Commentary on 2 Peter
Such is heaven, which alas man's parvitie is as far from comprehending, as his arms be from compassing. Heaven shall receive us, we cannot conceive heaven. Quid mors est rogitas? si scirem, mortuus essem. Do you ask what death is, fact one: if I could show you, I were first dead. Do you ask what heaven is, when I meet you there I will tell you. Could this ear hear it, or this tongue utter it, or this heart conceive it; it must needs follow, that they were translated already thither. Howsoever what hath been spoken may remonstrate this; how great an infelicity the privation of heaven is. One spake truly; that the tears of hell are not sufficient to bewail the loss of heaven. This fully appears by that judicatory sentence, Mat. 25.41. When the wicked shall haply reply; though we may not ascend with thee unto glory, yet let us have thy presence on earth: let us be anywhere so thou, O Christ, be with us. No, Depart from me; from peace, from joy, from comfort, from my presence, from my salvation, from my glory, forever. O wretchedness, that disdains all comparison; if there were no hell, this were enough to wring out everlasting tears.
Seeing both these Angels and also men, were cast out of their original and proper residence by sin; and God hath made ours recoverable by Christ, which is not gr •• ted to them; let us studiously seek an entrance into that eternal rest, we transgress daily, yet the Lord shutteth not heaven against us: we find more mercy than our forefather. His strength was worthy of severity, our weakness finds pity. We lost a Paradise that cannot be found, but we may find a Paradise that cannot be lost. Here is no fiery sword to keep us out; we care not to seek where that Paradise is which we lost; but this we both care to seek and hope to find. As man is the Image of God, so was that Paradise the Image of heaven: both the Images are defaced, both the first patterns are eternal. The first Adam was in the first Paradise, and stayed not: the second Adam is in the second Paradise, and there abides. Th •• day shalt thou be with me in Paradise; was his promise to the penitent Malefactor. Paul was there and heard, and saw what he could not utter. By how much the third heaven exceeds the richest earth; by so much doth that Paradise which Christ ha •• found, exceed that which we have lost. Now if we desire to have our salvation perfected above, we must begin it below. The gate of heaven is opened on earth. The place where God manifested his favor, Jacob called Bethel, heaven gate. This the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. As a man calls that the Court, where he was first brought to the presence of the King. Now this is done by a holy expectance, hearty affection, patient forbearance, prepared assurance, constant perseverance, and ravished exultance.
By a holy expectation, and a life expressive of such hope. He that looks to wear a Crown, habituates himself to royal affections. Our conversation is to heaven, whence we look, &c. They that hope to carry earth up to heaven, strive first 〈◊〉 bring heaven down to earth.
By a hearty affection: if we cannot get in, yet let us get so near as we can; a • keep about the gates of the City: where the faithful are congregated, there heaven it self is opened. Cain thought it not the least part of his curse, to be cast 〈◊〉 from the face of God; from Adams family, where the face of God was seen in his holy worship.
By a patient forbearance and withdrawing our affections from terrene things. This World is but viaticum; and no man seeks for his inheritance in his Inn.
By a prepared assurance armed for all encounters. No Prisoner fears the Gaoler, look he never so stern; who knows that his commission, is but to bring him to the Court safe. To the Saints, Mors non poena, sed remedium, death is not a penalty, but a remedy. Nec tam mors naturae, quàm malitiae, quàm miseriae. It is 〈◊〉 so much a death of nature, as of corruption and calamity.
By a constant perseverance, resolving upon the worst disasters not to turn back. Knowing, that if the Gospel takes away riches, it will require them: if it take away life, it will restore it better. Patience shall never be a loser by it.
Lastly, by a ravished exultance and joy, that ariseth from the meditation of heaven. Which so transports us, that for the time we think ourselves there: and conceive of former sorrows, as men awaked from a busy dream. What shall be • he possession of that place, whereof the contemplation is so sweet! Dulce est in lit • ore stantem Dicere naufragium. It is a pleasure to sit on the quiet and secure shore, • nd discourse of escaped wracks. This is our true Paradise; the lower remains Quoad locum, non quoad Paradisum; as it is a place, not as it is a Paradise. On earth we lost it, in heaven we shall find it. There faith shall be turned into beatifical visi • on; expectation lost in possession. There we shall know the truth of things we argue here below. How sweet now would the knowledge of some secrets be unto • s; yet are many not worth the knowing: there those deep and glorious mysteries • hall be made plain, and we shall discourse them one to another. Discourse them I • ay; for now the souls in heaven have the language of intelligence; and when their • odyes are joined they shall have the language of utterance. And because Dura • io est affectus entium; the perfection of all shall be a blest everlastingness. I will give you the kingdom of heaven, saith CHRIST; this disgraceth all earthly kingdoms. I will give you an incorruptible Crown, this disgraceth all corruptible crowns. I will give you eternal joy, this disgraceth all momentary pleasures. Eter • all life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ.
Down into hell.] This is Locus ad quem, the next part of their punishment; a • ensible pain; the position of intolerable and interminable plagues. In handling whereof consider three circumstances. Quod sit, quid sit, ubi sit. That it is, what it is, where it is.
First, that there is a Hell, is plain: for they could not be cast into a place that had no being. Yea, it is manifest that it had a being before sin; and God made it before he had present and actual use of it. It was constituted ere the Angels fell, that it might receive them when they fell. Hell was made before sin was hatched, as Heaven was formed and fitted before the Inhabitant was produced. For we must observe that God created Angels and men after his own Image; Ration sapientes, vita innocents, dominio potentes; wise, innocent, powerful. But withal he gave • hem naturam flexibilem, a mutable condition; which had power of standing, and possibility of falling. Power to stand was of God the creator: possibility to fall was of themselves the creatures. Immutabiliter esse bonum Dei solius est proprium, Aug. To be unchangeably good is only proper to God. Augustine in his con • essions gives the reason. Because God created man ex nihilo, of nothing: he left in him possibility to return in nihilum, unto nothing. Si Deus dedisset illis naturam im • utabilem, deos potius quàm creaturas condidisset, Basil. If God had given them an immutable nature, he had created them gods, not creatures. Now out of the whole • oste of Angels he kept some from falling: and when all mankind was fallen, he • edeemed some by his own Son. And as he shows mercy upon some in their sal • ation, so it is fit he should show justice upon others in their just damnation. Now because there must be distinct places for the exercise of both these, which are in God equally infinite: by an irrevocable decree from the foundation of the world, a glorious habitation was ordained for the one, and a terrible dungeon for the other. These shall go into everlasting punishment, and the righteous into life eternal. So cer • aine are both these places, that they were of old prepared. Matth. 25.34. Inherite • he kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of this world, Ver. 41. Depart • e cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his Angels. Esa. 30.33. To • het is ordained of old: non paranda, nec parari certa, sed parata. Of old, for the Lord that beholds all things, past, present, future, Vno actu, uno ictu, at once; simul & se •• el: as he foresaw the different estates of men and Angels, so he provided for them different places. That there is a hell.
First, the Scripture plentifully testifies, Mark. 9.43, &c. I know that many have wrangled against it: Danaus reckons up 19 several sorts of heretics that deny of it. But say what they will, the wicked would give much to be sure that the Scripture was not true. Credere nolunt, & non credere nequeunt: they will not believe; and yet they cannot choose but believe; their case is fearful.
The Heathen affirmed a hell and place of torment for bad men: they retained so much light, as to know of that future darkness. Some of them have been terrified with their own inventions, and distracted with horror of the torments described by their own pens. As Pygmalion doted on his own picture, so were they a •• zed with their own comments. How much more, if they had known these intolerable horrors, as they are, not as they were described. Par nulla fig •• Gehennae.
Besides, many wicked men are punished, and many as wicked escape. Now Iustum est, ut qui pariter peccarint, easdem paenas luerent. It is fit that partners in • inne should not be severed in torment. God doth not punish all here, that he may allow some space of repentance: nor doth he forbear all here, lest the world should deny his providence. Parcit ut puniat, punit ut parcat. He spares that he may punish, and he punisheth that he may spare. He afflicteth some in the suburbs of hell, that they might never come into the city it self. But Quos malos fert incruciatos, refert •• ciandos. The evil he now suffers uncorrected, he refers to be condemned. Sin knows the doom, it must smart, either here or hereafter.
Further, in all things natural and supernatural, there is an opposition and contrariety. There is good, there is evil: light and darkness: sorrow and joy. Now as there be two ways, so there must be two ends. Heaven, whither the good Angels shall carry the Saints; Hell, whither the black and grisly spirits shall hurry the reprobates.
Again, all men naturally do honor the good, and punish the evil. The Barbarians themselves have laws of castigation, and executions to cut off irregul •• persons. Shall the Lord in his Justice come short of creatures, of barbarous creatures? The Law of Nations requires that malefactors, if they scape with life, • e banished forever. And shall not God banish rebels on earth, from his glorious presence in heaven, into that fearful Island of hell? If this were not, Stabit cum Ne rone Paulus, Nero was as good a man as Paul. Esau should still have his birthright i • bliss, and Cain be a Saint as well as Abel. As believers say, If in this life •• lie we have hope in CHRIST, we are of all men most miserable. So might the wicked say, If in this life only we have sense of sorrow, we are of all men mo • t happy.
Lastly, every Prince is allowed this concurrence to his State: that as he hath a pleasant palace for himself and his servants, so he hath a Jail and prison for rebels and traitors. That heaven is glorious where the high King keeps his magnificent Court; the outer side of whose pavements we delight to behold, and admire for beauty. So is that hell a dismal dungeon where he puts his enemies, the outsid • whereof men are not suffered to see, lest they should die with horror of the sight. They that have seen the flames, and heard the roarings of Aetna, now Monte G ••• lo, the flashings of Vesuvius, the thunderings and burning flakes evaporating from marine rocks; have not yet seen the very glimmerings of hell. A painted fire is a better shadow of these, than these are of hell torments.
I am sure I speak to no Atheists; I could say; doest thou think there is no hell? Quis daemonum hoc asseret? What devil will so affirm? they know it, and feel it. Why art thou come to torment us before our time? Shall not men tremble 〈◊〉 deny, what the devils confess? Chrys. What, eat, drink, and play, Epicu • e; Post mortem nulla voluptas? no pleasure after death? None indeed to reprobates; there is nothing but hell for them, and they shall find small pleasure in that. C •••• , sed fuge: credendo fugies. Believe it, and avoid it: by believing thou shalt avoid it. We are sure God hath made it; let us be but half so sure that we shall escape it. A good king having ordained positive Laws by which he would govern; caused In ••• uments of execution to be made; gibbets, wheels, racks, and such torturous • gines. And being made, he commanded them to be brought forth, and exposed 〈◊〉 open view: and upon everyone was written, Ne noceat, ne noceat: that it may do 〈◊〉 harm: observe it, that you may never feel it. So God admonisheth us of hell, • e noceat: he doth as it were show it us, that it may never hurt us. Ostendisti populo • avia, Thou hast shown thy people grievous things: but shown them, not inflicted •• em. Minatur verbis, ne utatur verberibus. By threatening us, he would save the la •• ur of plaguingus.
But shall God menace this, and we not be moved? Is the hand-writing on the •• ll, and Belshazzar still merry? God loves him that Trembles at his word. Do 〈◊〉 not tremble at it? how should we then escape it? We read of a bird of Paradise, 〈◊〉 called for her excellent beauty: that being taken in the fowlers net, she doth groan •• d weep night and day, and so languish away. We were once such Birds of Pa •• dise, but by sin taken in Satan's nets; captived in wickedness, and condemnable 〈◊〉 this hell of wretchedness: O how should we groan and weep till we get out of • is Prison where we are, into the liberty where we would be! Plangite plangenda: 〈◊〉 must have sorrow; either hereby attrition legal, and contrition evangelical, or • reafter by destruction infernal. Estote tam proni ad lamenta, quàm fuistis ad pecca • Isidor. Let us be as ready for repentance, as ever we have been for disobedience. 〈◊〉 is too common for men to put far away from them the evil day. Procul volunt • e, quod juxta est. They injuriously oppress others, and luxuriously riot themselves; • hy? My Master defers his coming. Quasi tarde venturus sit, qui nunquam 〈◊〉 nusquam ab est. As if it would be long before he be present, that is, in no place at 〈◊〉 time absent. Whereas the shadow doth not more diligently wait upon the bo •• , than doth confusion upon sin. Therefore so live today, as if thou wert not to • e tomorrow. Seeing for the wicked is prepared a hell, let us seek for heaven. • orrupt nature prepared us all for the former, let holy grace prepare us for the o • er. It is said of heaven, Imparatis clauditur janua, paratis patet: it is open to the pre •• red, shut to the unprepared. The contrary is true of hell: to the prepared it is • ut, to the unprepared it is open. God shown the Prophets many fearful visions, 〈◊〉 their terrror, and astonishment; but withal he encouraged them, that the judge • ents should light upon others, and he would deliver their souls. Ezekiel's quaking • d trembling was but for a sign: Israel's should be in sense and anguish of heart. If • e tremble at these torments while the wicked laugh and are jovial; we shall put 〈◊〉 our fear to them, laugh and be merry when they tremble. As Daniel said 〈◊〉 that Monarch; Let not the dream trouble thee; the dream shall be to them that hate •• e, and the interpretation to thine enemies. Let our hearts repent and believe, and 〈◊〉 not this terror trouble us: the terror be to the devils that hate God, and to the probates his enemies. His enemies will I cloth with shame, but upon himself shall his •• own flourish. For tormenting cares, we shall have flourishing Crowns, in the •• mmunion of Saints and Angels.
The next question is, what is Hell? It is that place where the Justice of God • nfineth reprobates to their eternal punishments. The plagues thereof are inter •• ll, external, eternal. Internal, that consists in a plenary desertion of God; so •• t they are continual sinners, and continual sufferers. Two contrarities being re •• nciled in them; extreme presumption, and extreme desperation. Presumption, 〈◊〉 with bitter malice and cursed heart they shall perpetually blaspheme, and sin a •• inst the Holy Ghost, Revel. 16.11. Desperation, without all hope of mercy, or •• itting one thought of peace. The one being a sin against God's Justice, the • her against his mercy. External, that consists. 1. In a deprivation of all come • rt; that they do feel, being not more bitter, than the thought of that they can •• t feel, Chrys. A privative cause hath a positive effect. Tully banished from Ita •• though it were into Greece, wept bitterly when he remembered Rome. Exiled Demosthenes, though he found much kindness amongst his enemies, yet woe • ld weep when he looked towards Athens. The captive Jews hung up their harp • , when they remembered Zion. Another laments that Roma relinquenda est: but wh •• he considers, Scithia est quo mittitur; bursts out into tears it is the most unhappy part of unhappiness, to remember former welfare. Dura satis miseris mem ••• prisca bonorum. 2. In a sensible passion of universal anguish: as a brand in a gr ••• fire, no part free from burning. Eternal, not determinable with time, for th •• Time shall be no more: everlastingness shall make absolute their sorrows: 〈◊〉 arm may be weary of smiting, not God's: it is fabled of Jupiter, that if he shou •• spend his artillery as fast as men sin, Exiguo tempore inermis erit, his quiver woe ••• soon be empty: Vulcan could not make his thunderbolts fast enough. But the d •• ned are punished in hell, so long as there is a God in heaven.
The Scripture speaks sometimes of hell figuratively; Gehinnon, Tophet. Which was a valley by the Fullers field near to Aceldama, on the South-side of Si •• Call'd Gehinnon, because it was in the tenure of a man named Hinmom, Aret. Th •• the Jews, after the example of the Ammonites, sacrificed their children to Mol •• in the fire. An Idol which they worshipped for Mercury, Montan. Others 〈◊〉 for Saturn, whom the Poets fain a devourer of his own children. It was of br •• or coper, with hands stretched out to receive the Infants that were to be sacrifice • His Priests were called Chemmarim, because they were reesed or smoked with t •• Incense offered to the Idol. It was defaced and defiled by good King Josiah, 2 King 23.10. and made a draught or common sewre for the filth of Jerusalem. The Ca • deans cast the slain Jews into that place, Ier. 7.32. Therefore it was called Os Inf • ni, the mouth of hell, that could not be filled. For further description of hell, the Scripture useth three principal terms; the Worm, outer darkness, and unquench •• fire, Mark. 9.44.
First the Worm: this we must not understand a corporal Worm, which were terrible enough; for a man to live always dying, and die always living, with 〈◊〉 adder sucking and stinging his vital parts. Eccl. 7.17. The vengeance of the ungodly fire and worms. But we must know that after the worlds dissolution, there shall remain no mixed body, but only man's: no generation nor corruption in the revi •• bodies. Therefore the worm cannot be corporal, but spiritual: the stinging o • a vexed conscience. As from the corruption of dead bodies breed the worm • that devour them: so from the corruption of sin riseth this worm of conscience. Some understand it to be the memory of past sins; which shall so long gnaw their souls and bodies; like a vulture pr • ying on their hearts, as the remembrance of committed iniquities continues, which will be forever. Ob. But if the memory be so p •• fected, then the recognition of former joys shall be some ease. An old soldier after his exhausted strength, glories in the battles he hath won. Ans. Nay this 〈◊〉 rather be matter of sorrow: to remember the evils they have done, bitter: the goo • they once had, more bitter: the good they might have had, most bitter.
Object. The torments of hell are far beyond any pains of this world: 〈◊〉 a man here, lying under some lethargical and stupefying pressure, cannot confide •• those intelligible conclusions, as he might being abstracted from his pain. A ••• The soul is here joined to a corruptible body, straightened by the Organ: so th •• while the body is afflicted, the consideration of the soul is hindered. But there 〈◊〉 soul cannot be inclined by an incorruptible body: but while the flesh suffers according to the capableness thereof, the soul is prostrated to all the pains she can •• dure. Object. But the damned are the subjects of time, and time causeth forg ••• lnesse. Answ. Time is the cause of forgetting, but only by accident: because moti •• which is the measure of time, is the cause of transmutation. But after this 〈◊〉 there shall be no more motion of the heavens: and even the soul that is now s • parated, is not changed from her disposition by the motion of heaven. Luk. 16.2 • Son, remember: this is a gnawing worm: which if it hath made some ackno • ledge (Infernum in mundo, qualiter sentient in inferno?) a hell on earth, what shall it • e to their sense in hell it self? Oculos quos culpa claudit, paena aperiet, Greg. The eyes which sin hath shut damnation shall open.
Therefore it is good counsel now; Praevidete mala futura, ne recordemini bona •• aterita. Foresee with fear the evil that shall be hereafter, lest you remember with grief the good that hath been heretofore. O that our foresight were but half • o sharp as our sense? let us now consider seriously the pains that shall be, that we • ever be put to remember grievously the joys that have been.
Secondly, Outer darkness, Matth. 22.13. Cast him into outer darkness. But it 〈◊〉 objected, that the sight of their misery shall aggravate the sense of their misery; • ut nothing can be seen without the light, therefore not outer darkness. Again, •• e damned shall have a visory power after the resumption of their bodies; which were superfluous if they should see nothing with it. They shall see, and without •• ght they cannot see; how then, outer darkness? Answ. Though that fire do • ot shine to any comfort; tamen ut magis torqueat, ad aliquid lucet; yet for their ex • remer vexation, it shall give some light. So much, as to show their fellows their • orments, and them the torments of their fellows, Greg. Basil in Psal. 29.7. The • oice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire. God's power shall separate the clarity of •• re from the adustive virtue. Vt claritas sit pijs in gaudium, & ustivum damnatis in •• rmentum. That the clearness may delight the righteous, and the sharpness af • ict the wicked. So Theodor in Psal. 96. The shining property shall be extracted to • omfort the Saints: the burning property remain to punish reprobates. But then • nsion it self is some delight: as Aristot. in his Metaphys. Sensus oculorum maxim • iligibilis: the sight of the eyes is pleasant; and to the same purpose Solomon. Yet • y accident it becomes afflictive; as when men are forced to see what they would • ot see. In hell there shall be nothing diaphanous, perspicuous, clear; but a shady, • oggy vision; like a distracted dream. Erit quod videant, non erit quod videre cupi • nt They shall see that, which to avoid they would wish themselves to have • o eyes.
Let us therefore decline the works of darkness, as we desire to escape the • lace of darkness. Interior darkness must be doomed to inferior darkness. What is more just, than that they who refused the light when they might have it, • hold be denied the light when they desire it? many now nuzle themselves in ig • orance, as if they meant to make their own beds in hell. Voluntary blindness •• all be confined to necessary blindness: and they that might now see if they would • pen their eyes, shall there open their eyes and not see. Let us be children of the •• ght, not of the night: and as we wish to see that glory without us which may make 〈◊〉 happy: so let us strive to see that grace within us which may make us holy. Now • e Father of lights defend us from that Prince and place of darkness.
Lastly, fire, unquenchable fire. It hath been much controverted, whether in hell be •• ue substantial fire, or only fire allegorical. Calvin is only for the allegory; and 〈◊〉 some others, that give this reason. There is mention of Wood and of Worm, as • ell as of fire: now these are allegorical, why not therefore the fire? But in Scrip •• re things spoken together are not always taken in the same nature and manner. Christ is called the Rock of our salvation: the rock is allegorical, is our salvation •• erefore allegorical? Ye shall eat and drink at my table in my kingdom. Eating •• d drinking is allegorical, is therefore the kingdom allegorical too? It is then 〈◊〉 be concluded that there is true and substantial fire in hell. The Lord will come •• th fire, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. Si in igne dam •• it reprobos, quare non in igne cruciabit damnatos? If he will judge them in fire, why •• t condemn them to fire.
Grant it substantial fire, then it is questioned whether it be material, cor •• rall, or spiritual. It is not material, that is fire nourished with fuel. •• na, and other places of the earth burn continually without fuel: much more that infernal fire. He that makes the damned live without food, is able to maintain this fire without wood. Not spiritual; indeed Gregory calls it an Incorporeall f ••• ; but it passeth the nature of fire to be spiritual: and he that makes it spiritual only, goes about to make it no fire at all.
It is therefore a corporal fire: but being so granted, there arise some exception, Object. If it be corporal, how can it diversely torment diverse reprobates? There i • but one fire in hell, but it doth not cruciate all after one manner and measure: as everyone hath been more wicked, he shall be more wretched. Answ. But we must kn • w that this fire is the instrument of the Divine Justice: now no instrument works only by it own virtue, and after it own measure; but is regulated by the virtue of the principal Mover. The fire in a furnace is increased or qualified according to the will of the kindler: so is this disposed by the power of God; the breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone doth kindle it. We know that one and the same fire do •• otherwise burn iron, than wood or straw. Secundum duritiem vel durationem ••• riae: according to the nature of the incensed matter is the rage of the fire. All 〈◊〉 on earth are under one Sun, yet do not all equally feel the burning of that S ••• one is hotter than another, a Moore than a Britain. So in that one fire there is 〈◊〉 one manner of burning: Quod hic diversitas corporum, illic agit diversitas peccator •• , Greg. dial. lib. 4. That which is here wrought by the diversity of bodies is there by the diversity of sins. There may be a several degree of pain to everyone, and yet one common fire to all.
Object. But if it be corporal fire, it must be maintained with fuel, or el •• will go out: but there is no fuel in hell. Yes, the bodies and souls of the damned shall be Loco carbonum & lignorum, instead of fuel. And because th • se materials are everlasting, therefore it follows that hell fire can never go o •• , for it is against the nature of fire to cease, so long as it hath cumbustible matter to feed it. Object. But if it be corporeal, then is it of the same species with our fire, now man knows the nature of this, but not of that. Answ. Fire is found in two places and manners: vel in materia propria, vel in materia aliena. Either in the proper matter, as it is in the own orbe or sphere. Or in another matter, whether earthly as appears in a coal, or airy as appears in the flame. But howsoever or wheresoever it is found, it is always in respect of the nature in specie, fire. In the bo ••• which are the matter of the fire there may be difference; as lignum igneum & ferr •• ignitum, burning wood and burning iron differ. Still is it fire, though diverse fro • ours in certain proprieties which are unknown to us, and may we never know them.
Gregory upon Job, 20.26. Ignis non succensus, a fire not blown shall consume 〈◊〉 objects, that if it be corporal fire, it needs fomentation. Nec valet esse nisi succe • s •• , nec subsistere nisi refotus. Indeed our elementary fire must be kindled and nourished, because it is brought artificially and by violence upon the combustible subject. 〈◊〉 hell fire needs not, because it either subsists in the proper matter, or in an alien s •• ject, not by violence, but by nature a principio intrinseco. Flatus Domini sicut to ••• sulfuris succendet eum: the wrath of God makes it unquenchable; so that it neither needs feeding, nor wants raging. But our fire is corruptible, that eternal, how 〈◊〉 of the same nature? So are the reprobate bodies now corruptible, then made inc •• ruptible: therefore the same nature of fire shall become everlasting, to torment 〈◊〉 same bodies become everlasting. Object. But the nature of our fire is to shine 〈◊〉 give light, which hell-fire doth not. The light of the wicked shall be put out, and t •• spark of his fire shall not shine. Answ. The fire doth not shine in the proper ma ••• of existing: non lucet in propria spha • a, saith the Philosopher; it shines not in the own orbe. Besides, gross and foggy smokes, and thick darkness may keep 〈◊〉 from giving luster; yet still it remains fire. The conclusion then is for corpo ••• fire in hell. 1 Because there is not only the punishment of loss, which answers 〈◊〉 the aversion from the Creator: but also the punishment of sense, which answers 〈◊〉 conversion to the creature. Now what plague so terrible to the sense as fire? 2. 〈◊〉 Wherewithall a man sinneth, by the same shall he be punished: but by sensible things • hey sinned, therefore by sensible things punished.
But lastly, if it be corporal fire, then it torments only the body: for how can 〈◊〉 corporal fire work upon a spiritual substance? Bernard thus; there is a double • unishment, the Worm, and Fire. Altero roditur conscientia, altero concremantur cor •• ra. The one gnaws the conscience, the other burns the carcase. The one exte •• us comburens, the other interius corrodens. And Meditat. cap. 4. In carne crucia •• ntur per ignem, in spiritu per conscientiae vermem. So Isidor. de sum. Bon. lib. 1. cap. 31. The pain of the damned is double: Mentem urit tristitia, corpus flamma. So Bed. 〈◊〉 Marc. 9. lib. 3. Ignis erit paena extrinsecus saeviens, vermis dolor interius accusans. These seem to restrain that fire from working on the soul. But it is plain, Mat. 2.5. • 1. The fire is prepared for the devil and his angels. But the devil hath nobody, yet •• e burns in fire. Luk. 16.24. The rich man cried out, and shall cry forever, I am •• rmented in this flame. Yet was his body in the grave, and his soul only in hell; • either is that altogether a Parable: for then Tacuisset nomen, & solum posuisset ex •• plum. Christ would only have propounded the example, and concealed the •• me. He that denieth spirits to be tormented in fire, let him take heed lest his • wne spirit feel it. But how this corporeal fire shall torment devils and damned •• irits, who knows? I do not doubt but that rich man was in the burning of pains, •• d the poor man in the refreshing of joys: but how to apprehend that flame of • ell, that bosom of Abraham, that tongue of the rich, and finger of the poor; •• la sitis tormenti, illa stilla refrigerij; that thirst of torment, that drop of comfort, •• all hardly be found of them that seek humbly, never of them that seek curiously. Melius est dubitare de ocultis, quàm litigare de incertis. It is more safe to doubt of •• at is secret, than to dispute of that is uncertain. It is miserable by seeking what • OD hath secreted, to lose what GOD hath granted. Seeing then this is sub •• antiall and corporeal fire; wherein differs it from our elementary fire? In five •• spects.
1. In regard of heat. The fire in a lantschip which is Ignis pictus, or their •• rgatory fire, which is Ignis fictus: is a better representation of elemental fire, than •• ementall is of eternal fire. That furnace whose heat was septupled, and the •• mes licked up them for whom it was not meant; was raging, but not a glow •• g spark to hell.
2. In regard of light: our fire comforts in shining, that is oppressed with hor •• ble darkness. Cremationem habet, lumen non habet, Greg. Vim comburendi reti •• , illuminandi amisit, Basil. It retains the property of burning, it hath lost the •• operty of shining. Therefore it is called Hades sine sole domus: Jude calls it the • ack darkness. The darkness of Egypt was strange and fearful, so thick that it • as palpable: yet a mere holy day to hell. The Poets described it by Cimerian •• knesse; an Italian territory betwixt Baiae and Cumae, where the Cimerij inhabit: • environed with hills, and over-shadowed with supercilious and hanging promon • ries, that the Sun never comes at it.
3. Elementall fire burns the body only, eternal also the soul. The passion 〈◊〉 the body, is but the body of passion; the soul of pain is the pain of the soul: • t if a consumable body be not able to endure burning flames for a day; how will 〈◊〉 unwastable soul endure them forever.
4. Elementall fire as it burns, so it consumes: hell fire rageth more and wa •• th less. The reprobate shall have the punishment vri, to be burned; not the •• ppinesse exuri, to be wasted. Poenae gehennales puniunt, non finiunt corpora, Pro •• . Iron will hold burning long, yet consumeth: in hell there is neither cessati •• of fire burning nor of matter burned. It is a fire of consummation, not of con •• ption: Ignis absolvens non disolvens. If it were terminable, it might be tolerable: 〈◊〉 being endless, it must be easeless.
5. Our elemental fire may be quenched, that never goes out. This is maintained with wood, and put out with water: that as it hath nothing to maintain it, so nothing to extinguish it. There shall be weeping of eyes, no mitigation of flames: if there be any tears, they shall rather be like oil to feed and nourish it, than like water to put it out.
These are three principal expressions of hell; but is there nothing of pain besides these? It seems they suffer nothing else but fire, because CHRIST dooms them only unto fire, Matth. 25.41. Indeed fire is the principal, but there are other accessories and concomitances. Basil. In the last purgation of the world there shall be a separation made in the elements. Whatsoever is pure, refined, sublim'd, and perfect, shall remain above for the solace of the blessed. Whatsoever is feculent, sordid, and ignoble, shall be cast down to the punishment of the damned. That as every creature becomes matter of the Saints joy; so every creature be made matter of the reprobates sorrow. God shall make the creature his weapon for the revenge of his enemies: and the world shall fight with him against the unwise. As they have departed from that one God, one good, by sin in many material thing • which are variae & vanae: so that one Justice shall by many material things confound them. But Job 24.19. Ad calorem nimium transibit ab aquis nivium; as the vulgar Latin reads. Now the variety and vicissitude of passions yields some refreshing. As when a man passeth from extreme cold to extreme heat, there is a mediate intermission: but there is no refreshing admitted in hell. Answ. The damned may pass from extremity of cold to extremity of heat, without any re ••• shing: because the passure shall not be by any transmutation of the body from the former natural disposition, nor by reduction to any equality of temper: but •••• ble pains working upon the sensible parts; secundum esse spiritual, non secundum ess • material, in organum, Aquin. The sum is this; the torments of hell are comprise • under fire, because that is most violent, vehement, and sharply afflictive. Wa •• doth only kill: fire doth vex also, and torment: yea which is worse, this fire doth never kill. It shall be so extreme, that the damned shall prize a cup of cold wa •• above ten thousand worlds. The use.
As we desire to escape the fire of hell, let us avoid the fire of sin. Praeparant i • nita peccata in ignita supplicia. There be certain fiery sins, which shall find fiery punishments; as Nadab both offered and suffered strange fire. There is Ignis nec ardeus 〈◊〉 lucens: Ignis & ardens & lucens: ignis lucens non ardens: ignis ardens non lucens. The •• fire is properly neither burning nor shining, but only stinks and makes a smothe • sin, a spiritual fire. There is fire both burning and shining; that we call elemen •• fire. There is fire burning and not burning, as the Sun. There is fire burning and not shining, and that's the fire of hell. Thus Paul calls lust a burning: It is better 〈◊〉 marry than to burn. Who then would burn in lust, that fears to burn in hell? 〈◊〉 read of a man, that when he was tempted to lust, would lay his hand on bur •••• coals, concluding; If I cannot endure this for a while, how should I endure 〈◊〉 fire forever? Rage and malice are burning sins. Iratus non vides legem, sed lex • det iratum. The angry man beholds not the Law, but the Law beholds the a •••• man. Therefore is anger called Excandescentia. They that nourish that fire within them, are nourished for a worse fire without them. Blasphemy is a burning 〈◊〉 The tongue is a fire, that fireth the whole course of nature, and is fired of hell. Let th •• whose mouths flame with oaths, fear these flaming torments. The rich 〈◊〉 tongue was tormented in fire, because it was used to spit fire against heaven. Drunkenness is a burning sin: too much wine is the oil of hells own Lamp. They inflame the reckoning, till they inflame their brains, inflame their bloods, infl ••• their bodies: buy as much sickness, as will make up a burning fever; and 〈◊〉 much sin as will serve to inflame their own hell. In the German p •• verb, Fire is of all the genders. Hic ignis, that's fire: Haec ignis, that's a • whore: Hoc ignis, that's wine. the first Chapter of John Verse 5. Mundus pos ••• est in maligno, that is in igne malo: all the world is on fire with sin, to make work • or the fire of hell. Deut. 32.22. A fire is kindled in mine anger, and it shall burn • nto the lowest hell. Psal. 2.12. If his wrath be kindled but a little, Blessed are all they •• at trust in him. Cant. 8.6. The Coals thereof are coals of fire, which have a most • chement flame. Wildfire may be tamed, streams of fire have been quenched: •• ely that fire can never be extinguished in the subject it hath possessed. One thing •• ely now can put it out; the water and blood that came out of CHRIST'S own • de. Only that water can quench the fire of lust in us, and that blood quench the • re of hell against us.
Down into hell.] Let me a little further enlarge this discourse of hell: wherein you do not find a due method, know that the nature of the place denies it. Who • n speak methodically and orderly of that; Quod nec modum nec methodum novit; • at knows no method, no order. Ibi ordo nullus, horror sempiternus. If any expect 〈◊〉 absolute description; I excuse myself; Non mihi si c • ntum linguae. But as Pi • agoras ghost at the stature and pitch of Hercules, by the length of his foot; and • e say in the proverb, Ex ungue leonem: so by shadow and resemblance, we may • ittle conceive what it is in sufferance. This is a cup of the deadliest wine that ever • as tasted: those deep graves in the Psalm, from whence there is no rising again. The gates of that infernal prison being kept from egress, as the gates of Paradise • e rewarded from entrance: not by Cherubims with a flaming sword, but by the • ngels of Satan, with all the instruments of death, and the seal of God's eternal • ecree set upon them. This is that outer darkness, to comprehend and wrap up the •• mned. Outer, because in extremity, without the limits of any mercy to be exten • ed: where no light of Sun, Moon, or Star, much less the face of GOD shall •• er shine. Where the eyes shall distill like fountains, and the teeth clatter like ar •• ed men, and the mind muse on nothing but sad desperation. Many and fearful agonies have wrung and wrested the spirit of man, since the spirit of life was first • eathed into him: yet if all were put together, to answer the measure of hell tor • ents amongst them; the hand of Tophet hath an unmeasurable portion left be •• nd to destribute to her children, and enlesse patrimony of howling and gnashing 〈◊〉 teeth. Balance them together, and the least pain of hell is greater than the greatest of this world, Aquin. Horrible torments have been inflicted on mortal dilin • ents; they are all but ticklings to those torturings. Rev. 8.13. There is a three • ld woe: Woe for the bitterness; Woe for the multitude; Woe for the everlasting •• sse of those pains. It had been better for that man never to have been borne. A •• e, ten thousand times more than can be imagined by any heart as deep as the Sea. • hese are those waters of gall, viols of unmerciful plagues; pestilence and blood, • d huge hailstones, fire and brimstone. Not such as fell upon Sodom, the wit •• sses whereof, for many succeeding ages, were heaps of ashes, and clouds of pitch. 〈◊〉 fire and brimstone from a bottomeless mind, which burneth in the lake of • ath, and shall never be quenced.
Of all these torments there are two dire and dismal effects. Mat. 8.12. We •• ng and gnashing of teeth. Fletus de ardore, stridor dentium de frigore. Raban, Fletus •• gnem qui non extingitur, stridor ob vermem qui non moritur. Fletus ex dolore, stri •• ex furore, Bern. They are cast into darkness, for the inordinateness of their • cupiscible: weep, for the inordinateness of their Irascible? gnash their teeth, for 〈◊〉 inordinateness of their irrational part, Corrh. This manifesteth two extremi •• in hell; incomparable cold, and intolerable heat, Greg. in Mat. 8.
Weeping: here are some questions moved, whether this be a corporal weeping. • me affirm it; because the sorrow which is in pain shall answer the pleasure that 〈◊〉 in sin. As she hath lived deliciously, give her so much torment and sorrow. But • robates in their sinning had both an inward pleasure, and an outward delighting: • efore they must have in punishment both an inward grief and an outward weeping. • usu. But then damnation being eternal, this effusion would also be eternal: and so the tears would make an inundation larger thn thae ocean, able in time to p •• out the fire of hell. Therefore we must distinguish; In corporal weeping the •• are two things: a resolution of tears, and a commotion or perturbation of the 〈◊〉 and eyes. This weeping is not the resolution of tears, because then the motion of the first mover ceasing, there is no generation, nor corruption, nor alteration of the body. But there must be a generation of that moisture which distills it self 〈◊〉 tears, if that weeping were corporal. Yet there shall remain a weeping, which ariseth from the perturbation of the soul, and anguish of the body. There 〈◊〉 be here a howling like dragons, when as yet no tears fall. It is observable 〈◊〉 the expense of tears outwardly mitigates the sorrow within, and easeth the he •• the burden of indigestible grief emptying and venting it self at the eyes: but 〈◊〉 eternal tears could never qualify eternal pains.
It is further objected; weeping is the effect of sorrowing, and sorrow of reputing: therefore it seems if the damned weep in hell, that they repent in hell. W ••• 5.3, And they repenting, and groaning for anguish of spirit, So Aristot. They 〈◊〉 be grieved for that wherein they were delighted. Answ. To repent may be understood two ways: either ration peccati, or peccato adjuncti: in respect of sin, and the punishment annexed to sin. To repent of sin for it self, is to hate it for 〈◊〉 other cause but because it is sin and displeasing to God: thus they do not sorrow. To repent of it for the punishment bound to it, is a sorrow by accident; that ariseth not from their evil doing, but from their evil suffering. The will of the dam ••••• never bettered by their torment. To wish they had not sinned, without further •• lation, were a good will: but a good will and they are everlasting strangers. The will of the Devil is still invertible: nor doth he grieve for his pride, but for the punishment of his pride. Agains, there shall be a greater perv ersnesse of the damned in hell, than is of sinners on earth: but diverse sinners here, through blind •• of mind, and hardness of heart, do not repent of their sins: though the 〈◊〉 savage beasts through grief and pain are restrained from their sensual pleasure. On earth there may be repenting without weeping, in hell there shall be weeping, without repenting.
But is their no recovery of original good in hell? If the damned are sorry for their sins, this argues repentance. If they were re-admitted to life, they would 〈◊〉 their life in obedience; this argues a will to goodness. That rich man had 〈◊〉 care of his living brethren; this argues charity. No, there is no repentance, 〈◊〉 rectified will, no charity. Haply some remanents of natural light, none of 〈◊〉 natural grace.
There is no repentance, Revel. 16.9. They are scorched with heat, and blaspheme God's name: but repent not to give him glory. Ver. 11. They curse him for their pains and sores, but repent not of their deeds. True repentance ariseth fr •• faith and hope: but there can be no faith of releasement, where is certain knowledge of eternal punishment: knowledge and sense exclude faith. There can b ••• hope of termination, where be chains of desperation. There shall be a desp ••• sorrow for pain, no penitent sorrow for sin. None are now saved but by the blood of the Lamb: but when the world is ended, that fountain is dried up. The worm of conscience shall gnaw them with this remorse, bringing to their 〈◊〉 the cause of their present calamities. How often they have been invited 〈◊〉 heaven, how easily they might have escaped hell. They shall weep for the loss of the one and gain of the other, not for the cause of either, which were repentance.
There is no will to good, or at least no good will. As the will of the bless ••• wholly set upon good: so the will of the damned is wholly set upon evil. Neither can the Saints in heaven will that which is evil, nor the reprobates in hell will 〈◊〉 which is good. This we perceive in the devils, who have been so long damned, • even to this day their unchangeable will is totally bent to wickedness. But 〈◊〉 est omnio involuntarium, Dionys. Evil is altogether against the will: if therefore they will anything, it is good either in existence, or in appearance. Ans. There is a double will in them: Natural, which is not of themselves, but of the founder of nature: Deliberative, that is of themselves; which being wholly averted from the supreme end of goodness, cannot be but evil. So that if naturally they could will good, yet the form of that will being so corrupted, it must necessarily be bad. Indeed evil as it is properly evil, moves not the will: but as it is an estimative good. Such is their malice, that they never will anything but evil, though they esteem it good. So that if they were now repealed again to this world; they would neither repent their sins, nor amend their lives, nor glorify God, nor seek JESUS. Let us now labor to rectify our wills, and order them to the seeking of good: lest we there lose both the good it self, and the very will unto it. For In Inferno erit stimulus paenitudinis, nulla tamen correctio voluntatis: ita culpabitur iniquitas sua, ut nullatenus possit diligi vel desiderari Iustitia, Aug. They shall curse their own wickedness, yet neither love nor desire righteousness.
There is no charity; not so much as any love to God, the infinite good; much less to man. None to God. But Omnibus diligibile est pulchrum & bonum: goodness and beauty is every ones love: therefore much more God, the cause and fountain of it. Nay, they shall hate God, Ps. 139.21. Do not I hate them that hate thee? Indeed if God could be seen of them in his goodness, mercy, bounty, they could not hate him: but they no further apprehend him but by the sense of their own torments, the effects of his Justice, and so hate him, Revel. 16.9.11.21. They suffer, and they blaspheme: there is in them a furious malice against him: being cursed of him, they recurse him. They curse him for making them, curse him for condeming them, curse him because being adjudged to death, they can never find death. They curse his punishments, because they are so unsufferable: curse his mercies, because they may never taste them: curse the blood of CHRIST shed on the Cross; because it hath satisfied for thousands, and done their unbelieving souls no good: curse the Angels and Saints in heaven, because they see them in joy, and themselves • n torment. Cursings shall be their sins, blasphemies their prayers, Lacrimae their • otes, lamentation all their harmony. These shall be their evening songs, their morning songs, their mourning songs forever.
No charity to man, for they rather wish all damned with themselves, than any • o be freed from their own prison. As in the blessed there is perfect charity, so in • he damned perfect envy. Now nothing is more repugnant to charity than malice and hatred. But it is objected, that inordinate affections are not taken away from • he damned: therefore they would not have them condemned in hell, whom they • nordinately affected upon earth. Ans. The love that is grounded upon virtue, is constant and durable: such charity we shall bear with us to heaven, and be made • erfect in it. But the affection grounded upon lust and sinful passion, a disease that • uns in the blood, doth quickly vanish: like fire in wet straw, that only makes a mother, and goes out in stench. Therefore the adulterer, though he so dotes on his Mistress, that he is content to venture his soul for her embraces: yet having lost • hat soul, he doth as heartily wish her in the same bed of torment: that as they • ave been delighted together, so they might be afflicted together. Object. But as • y the multitude of participants the joys of heaven are enlarged, so are the sor • owes of hell increased: how then will they desire more company, when thereby • hey inhaunce their own penalty? Ans. Yet such is their unchangeable malice, •• at it contents them not to suffer their own singular torments; but had rather en • ure more grievous misery, to have a more numerous society. And for the rich • ans prayer for his brethren, Luk. 16. It proceeded not from a charitable soul, but •• om fear and horror of more torments to be multiplied on himself. Non fratres •• exit, fed seipsum respexit: he desired not their salvation, but his own less dam •• tion. He knew that being the elder brother, his vicious example might draw on their greater disobedience: and as their sins increased, so he felt his own tortures enlarged. Therefore no grace in hell but everlasting sin, no devotion, but extreme damnation.
The wicked in hell still remain sinners. So Christ saith; All that came before me are thieves and robbers: Are; in propriety of speech he should have said; Fu • runt, they were thieves: no, Sunt, they are still, they remain so. Luk. 13.27. Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity: Operarij, & ab actu praeterito, & habitu presenti, Chrys. Workers, in reference both to the act past, and present habit. For he doth not say, yea that have wrought, but workers: quia iniqui nec post mortem des • nunt esse iniqui. They that die sinners, remain sinners even dead: although they cannot sin, yet they retain the desire of sinning: and he that is a liar in purpose, ceaseth not to be a liar in practice. Mors separate animam à carne, non peccatum 〈◊〉 anima. Death separates the soul from the flesh, it separates not sin from the soul.
Seeing the effect of those horrors is weeping, which shall never be comforted; let us prevent them, by weeping where we may be comforted. The time of living, is the time of repenting. If a man dies without repentance, repentance is dead to him forever. If we compare, Mat. 5.4. with Luke 6.25. we shall find, that the decree of God hath disposed, Flentes ad risum, ridentes ad fletum; weepers to laughing, and laughers to weeping.
Gnashing of teeth;] This is the effect of an inexpressible sorrow. A just and s • punishment, that they who once gnashed their teeth at others in contempt, should gnash their teeth at themselves in torment. The Psalmist complains; They gnashed their teeth at me; and the Jews gnashed on Stephen with their teeth. Therefore they shall gnaw their tongues for pain: their tongues gnawed their neighbors, now they shall gnaw their own tongues. They shown their teeth in derision, they shall gnash their teeth in damnation. No part of the damned shall be free from anguish, the memory afflicted with pleasures past, the apprehension with terrors present, the understanding with torments to come and continue, the eye with darkness, the ear with hideous scriechings, the smell with killing stenches, the taste with gall of bitterness, the very teeth with such an anguish, that the extremist tooth-ach here is but a pleasure to it. Such is the extremity, universality, and eternity of those pains: if they be so universal in all parts, O that they were not so extreme! if so extreme; O that not so universal! if both so universal and extreme! O tha • not so everlasting; each torment easeless, endless, remediless! There be Ignit • lacrymae, and frigidi anhelitus. Therefore called Avernus; absque vera temperatur • where the freezing cold shall not mitigate the scorching heat, nor the scorching he • qualify the freezing cold. Avernus is a lake in Italy, that Caesar purged; evaporating such a mortal steam, that it killed the birds which flew over it. Therefore called Avernùs quasi avibus adversus. Profundus sine fundo; full of incomparable hear, intolerable stench, innumerable griefs. Hugo, Vermis cum tenebris, flagellum, f • gus, & ignis; Daemonis aspectus, scelerum confusio, luctus. From all these must needs arise the gnashing of teeth. Two things would seem to mitigate the terror of hell, Patience and Hope: this gnashing of teeth excludes them both.
For patience; many grievons extremities have the Saints of God digested o • earth by patience: that universal antidote against future evils, and qualification of present severities. It hath blunted the edge of tyranny, and made the sufferers sm • le in the midst of those pangs, the very sight whereof hath astonished the beholders. Whatsoever the damned suffer, let them have but patience: nay, there shall be 〈◊〉 patience in hell: this gnashing of teeth, is the effect of a most impatient fury. M •• commonly say, in necessitated sufferings; what remedy but patience? Patience therefore is a confessed enemy, but all remedy is denied to the reprobates the • ; even that poorest succor which the anguished heart can imagine, Patience. O the universal privation in that dismal place! where Omne aderit quod cruciet, om •• 〈◊〉 quod relevet. Everything is present that may vex them, everything absent th •• may comfort them. Where they must suffer everlastingly, and cannot suffer pati • ntly.
For Hope, there is none. The proper object of hope is Arduum bonum, saith • e School: a difficult good. A good of difficulty not of impossibility: where no possibility can be no hope. There nulla spes boni, nulla desperatio mali, Hugo. • o hope of good, no despair of evil. Men say in extreme passions; If it were • t for hope, the heart would burst: there is no hope, yet the heart must hold: the • isery is, that it cannot burst; but lies (like a tormented Malefactour) upon the • heel, ever dying, yet without all hope to die. Dissolutionem cupit, & dissolutio • n non capit damnatus. There is no hope in hell, no hope with us on earth, for them • t are in hell. We cannot hope for the devils; they are condemned to hell, and • st hope: nor can we hope for the dead, because there is no purgatory. Indeed • ncerning the dead, there may be hope of their happy condition, but none of their • rmutation. This is a double torment; neither deliverance, nor hope of delive • nce. Sad and heavy despair absolves their infelicity: comfort they neither feel, • r have hope to feel.
Seeing only hope is confined to this life, let us make much of it, that it may en • th us. Hope makes not ashamed, because it is never disappointed: for if it could illuded, it would be ashamed. Spes vitae immortalis est vita vitae mortalis, Aug. • he hope of life immortal, is the life of our life mortal. The Poets fain, that all •• e gods and goddesses, that is, virtues and graces, did once dwell upon the earth. 〈◊〉 finding all things so corrupt, and men so bad company, they all went up to • aven with Justice; Terras Astraea reliquit. All but only Hope, and she stayed be • nd still. But now if we hope well, we must do well. He tempts God, does not • pe in God, that hoping doth nothing for himself, Aug. Though there be hope of the •• ren fig tree, yet still the dresser labors in the manuring of it. It is in vain for a • n to hope his children shall do well, when he teacheth them ill. The means • ust be used, where hope is nourished. Hope is only for the present: the Saints in • aven have no hope, for they are in full possession of joy: the damned in hell have 〈◊〉 hope, for they are in full possession of torment. Only the living have hope, and the living GOD is their hope: which himself bless and answer in JESUS • HRIST.
The last question is, ubi sit, what is the place of hell, my text says. It is Down • rd. S • doth the Scrip • ure frequently. Let them be cast into the Deepe pits, that •• y rise not up again. Bring them Down into the pit of destruction. They are in the • epth of hell. The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell • eath. So the terms declare it, and the word describes it. Sheol, which is taken 〈◊〉 a pi • , grave, or hell,; all Downewards. Mercer. in Gen. 37. says that Sheol sig • es all places under the earth. It must be below, because it is everywhere opposed heav • n which is highest of all. Abyssus, which is a great deep, a vast gulf under • e earth, a bottomless pit: the devils entreated Christ not to send them to that • ee. Luk. 8.31. Into the Abyss. The Apostles that preached to the Jews, used • e word Gehenna, I am. 3.6. It is set on fire of Gehenna Hell. They that preached the Gentiles, used Hades: which they took to be a place under the earth ordei • d for punishment. The word here used is Tartarus: Hesiod affirms it to be so • re under the earth, as heaven is above it. So the Rabbin's • eld; Sheol is absolute below, the very center, Esa. 14.9. Hell from Beneath is moved, Deut. 32.22. I • ll burn ad Infernum inferiorem to the lowest hell. Nic. de Lyr. affirms is Circa • trum terrae. Tertull. in Apologet. Hell is a subterrane treasure of hidden fire. The • ets so took it; Facilis descensus averni; Sed revocare gradum &c. Quicquid perit • sum fertur. All things perishing, sink downwards.
But against this it is objected, that Dives in hell saw Abraham and Lazarus • ich he could not do; if hell was so deep and remote a bottom wherein he lay • er whelmed. And albeit hell is below and downward in respect of heaven, yet happily it is not so in regard of earth, Rev. 12.12. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, for the Devil is come Down amongst you: yet he was then cast no lo •• than the superface of the earth. There be diverse arguments on both sides. First 〈◊〉 they that live, know not the state of the dead: so the dead know not the state of the living on earth, much less of the Saints in heaven, Greg. So August. As the rich man had a care of his brethren living, yet he knew not what they did: so h ••• men a care of their dead friends, yet know not how they speed. Against this is opposed, that if they in hell had not the sight of heaven, their own sufferings woe • l • less afflict them: for their most grievous torment shall arise from the vision of wh •• joys they have lost. Wisd. 5.2. When they shall see it, they shall be troubled with •• rible fear, and be amazed at the Saints salvation. So Bern. The faithful shall h ••• a sight of hell, and the unfaithful a sight of heaven. Vt illi magis laetentur, vide •• quid evaserint: & hi gravius crucientur, videntes quid amiserint. That the one 〈◊〉 be rejoiced, by seeing what horrors they have escaped: and the other may be a • flicted, by seeing what comforts they have forfeited. The wicked shall see it, 〈◊〉 grieved: he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away. Barre the sight of their e • and you ease the grief of their hearts. Luk. 13.28. That weeping and gnashing 〈◊〉 teeth proceeds from sight; when you shall see Abraham &c. in the kingdom of God. 〈◊〉 is the exile from the presence of the Lamb, from the society of Saints and Angels from the felicity and joys they see; that most bitterly scourgeth them. The 〈◊〉 knowing of earthly affairs never troubles them: but heaven they must in part 〈◊〉 and know, else they cannot be tormented with the loss. But on the other side 〈◊〉 said, that the sight of heaven is never afforded to Saints in the flesh but as an in • mable favor. It was Paul's greatest grace, and that which had like to have enda • ger'd him unto pride, to be wrapped up into the third heaven, and behold the life which the blessed live with God. But what extraordinary grace was this, if it be 〈◊〉 granted to the reprobates? Answ. Saint Paul saw it experiendo, by tasting it: 〈◊〉 hoped again to see it Participando, by possessing it: such a sight is not permitted 〈◊〉 the children of perdition. They only see it to the grief of their hearts, that they cannot enjoy it.
The School gives this conclusive sum; that the damned shall behold 〈◊〉 glory of heaven before the day of Judgment, but not after. Neither shall they know it as it is in it self; but only by a kind of luscous and glimmering sight perceive i • be an invaluable glory. And this shall vex them, both that they can no better 〈◊〉 it, and shall never taste it. Afterwards they shall be deprived of that vision, and 〈◊〉 up in everlasting night, neither shall the withdrawing of this vision diminish 〈◊〉 tortures: because the remembrance of that once seen, shall forever stick by th •• Hence they shall continually grieve, finding themselves unworthy, Gloriam t •• videre, quam Sancti permittuntur habere: even to see those pleasures, which the go • are vouchsafed to inherit and inhabit forever. But how could that rich m •• , 〈◊〉 can the damned spirits be said to see the glory of heaven, when as they want th •• luminary organs of the body, the disposition of sight; besides the thick interp •• darkness? Answ. This is no reason, for even spirits see, and have the eyes of •• ligence and apprehension, able to distinguish between light and darkness. T •• apprehend this glory either universally or particularly. An universal appreh • sion they have, whereby they perceive the Saints to be in great glory; in partic •• what this glory is they know not. At a great feast, the beggar at the door se • s 〈◊〉 part the joy and cheare of the guests; but not so well as the guests themselves 〈◊〉 are banketing. And as this must needs grieve the beggar, to see it and not 〈◊〉 taste it: so shall the damned vex, Tam propter invidiam alienae faelicitatis, 〈◊〉 propter carentiam illius qutetis; for envy both at others plenty, and their 〈◊〉 want.
Thus if we grant that the damned shall see the glory of heaven, then it will 〈◊〉 bably follow that hell is in the air; only separated with an unpassable gulf. If 〈◊〉 • e not see it, then is it likely to be in the bowels of the earth. Howsoever, it is be • , Downewards, in the inferior parts of God's workmanship. But precisely to 〈◊〉 where; whether in the air, water, on the face of the earth, or, in the center of • e worlds center; Tegitur, non legitur: periculose disquiritur, tuto ignoratur: we may safely be ignorant of it, we cannot but dangerously dispute it. Only, as just • rits dissolved from their bodies, presently ascend to the Empyreall heaven: so • e souls of the lost tarry below, confined to the inferior Elements, there to be • nished. If any ask further about the local place of hell, I answer with Socrates, • ever was there myself, nor spoke with any that came from thence. When • e demanded what the gods did and loved, Euclides answered; whatsoever • ey do or love, I am sure they hate all curious examiners. Many doubt Vbt 〈◊〉 where it is: none can describe Quid sit, what it is: but all agree Quod sit, • at it is.
Seeing hell is a descent, and a bottom downwards, let us keep ourselves so • re as we can from it while we live, that it may never devour us when we die. 〈◊〉 doth naturally sink downward, and separate from God who is above. A sin •• r ever descendeth till he come to the lowest that may be: his affections are down • ards, and sure his hope and inheritance is not above. But as we bury dead flesh un • r the ground, so it is not unlikely of dead souls. And as the heaviest bodies • awe to the center of the earth, so do the saddest and heaviest spirits which the • ercie of God hath forsaken, Luk. 13.11. We read of a woman bowed down with a •• rit of infirmity 18 years, and could in no wise lift up her self. A woeful estate •• ed by the Evangelist: Egritudinis manifestas, behold: aegrotantis fragilitas, a woman: • seriae acerbitas, it was a spirit of infirmity: morbi diuturnitas, eighteen years: cor • is curvitas, bowed together: elevandi impossibilitas, could not lift up her self. Such the estate of wicked sinners; that if their bodies were like their souls, incederunt • drupedes, they would grovell like beasts. And indeed Bestialior quàm ipsa bestia • homo, ration vigens, & non ration vivens. They cast themselves down, and •• e but JESUS CHRIST can help them up, Luk. 10.30. A certain man went • ne from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves. From Jerusalem down Jericho: hell is down a hill. Jericho signifies the Moon, Ieron. He that walks • er the Moon of this inconstant world, must needs fall among thieves. Sin brings man easily down to Jericho: Sed revocare gradum, superásque evadere ad auras, Hic • or, hoc opus est. The rule of Philosophy is, that levia surgunt, light things a • nd upwards: yet is nothing lighter than vain thoughts, and they sink down • rds: sin is hells high way. If ye be risen with CHRIST, seek those things • t are above.
First, understand the things, then undertake the search. Though we cannot • roughly see them, yet let us thoroughly seek them. This is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to be wise: but •• udacious curiosity to measure every foot in hell, and dispose every cabinet and amber in heaven; this is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to be wise beyond sobriety. Fidendo, non dendo apprehendimus. 2 Cor. 5.7. We walk by faith, not by sight. Let us lift up our • arts with our hands unto God in the heavens. The Lord in all our holy services •• ites the heart: in his Temple, at his Table, My Son give me thy heart, Psal • 1. Unto thee ô Lord, do I lift up my heart, Revel. 12. There was a woman clothed • th the Sun, and the Moon under her feet, and upon her head a Crown of twelve • res. The head of the Church is wrapped in the stars, and the world is under 〈◊〉 feet. She forgets the land wherein she was borne, and the home-stall wherein 〈◊〉 was bred, and seeks Jerusalem above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of • od. If riches increase. Nolite cor apponere, set not your heart on them: they are •• vy things, and will sink you downwards. Animus velut ponder, amore fertur, • qunque fertur, Aug. If our love be to things downward, our souls canno • e to God upward. We never minister the blessed Sacrament, but we tell you of •• rsum corda, lift up your hearts: you then answer us, we lift them up: but it is to be feared, that many hearts are so heavy that they cannot be lift up. The Philosopher being asked which was the heaviest part of the earth, answered; that which bears 〈◊〉 ignorant person. How little a piece of flesh so ever a wicked heart be, a talent of le •• is light unto it.
The merry wanton that dissolutely lives, being asked how he scapes sickness, lives so long and so jovial; answers I have a light heart. But when this man co •• to feel the weight of his sins, let him tell me then whether he be light hearted Naba could be drunk in his health; but when he is sick, his heart lies and 〈◊〉 him like a stone: nothing in the world can lift it up. The heart cannot raise it self, it is the Lord that draws it up. John 12.32. When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto me. The Apothecary hath no drugs so cordial, the sy • phant no jest so jovial, the Vintner no Wine so sprightly, the Musician no stro • e • lusty; that it can lift up a sinful heart. Down, down it sinks without the ani •• tion of God's holy Spirit.
But if CHRIST be our delight, our hearts are with him. Dominus ascend • 〈◊〉 coelum, ascendat cum illo cor nostrum, Aug. His body doth not descend down to 〈◊〉 , we must ascend up to it. Indeed if in so large a quantity it be presently real in the Sacrament, as it was on the Cross, in full dimensions; what need any man lift 〈◊〉 his heart, to that he holds in his hand? No, he is above, contained in the heavens, 〈◊〉 the time of restitution: and if he be our joy, thither we also aspire: Vbi amor, 〈◊〉 culus: ubi dolor, ibi digitus: ubi cor, ibi thesaurus. The finger points to the grief, 〈◊〉 eye follows the pleasure, and the heart follows the treasure. God hath given 〈◊〉 both a face to look, and a faith to climb upwards. Si sit sursumos, quare den ••• cor? Ascendamus interim cord, ut sequamur corpore. Let us send up our hearts before, that our souls may follow after. How preposterous and mis-matched is 〈◊〉 erected countenance, and a groveling spirit.
Things nearest heaven take least care for earth: the fowls of the air nei •••• plow, nor sow, nor carry into the barn. But men most love what they must le •• and think seldom or never, of the place where they should be forever. Some 〈◊〉 too precise for public prayers, without a Sermon: as if God were only to se •• them, and they not bound to serve God. Are there not many that will bef ••• more upon a license to eat flesh in Lent, than upon their souls all the year? 〈◊〉 are their thoughts upward? the poorest piece of garment they wear; their has, their cuffes, their shoes, their shooties; cost them more than their fowls: and 〈◊〉 not their thoughts downwards? They will rather lose their inheritance in he ••• , than let Christ have his inheritance on earth: and what, are their desires upwards 〈◊〉 Down, downwards they sink, like the trash that God blesseth not: their 〈◊〉 buried in their coffers, as dead bodies are naild up in their coffins. And when t ••• have dejected themselves so low as they can, then must this bottomless bottom •• ceive them, and overwhelm them with everlasting pressures. A material 〈◊〉 stone hung about their necks, cannot sooner or surer carry them into the depth 〈◊〉 the sea. For us, let our hearts be upward, that our souls may never sink do •• ward. Saint Bernard mentions four degrees of ascending. Primus ad cor, sec •••• in cord, tertius de cord, quartus supra cor. The first ascent is of knowledge, 〈◊〉 second of faith, the third of love, the last of glory. Let us know God, this 〈◊〉 first step to blessedness: knowing, let us believe on him, that's the next: belee •••• let us love him, that's the third: and loving, we shall live with him, that's the 〈◊〉 and perfection of eternal joy.
And delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto Judgment. 〈◊〉 are two things; the measure of their present confusion, and the time of their 〈◊〉 damnation. As a malefactor is first cast into a dungeon, at the Assiles brought 〈◊〉 to Judgment and then led to execution. Now they are overwhelmed with 〈◊〉 •• sertion of favor, then shall be confounded with imposition of plenary tort •• e. 〈◊〉 be chained in a black and confused vault, seems an unsufferable plague to the 〈◊〉 quent: yet had he rather abide there still, than come forth to the light when he is • ure to be punished with death. Therefore they cry to the mountains and rocks, • o fall on them, and cover them: the reprobates rather desire the loades of rocks, • nd pressure of mountains, for concealment, than be summoned unto judgment. Their punishment is just; they broke God's bonds before, now they shall have chains • o hold them. Ruperunt vincula gratiae, damnantur in vincula poena. Lucifers Ero si • ilis Altissimo, hath made him Inferiorem infimo. The highest seat in heaven could • ot content him, the lowest bed in hell must contain him. Not pleased with the glo • ious light above, he is cast into the hideous darkness below.
Tradidit in catenas caliginis. Where we must suppose God sitting as a just Judge • n his throne, and having summoned the revolting Angels before him, doth here • entence them to present sufferings. Not but they shall also pass under another • riall, at that day of universal retribution. When Christ shall sit on his Tribunal • dging quick and dead. But as a Justicer finding a transgressor, makes his Mtiti • us, and sends him to the Jail, there to lie in chains till the Sessions. So we have • ere three answerable circumstances. The Mittimus, He delivered them. The Jail, • to chains of darkness. The Sessions. To be reserved unto Judgment.
He delivered them:] but into whose hands? Indeed he delivers guilty mortals • to the hands of guilty Angels. Matth. 18.34. He delivered him to the tormentors: • hat he might be their slave in suffering, whose subject he had been in sinning, Luk. 2.20. This night they shall fetch away thy soul: they to whom I have given come • ission to do it; devils. They shall require it, that did defile it. This was part of • aint Paul's excommunication. Tradere Satanae, to deliver unto Satan: who is the hang • an. So he writes of Hymenaeus and Alexander. Whom I have delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. To Satan, that executioner of condemned • oules. But Cui Satanam? to whom doth the Lord deliver Satan himself? Some • swer, that themselves are the Instruments to torture themselves. Invicem torquent 〈◊〉 torquentur. After a sort, every transgressor is his own tormenter: and wicked • esse is a vexation to it self. Ambitio angit ambientes: ambition racks the aspiring, • nvie eats the marrow of his bones that envieth: the covetousness which would be • ost rich, keeps the affected with it most poor: ebriety begets the headache, lust • fflicts the body that nourisheth it: and we say of the Prodigal, he is no man's foe • ut his own; therefore we grant that he is his own foe. It is a foolish powder, • at thinks to blow up the house, and to scape it self from burning. If it were but 〈◊〉 , that Se sibi tradidit, he delivered him over to himself: such is the power of God's • ustice, that without the least trouble to himself, he can make an offender his own • flicter. How many impious wretches; after obstinate presumptions against God, • ave wrought desperate executions upon themselves.
How should this teach us to hate sin: we think ourselves certainly our own • iends: No, by sin we become our own enemies. That which makes us at en • itie with God, will make us at feud with ourselves. Though the Lord's hand • old not touch us, nor were any malicious devil to rack us, nor any other crea • re to scourge us; Propriis lacerabimur armis, we should thus punish ourselves. If • od speak the word, the hand shall rebel and strike the head, the nails tear the • inne, the teeth gnaw the flesh, the feet precipitate the shoulders, the stomach fa • ish the members. These that are made to take one another's part, and to assist the • hole in a peaceable communion, shall become mutinous like the Midianites, and • eath their swords in their fellows bowels. It is a plague woeful enough, when God • all deliver a man over to himself. Let me not fall into the hand of man was David's • sire: No, as I am man, not into mine own hand. There is not less mercy in all Ne • 's enemies, then in desperate Nero's own heart to himself. But every man will • e good to himself? Yes, Quamdiu suus; so long as he is his own man: but • hen he becomes God's Instrument, Timeat se, let him fear himself. When the • rophet had told Hazael the tyrannous massacres he should do to Israel; he replies.
Am I a dog that I should do this? No, he was not yet a dog: but afterwards God forsook him, then he became a dog, and did it. Libera me a malo homine; that, is as Augustine glosseth it; a meipso. Deliver me from the evil man; O Lord: and because I am an evil man, and there is no worse, deliver me from myself. Such a delivery should have been to us all, but for another deliverance that came between: a Liberavit, not a Tradidit. Luk. 1.74. He hath delivered us out of the h •••• of all our enemies. Tradidit daemones, Liberavit homines. He delivered his own S •• to death, that he might deliver us from death.
Into chains of darkness.] Into darkness, there's their Miserie. Into ch •••• s, there's their Slaverie. Darkness signifies the wrath of God, and is opposed to th •• favor of his, which is called Lux vultus sui; the light of his countenance, Psal. 4.6. There is true light where the Father of lights shineth: and his absence causeth dark • nesse. That City hath no need of the Sun or Moon to shine in it: for the glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light of it. Such a glorious light, that the very Sun is obscurity to it. Created lights, which now so comfort us, and whi •• some worship for Deities, shall then resign their honors. Mat. 24.29. The Sun 〈◊〉 be darkened, and the Moon shall not give her light. Shall not then the Sun shine at 〈◊〉 day? Yes, it is not darkened Diminutione luminis, sed comparatione majoris lu • i •• not by loss of the own light, but by the comparison of a greater light: as a 〈◊〉 is of small benefit, when the Sun appeareth. Otherwise, the Light of the M •• shall be as the light of the Sun, and the light of the Sun shall be seven-fold, as the light 〈◊〉 seven days. But then these lights shall be overshined; as the Moon that rejoyc ••• travellers in the night, gives place when the Sun riseth; and men do not mi ••• Lord when the King appeareth. Therefore it is called Lumen inaccessibile, a lig •• which no man (in his mortality and sin) can approach unto. In heaven there is all light and no darkness, in hell all darkness and no light. As the joy of the Saints 〈◊〉 Angels in heaven, so the wretchedness of the lost in hell, is so great that is cannot enlarged.
This is an unspeakable terror, to be coped up in everlasting night. If D •••• calls the grave a tetricall place because of this darkness, where the Organ of seeing is not yet excercised. Job 10.23. A land of darkness and the shadow of death, where 〈◊〉 light is as darkness: How intolerable is the darkness of hell! But how agreeth 〈◊〉 with other Scriptures, that allow the devils vagari per orbem, & versari per 〈◊〉 , to wander about the world, and to be conversant in the air? 1 King. 22.22. I •• • .7. Luk. 8.31. Eph. 2.2. Rom. 16.20. Shortly, therefore not yet trodden down. H •• then are they shut up under darkness? Answ. It was the devils censure to be 〈◊〉 into hell; yet so that before the day of Judgment, the wisdom of God hath ••• posed a permissive egress into the world; and that for some of them: that 〈◊〉 great number of them are in hell, there tormenting the damned souls, so the 〈◊〉 wander in the world to tempt sinners. This is manifest, Revel. 9.3. Where the b •• tomlesse pit being opened, there came out of the smoke innumerable locusts upon the 〈◊〉 and the purpose of their coming is expressed, that they might hurt those that 〈◊〉 not the seal of God in their foreheads. So Revel. 20.2. Satan is bound for a thous ••• years, at the expiration whereof it follows that he be loosed. Until the Judge •••• day God doth lengthen his chains.
Let us love the light, that darkness may never swallow us. All sins 〈◊〉 therefore called the works of darkness; not only because the evil doer hates the 〈◊〉 but also because Satan the Prince of darkness is the founder, and shall be the 〈◊〉 founder of them. They that sleep, sleep in the night: and they that be dr •• ke, 〈◊〉 drunk in the night. This was wont to be the custom, sin durst not show her 〈◊〉 face by day. But now men are grown so impudent, that they make opera 〈◊〉 rum, the works of darkness, become opera lucis, the works of light; co •• ting them in the sun-shine. So Absalom had a Tent spread upon the top of the 〈◊〉 and went in unto his fathers concubines, in the sight of all Israel, Num. 25.6. Z ••• brought a whore to his tent in the sight of all Israel, even when they were weeping before the Tabernacle. Vice was once like the Owl, only a night-bird: now proud of her borrowed feathers, she dares out-face virtue at noon day. These be the • trange Epiphanies of the time: as one observed on Matth. 2.2. We have seen his • arre, and are come to worship him: there were two blessed Epiphanies; a manifestati • n of CHRIST'S star to them, and a manifestation of their piety to him. In • tead of these, Pride struts in pomp, homicide stands on terms of Justification, • runkennesse reels up and down the streets. The works of the flesh are manifest. These be monstrous Epiphanies; yet still the works of darkness, and precipitate • nto the place of darkness, to the enlargement of Satan's kingdom. The Pope • catters his Emissaries abroad, to augment Idolaters, and augment his Suprema • ie: the Turk amplifies his territories; and other Princes expatiate their dominions: • ll these kingdoms are extended, but the kingdom of darkness surmounteth them • ll. For, though never was more light in men's brains, never more universal dark • esse in their hearts.
The stream of wickedness is so violent, that many (who had some inceptions of • oodnesse) are even content to run with it, rather than swim against it, or especially • eprove it. Usury and Sacrilege scorn to be reprehended, and he is taxed of in • iscretion that meddles with them: whereupon some let all alone, resolving to sit • own and hold their peace. A Friar that had been for his boldness decourted, • fterward admitted to preach to the King of Spain, told this Fable. The Lion • as faulted by the Lioness, that his breath stank. Being mad angry with this im • utation, he traverseth the forest, to be more certainly informed. The first sub • ect beast he met withal was an Ass, and breathing upon him, he demanded the rel • sh of his breath: the Ass plainly told him that it was very unsavory. Thou art • oo bitter, quoth the Lion, and tore him in pieces. Next he met with the hound, and •• t the same question to him: who answered, It is very sweet. Thou art a flatterer, • uoth the Lion; and tore him in pieces. Last he lighted on the Fox, and exami • ing him concerning his breath: the subtle villain replied; Indeed I cannot tell whe • her it be sweet or sour, for I have caught such a cold that I cannot smell. If we • old commend the times for devout and holy, you might justly condemn us for • wning flatterers. If we should say, they are stark naught, full of impiety and dark • esse: then we are held too cynicall and censorious. What then? shall we answer • e have caught a cold, and cannot smell or tell? No, we are bound to love our own • oules, better than you can love your own sins. In a word, let us receive the light • f grace, that the light of glory may receive us.
Into chains.] These cannot be understood literally, for material chains: but • etaphorically, and so they are two; the Powerfulnesse of divine Justice, and the • uiltinesse of their own conscience. The devils are bound, like mad men or ban • ogs, in the chains of eternal damnation. Wheresoever they are permitted to • ander, their own guilty consciences are those chains which bind them over unto •• dgement. Such are the horrors of that place, that the damned are bound to in • fferable torments: they must endure what they cannot endure, without being able 〈◊〉 remove a foot. These chains shall so hamper them, that not one part of body, 〈◊〉 faculty of soul, shall have the power of activity to gratify their owner withal. The mind is bound to cotemplate nothing but endless infelicity, the memory bound 〈◊〉 recount nothing but fearful sins, the fantasie bound to present nothing but • orrid visions, the eyes bound to see nothing but offensive objects, the ears bound 〈◊〉 hear nothing but howlings and roarings, the nostrils to smell nothing but the • ench of brimstone, the hands to catch hold of nothing but flames, and the feet to • alke no further than these chains will give them leave. Delivered them into chains 〈◊〉 darkness: the collections, and inferences here observable are diverse.
1 Conclusion, that there is certainly a God, for how else should Satan be bound? • ee is that Strong man, and therefore there must be a stronger than he to bind him. If there be a destroying power, without question there is a preserving power, superior to it, and correcting it. For if the devils were not curbed, they would confound us all in a moment. It is not more natural for fire to burn; nor for heaviness to find downward, than for Satan to destroy. He is a King over all the children of pride, Upon earth none can match him: but there is one in heaven that chains him. 〈◊〉 there be a roaring Lion that would devour us, certainly there is a blessed power that preserve us.
Let this teach us to get so close as we can to God, that Satan may not reach 〈◊〉 The chickens be safe under the wings of their mother, and we under the providence of our Father. So long as we hold the tenor of obedience, we are the Lord's subjects: and if we serve him, he will preserve us. But when a man is fallen to the 〈◊〉 of an out-Law or rebel, the Law dispenseth with them that kill him, because the Prince hath excluded him from the benefit of his protection. All the fear of Satan ariseth from the want of the due fear of God. The more a man fears God, the less he fear everything else. Fear God, Honor the King: he that fears God, doth but honor the King, he need not fear him. It would affright a weak Christian, to consider the presence and number, malice and power, of wicked spirits. But when with the Prophets servant, he sees those good Angels on his side, as present, as diligent, more able to help than the other to hurt, he takes heart again. He knows that God (most good) bounds the temptation of the one, and directs the protection of the other. Though there be many legions of devils, and every o •• stronger than many legions of men, and more malicious than strong; yet Chri ••• little flock lives and prospers. I am the Lord, I change not: therefore ye so •••• of Jacob are not consumed. The devil would do it, and doth attempt it; but God • unchangeable mercy prevents it. That we here meet, pray, worship, is against the devils will; only our gracious GOD maintains it. That every moment 〈◊〉 perish not in the jaws of that Lion, let our hearts acknowledge, and our tongue ••• praise the Lord our maker.
2 Conclusion; that Satan can do nothing but by God's permission: he is bo •• in a teddar, and cannot go one inch beyond his chain. Christ tells Peter, th •• Satan had desired to winnow them: Desired, he must beg an ill turn before he c •• do it. Whatsoever he doth, is limitata potestate, and by dispensation from God He could not seduce a Prophet, nor take one poor sheep from Job, nor enter a h • g without license. It is an Ethnical error of our times, in strange accidents to give the honor of God to Sorcerers and conjurers. If a tempest arise beyond commo • experience, presently as if the God of heaven were fallen fast asleep, and mind nothing; the judgment is given, there is some conjuring: there must needs be a pest • lent convention and stipulation betwixt men and devils. As if God were not 〈◊〉 to raise as great a storm, as the Devil. Look upon the witches of Egypt: 〈◊〉 rum potestas defecit in muscis, Aug. Their cunning failed in the most contempt ••• creatures; and they are forced to cry, This is the finger of God. Though the circuit of Satan be very large, even to compassing of the whole earth; yet he hath his days assigned to stand before the Lord for the renewing of his commission, and there is a chain tied to his power that he cannot move beyond his allowance. Yet hath he •• little liberty to tempt; for the probation of some, for the reprobation of others, i • all for the glory of God. He is the basest of all creatures, a slave, a scullion: n •• how is that person shamed, that is given up to a base slave to be corrected!
So little he fears to tempt us, that he ventured upon Christ himself, Ma • 4. As we read Rev. 12.7. There was a great battle in heaven, so here was a mo •• machie or single combat on earth. It was a dainty sight to behold little Da ••• grappling with great Goliath, and great Goliath groveling under little David. A La •• matched with the Wolf, and the wolf overmatched by the Lamb. First, the Devil tempts him to diffidence. Art thou hungry? Turn these stones into bread: not into quail, feasants, dainties; but into Bread, without which man could 〈◊〉 live. Then to presumption, ver. 6. If thou be the Sun of God, cast thyself down. That he might get credit to his ministry, he would have him show the people some strange device. Lastly, to apostasy, ver. 8. which was the sin that turned himself out of heaven: wherein first he propounds Promissum, All these will I give • he: and indents Pactum, If falling down thou wilt worship me. He is like an old bitten • urre, that being fleshed to the game, will not be stayed off: hells bandog, fed with • he livers of God's cast-awaies. He tries all courses, like Balaam, or some superstitious • amester on the losing hand; shifts places; still in hope to win. He took him up • nto a mountain: Cyprian says, he went on foot with him: for Christ would not • se him pro vehiculo, quem novit praecipitatorem. This opinion is not against the Text, • or the Text against it. For 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 doth not imply portage: no more than, Matt. 17.1. Christ took them: it were gross to think that he carried them on his • acke. But that he carried him is the most received opinion, because it is said that he • et him on the pinnacle. This was no disparagement to Christ: no more than to suffer • pprehension, ligation, crucifixion of his enemies.
He reserves the old malice to all Christ's members: why should any serve him? • here is no goodness in him. He is the greatest sinner of all: for Quicquid efficit •• le, ipsum magis est tale. Wicked Pharisees may make their Proselytes twofold more • he children of hell than themselves: but the malice of the Devil cannot be matched. • e never gives man anything, but as Michal was given to David, to ensnare him. S t • eter calls him Contra litigator, an adversary at Law: he wrangles with God a • ainst us. Augustine brings him in thus pleading. They were thine by creation, • hey are mine by prevarication: they were thine per gratiam, they are mine per culpam: • hey were thine by redemption, they are mine by defection. They left tua Sacra • enta, thy Sacraments: and accepted mea Blandimenta, my allurements. He pleads • any things against us, but we have one argument to confute him; our Faith, 1. Pet. 5.9. Whom resist steadfast in the faith. And all our defects are supplied by an Advocate in heaven, Jesus Christ the righteous. I know that God casteth his some • mes into the sieve for trial, but the Lord Jesus strengthens them.
Satan is called a Lyon, and that fitly; for he hath all the properties of a Lyon: • s bold as a Lyon, as strong as a Lyon, as furious as a Lyon, as terrible as the roar • ng of a Lyon. Yea worse: the Lyon wants subtlety and suspicion, herein the Devil 〈◊〉 beyond the Lyon. The Lyon will spare the prostrate, the Devil spares none. The Lyon is full and forbears, the Devil is full and devours. He seeks all: let not he simple say, he will take no notice of me: nor the subtle, he cannot overreach me: • ot the noble say, he will not presume to meddle with me: nor the rich, he dares • ot contest with me: for he seeks to devour all. He is our common adversary, • herefore let us cease all quarrels amongst ourselves, and fight with him.
Seeing the Devil is bound with chains, and cannot range further than his bonds • low him, let us not come within his reach. The bandog is tied up that he may • ot hurt the passenger: but how if the passenger will come within his compass? Give no place to the Devil: for the Devil hath no place unless we give it him. Re • st the Devil, and he will flee from you. He cannot come in, except we open him • e door: now who would open the door to let in his enemy? yet many do: by wearing, they open the door to let him in at their mouth: by lustful looks, they • pen the door to let him in at the eye. Pride admits him into his wardrobes, cove • ousnesse into our purses, adultery into our beds, Schism into our Studies, • runkennesse into our stomachs, Idolatry into our devotions, hypocrisy into our • earts. As if his chain were not long enough, wicked men put themselves in his • ay. Think when thou art about to commit a voluntary sin; now I am running • ithin the Devils chain. I durst not so venture within the chain of a Lyon, •• are 〈◊〉 other savage beast, which can but tear my flesh. Hath God tied him up from • e, and shall I run unto him? shall I trust his mercy, that is nothing else but ma • ious cruelty. O but the hand of God holds his Chaine: but say the hand of God let go his chain, for thy presumption? what remains then but ruin? As we h •• e the Devil, let us hate those works that lengthen his chain. Do we pray to be delivered from the gates of hell, and yet frequent the gates of hell? we read of a bea •• that being too unwildly to hunt for his prey, stands still and enticeth the rest unto him with his glorious spots and colors, and so devoureth them. But Satan 〈◊〉 quick and nimble enough to pursue men, they need not willfully run into the •• own ruin. O that I had w • ngs like a dove, then would I flee away and be at rest. Le • us fly from him so fast as we ca • , and so far as he may never overtake us. Which is done by turning to God with faithful repentance, and devout obedience: so shall his chains be shortened: our souls delivered, our Creator glorified, and ourselves everlastingly saved, through the merits of Jesus Christ. Amen.
3. Observe, that Satan is punished everlastingly, without all hope of recovery: bound with chains, and as S t Jude calls them, Everlasting chains. There was 〈◊〉 deliverance ever ordained for the Devils: for Christ took not the nature of Angels: he took not their narure, therefore was not their Savior. Now there are diverse reasons, why Christ should seek lost Adam, rather than the lost Angels.
1. The Angel sinned without instigation; Non ab alio tentatus, nec ab alio servatus. As there was none to tempt him, so there is none to save him, John. 8.44. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own. A se peccatum rapuit, nullo alio suggerente: he took sin of himself, no other suggested it to him. He fell alone, nothing cast him down: he must rise alone, there is nothing to help him up. The wind blows out the Torch, we light it again: bat if the wind blow out it self and cease moving, who shall raise it? If Satan hurt man, Christ heals him: but 〈◊〉 Satan hurt himself, let him heal himself.
2. The Devil was the party seducing, (man only seduced) and still endevo ••• what he can to destroy all: therefore none stands up to preserve him. Because 〈◊〉 hand is against all, therefore all hands are against him. Being thrown out from t •• presence of God, in spite he wounded his Image, that he might do him all the mischief he could: therefore he perisheth without redemption.
3. The Angels were more excellent and glorious natures by creation, and ne • rer to God than men: more subtle, more powerful: their dwelling in the hig • e •• heaven. Whereas one half of man was but refined dust, and his mansion the ear •• more remote from the glorious presence of God. Angelus ergo quanto sublimi •• 〈◊〉 gloria, tanto major in ruina, Aug. The higher the Angel was in glory, the deep • in misery. Homo autem quanto fragilior per naturam, tanto facilior ad veniam. 〈◊〉 man, the more frail he was by constitution, the more easy he is to redemption. Therefore God took pity on man, who was but dust: and pitied not the devils, because they had once been Angels.
4. The whole human nature fell with Adam. 1 Cor. 15.22. In Adam all die. All mankind was lost, and unless the human nature had been repaired, man had be • wholly frustrated of his end. But all the Angels did not fall with Lucifer, but only some: and so none were partakers of his punishment, but such as had been pa ••• kers of his sin. Innumerable multitudes of Angels stood in heaven, as well as a gr ••• company sunk to hell. Dan. 7.10. Thousand thousands stand before him, 〈◊〉 thousand times ten thousand minister unto him. Some of that nature stood by conser •• tion, without redemption: for redemption presupposeth loss. But if our nature 〈◊〉 not been redeemed, not one man could have been saved.
5. Man was distinguished into sexes; male and female: because they were 〈◊〉 generate their like: as Adam begat a son in his own likeness. But Angels 〈◊〉 no sexes; as CHRIST confuted the Sadducees. Matth. 22.30. In heaven they •• there marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the Angels of God. They ca ••• beget a generation of spirits. Every devil sinned in himself, and is punished 〈◊〉 himself only. But Adam having sinned, and being to multiply his kind, 〈◊〉 needs convey his sin to his seed. Therefore was the Lord Jesus made of his fee • • hat the guiltynesse which Adam to all his seed had propagated, by one of his seed • ight be expiated.
6. Satan immediately upon his fall was cast into hell. John. 8.44. He abode not in • e truth. But so was not Adam; for howsoever he was cast out of Paradise, yet • ot out of the world, but had space and grace given him to repent. And albeit that • enace, In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die, Gen. 2.17. Yet God spa • d him 900 years: indeed presently he became mortal, and fell into a consumpti • ; as the original speech is, dying thou shalt die. And for the second death, the • ed of the woman excused him; he died not that death at all. Indeed August • ne • entions the Tatian heresy, which held that Adam was damned. But Wis. 10.1. • he preserved the first formed father of the world that was created alone, and brought him • t of his fall. Which is agreeable to the Scripture, Luk 3.38. Which saith that • dam was the son of God: therefore he was not the child of death and hell. God •• lieved him with a promised Messiah, a news that never came to the apostate • ngels.
7. If the whole human nature had perished, to what purpose had been this • orld? The world was made for man, not for Angels: either heaven or hell was • dained for them, this middle walk for man. Now why should either the Sun • ine, or the earth fructify for man, if he were not redeemed? Spirits have no use 〈◊〉 these things, man hath the benefit: and man should not have the benefit of any • eature, but for God's favor in CHRIST. For he did forfeit his patent, and • ne but a Savior could renew it. But for the El • cts sake, the rain should not fall, • r the earth stand. Therefore if man had perished, all this world had been in • ine created. Man is the sum and abridgement of all creatures, and contains 〈◊〉 him more generality than the Angels. Stones have being, but not life: plants • ve being and life; but not sense: beasts have being, life, sense; but not under • nding: Angels have being, life, sense, and understanding. Now man partici • tes with all these; a being with stones, a life with plants, a sense with beasts, an • derstanding with Angels. He is the compendious Index of God's great book in •• lio. Mark. 16.15. Preach the Gospel to every creature: no creature hath part in • e Gospel; but only man is called every creature, as having in him the chief per •• ctions of every creature. Some hold, that man bears the Image and superscrip • on of God more fully than the Angels: and hath something more; an organical • ody united to his spirit, which the Angels have not. He is the common end why is world was made: therefore, Esa. 9.6. To us a child is borne, and to us a son is • ven. To Vs, not to Angels. Luk. 2.14. To us is borne a Savior; To Vs, not to • e lost Angels. There is enmity put between the Seed of the woman, and the seed of • e Serpent, Gen. 3.15. Therefore the seed which saves man, shall be at enmity with • e devil.
8. Lastly, the principal reason of all is the free mercy, and gracious decree of • od. Who made both men and Angels good in creation, and finding both men • d Angels, lost in transgression, vouchsafed to men not to Ang • ls a Redemption. • hat did we deserve at his hands, that he should pity us dust and ashes, passing by • ose celestial spirits? Psalm. 8.4. Quis homo, what is man that thou art mindful of 〈◊〉 ? For the wonder had been less to say, Quis Angelus, what is the Angel that • ou art mindful of him? That we should find him a Savior, whom they find a • st revenger: that we should be loosed from the chains of our sins, and they de • ered into chains of plagues: that the same CHRIST should with his own • oud free us, that shall with his word sentence them: that the same Almighty hand • old lift us up to heaven, that casteth them down to hell! Oh the riches of that • ercie, which even to taste will keep a man from ever being poor! Of all mixed crea • es men are the best, for they have reason: of all men, Christians are the best, for • ey have religion: of all Christians, holy believers are the best, for they have salva • n. In the sorest troubles, men have some hope, Christians have good hope, believers have sure hope. Let us bless God for making us men, but most of all, for making us Christian men: for in that he gives us his Son, he gives us himself. He gave the water to fishes, the earth to beasts, the air to fowls, the heaven to Angels; but he gave himself to man, Having no greater to swear by, he sware by hi • self: so, having no greater to give, he gave himself. Whom have I in heaven but thee? saith that royal Prophet. The Romists in 88. cried out, whether maliciously or blasphemously; God shows himself a Lutheran, and the God of Lutherans: but indeed he shows himself a Christian, and the God of Christians. By how much we find more mercy than all creatures, let us be more thankful than all creatures. It is an harmonious sweetness, to have God's bounty, and our gratitude meeting in that middle way, the hand of Jesus Christ. Without whom neither could we receive his goodness, nor would he accept our goodness.
4 Observe that the punishments of hell are eternal: these chains can never be broken: were they of cords, of wreathed trees, of iron, they might be bu •• asunder, but the chains of vengeance never. Bind him hand and foot, and cast 〈◊〉 into utter darkness. i Now if a man were bound hand and foot, and thrown 〈◊〉 a Well five thousand fathom deep, what hope could he have of coming forth? But how doth this stand with God's justice, to punish temporal offenses with eternal scourges? It was the rule of his own law, that Poena non debet excedere cul •• , Deut. 25.3. Ans. There is a double quantity considered in punishment: the o •• according to the intention of pain; the other according to the duration of time. 〈◊〉 respect of the former, the quantity of punishment, must be answerable to the quantity of sin, Rev. 18.7. How much sin, so much sorrow: the more pesti •• iniquity, the more torturing fire. For the other, we must not think that the co •• nuance of punishment is limited with the continuance of the fact. Among men, a ••• tery is but a short pleasure, yet often pursued with a long penance. But the dura •••• of torment respects the disposition of the delinquent. Poenae singulorum inaeq •• intensione, poenae omnium aequales duratione, Aquin. The pains of all are equal i • continuance, unequal in grievance.
But a good Judge will make his penalties, medicines and corrections, rather than destructions. Ans. So doth the Lord in all corrigible offenders: but those he cannot mend by chastising, his Justice must satisfy it self by confounding, 〈◊〉 God delights not in the death of a sinner. EZek. 18, What profit is there in my bl ••• when I go down to the pit? Psal. The Lord hath no use, of their eternal dam •• on. Ans. Yes, as mercy hath had her place and day; so must justice have hers. Wh •• mercy saves, she saves forever: though their works were short, and u nothing •• to God, yea, the very effects of his own grace. Therefore, whom justice condemn •• , she condemns forever: not respecting so much the persons that have sinned, as the person against whom they have sinned, Greg. Almighty God as he is good, 〈◊〉 not delighted with their torments: but as he is just, he is not satisfied without the •• torments. Factus est malo dignus aeterno, qui hoc in se peremit bonum, quod esse 〈◊〉 aeternum, Aug. He is justly plagued with an evil, that is eternal, who hath co •••• ted in himself a good that might have been eternal.
But if God's justice must be satisfied upon those sinners, for whom Christ •• tisfied not; why is not this rather in reducing them to nothing? Seeing the un •••• full deserve to be deprived of all benefits; now one especial benefit is Being; the •• fore ipsum esse amittant, let them not be. Ans. It is true, the creature that disobey •• the Creator, deserves to lose his Being: but because it was given him to this purp ••• that he should serve him, therefore it shall never be taken away. For God will 〈◊〉 his homage and service out of that Being; whether of grace and salvation to 〈◊〉 praise of his mercy, or of punishment and confusion to the praise of his Justice.
But one would think, that the mercy of God should terminate their sorro •• Wisd. 11.23. Thou hast mercy upon all, and Thou lovest all the things that are. 〈◊〉 . 11.32. God hath concluded all under unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. Sed •• • usit & daemones: he hath also concluded the devils under sin. Neither will his • oodnesse suffer that, which he made for blessedness, to perish forever in torment. • hese be the plausible conceits that over-merciful Origen, hath brought for the re • overy of lost spirits And whereas Christ's doom is; Depart ye cursed into ever •• sting fire, prepared for the devils: he would have these words rather Minaciter quàm • raciter dicta, spoken by way of threatening, than by way of truth. But the Scrip •• re delivers it plane ac plene. Rev. 20.10. The devil shall be tormented in the lake of •• e day and night, forever. Besides, his opinion doth both Extendere & extenuare mi • icordiam: as it straineth, so it restraineth mercy. It extends it to the future deli • erance of the damned, so it extenuates it in regard of the blessed. For if the lost be • er to be taken out of hell; then will it follow that the Saints also are one day to be • ut out of heaven. And so what the bad should gain, the good should lose: yea, the • ery mercy of God cannot get more glory by the one, than it shall lose by the other.
But though the devils be everlastingly chained, is there no mercy for reprobate •• en? shall they never get loose? Gen. 6.3. My spirit shall not always strive with •• an: therefore his indignation shall cease. Doth he not often threaten, and not do •• to Nineveh? Ans. God doth sometimes menace and not strike, because our repen •• nce steps between: but when everlasting burning hath wasted all the moisture repenting, will he do so then? Here indeed we may speed as well as Nineveh: • versa est quae mala erat, aedificata est bona quae non erat, Aug. We shall stand if our • ines fall: but we shall fall, if our sins stand. But at that day the date of repen •• nce will be out. But such is the charity of the Saints in this life, that they pray 〈◊〉 their enemies: now this charity shall be more perfect in heaven, therefore they • ll intercede for them in hell: and God hath promised that their prayers shall be •• ard. Ans. Here they pray for them that they may be converted: for if they know at such were (in God's decree) reprobates, they would pray for them no more • n th • y do for devils. Their present suite is x that they may be recovered out of the •• re of the devil. Now they may be recovered, not hereafter: there may be present • nversion, no future permutation. For that objected out of the Psal. 77. Will the Lord •• t off forever; will he be favorable no more? There i. meant only the temporary af •• ction of the Church. Still as the joys of heaven, so the pains of hell, are eter •• ll. Death is to men, as the fall was to Angels: as lost Angels after their aposta •• , so lost men after their death, can never be recovered. Hell is made y Deepe; so •• epe, that there is no hope of crawling out. Ex inferno nulla redemptio. Therefore 〈◊〉 called Infernus, ab inferendo, of casting in: for the wicked are so cast in, that they 〈◊〉 never get forth. From earthly Gaoles and dungeons there may be some trick escape: but hell is so deep, that nor earth nor heaven can help out one poor •• le. That rich man, Luk. 16. solicited for his brethren: why did he not beg his •• ne deliverance, who was able to have taught them by his own experience? O saw Ingentem hiatum, a vast interposed Gulf: he must let that alone forever.
One deep calleth another: the depth of hell calls for our answerable humiliation. 〈◊〉 that will not be humbled for his sins here, must be tumbled into that depth ••• eafter. Psal. 130. De profundis clamavi Domine; out of the depths have I tried un ••• e O Lord. God will hear the voice that comes de profundis. The deeper we •• e been in the Law, the higher we are in the Gospel: the deeper in hell, the •• her in heaven. The deeper a bucket dives into the well, the more water it brings the lower a man is humbled with sorrow for sin, the higher he shall be exalted ••• h the grace of salvation. Never came prayer, sigh or groan de profundis paeniten •• from the depth of repentance; but it was heard in Excelsis misericordiae, in the •• ght of mercies. Of David's prophetical imprecation against his enemies, ( Psal. 15. Let them go down quick into hell ) we may make a good apprecation for our •• es. Let us go down quick into hell by meditation, that we be never sent •• ke thither by condemnation. Let us descend every day while we live, that we •• er come there when we are dead.
5 Observe, that God punisheth sin wheresoever he finds it, though it be 〈◊〉 the very Angels. For all the men and Angels in the world are not so dear to him, 〈◊〉 his own honor: and what dishonors him but sin? For this cause 1 He made a Law against it, Gal. 3.19. The Law was added because of transgression. Non s ••• sisset mandatum, nisi abhorruiset peccatum. He could not have written the Law w ••• his own finger, if he had not so abhorred sin, 2 Gracious are the promises 〈◊〉 hath made to obedience: grievous the plagues he hath to threaten disobedience, 〈◊〉 His own hands have smitten it, the whole world is a bleeding witness thereof: 〈◊〉 man may say, Quorum pars magna fui: the whole creature groaneth in expecta •• ce 〈◊〉 his pacification. He hath drowned the world in a flood of waters, and he 〈◊〉 burn it in a flood of fire, because of sin. The sentence shall stand unchangeable, so long as heaven and earth endureth; Tribulation and anguish upon every soul 〈◊〉 man that doeth evil: Be he Jew or Gentile, learned or simple, Poor or Peer; y •• man or Angel. 4 So doth he hate sin, that he spared not his own Sun, whe ••• appeared in the similitude of sinful flesh. If the Justice of God could ever 〈◊〉 swallowed sin, or dismissed it with impunity, he would have forborne it i • 〈◊〉 own bowels. Yea, such a Son as never knew the least thought of disobedien •• the Son of his love, the Son of his joy, the Son of his light, the Son of 〈◊〉 delight: a Son fully as good and as great as his Father. Yea because he stoo •• 〈◊〉 the place, and bore the person of sinful man, he plagued him as the most deadly e •• my that ever he had. Vt Peccatum occideret, Filium crucifixit. That he might 〈◊〉 sin, he slew his Son.
How should this make us all hate sin! He doth hate, not love God; that lo •• what God hates. Let us be content to meet our afflictions, as Peter and A ••• met their Crosses, as their dearest friends; embracing them in our arms, and •• ting them with the kisses of peace. Or as the Martyrs welcomed their deaths, •• ing to the stakes as if they had run for a garland. But for sins, were they as d ••• to us as the sight of our eyes, the children of our bodies, the spouses of our boso •• because they are traitors to our Father and Maker; let us deal with them as A ••• ham did with Hagar and Ishmael, put them out of our house forever.
6 Observe, that great offenders meet with great punishments: and accor •••• to the condition of their place, is the nature and proportion of their fault. The 〈◊〉 glorious the Angels excellency, the more damnable their apostasy. If the light b • come darkness, how great is that darkness! The more notable the Person, the 〈◊〉 notorious the corruption. The freshest summers day doth soonest taint the 〈◊〉 some carcass: and fester'd lilies smell far worse than weeds. If virtue turn 〈◊〉 vice, the shame is treble. For many Jews to deny Christ, was not so m ••• for one Peter: the adulteries of many Israelites less infamous than one Davi •• . 〈◊〉 all the Cities of the world had done filthily, it were short of this wonder. The •• gin daughter of Zion is become an Harlot. If Judas become a traitor, how great i •• treason! If Achitophel prove a villain, how mischievous is his villainy! If Al •• rebel, how unnatural is his rebellion! The least mote that flies in the Sun, •• tweene our eyes and the light, seems a greater substance than it is. Deepe are 〈◊〉 blows made by a mighty axe. Sin in a Magistrate is not only sin, but sub ••• tion. Q •• in vulgaribus nugae, in magnatibus blasphemy.
There is no dispensation for sin, no protection from Judgment. N ••• rich man's opulency, not Belshazzar's monarchy, not Adams perfection, 〈◊〉 Angels glory; could abscondere culpam, vel abscindere poenam, countenance sin, •• ward punishment. No place, no robes, no riches, no excellency, can give it ••• ledge. Cloath an ape in tissue, and the beauty of the robe adds but more sco ••• the beast. The richer colors, or bolder countenance is set on wickedness, 〈◊〉 more ugly it appears. Therefore as they that govern well in high places, shall 〈◊〉 with a higher degree of glory in heaven: because they being instrusted with th •• sures of God, enrich his Church. So they that are in good offices evil men, 〈◊〉 •• schiefe of both their actions and examples, shall be cast deeper into hell. Potentes •• enter punientur. Wisd. 6.5. A sharp judgment shall be to them that are in high places. • ercy may soon pardon the meanest, but mighty men shall be mightily tormented. •• a. 30.33. Tophet is ordained of old, even for the King it is prepared. Kings are not • empted from judgments; Pessimus in Imperio, maximus in Inferno. What made •• e damned churl move for his brethren, but that every step they followed of his ••• ding, he felt increasing the pile of his torments. 1 Sam. 12.25. If ye do wickedly 〈◊〉 shall perish and your King. For the Lord freeth none according to place, but ac •• rding to grace; not for outward condition, but for his own free favor.
Nor yet let the poor and ignoble clap their wings, as if they were the only •• en that God loves. Not many rich, not many wise, not many noble, are called. Non mul •• ed non nulli: not many, but some; and not many after the flesh; but many wise, rich, ••• ble, after the spirit. The gate of heaven is narrow, and but few enter of any con •• tion: yet certainly the noble sooner than the rabble: more wise men are admitted •• n fools: for morality is the first step to christianity. And at the last dreadful •• y, it is the Bond-man so well as the Great man, that calls upon the rocks to cover 〈◊〉 . But do any of the Rulers believe on him? John. 7.48. Yes, Christ had his Church •• en in Caesar's family. Acts 17.11. They were the Noble men, and Honorable woe ••• at Berea, which received the word: it was the people that persecuted it. Acts. 〈◊〉 . 14. There was one Lydia a seller of purple converted: God saved a purple seller, ••• y not then a Purple wearer? The poor that is Blasphemus in Deum, & tu multuo •• in divitem, murmuring against God, and seditious against the rich; is in more •• nger of judgment, than another that hath not more opulency than charity. Wealth •••• th not damn the rich, but when the getting or keeping of it doth damnify the •• ore. Rich Abraham is in heaven, not because he was rich, but because he was •• od. Poor Lazarus is there, Non propter meritum paupertatis, sed pietatis, Aug. • ot for his poverty, but for his piety, howsoever, let them that must be patterns, 〈◊〉 good patterns: the life that cannot be but exemplary, should not be but holy.
7 Lastly, infer, that if God spared not the Angels, so near to his own Per ••• ; (a thing which the very children of God tremble to think) how much less • ll he spare dust and ashes? He put no trust in his Angels, how much less on them •• t dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust? What is the manliest prow •• on earth, when the loins be girded up with strength, and decked in the greatest ••• ry, to encounter with the fortitude of God? The Lion hath roared, who will not •• re? The Lord hath thundered from heaven, in casting down Angels to hell; •• ll not flesh and blood quake for fear? The Scripture as well acquainted with 〈◊〉 pride of man's nature, hangs talents of lead at the heels to keep it down. The 〈◊〉 Psalm, which is a circular Psalm, ending as it began; O Lord our Governor, 〈◊〉 excellent is thy Name in all the world! that whithersoever we turn our eyes, we ••• y see ourselves beset with his glory round about. How doth the Prophet dis •• ntenance man, by his disdainful interrogation; What is man? Then still as the ••• lmes go in order, they grow in strength to deject the haughtiness of man. A •• Lord, let not man prevail: let the Nations know themselves to be but men. We are ••• n, and the sons of men, not the generation of Angels; to show our descent. •• en in our knowledge, gross and dull brained; not quick, free, subtle, and celesti ••• spirits: the conscience of our own infirmity doth convince us. Men of the •• th, not of the air, fire, Stars, Sun, Heavens; much less of the substance of •• gels; but earth is the matter whereof we are framed. The disgrace is yet dee ••• , Psal. 22.6. Vermis sum, non vir. The prophet either in his own name, regar ••• g his personal contempt: or in the name of Christ, whose figure he was: or in 〈◊〉 representation of all mankind: as if it were a robbery and presumption to take ••• n him the name of man, he says, I am a worm, and no man. Thus Abraham con ••• ing with GOD, fifts himself to the coarsest branne; I am but dust and ashes. •• ny of the children of Abraham, that have succeeded him in the faith; or any of the children of Adam, that succeed him in the flesh; think otherwise, their 〈◊〉 catastrophe shall confute them.
Man is an excellent creature, if we compare him with the fairest flower of 〈◊〉 Garland, the tallest Cedar of the Forest, the stateliest Beast in the wilderness. N •• the Sun, and Stars are not so excellent, for they want sense, and man hath 〈◊〉 son: not one of them was formed after the Image of God, there are no spark • Divinity in them. But if we look up to the Angels, there is a large and ample •• ference: we have bodies, and they are full of gross corruptions; so many 〈◊〉 that who is Physician good enough to number them, I say not, to cure them? T ••• is in the soul uncleanness, in the understanding blindness, in the will perverse ••• in the affections wantonness, in the whole man sinfulness. The Angelical 〈◊〉 is subject to none of these infirmities. If thou wert a sinful angel, thou shou •• be punished; therefore if a sinful man, what hope to be spared? It was the 〈◊〉 note to King Philip of Macedon every morning; Remember thou art a man: for •• membring this, we remember all unworthiness.
If any soul be humbled with this meditation, (and indeed who are fit for so • cious seed but the tilled ground? comfort is well bestowed on a broken he ••• :) 〈◊〉 this cheare them. God that spared not offending Angels, neither hath spa ••• 〈◊〉 fending men: but he punished one man for many men, he spared not the man C •• Jesus. All believing men have answered his justice in that one man: hence 〈◊〉 faith is bold to say, Lord thou art just, and hast not spared me: but thou art 〈◊〉 full, and hast not spared him for me. Thou hast punished our sins through his 〈◊〉
To be reserved unto judgment.] This is their binding over to the Assizes: 〈◊〉 sum whereof is: That the fullness and extremity of their torments is not yet 〈◊〉 but there abideth a more fearful and final condemnation for them. They are 〈◊〉 entered into divers degrees of penalty, but the plenary wrath of God is not p ••• on them till the last judgment. They are already damned, and they know it, 〈◊〉 2.19. The devils believe and tremble. It is so certain, that Justice admits no •• tion of it, nor do themselves study any evasion from it: and yet there is st ••• •• servation of greater plagues. But they have no bodies, and therefore are not ••• ble of receiving more by addition. Ans. Their punishment ariseth from the 〈◊〉 of God, which then shall in a greater measure empty it self upon them. The 〈◊〉 of man while he strikes, can make his blow heavier or lighter as himself ple •••
They are now suffered to tempt men, which is a pleasure to their malice, th ••• ing themselves by this means somewhat revenged on God: as he that defaceth 〈◊〉 picture of his enemy, when he cannot come at his person, easeth his spleen a 〈◊〉 So the dog gnaws the stone, that cannot reach the thrower. In a word, 〈◊〉 are suffered to wander abroad, then they shall be confined to their prison. 〈◊〉 prisoner that is allowed to walk abroad though with his keeper, is not so 〈◊〉 as the dungeon'd. Now they contain their hell, then their hell also shall 〈◊〉 them. Now they seem to rejoice at our sinning, then they shall have eno ••• gr eve at their own suffering. Now the bottomeless pit hath been opened for 〈◊〉 egress of those Locusts: then it shall be locked up forever with the eternal 〈◊〉 Justice. But he is judged already, John. 16.11. The Prince of this world is judged. 〈◊〉 still he is reserved to another Judgment. There is a double Judgment, 〈◊〉 Discussion, another of Retribution. For the discussive Judgment, these 〈◊〉 • gels come not under it, their rebellion is so apparent. What need a Jewry 〈◊〉 on the malefactor, that confesseth his fault? For that of Retribution, they 〈◊〉 receive it in the view of the whole world; that the justice of God may 〈◊〉 be acknowledged, when he shall render to everyone according to his 〈◊〉 Cor. 6.3. Know ye not that you shall judge the Angels? Good men shall have the • nour to judge bad Angels. For this they challenged Christ, that he C •••••• meant them before the time. They confess that there is a time designed for the ••• tude and perfection of their torments.
He is reserved; but till the Judgment come, let us watch him, for he watcheth us. There is no corporal enemy, but a man naturally fears: the spiritual foe appears • esse terrible, because we are less sensible of him; we talk of Travelers, that have • eene the world over; none ever saw so much as he. He hath seen earth, seen • e sea, seen hell, seen heaven. He compasseth; as the hunter that makes • s though he would rail a mound about the deer to preserve them; when indeed • e lays a toile to destroy them. Great conquerors have been chronicled for vi • ories, and extension of their kingdoms; Satan is beyond them all. Saul hath slain • is thousands, and David his ten thousands; but Satan his millions. He that fights • ith an enemy, whom nothing but his blood can pacify, will give him no advantage. 〈◊〉 we know that we have an adversary at the next door, that pries into all our cour • s, and upon the least error will sue us on an action of trespass, we will be circumspect 〈◊〉 disable him of advantage. Satan no sooner spies our wanderings, but he presently • nnes with a complaint to God, bills against us in the star-chamber of heaven; • here the matter would go hard with us, but for the great Lord Chancellor of • eace, our Advocate Jesus Christ. As God keeps all our tears in a bottle, and • gistreth the very groans of our holy passion in a book: so Satan keeps a Record 〈◊〉 our sins, and solicits Justice against us. Were God like man, subject to pas • ons, or incensible by the suggestions of the common barretor, woe were us. But • e will hear one Son of Truth before ten thousand fathers of lying. No matter • hat the plaintiff libelleth, when the Judge acquitteth. We have forfeited our e • ates by treason, and the busy Devil begs us: but there is one that steps in, and • eads a former grant, and that both by promise and purchase. Lord rescue my • le from destructions, my darling from the Lions. Lord Jesus challenge thine own; • t not Satan enter upon by force or fraud, what thou hast bought with thine • wne blood.
Thus in general, the particulars here considerable are two, (for I purpose no • ommon place of the day of Judgment.) First the necessity of it, in that they are • eserved to it. Then the Severity of it, in that it is a Judgment. These be inherent 〈◊〉 the words; there be some short adherent circumstances which I shall salute as I • sse; they may be within the circumference, these are in the heart and Center.
The necessity. As the Creation was that Principium, which did produce things 〈◊〉 their being: so Judgment is that conclusion, which shall perduce things to their • ding. There is a double operation of God, one that wrought the production of • ings, the institution of nature, and distinction of places; from this God rested the • venth day. Another of providential government, whereby he conserves and • poseth things; from this he resteth not. Hitherto my Father worketh, and I work. • ccording to both these there is a double Judgment: one at the departure out of • is life, which answers to God's disposition: that they which kept not the appoin • d rule of their maker, might undergo the Justice of their avenger. The other at • t day, when God to all things determines an end, as immediately of himself he • ve them a Beginning. But it is objected, Nah. 1.9. Judgment shall not rise up a • nd time: there is one Judgment at the end of life, if there be another at the end 〈◊〉 the world, then there is Judgment a second time. I might answer, that the Pro • et speaks there of a temporal destruction, which shall make an utter end, that there • ll be no need of a second blow; Affliction shall not rise up the second time. But • take it in their reading; Every man must be considered, as he is an individual per • , and with relation as he is part of mankind. So there is a double Judgment pro • rtioned; one at his death respecting the singularity of his person: the other at last • pecting his partnership of the world: and thus as he is a member of the universe, 〈◊〉 Judgment must be in the universal.
But Judgment is the determination of doubtful things, and everyone before • t day shall be put past doubting of his future estate. Yet there must be a general • gment, that the equity of every ones sentence may be approved, and the Justice of God glorified. Object. But it is against the proper form of Judgment, to let execution go before sentence: now every soul as she departs, receives her reward, and is presently possessed of joy, or punished with sorrow, If therefore there be a future Judgment, here is execution before sentence. Answ. The first is but the effect of the latter: by that they presently feel, they know what they shall eternally feel. Besides, but one part of man only passeth that censure, the soul alone is blessed or cursed: therefore a general Judgment must pass upon the re-united body: which as it hath served the soul in holiness or sin; so must accompany the soul in bl •••• or pain. Object. The body is but an Instrument of the soul: so the Philosophers, Physicum corpus organicum statuunt; because the soul doth use it as an organ. Therefore it is for the soul alone to suffer: corpus ab anima separatum non dolet: the body feels no pain when the soul is departed from it. Answ. Let it be but an Instrument, yet was it a living Instrument: as therefore the soul being the Mistress i • sinning, shall be no less in suffering: yet the body must have his due share in being punished, as it had the full part in being delighted.
But, He that believeth not is already judged: what need then anymore Judgment? Answ. He is judged Per divinam praescientiam per propriam conscientiam, non per ultim • sententiam: judged by God's prescience, judged by his own conscience, not by the last sentence. There is a five fold Judgment. 1 The judgment of Disposition; so a •• unbelievers are now judged. 2 The judgment of Comparison. The men of Ni •••• shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it. Evil men shall th •• judge them that be worse; Non secundum censuram dictaminis, sed secundum mensur •• criminis, So I • rusalem is said to Iustifie Sodom, yet were the Sodomites then in 〈◊〉 . 3 The judgment of Approbation; so the Saints shall judge the Angels, judge the n •• ions, Wisd. 3.8. judge the tribes of Israel, Mat. 19.28. judge the whole woe ••• 1. Cor. 26.4. The judgment of Difinition; so John. 5.22, The Father hath ••• ted all judgment unto the Son. 5 The judgment of Remuneration, which shall re ••• every man according to his practice.
That there shall be a judgment, is universally granted: I speak the Law to th •• that know the Law. Though there be a particular judgment precedent, this hinders not the general subsequent. Here the wicked condemn themselves, there God shall condemn them. Qualis conscientia, talis sententia. As is their conscience, suc • shall be their sentence. If our own heart condemn us, God is greater than our he • . Besides the common reasons that be given, 1 That the godly here suffer for we • doing, therefore shall be crowned for well suffering. It is fit that they whom 〈◊〉 world hath unjustly condemned, shall by the Lord be justly aquitted. Vt app •••• tam patientis innocentia, quàm persequentis injustitia. If there be Judas to censure M •• and not a Jesus to Iustifie Mary; Truth shall be utterly lost. 2 That many notor • ous sinners are punished here; which is but the little Image and earnest of the general Sessions hereafter. God strikes some, ne ipsi pereant, to save themselves: and so •• again, ne reliquos perimant, lest they should destroy others. Gracelesse sinners e • boldening themselves to riot by the remoteness of judgment, are often cut off before hand. Some men's sins are open before hand, going before the judgment. Th •• have not the patience to tarry so long for their own damnation. As when the desperate Pirat, ransacking and rifling a bottom, was told by the master, that though ••• no law could touch him for the present, he should answer it at the day of judgment: replied, nay, if I may stay so long ere I come to it, I will take thee and thy Vessel too. A conceit wherewith too many land-thieves, oppressors, flatter themsel ••• in their hearts, though they dare not utter it with their lips. These God judge ••• before hand, as he did Herod immediately upon his elevation: the people called 〈◊〉 a god, but the worms soon confuted their ridiculous deity. That as when M • s •• had powdered the calf, he might upbraid Israel, behold your God: so when the Ang ••• had worm'd that Idol, he might say, Behold your king. Beside these, and 〈◊〉 other beaten arguments, I fasten upon two instances.
1 Many perverse sinners are forborne here: they transgress in health, Psa. 73. 〈◊〉 They trouble others, tremble not themselves: all feel their plagues, no plagues • o they feel. They sink others eyes into their heads with leanness, while their • ne eyes stand out with fatness. What, shall they never be called to an account for • is? Shall a man covet and take, take and keep, keep and devour, devour and never • ew it up again? Shall an Extortioner make every hour advantageous, laugh at • e groans of the oppressed, dance to their lacrymae, and yet scape? Every sin is • metimes suspended, saving only the usurers: others sin by day only, or by night • nly, and the most violent ague of wickedness hath some intermission: but he sins • ay and night continually: and is there no day nor night of answer? Shall a man • te the bread of sacrilege, drink the wine of sacrilege, sleep in sacrilege, cloth • s family with sacrilege, leave to his children an inheritance in sacrilege, and no • ckoning? what though no Judge, no Court, no Parliament question or medi • ne this disease; shall not the Judge of all condeme it.
Many sins have been punished, that are now forborne; because The Lord hath • pointed a day to judge the World in righteousness. The wickedness of the old world 〈◊〉 as abundant in the new world; yet is not the world drowned with water, bceause • od hath ordained for it a deluge of fire. The sins of Sodom are practiced every • her e; yet do the committers scape fire and brimstone on earth, because they are • served to fire and brimstone in hell. Do not many persecute the Church as vio • ntly as Pharaoh, with Chariots and Armies, who yet scape drowning? There is a • servation of a deeper and bottomeless sea for them. Diverse murmur at God who • e not stung with fiery serpents as the Israelites: because they are reserved to a fiery • rpent in hell. Many take bribes like Gehesi, without a leprosy; because of that eter • ll leprosy which waits for them. How many a deceitful Trader says and swears, with a little inversion of Ananias his lie: I sold it for so much. ) It cost me so much, yet 〈◊〉 not stricken with death temporal, because he is reserved to death eternal. Are not • any monopolists amongst us, as bad as these Philippians, that got a patent of the • ery devil? It is plain that they did monopolize the Damsel, and the Damsel • d monopoliz'd the devil. Satan was wont to be a spirit latent; now he durst be spirit Patent: it is time that this Patent-devil were cast out.
But there is a reservation of all to judgment: Mercy now stretcheth out her • ings like a hen; then Justice shall stretch out her wings like an eagle. God's hands • eme now so fraught with mercies, that judgment hath no room to be grasped in • em. But shall wicked men live, sin, die, and there an end? No, the Lord hath • orne the contrary. Heb. 3.18. He swears that unbelievers shall not enter into his • st. An oath among men is the end of all strife; and shall not faith be given to • od when he swears? The less evil they feel, the more let them fear. If • ercy allows a toleration, Justice hath a reservation; there will come a day of • ckoning.
2 To omit the demonstration of the prognostic symptoms, forerunning • is judgment. That same trumpet of war in every corner, the divulgation of • e Gospel; not only by the Antichristian Seminaries, who at once have named it • d shamed it: the revelation of Antichrist, whereof all Christendom is a blee • ng witness: the incorrigibility of sin, that it is even dangerous to be good; and • ods reproofs do not weaken, yea scarce weaken sinners. The general decay of • ture assure us this Judicial conclusion of the world. That which David said should 〈◊〉 , now is: the world is waxed old like a garment: so old that most men are turned • tchers, spending their times and studies to patch it. The lawyer talks of a te • e called a perpetuity, that's his patch. The Usurper thinks to amplify his domi • ons by fire and sword, that's his patch. One says the world is naught, yet he a • res to be a great man in it, that's his patch. The covetous says, it is but ransito • and short, yet he hoordes as if it were everlasting, that's his patch. Another • old dip it in new colors, make us believe it is an honest world; this is like painting, of an old, withered, and worm eaten face. Some as old as this garment is, would still bestow lac • and gardes upon it, as if they meant to make it a fools coat these are the proud and haughty, who only seem to effect new clothes, and new fashions; yet love the world that is so old a garment, and quite out of fashion.
If we see a man whose eyes grow dim, his ears deaf, his face furrowed, his hairs white, his legs doubling under him; we say, his living date is almo •• expired. Such a dotage doth the world labor of, yet men covet as if there were a thousand generations to provide for. As a man that is dying, hath many fantasies: so the declining world is troubled with many delirements and errors. In a surf •• d body the corruption labors downwards, to the feet, and makes an issue there: so the putrefaction and turpitude of all times is sunk down to this latter age; and one extremity answers another. Faith is rare, though there be many Christians: and charity so cold, as if a continual February of in-devotion had frozen it. There was lately a great frost, and we called it a hard time: the rivers were crusted, the •• ming earth obstructed, and the conveyances of water locked up: yet it is tha •• d and dissolved by the imperious and friendly Sun. But there is still a spiritual fro •• , a hardness of man's hearts, that extinguisheth the heat of zeal, the warmth of charity, the spark of faith. q Out of whose womb came the Ice? And the hoary f •• of heaven, who hath gendred it? out of whose womb comes this sinful Ice, but the devils? It is not a frost of heaven, but the hoary frost of hell. The fruits of pie • y are withered, the springs of grace dried up, and the waters of charity that should make glad our city of God, are congealed to covetousness. Who can loose these 〈◊〉 of Orion? The Son of grace shineth, yet this frost melts not: it is reserved unto judgment, to be melted with the fire of hell.
Thus truly is the world grown an old man. 1. It stoops like an old man, as 〈◊〉 the head were too heavy for the shoulders; sinks downward with ponderous cares. 2. It is full of raw humors like an old man; the stomach is so opppre ••• with crude and unwholesome vanities, that it is mortally feverish. 3 It is cold like a • old man; that the blood cannot be warmed, no heat of zeal can be got into it. 4. ••• testy like an old man, weary of his own desires, angry at the doing of that he commands to be done: desires, obtains, and then despises; nothing can please him. 5. Piddling with the fingers like an old man; scratching all together into heaps it defyance of any future dissipation. 6. It hath lost all the senses like an old man: 〈◊〉 ears so deaf that he cannot hear the Gospel, his eyes so blind that he cannot 〈◊〉 the evil of his sins, his tongue so faltering that he cannot utter his prayers, 〈◊〉 feet so lame that he halts with his best friend: even ready to close up his lights, the Sun and Moon, be put out: the great spiritual Court is breaking up, all offices discharged; and he that takes their accounts, ready to appear in the clouds, the Judge of all, Jesus Christ. We see the necessity of this general Judgment: 〈◊〉 is necessary for the Justice of God, necessary for the good of man, necessary for the glory of him that is both God and man.
The Severity of it follows; it is such a Judgment, as shall leave nothing unexamined, uncensured. He that was Salvator verus will be Iudex severus. Iudex ••• o • lis, Deus universi. There are many gods, many kings, many priests, innumerable men. Now he that is God shall judge all those gods: he that is King, shall judge all these kings: he that is Priest, shall judge all those priests: he that is man, shall judge all men. The Apostle Jude calls it the great day; Great, for there shall be. 1. A great congregation, never did so many meet together before, never shall after. All shall be summo • ed, and all must appear; though they were resolved into dust many thousand years before; and this citation shall be made by the sound of a Trumpet. 2. A great e •• mination; when not only visible and actual works shall be revealed; but even 〈◊〉 most secret thoughts, reserved intentions, and scarce borne conceptions. Nothing is so hid, Vt Iudicis vel lateat scientiam, vel effugiat sententiam; that it can be kep • from his sapience, or escape his sentence. 3. A great Iudication, giving sentence 〈◊〉 absolution unto the faithful; and sentence of condemnation upon the wicked. And • is shall be done suddenly: no Subpoena's to fetch in witnesses, they are all ready: no • peal, for there's no higher court: no tedious pleading, for then all sinners are • rucke dumb: no demure, for the Judge is perfect in the Law, it was of his own • aking: no writ of error, for he must needs Judge wisely and truly, that is wise • ome and truth it self: no reprieve, for their is no hope of pardon: no Psalm of • ercie; that day is past, this is the time of Justice. 4. A great retribution, every • an shall receive his reward according to his work: to the godly there is the free • ward of life and glory, to the ungodly deserved death and torment. This king • th treasure enough for all; not one of the faithful shall want mercy, not one re • obate shall scape without penalty. Great was the lamentation of the drowning • gyptians, and no less the rejoicing of Israel safe on the shore: but O the unspeak • le joy with the sheep of CHRIST'S right hand, and the unventable sorrow 〈◊〉 the goats on his left? When both the songs of good men and Angels, and the • ies of bad men and devils, shall echo to the glory of one most holy God.
A great resignation, when CHRIST shall deliver up the kingdom to God • e Father; and cease to reign, not as God, for so he is equal with the Father, but 〈◊〉 mediator. For then all his redeemed ones are embraced with the everlasting • mes of blessedness: and for the rest he shall never make intercession, for they had • ver part in his redemption. Up go the Saints and Angels in their eternal Choir, own sink the reprobates and devils to their eternal fire, where the one shall live • ging, and the other live burning, so long as there is a God in heaven.
Thus Power had her day in creation, Providence hath her day in Preservation, • ercie had her day in redemption, and Justice must have her day in retribution. That •• at Son of righteousness appeareth in four signs of his Zodiac. In his • onception he came through Virgo, he was borne of a Virgin. In his Birth, through • emini; two natures being united in one Person. In his Resurrection he was found 〈◊〉 Leo, triumphing like a victorious Lion over all his enemies. When he comes to udgement, he shall appear in Libra the Balance; justly waighing out to every man • portion of reward, according to the proportion of his work. This is his second • omming; the first was of Grace, this is of Justice. The first was to propiciate, not 〈◊〉 judge. John. 3.17. God sent not his Son to condemn the world but to save it. The • cond shall be to judge, not to propiciate. John. 5.22. The Father judgeth no man, • t hath committed all judgment unto the Son. In the first he came a Physician to • ale, in the next an Avenger to punish that would not be healed. Then a Lamb to • ffer, now a lion to triumph and conquer. His first coming was soft, as the dew • on the mown grass: his second shall be terrible, in lightning and fire.
Seeing there must be a Judgment, and we must all be judged, let us prepare our • ules for a good answer. CHRIST bad his Disciples, when they were brought • efore men's Judgment seats, to study no answer: but let everyone study an an • were before he comes to this Judgment seat. Yet alas, what answer can be made? If God contend with us, we cannot answer him one of a thousand. Quae verba • alent contra verbum? CHRIST'S word must stand. Job 31.14. What shall I do • hen God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him? If great men ho • ur themselves more than God, Quid facient, what shall they do? If covetous • en love money more than Christ, what shall they do? If men have robbed the • ord of his Patrimony, what shall they do? Here is a Quid facient for all. Men • ve now their colors, reasons, pretences, and qualifications; but then what shall • ey answer? The wicked shall plead to Christ; we are the work of thy hands; • ut he will reply, you have lost my Image and superscription. But Lord, remem • er thy Passion; Yes, but this is no time of compassion. The sentence is terrible. Matth. 25.41. Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his Angels. When they shall cry; Lord, though we may not ascend with thee unto • ory, yet let us abide still on the earth, statu quo prius; nay go, Depart. If we must go, let it not yet be far, not out of thy sight and gracious presence; nay depa