An Infallible Way to Fare Well, Chapter 32
CHAP. XXXII.
And as bounty is the most beneficiall grace, and giving the greatest gaine in every respect: For almes to the poore, is like powring a paile of water into a dry Pump, that fetcheth up much more then was put in: So coutrariwise, to be unmercifull to the poor, and hard-hearted, or to wrong them whereby to enrich our selves is alike heynons sin, and the ready way to want here, and to find no mercy hereafter, as might most plentifully be shew…, Prov. 22. 16. James 2. 13.
It is said, Prov. 11. He that with-holdeth more then is meet shall surely come to poverty, ver. 24. And so Ver. 25, 26. He that with-draweth his corne, the people shall curse him; but blessings shall be upon the head of him that selleth corne. And Prov. 58. He that giveth unto the poor, shall not lacke; but he that hideth his eyes, shall have many a curse, vers. 27. And Prov. 22. 16. He that oppresseth the poor, to increase his riches; and he that giveth to the rich shall surely come to poverty. Give then, that you may never want: hide not your eyes, that you may not inherite many a curse. But of this by the way onelyonly; for I would have you specially to take notice, that if we shew no mercy here, if we will not heare the suits of the poor when they crave of us for reliefe, neither will God give us audience, when we shall sue unto him hereafter. According to that Prov 21. 13. Who so stoppeth his eares at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himselfe, and not be heard. Yea, he shall have judgement without mercy, that shewes no mercy, James 2. 13. For whereas to those that have sed the hungry, cloathed the naked, visited the sicke, &c. Christ shall say, Come ye blessed of my Father, &c. Contrariwise to those that have not done these duties he shall say, depart from me ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the Devill and his Angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meate, I was thirsty, and ye gave me as drinke, I was a stranger, and ye tooke me not in, naked and ye cloathed me not, sicke and in prison, and ye visited me not … For inasmuch as ye did it not to my poore members, ye did it not to more So these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the other into life eternall, Matth. 25. 31. to 47. Where are two things considerable: They to save their purses, would not be at a little cost for the poore while they lived: and what have they got by it Now they are dead, b…t first, an everlasting separation from Gods blisfull presence, and th…se unutterable joyes before mentioned, and to be for ever co…fined in a bed of quenchlesse…flames. For this departure is not for a day, no… for years of dayes, nor for millions of yeares, but for eternity, into such paynes as can neither be expressed, nor conceived: There shall be no end …f plagues to the wicked and unmercifull, Math. 25. 41. Mark 9. 44. Their worme shall not dye, neither shall their fire be quenched, Isa. 66. 24.
Neither is the extremity of paine inferiour to the perpetuity of it, Rev. 19, 20. & …0. 14. & 18. 6. 2 Pet. 2. 4. Heb. 10. 2…. Jude 6. The plagues of the first death are pleasant, compared with those of the second: For mountaines of sand were lighter, and millions of yeares shorter then a tythe of these torments, Rev. 20. 10. Jude 7. The pain of the body is but the body of paine; the anguish of the soule, is the soule of anguish. For should we first burn off one hand, then another, after that each arme, and so all the parts of the body, it would be deemed intolerable, and no man would endure it, for all the pleasures and profits this world can afford, and yet it is nothing to that burning of body and soule in Hell. Should we endure ten thousand yeares torments in Hell, it were grievous, but nothing to eternity; should we suffer one paine, it were miserable enough: but if ever we come there, ou… payns shall be for number and kinds infinitely various, as our pleasures have been here: Every sense and member, each power and faculty, both of soul and body, shall have their severall objects of wretchednesse, and that without intermission, or end, or ease, or patience to endure it, Luke 12. 5. & 16. 24. Matth. 3. 12. Yea, the paynes and sufferings of the damned, are ten thousand times more than can be imagined by any heart under heaven. It is a death, never to be painted to the life: no pen, nor pensill, nor art, nor heart can comprehend it, Mat. 18. 8, 9. & 25 30. 2 Pet. 2. 4. Isa. 5. 14. & 30. 33.