Inf. 2. How afflictive and intolerable are inward troubles. Did Christ complain so sadly under them, and cry, / thirst f Surely then thev are not such light matters as many are apt to make of them. If they so scorched the very heart of Christ, dried up the green tree, preyed upon his very spirits, and turned his moisture into the drought of summer, they deserve not to be slighted, as they are by some. The Lord Jesus was fitted to bear and suffer as strong troubles as ever befel the nature of man, and he did bear all other troubles with admirable patience ; but when it came to this, when the flames of God's wrath scorched his soul, then he cries, / thirst.
David's heart was, for courage, as the heart of a lion; but when God exercised him with inward troubles for sin, then he roars out under the anguish of it, "I am feeble, and sore broken ; " I have roared, by reason of the disquietness of my heart. My " heart panteth, my strength faileth me : As for the light of mine " eyes, it is also gone from me," Psal. xxxviii. 8, 10. "A wound- " ed spirit who can bear P Many have professed that all the tor- ments in the world are but toys to it ; the racking fits of the gout, the grinding tortures of the stone, are nothing to the wrath of God upon the conscience. What is the worm that never dies but the efficacy of a guilty conscience ? This worm feeds upon, and gnaws the very inwards, the tender and most sensible part of man ; and is the principal part of hell's horror. In bodily pains, a man may be relieved by proper medicines ; here nothing but the blood of sprinkling relieves. In outward pains, the body may be sup- ported by the resolution and courage of the mind ; here the mind itself is wounded. O let none despise these troubles, they are dreadful things !
Inf. 3. How dreadful a place is hell, where this cry is heard for ever, I thirst ! There the wrath of the great and terrible God flames upon the damned for ever, in whicli they thirst, and none relieves them. If Christ complained, / thirst, when he had con-
* For then the devouring flame burns up those whom carnal pleasure pollutes. Then they are cast into the infinite open gulph of hell. Greg.
SERM. XXXIV. THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. 497
flicted but a few hours with tlie wrath of God ; what is their state then, that are to grapple with it lor ever? When millions of years are past and gone, ten thousand mil lions more are coming on. There is an everlasting thirst in hell, and it admits of no relief*. There are no full cups in hell, but an eternal, unrelieved thirst. Think on this ye that now add drunkenness to thirst, who wal- low in all sensual pleasures, and drown nature in an excess of lux- ury. Remember what Dives said in Luke xvi. 24. " And he " cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send " Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool " my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.11 No cups of water, no bowls of wine in hell. There, that throat will be parched with thirst, which is now drowned with excess. The songs of the drunkard turned into howlings. If thirst in the extremity of it be now so insufferable, what is that thirst which is infinitely beyond this in measure, and never shall be relieved ? Say not it is hard that God should deal thus with his poor creatures. You will not think it so, if you consider what he exposed his own dear Son to, when sin was but imputed to him. And what that man deserves to feel, that hath not only merited hell, but, by refusing Christ the remedy, the hottest place in hell *.
In this thirst of Christ we have the liveliest emblem of the state of the damned, that ever Mas presented to men in this world. Here you see a person labouring in extremity, under the infinite wrath of the great and terrible God lying upon his soul and body at once, and causing him to utter this doleful cry, / thirst Only Christ endured this but a little while, the damned must endure it for ever : in that they differ, as also in the innocency and ability of the persons suffering, and in the end for which they suffer. But, surely, such as this will the cry of those souls be that are cast away for ever. O terrible thirst !
Inf. 4. How much do nice and wanton appetites deserve to be re- proved f The Son of God wanted a draught of cold water to re- lieve him, and could not have it. God hath given us variety of refreshing creatures to relieve us, and we despise them. We have better things than a cup of water to refresh and delight us when we are thirsty, and yet are not pleased. O that this complaint of Christ on the cross, / thirst, were but believingly considered, it
* An English merchant living at Dantzic, related this story to a godly minister, That a friend of his (a merchant also) went to a convent, and dined with the friars there ; their entertainment was very noble. After he had dined and seen all, the merchant commended their pleasant lives ; yea, said one of the friars to him, we live gallantly indeed, had we any body to go to hell for us when we die. Mr. Firmin's Real Christian.
428 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. SERM. XXXIV.
would make you bless God for what ye now despise, and beget contentment in you for the meanest mercies, and most common fa- vours in this world. Did the Lord of all things cry, / thirst, and had nothing in his extremity to comfort him ; and dost thou, who hast a thousand times over forfeited all temporal as well as spiritual mercies, contemn and slight the good creatures of God ! What, des- pise a cup of water, who deservest nothing but a cup of wrath from the hand of the Lord ! O lay it to heart, and hence learn content- ment with any thing.
Inf. 5. Did Jesus Christ upon the cross cry, I thirst ? Then be- lievers shall never thirst eternally. Their thirst shall be certainly satisfied.
There is a threefold thirst, gracious, natural, and penal. The gracious thirst is the vehement desire of a spiritual heart after God. Of this David speaks, Psal. xlii. 1, 2. " As the hart panteth after " the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My " soul thirsteth for God, for the living God : When shall I come " and appear before God ?" And this is indeed a vehement thirst ; it makes the soul break with the longings it hath after God, Psal. cxix. It is a thirst proper to believers, who have tasted that the Lord is gracious.