How should this thought move you to walk exactly, since your hearts shall be anatomized, and your lives manifested before God, Angels and men! Could ye but as Jerome, hear the sound of the last trump always in your ears, Arise ye dead, and come to judgement, surely ye would he holy Judges and Justices indeed. Peter maketh this argument a strong enforcement to holiness, 2 Pet. 3.10, 11. ⟨p. 276⟩The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also and the works therein shall be burnt up; seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness? Observe, the certainty of it, The day of the Lord will come; If it were doubtful, it would not be so dreadful; but it will come surely, though it come slowly, therefore men had need to be holy. Tertullian observed of all those that profest Christianity in his time, none lived so loosely as those that did not believe the certainty of the day of judgement; But observe 2. the suddenness of it, The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; when men at midnight are securely sleeping, they dream not of, nor prepare for a thief. It is sometimes called a day, Matth. 25.13. propter revelationem secretorum; things that are now dark and secret, shall be then as clear and apparent as at noon day; the fire of that day will make things legible which are written with the juice of Lemons. In that Spring time both wholesome roots and poisonous will be discovered, which all the winter of this life were hid. The books of Gods Omniscience and mans Conscience, saith one, shall be then opened, and secret sins shall be then as legible as if it were written with the brightest star, or the most glittering Sun-beams upon a wall of Chrystal, Eccles. 12. ult. And it is said to be at night, propter improvisionem, &c. because of most mens unpreparedness for it. The destruction of this new world by fire will find men generally in the same careless, carnal, secure, sensual condition, as did the destruction of the old world by water, Luke 21.35. as the snare on a sudden catcheth the bird, so will that day of the Lord seize on such beasts. Observe 3.
How should this thought move you to walk exactly, since your hearts shall be anatomized, and your lives manifested before God, Angels and men! Could ye but as Jerom, hear the sound of the last trump always in your ears, Arise ye dead, and come to judgement, surely ye would he holy Judges and Justices indeed. Peter maketh this argument a strong enforcement to holiness, 2 Pet. 3.10, 11. ⟨p. 276⟩The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also and the works therein shall be burnt up; seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness? Observe, the certainty of it, The day of the Lord will come; If it were doubtful, it would not be so dreadful; but it will come surely, though it come slowly, therefore men had need to be holy. Tertullian observed of all those that profest Christianity in his time, none lived so loosely as those that did not believe the certainty of the day of judgement; But observe 2. the suddenness of it, The day of the Lord will come as a theif in the night; when men at midnight are securely sleeping, they dream not of, nor prepare for a theif. It is sometimes called a day, Matth. 25.13. propter revelationem secretorum; things that are now dark and secret, shall be then as clear and apparent as at noon day; the fire of that day will make things legible which are written with the juyce of Lemons. In that Spring time both wholsome roots and poysonous will be discovered, which all the winter of this life were hid. The books of Gods Omniscience and mans Conscience, saith one, shall be then opened, and secret sins shall be then as legible as if it were written with the brightest star, or the most glittering Sun-beams upon a wall of Chrystal, Eccles. 12. ult. And it is said to be at night, propter improvisionem, &c. because of most mens unpreparedness for it. The destruction of this new world by fire will find men generally in the same careless, carnal, secure, sensual condition, as did the destruction of the old world by water, Luke 21.35. as the snare on a sudden catcheth the bird, so will that day of the Lord seise on such beasts. Observe 3.
