A golden mine opened, or, The glory of God's rich grace displayed in the…

you persuade me to believe, how fain would I do it, but I cannot:' Then violently grasping his Hands together, and raising himself, 'Behold, said he, I am strong, yet by little and little I decay and consume, and my Servants would fain preserve this weary Life, but at length the Will of God must be done, and I shall perish miserably.' 'I see, said he, my Damnation, and I know my remedy is only in Christ, yet I cannot set my self to take hold of him! Such are the Punishments of the Damned, they repent of their loss of Heaven, they cannot amend their ways.' 'Now also Beelzebub comes to his Banquet; you shall see my End, and in me an Example to many, of the Justice and Judgment of God.' 'What Hell can be worse than Desperation, or what greater Punishment than the gnawing worm, and unquenchable Fire? Horror, Confusion, and which is worse than all, Desperation it self, continually tortures me; and now I count my present-Estate worse than if my Soul were separated from my Body, and were with Judas and the rest of the damned; therefore I desire to be there, rather than alive in the Body.' 'God hath taken Faith from me, and left me other common Gifts for my deeper Condemnation, by how much the more I remember what ⟨p. 48⟩I had, and hear others discourse of what they have, by so much the more is my Torment, in that I know what I want, and there is no way to be relieved: Thus spake he, the Tears trickling down; professing that his Pangs were such, as that the Damned in Hell endure not the like Misery. That his Estate was worse than that of Cain or Judas, and therefore he desired to dye; yet, Behold, said he, the Scriptures are accomplished in me, They shall desire to dye, and Death shall fly from them.'¹

you perswade me to believe, how fain would I do it, but I cannot:' Then violently grasping his Hands together, and raising himself, 'Behold, said he, I am strong, yet by little and little I decay and consume, and my Servants would fain preserve this weary Life, but at length the Will of God must be done, and I shall perish miserably.' 'I see, said he, my Damnation, and I know my remedy is only in Christ, yet I cannot set my self to take hold of him! Such are the Punishments of the Damned, they repent of their loss of Heaven, they cannot amend their ways.' 'Now also Belzebub comes to his Banquet; you shall see my End, and in me an Example to many, of the Justice and Judgment of God.' 'What Hell can be worse than Desparation, or what greater Punishment than the gnawing worm, and unquenchable Fire? Horror, Confusion, and which is worse than all, Desparation it self, continually tortures me; and now I count my present-Estate worse than if my Soul were separated from my Body, and were with Judas and the rest of the damned; therefore I desire to be there, rather than alive in the Body.' 'God hath taken Faith from me, and left me other common Gifts for my deeper Condemnation, by how much the more I remember what