Eighteen sermons whereof fifteen preached the King, the rest upon publick occasions / by Richard Allestry ...

SERMON V. VVHITE-HALL. Third Wednesday in LEN. (Book 5)

EZECH. XXXIII. 11.

Why will ye Dye?

THe Words are part of a Debate which God had with the sinful House of Israel, [ A] in which there are three things offer them∣selves to be considered.

First, The Sinners Fate and choyce: He will Dye; That's his End, yea, 'tis his Re∣solution, he will dye.

Secondly; Gods inquiry for the Ground of this, he seems astonished at the Resolution, and therefore reasons with them about this their so mad choyce, and questions Why will ye dye? Which words are also, [ B]

Thirdly, The debate of his Affections, the reasoning of his Bowels, and a most passionate Expostulation with them on account of that their Resolution, Why will ye dye? Which as it is adrest by God directly to the House of Israel,

so it would fit a Nation perverse, as that; which Mutinies [ A] against Miracles and Mercies, is false to God, Religion, and their own Interests; led by a Spirit of giddyness and srenzy, unsteddy in all things but resolutions of Ruine, that would teare open their old Wounds, to let out Life, and they will dye. And though the Lord be pleased to work new pro∣digies of mercy for us, and to say unto us in despite of all our Enemies both Forreign and Domestick, Live: The use we make of all is onely to debauch the Miracles, and make Gods Mercies help to fill the measure of our Judgment; live as if we would try all the wayes to Ruine; and since [ B] God will thus deliver us from dangers, we would call for them some other way. But to prescribe to these is above the attempt of my endeavours: May the blessed Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding, the Spirit of Holynesse and Peace, and Order, breath on their Counsels whom this is committed to. I shall bend my Discourse to the Conviction of Sinners in particular, and treat upon the words as if they had been spoke to us under the Gospel.

The first thing which my Text and God supposeth, is the Sinners Fate and Choyce: He will dye. Even the se∣cond [ C] Death, for it is appointed for all men once to dye, and then cometh the Judgment which shall sentence him to another death that is immortal, in which he and his misery must live for ever; that is, he must dye Everlastingly: Such is first his fate.

That Sin and Death are of so near, so complicated a re∣lation, as that though they were Twins, the birth and Issue of one Womb and moment, yet they are also one anothers Of∣spring, and beget each other, while a 1.1 Sin bringeth forth Death, as S. James saith, and is the Parent of Perdition, and [ D] yet the b 1.2 Man of Sin is the Son of Perdition, as S. Paul saith, and Iniquity is but destruction's birth, onely it self deri∣ved. And that this Death and Perdition is Eternal in the most sad sense of the word there are a thousand Texts that say. This is the Message of God in the mouth and Blood of his Son, who useth all the artifice of Words affirmative, and negative, to tell us so, as if on purpose to preclude all doubt and subtersuge, calls it c 1.3 Eternal fire, and d 1.4 Eternal punishment, e 1.5 where their worm dieth not, their fire is not quenched, Torment for ever and ever, and the like. Your [ E] Faith and certainty of which is as strong as your Christianity, and therefore by attempting any farther proof of this, to imply there is reason and necessity for doing so, were to sup∣pose my Hearers infidels.

But then this being granted that such is the sinners fate to [ A] lay down positively that it is his Choyce, and that he doth resolve for Death, is to suppose them worse than Infidels, more than irrational and brutish; Beasts cannot so desire against the possibilities of appetite, break all the forces and instincts of Nature, as to will destruction, and choose misery. Yet that the sinner does so is the ground of Gods Expostulation here, Why will you dye? David inquires as if it were a prodigy to find, b 1.6 What man is he that lusteth to Live? And sure the vicious man does not, for Wisdome that is Virtue, sayes, He that sinneth against me woundeth his own Soul, and all they that hate me love [ B] death, Prov. 8. 36. And 'tis most evident, that they who eagerly, and out of vehement affection pursue and seize those things to which they know destruction is annext inse∣parably, they love and choose destruction, though not for it self, yet for the sake of that to which it clings. He that is certain such a Potion, howsoever sweetned and made palat∣able, is compounded with the juice of deadly Nightshade, if notwithstanding he will have the Poysonous draught, it is apparent he resolves to dye.

And that I may evince this is a setled obstinate incorrigible [ C] resolution in him, and by what wayes and steps it comes to be so, I will lay before you the violent courses he does take to break through difficulties, and obstructions that would trash and hinder him: And when the avenues to Death are strongly guarded, how he storms and forces them, over∣comes all resistance possible that he may seize on Sin and Death.

And First, When such persons have entred the Profession of Christianity in Baptisme, and by early engagements tyed themselves to the observation of its duties, if principles of probity in Nature, fomented by others, instil'd with Educa∣tion, [ D] have made impressions of duty on the mind, and wrought a reverence and awe of God and of Religion, which is a fence about them, and does keep off Vice, by ma∣king it seem strange, uncouth and difficult, while these fears and aversations are rooted in them; why then the first thing that they do, as soon as Youth and the Temptations do stir within them, is to poyson these their own Principles by evil Conversation, and from that and Example take infusions, which shall impregnate them with humours of being in the [ E] fashion of the World: Thus they labour to strangle the then troublesome modesties of Nature and of Virtuous breeding; thus they look out ill Company to infect them∣selves: And surely they that seek the Plague and run into infe∣ction,

we have cause to fear they have a Resolution to dye. But, [ A]

Secondly, If notwithstanding this in the first practises of Vice, their former Principles stir, and ferment within, and fret the Conscience, set that on working; why then if the sin sting gently, do but prick the heart, and make an out-let for a little gush of Sorrow, then in spight of Scripture, they do teach themselves to think that grief Repentance, and by the help of that conceit this sorrow cools, and doth allay the swelling of the mind, washes away the guilt and thought of the commission, they have been sad, and they believe, re∣pented; as if those stings opened the fountain for transgressi∣on, [ B] and those little wounds did flow with Balsom for them∣selves: And by this means that sting of the old Serpent fin, while it pretends to cure by hurting thus, proves indeed the Tempter to go on. For if this be all, why should a man re∣nounce all the Contents and satisfactions of his Inclinations, and mortifie and break his nature to avoid a thing which is so easily repented for? No, if it be no worse they can re∣ceive this Serpent in their bosome, dare meet his sting, and run upon these wounds, and they do so till the frequent pungencies, and cicatrices have made the Conscience callous [ C] and insensible, the heart hardned.

But if their first essays of sin were made unfortunate by Notoreitie, or some unhappy circumstance, and so the wound were deep, and the Conscience troublesome and restlesse, because this is very uneasie, these inward groans make dis∣cord in their cheerful aires, make their life harsh, they there∣fore find it necessary to confront the shame with Courage of iniquity, go boldly on that so they may outlook it, sear their own Conscience that its wounds may not bleed. And as those Fiends of Men who Sacrific'd their Children in the fire to Mo∣loch, [ D] that they might not hear their Infants shreek, nor their own Bowels croke, had noyses made with Timbrels to out-voice them: So these to drown the cryes and howlings of their wounded mind, put themselves in perpetual hurry of diver∣tisement and vice, make Tophet about themselves, and with the noyse of Ryots overcome all other, because they will not hearken to those groans that call for the Physician of Souls, and then sure these resolve to dye.

Nay if this will not keep them quiet, you may see them [ E] sometimes ruffle with their own Consciences, defie present Convictions in the very instant of Commission, men so set on Death, that they Condemn themselves in that which they allow. And though a man would think there should be little satis∣faction

in those pleasures which Condemnation thrusts it self [ A] into, and which have an alloy of so sad apprehensions; yet such are it seems the satisfactions of sin: For while it stabs and gashes, He brave Hero of Iniquity, can charge the wounds and take the Vice.

Yea Thirdly, though the Lord himself appear, and take part in the Quarrel, joyn with our Principles and Conscience against the fin, and with importunate calls alarm us, give us no rest, ordain a Function of men by whom he does beseech us, dresses their Messages with Promises of that which God is blessed in, and arms them too with Terrors such as Devils [ B] tremble at, and joyns his Holy Spirit too, that Power of the Highest, sends him in Tongues of Fire, that he also may Preach this to our very Hearts, and fright us with more flame: And yet the sinner breaks these strengths, and van∣quishes the Arts and strivings of Divine Compassion. If these Embassadors speak Charms, it is but what God tells our Prophet in this Chapter v. 32. And lo thou art unto them as a very lovely Song of one that hath a pleasant voyce, and can play well on an Instrument. And it does dye like that, as it there follows, They hear thy words but they do them [ C] not. And if they flash in Hell against their vices, in torrents of threatning Scripture, they concern themselves no more than they would in the story of a new Eruption of Mount AEtna or Vesuvius. Yea they do quench the Spirit and his fires, do not like the deaf Adder, stop their ears against his whisperings, and the charms of Heaven (that were a weak∣er and less valiant guilt) but are Religious in hearing them, curious that they may be spoke with all advantages to make it harder not to yield and live, that so they may expresse more resolution to perish, and with more courage and so∣lemnity [ D] may sin and dye.

Nay more, when God hath found an Art to draw them∣selves into a League and Combination against their vices, bound them in Sacraments to Virtue; made them enter a Covenant of Piety, and seal it in the Blood of God, and by that foederall Rite with hands lift up, and seizing on Christ's Body, and with holy Vows oblige themselves to the performances, or to the Threats of Gospel, which they see executed in that Sacra∣ment before their eyes, see there death is the wages of iniqui∣ty, they shew themselves its damned consequences, while they behold it tear Christ's Body, spill his Blood, and Crucifie [ E] the Son of God; yet neither will this frightful spectacle, nor their own ties hold them from sin and ruine, they break these bonds asunder to get at them.

〈1 page duplicate〉〈1 page duplicate〉

〈1 page duplicate〉〈1 page duplicate〉

The a 1.7 Wiseman sayes that wicked men seek death and make [ A] a Covenant with it, and so it seems: But sure they are strange wilful men, that seek it at Gods Table in the Bread of Life, that will wade through an Ocean of mercy to get at Perditi∣on, and find it in the Blood of Christ, will drink Damnation in the Cup of Blessing; men that poyson Salvation to themselves: They that contract thus for Destruction, and tye it to them at the Altar, with such sacred Rites and Articles, are sure resolv'd and love to dye.

Fourthly, God had provided other Guards to secure men from sin and Death, the Censures of the Church; of which [ B] this Time was the great Season, and the discipline of absti∣nence we now use is a piteous relique, all that the world will bear it seems: But as the Lord appointed them they were so close a sence, that our Saviour calls them b 1.8 Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven, as if they lockt us in the Path of Piety and Life; and we must pick or break all that the Key of Hea∣vin can make fast, burst Locks as well as Vows before we can get out, have liberty to sin. God having bounded in the Christians race as that among the Grecians was, which had a River on one side, and Swords points all along the other, [ C] so that Destruction dwelt about it on the borders: And God hath mounded ours with the River of Hell the Lake of Fire, and with these spiritual Swords (as S. Cyprian and S. Hierome call the Censures.) But yet a Mound too weak alas! to stand the Resolution and assaults of Vices now adayes; which do not onely make great breaches in the Fence, but have quite thrown it down, and slighted it; and the Church dares not set it up again, should she attempt it they would scoff it down. Men will endure no bar in the way to Perdi∣tion; they will have liberty of Ruine; will not be guarded [ D] from it; so far from brooking Censures they will suffer no Reproof, nor Admonition, not suffer one word betwixt them and death eternal.

But Fiftly, Though we will not let Almighty God restrain us with his Censures, yet he will do it with his Rod, and set the sharp stakes of Affliction in our walk, to keep us in; thus he makes sins sometimes inflict themselves, and then we straight resolve to break off from them; and while we suffer shame, and feel destruction in the vice we shrink and un∣cling: And now the sinner would not dye, especially if his Precipitance have thrown him to the consines of the grave; [ E] and while he took his full careers of Vice, the fury of his course did drive him to the ports of Ruine, and Death seemed to make close and most astonishing approaches, when stand∣ing

on the brink of the Abysse, he takes a prospect of the [ A] dismal state that must receive him and his Vices, then he trembles and flyes, his apprehensions swoon, his Soul hath dying qualins, caused as much by the Nausea of sin as by the fear of Hell; he is in agonies of passion and of prayer both against his former courses, he never will come near them more; and now sure God hath catch't him, and his will is wholly bent another way, now he will live the new life if God will grant him any: But alas! have we never seen when God hath done this for him, stretch't out his Arm of Power, hal'd him from the brow of the Pit, and set [ B] him further off, how he does turn and drive on furiously in the very same path that leads to the same Ruine, and he recovers into death eternal?

And now this Will is grown too strong for the Almighty's powerful methods, and frustrates the whole Counsell of God for his Salvation, neglects his Calls and Importunacies whereby he warns him to consult his safety, to make use of Grace in time, not to harden his heart against his own mer∣cies, and perish in despight of mercy. And when he can reject Gods Graces and his Judgments thus, defie his Con∣science [ C] and his own Experience too, there is but one thing left wherein this Resolution can shew its courage, and that is,

Sixthly, His own present Interests; All which the sinner can break through and despise, to get at Death. It is so usual to see any of the gross wasting Vices when it is once espoused, murder the Reputation, and all those great con∣cerns that do depend upon a mans Esteem, eat out his Wealth and Understanding, make him pursue pernicious wayes and Counsells, besot him, and enslave him, fill his [ D] life with disquiet, shame and needinesse, and the sad con∣sequents of that, Contempt, and all that's Miserable and unpittied in this Life; and yet the sin with all these dis∣advantages is lovely, not to be divorc't nor torn off from him, that I were vain should I attempt to prove a thing so obvious. I shall give but one instance of the power of the Will, the violence and fury of its inclimations to ruine.

The man who for anothers inadvertency, possibly such as their own rules of Honour will not judge affront, yea sometimes without any shadow of a provocation, meerly [ E] because he will be rude, does that upon which they must call one another to account, and to their last account indeed at Gods dread Judgment feat; whither when he hath

sacrific'd two Families, it may be all their hopes and com∣forts [ A] in this Life; two Souls which cost the Blood of God, having assaulted Death when it was a••m'd and at his heart, and charged Damnation to take Hell by Violence; he comes with his own and his Brother's blood upon his Soul to seize his Sentence, Go ye Cursed into everlasting Fire: 'Tis plain against all Interests of this World and the World to come, this man will dye. And yet this is one of the laudable and generous Customes of the Age. Neither doth this man stand alone, the desperate Rebel would come into the Induction, that without any hopes sets all on fire, [ B] to consume all here, and to begin his Flames hereaf∣ter.

But I have said enough to prove the Resoluteness of a Sin∣ners Will, which is so great indeed that it is this especially which does enhance the guilt of sin into the merit of an endlesse punishment, this persevering obstinacy does deserve Hell and make it just.

For whatsoever inequality there is betwixt the short liv'd pleasures of a sin, which dye while they are tasted, and put out themselves, and those eternal never dying re∣tributions [ C] of Vengeance, (As sure there is also betwixt the life of Man, and several of those petty felonies that forfeit it) yet the Law does not murder when it Executes. (I might have instanc't in the a 1.9 gathering sticks upon the Sabbath day in Israel.) For since the preservation of publique safety and propriety is valuable with the lives of many men, and to secure that and affright the Violation, it was ne∣cessary to affix such punishments to such offences; they that know the penalty, and wilfully, meerly to feed their other vices, run upon it, justly suffer it: So that Man [ D] might not rob himself of that immortal Glory which God had ordain'd him when he did see it absolutely necessary, thus to hedge Vice with Eternal Death: And as he set Angels and Flaming Swords to keep him out of Paradise, so to set Fiends and Flames to guard Hell from him, and to entail those Torments on Man's sin, which he had pre∣pared for the Devil, and sealed the Deed in the Blood of his Son. If notwithstanding men renounce the blessedness, and against all their Interests and Obligations, in spight of all the arts and Powers of Heaven, they will have the Torments; and, (what they never would attempt for Pa∣radise) [ E] invade those flames to get to Hell, 'tis very just that God should let them have it; should not break his De∣crees, dispence with Holy Laws so confirm'd, meerly to

gratifie those that are obstinate for ruine, and against his [ A] whole Gospel quench Hell fires because men are resolv'd to run into them. This Will does, as it were, even the Scales betwixt the Sin and the Damnation, equal the pleasure to the punishment, and fill the distance from a moment to Eternity.

But though this Will do clear Gods, Justice, yet it does not satisfie his Reason, he seems astonisht at the choyce; God himself cannot find a Ground for such a Resolution; and therefore does enquire, Why will ye dye? Which is God's question, and my second part.

Is it the present pleasure sin does tempt your sensuality [ B] withall, whose agitations are so quick and strong that they surprize or break the forces of your Reason, and your Prin∣ciples, put the Mind in disorder, and then seize it with such violence as to lead it captive to the Law of Sin and Death? 'Tis true indeed thus both of them had their original, so they prevail'd in Paradise, for when the Woman saw the Tree was good for food, and pleasant to the eye, and a Tree to be desired to make one wise, she took thereof and she did eat, although she knew that God had said, In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye, Gen. 3. But there was generous plea∣sure [ C] here, such as tempted the Soul, assaulted it with the appearances of Wisdome, and divine Knowledge: Te shall be as Gods. Gen. 3. 5. And sure 'tis no great wonder if the proper pleasures of the mind ingage it, therefore when God would give a Precept liable to a Temptation of being broke, he laid it in the sphere of those things that delight the Soul, of Knowledge; but far be it that those of sensuali∣ty should ever have prevail'd; Man may yield to the plea∣sure of being like God, but for pleasure to make himself a Beast is contradiction to Nature. For pleasure is but satis∣faction of our appetites, and the more natural the inclinati∣on [ D] is, the higher and more powerful that nature, and the desire eagerer, so much the more delightful is the satisfacti∣on. Now it is certain that the reasonable faculty, the Soul or Spirit is the highest and most proper nature of a man: In all the rest he's not a step remov'd from Beasts, unlesse it be in shape, but in the accurateness of his senses is below them far; and therefore must be so in sensual satisfactions; but in his Soul he borders upon Angels, and does come to∣wards God. [ E]

Now then that Soul being mans peculiar nature, the highest part of him, It follows its delights, Spiritual reason∣able Joyes must needs be the most natural and most proper for it, most conform'd to it, and therefore the most

taking with it. This may be cleared most irrefraga∣bly. [ A]

A Beast hath several ingredients of Nature in his making, he is an heavy body, and a Vegetable, and he hath also sense which is his highest nature. Now though the only inclina∣tion of heavy bodies be to fall down to the Earth, and this be also natural to a Beast, we do not find that 'tis his greatest pleasure, sure he had rather feed than tumble in the Pasture; his chief delight lyes in the satisfaction of his chiefest facul∣ties wherein he does excell, his Senses; and as Beasts differ and transcend in these, so do their pleasures also differ [ B] and exceed. A man also, as Aristotle sayes, does live a threefold Life: At first he is but a Plant-man, a growing span of living Creature, and he's born only into Animality, a Life of Sense, and at last Educated into reasonable. Now the delights of his first Stages, whilst onely Vegetation and Sense live, although proportioned to those states, yet have no savour to the mind; he grows through Nuts and Rattles to the use of Reason, and the pleasures of it also; these must keep even with the growing faculties and become higher, rational, and manly: Which if they do not, but the man still dwell upon the satisfactions of sense, he does con∣found [ C] the Stages, contradict the progresses of Nature; he hath the age and strength of Reason but to play the Child with, to exert it in those things that are but a Man's Rattles; hath the sagacity of an Intelligence meerly to find out how to be a brute with greater luxury and rellish.

Come therefore, shew me now the sins which the delights of Reason do betray you to, and I'le admit the plea: But if you live your own reverse that you may dye; renounce all your own pleasures first, that so you may renounce the joyes of God and Heaven; and fall from Nature that you may [ D] fall into Hell, this case hath no pretence; those pleasures cannot toll man on to death, which till the man be dead, and the brute onely live within him cannot be his pleasures; and it is plain they are not pleasures to a Sober man that lives the life of Reason, not to say of Grace: Nor are they such to any man till he have train'd and exercis'd himself into an ha∣bit of enduring them, and by a discipline of Torment made himself experienc't for Vice and for Damnation. Nor is there ever any pleasure in some vices, what is there in the [ E] dismal Wishes of mans imprecating passion? there cannot be musick in those harsh horrours, and yet these sinners will destruction so as that they call to God to pour it on them, and tear it down from Heaven, so that Pain and Disease seem to

sauce those delights, and Death to be the tempter to the plea∣sure; [ A] 'tis evident mens reasons and their Practises must be first debauch't, that they may count them Pleasures, and therefore pleasure cannot be the first mover in the sinners race to Death.

But I will grant, that the Spirit and Flesh of Man by their so strait alliance and perpetual converse, may grow to have the same likes and dislikes, have but one appetite, and this alas! be that of flesh, to whose only satisfactions the man useth himself, by long Custome of which, the Soul doth so imbibe the Inclinations of the Body, that nothing of another kind [ B] can possibly be relisht: In this case sensuality hath pleasures, yet such as cannot answer Gods inquiry; for do but consult mans other Choyces and you find a present satisfaction can∣not work his Resolutions to forgo great after-hopes, or run upon a foreseen ruine. Who will exchange his right to the Re∣version of a Crown, which from his Father he shall certainly in∣herit and succeed to if he do out live him, for a present Scene of Royalty, and choose a painted Coronet, the pomps and a∣dorations of a Stage, and the applauses of a Groud before the reall Glories of his Kingdom, the love and the obedience [ C] of his Subjects? And yet my Soul, the disproportion of the sinners terms is infinitely greater; and there is no hazzard, which to make his choyce of present things more flattering, the others hopes are liable to: For that Heir of the Crown may dye before the Crown fall to him; but it is impossible that we should misse of ours except we put our selves by, by such choyces; except we change it thus. And on the other side we know, men will adventure the Sentence of the Law by Robberies and murders to provide for lusts while they hope to be undiscovered: But sure a Prison made delightful by all arts of pleasure, and all plenties of it, will not hire [ D] a man to own those actions which shall forfeit him to certain shameful Execution the next Sessions, and yet this is the sin∣ners state exactly, he is ti'd and bound in the chain of his sins, they are it may be chains of Gold and softned with de∣lices, but they reserve him to the Judgment of the great Assise: And yet he chooses these and puts them on as en∣signs of delight and honour.

Once more; Do not men choose a present Agonie to keep off an after evill, they teare their bowels with a Vomit to pre∣vent [ E] a Surfeit, they cup and scarifie, and with all artifice of pain upon themselves kill a Disease, yea they are well con∣tent to prolong torment so they may but prolong life; and though the preservation of it prove onely continued pangs,

and all they can effect is onely this, that they are longer [ A] dying, yet they are glad to be so in all cases, except where the prescription is virtue, and the death prescribed against Eternall.

Now why do you choose thus onely in Sin and Hell? 'Tis clear the very pleasure you change Heaven for, cannot in∣vite you from this Life, and then you that will suffer any thing rather than you will dye, Why against all resistance will you dye for ever?

Is it Secondly, because you know not what it is to dye the second Death? at least your notions of it are so slight and [ B] easie, that they cannot fright you from a pleasure or cope with a temptation to it; and so though present satisfactions are not able to engage you upon present ruin they can upon the after-death.

Indeed the Sinner would have reason if it meant no more than hath been taught of late by one that hath gained many Proselytes among the Virtuosi of Religion; After the Resur∣rection the Reprobates shall be, saith he, in the state that Adam and his Posterity were in after his Sin (i. e.) the state we are now in, Live as we do, Marry and give in Marriage, [ C] and cease to be when they have got some heirs to succeed them in Tophet. Poor unhappy Souls these! that never had any sin to merit being there, nor any Sentence to condemn them thither but this mans: Who must put them there succssive∣ly one after other, to find employment for Everlasting-fire. A Doctrine such as had an Angel Preacht from Heaven by S. Paul's award he must have been Anathema; when the Devil made Religions, and Theology came from the bottom∣less Pit, he never found out such an Engine to conveigh men into it as this pleasant notion of the punishment of sin there∣in; [ D] as if Leviathan were made to take his pastime in that Lake also, by such interpretations, which surely were con∣trived to make out the Assertion of that a 1.10 Romish Priest, who sayes, that those in Hell love to be there; nay more, that 'twas impossible for God to do a kinder thing for them than to put them there. Doctrines to be abhorr'd as Hell it self; and yet upon these grounds he builds their Church by demonstra∣tion, so strong as that the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against it; and in truth they have no reason to assault it on these terms. But to passe by such dolages and frenzies, you will [ E] be able sure to check all those presumptions which grow from sleight impressions of the second Death, if you but take that prospect of it which the close of this time gives; look for∣ward through this season, which is designed for you to pre∣pare

the way of the Lord to his passion in; and you shall see the [ A] Death that does await iniquity.

If you behold him coming to Jerusalem with Hosannas and Palmes about him, as if Death were his Triumph, his Passion so desirable, that he rode to meet it, which he never did at any other time; and then complaining he was * 1.11 straitned untill it were accomplisht; as he had throws of Longing after it, and b 1.12 singing when he went out to it, you would believe the sinner never chose his death, sweetned by his most plea∣sant sin, with a more cheerful eagernesse: But then open the Garden and you see his apprehensions of it c 1.13 throw him on [ B] his Face to pray against it. See how he sweats and begs, his very Prayer is a Passion, the zeal of it is agony! and canst thou choose that he so dreads and deprecates? and when he durst not meet the apprehensions, wilt thou stand the storm? see what a sting death hath, when it makes outlets for such clots and globes of blood, and stings the Soul so too, that it pours out it self in Sweat. And then he sinks again under the de∣precation of it, and prayes that that Cup may passe from him. Blessed Saviour! when thou hadst just now made thy Death thy Legacy, thy Sacrament, dost thou intreat to scape this [ C] death? if this Cup passe from thee, what will the Cup of Bles∣sing profit us? thou hadst but now bequeathed a Cup to us which was the New Testament in thy Blood, and now wilt thou not shed that Blood? But dost thou refuse thy Cup? Oh 'twas a Cup of deadly Wine, red with Gods Indignation, poy∣son'd with Sin! And can the sinner thirst for the Abysse of this, the Lake that hath no bottom? and when he goes again, and prayes the same words the third time, be yet not only so supine as not ask to scape it, seldom and very sleight in any prayer or wish against it, but also so resolv'd to have it, as to gape that he may swill it down to everlastingness? Follow him from [ D] that Garden and you see him even dying under his Cross, he cannot bear that when it is laden with sin, who yet d 1.14 upholdeth all things by the word of his power. 'Tis said the time will come when the sinner will cry out to the e 1.15 Hills to fall on him, any weight but that of iniquity, the burden of that is intollerable, 'tis easier for him to bear a mountain than a vice, and yet Christ saith f 1.16 he hath a beam in his Eye, and can he shrink at any weight whose part, that is most sensible, tender to an expression, can bear that which shoulders must fall un∣der, onely Pillars can sustain? Oh yes; that which did sink [ E] the shoulders of Omnipotence: Then the Mountains rather and the Rocks to cover; but in vain, they will not cover, for thy very Groans will rent them: Christs were so sad that his

did, they tore the Rocks, and that which is much more inflexi∣ble, [ A] the Monuments: Death started at them, and the bonds of the Grave loosened, and the Dust was frighted into Re∣surrection; and more, the Hypostatick Union seem'd rent by them, the God to have forsaken his own person. And can the sinner hope to stand this shock? will the courage of his Iniquity make his heart harder than those Rocks, more in∣sensible than the Grave, and better able to endure than he that was a God? and will you dye into this state eternally? which it was necessary for him to have the assistance of Di∣vinity in his person, that he might be able to endure one [ B] day, and which yet notwithstanding made one day intole∣rable.

The sum is this, a person so desiring death and yet so dread∣ing it, and sinking under the essayes of it, and this person the Son of God, and that dread meerly because there was sin in the Death, (for if this were not in the cause, no Martyr but had born death with more courage but that Son of God) all this as it does leave no Reason for the sinners choyce of death Eternal, so neither doth it leave a possibility of bearing it: And if so, give me leave in God's Name to Expostulate, [ C] the last imployment of these words, Why will ye dye?

After this killing prospect, while the damp of it is on you, let my Bowells debate with you, which yearn more over you than they did over my Beloved Son in whom I was well pleased; when I have sent my onely Son, God, one with my own Self, to be made Man, that he might suffer what was ne∣cessary to be suffer'd to preserve you from eternal sufferings; when I have laid on a 1.17 him that was brought up with me from everlasting, and that was daily my Delight, all your Iniquities and my own Indignation, that so you might be freed from [ D] both: When I have found out, made an Expiation, with which I am more pleased than ever your transgressions of∣fended me, which hath quite blotted out your sins and my Displeasure; when your Redemption from death is made, the Ransom paid, the Price is in my hand, why do you then refuse your selves, your own Eternal Blessednesse which was thus dearly purchas'd and is ready for you? Why will you seize that Indignation which you are redeemed from, and force those sufferings on your selves, which have been laid already and inflicted on another? 'Tis a small thing that you refuse me, the return of my Expence, that which I gave my [ E] Son for; but do you renounce Happinesse because my Love and Blood is in it? and will you dye because you may, and I desire you should live? when my Son went from the essential

felicities of my bosome to embrace Agonies, and dy'd for [ A] you; why will you also dye? as you have slain his Person, will you Crucifie his Kindnesse too? and crucifie your selves rather than have it? and having us'd him most despightfully, will you therefore use his favours so? and not let his Death and Passion do you any good? contemn his methods of Sal∣vation, his divine Acts of making you for ever Blessed? is your Saviour and Life it self so hateful to you? and after such Redemption of your persons is there no redemption of your Will from perishing? nothing of value that can bribe your choyce against it? nothing that can betroth you into [ B] a desire of Life, and take you off from your resolves to dye? had I set no advantage on the other side, if sin had sweet∣ned misery to your palate, it had been no such great despite and contradiction to Appetite; but when Heaven and the Joyes of God are in the Scale against it, to prefer Misery is Wretchless beyond aggravation. Oh why will you rather dye? Those very things that tempt your Wills were they abstracted from the death they do inveigle you into, were they sincere and innocent, if they were set against that Life, that blessed life, immortal Life, would vanish quite in the com∣parison [ C] when you should see they are but frolicks of delight, that never take you but when you are tun'd up to them, in moods and fits; and the complacencies you take in them are but starts of Appetite, that swells and breaks out to them and then falls again, and so the pleasures dye even in the birth, and therefore cannot satisfie; indeed do but disquiet an immortal appetite such as man's is, so that it were impos∣sible to choose a life, these rather, although there were no misery annex't to them, if you consider'd: For it were to resolve that a few drops were more than an immence Ocean [ D] of Delight, a Moment longer than Eternity, a Part were bigger than the Whole, an Atome greater than an Infinite. Now there is nothing then that can prefer these to your choyce but the Death only; and Oh will ye without and against all Temptation, Will ye dye?

O thou my Soul! take other Resolutions, thou feest the things that men with so much care and sin provide to make their lives delightful here, although successe answer their care, are vain and helpless things, and life it self as vain, and I must dye, and drop from them; and therefore be thou sure to take a care their treacherous comforts do not make [ E] me dye into the everlasting want of them and of all com∣forts.

The Artificial pleasures of the Palate whether in meats or

drinks, forc't tast's, that do at once satisfie and provoke [ A] the Appetite, will rellish ill when I begin to swallow down my spittle; but sure I am, I am invited to the Supper of the Lamb, to drink new Wine with Christ in my Father's Kingdom; The fatted Calf is dressing for my Entertainment, and shall I choose to be a while a Glutton with the Swine, rather than the eternall Guest of my Father's Table and Bosom? and refuse these for a few sick Excesses which would end in qualms, and gall, and vomits, if there were no guilt to rejolt too, and which will kindle a perpetual Feaver? The Honours and the Glories of this Life will loose their [ B] shine when I am going to make my Bed in the Dark, in a black lonely desolate hole of Earth; my Gayeties must dye, when I must say to Corruption, thou art my Father, and to the Worm thou art my Mother and my Sister: And if there were pride or ambition in them, their Worm will never dye, that Pride will make me fall as low as Lucifer, that Glory will go out into utter darknesse, and that Ambition change my Honour into everlasting Shame, Envy, and Tor∣ment: But sure I am that there are Glorious Robes, and Thrones, and Scepters in God's promises; and let thy gay∣ety, [ C] my Soul! be in the Robe of Immortality, the Throne of thy Ambition that of Glory.

When I shall lye tortur'd or languishing in my last Bed, Palaces and Possessions will no more relieve me, than the Landskip of them in the Hangings can do it. And if there were Covetousness, Bribery, Sacriledge, or Inju∣stice in them, I shall be carryed out of these, and have no other Habitation assigned me, but with the Devil and his Angels, shall inherit and possesse nothing but the Almighty's Indignation for ever. [ D]

But in my Father's House are many Mansions, Places pre∣pared for me, and an Inheritance as wide as Heaven, as Endlesse and Incorruptible as Eternity, and God Himself: And sure if I may choose, there I will live where there is neither Will nor possibility to dye; where there is Life, ful∣ness of Joy, Pleasures for Evermore. To which, &c. [ E]

Notes

• a 1.1

  James 1. 15.
• b 1.2

  2 Thess. 11. 3.
• c 1.3

  Mat. 25. 41. 46.
• d 1.4

  Mark. 9. 43, 44.
• e 1.5

  Rev. 14. 10, 11.
• b 1.6

  Psa. 34. 12.
• a 1.7

  Wisd. 1. 16.
• b 1.8

  Matt. 16. 19.
• a 1.9

  Num. 15. 32. 35.
• a 1.10

  Tho. de Alb.
• * 1.11

  Luc. 12. 50.
• b 1.12

  Mat. 26. 30
• c 1.13

  Mat. 26. 39.
• d 1.14

  Heb. 1. 3.
• e 1.15

  Luc. 23. 30.
• f 1.16

  Mat. 7. 3.
• a 1.17

  Prov. 8. 30.