^ The whole Turkish empire is nothing else but a crust cast by our Father to his dogs, and it is all they are likely to have, let them make them merry with it, said Luther. ^
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nobly attended and bravely courted ? or because he saw him go up the ladder with a gold chain about his neck and a scarlet gown upon his back? or because he saw him walk to execution through pleasant fields or delightsome gardens? or because there went before him drums beating, colours flying, and trumpets sounding, &c.? Surely no. Oh, no more should we envy the grandeur of the men of the day, for every step they take is but a step to an eternal execution ! The sinner is cursed, and all his blessings are cursed ; and who in their wits would envy a man under a curse ? Oh, how much more worthy of our pity than envy is that man's condition who hath all his hap- piness confined to the narrow compass of this life, . but his misery extended to the uttermost bounds of an everlasting duration ! Mai. ii. 2. But,
5. Fifthly, If there be a hell, then, Christians, spend your days in admiring and in being greatly affected with the transcendent love of Christ, in undergoing hellish punishments in our steads. Oh pray, pray hard that you ' may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of that love of Christ which passeth knowledge,' Eph. iii, 18, 19, — of that love of Christ that put him upon these corporeal and spiritual sufferings which were so ex- ceeding great, acute, extreme, universal and continual, and all to save us from wrath to come, 1 Thes. i. 10. Christ's outward and inward miseries, sorrows, and sufferings are not to be paralleled, and therefore Christians have the more cause to lose themselves in the contemplation of his matchless love. Oh, bless Christ ! oh, kiss Christ ! oh, embrace Christ! oh, welcome Christ ! oh, cleave to Christ ! oh, follow Christ! oh, walk with Christ ! oh, long for Christ ! who for your sakes hath undergone insupportable wrath and most hellish torments, as I have evidenced at large before, and therefore a touch here may suffice. ^ Oh, look up to dear Jesus, and say, 0 blessed Jesus, thou wast accursed that I might be blessed, Gal. iii. 13 ; thou wast condemned that I might be justified, Isa. liii. ; thou didst for a time undergo the very torments of hell, that I might for ever enjoy the pleasures of heaven, Eom. viii. 30, 34 ; Ps. xvi. 11 ; and therefore I cannot but dearly love thee, and highly esteem thee, and greatly honour thee, and earnestly long after thee ; and this is all I shall say by way of inference.
But, for a close, you will say, ubi sit? where is hell ? where is this place of torment? where is that very place that is so frequently called hell in the Scripture? That there is a hell, you have suffi- ciently proved ; but, pray, where is it ? where is it ? Now, to this I answer,
[1.] First, That it becomes all sober, serious Christians to rest satis- fied and contented with those scriptural arguments that do undeniably prove that there is a hell, a place appointed where the wicked, the damned, shall be tormented for ever and ever, though they do not know, nor for the present cannot understand, where this hell is. But,
^ Ps. ciii. 1, 2, and ii. 12; Cant. iii. 4; Eev. xiv. i, 5; Isa. Ixiii. 8; Gen. vi. 9 ; Cant. Tiii. 14.
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[2.] Secondly, I answer, Curiosity is one of the most dangerous engines that the devil uses to undo souls withal. When Satan observes that men do in good earnest set themselves to the obtaining of knowledge, then he strives to turn them to vain inquiries and curious speculations ; that so, if they will be knowing, he may keep them busied about unprofitable curiosities, l The way to make us mere fools is to affect to know more than God would have us. Adam's tree of knowledge made him and his posterity fools, Gen. iii. 5, 6. Curiosity was the bait whereby the devil caught our first parents, and undid us all. Curiosity is the spiritual adultery of the soul.^ Curiosity is spiritual drunkenness. So that, look, as the drunkard, be the cup never so deep, he is not satisfied unless he see the bottom of it ; so the curious searcher into the depths of God, he is unsatisfied till he comes to the bottom of them, and by this means they come to be mere fools, as the apostle saith, Kom. i. 22. Adam had a mind to know as much of God as God himself ; and by this means he came to know nothing. Curiosity is that green-sickness of the soul, whereby it longs for novelties, and loathes sound and wholesome truths ; it is the epidemical distemper of this age. Ah ! how many are there who spend their precious time in nice and curious questions ! ^ As, what did Christ dispute of among the doctors ? Where did Paradise stand ? In what part of the world is local hell ? What fruit was it that Adam ate, and ruined us all ? What became of Moses his body ? How many orders and degrees of elect angels are there? &c. Oh that we could learn contentedly to be ignorant- where God would not have us knowing, and let us not account it any disparagement to acknowledge some depths in Gt)d's counsels, purposes, decrees, and judgments, which our shallow reason cannot fathom, Rom. xi. 33. It is sad when men will be wise above what is written, and love to pry into God's secrets, and scan the mysteries of religion by carnal reason, Rom. xii. 3, and 1 Cor. iv. 6. God often plagues such pride and curiosity by leaving that sort of men to strange and fearful falls. When a curious inquisitor asked Austin what God did before he created the world, Austin told him he was making hell for such busy questionists, for such curious inquirers into God's secrets. Such handsome jerks are the best answers to men of curious minds. But,
[3.] Thirdly, I answer. It concerns us but little to know whether hell be in the air, or in the concave of the earth, or of what longitude, latitude, or profundity it is.* Let hell be where it hath pleased God in his secret counsel to place it, to men unknown, whether in the north or in the south, under the frozen zone, or under the burning zone, or in a pit or a gulf. Our great care should be to avoid it, to escape it, and not to be curiously inquisitive about that place, which
1 Curious inquirers haye always lain under the lash of Christ, as you may sec by com- paring these scriptures together : Job xxi. 22 ; Acts i. 6, 7 ; Luke xiii. 22, 24.
' Basil saith divers questions may be made about a very fly, which no philo- sopher is ever able to answer ; how much rather about heaveu, hell, or the work of grace ?
* Let us not be inquisitive where hell is, but rather let our care be to escape it, saith Chrysoatom.
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the Lord in his infinite wisdom hath not thought fit clearly to reveal or make known to the sons of men.