Sermons preached

(1.) Consider it, as it is threatened by God. If God threaten so great a Misery, it is for our Profit, that we may take heed and escape it. There is Mercy in the severest Threatenings, that we may avoid the Bait when we see the Hook, that we may digest the Strictness of an holy Life, rather than venture upon such dreadful Evils. Why did our Lord repeat it three times, Where the Worm never dies, and the Fire is never quenched? but that we may have it often in our Thoughts, that we may not buy the Pleasures ⟨p. 102⟩of Sin at so dear a rate, so hard a Price as the Loss of our precious Souls.

(1.) Consider it, as it is threatned by God. If God threaten so great a Misery, it is for our Profit, that we may take heed and escape it. There is Mercy in the severest Threatnings, that we may avoid the Bait when we see the Hook, that we may digest the Strictness of an holy Life, rather than venture upon such dreadful Evils. Why did our Lord repeat it three times, Where the Worm never dies, and the Fire is never quench'd? but that we may have it often in our Thoughts, that we may not buy the Pleasures ⟨p. 102⟩of Sin at so dear a rate, so hard a Price as the Loss of our precious Souls.

(2.) Consider the Punishment, as executed upon the Wicked. How many are now burning in Hell for those Sins which you are ready to commit? The serious Consideration of it will check the Fervour of your Lusts, that you may not easily venture upon an everlasting Hell.

3. Consider which Trouble is most intolerable; to be salted with Salt, or to be salted with Fire; with unpleasing Mortification, or the Pains of Hell; the Trouble of Physic, or the Danger of a mortal Disease. Surely to preserve the Life of the Body, Men will endure the bitterest Pill, take the most loathsome Potion; why? their Lives lie on it: And shall we be unwilling to such a necessary Strictness, to these wholesome Severities, which conduce to save you with an everlasting Salvation? There is no Remedy, Trouble must be undergone. Surely a strict Diet is better than a speedy Death; and the pricking of a Vein by a Chirurgeon, is not so bad as a Stab at the Heart by an Enemy. Better be macerated by Repentance, than broken in Hell by Torments. Which is worse, Discipline, or Execution? Here the Question is put: you must be troubled first or last. Would you have a Sorrow mixed with Love and Hope, or else mixed with Desperation? Would you have a Drop, or an Ocean? Would you have your Souls cured, or tormented? Would you have Trouble in the short Moment of this Life, or have it Eternal in the World to come?