The Christians Charter, Chapter 19
CHAP. XIX. The second Inference drawn from the Proposition.
IT shews us a maine difference between the godly and the wicked;Inform. 2. Branch the godly man hath all his best things to come, the wicked man hath all his worst things to come: as their way is different, so their end; Thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things *Luk. 16.25.. The wicked have all their good things here; they have not only what heart can wish, but They have more then heart can wish *Ps. 73.7.: their worst things are to come: Why, what is to come? the Apostle answers, 1 Thes. 1.10. wrath to come. And here I shall briefly shew you the wicked mans Charter: which consists in five things.
§. I.
1. The awakening of Conscience: this is to come. Conscience is Gods deputy in the soul, his viceroy; a wicked man doth what he can to unthrone conscience, and put it out of office. Conscience is Gods Echo, and sometimes it is so shrill and clamourous, that the sinner cannot endure the noise, but silenceth conscience, and at last by often sinning, conscience begins to be sleepy and seared; having their conscience seared with an hot iron, 1 Tim. 4.2. this conscience is quiet, but not good, *Bernard.for the dumbnesse of conscience proceeds from the numbnesse of it *Idèo te plango quia te ipsum non pla…gis. Hierom.: It is with him as with a sick patient, who having a confluence of diseases upon him, yet being asleep, is insensible of the pain. The conscience of many a man, is like the body of Dionysius, so grosse and corpulent, that though they did thrust needles into his flesh, he felt no paine. Time was when conscience was tender, but by often sinning he is like the Ostrich, that can digest iron; or as it is said of Mithridates, that by often accustoming his body to poyson, it never hurt him, but he could live upon it as his food. That sinne which was before as the wounding of the eye, now is no more then the cutting of the naile. Well, there is a time coming when this sleepy conscience shall be awakened. Belshazzar was drinking wine in bowls, but there came out fingers on the wall, and his countenance changed *Dan. 5 5, there conscience began to be awakened. Conscience is like a looking-glasse, if it be foul and dusty, you can see nothing in it, but wipe away the dust, and you may see your face in it clearly: there's a time coming, when God will wipe off the dust from the glasse of a mans conscience, and he shall see his sins clearly represented. Conscience is like a Lion asleep, when he awakes he roars and tears his prey: when conscience awakes, then it roars upon a sinner, and tears him, as the devil did the man into which he entred; Mark 9.22. he …ent him, and threw him into the fire. When Moses rod was turned into a Serpent, he was afraid, and fled from it; oh what is it when conscience is turned into a Serpent? Conscience is like the Bee, if a man doth well, then conscience gives honey, it speaks comfort; if he do ill, it puts forth a sting: it is called a worm, Mark 9.44. Where the worm never dies. It is like Prometheus's Vulture, it lies ever gnawing: it is Gods blood-hound that pursues a man. When the Jaylour *Acts 16.saw the prison-doors open, and as he thought the prisoners were missing, he drew his sword and would have killed himselfe: when the eye of conscience is opened, and the sinner begins to look about him for his evidences, Faith, Repentance, &c. and sees they are missing, he will be ready to kill himselfe: a troubled conscience is the first-fruits of hell; and indeed it is a lesser hell. That it is so, appears two wayes.
1. By the suffrage of Scripture, Prov. 18.14. A wounded spirit who can bear? a wound in the Name, in the estate, in the body, is sad; but a wound in the conscience, who can bear? especially when the wound can never be healed: for I speak of such as awake in the night of death.
2. By the experience both of good and bad. 1. By the experience of good men: when the storme hath risen in their conscience (though afterwards it hath been allayed) yet for the present they have been in the suburbs of hell. David complaines of his broken bones *Psal. 51.8, he was like a man that had all his bones out of joynt. What is the matter? you may see wherein his pain lay, Psal. 51.3. My sin is ever before me; he was in a spiritual agony: it was not the sword threatned, it was not the death of the childe, but it was the roarings of his conscience, some of Gods arrows stuck fast there: though God will not damn his children, yet he may send them to hell in this life.
2. By the experience of bad men, who have been in the perpetual convulsions of conscience: I have sinned, saith Iudas: before he was nibling upon the silver bait, the thirty pieces; but now the hook troubles him, conscience wounds him: such was Iudas his horror, being now like a man upon the rack, that he hangs himself to quiet his conscience. This shews what the hell of conscience is, that men account death easie to get rid of conscience, but in *Nemo potest à seipso recurrere. Isid.vaine: it is with them as with a sick man, he removes out of one room into another, and changeth the aire, but still he carries his disease with him. Thou mayest think, O sinner, to laugh thy sinnes out of countenance; but what wilt thou do when conscience shall begin to flie upon thee, and shall examine thee with scourgings *Act. 22.24.? it is a mercy when conscience is awakened in time, but the misery is when the wound is too late, there being then no balm in Gilead.
§. II.
The second thing to come, His appearing before the Judge; *2 Cor. 5.10.For we must all appear before the judgement-seat of Christ: Hierome thought he ever heard that sounding in his ears, Surgite mortui, Arise ye dead, & come to judgement. What solemnity is there at an Assizes, when the Judge comes to the Bench, and the Trumpets are sounded? Thus Christ the Judge shall be accompanied with Angels and Archangels, and the Trumpets shall be blown, 1 Thes. 4.16. For the Lord himselfe shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the Trump of God. This is the great and general Assizes. Then shall Christ sit down upon the Throne of Judicature, holding his sword in his hand, and a flame coming out of his mouth *2 Thes. 1.7.. Now the sinner being summoned before him as a prisoner at bar, he hath his guilt written in his forehead, he is foreign, condemned before he comes, I mean in his conscience, which is the consistory or petty Sessions: and appearing before Christ, he begins to tremble and be amazed with horrour; and not being covered with Christs righteousnesse, for want of a better covering, he cries to the mountains to cover him: *Rev. 6.26And the Kings and the great men said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. Nothing so dreadfull as the sight of mercy abused. Now the Lamb will be turned into a Lion; and he who was once a Saviour, will be a Judge.
§. III.
The third thing to come, is, His Charge reade: I will reprove thee, and set thy sinnes in order before thee, Psal. 50.21. As God hath a bottle for tears, so he hath a book to register mens sins, Rev. 20.12. *Rev. 20.12.The books were opened. Oh what a black charge will be read against a sinner; not only the sins which have damnation written in their forehead, as drunkenness, swearing, blasphemy, shall be brought into the charge, but those sinnes which he slighted; As
1. Secret sinnes, such as the world never took notice of: many a man doth not forsake his sins, but grows more cunning: with the Vintner, he pulls down the bush, but his heart gives as much vent to sinne as ever; his care is rather that sinne should be covered then cured: Not unlike to him that shuts up his shop-windows, but follows his trade within doors▪ he sits brooding upon sinne; he doth with his sins as Rachel did with her fathers Idols, she put them under her that he might not finde them; so doth he put his sins in a secret place *Deut. 27.15.: all these sinnes shall be set in order before him: Luk. 12.2. For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed: God hath a key for the heart *Jer. 17.10..
2. Little sinnes, as the world calls them; Though I know no such thing as little Treason; the Majesty against which it is committed, doth accent and inhance the sinne. Besides, little sins (suppose them so) yet multiplied, become great. What is lesser then a grain of sand, yet when multiplied, what is heavier then the sands of the sea? a little summe multiplied is great; a little sinne unrepented of will damne; as one leak in the Ship, if it be not lookt to, will drown *Navis si unam habuerit t… bulam pe… foratam, mergitur fluctibus. Aug.. You would think it is no great matter to forget God, yet, Psal. 50.22. it hath a heavy doom. The non-improvement of Talents, the world looks upon as a small thing; yet we read of him that hid his Talent in the earth, Mat. 25.25. he had not spent it, only not trading it, is sentenced.
3. Sinnes that in the eye of the world were looked upon as graces; sinnes that were coloured and masqued over with … for God and good intentions, &c. men put fine glosses upon their sinnes, that they may obtain credit, and be the more vendible. It is said of Alcibiades, that he embroidered a curtaine with Lions and Eagles, that he might hide the picture under, full of Owls and Satyres. *Plutarch.So doth Satan embroider the curtain with the image of Vertue, that he may hide the foul picture of sinne under. The devil is like the Spider, first she weaves her web and then hangs the flie in it: so he helps men to weave the web of sinne with religious pretences, and then he hangs them in the snare; all these sinnes shall be read in the sinners charge, and set in order before him.
§. IV.
4. The next thing is, The passing of the Sentence, Matth. 25.41. Ite maledicti, Depart from me, ye cursed. At the hear… of this sentence, the heart of a sinner will be rent thorow with horror; that heart which before would not break with sorrow for sin shall now break with despair. At the pronouncing of this dreadful sentence, depart from me, the sinner would be glad if he could depart from himself, & be annihilated; O it will be a sad departing! We use to say, when a man is dead, he is departed; but this will be a departing without a deceasing. As soon as Christ hath pronounced the curse, the sinner will begin to curse himselfe. Oh what have I been doing! I have layn in wait for my own blood *Prov. 1.18., I have twisted the cord of my own damnation. While he lived, he blessed himselfe; oh how happy am I, how doth providence smile upon me! Psal. 49.18. Though whiles he lived he blessed his soul, yet when this sentence is passed, he is the first that will curse himself.
§. V.
5. The pouring out of the Vial, Psalm. 75.8. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red, it is full of mixture, and he poureth out of the same. This is the sad execution: hell is set out by Tophet, Isa. 30.33. which was a place situated neare Hierusalem *Calvin., where they offered their children in the fire to Moloch. A Metaphor to figure out the infinite torments of hell: the sinner shall lie in the furnace of Gods wrath, and the breath of the Lord, as a pair of bellows, shall blow the fire. Hell is said to be prepared, as if God had been sitting down to study and devise some exquisite torment: Hell is set out in one place by fire *Mat. 18.8, and in another place by darknesse *Mat. 12.13.; to shew that hell is a fire without light: the hypocrite while he lived, was all light, no fire, and in hell he shall be all fire, no light; nothing there to give comfort, no musick but the shriekes of the damned; no wine but what is burnt with the flame of God's wrath: There shall be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. The weeping hypocrite shall go to the place of weeping: while he lived, he lifted up his eyes in a false devotion, and now being in hell he shall lift up his eyes *Luk. 16.. He that gnashed his teeth at the godly, shall now have gnashing enough; before he gnashed in envy, now in despair; and this for ever. He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire, the word unquenchable scorcheth hotter then the fire.*Mat. 3.12 The fire of hell is like that stone in Arcadia I have read of, which being once kindled, could not be extinguished. Eternity is the hell of hell; the losse of the soul is irreparable; if all the Angels in Heaven should go to make a Purse, they could not make up this losse. Si rursum corruerit anima, unde reparabitur? num potest alter Christus, aut idem iterum crucifigi *Bern.? When a sinner is in hell, shall another Christ be found to die for him, or will the same Christ be crucified again? oh no: they are everlasting burnings. *Isa. 33.14.Thus the sinner hath all his worst things to come: but a believer hath all his best things to come, the things which eye hath not seen, nor eare heard, viz the beatificall vision, the crystall streams of joy that run at Gods right hand: his Heaven is to come.