A27107:213
The practice of piety directing a Christian how to walk, that he may please…
The practice of piety directing a Christian how to walk, that he may please God / amplified by the author
A27107:213
The practice of piety directing a Christian how to walk, that he may please God / amplified by the author
No title page in the transcription: set from the catalogue record.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Prepared for the Devil and his Angels.] Here are thy infernal tormenting and tormented Companions.
O terrible Sentence! from which the condemned cannot escape; which being pronounced, cannot possibly be withstood: against which a Man cannot except, and from which a Man can no where appeal: so that to the damned nothing remains but hellish torments, which know neither ease of pain, nor end of time. From this Judgment-seat thou must be thrust by Angels (together with all the damned Devils and1 Reprobates) into the bottomless lake of utter darkness, that perpetually burneth with fire and brimstone. Whereunto as thou shalt be thrust, there shall be such weeping woes and wailing, that the cry of the company of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, when the earth swallowed them up, was nothing comparable to this howling; nay, it will seem unto thee an Hell before thou goest into Hell, but to hear it. Into which bottomless lake after that thou art once plunged, thou shalt ever be falling down, and never meet a bottom; and in it thou shalt ever lament, and none shall pity thee; thou shalt always weep for pain of the Fire, and yet gnash thy Teeth, for the extremity of Cold; thou shalt weep to think that thy miseries are past ⟨p. 60⟩remedy: thou shalt weep to think, that to repent is to no purpose: thou shalt weep to think, how for the shadows of short pleasures thou hast incurred these sorrows of eternal pains: thou shalt weep to see how that weeping it self can nothing prevail; yea,2 in weeping, thou shalt weep more tears than there is water in the Sea, for the water of the Sea is finite, but the weeping of a Reprobate shall be infinite.
There thy lascivious Eyes shall be afflicted with sights of ghastly Spirits, thy curious Ears shall be affrighted with hideous noise of howling Devils, and the gnashing Teeth of damned Reprobates; thy dainty Nose shall be cloyed with noisome stench of Sulphur; thy delicate Taste shall be pined with intolerable hunger; thy drunken Throat shall be parched with unquenchable thirst; thy Mind shall be tormented to think how for the love of abortive pleasures, which perished ere they budded, thou so foolishly lost Heaven's Joys, and incurredst Hellish Pains, which last beyond Eternity. Thy Conscience shall ever sting thee like an Adder, when thou thinkest how often Christ by his Preachers offered the Remission of Sins, and the Kingdom of Heaven freely unto thee, if thou wouldest but Believe and Repent; and how easily thou mightest have obtained mercy in those days; how near thou wast many times to have repented, and yet didst suffer the Devil and the World to keep thee still in impenitency, and how the day of mercy ⟨p. 61⟩is now past, and will never dawn again.
There thy lascivious Eyes shall be afflicted with sights of ghastly Spirits, thy curious Ears shall be affrighted with hideous noise of howling Devils, and the gnashing Teeth of damned Reprobates; thy dainty Nose shall be cloyed with noisom stench of Sulphur; thy delicate Taste shall be pined with intolerable hunger; thy drunken Throat shall be parched with unquenchable thirst; thy Mind shall be tormented to think how for the love of abortive pleasures, which perished ere they budded, thou so foolishly lost Heaven's Joys, and incurredst Hellish Pains, which last beyond Eternity. Thy Conscience shall ever sting thee like an Adder, when thou thinkest how often Christ by his Preachers offered the Remission of Sins, and the Kingdom of Heaven freely unto thee, if thou wouldest but Believe and Repent; and how easily thou mightest have obtained mercy in those days; how near thou wast many times to have repented, and yet didst suffer the Devil and the World to keep thee still in impenitency, and how the day of mercy ⟨p. 61⟩is now past, and will never dawn again.
How shall thy understanding be racked to consider, how for momentany Riches thou hast lost eternal Treasure, and changed Heaven's felicity for Hell's misery; where every part of thy Body, without intermission of pain, shall be continually tormented alike!
In these Hellish Torments, thou shalt be for ever deprived of the beatifical sight of GOD, wherein consisteth the sovereign good and life of the Soul. Thou shalt never see Light, nor the least sight of Joy, but lie in a perpetual Prison of utter Darkness, where shall be no Order, but Horror; no Voice, but of Blasphemers and Howlers; no Noise but of Torturers and tortured; no Society, but of the Devil and his Angels, who being tormented themselves, shall have no other ease, but to wreak their Fury in tormenting thee: Where shall be punishment without Pity; misery, without mercy; sorrow, without succour; crying, without comfort; mischief, without measure; torment, without ease; where the Worm dieth not, and the Fire is never quenched; where the Wrath of God shall seize upon the Soul and Body,1 as the flame of fire doth on the lump of Pitch or Brimstone. In which flame thou shalt ever be burning, and never consumed; ever dying, and never dead; ever roaring in the pangs of Death, and never rid of those pangs, nor knowing end of ⟨p. 62⟩thy pains. So that after thou hast endured them so many thousand years as there are Grass on the Earth, or Sands on the Seashore, thou art no nearer to have an end of thy torments, than thou wast the first day that thou wast cast into them; yea, so far are they from ending, that they are ever but beginning. But if after a thousand times so many thousand years, thy damned Soul could but conceive a hope that those her torments should have an end, this would be some Comfort, to think that at length an end will come: But as oft as the Mind thinketh of this word Never, it is as another Hell in the midst of Hell.
In these Hellish Torments, thou shalt be for ever deprived of the beatifical sight of GOD, wherein consisteth the sovereign good and life of the Soul. Thou shalt never see Light, nor the least sight of Joy, but lie in a perpetual Prison of utter Darkness, where shall be no Order, but Horrour; no Voice, but of Blasphemers and Howlers; no Noise but of Torturers and tortured; no Society, but of the Devil and his Angels, who being tormented themselves, shall have no other ease, but to wreak their Fury in tormenting thee: Where shall be punishment without Pity; misery, without mercy; sorrow, without succour; crying, without comfort; mischief, without measure; torment, without ease; where the Worm dieth not, and the Fire is never quenched; where the Wrath of God shall seize upon the Soul and Body,
This thought shall force the damned to cry [Greek or Hebrew], as much as if they should say [Greek or Hebrew], O Lord, not ever, not ever, torment us thus. But their Consciences shall answer them as an Echo, [Greek or Hebrew], ever, ever. Hence shall arise their doleful [Greek or Hebrew], woe and alas for evermore.
This thought shall force the damned to cry 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, as much as if they should say 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, O Lord, not ever, not ever, torment us thus. But their Consciences shall answer them as an Echo, 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, ever, ever. Hence shall arise their doleful 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, wo and alas for evermore.
This is that second Death, the general perfect fullness of all cursedness, and misery, which every damned Reprobate must suffer, so long as GOD and his Saints shall enjoy bliss and felicity in Heaven for evermore.
This is that second Death, the general perfect fulness of all cursedness, and misery, which every damned Reprobate must suffer, so long as GOD and his Saints shall enjoy bliss and felicity in Heaven for evermore.
Thus far of the misery of Man in his state of corruption, unless he be renewed by Grace in Christ.
Now followeth the knowledge of Man's self, in respect of his state of Regeneration by Christ.
Now let us see how happy a Godly man is in his state of renovation, being reconciled to God in Christ.
NOw let us see how happy a Godly man is in his state of renovation, being reconciled to God in Christ.
The godly Man, whose corrupt Nature is renewed by grace in Christ, and become a new creature, is blessed in a threefold respect. First, in his Life. Secondly, in his Death. Thirdly, after Death.
1. His blessedness during his Life is but in part, and that consists in seven things.
2. He hath,1 for the Merits of Christ's Sufferings, all his sins, original and actual, with the guilt and punishment belonging to lthem,3 freely and fully forgiven unto him.4 And all them righteousness of Christ as freely and fully imputed unto him: and son God is reconciled unto him, ando approveth him as righteous in his sight and account.