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any of these great Rites but they had a Solemn signification a signification as sollemn as the Type was So that there must be some great sense of this day of attonement I know it had a great fulfilling in Christ and in him as an Offering once for all that immediately Entred into the Holy of Holies with his own Blood to appear in Heaven for us It had very great parts of its accomplishment But there are other great Parts that are to be fulfill'd in his Saints and for them as in themselves And especially in this solemn Affliction So that as if any did not afflict their Souls they were to be cut off so now And in these things this day had many very remarkable Lines of the sollemn affliction and attonement that shall be in the very last parts of Time and near the state of the Kingdom of Christ 1. It was an Ordinance throughout the Generations of both Natural and Adopted Israel A Statute for ever that is until the very Kingdom of Christ. 2. It was in all parts of it Sabbattical prepar'd for the great Sabbatism of the Kingdom of Christ. 3. It was when the Holiest of all and the Tabernacle of the Congregation and even the Mercy seat and Altar were Purified and Reconcil'd not in themselves for they were separate and pure especially the Holy of Holies much more the Heavenly Antitypes But in regard of the Vncleanness of the Children of Israel For with relation to all the Saints and Servants of Christ even to the very last of them in this corrupt World of the First Adam they must be Purified and Reconciled that so God and the Lamb coming down with the Holy of Holies and Tabernacle to be with Men and to dwell among them may appear in visible Glory 4. That peculiar Sacrifical Rite of the Scape Goat on this day sent away into the Wilderness was a most lively signification of the final act of Oblivion and act of Amnesty upon all sin and the Curse for it born away into the Land of Forgetfulness and so perfect attonement made and all former Evils of the Curse Forgotten Esay 65.16 17. 5. It was followed immediately by the Feast of Tahernacles So great a Type of the Kingdom of Christ in the Trees of Paradise and the Paradisiac Branches when the Tabernacle of God is with Men as before When thus the Glory of the Attonement and Redemption of Christ shall come into open View and the Holy State fully purified from all Vncleannesses of the Saints and perfectly reconcil'd above manifest and reveal it self Before that there shall be a general Afflicting the Soul the most solemn Penitential that ever was in the world Script 2. The Second Scripture I urge to this purpose is Psalm 84.6 Who passing through the Valley of Baca or weeping make it a Well The Rain also filleth the Pools They go from strength to strength every one of them in Zion appeareth before God So Jerem. 50.4 5. In those Days saith the Lord the Children of Israel shall come they and the Children of Israel together Going and Weeping they shall go and seek the Lord their God they shall ask the way to Zion with their Faces thitherward This speaks a solemn weeping and mourning immediately before the going up to Zion as if the Rivers overflowed in this Day of Mourning with the Tears of the Servants of God as after some great slaughter with Blood or as the Blood at the Battel of Armageddon shall come up to the Horse-Bridles of Christ and of his Saints upon their VVhite Horses of Triumph So before this the Pools and Wells shall be fill'd with the Tears of Saints in their Day of Great Mourning and Repentance Script 3. A Third Great Scripture I insist upon is Zech. 12 12. In that Day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddo And the Land shall mourn every Family apart and the Families that remain apart This Prophecy is most apparently by all that went before and follows after a Prophecy of the Kingdom of Christ and for that Kingdom of Christ there is so great a mourning as in preparation to it There shall be a Spirit of Grace and Supplication an admirable universal Grace of Repenting in all parts of Repentance poured out upon the Israel of God in Jerusalem looking on him whom they have peirc'd and so long Rejected and a joynt mourning of Convert Gentiles represented by the Mourning of Hadad-Rimmon or of the very glory of Assyria known by the name of their God Rimmon and their Dedication to his Glory this Mourning of the Gentiles shall be in Megiddo as in Israel for all their Idolatries and Crucifying of Christ in his Witnesses slain in Spiritual Egypt of which that excellent Prince Josiah slain in the Cause of Assyria by Pharoah King of Egypt was a Type and so lamented by both Israel and Assyria Israelites by Nature and Adoptive Israel in that great day shall mourn and it shall be so deep and sincere that all Families shall Mourn not only together but apart They shall not Mourn for shew form and Company or need that Natural Excitation of Mourning the seeing one another Mourn but they shall Mourn apart The Royal Family signified by the House of David the Prophetick Families signified by the House of Nathan the Priestly Family signified by the House of Levi and Scribal Families signified by the House of Shimei and the converted Gentiles signified by the Families that remain the usual Character for the Heathen Nations Because Israel in God's account is the principal The Remnant whom the Lord our God shall call Joel c. 2.31 and the Residue of Men even all the Gentiles as the Apostle James Acts 15.17 interprets Amos 9.11 Now in this Day of the great mourning and afflicting the Soul this Day of attonement there shall be an opening the Fountain for Sin and for Vncleanness for the washing of the Robes of all Saints and making them white in the Blood of the Lamb that as it is granted to them they may be arrayed in Linen white and clean which is the Righteousness of the Saints Rev. 7.14 c. 19.8 4. The last Scripture wherein I will draw up and sum this Point is Revelations 14.6 I saw another Angel fly in the midst of heaven having the everlasting Gospel to preach to all c. saying Fear God and give glooy to him by Confession Humiliation and Repentance At which time the Gentiles shall come from the ends of the Earth and say Our Fathers have inherited Lies and things wherein there is no profit Shall a man make himself Gods of them who are no Gods who have not made the Heavens nor the Earth the Sea nor the Fountains of Water This shall be when God this once that once when he is just ready to shake Heaven and Earth and this once signifies the doing it so that it shall never need to be done any
all natural voluntary and fortuitous as we Poreblind think them Causes work in and out of his hand For if in the Killing King Ahab a man drew a Bow at a venture or as in the Margin out of the Hebrew In his Simplicity without Design without Aim and yet it was directed to Ahab as by God's immediate Hand to fulfil his Word upon him How much more are all natural Causes directed by him 1 Kings 22.34 And those Things which he knows will with such extraordinary Amazes change the World he ascribes them more emphatically to Himself His Thunder his Lightnings I shake Heaven and Earth Let us then consider Why God does thus disorder Nature And I shall instance in these following Reasons 1. That when we see these Contests and Jars in Nature we may adore and praise the infinite Wisdom Power and Goodness of God who keeps All so much in Peace and Quiet For as great Engines or Machines that have various and cross Wheels and curious Works in them it requires as great Art to harmonize them at first so great care to keep them in order and as vast Armies call for the highest Spirit Wisdom and Conduct of the Generalissimo as Men speak to inspire them with Order Peace Regular Action in their several Stations so it is said of God Job 25.2 Dominion and Fear are with him He maketh Peace in his high and in his Deep Places also Is there any number of his Armies All which he yet keeps in Peace as he pleases Oh therefore that as in that Song of Praise Psal 107. Men considering All these Things well would make it ‖ Glory to God the Foot of every Thing Oh that Men would praise the Lord for his wonderful Works to the Children of Men For we see by a little what great Things he can do Whoso therefore is wise and will observe these Things even he shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. For indeed That on which the Pride and Prophaneness and Insolency of Men is grounded is That God will still from Time to Time keep Things in the Quiet and Peace he generally does And if he does not they fall down into Death and Ruine immediately in his doing otherwise He therefore shews sometimes by such Disorders what he always does how he exercises Long-suffering Loving kindness in the Earth for if he did otherwise Nature would be always cracking in pieces and if it were so What could the greatest Monarchs say to it Would they stay his hand or would they render him a Recompence for not doing as they think he should and ought to do Their Recompence he would speedily return upon their own heads God therefore shews How all the World is bound and beholden to him by shewing at such Times what he can do without any Controul and yet does not and what he does in maintaining Order and Peace when none can compell him to it if He did not please to do so 2. Men loath what they have constantly as if it were no Argument for fear of God as if God were tied to do so but think at least such Wonders of extraordinary Power which they do not see every day would like one from the Dead move to Repentance But even this depends on Grace That he may give Witnesses and Demonstrations of his Wrath Justice and Power to either as he pleases punish and execute Judgment from Heaven or move to Repentance For as he gives Fruitful Times and Seasons that he might not leave himself without witness of his Goodness leading to Repentance so of his Wrath and Justice to necessitate Men that way For all these Things Preach Repentance and Reformation aloud and for that End I have thus superadded to the Discourse of Repentance 3. That God may give notice of any great Changes he will make in the World that are near at hand and which within any little Time he will make in it he gives Warning by Earthquakes and other unusual Things For so in spight of all that can be said to the contrary God hath generally usher'd in any great Changes he hath made in the World by such Signs and Wonders in Heaven and Shakings of the Earth beneath and therefore with great Right he cloaths his Denunciations and Threats of such great Judgments in such Language of Thunder and Lightnings and Earthquakes A very remarkable Instance we have of this in the Prophet Amos. When God was about as it were to Ride a Circuit in Judgment upon the Nations for Three Transgressions and for Four even upon each single Nation or People Amos dates his Prophecy two Years before the Earthquake in the Days of Uzziah Amos 1.1 How general that was is not known to us But there is plain importance God first began to give notice of his Judgments by Amos his Prophecy in his two first Chapters That not prevailing to Repentance he gave a loud Alarm by the Earthquake which it is most probable was as general as those Nations threatned by Amos. Then follows the Judgment it self on the several People nam'd and executed by the Assyrian and Babylonian Conquests And why was there a mention of the Earthquake two Years after if God had not pleased to give that Intimation that an Earthquake was a fit Forerunner of that Judiciary Progress that follows in those two Chapters of Amos so our Lord Matt. 24. makes Earthquakes in Divers Places the certain Forerunners of the Desolations of Jerusalem 4. The Lord Jehovah is pleased to suffer Earthquakes because he hath determined upon this one Earthquake wherein he will shake not only the Earth but the Heaven also a great Earthquake such as hath not been since men were upon earth so mighty an Earthquake and so great wherein every Island shall flee away and the Mountains shall not be found Revel 16.18.20 And of this God foretold Hagg. 2.6 Yet once I will shake Heaven and Earth c. And in this Text Yet once more I shake not only the Earth but the Heaven also Where though the Apostle opposes the once more to the shaking of the Earth at Mount Sinai because that was to his present purpose yet it leaves room for that most sagacious Interpretation of Dr. Burnet in the forenamed Discourses That it is oppos'd to the shaking not only the Earth but the Heaven also in and by the Flood for in that he says once more it supposes that not only the Earth but the Heaven had been shaken before And when could that be but in the Flood the on purpose-Type of this as appears by what that excellent Person hath said on 2 Pet. 3. Although This shall be greater and to far greater purpose in the new Heaven and the new Earth to perfection Whereas That Flood brought forth a Heaven and Earth for the worse and Men grew as and more wicked but here Righteousness shall dwell and This shall be the greatest since Man was on Earth This is the Time of Trouble
sensible of For as in the most admirable Knowledge of his Almighty Hand he took up our Earth and poiz'd it and in the Doing of it did as it were say How shall I give thee up London How shall I make thee as Admah and Zeboim the Cities the Lord overthrew as Jamaica or Port-Royal My Heart is turned within me my Repentings are kindled together I will not execute the fierceness of my Wrath I am God and not Man I will not enter into this City Hosea 11.8 9. as into Jamaica Behold then on Them Severity to Us Goodness if we Turn to him in his Goodness and so abide in it or else according to ordinary Rules we must be cut off also And there is indeed most of the Power and Wisdom of God in doing so much and no more For a rude and unskilful Hand can Throw Down Spoil and Destroy but only an Understanding and Almighty Hand could weigh the Earth as in Scales and as in a Ballance lift up and set down in the very same place and state And how much more of Love and Grace to melt and soften us as if he had said Behold what I am able to do to Ruin you in a moment But I will only shew what I can Do and I will Do you no hurt Oh that this Riches of Goodness Long suffering and Patience might lead us to Repentance who himself staid his own Hand and said to Himself What am I doing when none else could and He did it not I come now to the Second Head I propos'd for the Improvement of our Thoughts on these Earthquakes in general but particularly of that but just a Motion of the Earth in this City and the Royal Camp and other parts beyond the Sea That it is predictive and foretelling of a great Change in the World And of this I give these following Arguments 1. It is beyond all denial most evident that Scripture makes use of Earthquakes as the Conveyance of its Description of the great Works and Changes God will make for the Kingdom of Christ till it appears That course of Earthquakes Providence hath been in of late years is surely a Declaration of those great Changes he is about to make first by the Succession of that Kingdom and then by its own Appearance For if first Christ convey his Kingdom by Earthquakes as Types and Pledges it is but reasonable to expect when he alarms the World with Earthquakes he has something to do more than ordinary in the Advancement of it else his so great use of them in his Word would be but as the sounding of the Mountains and Amuse in vain By the so often use of Earthquakes he teaches us to expect by them Seeing as on one side he uses Earthquakes in his Word to express great Things for his Kingdom by so on the other side he uses Earthquakes that are so in Fact to and in his Providence to foretell some Changes for his Kingdom following them according to his Word 2. The Nations and Places where this Motion of the Earth came are such as are closely concerned in the Change that God is about to make being either of the Protestant Profession or of the Ten Kings that yet give their Kingdom to the Beast That God was pleas'd therefore to guide the Motion of unquiet Vapors over so many Countries and Cities it was like the sending the Cup and Yoke in Jeremy to so many Nations on whom he would execute his Displeasure by Nebuchadnezzar Jerem. c. 25. c. 27. so now he hath sent by this Earthquake as it were by a Messenger to make known to the Nations his Kingdom so near For so mild and gentle a Motion that had nothing of Wrath and execution of Vengeance in its Commission seems entrusted only with so great a Notice And I cannot but hope and am even assured That this City is to bear so happy a Part in the Kingdom of Christ that it shall be preserved for his Servant David 's sake and that God in Christ is the Holy one in the midst of it 3. That which above all assures me so is That Sure Word of Prophecy that Time is so near for the Succession of the Kingdom of Christ which is by Prophecy describ'd by a great Earthquake that I can understand nothing by this Move but that Introducing or Bringing it in with the Call of the Witnesses and the Fall of the Tenth of the Great City For I cannot understand that there is Space or Room for any other Change but of That to the Kingdom of Christ entring into its Succession wherein all shall have the Advantages of Repentance and Reformation by the pouring out of the Spirit and the Preaching of the everlasting Gospel even to all the World and the Converts of that Time shall be as the Drops of Dew from the Womb of the Morning A Change of so great advantages to the World that none have any reason to be offended or to complain of the Tydings except They who hate to be Reform'd I desire no other Beauty of Feet or Face than to bring and pubâ—ish it It is all holy pure spiritual benign and beneficent to those who have but any Desires after God Christ and Goodness both in inward and outward Bounties There is greatest reason it should be daiâ—y prayed for and daily it is to be praised Verily It may be said Many Kings Prophets and Righteous Men have desired to see the Things that shall then be seen and have not seen them and to hear the Things that shall then be heard and have not heard them Oh therefore that this may be what this gracious Heave of the Earth does presage as I have great Assurance it does That there is no more danger by it than this That we should take notice This Earth with great Sedateness gave a Motion with joy as John Baptist in the Womb to foretell It is with all its Kingâ—oms soon to become the Kingdom of the Lord and of his Christ wherein Righteousness shall dwell That soon after upon a Purification from all Defilements the Heavens over it and it self may become a New Heaven and a New Earth and the Will of God done as in parallel as in that Heaven and upon Earth But though I have endeavoured to make good my way all along yet I would in the Conclusion give a more solemn Answer to the chief Objections I have taken notice of Objct. 1. Some of the sagacious Observers of Nature have so trac'd extraordinary Events to their Causes that they have foretold particularly Earthquakes by observing the Ripeness of natural Causes for them Answ 1. Whatever Observations the wisest of Mankind have made they are not able so far to penetrate the Screws of Natural Causes fitted to the necessitating one another to such Effects but that supernatural Agents may give a Lift to the Wheels of Second Causes that usually move but on Earth viz. in a natural way to move much above Earth that
dependences together with earnestest Application to the Grace of God These unclean Spirits therefore that dissemble a retreat return immediately and make a Prey of the deluded Soul Acts 19.14 c. 3. Although Heaven and Hell Happiness and Misery take up the thoughts of a true Penitent yet not separated from God and Christ but as it were compounded into the Sense of God angry and the desire of Attonement with him in Jesus Christ. Happiness and Misery considered apart are not the object of the gracious Soul But God and Christ considered apart are an infinitely sufficient Reason of Repentance The clear love of God upwards the Soul as a Father in Christ without Reflections upon Happiness is though not the single yet the paramount Consideration in Repentance unfeigned But Men a Dying are generally so over-possessed with the Terrors of an Eternal Suffering and meer desires of Freedom from pain and of well-being and so in haste that they generally miss these higher Considerations which being further off not only from corrupt Nature but even from natural Conscience are not commonly espied but therefore argue greater Sincerity and truth of Heart 4. The truest Repentance lies in the bosom of Faith the apprehensions of the Love and Goodness of God in Christ melt the Soul and give it most perfect Separation from Sin the most effectual Purification of the Heart all which express the height of Repentance Upon the soft Fire of the pardoning Goodness of God the Soul most kindly distils into repentant Tears Here flows that Spirit of Grace and ingenuous Goodness which bringeth forth the clearest and holiest Affection towards God But at the time we are now speaking of It is very seldom that either Horror or Presumption do not swallow all Presumption where there is little Sense or Judgment of the Case Horror where the Judgment is clearer and the Sense quicker for evey thing disposes now rather to Fear and to the Spirit of Bondage Rom. 8.15 and a Man naturally does all he does under a servile dread of God and his Eternal Justice And though there may be much mention of Christ and desire of Mercy through him yet it is but as a Malefactor convicted beseeches the Mercy of the Judge no otherwise than as of a Judge So such call out for the Mercy of God to pardon them but still as a Judge not with the Spirit of the Son sent into the Heart the Spirit of Adoption crying Abba Father Nor with that love that casteth out unworthy Fear Gal. 4.6 And indeed how can it be otherwise there having been no acquaintance with God in the way Job 22.21 but a long Enmity and the time now too strait for a free and full Consideration of the riches of Grace such as may still an awakened Conscience Fear presses in every way and shuts out Faith What can now redeem the Soul from this hellish Terror but a light from Heaven immediately darting into it a Grace above that Grace that ordinarily saves Men For a well setled Trust and Confidence in Mercy according to the general Rule is not but after some sad debates and experimental Consultations that have passed between the sense of Sin and the affiancing Acts of the Soul upon Christ This Repentance then is in great danger of missing the Spirit of the Gospel and falling into the Rank of those Repentances of Cain Esau Judas This I have endeavoured to shew that though we suppose a Dying Man to spread his Soul and Thoughts every way and to all the parts of Repentance yet it is extremely to be suspected there will want the true and right quality of them in regard of the very disadvantageous Circumstances wherein such an one is found and the great unfitness of the Soul at that time to begin to do anything worthy to which it hath not been before inured or if it did begin it would be much more unlikely to bring forth fruit as our Saviour speaks to perfection Luke 8.14 I add nothing of the Exercises of a full and well grown Repentance whereby it is daily espying the risings of Sin and suppressing them and filling up the Defects of Holiness and Obedience because they are not to be thought possible in the point I am now speaking of and I have already given a Resolution in that Case I shall now set my self to find out the low Causes that are alway to be suspected to have the great Influence upon such a Latter-end Penitency In general therefore we must take notice that there are several vapors of misapprehension rising upon the Soul when we are a Dying that do so disguise it to it self and disfigure the true face of it that from thence arise dangerous Mistakes concerning a Mans Condition towards God We see into how many shapes upon ordinary Occurrences we change and how easily we exchange them for quite different without any good Cause what continual Ebbs and Flows there are of the Humours and how do these cast the Ballance of the Superiour Soul One Man is every hour some several sorts of Men. How much more do great Accidents and removes out of one Condition into another alter us Which yet are but the sudden and just now state of our Minds upon such Alterations which not continuing we return to our former Figure Vnstable and weak as water Gen. 49.3 we take the form of every Vessel we are put into Who knows then whether his Dying Repentance be any more than the Mould not of his Mind but of his Dying Condition approaching him big with so great a Change We know many things befal us in our Lives which put a greater sense of Religion upon us than we find at other times and yet how variable are we our goodness at such times is as the Morning Dew and as the early Dew it goeth away Hose 6.4 How often are we from the occasions of Mercies Afflictions Fears Hopes good Discourses carried into high Apprehensions of God And we lose them again we know not how Now out of doubt a Dying Condition of any thing we meet with in the World is most apt to move us upon God and a Sense of him But can we think Those fleeting Shoots of the Soul that have no certainty are accepted for Repentance How strangely doth Melancholly and Oppressions of that transform Men which when it falls upon the Motions of Conscience gives us strong Imaginations of Eternal Things which yet being nothing but the cast of that Melancholly upon the Thoughts when that is removed they are quite of another hue It is evident the Mind sees much through the Body and the Representations are coloured by its Temper As the Eye sees through yellow or green Glass differently from the things themselves So the Serenity or Cloudiness of the Humours makes a different Reflection of things upon the Mind and the liveliness or heaviness of the Spirits incline us to very varying Apprehensions Now what time is more like to be so incumber'd with
against the old one beyond hope of Pardon whence Men generally receive this Recompence that Conscience is put into amuse having nothing at present to say against it And had this been the top of his Case that it had been thus could it have been saving Nay that it might possibly have been thus though indeed it had been otherwise yet this very liableness to such a mistake had unspeakably abated the rational Security and safety of his Condition so that there had remained good cause for Conscience to have mistrusted which way his Condition would have fallen to Eternity 3. The Third thing therefore that gave him and gives to all Ages undoubted Testimony of the Truth of his Conversion is the immediate attestation to that Truth and Sincerity of it This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Now that Repentance which enters into Heaven that passes into Paradise not hinder'd by those flaming Cherubs of Divine Truth that which is within the Door before the Master of the House is risen up and hath shut it to Luke 13.25 that is true Repentance and prosperous and successful how late soever But to know that it is true when it is so late needs a Voice from Heaven or something proportional to it to verifie it as is after to be urged The last thing I take notice of in this Repentance is the unparallellable Circumstance of time wherein it was accepted 1. It was in the time of a publick act of mercy to the World Joh. 3.16 God was in love to Mankind giving his only begotten Son Eph. 5.25 Christ was giving himself at this time Therefore that there should be an Instance and Monument of this Mercy seem'd condecent to so great and solemn a time 2. This Penitent stood close to that Sacrifice that was offering it self up to God He stood within the Savour the Odor the Incense of it That Sacrifice that purchases men from a vain conversation 1 Pet. 18. that draws down all the Blessings of Salvation that therefore the force of it should reach so near it self is not strange I know no nearness of place signifies at all How many saw his Miracles heard him Preach look'd upon him Dying without benefit yet was his Presence also as he pleased full of Divine effects That therefore there should be an experiment of so great a Balsom just as it was preparing was most suitable 3. It was in the time that Christ was triumphing over Principalities and Powers and making a shew of them openly upon the very Cross * Vicem versam reddidit Christus Diabolo quemadmodum Diabolus depravando hominem abstulerat de Paradiso sic Christus latronem confitentem erueret de inferno Ille de interdicto ligno praesumentem decepit Iste pendentem de poenali ligno redemit Aug. Serm. 122. De Temp. That he should bear off in the Field the prey taken out of the mouth of the proud Foe was very agreeable to the expectation so great a Conqueror raises Colos 2.15 But whoever considers the Thief on the other side not converted or saved will find Cause to observe The Salvation of Christ doth not sweep the World but is rarelier vouchsafed than we think That a man may die without going to Heaven That the mercy of the Gospel is most arbitrary and sovereign chusing and leaving That it depends not on humane Expectation or any Superstitious phancies that have been raised about the Cross of Christ for so much appears by one only taken here the other left though upon the Cross together with Christ and near him in the great and mediatory Act who that considers will not tremble to think of one left in his sins falling down into Hell from such a Heaven as Christ in his great Act of Redemption And although it may be truly said it was the fault and negligence and obstinacy of the Unconverted Malefactor that he did not use aright the Grace offered or the Light vouchsafed him yet it doth not alleviate the danger for it still remains very uncertain to whom God will give a Heart to use Opportunities aright though they have them from God with an equal Liberality as those that do so improve them But indeed the Supremacy of Grace is here very much acknowledged by all that a Ray of the Divinity of Christ with infinite kindness smote his Soul * Nova insolita quaedam divinae virtutis efficacia in exemplum omnibus seculis memorabile c. Grot. In locum I infer nothing from that increase the Evangelist Matth. c. 27.44 gives the Miracle That he was Converted after he had joined with the other Malefactor in reproaching Christ Because †Hieron In locum some Interpreters question it Upon the whole then of this Example let Men that would be befriended by a Dying Repentance examine whether these things found in this Example are like to meet upon them I will not say till there be a time Beneficium multis modis insigne non temere trahendi in consequentias exempli Grot. In locum a fulness of time wherein Christ shall again die for Sinners such a Repentance is not to be expected but I may safely say he that in the Observation of this Example trusts himself to a Dying Repentance should startle his Presumption with this Interrogation Will there ever be such a Conjunction as was here again while the World endures I come now to the last Head of down-right Arguments against committing our Eternal State to a Death-Bed Repentance 1. It is against all the Prudence and Providence of a Man seeing no Man knows what kind of Death he shall die whether it will afford him the possibilities of Repenting How many die suddenly and in so short a Breath that they have not time to desire Mercy in general How many of Apoplexies seizing upon the very Top of Sense at first Many by Phrensies have no rational Motions of themselves innumerable Accidents and oft-times made dreadful by the Wickedness wherewith they have been accompanied have snatch'd away Men in a Moment Such are taken away living and in his wrath before the Pots can feel the Thorns Psal 58.9 before ever those hasty flames of Motion towards God blown up for such an Extremity can be raised Such are taken in the very manner without so much time as to put off the Every-Day Habit of Sin like those that were carried out dead in their Coats Lev. 10.5 And though from the ordinary manner of Dying we may hope for the warning ordinarily given yet we see others surprized who have had the same reasons of Hope with our selves We cannot then without madness trust our selves to accident or boast our selves of to morrow of which we know not what is within it Prov. 27.1 seeing the future is wholy concealed from us They that make a Covenant with death and are at an agreement with Hell meet with nothing but Perfidiousness when the overflowing