Practical meditations upon the four last things viz. I. Death, II. Judgment, III. Hell, IV. Heaven / by R. Sherlock ...

MEDITAT. V. Of the Bonds and Chains of Hell.

RIghteous art thou, O Lord, and upright are thy Judgments: 'Tis a justice be∣coming the just judge of the World, that the Licentious and Profane, who in this life would not be bound up nor restrained from following and fulfilling their exorbitant lusts, but have walked in the counsel of the ungodly, and stood in the way of sinners; that they who bound up their hands from do∣ing the works of God's Commandments, and bound up their feet from walking in the

paths of his most holy Laws; that they whose sins are bound upon theirs Souls, and not loosed by true Repentance through Faith in the Bloud of Christ: 'tis just, I say, that such should incurr this sad and dismal Sentence, Bind him hand and foot.

By the feet in holy Writ is frequently meant our affections whereby our Souls do move, as our bodies do by our feet: And by our hands our actions are meant: so that by the binding of both in Hell is intimated, that it shall not there be possible, either to act, or so much as affect what is good, and conducible to our redemption thence.

To be bound to one place, though in Silken Cords, or Chains of Gold, though 'twere on a Bed of Roses, or the sweetest Perfumes, to be so tied as not to be able to stir hand or foot, is a very great punish∣ment to the free, active and stirring soul of Man: How much more then a sorer pu∣nishment is it, to be bound in fiery Chains, eating through the flesh into the very Bo∣wels, nay through all the most hidden and deepest recesses of the Soul, and be forced to lie down in a Bed of Flames, and there∣in not to be able to stir either hand or foot, not to move or change from side to side for the least ease or mitigation of Torment?

For the binding of the feet implies there's no escaping, no flying from the place of Torment; and the binding of the hands, that there's no fence against the tormenting Fiends; that there's no way to be gone, no work to be done to mitigate in the least their

insupportable sufferings: 'Tis therefore one great reason of God's forbearance with fin∣ners in this life to bring them to Repen∣tance, because there's no possibility by Re∣pentance to abate the sorrows of impenitent sinners in the life to come.

He must have a heart of Stone, or rather of Flint the hardest of Stones, who in re∣membrance of his sins is not greatly terrifi∣ed and humbled in the very thought and apprehension of these fiery tormenting Chains of Hell. And such a hardness of heart is contracted by a long continued custom in any sinful course: And every sin unrepented is justly punished. 1. By being insensible of sin; and 2. without the fear or remem∣brance of future Judgments, which makes that vast difference betwixt the wise man and the fool: The wise man feareth and de∣parteth from evil, but the fool rageth and is confident, Prov. 14.16.

Blessed Jesus, whose innocent tender hands were rudely seized and bound with Cords of injustice and violence, vouchsafe to loose all the Bonds and Chains of my Sins, wherewith both my hands and feet, affecti∣ons and actions are infettered and infested; and grant that the wounds they have made in my Soul being washed with my Tears, may be healed by the Soveraign Balsam which from thy Wounds and Stripes and Bonds does flow: Pluck my feet out of the Net of every temptation to sinfulness and error, and let my hands be continually lift up unto thy Commandments to do them, that I

be not liable to be bound by any of the Spi∣rits of vengeance in the fiery Chains of the nether Hell, where is weeping and wail∣ing—

Notes

• Psal. 119.137.
• Mat. 22.1.
• Ps. 25.14.
• Ps. 119.48.