Christ's certain and sudden appearance to judgment. By Thomas Vincent, sometime Minister of Maudlins…

3. When they consider in their going away, that they were sometime so near to H•ll; that whilst they were in a state of nature, and under the guilt of sin, that some of them were near to death; that they were brought to the sides of the pit, to the doors of the grave, to the very brink of Hell, before they had repented, and accepted of Jesus Christ; some of them will remember how near they were to death when they were young; how near they were to death by some casualties; how near by some diseases; some of them will remember the great Plague in London, which swept away so many thousands, how ill they were provided for death at the beginning thereof; how nearly they escaped the disease; and some which had the disease, how nearly they escaped death by it; and if they had died then, that they should certainly have gone to Hell; O how will they admire the •••ovidence of God in keeping them alive notwithstanding […] many dangers they were in of death all the days of their unregeneracy; and when they more over consider how they tried Gods patience, and trampled upon it, by their heinous provocations; how they abused his goodness, and turned his grace into wantonness; how they did hasten in the ways of sin towards Hell, and were come even to the end of the line; that some of their ⟨p. 121⟩were Drunkards, and Sabbath-breakers, and profane persons, and swearers, and unclean persons, and persecutors of the people of God, and were arrived even to the height of wickedness, and wanted but a step or two of falling into Hell; and yet that the Lord should meet with them, with a flaming sword in the way of sin, they were driving on so fast and furiously in, and stop them, and turn them, and change them, and bring them home to himself; yea, when they had deafened their ears against many calls, and stifled many convictions, and often quenched the motions of his spirit, and were so unwilling to leave their sins, and to come out of the way of destruction, and were so desperately bent upon their ruin; that yet he should knock, and call again and again, and follow them still by his spirit; that he should lay hold on them as the Angels did on Lot and bring them out of Sodom even by force: and over power the contranitency of their stubborn wills. and break open the door of their hearts, and overturn the strong holds of sin and Satan and set up the throne of his Son within them;