THE COBBLERS SERMON Cried down, as a Cruel Cupshot Counterfeit: OR, THE SUM OF Mr. Humphrey Vincents Sermon, as it was Preached and Penned by his own mouth and hand. Confuting the Matter and confounding the Author of that base-blasphemous Pamphlet called The Cobbler's Sermon. Mr. Vincent who hath been a Preacher these five and twenty years, preached these two Sermons at Saint George's Church in Southwark in the year 1641. The one on Friday the 10. the other on the Lord's day, the 12. of December in the morning.  
LONDON, Printed for George Higgins at Crown gate in Saint Toolles Street in Southwark. 1641.   

To the HONOURABLE House of COMMONS, now assembled in PARLIAMENT. And namely, To the right Worthy, and Worshipful Gentlemen, Mr. Humphrey Salloway, and Mr. Robert Goodwin; His Majesty's Justices of the Peace: Two Members of the said House.  
Right Grave and Gracious Senators,  
I Am become so fare presumptuous (let any man say saucy, if I may not say submissive) as first to present before you all these two ensuing Sermons: because (the case and cause considered) I am not in the present passages particular, personal, private; but the Church of Christ amongst us; hath herein also concernments, for the setting and settling whereof I see you both study and struggle. For (marking both the man and the matter, I mean both myself and my Sermon, my trade and that which I taught) an information herein lies before you, what lies are brought oftentimes to you, when you are informed that (now) such persons preach, and such are the points they preach on. For you Two, Right Worthy and Worshipful friends and favourers; I am thus bold to know you by name, now mine own case is come unto the Stake, as well as Christ's cause is come upon the Stage; because the one of you, as you have above twenty years since heard me preach divers Sermons, so I doubt not but divers times since that time you have heard, that I have constantly continued in the very same course of public preaching. The other of you can be best of all instructed, that I did not preach these Sermons until I was importuned. Yea, I doubt not, but it hath been told you, that it was told me by an house like the house of Cloe, how wicked and wilful were the most of those people, to whom I delivered this Text which hath such terror and thunder in it (having no thought concerning my Sovereign, but of loyal and thankful subjection) and that on the same day in the morning, in which I preached the first of these Sermons, I preached to another kind of people, other kind of matter, that is more pleasing, and so more proper. Now the God of Heaven (ye God on the Earth) guide you and guard you, give you counsel and give you comfort; do great things and good things for you, do great things and good things by you, for his own praise, which he gives to no man; and his people's peace which he hath left as a legacy to them: So prays he who prays your pardon, if not your Patronage.  
H. VINCENT.   

To the honest, holy, humble, hearty one,  
To them, to each of them, to them alone.  
BEloved Friends: Mr. Calvin telleth us that Saint Luke rendereth such a reason for the writing of his Gospel, as a man would have thought would have taken him off from writing any Gospel it all. Calvine on Luke 1. at the beginning. And I must render such a reason of my staying yet in London, as a man would imagine would make me fly and forsake London, that is to say, because my person and my preaching was so 〈…〉, the 12. of December. After two Sermons preached there, the one on Friday, the 10. and the other on the Lord's day, the 12. of the same Month; a pack of wicked, wilful worldlings inhabiting within that place, or Parish, gave out in Print, that I was a Cobbler (I am glad they did not call me Dauber, let no man say I mean or meddle with, or mention a Mason) and broached sundry Blasphemies (I believe in the Tavern the same hour in which I preached in the Tabernacle) calling them the Cobbler's Sermon preached in Southwark in Saint George his Church, on December 12. And that it was preached by a Cobbler of Holborn. Now as I who then preached a Sermon there, am no Cobbler, nor ever was so, nor of any other Trade mechanical; so I did not preach in that Sermon any thing at all for matter or manner, that hath any correspondence or coherence with that more than pestilent Pamphlet; which thing as they that heard it have desiredly put their hands to, so (to make it more plain and perspicuous) I am compelled to put pen to paper, and then to put in print the same Sermon (I mean the sum and substance of it) as it came through mine own mind from mine own mouth. That so this being compared with that lying libel, the contrariety that is betwixt them may appear to all that run and read them. And as I protest that I am no Cobbler, nor of any other trade whatsoever (I think few in the world have spent fewer hours in things of the world, or have so little skill in managing outward matters, I speak this to my very shame) So I profess that here you have it directly as I handled it, I mean the sum and substance of it, the particulars or passages in it. Pray for me and my Brethren of the Ministry, that the Word of God may have free passage, and that we may be delivered from unreasonable, and unruly men; for I see by most evident experience that all men have not Faith. And thus praying the God of Glory to make us able to bear reproaches, and careful to reap some good from them, I commend all the Israel of God to the only God of Israel; and abide an unworthy Preacher, and your faithful Friend.  
H. VINCENT.   

BE Packing Liars, look not hereupon;  
This work shows VINCENT is not such an one  
As you give out; this proves that he is not  
Cobbler, or Mason: No such daubing sot  
Speaks so divinely, so distinctly, so  
Directly. But why said I Pack? you'll go  
As fare as Dover: (yea you'll fly away  
As fast as you ran out, and durst not stay  
When you had heard his former Sermon: and  
Saw him (to preach the latter Sermon) stand  
Upright i'th' Pulpit, when by this you see  
Your pack of Knavery: yet be ruled by me.  
Stay, and ask him forgiveness; lest hereafter  
Such cureless anguish do succeed your laughter;  
As none but he can help you under God,  
When he shall whip you with that three stringed rod  
And then you cry: Thou Galileans Friend, 
Vincens.   
Thou hast o'ercome us we are damned i'th' end.  
Vicisti Galilaei, was his song, 
Julian the Apostate.   
And such an one will be your tune ere long.  
And he that lives to see it, then will say,  
Vincent hath got the conquest and the day;  
Unless you cry in midst of your woe,  
Forgive us Lord, for wronging Vincent so;  
Which thing I know he chief doth desire,  
And then God's greatness, goodness will admire.  
R. S.   

To all my Friends in St. GEORGE his Parish in Southwark.  
Mr Friends (for I suppose I've some such there)  
Profit (I pray you) by these Sermons here,  
And I will pray that God who must do all,  
Would make his Spirit on your spirits fall;  
That so in truth, and spirit you may do  
What Press as well as Pulpit moves you to.  
For I must tell you by these presents here,  
If you practise not what I preached there,  
That not alone the words which then I spoke,  
Will you without excuses wholly make.  
Not only all the lines which now I print  
Will cry against you, and will never stint;  
But more and chief all the wrongs which then  
I did sustain from those unruly men  
For preaching these unto you, will complain  
That they (i'th' gracious sense) were felt in vain,  
And surely then (i'th' grievous sense) you'll see  
That not a word, a line, a blow can be  
Received in vain indeed, but record bear  
Against all such as smite, and see and hear.  
And I would have you be assured as well,  
If all shall help one precious soul from hell,  
I will esteem my sufferings there as sweet  
As any thanks wherewith I elsewhere meet.  
Read (Friends) remember, ruminate and do,  
So you'll be safe from hell, and crowned too.  
Yours: H. Vincent. Nomine sum Vincens, animas ego vincere quaero; O vincam, vincam, gloria magna Deo.   

The Sum of Mr. HUMPHREY VINCENTS Sermons, as they were preached and penned by his own mouth and hand.  ISAIAH 30. last verse: last branch. — The breath of the Lord as a stream of brimstone kindleth it. 
THe whole verse containeth a short and sharp description of Tophet, that is to say, (by way of allusion or application) of the torments of hell. It is here two ways setforth; or here are two things set down concerning it.  

1 The certainty of it.  
2 The Severity of it.   
The Certainty of it is set down by  
1 The Antiquity of it, in these words, Tophet is prepared of old.  
2 By the Generality of it, in these words, it is even prepared for the King, if he be wicked and wilful (let us bless the Lord that we have a good King, not such an one as that was)  
The Severity is showed two ways also: by the  

1. Extremity of it in these words, he hath made it deep and large, the burning of it is fire and much wood.  
2. Eternity of it in these words, the words of the text; the breath of the Lord as a river of brimstone kindleth it.   
Now the point of Doctrine taught from hence is this:  
Doctrine As long as God breathes, and as strong as God breathes, so long and so strong shall the torments of hell endure.  
Now because the Text is terrible, and the doctrine dreadful delivered thence, I will first give these Cautions to take off the tartness of it (so fare as is lawful and possible) from broken, bruised, bleeding consciences.  
First, I confess I am an Adamite, and have within me an Adamant, a rocky, flinty, steely heart, or else I should (like Origen with his text and tears) at least speak so pitifully, so pathetically, so passionately, so compassionately, that this my teaching should have some coherence, some correspondence with those torments I speak of. O to see how merry or mad rather, many millions of creatures are, (who as Doctor Hall hath taught us) dance a galliard over the mouth of hell fire, the lake of brimstone, Where the breath, etc.  
Secondly, No man can find a fault with me, who finds not first a fault in himself; sigh (as our Saviour seems to expound it) their worm never dyeth, and the fire goeth not out: speaking in the third person as well as the plural number, those torments 
Mark 9  being so proper to the Reprobate, that God's Elect shall never be touched with them. And therefore as our Saviour said to the women, fear not ye, for ye seek jesus, when he 
Matt. 28.  had made the Soldiers quake. So I professing that my scope and aim is to make them quake who wage war against the Heavens, would not have Christ's women to fear, we men and women who seek the Lord in the very truth and uprightness of soul, must not fear any whit at all at the mention of hell's eternal torments, sigh they shall not be overwhelmed with them, nor once feel them, though it may be may fear them.  
Thirdly, as it was said by Christ to his Father, thou wilt not leave my Soul in hell. So I will not (by God's great blessing) leave your souls in the lake of brimstone. But I will show you not only your case, but also the course you must take to get out of it: I will first discover your misery, and after that deliver the remedy. And therefore I cry concerning this discovery  
Hands off, or heart on;  
Hear all or hear none.  
Fourthly, if ever I preach unto you again, after I have finished the point in hand, I will tell you (God willing) of life everlasting. So that this Text (like a john Baptist) as it comes roaring in the wilderness of wickedness, so shall it be afore-runner of Jesus, a way maker for life everlasting, to make us the more to prise it, and to praise the God of heaven for it, and to do every thing, that we may attain it; according to that of the wisest Solomon, Prov. 15. 24. The way of life is above to the wise, that he may escape hell below; that is, when a wise man considers, that he must go to hell below, unless he go the way of life, that thought will be above objections, and all outward and inward oppositions to the contrary, to make him esteem that way of life, and all his life long to be walking in it.  
Fifthly, so long as we are hearing of hell, so long we are yet out of hell. If any man therefore should say, I will stay no longer to hear of hell, of the lake of fire, and that breath of the Lord which as a river of brimstone kindleth it. And the Lord should meet him at the Church door, and smite him dead, and tumble him down to hell (he departing in discontent at the truth and text we treat on) he will wish within this minute that he were here again hearing of hell, and not there howling in hell. O no doubt, but there are there many millions who would give millions of worlds that they were not in hell, not howling in hell.  
Sixthly and lastly; Let no man say that he will go to disprove what I have said, for (as the Prophet said to the King, If thou come again, God hath not spoken by me. 1 Kings 22.) So say I to those that go thither, if ever you return from hell, my doctrine is utterly false, which saith that the Torments of hell shall endure forever and ever, even as long as Jehovah breatheth. In (almost) all othermatters, it is best to speak from self experience, but for the torments of hell and the Pestilence, the Lord grant that we never know further, than what we learn from God's book and man's reports.  
And so much for the Cautions, save only that I make profession, that what I speak of the torments of hell is to preserve and keep you out of hell, that you knowing the danger may strive to escape the damnation.  

1. Now I come to answer a question.  
2. And then to remove an objection.  
3. And then to render a reason.  
4. And then to make application.   
Quest. For the first of these, the question is, whether there be not degrees of torments?  
Answ. To which I answer, that of the least degree of all, that is true which is taught in my text, that as long and as strong as God breathes, so long and so strong hells torments abide. But yet on these grounds, or for these reasons there are degrees in that lake of fire and brimstone.  
First, Some commit more sins than others, and so shall be sure to have more torments than others, according to those texts, Revel. 18. Rom. 2. 4, 5, 6. And therefore I would not have you sin at all, yet as oft as I think on this, I cry with Solomon, Be not over wicked, Ecclesiastes.  
2. Some have more means to restrain them than others have, and so shall have a deeper damnation than others have, according to that of our blessed Saviour, Matth. 11. when he speaking of Bethsaida, Chorazin, and Capernaum, who had abounded with means and mercies, It shall be easier for the land of Sodom in the day of judgement then for thee. And herein as our Saviour informs us, that if the blind lead the blind both shall fall into the ditch; we may say applyingly, and that most properly: the people if they be blind shall fall up to the knees in it; the Minister if he be blind, shall fall up to the middle in it; the Bishop if he be blind, shall fall over head and ears in it.  
3. There are some who not only have more means, but also more formal knowledge, according to that of our blessed Saviour, Luke 12. That servant who knoweth his Master's will, and doth things contrary thereto, shall be beaten with many stripes. Many internal stripes in their spirits, whiles they abide here on earth, many infernal stripes in hell in the lake of fire and brimstone.  
4 Some have more hypocrisy than others, and accordingly shall have more torments, as our Saviour hath also told us, Matth. 23. Woe to you Hypocrites, who under colour of long prayers devour Widows houses, you shall receive greater damnation. A Covetous fellow would feign cover and cloak his Covetousness, and how I pray thee wilt thou do it? why I'll become a professor of Religion, and so cover and cloak it entirely; And see how fairly thou hast covered it, before thou wast a professor, thou hadst a great C written in thy forehead, but now thou hast two Capital letters written there, even a great C, and a great H: a Covetous Hypocrite; And when death and doom appears, thou shalt have one degree of Torments for being a covetous person, another for being an Hypocrite, according to that of Ambrose, Dissembled Piety is double iniquity.  
5 Some have more censoriousness than others, and accordingly shall have deeper damnation; as it is said by that son of Thunder, james 3. 1. My Brethren be not many masters, knowing that ye shall receive the greater damnation. There are some such meddling masters, that they will tattle of, and task every one, one is precise in their opinion, because he loves not, but loathes a Ceremony; another is profane in their esteem, because he can endure a controverted circumstance. Nay, there are some so divilized that when they cannot impeach men's practices, they will implead and improve their purposes, as the Devil though he saw his good works, and heard his good words, would yet affirm that he did it for his hedge, job. 1. But let us know that whosoever when his neighbour hath done good actions will yet suspect evil affections, whereas in the same Chapter wherein Christ saith, judge not, he saith afterwards, Ye shall know them by their fruits. Matth. 7. 1. 15, 16 shall as censurers, as condemners have a deeper degree of torments.  
Sixthly, Some have more authority than others, more power, more high places, and of these especially my Text speaketh as we may see by these words in the context, It is even prepared for the King (as I said at first, so I say still, let us praise God that we have a good King, and not such an one as this was)  
Now for the Objection, it is of two sorts: for  
First, Some object their Persons.  
Secondly, Some object their Professions for the escaping of hell torments, though they live, lie, and die in their sins.  
Concerning Persons. First, Some object their Prosperity.  
Secondly, Some object their Poverty.  
The Devil persuadeth rich men that howsoever they live as they list, yet they never shall be damned, because they have place or power; But they must know that for these causes they must needs be damned if they die in their sins (Remember still that I therefore show you the danger, that you may so escape the damnation)  

First, Because their consolation is received.  
Secondly, Because their conversation is perceived.  
Thirdly, Because God's expectation is deceived.  
Fourthly, Because the Devil their master is damned already.   
I say, first (hearken ye rich men) you who are rich must needs be damned, if you be not blest with a second birth, because your portion is paid you already, according to the speech of Abraham to Dives, Remember son thou hast had thy good things; and that of our blessed Saviour, Woe to you who are 
Luke 16.  rich, for you have received your consolation. And this I think makes many Gentlemen turn Papists, that so proving a purgatory, 
Luke 6.  if it were possible, they might escape the lake of fire, sigh living in their sins they cannot to heaven.  
I say, secondly (give ear still you rich men) you of power and place must needs be cast to that lake of fire, unless you be cast in a new mould, because the Devil through your sides draweth after him millions of souls; if Dives give the poor man nothing, the text will tell us, that no man gave him. And so if rich men give no bread of life to their poor souls, will not hear, repeat, and read the Scriptures, none of their family, friends or familiars will feed their poor souls, but make them fast, and quite famish them. Let Saul kill himself, and his armour bearer will kill himself; let rich men kill their souls, and all their neighbours will kill theirs also, if it be but for cursed company. And this doth make the Devil so desirous to get Landlords, and great ones on his side: And this made Dives in hell so cager to have one sent to warn his five Brethren that they come not to the place of torments, because he being the heir drew them to do the Devil so much service. Therefore as we Ministers shall shine as stars, if we win many to the paths of righteousness, Dan. 12. so shall they be tormented as Devils, who by their patterns as well as their precepts draw others with them to the lake of fire and brimstone, Where the breath, etc.  
3. I say thirdly, (harken still ye rich ones) you who are rich must needs be damned, if ye do not walk in the paths of piety, because you frustrate the Lord of his expectation. For to what end do ye imagine hath the Lord filled your bags and barns, fed you with dainties and all kind of delicates, was it for this, that you might offend him with his own blessings, with his own benefits? as it were wound him with his own weapons? which of you would not be provoked, exceedingly incensed, yea and enraged, if the man whom you have been kind to, should fly in your faces with the fruits of your kindness? And I assure you, that the God of heaven who hath been so beneficial and bountiful to you, that you cannot allege (as many poor creatures do) that they cannot come to the preaching of the word, for fear their children should fall in the fire at home, they having no servants, nor money to hire them, I assure you that the God of heaven will not be mocked, though he seem to be frustrated, but will cross your expectation as you cross him in that which he looks for; that is to say, (as he saith of the vineyard) I looked for grapes and behold wild grapes, cut it down. Isai. 5. When you expect to be carried to heaven, he will hurry you to the lake of fire and brimstone, and there in mockage will cry Son to you, when you cry O Father Abraham.  
I say fourthly (harken once again ye rich men) you who have place and power must needs be damned, if you have not power to bewail your sins, and take care for your souls, because the Devil who is your master is damned already, and appointed to torments. The devil, you know very well, is, as he is called, the Prince of the world: every one is his slave, his very vassal, who lives in, and loves his sinful courses, and will not be recovered, will not be reclaimed from them. Now (as the same saving mouth hath taught us) the servant is not above his master, you must not think much to be dealt with as he is done to; and thence is it, that Christ our Saviour, when he had said, Depart ye cursed to everlasting fire, to men who were great and glorious, rich in the world, full of pomp and pride (for he endites them for not feeding him, for not clothing him, which poor men cannot do) he adjoins with the Devil and his Angels, in the close of that his dreadful dismal rejection, Matth. 25. 41. As if he had said, you must not mutter, murmur or marvel, for you are but dealt with as your master the Devil is dealt with. And these are the four reasons why rich men must needs be damned, if they abide in their looseness, lusts and lewdness. And I say again as I said before, that I speak it to this very end, that seeing the danger, you might take warning and not go to the place of torments, which the breath, etc.  
Now you poor men you have heard this greedily, harken I pray you now to some reasons, wherefore you, if you be not poor in spirit must needs be thrown to the lake of fire, which the breath, etc.  
But first because you think that your Poverty is your Purgatory, I pray you look on the Epistle of jude, verse 7. where you shall see that Sodom and Gomorrah, though it were bumt with material fire, and so the Inhabitants were made examples by being so burned in it, yet this did not keep them from hell, they suffer the vengeance of eternal fire: And you, though you be poor, may yet go to hell after that extremity, yea you must, if you die in your sins, and that for these three reasons or causes, and I say to you as I said to rich men, I tell you to this end, that in the end you may escape it by true and timely and tractable turning.  

The first is drawn from the Initiation.  
The second drawn from the Invitation.  
The third drawn from the Irritation.   
For the first of these, God hath even begun the torments of hell in you, if you do not forsake your lusts, ere you lose your lives. Your poverty will not be a preservation from, but a preparation to that lake of brimstone: your want of drink is a very forerunning of your wanting Water when you come to hell. To others it is a cross to you a curse, a very earnest of, and entrance into the unspeakable unquenchable flames, the plague is begun, you are in the porch of this ever-tormenting Tophet, as sure as the land of Canaan was a type of heaven and endless happiness.  
For the second: you are Gods especially invited guests, the 
Mat. 11. 5.  poor (saith Christ) receive the Gospel: And he hath sent me to preach glad tidings to the poor, hath exalted them of low 
Luke 1. 52.  degree. Now if a great Earl or Duke should come to lodge within your parish, and should make choice of some of the riffe raffe refuse among you to keep him company, and come to sup with him, and they should disdainfully refuse the message, how would it provoke him and persuade him to be revenged. Harken therefore O ye of the poorer sort, hath not God chosen the poor to make them rich in grace and glory, doth he not offer you by the preaching of his word to become Heirs of the Kingdom which he hath prepared, James 2. 5. Doth he not say to this effect to you, you who are the castoffs, the very castawayes of all the Countries, have neither honours nor holes for your heads, I will make you royal Monarches, give you eternal Crowns, and Kingdoms perpetual, Thrones which will ever abide with you. And will he not (think you) if ye refuse and resist his offer be as exceedingly incensed as he was when he said, None of them who were bidden shall taste of my Supper. Luke 14. 24. yea assuredly he will throw you to Tophet, tumble you down to eternal torments with deep disdain and unspeakable derision.  
For the third: if you poor come not in at his glorious call to you, he hath now (to speak after the manner of man) no way to redress, no means to relieve you. It is God's course when he cannot bring us to him by other means, his word, the motions of his Spirit, his mercies to affect and allure us, to do to us as Absalon dealt with joab, when he would not come at his sending for: Go burn his Corn (saith he to his servant) and then he comes and expostulates the case with him: And surely as it is the burden of the Psalmists song, when he slew them then they sought him, Psal. 107. So many Manasses, the Prodigal, and many others have come to God in their poverty and misery, who when they were wealthy waxed wanton, and kicked up the heel against him. And (commonly, ordinarily, usually) when poverty cannot part men's souls and their sins, it parts them and his Spirit, and he says, I will smite you no more, till I tumble you down to the place of torments. O that therefore (for I say again, I say it for this that you might be warned) O that ye poor would come in your poverty, lest after your earthly poverty, you meet with that hellish misery, where the breath of the Lord as a river of brimstone kindleth the fire.  
So much to answer the objection in regard of men's Persons. Now I come to that objection which respects Professions.  
Object. O (say many) this were true if it were preached among Pagans, but we are Protestants, and by being Protestants we shall escape the lake of brimstone.  
Answ. To which I answer that as of all men Protestants indeed, real Protestants are most free, most fare from Tophet (such as stand for the Lord Jesus alone against the Devil, the world, and themselves) so the wicked, the wilful Protestants, such as call themselves so, and think thereby to escape damnation, and yet contrary to God's commandment will sell their drink to drunkards on the Sabbath, whilst their poor families fast and famish in their own houses; I say, such as say they are Protestants, and are not, shall above all the people in the world be sure to be damned, severely tormented; and that for these two reasons.  

First, from God's Protestations.  
Secondly, From God's Preparations.   
For the first of these: God hath protested solemnly, sworn the damnation of such as have his voice sounding in their ears, and will not hearken, will not obey it. It is every day read in our Church, and wisely appointed by way of preparation to other parts of God's word and holy worship: To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts; and then to such as refuse and resist he saith, I swore in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest, not into Canaan a type of the kingdom of heaven, not into the kingdom of heaven, and therefore necessarily must to hell. I never read, at least remember not, that ever the Lord hath sworn the death and damnation of Pagans. The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it, and it will lie heavy and hard on their souls to doom and damn them to everlasting woe, unless at length they get the knowledge and faith of the Lord Jesus. But as there is a main and manifest difference in those words of our blessed Saviour, Whosoever shall fall on that stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall it shall grind him to powder, Matth. 21. So God himself turns Protestant for the cursing and confounding of such false Protestants, as are and abide in their damned ways until they die, as sure as he is truth who saith, Verily, Verily (to such as professed the paths of piety) except a man be borne again he cannot see the Kingdom of God.  
For the second, that is, God's preparations, we are to know that wilful Protestants are  

1. Fitted for, and then  
2. Fatted for endless torments. They are  


1. Fitted with Sermons.  
2. Fatted with Sacraments.     
First I say, fitted with Sermons. God's Ministers words will make you without words; their speeches will make you not cloak you, but uncloke you; their vocal trumpets will fit you to hear with horror the real trumpet at the last day, if you wallow in the lusts of your souls, and walk in your sins without repentance, 2 Cor. 2. In a word, the Word of life will be a savour of death to death to you, as many of you as plead you are Protestants, and live the lives of Pagans and Papists, profaning the sanctified Sabbaths of Christ by selling beer to such beastly base Belly-gods, as make their wives for want of maintenance not feast but fast; and ready to famish with their children and servants at home in their houses.  
Secondly, I say they are fatted with Sacraments. Foolish false and feigned Protestants do daily drink down their own damnation in that most sacred Supper of the Lord, so saith S. Paul, 1 Cor. 11. 29. But because he foresaw that it would touch and so trouble many men's minds, he saith before, as I of this, and of all my whole discourse concerning this dreadful damnation: What I delivered to you, I received of the Lord, verse 23. as if he had said, if ye will needs quarrel, quarrel with my Master, not with me his messenger. But you will say that in so saying, I doom and damn without all remedy, for past help, past hope also, if there be no cure there needs no care. To which I answer, that as I and that Apostle say no more than your Common Prayer book saith, which hath these very words and syllables: then we are guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, we eat and drink our own damnation, etc. So I myself did three or four times eat and drink mine own damnation also, even in the 17. 18. 19 20 year of my life. Now the way to prevent our going into this Tophet, this place of torments, is to take a deep vomit of sorrow, to purge out this poison, and prevent everlasting perdition; and (as Solomon saith to his son, above all thy get get understanding) so say I to myself and every one, above all our sorrow, let our chiefest sorrow be this, that we were guilty, and guilty of Blood, yea and guilty of the blood of the Lord, as it is in the 27 verse. And still I beseech you remember that I speak all by way of prevention.  
Now I come to render the reasons of the doctrine delivered to you, to show you why the torments of hell are so extreme, or as strong as the breath of the Lord is: and then why they are everlasting, or abide as long as the breath of the Lord abides.  
For the first, Those torments are so extreme, because of the 

1. Nature. And then the  
2. Number of those that must inhabit in that Tophet, that place of torments.    
And both these are set down together in one and the same Psalm and verse, Psal. 9 17. The wicked shall be turned to hell, and all the Nations that forget God.  
The wicked shall be turned into hell. There is the Nature of the Inhabitants, namely, that they are foes not friends, who must go thither.  
And all the Nations that forget God. There is the Number of the Inhabitants.  
For the first of these, we are to know that they are not Gods friends but his foes who must there be tormented in fire and brimstone.  
Indeed here on earth God hath scourges for his very friends, his own servants; and wicked men are jocund and jovial, glad at heart when they see them so done to, so dealt with. But had they but eyes in their heads, that sight would move and make that their laughter be turned to mourning, They would consider what Solomon saith, Prov. 11. last verse, Behold the Righteous shall be recompensed on the earth, how much more the wicked and ungodly in the horrible lake of brimstone. They would lay to heart that speech of a greater than Solomon (which seems a commentary on that passage of Solomon) who when he had said, that the workers of wickedness should cry to the mountains to cover them, and to the rocks to fall upon them, addeth this, if this be done to a green tree, what shall be done to the dry? They would conclude as Peter doth, when 
Luke 23. 30. 31.  he had told us that judgement gins at the house of God, 1 Pet. 4. 17. 18. 19 If the Righteous scarce be saved, where shall the wicked and sinner appear? And if it begin with us, what shall be the end of those who obey not the Gospel of Christ? And truly as our Saviour said to clear the eyes, and cheer the heart of his dropping and drooping Apostles, Consider the Lilies how they neither sow nor spin, and yet your father feeds them, are not ye better than they? So would I speak to fire and fright wilful men from their wicked manners: Consider the Lilies among throns, for they neither swear nor be drunk, and yet the Father of heaven feedeth them with the bread of trials and tribulations; and are not ye worse than they? and are not worse things prepared for you in that terrible place of torments? yes assuredly such unspeakable woes and miseries as Solomon and Peter could not express, Christ himself as he was the mediator man in the flesh would not reveal to us, and therefore they speak interrogatively, How much more? what and where?  
For the second: We are to believe that in hell all the wicked and ungodly, all that profane the Lords Sabbaths by selling their wares without necessity, all that live in any sin whatsoever without true and timely repentance. All in this City Parish, in this City, in this kingdom, in this world, all that ever were, that now are, that hereafter shall be, even all that forget God, have no care to keep his commandments, they shall all meet together, all they, and none but they, not one of the Saints of the Lord, no, not one of his faithful sons and servants shall there meet, and be tormented in all extremity to all eternity. And as this cryeth to such men as long as they are on earth, O consider this you that forget God, lest he tear you in pieces, when there shall be none to deliver you, Psalm. 50. 22. So the Lord when he would express the horror of hell, its extreme and most terrible torments, names a catalogue of such cursed ones, as must to the lake of fire and brimstone. For instance, Revel. 21. 8. the fearful, and the unbelieving, and the abominable, and Murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers. and Idolaters, and all Liars shall have part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone etc. As if he should say, when the Lord hath his foes, as Nero of Rome desired to have his all together, to cut off their heads all at a blow, when (as jehu once made enquiry) there is not one of the Lords Prophets there, not one of his own people for whose sake, or at whose entreaty he used to stop or stay his fury here on earth, when wicked men's sins made him send pestilences and plagues, than he will put them to all extremity, breath upon them with the utmost of his fury, use no moderation in, or mitigation of his heavy anger and hot displeasure.  
But you will say, it is true indeed that these reasons do make it manifest why hell torments shall be so terrible; But why should they be perpetual? why should we who sin but for a season, suffer so long as Jehovah breathes, that is to say, for ever and ever?  
To which I answer, that temporary sins deserve eternal or infinite torments for divers just and weighty causes, but I will only insist on two.  

First, the Offendeds person.  
Secondly, the Offenders purpose.   
For the first of these, we are to know that sin, the least sin, the first sin that ever we act, is done against God, the God of heaven, against an Eternal, an infinite God; as David acknowledgeth even then, when he had broken only the second Table: Against thee, thee only have I sinned, Psal. 51. And surely most pat to our purpose doth our book of Psalms translate and turn into verse; both that and that which follows  
For thee alone I have offended, commiting evil in thy sight:  
And if I were therefore condemned, you were thy judgements just and right, And to come and close with some of your consciences, 〈◊〉 any here shall here after profane the Sabbath by selling 〈…〉 base fellows, who let their families fast at home; who of do you think you anger in this brother wicked wilfulness, you will say a few Priests well it is true, you anger me an unworthy preacher of the glorious Gospel (for I tell you still I aim at your salvation in setting before you this death and damnation) But do you anger no man else? yes one, he who is God and man, He who saith, He that heareth you, heareth me, and he that despiseth you, despiseth me, will be certainly angry with you; and is there none else angry, yes it followeth in that very place, and he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me; So that God the everlasting God is offended with you, when you break the Sabbath, by that or any other profanation, by that or any other sin or iniquity. And how just it is with the Lord to make you know whose Law you break by it, by damning your souls eternally in hell for it, you may see by that which is done by Kings and Princes when they are provoked. Do not Kings, when men commit treason (which God Almighty preserve and keep us from) do they not hang up the Traitor's carcases, and then hang up by and by Proclamation, commanding in pain of the like punishment, that none touch or take down those Traitor's carcases? And why (I pray you) do Kings do thus? not for further revenge on the luckless creature, the liveless carcase: No, but to make it a lasting monument, that the thought of it might not rade in an hour, in a moment; yea if he could, he would have it hang there for ever and a day, for ever and ever: And why all this, but as for our warning, so to tell us that he is no peasant, petty puny, but a Prince, a Potentate, a Majesty, a Monarch. And in like manner the God of heaven, as he is known by his executing judgement; so he is known to be as he is, an Everlasting, an Infinite Majesty, by appointing for such as offend him an everlasting, an infinite punishment.  
For the second, the offender's purpose, we know that the Lord doth not look so much at our actions, as he doth at our affections; doth not so much mark what we practise, as what we purpose, according to that of the Prophet jeremy, Chap. 17. 10. I the Lord search the heart, that I may give according to works. And that which he hath often in the book of the Revelation, I am be who try the heart, and search the reins, that I may give every one of you according to the works of your hands. As if he had said thus, I more mind what you desire to do, than what you do indeed, both in your evil doing, and in your well doing, in your disobedience as well as obedience. Now how doth a wicked wilful sinner intent to live and lie in his sins (for if he hath a serious settled purpose of true Repentance, God will second that first grace, and so he shall not to hell at all) doth he not intent to live in them still? doth he not purpose to live in them as long as he lives? yea as the Scripture telleth us, that they grow worse and worse. So they have never so much as a though indeed and truth of turning to God. Yea, should they live ten thousand years, yea millions of ages, yea even for ever and ever, they would be swearers, whores, drunkards, prophaners of the Sabbaths for ever and ever, yea for this very cause they would live, and live ever on the earth, if it were possible, that they may live in their sins and iniquities, enjoy their lusts, wherewith they provoke the Lord. And is it not just with God then, who says of the widow, she hath given more than they all, because she gave all she had, to bring men to endless destruction, who sin here on the earth but a season, sigh they give the devil all, all they are, and all they have, all the time they live on the earth, and wish and desire they had more to bestow on him? yea assuredly for this very cause also, because their purposes are everlasting, the Everlasting God doth most rightly, most righteously bring wicked men to everlasting woe and misery, to that Tophet, that hell fire, of which it is said in the Text, The breath of the Lord, etc.  
And thus much of the Explication of the point, the Application (God willing) shall follow on the Lord's day in the morning, at which time I promised to preach here again, at your Parson's request (as I am informed) and the importunity of special friends; and what I have spoken is to prevent these endless flames.  

THis was the Sermon which did so perplex  
The Drunkards and their harbourers, so vex  
Their very minds, made them so discontent  
(As those two Prophets worldlings did torment) 
Rev. 11. 10   
That they endeavourd with all might and main  
That Vincent might by no means preach again  
In that same Church: but whatsoever they muse  
Vincent came thither, and did preach the Use  
Of that same Doctrine: when they saw him there,  
They fled (I verily believe) for fear.  
Herod feared John, and Felix trembled too  
When Paul did preach as Vincent there did do;  
That is, when he did preach against that sin,  
Which he then knew the Governor lived in.  
But blessed be God when they were run away,  
The Church was filled again to Vincents joy.  
And surely God in wisdom did dispose,  
That then his hearers should be those, not those.  
I mean, that they should hear the means to be  
From those eternal fiery flames set free  
Who loathed their sins; not they who plotted ill,  
And were resolved to continue still  
In cursed courses. But ye foolish men,  
Why did you fly from your own mercy then:  
There's sure none other way t'escape that flame,  
Then that which he did in that Sermon name,  
Which he then preached, and which here follows now,  
No way but this doth Jesus Christ allow.  
Be are witness then, that you yourselves condemned,  
When you the means of your escape contemned.    

THE SECOND SERMON.  IS AIAH 30. last verse: last branch. — The breath of the Lord as a River of brimstone kindleth it. 
THe Point of Doctrine is this. So strong as God's breath is, and so long as the Lord breatheth, so strong are the torments of hell, and so long they will abide.  
The Explication of the Point some of you heard on Friday night, I now come to the Application of it, wherein you shall see that which I then said unto you, that I delivered it to this very purpose, that you do that which Dives desired to be done to his five Brethren, that is, may not come to that place of torments.  
And first this Text speaks terror or thunder to two sorts:  

First, the Furious.  
Secondly, the Curious.   
The Furious are of two sorts also:  

First the Dissolute.  
Secondly, the Resolute.   
For the first of these, there are some amongst us who are so dissolute in their courses, that they fear nothing (if any thing at all) but the Laws of men, their penalties and punishments. And when those things are passed over, they think verily the worst is past: but alas it shows that they either read not, or remember not, or at last and least respect not this Text and truth before us. The Whoremonger thinks when he hath paid the Paritor, that now the worst is past, he may now to his harlot again, it is but paying so much money again, but he forgets old Latimers' new-years gift, Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge, he thinks not on this old Tophet, where he must be for ever tormented for it, if he doth not get a pardon from, and make his peace with the great Jehovah, deeply grieving for grieving his Spirit, by which men mortify the deeds of the flesh, Heb. 13. 4. Rom. 8. 13. The swearer swears he fears not an oath, the worst is past, when his twelvepences is paid (and o that our prayers sped not the worse for want of making men pay their twelve-pences) But a son of Thunder will thunder against him crying, above all things my Brethren 
Jam. 5. 12.  swear not, not only chief, equally for fear of paying your shillings, but lest ye fall into condemnation, lest you go to that place of torments, be burned for ever and ever in those all furious flames of fire, which the breath of the Lord, etc.  
Thus of the dissolute, now for the resolute: there are some so set on their sins, that when they he are what is said in the Scripture every where, that is, no such and such can possibly come to the Kingdom of God, 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. Ephes. 5. 5. Gal. 5. 19 20. 21. they bid a flat farewell to heaven, resolving never to part with their sins, till they of necessity must part with their souls; we will have harlots to be our heavens, we will have Punks to be our Paradises, (says the sensualist to himself, if not to his neighbours, having gotten whoresfore, heads with neighing) whatsoever come of us in time to come, though we lose or leave that heaven, which without these our lusts would even be loathsome. But as from the doctrine now delivered, I would tell them, if I heard them say to their souls, we will rather resolve to live unmarried, though we walk in our uncleanness, then marry wives, and so having children be, and be accounted beggarly and base; as I would then (I say) say to them, as Paul saith in another case, It is better to marry then burn, 1 Cor. 7. So I say to them from this doctrine, that if they be not carried to heaven they must of necessity be hurried to hell, where are inutterable, unceaseable torments: which when they consider (O would they did consider it) they will cease to wonder why our sweet Saviour Jesus, who in one place calleth the way to heaven, a straight gate, Luke 13. 24. In another place calleth it easy, saying, my yoke is easy, my burden light, Matth. 11. 29. For as it is strait four ways: or in four respects. In respect of  

1. Corruption.  
2. Custom.  
3. Company.  
4. Combats.   
So it is easy also four ways, or in four respects to Christians.  
1. In regard of the love which they have to the Lord Jesus Christ; which love makes all things delightful, .  
2. In regard of the hope of heaven which they expect to enjoy, when they have finished their work in faith.  
3. In regard of the ointment which they have received, and which enables them to run with willingness the way of Gods most good commandments.  
4. Chief by way of comparison; In regard of the terrible torments of hell, which will seize with all severity upon all that will not wet their feet or fingers in walking the narrow way, which leads to life everlasting. O what, what would not be music, melodious to the ear, mellifluous to the mouth to those who are now in that place of torments, if it were tendered to them as a condition of their coming out of it again to the earth? How sweetly would the motion sound, the matter seem (as indeed it would be) if it should be said to the souls in hell, you shall come out of your places of torments, so that you will be due and diligent hearers, careful doers of the word of the Lord, and will submit yourselves to suffer scoffs and scorns, slanders and scourges, fires and faggots, and all exquisite tortures that the wits and malice of men and Devils could invent against them, impose upon them. And thus much for terrifying of the Furious; now for the Curious, whom this Text also thunders against, they are such as cannot be Sober-wise but Over-wise, who are always prying into the Ark, ask (and that often with scorn and contempt) what God was doing in all that time before he made the world in the first creation of it. Now these men must be answered thus, and that from the words in this very verse, the beginning of it, that is to say, that this Tophet, this place of torments was prepared and that of old for such false foolish fellows as they are; This old Tophet was God preparing all that time before the Creation for them, even for them, unless they leave their disdain and derision, and leave their carnal love to unedifying quirks and quiddities, and love sound and solid discourses, to speak of things that belong to their Peace. As our Saviour saith to his servants, Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of God: have no part or portion at all in it; when they (as we see in the words foregoing) were ask him a curious question, Who should be chief in the Kingdom of God? And surely as he intimates that men would rather seek to get to heaven, then inquire who shall be greatest in heaven: So do I advise and admonish you (remembering that I do not aim at dooming or damning you, but at doing what I can, that you may escape that dreadful damnation) that you busy your minds and mouths in enquiring of God and men, what course must be taken that old Tophet may not torment you, then in ask what he did ere the world was made, at which time he was ordaining it. And thus much for the use of terror.  
Now I come to a Use of reproof: and herein I reprove two sorts of persons.  

1. The Impenitent.  
2. The Impatient.   
For the first, I call them Impenitent who would willingly do good duties, whereof they are convinced, though they will by no means be converted, nor fall about them, for fear of the threaten and terrors of men. O that these men would but think of this Tophet, that they would but hearken to the words of our Saviour, who when he had said, Beware of Hypocrisy, addeth immediately after another like instruction. And I say unto you my Friends, fear not them that kill the Body and then can do no more, but I will show you whom ye shall fear, fear him that can cast both body and soul to hell, yea, I say unto you fear him, Luke 12. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. And surely as our sweet Saviour saith to his hearers, if you cannot conceive 
Matth. 13.  this Parable, how will you understand all Parables? So say I to those that dare not do their duties for fear of humane punishments; if ye cannot endure the breath of a man who carrieth his breath in his very nostrils, how will ye be able to endure the breath of the living God, who spans the heavens. And sure (as the Prophet saith, If thou canst not run with footmen, how will ye overrun horsemen?) when a man feels himself unable to encounter the fury and frown of a mortal, and therefore startles and stands at a stay, not daring to do what his conscience cries out for; it should make him set about it, and see that he be not by any means drawn from it, considering that otherwise he must for ever be tormented in that Tophet, where no prayer can be heard, no pity be had. And you verily are sharply to be reproved as forgetters of this Text, as neglecters of this truth which speaks of hell's extremity and eternity, which will seize upon all those souls, who live and lie and die in their sins, as many as are drawn from the doing of what you are convinced, that it is the great God's commandment, or driven to any thing which you are persuaded God hath prohibited for fear of any thing that any man, all men can do to you for the doing of the one and refusing the other.  
Secondly, this doctrine of hell's extreme everlasting torments reproveth such as are so Impatient, that they say none are so troubled as they are; whereas alas there are millions of millions, who are already in the place of torments, and would give a world of worlds (as they have not a drop of water for themselves) that they might change estates with you, that they were on earth with all their misery, with all their trouble and terror of spirit; yea, there are some so discontent with their present condition, that they think to ease themselves with their own destruction, by making away themselves as they say, and as it is called: But out alas as they cannot do it, as they cannot make away themselves at all (their eyes may be plucked out, their hands and feet may be cut off, but the souls within them cannot be torn, or cannot possibly die, cannot at all be destroyed) so could they do it, could they tear it out of their bodies and bowels, what would they gain or get by it? to what purpose or profit were it? for then alas the same minute, the same moment, they drop down to this Tophet, to these torments where they must forever be in woe and misery unspeakable, uncessable, unconceivable, uncomparable. And therefore to these impatient ones I may say, as the Prophet Amos saith to others in some thing like them, Amos 5. 18. 19 20. Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord: to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness and not light. As if a man did fly from a Lion and a Bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a Serpent bitten him. Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness and not light? even very dark and no brightness in it? O how much better were it for them (I am sure the other is much more terrible) to keep out of hell as long as they can (like him that did eat and drink though he not much mind to his meat, that he might keep as much as might be from the company of damned dead ones) and not to run and rush in affection, and to desire to do it in action into the lake of fire and brimstone, into the horrible place of torments, where the breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone kindles it.  
Now I come to the Use of Information, which flows from the doctrine now delivered, that the torments of hell are as long and as strong as the force of great Jehovahs' breathe. And these Informations have relations,  

1. To the High Priest.  
2. To the Preacher.  
3. To the People.   
Concerning the first, that is, the high Priest, the Lord Jesus the only Priest, if we speak strictly (and every true Christian it a Priest as well as King, if we take the words largely, and not in such a retired meaning) this doctrine informs us of these two things.  

1. How needful it was for Christ to be God.  
2. How thankful we should be for Christ to God.   
For the first of these, as the sufferings of Christ had not been proper to us, so had they not been profitable for us, if Christ had not been God. For sith the torments of hell are so extreme and so everlasting, what could the death of all the Apostles, yea of all the Angels (if it had been possible for them to be passable) have done to the freeing of us from those extreme everlasting torments; yea when we lie in the day of our deaths, gasping and going towards heaven and hell for ever, then will Satan say unto us, now you must be damned for ever and ever: No (will we say) we are redeemed and freed from it, and that by the precious blood of Christ. But he will reply unto us (as deriding our help and hopes) It is impossible that Christ his blood should free you from hell, sigh it is to last forever, whereas the sufferings of Christ were  

In the Extremity, but three days.  
In his Ministry, but three years.  
In his whole Nativity, but three and thirty years.   
And what coherence or correspondence have the torments of hell with such kind of sufferings, what now will an Arrian answer? or any one else who is not akilled as well as schooled in the doctrine, the excellent doctrine of Christ's eternal Divinity or Deity? surely then there will be no way to escape the eternal flames, and Satan's furious fiery dart, but by comforting his precious soul as the Lord commands us to comfort his people, that is to say, by telling and teaching them by that doctrine of Christ his Deity, that the Lord hath received double for all our iniquities and abominations; that is to say, that by his sufferings who was an eternal person, and by his suffering the wrath of his Father an eternal person, the Lord hath freed us from an eternal lake of brimstone, and brought and bought us an eternal weight of glory. And therefore our Saviour when he had promised to his people to give them eternal life, concludeth that promise with this confirmation, I and my Father are one: as if he should say, as you by breaking my Father's law, who was an eternal God, have deserved eternal torments by your temporary sinning here for a season, so I being an eternal person, have by my temporary sufferings in regard of time, freed you from those eternal torments, and provided for you an everlasting crown of glory: sigh I am as he is coeternal and coequal. See therefore how meet it was that he should be God as well as man; All the Apostles, all the Angels not being able to free one soul from one sin, and that the least one: and see how needful also it is for us to say in the end of our lives, In the beginning was the Word, and that Word was with God, and was God.  
Secondly, this truth teacheth us how thankful we should be to God for Christ, sigh quanto gravior, tanto suavior, the deeper the misery, the sweeter the mercy, when we are freed from the fear of it as well as the danger. And surely the thought of these unspeakable, unquenchable flames sets an high price on that more than precious blood which was shed for this very end, that we may not be thrown to those endless torments. And therefore as Paul when he sets himself to cry, I thank God through jesus Christ, cries first, O wretched 
Rom. 7. 24.  man that I am: and O death, where is thy sting? O hell, where 
1 Cor. 15. 55.  is thy victory? So should we take a deep draught of the woefulnesse of hell's horror in our retiredst meditation, that it may move us to praise the Lord for, and prise the cratch and the cross of our Saviour. We should say as the Church in another case, If the Lord himself had not been on our side, if he had not endured extremities for us, the waters had drowned us, the 
Psal. 124.  deep waters had gone over our souls; yea the fire, the fire of hell had for ever burned our souls, & burned our bodies in the lake of brimstone, the place of torments, where the breath of the Lord is most hot and heavy, and will burn to the very bottom, without either brink or bottom: But praised be God, who hath not given us over as a prey unto their teeth. Yea, praised be God who by the precious blood of his Son hath freed us from those flames, and purchased for us a Crown which cannot be taken or shaken. And certainly for those that make Christ's blood a bawd for their sins, and think of his shedding of it without adoring and admiring the mercy of the highest holiest, heavenly, glorious Majesty, it is plain by the point now in hand, that they were never sound affright with the thought of hell's endless easlesse misery; they never cried out of the extremity of hell's torments, never considered of its eternity, never read, never remembered with any serious settled solid contemplation this present Text, that tells and teaches us that the breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone kindles its fiery flaming torments.  
And thus much of those two informations which concern the High Priest, the Lord Jesus, the son of God. Now I come to those informations which concern the Preachers of the Gospel; and they are two also, respecting  

First, their Duty.  
Secondly, their Dignity.   
For the former, this holy doctrine, that the torments of hell abide as long, and are as strong as the breath of the Lord is, calls and cries to the Ministers of the word to dig and dung, to do their duties to the very uttermost in preaching and pressing the words of truth and soberness to, and on the consciences of men committed to their charge and charity. And thus Saint Paul pleads for his own and others utmost endeavours. 2 Cor. 5. 10. and 11. verses, when he had said, We must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, verse 10. he adds immediately as pondering on the weight and the proper effect of that meditation: Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men, verse 11. as if he had said, when we duly consider how terrible the torments are to which the Lord shall throw the most part, it should make us willing to spend and be spent, to do all we can, and more than we can, more than we can do as mere men, and without that meditation, to save (if it were possible) the souls of all our hearers from it. O (we think) what more than pity were it, that any one should die and be damned, should be cast to those fiery flames, which are so terrible, so everlasting, through any default of ours, through want of spending our lights and our lives. And indeed the very cause why many Ministers are so slothful, so very slack in doing their duties, is their seldom or never thinking of these more than terrible torments. O did they contemplate, consider deeply, duly, diligently, what is in Tophet, the place of torments, they would (like Chrysostorne with his Heri, who saith the only way to keep out of hell, is often to think and speak of hell; And like Calvin with his Cras, who said to him who would have had him have spared himself, would you have Christ when he comes to find me idle) they would preach (I say) the word which is appointed to save men's souls upon all occasions in all opportunities. O that therefore (for I will not meddle with that speech of old father Latimer, who saith that if we could look down into hell, we should see as many dumb dogs there, as would reach from Westchester to Dover, neither will I mention that other passage which I lately had in another place, concerning the crying out of the Daubing preacher against the people, and of the people against the Preacher; the people crying out in the lake of brimstone, woe unto thee thou Dauber, for thou art the cause of our damnation, because thou didst not warn us: and the Preacher answering, woe unto you, you profane ones, for you are the cause of my damnation, because I durst not warn you) I say, O that therefore all Ministers would with Jerome think they hear the trumpet sound, crying, Awake ye dead, and come to judgement. O that (to make them take heed to their flocks and families) they would think of this present text which saith concerning hell, and its fire, that the breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone kindles it.  
And thus of the duty which this truth puts Ministers on. And I say thus much further of it, that the thought of it maketh Ministers go home, and beg pardon for their remissness, when corrupt and carnal men cry out of them for their over earnestness. O we should never cease speaking of that which will never have end. Now I come to speak of their Dignity, as it flows from the doctrine here delivered, and therein I consider two things also.  

1. The Excellency of it.  
2. The Efficacy of it.   
For the first of these, we are to say, in an holy, honest, humble sort (when we think of the endless easeless torments) Let a man thus think of us, 1 Cor. 4. 1. For what is it that dignifyeth Lawyers, but their Clients? or what magnifies many Physicians, but their Patients? O if there were any one of them, who had recovered, restored to life one dead many days and weeks, o what a adoring, what many ways more than approving, applauding would there then be among the beholders, all that see it would say he is eminent, excellent. And surely every Minister who can say, and say in truth that he hath won any one to the truth from the lake of fire, this most terrible place of torments, he is to be prized and praised God for, more than all the Lawyers in the kingdom, more than all the Physicians in the world; Forasmuch as men have longer been dead in sins and trespasses: and by how much this dreadful damnation is more terrible than death of the body. Poor people (the more the pity) think our work to be burying the dead: butah he that thinks on this truth, will see matter of much more moment, even that which one aimed at, when he said to him whom he enjoined to so low him, Let the dead bury the 
Mat. 8.  dead, but go thou and preach the Kingdom, to help poor souls from the lake of brimstone; nay he that weighs this doctrine delivered, shall see cause why the Apostles should say, It is not meet to leave the word of God and serve at tables, sigh 
Act. 6.  collecting for the poor doth but keep them from wanting drink, but Ministers handling the Word of God will by the breathing and blessing of God help poor souls from wanting Water. And whereas some Ministers think themselves more worth than their fellows, because for sooth they are become high Commissioners, and so neglect preaching themselves, and contemn and condemn it in others, let them know that their being Commissioners is not at all within their commission, they have work of more weight, of more worth, could they but see it, and it is just with the Judge of heaven to cast contempt on their proud presumptuous carriages, for leaving that honourable employment, which the Angels desire to look into, but 
1 Pet. 1. 11. 12.  may not meddle with, but speak to preachers to undertake as their proper tasks and excellent trades, and fall about that which Paul would have the least in the Church to be employed in, if not that which helpeth souls, precious souls to the place of torments. But o how fare was blessed Paul, whose name is glorious, from doing so, who said (considering this matter, the unspeakable unquenchable torments of hell) Christ sent me not to baptise, but to preach the Gospel. So that we see that in 
1 Cor. 1.  comparison of preaching, the chiefest means for the helping of men from endless torments, burying of the dead, providing for the poor, yea Baptism itself (though the Ordinance of God, and a proper, a peculiar, a particular institution) are not at all to be mentioned or meddled with, save only as this last is a means to keep men from hell, as our Saviour hath delivered it with his own mouth saying thus, He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be damned. Now the more dreadful damnation is, the more terrible those torments are; the more amiable, the more admirable should their feet be to all that have souls, who are anointed and appointed to preach the Gospel on this very manner, Mark 16. They therefore who think basely on the servants of God, who serve in the Sanctuary in the times of the Kingdom of grace for the keeping poor souls from hell, (the least whereof (as our Saviour informs us) is greater than john, yea john the Baptist, who yet was feared of Herod the King, Matth. 11. 11. Mark 6. 20.) did never truly consider how terrible hell torments are, did never meditate truly on the matter that here is taught, when it is said of hell fire, that the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone kindleth it.  
And thus much of the excellency of Ministers preaching: Now from hence also I gather the efficacy of their preaching. And I note this, because me thinks I hear some of you say, that I make a great pother to little purpose; for (think you) no man regards it, nor will reform any thing for it. To which I answer, that as there was one good ground, though the three other grounds were bad grounds; so I have good hope that some will be warned, at least some one, though not every one. And the torments of hell are so extreme, so everlasting, that if there be one soul saved from them, it is worth all our labour, yea, the expense of the lungs and lights, yea of the lives of all the Preachers, that ever lived to be the men, the means, the instruments to help that precious poor soul to escape them. Yea, (for let us suppose the very worst, the very utmost) if there were none, no not one who would be warned, yet this that liberavi animam meam, I have delivered mine own soul from those unspeakable unquenchable flames is enough to support me and strengthen me against all oppositions and objections. Surely I being importuned to preach the first Sermon, and (besides the importunity of Christian Friends) requested by your Pastor to preach this second Sermon, should have torments more than you, be (as the Lord threatened jeremy) consumed before you, have your blood laid to my charge, have my soul guilty of your blood, if I should not speak unto you what God hath revealed, and I have received from his Spirit, as proper from the Text, and profitable for you: and am free and fare from guilt, if I do, and discharge this duty, shall not be damned for not doing it, though not one should believe and be obedient, and that freedom for that very end is worth a world of carnal contentment, with the having of which the soul of the Dauber may have an hell daily within, as a foretaste of those endless torments, to which he must be thrown for his daubing and dallying with that Word, at the hearing whereof our ears should tingle, our hearts should tremble, yea the thought, the serious thought of these unspeakable unquenchable flames will make us say, that all God's Ministers are in a sort also samuel's, that is, that all their words are full of force and very fruitful, not a word falls to the ground, because (like john the Baptist) they prepare the way for the son of God, their sounding their vocal trumpets is a forerunning of that last Trumpet, they have warned and made such way that the Lord shall be known to be just when he judgeth, when he dooms and damns to eternal torments such as would by no means use the means of their great salvation. There is a place in Exodus the 10. verse, 1. wherein there is a duty enjoined to Moses with a strange reason rendered to move him to the doing of it. Go and speak to Pharaoh (saith the Lord unto him) for I have hardened his heart, we would think he should have said, go and speak to him for I have softened his heart, now speak for this is a fit time to speak to him; for it is like as if the Lord should have said to me this morning in my chamber, go now and preach at S. George's, for I have hardened their hearts, alas (should I surely have said if the Lord had said so to me) to what purpose then should I go? what good am I like to do, if thou hast hardened their hearts? if thou have softened their hearts, and so made way for my profitable preaching, I will go and speak unto them, yea will spend my light and life for them. But as the Lord there answered Moses, that my Name may be magnified and glorified, Exod. 10. 2. 3. So would the Lord have answered me to such an objection, such an evil-will wanting opposition to his sacred message and motive: I will have thee go and preach unto them, now their hearts are hardened against, that thou mayst make them without excuse, and me without shadow or show of any injustice, when I throw them to Tophet, to the place of torments, when I doom them, when I damn them to that doleful dreadful damnation. And hence it is, that as the Lord said to the Prophet, They are a stubborn people, yet go and speak to them, that they may know they had Prophets among them, Ezek. 2. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. So the Apostle gives thanks even for this (and looking on God's glory triumpheth also in it) that he was to some a savour of death to death, as well as to others a savour of life to life, 2 Cor. 2. 14, 15, 16. Indeed it is true, that in humane apprehension that is a more grievous, not so gracious an end; but howsoever in respect of our intent, we cry with the Prophet and Apostle, We have spent our strength in 
Isai. Gal.  vain. I fear we have laboured in vain, when we cannot stop souls from hell and from galloping and gadding towards it; and say diggers and ditchers do some good, but we (like unsavoury salt) are good for nothing, no not for the dunghill, sigh we serve for no use, in not keeping them from hell's most terrible torments (and alas that is our only employment) But yet letting alone our intent, and respecting this excellent event, (the clearing God's Justice and just judgement, the removing all show of cruelty in the Lords damning, his destroying of his creatures) we say our preaching is very powerful, exceedingly effectual, could we say but as our Saviour said, now they have no cloak for their sins, John 15. 22. could we do but as he did, make the wedding garment wanters Speechless, Matth. 22. Did we bring but due to water the ground which will bring forth briers and thorns, that so it may be near to cursing, whose end is to be burned, Heb. 6. 6. 7. 8. did we only fit them for the fire, which the breath of the Lord at a river of brimstone kindles.  
And thus of those Informations which concern the High Priest and the Preachers. I now come to those which more properly concern the People; and because I see time begin to slide away, I will turn those informations to Exhortations, saying thus only by the way, that as I will have done as near as I can at the end of the hour, so whosoever of age and discretion gets not faith by the preaching of the word, where it may be had, and will not stay one sand when the glass is run, (if extremity or occasion urge him, he may departed with God's leave and my love) the Devil when he dyeth, will not stay one sand for his soul, but immediately it must to the fire, which the breath etc.  
Now that which for this Text and truth, I am to inform the people of, and exhort them to, is of three sorts, or I am to speak to three sorts of people.  

1. To all both within and without.  
2. To such alone as are without.  
3. To such alone as are within.   
For the first, that which I would speak to all, is to advertise, advise, and admonish them to make a serious enquiry in their souls, whether they be under this dreadful damnation, or else be free and fare from it, and so need not to quake and quiver at my meddling with it, or mentioning of it. And here had I time, I would give some motives to make you serious and settled in it; one or two I cannot but name.  
1. The fewest part of Professors at large shall escape this lake of fire, the most part must be thrown into it; so saith our Saviour, Matth. 7. 13. 14. Matth. 22. 14. Now if one (which the Lord keep you from) should tell you that most of your houses are on fire, would you not leave me alone, as Christ and Paul were left; would you not be jealous and suspicious saying with the Apostles, when the Lord told them, one of them twelve should betray him; Is it my house? is it my house? Nay I think you would rather speak peremptorily saying, it is my house, my house is burned, every one of you one by one.  
2. As we have but a short or a small time to provide ourselves of what will preserve us from those endless, easlesse torments (this life being a moment of great moment, upon which depends our eternal abiding) so many are many ways deceived concerning their certificates of escaping everlasting destruction, and that through want of serious searching. (O this is the height of our woe, we do not use to think of hell, till at length we be in hell, and then it is too late to come out of hell) Much Copper-ware is abroad which is wholly counterfeit, nothing currant, but it lieth us on our lives, yea on the eternal estate of our souls to see that ours be not copper but currant, for he to whom we must pay it, as he will not take a grain of copper, so he knows currant from copper. Out alas we see Professors, yea and Preachers, yea in the days of death and doom saying, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets, you we have prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out Devils; and than Christ professing saying, Then will I profess unto you, I know you not: We had no secret sacred acquaintance, no chamber, no closet converse together, you did not search your souls to see how it was you, or what was to be done by you, but for form and fashion only sometimes met in the Congregation, Depart from me 
Mat. 7. 22. 23. Luk. 13. 25 26. 27.  to everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels, ye workers of iniquity, be you preachers or be you professors.  
These and many other motives or matters should persuade us, and prevail with us, to be serious and solemn in the examination whether we be under these torments yea or no, but alas the extremity itself, the easlesnesse and endlessness of the woes in the lake of brimstone is enough to make us intent in it, and want of time forbids to prosecute my further intent in it.  
But you will say, by what signs or symptoms may we discover whether by Jesus we be delivered from the wrath to come?  
To which I answer, that as I believe that you have heard that whosoever believeth not shall be damned, Mark 16. So if I should prosecute that text which saith, The wicked shall be turned to hell, and all the Nations that forget God, Psal. 9 17. I should be thought to forget myself, by taking too tedious a task upon me. I will therefore confine myself to one most precious portion of Scripture, wherein two sorts of persons are doomed and damned to everlasting and extreme woe and misery, if they abide in that state and condition.  

1. The Ignorant.  
2. The Disobedient.   
God shall come from heaven (saith Paul, 2 Thess. 1. 7, 8, 9) in flaming fire, to render vengeance to them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of jesus Christ, which must be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.  
First therefore here is discovered the most doleful dreadful condition of such as want the true knowledge of God, they must be punished with everlasting destruction, and who reading this can choose to say with Perkin, Poor people I pity you.  
But you will say, as Saint Paul brings us i●, saying, We have all knowledge, 1 Cor. 8. 1, 2, 3. and therefore cannot be damned among the Idiots, among the ignorant. And I say with the same S. Paul, If any man say he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing as he ought to know.  
But if any of you would approve yourselves to have such knowledge as will keep you from hell, from those endless easlesse torments, they must see that the knowledge they boast of, have these three properties or qualities; that it be  

1. Feeding for the matter of it.  
2. Feeling for the manner of it.  
3. Feebling for the effect of it.   
For the first, he must see that it be feeding, sound, solid, substantial knowledge; such knowledge as Solomon speaks of, when he saith, a righteous man's lips feed many. And that which a greater than Solomon means when he saith, This is eternal life, that men know thee, the only true God, and jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. It is not the knowledge of quickes and 
John 17. 3.  quiddities, foolish, frivolous, frothy phrases, but such knowledge as he wished to Jerusalem with weeping eyes, when he said unto her, O if thou hadst known in this thy day, the things that belong to thy peace; that is to say, seasonable knowledge, in this thy day, and reasonable knowledge, the things that belong 
Luke 9 41.  to thy peace.  
For the second, he must see that it be feeling knowledge, such knowledge as is experimental, and so more excellent knowledge than Satan hath, for Satan can read that which is written, Rom. 8. 1. There is no damnation to them that be in Christ, in the third person; but he cannot say in the first person as it followeth, verse 2. The Law of the Spirit of life hath freed me from the law of sin and death. No, that is the proper privilege, the peculiar prerogative of him that must not be damned, that can say We speak what we know, as he said, by whom we are saved from the wrath to come, 1 Thess. 1. 10. and of whom it is also said, in respect of his felt experience, forasmuch as he was tempted, he is able to secure those that are tempted, Heb. 2. 18.  
For the third, that knowledge which is breathed by that Spirit by which we are sealed to the day of Redemption from endless torments is a feebling knowledge, such a knowledge as makes a man humble, nothing less and worse, nothing in his own eyes and apprehension. It is contrary to the common knowledge, which the Apostle saith, We all have, and whereof he speaks as followeth, Knowledge puffeth up, 1 Cor. 8. It is a knowledge of God and ourselves, how glorious and gracious he is, great in himself, good to us; how grievous we are to him by our continual sins and iniquities, and what unspeakable, unsufferable torments are prepared for us, if we live and lie in them. It makes a man cry out with Isaiah, Woe to me I am undone, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts, Isai. 6. For from both these sorts of knowledge, the knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves, slows and follows exceeding humility, a faithful, free and full casting down a man to the dust of the earth; and a lovely; lowly laying on a man's soul the due desert of being cast down to the dungeon of hell. It makes a man say with sobs and sorrow, my breath is exceeding unsavoury, I have righteously, rightly merited to be thrown to that fire of hell, which the breath of the Lord, etc.  
Now then let us search our souls (if we hope to escape hell, because we think we have knowledge) whether it be the knowledge of fundamental truths, or foundation tenants, and whether we feel the power of it in working faith in the Lord, the giver of it, and love to him, and to that word by which (as by an instrument) he conveigheth it; and whether we can say from the force of the same feeling, that the Lord is our God, who will keep us from the lake of fire, whatsoever becomes of those who do not put their trust in him, because they do not know his name, as the Prophet David delivers it. And finally whether our faith which is thus ushered in by knowledge, be attended by that humility, which bends and birds us to praise the Lord and please him in all things with self denial, for freeing us from this Tophet, this place of terrible torments. If it be such knowledge (alas I know the most are without it, though alas and alas, they do not know it) you must know this also that you must not quake when you hear of hell, and how terribly tormenting it is. But if you have no knowledge of God at all, or have only such as all have who profess the paths of piety: if it be such as is superficial only, and puff you up with pride and presumption, then know that you have no knowledge, none worth the having, none worth the heeding, for of such there can be no hearting. If the Breath, that blessed wind which bloweth where it listeth, doth not breath on you, do not bless you before you die this natural death, you must then die eternally, go to hell, be thrown to the fire, which the breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone kindleth it.  
But that you may either be comforted or convinced concerning your ignorance, it is fit to follow you further in the matter of disobedience. And because our time is short, and you would take it ill at his hands who should take you of disobedience, I will confine my speech herein to three Characters of true Obedience. Know therefore that that obedience which will help from hell (as being indeed obedience, and not a shadow, not a show of it) is  

1. Glewing.  
2. Groaning.  
3. Growing.   
For the first, true obedience is glewing, it glueth or tieth together, as all the ends why we must work; Glory of God, thankfulness to Christ, evidence for heaven, escaping of hell, credit, profit, each in his order: So it glueth the commandments themselves, aimeth at one as well as another, though most at those which the Lord most earnestly enjoineth, and which it finds and feels itself most backward to go about. He that said thou shalt not commit Adultery, saith the son of thunder, said also thou shalt not kill. James 2. 11. Now than whosoever shall kill (doth, and delights in any soulkilling sin) though he doth not commit Adultery, (or doth any other evil act or action) as fire as he is a transgressor of the Law whiles he lives, so sure shall he when he dieth (if he do not repent before he dyeth) be thrown to those fiery flames which the broth of the Lord, etc.  
2. That obedience which secureth from death and damnation is a groaning obedience, that is to say, they that have it, do not only do their duties hereafter, but also take a purge or potion of bitter sigh, sobs and sorrows, for omitting former duties, neglected or contemned, and doing things contrary to the commandment of the living Creator, loving Redeemer. O this, this is the fount, the very foundation of all Apostasy, and so at last of all tortures and torments. Men and women say to their sins, as those men said to our Saviour, when they besought him to departed their coasts, because by his coming they lost their swine (as they supposed). But they do not receive a potion for their formerly drunk in poison: some for carnal love to their Landlords leave some sins, though they do not loathe them; some for fear of their friends and famillars do such duties as they do not delight in; many for many ends do many things which may not be blamed, but are commanded, yea and commanded unto their practice, by patterns and promises as well as precepts, who were never broken in heart, for breaking those sacred saving precepts, and breaking over those patterns and those promises. These wanting that depth of earth can never got to heaven, but must to hell, if they do not hereafter lament their not lamenting, before they began to be known to be of that number▪ which must escape the fiery flames, which the breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone kindles.  
For the third; That obedience which goes for currant in the court of heaven, and saith to such as profess it, that they cannot be cast to tormenting Tophet is growing, it daily increaseth, groweth duly bigger and better, more and more savoury, solid and setting down all objections which strive to stop it in its holy paths of purity, in the way in which he walketh, in whom it is in life and power, in truth and spirit. But alas men's growings blinder, base, back warder in all the things which helps towards heaven and would heave us higher had we hearts to them, proves plainly to such as see it, that most men are made of another kind of mould than they were composed of, in respect of Christianity, than they were in those primative purest holy days, when Christians were so glued together, were so full of growing and groaning.  
Now search (I beseech you) your souls, ye men and women, who would not be damned, see whether your seeming obedience glue you to Christians as well as commandments, have opened your hearts with such dew-distilling sorrow for sin ihat (as plants refreshed with rain) your souls grow more enamoured with those paths which are pleasant as well as pure leading from hell to life everlasting. Of a truth (that I may grow nearer towards conclusion) as they who are so qualified may not only qualify their fears conceive at the hearing of hell crying weep and wail without end, at the thoughts of Tophet whose torments have no end, but also make them truly merry at the very heart, because they are free and far from the place and case, in which Gods fury for ever kindles the fiery flames. So they who cull and choose, in their doing duties take on them a profession without taking on or making confession of their false, foolish, filthy ways or rather wander they that stand at a stay continually never growing or groaning heavenwards, but grow weary of precise and punctual performances, religious rules, doctrines, disciplines, are traviling towards Tophet, and will run (unless they return) into that fire which my text treats of, and which the breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone kindles.  
And this be spoken to all in general: search yourselves, ye search yourselves, O ye who would not be damned for ever, before the decree come forth, before ye be as chaff; before the fierceness of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lords wrath come upon you. Zeph. 2. 2. I am to speak to those (being commonly the greatest number) who are ignorant or disobedient, in such sort as is here discovered and so (should they die in that case) would be shortly in a doleful dreadful case, howling in hell, crying out that ever they were borne, frying in the fire, which The breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone kindles.  
Now to these our blessed Saviour cries again and again, And if thy hand offend thee, out it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, then having two hands, to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched; Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.  
And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, then having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched. Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.  
And if thy eye offend thee, pluck it out: is it better for thee to enter into the Kingdom of God with one eye, then having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.  
Mark that he would have the hand and foot off, and the eye out, but here's not a word of the ear off, men and women must have their ears on still, as a special means to keep them from the fire, there is no cropping ears in heaven's court, but they who will not part with their hair, how should we think they will part with their hands, yea it is to be greatly feared, that sigh these will come to our Churches, and carry Bibles, who will by no means leave their lusts, as near as their hands, as dear as their feet, I say it is to be feared, that they will be bound hand and feet, and be thrown to utter darkness, where is weeping and gnashing of teeth, and then they will become speechless, having nothing to say for themselves, when their feet are bound which brought them to the temple, when their hands are bound which handled the Bible; when their hands are bound and then no fight, when their feet are bound, and then no flying. Mat. 22. 11. 12. 13.  
And I call upon you as loud as I can, to do that which my master means, that is to say, to avoid and abhor any thing, every thing, never so dear to you, never so near to you, (unlawful profits, pomps or pleasures) which any ways hurt or hinder from seeking the way of salvation, that so you may escape those everlasting flames of fire: yea I beg of you, and beseech you, to do any thing, every thing, all things, which will do any thing in that matter of greatest moment towards the escaping of that Tophet, that place of torments. O put to all you are, and all you have, all the powers of your souls and parts of your bodies, employ, improve all your minutes as well as your mites, in saving yourselves from this froward generation, and so from those unspeakable, unconceivable, unmatchable torments. Do as Solomon showeth, that you should do, as we shown at the beginning. The way of life is above to the wise, that he may escape hell below, Prov. 15. 24. As if the spirit had said, if any man or thing shall arise in your hearts to hold from heaven, show to your souls the burning flames which are below in the lake of fire and brimstone, and you will quickly show yourselves wise men, you will esteem the word and the preaching (a special means to make us able to say in truth we shall not be damned) above objections, above oppositions, above all that stops or stays us from seeking, striving, struggling for life.  
You will happily say, what must we do, that we may escape that place of torments.  
To the which I answer, that though time passeth swiftly, I will show you,  

1. What the word.  
2. What the world would would have you do in the present case.   
For the first. The word (in a few words) bids us do these three things, as we have them in three examples. Or these three Bs.  

1. Believe.  
2. Beware.  
3. Bewail.   
First carry the honey of this instruction and exhortation. First, the word bids us Believe, thus S. Paul said to the Jailor, who put him and his fellow in the inner prison, when he 
Acts 16.  had a commission to put them in prison; that Jailor after his putting them in the inward prison, was himself put in the inmost prison, his very soul was set in the stocks, he was afraid of the flames of hell, and cried out in the anguish thereof, even to those whom he had misused: Sirs, what must I do to be saved? O how, how shall I do? I fear the terrible torments of hell, what course must I take to escape them? To this Paul answers, as I do to those of you (if there are any here among you in the like case) Believe in the Lord jesus, and then shall be saved from that lake of fire and brimstone, which otherwise will destroy and devour thee, sink thee, swallow thee in for ever. And I from this very ground call upon you to cleave the clouds, to work wonders, to reach the right hand of that Majesty on high (passing by all the Apostles and Angels) and there to single out him, who is all in all with God, to become all in all to us; to apprehend him for your own Saviour, to apply him to your own souls, to take down his person, his passion, his promises, to make him your own by the lively saith of Gods Elect. And I beseech you, O ye who have souls, and have a Saviour, who shed his blood to redeem those precious souls, do not despair for any of your sins, be they never so many millions, be they never such mighty mountains. I cannot stand to show you the order which God useth in working faith in you. How first he tells you, that it is possible, and then probable that God will pardon you after fears falling in in the midst; and after a while will say to you sweedy, your faith hath saved you, your sins are forgiven you. But this I say to you, that there is such infinite mercy in God, and such infinite merits in Christ, that if you can but believe in him (and the Lord look upon you, to make you able to say hold on him) you shall surely be saved from hell, you shall not be over whelmed with those extreme everlasting torments, shall not be cast to the fiery flames, which the breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone kindles.  
Secondly, (for there is no time to tell you, how you must attain to that Believing, namely by hearing the word of God, which is able to save your souls) I say secondly, if you would 
Rom. 10. James 1.  escape the everlasting terrible torments, you must Beware that you walk in the way which the Saints and the Saviour trod in. So saith john when he saw the Pharisees seek to avoid the wrath to come. Bring forth fruits (saith he unto them, when their Consciences cried against them, and set the torments of hell 
Matth 3.  before them) Bring forth fruits fit for amendment, saith he, and begin not to say in yourselves, we have Abraham to our father. And do not you I beseech you, dream that you can stop the cry of hell in your Consciences, by any foolish frivolous fig-leaves, or if you could so curb and crush them, that yet you are able to avoid that brimstone by pleading Pedigrees, pretending prerogatives. No, there is no way but one with you, if ye walk not the way of fruitfulness, be not careful, conscionable, circumspect in all Conversation, in all acts of Christianity; Though it be Christ, even Christ alone, who hath freed us from hell, and fitted us for heaven, and for his sake shall all that be chosen, be kept from those ever-burning flames; yet it is they, they alone, none but they, who are fruitful as well as faithful shall escape the lake of brimstone, all the rest, all that walk not warily, worthily must be extremely and eternally hell-tormented. That is the way, and the means to escape, those are the persons, who must be preserved from that most terrible place of torments; In that, and after that men must fly from the wrath to come. And therefore you must be such, must be so fruitful, must bring forth fruits fit for a Christian calling, if you would not be thrown to Tophet, to that extremely tormenting fire of hell, which the breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone kindles.  
Thirdly, whosoever of you would not be damned for ever and ever must look back with godly sorrow (like those four beasts in that fourth Chapter of john's Revelation, who had Eyes behind as well as before) on his former foolish, false behaviour; So saith Peter to those three thousand, who when they had been pricked in their hearts (frighted with fear of those fiery flames of hell, feeling a kind of foretaste of it in their very inwards) cried out, what shall we do, with sighing soul and 
Acts 2. 37. 38.  sorrowful spirits. Repent, saith he, be ye truly touched; sincerely, sweetly terrified, troubled, that ye were so proud and presumptuous, that you duest provoke the mighty Jehovah, who is able to tumble you down to hell to the place of torments. Make your hearts bleed that your sins made him bleed; who shed it to keep you from hell's eternal flames. And surely forgiveness of sins and faith in Christ to conceive it, and receive it, without which to escaping of hell nothing at all, but being extremely, eternally damned, 〈◊〉 must be attained with any fruitful force and feeling, till a Converts soul become such an one as will suck it in, and that it cannot be capable of, till it be soaked in brinish tears, or bitterer terrors, till is be afraid of Tophet, that so fearing it, it might not feel that unquenchable fire of hell which the breath of the Lord as a river of brimstone kindles.  
And these be the three Bs which have the honey: These be the things which the sacred Scripture: commends to such as have in their heart's wormwood and gall for fear of hell's extreme eternals, when it counselleth them by comforting, and comforteth them by counselling.  
Now what the World would do, and that both lawfully and laudably, if a noise of fire should fright them, we all know by much experience.  
Suppose (which the Lord keep from you) that there should be a noise of fire in your Town, what course would ye take for the quenching of it. I know generally and negatively what you would do, that is to say, what you would not do, for you world certainly hear me no longer, but would leave me alone (as they did Christ and his chosen vessel Paul, and yet you should not, for I would go along with you remembering what is written: I will have mercy and not sacrifice, Hosea 6. 6. But what would you do, when you came to it, and sought to quench it, I suppose you would get three things.  

1. Company.  
2. A Ladder.  
3. Water.   
For the first you would get Company, you would call upon one the other, crying, Fire, fire, fire, fire, save us from it, help to quench it; And O that you would do so directly, for the saving of your souls, for the preserving of you from those torments which are extreme and endure for ever. O that you would get together, that you would go one to another; that you ask one the other the question, How doth your soul? and, How doth your soul? O would you say to each other thus; What say you neighbour to that which we heard to day? Is it true, that there is an hell, and that there are such torments in it? that they are so terrible, so everlasting, that they never shall end, but abide for evermore? O what, what shall we do? what will you do? what shall I do? I fear I shall even be damned in hell, even in hell, and that in such extremity, and that for all eternity. But me thinks I hear some of you say to me: I can find in my heart to go to his house, but not to this house, he is a Puritan; but I tell you, if there were a fire, such a fire in your town or houses, there would no word at all of Puritan, but all the noise would be Neighbour, neighbour, fire, fire, help neighbour, help. And O that the thought of this fire which the breath of the Lord for ever kindleth, would take away all hostilitle, all carnal crooked conceit of enmity; and make you join hearts, heads, and hands, for the quenching of it so fare as concerns your escaping, for the preserving of you from it (as Saul was forced to departed from David, when he was near him at the mouth of the Cave, to the end he might save his kingdom which the Philistines then had invaded.) O that you would walk and talk together, like yet living creatures, and now loving neighbours, how you might escape hell, the everlasting lake of fire and brimstone; I assure you it would much avail you towards your freedom from the fiery flames; which The breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it.  
Secondly, if there were fire in your Town, and houses (which the Lord evermore keep same from you) you would immediately seek a Ladder: And, O that (if any among you be stuck to the heart and stung with this Sermon at the hearing of these unspeakable, unquenchable flames of hell.) O that you would go to your Minister, (Ministers are Ladders, jacobs' Ladders reaching from earth to the height of heaven) and say to him, when your souls are sinking; Sir, be good to us, help us, beale us, heave us up from the sinks of sorrow; we see death ready to seize on us, hell ready to swallow us utterly. Thus did that Jailor, those pharisees, those Converts before mentioned, they roated and ran to their Preachers, crying, 
Acts 16. Mat. 3. Acts 2.  What shall we do to be saved? But O alas we the Ministers of the Gospel grow greedy of filthy lucre, waxer wanton, in spending our time upon trifling novelties, niceties, because we want work or purer employment, are not at all enquired after concerning the sores of your souls, the bellow and breathe of them, the blemishes and breaths in them; where is there (almost) a man among millions, who makes the moan for a man of God, one of a thousand, to whom he may cry for counsel when his Conscience is almost confounded? But you O people, who have precious souls in you, and which souls must surely be turned to Tophet, if you be not turned topsie-turvie from blindness and badness to true Religion and holy Righteousness, do you that which the fewest number do (they are many and often mighty ones, which walk in the way which draws to destruction) get you Ladders, and get upon them, make your Minister's mind their studies, when they hear you pouring out your hearts and posing them, and putting them often times to their prayers, for more wisdom to resolve your doubtaind difficulties. But chief (ah do it as you do not desire to be damned) go speedily to those Ministers by whose work, men must be saved, when you hear of hell's extremity, and are afraid that you shall fall in it. They will not with the Watchmen smite you, they will rear you, restore you, recover you (they have more leisure and more learning than I have, more time to do the thing which will stop your souls from sinking, and stir them from despair as well as security) when Satan sets before you your due desert of eternal damnation. Above all I desire and require you, that if any thing hath been spoken in my two Sermons, which puts any of you to your plunges, and puzzles your souls by saying, you must be damned, that you inquire of some Ambassador of Jesus Christ, whether it were true as well as terrible, holy Doctrine as well as threatened deep damnation. And I for my part, if any of my Brethren being a word for it, will be ready to recall and recant it, and show you a softer way (if there be any such in the blessed Bible) to escape this flaming fire of Tophet, which The breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it.  
The third thing that you would do, would be to cry, Water, water, should the noise of Fire, fire, be heard among you (which the Lord to his good pleasure keep far from you.) And O that this cry of Fire, Fire, this extremely tormenting fire, this everlastingly tormenting fire, would cause you to cry for a double Water, and double your cry for it, with single hearts and earnest spirits. O that you would cry for the water of pardon for forgiveness of sins, for the washing of your souls, through his blood, who came by Water and blood, not by water only, but by water and blood, out of whose more then precious side came Water and blood for the souls 
1 Joh. 5. 6.  even of Publicans & most profane ones, of vicious, villainous men or miscreants. O that the fear of this quenchless fire would make you cry, Lord have mercy upon us, (not as many try it, without any sense of misery, and so without capability of mercy, tossing and tumbling the Name of the Lord, as I would be loath to have my name tossed, crying, Lord have mercy upon us. Christ have mercy upon us. Lord have mercy upon us, in such haste and show of heat, as if they meant to sell their Lords have mercy upon us for money, and would get as many of them into their hands as they could to sell them hereafter; (Whereas, if they thought of hell, of its extreme and eternal torments, it would make them with deliberation, yea with the utmost of their devotion to cry, Lord have mercy upon us, we are else undone for ever.) O, I say, that the fear of this fire would make you cry, Christ have mercy upon us, and to continue so crying, till your hearts he sprinkled from an evil conscience, and your bodies washed with pure water. And I 
Heb. 10. 22  beseech you, as you would not suffer these unspeakable, unquenchable flames, do as our Saviour bids and binds you, that is to say, Ask, Seek, and Knock for that holy water, 
Mat. 7. 7.  and the Spirit, without which he telleth and teacheth us, that there is no coming to the glorious Kingdom, and so by consequence, no escaping of hell. Ask earnestly, and if no answer seem to come, Seek more earnestly, and if you hear no answer yet, Knock most earnestly, for the water of the Spirit to regenerate, renew, and restore you from the death of sin and the danger of death, eternal death and dreadful damnation. Yea I would Knock down the gates of heaven, (why should not I do a thing impossible, to escape the lake of fire and brimstone, at well as the Lord bids us do a thing impossible to be free from eternal damnation, saying, Make 
Eze. 18. 31.  you a new heart, and a new spirit, for why will ye die? though he knoweth that we cannot move an hand towards making new hearts, & therefore promiseth by the same Prophet, yea and that 
Eze. 11. 19 and 36. 26.  once and again, that he will give us new hearts and new spirits) rather than feel the fury of God in the fierceness and fullness of it in that Tophet, that place of torments, that hell of hells, which hath such fire in it, that The breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it.  
And thus much be spoken to such as have hitherto abode in darkness, by not thinking on the place of torments (too much considering the time, not half enough in regard of the thing,) you may now departed at your pleasure; I having shown you the case you are in, and the course you must take to come out of it. I have only two words to speak now to you▪ who have such knowledge and such obedience wrought with in you either before this day it some good and Christian perfection, or on this day in the beginnings of it, in the seeds or desires of it, or sound preparations to it.  
Now to you who are sound wrought on, and so are freed from those extreme everlasting torments, I am to persuade with you:  

1. To praise the Lord for your own mercy.  
2. To pity others in their misery.   
For the first of these as oft as you think on the extremity, and eternity of the torments of hell, it must make you one by one cry with the sweet Singer of Israel, Psal. 86. 12. 13. I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy Name for evermore. For great is thy mercy towards me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.  
And to provoke you to this duty of praise, which when we come to heaven, and shall see that we cannot to hell, we shall continually be employed in, and which we are so more backward to bring our hearts to, whiles we are in earth: let us briefly think on these things:  
1. First, if our Graces be well grounded, strongthned and established, we shall be sure, without peradventures, that we shall not be thrown to the lake of brimstone, Revel. 21. 7. 8.  
2. If we had been dead only, and revived, recovered to life again, yea if we had been but deadly sick, and had been restored to health again, we should say with good Hezekiah, The living, 
Isai. 38. 19  the living, they shall praise thee: How much more are we bound to do it, at the freeing our souls from the place of torments.  
3. Consider how many millions, nobler, richer, learneder than we are, are left to themselves, and their souls to Satan, to be extremely eternally damned; And God hath made choice of us filly simple worms, who were first Elected, and then Selected, and after Neglected of all mere moral men, and often in our own souls Dejected in our own apprehensions, 1 Cor. 1. 26. 27.  
4. Consider how many times, how many thousand times, the God of heaven did call and cry to us, and yet we refused, and often resisted: He sent not only his Son, and after his Son his Word to reveal his Son, but also his Spirit from Sabbath to Sabbath, from Sermon to Sermon, and still we withstood our own escape, our own deliverance, our own freedom from those flames, which have none end, or ease at all in them.  
5. He fetched us from it, called, culled, converted our souls from it, when we were loath to come out of hell, loathest of all to come out of the way to it, loather (it may be some of us) then ever in all our lives before. O the Lord dealt with us, as he did in fetching Lot from Sodom, whiles we lingered, he laid hands on us, the Lord being exceedingly merciful to us, saying, Fly for your lives, Escape towards the mountain, lest ye be consumed in the lake of fire and brimstone. And the cause why we so contemned our own mercy in that our misery was our ignorance, our not knowing what case we were in, our thinking ourselves safe, and in the way to the Kingdom of Heaven, when alas we were almost in hell, in the very path, the very porch of it.  
6. And lastly, that as he sent when we never sought pardon, so he hath not only knocked off the bolts and bonds, not only freed us from hell's most fierce and fiery flames, but also fitted us in some measure for the wearing of Royal Crowns of Glory: So that now we can think on hell without horror, without astonishment because we can say with Paul to his Thessalonians, God hath not appointed us to wrath but to ab●●in● Salvation by jesus Christ, 1 Thess. 5. 9  
The thought of these things should fill us full of joy and comfort, and make us breathe out holy praises, and break forth into blessing the blessed Majesty, crying with Paul, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in 
Ephes. 1. 3.  Christ: According as he hath chosen us, before the foundation of the world; when he rejected millions of millions to be extremely eternally damned: And with Peter, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy, in freeing us from those torments, which know neither end nor ease, hath begotten us again to a lively hope of an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us, 1 Pet. 1. 3. 4. And wherein we shall shine as the Sun in the Kingdom of our Father, when all the wicked of the world shall be cast into 
Matth. 13. 42. 43.  that furnace of fire, which The breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it.  
And thus much be spoken to you, concerning your own mercy.  
Now a word of Information concerning others misery. The Prophet jeremy in one verse, jer. 20. 13. breaketh forth into this holy pang, this heavenly passage, Sing unto the Lord, praise ye the Lord; and in the very next verse unto it, he breatheth forth this doleful dismal outcry, Cursed be the day wherein I was born. The Apostle Paul (peradventure more proper and pat to our purpose) when he had said, I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor Angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, 
Rom. 8. 38. 39  nor depth, nor any other creature, shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ jesus our Lord: (as looking on his own most blessed condition, being engrafted into the blessed body of Christ, and endued with the blessed Spirit of Christ, and so free from condemnation, as it is in the 1. verse,) looking on his former familiars and friends, and seeing them subject to death and damnation, hath these words in the very next verse, Rom. 9 1. 2. 3. I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness, and continual sorrow in my heart, For, I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ, for my brethren my kinsmen according to the flesh: And surely sigh the torments of hell are so unconceivable, so uncessable, we should after we have rejoiced and praised God for our own deliverance; groan and grieve for our carnal friends case, and more than cursed condition. But as that Paul when he had sighed and sobbed, with remembrance of, and respect to the terrible torments that they must be thrown to, if they abode in their wicked wilfulness, addeth in the 1. verse of the next Chapter, his Prayer to that his Pity, saying, Brethren, my hearts desire 
Rom. 10. 1.  and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. So must we not only weep and wail, for fear of our friend's damnation, but also do the best we can, use our true and utmost endeavour, that such sinners may be converted; and so escape everlasting torments. And though I could show (did not time take me off) what special course fathers and mothers must take to help their children from hell, and set it down in divers particulars, yet I will only show in gross or general terms what we are to do (even you people, as well as we Preachers,) for all that dwell about us, and to whom we have any access, toward their escaping that fire, which The breath of the Lordlike a river of brimstone kindles.  
And to pass by our holy walking (with which we may draw them to like that Word, which is able to save our soul 
Jam. 1. 21.  from that fearful wrath to come:) And not to press you to press hardest by Exhortation, when you receive most kindness from them, Luke 10. Luke 11. Luke 14. (O who would not endure any thing to keep any one from wanting water, who will not see us here want drink, but will provide before we petition) nor to call on them to number their days (which will make them to become wise, if anything will, and not rush on their own deep destruction, for days, and years, and ages past numbering, Psal. 90. 12.) Nor to show you who must be reproved, and who must not be reproved (which is not to be done in this time, were it never so incident to the) Text, I will only show what rules every one must use in speaking to such as we are to speak to, and that in these three words only, namely you must use,  

1. Piety.  
2. Policy.  
3. Pity.   
Concerning Piety, Ye must  

1. Take the Word of Grace to them.  
2. Speak to the Throne of Grace for them.   
In doing the first of these, ye must do two things carefully:  

1. Bring with you the Lords Authority.  
2. Leave them with a possibility of mercy.   
1. For the first, ye must be careful, that ye do not vent or utter your own words; but the words of the living God, to show them their duly deserved damnation, and its extremity and eternity. Ye must show them the words of the Lord in the very Chapter and verse, as well as Book; And say, How? O how, will ye answer in the dreadful days of death, and of doom, these words which are the words which you must be judged by? What will you say, when the Books shall be 
Joh. 12. 48.  opened? and this text be brought against you? which telleth us that every one who lives and dies in the course you walk in, must be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, when he comes to render vengeance in flaming fire? what must the Lord tear out this leaf for love of you? which saith as ye evidently see, The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God? must He be so fare enamoured of you, as for your sakes to be false of his Word, who are so fare out of love with him, that you hourly not only transgress, but trample also under your feet his sacred Precepts & saving Promises? Surely this is the way to win them, to work upon them, if there be any way; to say with the Prophets and the Apostles, Thus saith the Lord, The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it, and What I delivered to you, I have received from the Lord. And I also (that I may awake and affect you) will follow the footsteps which I set before you, and to my six Rules premised, I will add this as it were a seventh, that is to say, that what I have said, they are not my words, but the words of the Lord he was the Master, I but the poor Messenger; the words I mean which I have had in the present Discourse concerning Tophet, or those torments, or fiery flames of hell, which The breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone kindles.  
2. For the second: when ye have told them of the terrible torments due to them, and almost at hand to swallow them up, and sink them down to the bottomless pit; ye must at length (lest they grow resolute, and wickedly desperate, crying, past help past hope, past cure past care; Let us eat and drink, for to morrow we shall die. Let us revel and riot, we can but be damned) I say ye must at length let them know, that if they come in, there is yet hope in Israel concerning this very matter; 
Ezra 10. 2. Prov. 1. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24.  ye must give them to understand, that Wisdom cryeth even to scorners, yea to those who have long (how long) delighted in scorning; yea let them know, that she cries not burn ye, as we would imagine, and would do in the like case also; But turn ye, and after Behold I will pour my Spirit on you. As I will pawn my precious soul that none of you all shall go to Tophet, if you yet repent and cleave to Christ, following the rules set before you, let your sins and lives in time past, be never so many, never so wicked. And be sure to put together, what the Lord hath there conjoined (to make them readily receive mercy, when the Lord in exceeding tender mercy tenders it) Because I have called and ye refused, I have stretched forth my hand, and no man regarded; I will laugh at your destruction, and mock when your fear cometh; when death beginneth to seize on you, and hell gins to swallow you, when you fall to that fearful Tophet, to that unmatchable, unquenchable fire, which The breath of the Lord as a river of brimstone kindles.  
2. But as you must take the word of grace when you do go to them, so you must go to the throne of grace before you go to them. Before you speak to them on God's behalf, speak to God on their behalf, to bless your counsels and comforts to them. And surely as those Ministers who following their master's footsteps use to pray in private, before they preach in public, have the secrets of God revealed to them and exceedingly edify and profit their people; whereas they do little good, yea have their gifts and graces whither, who make not their prayers in chambers, before they meddle with Scriptures in Churches. (O 'tis, 'tis the pouring out the soul to God, which makes a man speak with power to God) So ye, if in self-denial ye cast down yourselves before the Lord, and before his footstool, when you see a fit person, a meet man or woman to work on, saying, Lord thou hast hearts in thy hands, and hast wisdom and words ; O tell me, shall I speak to him, and if yea, make me able to speak to him, give me an heart, and words of weight worth the speaking; and give him grace to receive my warning from thee in deepest mercy, from me in dearest love. O bless them sweet father, breath with them, that they may help that precious soul from the lake of fire and brimstone; thou hast freely given me an heart to desire and seek their escaping hell. But thou desirest and seekest it infinitely more than I, or any man, or all men, who hast said and that as thou livest, I desire not the death of 
Ezek. 18.  the wicked. O be with us, be all to us, in speaking, hearing, doing, that the poor precious soul to whom I am now going, may not go to the fire of hell, which the breath of the Lord as a river of brimstone kindles.  
And thus of the Piety which must be used in your helping poor neighbours from hell: Now the Policy which must be used consisteth also in two particulars. Ye must  

1. Give them their own Commendations.  
2. Draw from them their own Condemnation.   
For the first of these, ye must always remember to observe what good thing they have in them, or what they do that is worthy of praise, though it be but morally or civilly good, towards the Church or the Commonwealth. And be careful to commend the good before ye begin to discover their danger, or tell them what dreadful damnation awaits them, if they be not bettered before their deaths. Thus not only did Paul deal with his people of Corinth, crying to them, I commend you Brethren, before he cryeth, I commend you not, when he speaks of their abuse of the sacred Supper, wherein they drink their own damnation, 1 Cor. 11. 2. But also our Lord six times in two Chapters together, cries, thou hast done 
Rev. 2. and 3. Chapters.  these and these things well, before he cries, I have somewhat against thee. And surely this will 〈…〉 all the wormwood: and gall in the words, though they favour never so strongly of extreme and eternal damnation. This will make them clearly conceive, that ye do not vent any malice in anger, when they see you as willing, as ready to commend what is good, as condemn the evil. And as ye must reward any good in your children, as well as correct them when they do evil (which correction is the way to keep them that they go not to hell below, as the wisest of men hath taught us seven times in his book of his Proverbs) so let every man say to his neighbour in whom he sees any show or shadow of good, when he goeth to be a means to five him from hell: Surely Sir, I must commend you, you govern well your wife and children, I do not see in them any loitering, nor heart from any of them any swearing or lying; you are careful for them, covuteous to us, free of your purse, full of honest hospitality: But I must tell you (that commending the good makes way, opens the care to receive any thing from the commender) that for all this you are not regenerate, you know not what appertains to a sanctified heart, which you must needs get before you die, or be sure to be damned when you die; had you more common gifts and graces than had Herod or jehu, or judas. Yea sure you must sound be converted, truly touched and troubled for sin, or all your formal fairness cannot keep you from the unspeakable, unquenchable flames, which The breath of the Lord as a river of brimstone kindles.  
2. For the other of the acts of holy policy, ye must make them condemn themselves by some pretty proper simile, such as this is. Say to him: I pray you neighbour, if your house were burning (which God keep you from) and you were fast asleep on a bed, or your body like to be burned, if you be not away: and then if one should come by you, and find you asleep in that danger, ought he to a wake you, yea or no, must he awake you or let you be burned? He cannot choose but answer, you ought, or else you show yourself an enemy; and then reply ye as the Prophet Nathan did to David: Thou art the man, to yourself belongs the simile; alas I see you asleep in your sins, your soul and body both are about to be seized on by death and damnation, And surely I should betray you if I should not awake you, and show you your danger. Or suppose you were asleep, and your body ready to be burned, and two men should come by you and see it; and the one of them should say to his fellow, let him alone, do not awake him, do not stir him, for if you do, he will swear and storm, rail and revile you with all vile and villainous reproaches: the other replies, I fear not his anger, I care not one jot for his raging and railing, all my fear is that he will be burned, all my care is, that he be not burned: Now which of these two was the truly merciful, truly pitiful man? why as sure as the Lawyer said, He was neighbour who shown mercy; as sure as Simon said. He to whom he for gave much, will love most: So sure would he say to him that asked him such a question; He was the merciful man who awaked me, and he cruel, who would not do it. Then say ye, Thou art the man, some flatter you for fear of losing your face and favour, but I will not suffer you to sleep in your sins. I will affright every vein in your soul and body, before I'll suffer, you through my default, to be cast to the fiery flames of hell, which The breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone kindles.  
And thus of the acts of Policy. Now pity must also be used in speaking do others to help them from hell. And because the time is past that I cannot come to the comfort which come to the Saints from this holy doctrine (for out of this strong comes sw●●● and Gods children from hell's extremity and eternity, may gather the excellency and eternity of heaven, may be sure they shall not be thrown into it, may with more patience endure any misery on earth, may be the more joyful in their escaping such terrible torments, as well as more certain of them escaping them, etc.) I say because I want time to deliver those and such like holy comforts from the serious thought of the doctrine of hell's extremity and eternity. I will end it as I began it, in pressing the using Pity, when we warn men and women to take heed of it. As I told you at the beginning, that I should speak hereof with compassion, so in the end I call upon all to use the like commiseration, as our Lord and his Apostle did, when they told of destruction and damnation. Many walk (saith blessed Paul) whose end will be 
Phil. 3. 18.  damnation, and I tell you of it weeping. The enemy shall cast a bank about thee (saith Christ) but he said it with weeping eyes, for when he drew now to jerusalem, be beheld the City and 
Luk. 19 41.  wept over it. As it is related of Bias the Judge, that he never sentenced any man with dry eyes. Show to them whom you do admonish, that you speak to them of hell, and of their going to it, if they turn not, with grief of heart, with groaning in spirit; knowing that the wrath of man doth not accomplish the will of God, (as the son of thunder hath taught us) not 
James.  at all that part of his will, wherein he binds us to do our utmost in keeping poor souls from the wrath to come, from the place of torments, the fire of hell, of which it is said in the Text, that the breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone kindles it.  
FINIS.   

WHen this last Sermon thus was brought to end,  
Our Vincent from the Pulpit did descend  
Into the Pew; and blessed be our Lord,  
Who so much graced this Preacher of his Word,  
That though his foes exceedingly desired  
To interrupt him in it, and conspired  
To that same purpose: yea besides although,  
They had both power and policy enough  
To do it; yet they could not for their heart  
Touch him, or cause one person to departed  
Till he had finished. But when that was done,  
His foes by heaps did at the Church door run 
John 18. 1. Rev. 11. 7.   
To do him mischief; And a wonder 'tis,  
(But that we certainly may learn by this,  
That God had other work for him to do,  
And better souls for him to preach unto)  
That knife, or Halberds, or that press of men  
Had not destroyed his smoking body then.  
But blessed be God at length he got away,  
And preached at Mary magdalen's that day  
Ith' Evening: And since that (by God's great power)  
Full many a Sermon he hath preached in our  
Great London City. But no thanks to you  
Ye preaching-hating, bloud-desiring crew  
Of sottish slauderers; yea sure you should  
Be sharply punished, for what you would  
But could not compass; that you so might be  
A warning unto others and to me.  
Idem A. F. qui scripsit This was the Sermon, etc. Qui punit, ponit.   

MR. Packington before the justices required me to produce the testimony of some Ministers of my own Country, I therefore am compelled to produce this, written by them, and subscribed every one with his own hand.  
WE whose names are underwritten, do certify, that Mr. Humphrey Vincent, whom we have known for a good space of time, is of a very honest life and conversation; he hath at our desires at sundry times preached in our several Cures; The Lord hath endued him with singular gifts which he hath denied to his Brethren, although faithful in their places. Indeed he is one of a thousand, either to break, or to bind up (by God's help) a broken heart. He is a john Baptist to humble and to lay low a proud exalted spirit. He hath been sent for to preach in many places about us, where we have heard his Doctrine hath been sound, and his carriage as a Minister of the Gospel; and we hope he hath done much good in our Country.  
In witness whereof, we Ministers of the Gospel have put to our hands.  

John Needham. Preacher of Stafford.  
Seth Wood of Armitage  
Samson Newton of Canck.  
Thomas Thomas of Beckbury.  
William Fletcher of Albrington.  
Simon King of Codsall.  
William Brew tun of Nosehall.  
George Baxter of Wenlock.  
William Peake of Shemton.  
Robert Ashton of bednal.  
Deliverance Fenny house of Shassal.  
John Chapman of Dunn●ngton.  
William Madestart of Bridgnorth.  
Thomas Mocket of Newport.  
Roger Linsh of Norton juxta Canck.   
All these Preachers of the Word.