Media: the middle things, in reference to the first and last things: or, The means, duties, ordinances, both secret, private and publike, for continuance and increase of a godly life, once begun, till we come to Heaven. Wherein are discovered many blessed medium's or duties, in their right method, manner and proceedings; that so a Christian (the spirit of Christ assisting) may walk on in the holy path, which leads from his new birth to everlasting life. / Drawn, for the most part, out of the most eminently pious, and learned writings of our native practical divines: with additionals of his own, by Isaac Ambrose, minister of the Gospel at Preston in Amoundernes.

1. Description.

O my soul, what is this Eternity whereof thou studiest? It is the entire and perfect possession of a life (together and at once) that never shall have end: The description may be imperfect, and

no wonder; For how can that be defined, which hath no bon∣dage or limits: Whatsoever is said of eternity, comes infinitely short of it, no words can utter it, no figures number it, no time can measure it: Eternity is of this nature, take from it what you will, it is still the same, it is neither encreased by addition, nor diminished by subtraction: What is Eternity? it is a circle running back into it self, whose centre is always, and circum∣ference, without all end: What is Eternity? it is a duration al∣ways present, it is one perpetual day, which is not divided into that which is past, and that which is to come: What is Eternity? it is an age of ages, never expiring, but always like it self, with∣out all change: What is Eternity? it is a beginning without be∣ginning, middle or ending, or a beginning never ending, always beginning: and this, O my soul is Eternity.

2. Distribution.

There is a twofold Eternity, an Eternity of wo, and an Eter∣nity of joy: First of wo, O wo that never shall have end! The worm shall not dye, the fire never shall be quenched: After a thousand thousand millions of years, there are still as many more to come, and when those many more are come and gone, the woes are yet as far from the last as they were at the first: It is now above Four thousand years since Esau, who hated Jacob, was cast into this pit of woes, and yet the number of his years of torments are as many, as it was the first day of his torment. Secondly, of joy, O joy, above all the joys in harvest; they are the joys of Hea∣ven: There joys the understanding, by a perfect knowledge and vision of God; there joys the memory, by a perfect remem∣brance of all things past; there joys the will, by enjoying all maner of good, without all fear of evil: In this joy there is no corruption, no defect, no old age, but solemn glory, and con∣tinual solemnity; there is an everlasting spring, there is always the flower, and grace of youth and perfect health: With thee is the fountain of life, and in thy light shall we see light.

3. Causes.

Whence are these two Eternities, O my soul, but from him that is onely eternal?

1. Eternal wo is from him, For he hath prepared Tophet of old: God is the efficient, but sin the meritorious cause of this wo, The wages of sin is death.

2. Eternal joy is from him, the Father bestows it, the Son merits it, the Holy Ghost seals and applies it: God hath given thee a Savior (O my soul) to give this eternal joy to thee, and God hath given thee faith, whereby thou mayest attain to this Savior; and God hath given thee his Word, whereby thou mayest attain to this Faith: Look up therefore to him as the be∣ginner and finisher of this Eternity, and whilest thou magnifiest the author, be ravished with the glory of the work; there is no∣thing that is good, that is not comprehended herein: In thy presence is fulness of joy, and at thy right hand are pleasures evermore.

4. Effects.

What ••re the effects, O my soul, of this Eternity?

1. Of Eternity in Hell, these amongst others; heavy, heavy, most sad and heavy thoughts, when the damned shall consider their dooms, Go ye into everlasting fires, then shall they cast their deep thoughts on

• ...Time past.
• ...Eternity to come.

1. For time past they shall remember, that sometimes they lived (at least some of them) in a glorious Goshen, inlightned with the fairest noon-tide of the Gospel that ever the Sun saw, and that they heard many and many a powerful Sermon; any one passage whereof (had they not suffered Satan to blindefold and baffle them) might have been unto them the beginning of the new birth; that many times they were told of this danger by Gods faithful Ministers; that they had many calls and offers of salvation, and the Spirit of God many a time cryed behinde them, This is the way, walk in it: That sometimes they were half perswaded to be Christians, and they were near salvation, and they had a golden opportunity for it; but alas, they re∣volted again, and preferred their lusts, and passed by those offers and opportunities, with an inexpiable neglect, and horrible in∣gratitude, and now they lie drowned and damned in that lake of fire and brimstone, which they might have so easily and so often escaped: O what a shrike will this cause in Hell? whiles at every of these considerations, the worm of conscience shall give them a deadly bite, even to the heart? that the memory of things here on earth, remains still with all spirits in the world of Hell,

is manifest, Son, remember thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things, and Lazarus evil, now therefore is he comforted and thou art tormented, said Abraham to that rich man in Hell.

2. For Eternity to come, they shall consider, That this Eternity is another Hell in Hell; might they endure those horrible pains, and extream horrors, no more millions of years, then there are creatures both in Heaven and earth, they would comfort them∣selves with this thought, My misery will at last have an end; but this word [Eternity] it rents their very heart in pieces, it rents their very throat with hideous roarings, it gives a new life to their insufferable sorrows: O my soul, doest thou not tremble at this consideration. Imagine thou heardst Judas roaring in Hell flames, I have now suffered above One thousand six hundred years since I betrayed Christ, and through the extremity of torment, I have thought these One thousand six hundred, to have been a thou∣sand, thousand, thousand, thousand years: O when will be an end of these sufferings! When? couldst thou tell stellas coeli, stillas roris, undas aquei flueris, &c. all the stars of Heaven, stills of dew, drops of rain, fleeces of snow, flowers of the Spring, colours of flowers, fruits of the earth, grains of corn, leaves of trees, beasts of the field, motes of the Sun flying in the ayr, hairs on thy head, sands on the sea shore, piles of grass growing on the earth; and shouldst thou adde to these, all the thoughts of men, the motions and mutations of all the creatures, and number all these by all the additions and multiplications of Arithmetick, enough to fill volumns reaching from earth unto Heaven, as yet thou hast not measured the length, the middle of Eternity: O Judas here is thy lot, thou hast fryed in Hell above a thousand years, thou must be tormented in those flames a hundred thousand years, ten hundred thousand years, a thou∣sand millions of years, a thousand, thousand, thousand, thousand millions of years, of ages; and when all those years and ages are gone and past, thou art as far from the end of thy torments, as thou wert at the beginning, when thou hangedst thy self, and first wentst down to Hell. O my soul, here's a Meditation able to startle thee from the sleep of sin: No question, at these thoughts, Judas and all the damned in Hell take on with infinite anguish, and inraged indignation: Hence comes that horrible hatred, and perpetual blasphemies which the damned utter

against God: O how they tear their hair, and bite their nails, and gnash their teeth, and dig furiously into the very fountain of life, desirous (if they could do it possibly) to spit out their very bowels. O my heart, well mayest thou tremble in the midst of this Meditation! O Eternity! Eternity! Eternity!

2. Of Eternity in heaven, these (amongst others) are the ef∣fects, rowzing, raising, and most ravishing thoughts, when the blessed shall consider their doom, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom: Then shall they cast their thoughts on

• ...Time past.
• ...Eternity to come.

1. For time past, they shall remember, That sometimes they were in troubles, in sorrows, in sicknesses, in contempt of others, in dangers by Sea and Land; That sometimes they were ready to perish, and to cast away their souls by this or that sin, but that God still held his special hand over them, and gave them grace, and now hath brought them into the Port and Haven of Security, where is no shadow of miseries: O what ravishing of Spirit will the souls of the just be cast into at this recalling of time past! and that the memory of things here below, remains still with all the Spirits of the just made perfect, is manifest: Re∣member me when thou comest into thy kingdom, said the good Thief to Christ.

2. For Eternity to come, they shall consider, That the joy they enjoy, they shall enjoy for ever: They that be wise shall shine as the brightnes of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousnes, as the stars for ever and ever. They shall shine: how? as the firma∣ment, as the stars, or as the Sun, saith our Savior: Not so (saith Chrysostom) as that they should not surpass the brightness of the Sun, but the Sun being the most glittering thing in the world, he takes a resemblance towards the expressing of their incomparable glory: But to heighten this glory, observe the auxesis, it shall be for ever (i.) for eternity, or for ever and ever, (i.) for eternity and eternity; or as the Latines, in perpetuas aeternitates, for perpetual eternities: If one eternity be without end, what are two? what are ten? what are an hundred? what are infinite? O what a life is this that knoweth no end? what a glory is this that never fadeth? what a love is this that never cooleth? what a joy is this that never ceaseth?

5. Opposites.

Why then, O my soul, dost thou set up thy rest on this side Jordan? what are those few short pleasures thou here enjoyest? what is this brittle life, on which depends eternal bliss or wo? what is earth to heaven? what a minute to eternity? if any thing be contrary to eternity, what is it but this punctilio of time we have here to spend? this little brittle life, what is it but an ell, a span, an inch, a point? O dear penyworth, to buy the mer∣ry madness of one hour, with ages of pangs, infinite and eternal! O dearest bargain that ever was, to sell away Heaven, (our everlasting inheritance) with Esau, for a sip of momentany pleasure. I see this world and the other are meer opposites; my life is so little, and eternity so long, that I cannot tell what is more contrary then these two: My life is nothing but a Now, this instant is properly my own, I cannot promise to my self any thing future, and therefore my life and eternity are as contrary as may be.

6. Comparisons.

But to what shall I compare this Eternity? as a drop of water is unto the sea, and a gravel stone in comparison of the sand, so are a thousand years to the day of Eternity: Nay, if we multi∣ply a thousand years a thousand times, it would not amount to the least fraction of the numberless number of Eternity. They say, That the eighth Coelestial Orb or Sphaere, is moved wonder∣ful leisurely, for though it be daily wheeled about by the rapid motion of the Primum mobile, yet it finisheth not its own pro∣per Circuit, but once in Thirty six thousand years; and this space of time they call the Great year, or Plato's year: but compare this with Eternity, and it will appear but as a moment, a very nothing at all; to what then mayest thou compare this Eterni∣ty? O my soul, it is like an Orb, every way round, and like it self, or like a wheel, that turns, and turns, and doth never cease turning; or like a year, continually wheeling about, which turns again to the same point whence it began, and still wheels about again; or like an ever-running Fountain, whither the waters after many turnings flow back again, that they may always flow; or like a Snake bowed back unto it self orbicularly, hold∣ing the tayl in her mouth, which in its end doth again begin, and never ceaseth to begin; or like a Ring, or like a Globe, or like a

Sphaere, or like the circuit of Sun and Moon, without all end.

7. Testimonies.

Is not the Scripture (O my soul) frequent in the mention of Eternity? These shall go into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal: —Their worm shall not dye, their fire never shall be quenched:—Depart from me ye cursed into ever∣lasting fire: —Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him, shall be in him a well of water, springing up into eternal life: — We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens: — Surely he shall not be moved for ever, the righ∣teous shall be in everlasting remembrance: —They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever.

Thus far, O my soul, for the information of thy judgement: Now for the stirring up of thy affections.

Notes

• Isa. 66.24.
• Isa. 9.3.
• Psal. 36.9.
• Isa. 30.33.
• Rom. 6.23.
• Psal. 16.11.
• Luke 16.25.
• Luke 23.42.
• Dan 12.3.
• Matth 13.45.
• Eccles. 8.9.
• Matth 25.46.
• Mark 9 44.46.48. Matth 25.41. Iohn 4.14. 2 Cor. 5.1.
• Psal. 112.6.
• Dan. 12.3.