The Christian Life Volume 5, Discourse 1 (3 of 3)
What then remains, that since our forsaking of Christ will so infallibly infer the Ruin of our Souls, we all return to, and cleave fast to our Saviour in our Belief and Obedience: That we, who are fallen off from him into a Course of wilful Sin and Disobedience, immediately return again by a deep and serious Repentance. For the Way in which we are walking leads directly to Destruction; every Step of it is a Descent into Hell, and next to the lowermost is the bottomless Pit, and for all we know, the very last Step we took brought us to the Brinks of the flaming Abyss; and if it did, one Step further will set us beyond all Hope of Recovery. For in our sinful Progress we are wading forwards in a shelving Pool, which the farther we go, the deeper it is, and so deeper and deeper till we come to the Bottom of it; so that at every Step we are in Danger of going beyond our Depth, and plunging our selves into an irrecoverable Ruin; for we know not how soon we may be snatched away in our Iniquities; and if it should so happen, that after we have sinned this Moment, we should die the next, this will determin our everlasting Fate, and sink us into eternal Misery.
Wherefore as we tender the safety of our precious Souls, let us speedily forsake this dangerous Road in which Perdition way-lays, and Hell gapes to devour us every step we go; and return unto our Lord in whom our safety lyes. As yet the Opportunity of Salvation is in our Hands, but before to morrow Morning it may slip away from between our Fingers, and vanish for ever, and we that are this day wallowing in our Sins, may before the next be roaring in Hell. So that while we defer and put off our Repentance from day to day, we do as it were cast Lots for our Souls, and venture our everlasting Hopes upon a Contingency, that is not in our Power to dispose of. As yet the Gate of Mercy is open to us, and our blessed Lord stands ready with his Arms out-stretched to welcome and receive us; but for all we know if we enter not presently, the Gate may be shut within a few Moments, and then though we knock and cry till our hearts ake, Lord, Lord open to us, we shall receive no other Answer, but Depart from me I know you not. O good God, how are we besotted then, that rather than begin our Repentance to day we will wilfully run the Hazard of being eternally miserable before to morrow Morning! For if this should be the Evening of our day of Tryal, as for all we know it may, our Life and Eternity depends upon what we are now doing; and therefore one would think it should highly concern us wisely to manage this last stake, the winning or losing whereof may prove our making or undoing. In pity therefore to our perishing Souls let us return to our Saviour, before it be too late, before our Feet stumble on the dark Mountains, and we fall down into everlasting Darkness. And being returned and reunited to him, let us have a Care we do not revolt again; for if we draw back we cancel our Repentance, and forfeit all its blessed Fruits and Benefits; and unless we stedfastly persevere and hold out to the end, all the Pains we have taken in our Christian Course will be for ever lost, and the Remembrance of it will only administer to our future Misery. For how will it vex us in the other World to consider the Labour it cost us to take Heaven by storm? How vigorously we strove to mount the Scaling Ladder, through how many Difficulties we had forced our way to that height of Vertue and Religion we were arrived to, and then when we are got as it were to the topmost Rounds, and had laid our Hands upon the Battlements of Heaven, just ready to leap in and take possession of all its Joys; how basely we let go our Hold, and so tumbled down from that stupendious height into the bottomless Abyss of endless Misery? Doubtless this Consideration must necessarily sting our woful Souls hereafter, and for ever inrage them against themselves. Wherefore as we value the Safety of our precious Souls, let us, who by our wilful Rebellions have gone astray, return, and constantly adhere to our blessed Saviour. Alas, where can we be happier than in his Service, who imposeth nothing on us but what contributes to our Welfare? Where can we be safer than in his Arms, and under his Protection, who hath the Command and Disposal of all Events, and to whom all Power is given in Heaven and Earth? Where can we be placed more to our own Advantage than under his Guidance and Authority, who never permits any to serve him for nought, but hath engaged himself to recompence our Labour with a Crown of Glory that fades not away? And is it not strange that after so many advantagious Invitations, we should need to be scared to our Duty? that after our blessed Master hath enjoyned us such a reasonable, gentle, and infinitely beneficial Service, he should be forced to terrify us into it with the Flames of Hell?
IV. I proceed now to the Fourth Proposition, That when the Soul is lost, 'tis lost irrecoverably; where the Greek word foreign, which we render Exchange, is used in the same sense with foreign, which signifies a Price of Redemption, denoting that when once a Man hath sold his Soul to Perdition, it is unredeemable, and that no Price will be accepted for its Ransom and Deliverance; when a Man's Soul is in Hell under the wretched Bondage of a damned Spirit, how little soever he regards it now, he would give all the World, if it were in his power, to be released again; but if he had a thousand Worlds it will not do, his Bondage being such as will admit no Ransom. For these Words of our Saviour seem to have been a common Proverb of the Age he lived in, and that derived from those words of the Devil in Iob, All that a Man hath, will he give for his Life; that is, when a Man is dying, he would willingly part with all to redeem his Life, but all will not do. Which Proverb our Saviour adapts to his own Argument, in which he proceeds from temporal to eternal Life: If a Man would give so much for his temporal Life, what would he not give for his eternal one? But as our temporal Life is not to be redeemed, so neither is our eternal one when once it is lost; for when once our Soul is lost or abandoned to the State of the Damned, it is lost for ever, and there is no foreign, or Ransom that will be accepted of by God for its Redemption thence. In the Prosecution of which Argument I shall endeavour these two things:
1. To shew you that if God be so determined he may, without any Injury either to his Iustice or Goodness, detain lost Souls in the Bondage of Hell for ever, and absolutely refuse to accept any Ransom for them.
2. That he is actually determined so to do.
1. That if God be so determined, he may without any Injury either to his Justice or Goodness, detain lost Souls in the Bondage of Hell for ever, without accepting any Ransom for them. And this I doubt not will plainly appear upon the due Consideration of these following Propositions.
1st. That God being the Sovereign Being of the World, hath an unalienable Right to impose Laws upon all other Beings.
2dly. That having this Right, he may justly inforce those Laws with whatsoever Penalties he sees necessary or convenient.
3dly. That when those Laws he imposes are for the good of his Subjects, it is not only Iustice but Goodness in him to inforce them with the severest Penalty.
4thly. That the Penalty of eternal Bondage under Misery, is the severest and most effectual Way to inforce those beneficial Laws, and oblige us to the Observance of them.
5thly. That if God think good to inforce his Laws with this Penalty, he hath as much Right to exact it when we disobey, as he had to threaten and impose it.
6thly. That his actual exacting of it can no more impeach his Goodness, than his threatning and denouncing it.
1. That God being the Sovereign Being of the World, hath an unalienable Right to impose Laws upon all other Beings. For he being the greatest and most powerful Being, can himself be subject to no other Law but only that of his own Nature; and his Power being infinite and unconfined as well as his Wisdom, Iustice, and Goodness, doth sufficiently warrant him to do whatsoever is consistent with them. For to be sure a Being of infinite Power and Greatness, can have no Superior, but must be necessarily exalted above all other Authorities by this incommunicable Prerogative of his Nature; and being raised above all Authorities, he must have Authority above all, and his essential Dominion having no other Law to bound it, but only that of his own Nature, he must necessarily have a Right to command whatsoever is consistent with his Wisdom, Iustice, and Goodness. His Will therefore being by the infinite Pre-eminence of his Power and Greatness supreme, all other Wills are obliged to bow before, and prostrate themselves to its Sovereign Authority; and there is no Law whatsoever but he may justly impose upon them, provided it be not repugnant to that supreme Law that is founded in his own Nature. This therefore being premised, that God hath a Right as he is the Sovereign Being to give Laws to all other Beings; it hence follows,
2dly. That he may justly inforce those Laws with whatsoever Penalties he sees necessary or convenient. For Laws without Penalties are rather Petitions than Commands; and unless they carry force enough with them to over-aw the Subject, and make themselves obeyed, they want the formal Sanction and Obligation of a Law. To have a Power therefore of imposing Penalties must necessarily be inseparable from the Power of making Laws, because they are the Penalties that make the Laws to oblige, that give them Power to command, and inforce them with an awful Authority. And as the Power of giving Laws supposes the Power of imposing Penalties, so it supposes a Power of imposing such Penalties as may be sufficient to incline and aw the Subject into Obedience, against all Reasons to the contrary. For unless the Penalty be great enough to outweigh all other Considerations, the Law which it inforces will be extreamly defective in Point of Obligation, and leave the Subject as much reason to disobey as to obey. God therefore being by his own natural Right the Supreme Lawgiver of the World, must be supposed to have an equal Right of inforcing his Laws with such Penalties as in his own infinite Wisdom he shall think necessary to oblige his Creatures to obey him; and there is no Penalty can be too rigorous or severe which is necessary to inable his Laws to oblige and command us. Wherefore according as he sees his Subjects more or less tempted, or inclined to disobey him, so he will need greater or less Penalties to oblige us to Obedience; and therefore foreseeing what a strong Propensity to Evil there would be in our Nature, and with what importunate Temptations this would be excited and wrought upon, he could not butx foresee that the severest Penalties would be necessary to back and inforce his Laws, and being necessary for that end, he must needs have a Right to impose them, how severe soever they might be; nor is this Severity less good, than it is just; considering,
3dly. That when those Laws he imposes are for the good of his Subjects, it is not only an Act of Justice in him to impose them with the severest Penalties, but of Goodness. And this is really the Case as to those Laws which God hath imposed upon us; for the Matter of them all is something tending to our good, something or other that is perfective of our Natures, and conducive to our Happiness; and being so, the greater the Penalty is which they are backt and inforced with, the greater Demonstration it is of God's Care and Zeal for our Happiness. For the End of Penalty is to oblige us to Obedience; and when all Obedience is for our good, the more strictly he obliges us to it, the more he befriends us. When a distracted Man is endeavouring to mischief and destroy himself, it is Kindness to bind him though it be with Chains of Iron. When therefore God found us so prone to injure our selves by wicked and mischievous Actions, it was Mercy to bind our Hands with his Threatnings of Punishment; and the stronger his Bands are, the more they express his Kindness; because the more they oblige us to be kind to our selves, and true to our own Interest. And certainly for God to lay us under the strongest Obligations to be happy, is so far from being a Blemish to his Goodness, that it is a most glorious Expression of it; but if we will be so obstinate as to run into the mouth of those Threatnings which he hath levelled against us to scare us into Happiness, it is just with him to discharge them upon us, and make us feel the Effects of our Folly and Madness. Since therefore the Reason of the Penalty wherewith God hath inforced his Laws is to oblige us to be happy; and since the greater it is, the more force it must have to oblige us, it hence necessarily follows, that though it be not only a great, but an eternal one; yet it is not at all inconsistent with his Goodness; especially if we consider,
4thly. That the Penalty of eternal Misery, as it is the severest, so it is the most effectual to inforce those beneficial Laws which God hath imposed on us, and to oblige us to the Observance of them. For to deter us from Sin, who are so vehemently prone to it, it was very requisite that the Penalty denounced against it should not only be great as to the Degree, but endless also as to the Duration of it; that so it might cut us off from all pretence of Presumption, and leave us no ground of Incouragement to be wicked. For we are exceeding apt to slight and undervalue those Evils which are proposed to deter us from the Goods which we vehemently desire, especially when these Goods are present and sensible, and those Evils future and invisible. For thus we conclude, the Good that is before us we may injoy a great while; and, which is very considerable, we may presently enter upon the Possession of it; but as for the Evil that is consequent to it, it may be a long while before it befalls us; and when it doth, there is this Comfort, that it will at last have an end; and therefore let what will follow, let us ever seize the present Good, and make the best use we can of it; and as for the future Evil, whenever it happens, the Prospect of its End, though it be never so remote, will enable us to bear it more chearfully. For ten Years present Pleasure vehemently desired, will far more effectually persuade us, than a future Misery of double the Duration; and therefore if the future Penalty denounced against our Sin were finite and temporary, it would not be sufficient to ballance those present Pleasures with which we are continually importuned and sollicited; for the Penalty being proposed to deter us from Pleasures which we dearly love, we are upon on that account inclined to make as light of it as may be, and to flatter our selves with the softest and easiest Representations of it; so that to be sure if there were any one comfortable Circumstance in it, our Thoughts would presently insist upon that, and urge it as a Reason why we should not be afraid of it. So that if the Penalty of our Sin had in it but the Circumstance of being finite, to be sure when ever it controuled our vicious Desires, we should still make this a Pretence to despise it; Well, let it be never so terrible, it will have an end. Wherefore to inable it to terrify us effectually, it was requisite that it should not only be great, but endless; that it being stripped of all tolerable Circumstances, we might be able to find nothing in it to qualify the Terror of it. But now it being not only great but eternal, the Threat of it, which, like a Cloud, hangs lowering over us, hath no bright side to divert our Thoughts from the Blackness and Horror of it; so that when-ever we think of it, and weigh it in the Ballance with our Sins, we must resolve to forsake them, or chuse to be desperate. Since therefore an eternal Penalty was so necessary to inforce God's Law; and since his Law is for our good, it is plain that his so inforcing it can blemish neither his Justice nor Goodness. Wherefore though we should smart for ever for our Disobedience hereafter, we can have no just Reason to complain of God; especially considering,
5thly. That if God shall think good to inforce his Law with such an eternal Penalty, he must be supposed to have as much Right to exact it upon our Disobedience, as he had to threaten and impose it. For as Supremacy over all other Beings gives a Right to make Laws, and inforce them with Threatnings of Punishment; so when he hath actually imposed Laws upon us, our Disobedience to them gives a Right to inflict on us the Punishments which he threatned when he imposed them. For in all legal Punishments the Right of Threatning them is founded on the Power of the Sovereign; but the Right of executing them in the Disobedience of the Subject; and if the Penalty be such, as that upon the Subjects Disobedience the Sovereign cannot justly execute it, it was unjust for him to threaten it; for to threaten legally, is to claim a Right to punish upon Condition the Law be broken and violated; and that Sovereign who upon Condition of the Subjects Disobedience, claims a Right to more Punishment than he can justly exact of him when he disobeys, pretends to more Right than he really hath, and so by consequence his Claim is unrighteous. If therefore by the Threat of his Law God may justly claim a Right to punish us for ever if we disobey, then doubtless when we have actually disobeyed, he may as justly exact it, and doth no more exceed his Right when he inflicts what he threatned, than he did when he threatned to inflict it. If he had Right to say, I will punish you for ever upon Condition you transgress my Laws, then upon our performing that Condition he must necessarily have Right to do as he said. So that our transgressing his Law being a sufficient Condition for him to found a rightful Claim to punish us eternally, by our doing this Condition we justly forfeit our selves to eternal Punishment, and by our own Act and Deed voluntarily resign up our precious Souls to the just lash of an everlasting Vengeance; which as the Iustice of God is no way obliged to suspend, so neither is his Goodness, which now is our only Reserve; considering,
6thly. And lastly, That God's exacting this eternal Penalty of us can no more impeach his Goodness than his threatning and denouncing it. That it is highly consistent with his Goodness to threaten it, I have already proved; but if it were not also consistent therewith to inflict it, to be sure his own Wisdom would never admit him to threaten it. For to what end should he threaten to act contrary to the Goodness of his Nature? Either he must design to make us believe that he intends to act, or not; if the first, he must thereby design to abuse, and misrepresent himself in the Opinion of his Creatures, to blemish the Reputation, and expose the Honour of his own infinite Goodness. But if he did not design to make us believe it, to what end should he threaten it, since unless we believe it, it can no more affect us than the firing of a Gun that is charged with nothing but Powder, and was designed to make a noise only, but to do no Execution? So that if it be repugnant to God's Goodness to execute this Penalty, it must be repugnant to his Wisdom to denounce it; but it being not only consistent with, but an Expression of his Goodness to denounce it, when he designs thereby to oblige us more firmly to our Duty, in which our everlasting Happiness is included, it may be no less an Expression of the same Goodness to execute it upon us, when we by our obstinate Persistence in Sin have render'd our selves incapable of Mercy. For now there being no more good to to be done upon us, it will be an Act of Goodness in God to punish us for ever, if thereby any good may be done to others by us; if by making us everlasting Monuments of his just Indignation, he can everlastingly warn and secure others from those desperate Courses that ruined us. For in this Case his punishing us for ever, may be an effectual means to do that good to others which he intended to do to us by threatning to punish us for ever, and they may take warning by our Punishment, though we would take none by his Threatning. And when by being obstinately deaf to the Threat of eternal Perdition, which God denounced on purpose to oblige us to be happy, we have not only forfeited our selves to it, but have also sinned our selves into an Incapacity of having any good done upon us; the only Use which the Divine Goodness can make of us for the future, is to do good to others by us; which it can no otherwise do, but by making our everlasting Suffering an everlasting Example for them to take warning by. For though there is no doubt but every vertuous Soul shall be hereafter so confirmed in its state of Beatitude, as that it shall never fall from it, yet shall it be confirmed no otherwise than by the force of those Reasons and invincible Motives which shall then continually urge, and immovably determine it unto that which is good: One of which Reasons, as we may reasonably suppose, will be their Prospect of the endless Miseries of the Damned, which will be an everlasting Monitor to them, and together with their own sense of the ravishing Pleasures of Goodness, will secure them for ever from falling. For if the Angels of Heaven took warning by the Fall and Ruin of their Apostate Brethren, as doubtless they did, and thereupon became more immovably confirmed in Innocence and Goodness; why may we not as well suppose, that one of those Reasons by which the Spirits of just Men are so immovably confirmed in their Heavenly State, is the sad Example of the endless Miseries of the Wicked? If therefore when God hath denounced eternal Misery against us on purpose to threaten us into Happiness, we will take no warning, it is an Act of Goodness in him to inflict it upon us, since thereby he may so effectually contribute to the confirming of others in eternal Happiness. For if we will not be wrought on by such a dreadful Denunciation, there is no good can be done upon us; and when we are past Recovery, and are forfeited by our own Obstinacy into the hands of God's Vengeance, it will be an Act of Goodness in him so to dispose of us as may be most for the good of others, and consequently to dispose of us to eternal Misery, and by so doing to make use of us as Arguments to confirm and establish others in eternal Happiness; that so our Sufferings may be to them what his Threatnings were to us, Arguments to oblige us to be happy for ever. And so I have done with the First Thing propos'd, which was to shew you that if God be so determined, he may, without any Injury either to his Iustice or Goodness, retain lost Souls in the Bondage of Hell for ever, and absolutely refuse to accept any Ransom for them.
I now proceed to the Second Head of Discourse, namely, to prove that God is actually determined so to do. And this I shall endeavour to demonstrate by these three Reasons.
1. Because he hath already exacted a Ransom for the Souls of Men, to which no other can be equivalent; from whence we may reasonably infer, that if this be rejected he will accept no other.
2. Because he hath expresly declared himself to be thus determined.
3. Because having thus declared himself, we must suppose that either he intended this Declaration only for a Scare-crow, or that he is determined to act accordingly.
1st. That God is determined to conclude lost Souls under endless Misery, and admit no Ransom for them, appears from hence; because he hath already exacted a Ransom for them, to which no other can be equivalent; from whence we may reasonably infer, that if this be rejected, he will accept no other. When by our first Apostacy from God, we stained the Innocence of our Natures, and forfeited our Lives to the just Vengeance of Heaven; so terribly was it then incensed against us, that it would accept no meaner Ransom for us than the precious Blood of the Son of God; for so St. Peter tells us, That we were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish, and without spot, 1 Pet. 1. 18, 19. And though this Ransom was of such a vast and incomparable Value, that all the Treasures in Heaven and Earth are insignificant Trifles to it; yet was the Virtue of it to extend no further than to those, who, by a lively Faith, and unfeigned Repentance, returned from their Rebellion to their Duty and Allegiance; which if we do not, but instead thereof obstinately persist in our Wickedness and Folly, we renounce all our Part and Interest in the Blood of our Saviour; and do in effect declare, that upon such Terms as those we will not be beholding to him for our Ransom; but that rather than accept of Redemption upon such ungrateful Conditions, we will trust to the Courtesy of the Vengeance of God, and abide the most fatal Effects of it. When therefore by persisting to the End in our Unbelief and Impenitence, we have finally rejected the Blood of Christ, and utterly extinguish'd all our Right and Title to it; what Pretence of Reason have we to hope, that God will ever accept of any other Ransom for us? When to the Sins, by which we made the first Forfeiture of our Souls, we have added the rank and horrid Impiety of trampling on the Blood of the Son of God, and so are not only not redeemed by it from the Vengeance to come, but are a thousand times more deeply inthralled to it by reason of that additional Guilt we have contracted by squandring away the Price of our Redemption: With what Face can we expect, in the midst of such black Circumstances, that God should accept of any Exchange for our Souls? He that would not release us from the Obligation of our first Guilts upon any less Consideration than the Blood of his Son, what likelihood is there that any Consideration should move him to release us after we have so prodigiously augmented our Guilt by rejecting his Blood, and finally renouncing all our Interest in it? Doubtless he that demanded so vast a Ransom for us when our Guilt was so comparatively small and inconsiderable, will account no Ransom sufficient when we have so transcendently inhanced and multiplied it. For if the Blood of Christ, which is of such an unspeakable value can give us no Relief without our willing Acceptance of it upon the Terms it is proposed to us, then when we have finally refused it on those Terms, it must be something that is more valuable than his Blood that must relieve us; something that is sufficient not only to redeem us from those Guilts which his Blood was a Ransom for, but also to expiate the Guilt of our trampling on his Blood, which is the greatest and blackest of all. But since the Blood of Christ is incomparably the most precious Ransom that Heaven and Earth could afford, what hope is there that when this is rejected by us, God should accept any other in exchange for our Souls?
2dly. That God is really determined to conclude lost Souls under endless Misery, and admit no Ransom for them, appears also from hence, Because he hath expresly declared himself to be so determined. For so our blessed Saviour, who was the great Messenger of his Will to the World, hath expresly told us, that the final Sentence of the Wicked shall be to everlasting Fire, Matth 25. 41. and that the Fate of obstinate Sinners, whom he compares to Chaff, shall be to be burned up with unquenchable fire. But perhaps you may object, that these Texts only prove the Everlastingness of the Fire in which they shall suffer, and not their everlasting Suffering in it; for this Fire perhaps may immediately consume, and utterly destroy them, and render them insensible of Misery for ever. To which I answer, That the contrary is most evident; for they are expresly said to live in this Fire, and to perform the Functions of living Beings in Misery; to weep and wail, and gnash their teeth, Matth. 13. 42. and in the Parable of Dives, he is said to lift up his eyes in Hell, being in torments, and to see Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom; and to cry out to Abraham, Father Abraham have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame, Luke 16. 23.—A plain Evidence that this Fire is to torment and not to consume them. Well, but this you will say imports no more than their being tortured in Hell for some period of Time, after which, it may be, they may cease to be, and consequently to be miserable. To which I answer, That elsewhere it is expresly asserted, that this Torture is to indure for ever; for these, saith our Saviour, speaking of the Wicked, shall go away into everlasting Punishment, Matth. 25. 46. And how can their Punishment be everlasting, unless we suppose them to subsist everlastingly in it? If you say it is everlasting only as it is an everlasting Destruction, or Privation of their Being: I answer, That in other Places of Scripture it is expresly asserted, that this everlasting Punishment is a positive thing; for it is said to be a Worm that never dieth, Mark 9. 44. that is, that to all Eternity lives and preys upon the wretched Sufferers; and more expresly yet, Revel. 20. 10. those that are cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, are said to be tormented there day and night for ever and ever: Where the Greek word foreign doth plainly denote positive Torment, and referring peculiarly to a Rack, denotes the kind of this positive Torment to be such as is not designed to put an end to our Lives, but to continue them with inexpressible Pains. For this we know is the proper Use and Design of a Rack; and accordingly upon this tormenting Rack of Hellish Punishment they are said to have no rest day nor night, Rev. 14. 11. So that the eternal Misery of lost Souls is as fully and expresly asserted in Scripture, as it could well have been, had it been expressed with a Design to leave no Pretence of Exception for Gainsayers; and when a thing is as plainly asserted to be as it could well have been if it really were, either we must suppose the Thing to be, or else the Assertion to be fallacious. So that if we think that God's own Word doth truly signify his Determination, we must from hence be forced to conclude, that he is really determined to shut up lost Souls in eternal Misery, and admit no Ransom for them.
3dly. And lastly, This also appears, because if after he hath thus declared himself, there were any Reason to think that he is not determined to act accordingly, that Reason would warrant us to believe that this Declaration was only intended for a Scare-crow, and consequently to contemn and despise it. For against all that hath been said, it may be (and is by some Men) objected, That God is not bound to do as he threatens; that when by our Disobedience we have incurred the Penalty he threatens, he hath an undoubted Right indeed to inflict it upon us, and consequently may, if he please, inflict it without any Wrong or Injustice; but then, if he please, he may dispense with it too either in the whole, or in part, as he sees convenient. For the Punishment being only a Debt which the Sinner owes to him, he is no more obliged than other Creditors are to exact the utmost farthing of it; but may exact or remit the whole, or abate what part soever he pleases; and therefore it is to be hoped, that he being a merciful Creditor will not be so extreme and rigorous as to exact of us the utmost Punishment we owe him; but that when he hath made us smart a while for our Folly, he will either release us into a more happy Condition, or put an end to our Beings and Miseries together. To which I might answer, That when by our Sins we have forfeited our selves to the just Vengeance of God, it is infinite Mercy and Goodness to others, to punish us according to his Threatning; and therefore when we by our Sins have render'd our selves incapable of his Mercy, that Mercy which now inclines him to do good to us, will then equally incline him to good to others, by the dreadful Example of our Punishment; and so he may be a very mer…iful Creditor, and notwithstanding exact of us the utmost Farthing. But this I have already largely insisted on, and therefore, 2dly. I answer, That what God may do is not for us to determine when he may, or may not, and is obliged to neither; but when he hath expresly denounced what he will do, we can have no Reason to hope that he will be better than his Word. For if after that he hath denounced, that if we persist in our Sin he will punish us for ever for it, he should have left us any just Reason to hope that he will not, he would thereby have countermined himself, and baffled the Design of his own Denunciation, which is to terrify his rebellious Creatures from their Sins, and to aw them into Obedience to his Laws. But how much Reason soever he hath given me to hope, that he will not be so severe to me as he threatens, so much Reason he must have given me not to be afraid of his Threatnings. If I had any just Reason to believe that he will be more merciful than to inflict what he denounces, it is an irrational thing for me to dread his Denunciations; for I know God will do as just Reason directs, and therefore I must conclude either my Reason to be false, or God's Denunciation to be a Scare-crow; for if there be any just Reason why his Mercy and Goodness should interpose, and avert the Execution of his Threats from me, I ought not to be afraid of them, because I am sure he can do nothing that his Mercy and Goodness forbids: But if there be no Reason for such an Interposure, I am unreasonably presumptuous to expect it. So that either my Expectation must be groundless, or my Fear of God's Threatnings irratio…al: And can it be imagined that the wise God would ever go about to aw his Creatures into Obedience by threatning their Sin with such Punishments as he knows they have just Reason not to be afraid of? Whatsoever therefore God may do, I am sure if we go on in our Sins, we can have no Reason to hope that he will either not punish us at all, or less than he hath threatned; or consequently, that he will abate us one moment of that eternal Misery which he hath so plainly and expresly denounced against us. What then remains, but that since when our Soul is lost, it is lost for ever, we now take all possible care to secure it while we may.
V. I proceed now to the Fifth and last Proposition; That this irrecoverable Loss of the Soul is of such VAST and VNSPEAKABLE moment, that the Gain of all the World is not sufficient to compensate it: What shall it profit a Man if he shall gain the whole World, and lose his own Soul? That is, It will not profit him at all; nay it will be so far from that, that it will turn to his unspeakable Loss and Disadvantage: Though by renouncing his Profession of my Doctrine, or his Obedience of my Laws, a Man were sure to make himself Lord of all the World, and to possess and injoy it as long as he lived; yet if for so doing he should afterwards lose his Soul, as most certainly he will, he will find in the issue that he hath made a woful Bargain of it, and be forced to acknowledge himself a vast Loser when he comes to suffer those intollerable Damages which the Loss of a Soul implies. For the Proof of which, I shall run a Comparison between the Gain and the Loss, and therein endeavour to represent to you how much the Evil of this Loss exceeds the Good of that Gain; and this I shall do in these following Particulars:
1st. The Good that is in the Gain is imaginary and fantastical; but the Evil that is in the Loss is real and substantial.
2dly. The Good that is in the Gain is narrow and particular; but the Evil that is in the Loss is large and universal.
3dly. The Good that is in the Gain is convertible into Evil; but the Evil that is in the Loss is never to be improved into Good.
4thly. The Good that is in the Gain is mixt and sophisticated; but the Evil that is in the Loss is pure and unmingled.
5thly. The Good that is in the Gain is full of Intermissions; but the Evil that is in the Loss is continual.
6thly. The Good that is in the Gain is short and transitory; but the Evil that is in the Loss is eternal.
1st. The Good that is in the Gain is imaginary and fantastical; but the Evil that is in the Loss is real and substantial. For whatsoever we gain of this World's Goods beyond what is necessary to serve the real Occasions, and modest Conveniencies of this present Life, administers to no other purpose but only to gratify an extravagant Fancy: For all the real Need that a Man hath of these worldly Goods, is only to maintain and provide for his Body; for his Soul hath no more need of them, than an Angel hath of Money to buy Victuals and Clothes with: and one would think so small a thing as an humane Body is, could not need many things; and that a piece of animate Matter, some six foot long, might be very easily and cheaply provided for: And indeed so it would be if we could once forbear fancying its Needs to be greater than they are; but if we let loose the Reins to an ungoverned Fancy, That will so extend its Needs beyond the Capacities of its Nature, that all the World will be too little to content the extravagant Appetites of this little Clod of Earth. Lay but your Fancies aside, and you will want no other Apparel but what is sufficient to keep you warm, and clean, and modest, and with this you may be very cheaply provided; but if you will resolve to humour that capricious thing, you will want the Revenue of a Lordship to cover your Nakedness. Keep but your Fancies in order, and your Appetites will be contented with plain and wholesom Provisions, and this a small Income will furnish you with; but if once you let loose that roving Faculty, and suffer it to grow wanton and delicate, that will so stretch your Appetites, that the stores of all the four Elements will scarce be sufficient to gratify their Luxuries. And so it is in all other things appertaining to the Body; whose Wants according to Natures Measures are small, but according to Fancies are infinite. So that if a Man had all the World in his Possession, yet all but that little little part of it that is either naturally necessary, or rationally convenient for his bodily Subsistence, would be good for nothing but to humour the Desires of an extravagant Fancy; which are so far from being quenched, that they are but the more inflamed by Injoyment. If I had all the Wealth of Croesus, the good Fortunes of Caesar, and the Dominions of Alexander, what would it advantage me? I should only have abundance of things that I have no real need of; things, that if I would my self, I might easily be as happy without, as I can be with them. For would I but make my Nature and my Reason the measure of my Wants, I might always live next door to Satisfaction; and as for my Wants, they would be so light and portable, that I might easily take them, and carry them along with me, and lay them down almost wheresoever I pleased. Whereas if I permit my Fancy to grow wild and imaginative, I shall always find my Wants doubled with my Injoyments; and whereas when I had but five Pounds, I needed but five hundred; when I have five hundred, I shall need five thousand; and so on till at last I need beyond all Possibility of Satisfaction. Since therefore all that this World can do for me, besides the supplying of a few modest Needs, which a very little of it will do, what a miserable Loser shall I be, if merely to gratify my Fancy, I forfeit my Soul, and incur the real Miseries of a woful Eternity in Pursuit of the fantastick Joys of a moment? If to purchase things which I shall never be the better for, which while I have not I do not need, and which when I have I shall not injoy; I should not only squander away the most substantial Happiness, but plung my self into a vast Abyss of real and intolerable Miseries: O good God, what a woful Bargain shall I have of it? For though the Pleasure of our Sin doth always vanish on the Brink of Fruition, and like a golden Dream, concludes in a disappointed Expectation; yet the Sting that is to follow it will produce in us not only a real, but an extreamly sharp and dolorous Perception; so extreamly sharp, that it will pierce our very Hearts, and cause us to roar out with Anguish for ever. And alas! what a poor Compensation is it for a Man that must e're long be enduring the Tortures of a tedious Famine, to be entertained a few Moments with the Picture of a Feast, or the Story of Cleopatra's Banquet? Or what Man in his Wits would ever forfeit himself, for the mere Fancy of a Pleasure, to the lingering Torments of a Rack? And yet, O wretched Sinner, thou actest a thousand times more extravagantly; who, by thy unlawful Pursuits of the imaginary Pleasures of this World, betrayest thy Soul to the bitter Torments of Hell.
2dly. The Good that is in the Gain of this World is narrow and particular, but the Evil that is in the Loss of a Soul is large and universal. 'Tis but a Part of our selves, and that the worst Part too, that this World's Goods can benefit and advantage; they can only clothe our Bodies more splendidly, and feed them more deliciously, and furnish them with more Plenty of outward Accomdations; but alas for the Soul, they are as insignificant to her, as Musical Sounds are to the Eye of the Body, or magnificent Shews to the Ear: They cannot improve the meanest Faculty about her, nor make her in any respect either the better or the wiser. And as for the Body it self, wherein all their Lines do center, there are a thousand Cases in which they are perfectly useless; for they cannot give Health to it in any Sickness, nor Ease in any Pain; they cannot recover a lost Sense, nor restore a withered Limb, nor rectify a deformed Feature; nor is it in their Power to reprieve it from the Grave one moment beyond the natural Period of its Mortality. So extreamly narrow are these worldly Goods which we are so greedy of, that they can extend their Benefits no farther than the Body; nay, and even to that they are vastly inadequate, there being a thousand bodily Necessities whereunto they cannot extend themselves. So that if to purchase these we expose our selves to eternal Perdition, we shall have in comparison but a drop of Good to compensate our selves for an Ocean of Misery. For the Misery of Hell is as vast and extensive as our Capacity of Suffering, and hath in it an appropriate Torment for every sensible Part of our Natures. It racks the wretched Soul in every Faculty, and fills up all its Capacities of Misery with Anguish and Vexation: It afflicts its Mind with horrid Apprehensions, wounds and gashes its Conscience with dismal Reflections; it festers its Will with black and venomous Passions, and starves its Desires with everlasting Famine. And as it leaves no part of the Soul untormented, but covers it over from Head to Foot with Wounds, and Bruises, and putrifying Sores; so when the Body at the Resurrection is reunited to it, the Misery of Hell will extend to this also; for then it will have superadded to its Spiritual Plagues the most exquisite Instrument of Corporeal Torment, viz. the dark, and noisom, and scorching Flames of a burning World, which will seize upon the Bodies of Reprobate Sinners, they being finally abandoned to them by the last and final Sentence, and stick close to, and burn through them for ever. And their Bodies being thus wrapped and clothed in flaming Sulphur, must needs be exquisitely vexed in every Part and Member, and feel as many Torments as they have Senses to indure them. Thus the Miseries of Hell, you see, are …ar more extensive than the Goods of this World; for whereas th…se extend only to our Bodies, and can relieve them but in a few of their Necessities, those over-spread both the Body and Soul, and are both co-eternal and co-equal with their utmost Capacities of Suffering: So that when by our unlawful Pursuits of the Goods of this World we forfeit our selves to eternal Perdition, we plunge our whole Nature into intollerable Misery for the Ease and the Pleasure of one particular Part. Now would any Man in his Wits, do you think, eat Rats-bane for no other Reason, but only because it is sweet? Would he to please his liquorish Palate diffuse a tormenting Poison over all his Parts and Members? Or would he think the Pleasure of one sweet Gust a sufficient Compensation for all the succeeding Spasms and Convulsions? Surely no; none but a Mad-man could ever admit of such an Extravagance. And yet, O wretched Sinner! thou art far more wild and extravagant; for for a particular Good thou throwest thy self headlong into an universal Misery; and to gratify thy Body in a few little things, dost utterly ruin both thy Body and Soul. To please thy self in one part, thou punishest thy self in all; and for the gratifying one Sense, derivest a tormenting Venom over all the Senses of thy Nature; and so in sine, wilt have nothing but the Pleasure of a Taste or a Touch to compensate thee for all the Agonies and Torments that thy Body and Soul together are able to sustain. And what a poor Compensation this is, I leave you to judg.
3dly. The Good that is in the Gain of this World is convertible into Evil; but the Evil that is in the Loss of a Soul is never to be improved into Good. When we are arrived to the Possession of those outward Goods which at present we do so greedily gasp after, it is a very uncertain thing whether they will prove Goods to us or no; whether, even as to this Life, we shall be the better, or the worse for them. For it is very often seen that these worldly Goods prove the worst of Plagues to those that are the Owners of them, and that those things which we account the Blessings of this Life, do prove the Curses and Miseries of it. When by a thousand Lies, Flatteries, and Circumventions, a Man hath raised himself up to that Pinacle of Preferment which his Ambition aspired to, how often hath that Height proved the Occasion of his Fall, by exposing him to those Storms of Envy and Misfortune which would have blown over his Head, had he sat quietly below, and been contented to injoy himself in a more private Fortune? And so when by an infinite number of Rapines, and Oppressions, Frauds, and dishonest Compliances, a Man hath amassed together a vast deal of Wealth, how often hath that proved the Occasion of his Undoing? Sometimes by exposing him to the rapacious Covetousness of others, but most commonly to the ill Effects of his own extravagant Luxuries. For usually when Fraud is the Procurer of Wealth, Wealth is the Baud of Luxury; this being the best Expedient to drown the Cry of the Guilt of our Dishonesty. And then by that time Luxury hath produced its natural Effects, it commonly leaves the wealthy Possessor in a far worse Condition than Poverty; it leaves him so rackt with the Gout or the Stone, so over-whelmed with Catarrhs or Dropsies, that the miserable Man would be heartily contented to part with all his Wealth for Ease, and to return to Poverty so he might but return to the Health of an honest Plough-man; whereas would he have contented himself with the honest Acquest of a moderate Fortune, he need have wanted nothing but Temptations to Luxury, and Provisions for tormenting Diseases. So that in short, whilst we are pursuing this World's Goods, we know not what our Game will be till we have seised on it; peradventure instead of Venizon we are hunting a Ser…pent, which, when we have caught, will sting and invenom us, and prove ax Plague instead of a Satisfaction. And is it not extravagant Madness then for Men to run themselves into all those Miseries, which everlasting Ruin and Perdition implies, for the sake of such uncertain Goods, which when they are possessed of, for all they know, may do them a thousand times more Mischief than Good? For as for those future Miseries, which by our sinful Pursuits of these present Goods we incur, they are all such absolute and essential Evils, that there is not one drop of Good to be extracted out of them; for as they are eternal they are of an unalterable Nature, and the same insupportable Plagues they were yesterday, they will continue to be to day, and for ever. Indeed if we were to out-live them, they might be accidentally advantagious to us; they might discipline our Natures for an Happiness to come, and serve as so many Toils to our future Pleasures; and when they are past, the Remembrance of them, like bitter Sauce, might give a Relish to our Joys, and render them more grateful and delicious: But we being to indure 'em for ever, there is nothing Good can succeed them, no possible Advantage can be derived from them; for in Miseries that have no End, there can be nothing but Misery. And is it not very strange then, that Men should forfeit their Souls to such unalterable Miseries, for such Goods as may be Plagues to them? when for all they know there may be such a Train of Mischiefs at the heels of these Pleasures, and Profits, and Honours they are so greedy of, as may out-weigh all the good of them, and rendet them a dear Pennyworth, though they had never pawned their Souls for them. And if it so prove, as it is very probable it may, then their Bargain is worse than if they had pawned their Souls for nothing; because they have incurred one Misery only to seise upon another, and have waded through a temporal to come at an eternal one.
4thly. The Good that is in the Gain of this World, is mixed and sophisticated; but the Evil that is in the Loss of a Soul is pure and unmingled. Should a Man sell his Soul for never so great a share of this World's Goods, he would find he had gotten but a very uneasy Purchase; a Purchase as he can neither secure without a great deal of Care, nor yet injoy without a great deal of Dissatis…action. For what we call ours, is really ours but for our Portion of Expence and Use; and all that is ours beyond this, is only the Title and the Care, and the Trouble of securing and dispensing it; for let but your Servants walk into your Gardens of Pleasure, and the Air shall fan them with as gentle Gales, the Flowers delight them with as fragrant Odours, and the Birds entertain them with as ravishing Melodies. And in some sense your meanest Servants injoy what you have with far more freedom than you; for your Possessions are like a great Harvest, which many Labourers must bring in, and more must eat of; only you are the Center of all the Cares, and you they fix on; but the Profits run out to all the Lines of your Circle, who usually injoy their several shares with much more Peace and Quiet than you. You take the Pains to dig the Well, and undergo the Care of supplying and maintaining it; and when you have done, you can drink no more of it than the meanest Slave about you; but wha… you drink can't be so sweet and pure, because it is dashed with many more Cares and Disturbances. For considering the infinite Hazards these worldly Goods are exposed to, they must needs carry with them abundance of Cares and Disquietudes; so that when you are possessed of them, you only grasp a Bundle of gilded Thorns, which while they please your Eyes, will prick your Hearts, and continually disease you in the Injoyment of them. And then for the Injoyment it self, considered abstractedly from those Cares that surround it, alas it is such as rather creates Desire than Satisfaction; for though at a distance these Terrestrial Goods do promise us fair; and raise in us vast and boundless Hopes; yet still when we approach nearer to them, we find our selves miserably deceived. And then our Injoyment falling so vastly short of our Expectation, all those swelling Hopes that flattered and tolled us on, fall flat immediately under the Disappointments of Fruition; and accordingly our Desires missing their promised Satisfactions, grow more outragious and violent. And thus our Injoyments, as they are compassed with Vexations, so are they mingled with restless Discontents, as being all too little for our vast Desires; which are therefore rather inraged than satisfied with them. What infinite Losers therefore must those Men be, who to compass those sophisticated Goods which have so many Evils intermixed with them, forfeit their Souls to everlasting Perdition? which is so vast and so intense an Evil, as will admit no degree of Good to be intermingled with it; a Misery so pure and unallayed, as that it totally excludes all Communication with Happiness, and will not admit the least Hope of Ease or Refreshment. For what Ease can we hope for in the everlasting Burnings? What Refreshment can we expect in the unquenchable Lake of Fire and Brimstone? Doubtless we may as soon hope to find a Cordial in the Sting of a Scorpion, or sprightly Nectar in a Nest of Wasps, as one degree of Ease or Comfort in Hell. There is not a Gleam of Light in all that Region of Darkness, not a Drop of Sweet in all that vast Ocean of Gall and Wormwood; but it is all Misery, sharp and exquisite Misery, without the least Mixture of Ease, or Hope of Mitigation. Can we then be so stupid as to imagine the injoying this World's Goods, which are all such Compositions of Good and Evil, worth the enduring such pure and abstracted Miseries for ever? Would you for the Pleasure of an intemperate Draught that will quickly end in a Qualm or an Headach, be contented to indure the Torment of being impaled? Or provided you might spend this Night in your lascivious Injoyment, which after a few Moments will conclude in Shame and Remorse, would you be willing to roar upon the Rack all the Night after? doubtless you would not. And yet, God knows, these Pleasures are not comparably so disproportionate to those Pains, as the Pleasures of this World are to the Pains of Eterternity. How then is it possible that such Bitter-sweets as these are, Sweets that are chequered with so many Cares, and allayed with so many Discontents, and Disappointments, should be sufficient to countervail those intollerable Miseries which the Loss of our Souls implies?
5thly. The Good that is in the Gain of this World is full of Intermissions; but the Evil that is in the Loss of a Soul is continual. If I were Lord of all the World, I should never be able to live in a constant Injoyment of it. For such wretched Counterfeits are all the Pleasures of Sense, that they will not indure the Test of a long Fruition; for at the best they are but Frolicks of Delight that never seize us but when we are turned up to them in Moods and Fits, and all the Complacencies we have in them are nothing but the little Starts of our Appetite, which, as soon as it hath done craving, grows aweary of them, and so injoys and loaths them by Turns; for they can dwell no longer upon the Aptite than while the Necessities of Nature do continue; and every fresh Morsel after the Hunger is satisfied, is but a new Labour to a tired Digestion, and so instead of being a Pleasure becomes an Oppression. So that it is but a very little while that the Pleasure of any outward Injoyment continues; for till it hath pleased us it is not a Pleasure, and when it hath, it ceases to be so; and so it dies as soon as it is born, and its Nativity is only a Prelude to its Funeral. Thus all our Injoyments are stinted by our Appetites, which are naturally incapable of a continued Fruition. But then besides this, our Injoyments are liable to a thousand other Interruptions, which are not in our power to prevent or avoid; for whether we will or no, we must be some times out of Humour, and then all the Pleasures in the World are most tedious Impertinencies; and some times we must sleep, and then we are insensible of them; and sometimes be sick, and then they are as tastless as a Cork; and some times be griped with guilty Thoughts, and ill-aboding Reflections, and then, instead of Pleasures, they are our Horrors and Vexations. Thus our Injoyment, like an Ague, is full of Intermissions; now we are pleased, and anon we are displeased, and immediately after the hot Fit is over, the cold One returns; and thus it would be if we had all the World in our Possession. And indeed the Intervals of our Injoyment of these Terrestrial Goods are usually longer than the Injoyment it self, and the hot Fits of our Pleasure and Fruition are generally sooner over, than those cold Ones of Displeasure and Dissatisfaction that succeed them. So that if I could command all the Goods in the World, they would be so far from yielding me a continued Happiness, that in all Probability the Interruptions of my Happiness would take up a greater Part of my Life than the Injoyment of it; and perhaps for every one moment of Fruition, I should spend two either in Pain, or in Non-perception of Pleasure. How then is it possible that such a broken and discontinued Happiness as this should ever make us amends for those Miseries that are included in the Loss of our Souls? For to lose our Souls is to be miserable without any Interruption, to be eternally grieved and tortured without any Intervals of Ease or Refreshment. For the State of Perdition is a continued Torment spun out into an endless Duration, wherein there are no Days of Rest, nor Nights of Sleep, nor intermediate Pauses of Ease; where the Fire never ceases burning, nor the Worm gnawing, but Wo succeeds Wo without Intermission, and Miseries, like the nimble Minutes of Time, follow Miseries, and tread close upon one anothers Heels. Hence, Rev. 20. 10. those that are cast into this Lake of Perdition, are said to be tormented day and night for ever; which plainly implies that their Miseries are all but one uninterrupted Torment, or continued Succession of dolorous Perceptions for ever. And if so, O blessed God, what a poor Compensation for it are the broken Joys of this World? For if the Misery of Hell were to last no longer than the Happiness of this World, yet if for one Week's Happiness here I were to indure another Week's Misery there, I should have a miserable Bargain of it; because the Happiness being so interrupted, and the Misery so continued, I must in the same space undergo at least double the Misery that I injoyed Happiness. And what Man would be contented to live all the next Week in a Cauldron of boyling Oyl, wherein he knows he shall be continually tormented, provided he may spend this Week in an uninterrupted Injoyment of the most grateful Luxuries, which he knows he must be as often and as long insensible as he can be sensible of?
6thly. And lastly, The Good that is in the Gain of this World is fading and transitory; but the Evil that is in the Loss of the Soul is eternal. For so impotent are all this World's Goods, that they cannot insure us of one moment's Injoyment of them. It may be as soon as ever we have filled our Bags and B…rns with the Wages of our Iniquity, and have a plentiful Provision for many Years Ease and Luxury, we may be snatched away upon the very Brinks of Injoyment, and hurried into a woful Eternity, there to consume those Years in Misery and Torment, which we promised to spend in Pleasure and Voluptuousness. This you know was the Case of the rich Epicure in the Gospel; how did the jolly Wretch congratulate and applaud himself in the golden Purchace of his Frauds and Oppressions? How did he vaunt of his own Prudence, and good Conduct, and strut and swell with munificent Conceits of the happy Condition he was now arrived to when all of a sudden his unprepared Soul was surprized with a Summons to Eternity? And then how blank did the Fool look upon the fatal News, that that Night must put an End to all his Hopes and Pleasures, and deprive him of all those future Injoyments with which he had promised to recompence all his past Toils and Labours? With what Regret and Reluctancy was he dragg'd from the dear Purchase of his Sweat and Sin? and in what Agonies of Horror did he groan out his wretched Spirit, when instead of injoying the Goods he had laid up for many Years, he felt himself sinking into a woful Eternity, and lie weltring there in unquenchable Flames, whilst he hoped to have been wallowing here in Ease and Voluptuousness? But suppose we should injoy the many Years Ease which this vain-glorious Fool was disappointed of; alas those Years will quickly expire, and Threescore and ten, or Fourscore at most, is the utmost Period we can hope to arrive to; but then from thence commenses an Eternity of Misery which Millions of Millions of Ages can neither shrink nor exhaust, and compared with the longest Life of Pleasure hath not the Proportion of one single moment. So that if in Exchange for our Souls we could purchase a Lease of Life as long as Methuselah's, and a Lease of Happiness parallel to that Life, yet in the Conclusion we should find it a most woful Bargain; because when both these Leases are expired, as they must at last though it be long first, we must remove into a State of intollerable Misery, whose Duration will be always equally because it will be always infinitely distant from a Period; and when we are there, all that long Train of Happiness that is past will seem but a Minute's Dream in Comparison of that Eternity of Misery that is to come. But, O good God, when for thirty or forty Years Pleasure upon Earth, I have suffered a thousand Years Torment in Hell, and after that have endless Thousands of Thousands more to suffer, how dearly shall I rue my own Folly and Madness, that for the sake of a few Moments Pleasure have run my self headlong into such an endless Misery! Consider therefore, O my Soul! within a little while all these outward Goods, which I have purchased by my Sin, will signify no more to me than if they had never been, and all their alluring Relishes will be gone and forgotten for ever; but then for Ten thousand Millions of Ages after I shall be feeling the Smart, and enduring the Stings of them. When all my ill-gotten Wealth is shrunk into a Winding-sheet, and my vast Possessions into six foot of Earth, and I have none of its Pomps or Pleasures left either to go along with, or to follow after me, then will the Guilt of all stick close to me, and raise a Cry on me as high as the Tribunal of God; a Cry that will draw down an everlasting Vengeance on my Head, and ring Peals of Thunder in my Conscience for ever. Lord! what a poor Amends then is the momentary Injoyments of the Goods of this World to me, that after a few Years must pass into another, and there languish away a long Eternity under the intollerable Anguish of a damned Spirit.
And thus you see, upon a just Survey of the Gains of this World, and the Loss of a Soul, how infinitely short the Happiness of the one is to make us any tollerable Compensation for the Miseries of the other. And if the Gain of all the World be too little to countervail this Loss, what miserable Losers are the Generality of Men that forfeit their Souls upon a far less valuable Consideration? For no Man was ever yet, or is ever like to be so prosperous in his Sin, as to gain the whole World by it; that is a Scramble in which Millions are ingaged, and of which every one will be catching a Share. But, alas, for the Generality, the Purchase of Mens Sin is so small and inconsiderable, that it is scarce a valuable Consideration for the Soul of a Rat. For what doth the common Swearer get by all his sensless and impertinent Oaths, which are capable of serving no other Purpose but only to stop the Gaps of his Speech, or to man his Rage, and rave, and play the Fool with a little more genteely? What doth the Drunkard gain by all his Intemperances, but only a short Fit of frantick Mirth, and extravagant Jollity; which, after a few Hours, ends in a sleepless Night, a sick, and uneasy Stomach, and a sottish Confusion over all his Senses? What doth the envious and malicious Man get by all his studied Mischiefs and Revenges? When he hath pluck'd out his Enemy's Eye, he cannot put it into his own Head, nor can he increase the Stock of his own Happiness by diminishing his Adversaries. When he hath made another the worse, he is never the better for it; nor do his Injuries grow less by being retaliated: So that he vexes and disquiets himself to no purpose, but to make his Enemy bleed; he keeps his own Wound green, and consequently multiplies Evils in vain, and prosecutes Mischief only for Mischief's sake. I confess there are some Vices that are not altogether so unprofitable as these; in some Vices there is a Prospect of worldly Gain and Greatness, in others of sensitive Pleasure and Delight; but alas, when after a few days Injoyment of those Gains and Pleasures, I am called away from them, and transported into a woful Eternity, there to expiate the Guilts of them with those sharp and everlasting Torments I shall be made to endure, how shall I be astonished at my own desperate Folly to think what a mad Bargain I have made? what an Happiness I have sold to purchase those Gains? what a Misery I have incurred to grasp and injoy those Pleasures? O! now what would I give for a Goal-delivery from Hell, or but for the least Mitigation of my Agonies and Torments! If I had all the Wealth that I purchased by my Sin, and ten thousand times more, how willingly would I part with it to bribe my Flames, and corrupt my Tormentors? O! now I shall wish a thousand and a thousand times that I had rather chosen to famish for want of Bread, than to injoy those accursed Profits and Pleasures that were the Fruits and Wages of mine Iniquities; but now alas it will be too late to Repent. As yet we have the Opportunity to retrieve our own Folly, and to revoke and cancel this our desperate Bargain, and by our serious Repentance and hearty Renunciation of the Temptations of this World, we may release our selves from our Covenant with Death, and Agreement with Hell. But if we out-stay our Opportunity a few Moments longer, till Death hath put an end to it, the fatal Bargain will be sealed past all Revocation.