A Word to Sinners and a Word to Saints, Part 1 · Chapter 11
CHAP. XI. Shewing the miserable and dreadfull condition of the Vnregenereate after the day of Iudgement.
HAving shewed you the miserable estate of the unregenerate at the day of Judgement. I shall proceed to shew you, their dreadfull estate after the day of Iudgement: Which in general is most cursed, and therefore saith our Saviour unto them,
Mat. 25.41.Depart from me ye cursed. That cursed estate is manifest,
1. By privation of all felicity.
2. By subjection to all misery. Which misery is set out;
1. By sundry resemblances.
2. By the place where they abide.
3. By the perpetuity thereof.
Of these in their order,
I. The miserable and cursed estate of the unregenerate consists in their privation of all that happiness which believers do enjoy in the presence of God, Psal. 16.11.in whose presence there is fulness of joy, and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Were there no positive sensible misery, this privation of Gods presence were enough, (if they understood it) to make the damneds future estate most accursed, to make Hell to be Hell without any other fire. For as fulness of joy and pleasure is had by the enjoying of Gods presence; so fulness of grief and sorrow doth possess the hearts of all those who are deprived thereof. Couldst thou but for one moment be wrapt up into Heaven, and see a glimpse of that infinite glory which God hath prepared for all that love and fear him, thou wouldst soon acknowledge as much.
Now, I know, thou art little affected with the apprehension of loosing Gods presence, and all the happiness the godly do enjoy in Heaven. But then thine understanding will be more cleared, and thine apprehension more enlarged to conceive so much of the glory of that happiness which thou hast lost, as will exceedingly increase and aggravate thy misery and torment: especially when thou shalt call to mind the fair opportunity which once thou hadst of obtaining that heavenly happiness: and on what easie terms it was tendred to thee, only upon the abandoning thy lusts, and the accepting of Christ for thy Lord and Saviour, and thy submitting to his gracious government, walking in the wayes of holiness and righteousness.
It is said of Enoch, Gen. 5.24.that he walked with God, and it is immediately added, that he was no more seen, for God took him into his presence. If thou in like manner wilt walk before God in the wayes of holiness and righteousness, thou shalt be taken up into Heaven with Enoch, there to enjoy fulness of happiness in the presence of God, with the blessed Saints and Angels to all eternity. It is the judgement of many Divines, both ancient Fathers, and modern Writers, that this privation of happiness is the greatest of Hells misery; that the pain of loss is greater than the pain of sense; I mean the loss of happiness is greater than the positive torments. Sure I am, that the loss of all that this World affords is not comparable to the loss of the least degree of the future bliss. Oh what a foolish and mad bargain art thou now making, who art selling such blessedness for bubbles of vanity!
II. Besides this privation of felicity, there is a subjection to all misery. Besides the pain of loss, there is a pain of sense, which the damned endure: which is in it self intolerable, unutterable, and unconceivable. It were misery enough to be tormented with the gout, collick, stone, tooth-ache, or the like: but should all these, together with the most exquisite tortures that the wit of man could invent, meet together in one man, at one instant, yet would they come infinitely short of these. All pains and torments, all racks and tortures whatsoever, which men are capable of suffering here, are but sparks in comparison of the flames of Gods wrath: and flea-bits to the stings and scorpions beneath, where there is torment without ease, sorrow without solace, darkness without light, horrour without comfort, justice without mercy, wrath without pitty, misery without end. There are no sorrows like to the sorrows of the damned, wherewith the Lord afflicteth them in the day of his fierce wrath; when he will pour out all the Vials of his fury upon them, and will make them at once to pay for all the wrongs they have done to his name, for the contempt of his mercy, their affronts to his justice, for the abuse of his patience and long-suffering, for their mispent time, for their swearing and cursing, for the… whoring and drinking, for their prophaning his Sabbaths, for their hating and persecuting his people.
Oh! What weeping and wailing? what sighing and groaning? what cursing and banning will there then be heard?
The extremity of the torments of hell further appeareth in this, that they are universal. Not only this or that part of thy body shall be tortured and tormented, but every part and member thereof. As all have joyned in sin, so must they all partake of the torment.
Thy wanton eyes which were wont to please themselves in beholding beautiful objects, shall then see nothing but what is dreadful and terrible. If thou look above thee, what canst thou behold but an angry judge, and Saints and Angels, whose bright beauty will make thy deformity more ugly and loathsome? If thou look beneath thee, what canst thou behold but the bottomless pit into which thou art fallen, and still falling lower? If thou look round about thee, what canst thou behold, but Devils and hellish furies, vexing and tormenting thee? Thine ears which took great delight in pleasant songs and melodious sounds, shall then hear nothing but cursing and banning, howling and blaspheming. Thy nostrils which were wont to be filled with sweet perfumes, shall then be filled with the noysome stench of fire and brimstone. Thy throat which was too much delighted with strong drink, even to excess, or was an open Sepulchre to give vent to the filth of thine heart, shall then be parched with unquenchable thirst; so that with Dives thou wouldst give a World, if thou hadst it, for one drop of water to asswage thy thirst, and canst not obtain it.
The pain which men here endure is for the most part particular, some pained in their head, some in their back, and some in their feet. And some of these pains are oft-times so extream, as thou wouldst not willingly undergo them to gain a World. But for a man to be tortured and tormented in every part and member of his body at once, must needs be very grievous, which is the condition of all the damned in Hell.
By this you may a little conceive the extremity of their torments. But if I had the tongue of Men and Angels, I could not express it to the full. For as in Heaven there is such a fulness of joy as the heart of man is not able to conceive, much less the tongue of man able to express. So in Hell there is such a fulness of sorrow and torment, as is both beyond expression or conception.
Oh the folly and madness of the men of this World, who notwithstanding the punishment of sin is so intollerable, yea and they believe it to be so, yet do suffer themselves to be carryed away down into this lake for things of nought: they will dye rather than be wise: they will fry and roar and howle in the other World, rather than not sing and laugh, and be vile and abominable in this World. Ah sinner, should not the bitter sting in sins tayle deter thee more, than the false beauty of its face allure thee?
Certainly didst thou but seriously consider the extremity, and burning heat of that furnace below, it would make thy sin to be too hot for thee above ground. This fire would quench thy lust, and cool thy fleshly affections, and fetch thee off from those wretched wayes in which thou hast so long, and so resolvedly walked.
Oh sinner, wouldst thou never come into this place of torment? descend into it daily: look into the pit often, if thou wouldst not fall into it. If Heaven and all the joy and glory there will not afford arguments enough to draw thee on after thy God; see if Hell and the torments thereof will not yield thee arguments enough to withdraw thee from thy sins. Wouldst thou not be enticed to sin? Let a thought of hell, of death and wrath meet every temptation. In all temptations unto sin, consider the fearfull issue and effect thereof: and though it seem never so delightfull and agreeable to thy natural humour, yet ask, But what comes after? Let the dreadfull consequence thereof, which (without true and unfained repentance) is no less than eternal fire, deterr thee from the same. Ah sinner, sinner, when thou art bathing thy soul by the fire of …ust, consider how for the same thou maist burn in the everlasting flames of Hell. When thou art drenching thy self with the voluptuous draughts of thy carnal pleasure, think what a drench, what a poysonous and bitter cup is prepared for thee below. And this may be a special means to kill that lust which will otherwise kill thy soul. Want of consideration of the fearful issue and effects of sin is questionless the cause of so much sin and wickedness in the World.
III. The misery of the damned is set forth in Scripture by sundry resemblances, as,
Mat. 8.12.1. Darkness, yea outer-darkness. But the children of the Kingdom shall be cast into outer-darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. As light is one of the most comfortable things that man can enjoy;Eccl. 11.7. (it is a pleasant thing to behold the Sun) So darkness, is most horrible and terrible. Darkness was one of the Aegyptians plagues, which were all fearfull effects of Gods wrath. It is counted a great severity of punishment to cast men into dark dungeons. For darkness doth much affright men, especially if they hear hideous and terrible noyses. What then will be the darkness of hell? where shall be nothing but weeping and wailing, howling and gnashing of teeth, with such like effects of fearful terrour. This is called outer-darkness, because it is out of the place of bliss, the place of light, which is no small aggravation thereof.
2. Torment. As Luke 16.23. And in hell the rich man lift up his eyes, being in torment. Now torment is an extremity of pain, whereof man is very sensible, and which is highly grievous unto him. Many torments which men inflict, cause such as are tormented to cry and howle, and wish they were dead, rather than to live in such torment. Oh then what is the torment, which God in his fierce wrath inflicteth on the damned in hell? whom he will make to feel his heavy hand to be the hand of a mighty God. All tortures and torments considered together are not comparable thereunto. Take the pains of all diseases incident to our nature, as stone, gout, collick, cramp, or what other can be named. Add hereunto all the most exquisite tortures that cruel men have inflicted upon others, as rack, strapado, boyling in lead, pulling the flesh from the bones with hot pinsers, and such like. Add also hereunto all the anguish, horrour, and terrour, that ever any man felt in his soul, mind and conscience: let all these be joyned together, they are but a flea-bite in comparison of hell-torments. The reason is evident, because all the fore-mentioned torments here endured, may stand with Gods love, and are off inflicted on his dear children. But that torment is a fruit of his wrath, wherein he sets himself to make the sinner feel the weight of his indignation.
O foolish sinner, thy pleasures are tormenting pleasures: thy gains, and thine ease, that now thou blessest thy self in, they are tormenting gains, a tormenting ease. Now thou drinkest the sweet, but beware, whatever they are in thy mouth, they are torment in the belly. Buy not an hours ease, or pleasure, at the price of an eternity of torment.
3. Another resemblance whereby the misery of the damned is set forth, is Fire, as Matth. 18.9. This of all other metaphors is most frequently used; and of all others it is the fittest. For fire is the fiercest kind of torment that is, and the most intolerable. Great question is made about the kind of it, Whether the fire of hell be material and corporeall fire, or no. Surely it is such a fire as shall torment both body and soul, and that much more intolerably than any fire here below. Brimstone mingled with fire, makes it burn more fiercely:Rev. 19 20. therefore brimstone is oft added to hell-fire, to aggravate the torment thereof. Yea it is said to be a lake of fire and brimstone, Rev. 20.10.which implyeth a great quantity thereof, to make it the hotter.Isa. 30.33. The Prophet Isaiah saith, That the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it. The breath of the Lord must needs make the fire that is kindled with it, burn more fiercely than all the bellows, or all the wind in the World can make any fire here below to burn.
Fire here below useth to burn most fiercely in a furnace, where it is kept in. Therefore hell is said to be a furnace, Mat. 13.42. 2 Thes. 1.8.and that of flaming fire. The Furnace into which the three Children were cast, was exceeding fierce, being made seven times hotter than it was wont to be. But how fierce and dreadfull will this Furnace be, whose fire is unspeakably hotter, than that was at the hottest?Jer. 33.14. Oh who is able to dwell in this devouring fire? who amongst us shall dwell in those everlasting burnings? There was a fearful crying and shrieking when the Lord sent a deluge of water to drown the old World. How did the poor creatures run up and down for shelter in that deluge? Oh but what bitter crying and shrieking will there be in hell?Dan. 7.10. When a fiery stream shall go out from the throne of God, and poor damned creatures shall run hither, and thither, and not get a drop of Water to cool their scorched tongues.
Ah sinner, sinner, how canst thou but quake and tremble at the thought of this fire? at which the very Devils do quake and tremble. Suppose thou wert condemned to be cast (as many of the Martyrs were) into a boyling Caldron, or flaming fire? oh how dreadful and terrible would the apprehension thereof be unto thee? and how wouldst thou cry and roar through the extremity of the torment? But alas, what is a boyling Caldron to that boyling Sea of fire and brimstone? And what is a flaming fire of Wood and Coal here, to the fire of hell kept in highest flame by the breath of Gods wrath: Surely this as far surpasseth that in heat, as our Chimney fire doth exceed the fire painted on the Wall.
This me-thinks should sowre the pleasure of all thy sinful lusts, and provoke thee forthwith to set upon that stricter course of life, that more serious circumspect conscientious walking, whereby thou maist escape these heavy things.
Ah sinner, look about thee while it is called to day, run over to Christ, lay hold on his righteousness, stoop to his Scepter, beg of God, that whatsoever he deny thee, he would not deny his Son to thee, by whom alone thou canst be freed from this tormenting fire. Otherwise woe and alas that ever thou wert born.
But oh how wonderfully prodigal are we generally of our souls! when that for the vile things here below we are so ready to prostitute them to the lust of Satan, and to expose them to the torments of hell-fire. Whereas alas, What is it to gain the World, and to lose our Souls? What, to spend our dayes in mirth and jollity, and in a moment to be cast into hell? It is easie for a secure unbelieving soul to read and hear of this fire. But woe and ten thousand woes to all such who shall feel and endure, and prove by their experience how hot it is.
4. Another resemblance whereby the misery of the damned is set forth,Isa. 66.24. is a Worm; Their Worm shall not dye, neither shall their fire be quenched. Which very words Christ applyeth to the damned in hell; Mark 9.44, 46, 48. This metaphor of the Worm, setteth out the sting of conscience, and anguish of soul,Mark 9.44, 46, 48. and sheweth that hell pains go through a man without and within.
In the forementioned place, there be two especial things in the torments of hell, which are thrice repeated together, namely the Worm, and the fire; the Worm that dyeth not, and the fire that is not quenched. And it is observable, that in all the three verses, the Worm is set in the first place, as it were to teach us, that the principal torment in hell is the Worm, rather than the fire. And what is the Worm? but the sting, or the torment of an evil conscience, which shall lye eternally gnawing and griping the hearts of the damned in hell.
As of the putrefaction of the body, there breedeth a worm which eates and consumes the body: so from the corruption of the soul tainted with sin, there ariseth the Worm of Conscience, which gnaweth and vexeth the soul with continual anguish. Men talk much of hell-fire, and it were well they would talk more of it. But yet there is another torment that would be thought on too, and that is this Worm of an evil conscience, which whilest the fire burneth, this will bite, and sting the soul with torment intolerable.
This Worm of Conscience consisteth especially in two things.
1. In bringing to remembrance thy former sinfull lusts and pleasures, of which nothing remaineth but thy present shame and pain. Then shall thy conscience gnaw thee by bringing to thy remembrance thy former oaths and cursings, thy mispent time, thy cozenings and defraudings, yea all thy secret impurities, as well as thine open iniquities: as also thy sinful omissions of good duties, how seldom thou prayedst with thy family, or in thy closet: how little care thou hadst of thy precious soul, slighting the opportunities and means of grace. Ah sinner, the remembrance of these things will exceedingly pierce thy soul, and afflict thine heart with bitter grief and sorrow.
Soul how camest thou in hither? ah! this was mine own doing, t'was my negligence, and carelesness, and wilfulness and wickedness. A little care, a little wisdom, a little labour and pains might have prevented all this. If I would have hearkened to God, hearkened to conscience in time, none of all this misery had ever come upon me. Oh wretch that I was, oh foolish, sottish wilful wretch, how have I undone my self? what ever I now feel, and roar under, I have none to blame but my self, t'was mine own doing that I am fallen headlong into this place of torment.
2. In despairing of freedom and deliverance from thy present misery. This is one special thing which will very much add to thy present torment, that thy condition, though most sad and dreadfull, yet is hopeless. Didst thou conceive any hope of deliverance after thousands and millions of years, hell would not be hell unto thee. But this is that which will lye like a mountain of lead upon thee, that there is no hope of deliverance: In the consideration whereof consisteth the gnawings of the Worm of Conscience. These are the resemblances whereby the misery of the damned is set forth.
IV. The misery of the damned is further fet forth in Scripture by the place where they abide, which is …ell. For that is the most usual word attributed to the place of the damned.
Isa. 30.33. 2 King. 23.10. foreign, non videns. Neh. 11.30. foreign. Mat. 5.29, 30. Rev. 9.11. Rev. 20.10.In the old Testament that word which properly signifieth the grave, is oft translated hell, and by way of resemblance Tophet is taken for hell, because in the place called Tophet, great fires were made, wherein they Sacrificed their Children. In the New Testament there are two words ordinarily used to express hell. One implyeth a place of darkness. The other translated from the name of the place where the forementioned Tophet was, called Gehinnom, the valley of Hinnom, whence hell is called Gehenna.
The place of the damned is also called a bottomless pitt, by reason of the unsearchable depth of it, and a lake.
These and other like names of terrour are attributed to the place where the damned are tormented: but where that place is, in Scripture is not expresly revealed, and therefore cannot be defined, only we may know that it is out of Heaven, even below it. It is the most fearful place that ever was, or can be: and it is a great point of wisdom in this World so to carry our selves, as we may never come by our experience to prove where, and what it is.
V. The misery of the damned is likewise set forth in Scripture by the perpetuity, and eternity of their torment. Their Worm dyeth not, and their fire is not quenched, Mark 9.44.but continueth to burn without end. And therefore is called unquenchable fire, Mark 3.12. Mat. 18.8.and everlasting fire. As the Salamander is said to live in the fire: So shall the wicked live for ever in the fire of hell. Though they seek for death, yet they shall not find it: though they be alwayes burning, yet they shall not be consumed: though they be alwayes gnawed upon by the Worm of Conscience, yet they shall never be devoured. Which makes the misery of the damned in hell most exquisitely miserable.
Men in misery comfort themselves with hope of an end. The Prisoner with hope of Goal-delivery: the Apprentice with hope of a freedom and liberty: the Gally-slave with hope of a ransome: only the poor wretches in hell have no hope of freedom and liberty at all: they are as far from an end of their torments, as at their first beginning and entrance thereinto.
If there might be any end of their torments, though it should be after so many millions of years, as there are Sands on the Sea-shore, or Stars in the Firmament, it would be some comfort to those who endure them. But Eternity is the very hell of hells, and that which most of all breaks the very hearts of the damned. The present sense of pain being not so grievous to the damned, as it is to think that after thousands, yea thousand thousands of years, they shall be as far either from end or from ease, as they were the first hour of their falling into it. Surely if to a man tormented with the gout, stone, or collick, one night seemeth exceeding long; Oh how long do you think eternity (that night which shall never know morning) will seem to those who shall lye tormented and roaring in a bed of flame, with wicked fiends, and Devils about them, daily and hourly adding to their torment? If one short nights pain be so tedious and grievous, what will that eternal night be?
Ah sinner, thou art not now able to endure the sudden scorch of a fire, nor to hold one of thy fingers over the flame of a Candle for a quarter of an hour. How wilt thou then endure to lye in a fiery flaming Furnace, not only an hour, or a day, but years, yea millions of years? Some have thus represented the eternity of hell-torments. Suppose, say they, that all the vast space, which is between Heaven and Earth, were filled with Sands: and God should command an Angel once in every thousand years to fetch away one small grain; what an innumerable number of years would be spent before all those sands would be fetcht away? yet shalt thou abide thus long in hellfire: and when they are expired, continue as long again and again, and a thousand times told, for Eternity knows no beginning, no middle, no end: but after a thousand thousand millions of years, there are still as many more to come: and when these many more are come, and gone, thy torments are as far from the last, as they were at the first.
What heart can think of these things without horrour and amazement? Suppose that for some hightreason against the Kings-person, thou wert condemned to be cast into a fiery flaming Furnace, or Caldron of boyling lead, and there to continue a thousand years, how sad would thy condition be? yet this were a mercy to hell-torments. For after thou hast layn ten thousand, thousand years in a Furnace of fire, kept up in the highest flame by the breath of Gods wrath, there is full as much behind, as there was on thy first-day.
Thou sinnedst in thine eternity, and therefore must suffer in Gods eternity. Thou sinnedst against an infinite God, despising his infinite grace and mercy, and the infinite merits of Christ, and wouldst have drawn out thy sin to the length of eternity; and therefore must suffer an infinite, eternal punishment. Thou never heartily repentedst of thy sins, and therefore God will never repent him of thy sufferings. This is the day of Gods-long-suffering, and that will be the day of thy long-suffering, when thou shalt suffer long for thine abusing the long-suffering of God.
Ah sinner sinner, what stupidity hath seised on thee that thou shoulst be lyable to eternal torments in hell, and yet live as carelesly and prophanely, as if it did no way at all concern thee? Know for certain, that though thou dost not as yet feel these torments, yet thou art every moment subject, and hasting thereunto. A cloud of fire and brimstone hangeth over thine head, and the Lord knoweth, how suddenly it may fall upon thee. It is certainly decreed in Heaven, that if thou turn not here from thy sins unto God, by true and unfaigned repentance, and turn over a new leaf, leading a new course of life, thou shalt lye in a lake of brimstone to all eternity; and thou knowest not how soon God may seal the warrant for thine execution.
Oh sinner, that I could prevail with thee once a day to steep thy thoughts in a serious meditation of the Eternity of hell-torments. Certainly it would abate the heat of thy lusts, and take off the edge of thy love to thy most pleasing vanities, and stop thee in the eager pursuit of thy carnal pleasures. For wouldst thou be content to run the hazard of such torments for thy present ease? of such plagues for thy present pleasures? of such thick darkness for the light of thine own sparks? of such an Eternity for a few jocund hours? Oh when wilt thou awake from this folly?
Thou who now givest thy self up to the gratifying of thy sinfull lusts, to the satisfying of thy brurish pleasures, who art sowing daily to the flesh, sowing oaths, and curses, and lyes, and adulteries, &c. without considering what a bitter harvest thou shalt have after such a black seed-time: should I but ask thee, how much pleasure thou wouldst take to lye but one day in such a burning Furnace, as Nebuchadnezzars was, after it was heated seven times more for the three Children? I dare boldly say, thou wouldst not lye therein one quarter of an hour for all the pleasures and riches in the World. How is it then, that for a little pleasure, which endureth but for a moment, thou dost so little regard the lying in the Furnace of hell-fire to all eternity?
In the fear of God therefore often think as of the extremity, so of the eternity of hell-torments. Me-thinks the very thought thereof should forthwith call off the drunkard from following the Ale-house with his vain companions: and the swearer from taking the name of God so often in vain: and the voluptuous person from his sensual delights, and wanton dalliances: and the worldling from his immoderate seeking after earthly riches and treasures; and cause every of them out of hand to set upon another and a wiser course, to mind the good of their immortal souls, and bethink themselves in earnest how they might escape the wrath to come; to cast away sin, to cry after mercy, to run over to Jesus Christ, with their tongues, with their eyes, with their hearts full of prayers, Lord save me or I perish: Lord teach me what I must do to be saved. Lord pardon me, Lord turn me, Lord sanctifie me. Lord help me that I come not into this place of torment. But when will the folly of fools depart from them? Oh the stupendious brutishness of this mad and sensual World! though they know these things, and have been forewarned of them, yet they have not the heart to fly from the wrath to come.
Thus much for the clearing and setting forth of the first truth to be embraced towards the working of regeneration in mens souls, namely, That every man in his state of unregeneracy is in a miserable and dreadful condition. Wherein I have the longer insisted, that thereby I might startle and awaken unregenerate men out of their carnal security, unto a lively sense and apprehension of the dreadful danger they are in, so long as they live and lye in their unregenerate estate: and so countermine the great design of the Devil against their souls, which is to keep them blindfold and ignorant of their wretched miserable state, by perswading them that their condition is as good and safe as the best. For certainly were they but sensible of their present condition, how they were lost and undone for ever, if they should dye in their natural and unregenerate estate, the Devil with all his skill and cuning would be hard put to it to perswade them to live another day therein, left they should suddenly be snatcht away to hell: would they then turn such a deaf ear to the Voice of the Gospel? would they then make such excuses, and make such delayes when Christ calls them to repentance? I cannot be at the pains, I cannot bear the labour, and the sorrow of a penitent life. I cannot part with mine ease, my pleasures, my friends and companions, at least, not yet awhile. Oh the sense of an hell would silence all such excuses, and shake off all such delayes. To day, to day, O my soul, hearken to thy Lord, left it be too late by to morrow.
Now stand sinner, stand and pause awhile on what hath been hitherto spoken. Look back and consider, Is this thy state? Is this thy portion which hath hitherto been described? Art thou a sinner, a willfull and impenitent sinner, and doth not all this belong to thee? search the Scriptures, believe the Scriptures, and then say if this be not the place of them that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of Christ. But what saift thou, is it good for thee to be here? Is this a state to acquiesce in? to be at ease and secure, to be so merry and jolly in? Is this the state thou art so loth to be delivered from? Dost thou hang over the burning furnace by the small thread of thy life, which as soon as it is snapt off, thou tumblest headlong into this bottomless gulf, and dost thou scoff and scorn at the poor Ministers and Ambassadours of Christ that come to thee only to snatch thy soul out of this amazing danger?
But hearken sinner, wilt thou escape? wilt thou the redeemed? wilt thou be delivered from all this? would he be a messenger of good tydings, wouldst thou bid him welcome that should bring thee news of redemption from all this? why, is there any hope of that? hope of deliverance, hope of salvation? what for such a sinner, what from so great destruction? what is there any hope for such a great sinner? such an hardened sinner, such an old sinner, that hath even one foot already in hell? why, wilt thou hearken? consider, consider, what shall further be spoken, and thou shalt see that there is yet hope for thee, even for thee, concerning this thing. As great as thy sins are, as great as thy danger is, if thou wilt yet hearken, there is hope that thou maist be saved.