MY purpose is to break up those Treasures of wrath which God hath reserved for his enemies, Psal. 90.11. Ephes. 3.19. which not only passeth knowledge, but also fear; his love to his People passeth knowledge, his wrath to his enemies passeth fear: a full discovery by me you cannot ex­pect, seeing it passeth knowledge, and answerable affections in you I cannot expect; to the utmost, seeing that it passeth fear; but if it may be a means to deter you from sin, and a motive unto mortification, I shall have my end in the discourse, as Christ his end in the exhortati­on.

The words are to be considered [Page] [...] [Page 1] [...] [Page 2]either respective in reference unto what goes before, and so we see them several times repeated, to press the du­ty of mortification of a mans dearest & darling Lust, his most pleasant and most profitable sin; that sin is re­sembled unto a body in Scripture, is clear, Rom. 7 4. the body of sin, and the body of death; and that some sins are in this body [...]s the right hand, and the right eye, is as clear; also called a mans sweet morsel, his own iniquity, the peccatum in deliciis, the right eye is in the body the dearest, and the right hand is most usefull, service­able, [...] profitable, and advantage­ous to the body; but if it be a stum­bling block to thee, and cause thee to offend God, and forsake the way of his obedience, then cut it off, pluck it out; it is a hyperbolical expressi­on, Sic animo tuo comparatus esto, though thou do not actually, yet in­tentionally, and in thy purpose and resolution of heart part with what is dearest to thee, then that it should be a means or an occasion of sin un­to thee; and the reason it given, better enter into life maimed, that is, [Page 3]though thou think'st if thou part with such a lust, thou shouldest live un­comfortably, and be as a maimed and but half a man all thy days, yet in common reason the whole is better than any part, therefore better suffer the excision of a member, than the dissolution of the body; in your own judgement, and the judgement of the World, be counted imperfect men all your days, rather than suffer the destruction of the body and soul in Hell.

Hence we are to learn; First, that whatever is near and dear unto a man, if it be an occasion of his sin, either to hinder from duty in omissi­on, or to provoke unto any lust by way of commission, a man is to re­ject it with ind gnation, pluck it out, [...]ut it off, cast it from him. The dearest thing must be parted with, ei­ther as a snare or as a sacrifice. Se­condly, Even Gods own people may have some dear, pleasant, and profi­table lusts, right hands to be cut off, and right eyes to be plucked out. Thridly, If they should part with them, they may look upon them­selves, [Page 4]and the World may count them as maimed men: but Fourthly, though they may seem so to them­selves, and the World to judge of them, yet it is their best course that they could take. Fifthly, The good and evill of all things is to be judged by the end and issue of it; i'ts better, because thou enterest into life; and it's worse, because keeping them thou wilt indanger body and soul in hell, Sixthly, Legal motives are of use even to the regenerated, and there­fore Christians may use them, and not be legal Christians: indeed the more ingenious services are, the bet­ter; and the more freely and readi­ly the heart comes off from sin upon the principles of the Gospel, and per­formes duty from a spirit of love, fearing the Lord and his goodness, o­beying from a cord of love and thank­fulness, the love of Christ constrain­ing. But yet this will work no lon­ger than grace hath the upper hand, and if corruption prevail, to call in these helps, is not only. lawfull but necessary.

But to come to the words of my [Page 5]Text, They are a description of that destruction that keeping a right hand or a right eye, that offends a man will bring upon him: It is destruction in hell, even of the whole man, body, and soul, for to keep one member, or to please one pleasant gainfull dar­ling Lust.

In the torments of hell there are two parts, First, something Priva­tive, a privation of all good whatso­ever might make them happy, and something Positive, an addition of whatever might make them misera­ble. The first is expressed by Christ, depart from me ye cursed. Mat. 25.41. The Po­sitive part of the torments of hell are set forth in these words, where their worm dyeth not: wherein we may observe, First, the torment of the Creature from God. 2dly. From him­self, something principal, and some­thing accidental; that from God which is the principal part of he [...]l tor­ment is the fire, the less principal, the worm. In the words therefore is discribed the positive part of the torments of hell. First, that which is, Essential and principal, the Fire. [Page 6]Secondly, That which is less Princi­pal, the Worm. Thirdly, The e­ternity of them both, the fire is never quenched, nor the Worm never dies. I will take them as they lye in the Text, and begin first with that which is less principal the Worm, their worm never dyes.

Here we may note two things, First, the torment it self, a Worm. Secondly, the particularity of the torment, Their Worm. Every man shall have his own Worm. The words are taken out of Isa. 66.24. The Lord had promised the glorious deliverance of the Church, and had threatned the utter destruction of his enemies, and when they were de­stroyed, the Saints should look upon them and triumph over them, the Saints shall have dominion over them in the morning, and they shall go forth in their contemplation, and consider not only their present out­ward condition and misery, but their eternal condition, Their Worm never dyes, and their fire is not quenched to all [Page 7]Eternity, and they shall be an abhor­ring unto all flesh

To begin with the Torment it self, it's a Worm, which is not to be understood literally, but metaphori­cally of something that holds some resemblance and some analogy to it. Now a Worm in Scripture is put to resemble two things; First, some­thing that is despicable, and to be contemned, fear not thou worm Ja­cob. Secondly, something that is tormenting, and continually vexing, and so it's in this place; here the Phylosophers tell us Nihil est in intel­lectu, &c. And therefore the Lord is pleased to help our understandings to express spiritual things by earthly similitudes and resemblances; as Christ saith of the Misteries of the Gospel, he could not speak them as they were but by earthly things, that is, in respect of the manner of delive­ry, though the things were in them­selves spiritual; and if the Lord do it by things that men have experience of in this life, how much more the things that are reserved for the World to come, as the joys of Heaven [Page 8]by all good things, & the torments of hell by all evill things. Whatever is most terrible to sence, and most tormenting as Fire, Brimstone, darkness and a Worm, which are only to help our understanding in those things which both pass fear and knowledge: as after death it is set forth as a thing dreadfull to nature, to have worms breed out of a man, and feed upon him; Job. 24.20. as Job speaks, The Worms shall feed sweetly on him, he shall be no more remembred, &c. And the greatest persons that have lain upon beds of Ivory, and have had Tapistry for their covering, must say unto the worms ye are my sisters; the Moth eats them as a garment, and the Worm devours them as wooll, &c. Now to have these bodies that have been cloathed sumptuously, and fed delicately, to be cloathed with worms, and to become their food, is sad, and even dismal to nature after a mans dissolution. But if these worms should breed in a man, and feed upon him whilst he were alive, it would be much more terrible; as it was a torment invented by a Ty­rant [Page 9]to keep a man in a Coffin, and feed him, till by his own filth he breed worms, and these worms de­voured his flesh, and he dyed by them. The judgement that came upon Herod by the immediate stroak of an Angel; Acts 12.23. and the same judge­ment is said to be inflicted upon Ma­ximinus the Emperor, that his body putrify'd & bred worms continually. Now this is a fearfull thing, and dreadfull to nature to come upon the body; but what will it be for a worm to be gnawing upon the soul for ever? For in respect of that fire in Hell, our fire here is but a painted fire; it's true also in reference to the Worm therein.

This being a Metaphorical expres­sion, let us come to open it a little what it is, and wherein the resem­blance doth consist? This Worm is generally to be understood of the furious reflection of the soul upon it self, in consideration of it's by past life, neg­lected opportunities, and it's present hopeless and unrecoverable conditi­on, and so the tormenting acts of Conscience upon the man are resem­bled [Page 10]by the Worm, and the resem­blance lies in two things; First, a Worm is bred out of the putrifaction of the subject in which it is; now in the conscience of men there is much corruption the conscience is as it were the sink where all the evil in a man is, there is first much of the filthiness and defilement of sin in the conscience, Tit. 1.15. Their conscience is defi­led; Mat. 23.27. like whited Sepulchres, out­wardly fair, but inwardly full of rot­tenness and all uncleannesse, they may easily breed worms. Heb. 9.14 Secondly, All the guilt of sin in the soul settles upon the conscience, and it needs purging, for all the works done by an unregenerate man are dead works because they proceed from a dead nature, and because they all tend unto death; and though these things be the work of the whole soul, and every faculty, yet the guilt of them, all is laid upon the consci­ence; and if there be so much fil­thiness and putrifaction both of guilt and defilement in the conscience, it is no wonder if it breed a worm as [Page 11]all other putrifactions do; and this being the worst, it is not strange if it breed the worst and the most de­vouring Worm.

Secondly, It doth alwayes gnaw upon the subject in which it is bred, and so it is with this Worm, it is al­wayes feeding upon the soul, and that for ever. For it is with a mans spirit as with mill-stones, when there is nothing else, it grindes it self, &c. Now God will stop the current of all the creatures after this life, Luke 16.25. There shall be nothing from without for the spirit of a man to feed upon, and then it will turn in upon it self for ever. Here, most of the acts of a mans soul are dire [...] up­on objects without him; there are few reflexe acts, man will not turn in upon himself; But then a mans acts shall be full of reflection upon himself for ever. Now this furious reflection of the soul upon it self, it's own fil­thiness and wilfull folly. What fair offers and opportunities he has had and neglected, what fair hopes he had conceived, and they are vanished; and how all the pleasures of sin and [Page 12]the promises of Satan have deceived him, as a Brook that passeth by, and this will gnaw upon the soul with re­mediless and unconceivable torment for ever, this is the Worm that never dyes; and truly there is no conside­ration in the World will work upon the hearts of men, if this dreadfull one does not. That a man that lives and dyes in sin, in a sinfull state, shall be tormented for ever with fire that shall never be quenched, and this ne­vever dying Worm shall gnaw upon him to all Eternity, with remediless and unconceivable torments for ever, This is the Worm that never dyes.

After this life, a wicked mans own Conscience shall be his tormenter; Doctrine. The Worm dyes not, it will be a great instrument that God will use in a mans destruction. There are Four things to be spoken to in the Expli­cation; First, to shew what Consci­ence is, which is here resembled to a Worm. Secondly, To prove that this Conscience shall be a mans tor­menter. Thirdly, To give the grounds and the reasons of it. Fourthly, To [Page 13]set forth some of those acts that Con­science, as a Worm shall put forth; the manner of the working of it in the gnawings of a Worm, and then come to the Application.

Quest. 1. First, What is Consci­ence.

Answ. It is an ability in the un­derstanding to judge of a mans self, his Estate, and Actions, according to the rule that God hath prescribed.

Here observe, First, It is an abili­ty in the understanding; for I make it not, as some do, a distinct faculty, & therefore it is in no Creatures but those that are reasonable, Men and Angels; other Creatures are directed to an end, and they work by a rule thereunto; but they neither know their end, nor their rule, neither are they able to reflect upon their acti­ons, whether they have done good or evil; and therefore no Creature can sin but a reasonable Creature: for sin must be a transgression of a Rule, which a man doth, or ought to [Page 14]know, and to walk answerable unto; and therefore it is made a proper act of a man, Isa. 46.8. Remember this and shew your selves men.

Secondly, Conscience must have a rule; indeed the Scripture doth re­quire that men should walk accor­ding to their consciences, and do as their Conscience doth dictate unto them. Rom. 13.5. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but for Conscience sake: ye must be subject [...], and when Conscience requires one thing, and Lust another, and the man re­ceives not the rule of Conscience, but of Lust; he doth then imprison the truth in unrighteousness, where the Dictates of Conscience are called the truth, Rom. 1.18. though it be but of a na­tural Conscience. But yet here men mistake; for Conscience is but regu­la regulata, not the highest rule; for it must it self have a Rule to judge by; Gal 6.16. and he that doth not go by rule, and hath no higher rule to regulate his Conscience, and yet doth by his Conscience regulate his Actions, Conscience being defiled, Pit. 1.15. [Page 15]He doth walk with God at a venture, Lev. 26.21. And this rule of Conscience is the whole revealed wil of God, whether ex principiis natu­rae, or scripturae; whatever God requires of a man as duty, whether by his word or by his works, and Conscience knows no other rule but the will of God revealed, because it is subjected unto no other: God only can command the Conscience, and bind the Conscience, because he only can judge the Conscience. Now the understanding having nothing else but a principal of nature for it's rule; we call that a natural Couscience, and they that have the word of God for their rule, or any special work of illu­mination from the Holy Ghost, whe­ther it be common or saving, we call this an inlightned Conscience, answera­ble unto the rule that it has to judge by, either of mens states or wayes.

Thirdly, The chief act of Consci­ence, and that which is only proper and essential to it, is to judge of the man according to this rule, and to pronounce a sentence upon him, whe­ther good or evil; and hence is the [Page 16]accusing and the excusing power of Conscience; Rom. 2.14 15. if Conscience judge of an action to answer the rule, then it excuseth, and if that be different from the rule, then it accuseth; and there­fore 'tis said, Joh. 8.9. They are con­sinced of their own Consciences; that is, their Consciences laid their acts to the rule, and did tell them that they did not agree to it, and they could not deny it, and therefore went their way; and therefore Conscience is alwayes in Scripture called [...], that is a knowing and judging of one thing with another; a knowing and judging of a mans state or actions with the rule: 2 Cor. 4.2. we approve our selves to every mans conscience, says the Apostle, in the sight of God, and that is all our aim: we seek not to approve our selves to your lusts, your fancies, we may sometime in our Mi­nisterie reprove sin that you are not willing to leave, and press to duty that you are not willing to practice; we may cross your affections, and provoke your lusts, but yet we know that we have something within you that takes our part, and doth approve the [Page 17]Doctrine that we teach, and the du­ties that we practice all the while; so that the main of Conscience lyes in judging or applying an action to the rule, and pronouncing a sentence accordingly. So that in 1 Cor. 11.31. Judge your selves, &c. and Isa. 5.3. Judge I pray between me and my Vineyard. So that Conscience is an ability in a man, having a rule given him to reflect upon his actions and state, and [...]udge whether it agree with the rule that is given to it or no.

4thly. That which is subjected to the judgement of Conscience, is a mans state and wayes, the whole man. To judge other men, is not properly our work, either their actions or states, unless we are called by special Office thereunto; for thou judgest another mans servant, he stands and falls to his own Master. But a mans whole self is subjected to the judgement of Conscience.

First, Conscience judges of a mans state, 1 Joh. 3.20. If thy heart condemn thee or do not con­demn thee; and Jam. 1.24. The Word doth shew a man what man­ner [Page 18]of man he is, and in what state he stands towards God; whether he be one of the wise, or foolish Virgins, or builders; whether he build upon a Rock or the Sand. Now consci­science takes this rule, and lays a mans state to it, and tels the man this is my condition.

Secondly, Conscience judges of mens actions, Rom. 9.1. I speak the truth, I lye not, my Conscience bearing me witness; [...] I do not speak this with my mouth, and my conscience gives me the lye, but Conscience speaks the same thing, and joint with me in the testimony. 2 Cor. 12. This is our rejoycing, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and god­ly sincerity we have had our conver­sation in the World; but more espe­cially to you-ward, &c. Conscience brings his carriage towards them to the rule, and judges of it, to agree, and to be consonant thereunto; and therefore gives testimony within him and into this Court the spirit of God commonly comes to assist conscience, to pronounce the sentence. For con­science [Page 19]is defiled, and so over-awed, and bribed, and blinded by lust, that it cannot many times pronounce a right sentence; till the Spirit of God comes into the Court and acts Con­science, and causeth it to judge aright of his estate and and wayes also, and therefore Rom. 9.1. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost doth witness with Conscience, and Conscience in the power of the Spirit does witness to the man; so in a wicked man it is a Spirit of bondage, that is, does cause Conscience to witness bondage, which else by reason of the self love and self flattery that is in the man, it will ne­ver do; and in a godly man it wit­nesseth grace and adoption, which of it self it can never do; and therefore the spirit is a witness in Heaven, and in earth also, even in a renewed Con­science, the spirit does [...]. We come now to give the reasons or the grounds of the point which will be best done by answering these Questions.

First, As inordinate love unto a mans self, has been the great cause of [Page 20]all a mans sins, 2 Tim. 3.2, So it is self loathing that is the cause of all a mans Torment, a man shall be a burden to himself, Job 7.20. A ter­ror to himself. Jer. 20, 4. As by self love they have corrupted themselves; so by self loathing, they shall tor­ment themselves for ever; and so the Lord will take the same way in punishing, that they have taken in sinning. That the sin that a man hath here taken most pleasure in, shal hereafter be to him the matter of his his greatest torment; as we see it here, immediately as soon as God does awaken the Conscience: there is no sin so dreadful to a man as his darling, and he fears nothing like that which he has most loved and desired: so it will be hereafter in a mans pu­nishment also, as nothing was so loved, admired, and deifi'd as him­self; so there shall be nothing that he shall loath and abhor like himself for ever; and answerable to a mans self love, so will his self loath­ing be, for Revel. 8.8. so much plea­sure, so much torment. No sin wil will pierce Herods heart, like to his [Page 21] rodias. And there is no sin that a man spares more here than his dar­ling, and there is none will be more cruel to them hereafter, and as a worm, feed upon their hearts, and eat up their inward man for ever; and so it is in it self also, as there is nothing they have loved more, and spared more here, they have wholly been cruel unto others, but unto themselves sparing: they shall not be so hereafter, but above all others they shall be cruel to themselves for ever.

Quest. 2d. Secondly, Seeing God will torment a man by himself, why is the main of a mans torment in his Con­science above all other faculties? It is true, that as every faculty hath been filled with the fruits of all unrighte­ousness, so every faculty shall be a Ves­sel filled with wrath, but above all o­thers, why the Worm in the Consci­ence.

Answ. First, Because it is the spirit of the man, and that wherein his main strengh lyes, Prov. 18.14.

Secondly, Because it is the tende­rest part of the soul, it's resembled to the eye, Matth. 7.3. And there­fore most sensible, it is capable of more torment than any other of the faculties and powers of the soul what soever.

Thirdly, There the Lord will in­flict the punishment, where the sin mainly is; now of all the faculties of the soul, there is none so defiled as the Conscience, Tit. 1.15. For the guilt of all the sins of the whole soul is there. Jer. 17.1 Heb. 9.4. There are the Treasures of sin; therefore there wil the Lord power out the Treasures of wrath, &c.

Quest. 3. Thirdly, But if the Lord will torment the Conscience why doth not the torment rest there? But he will make that the instrument to torment the whole man. Why shall that do it rather than the wil or affections? &c. But the torment of the whole soul must come in by the Conscience: this is the Flood gate, or as I may call it, the Funnel of wrath.

Answ. First, Because God has given unto Conscience he greatest honour in the soul, and has exalted it above all other powers and abilities of the soul whatsoever. The main of the Image of God was stampt up­on it at first, if we judge by the re­newing of it, for the great effect of redemption is there. Heb. 9.14. And of renovation: also Ephes. 4 23. It is called the Spirit of the mind, 1 Thes. 5.23. The Spirit. Pro. 18.14. It is to be referred ad illam partem que nobilissima est. Calv

And therefore the main work of Sanctification lies in the Conscience, a pure Conscience. Now the Image of God in Sanctification is renewed, therefore where this Image is most renewed, there it was most planted: for we are renewed according to the Image of him that created us. And the main thing that God respe [...]s in all Ordinances, Heb. 9 8. is to make the man perfect according to his Conscience; and that is Conscientiam puram & pacatam r [...]ddere, to pacifie it, and purifie it, this is the perfection of the Conscience, and the perfection of the [Page 24]Conscience, is the perfection of the man. Now that which was the great glory of the soul, that shall be the shame of it. God will turn a mans glory into shame, and that which should have been his perfection, that shall become his torment for e­ver.

Secondly, Conscience has the greatest Office, and power, and au­thority in the soul, it is Gods Vice­gerent; every man is as it were a petty Kingdome; and as God has set Princes upon earth in their several Kingdomes, so he has in the man also, and he has committed unto Consci­ence the whole Law of God, and the whole duty of man and Conscience is that in joyns it upon all the faculties, and that sees it executed, Rom. 13 5. You must be subject, that is not only ratione externae coactionis, but internae obligationis. Conscience is subject unto none but God; but the whole soul is put in subjection unto the Conscience [...] and let men, the greatest upon earth command, yet if Coscience gives it non plaeet, it is no law in the man, it shall, never be obeyed, Dan. 3.17. [Page 25] be it known unto thee, O King we will not serve thy gods, &c. Acts 1.20. We cannot but speak, a necessity is laid upon me, I must preach, &c. Jer. 20, 9. The Word was in him as fire, he could not forbear, it is the impulse of Conscience; that was the cause there is a double necessity, Ex­terna & interna, &c. Now accord­ing unto this order and subordina­tion of the faculties, so shall the torment be; Conscience is subject to none but God, therefore the spirit of bondage shall come into the Con­science and trouble that, and this shall torment the whole man, and as God does usually set up Gover­nours, and they become Instruments of wrath over the kingdoms where they dwell; if they be good, they are a special blessing, they are the breath of our Nostrils, the stay of our Tribes, the Chariots and Horse­men; but if they be wicked, they ruine the kingdom: Psal. 75.3. Saul had even destroyed the Nation, they are ravening Lyons, and even­ing Wolves, Zeph. 3.3. So it is in the government of the inward man, [Page 26]if the Conscience be good its the greatest blessing, and if evil the greatest curse; for as none has the Power, the Authority, and the Op­portunity to undo a people, like those that have the Rule over them; so it is with the Conscience, there is no­thing hath that Authority and Op­pertunity to undo a man like it, be­cause it is alwayes with him, where soever he goes, and therefore [...] Mala domestica: Austine compare an evil Wife, and an evil Conscience because they are both intolerabl [...] burdensome evils, a continual drop­ing, none have the Opertunity [...] Torment like these.

Thirdly, Conscience here has [...] great hand in corrupting the who [...] man, and therefore it is no wonde [...] if hereafter it should have the gre [...] hand in Tormenting him.

First, Here Conscience is blin [...] and does not shew a man what is [...] Duty; and so many men Sin ig [...] ­rantly, for want of an inlightne [...] Conscience; when the eye of [...] man is darkned, Math. 6. Ho [...] great is that darkness?

Secondly, Conscience is dead, a spirit of slumber is upon it, that though it know things to be evil, yet it stirs not against them; or if it does, it is but faintly; but a good Con­science exerciseth Authority over the whole man, and smites him when ever he does evil: as 1 Sam. 24.17.

Thirdly, it is erroneous, and carries men unto evil violently, under a pretence of good, a zeal not ac­cording to knowledg; Joh. 16.2. For zeal persecuting the Church; Tantus eram Saulus, [...]hat he thought him worthy of eternal death, that descented from the Authority of his Religion in any thing; it is from a deceived heart, an erroneous Con­science.

Fourthly, Conscience will be bribed by Lust, takes in carnal rea­son and corrupt principles, and will be satisfied in them, Rom 1. impri­sons truths in unrighteousness, 1 Tim. 4.2. And it is insensible of any thing, and it is just with God, that that Officer in the man, that had the great hand in corrupting, should also [Page 28]have the great hand in tormenting the whole man.

Quest. 4. Fourthly, Why is not Conscience a Worm here, as well as hereafter in Hell?

First, Because Conscience cannot work of it self, unless the Spirit of God awaken it, &c.

Secondly, Here is the working time of Conscience, its suffering time shall be hereafter; Here Con­science has great workes to do, and great talents to imploy; Heb. 13.18. The charge of the whole Life lies up­on the Conscience, and the Lord ha [...] here a great house, 2 Tim. 2.20. Understand it of the World, or of the Church, yet he has in it Vessek of Honour, and some to Dishonour. Now, Why does God suspend the torment of the Devils? It is because Christ has much work for them to do, and they would have no pleasure in Sin, if their Torments were fuller; so it is with wicked men also, and therefore the Lord has appointed a working time for Conscience to per­form [Page 29]its viatory office, and he has a pointed a suffering time for Con­science allo, and he will not Torment them before that time.

Thirdly, Hereby the Lord does exalt his own patience and long suffer­ing so much the more, for Sin being an infinite evil, and a man that is but dust to provoke God to his Face, and to do it the rather because God for­bears them, and sin the more because God forbears them, and because of his patience; because sentence is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the children of men are fully set to do evil, now that God should bear with much patience, and long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction; and that the Lord should not stretch forth his own hand against them, but that he should also suspend the working of their one Consciences, and should not let loose the reins upon them, which would bring them down in the midst of their galantry, as Belshazer, Fe­lix, Judas, &c. And that God should keep a hand upon their Con­sciences, and withhold their own [Page 30]thoughts from flying upon them, it does wonderfully set forth the patience of God; The Lord knows how to reserve the wicked to the day of wrath.

Fourthly, Many things here which stop the mouth of Consci­ence, shall hereafter be re­moved, and then Conscience will speak; The Worm of Conscience is to the Soul, as they say the disease of the Wolf is to the Body; If it be fed with something from without, will eat the less inwardly, but take away all supplies from without, and it destroys inwardly (as all the good things of this Life will be gone) and then the Soul turns in upon it self and will be its own Tormentor fo [...] ever: Rev. 20.12. And I saw th [...] dead small and great, stand before God; and the Books were opened [...] and another Book was opened, which is the Book of Life; and the Dea [...] were judged out of those things whic [...] were written in the Books, according to their works. It is an allusion to the day of judgment, That's granted by all, The books opened, are First [Page 31]the book of the Law and Gospel; Secondly, of Gods Omnisciency; Thirdly, of his Decre; Fourthly, the book of Conscience: All those ancient Records that lay hid as Co­lours in the dark, Rom. 2.15.16. or as something that is written with the juice of a Lemon; you may read it when you bring it to the fire, but not till then.

But we will now set forth those Tormenting acts of Conscience here­after, which shall be as the gnawings of this never dying worm, but be­fore we come to speak unto them perticularly, it's necessary that these four things be premised; First, That after this Life the Spirit of God shall come into the Conscience of a wicked man, as a spirit of bondage fully, for ever. Conscience is but a subordi­nate power, and acts allways with reference to a higher Law as a rule, and a higher power as a Judge, it is Regnum sub graviore Regno; And therefore it never works by it self alone, but it doth [...], Rom. 2.14.15. & Rom 1. as well as [...], and hence it is that the same thing hath such different ef­fects [Page 32]upon the spirits of men; There were many in the company of Bel­shazar when the hand-wrighting apeared, Dan. 5.5.6. and yet none that we read of, was affected with it but the King; and it was not the hand-wrighting that troubled him, but at the same time the spirit of God did come in­to his Conscience; and his own thoughts troubled him, stir'd up and acted his Conscience, and they sud­enly terrisie him as the word doth here signify. And [...]rov. 18.14. We rea [...] of [...] a sad an [...] troubled broaken and tender spirit; [...] And who has power over the spirits of a man? It is subject unto none but God, and the spirit of God; and therefore none is able to wound the spirit of a man, no more then they can command it, without the spirit of God come in with it; Therefore one man is moved by a threatning, and another man is not; one man is pricked in his heart, and the other feels it not; It is as t [...]e spirit of God doth come into the Conscience of men. Now as there is a twofold Covenant, so there is a twofold Spirit; That is, [Page 33]in respect of the double effect that the spirit of God works upon the spirits of men; for every man hath the spirit of God working in him, answerable to the Covenant under which he stands. Christ having the administration of both Covenants, the Covenant of grace, and the Co­venant of works; and the spirit of Christ, being the Prorex of Christ in the administration of all things in his kingdom, the spirit that accom­panies the first Covenant, and works in all that are under it, is [...] Rom. 8.15. 2 Tim. 1.7. But the spirit that acompanies the Cove­nant of grace, and works in all those whose Covenant is changed, is [...]. Rom. 8.45. 2 Cor. 3.17. And the liberty or the bondage of a mans spirit lies mainly in his Conscience. The spirit of God coming in to a mans Conscience gives him boldness, and a manu­duction into the presence of God; the boldness of a man that has a spirit of adoption, Job 2 it makes him lift up his face in the presence of God; and the spirit coming into a mans heart as a [Page 34]spirit of Bondage, it casts upon a man chains of darkness. Jude 6. Heb. 2.15.

Now, As here in this life, the spirit of God as a spirit of Sonship and Adoption comes into the soul but by degrees, and we do but receive the first fruits; Rom. 8.23. The earnest, Ephes. 9.4. All is but as a spark to the Fire, a drop to the Oce­an, and the spirit of God works and withdraws it self, and the man is di­serted; so now the coming of the spirit of God into the Conscience, is but a pledge, and the first fruits of wrath which now a man receives; but in the first fruits, in a weak mea­sure, and with much intermission, We have our well, and our ill dayes, &c. And men have their deversions, notwithstanding the pangs of their Consciences; Caine can build Cities, to drown the cry of Conscience; but hereafter as the spirit of God in Hea­ven shall be perfectly a spirit of A­doption, so in Hell it shall be per­fectly a spirit of Bondage and Fear; and that without intermission or in­terception for ever.

Secondly, After this Life Consci­ence shall be perfectly inlightned, and perfectly awakened; There are two great evils that hinder the work­ing of Conscience in this Life.

First, A blindness, and that both sinful and penal; Luk 19.11. They would not know the things of their peace, in the day of their peace; therefore they were now hid from their eyes; and so men go hood­winckt to Hell, and fall into di­struction, ere they apprehend their danger. Mal. 3.8. Will a man rob God? &c. And they say where­in have we rob'd thee, Isa. 26.11. The hand of the Lord is lifted up, but they will not see: and Isa. 5.20. They call evil good, and good evil; put darkness for light, and light for darkness; and they Math. 6.7. Did think they had prayed well, when they babled much, for they did ex­pect to be heard for it; and so there is a great deal of blindness, that does sease upon men Judicially. Rom. 11.7.

Secondly, There is also a spirit of stumber, Isa. 29.10. The word [Page 36]in the Hebrew, is the same that is used of Adam, when God took out a rib from him. Gen. 2.21. Let God threaten judgment and terrour out of his word, and the man a­wakes not, but is in a deep sleep still; But there are some spiritual Judg­ments that are also eternal, a man being forsaken of God, and God leaving him to the willful wickedness of his own spirit; But there are some that are but temporal, and only for the time of this Life; God gives men over to Atheism, and the Fool says there is no God: But though there are Atheists here, there are no Atheists in Hell; God gives men o­ver to blindness here, that they will not see that sin is so great an evil, and the wrath of God is so dreadful as it is; But they shall see, and the blindness of their minds shall be done away, and they shall be awakned, and the spirit of slumber removed, and Conscience shall never sleep again.

Thirdly, All the faculties of the soul shall be inlarged; here they are streightned by sin, and are of a nar­row capacity, and it is little either [Page 37]joy, or sorrow, that they are capa­ble of; also Conscience renewed is capable of a little Grace, there is an [...], a measure, a pitch to which they come, and that is but little, be­fore they be translated to Glory, it is but a taste, that the Lord is gra­cious, it is but the first fruits of the spirit; but after this life, all the faculties shall be inlarged, that they shall be made vessels prepared for Glory; So wicked men, Cain and Judas, they are capable of a little wrath here, as a man cannot see God and live, he is not capable of the glory of Heaven; so neither is a man capable of the torments of Hell and live a child; is capable of more wrath in Hell, then the wickedest man that ever was whilest he lived here; therefore they shall be vessels fitted for destruction. &c. And hence it is that men cannot call to mind the offers of grace and opertu­nities neglected, rejected motions, the duties omited, the sins commited, Sermons heard, the truths that were offered to be disposed, the several checks of a mans own Conscience, [Page 38]and the several admonitions of friends, reproaches of enemies, &c. A man cannot conceive how it should be, but then our faculties shall be in­larged, and we shall put off our houses of Clay, by which the soul is streight­ened, and it shall be conversant no more about these streightned ob­jects, but about the vast things of Eternity for ever; The things of E­ternity pass knowledg and pass fear. 1 Cor. 13.12. This life in grace is but childhood to Heaven, the facul­ties and abilities of our souls are streightned, so this life in sin and mi­sery, is but childhood unto Hell; for there shall the soul be inlarged; for God has made the soul capable of greater joyes, and greater sorrows; greater blessings, and greater suffer­ings then there are in this Life; and he would never have prepared such vessels either for wrath, or glory, but that he means to fill them, and this inlargement shall be by degrees, as he will fill them by degrees; and as grace inlarges and prepares the heart for glory, Col. 1.12. so does sin inlarge and prepare the heart for wrath: [Page 39]and therefore they are said, Rom. 9.23. To be vessels fited for di­struction, as well as prepared for glo­ry. &c.

Fourthly, After this Life all com­fortable affections and actings of the soul shall have an end; There be some acts of soul that are comforting and cheering, and there are some acts that are afflicting and torment­ing, the comforting acts are in ref­ference to good things, either pre­sent or to come; if present the soul loves them, and rejoyceth in them, and if absent, the soul loves them, desires them, and hopes for them, and all these do cheer the soul, and in the exercise of these, the life of the soul comes in; but after this Life, all good things of this Life, in present fruition, or future reversion shall have an end From the creatures, all good things at Death shall take their leave, they are but this worlds goods; and for all good things from God there shall be none, for they shall have Judgment without mercy, pure and utter darkness, there shall not be a beam of light, or the hope of any [Page 40]good thing for the soul to live upon unto Eternity; for if a man were to lye in Hell a million of years, and were to expect then a release, his soul would live; but being swallow­ed up in eternity of misery without hope, the soul dyes. These affecti­ons shall still remain in the soul, but because they have no object, there­fore shall never be exercised as fear and sorrow are in the Saints in Hea­ven; but never are exercised because there is no object upon which it should be exercised: Therefore in Hell there never shall be an act of love, or joy, or hope more to eter­nity; the hope of the wicked, is as the giving up of the Ghost, he breaths it out with his last breath, and he shall never hope more for ever; and there are in the soul some tormenting and afflicting acts, in reference unto evil things, present or to come; if it be present there is sorrow, and if to come fear, and if it be looked up­on as an insuportable and inseparable, no way to escape it, there is dispair for ever. Now seeing there shall be the absence of all good at present and [Page 41]in hope, and the presence of all evil, and a mans condition under it help­less and hopeless, therefore after this life to ungodly men, all comforting acts of soul shall cease, and all the tormenting acts shall take place, and act in their full power and vigour for ever.

Now let us come to the particulars wherein Conscience doth apear to be a worm after this life; manely, There is a four fold act of Conscience, and in every one of them, it does here­after become a worm. First, There is an act of Accusation, Secondly of Conviction, Thirdly of Condemna­tion, Fourthly of Execution; The torments that follow the soul after all these, and in these does this furious reflection of the soul upon it self consist.

First, An act of accusation, Rom. 2.15. Conscience accusing and ex­cusing, and this consists in two things; First, A reviewing and reflecting up­on the rule that a man did, and should have walked in. Secondly, Upon the unanswerableness of a mans wayes unto this rule, and so Consci­ence [Page 42]shall charge upon a man all the errours of his way, for an accusation does suppose and lay down a Law, and then charges a man with the breach thereof; there is a double book of Conscience, the first is a book of precepts and rules, secondly a book of practises.

First, For the book of rules and precepts, there shall be manifested three things after this life; First, There are many rules of duty that we are ignorant of, and so there are many sins of ignorance committed that men know not to be a sin, be­cause they are unacquainted with the rule of duty, for we know in part, and prophecy in part, 1 Cor. 13. There is a vail upon the hearts of men in many things, that they know not what they do. Now to this end, the book of Law and Gospel shall be opened, and thereby a mans Duty dis­covered, and Conscience inlightned in those things which here it never knew, Rom. 2.16. for he will judge the se­crets of all men according unto my Gospel. &c.

Secondly, There are several sins commited out of errour and mistake, and upon false rules; The Lord will bring forth and discover unto a man, all these false and erroneous principles, by which he has been led in his whole course, John 16.2. 1 Cor. 2.8. had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory; Rom. 10.2. they have a zeal but not ac­cording to knowledg, many things they did from an erroneous Consci­ence, now all these false principles that mislead a man in his wayes shall be brought forth also, and the fals­hood of them discovered.

Thirdly, There are many true principles which Conscience does re­ceive here from the word, and the ministery thereof which are called truth; Rom. 1.18. Who withhold the truth in unrighteousness: All these rules in their authority, holiness and equity shall be set before a man, and how all of them were required of man for his good.

Thus the book of precepts being opened, and the [...] of Con­science inlarged, now follow; the opening of the second book, and that is that of practises.

First, Conscience does charge up­on a man sins of ignorance, this thou hast done through ignorance of such a rule, as Paul knew not Lust to be a sin, before that the Commandment said thou shalt not Lust; and then thy ignorance shall be discovered unto thee before men and angels, and that with all thy means, and opertunities of knowledg, you to whom the Lord wrote the great things of his Law, that had the Scriptures in your own Language, and freedom and liberty to use them, you that had all man­ner of helps, publickly, and private­ly, preaching and writing, where­in men do transcribere aias; you that dwelt in the valley of Vision, and yet of these things you are wil­fully ignorant, and in the things you know not, in them you have cor­rupted your selves; now they that counted it matter of shame to be in­structed by a minister, and matter of scorn to be examined by him, fear­ing least they should bewray their ignorance; God will charge it upon thy Conscience, and make thee bear the shame of it before men and an­gels; [Page 45]those sins thou hast commited, and those things thou hast omited out of ignorance, that such rules thou oughtest to have known.

Secondly, The Lord will charge upon a man the sins that he commit­ed upon false and eroneous principles; Thou hast called the proud happy, and because they that hate the Lord are exalted, therefore thou hast fallen upon those wayes, and thought their way to be the onely way to peace and prosperity; thou hast thought Usury, Sabbath breaking, petty oathes, of­ficious lyes, were little or nothing, and that if a man performed the out­ward duties of Religion, went to Church, and heard a Sermon, and kept himself unspotted before men, and walked lovingly amongst his neighbours, this was enough to bring him to Heaven, and that what was more, was but either needless scru­pulosity, or affected singularity, which is but hypocrisie; and there­fore thou hast counted religious men the precise fools of the time, when thou hast seen them, with Dives as a Lazarus, at thy door and regarded [Page 46]them not; but men shall recant their corrupt opinions, and publish their retractations, and be ashamed of them before Men and Angels, Psal. 50.21. thou thoughtest wickedly that I was such a one as thy felf, but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes.

Thirdly, Conscience shall charge a man with the Truths he knew and imprison'd, Rom. 1. last and 2.1. who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things, are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them: therefore thou art inexcu­sible; thou knewest this to be a sin, and yet commitedst it, and such as thing to be a duty, and yet neg­lectedst it, and then all a mans omi­ssions and comissions, sins of igno­rance, and wilfulness or errour shal be charged upon him.

And here are three things in a spe­cial manner that shall be charged. First, in this life our memories are frail, Heb. 12.5. and we let things slip out of them. Heb. 2.1. and ye have for­gotten the exaltation which, &c. [Page 47]We forget that we hear; but there shall be no forgetfulness here­after; Conscience shall record all the rules of duty in their order. Se­condly, Is. 50 17. Here there are manifold di­versions of our thoughts, and men do cast these rules of duty and their sins against them behind their backs; but it shall then be so set before a man, that it shall be his study for ever, and he shall never be able to turn from it; Conscience shall al­ways set his sins before him, as Da­vid said, my sin is ever before me. Thirdly, There is this difference be­tween this life and the life to come, here these rules are set before a man that he might learn and obey them; but hereafter they are set before him to throw the neglect of them upon him, that he might be upbraided with the guilt of them for ever, Job 27.22. and Job 27.6. that our hearts might re­proach us for ever; there is a great deal of difference between the ad­monition of a father, telling the son his duty, or of a minister instructing a man, and between a judg, telling a malefactor his sin and his duty; [Page 48] the one doth it in order to his direction and reformation, and the other doth it in order to his execution and con­viction, that he may see and be si­lenced, that the judgment and sen­tence past upon him is just, and to lay the guilt of his own destruction upon his own head for ever.

Secondly, an act of conviction; here if sin be charged upon men, every man hath a Counsellor within his own breast to plead for him, which is his own carnal reason, and that does many times seek to excuse à toto, and the man pleads not guilty, as David for the death of Ʋriah, 2 Sam, 11.25. and Pilate gives sen­tence against Christ, and yet excuses himself that he had nothing to do with the blood of this just man, and the Pharisies and Priests, Acts 5.28. they had no hand in the death of Christ: and therefore they are dis­pleas'd that the Apostles had filled Jerusalem with their doctrine, and intend to bring this mans blood upon us, (reatum & invidiam mortis Chri­sti,) or else it minceth the matter and excuseth à tanto, if it be evil, [Page 49]yet not so great an evil; for it is the common custom, Act. 28.22. it is a sect spoken against every where, &c. and by after inconveniencies, Joh. 11.48 else the Romans will come and destroy place and Nation; and so many plead for Ale-houses, Game-houses, Play-houses, a trade of beg­ing; and usury for Widows and Or­phans, how shall they live else? and a subtile distinction for swearing, Mat 23.16. swear by the Temple, for men to swear it is nothing; but who ever shall swear by the Gold of the Temple, he is a debtor; so we hear men say, to swear by God it's a sin, we will allow to be something, but to swear by Faith and Troth, by light, &c. by Creatures, is no evil, as Judg. 21.22. they elude their vow, by saying we did not give them, but they did take them, with our knowledge and consent, &c. and with such kind of pleas, as an ignorant judge is blinded by the sub­tleties of his Counsel; casting a var­nish over an evil cause, and drawing a Cobweb [...]awn over it; so is Conscience also: But after this life [Page 50]all these pleas shall vanish, and men shall be convicted of their own Con­sciences, that they shall have nothing to say for themselves; a man shall be speechless, Mat 22.12 he shall have no cloak for his sin, John 15.22. he was without an excuse or apologie, Rom. 2.19. a Deus foras in crepabit, & conscientia intus accusabit, Greg. there shall be on means either to deny it or extenuate it; for 2 Cor. 5.11. we are made ma­nifest unto God, and I trust unto your Consciences, and this Conscience shall do by setting before a man. First, The unreasonableness of sin, Jer 2.13. that I did forsake the Fountain of living water, and digged to my self broken [...]isterns, so foolish was I, and as a beast before thee. Secondly, The causelesness of it, Jer. 2.5. what iniquity have your fathen found in me, Mic. 6 3. oh my peo­ple, what have I done to you? te­stify against me, have I been a Wil­derness? Thirdly, God did forbear me with much patience, 2 Pet. 3.5. did not cut me down, but spared me this year also, and I had horae plusquam amenae nunquam rediturae, &c. 4ly [Page 51]from several inducements to obedi­ence, the compassionate calls of God, Act. 20.31 oh Ephraim what shall I do unto thee; my repentings are kindled within me, Christ weeps over Jerusalem, and his ministers shed tears, the promises of God, and the society of the faithful, & the incouragements you might have from them, you lived amongst the wise Virgins, & yet in a land of uprightness, they will do wickedly. Fifthly, from the unprofitableness of sin, Rom. 6.22. what fruit have you of that whereof you are now ashamed, and the several inconveniencies that thou hast met with, in a way of sinning, Hos. 2.6. sometimes the Angel meets thee, as it did Balam, as it were with a sword in his hand, to stop thee, and yet thouwast as a wild Asse that knew no bounds, had no bridle: and therefore now ye eat the fruit of your own ways, and are filld with your own devices; for you are one of them that have loved death, Pro 8. last.

Thirdly, an act of condemnation, 1 Joh. 3.21. Tit. 3.11. if our hearts condemn us, God is greater then our hearts, &c. he is condemned of himself; [Page 52]Conscience passeth the sentence of e­ternal death upon a mans self, Mat. 27.4. I have sin'd, and having been his own judge, he doth quickly become his own executioner, and so Spira hence Apostate, &c. Heb. 10.27. There is a receiving of judgment in a mans self, and upon this act the soul looks upon it self even in Hell already, he casts down the 30. pieces [...] spurnes at Gold, and his soul abhors dainty meats, his life draws near the grave, and his soul to the destroyers, he looks every day when the Devil shall be sent as the executioner to setch away his soul, oh says he, that I had been made a Dog, a Toad, and that I could creep into my first no­thing, rather then have lain under the weight of eternal wrath for ever. I envy the case of Cain and Judas, &c. But there is a great deal of difference between the condemnation of Con­science here, and hereafter.

First, Here it does condemn for par­ticular sins, as we see in Judas for his treason, in Spyra for his apostacy, &c. but hereafter it shall condemn a man for all his sins at once; for they shall [Page 53]be all set in order before him, and shall be always before his eyes, Rev. 20.12. the book of conscience shall be opened, and all the former con­demnations of conscience shall be opened, and all the former condem­nations of Conscience shall be set be­fore a man, and the judgment of God confirming all these, and if the condemnation for one sin be so ter­rible, what will it be for all sins when they shall be all charged on a man.

Secondly, Here conscience condemns but now and then, &c. and when it does so then Felix trembles, this strikes a terrour into the center of the soul, but hereafter it shall always condemn thee, and shall give thee no respite, thou shalt turn in upon thy self, and hear nothing but the sen­tence of thy own Conscience for ever; for as it never dyes, so it ne­ver sleeps, but ever wakes to torment thee.

Thirdly, Here though Consci­ence condemns a man to death; yet there may be an appeal and a hope of pardon; for here mercy rejoyceth [Page 54]over judgment; but hereafter the judgment of Conscience shall follow the final judgment of God, and the judgment of the Lord and of Con­science shall stand.

Fourthly, Here though Consci­ence condemns a man, yet there is a reprival a while, Gen. 4.7. sin lyer at the door, but the door is shut and does not break in upon men, but then the condemnation shall be im­mediately follow'd with the executi­on, go ye curs'd, and immediately tho [...] must go, & there's no reprival, but tho [...] shalt lye under this sentence for ever.

Fifthly, from hence there doe [...] arise in the soul perfect sorrow, this life is a state of imperfection, but i [...] the world to come, all imperfection shall be done away; here there i [...] unto godly men an imperfection o [...] grace and comforts, but hereafter that which is perfect shall come, and and that which is in part shall be done away: so here is also an imperfection in respect of misery unto wicked men, but the earnest of that just re­compence of reward, that divine justice, shall render unto men here [Page 55]is but the first fruits of that harvest of wrath which men shall reap according as they have sowen, here afflictions are only the beginning of sorrow, perfe­ctum est cui nihil deest, so there shall be nothing wanting unto a mans sorrow for ever, there shall be perfect sorrow, &c. this perfection of sorrow is set forth to us in Scripture in these particulars.

First, Mat. 8.12. By the several dreadfull ex­pressions of it. There shall be utter darkness; As the happiness of the peo­ple of God in Scripture, is compared unto light, Col. 1.12. the inheritance of the Saints in light, as light in Scripture is put for all comforts, happiness, and sweetness: so is darkness for all misery and affliction, and it shall be utter darkness, purae tenebrae, the fulness of all misery; there shall not be so much as a beam of light, and comfort to eternity, and there shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, that expression is used three ways in Scripture. First, as an experession of the greatest rage and madness, the highest anger and indignation, Psal. 37.12. the wick­ed plotteth against the just, and [Page 56]gnasheth against him with his teeth. Secondly, of the highest scorn and contempt, as Lam. 2.16. they hiss and gnash their teeth. Thirdly, of extremity or vexation, when a man cannot tell whither to turn him, Psal. 112.10 they shall gnash their teeth and consume away, as for those thoughts of popish interpreters, that there shall be extremity of heat, by reason of fire, and yet they shall gnash their teeth by reason of ex­tremity of cold, they are but vain inventions and conceits of men igno­rant of the Scripture, so Luke 16.23, 24. [...], being in torment, the word [...] does signifie to put a man upon the rack, and examine a man by torments, and is taken from those torments, that men do use to invent to put malefactors unto, which does note the greatest extremity of torment, and [...] does signifie the pangs of a woman in travel, which are commonly put for the greatest extremity of pain, as Acts 2.24. it is used of the extremity of Christs suffering, he calls them the traveling pangs of death. Now [Page 57]though a woman undergo extremity of pain, yet it is but bodily, and it is but short, and she has hope of a joyfull issue, because a man child is born into the world, she forgets her pain; but when these shall be the Travelling pains of the soul, which shall never be delivered but dye in travel, and travel for ever, and ne­ver see the fruit of it, this must needs be perfect sorrow.

Secondly, It will appear from the causes of this sorrow, and they are such as that they must needs bring with them perfect sorrow; First, The wrath of God lets into the soul to the utmost, the curse in the ex­tremity and perfection thereof, Matth 25. Depart from me ye curs­ed; and the Lord does it to manifest an attribute, to shew the power of his wrath. Psal. 90.11. Rom 9 22 Now if God manifests his displeasure here by the creature, how miserable can he make a man? But much more when he does it immediately; for that is the fire that is here spoken of, the imme­diate wrath of God upon the soul; and if but a few drops of it let in [Page 58]upon the hearts of some of his own people, make their strength to con­sume away, and turn their moisture into the drought in Summer; If when it seased upon Christ, the Green-tree it did come so fiercely, because the Father was pleased to bruise him; how much more will the Lord delight to bruise thee? If Christ did sweat drops of blood, and was in an agony under the sence of this wrath, Oh! where must thy poor soul be, whom the Lord will hate and deal with as an enemy for ever, a vessel of wrath.

Thirdly, When a man shall in judgment be given over to sin per­fectly, and all the restraints of the spirit of God upon a man shall be taken away; there is a twofold re­straining grace upon mens acts, and upon their lusts, and men are in many things under both here, for their acts, Gen. 20.6. I withheld thee that thou shouldest not touch her; and their lusts, when thou goest up to worship, no man shall desire thy Land; but now God will let out mens lusts to their full length, and a [Page 59]mans thoughts shall be taken up with them for ever; a man shall feed up­on his darling, eat the fruit of his own wayes, and be filled with his own devices. Now to be given over to be proud for ever, drunk for ever, from the cup of Gods right hand, unclean for ever, scoffers for ever, and that which was before a mans plea­sure, shall now be his torment; It is but for God to change a mans appre­hensions and it will be so here; Amnon desired Tamar, but after his Lust was satisfied it vanished, and the hatred wherewith he hated her, was more then the love with which he loved her before: 1 John 2.17. The world passeth away, and the Lust thereof, as we see in Judas while the Lust of covetuous­ness was up, there was nothing so de­sirable as money, though it was but Thirty pieces of silver, but the Lust passeth away, and now there is no­thing in the world that troubles Judas like to this, so that he hangs himself to be rid of it; and so it will be here­after, the Lust shall be gone, and then for a soul to be given over unto it in judgment, shall be a mans con­tinual [Page 60]torment; for as the Saints in Heaven shall be confirmati in bono, so the damned in Hell shall be obfirmati in malo, and that in judgment; there­fore Aquinas has well observed, as in Heaven the Saints shall be doing good for ever, but all their good act­ions pertinent ad beatitudinis praemi­um, so in Hell the wicked shall be do­ing evil for ever, and they can do no otherwise but these, mala pertinent ad damnationis poenam, &c.

Fourthly, The society that a man shall be judged unto for ever, for it is part of the happiness of the saints in Heaven, that they shall be gathered to their fathers, to Abraham and Isaac, to have their souls bound up in the bundle of the living, 1 Sam. 25. gathered to the souls of just men made perfect; so for a man to be gathered to the de­vils, have their portion with the de­vil and his angels, a creature that we have looked upon with the greatest hatred here; yet then must be thy companions, to run out an eternity with; this is the god of this world, to him thou hast lived here, and with him thou shalt live for ever. [Page 61] Psal. 125.5. Lead them forth with the workers of iniquity, for here men are mixed, but then he will rank them with those of their own kind, and they shall remain in Tophet, which was a place in the valley of Ainon; a place famous for three things, there were memorable acts of mourning, there the children of Israel did cause their children to pass through the fire to Molech (that is) sacrifice their children to the Devil, there Eighteen hundred thousand of the Assyrian camp were destroyed by an Angel in one night; Isa. 30.31. Isa. 31.33. Through the voice of the Lord, shall the Assyrian be beaten down, for Tophet is prepared of old, &c. And there did the Babilo­nians murther the people of Jerusa­le [...]n at the taking of the City, Jer. 7, 31. Because they had burnt their sons in Tophet to the Devil, there­fore they should fall and be destroy­ed themselves in Tophet, and they should bury there till there was no place; this place is put for the place of the damned, and Hell is called Tophet, the valley of slaughter, or the invisible valey of Hinnon: [Page 62]Prov. 21.16. It is called Coetus Gi­gantum, those in Gen. 6. that did pro­voke God to bring the floud upon the world of the ungodly, they being the first noted inhabitants of Hell, therefore from them the place has its name, and all that go down since, are said to go down into the Congre­gation of the Giants, whom in their disobedience and rebellion they have followed.

Fifthly, The very consideration of the happiness of the saints, Luk. 13.28. To see Abraham and Isaac in the kingdom of God, and them­selves thrust out; Time was that I had as fair offers, as precious op­pertunities as they had, and it may be means and outward mercies far be­yond them; but I have despised knowledg, and I would none of the fear of the Lord, I had my portion in this Life, and therefore now they are comforted, but I am tormented; I was so foolish, as to account their life madness, and their end to be without honour, but now they are numbred amongst the Saints of the most high, and I am shut out. Oh [Page 63]that you could call time again! This is the language of souls in Hell.

Sixthly, Here there is something that may mitigate sorrow, but all such things shall be taken away after this life.

First, It's an ease to a mans heart here to speak of his misery, and to vent it, that he may have some to pity him and condole him; but there shall be none to pity a man then, for the law of nature shall cease after this Life, and the devils shall not pity men, nor men pity one another; but rather inbitter their condition unto a man for ever.

Secondly, Here a man in sorrow can turn himself unto some creatures, and comfort himself with them, as Cain fell to building of Cities, &c. But all the creatures are but for the time of this Life, and in this Life they are thy good things, but after this Life there is no sweetness or use of any creature to eternity, for God shall be all in all.

Thirdly, But it may be said surely God is a God of mercy, he will pity us how ever; No, thou shalt have judg­ment [Page 64]without mercy, in vengeance and recompence for ever, he will laugh at your destruction, and mock when your fear comes, &c. And therefore consider it: Wo to you that laugh now, for you shall weep, the time of your sorrow hastens, and when God shall wipe away all tears from the eyes of his people, then shall your sorrow and tears begin and indure for ever.

Secondly, In Hell there shall be perfect shame, Dan. 12. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlast­ing life, and some to shame and ever­lasting contempt; I conceive it is spoaken of the calling of the Jews, but in allusion to the day of judg­ment, some shall arise to shame and everlasting contempt, 1 Joh. 2.28. That we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his comeing, the shame of men in that day shall be great. For,

First, All a mans foolishness shall be laid open to himself, and to the view of all the world; for Cor. 2.5.11. We shall all be made manifest before the [Page 65]judgment seat of Christ, for it will be a day of revelation, before men and angels, friends and enemies, here men are not ashamed because their wayes are hid. Jer. 2.26. The thief is not ashamed, till he is found; but then all those [...] shall be all brought to light in that day; now if men did but commonly know all that you know one by another, or much more all that a man knows by himself; then a man looking upon himself what an ugly creature he is, and how the image of God is de­faced, and the image of the Devil is upon him, how he has been taught as a beast, and whipt as a slave, when God does at first discover a man to himself in a mercy, by a work of conviction, Tanquam monstrum inter filios Dei slo cal­ente me sa­lem insipiis­dum. How does he loath him­self in his own sight, saying that he is hell it self, a beast and no man? And yet this is but a glimpse of him­self he can see here; how much self abhorrancy will it be hereafter upon a perfect discovery of a mans self.

Secondly, For a man to be sepa­rated from God with detestation, what a shame must this needs be? [Page 66]Here every man bears up himself out of his self-love, and the self flaterie of his spirit, that he is as high in Gods esteem as other men, and as much in Gods favour; but if God should say to any man in this Congregation be­fore you all, this man I never knew, I have separated him to destruction, as a vessel of wrath, whither could such a man cause his shame to go? how hateful is Cain and Judas that are gone down to their own place? and how hath the Lord made their very name a reproach? so it will be with all ungodly men after this life, at the last and great day, 1 Co [...]. 16.22. the utmost curse is Anathama, Maran, Atha, cursed at the coming of the Lord, and when the Lord shall say to a man at that day, depart from me you cursed, who are Tares and no Wheat, Goats and no Sheep, fo [...]lish and not wise Virgins, those that I will never shew mercy to, how must such men need; lye down in their own shame and confusion for ever.

Thirdly, A man shall be ashamed because he shall be derided, and there is nothing in the world that goes a­gainst [Page 67]the nature of men more then shame. First, by God, Pro. 1.26. I will mock when your fear cometh. Secondly, the Saints. Thirdly, The Devils, Isa. 14.9.12. Luk. 16.25 Son, re­member that in thy life time r [...]c [...]ivedst thy good things. Hell from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming, &c. Fourthly, a­bove all, from a mans spirit, Job 27.6. his heart will reproach him for his days; there is neither men nor Devils can lay such bad reproaches on a man, as his own heart, and men have in some measure experience of it from day to day; And hence shall follow an indignation, [...]. and a revenge upon a mans self for ever; because a man shall be covered with his own confusions as with a Mantle.

Thirdly, There shall be perfect despair, Job 11. last, the hope of the wicked is breathed out, his last hope is gone with his last breath, and it must needs be perfect both in respect of good to be obtained, and evil to be avoided.

First, there is no hope of good to be obtained, or to have any part in the happiness of the Saints for ever; 1. The book of Gods decrees shall be [Page 68]opened, and those deeps broken up, and then a man shall see himself fore-ordained unto this condemnation, Jude 4. Mat. 7.23. and God is not as man, that he should repent: it's easier to weigh the fire, or measure the wind, and to call back yesterday, then to call back the decree; for with God is no variableness nor shadow of change. Jans. 117.

Secondly, after this life a mans e­ternal state is cast, and his condition unchangeable for ever, death is but eternitatis prodromus, Luke 16. it is a gulf, Mat. 25.9. the time of buying is past: therefore the Saints send them to beg; for they have no oyl to spare, and of working, there is no work in the grave, &c.

Thirdly, They shall try all means and avail nothing as they Mat. 7.22. plead with the judge, Lord we have Prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out Devils: therefore open to us &c. Secondly, they shall mince and extenuate their sins, and plead for themselves, Mat. 25.44. Lord when saw we thee an hungred or a thirst, &c. Thirdly, They shall fall [Page 69]to their prayers, Mat. 25.11. Lord, Lord, open unto us; but the Lord shall say, depart you workers of ini­quity. Fourthly, They shall turn to the Saints, Luk. 16.24 father Abraham send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue. and give us of your oyl; for our Lamps are out; but there is nei­ther oyl from the one, nor water from the other: and having tryed all means and nothing prevails, the soul sinks into perfect despair for ever.

Secondly, There is no hope of avoyding the miserie they lye under.

First, There shall be no hope of pardon, for their sin shall be seen in its greatness, and thou wilt say with Cain, my iniquity is greater then I can bear, then can be forgiven, thou hast fin'd all thy life time, and to eternity thou hast the same dispo­sitions; for the fire of Hell can never purge sin, and thy obligation to the Law is eternal: and therefore the An­gels that fell are reserved in everlast­ing chains, Jude 6. and no mercy, but [Page 70]judgment without mercy, Jam. 2.13. fury with­out compassion; for the time of mercy is past, and the day of venge­ance is begun, and as here mercy hath rejoyced over judgment, so there will be a time when judgment shall rejoyce over mercy for ever, and it is much easier to change the seasons of the year, that it shall not be summer and winter in its season, rather then the seasons of the attri­butes of God; for the curse is dying, thou shalt dye.

Secondly, No hope of mitigation or ease, thy honours shall do thee no good, it shall not descend after thee, nor thy Riches shall not profit in the day of wrath, Pro. 11.4. there is nothing but Righteousness can then avail, thou shalt carry nothing with thee to bribe the flames, or corrupt thy tormen­ters, and not a drop of water, Luke 16. not the smallest mitigation to eternity, and this is properly the death of the soul, loosing the soul Mat. 16.26. for so long the soul will live, as long as there is hope, but hope defer'd makes the heart sick, and hope perished makes the [Page 71]heart dye; the consideration of e­ternity swallows up a created under­standing to be punished with eternal destruction, depart into everlasting fire, this is astonishment and dread­ful amazement, there shall be perfect fear; for a man shall receive the spirit of bondage perfectly, which is, 2 Kin. 1.7. a spirit of fear, we see it in the Devils, Mat. 8.29, though they are in torment for the present, yet there is a time of greater torment which they expect, and that which they know they are reserved for, and this they continually fear, Luke 8.28. Here is the Dev. is prayer. I beseech thee torment me not before the time, &c. so Dives though in torment, yet he desires that his brethren may not come into the same place, not that there is any charity in Hell; for the Devil would have all men damn'd with himself, and our natural affections shall cease in Hell, but only fear of worse to come, still remains.

Here in this life, ungodly men are fearless, and they seem to mock at fear, as Job speaks, &c. but there is a time when their fear shall come, [Page 72] Pro. 1.26. I will mock when their fear comes, for it will come upon them as an armed man, and the Lord will pour out upon them a tremb­ling heart, Deu [...]. 28.65. and fear shall be on very side, they shall be full of terrible apprehensions, and so become Ma­gor Missabib, Jer. 20.3, 4 Isa. 13.8. their faces shall be as flames, which denotes the variety of sad im­pressions upon them, they shall change, and be as tremulous as a flame.

Secondly, The terrours of God shall set themselves in array against a man, Job 6.4. and we know the terrour of the Lord how dreadful it is, when he shall stir up all his wrath, and thou shalt pay the uttermost far­thing, and he will recover all that glory upon thee by thy suffering, that he has lost by thy sinning. Thirdly, Men may say, but though I know not what God can inflict, because it shall be his wrath put forth in the power of it, though I know not what God can do, yet I know what I can suffer; but the Lord will surely in­large the faculties, and thou shalt be [Page 63]in a continual terrour, that thou knowest not what the Lord will in­large thee to suffer; for thou art a vessel of wrath: and therefore 'tis said, Psal. 90.11. even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath, &c.

Fourthly, Hence shall follow a di­straction and madness, Psal. 88.15. while I suffer thy terrors, I am di­stracted, and also blasphemy: I wish I were above God sayes Spira, and a desire of annihilation, wishing that he had never been, Job 7.14. his soul chose strangling rather, & Judas does dispatch himself to be rid of his fears, the wicked shall rise to judgment, but they shall not be able to stand in judgment, saith Spira, this I know, and it torments me with pangs unut­terable, and yet there is nothing that I desire more than that I might come unto that place where I might know the worst of my torment, and so be freed from the fear of worse to come: Nay fear doth anticipate our evils beforehand, and thereby a man may even bring upon himself an eternity of torments at once, in the fear of it, the creature knows not the terror of [Page 64]the Lord, unless it be discover'd to him, my sufferings are great, but my fears are endless, and makes a man to suffer even an eternity of torments at once.

First, Ʋse. Seeing that Conscience shal be a mans tormentor at the last, and that the Worm is bred from the pu­trefaction and corruption that is it the Conscience, it should be a sea­sonable exhortation to get your Con­science purged, that there may be nothing within you to breed this Worm. 2 Tim. 1.3. We read of a pure or a purged Conscience, and [...] this be done thou needest not to fear, for there will be nothing in thee fo [...] this Worm to feed upon. And here it will be good to consider,

First, By nature thy Conscience i [...] defiled, for as upon the whole So [...] defilement came by sin, so Conscience having a special hand in the sin, its de­filement came specially upon the Con­science.

Secondly, Tit. 1.15 Every sin committe [...] adds unto this defilement, as Mark 7.20.21. And this defiles the man, there is not a vain thought in thy heart, a vain word in thy mouth, a [Page 65]sinful glance of thine eye, Heb. 9.19. but it adds unto thy defilement; for Jer. 17.1. It is Conscience that receives all, and re­gisters all, all dead works lye there, this is the Tophet, or the Golgotha in the man; all the filthiness of his life is there laid up, as in a treasure, for wrath and vengeance, against the day of the re­velation of the just judgment of God. Jer. 2.22.

Thirdly, There is no power in na­ture to purge the Conscience, for thou art dead in trespasses and sins; Eph. 2.1. And what can be more sutable to dead works, should a man fast, and pray, could he fill the air with sighs, and weep even to the brim, it would add to his defile­ment, because all the works of na­ture are dead works, and their very prayers are turned into sin, and their sacrifices are an abomination, and that which adds unto his defilement can never cleanse it.

Fourthly, If Conscience be not purged here, it will never be purged hereafter; Here indeed there is a plaister that will kill this Worm, but if it out live the time of this life it is immortal it will never dye; peccatum [Page 66]viatorum deleri potest,Aquin.damnatorum non potest, &c. The Lord will say I would have purged you, but you would not be purged; therefore you shall never be purged from your ini­quity for ever.

Fifthly, There is but one medicine in the world will do it, and if you miss of that you will dye in your sins, and lye down with your Consciences full of the sins of your youth; you may fly to prayer and preaching, and think to have it done by these, but it will never be, there is but one potion, and therefore it will be good for you to take that in time also: Now what is this medicine that will purge the Conscience? it is the blood of Christ onely. Heb. 9.14. It shall purge your Conscience from dead works; and Heb. 10.22. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience; Here is first the disease, and that is dead works, with the subject of it, or the part of the evil affected, that is, the Conscience. Secondly, There is the medicine, it's the bloud of Christ who offered himself by the eternal spirit without spot to God. [Page 67]Thirdly, The manner how this blood doth it, it is by sprinkling, and therein the power of this medicine is put forth.

First, The disease, dead works in the Conscience are of two sorts, Guilt and Lust, &c. But to awaken every mans Conscience to get it purged, take these considerations. First, By nature every mans Conscience is de­filed, Tit. 1.15. Heb. 9.14. the blood of Christ comes up­on no mans Conscience, but it finds it polluted with dead works; for whether we consider either the guilt, or the defilement of sin, it's the Con­science that is the main receptacle of it the guilt is laid up there: Jer. 17.1. The sin of Judah is written with a pen of Iron, and with the point of a Diamond; it is spoken de summo & indelibili reatu, it was written upon their Consciences, and upon the horns of their Altars, nec deleri potest nec latere, for it did appear upon eve­ry Altar, and every new act of sin adds unto the defilement of Consci­ence, that's the Tophet, the Golgotha of the soul; men of corrupt Consci­ences are graves, though they appear [Page 68]not so. Now when a man shall con­sider how our iniquities are gone over our heads, and are more in number then the hairs of our head, and even answerable to the sand upon the Sea shore, innumerable; What filthy polluted Consciences must such men needs have.

Secondly, Consider what a miser­able thing it is for a man to have a polluted Conscience;

First, It breaks a mans peace, the inward man is never quiet, Isa. 57.21. There is no peace says my God to the wicked; It is as Austin compares it to a bad wife, that when a man hath met with hard labour abroad, trouble and af­flictions from without, and retires himself, and hopes to find some com­fort at home, but there he has never a quiet hour; this is more trouble­some then any of his outward crosses can be, for it is an evil Wife that's a continual droping, so is Conscience, Fugiet ab agro ad civitatem, à publico ad domum, à domo ad cubiculum, & sequitur tribulatio.

Secondly, It imbitters all a mans comforts, a good Conscience will [Page 69]sweeten every cross, Paul and Silas can sing in the stocks, Ubi cunque alibipassus est tribula­tiones illuc confugiet & ibi in­veniet De­um, &c. and the Mar­tyrs rejoyce a the stake; for whenso­ever any man suffers tribulation for keeping a good Conscience thither God hastens and finds him, and makes him rejoyce in the testimony of his Conscience; so an evil Consci­ence will imbitter every comfort, Paul can stand with boldness at the Barr, when Felix doth tremble on the Bench; there is no state can se­cure a man that has an evil Consci­ence, his comforts will not secure him, they will all be imbittered, take the choycest pleasures of sin that any man of you doth injoy, it is this adds Water to your Wine, and adds a tincture of Gall and Wormwood to all your sweetness and delicacies: There is an evil spirit that comes up­on Saul from the Lord, and what is that, Turbatur i [...]i anima & Consci­entia, immoderata tristitia a diabolo ex­citata, and when God did suffer Satan to come in and disquiet his Conscience, all the comforts of a kingdome could not sweeten such a mans spirit, neither can he [Page 70]have any sweetness in them all.

Thirdly, It takes away a mans courage; a good Conscience makes a man to be as bold as a Lyon, and he can set his face as a Rock, let the storm come and yet the Rock shakes not, and he is not afraid of evil tide­ings; but the wicked flyes when none pursues them, and indeed they need no other pursuer; for there is within them Lethalis arundo, as a Deer that is shot may run, but still carries his misery with him, and as Cain, surely every one that meets me will slay me. Gen. 11.4. Herod when he heard of the fame of Jesus, he says surely it is John the Baptist, he is risen from the dead, and there­fore mighty works shew forth them­selves in him.

Fourthly, It unfits a man for every duty; for the guilt of it arising in the Conscience stops a mans mouth, and shuts up his heart before the Lord; brings him into the presence of God as a Malefactor into the presence of the Judg, with a vail upon his face, and pollutes all his services, his prayer is turned into sin, for all things are [Page 71]defiled unto them whose Consciences are defiled. Tit. 1.15.

Fifthly, A man cannot promise himself any acceptance or success in any thing he does; Mal. 3.4. He shall purge them as silver, and then shall their sacrifices be pleasant unto the Lord, &c. and Psal. 51.13. Open thou my lips, then shall I teach transgressours thy way, &c. God may indeed work great things by men of polluted Consciences; but they cannot promise themselves success in any thing that they undertake till their Consciences be purged.

Sixthly, Thou art in a continual fear and expectation when God will awaken it, as he surely will do, for sin lyes at the dore; but between a godly man and sin, there is a wall that will never open, but between a wicked man and sin there is a dore, that though it may be shut long, it will open at last: and an evil Consci­ence it is that watcheth at the dore till the man dare look out, & miserrimum est talem habere janito­rum, Luther.

A Spirit of slumber upon a man, and a seared Conscience is a great judgment, but it will not last allways, it is at farthest but for the time of this Life, and then the callumne upon Conscience shall be worne off, and the slumber cast away, and it shall be awakened so, as never to sleep again. Read the story of Cain and Belteshazar, of Judas, and of Spira, &c. Nay, Lay your ears to Hell a while, and hear the clamours of pol­luted Consciences there, and you shall see that the greatest plague that can befall a man in this life, is to be left unto the power of an evil Con­science; so that you had need to seek to have your Consciences purged, and this is specially to be considered of you that are grown old in wick­edness, and whose bones are still full of the sins of your youth, having been laying in defilement into your Consciences long, surely all this filth, the sink and sodoms of vanity that are there, cannot be easily purged, those unclean stables cannot be soon swept; there is no power in nature to purge it, for we are dead in trespasses and [Page 73]sins, and what is more sutable to dead men then dead works; and it is necessary to consider, that if Con­science is not purged here, it will never be purged, and there is but one means in the world will do it.

First, Consider the disease, and that is a Conscience defiled with dead works; as all the works of an unre­generat man are, he being a dead man, &c. And Conscience is de­filed onely by sin, and there are two things in sin that defile the Consci­ence; First, the guilt of it, Second­ly, the defilement of it, and hence Di­vines say, that as a good Conscience is either honeste bona & pacate bona, purged from the filth, purified and and pacified in respect of the guilt: So there is a twofold evil Conscience, either moleste mala, a Conscience dis­quieted with the guilt of sin, or else vitiose mala, polluted with the defile­ment, the filth of sin, and a mans Conscience must be purged from both these.

Secondly, Here is the Medicine that must purge the Conscience from both these, and that is the blood of [Page 74]Christ; by the blood of Christ is meant that perfect satisfaction that he did give unto the justice of God for the sin of man, [...] 1 Tim 2.6 A price every way answerable to the debt that we did owe: Now there was a double debt that man did owe to God, a debt of obedience as he was a creature, and a debt of service as he was a sinner, a debt of suffer­ing, the one answering the precept, and the other the curse of the Law, and both are here meant by the blood of Christ, his whole and perfect sa­tisfaction, his active and passive obe­dience: Onely, our whole redemp­tion is attributed to his blood. Ephes. 1.7. We have redemption through his blood, because this was the last payment, for the debt that Christ did pay for us, was as a debt that men pay upon a bond by several parcels, a little at one time, and a little at ano­ther, but the debt is not paid, nor the bond cancelled till it be all paid; so though indeed all the acts of obedi­ence that Christ did perform in our nature they were for us, and were part of that obedience that we did [Page 75]owe, all the acts of obedience that he performs in the dayes of his humi­liation, takeing our nature upon him he did as our surety, and many of his sufferings went before his death, for he was dying all the while; the thirty three years that he lived upon the earth, being indeed a man of sor­rows, a worm and no man, his suf­fering in his hunger and thirst, la­bour and weariness, and all the per­secution that he suffered from men, after he set his foot upon this earth, they are to be counted as part of his satisfaction; but yet the shedding of his blood upon the Cross, and being delivered unto death for us, this was the last and great act: and from the last payment which did fully satisfie the debt, and cancel the bond, hence it has its denomination; and so the whole satisfaction of Christ as our sacrifice and surety is here meant by the blood of Christ.

Thirdly, The manner how this medicine doth work this Cure, it is by sprinkling of it, a man must have his heart sprinkled from an evil Con­science; It is a Typical expression [Page 76]taken from the sacrifice under the Law, the sacrifice must not onely be killed, but the bloud must be sprink­led also; where the pascal Lamb was to be slain they must take the blood in the Basin, and with a branch of Hysope sprinkle it upon the dore­posts, not that the Angel had need to have a signal that he might pass over their houses, for he knew them well enough; but they had need of it, that they might thereby have their faith tried, and strengthened, in the sprinkling of that blood, of which the blood of the Lamb was but a Type: So Exod. 24.8. When they had offered the sacrifice, Moses took the blood and sprinkled it upon all the people, Lev. 14.14. and when the Leaper was cleansed, he came to the door of the Tabernacle and brought a trespass offering, and the Priest did take of the blood, and put it upon his right ear, and the thumb of his right hand: And in answer to all this Type, the blood of Christ is called the blood of sprinkling. Heb. 12.24. And this sprinkling is nothing else but the application of his merit, and satis­faction [Page 77]of this blood, unto a mans own particular soul, for in Christ's sacrifice there was a satisfaction and applica­tion, the one is in killing the sacrifice, and the other in sprinkling the blood; and this is done when by a mighty work of the Holy Ghost, the Con­science affected, and afrighted with the guilt of sin, doth rely and cast it self upon this satisfaction, to be a sacrifice for him, then is this satis­faction apropriated, and applied un­to him; so this blood as sprinkled is a speaking blood, it speaks better things then the blood of Abel (that is) it speaks so in the Conscience, non vindictam clamat sed veniam; Conscience is pacified, and a man thereby puts his sins upon the head of the Beast: Our sacrifice is a suffici­ent satisfaction, and the Conscience is not terrified with the guilt of sin, as if it were his own, and as if he were to satisfie in his own person no more; for the soul saith he was made sin for us, that knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him: Christ came into the World to save sinners, of whom I am chief. [Page 78]And here are these six things taken in by the soul, to pacifie the Con­science in respect of guilt.

First, When the soul sees by a spi­ritual and heavenly teaching, that the great plot and design of God under the second Covenant, is to take a­way sin; Heb. 10.4. [...], To take sin off the sinner; for if God will be just he must punish the sin, and if he be mercifull in sparing the sinner, there must be a way to sepa­rate the sin from the sinner; and this the Lord will do by an act of Sove­reignty, such as he did never exer­cise unto persons under the first Co­venant, and that is by imputing of our sin unto another, who was right­eous, 2 Cor. 5.20.21. and he was made sin for us, who knew no sin; he will be just, and therefore there shall not be com­mutatio justitiae, and he will be mer­ciful, and therefore there must be à commutatio personae, there had been else no place for mercy to have come, onely there is this one cause, the Lord will change the person, and by an act of absolute sovereignty, the Lord will count it so, that the sin [Page 79]shall be in Gods account in the guilt of it taken off from the one, in foro divino and put upon another.

Secondly, When the soul sees to this end God did call his son Christ, and did appoint him to be a publick person, and a representative head, and our surety; for these two are very different considerations; First, a surety is one that enters into bond, and engages himself for the dept of another, and so Christ is become our surety: therefore he was bound by our bond, and engageth himself for the dept of another, for our dept he was made under the Law, and so as a sacrifice he stood in the stead of a sinner, and the sacrifice was to be offered for the man; and so some expound that place, 2 Cor. 2.21. Isa. 53. he was made sin for us, that is, a sin-offering: there­fore he doth take our sins upon him as his own, and so doth confess them unto God, my iniquities have taken hold upon, Psal. 40.12. and so the Lord doth impute them and lay them upon him as his own; for Isa. 53.6. he did make to meet upon him the iniquities of us all, and the word [Page 80]doth signify hostile, congressu, they met with all their violence upon him, and therefore he was made sin for us, that is, as a surety in our stead, he bears our sins in his body, upon he tree, he was delivered for our trans­gressions, &c.

Secondly, Christ is a common per­son, a representative head, one that represents another mans person, and acts the part of another, according to the appointment of the Law, the acceptation of the judge, that what is done by him, the person is said to do; whose person he doth represent; and so was Adam a common person, and that by an act of Gods Sove­raignty, appointing him in making a covenant with him so to be, and he did represent all man-kind, and hence it comes to pass, that his sin is im­puted unto us, and made ours; so in our Law, an Atturney appears in the behalf of his Client, and so Christ is said to be gone to Heaven as our Atturney [...] to appear before God for us; Heb 9.24. so in paying a dept, or taking possession, livery and seizin by an Atturney, it's all one as if done [Page 81]by the person himself, who is repre­sented, and is as valed; so Kings are represented in their Ambassadors, and what is done unto them, or by them, is counted the act of the Prince; if they make peace the King makes peace, and if they denounce war, the King doth it, if an injury be offered to them, as to Davids Ambassadors, it is done to the Prince; because they do represent his person; so the Lord Christ is a common person by an act of Gods soveraignty, representing the person of all the elect of God, being appointed by God to be a se­cond Adam, and as the first Adam did represent all in him, so the second Adam does represent all in him also: a [...]d therefore as judgment came up­on all i [...] the first Adam, so righte­ousness comes upon all in the second Adam, so then sayes the soul, he is my surety: and therefore is bound to pay my debt, and he is a common person, as in my stead: and there­fore the satisfaction that is made unto God by him is in Law to be account­ed mine as really as if my Atturney should pay a debt for me, I should [Page 82]rest satisfied that the debt is paid, and in Law shall never be exacted of me, though it was not paid by my self in person, but by another, who did personate me in that act, and did it for me and in my behalf.

Thirdly, This is a special service that God the father call'd him unto, and for it he did promise him a re­ward; so that the plot of all is not Christs, but it is originally God the fathers, that he might make way for his mercy in pardoning sin: and therefore Christ doth it as God the fathers servant, Isa. 42.1. and in it he doth the fathers business, and he comes to do the fathers will in it, and not his own will, Heb. 10.7. and it is this will that is the ground of all the acceptation of all that Christ has done in our behalf, by which Will we are sanctified; for if Christ had satisfied the justice of God, yet it was free with God to accept it or not, he might have chose, and it's an act of grace, and yet of soveraign­ty, that he will grant a surety, and a commutation of the person: there­fore it's said, Joh 10.18 he did it by the fathers [Page 83]commandment, Joh. 17.2. I have finished the work thou gavest me to do, and the Lord gives him a reward for it, he gives him a name above every name, Phil. 2.9. and an inheritance, he sits down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, Angels, Principalities and Powers being made subject to him.

Fourthly, This Christ undertook freely and readily, it was a thing that he could not have been compelled unto; for he was in the forme of God, & thought it no rohbery to be equal, with God, yet he came readily for the glory of his Father, Pro. 8 30. and he was his delight before the world was, be­fore there was an inhabitant; and Psal 40. I delight to do thy Will, thy Law was within my bones, the Law of laying down his life as a surety, is in the middle of my bowels, the dearest and tenderest affections Christ had for it, Luke 12.56. I have a baptism, and I am pained till it be ended, he speaks it of his sacrifice, and though to shew what a great misery it was in it self, he manifested an aversness to it, voluntate naturae, [Page 84]yet as it was his Fathers will for our salvation, he cheerfully imbraced it, and drank off that bitter cup to the bottom, voluntate officii; therefore Christ became our surety, and repre­sentative head for us, freely he did strike hands with the Lord of his own accord willingly, and without regreet, he gave the hand to the Lord.

Fifthly, Isa 5.3.10. The debt he hath payed, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, Num. 11.8. for it pleased the father to bruise him; the word signifies conte­rere to break him to pieces as in a Morter, and he made his grave with the wicked; Rom. 6.10. In that he died, he died unto sin once: and Heb. 9 28. And he was offered to bear the sins of many, &c. And in testi­mony thereof he was taken from pri­son and from judgment, Isa. 5.3. His Prison was the grave, and by judgment and condemnation passed upon him by God himself, and after satisfaction given, the Lord sent an Angel and rowled away the stone from the grave; the debt being satis­fied, the Lord doth send an Officer [Page 85]to release his person, for it was not to supply any defect of power in Christ that an Angel came; for he that could raise up himself from death, and thereby declare himself the Son of God with power, he that could loose the pains of death, he could rowl a­way the stone from the grave, but it was done in a legal and judiciary way; and therefore he is said to be justified: He is near that justifies me, 1 Tim. 3.16.Isa. 50.8. And by this he doth con­vince the World of righteousness, because the Lord delivered him from death. Because he doth go to the Father.

Sixthly, For a Soul by an Almighty power of God to rest upon this satis­faction of his, and to plead it before God for himself, at his judgment seat.

First, To look upon Christ as dying not for himself, but as a surety; for in justification and the purging of Conscience from the guilt of sin, the eye of Faith is mainly set upon Christ crucified, Christ as dying, and that as a surety, to make satisfaction: 1 Cor. 2.2. Heb 9.22. I desire to know nothing but Christ, [Page 86]and Christ crucyfied, for without sheding of blood there is no remissi­on. For though it is true, that the personal excellencies that be in Christ, are the objects of Faith; yet that Faith as it comes to Christ in the act of justyfication, and being quit of the guilt of sin, it mainly looks upon Christ dying, Christ satis­fying.

Secondly, To look upon Christ as a representative head, as one in whom I died as a surety, so as one in whome I rose, he was justyfied and I in him, because as he dyed for me, so for me he was justified also, and Christ was formerly condemned, therefore there must an act of aquit­ing pass upon Christ, and therefore Heb. 9.28. That it was so apeared plainly, for he did bear the sins of many in respect of the guilt of them, and he shall apear the second time without sin, that is, have the guilt of no sin charged upon him in oposi­tion unto his former bearing our ini­quities, he shall be aquitted before men and angels, and therefore he rose as the first fruits, as a person re­presenting [Page 87]all the rest of the elect, and he was justified in the spirit, that is, raised up by the power of the di­vine nature, thereby he was mani­fested to be justified, and as he is sanctified as a common person, and receives an Image for us, that we must bear the Image of the heavenly there, is life eternal laid up in him, so he is justified as a common person from the guilt of sin, that not any iniquity remains unsatisfied for in his behalf, that is, the ransom in his death is fully paid, and as we were condemned in Adam a common per­son; so it is reason we should be ju­stified by Christ as in a common per­son also: now when a soul by an almighty work of the spirit of God looks upon all these acts of Christ, and the soul rests upon them, in re­spect of the guilt of sin, he doth put his sins upon the head of his surety, and looks upon himself as acquitted in his justification and casts himself upon it that he may attain it: thus the blood of Christ is said by a migh­ty work of the spirit on Christs part, and faith on ours, to be sprinkled [Page 88]upon our Consciences, to purge them from the guilt of dead works.

Quest. But how shall I know whe­ther there be such an almighty power put forth in me, that I may stay my soul upon Christs blood thus satisfying, that I might be able thereby to see my Conscience purged, and pacified, and the terrour of sin taken away?

Answ. A man shall know this al­mighty work of the spirit, sprinkling this blood of Christ upon the Consci­ence by enabling a man unto that which all the power and improve­ment of a natural Conscience can­not perform, and it will be seen in three things.

First, When a mans Conscience awakened and convinced of sin, doth yet make after reconciliation with God, and union with Christ; for a natural Conscience can find it easie to believe while he goes on still in his sins, and Conscience is a sleep, and indeed the faith of most men is but a good conceit of themselves, from the [Page 89]self flatery of their own hearts; but as soon as Conscience is awakened, by and by they fly from God and look upon him as an enemy, Luke 3.5. there are Mountains to be made a plain, and there are Valleys to be fill'd: now when a soul considers himself under the condemnation of sin, the curse of the Law, and looks upon God as an angry judge, and yet saith, I have heard that the Lord of Israel is a mercifull God; and if mercy save me I shall be saved, and if mercy destroy me I shall but dye, I will fly to him whom I have offend­ed, and lye down at his footstool; there is nothing in the world that I desire like unto reconciliation with him, and I would be reconciled to him in his own way, the way of union with Christ, I would he found in him, not having my own righteousness, I would submit to the way of the Gos­pel: Oh, blessed is the Man unto whom the Lord imputes this righte­ousness, and he is made the righte­ousness of God in Christ, when a soul thus convinced of sin, saith, God be mercifull to me a sinner: I will [Page 90]now go to him, and leave my self with him, let him do as it seemeth good to him, as David said, if the Lord delight in me, he will save me, &c. truly all the power of nature improved, can never make men leave themselves with God in this manner.

Secondly, When a mans sins are discovered, and the Lord leads a man into the wardrope of Christs righteousness, and enables him to see how there is enough therein to cover them all, and as God saw enough of Christs righteousness to satisfie him in point of justice; so the Lord doth by a glorious light shew unto the soul enough of Christs righteous­ness to satisfy also in point of guilt, that the soul can in some measure in Christ answer all the objections that Conscience can make by some spiri­tual reasonings drawn from the Lord Jesus Christ, as when Conscience objects, sin is a transgression of the Law; but the soul answers, the sufferings of Christ are the humili­ation of the Law-giver, sin is a disho­nour to God in point of goods; but Christ that made all things with [Page 91]him, and had the same title unto all that God the Father had, he laid down all, and became poor, and took a new title unto all, he had more then a world to lay down, sin did wrong God in point of honour, but he that was the brightness of his glory did abase himself, and made himself of no reputation, and did bring thereby more honour to God, he being subject to him, then the subjection of all the creatures could have done; it was a higher honour to the Soveraignty of God to have his son a servant, then could have been to have had the service of all the creatures, and he can do him more service, and bring him in more glory in an hour, then all the creatures could have done if man had stood to eternity; sin did offend God, but Christs righteousness did please him, in him his soul delights, and is well pleased sin blotted out Gods Image in man, Christ restored it again, we were full of all unrighteousness, and he fulfilled all righteousness; my sins are all hainous, but greater were charged upon Christ; he was a suf­ferer [Page 92]as a Traytor, a blasphemer, a Drunkard, a Seducer, a Conjurer, a Devil, he was made sin for us, he made his grave with the wicked, and thy heart was very wicked, and full of enmity when thou didst commit sin; but Christs heart was holy, and full of love to God when he satisfied for it, thou didst delight in sin, and so did Christ delight to suffer, he was payned till his sufferings were ended, thou didst sin openly at such a time, and such a place, &c. The Lord suffered without the gate open­ly in the view of all, and as thy sin is the greatest sin, so is his most shame­full suffering in the most solemn time, as it were before all the world, and in a most infamous place, as the great­est malefactor as it were at Tyburne; and for the company he suffered in it was between two Theeves, &c. when a soul is able to silence the guilt and clamour of his Conscience by an­swering all that Conscience can ob­ject, by finding out something in the righteousness and satisfaction of Christ to answer it, and faith is not nonpluss­ed, truly this is a work of an almighty [Page 93]power; for while men go on in the pleasures of sin, so long sin is no­thing, sin sits with no weight upon them; but when their Consci­ence is awakened to it, by and by their spirits are overwhelmed with it, as Judas was; now for a man to see sin in its utmost dimensions, and not to spare and be streightned in his humiliation, and yet when Consci­ence has said its worst, yet for him to be able to look into Christ, and see something in him that shall answer all its accusations, with as great strength of spiritual reason as the o­ther can be objected, and for a mans soul to be stay'd by such thoughts, when he is even going down to the pit, this is an almighty power.

Thirdly, When a man is convin­ced of sin and sees himself to be an undone man, knows not whether God will be mercifull unto him or no; he walks in darkness in point of justification, and yet his heart is kept in a constant awe of sinning against God, he would do nothing that should displease him for a world, his darling lust doth yield and strike sail to the [Page 94]contrary grace, Sam. 50.10.11. he fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant, he would do nothing that should dis­please him for a world, and yet he knows not whether he shall find mer­cy with him or no, but his soul takes up an unchangeable resolution a­gainst sin, and sayes, I will walk no more in a way of sinning, saved or damned, I will be willing to obey him and count it my happiness to do him service, and I will be willing to wait upon him, let him do with me as it seems good in his sight; if cast­ing a mans self upon Christ make a man fear to sin against him, there is an almighty power [...] that all the power of a natural Conscience will never make the man to yield up his darling-lust, as there is a Consci­ence moleste mala full of perplexity in respect of guilt, and the purging of the Conscience therein lies in its pa­cification, when a man looking upon sin in its greatness and exceeding sin­fulness, and yet can see [...] in the satisfaction of Christ, unto which as a City of refuge he flyes, being pursued, Heb. 6.18. and upon that [Page 95]he casts himself and pleads it before the judgment seat of God, that the debt is paid, and the surety acquit­ed, and this he doth either by an act of recombancy and reliance, or else by an act of assurance, as the Lord is pleased to clear his interest, and so the man is for ever perfected according to his Conscience, that is, Heb. 9.6 though sin doth cleave to him, and the guilt of sin may by Satan be pre­sented to him, yet conscience flying unto Christ for a refuge, and find­ing in him a perfect satisfaction, the man casts all upon his surety, and his Conscience is calm and serene, as a man himself indebted must needs be, when he knows that his surety hath paid his debt, and though there be a dayly application of this unto the soul, yet there is but one obla­tion, and the man upon this ground hath no more Conscience of sin, in respect of the guilt of it for ever, and this pacification of the Con­science is the perfection of the man, &c.

But there is a Conscience also that is vitiose mala, full of the defilement [Page 96]and pollution of sin, 1 Tit. 1.15. All evil is put under too heads, ma­lum triste, afflicting evil, or malum turpe, defiling evil; and sin has in it both these, as it binds a man over unto all afflicting evil, so there is a guilt; and as it doth fill a man with all polluting evil, so there is a defile­ment, a macula, a stain, and filthi­ness of sin, and it hath all the filthi­ness in the World in it, it is leprosy, pollution in blood, a sepulcher, and the rottenness thereof, it is [...] the very excrement of wickedness, Jam. 1.21. that if there could be any thing more filthiness then naughtiness it self it is sin, it has de­faced the image of God, and the na­tive beauty of the soul, and it hath brought upon a man positive filthi­ness, even the image of the Devil, and the dreadful marks of hellish deformity, that cannot be washed away with Niter and much Sope Jer. 17.1.

Though this be an universal pol­lution that overspreads the whole man, defiles body and soul, and spi­rit, yet the main defilement of sin [Page 97]lyes in the Conscience; and where every sin doth add to the pollution, as every act intends the habit, above all the faculties, the defilement of the Conscience is increased thereby: Now, the great pollution of the soul lyes in a spirit of slumber, Consci­ence letting a man commit evil and not to tell him it is evil, and in his sencelesness under sin; Isa. 29.10. Ephes. 4.19. Being bribed by Lust, and passions, and pleasures, to give consent to a sin, and to plead for it; for Conscience to pass sentence for a sin, and that in the name of God, 1 Joh. 16.2 and say that it is a duty, and stirs up a man to it, which it may be is one of the greatest sins of his Life, Con­science pleads for sin and excuses a man, falsly speaking peace to a man in a corrupt and cursed state, saying, I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst, &c. In a reprobate sense, to be in such a mind that Conscience approves things that are evil, and the false reasonings of sin in the Conscience, the man cannot see, men are given over to [Page 98]believe the lyes of their own spirits, and cannot say is there not a lye in my right hand; and a seared Con­science with a hot Iron, that man despises the threatning and judgment of God, 1 Tim. 4.9. and is wholly insensible as seared flesh: And all this defilement is not brought into the Conscience from without, but grows out of it by custome in sinning. And the ground of it is, because Conscience is the highest faculty and has the high­est office in the man, and therefore it is by corruption of the Conscience that all the rest of the faculties are so exceedingly corrupted as they are, because Conscience doth not its duty, and therefore God will mainly lay load upon the Conscience after this life, as this had the main hand in de­filing the man, so it shall be the great instrument in tormenting the man; for could men walk on in sin as they do, if Conscience did its duty, if it did instruct, suggest, accuse truly, as in the name of God, and never ex­cuse but upon grounds from the judg­ment that God gives of things, &c. The great pollution of the whole soul [Page 99]flows from the pollution of the Conscience, and therefore when the Pa­pists, do crowd down the defilement of the soul unto the inferiour facul­ties, the affections and passions, as if they were the sink of the soul, and all the filthiness were swept down upon them, but as for the under­standing & the will, they are in a great measure free, the Mistress or Lady in the soul; and if a light be brought into the understanding, the will has a power to follow, and so say the Arminians also, and it is a doctrine that spreads much amongst us; so when you hear Divines say that of all the faculties the Conscience is the least polluted, take heed of it, for the main filthiness of thy soul lyes there. And the reason that is com­monly given, is because Conscience in the worst men doth many times take part with God against sin, when Lust carries a man and his will is very violently bent upon it; but consider in an unregenerate man, this doth not proceed from the purity of his Conscience, even at that time when it doth take part with God, but be­cause [Page 100]there is the spirit of God comes in and stirs up Conscience, and lays a command upon it, and forceth it to do its duty, which it would be glad to let alone, and let Lust revel in it without controle, it would surely gratify the affection it has to Lust; but that the spirit of God comes in and over-aws the Conscience, and doth awaken and terrify it, and force it to speak, and therefore it doth not any more argue the purity of Con­science, then Balaams blessing of the people of Israel in the wilderness, did argue his love to Israel whom he did earnestly desire to have cursed, and did greedily follow after the way­ges of unrighteousness, but that the Lord held a strickt hand upon his Convcience that he durst not sin in it being over-awd; but it was no thanks to Balaam: And so it is here, no thanks to Conscience which is corrupt and will by degrees grow insencible, and incourage a man desperately in a way of sinning, even to despight of the spirit of Gods grace.

Now, How shall this defilement be purged, all these dead works how [Page 101]shall they be cleansed? It is by the blood of Christ.

First, From the Holyness of his nature as he is our Head; For by the blood of Christ, is meant all his active and passive obedience, and in his active obedience, the holyness of his nature must be taken in, as he was man he received the spirit; He had a union and an unction from the free grace of the Father, calling him to this great work, and by a glorious sovereignty appointed Christ to be the head of his Church, and the second Adam, to stand in their stead to perform all for them, and to re­ceive all for them; &c. So he did receive the spirit as an unction from the Father, Isa. 42.1. I will put my spirit upon him, he shall be cloathed with the Holy Ghost, and put it on as a garment, and this spirit he doth receive as a head, that he may disperse it; for the infinite holy­ness of the Divine nature could no more be communicated, then the infinite righteousness of the Divine nature could be imputed, and there­fore he must perform perfect obedi­ence [Page 102]in his humane nature for our justification, that it may be imputed to us, and he must receive perfect holiness in his humane nature for our sanctification, that it may be impart­ed to us, John. 17.19. For their sakes I sanctify my self, that is re­cieved a spirit of sanctification, that it might be unto them a principle of holiness, and the fountain of their sanctification also, which I conceive to be meant by the Law of the spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death; Rom. 8.2. What is the Law of sin and death? It is the power of sin to condemna­tion, defiling, and destroying, and what is the Law of the spirit of Life? it is put for the powerful and com­manding work of the living, and the quickning spirit of Christ; and this Law, not as it is in us, but as it is in Christ, it is this that frees us both in respect of justification and of sancti­fication also, from the law of sin to defile, and rule, and also to con­demn and to destroy, and thus from the holiness of the nature of Christ it comes to pass, that the same spirit [Page 103]that was in him is conveyed unto us, his union did abundantly sanctifie him in himself, it being persoual, and therefore there was an inpecca­bility, the actus est suppositi, but his unction was for us, he had a fulness of the spirit, as he was our surety, he paid our debt, and as our head, so he received a spirit for us, and dis­penced it to us, &c. thus you see the sanctification of the humane nature of Christ doth purge a mans Con­seience from dead works, even the Law of the spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus, makes us free from the Law of sin.

Secondly, There is in the blood of Christ a causa meritoria, and it doth meritoriously purge the Couscience; for though there was the fulness of all grace in the humane nature of Christ, yet it could never have been conveyed unto us without a satisfa­ction had gone before, God must be satisfied that men might be san­ctified; for there is in the sufferings of Christ two things. First, The payment of a debt. Secondly, There is a redundancy of merit, some thing [Page 104]must be procured for man, non solum instauratus est, Aust.sed & melioratus; à peccatis ablutus, instauratus est, in caeteris melioratus. Aust. Tom. 4.9. 123. p. 613.

First, It doth purchase the persons of the elect: Acts 20.28. therefore they are call­ed a purchased people, 1 Pet. 2.9. [...], Ephes. 1.14. they are the seed that do arise from the travel of his soul; for he dyed as a grain, that he might not abide alone, John 12.32. when the Son of man is lifted up he will draw all men unto him, and the selecting of the Saints out of this world, is a fruit of his death, and a part of the purchase thereof, Gal. 1.4.

Secondly, All the graces and all the gifts of the Holy Ghost are part of his purchase, though in him they were free, he did not merit his un­ction no more then his union, the humane nature could not merit it, yet as they are bestowed upon us, so they are the fruit of his merit; for they could never have conveyed this unto us, if he had not satisfied God, and laid down a price answer­able [Page 105]unto all, and therefore, Ephes. 4.9, 10. he that ascended is the same that descended into the lower parts of the Earth, and he ascended that he might fill all things, all the fruit of his ascention comes from his humili­ation, had he never descended he had never ascended: therefore all the fulness of the graces and the gifts that the elect have it, is grounded upon this; the fruit of all his offices is grounded upon his Priest-hood, he does as a Prophet teach, but that he had never done, if he had not satis­fied, he doth as a King dispence gifts, but these gifts he gives to his people by his priesthood, as an honour that the Lord has given him because of his abasement, and his humiliation, and thus our sanctification and the purg­ing of the Conscience flows from the death of Christ, which is the meri­torious cause thereof.

Thirdly, The active obedience of Christ is the pattern and the causa exemplaris of all that holiness and purification that is required of us, our holiness consisting in a confor­mity into Christ, he having received [Page 106]the Image of God in himself, and by beholding of his Image we are chang­ed into the same, 2 Cor 7. last verse, Christs life is a living Scripture, a vi­sible commentary upon the Law of God, whose actions we must follow, be you followers of me as I am of Christ; looking to Jesus, and seting him before us, 1 Pet. 2.21 as [...] a Copy for us to write after, and whose virtues we must shew forth, our happiness being to be like him in glo­ry, 1 John 3.3. we must resemble him here as a child doth his father; for as we have born the Image of the earthly, so we must bear the Image of the heavenly, as we have born the one here in sin and guilt, so we must bear the other here in grace, and hereafter in glory.

Fourthly, Christs blood doth cleanse us by the precepts and the promises of the Gospel, he doth sanctifie us by his truth. John 17. First, by the precepts of it; for he saith, be you holy as I am holy, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, as obedient children: fashion not your selves according to the lusts of your [Page 107]former ignorance, put off the old man and put ye on the new man, be not conformable to the World, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, and all these precepts have a purging vertue, because through the blood of Christ all the com­mands of the Gospel carry grace with them, and a spirit that inables men to fullfil the command, jubet & ju­vat.

Indeed you may well question, can a thing that is intrinsically unclean purge it self, can a Black-moor change his skin? &c. It is true he cannot, but there is a creating word verbum factivum, such as Christ said unto the Leper, I will, be thou clean and by his commanding it, the soul is cleansed, as when God by a way of command did cause the creatures to to stand up act of nothing, for the commands of the Gospel they are as seed by which a man is begotten, and they are as a mold into which a man is transformed, Rom. 6.17. A man is cast into it, as into a frame, that doth change him, and fides impetrat qu od lex Aust.imperat.

Secondly, In the promises of the Gospel, and they are all grounded in the blood of Christ, for all the pro­mises are in him, yea, and in him Amen; he is the center, and they are all as so many lines drawn from him, he is the great promise that gives being unto all the rest of the promises and efficacy; it's the death of the Testatour that doth confirme the Testament, it were else a blank; and therefore the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is called the New Testa­ment in his blood. Matth. 26.28. That is the whole New Testament and the promises thereof are offered and sealed unto you in his blood, and if it were not a Testament in his blood, it were invalid and of none effect, and the promises of the Gospel do purge the Conscience.

First, As they are objects of Faith, Christ having promised in them a purification, Isa. 4.4. Zac. 13.1. There is a fountain open for sin and for uncleanness; Isa. 52.15. it is aspersi [...] doctrinae & justitiae. Mal. 3.1. He shall sit as a refiner and shall sanctify the sons of Levi with refiners fire; [Page 109]&c. Exek. 36.25.37. I will sprinkle clean water upon them, &c. They shall not defile themselves any more with their Idols, and with their detestable things. Now the soul looking upon the faithfull­ness of God, and his goodness ingaged in these, sayeth, having these pro­mises let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness, both of flesh and spirit, and these promises Faith turns into prayer, and obtains the mercy pro­mised, because all these promises are confirmed by the bloud of Christ.

Secondly, The promises do purge the Conscience as they are grounds of hope, for they are onely promises that are the grounds of hope to the saints, Psal. 119.49. establish thy word unto thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope, and a hope that is ground­ed upon a promise, is a hope that will never make a man ashamed, and hope is a great ground of purging, Tit. 2.12.13. Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, &c. who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all ini­quity, [Page 110]and purify to himself a pecu­liar people. &c. The grace of God bringing salvation, teacheth us that denying ungodliness and worldly Lusts, &c. Looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of God, as many as have this hope do purify themselves even as he is pure, &c. Truly in all things the more lively a mans hopes are, the more springing his endeavours are: And he doth take care to cast away that which will cloud his hope, or defer it; Ph [...]l. 3.12. I have a hope of the prize of the high calling, and it is some ground that I have got already, something that I have attain'd, but yet it is but a little; but upon a hope that I shall have him that indeed is [...] in my eye, therefore I strive with all my might, and press hard to the mark &c. And thus the blood of Christ gives an efficacy unto all the precepts and the promises of the Gospel, and they are all of them by this means of a cleansing nature, they do purge the Conscience, they have all a cleansing property.

Fifthly, The blood of Christ doth purge the Conscience, by sprinkling all means that it shall tend unto a mans purification; that as by sin all things do become means to defile the Conscience, so by the blood of Christ all things shall become means to purge the Conscience; Tit. 1.15. Unto the pure all things are pure, but unto them that are defiled, and unbeliev­ing, is nothing pure, but even their mind and Conscience is defiled: For under the law the sprinkling of the blood was not onely upon the per­son, but upon the book, and the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministery, Heb. 9.19 Implying that none of these would have been instruments of purging of the Con­science, if they had not themselves been first purged by the blood of Christ: But what are the means that thus purge the Conscience.

First, The word of God, Ephes. 5.26. That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of Water, by the word; and John 15.3. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. &c. Mens [Page 112]Consciences are purged by it, but yet in it self it will increase the de­filement, as unto all unregenerate men it does; Heb. 6.7. The ground that drinks in the rain that comes oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: But that which bears thorns, and briers, is rejected and is nigh to cursing. And yet if Christ sprinkle it with his blood, it will surely purge the Conscience, and all the purging vertue that the word has, is because his blood was sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice.

Secondly, All other ordinances al­so; 2 Cor. 3 3. First, that of the ministery, ye are our epistle, and though ye have Ten thousand instructers, yet not many Fathers, but I have begotten you through the Gospel: Now even this ordinance that was appointed for their cleansing will but increase their pollution of themselves, if their un­circumcised heart should rise against the message they bring them, to be­lieve in the blood of Christ, and then God in judgment says to his mi­nisters go make the heart of this peo­ple [Page 113]fat, let their hearts be hardened and their spirits rise against it, that hearing they may hear, and not un­derstand, least they be converted and I should heal them; the Lusts of men are thereby the more exasperated and drawn forth, as it did in the Phari­sees under Christs ministery, their enmity did rise to the sin against the Holy Ghost, besides Blasphemy a­gainst the son of man, but that the ministery is effectual to any souls, it is onely the sprinkling of the blood of Christ upon all the ordinances thereof, and it will purge if Christ in it sit as a refiner of silver in his shop, and do concurr in the ordi­nances to their refinement.

Thirdly, The example of the Saints are a means of purging the Conscience; Phil. 3.17. Be follow­ers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample, &c. When a man doth observe unto what a pitch of holiness and purification the Saints of God have attained, as the example of Christ so of the saints also, such pres­sing forward to more spirituality, [Page 114]such growth in grace and in know­ledg, such love to all Saints, this is a great means to raise the hearts of them that fear God, to give all dili­gence to be as they were, holy in all manner of conversation: But yet they will be a means of pollution of themselves, even these glorious ex­amples of Christ and his followers, if not sprinkled with the blood of Christ; and as the Pharisees looking upon the holyness of the Saints, they were the more inraged; so the more lively men do see holyness, in the practise of it they hate it so much the more.

Fourthly, Hos. 2.6. Jer. 31.18. Isa. 18. Afflictions, When the Lord sends it upon any of his chil­dren, this is all their fruit to take away their sin, but yet afflictions will of themselves purge no mans Conscience but rather defile it, as we see how the rage of mens spirits are drawn out by it, as King Ahaz sin'd yet more, the more he was af­flicted, and Revel. 16.9.10. They did gnaw their tongues with pain, and did blaspheme the God of Hea­ven, but repented not of their evil [Page 115]deeds; bray a Fool in a Morter and yet his folly will not depart from him, but yet if Christs blood do sprinkle our crosses, they shall be as corasives to eat out the proud flesh, and they shall tend to heal him whom they had wounded.

Fifthly, Sometimes the Lord will do it by sins, in giving him up to some publick open and scandulous fall, as he did with David, lets him fall into that great evil of murder and adultery, and that made him to wash himself throughout, and it was a means to keep him low, and to pre­serve him from sin all his life time af­ter, and we have the like instance in Peter, in denying the Lord, and cur­sing and swearing that he never knew him; when thou art converted says Christ to him, strengthen thy bre­theren, for he would be the stronger afterwards; as a bone broke &c. and the less apt to fall into sin: Sure­ly sins of themselves being filthiness it self, cannot purge but will defile, but yet sprinkled with the blood of Christ they shall be an occasion of purging.

Sixthly, Sometimes the Lord will do it by leaving a man to the win­nowings of Satan, in some furious and violent temptation, Satans aim is thereby to sift out all grace, and to leave nothing but chaff in the soul, for we fight not against flesh and blood [...], things that con­cerne Heaven and Eternity, and commonly men are foiled by them, and are the more filthy by a touch of the wicked one; 1 John. 5.19. But when the Lord doth sprinkle a temp­tation with the blood of Christ, it shall be a means to purge the soul, and the poyson of it shall be temper­ed into a wholesome medicine as it was unto Paul A Mess­enger of Satan, &c. 2 Cor. 12.7.8. It is sometime purging, and some­times preventing Physick, to keep the soul from being lifted up, &c. The same may be said of mercies, and of all the dispensations of providence, for all shall work together for good (that is) for a mans spiritual and eternal good, because they are all yours; Creatures and providences are as truly subordinate unto your good, as they are unto Gods glory [...] [Page 117]and the end of all is to take away the sin, and to purge the Conscience that is defiled by sin, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God.

Sixthly, The blood of Christ doth purge their Consciences, as it is now sprinkled in Heaven before the mercy Seat, by the interception of Christ; for there were under the Law two things that did perfect the sacrifice, the offering of it, the killing of it, and the carrying the blood into the most holy place, and sprinkling it upon the mercy Seat, and the sacri­fice was not perfect until both were done, and the blood was to remain before the mercy Seat; so the Lord Jesus has offer'd himself a sacrifice, but his blood is sprinkled still upon us, and remains, and it is a speaking blood, it speaks better things then the blood of Abel; now it doth speak to us continually, for the end of his blood, and what is it but that we may be cleansed, he gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purifie us to himself, Tit. 2.14. &c. and the cry of this blood still in Heaven, is, sanctifie them by thy [Page 118]truth, keep them from the evil of the world, father keep through thy own name them that thou hast given me, &c. But how shall I know my Conscience is purged by the blood of Christ, &c.

First, The more a mans Consci­ence is afflicted with the spiritual rising of lust, and he loaths himself for it, as Paul for the Law of his members, warring against the Law of his mind; and Job I have seen thee; and therefore I abhor my self.

Secondly, The more ready a man is to deny himself for God in any service, and his Conscience puts him forth to the uttermost in it, as Paul, I am willing to spend my self, or to dye for the name of the Lord Jesus, and Abraham rose up early to obey the command of God, even to sacri­fice his only son; for the more the glory of God and his commands do sway with a man, the more cause he has to be assured that the blood of sprinkling has passed upon him, &c.

Thirdly, The more a mans Con­science [Page 119]keeps down h is lust in the presence of the object of it, as Boaz, the woman lay at his feet, and yet his lust did not rise; and as Job to make a Covenant with his eyes, and not look upon a Maid, not have eyes full of adultery; a godly man may be tempted to sin, it may be in the ab­sence of the object; but if it be pre­sent, and lust have all the advantages that can be, and yet it cannot pre­vail, its an argument of a pure Con­science: and try all these with refe­rence unto your darling lust; for an­swerable as the Conscience is purged with respect unto that; so it is unto all other sins whatsoever.

It will serve for exhortation unto all men to keep their Consciences pure, Ʋse 2 being once cleansed in the blood of the Lamb, and this was the Apostle Pauls labour and his dayly exercise, Acts 24.16 in this I exercise my self to to keep [...] a Con­science void of offence before God and all men. Now we have former­ly heard, that as there be two things in sin, so there is a double defile­ment [Page 120]of the Conscience, there is a guilt and a pollution, and a mans Conscience can never be a good Con­science, a pure Conscience, without a stumbling block, unless it be kept pure in both these, and here I would speak of a pure Conscience according to the Apostles distinction; First, be­fore God; Secondly, before men: And first in reference unto the guilt of sin, and a Conscience polluted there­with, and this is a heart sprinkled from an evil Conscience, Heb. 10.22. that is, an accusing and a con­demning Conscience, 1 John 3.21. if our hearts condemn us not, that is, if they have the guilt of no sin lye upon them, for which they draw us before the judgment Seat of Christ, and pass upon us the sentence of condemnation; and so Paul, 2 Cor. 1.12. this is our rejoycing the testi­mony of our Conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, we have had our Conversation in the world, and more especially towards you, and 1 Cor. 4.4. I know no­thing by my self, it was a small thing to him to be judged of by man, or [Page 121]in mans day; for men have their day of judgment also, as God has his, and the reason why he doth despise the judgment of all men is this; that he was conscious to himself of nothing where­in he had misbehaved himself in his Apostleship towards them, many weaknesses there were which he owned in himself, but yet the guilt of none of them did stick upon his Conscience, and yet he refers him­self unto the judgment of God, who knows more then a mans Con­science can know by a mans self, &c. and this was the great care of Job that his heart might not reproach him all his dayes, Job 27.6.

In respect of God, there is a two-fold good Conscience, in regard of guilt; one in truth, and the other in shew and appearance only.

First, There is a natural Consci­ence that may have a great shew of goodness in it, not having the guilt of sin rising in it; but may with a great deal of boldness appear before God, and may lift up a mans face before him, and yet this not be a Conscience truly good, as we see in [Page 122]the Heathen, Rom. 2.16. their thoughts do excuse as well as ac [...]use, and that in the day when God shall judge the secrets of all men, &c. therefore there is the guilt of some sins that Conscience will acquit a man from, and will speak for him in the presence of the Lord, and so some do apply that speech of Paul, as Act. 23.1. I have lived in all good Consci­ence before God, even unto this day, it is conceived by some (as Cajetan, &c.) that it is spoken in reference unto all his dayes, even those also before his Conversion, in which he did never sin against his Conscience and therefore he saith bona Conscien­tia, non bono opere; for he thought that he did God good service in all that he did, as Luther did say of him­self; Nec ita eram glacies & frigus, sicut Eccius & alii qui propter ventrem Papam defendere videbantur, sed ego rem seriam agebam, ut qui diem ex­tremum horribiliter timui, & salvus fieri ex intimis medullis cupiebam.

And the goodness of a mans Con­science in not witnessing guilt, is but a seeming goodness; it is sometimes [Page 123]from a mans uprightness and good in­tention in a particular act wherein though he doth ill, yet he doth mean well and think also that he doth well, as it is the manner of many a misled and deluded soul, as Gen. 20.5.6. Abimelech answered God, in the integrity of my heart, and the innocency of my hands have I done this, and God bears witness to him, that in the integrity of his heart he did it, not knowing her to be another mans wife, not with an intention to wrong her husband by taking her; there is, and may be, a moral integrity in a particular action, and a man may mean truly in that he doth, and do that which is evil, and yet not with an evil intention: Now will Con­science excuse the man in the presence of God, and say, I intended no evil in that which I have done, Joh. 16.2. they shall think that they do God good service; nay in the worst and the most wicked actions, even per­secuting the Saints; a man may con­ceive therein that he has done God service, and he may bless himself in his own heart, and Conscience may [Page 124]not only acquit a man, but applaud him in that which he has done; and so there is many a man out of a blind zeal and a spirit of errour and delusi­on, that looks upon those things as great services to God, and intends them so, which will be discovered to be the great sins of their lives, at the last day, as it was in the Jews persecuting of Christ, and the Des­ciples setting up the Law against the Gospel, going about to establish their own righteousnes, and not submit­ing unto the righteousness of Christ therein, so Acts 13.50. there are devout and honourable women are stir'd up against the Apostles do­ctrine, they made use of that natural devotion that was in them, to perse­cute the Gospel, and as Beza doth observe they did raise the persecu­tion persuasis sc. maritis, engaged their husbands in the quarrel, which is the condition of many a poor well meaning man, that is not acquainted with the depths of Satan, and the the delusions of the times at this day.

Secondly, Sometimes it is from a [Page 125]mans ignorance and want of light, and so his Conscience he thinks is good and speaks peace to him, be­cause he doth not see the evil that is in him, Rom. 7. I was alive without the Law once, he speaks it in refe­rence to his state of unregeneracy, and he saith, sin was dead in respect of the guilt, and the accusing and condemning power of it, and Paul was alive, full of presumtious self-confidence, and self-excusations, and acquitting himself, and his Conscience did speak peace unto him, and there is no guilt at all; but yet afterwards the commandment came in the spiri­tual and convincing power of it, and then the guilt of sin revived in me, and I saw my self a dead man; for without the Law sin is dead: and therefore many a man that is quiet; because the Law of God is not open­ed to him, he has the Law in the Letter, but not in the spiritual sence of it; it is with ignorant souls in this respect, as with colours in the dark, there they are, but not seen till the light be brought in, so many a man is in the guilt of all abominations; [Page 126]but they are not discovered till the light be brought in, and then a man wonders how it was possible his Con­science could be quiet, and hath such a load lye upon it.

Thirdly, From a spirit of slumber that God pours out upon a man in judgment; his Conscience being quiet through common works, and outward duties, a man having esca­ped the common pollutions of the world, and lives in no gross way of sinning and is exceedingly censorious, and severely exclaims against others, and condemns and reproves those sins in others; he doth shine as a light, and is honoured by the Saints, as one that doth truly fear God, and is eminent in the profession of Religi­on, as the foolish Virgins, and the thorny ground; have a lamp of pro­fession bring forth some fruit, has a name to live, and with this Consci­ence is quieted, and its peace is not disturbed; and so it is with many a temporarie believer, that had never more then a natural Conscience, and some of them their Conscience in respect of the guilt of them is never [Page 127]awakened, but they go out of the world even in a fools paradise with great hopes, and say, Lord, Lord, Mat. 7.22.have we not prophesied in thy name, &c (as they are brought in saying at the day of judgment, &c. at death every mans eternal state is cast; for immediately after death comes judg­ment, Heb. 9.27. and in this day it is; for men shall have a particular sentence passed upon them, and re­ceive their doom for their eternal state before the last day, but at death men shall say, Lord, Lord, open to me, &c. and from thence some of our divines say, that an hypocrite may live and dye with a quiet Conscience in self-delusions, and yet miss of Heaven in the height of his hopes, and therefore it's said Rom. 2.17. of the hypocritical Jews, that they rest in the Law, &c. and so they may do along time in the profession and outward Priviledges of the Law, and an outward obedience thereunto, that when God shall awaken their Consciences (as he doth many of them) some to conviction only, and some to conversion, they are [Page 128]surprized with the greatest horrour and amazement of any other men in the world, and though there may be a great deal of quiet, and seeming goodness in Conscience that is natu­ral, yet it is not truly a good Con­science; it has but a shew of goodness, and there is the guilt of sin laid up in it that will surely shew forth it self at the last and great day, sin lyes at the door, and it will awaken and re­vive and condemn him: But there is away to keep the Conscience pure from the guilt of sin in the sight of God, that a man shall have no more Conscience of sin, and there are three ways or steps to a pure Conscience before God in this re­spect.

First, In a mans Conversion, when the Lord Christ as a surety and as a sacrifice is offered unto him, and he consents to the terms upon which Christ is offered, that he may have an interest in the satisfaction that he has given, and that his sins may be done away, and he stand righteous and aquited before God, and so at a mans Conversion, all his sins in his [Page 129]unregenerate state is pardoned, and the guilt of them is covered, so that they are unto his Conscience as if they had never been; his sins are by virtue of union, imputed to Christ, and Christs righteousness imputed to him, and he is made the Lord our righteousness, 2 Cor 5.21 1 Pet. 3.21. and we are the righ­teousness of God in him, which is by the answer of a good Conscience, which I conceive to be an allusion to the antient manner of baptising, wherein the people confessed their sins, and did answer unto certain questions that were then asked, there­in engaging themselves by a publick profession unto Christ to consent to his Covenant, so when it was done sincerely, then it is said to be the answer of a good Conscience; but if not, it was the answer of the lips only, as it was in Simon Magus, &c. and hence came those forms in the primitive Churches of questions pro­pounded unto the baptized persons, to renounce the world, the flesh and the Devil, their giving up of themselves to Christ, with their solemn answer or stipulation thereunto; a man ha­ving [Page 130]thus accepted of Christ as his surety, and sacrifice, being offered unto him in the Gospel, and given up himself unto him, all his sins in the guilt of them, that were committed by him in the days of his unregenera­cy, are all done away, his sins are all of them put upon the head of the sacrifice, and are taken off the man in respect of the guilt of them before God, as if they had never been; so that they shall never be imputed to the man any more, for the Lord hath found a ransome.

If we look upon sin as a burden, it is taken off the sinner, Psal. 32.1. and lyes upon him no more: Hos. 14.2. Take away our iniquity; It is to take the weight and the burden off the Conscience, and lay it upon another that is able to bear it; if we look upon sin as filthiness, and so it is in pardon covered, there is a garment of Christs righteousness drawn over the man; Zac. 4. take away the filthy gar­ments, look upon sin as an enemy, and as the guilt of it did domineer over us and inslave us, and so Mich. 7.19. He will subdue our iniquities; [Page 131]and cast them into the depth of the Sea. He will cast them behind his back, as a thing that he will never look upon to punish or condemn the man for; they shall never be imputed unto him, Isa. 38.17. N [...]m. 23.21. and so will see no iniquity in Jacob; which is not meant, as if God did not behold the sins of his people, and is angry with them, for he is so, as we see it in Moses, and David, and the Church, Mich. 7.19. [...]ut he will not see them in a ju­dicial way, so as to proceed against them, and condemn them for it: But be their sins never so great, red as scarlet, he will drown them in the depth of the Sea, as far as the East is from the West; Psal. 113.12. Isa. 1.18. and Jer. 15 20. In those days the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none, &c. Shall be sought for by a judicial inquiry, as the Lord will make for blood, and all manner of iniquity, they shall not be found (that is in judgment) that shall not be found unto the mens condemnation, for they are all satis­fied for, and done away in Christ: So that a mans sins shall never be [Page 132]imputed any more. For the righteous­ness that is imputed unto the soul is e­verlasting righteousness; and they shall therefore be as if they had never been: So that what ever a mans sins were before his conversion, when he hath laid hold on the righteousness of Christ, and accepted of his Cove­nant, tendering him pardon in him, the guilt of his sin is totally and per­fectly taken away, and is as it had never been: Psal. 51.7. Wash me, and I shall be whither then Snow, &c. Therefore the first way to have the Conscience purged from the guilt [...] sin, is by the answer of a good Con­science. &c.

Secondly, Whereas a believer and a justified person doth sin against God, and contract new guilt every day, there must therefore be a dayly repentance, and a dayly application of the righteousness of Christ unto the soul, and a daily and a continu [...] imputation on Gods part of th [...] righteousness; and here we m [...] take notice.

First, That a justified person is not freed from sin, but that he doth [Page 133]fall into sin every day; we see it in Paul, and in David, and in the Saints.

Secondly, Their daily sins do bring upon their persons a guilt, Psal. 51.10 Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, every new sin, doth bring a new guilt, there is a double guilt of sin; reatus personae & peccati, the one cannot be sepa­rated from the sin, but the other may, when the righteousness of Christ is applied to the soul.

Thirdly, Lying under this guilt of a perticular sin, God is really angry with him, not onely in his own ap­prehension, but God hides the light of his Countenance from him: Psal. 32.3.4. While I kept silence, my bones consumed away; for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me, and my moisture is turned into the draught of Summer, Selah. He is filius sub irae, though not ire, the Lord puts him upon a Rack and writes bitter things against him as if he were an enemy, and there is a suspension, and an interdiction of all the effects of Gods justification, till he do repent.

Fourthly, Under this guilt and wrath every man shall lye so long as he continues in this sin impenitently, when he doth believe and repent for that sin, then it shall be pardoned and the guilt taken off the Conscience, and the man restored unto his former state to plead the priviledges of his justification, which he could not be­fore; but was as it were under a state of sequestration, as the Leaper under the Law, though he had right unto all the ordinances, yet he had not the actual use and benefit, and injoy­ment of any of them; and there­fore we read, that though repentance be not a cause of pardon, nor Faith a cause of pardon, yet it is the hand that receives it, and the quallifica­tion of the subject upon whom the Lord will bestow it: And therefore we read of a dayly sacrifice amongst the Jews, even a continual burnt of­fering, so believers are to have re­course unto Christ for their dayly failings, Job. 13.10. and he that is washed need not save to wash his feet, for there is a fi [...]th contracted by a mans daily walking, that a man must apply the [Page 135]righteousness of Christ for, that it may be done away, and therefore David till he repented his sin, was not pardoned (as we read of) but when he did confess his sin, then Nathan said unto him, the Lord hath put away thy sin; and Act. 3.19. Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, &c. and Ezech. Repent and turn your selves from all your transgressions, so iniquity shall not be your ruine: And according to the Scripture, I know no ground that any man should believe that his sins are pardoned till he hath re­pented.

Fifthly, There is a daily applica­tion of the righteousness of Christ unto us by Faith, and there is a con­tinual and a daily imputation of it unto us by God, and therefore we are taught by Christ to pray daily, Forgive us our trespasses; which un­to a justified man, what can be the meaning, nothing but this, I know that my sins are already pardoned, even all that ever I have, shall or can commit, let me onely have the pardon of them witnessed unto my [Page 136]soul; but I do conceive much ra­ther, the meaning to be, as I sin e­very day, and thereby do daily con­tract a new guilt, so grant that I may have the righteousness of Christ im­puted unto me every day, and a penitent heart given me that thereby I may have the qualifications that God requires unto pardon, and my iniquities be blotted out: For though I conceive it a truth, that justification as far as it respects a mans state is done at once, and is perfect in instanti, that a man is but once justified, that is put unto a state of pardon and righteousness, and ac­ceptation, as soon as made one with Christ, yet I conceive the pardon of sin to be a continued act, that as a man doth sin daily, so he has an act­ual pardon daily, by the imputation of Christ's righteousness unto him anew: The sacrifice indeed was offered but once, and never to be re­peated, but the imputation of it is continued to the end of the World and the application of it is the act of every day, and therefore some say that God does give us the same [Page 137]things over and over again daily, as we sin daily, and stand in daily need of it; as he doth the Sun, it had as much light in it the first day it was made as it hath now, and God has not given us a new Sun, but the same daily shines; so it is with the impu­tation of Christs obedience, who is the Son of Righteousness: So that though a man be for his state once for all put into a state of justification, yet remission of sins is an act that is continued daily, and shall never be perfected till sin shall be done away, and till the soul shall cease to say, Lord forgive us our trespasses, and then God shall cease forgiving; but while the Saints do sin, so long there is a daily remission upon a daily re­pentance, and a renewed applica­tion: So if a man sins daily and would have the guilt of his sins taken off his Conscience, it must be by a daily confession, a daily repentance and humiliation, a daily application of the righteousness of Christ, and therein by prayer seeking unto God for pardon daily, for I know no other means to take the guilt of sin off the [Page 138]Conscience. These things I speak partly to awaken the people of God, that are justified freely by grace, that they might not dare to pass a day in a way of sinning, and that they may not dare to lye down with any sin unrepented of also, and partly that those abominable and dangerous doctrines that are now abroad in the world, to turn the grace of God, and the promises of the Gospel into wantoness, may be avoided, when men say all our sins are pardoned all­ready, and therefore though we may have sin in our conversation, yet we have none in our Conscience, God sees no iniquity in his people, and he loves them in Christ, and therefore loves them never the worse for all their sins, &c. And therefore they need not pray for pardon, for they have it already; but onely they must believe that they are pardoned, and must believe that they need not re­pent, for all is done away in Christ, and it is onely for persons that are unregenerate to repent for sin, and to ask pardon; but for them that are in Christ their sins are pardoned, &c: [Page 139]But let me tell you, and the Lord will make you know, that as you sin every day, and contract a new guilt, so there is no way to get this guilt taken off thy Conscience, but by a daily repentance for it, and a daily application of the righteousness of Christ, that thy sins may be blotted out from the presence of the Lord, for though thou be washed, yet thou hast daily need to wash thy feet; There is nothing that the heart of man is more willing and ready to shift off, then the duty of repentance, though as Tertullian saith he was, nulle rei nisi penitentiae natus; and yet it is with men, as Luther says of himself, there was no word that he did hate and ab­hor so much as that word, Repent; it is that, the heart of man goes a­gainst, and you have most need to be exhorted to it.

Thirdly, There is another way to keep the Conscience pure from the guilt of sin, and that is for a man to get assurance of Gods favour, the light of his countenance, and to walk in it all day long, Psal. 89.15. Blessed are the peo­ple that know the joyful sound: They [Page 140]shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. When a man hath the witnesses either of blood and water, which are more remote, and the spirit of God speaks in them, and in all ordinances of the Gospel, or else when a man has a more imme­diate testimony from the spirit of God, the Lord saying to his soul, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee; the Lord sends his spirit that speaks to the soul, as the prophet Nathan to David, God hath taken away thy sin; and this is Gods speak­ing to the soul pardon and peace, which is the portion of many of the Saints, when a mans soul draws near to the grave, and his life to the de­stroyers, and the Lord comes in and says deliver his soul from death, for I have found a ransome; and truly there are souls that do walk in the light of Gods countenance all the day long, and their souls are as the upper Region, quiet, and are allways Calme, though sin they do, yet they speedily repent, and humble their souls for it, and their peace is never interrupted, nor the light of Gods [Page 141]Countenance taken from them, but they receive of his pardoning mercy dayly, and dayly bear witness to it that their sins are done away, and so their Consciences are never clogged with them.

But as soon as God withdraws the light of his countenance from any poor soul, by and by the guilt of sin ariseth, and Conscience is terrified, and there is a thick cloud over spreads the whole soul, and a mans heart is like unto a troubled Sea, that cannot rest, see what restless tossings David was in while his sin lay upon his Con­science, and God hid his face day and night, they are so heavy upon me that all the night long I make my bed to swim with my tears, oh take me not out of thy presence, will the Lord cast off for ever, and his mercy is it clean gone, will he be gracious no more? Thus a man that would have a clear Conscience in respect of guilt, must make it his business to walk in the light of Gods Counte­nance all the day.

Having thus far seen how a man may keep a Conscience pure from the [Page 142]guilt of sin. Let us now come to the se­cond, how a mans Conscience may be preserved pure, from the defilement and the pollution of sin: And here we are to consider, that there are two things in Conscience, and an­swerable unto them there is a defile­ment that may befall a mans Con­science.

First, there is a [...], as Con­science is the seat of practical prin­ciples, as there is a judgment in Con­science, that it can make of what is true, and what is false, what is good, and what is evil.

Secondly, There is [...] I knowing and a judging of mans per­son, and his wayes by these princi­ples, and the acts of Conscience that follow thereupon, and the corrupti­ons of either of these will pollute the Conscience.

First, There is a Synteresis which are the principles by which men are acted in their ways, which are the rules by which a man walks, and by which he doth judge of himself and of all his ways, and by which he doth direct and steer his whole course, if [Page 143]these be true, the Conscience is so far kept pure, that though a man may sin against his knowledge, and be carryed away by the violence of temptation, yet it is contrary unto the rule and the principle that is within him; there is something in him that is contrary to it, and con­demns it, and takes part with God and with duty; and the more a mans judgment and Conscience is leavened with corrupt principles, the more is his Conscience defiled; a man must hold the mystery of faith in a pure Conscience; 1 Tim. 3.9. 1 Tim. 1.19.holding Faith and a good Conscience, which some having put away concerning the Faith, have made shipwrack; for the mystery of faith must be kept in a pure Consci­ence; for if your judgments be lea­vened with corrupt principles, 1 Tim. 3.9. you will soon make shipwrack of the faith, which signifies a dan­gerous and an irrecoverable loss of it: And here I will speak to these three things. First, That there is a great deal of danger that mens Consciences may be defiled in their principles, and they corrupted in judgment. [Page 144]Secondly, The greatness of this dan­ger, what an evil it is for a man to have his judgment defiled, and the [...] of that Conscience corrupt­ed. Thirdly, The means and rules how a man may be preserved from a polluted Conscience in this, how a mans judgment may be kept unde­filed, and you had need to take heed; for there is a great deal of danger that your judgment may be cor­rupted.

First, Because there is a great deal of darkness in all Gospel-administra­tions, in comparison of what we do expect the Lord shall give unto his people in the latter dayes, when Ezekiel's Temple shall be built, the Lord will shew his people all the forms and the patterns of his house, and the goings in and the comings out thereof, and in the sounding of the seventh Trumpet, which refers unto the same time; Rev. 11. last, for then the mistery of God shall be finished, the Temple shall be opened, and we shall see into the Ark of the Testimony, it had a vail before it that it might not be seen; but the most [Page 145]hidden and secret things shall then be made manifest, and clearly dis­covered, and by the Ark some under­stand it of Christ, of whom the Ark was a type: there should be a fur­ther and a more glorious manifesta­tion of him in all Church ordinances and administrations than ever there had been in times past; But mean while there is a Sea of Glass, but it is mixed with fire, there is a great deal of affliction, and bitter conten­tion, and the Temple is fill'd with smoak, a great darkness upon all ordinances, in so much that during all the time of the pouring out of the Vials, no man (that is) no consi­derable and great company of men, should be brought into the Church, here and there a few converted, but none in comparison of the fulness of Jews and Gentiles that shall be con­verted to God afterwards, when the smoak of the Temple shall be dispel'd and done away; and if there be so much darkness, it is no wonder if men be in danger to be deceived, and to be led away from the truth, it is no won­der if men in the dark may eire, and [Page 146]miss their way, and therefore I would not have men as not too cen­sorious of others, so not too confi­fident of their own way, in any thing that they have not a clear war­rant for in the Word, for surely this is the time of the Vials, and it is spoken of the reformed Churches, they that while the Vials were pow­ering upon Antichrist, did stand with the Lamb upon mount Sion, that had gotten victory over the Beast and his Image, and did sing the Song of Moses, and of the Lamb, &c. and yet amongst them; the Temple was full of smoak, and therefore there is danger that you may be deceived and deluded, &c.

Secondly, There be a great many false teachers gone abroad in the World; 1 John 4.1. Beloved believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God, because ma­ny false Prophets are gone out &c. It hath been the way that Satan has ta­ken in all resormations, as soon as ever the Gospel began to dawn in the World, in the Apostles times, there arose men of themselves. that [Page 147]did speak perverse things; Act. 20.30. [...] that is, such things, as turn all upside down, that subvert and overthrow all the principles and foundations of the doctrine of Christ, that have been laid by himself and his Apostles. Rev. 12. And when their was a re­formation in the time of Constantine, then another floud of heresy was cast out after the woman. So in the re­formation in Luthers time; if the Lord do but sow good seed, the ene­my will come and sow tares, and we see how much confidence Satan puts in this way of prevailing; for it is his last remedy that he shall use to up­hold the kingdom of Antichrist: as we see Rev. 16.13. The Vial being powred out upon the seat of the Beast, and Rome falling as a Millstone into the Sea, without hope of recovery; and now there is a new Church arise­ing, coming out of the Wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved, and Eu­phrates dryed up to make way for the Kings of the East: Now he doth send out of the mouth of the [...]east, and the Dragon, and salfe Prophet three unclean spirits like Frogs, and [Page 148]they are the spirits of Devils work­ing miracles, and going forth into the Kings of the earth, &c. They are said to be spirits for their activity, and impetiousness (so some) but I rather think they are called spirits, that is false teachers, because they pretend to speak by the spirit, as 1 John. 4.1. Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they be of God; and they are [...], which is not the ordinary word that is used for the Devil, but a word doth express knowledg and learning, &c. They shall send forth there most learned men of the greatest parts, and the best wits, and they that shall teach spirits as Frogs, they that shall teach unclean and corrupt and filthy do­ctrines, and by this means, and by Satans assisting them in their doctrine, and backing it with miracles and great works, they shall gather toge­ther the Kings of the earth against the Church of God to their own de­struction, and final overthrow; surely, therefore there is a great deal of danger, that a man may be de­ceived, and his judgment may be [Page 149]corrupted because it is the last refuge of Satan that he has to uphold his kingdome by sending forth unclean spirits.

Thirdly, Most men unto whom these spirits come, Heb. 5.13. they find them children; for he that is unskilful in the word of righteousness, he is a babe, and therefore being children in understanding, Ephes. 4.14. and not men ground­ed in the principles of the doctrine of Christ, therefore they are tost to and fro, with every wind of do­ctrine, tossed as a wave, and carry­ed about as a cloud, and from these two, the Metaphors are taken, if the wind be this way, the wave is born and the cloud carryed about, and if the wind do turn, it is blown the contrary way; they lead captive silly woman, omnes haereses ex gyne­caeis, is a proverb in the ancient Church, and the more ingnorant any people are the easier are they turned away from the truth, and the sooner do they give ear to fancies, and fa­bles, and he that shall consider the ignorance of our people in the prin­ciples of Religion, and that in a great [Page 150]many of those that profess Religion, and think themselves to be knowing Christians, and yet have but only a general and a smattering confused knowledge, and a man would be far from wondering that so many were corrupted, but rather he would wonder that all were not taken cap­tive by Satan.

Fourthly, False teachers use a great deal of artifice to that end, that they may deceive, and they do it under the fairest shows, and the most specious pretences, Antichrist (Rev. 17.3.) gives the wine of her formention in a Golden Cup, that is, that by which it is offered unto the world, it is a very alluring and taking way, and as a Harlot whose lips do drop as the hony-comb, and all is under a show of love unto Christ, and a colour of love to you, a pity to see you so deceived, there is a [...] & [...] Rom. 16.18. all under great pretences of holiness, there is a [...] and [...], there is a great deceit, as in the most deceitful Play, and they are cunning Gamesters, and there is a subtilty, and deep craftiness [Page 151]of men that go by method, and bring in one thing after another, Eph. 4.24 and there are [...], 2 Pet. 2.3. feigned words, some made words, and a kind of coined language that sounds finely, but put it together and it sig­nifies nothing; but the meaning is [...] they do make merchan­dize of you, and [...] 2 Pet. 2.18. they give out something that shall be as a bait, some pretences of liberty, some shows of a greater Communion with God, and a nearer approach unto Christ, and with this bait you shall be taken, when in the mean while the book is not seen, and sometimes brought to you under great shows of holiness in the men, they come to you in sheeps cloathing, as if they were Sheep though they be Wolves, and the Ministers of Satan transform themselves into the Mini­sters of Righteousness, 2 Cor. 11.13, 14. for such are false Apostles, deceit­ful workers, transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ, and no marvel for Satan himself is transform­ed into an Angel of light, &c. Rev. 13. and we know that Antichrist when he rose [Page 152]had two horns like a Lamb, and Austin saith of Pelagius, Nomen Pellagii non sine lande posui, quia vita cita ejus à multis praedicabatur.

Yea Satan doth creep into Peter himself, and he may be corrupted, and Barnabas also with that dissimu­lation; for they shall deceive if it were possble even the very elect, though totally and finally it is not possible, but yet they may far deceive them; for indeed there be many that hold the foundation, and whose souls may be saved in the day of the Lord, yet may build Hay and Stubble upon the foundation: and therefore we should leave room for charity towards some, who have not had that touch of Satan upon their spirits that others have, and endeavour to pluck them as fire­brands out of the fire, that they may not wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction, but pray that the Lord would deliver them from the temp­tations and seducements of Satan, &c. discover his Wiles to them, that they may say, was there not an errour in my right hand, and men are so much the rather to be pityed; because being [Page 153]ignorant and unlearned they more easily become the prey of false teach­ers, who are very industrious and laborious, and lay out themselves to the utmost, Math. they will compass Sea and Land to make a Proselite, they compel you to be Circumcised, that they may glo­ry in your flesh, that is, multitudine se­quacium, in the multitude of their Des­ciples and followers, some men think it is an excellent thing to be the founder of a new sect, as they said of Paul, Acts 24.5. he was a ring-leader of the sect of the Nazarenes; I know that many say this by way of reproach to the people of God, that would walk out of con­formity to the world, that they are but sectaries, and brand them dayly with new names, and new light, &c. because they would not have their old darkness be discovered, but this is but one of the fig leaves of Anti­christs covering, which shall fall off from him, and he shall fly away naked, and men shall see his shame notwithstanding.

Lastly, There is a mighty power of Satan and an [...] that goes along with them, 2 Thes. 2.9. [Page 154]as soon as Antichrist did but appear in the world, by and by all the world wandred after the Beast, and recei­ved his Image, and his mark in their right hand, and in their foreheads, men will he quickly engaged to pro­fer themselves in such a way, and having received the mark in the fore­head, they will receive it in their right hand, to defend it, and stand for it, so that a man would wonder to see men so soon turn'd after ano­ther Gospel; and their words fret as a Gangrene or a Cancer, that doth quickly infect all that comes near it, and we may see what strong poison this liquor of Antichrist is, and what a deceit it is by the power of it, not only upon the ignorant, but upon the learned, and not only upon them that were a lump fit to receive any leaven, but even those that were counted (and we may hope) to be Godly men, of eminent parts, and great abilities, and men that have done great services, and shine as great lights, and are great preachers that have converted Souls to God, and yet the Dragons Tail sweeps [Page 155]away the third part of the Stars of Heaven, and casts them unto the Earth, &c. Now all these eonside­rations should prevail with us, that he that thinks he stands, may take heed lest he fall; because there is a great danger of deceiving the best and the holiest and the wisest men, and turn them aside from the simplicity of the Gospel, I should have been more particular in the discovery of Anti­christ, in all his colours, especially that great Character and stamp which is on all his followers to be persecutors of the Saints of the most high, who refuse to worship his Image, or to receive his mark; but that I have re­served to treat on more largely; be­cause I look upon the time of the kill­ing of the witnesses to draw near; for which the spirits of men are ex­ceedingly qualified: and therefore the Saints had need to stand upon their watch Tower; for the Beast and the false Prophet, &c. conspire against them.

2ly. Considert is a very dangerous thing for a man to be deceived; for first a mans judgment being corrupted [Page 156]it will make way for a very corrupt conversation, no man is better then his judgment, but men generally, I may say, all men are worse; now they are the greatest corruptions that are the fruits of corrupt doctrine, and their doctrines do back them, and are not the fruits of their lusts only, as we see it in the Pharisees, all their fins were justified by their doctrines, and they had so fitted it, as it served to maintain their wicked wayes; there is a spirit of uncleaness goes with the false prophet wheresoever he goes; Rome is spiritually Egypt, Zach. 13. and Sodons and Jude compares the false teachers in his times with the worst of sinners, and surely their latter end is worse then their beginning, 2 Pet. 2.22. it's happened unto them according to the true proverb, the dog is turn'd to his vomit again, &c.

Ʋnclean opinions must needs bring forth unclean conversations.

Secondly, It is a hard matter for a man to repent being once engaged, Gal. 3.1. and taken with it; for it's said men are bewitched that they do believe that lye of Popery, especially that they can­not [Page 157]say, is there not a lye in my right hand, and false doctrine is compared to leaven, and if it be mixed with dough, it is very hard if not impossi­ble ever to separate them, and there­fore we read of very few men that ever appeared much against any truth of God that ever have returned, but they in their pride did persist, and God did give them up though they were convinced themselves, and spake lyes in hypocrisie; and knew them to be so, yet for all this they could not re­pent of them; for God in judgment gave them up unto a Conscience seared with a hot Iron: and truly it is a fearfull judgment to be given up of God to believe a lye, and it is to a man a very dangerous sign that he is not of the sheep of Christ, Joh. 10.5. a stranger they will not follow, they know not the voice of a stranger, and there­by the rottenness of mens hearts may be manifested, there must be here­sies sayes the Apostle for that end; and that they that are approved may be made manifest also.

Thirdly, They are called damna­ble heresies; 2 Pet. 2.1. In a double [Page 158]respect. First, They are a danger­ous sign and token of damnation un­to them that are ensnared by them, Rev. 13.8. They that do pertake in the doctrine of Popery, they are those whose names are not written in the Lambs book, and they are such as in themselves deserve damnation; in­deed all sin is in its own nature dam­nable, and so must this be in a special manner, in a way of eminency so called, such as Judas is called, the Son of perdition, because he was ap­pointed unto a more then ordinary distruction; and the Pope the man sin, because eminent in sinning; so here [...], because they come under a more remarkable di­struction then other sins do, and the Lord says their damnation sleeps not, they were of old ordained thereunto, Jude 4. But I would not be mistaken in all this and grieve the hearts of any tender Conscience, whom the Lord would not have grieved that hold some lesser errours, which may be because we see with different Lights. Nay, I deny not but a godly man may be deceived in some errours, [Page 159]that happily do strike at the founda­tion also for a time, but he doth not continue in them; but I say to hold them, and continue in them, as it makes way for a more eminent de­struction, so it is a most dangerous sign of reprobation.

Lastly, It is a very dangerous fore­runner of judgment unto a nation, and of Gods removing the Candle­stick, and giving a Church a Bill of Divorce, you may see it in the Church of Rome; and if men will be Idolaters, and Blasphemers, and de­ny the Resurection, and the Scrip­tures, if men countenance the wo­man Jezebel, and the Doctrine of the Nicholaitans, it will follow that Christ will quickly come against them, and fight against them with the sword of his mouth: The last times of the Jewish Church were infected with heresy, which bred divisions, and such distraction amongst them till it destroyed the whole face and frame of Church and common wealth; and in the last times there shall be the most dangerous Doctrines broached, till the Lord shall avenge [Page 160]his truth by a judgment upon the Beast, and the false Prophet; Gods truth is dear to him, he has exalted his word above all his name; and the opening of his bosome, and publish­ing of truth in the World, has cost the blood of the Son of God: He could never have been a Prophet, if he had not been a Priest, all his offices, and the performance of them depend upon his Priesthood, and no man shall have a benefit by Christ as he is a Prophet, or as he is a Priest, or as he is a King, that has him not first as his Priest, and closed with him there­in; and his word is the great expan­sum that God has stretched forth over Kingdoms, and Nations. Rom. 10.17. By this he judges them, and hews them, and slayeth them, he will not suffer the dishonour of it, nor his people cannot bear it, but Rivers of tears run down, because men keep not the Law of God, and so many have shed their blood for it, and indured cruel tortures, and mockings, and wandered about the World, to carry the Gospel, where the sound of it was not heard; and [Page 161]if they cannot bear it, surely Christ himself will bear it much less: And therefore let me tell you, if a king­dome were as dear unto God as the signal upon his right hand, he would pluck it thence and if any people shall go about it, to set up themselves, and vent their own Lusts, and do think to accomplish their ends by cutting down and destroying the Scriptures, truly God will not bear it, but that Word shall be armed against them that they have despised, and shall certainly overtake them; Zac. 1.6. It may lye upon the ground for a while in the esteem of men, but God will cause it again to arise, and all the strength of flesh shall fall before it, for it is this word that plants king­domes and plucks them up; and God will certainly call this nation to an ac­count for his Word that has been abused by it, and turned behind our backs, &c.

Thirdly, How should a man keep his judgment pure, that his principles be not corrupted?

First, Get a humble and a self de­nying heart; There are two great [Page 162]causes of a mans turning unto errour in the Scripture, one is pride and a design to be some body in matter of knowledg, [...] as Si. Magus, and therefore Col. 2. They be men puffed up by their fleshly Lusts, su­perbia est mater haereseus, una est in­tentio omnibus haereticis captare de singularitate scientiae. Bern. And the other is thereby to compass some worldly end, some worldly Lust, Rom. 16.19. They serve not God but their own Bellies; now that man that seeks the truth of God for the truths sake, and neither to gain ho­nour by it before men, nor to compass any other worldly end, he will not easily be biassed and led away by the errours of the times, and if he should be mistaken in any thing, we may hope that the truth will be revealed to him in time, though we may see him turn aside for the present.

Secondly, Get thy heart filled with the love of the truth, and thou wilt not be easily carried from it, for the word being received in a good and honest heart, Luk. 8.15. it doth abide there [Page 163]and holds out and brings forth fruit with patience; Alexander was a companion with the Apostle in his tribulation and sufferings, and suffer­ed great persecution for the truth of God, and yet proved a Heretick, a bitter enemy unto the Gospel, a blasphemer, and what was the rea­son? Because he had not an honest heart, nor an inward love unto the Word, that he did teach and profess; he put away a good Conscience, 1 Tim. 1.20. and he did cherish himself in some known sin, and therefore he did make ship­wrack of the Faith, 2 Thes. they were given up to believe that lye, because they received not the truth in the love of it, if we make truth but matter of talk, we shall never be able to stand fast in it or profess it; if perfecution arise for the word sake, or if false Doctrine be spread we shall be taken with it, for it is not Learning, but Love, that makes a man constant un­to the Truth; the greatest Schollars have fallen from it, and have denyed the truth, and the weakest have stood to it and professed it, in the time when it was persecuted, and it [Page 164]is because the one did know much, but the other did love much, they had claimed it as their inheritance, and therefore no wonder they stood for it, but other men concern them­selves for it but as Lawyers do other mens evidences, and therefore they care not greatly which way the Cause goes when it comes to a hearing and debate; for they have their Fee be­fore hand for their labour; so it is easie to loose that out of a mans head, that he never had in his heart, nor never cared to have. &c.

Thirdly, Get your hearts well grounded in the principles of Religi­ligion, the doctrine that is according to godliness, and stick to that, there is an [...], Rom. 12. [...] [...], Rom. 6.17. a patern of wholesome words, 2 Tim. 1.13. and let the foundation be throughly laid, lay some truths for granted, do not question all things; for if so, it's no wonder if a man deny all things, or if he ever believe and receive any thing, Acts 20.30. there shall a­rise of your own selves, men speak­ing perverse things, to draw away [Page 165]Desciples after them, &c. But I commend you to God and the word of his grace, 2 Pet. 2.1, 2. they shall bring in damnable heresies, and many shall follow their pernicious wayes, but be mindfull of the words of the Prophets and Apostles, give heed to them as to a light shining in a dark place, and keep close to the Ministry thereof, Ephes. 4.11. he hath given some Apostles, and some Prophets, and some Evangilists, and some Pastures and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the Ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, &c. that hence­forth we should not be as children; Cant. 1.7. if we would not turn aside to the flocks of the companions, go forth and feed thy Kids beside the shep­herds tents, &c. which I fear is no small ground of the design of Satan in decrying the Scriptures and Ministry at this day.

Fourthly, Take heed of affecting curiosities in Religion, and to dote upon questions that minister strife and not edifying; for by these many men are seduced and subverted, in­deed [Page 166]there is no truth of God but is precious, and things revealed belong to us and our children, and whatever things are written are written for our learning, and we should desire to be filled with all the knowledge of his Will, Col. 1.9. but yet there is a desire of knowledge that is dangerous even in the things of God; First, when neglecting the great things and they that are necessary, all our enquiries run out into niceties and lesser things, 1 Pet. 2.1, 2. as new born babes de­sire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, and John 16.12. I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now, they will do you harm, they will do you more harm then good; because you are not capable to re­ceive them; Rom 14.1 we read that a man weak in the faith, is not to be admit­ed into doubtfull disputations, and therefore he should not thrust him­self into doubtfull disputations; Secondly, when men desire know­ledge in the general that is only for knowledge sake, and not that he may be perfect throughly furnished [Page 167]to every good work, &c. it is the do­ctrine that is according to godliness that we should desire, and if the end of any thing in Religion be in know­ledge only, and it rests there, thou wilt easily be corrupted; for know­ledge is the bait with which thou wilt be taken, Col. [...]. if it be but a show of wisdom only, which does not lead to practise, it will come to nothing; for the end of the truths of God be­ing revealed to us, is not for our talking but doing, not for the show­ing forth of mens parts, but their graces and vertues.

Fifthly, Receive nothing of Re­ligion upon credit and the authority of man, be he never so learned and never so holy, Math. call no man father upon Earth, no man Rabbi upon Earth, search the Scriptures, Act. 17.11 John 4.1. try the spirits, take nothing upon trust, its no disparagement unto the best Ministry to subject their doctrine to the Scriptures, Christ himself ordered us to subject his doctrine to the tryal, search the Scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life, they testifie of me, and by this he [Page 168]did confirm his doctrine; if once you take things from the authority of man, you set the man in the place of Christ, and God in judgment may give him up to errour that you may be mislead by him, who was so willing to follow his Commandment: 1 Cor. 12.2. You were caried away with dumb Idols, as you were led; the blind lead the blind, it is an honour due to God, onely to be believed, ex au­thoritate dicentis. And therefore away with the names of men, I am of Paul, and I of Apollo, &c. For Paul and Apollo, &c. Is nothing but instruments by whom you be­lieve; and there cannot be a greater injury to your Teachers, then to set them in the place of Christ, &c.

Sixthly, Avoid as much as possi­ble, Society with those by whom thou mayest be drawn to be seduced, cease to hear that instruction that causeth thee to err from the way of knowledge; Prov. 19.27. Per­verse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness, 2 Tim. 6.5. from [Page 169]such withdraw thy self, 1 John 1.10. receive them not into your house, bid them not God speed, have no common fami­liarity with them, fly from enemies to the truths of God as from a Plague, or else if thou dally with them, thou wilt be in danger of being insnared by them;

Lastly, Be much in prayer to be preserved, when so many, even the third part of the Stars of Heaven be swept down, that thou mayest stand with the Lamb, and not receive the mark of the Beast, when the World wonders after him it is a great mercy; and therefore say, Can. 1.7. Lord shew me where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flocks to rest at noon, for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy compani­ons, remember it is not parts, nor learning, nor common grace that will secure a man from believing lyes; for we see men of the greatest parts com­monly are taken, the wits and the di­sputers of this World, and it is not a form of godlyness, nor a professi­on of Religion, but it is walking close with God in that profession; we see [Page 170]men in our days that have driven the trade of Religion for many years together, and yet may become but broaken professors, and prove bank­rupt at last, become the Leaders of some new Sect, and there the height of their Religion ends; and if once thy heart sit loose in prayer, even in this know thou art immediately in danger to be corrupted and seduced, for if once a man cease to pray against sin, thou art in danger to commit it; this is the way for a man to keep his Conscience pure in the [...], of it, that his judgment be not defiled: But there is a double misery, that we do labour under at this time, as there are heresies and false doctrines on the one side, and you must keep your Consciences pure from that leaven, so also there is profaneness and all manner of devilish practises on the other side, and men do commonly think by objecting the one to justify themselves in the other, some are enemies unto Christ in opinion, teaching for doctrines the traditions of men, and there are some are ene­mies to Christ in conversation, whose [Page 171]god is their belly, who glory in their shame, and give themselves over unto all excess of riot; Christ has enemies, even where his kingdom is set up: Psal 110 2 For he must rule in the middle of his enemies, the time will come when he shall rule over them, but now he rules amongst them, and those enemies are of three sorts.

First, Some are Christians but not in purity, as Hereticks and false teachers, and some are Christians, but not in sincerity, as hypocrites and those that are false hearted; and lastly some are called Christians, but have not so much as an external con­formity, and such are prophane and all professed workers of iniquity, and there is onely this difference be­tween them; one speaks against the Truth, and the other lives against the Truth; and so all the benefits that we have by having the name of Christ called upon us, is this, ad hoa­tantum preceptorum sacrorum scite cognoscimus; ut post interdict a gra­vius peccemus. It will be necessary therefore that something be spoken [Page 172]to fortifie your souls, and to exhort you to keep your Consciences pure, from principles of prophaneness in conversation, as well as principles of heresy in opinion, for all mens ways are grounded upon the principles with which their mind is stored, and by these the man walks, and therefore the great work in conversion is to distroy mens former principles, and cast down their strong holds, and bring their [...] reasonings into subjection; lay but these two prin­ciples in a mans heart, that the Church cannot err, and that the Church of Rome is the true Church onely, and that man though he know not or consent not unto many of the doctrines of Popery, yet he is a Pa­pist in his principles, and these will necessarily bring in all the rest, and inforce the man to consent unto them all, as they shall be discovered to him; so there are certain principles that if they be layd in a mans heart, though he may not walk in many ways of Prophaneness, but for some reasons there is a restraint upon him, yet he is in his heart a prophane man, [Page 173]and will be ready to break forth into all the ways of prophaneness, as oc­casion and opertunity shall present it self, and the principles are such as these.

First, That is the best Religion that men do receive by tradition from their Fathers; so they in Jer. 44.17. Our Fathers did burn incense to the Queen of Heaven, and then they had plenty of victuals, but since there has been innovations, and changes in Religion, we have never seen peace nor a good day: Have any of the nations changed their gods? Jer 2.1 [...], That Religion which they have received by inheritance, they take themselves deeply ingaged to keep close to it, and say, will you be wiser then your fore-fathers, and will you say that they have all dyed in errour? and will you condemn all these to Hell, as men living in errour, who were counted good men in their generation? When as we know that Christ dyed to redeem us from our vain conversation that we received by tradition from our Fathers; and men meerly acquainted with the 1 Pe [...]. 1.18. [Page 174]Scriptures, do know that God has promised unto his people, a greater discovery of truth in the latter days, the light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun, Isa. 26.30. &c. And the Tem­ple of God shall be opened in Hea­ven, and they shall see into the ark of the Testament, Rev. 11. and the Sea of glass that was first clear, afterwards became as the blood of a dead man, and afterwards a Sea mixed with fire, will be at last a clear River of the waters of Life clear as Christal again, and that the Lord will never leave re­fining and purging Religion,Rev. 22.till he has taken of all that filthiness and defile­ment of Antichrist that he hath east upon it: Heb. 12.28. This shall be the gain that we shall have by all the shaking of the things that are made, a removing of all things in Religion, that have onely the stamp and authority of man upon them, which we are to wait and pray for.

Secondly, So much in Religion as will stand with a mans credit, profit, and honour in the World, that they can admit of, but it is not good to be singular, and too precise therein, [Page 175]this was the principle that was in Je­hues heart, so much reformation as would establish the kingdome unto himself and his posterity, he was zealous for, but no more; but if any thing do cross that, then men rise up against it, with Demetrius they will not hear of it, for by this craft we get our wealth, &c. As the King of Navar answered Beza when he ex­horted him to own the Protestant Cause, and to appear for them, see­ing he professed to favour them, his answer was se istoc pelago commisu­rum, &c. He would so far go and shew himself and Lanch into this Sea, that he would make sure of a safe harbour; so men will go no further in Religion then may stand with worldly interest, and mens policies do set bounds unto their piety, as we see by woful experience this day, &c. Whereas the Gospel rule is, that a man must in the things of God [...]. Let him utterly deny himself, and he that loves Father and Mother more then me, is not worthy of me, God hates that Religion that shall cost men nothing; the Lord calls [Page 176]for singularity in Religion, [...] what singular thing do you? and what do you more then others? you talk more, but do you do more and hazard more, &c. As singularity in a way of sin and pride is abomi­nable to God; so singularity in a way of holiness is well pleasing to him; and for such is the Kingdom of Hea­ven prepared, it's a straight gate and a narrow way, and there be few that find it: the Lords flock is a lit­tle flock, they are a singular Com­pany, they do not walk in the drove with the rest of the world, but they follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes, through thick and through thin as we use to say.

Thirdly, They say there is no necessity of a work of conversion and regeneration as men do talk of; for they that are born in the Church as we all are, we are born in true Re­ligion also, it is the Heathens and Papists that are to be converted; so did the Pharisees think that they needed no repentance, though they could not deny but that they did sin and in many things offend: therefore [Page 177]they must grant a repentance for par­ticular acts of sin; but as for that re­pentence which we call initial, the change of a mans state, that they did conceive the Heathen had need of, but they had not; for they were the seed of Abraham, born in the Church, to whom the Covenants did belong, &c. and men say there is no such inward power of godliness upon the heart as men speak of, contrary to what Christ sayes to Nicodemus, unless a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God, and that to Timothy, 2 Tim. 1.5. and 1 John. 3.5. Acts 20.18. and yet they dare to say that all that profess it do but dissemble, and they are hypocrites, and it is ridiculous for the Church to require such an ac­count of the workings of God upon their hearts before they are admited into the Church fellowship, and Mi­nisters now adays teach their people a canting language, which all are to speak or else they are no Church Members, whereas they say Religion consists in a fair outward just and un­blamable carriage before men, they [Page 178]have a form of godliness, as sayes the Apostle, Tim. 2.3.5 but deny the power of it; and so the pharisees they did justifie themselves before men, they were such as Sepulchres are that were out­wardly fair, made clean the outside only. So these are civil men which are the worlds Saints, whereas also there is an inward work wanting upon the heart, there is a being changed in the spirit of their mind, which they never experienced, a righteous­ness that exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, and with out this converting grace all their works are lost, not tantum peccata sed & bona opera mortalia.

Fourthly, They say it is an easie thing to repent, it is but to cry, Lord have mercy upon us, and I am sorry for my sin, when I am laid upon my death bed and I can no longer com­mit it, then I hope I shall repent; but Christ sayes its not so easie to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; it's easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a needle, then for a rich man to enter there, and therefore he bids them strive to enter; Judas [Page 179]did repent here, and yet he is gone to Hell that is his place, and truly there is and will be repentance enough in Hell, to eternity, if any repentance would serve the turne, men may easily repent; Acts 5.31. I but God accepts no repentance but true repentance, and its God only that gives repentance unto life, and being it is in his power, Oh that the day of his power may be upon all that hear me this day that you may not think it so easie a mat­ter to do this great work, take heed least thy heart be hardened with the deceitfulness of sin. Rom. 2.5.

Fifthly, They think God is mer­cifull and count it no hard matter to get the pardon of sin, and think it not so great an evil as it is made out to be; but a godly man that has been convinced of sin and converted from it, he looks upon sin as the greatest evil, and sees all kind of evil in it, and every sin to abound in sinfulness, and that there is more evil in it then in Hell it self; for that is but against a created good, and this against an uncreated good, and the glory of God is dearer then [Page 180]Heaven and Earth to them. Secondly, The price that was paid to purchase our pardon from sin and defilement, was the blood of Christ, we have re­demption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins. Thirdly, That all a mans comfort comes in by it, Isa. 40.1. says God, speak comfortably to her and tell her that her fins are pardoned, be of good cheer for thy sins are forgiven, and Gods people many of them that walk in bitterness all their dayes, and have sad hearts, and they pray, and their souls draw near to the grave: and all this God per­mits that he might raise the price of pardon in their hearts, when he bids them be of good cheer their sins are forgiven, and then their flesh comes again as the flesh of a young child. These and many the like principles of prophaness there is in the hearts of men; and these being once granted they do bear a great sway with a man in his whole life.

Thus we have seen how to keep a pure Conscience in respect of the principles in mens hearts. Now let us come to the second which is how [Page 181]to keep Conscience pure in respect of practise, and therein two things are to be spoken to. First, The notes of a defiled Conscience. Secondly, Rules how to preserve it pure from defilement.

First, Marks how to judge of the de­filement of a mans Conscience, as first, when a man sins much against know­ledge, Tit. 1.15. and to sin against knowledge is one of the highest aggravations of sin, and it makes every sin to be presumptious and qualifies a man; Heb. 10.27 for the great transgression if a mans sin will fully after he has received the knowledge of the truth, if you had been blind you had had no sin, the Pharisees and the people committed the same sin, they all persecuted Christ; but the Pharisees sin'd against the Holy Ghost in it, and the people did it ignorantly and repented; sins that are ignorantly commited leave a door open to mercy, Paul obtained mercy; for I did it ignorantly in unbelief, yet though he did it ignorantly there was need of mercy, but because he did it ignorantly, therefore there was hope of mercy, there was place for mercy, [Page 182]and the more the light is of educa­tion and example, the greater the sin, it is a great advantage to have good education, Pro. 22.6. Train up a Child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it, and so Pro. 31.1. it was that which his mother taught him; and Timothy knew the Scriptures from a child; and examples do aggravate sins, Isa. 26.10. In a Land of up­rightness will he deal unjustly, &c. and Dan. 5. Thou Belshazzar hast not humbled thy heart, though thou knowest all this; to have a light within a man, as well as example without, to have been once enlight­ned and tasted of the heavenly gift and then fall away, it's impossible to renew them unto repentance, for a man to turn away from professed light, and cast up his vomit and lick it up again, and as a washed Sow re­turn to the myre again, and after many years enquiring of God, re­turn with Saul the Witches. This is a dreadfull state, and such a one had better never to have known the wayes of God, &c.

Secondly, When a man resolves to reserve to himself any way of sin­ning, Joh 20.12. Some sweet Mor­sell, and the man hides it; see it in Herod, he did hear John Baptist gladly, and did many things, but there was a Herodias that he did reserve and was resolved he could not part with it; so there is a way of wickedness that men will not turne from, as there are fundamentals in faith, and errours in these are most dangerous to destroy the foundation; so there are some fundamentals in practise, and they will subvert all, and this is one of the main that a man deny him­self in every known sin, pluck out the right eye, and cut off the right hand, and there is no man that is more pol­luted in the sight of God, than he that spares a right eye or a right hand; for there is no sin that this one evil reserved, will not draw him to, Luke 8.13. in the time of temptation he will fall away [...], as Herod, try him in his darling, and he will turn a persecutor of that way that before he pro­fessed, and Judas in his covetous­ness [Page 182]turn'd Devil and betray'd his Master.

Thirdly, When men fall often into the same sin, see it in Sampson and Peter, that the Lord lets them fall so fouly at the Last being insna­red by carnal confidence so often; and Jonas was angry again, and again, and justified it, when a man makes a sin his meat and drink, the comfort of his life comes in by it from day to day, it's a sad sign.

Fourthly; with the more hardness of heart, and with the less relenting sin is committed, and the longer he can lye in it unrepented of, as we see it in Judas, he was told of the evil and danger of it, it had been good for him if he never had been born, and yet he goes out and saith, What will you give me? and some good men as David and Solomon, yet lay long in a way of sinning; the sooner a man riseth after falls, and a mans heart smites him as Davids did, the more pure is that mans Consci­ence in the sight of God, to be past feeling, and for men to give themselves up to uncleanness, Eph. 4.19. it's [Page 183]a sad sign of a sear'd Conscience, 1 Tim. 4.2, &c.

Fifthly, When a temptation takes speedily with a man, John 13.27.30. Christ did give Judas a Sop, which was a signal to give Satan a farther possession of him, and he follows the temptation; but after that he went immediately out, there was no more consultation; so the sooner also that motions to duty pre­vail with a man, the more pure his Conscience is, when the Lord sayes, seek you my face, the Soul presently answers, thy face Lord will I seek, the spirit sayes come, and the Bride sayes come; and the sooner motions to sin take with a man, the more impure and defiled is his Conscience, Pro. 7.23. He no sooner saw a Harlot, but he went after her straight way; their hearts are hot as an Oven, &c.

Sixthly, The more a man plots iniquity, and dothdeliberate it before hand, makes pro vision for the flesh, the adulterer waits for the twy-light, Rom. 13.14. and he doth lye in wait at his neigh­bours door, when men dig deep for wayes how to accomplish that that is [Page 184]evil, the more men exercise their wits in sin, and the more devilish wisdom is in it to commit iniquity by counsell and advice, is the wisdom of the flesh, ingeniose nequam; as Pharaoh, men will destroy the just by cruelty, and yet deal wisely, and Julian by clemency, yet deal wisely, let them enjoy their liberty by cor­rupting them by liberty, and in peace destroy them, God abhors plotted wickedness, and surely God will bring it to nought and confound men by it.

Seventhly, When men watch oppertunities of sinning and be glad ofthem, and be sorry for the loss of them at any time, as Ju­das sought oppertunity to betray Christ, Prov. 7. and the Harlot is glad of the opportunity, The good man is gene fromhome, and has taken a Sum of moneywith him, and will not return till thetime appoint­ed, come let us take ourfill of Love; and Joseph's Mistress when none of the men of the house were within, and Judas when the Oyntment was poured out, he was [Page 185]sorry for the wast, that he lost such an opportunity, and Gehazy my Master has let him go with all those fine things, but as the Lord lives I will go and get something of him, and what did he get but a foul dis­ease, &c.

Eightly, When much means are used to keep men from sin and they avail not, but men do break through all, and will commit sin, when men have been often admonished, Pro. 29.1. and often afflicted, Pro. 29.1. God will hedge up their way with thornes, and yet they will follow after their Lovers, Hos. 2.6 God doth take many courses to make sin difficult unto a man, a hedge of thornes, and yet the man follows after it still; Pro. 13.19 Balaam a man would have thought Gods forbidding him first, and then the difficulties that lay in his way should have hin­dred him, and though he would still be trying to displease God, yet still God held a hand upon his Conscience, nevertheless Balaam ran greedily after the wayes of unrighteousness, when men cannot endure to be re­proved; Asa was a godly man, yet [Page 186]his Conscience was in an evil frame, he could not bear a reproof; nay, when men wait and lay snares for him that reproves in the gate, &c. It is a sign of a seared Conscience; &c.

Ninthly, When men grow impu­dent and shameless in evil, for there is a shame that doth keep men from some sins, some kind of awe and respects before men, Gen. 15.16. but there is a fullness of sin, and impudency, and obstinacy makes it up, when men have a Whores forehead that cannot blush, they are not ashamed of sin, nay, they glory in their shame, and speak of it with rejoycing; pudet non esse impudentem, the unjust know no shame.

Lastly, When men are not affect­ed with, and not afraid of spiritual judgments, it's the highest and the greatest wrath that can befall a man: vae illis ad quorum peccata connivet Deus. Luther.Ephraim is joyned to Idols, Let him alone; why should they be smiten any more? they will revolt more and more, I will not punish your daughters when they commit adultery saies the Lord; non parcit [Page 187]propitius; parcit iratus.Aust.O servum illum beatum, Tertul.cui deus dignatur irasci: The last sentence of the Church is Anathama Maranatha, and so it is here also. Now there is nothing the people of God are more affected with then spiritual judg­ment; to be given up to a hard heart, to a blind mind, and a spirit of slumber, they are troubled at; nothing more wounds upon a mans estate, or his name, lyes not so heavy upon his spirit, nay he would chuse all outward evils rather, this is a strange and terrible work of God in judgment, pouring out upon a man a spirit of a deep sleep, and for men not to be troubled, that they are not troubled, it is an argument of a very polluted Conscience. 1 Cor. Durum est quod seipsum non exhor­ret. Bern.

Secondly, Now to give some rules how a man should do to keep a good Conscience in all things.

First, Set a high price upon a good Conscience, as being the excellency of the man, which will bear up a man against all evils that men or de­vils [Page 188]can do to him; 2 Cor. 1.12. says the Apostle this is our rejoycing, that in godly simplicity, we have had our conver­sation in the world, and 'tis this that gives a man boldness in the pre­sence of God, if our hearts con­dem us not, we have boldness in his sight, a man that has a good Con­science, shall lift up his face without spot even before God; a good Con­science it is a continual feast, it cheers a man in the worst times, and his Conscience can never be freed from guilt, that is not (in desire at least) freed from defilement, for Christ came by water and by bloud, and upon our Consciences he sprinkles bloud, and sprinkles upon them clean water also.

Secondly, Come to the Laver, re­pent dayly, judg your selves dayly, and apply the blood of Christ, which can onely purge the Conscience, and do it dayly, for the longer any sin lyes upon the Conscience, the more unclean that Conscience is; it is com­paired unto a Fountain that doth dayly work out the mud, M [...]t. 12.15. and doth not let it rest there at all, but im­mediately [Page 189]works against it, to a re­newed Conscience, all sin is as a mote in the eye, and a beam, he can have no quiet till it be out, but sin in a na­tural Conscience, it is not burthen­some though men add iniquity to i­niquity, can easily slip into sin with­out any remorse, whereas we are not to give place to the Devil, no not one hour, Peter after he had sin'd, straightway he went out and wept bitterly, Oh! when any sin lies up­on the Conscience, be sure that it will defile thee more; therefore make hast, and work it out, this delay of purging the Conscience, is an evil may be found in the best men, it cost David broken bones, and great per­plexity, thefore we should be the more careful to come to the Laver of regeneration.

Thirdly, Do not despise the checks of Conscience, but mind that Light within you, when it reproves for fins, either of omission, or com­mission, do not turn the deaf ear; Davids heart smote him, and he took notice of it, and Christ himself, my reins chasten me to instruct me in the Psal. 16.7. [Page 190]night season, &c. For let me tell you that any motion of a mans Con­science slighted, it is thereby defiled, for it speaks in the name of God, and not any word of God, nor any ad­monition of Conscience, should we pass by without regard, for Con­science is in the place of God in the man.

Fourthly, Let it be your constant desire, and your dayly exercise, to live honestly in all things according to that of the Apostle; Heb. 13.18. And truly therein the goodness of a mans Conscience is seen, and Acts 24.16. In this I exercise my self to have always a Conscience void of offence, toward God and toward men, Satan doth cast defilement into the Con­science dayly, and therefore there is nothing that a man should be imployed in more, then to keep a good Conscience dayly in all things; and truly it is the great shame of many, that will take upon them the name of Religion, yet are defective in this in a great measure, that it may be said of them, they do not labour in all things to keep a good Conscience.

Fisthly, Take heed of some spe­cial sins, that above others do most defile the Conscience, though indeed all sins defile the Conscience; but some sins are of a more bewitching, and a more defiling nature then o­thers. as,

First, Secret sins will provoke God to give thee up to the judgment of a defiled Conscience; as he did Judas, because he was a Devil.

Secondly, Idolatry, Take heed of hankering after that abomination, either to worship an Idol, a false god, or the true God in a false man­ner, and it is this last that you are most in danger of; therefore let it not be said of any of you, you know not what you worship; but be able to say, we know what we worship, and how we worship God, in spirit and truth, and do not set up mans post by Gods post; away with all traditious, and inventions of men, in the worship of God: If you would keep Gods presence, observe his or­der; let all be done according to the pattern, to the Law, and to the Testament, &c. Else God may in [Page 192]just judgment, send us strong delusi­ons to believe lies; which I fear is like to befall many of this nation, who have not received the truth, in ths love of it.

Thirdly, Take heed of drunken­ness and Whoredome; Hos. 14.12. Whoredome, and Wine, and new Wine, Prov 2.19.take away thy heart; none that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of Life, &c. Flee fornication and be not drunk with Wine, there is a woe to the drunkards; &c. Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. These sins besot men, &c.

Lastly, Be much in a secret judg­ing of your selves, and in a private examination, Hag. 1.7. the Lord saith consider your ways, and set your hearts upon them, and turn in upon your actions and overlook them again, bring them to the Light, prove your selves, and judge your selves, and do it often, there is a daily judicatory to be e­rected, a cultus conscientiae, which a man should be busied about every day, Matt. 25.7. Then all those Virgins arose and trimmed their [Page 193]lamps; the wise as well as the foolish, &c. Ego de terrenis negotiis simplici­ter accipio. Calv. Whilest men are in this World, there is a daily defile­ment that will cleave unto them, a squallor, there will be something out of order, that there must be a daily and a continual triming, the wise as well as the foolish Virgins must be found in it, and truely if a man neg­lects it but a while, and keeps not a constant course in it, a man shall find a strange averseness in his spirit there­unto all his life after; for the way to sin's defilement, is mainly by insensi­bleness, a man is hardened by the de­ceitfulness of sin, and walks with God at a venture; and truely if Sa­tan brings a man to that once, he hath prevailed very farr, and will exceedingly defile the man.

We have spoken of keeping a good Conscience [...] towards God, let us now come to consider also what it is for a man to keep a good Conscience towards man; for both these must go together, he must keep a good Conscience in all things, as was hinted formerly, and be holy [Page 194] [...]; for a dead fly spoils the whole Box of Oyntment, and a good Conscience is like to the eye, it hates motes, and they disquiet it as well as beams: It's an errour in the common sort of men to think all Religion lyes in their just and upright carriage towards men, as the Phari­sees did, and to such I say doth your righteousness exceed the righteous­ness of the cribes and Pharisees, if not, you shall never enter into the Kingdom of God, &c. Indeed there is a civil honesty, a sweet and an in­genious carriage towards men, that is very lovely, and these are com­monly called the worlds Saints, and indeed they have nothing amongst them appears so pleasing; Mar. 10.21. Christ loved the young man, and yet peculiar Grace he had none; for he was under the reigning power of covetousness, and therefore there was something in him that was more general, for which Christ loved him, he had restraining grace, and a sweet outward carriage; that even the spirit of God had wrought in him, habent & filii con­cubinarum sua munera, &c. and yet [Page 195]Christ said to him, for all these ac­complishments one thing thou lackest, &c. and if thou walk never so up­rightly before men, that thou be e­steemed the worlds Saint, and thou couldest bring a testimony of thy good behaviour from all the ingeni­ous men of thy age, yet without an inward work of grace and regenerati­on, and a heart inlivened by a spirit of faith, so that all these works flow from union with Christ, and from a principle of love wrought in thee to God, truly all that thou dost is a­bominable to God, in non renatis non solum peccata sed & bona opera sunt mortalia, for fides est caput bonorum operum, and if that be wanting, all of it is but nature improved, and new dressed, and so can never please God, semen naturae non consurgit in fructum gratiae; for a mans duties do proceed from the same principles that his sins do, and there must be a renewing in the spirit of his mind be­fore God accepts any service of him.

And there are some men do turn to the other extream, and they say that all obedience is mainly towards [Page 196]God, and therefore they are much in prayer and hearing, and run from Ordinance to Ordinance, and they do speak much also of keeping a good Conscience before God; but yet they are negligent and loose in their carriages towards men, they are as censorious and unjust and deceitfull busie-bodies in other mens matters, proud, boasters, false accusers, whisperers, &c. Yet these men would pass for Saints, and think themselves in the highest form of professors: Now this is a sure rule, a pure Conscience though he cannot keep all the commandments of God, yet he has a respect unto them all, as Psal. 119.6. with a care to walk answerable unto them, and there is none that he doth wholly neglect, as the word in the Hebrew signifies that man therefore whose profession for God is never so high, and talkes never so much of having a good heart to Gods word, and would be ac­counted in his religious duties even Angelical, he prays much, hears much, fasts much, &c. Yet if he practise it not in his particular place, [Page 197]in his relations, in his shop, in his dealings with a man, I shall strongly suspect that man of hallowness and hypocrisie; how ever he may tip his Tongue like a Saint, yet he may bold­ly be reckoned amongst the sinners, and such are spots in our feasts, &c.

Now, To stir you up to this Duty of keeping a good Conscience to­wards men, let me exhort you to ob­serve these particulars.

First, Take special care of the souls that are committed to your charge; parents have the souls of their child­ren committed to their charge, and Ministers of their people, and Ma­gistrates and Masters in their places also, and of the Talents that God has committed to your trust in this World; next to your own Souls, are the Souls of others, the more any loves his wife, and child, and friend, &c. The more he will labour to bring them in love with grace, and the ways of of God, Prov. 4.3. He was be­loved of his Father, he taught me also, &c. Prov. 1.1. Tender and onely beloved of my Mother: The words of King Lemuel, the Prophesie that his Mother [Page 198]taught him. and 1 Pet. 1.1.2. That if any obey not the Word, they also may without the Word, be won by the conversation of the wives. &c. The more the Wife loves the Husband, the more she endeavours to win him, &c. It is possible the great cut unto Adams conscience was, that by sin he not onely destroyed himself, but his posterity; Bern. non parentes sed peremp­tores, a sad parting to hear a child say, when he is lanching into eterni­ty, a cruel Father hast thou been to me, in neglecting to instruct me for the salvation of my soul; and for a Wife to say, a bloody Husband hast thou been to me, and a bloody Mi­nister hast thou been to me, for thou hast sold souls for gain, Ezech. 13.10. Because they have seduced my people, Rev. 18.13.saying peace and there was no peace, and one built a Wall, and loe others daubed it with untempered morter. &c. They made souls of men their Merchandise, &c. Indeed there be many men that gain by the loss of souls, as Act. 19.24. When the Devil was cast out, they were highly offended to hear souls should be sa­ved, [Page 199]because the hope of their gain was gone.

Secondly, If you would keep a good Conscience towards all men, do not bear sin for them, either by not mourning for them, or by not reproving them, when they sin against God. First, By not mourn­ing for them; It was an excellent frame in the Psalmist, my eyes gush out rivers of water, because men keep not thy Law: Secondly, By not re­proving them, Lev. 19.17. Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neigh­bour, and not suffer sin upon him. &c. It is sad to bear the sins of other men, remember thou hast enough of thy own, ab alienis meis libera me Domine. Aust.

It may be thou shalt be counted morose and unsociable, but malo fa­mam boni viri perdere quam Consci­entiam; and which will be better at the last day, when men shall say euge bone socie, or Christ, bone serve? But men think they shall get ill will for their pains, and there is little good like to come on it, and so men shift off their Duty: [...]ut hear what Job says of [Page 200]himself; Job. 31.34. Did I fear a multitude, [...] did the contempt of families terifie me that I kept silence? There is a sinful and cursed silence that all good hearts should be afraid of, when the glory of God, and the good of souls is in danger, then is the season speci­ally for all the upright of heart to re­buke for sin, those that God has pu [...] under their care; and to mourne for what they cannot help: Though we cannot be reprovers of all sinners, yet we may be mourners for all sinners.

Thirdly, Do not get an estate un­justly, by falsisying of publick trust, or else by secret defrauding, or go­ing beyond thy brother, for the issue of it will be, the rust of the silver you so get shall be a witness against you; Joh. 5.3. and the cry of the oppressed enters into the ears of the Lord, &c. Woe to him that builds a town with blood, Job. 31.38. the Stones out of the Wall shall cry out against him, and that hath the labour of the hireling without wages, and makes a prey upon the necessities of men; &c. Naboths Vineyard, stuck in Ahabs Conscience, and Judas Thirty pieces also, it being [Page 201]the price of blood, it terrified him, so that he chose strangling rather then bear the guilt of it, he had lucrum in crumena, but Gehennam in Conscientia.

Fourthly, If you have wronged any one restore it; for that unjust gain lyes upon thy Conscience, and God will make thee vomit it up, he will pluck it out of thy belly, Con­science will never be at ease till then; for as long as a man retains it he does justifie his sin and does every day com­mit it: N [...]h. 5.11. therefore make haste and re­store whatever thou hast got unjustly and by indirect means, Zacheus re­stored it four-fold, go you and do likewise, Herod could not repent, keep his Herodias, non remittitur peo­catum, &c. Mic. 6.10. And God takes it ill that men do not, and what doth the Lord require of thee but to shew mercy, &c. Are there yet the trea­sures of wickedness in the house of the wicked; I will punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters houses with violence and de­ceit, &c. Zeph. 1.3.

Fifthly, Take heed of the neglect [Page 202]of doing good to others; rich men have an oppertunity of doing good to others, and look you do it; for riches do not always last, they are this worlds goods. and take to themselves wings and fly from one place to ano­ther, make therefore friends of the unrighteous Mammon, &c. And great men have an opportunity to lift up their hand for the fatherless, and to restore the needy to their right, and oh that it were more the aim of great men that are so ambiti­ous of honour, and high places in the world, that they may be restorers of breaches, and a help to the needy and helpless, that justice and righte­ousness may take place, then there would not so many have contempt poured upon them as now there is, and God will still overturne, over­turne, till there be no complaint in the midst of us; and how bitter will the remembrance of them be, that have had a hand to do good, and yet wanted a heart? as it was in Jehu's time, he took no heed to walk in the way of God with all his heart; so many a man may say, time was [Page 203]when I might have reformed Religi­on, had not my Policy given Laws to my Piety, and my desire to set up my self, hindred me from exalt­ing God: Phineas was zealous for God, and a covenant of peace was made with him: Nehemiah did reform profaness and the Lord re­membred him in goodness, &c.

Now when men will not use their authority for God, but he is disho­noured, and the souls of men are de­stroyed, and the needy are sold for a pair of Shooes, and their possessors slay them, and think themselves not guilty, and every man does what is good in his own sight, and there is none to put them to shame, the the Lord will remove the Diadem, &c. and cast down the mighty from their seat, and will exalt the humble and lowly.

Sixthly, Keep a good Conscience towards enemies, Job 3.129, 30. it was a brave tem­per in Job, If I rejoyced at the de­struction of him that hated me, or lift up my self when evil found him, &c. and our Saviour bids us, Mat. 5.44. pray for them that despightfully use you, and [Page 204]persecute you, &c. forgive them, and be willing to do them good, if thine enemy hunger, feed him; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head, be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good, if they be thy enemies without a cause, or for telling them the truth, they are more their own ene­mies then thine, therefore pity them.

The accidental part, or less principal part, of the torments of Hell we have hear, under the Metaphor of the never dying Worm: And now I come unto the principal part, and that which is essential to it, and that is the fire that never can be quenched, and here I must mind you of what Christ sayes, Joh. 3.12. I have spoken to you Earthly things, and you believe not Spiritual things under Earthly resemblances; for our weak eyes need to have the species condensed by such spectacles as these are, spiritualia capere non possumus nisi adumbrata, &c. How shall you believe if I tell you of Heavenly, especially when the joys of Heaven and the pains of Hell are laid down [Page 205]in any measure before you, this latter I am now to speak to, the fire which cannot be quenched; it's a thing dis­puted amongst Divines, and the fa­thers of old have differ'd in it, and the Schoolmen after them, whether the fire by which the damned in Hell shall be tormented, be not Material and Corporeal fire, but Metaphori­cal only, some of them say that it is Corporeal, and of the same nature with that fire we have here; because it must torment the bodies of men, and others say that it cannot be Cor­poreal; for then it cannot work upon Spirits, as the Devils, and the Souls of men are, and hence Duran­dus and others have found out a way, that by the power of God he can ele­vate Corporeal agents in their opera­tions; so that they shall work upon Spiritual sub [...]ances, and as the Soul is affected here by its union with the body, so it shall be hereaf­ter, &c.

But these things seem not at all to agree with the word of God, nor the manner of the speaking of the Spirit of God there­in, [Page 206] who hath wholly expressed Heaven and Hell to us by Metaphors; be­cause in its proper Speech, and if the Lord should speak of things as they are, we could not understand them, it's questioned by some Divines by what names the estate and condition of the damned was expressed in the Old Testament, and it is wholly re­solved into certain Metaphors, taken from some exemplary acts of ven­geance upon sinners; the first re­markable judgment that came upon the world was the Deluge, now we read in Gen. 6. Of Giants that were in the Earth, men of renown, whose wickedness was so great upon the Earth that the Lord repented that he had made man, and takes up a resolu­tion in judgment to destroy them that he had created from the Earth, and these being the first that did emi­nently and remarkably perish, there­fore Pro. 21.16. 'tis said, The man that wanders out of the way of under­starding, shall remain in the Congre­gation of the dead, the Hebrew word is [...], the place receives its name from those wicked men, who [Page 207]were in the eyes of all men remark­ably the first inhabitants, and this is conceived to be the first title that in Scripture is any where given to the place of the damned, the next judg­ment was the destruction of Sodom, God condemning them with an over­throw, and turning it into a dead Sea, a fiery and Sulphurious Lake where every thing dyes, nor can any thing live in it, and a smoak that con­tinually ascends up, and by that also in Scripture Hell is expressed, the Lake that burns with fire and Brim­stone for ever, and it is Jude 7. suffer­ing the vengeance of Eternal fire. There is another expression of it that is very famous; there was near Je­rusalem a place that was called Tophet as Schal. conceives from [...] Tym­pano; because of the several Musical Instruments, that were used there when the Jews did sacrifice their children unto Molech and burnt them, caused them to pass through the fire unto the Devil, and to te­stifie that they did it from the heart, though they were never so dear, yet they must rejoyce in it, and [Page 208]dance at the sacrifice, it was the Valley of the sons of Himon, this place was thus polluted by sin, and with the blood of men poor inocent ones. And this place of Idolatry Josiah did pollute, and commanded all the dead bodies and all the unclean things of the City to be cast therein, and for the consuming of those a continual fire was kept there, and God did execute special vengeance in this place; because in it the Lord destroyed 185000. of the Assyrian Camp, and there the Jews were slain themselves, when the Babylo­nish Army took the City, and hence Isa. 30. and last verse; For Tophet is ordained of old, yea for the King it is prepared, he has made it deep and large, the pile thereof is fire, and much wood, the breath of the Lord like a stream of Brimstone doth kindle it; this place that was so famous for judgment and vengeance is used to express the torments of Hell the place of the damned, it is called Tophet, and hence also I conceive the Word [...] hath its name from Himon; for the greatness of the misery it is [Page 209]called [...] the grave and destructi­on, Pro. 15.11. There is nothing done in Hell and in the bottomless pit, but it is open to the Lord, he knows and orders all in it, and therefore is the Devil call­ed Abadon the destroyer for the terror and unquietness thereof, it is called [...], 2 Pet. 2.4. from [...] which signifies to trouble, vex and disquiet a man, and its called for the uncom­fortableness, and continual fear of it darkness, by which all misery is ex­pressed in the Scripture, and to set forth the perfection of it, it is called utter darkness, Mat. 8.12. but the children of the Kingdom shall be cast out into utter darkness, &c. That is extra Ecclesiam & regnum Christi; for the Kingdom of God is an inheri­tance in light, Col. 1.12. so all the miseries of men without Christ are called darkness, and a darkness that is without, even there where all the wicked of the world shall be, so Cartwright, and some think that it is Comparativum Superlativi loco, and it signifies maximas & profundis­mas, and so Pareus, &c. And for the eternity of it its called the deep, [Page 210]Luke 8.31. and Rev. 9.1. The Well or the deep. or the bottomless pit; because a mans estate there is eternal, there is no changing, a man sinks in­to a bottomless pit, where there is no hope that ever a man shall rise again, a great gulf there is, and there is no changing of a mans state so ever; Thus doth the spirit of God in Scripture by Metaphors of all sorts of things that are dreadfull unto sence set forth the condition of the damned and the torments that he has reserved for them in the life to come.

Thus we see that God has done al [...] in a Metaphorical way, and by bor­rowed expressions, and so I con­ceive it is in this place, and therefore it will be necessary that we do inquire what the Lord doth usually expres [...] by fire in Scripture, and thereby w [...] shall find out the meaning of th [...] fire in the text, that never shall b [...] quenched, I find in Scripture many things expressed by fire, but to ou [...] present purpose especially these two first the wrath and displeasure of the great God, which does break forth upon men as fire upon stubble, and [Page 211]and so it's expressed in Deut. 4.24. Heb. 12. last. The Lord thy God is a consuming fire; and it is said, that the light of Israel shall be for a fire, &c. The same God that is a fire for light unto his people, comforting them, and shine­in upon them, the same ignis vorans to his enemies, as briars and thorns in one day, so Deut. 32.22. For a fire is kindled in my anger, and shall burn to the lowest Hell; [...] there is a grave where the bodies of men are buried, but there is also a lower grave, and a deep­er destruction for their souls, therefore is the wrath of God in Scripture commonly expressed by fire.

Secondly, By the fruits and effects of wrath, all miseries and calamities that come upon men whatsoever, Psal. 66.12. Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads, we went thorow fire and water, all manner of mise­ries; thou broughtest us forth into a wealthy place; &c. Through the wrath of the Lord, is the Land dark­ened: &c. Isa. 2.19. And the people shall be as fewel for the fire, and so Glausius does expound that place, Isa. 24.15. [Page 212] Wherefore glorifie the Lord in the fire, [...] he had spoken of great afflict­ions that God would bring upon the people, even desolation and destruct­ion, but yet the Lord will not make a full end, some shall be left, as the shaking of an Olive-tree, and as the Grape gleanings after the Vintage; and they shall sing for the Majesty of the Lord, and shall glorify the Lord in the fires, in all those sad things and tokens of his wrath that have come up­on other men in their sight, and yet they have been preserved even in the fires.

By fire, Here I conceive to be meant, all the positive part of the tor­ments of Hell; and because they are not onely upon the soul, but also up­on the body; as in Heaven there shall be all bodyly perfections, so there shall be also in Hell, all bodily miseries, whatsoever may make a man perfectly miserable: Therefore the wrath of God, and all the posi­tive effects of this wrath, is here meant by fire. First, To begin with the wrath of God, and that is the fire that is here meant; and hence the Doctrine is this.

That it is the wrath of God in Hell, Doct. that shall be the great Tormentor, the immediate Executioner; Here God doth punish men by the creatures, but hereafter, they shall fall immedi­ately into the hands of the living God.

This we shall prove by these ar­guments and demonstrations.

First, After this life God shall be be all in all, as it is said 1 Cor. 15.28. In this life, all Gods dispensations are by the creatures, he governs by them, by Magistrates, and Ministers, and Angels, and also he doth permit the Devils to have power and dominion, but he will then put down all rule and authority, and power, not onely Magistrates and Ministers, but even Angels and Devils; when the dispen­satory kingdome of Christ in this World shall have an end, then all these creature-administrations shall cease, no more comforts by ordinances and Relations, no more miseries by eni­mies, but God shall be all in all, either in mercy or in wrath, and all the mi­sery of the creatures shall be from hence, Rom. 9.22. It is to shew his [Page 214]wrath, and to make his power known, 2 Thes. 1.9 punished with eternal de­struction from the presence of God, and the glory of his power; there­fore as in Heaven the comforts of souls shall come in mainly from God imediately, so in Hell shall their ter­rour also; for all the comfort of the creatures shall cease, and it is the wrath of God immediately, that shall be the great torment.

Secondly, After this Life, God doth intend to dispence all his wrath and to show it forth as the wrath of a God, Psal. 78.38. And if he will do so, he must do it immediately, as it Heaven, if he will shew forth the love of a God he must do it immediately, and therefore though God could com­fort a man exceedingly by the crea­tures; yet they are to mean to testi­fie Gods Love, Eccles. 9 1. There is no creature that is a vessel, that car receiven all the Love of God, and empty it into the man; so he cannot know hacred, for there is no crea­ture can be [...], able to receive all the [...], and therefore as in Heaven there shall be something [Page 215]beyond all creature comforts, so in Hell shall be something beyond all created miseries; Therefore Rom. 9.22. They be called vessels of wrath, that God made to receive it.

Thirdly, The wrath of God after this Life, shall he such as passeth knowledge, and passeth fear; Who knows the power of thy wrath? Psal. 90.11 Now there is no creature can fill the Soul, all the goodness that is in the creature, cannot satisfie the hope of man, and all the evil in the creature cannot sa­tisfie the fears of man; there will still be something that will go beyond a mans knowledg, and that a mans fears will go beyond; and therefore we commonly say, men are more feard then hurt: But in Heaven as the soul will be satisfied beyond all the good of the creatures, and that beyond a mans hopes, for the Lord will come to be admired in his Saints. Now, 2 Thes. 1. Admiration is the overplus of Expectation; so in Hell, the Soul will be filled with torment, beyond what was or can be apprehended in the creatures, and as the good will pass a mans hopes, so will the evil in [Page 216]Hell, pass a mans fears; but this cannot be in the creature, for the good of it cannot pass the one, and all the evil of it cannot go beyond the other; and therefore if a mans com­forts were only created, all the com­forts in the World, would not make up Heaven or happiness, for they are but created; so if a mans miseries after this Life, were only in the crea­tures, all created miseries would ne­ver make Hell; but still the Soul would live under them all: But it is only under the wrath of the great God, that the soul dies.

Fourthly, Consider the torments of the Devils, whence is all their Torments now? For Jude tells us they are reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day, &c. And they are not wholy freed: Now, Doth God apply any creature to this work? Mar. 8.29. Doest thou come to torment us before the time? There was nothing tormented them, but his presence and power, &c. And this wrung from them this great complaint. Now, they do not torment them­selves [Page 217]though they have a Consci­ence, yet this is not the great tor­menter, and we do not read that they are executioners one of another, or that God doth use the ministry of the good Angels in the punishment of the evil, though the good Angels strive with them for the preservation of the Saints, now what Creature has power enough to torment the Devils? such great and mighty Creatures as they are, surely it is nothing else but the wrath and indignation of the great God, which is the fire that is reserved for the Devil and his Angels, to be made objects of, and lye under for ever, this the Lord doth suspend here in this life by the Kingdom of Christ; because now there is a time of patience, and the Lord has ser­vice to imploy them in, as vessels of dishonour, which if they should lye under the wrath of God perfectly poured out, they would not be able to perform, and therefore the Lord doth forbear them, that at last wrath may come upon them to the ut­termost.

Fifthly, Consider the first fruits [Page 218]and inchoations of Hell in this life, and that either in wicked men or in the Saints, in wicked men, Heb. 10.27. there is [...] some sparkles of Hell, a certain fearfull looking for of Judgment, and fiery indignation, &c. As the people of God have here some sparks of Hea­ven, by the Spirit of adoption, some earnest and glimpses of Heaven, see it in Cain, Gen. 4.13. and Judas, his Soul is filled with horror and a­mazement, that they would rather chuse all the miseries of the Crea­tures, and to lye under the whole Creation, call to Mountains to cover them to be freed of it, and therefore they cry out, it is too late for me to repent, is't possible for me to be pardoned? I know God will never have mercy upon me, and therefore their soul chooseth strangling, any thing to put them out of this torment, what did Judas aise, who did hurt him? he had money in his purse, there was no evil of the Creature upon him, he gratified the high Priests, and many of that crew, only there was a secret touch of Gods [Page 219]own finger upon him, an immedi­ate drop of wrath let in upon his Conscience, &c. And not only in wicked, but in godly men, as Job and Heman, Job 6.4. The arrows of the Almighty stick in me, and the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me, and surely inward terrors are the most terrible, and there are no medicines in the whole creation, that can heal a wounded spirit, all friends, estates, honours, relations, will be to a man as the white of an Egge, in the day when the terrors of Gods wrath do com­pass a man about, as if God speak peace to the Soul, none can speak terror, no not all the Creatures, and the most exquisite miseries that can be inflicted by them, [...]s appears by Martyrs; so if God speak terrors, there is none can speak comfort, no­thing in the Creature can help or ease, as appears by men that have had all things the world can afford, and yet their spirits were [...] wound­ed in them, they had [...]or he least relief thereby; so [...] Heman, Psal. 88.5. We know of no pressure [Page 220]that was upon him by the Creatures, and yet he complains he was free among the dead, as a man in Hell already, while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted, there was something beyond what all the Creatures could inflict; Now there is joyes that the Saints receive here from God under Heaven, joy unspeakable, and glo­rious, and of the same kind, though they differ in degree with those in glory; so the terrors here are of the same kind, only they differ in degree from the torments of Hell, they have a taste of the Cup, which in Hell they shall drink of it a full drought, and therefore as the one is joy unspeak­able, and full of glory, so is the other torments unspeakable and full of sor­row; and in this God uses the mini­sterie of no Creature, neither doth the hearts of men discerne any thing but the wrath and terrors of the Al­mighty.

Sixthly, It doth more fully ap­pear in the suffering of Christ, if we look upon him as in the Garden, he was in an agony, Mat. [...]6.38. [...] his soul was invironed and [Page 221]compassed about with sorrow, now all the misery that can come from the Creature can never compass the Soul about, there will be some door open, but here he sees no way our, and therefore Mark 14.33. he was [...] sore amazed, under the apprehension of wrath, and [...] his Spirit failed within him, Psal. 40.13. His heart in the middle of his body was melted as wax, and this anguish of spirit so wrought upon his body, that it made him to sweat drops of blood, whence is all this affliction that was upon Christ, we read of no Devils that were let loose upon him to torment him, his very presence was their tormenter here, and his wrath shall be their tormenter hereafter, we read of no Angels that had commission to afflict him; nay, we read of an Angel that appeared from heaven to comfort him, Luke 22.43. which would have been enough to have raised up a mans Spirit under the greatest affli­ctions of the Creatures, nor was it from any inward unquietness in his own Spirit; for there was no seeds [Page 222]of such fearfull distempers in him; for he knew no sin, there was no guile in his mouth, it could not be from any bodily pain; for in the Garden the Jews had not laid hold upon him, there was no evil upon him, and it could not be fear of a bodily death; for it was for this cause that he came into the world, and it was that which he did desire and long for, with desire have I de­sired to eat the Passeover with you, I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straightned till it be accomplished? but the cause was the sence of the wrath of God lying upon his spirit, Isa 53.10. it pleased the Lord to bruise him, he hath put him to grief to beat him to pieces, and to grind him to powder, as his Soul was made an offering for sin, there is a sacrifice, and there is a fire that must consume it, Christ was the sacrifice, and the wrath of God was the fire to con­sume him, and these are the extre­mities of the sufferings of Christ, now in all this, Christ dyed as our surety, and paid our debt, L [...]k. 23.3, and if this fire did burn so fiercely in him, that was [Page 223]the Green Tree that was not so fit Fuel to burn; because there was no sin in him, what will it do in us that are dry Trees? now if the main of Christs sufferings were from the wrath of God immediately, we may safely conclude that the sufferings due to us, and which the wicked shall un­dergo in Hell for the substance of them, shall be the same from the wrath of God immediately upon the Soul, though there be no Creature in Heaven or Earth to set it on, this wrath that did seize so siercely up­on the green Tree, will surely con­sume the dry.

And it must needs be so. Reasons. that the wrath of God upon wicked men in Hell shall be their great and imme­diate torment; for none can do it but God alone, and that if we con­sider the offence to be punished, or else the subject of this punishment: First, if we consider the offence that deserves it, it is sin, which is com­mitted chiefly against God, and the punishment of it must be a recom­pence, The Wages of sin is death, 2 Thes. 1. [Page 224]'tis a righteous thing with God to recompence tribulation to every sin­ner, &c. Now who is able to take an estimate of the evil that is in sin, and the wrong that it has done unto God, there are two things in sin, dam­num & injuria, a wrong in point of goods, and in point of honour, sin has destroyed all the Creatures, who is able to value the loss of a whole world, but only he that made it, and the loss of a Soul, but he that purchased it, and who is able to judge of the glory of God, and the infinite wrong that is done him by sin; no Creature in Heaven or in Earth can, and therefore if all the powers of the Creatures were put into one to torment a man but for one sin, they were never able to give unto him the wages and the recom­pence of one sin proportionable unto the wrong that God has susteined thereby, either in point of goods or honour; for there is more evil in one sin, then there is or can be good in any of the Creatures, therefore God must put his own Power, the power of his wrath unto the work, if he will [Page 225]have the wages of any one sin payd: Judges here, do condemn men them­selves, and pass the sentence upon them, but they leave it unto others to execute them, because they can do it as effectually as themselves, but it is not so here, if God will have a sinner pay the utmost farthing, he must exact it of him himself; for sin is out of measure sinful, it passeth the thoughts of Men and Angels to conceive, and therefore the punish­ment is greater then they can inflict; it is God alone can do it.

Secondly, If we respect the sub­ject upon which this punishment is to light; That is chiefly to be punished that has the chief hand in the sin. Now, Sin is mainly the sin of the Soul; Mic 6.7. Rom 6.16. Though the creature might punish the body, yet the m [...] torment is to be laid on the Soul, but the Soul is capable of more to recent, then all the creatures in Heaven and Earth can inflict; God only is the Father of Spirits, and the correction and discipline of Spirits do belong to him alone; we com­monly say, that the Devils in Hell, [Page 226]shall be the tormenters of souls there, as if there work there, were only to tor­ment men for ever, whereas they shall be chiefly tormented themselves; for there is a Lake of fire and brimstone prepared for the Devil and his An­gels, and yet you say he can torment the soul, being a spirit; but alass the torment must be destruction, 1 Thes. 1.9. from the presence of the Lord, &c. Now, all the devils in Hell could never in­flict any thing that should distroy the soul, or take away all good from the soul, and fill it full of misery; they can never satisfy the capacity of the Soul in good, nor in evil, the Soul is a vessel of wrath, and will hold more then all the creatures can put into it, and will live it, 'tis only under the wrath of God that the Soul dyes, and therefore they that can kill the Body, they are not able to kill the Soul, God only can create, Mat. 10.28.therefore God only can annihilate, therefore God only can inflict a punishment worse then annihi­lation; Mat. 26.24. It had been good for that man he had not been born, that thus comes under the punishment of God, this is a dreadful confidera­tion.

Secondly, It is an act fit for none but God, for it is, First, An act of justice; 2 Thes. 1.5. In the day of Revelation of the righteous judge­ment of God, when God will mani­fest his justice to the utmost. Now, Who is able to shew forth the justice of God, in the extent and glory of it but himself? When God will manifest an attribute to the World, he doth it by himself immediately; if he would shew his Power; he will make a World; if he would shew his Holy­ness, he gives his Son; and if his Glory, he makes Heaven; and if his Justice, he makes Hell. Now, As nothing can do the former but Gods immediate hand, so nothing can do the latter also, for to manifest an attribute, is an act and glory of God; for as none can shew forth his mercy, so none can shew forth and declare his Justice, but himself.

Secondly, It is an act of wrath; Rom. 3.5. Rom. 2.5. But after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up wrath against the day of wrath: Now, no creature is able to shew forth the wrath of the great God, here there [Page 228]is a little wrath manifested in them, his wrath is kindled but a little, Psal. 2. last. &c. And he corrects in measure, but when the Lord shall cause his whole wrath to arise, and punish man out of measure, that no creature is capa­ble of doing, no creature can pour out all the grace of God neither; and therefore God made choice of Christ who was God and man, to lay up all his treasures of grace and mer­cy in, answerable to those infinite thoughts of mercy and grace that were in himself; 1 John 5.11. And this life is in his Son, and so no crea­ture can shew forth all Gods wrath, he must do it by himself.

Thirdly, It must be an act of ven­geance, which is the royalty of God, that he claims to himself, and he will not give unto any other; Heb. 10.30. For we know him that has said, vengeance belongs unto me, I will re­compence saith the Lord, and again, the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing, to fall into the hands of the living God. He forbids pri­vate revenges, and saith to his disci­ples, if he smite thee on the one [Page 229]cheek, turne the other, &c. As there are none avenge here below, but Magistrates, his Vicegerents, to shew that it is the priviledg of none but him­self hereafter. Now, if he has re­served it unto himself here, surely he will take it to himself hereafter; in the disposing of the eternal estates of the greater part of the World, Angels and Men, to give this ho­nour unto the creature that they should take vengeance, the Lord will never do it, but it is and shall be an act of his own immediate wrath, and here the three persons hath in Scripture, their opera appropriata, if the Father be provoked, the Son is an advocate with the Father, and the Ho­ly Ghost strives with him, but when all the persons shall joyn together, the Son will plead no more, and the spirit strive no more, but all joyn in this great work of vengeance, and the spi­rit of God, as in Heaven, he shall be a spirit of Adoption, and Glory; so in Hell a spirit of bondage and torment for ever. Isa. 30. last

There are two things in it to be observed; First, Here is fire and [Page 230]brimstone, that is unquenchable fire, for brimstone is pertinasissimum ignis fomentum, and there is not a little, but a River of brimstone; and what is this fire and brimstone? It is [...] the spirit of the Lord burning in it, his wrath is the fire and the brimstone also, and his spirit; for as the spirit is not onely fire but oil, because his grace is upheld by the daily supplies of its own grace, notwithstanding all mens unthankfulness; so his wrath is not only fire, but brimstone; there is a continual supply of wrath to eternity, that makes this fire of Tophet to be eternal and unquenchable fire.

Object. But Satan is said to have the power of Death, and is called Abad­don the destroyer, and therefore it seems Satan is the instrument that God will use in tormenting them; that as here they were commanded by him, and subjected unto his temptations, so they should be under him for ever torment­ing them.

Answ. First, Satan is said to be the destroyer in respect unto sin, which is the destruction of the crea­ture, [Page 131]and lays the foundation of a mans eternal destruction, as he is called a murderer, John 8. so he is called a destroyer, because by him man was deceived and seduced; and this is not spoken in refference to his inflicting of Death, but in respect of drawing a man unto sin; and so he is said to be the destroyer, and in respect of many temporal punishments, that the Lord by him doth bring in the de­struction of persons, and kingdomes, and he is therefore called the destroy­er, because it his whole work to de­stroy, and he intends nothing else in all that he doth but destruction, and Satan is said to have the power of death, it is not, [...], which notes authority as well as power, but [...], it is strength and power only to do it; so he doth inflict death upon men when God imploys him, for Satan is used in such dishonourable services, as to have the power of death, as the executioner hath, that puts men to death, and tor­ments them that the Judge doth give into his hand.

Secondly, When a wicked man is put to death the devils attend; and they take his soul and hurry it to the place of torment, as the Angels do the souls of the Saints; Luke 16. and therefore it is said, thou Fool this night shall they require thy soul, Luk. 12.20. [...], the Devil is present and de­mands the soul, and takes it and ca­ries it into the place of torment that it is adjudged too, even to its own place, where Judas went; so that the Devil inflicts upon men and carries them to Hell.

Thirdly, At the last and general judgment, Satan shall accuse them being condemned together with him, he shall take them to Hell with him, for this wrath is prepared for the De­vil and his Angels: But this kingdome of [...]atan, shall last no longer then the kingdome of the Angels, and all rule, and all authority shall be put down, when Christ shall have given up the kingdome unto the Father, and the Angels shall rule over the elect no more; so the Devil shall rule over the reprobate no more; but now God shall be all in all: In Hea­ven [Page 233]he shall be all in all in mercy, and in Hell he shall be all in all in wrath, and there shall be no more any do­minion of one Creature over ano­ther, God will no more use one Crea­ture to reward another, or to punish another, but himself shall be all in all.

Object. But in Heaven there be many created comforts, therefore in Hell there are many created miseries, and therefore the wrath of God is not the only Executioner there, as you af­firm.

Answ. It's true there are many miseries there from the Creatures, the place is a Dungeon of darkness, it is the bottomless pit, abissus the deep; as there is a great deal of sweet­ness in the place in Heaven and Glo­ry, so there is much misery here from the place; for there are Chambers of death.

Secondly, From the Company; the friends of a Soul, and the enemies, and all restraining grace, and the [Page 234]Law of nature shall cease, and sin shall be acted to the life, as part of a mans punishment, and they shall be set one against another for ever; Di­ves had torment by the coming of his brethren, the man shall be torment­ed by the coming of his wife, and his children, and his Companions here on earth, &c.

Thirdly, From the upbraidings of Satan; for his malice shall never cease, and therefore he will in this re­spect be shewing a man his folly, and endeavour to torment him more and more, Isa. 21.14. and will deride him, and there is nothing more bitter to a man then to be scorned in misery and derided, and this men may look for in Hell at the hand of Satan, he will mock at them for ever, and never shew thee the least pity; for thou art bound up amongst the Tares, in the same bun­dle with the Devil and all his crew; thus indeed there are some created miseries in Hell, but yet it is the wrath of God that is the great tor­ment, that as in all created blessings here, it is his love that is the root, and the Fountain of them, and they [Page 235]are all nothing unless that go before, they all stand but for a Cypher; so unless his wrath go before, all these torments would be but Cyphers, and the Soul would live; there is no Creature that can kill the Soul, they may indeed kill the body, and a small Creature can do so, if it be armed by God, and the greatest can do no more then kill the body, as the life of the Soul comes from God only, so does the death of the Soul also; for he only is the father of spirits, and the Lord loves variety in his domini­on over us, he will for a time govern by the Creatures, and comfort by the Creatures, and afflict by them, but hereafter he will then govern by himself immediately, and comfort and afflict by himself immediately, the one in this life, and the other in the life to come.

First, Ʋse. This informes us that there are certain men that are children of wrath, knowing the terror of the Lord we would perswade you to fly from the wrath to come; for it is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of [Page 236]the living God; Here first I will shew you who the persons are that be the children of wrath; Secondly, what we would perswade them to, if the Spirit of God joyn with us therein.

First, Who they are, and unto whom this use is directed, that there are some children of wrath is plain, Isa. 10.6. The people of my wrath, that is, appointed to wrath, and Isa. 34.5. a sword is bathed in Heaven; which doth express the decree and purpose of wrath, it is upon the people of his curse, now if this be true of tem­poral wrath, how much more of e­ternal wrath, which the Apostle saith is the condition of all men by nature, even of the elect of God, as well as of others, before they are converted; Ephes. 2.3. We by nature were dead in trespasses and sins, as well as o­thers, and children of wrath, now they are said to be the children of it; because they were born to it, and it is their inheritance, all that ever they must look for, men appointed to it, as a child of death is a man deserving death, and appointed thereunto, [Page 237]and as the Saints are called the chil­dren of light; so are these also chil­dren of wrath; so if you would ask, for whom is this wrath, and who ac­cording to the rules of the word are under it? it is every man that is in a state of nature, and a state of unrege­nerasy; But how should a man know who it is that is in a state of nature, surely a man may know if he will but behold his face in the Glass of the Word, and discerne what manner of person he is, James 1.24. There is a judgment that passeth upon the eter­nal states of men in the Word of God, 1 Cor. 14.25. Ezek. 20 The man is judged of all, and the secrets of his heart are made manifest, and he saith that God is in you of a truth; a man look­ing into the Word, may discerne what his estate is: Now first, they are children of wrath that are children of disobedience; Col. 3.6. for these things the wrath of God comes upon the chil­dren of disobedience, John. He that is born of God sinneth not, non operatur pec­catum, he that committeth sin is the servant of sin, and he that commits sin is of the Devil, that is, that lives [Page 238]and lyes in any known way of sinning; that he doth reserve unto himself a sweet Morsell, that he cannot cast out, that the comfort of his life comes in by, he eats the bread of wicked­ness, and drinks the Wine of violence, he feeds upon huskes, and upon ashes, Isa. 44.20. over whom sin has dominion; and it reigns in their mortal body; and they obey it in the lust thereof, and take care to make provision for't, thou art yet in my sins; and not only sins of commission but sins of omissi­on, for such also this fire is prepared, Depart from me you cursed into ever­lasting fire,Mat. 25prepared for the Devil an his Angels; for I was hungry and ye gave me no meat; it is not you took away my meat, and naked, and ye robbed me of my cloathing; I was a­mongst you and ye put me into prison; but ye did not visit me, and Minister unto me, &c. So that even sins of omission also prove an unregenerate state, and will make a man lyable unto this wrath at the coming of the Lord.

Secondly, The wrath of God is re­vealed from Heaven against all ungod­liness [Page 239]and unrighteousness of men,Rom. 1.who withhold the truthin unrighteous­ness. When men are convinced that such things are duties, and will ac­knowledge them, and that such things are sins, and yet for some worldly ends, and base respects will not forbear to practise them, as ma­ny of the Pharisees were convinced that Christ was the Messiah, and yet for fear of the Jews durst not con­fess him, Joh. 12.42 that go on in sin against their own light and convictions from day to day, and against many warn­ings and admonissions, and his own remembrances of the dealings of God both with himself and others, that have been engaged in sinfull courses; and truly this fire will not burn hot­ter upon any sort of sinners in the world, then they that sin against light, and in this manner do with­hold the truth in unrighteous­ness.

Thirdly, They are asted by no other spirit but the spirit of this world; for there is a double spirit that men are acted by in all their actions, the Spi­rit of God acts some men, and the [Page 240]spirit of the world acts others; they that are regenerate have received the Spirit of Christ, and where the spirit of Christ is, there are all the fruits of the Spirit, and the inward man is in some measure conformed unto Christ, whereas other men are acted by no other rules but the custom of the world, for worldly ends, that look no higher then the things of this life, and the things that are seen, whereas a man that is regenerate has received another spirit that acts him by another rule; for he is led by the Spirit, and unto a higher end, he looks upon the things that are not seen.

Fourthly, 2 Cor. 4. In this are the children of God manifest and the children of the Devil, he that doth not righteous­ness is not of God, and he that loves not his brother, verse the 14. We know that we are translated from death to life, because we love the brethren, now when a mans heart is imbittered against the Saints of the most high, he doth wish evil to them, and if any evil doth befall them he rejoyceth, and at least if he can do [Page 241]no more he will inwardly please him­self that they are brought low, it's an argument that thou art one of the Serpents seed, and thy envy is both thy sin and thy Plague, as it is the Devils, I will put enmity sayes God between the seed of the Serpent and the seed of the Woman, the enmity is put into the Devils Curse, and if thou didst love him that did beget, thou wouldst love them that are be­gotten of him, and thou that dost hate the Image of God wheresoever it is, and the more thou dost see of the Image of God in the man, the more thou dost hate him, as Christ said of the Pharisees, which of you can ac­cuse me of sin? I heve done many good works amongst you, for which of them do you stone me? so the people of God may say, you can­not accuse them but for the good that they have done you; for where­soever they are, they are as dew upon the Grass, thou shalt be a blessing, only men hate the image of God in them, as it's said of Pan­ther, animal hominibus inimicissi­mum, it doth so hate a man that it [Page 242]will fly at the picture of a man; so it is but a little relemblance of God that is in the best of the Saints here in this life, and yet men hate God so, that they cannot endure his image in any man, Tert. Bonus vir Caius seius, sed ideo malus, quia Christianus. This shews that thou art an unregenerate man, a child of the Devil, and not new born unto God: Now, thou art a child of wrath, and for thee is this eternal fire prepared.

Secondly, Mark 3.7. I would exhort you all to flee from the wrath to come, it is the greatest evil that can befall a soul; and therefore that which above all things else a man should fly from: Fuga, is conversant only about that which is evil, and that which a man apprehends to be so. Now, the greater the evil is, the more hasty is the flight: Now, There is no evil like to that of the wrath to come; there­fore let the whole soul be put out in this, to fly from it, as the most dreadful destruction that can befall a soul. First, Consider there is a possibility to escape it, truly it is in vain to ex­hort a man to fly from that which he [Page 243]cannot scape, as it is a vain thing for men to think to fly from death or judgment, that they cannot escape, it will overtake them; and so for them to think to fly from any threat­ening in the word of God, if they do continue in their sins, it will cer­tainly overtake them; Did not my word overtake your Fathers says the Lord? But this wrath a man may so fly from as to escape, for Christ wins souls from the kingdom of Satan every day, he translates them out of the kingdome of Satan, which is the kingdom of darkness, into the king­dome of his dear Son; and it is [...], which is a metaphor taken from translating a man from his native soil, translating a man, as you do Colo­nies, and so many are translated day­ly, and they pass from death to life; Oh! That the Lord would perswade you knowing the terrour of the Lord, to fly from the wrath to come; Christs is a kingly conquest, and he has not a subject in his kingdome; but he has won him from the king­dome of Satan, and all that number that are called, and chosen, and [Page 244]faithful that are with the Lamb, were all once in Satans kingdome, and all the Saints that are or shall be in glo­ry, they were all of them children of wrath as well as thou, even A­braham the Father of the faithful, who together with his Father Terah, and Nachor and his brother Lot, Josh 24.23. all served other Gods beyond the River, only God called this righteous man to his foot; Isa. 41.2. And therefore there is as great a possibility for thee to escape this wrath, as there is for any man in the World; therefore fly from it, Satan never wins again any one Soul out of the kingdome of Christ, for the Father that gave them to Christ, is stronger then all, and no man can pluck them out of his hands, and he doth now win ground of the kingdome of Satan, and gains souls from him every day; indeed after this life Heaven and Hell sha divide the World, and there is a gulph set, there is no changing places; if a man would come from Hell to Heaven he cannot, for a mans eternal state is cast, and there is no change of it un­to eternity; and therefore the judg­ment [Page 245]passed upon a man at the last day is called eternal judgment, Heb. 6.2. be­cause the doom and sentence that shall be passed upon a man there, is for eternity; and therefore make hast, fly from the wrath to come, delay not the time, for that hastens, for if death should overtake thee before thou hast made this escape, thou wilt be a child of wrath, and lye under wrath for ever; but here there is no gulf set, but there may be a transla­tion out of darkness.

Secondly, Consider, that after this Life you shall have to do with God immediately, you shall fall into the hands of the living God immediately, and Gods workings by the creatures shall have an end. Now, we find what fearful effects of wrath have been brought forth, if God do but arme the creatures against a man; if the Lord do but cause Lice to seise upon Herod, they devour him im­mediately, and he gives up the ghost; and if the Lord give a man up into the power of Satan, to torment him at his pleasure; and we see how ma­ny thousand miseries he would bring [Page 246]upon him, as we see in his dealing with Job, when yet the Lord gives him only a power over the body and estate, not over his soul and his life; and yet, How did he lay a load upon him? That his life was a burden to him, and he chused to dye rather. Now if God can shew forth so much wrath by a creature, how much more by his own immediate hand? And if God in the creatures, now, do chastise with Rods, by his own hand, he will then do it with Scorpions; His little finger will be heavier, than the crea­tures loins; for as a man cannot know Love by all that is before him, because all the creatures cannot con­vey the Love of God unto the soul as it is; so a man cannot know ha­tred by all that is before him, for all the creatures together cannot dis­pence unto a man, the whole displea­sure of God, that is Gods own work, therefore fly from it; if we should fly from it in the stream, much more in the fountain.

Thirdly, It is done by way of re­venge, and therefore it must needs be dreadful; for Deut. 32.31.41. [Page 247]He has said vengeance is mine, and I will repay; there shall be a just re­compence of reward to every sinner: Heb. 2.1.3 Now, if we consider what a wrong sin is, it is such an infinite evil, that all the created comforts, and good things of this life cannot make satis­faction for, they being only created good things; but sin is an act com­mitted against an infinite and an un­created Good, and between created, and uncreated, finite, and infinite, is no proportion: Rom. 7.13. Sin is out of measure sinful, and therefore the wrath of God is out of measure dreadful, for it must be a just re­venge a full recompence: Isa. 27.6.7. He will punish his people in mea­sure, but he will punish his enemies without measure, because it is done in justice, therefore he will suffer his whole displeasure to arise. Now, if it be so fearful a thing when the Lord lets out but a little of his wrath, if his wrath be kindled but a little? How much more when he doth stir up all his wrath? and deals with men by fury poured out.

Fourthly, The subject upon which this wrath shall light, shall be the Souls of men, but especially a mans Conscience which is the tenderest part, even the eye of the Soul, and the Soul of man is capable of wrath beyond what all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth can inflict, there is not enough in this world to fill the sences of man, Eccle. 1.8. the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hear­ing; for there is nothing beneath God will satisfie it, Ps. 17. last. but as in Heaven the Soul shall be satisfied and fill'd with his love; so in Hell it shall be satisfied and fill'd with his wrath, and it's this filling the Soul with misery that is properly the death of the Soul, and therefore Christ saith that the Creatures can but kill the body, and there is no more that they can do, they cannot kill the Soul, because they cannot fill it neither with good things nor with evil; as there is no­thing but the glory of God can make a man perfectly and fully happy, so there is nothing but the wrath of God that can make a man fully and perfectly miserable.

Fifthly, Rom. 2.5. It is wrath by long pati­ence treasured up; the patience and goodness of God should lead to re­pentance, which a man despising, treasures up wrath against the day of wrath, &c. The Lord doth bear long, and because sentence against evil workers is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of men are fully set in them to do evil, and therefore they mock at the coming of the Lord to take vengeance, 2 Pet. 3 3. where is the pro­mise of his coming? he is pressed under their abominations as a Cart­full of sheaves, and yet he bears still, and lets men despise his goodness, fill up their measure, and out-stand the day of his patience, which has its Period, and then caesa patientia fit furor, if once he doth whet his glittering Sword, and his hand take hold of judgement, a fire is kindled in his anger, that will burn for ever, and the more his patience and goodness has been despised, the greater treasure of wrath is laid up, and the more will be brought forth at the day of payment; for it must be a just recompence of re­ward

Sixthly, This wrath doth come upon men very suddenly and unavoid­ably, 'tis sudden destruction, swift damnation, 2 Pet. 2.1. though a man may have gone on and prospered in a way of sinning long, but yet a hand of ven­geance will overtake them, as the swelling in a great wall that comes suddenly down, wrath has hung over a man a long time, the decree has travelled with judgement long, but it comes suddenly, as the travel of a woman; God feeds them as sheep in a large Pasture, and then brings them forth to the slaughter, Rev. 14.18, 19. there is a fatting time, and there is a killing time, there is a ripening time, and a reap­time, gather the Grapes, and tram­ple the Wine-press; for her Grapes are fully ripe, thrust in the Sicle, &c. and the Angel thrust in his Sicle, and cast it into the great Wine­press of the wrath of God, and that comes upon men suddenly, when they expect it not, and they are ensnared and taken, and it will come unavoidably, there is no way to es­cape it, when the day of vengeance is come, though men have scaped it [Page 251]before, but now all the power of the Creaturts cannot relieve a man, Neh. 1.10. But though they be solded as thorns, yet they shall be devoured as stubble that cannot resist the fire, as the dust to the Beesom, Isa. 14.24. so will the Lord sweep them to destruction in his wrath, Psal. 80.10. They pe­rish at the rebuke of thy Counte­nance, look when God will cast a man into destruction, that man will become a humble petitioner, to the Mountains to fall upon him, and hide him from the wrath of him that is upon the Throne and from the Lamb.

Lastly, It shall be pure wrath, judgment without mercy, Joh. 2.13. Rev. 14.10. They shall drink of the Wine of the wrath of God without mixture; for there shall be utter darkness, that is, purae tenehrae, and it shall be inflicted upon them with delight, the Lord saith, I will ease me of my adversaries, and he will laugh at your calamity, (smiling wrath is dreadfull) and his spirit shall be quieted thereby, Zach. 6.8. a judge here though he condemn the [Page 252]malefactour, yet he pities the man, but the Lord will laugh at him, they that are children of wrath are a sa­crifice of a sweet savour to God.

But you will say; What should we do to escape it? 1 Thes. 1.10. There is no way but Christ, to diliver us from the wrath to come, and there is no way but by being one with him, and that is,

First, By being cut off from the old root, Rom, 11.24. Rom. 7.4. divorced from the old Husband, by a work of conviction, showing a man that he is under the curse, and Hell is his proper place; and by a work of humiliation, for all the pleasures of sin which are now damp'd, and a man is now under the apprehension of the displeasure of God, and of self-loathing for it: Rom. 7.9. Sin revived, and I dyed, sath the Apostle.

Secondly, Upon this, there is a discovery made of Christ unto the soul, that there is redemption in him to be had, that we perish not; and that he is able to save to the uttermost, those that come unto him: And all this is but the fruits of the ancient agreement between [Page 253]Christ and the Father, God was in Christ reconciling the World, God did love to have is so; and this is seeing the Son: Joh. 6.36. Joh. 12.4 [...] The drawing of the Father, John 1.44. No man can come to me, except the Father draw him. &c.

Thirdly, The soul has an instinct after union, has received a touch of the spirit of God, Elijahs mantle has fallen upon him; so that nothing will satisfie him but union with Christ; Phil. 3. he looks at that in all ordinances, in which he is conversant, to win Christ is his only aim, and he will not be bribed with any other thing, as a false spirit will be; if he have gifts and some raisedness in parts, and qualifications, and a name to live among men he is satisfied, and Conscience is very quiet, but a soul that has received this magnetick touch from the spirit, is put off with nothing besides Christ, it moves to him as naturally, as the stone unto its center.

Fourthly, He accepts of Christ upon his own terms, gives up it self to him; Receives Christ with all [Page 254]his promises, and all his graces, and gives up it self to him, commits him­self to God; Psal. 10 14 this is the frame of every child of God, that has escaped the wrath to come, he makes Christ the covering of his eyes, looks upon no other beloved but him, he keeps no­thing from Christ, but resigns it to him, either as a snare, or as a sacri­fice, and rejoiceth in this, that I am my beloveds, and my beloved is mine, and he that believes in him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

Let me exhort you now that are yet in your unbelief, and dare to question the truth of these things; believe that there is a wrath to come, if the Lord before he brought you into the World, had but showed you Hell, and Heaven, that you might know the terrour of the Lord, Heb. 4.2. the mi­sery of the one, and the happiness of the other, then you would think you should have been perswaded of it, because you had seen it; but now you are come into the World, and have [...]o experience of either, and men are naturaly sensual, and it is to [Page 255]be received by faith, and many men will not be perswaded of it, till they feel it; 2 Cor. 5.11. We knowing the terrour of Lord, we perswode men, &c. and Heb. 4.2. For unto us was the Gospel preached, as well as unto them: But the Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with Faith: &c. There is no part of the Word can do men good, that is not mixed with Faith. Now it is plain that men believe it not, and they see it when it is too late: Alas! How many unbelievers are there in the World that pass for believers? Luk. 16.3. I have five brethren says Dives in Hell, if one went to them from the dead, they will repent, &c. And Abraham said unto him, if they hear not Moses nor the pro­phets, neither will they be per­swaded, though one rose from the dead again, they will not be per­swaded; if the Lord should send one of the damned spirits, and give them so far an intermission that they might preach unto us of wrath to come, which they them­selves feel, and which swallows [Page 256]them up with horrour, &c. Yet this would not perswade us; if you could lay your ears to Hell, and but hear the cries in that bottom­less pit, if the Lord should take any soul and carry it away into that dungeon, and let it have a tast of this wrath in the place of the dam­ned, and then set him upon earth again with possibilities and offers of mercy, yet the man would be as far from believing it, as now he is, so long as the athiesme and unbelief of his spirit doth remain, and this is the misery of all men that have a name only to live in the Church, they dye in a sleep, are cast away in a calm, and are never awakened till the last Trum­pet, how would it make a mans heart bleed and fall assunder with­in him as drops of water, to see men hasten so fast to destruction, and never consider that it is for eternity, and that the Lord re­serves this wrath for his enemies, and that God will shew his wrath and make his power known unto the vessels of wrath fitted for de­struction: [Page 257]But men will say what will you make us Atheists? Why do you think so hardly by us? as not to believe there is Heaven, and Hell, and that God will re­compence men according to their works; surely we do not doubt this. Yet let me tell you it doth plainly appear that men be­lieve it it not, and my reasons are these.

First, Because they walk wholy in the way that leads thereunto, even to Hell; Prov. There is a way that seems right to a man, but it leads down to the Chambers of death, they do conceive that the end will be as fair as the way is promising, did men believe that the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven a­gainst all the ungodliness and un­righteousness of men, and that the wrath of God is upon all the chil­dren of disobedience, and that the Lord is angry with the wicked e­very morning, there is not a day that they rise, but a cloud of Gods displeasure doth arise upon them, that every sin adds unto [Page 258]the treasure of wrath, and doth qualify a man for Hell; every vain thought, and every idle word, and that by this, men are fitted to de­struction [...] and every new degree of sinning, Rom. 9.22doth lay in fuel for a further degree of wrath, it were impossible that men should rejoyce in iniquity as they do, and count it their happiness to have free liberty of sinning, as the De­vil has time and space to sin in, and all restraining grace is taken away, his lusts are let out to the uttermost, and God too lets him alone, and keeps silence, winks at their sins, vae illis ad quorum peccata connivet Deus, would men rejoyce in this, if they did believe that the fiery Lake is but a little before? if a company of Gallants were feasting and rioting in an e­nimies quarters, and in the midst of all their jollity, one should give them an alarme, you must pay for all that you eat or drink here, with the deerest and last drop of your hearts blood; if they did be­lieve it, would not that which [Page 259]had been to them so sweet in the mouth, become now gravel in the belly? If as it was with Belte­shazer, in the middle of all his jollity, such an impression be set on as Mene Tekel; Would it not make his heart and loins to tremble? There was one com­mending the happiness of a King, to Dyonisius the Tyrant, he told him he shall have a part in that happiness, and caused him to sit down in a chair of state with great attendance, and all the glory that he should desire; but with a sword over his head hanging by a Thread, all his comforts did him but little good because of the sword hanging over his head; and truely this is every unregenerate mans condition, and yet poor souls when they do evil, they rejoyce and pride and please themselves in a way of sin­ing.

Secondly, They think the peo­ple of God to be very miserable men and women, because they are afflicted in this life, and there way is hedged up with thornes, that they [Page 260]cannot find their paths, and they have not that freedom in sinning that they have; cannot run to access of riot, &c. Whereas, if men did believe that there were wrath which God reserves for the workers of iniquity, they would count it the greatest mercy in the World, to be disappointed in a way of sinning, and the greatest plague to be sinners; Prov. 14.15. The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: God will give him over that he shall sin enough, in­deed in this World God doth in a special manner afflict his own peo­ple, when the wicked come into no misfortune; but they have more then heart can wish, waters of a full cup are wrung out unto them: Now they count this their happiness, and the other the mi­sery of the saints of God; where­as 1 Cor. 11.31. When we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that me might not be con­demned with the World; God doth it to deliver their souls from going down into the pit. Now, [Page 261] That's a happy man whom the Lord will not suffer to perish. And they know that there is a fatting time, and a killing time, and that the Lord will bring other men forth as sheep to the slaughter. And that they are men not appointed unto wrath, and in that they rejoyce, whereas there is wrath reserved for them to eternity, who are the men who have had their good things in this Life, and have fared deli­ciously every day.

Thirdly, Men fear it not, and it doth not in the consideration of it, imbitter either the pleasures or the proffits of sin, or the com­forts of the creatures unto them, which as soon as ever these serious thoughts do feise upon other men, that have another spirit, it will quickly do; and therefore men do put far from them the evil day, and when the greatest judgments of God are threatned, they say, he prophesieth of things long to come, it is of dooms-day that the Prophet speaks, the wrath of a King, Solomon says, is as a mes­senger [Page 262]of death, but so is not the wrath of the great God, who is a consuming fire: ‘There is a story of a certain Christian King of Hungary, Who was exceeding sad and pensive, and had a Bro­ther a wild-Courtier, who comes in merrily and asked him why he was so melancholly, he answer­ed him, that he had been a great sinner before the Lord, and he knew not how to appear before him when he should come to judgment; but the young Gal­lant made light of it, and that night his Brother the King, sent an executioner to sound a Trum­pet at his door, which was the the manner in those Countries, to do to men that were to be led forth to execution; at this the young man that was so re­solute and regardless of the wrath of God, yet he hastned into his brothers presence, with a great deal of fear and amazement of spirit, to know wherein he had offended, that he was summoned by the executioner; to whom [Page 263]his Brother answered, if to me that am your Brother, and one whom your Conscience tells you you have not wronged, How much should I be afflicted that am to come before a God? And one who am in my own soul so many ways accused and condemned:’ But as in all temporal judgments that are threatned, Gen. 19. [...]4 men seem to the wick­ed as they that mock; so it is in eternal also.

Now, If the Lord will please to come in and perswade your hearts to believe it, take these arguments and consider them seriously.

First, From the preparations of God, which he makes for all sin­ners, Isa. 30. last. Tophet is pre­pared of old, that is, from the foundation of the World; as Heb. 13.8. Jesus Christ yesterday, that is, backward unto the beginning of the World; so it is here, and it is for the King, the greatest per­son though never so much exempt­ed from the common lot in the World, yet they shall not escape this judgment, and so Deut. 32.24. [Page 264]Is not this laid up by me, and sealed among my treasures? truely the Lord doth not lay up treasures in this manner but their will come a time of expence, &c.

Secondly, The Lord has told us in his Word, that there are some that are vessels of wrath, Jud [...] 4. and per­sons fore-ordained by God there­unto, and the Potter has power o­ver his Clay, to the glory of his grace, and satisfaction of his just­ice, and men cannot find fault, and he has said vengeance is mine, and I will repay; and to his word he has added his oath as well as his promises, that in the one we might have strong consolation, and in the other strong conviction; Deut. 32.40.41. For I lift up my hand to Heaven, and say I live for ever; I will render vengeance to my enemies, and will reward them that hate me: Amos. 8. [...]. &c. I have sworn by the excellency of Jacob, surely I will never forget any of their works, &c. O miseros nos qui nec juranti Deo credimus: Tert. That neither believe the word of God, nor tremble at the oath of God.

Thirdly, Consider the capacity, and the immortality o [...] the soul of man, for its capacity, it is capable of more happiness, or misery, then all the creatures in Heaven and Earth can aford, they are not able to satisfie the sences, much less the soul: Now, Why has God made so great a vessel? Not in vain, sure­ly it shall be filled, and nothing but God can fill it, God in glory can fill it with joy, and God in wrath can fill it with sorrow; for animam capacem quicquid est minu [...] Deo, non implebit. It is true of good things, it is true of evil also: And for the immortality of the soul of man, Why hath God made it of such a duration? shall this be but time to sleep it out, and has the Lord made the soul to live so long in vain? the time of this life is but a span to eternity, in which either men are made vessels of mer­cy, prepared for glory, or vessels of wrath fitted to distruction; and the foundation of a mans eternal happiness or misery is laid in this Life.

Fourthly, Consider whether or no thou hast never had any of the first fruits of it, God letting in a glimpse of his wrath upon thy Con­science, some grudgings of that burning-feaver, that thou shalt lye under for ever; there are unre­generate men that have a taste of the powers of the world to come, Heb. 6. by powers are meant powerful and mighty workings upon the spirits of men, by the spirit of God, and how mightily these apprehensions do work upon men, either of the joys of Heaven, or of the torments of Hell, men receiving a pledg and an earnest in themselves before hand; Heb. 10.27. Receiving a sentence of condemnation in their own souls, the wrath of God has a venome in it, and it drinks up their spirits, and the Lord comes upon them as a Lyon, and breaks all their bones; that though they Love sin never so dearly, yet they can take no delight in it.

Fifthly, It will appear in the Lord Christ, Why did he come from Heaven, and take the nature [Page 267]of man upon him? The great end was not legem docere, Luth.& miracula facere; for this others did as well as he, though from him and by his spirit; but it was legem vincere & abolere, Gal. 4.4. He was made under a Covenant of works, and that for two things. First, That he might pay the debt that was due by us to God. Secondly, That he might cancel the bond. Now he was made a curse for us, and therefore the Lord did cause all our sins in the guilt and the punishment of them to meet upon him, Psal. 110. last. he drank off the brook in the way, &c. Then all that are under the Law, still they are un­der the curse of it, and all their sins in the guilt and the punish­ment of them, will meet upon them as the sins of the elect did upon the Lord Christ, for Christ is but the surety of the elect, and he did it voluntarily in obedience to the Father, and therefore surely thou being the principal canst not look to scape, for thou standest under the same covenant, and under the same [Page 268]curse; indeed unto them that are regenerate, the Covenant is a­bolished, he has blotted it out, and nailed it to his Cross, and he only stands under a Covenant of works for them, and by the abolishing this, has made way for a second Covenant; but to all that are unregenerate, the Covenant stands in force and they are un­der it and under the curse of it for ever.

Thirdly, If you would indeed scape the wrath to come, bring forth fruits meet for repentance; Mat. 3.8. When they did pretend to desire to fly from the wrath to come, John bid them make it appear to be true, by bringing forth answerable fruits meet for repentance; in this life God in judgment, doth put no difference between men and men; but pe­nitent and impenitent sickness doth not complement with the great men of the World, but assaults them boldly, as well as the meanest; and death knocks at the door of the Prince, as well [Page 269]as of the poorest man, and there­fore surely it will be so in his eternal judgment also; and thefore see you be penitent, &c. For unless you repent you shall all perish: But how shall a man know he is penitent, &c.

First, When a mans heart is truly turned against that sin that he has repented of; for this is the misery novum hoc monstri ge­nus est eadem poena omnes jugiter faciunt quae se fecisse plangunt, when a man hates every false way, hatred is against all sin universally, but in especial manner against the darling sin, that sin in which a man has most dishonour'd God and wounded his own Conscience, and by which Satan as a Proper has most tyranized over him, what have I to do any more with Idols? Hos. 14. [...] a mans unrightness of heart is seen in this that he keeps himself from his own iniquity, there was but one way of dalliance that I did delight in, and yet I am willing to give that up also; as the Turkish Emperour that had but one beau­tifull [Page 270]Concubine in which he much delighted and doted upon, that the Bashaws and the Janizaries took it amiss that he neglected the affairs of the Kingdom for her, he brought her forth before them one day in all her bravery and they all admired the beauty of the woman, and when he com­mended her highly for all her good qualities, he cut off her head in their presence, and told them he did it to let them see that there was nothing dear to him in respect of the publick welfare, it was an act of cruelty in him, but the moral of it may be of good use unto us; that is fruit worthy of repentance when a mans heart is most of all turn'd against his darling sin.

Secondly, There will be a holy jealousie of a mans self, and a continual watching over the in­ward man Pro. 4.23. Keep thy heart above all keeping, he hath a godly fear continually of the falseness of his own heart, he knew that he is bent to backsliding, [Page 271]and therefore is always watchfull, he will not trust his eyes without a Couenant nor his tongue with­out a bridle; will not venture upon occasions of sinning, and will not be dallying with tempta­tion, least a spark be struck and the fire kindle again, least he should look back with Lots Wife, and with Israel, have a mind a­gain to hanker after Egypt; for if the love of the sin doth still re­main in his inward man, there may be a restraint for a while and a damp, but it will break out again and the man will return with the dog to the vomit, the unclean spirit will enter again, and the man will be worse then ever in the beginning; it is this only that is fruit worthy of re­pentance, he is more afraid of sin, then of any loss of outward Com­forts in the world, Z [...]c. 12 10 Isa. 8.12, 13, and mourns more for sin then any thing else; we are exhorted not to fear the worlds fear, they fear Creatures, and losses, and crosses, but do you fear sin that displeases God, [Page 272]and brings down his wrath, and chuse not sin rather then affliction; for if a man look upon sin as the greatest evil, it must needs be the object of the deepest sorrow and the greatest fear,

Thirdly, there will be an an­swerable obedience, there is a double change in repentance, and therefore it has a double name, there is a [...] a change of a mans mind, and a man hath o­ther apprehensions of sin and the evil of it then he had in times past: and there is [...] a change of a mans care, 2 Cor 7. and the endeavours of his life; godly sorrow works a care to please God in all things; the first question is, what have I done? and afterward, Lord what wilt thou have me to do? make me one of thy hired servants, put me into any work, I will do any thing, be any thing. Not only would the Soul be adopted to a new inheritance, but he would be re­generate and have a new nature, as we see in Zacheus, he had a great change wrought in him, he was [Page 273]before an oppressour, and now a restorer, and Saul a persecutor be­fore of Gods people, disturbing them in their way of worshiping God, hailing them to prison, con­senting to the death of the Mar­tyr Stephen, I but now Paul is a chosen vessel unto the Lord, now he is a Preacher, and he did not more thirst for the blood of Souls before, then now he doth for their Salvation; so a truly peni­tent soul, if he has been proud before his Conversion, he is cloath­ed with humility, if he was before un­clean he now putson chastity, and his care is that the contrary grace may grow and flourish in him, or else truly here are no fruits meet for repentance, and then what ever a man seems to be in the world, he is no true Saint, he does but seem to fly from the wrath to come, and all his pro­fession will come to nothing, 'tis but a shew, a fancy and nomore

Now I come to the last Branch in the text, and that is the eternity of both these; where the Worm [Page 274]dyes not and the fire is not quenched,

The Torment that the Lord has prepared for his Enemies is eternal. There are in the Eternity of God three things; first, it hath no be­ginning of its being or working; Secondly, it has no end; Thirdly, it has no succession, his name is I am, Exod. 3 14 that I am; for in aeternitate non est erit & fuit, we must in­deed destinguish between the act as it is in God, and the product thereof as it is in the Creature; all actions from God are from Eternity, and without succession he understands all at once, but he doth will that the things shall in their being have a suc­cession, and exist one after ano­ther in their several seasons and Generations, as Creation in God is but one simple act of his will, and tota simul, it being nothing else but ipsa essentia dei cum re­latione ad Creaturas, Aquin. p. 1.9.43. But he doth will that the Creatures in the space of Six days shoul take their beginning, and [Page 275]that after the creation, the floud should come upon the world, and he did will from eternity, that all the creatures should subsist and stand up out of nothing, in their several seasons and order, which though it take place in the crea­ture in several ages, yet it is all one eternal consent, and continu­ed will of God, some actions of God are ex necessitate naturae natae, and they take place from eternity, and have no beginning as the Ge­neration of the Son, and the pro­cession of the Holy-Ghost; but some are voluntary, and they have there beginning in time, as the will of God doth appoint them for to have.

Now, Of two of those branch­es of eternity, the creature is not capable, it cannot competere to a created nature.

First, All creatures must have a beginning, and cannot be eternal because they have their being from another, and are not the fountain of their own being.

Secondly, All creatures have a succession, either in their being, or their actions, they do one thing after another, and they may be said to be, what they were not before, and to do what they did not before; but it cannot be so of God, and therefore he is only said to inhabit eternity: Isa. 57.15. It is his dwelling place alone, He that is every where present and fils all places without motion, he doth inhabit and fill all time with­out succession. The Angels them­selves, though I do not say that their actions are measured by time as ours are, yet there is a successi­on in them, and they do one thing after another, and as they do re­move from one place to another, so they are measured in their act­ions, there is a succession and they may be said to have some­thing past, and something to come; so there shall be in the thoughts of men, in Heaven and in Hell also, for they cannot take in eternity at once, they must act in a successive way sutable [Page 277]to the nature of a creature: But in the eternity of the creature there is only the last, it shall be without end, and without intermis­sion; so that there are two things implyed in these last words the Worm dies not; it shall be conti­nual, and it shall be eternal, there shall be no intermission, no con­clusion: Here in this Life, either a mans choicest pleasures have an end, or are interrupted. Son re­member that in thy Life time thou receivedst thy good things, and the consideration thereof doth fill a mans Soul with Gall and Wormwood, in the sweetest in­joyments, and they all deceive a man as a brook that passeth by, and are as grass upon the House-top, that withers before it come to ripeness, either in the bud or in the blade it is blasted, as all earthly comforts are so, for all flesh is grass, and the glory of it is as the flower of the field; or if they have not an end, they have in­terruptions, [Page 278]and intermissions; a soul that injoys the light of Gods countenance, and has his heart filled with joy, more then can be had in corn and wine and oil, yet by and by God hides his face, and the man walks in darkness, and hath no lights again; and therefore he crie out with Bern. it is dulce com­mercium, but breve momentum O si duraret, &c. But after this Life in Heaven as we shall be ever with the Lord, so we shall always behold his face, and be satisfied with his likeness, and drink for ever out of the Rivers of his pleasures, and this shall be without intermission, or in­terruption for ever. And in this Life a mans greatest affliction has an end also, Lazarus is com­forted, when Dives is torment­ed; in the grave the wicked cease from troubling him, and the weary are at rest, the pri­soners rest together, they hear not the voice of the oppressont, [Page 279]or at least there is some inter­mission, and there are lucid intervals, though heaviness may indure for a night, yet joy will come in the morning; but after this life there will be no more changes; and therefore death is called by way of eminence a mans change; Job 14.14. All the days of my appointed time, will I wait till my change come; &c. Because it is a mans last and great change, though his life be full of changes, yet his death is the great and the last change; and there will be no more changes, a mans misery will then be eternal without conclusi­on, and continual without inter­mission. There will be pure dark­ness, utter and everlasting dark­ness, there will be no end, no mittigation, the Worm never dies, and never sleeps, and the fire is never extinguished, never abated or mittigated to eternity.

Of these two I would speak [...]istinctly; First, Of the tor­ments [Page 280]of Hell, that they are eternal and without conclusion. Secondly, that they are con­tinual and without intermission.

First, The torments of un­godly men after this life shall be eternal, and shall never end. We have heard that there are two parts of this torment, the one principal, the fire; and the other accidental, the Worm, and now we come to prove the eterni­ty of both these

First, The fire in Hell, that is, the wrath of God poured out upon the Soul shall be for ever, and shall never end, and is there­fore called everlasting fire, Mat. 18.8. and 25.41. And ever­lasting punishment, 25.46. And everlasting destruction, 2 Thes. 1.9. And the Chains by which men are bound in the world to come, are everlasting Chains under darkness, Luke 16.9. Jude 7. Heaven is an everlasting habitation, and so is Hell also, it is for Eternity.

There are several expressions [Page 281]in Scripture that do argue as much; first, the Scripture doth tell us that there is a day of Grace and a time of patience, when the Lord will offer himself unto men, and wait upon them or their ac­ceptance of his Grace, but this day will have an end, and the time of buying will be past, and therefore it was not admonitio sed exprobratio, non consilium sed oppro­brium, &c. It's not counsell but a scoffe, to go buy when the time of buying was past; there is now a time of mercy, but there is a time when the door will be past opening, Mat. 25.10. Eccl. 9.20. and all mercy will be shut out for ever; there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the Grave whither thou goest: The day of Grace has an end, but the day of wrath will never end; the days of Grace may be num­bred, but the days of wrath shall be numberless; for the Scripture doth say that if the day of Grace be once over­past, [Page 282]it will never return a­gain.

Secondly, An ungodly mans hope is said in Scripture to dye with him, Job 11.20. his hope is as the giving up of the Ghost, He breaths out his last hope and his last breath together; for when a wicked man dyes his hope pe­rishes, Pro. 11.7. but the Righteous has hope in his death, his hope is a living hope, and there­fore it dyes not with his bo­dy. Now how comes it to pass a mans hope perishes? this is grounded upon the e­ternity that is to come; for were there not an eternity, a mans hope would live, but at a mans death, a wicked mans eternal state being cast his hope dyes, because there can be no expectation of a change: in all afflictions here there is hope of an end, or some mitiga­tion, Zac. 9.1 [...]. they are all prisoners of hope, &c. And the Lord shall say to them in that day, Turn [Page 283]you to the strong hold, &c. but in Hell there is no hope of any other state, no not for one moment but the tor­ment continues to eternity. Rev. 20.

Thirdly, Hell is called a bot­tomless pit, Luke 8.31. And this must needs express the e­ternity of it, out of a pit in which there is no bottom, there can be no redemption, but a man must sink and sinks for ever, it is eternity to the bottom, there are pits here in which men may be cast, not only into the prison but into the Sea, or into the Dungeon in the pri­son, and yet out of all these they may be delivered by the blood of the Covenant, and brought out, but this bottomless pit there is no blood of the Covenant to redeem from.

There is a great Gulfe set that is by a divine decree sta­blished and fixed, a mans state is set for eternity, and there [Page 284]is no hope of a change, a passage here there is from death to life, but there is none here­after; for there is a great Gulse that God has set be­tween, that there can be no pas­sage, no change of a mans condition, there can be no trans­lation; for judgment pronounced against a man at the last day is eternal judgment.

Fifthly, If a man that is under this torment would come forth, there be Chains cast up­on him to keep him under that darkness; Jude 6. so that he can­not escape, as Jude sayes, the Angels that kept not their first e­state but left their own habitation, are kept in Chains under darkness, [...] they are kept in Chains, that is, the Judgment of God and the power of God, significat po­tentiam Dei quâ tanqnam vincu­lis aeternis & nunquam solvendis, Estius and it is under darkness either in Hell, the darkness there, or under the darkness and the guilty thoughts [Page 285]of their own spirits; now under both these the Devils are already, and this is the wrath, and these are the Chains that are prepared for all the seed of the Serpent which shall torment them.

Sixthly, This fire can never goe out, because there will be for ever a supply of the fuel; now if there be always combustble matter added to fire here, the fire will never go out, but in this there will be always a supply; the fire will still have an addition of fuel, and of blowing, the pile thereof is fire and much wood, sa. 30.33the breath of the Lord like a stream of Brimstone doth kindle it, &c. [...] signifies not barely a stream, but a torrent, a flood, a violent and swift-running stream, from much waters and Brimstone is the most fierce burning for fire to work upon, and it is most hardly quenched, and a River, a Torrent of Brimstone, the wrath of the Lord [...] burning in it, the fuel is the wrath of God as a River of Brimstone burn­ing in it, as in this life the spirit [Page 286]of God in a work of grace is not only fire, but oil, it is maintain­ed and supplied by the same grace, and the same spirit, and is main­tained by it, so after this life the spirit of God will not only be fire, but a River of brimstone, and their will be a dayly maintanance, a continual supply of the same wrath for ever, therefore that fire can never be quenched.

Let us now look in the grounds of this eternity, and that the ra­ther because there is a principal in the minds of men ready to tax the Lord of cruelty and injustice, that he should for the sins of a few years, lay upon men punishment and tor­ment to eternity, the acts transi­ent, and but for a moment, that the wrath of God should be per­manent and never end; and there­fore say they, these things cannot fland with the justice of God, or with his mercy, therefore they conceive that men shall be but punished for a time, and a time [Page 287]for their deliverance will come when this worm shall dye, and this fire shall be quenched, and some say the persons shall be de­stroyed, and others that they be annihelated, as the Socinians and divers desperate Libertines at this day, that will never be per­swaded that it can agree with the merciful nature of God, to make creatures eternally to destroy them for a few acts of sin, committed a few years here in this life; and Origen was so merciful in this kind, that he would have the Devil sa­ved after some years, and Hell fire to be wholly put out: and Austin in his time had to do, cum mise­ricordibus quibusdam qui nolunt credere poenam sempiternam futu­ram, &c. But that men after some certain time should be de­livered; de civet. L. 21. c. 17.

Now, The grounds of this eter­nity of wrath are these.

First, Gods intention from eternity was to shew his wrath, [Page 288]and to make his power known unto the vessels of wrath; Rom. 9.21.22. All men are in his hand, as clay in the hand of the potter; and it is in his pow­er to make them vessels of ho­nour or dishonour. Now if the Lord will shew the riches of his glory and of his mercy, unto the vessels of mercy, it must be to eternity, and to everlasting life; so if the Lord will shew forth the power of his wrath, it must be to eternity, for the one must an­swer the other, and if there be eternal mercy to manifest the one, there will require eternal wrath to shew forth the other; for there are but two things in which the love of God is seen, and in which his wrath is seen, and they are things spiritual unto the souls of men: No man can do good to the soul, but God, and no man can inflict punishment upon the soul but God, men may hurt the body, and they have no more that they can do; and [Page 289]in eternal good things, or evil things, those that concerne the life to come; for truely a man cannot know love or hatred by all that is before him here, the soul must have an eternity to be punish­ed in, all evils in this life which have an end, are too low, and too short to punish the soul with, as all good things in this life, are too narrow to cover the soul with: &c.

Secondly, The Covenant by which they are bound over unto this wrath is an eternal Covenant, an everlasting Covenant, there are two heads, or two publick per­sons, a first and a second Adam, under whom, as by the sons of Noah the whole Earth is over spread; and with these two Covenants made as with two heads, and there are two sorts of men, the elect, and the unregenerate, children of the bond-woman and of the free, and there are two destinct places, Hea­ven and Hell answerable unto these, and one Covenant is everlasting, [Page 290]as well as the other, not only the covenant of Grace, but the covenant of Works also; and therefore the curse of the Cove­nant remains upon men unto eter­nity, and they are bound over unto eternal wrath, Gal. 10. Deut. 29.21. as the Lord Christ has put an end unto this Covenant, and abolished it unto all that are in him, being him­self made under it, and satisfying the precept and the curse of it, and so he did cancel it as a hand­writing against us nailing, it unto his Cross; Col. 2.14. And so they that are in Christ are freed from the Law as a Covenant, but unto all other men it remains a Covenant still, and they remain under the curse of it for ever, and the wrath of God abides upon them; Joh. 3.36. for the Gospel doth not pro­perly bring them under wrath but leaves them under it for ever.

Thirdly, The guilt and stain of sin upon the soul is eternal also, the act of sin is transient, mo­mentum quod delectat, &c. But [Page 291]the guilt of sin is permanent, the relation between God and the creature is eternal, and [...] is an eternal obligation upon the creature, because he is bound un­to God by an eternal Law, and the transgression of that Law car­ries with it an eternal guilt, there is not a sin that a man commits, but it is laid up amongst the Lords Treasures, Deut. Jer. 17.1. and it is also laid up in their own Consciences, sin is a debt, Mat. 6.12. Which will as all other debts are, be ever due till it be paid; if it be a thousand years since it was committed, yet it due still, and the continuance of the time will never wear it out amongst men, much less will it being before the Lord and God keeps his debt-books, Isa. 65.6. Behold it is written before me, I will recom­pence it, even recompence it into their bosome; &c. And there is an utter inability in us to pay the debt we owe to God, or to make him any satisfaction; we have nothing to pay, and not one [Page 292]drop of the blood of Christ shall go to pay any part of thy debt, [...]ing once cast into prison, and thou shalt not come out thence be­ing once cast into Prison, till thou hast paid the uttermost far­thing, and satisfaction thou canst never make, for the offence is against an infinite God, and thou art but a finite creature, and here is thy misery; that because thou canst never satisfie fully, therefore thou must be for ever sa­tisfying; all that thou canst do will not blot out one sin, there is nothing but the blood of Christ can do it; when all the world was drowned by a floud, it could not wash away the guilt of sin; and when it shall be on fire, it shall not be able to purge one sin; and when a man shall lye in Hell for ever, even the fire of Hell cannot purge the soul of one sin: Ignis infernalis non est purgatorius sed punitorius, &c.

Fourthly, God after this Life, shall not only reward men accord­ing [Page 293]to their actions, but their in­tentions, and the desires of their hearts: Now, mens desires unto sin are infinite and eternal; if they could live for ever, they would sin for ever, and they are never satisfied with sinning; and there­fore it is compared unto drunken­ness, Deut. 29. a man adds drunkenness un­to thirst, and none do call in for Wine so fast as they that have had too much already; and it is as Hell that cannot be satisfied: [...], Lust is infinite, and the more a man is glutted with it, the less he is satisfied, and could he live for ever, he would sin for ever, and if he could do more wickedly against God he would; as the Lord says, thou hast spoken, and done evil things against me as thou couldest, doing evil with both hands earnestly; Mich. 7.3. in every sin they have infinite and eternal desires after sinning, even in that short time that they have to live in it; voluissent sine fine peccare. Greg. Breve fuit opere. [Page 294]sed longum esse constat pertinaci vo­luntate. Bern.

Fifthly, Because they never re­pent but are hardned in the same way of sinning, they remain the same men still, and have the same will unto evil unto eternity in Hell, that they had when they were here upon earth; so that if God should take a man out of Hell, and set him upon the earth a­gain, with a possibility of mercy, he would go on in the same way of sinning with as much greedi­ness and more then ever he did in the time of his Life, for this is a rule amongst many of the School-men, voluntas morientis confirmatur, in eo statu in quo moritur. And therefore as the Saints in Heaven dying in a state of grace, are in bono confirmati; so the wicked dying in a state of sin, are in malo obfirmati; that whereas in this life, in wicked men there is an inability to re­pent, yet there is a possibility [Page 295]of repenting, and of returning from sin, and there is a restraint upon their Lust, and there be here many common graces, and common workings of the spirit of grace, but then all restraint up­on mens Lusts shall be taken a­way, all the Law of nature shall cease, and God shall let out mens Lusts unto the utmost in judg­ment, and whereas in Heaven all acts of grace habent rationem prae­mii, so in Hell all acts of sin shall have rationem poenae; and God will say, he that is filthy, let him be filthy still; &c. And therefore Divines do say, that in this Life men are servants unto sin, but it is but servitus incho­ata, but in Hell there shall be servitus consummata, for here there is some restraint unto sin, but there shall be none hereafter; but a man shall be given over to it, and the more a man is given over to sin in this Life, the neerer to Hell he comes.

Lastly; Men shall be compani­ons after this Life, with the Devil and his Angels; for that is the sentence, Matt. 25.41. Depart into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels; they that have been servi in culpa, must be socii in poena, &c. They that have all their days fulfill­ed the Devils Lusts, they must expect to have his reward, they that have followed the Lamb and have suffered with him, and been persecuted for him, shall reign with him; and they that have followed Satan, and have sinned with him, they shall suf­fer with him: Now, the Devil has had a long time of sinning from the beginning of the World to the end of it, he is the last enemy that shall be destroyed, when death and Hell shall be cast into the Lake; and there­fore surely, as he hath had a long time of sinning, so he must have a long time (yea even an eternity) in suffering, and [Page 297]therefore let no wicked man de­ [...]eive himself, for the same tor­ [...]ent, the same fire, for the na­ [...]re of it, though not for the [...]egree of it, is reserved for thee [...]nd thou shalt be tormented with [...]he Devil and his Angels to all e­ [...]ernity.