A30241:316
CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…
CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John, or, Christs prayer before his passion explicated, and both practically and polemically improved by Anthony Burgess ...
London: printed by Abraham Miller for Thomas Underhill, 1656
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Sermon 12: A Consideration of Eternal Life compared with this present life, And with its contrary,…
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.
Thus you have seen eternal life in the contrary to it, We have been upon the Mount of Blessing, and upon the Mount of Cursing; If good things will not allure,1 let dreadful things astonish and terrify; Only you must know the grand difference between eternal life and eternal death in the manner of coming to it: So you see in the Text it's given by Christ, and it's called the gift of God, but eternal death comes by desert, It's the wages of sin, Rom. 6. ult. Our sins deserve hell, but our graces do not heaven, and whereas it might be thought an unjust thing in God for a transient sin to inflict eternal torments, yet that is no wonder.
Thus you have seen eternal life in the contrary to it, We have been upon the Mount of Blessing, and upon the Mount of Cursing; If good things will not allure,1 let dreadfull things astonish and terrifie; Only you must know the grand difference between eternal life and eternal death in the manner of coming to it: So you see in the Text it's given by Christ, and it's called the gift of God, but eternal death comes by desert, It's the wages of sinne, Rom. 6. ult. Our sinnes deserve hell, but our graces do not heaven, and whereas it might be thought an unjust thing in God for a transient sinne to inflict eternal torments, yet that is no wonder.
- 1Life a gift, death is deserved.
1For 1. We see amongst men, that Malefactors for a crime committed by them, which was acted in a very short time, do yet suffer death, which as to this world is their eternal destruction, they can never come back to live here again. 2. All sin being committed against God who is of infinite glory hath thereby an infinite guilt, and so deserveth eternal damnation. Hence it is that Divines say, Omne peccator punitur citra condignum, Even hell it self is not a punishment adequate to the nature of sin, for Gods honour is more worth then ever our sufferings can make up again: And lastly, There is no injustice because all those torments can never make any satisfaction; For hence it is that thy misery is eternal, because thou canst not pay the utmost farthing; Thou art never able to discharge the debt, therefore thou must for ever lie in prison: Thus there is justice in every mans damnation, and there is only mercy in every mans salvation.