lie down, and groan, or stand still, and let you lay on them as long as you will, rather then they will freely travel on their journey? And thus we make our own lives miserable, and necessitate God, if he love us, to chasti • e us. It is true, those that do most, do meet with Afflictions also: but surely according to the measure of their peace of Conscience, and faithfulness to Christ, so is the bitterness of their Cup (for the most part) abated.
SECT. X.
9. HOw close should they ply their work, who have such great preparations attending them as we have? All the world are our servants, that we may be the Servants of God. The Sun, and Moon, and Stars, attend us with their light and influence: The Earth, with all its furniture, is at our service: How many thousand plants and flowers, and fruits, and birds, and beasts do all attend us? The Sea with its inhabitants, the Air, the wind, the frost and snow, the heat and fire, the clouds and rain, all wait upon us while we do our work. Yea the Angels are ministering Spirits for the Service of the Elect. And is it not an intolerable crime for us to trifle, while all these are employed to assist us? Nay more; The Patience and Goodness of God doth wait upon us: The Lord Jesus waiteth in the offers of his blood; The Holy Ghost waiteth, in striving with our backward hearts; Besides all his Servants, the Ministers of his Gospel, who study and wait, and preach and wait, and pray and wait upon careless sinners. And shall Angels and Men, yea the Lord himself, stand by, and look on, and, as it were, hold thee the Candle while thou dost nothing? Oh Christians, I beseech you, when ever you are upon your knees in prayer, or reproving the transgressors, or exhorting the obstinate, or upon any duty, do but remember what attendance you have for this work; and then Judge how it behooves you to perform it.
SECT. XI.
10. SHould not our Affections and Endeavors be answerable to the acknowledged Principles of our Christian Profession? Sure if we are Christians indeed, and mean as we speak when we profess the Faith of Christ, we shall show it in Affections and Actions as well as Expressions. Why the very fundamental Doctrines of our Religion are, That God is the chief Good, and all our Happiness consists in his Love, and therefore it should be valued and sought above all things: That he is our only Lord, and therefore chiefly to be served: That we must Love him with all our heart, and soul, and strength: That the very business that men have in the world, and the only errand that God sent them about, is to Glorify God, and to obtain Salvation, &c. And do men's duties and conversations second this profession? Are these Doctrines seen in the painfulness of men's practice? Or rather do not their works deny what their words do confess? One would think by men's Actions, that they did not believe a word of the Gospel to be true. Oh sad day when men's own tongues and professions shall be brought in against them, and condemn them!
SECT. XII.
11. HOw forward and painful should we be in that work, where we are sure we can never do enough? If there were any danger of over-doing, then it might well cause men to moderate their endeavors: But we know, that if we could do all, we were but unprofitable servants; much more when we are sure to fail in all. It is true, a man may possibly pray too much, or preach too much, or hear, or reprove too much, (though I have known few that ever did so;) but yet no man can obey or serve God too much: For one duty may be said to be too long, when it shuts out another; and then it ceaseth indeed to be a duty. So that, though all Superstition, or service of our devising, may be called a Righteousness-over-much; yet as long as you keep your service to the rule of the Word, that so it may have the true nature of obedience, you never need to fear being Righteous too much: For else we should reproach the Lord and Law-giver of the Church, as if he had commanded us to do too much. Ah, if the world were not mad with malice, they could never be so blind in this point as they are; to think that faithful diligence in serving Christ, is folly and singularity; and that they who set themselves wholly to seek eternal life, are but precise Puritans! The time is near when they will easily confess, that God could not be loved or served too much, and that no man can be too busy to save his Soul: For the world you may easily do too much, but here (in God's way) you cannot.
SECT. XIII.
12. IT is the nature of every Grace to put on the Soul to diligence and speed. If you Loved God, you would make haste, and not delay or trifle; you would think nothing too much that you could possibly do: you would be ambitious to serve him, and please him still more: Love is quick, and impatient; it is active, and observant. If you Loved Christ, you would keep his Commandments, and not accuse them of too much strictness. So also, if you had Faith, it would quicken and encourage you: If you had the Hope of Glory, it would, as the spring in the watch, set all the wheels of your Souls agoing. If you had the Fear of God, it would rouse you out of your slothfulness. If you had Zeal, it would inflame you, and eat you up. God hath put all his Graces in the Soul on purpose to be oil to the wheels, to be life to the dead, to mind men of their duty, and dispose them to it, and to carry them to himself: So that in what degree soever thou art sanctified, in the same degree thou wilt be serious and laborious in the work of God.
SECT. XIV.
13. COnsider; They that trifle in the way to Heaven, do but lose all their Labor, when serious endeavors do obtain their End. The Proverb is, As good never a whit, as never the better. If two be running in a race, he that runs slowest had as good never have run at all, for now he loseth the prize and his labor both. Many like Agrippa are but Almost Christians, will find in the end they shall be but Almost Saved. God hath set the rate at which the Pearl must be bought; if you bid a penny less then that rate, you had as good bid nothing. As a man that is lifting at some weighty thing, if he put too almost strength enough, but yet not sufficient, it is as good he had put too none at all, for he doth but lose all his labor. Oh how many Professors of Christianity will find this true to their sorrow? Who have had a mind to the ways of God, and have kept up a dull task of duty, and plodded on in a formal lifeless profession, but never came to serious Christianity? How many a duty have they lost, for want of doing them thoroughly, and to the purpose? Perhaps their place in Hell may be the easier, and so their labor is not lost; but as to the obtaining of Salvation it is all lost. Many shall seek to enter, and not be able ; who if they had striven, might have been able. Oh therefore put to a little more diligence and strength, that all be not in vain that you have done already.
SECT. XV.
14. FUrthermore; We have lost a great deal of precious Time already, and therefore it is reason that we labor so much the harder. If a traveler do sleep or trifle out the most of the day, he must travel so much the faster in the Evening, or else he is like to fall short of his Journeys end. With some of us, our child-hood and youth is gone; with some also their middle age is past, and the time before us is very uncertain and short. What a deal of Time have we slept away, and talked away, and plaid away? What a deal have we spent in worldly thoughts, and labors, or in mere Idleness? Though in likelihood the most of our time is spent, yet how little of our work is done? And is it not time now to bestir ourselves in the evening of our days? The time which we have lost can never be recalled: Should we not then Redeem it by improving the little which remaineth? You may receive indeed an equal recompense with those that have born the burden and heat of the day, though you came not in till the last hour; but then you must be sure to labor soundly that hour. It is enough sure that we have lost so much of our lives, let us not now be so foolish as to lose the rest, 1 Pet. 4.2, 3, 4.
SECT. XVI.
15. COnsider; The greater are your layings out, the greater will be your comings in. Though you may seem to lose your labor at the present, yet the time cometh when you shall find it with advantage. The Seed which is buried and dead, will bring forth a plentiful increase at the Harvest. Whatever you do, and whatever you suffer, this Everlasting Rest will pay for all. There is no repenting of Labors or Sufferings in Heaven: None says, Would I had spared my pains, and prayed less, or been less strict and precise, and done as the rest of my neighbors did: There is never a such a thought in Heaven as these. But on the contrary it will be their Joy to look back upon their labors and tribulations, and to consider how the mighty Power of God did bring them through all. Who ever complained, that he came to Heaven at too dear a Rate? or that his Salvation cost him more labor then it was worth? We may say of all our labors, as Paul of our sufferings, Rom. 8.18. For I reckon, that the sufferings (and labors) of this present time, are not worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be revealed in us. We labor but for a moment, but we shall Rest forever. Who would not put forth all his strength for one hour, when he may be a Prince while he lives for that hours work? Oh what is the duty and sufferings of a short frail life, which is almost at an end as soon as it begins, in respect of the endless Joys with God? Will not all our tears be then wiped away? and all the sorrow of our duties forgotten? But yet the Lord will not forget them; for he is not unjust to forget our work and labor of Love, Heb. 6.10.
SECT. XVII.
16. COnsider; Violence and laborious Striving for Salvation, is the way that the Wisdom of God hath directed us to, as best; and his Sovereign Authority appointed us, as necessary. Who knows the way to Heaven, better then the God of Heaven? When men tell us, that we are too strict and precise, whom do they accuse? God or us? If we do no more then what we are commanded, nor so much neither, they may as well say, God hath made Laws which are too strict and precise. Sure if it were a fault, it would lie in him that commands it, and not in us who are bound to obey. And dare these men think that they are wiser then God? Do they know better then he, what men must do to be saved? These are the men that ask us, Whether we be wiser then all the world besides? and yet they will pretend to be wiser then God. What do they less, when God bids us take the most diligent course, and they tell us, It is more ado then needs? Mark well the language of the Laws of God, and see how you can reconcile it with the language of the world: Mat. 11.12. The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth Violence, and the Violent take it by force. Or as it is in Luke 16.16. Everyone presseth into it. Luke 13.24. Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many shall seek to enter in, and not be able. So Mat. 7.13.14. Eccles. 9.10. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy Might; for there is no Work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor Wisdom in the Grave, whither thou goest. 1 Cor. 9.24. Know ye not, that they which run in a race, run all, but one receiveth the prize? so run that ye may obtain. 2 Tim. 2.5. If a man strive for masteries, yet he is not crowned, except he strive lawfully ; that is, powerfully and prevailingly. Phil. 2.12. Work out your Salvation with fear and trembling. 2. Pet. 1.10. Give Diligence to make your Calling and Election Sure. 1 Pet. 4.18. If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? So Phil. 1.27. & 3.14. 1 Tim. 6.12, 18, 19. Deut. 6.5, &c. This is the constant language of Christ: And which shall I follow, God or men? yea and that the worst and most wicked men? Shall I think, that every ignorant worldly sot, that can only call a man Puritan, knows more then Christ? and can teach him to make Laws for his Church? or can tell God how to mend the Scriptures? Let them bring all the seeming Reasons that they can against the holy, violent, strivings of the Saints, and this sufficeth me to confute them all; That God is of another mind, and he hath commanded me to do much more then I do: And though I could see no Reason for it, yet his Will is Reason enough to me: I am sure, God is worthy to govern us, if we were better then we are. Who should make Laws for us, but he that made us? and who should line out the way to Heaven, but he that must bring us thither? and who should determine on what Conditions we shall be saved, but he that bestows the gift of Salvation? So that let World, or Flesh, or Devil, speak against a holy laborious course, this is my Answer; God hath commanded it.
SECT. XVIII.
17. MOreover; It is a course that all men in the world either do or will approve of. There's not a man that ever was, or is, or shall be, but shall one day justify the Diligence of the Saints, and give his verdict in the approbation of their wisdom. And who would not go that way which every man shall applaud? It is true; it's now a way everywhere spoken against, and hated: but let me tell you, 1. Most that speak against it, do in their judgments approve of it; only because the practice of godliness is against the pleasures of the flesh, therefore do they against their own judgments resist it: They have not one word of Reason against it; but reproaches and Railing are their best Arguments. 2. Those that now are against it, whether in Judgment or Passion, will shortly be every man of another mind. If they come to Heaven, their mind must be changed before they come there. If they go to Hell, their Judgment will then be altered whether they will or no. If you could speak with every Soul that suffereth those Torments, and ask their Judgments, Whether it be possible to be too Diligent and Serious in seeking Salvation? you may easily conjecture what answer they would return. Take the most bitter derider or persecutor of godliness, even those that will venture their lives for to overthrow it; If those men do not shortly eat their own words, and wish a thousand times that they had been the most holy diligent Christians on Earth, then let me bear the shame of a false Prophet forever.
SECT. XIX.
18. COnsider; They that have been the most Serious Painful Christians, when they come to die do exceedingly lament their negligence. Those that have wholly addicted themselves to the work of God, and have made it the main business of their lives, and have slighted the world, and mortified the flesh, and have been the wonders of the world for their Heavenly Conversations; yet when Conscience is let loose upon them, and God withdraws the sense of his Love, how do their failings wound them, and disquiet them? What terrors do the Souls of many undergo, who are generally admired for their godliness and innocence? Even those that are hated and derided by the world for being so strict, and are thought to be almost besides themselves for their extraordinary diligence; Yet commonly when they lie a dying, do wish, Oh, that they had been a thousand times more holy, more heavenly, more laborious for their Souls! What a case then will the negligent World be in, when their Consciences are awaked? When they lie dying, and look behind them upon a lazy negligent life, and look before them upon a severe and terrible Judgment! What an esteem will they have of a holy life? For my own part, I may say as Erasmus, Accusant quod nimium fecerim, verùm Conscientia mea me accusat quod minus fecerim, quodque lentior fuerim. They accuse me for doing too much, but my own Conscience accuseth me for doing too little, and being too slow: And it is far easier bearing the scorns of the World, then the scourges of Conscience. The World speaks at a distance without me, so that though I hear their words, I can choose whether I will feel them: but my Conscience speaks within me at the very heart, so that every check doth pierce me to the quick. Conscience when it is reprehended justly is the Messenger of God; but ungodly Revilers are but the voice of the Devil. I had rather be reproached by the Devil for seeking Salvation, then be reproved of God for neglecting it: I had rather the World should call me Puritan in the Devils name, then Conscience should call me Loyterer in God's name. As God and Conscience are more useful friends then Satan and the World; so are they more dreadful irresistible Enemies.
SECT. XX.
19. COnsider how far many a man goes, and what a deal of pains he takes for Heaven, and yet misseth it for want of more? When every man that striveth is not crowned, (2 Tim. 2.5.) and many shall seek to enter in, and not be able, ( Luk. 13.24.) and the very Children of the Kingdom shall be shut out, ( Matth. 13.41.) and they that have heard the Word, and received it with Joy, ( Mat. 13.20.) and have heard the Preacher gladly, and done many things after him, shall yet perish, ( Mark 6.20.) It is time for us to look about us, and take heed of loitering. When they that seek God daily, and delight to know his ways, and ask of him the Ordinances of Justice, and take Delight in approaching to God, and that in fasting and afflicting their Souls, ( Isai. 58.2, 3.) are yet shut out with Hypocrites and Unbeleevers: When they that have been enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and of the good Word of God, and of the Powers of the World to come, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, may yet fall away beyond recovery, and crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, ( Heb. 6.4, 5, 6.) When they that have received the knowledge of the Truth, and were sanctified by the blood of the Covenant, may yet sin willfully, and tread under-foot the Son of God, and do despite to the Spirit of Grace, till there is nothing left him but the fearful expectation of Judgment, and fire that shall devour the adversaries; ( Heb. 10.26, 27, 28, 29.) Should not this rouse us out of our laziness and security? How far hath many a man followed Christ, and yet forsaken him, when it comes to selling of all, to bearing the Cross, to burning at a stake, or to the renouncing of all his worldly Interests and Hopes? What a deal of pains hath many a man taken for Heaven, that never did obtain it? How many Prayers, Sermons, Fasts, Alms, good desires, confessions, sorrow and tears for sin, &c. have all been lost, and fallen short of the Kingdom? Methinks this should affright us out of our sluggishness, and make us strive to out-strip the highest Formalists?
SECT. XXI.
20. COnsider; God hath resolved, That Heaven shall not be had on easier terms. He hath not only commanded it as a duty, but hath tied our Salvation to the performance of it. Rest must always follow Labor. He that hath ordained in his Church on Earth, That he that will not Labor, shall not Eat, hath also decreed concerning the Everlasting Inheritance, That he that Strives not, shall not Enter. They must now lay up a Treasure in Heaven, if they will find it there, Mat. 6.19, 20. They must seek First the Kingdom of God, and his Righteousness, Matth. 6.33. They must not Labor for the food which perisheth, but for that food which endureth to Everlasting Life, Joh. 6.27. Some think that it is good to be Holy, but yet not of such absolute necessity, but that a man may be saved without it: But God hath determined on the contrary, That without it no man shall see his face, Heb. 12.14. Seriousness is the very thing wherein consisteth our Sincerity. If thou art not Serious, thou art not a Christian. It is not only a high degree in Christianity, but of the very life and essence of it. As Fencers upon a Stage (who have all the skill at their weapons, and do eminently and industriously act their parts, but do not seriously intend the death of each other) do differ from Soldiers, or Combatants, who fight in good sadness for their lives; Just so do Hypocrites differ from serious Christians. If men could be saved without this Serious Diligence, they would never regard it: All the excellencies of God's ways would never entice them. But when God hath resolved, That if you will have your ease here, you shall have none hereafter, is it not wisdom then to bestir ourselves to the utmost?
SECT. XXII.
ANd thus, Reader, I dare confidently say, I have shown thee sufficient Reason against thy slothfulness and negligence, if thou be not a man resolved to shut thine eyes, and to destroy thyself willfully in despite of Reason. Yet, lest all this should not prevail, I will add somewhat more, if it be possible, to persuade thee to be Serious in thy Endeavors for Heaven.
1. Consider God is in Good earnest with you; and why then should not you be so with him? In his Commands, he means as he speaks, and will verily require your real Obedience. In his Threatenings he is Serious, and will make them all good against the Rebellious. In his Promises he is Serious, and will fulfil them to the Obedient, even to the least tittle. In his Judgments he is Serious; as he will make his Enemies know to their terror: Was not God in good earnest when he drowned the World? When he consumed Sodom and Gomorrah? When he scattered the Jews? Hath he not been in good sadness with us lately in England, and Ireland, and Germany? And very shortly will he lay hold on his Enemies particularly man by man, and make them know that he is in good earnest: Especially when it comes to the great reckoning day. And is it time then for us to dally with God?
2. Jesus Christ was Serious in Purchasing our Redemption. He was Serious in Teaching, when he neglected his meat and drink, Joh. 4.32. He was Serious in Praying, when he continued all night at it, Luk. 6.12. He was Serious in Doing good, when his kindred came and laid hands on him, thinking he had been beside himself, Mark 3.20, 21. He was Serious in Suffering, when he fasted forty days, was tempted, betrayed, spit on, buffeted, crowned with thorns, sweat water and blood, was crucified, pierced, died: There was no Jesting in all this. And should not we be Serious in seeking our own Salvation?
3. The Holy Ghost is Serious in soliciting us for our Happiness. His Motions are frequent, and pressing, and importunate: He striveth with our hearts, Gen. 6.3. He is grieved when we resist him, Ephes. 4.30. And should not we then be Serious in obeying his Motions, and yielding to his Suite?
4. God is Serious in hearing our Prayers, and delivering us from our dangers, and removing our troubles, and bestowing his Mercies. When we are afflicted he is afflicted with us, Isai. 63.9. He regardeth every groan and sigh: He putteth every tear into his bottle: He condoleth their misery when he is forced to chastise them: How shall I give thee up, O Ephraim? (saith the Lord;) How shall I make thee as Admah, and as Zeboim? my heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together, Hos. 11.8. He heareth even the rebellious ofttimes, when they call upon him in their misery; when they cry to him in their trouble, he delivereth them out of their distress, Psa. 78.37, 38. Psa. 107.10, 11, 12, 13, 19, 28. Yea, the next time thou art in trouble, thou wilt beg for a serious regard of thy prayers, and grant of thy desires. And shall we be so sleight in the work of God, when we expect he should be so regardful of us? Shall we have real Mercies, down • weight; and shall we return such superficial and frothy service?
5. Consider; The Ministers of Christ are Serious in Instructing and Exhorting you: and why should not you be as Serious in obeying their Instructions? They are Serious in Study; Serious in Prayer; Serious in persuading your Souls to the Obedience of Christ: They beg of God; they beg of you; they hope; they wait, and long more for the Conversion and Salvation of your Souls, then they do for any worldly good: You are their boasting, their Crown and Joy, 1 Thess. 2.19, 20. Your stedfastness in Christ they value as their lives, 1 Thess. 3.8. They are content to be offered up in the service of your Faith, Phil. 2.17. If they kill themselves with Study and Preaching, or if they suffer Martyrdom for preaching the Gospel; they think their lives are well bestowed, so that their preaching do but prevail for the saving of your Souls. And shall other men be so painful and careful for your Salvation, and should you be so careless and negligent of your own? Is it not a Serious Charge that is given to Ministers in 2 Tim. 4.1.? And a Serious Pattern that is given them in Act. 20.20, 31.? Surely no man can be bound to be more Serious and Painful for the welfare of another, then he is bound to be for himself.
6. How Serious and Diligent are all the Creatures in their Service to thee? What haste makes the Sun to compass the World? and how truly doth it return at its appointed hour? So do the Moon and other Planets. The Springs are always flowing for thy use; The Rivers still running: The Spring and Harvest keep their times. How hard doth thy Ox labor for thee from day today? How painfully and speedily doth thy Horse bear thee in travel? And shall all these be laborious, and thou only negligent? Shall they all be so Serious in serving thee, and yet thou be so slightly in thy Service to God?
7. Consider; The Servants of the World and the Devil are Serious and Diligent: They ply their work continually with unweariedness and delight, as if they could never do enough: They make haste, and march furiously, as if they were afraid of coming to Hell too late: They bear down Ministers, and Sermons, and Counsel, and all before them. And shall they do more for the Devil then thou wilt do for God? Or be more diligent for Damnation, then thou wilt be for Salvation? Hast not thou a better Master? and sweeter Employment? and greater Encouragements? and a better Reward?
8. The time was when thou wast Serious thyself in thy Service to Satan and the Flesh; if it be not so yet: Dost thou not remember how eagerly thou didst follow thy Sports? or how violently thou wast addicted to customs, or evil company, or sinful delights? or how earnestly thou wast bent after thy profits, or rising in the world? And wilt thou not now be more earnest and violent for God? What profit hadst thou then in those things whereof thou art now ashamed? for the end of those things is Death: But now being made free from sin, and become the servants of God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the End everlasting Life, Rom. 6.21, 22.
9. You are yet to this day in good earnest about the matters of this life: If you are sick, what Serious Groans and Complaints do you utter? All the Town shall quickly know it, if your pain be great. If you are poor, how hard do you labor for your living, lest your Wife and Children should starve or famish? If one fall down in a swoun in the house, or street, or in the Congregation, how seriously will you run to relieve and recover them? And is not the business of your Salvation of far greater moment? Are you not poor? and should you not then be laborers? Are you not in fight for your lives? and is it time to sleep? Are you not in a race? and is not the prize, the Crown of Glory? and should you then sit still, or take your ease?
10. There is no Jesting in Heaven, nor in Hell. The Saints have a Real Happiness, and the Damned a Real Misery: The Saints are Serious and high in their Joy and Praise; and the Damned are Serious and deep in their Sorrow and Complaints. There are no remiss or sleepy Praises in Heaven; nor any remiss or sleepy Lamentations in Hell: All men there are in good sadness. And should we not then be Serious now? Reader, I dare promise thee, the thoughts of these things will shortly be Serious thoughts with thyself. When thou comest to Death or Judgment, Oh what deep heart-piercing thoughts wilt thou have of Eternity! Methinks I fore-see thee already astonished to think how thou couldst possibly make so light of these things! Methinks I even hear thee crying out of thy stupidity and madness!
SECT. XXIII.
ANd now, Reader, having laid thee down these undeniable Arguments, I do here in the name of God demand thy Resolution; What sayst thou? Wilt thou yield obedience, or not? I am confident thy Conscience is convinced of thy Duty: Darest thou now go on in thy common careless course, against the plain Evidence of Reason, and Commands of God, and against the light of thy own Conscience? Darest thou live as loosely? and sin as boldly? and pray as seldom and as coldly as before? Darest thou now as carnally spend the Sabbath? and slubber over the Service of God as sleightily? and think of thine Everlasting state as carelessly as before? Or dost thou not rather resolve to gird up the loins of thy mind? and to set thyself wholly about the work of thy Salvation? and to do it with all thy strength and might? and to break over all the oppositions of the world? and to sleight all their scorns and persecutions? to cast off the weight that hangeth on thee, and the sin that doth so easily beset thee, and to run with patience and speed the race that is before thee? I hope these are thy full Resolutions: if thou be well in thy wits, I am sure they are.
Yet because I know the strange obstinacy and Rockiness of the heart of man, and because I would fain drive this nail to the head, and leave these persuasions fastened in thy heart, that so, if it be possible, thou mightest be awakened to thy Duty, and thy Soul might live; I shall therefore proceed with thee yet a little further: And I once more entreat thee to stir up thy attention, and go along with me in the free and sober use of thy Reason, while I propound to thee these following Questions: And I command thee from God, that thou stifle not thy Conscience, and resist not conviction; but Answer them faithfully, and obey accordingly.
SECT. XXIV.
1 Quest. IF you could grow Rich by Religion, or get Lands and Lordships by being diligent in godliness; or if you could get honor or preferment by it in the world; or could be recovered from sickness by it, or could live forever in prosperity on Earth; What kind of lives would you then lead? and what pains would you take in the Service of God? And is not the Rest of the Saints a more excellent Happiness then all this?
2 Quest. If the Law of the Land did punish every breach of the Sabbath, or every omission of family duties, or secret duties, or every cold and heartless prayer with Death; If it were Felony or Treason to be ungodly and negligent in Worship▪ and loose in your lives; What manner of persons would you then be? and what lives would you lead? And is not Eternal death more terrible then temporal.
3 Quest. If it were God's ordinary course to punish every sin with some present Judgment, so that every time a man swears, or is drunk, or speaks a lie, or back-biteth his neighbor, he should be struck dead, or blind, or lame in the place; If God did punish every cold prayer, or neglect of duty with some remarkable plague; what manner of persons would you then be? If you should suddenly fall down dead like Ananias and Sapphira with the sin in your hands, or the plague of God should seize upon you as upon the Israelites, while their sweet morsels were yet in their mouths; If but a Mark should be set in the forehead of everyone that neglected a duty, or committed a sin; What kind of lives would you then lead? And is not Eternal Wrath more terrible then all this? Give but Reason leave to speak.
4 Quest. If one of your old acquaintance and companions in sin, should come from the dead, and tell you, that he suffereth the Torments of Hell for those sins that you are guilty of, and for neglecting those duties which you neglect, and for living such a careless, worldly, ungodly life as you now live, & should therefore advise you to take another course; If you should meet such a one in your Chamber when you are going to bed, and he should say to you, Oh take heed of this carnal unholy life! Set yourself to seek the Lord with all your might; neglect not your Soul, Prepare for Eternity, that you come not to the place of Torment that I am in: How would this take with you? and what manner of persons would you afterwards be? It is written in the life of Bruno, that a Doctor of great note for learning and godliness being dead, and being brought to the Church to be buried, while they were in their Popish Devotions, and came to the words Responde mihi, the Corps arose in the Beir, and with a terrible voice cried out, Justo Dei Judicio accusatus sum, I am accused at the Just Judgment of God: At which voice the people run all out of Church affrighted. On the morrow when they came again to perform the Obsequies, at the same words as before, the Corps arose again, and cried with a hideous voice, Justo Dei Judicio Judicatus sum, I am Judged at the righteous Judgment of God: Whereupon the people run away again amazed. The third day almost all the City came together, and when they came to the same words as before, the Corps rose again, and cried with a more doleful voice then before, Justo Dei Judicio Condemnatus sum, I am Condemned at the Just Judgment of God. The consideration whereof, that a man reputed so upright should yet by his own confession be damned, caused Bruno, and the rest of his companions, to enter into that strict order of the Carthusians. If the voice of the dead man could affright them into Superstition, should not the warnings of God affright thee into true Devotion?
5 Quest. If you knew that this were the last day you had to live in the world, how would you spend this day? If you were sure when you go to bed that you should never rise again, would not your thoughts of another life be more serious that night? If you knew when you are praying that you should never pray more, would you not be more earnest and importunate in that prayer? Or if you knew when you are preaching, or hearing, or exhorting, your sinful acquaintance, that this were the last opportunity you should have, would you not ply it more closely then usually you do? Why you do not know but it may be the last; and you are sure your last is near at hand.
6 Quest. If you had seen the general dissolution of the world, and all the pomp and glory of it consumed to ashes; If you saw all on a fire about you, sumptuous buildings, Cities, Kingdoms, Land, Water, Earth, Heaven, all flaming about your ears▪ If you had seen all that men labored for, and sold their Souls for, gone; friends gone, the place of your former abode gone, the history ended, and all come down, what would such a sight as this persuade you to do? Why such a sight thou shalt certainly see. I put my Question to thee in the words of the Apostle, 2 Pet. 3.11. Seeing all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? As if he should say, We cannot possibly conceive or express what manner of persons we should be in all holiness and godliness, when we do but think of the sudden, and certain, and terrible dissolution of all things below?
7 Quest. What if you had seen the process of the Judgment of the great day? If you had seen the Judgment set, and the Books opened, and the most stand trembling on the left hand of the Judge, and Christ himself accusing them of their rebellions and neglects, and remembering them of all their former slightings of his grace, and at last condemning them to perpetual perdition? If you had seen the godly standing on the right hand, and Jesus Christ acknowledging their faithful obedience, and adjudging them to the possession of the Joy of their Lord? What manner of persons would you have been after such a sight as this? Why this sight thou shalt one day see, as sure as thou livest. And why then should not the fore-knowledge of such a day awake thee to thy duty?
8 Quest. What if you had once seen Hell open, and all the damned there in their easeless Torments? and had heard them crying out of their slothfulness in the day of their visitation? and wishing that they had but another life to live, and that God would but try them once again? One crying out of his neglect of duty; and another of his loitering and trifling when he should have been laboring for his life? What manner of persons would you have been after such a sight as this? What if you had seen Heaven opened, as Stephen did? and all the Saints there triumphing in Glory? and enjoying the End of their labors and sufferings? What a life would you lead after such a sight as this? Why you will see this with your eyes before it be long.
9 Quest. What if you had lien in Hell but one year, or one day, or hour? and there felt all those Torments that now you do but hear of? and God should turn you into the world again, and try you with another life's time, and say, I will see whether yet thou wilt be any better: What manner of persons would you be? If you were to live a thousand years, would you not gladly live as strictly as the precisest Saints? and spend all those years in prayer and duty, so you might but scape the Torment which you suffered? How seriously then would you speak of Hell! and pray against it! and hear, and read, and watch, and obey! How earnestly would you admonish the car • less to take heed, and look about them to prevent their ruin! And will you not take God's Word for the truth of this except you feel it? Is it not your wisdom to do as much now to prevent it, as you would do to remove it when it is too late? Is it not more wisdom to spend this life in laboring for Heaven while you have it, then to lie in Torment wishing for more time in Vain?
10 Quest. What if you had been possessed but one year of the Glory of Heaven? and there joined with the Saints and Angels in the beholding of God, and singing his Praise? and afterwards should be turned into the world again? What a life would you lead? What pains would you take rather then be deprived of such incomparable Glory? Would you think any cost too great, or diligence too much? If one of those that are now in Heaven should come to live on the Earth again, what persons would they be? What a stir would they make? How seriously would they drive on the business of their Salvation? The Country would ring of their exceeding Holy and Strict Conversations. They would as far excel the Holiest Persons on Earth, as they excel the careless world. Before they would lose that Blessed Estate, they would follow God with cries both day and night, and throw away all, and suffer every day a Death. And should not we do as much to obtain it, as they would do to keep it?
SECT. XXV.
ANd thus I have said enough, if not to stir up the lazy sinner to a serious working out his Salvation, yet at least to silence him, and leave him unexcuseable at the Judgment of God. If thou • anst, after the reading of all this, go on in the same neglect of God and thy Soul, and draw out the rest of thy life in the same dull and careless course, as thou hast hitherto done, and if thou hast so far conquered and stupefied thy Conscience, that it will quietly suffer thee to forget all this, and to trifle out the rest of thy time in the business of the world, when in the mean while thy Salvation is in danger, and the Judge is at the door. I have then no more to say to thee: It is as good speak to a post or a Rock. Only as we do by our friends when they are dead, and our words and actions can do them no good, yet to test me our affections we weep and mourn for them; so will I also do for these deplorable Souls. It makes my heart sad, and even tremble to think how they will stand sad and trembling before the Lord! and how confounded and speechless they will be, when Christ shall reason with them concerning their negligence and sloth! When he shall say, as the Lord doth in Jer. 2.5, 9, 11, 12, 13. What iniquity have your fathers (or you) found in me, that ye are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity? &c. Did I ever wrong you? or do you any harm? or ever discourage you from following my service? Was my way so bad that you could not endure it? or my service so base that you could not stoop to it? Did I stoop to the fulfilling of the Law for you, and could not you stoop to the fulfilling of the easy Conditions of my Gospel? Was the world or Satan a better friend to you then I? or had they done for you more then I had done? Try now whether they will save you, or whether they will recompense you for the loss of Heaven; or whether they will be as good to you as I would have been. Oh what will the wretched sinner answer to any of this? But though man will not hear, yet we may have hope in speaking to God. —Lord, smite these Rocks till they gush forth waters: Though these ears are deaf, say to them, Ephata, be opened: Though these Sinners be dead, let that power speak which sometime said, Lazarus, arise: We know they will be wakened at the last Resurrection: Oh, but then it will be only to their sorrow. Oh thou that didst weep and groan in Spirit over a dead Lazarus, pity these dead and senseless Souls, till they are able to weep and groan for, and pity themselves. As thou hast bid thy Servant speak, so speak now thyself: They will hear thy voyes speaking to their hearts, that will not hear mine speaking to their ears. Long hast thou knocked at these hearts in vain; now break the doors, and enter in, and pass by all their long resistance.
SECT. XXVI.
YEt I will add a few more words to the Godly in special, to show them why they above all men should be laborious for Heaven; and that there is a great deal of Reason, that though all the world besides do sit still and be careless, yet they should abhor that ••• iness and negligence, and should lay out all their strength on the work of God. To this end I desire them also to answer soberly to these few Interrogatories.
1 Quest. What manner of persons should those be, whom God hath chosen out to be Vessels of Mercy? and hath given them the very cream and quintescence of his blessings? when the rest of the world are passed by, and put off with common, and temporal, and left-hand-Mercies? They who have the Blood of Christ given them, and the Spirit for Sanctification, Consolation, and Preservation and the pardon of sins, and Adoption to Son-ship, and the guard of Angels, and the Mediation of the Son of God, and the special Love of the Father, and the Promise and Seal of Everlasting Rest! Do but tell me in good sadness, what kind of lives these men should live?
2 Quest. What manner of persons should those be, who have felt the smart of their negligence so much as the godly have done? In the new birth, in their several wounds and trouble of Conscience, in their doubts and fears, in their sharp afflictions on body and state: They that have groaned and cried out so oft, under the sense and effects of their negligence, and are like enough to feel it again if they do not reform it, sure one would think they should be so slothful no more.
3 Quest. What manner of persons should these be in holy diligence, who have been so long convinced of the evil of laziness? and have confessed on their knees a hundred and a hundred times, both in public and in private? and have told God in prayer, how unexcuseably they have herein offended? Should they thus confess their sin, and yet commit it? as if they told God what they would do, as well as what they have done?
4 Quest. What manner of persons should those be in painful Godliness, who have bound themselves to God by so many Covenants as we have done? and in special have covenanted so oft to be more painful and faithful in his service? At every Sacrament; on many days of Humiliation and Thanksgiving; in most of our deep distresses and dangerous sicknesses; we are still ready to 〈◊〉 our neglects, and to engage ourselves, if God will but try 〈◊〉 trust us once again, how diligent and laborious we will be, and how we will improve our time, and reprove offenders, and watch over ourselves, and ply our work, and do him more service in a day then we did in a month: The Lord pardon our perfidious Covenant-breaking! and grant that our own Engagements may not condemn us.
5 Quest. What manner of persons should they be, who are so near to God as we? who are his Children, in his Family, still under his Eye; the Objects of his greatest Jealousy, as well as Love? Nadab and Abihu can tell you, that the flames of Jealousy are hottest about his Altar: And Uzzah and the 50070 Bethshemites, 1 Sam. 6.19. though dead, do yet tell you, that Justice as well as Mercy is most active about the Ark. And Ananias and his wife can tell you, that profession is no cover for transgression. Judgment beginneth at the house of God, 1 Pet. 4.17. And the destroying Angel doth begin at the Sanctuary, Ezek. 9.5, 6.
6 Quest. What manner of men should they be in Duty, who have received so much encouragement as we have done by our successes? Who have tasted such sweetness in diligent obedience, as doth much more then countervail all the pains? Who have so oft had experience of the wide difference between lazy and laborious Duty by their different Issues? Who have found all our lazy Duties unfruitful; and all our strivings and wrestlings with God successful? so that we were never importunate with God in vain? We who have had so many admirable National and Personal Deliverances upon urgent seeking; And have received almost all our solid Comforts in a way of close and constant Duty; How should we above all men ply our work?
7 Quest. What manner of men should they be, who are yet at such great uncertainties, whether we are Sanctified or Justified, or whether we are the Children of God or no, or what shall Everlastingly become of their Souls? as most of the godly, that I meet with, are? They that have discovered the excellency of the Kingdom, and yet have not discovered their interest in it, but discern a danger of perishing and losing all, and have need of that advice, Heb. 4.1. And have so many doubts to wrestle with daily as we have; How should such men bestir themselves in time?
8 Quest. What manner of persons should they be in Holiness, who have so much of the great work yet undone as we have? So many sins in so great strength? Graces weak? Sanctification imperfect? Corruption still working our ruin, and taking advantage of all our omissions? When we are as a Boat-man on the water; let him row never so hard a month together, yet if he do but slack his hand, and think to ease himself, his boat goes faster down the stream then before it went up: So do our Souls, when we think to ease ourselves by abating our pains in Duty. Our time is short: Our enemies mighty: Our hindrances many: God seems yet at a great distance from many of us: Our thoughts of him are dull, and strange, and unbelieving: Our acquaintance and communion with Christ is small: and our desires to be with him are as small. And should men in our case stand still?
9 Quest. What manner of men should they be in their diligence, whose lives and duties are of so great concernment to the saving or destroying of a multitude of Souls? When if we slip, so many are ready to stumble? and if we stumble, so many are ready to fall?
10 Quest. Lastly, What manner of persons should they be, on whom the Glory of the great God doth so much depend? Men will Judge of the Father by the Children, and of the Master by the Servants. We bear his Image, and therefore men will measure him by his representation. He is nowhere in the world so lively represented as in his Saints: And shall they set him forth as a Patron of Viciousness or Idleness? All the world is not capable of honoring or dishonoring God so much as we: And the least of his honor is of more worth then all our lives. I have harped all this while upon the Apostles string, 2 Pet. 3.11. And now let me give it the last touch: Seeing then that all these things fore-mentioned are so, I charge thee that art a Christian in thy Masters name to consider, and resolve the Question: What manner of persons ought we to be in All Holy Conversation and Godliness? And let thy Life Answer the Question as well as thy Tongue.
SECT. XXVII.
I Have been larger upon this Use then at first I intended; Partly because of the general neglect of Heaven that all sorts are guilty of; Partly because men's Salvation depends upon their present Striving and Seeking; Partly because the Doctrine of Free Grace mis-understood, is lately so abused to the cherishing of sloth and security: Partly because many eminent men of late do Judge, That To work or labor for Life and Salvation is Mercenary, Legal, and Dangerous ; Which Doctrine (as I have said before) were it by the owners reduced into practice, would undoubtedly damn them; because they that seek not shall not find, and they that strive not to enter shall be shut out; and they that labor not shall not be crowned: And partly because it is grown the custom of this distracted age, instead of striving for the Kingdom and contending for the Faith, to strive with each other about uncertain Controversies, and to contend about the circumstantials of the Faith; wherein the Kingdom of God doth no more consist then in meats or drinks, or Questions about the Law▪ or Genealogies. Si • s, shall we who are Brethren fall out by the way home? and spend so much of our time about the smaller mat • ers, which thousands have been saved without, but never any on • saved by them? while Christ and our Eternal Rest are almost forgotten? The Lord pardon and heal the folly of his People!
CHAP. VII. The third Use. Perswading all men to try their Title to this Rest; And Directing them how to try, that they may know.
SECT. I.
I Now proceed to the third Use which we shall raise hence; and because it is of exceeding great importance to thy Soul, I entreat thee to read it the more diligently, and weigh it the more seriously.
Is there such a Glorious Rest so near at hand? and shall none enjoy it but the People of God? What mean the most of the world then, to live so contentedly without assurance of their interest in this Rest? and to neglect the trying of their title to it? When the Lord hath so fully opened the Blessedness of that Kingdom, which none but a little flock of obedient Believers shall possess, and so fully expressed those torments which all the rest of the world must eternally suffer, a man would think now, That they that believe this to be certainly true, should never be at any quiet in themselves, till they knew which of these must be their own state, and were fully assured that they were Heirs of the Kingdom! Most men that I meet with say, they believe this Word of God to be true; How then can they sit still in such an utter uncertainty, whether ever they shall live in Rest, or not? One would think they should run up and down from Minister to Minister, enquiring, How shall I know whether I shall live in Heaven or Hell? and that they should even think themselves half in Hell, till they were sure to scape it, and to be possessed of Rest. Lord, what a wonderful strange madness is this? that men who look daily when sickness summons them, and death calls them away, and know they must presently enter upon unchangeable Joy or Pain, should yet live as uncertain what shall be their doom, as if they had never heard of any such State? yea and live as quietly and as merrily in this uncertainty, as if all were made sure, and nothing ailed them, and there were no danger? Are these men alive or dead? Are they waking, or are they asleep? What do they think on? Where are their hearts? If they have but a weighty Suit at Law, how careful are they to know whether it will go with them or against them? If they were to be tried for their lives at an earthly Judicature, how careful would they be to know whether they should be saved or condemned? especially if their care might surely save them? If they be dangerously sick, they will inquire of the Physician, What think you Sir, shall I scape or no? But for the business of their Salvation, they are content to be uncertain. If you ask most men a reason of their hopes to be saved, they will say it is because God is merciful, and Christ died for sinners, and the like general reasons, which any man in the world may give as well as they: But put them to prove their special interest in Christ, and in the special saving Mercy of God, and they can say nothing to the purpose at all; or at least nothing out of their hearts and experience, but only out of their reading or invention. Men are desirous to know all things, save God and themselves: They will travel over Sea and Land to know the situation of Countries, and the Customs of the World: They will go to Schools and Universities, and turn over multitudes of books, and read and study from year to year, to know the creatures, and to be excellent in the Sciences; They will go apprentice seven years to learn a trade which they may live by here: And yet they never read the book of Conscience, nor study the state of their own Souls, that they may make sure of living forever. If God should ask them for their Souls, as he did Cain for his brother Abel, they could return but such an Answer as he did: If God or man should say to them, What case is thy Soul in, man? Is it regenerate, and sanctified, and pardoned, or no? Is it in a state of life, or a state of death? He would be ready 〈1 page duplicate〉 〈1 page duplicate〉 to say, I know not: Am I my Souls keeper? I hope well; I trust God with my Soul, and trouble not myself with any such thoughts: I shall speed as well as other men do; and so I will put it to the venture: I thank God I never made any doubt of my Salvation. Answ. Thou hast the more cause to doubt a great deal, because thou never didst doubt: and yet more, because thou hast been so careless in thy confidence. What do these expressions discover, but a willful neglect of thy own Salvation? As a shipmaster that should let his Vessel alone, and mind other matters, and say, I will venture it among the rocks, and sands, and gulfs, and waves, and winds; I will never trouble myself to know whether it shall come safe to the harbor; I will trust God with it; it will speed as well as other men's Vessels do. Indeed as well as other men's that are as careless and Idle, but not so well as other men's that are diligent and watchful. What horrible abuse of God is this, for men to pretend that they trust God with their Souls, for to cloak their own willful negligence! If thou didst truly Trust God, thou wouldst also be ruled by him, and trust him in that way which he hath appointed thee, and upon those terms which he hath promised to help thee on. He requires thee to give all Diligence to make thy Calling and Election sure, and so to trust him, 2 Pet. 1.10. He hath lined thee out a way in Scripture by which thou mayst come to be sure, and charged thee to search and try thyself, till thou certainly know. Were he not a foolish traveler that would hold on his way when he doth not know whether it be right or wrong, and say, I hope I am right; I will not doubt of it; I will go on and trust God? Art not thou guilty of this folly in in thy travels to Eternity? Not considering that a little • erious enquiry and trial whether thy way be right, might save thee a great deal of labor which thou bestowest in vain, and must undo again, or else thou wilt miss of Salvation, and undo thyself? If thou shouldst see a man in despair, or that were certain to be damned forever when he is dead, wouldst not thou look upon such a man as a pitiful object? Why thou that livest in willful uncertainty, and dost not know whether thou shalt be saved or no, art in the next condition to such a person; for ought thou knowest to the contrary, thy case hereafter may be as bad as his. I know not what thou thinkest of thy own state, but for my part, did I not know what a desperate, blind, dead piece a carnal heart is, I should wonder how thou dost to forget thy misery, and to keep off continual horrors from thy heart; And especially in these cases following.
1. I wonder how thou canst either think or speak of the dreadful God, without exceeding terror and astonishment, as long as thou art uncertain whether he be thy Father or thy Enemy, and knowest not but all his Attributes may be employed against thee. If his Saints must rejoice before him with trembling, and serve him in fear; If they that are sure to receive the immovable Kingdom must yet serve God with reverence and godly fear, because he is a consuming fire ; How then should the remembrance of him be terrible to them that know not but this fire may forever consume them?
2. How dost thou think without trembling upon Jesus Christ? when thou knowest not whether his blood hath purged thy Soul or not? and whether he will condemn thee or acquit thee in Judgment; nor whether he be set for thy rising or thy fall, Luk. 2.34. nor whether he be the corner Stone and Foundation of thy happiness, or a stone of stumbling to break thee and grind thee to powder, Mat. 21.44. Methinks thou shouldst be still in that tune as Job 31.23. Destruction from God is a terror to me, and by reason of his Highness I cannot endure.
3. How canst thou open the Bible, and read a Chapter, or hear a Chapter read, but it should terrify thee? Methinks every leaf should be to thee as Belshazzar's writing upon the wall, except only that which draws thee to try and reform: If thou read the Promises, thou knowest not whether ever they shall be fulfilled to thee, because thou art uncertain of thy performance of the Condition: If thou read the Threatenings, for anything thou knowest thou dost read thy own sentence. I do not wonder if thou art an enemy to plain preaching, and if thou say of it, and of the Minister and Scripture itself as Ahab of the Prophet, I hate him, for he doth not prophecy good concerning me, but evil, 1 Kings 22.8.
4. I wonder how thou canst without terror approach God in prayer, or any duty. When thou callest him thy Father, thou knowest not whether thou speak true or false: When thou needest him in thy sickness, or other extremity, thou knowest not whether thou hast a friend to go to, or an enemy. When thou receivest the Sacrament, thou knowest not whether thou take thy blessing or thy bane. And who would willfully live such a life as this?
5. What comfort canst thou find in anything which thou possessest? Methinks friends, and honors, and house, and lands, should do thee little good, till thou know that thou hast the love of God with all; and shalt have Rest with him when thou leavest these. Offer to a prisoner before he know his sentence either music, or clothes, or lands, or preferment, and what cares he for any of these? till he know how he shall scape for his life, and then he will look after these comforts of life, and not before; for he knows if he must die the next day, it will be small comfort to die rich or honorable. Methinks it should be so with thee, till thou know thine eternal state: Dost not thou as Ezek. 12.18. Eat thy bread with quaking, and drink thy drink with trembling and carefulness, and say, Alas, though I have these to refresh my body now, yet I know not what I shall have hereafter! Even when thou liest down to take thy rest, methinks the uncertainty of thy Salvation should keep thee waking, or amaze thee in thy dreams, and trouble thy sleep; and thou shouldst say as Job in a smaller distress then thine, Job 7.13, 14. When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint; then thou scarest me through dreams, and terrifiest me through visions.
6. Doth it not grieve thee to see the people of God so comfortable, when thou hast none thyself? and to think of the Glory which they shall inherit, when thou hast no assurance thyself of ever enjoying it?
7. What shift dost thou make to think of thy dying hour? Thou knowest it is hard by, and there's no avoiding it, nor any medicine found out that can prevent it: Thou knowest it is the King of terror, Job 18.14. and the very inlet to thine unchangeable state: The godly that have some assurance of their future welfare, have yet much ado to submit to it willingly, and find, that to die comfortably is a very difficult work. How then canst thou think of it then without astonishment, who hast got no assurance of the Rest to come? If thou shouldst die this day (and who knows what a day may bring forth, Prov. 27.1.) thou dost not know whether thou shalt go straight to Heaven or to Hell: And canst thou be merry till thou art got out of this dangerous state? Methinks that in Deut. 28.25, 26, 27. should be the looking-glass of thy heart.
8. What shift dost thou make to preserve thy heart from horror, when thou rememberest the great Judgment day, and the Everlasting flames? Dost thou not tremble as Felix when thou hearest of it? and as the Elders of the Town trembled when Samuel came in it, saying, Comest thou peaceably? So methinks thou shouldst do when the Minister comes into the Pulpit: And thy heart, when ever thou meditatest of that day, should meditate terror, Isai. 33.18. And thou shouldst be even a terror to thyself, and all thy friends, Jer. 20.4. If the keepers trembled, and became as dead men, when they did but see the Angels, Mat. 28.3, 4. how canst thou think of living in Hell with Devils, till thou hast got some sound assurance that thou shalt escape it? Or if thou seldom think of these things, the wonder is as great, what shift thou makest to keep these thoughts from thy heart, and to live so quietly in so doleful a state? Thy bed is very soft, or thy heart is very hard, if thou canst sleep soundly in this uncertain case.
I have shown thee the danger; let me next proceed to show thee the Remedy.
SECT. II.
IF this general uncertainty of the world about their Salvation were constrained or remediless, then must it be born as other unavoidable miseries, and it were unmeet either to reprove them for it, or exhort them from it: But, alas, the Common Cause is Wilfulness and Negligence; Men will not be persuaded to use the Remedy, though it be easy, and at hand, prescribed to them by God himself, and all necessary helps thereunto provided for them. The great means to conquer this Uncertainty is Self-Examination, or the Serious and diligent trying of a man's heart and state by the rule of Scripture. This Scripture tells us plainly who shall be saved, and who shall not: So that if men would but first search the Word to find out who be these men that shall have Rest, and what be their properties by which they may be known; and then next search carefully their own hearts, till they find whether they are those men or not; how could they choose but come to some Certainty? But, alas, either men understand not the nature and use of this duty, or else they will not be at the pains to try. Go through a Congregation of a thousand men,