Life that 't is the time of tryal that God has thrown us into this World as into A Circle to exercise our selves in it and receive the Crown if we come off with Victory who so shamefully decline the Combat and are so far from obtaining the victory that we are scarcely to be brought but even to do any thing towards it 6. IN a word were it possible that the thoughts of Eternity but especially the near approaches of it by a mature age a crasy constitution or a violent sickness should amaze so many as we find it does make them so unwilling to go to Christ and receive the Reward of their Labours had they ever truly considered all these things and not rather with old Simeon sing their Nunc dimittis with comfort and assurance and cry out with S. Paul Phil. 1. 21. To me to live is Christ and to dye is gain and again v. 23. I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ. 7. WERE I now Madam to deal with any other than your self these and the like considerations would engage me before I entred on the following prescriptions to dispose your mind to a reception of them by shewing you the great interest we have in Eternity That our Lives are uncertain to be sure cannot be long here and that therefore we ought to hasten all we can before it be too late to examine our Souls and provide for futurity That all the little Objects we now pursue for which our ease our conscience nay our very Religion it self is sacrificed by us are but vanities and trifles neither worthy in themselves nor satisfying in their enjoyment But Madam your vertue and your prudence make all such preparations unnecessary formalities and instead of opening the way to the following Address by such insinuations I ought rather to apologize for my indiscretion in the whole undertaking which your piety prevents and which your dayly practice shews you already to understand beyond any thing I am able to offer for your assistance 8. NEVERTHELESS since it has pleased God to an excellent natural disposition to add yet other Obligations and by the troubles of this Life to draw you to himself to shew you worthy of his favour and I trust more highly to reward you in the next be pleased to give me leave this way to congratulate with you those Evils which so many are wont to lament and which no one more sincerely wishes if it please God to see you free from than my self and as you have done me the honour to command my attendance whilst you were with us here pardon me if I intrude upon your meditations a few of my most serious Reflections to supply my absence and be a testimony of that real respect wherewith I honour you now in your retirement CHAP. I. Of Contentedness under your Condition THO' I am infinitely distant from that excellent perfection which made the Primitive Christians glory in their tribulations and St. Paul rejoice in that sting in the flesh which God had given him as a peculiar Blessing from above yet is it really some satisfaction to me that I am not now wholly liable to that Censure which is so usually made on these occasions that 't is easie for any Man when he is well to give advice to them that are not It hath pleased God for the rashness perhaps of my usual discourse to make it at present very uneasy for me to speak at all I cannot but acknowledge his Mercy in the Admonition and if it please him altogether to silence me so That I shall not only as now speak with difficulty but wholly be disabled to open my mouth to any articulate utterance yet I hope he will give me grace even in my thoughts to praise him To consider the justice of his proceeding with me and to implore his pardon of what my sins have justly deserved 2. IT cannot be deny'd but that this is an exercise of the most difficult Nature and the Apostle himself confesses even where he most exhorts us to an acquiescence in it That no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous Yet considerations there are that are able to alleviate our greatest miseries and make us if not come up to the character of those who rejoyce in Tribulations yet at least satisfy the duty I am now recommending of being patient and contented under our sufferings 3. AND the first of these both in our practice and this Discourse ought to be To look up to that Hand that inflicts them IT is our great unhappiness when any calamities fall upon us that we are uneasie and dissatisfied and our whole business and project is how to remove them not to consider from whence they come Sometimes indeed if the cause be visible we discourse of it as of a chance or a misfortune but we stop at the instrument and never pass on to him that directed it the second cause we know but trouble our selves no further to recur to the first whereas would we seriously consider * that the Providence of God orders all the affairs of the World * that without his assistance we can no more get quit of our Affliction than but by his permission we first fell into it * that this unquietness therefore is a murmuring against his justice a rebellion against his Providence upon whom alone we ought to rely and whose mercy we should by all imaginable submission implore We should then acquiesce in his dispensation till it pleased his goodness to remove our evils cry out with old Eli It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good and as we dayly pray that his will may be done in Earth so by our submission shew that we truly desire it 4. LET us to this add Secondly That God delights not to afflict nor ever willingly grieves the Children of Men. * IT may be we suffer in our calamity the punishment of our sins and then let us not murmur at that which is the just reward of our deservings * Perhaps God proves us in this life that he may the more plenteously reward us in the next and how then shall we repine against his mercy which makes these light afflictions that are but for a moment work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory To be sure if we make that use of them which he intends if we repent seriously submit contentedly and serve him faithfully they shall turn to our advantage tho' the passage be troublesome yet is it secure and shall in a little time bring us ease and quiet and peace at the last 5. FOR let us not mistake the goodness of God nor imagine that because he smites us therefore we are forsaken by him but let us consider rather Thirdly That 't is the very Condition of all his promises through much Tribulation to bring us to his Kingdom That blessed place where all evils shall be
Preparation FOR DEATH Being A Letter sent to a Young Gentlewoman in France in a dangerous Distemper of which She died Numb xxiii 10. Let me die the death of the righteous and let my latter end be like his LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in S. Paul's Church-Yard 1687. Advertisement COuld either my desires or endeavours have prevailed for the suppressing of the following Letter it had been buried in the same Grave with her to whom it was address'd But being fallen into the Hands of her Relations after her Death many Copies were dispersed before my return into England and thereby a necessity put upon me either to publish it my self or to have the dissatisfaction of seeing others do it for me This being the true account of the Edition of this short Treatise I shall need the less Apology if there seem nothing in it for which it should be exposed to a publick view It was writ as a private Letter to a person of more Piety than Curiosity and without any prospect nay I may add more upon an assurance that it should never come to any ones sight but her own And therefore it ought not to be wonder'd if it appear with all the plainness and freedom which an Epistolary Stile and Character required For the rest as I can sincerely profess that it was no principle of vanity that led me first to write it so much less does any such Motive induce me now to publish it It was to serve a greater and better end I both then did and now do design it And if those who shall hereafter peruse it do it but with the same piety that she did for whom it was composed I am perswaded neither they nor I shall have any cause to repent us of our Labour Paris April 25. S. N. 1684. Madam THE Address I here make you how meanly soever I have performed it is yet so suitable to your circumstances and so well befits my character that I make no doubt but you will accept it with the same charity that I have designed it And therefore instead of making Apologies for my undertaking I will rather send it to you with my hearty Prayers that those few directions I have here put together may be as truly useful to you as I do assure you they were really by me intended for your service You are not Madam to expect in this short draught any thing but what you have often already heard and I perswade my self have long practised Religion is none of those things that change with the Fashion and accommodate themselves to the mode And though we have of late met with some who have endeavoured upon the foundations of Christianity to erect a new Scheme of Court-Divinity by making the way to Heaven both broader and smoother than it is yet both the projectors and those that follow them will sadly find themselves mistaken in the end when the one shall perish for betraying their Master and the others be condemn'd for not rejecting their Innovations But Madam if you find nothing new in the matter I am sure much less will you have any thing in the Stile and Method but what is plain and easie In such discourses as these he seems to me to speak most properly that expresses himself most clearly Some things indeed I should have added others have changed and have dress'd the whole with greater care but I had little time and much other business which I am sure you know to be more than pretence The rules yet I am confident are sound and useful and may as they are serve your devotion But if your abundance of better helps frustrate that design yet at least you will be pleased to esteem it an undoubted testimony of that sincerity with which I am Madam Your most humble and most obedient Servant W. W. INTRODUCTION THERE is nothing hath proved more fatal to that due Preparation we ought to make for another life than our unhappy mistake of the nature of this We are brought into the World Children Ignorant and Impotent we grow up in vanity and folly and when we come to be Men we are but very little more prudent and more considerate The whole of our Reflections terminates in this what course we are to take to pass our time some to get others to spend their Estates and when Interest or Inclination Friends or Fortune have determined the choice we are then entred in and our remaining business is to pursue this end to the best advantage for our present ease and our future establishment Thus are our thoughts and our desires wholly tied to this World we vainly project a settlement in it nor look we any farther than the little Interests and Employments thereof engage us 2. I AM sure Madam I need not say much to convince you who have had so many opportunities to settle this Reflection upon your own Experience and who I am perswaded have so profitably employ'd them that this is the just character of the far greater part of Mankind And for the unhappy influence of it to the Decay of Christianity I think it is not to be doubted that 't is the tying of our affections so much to this World that above any thing indisposes us to think of another Whilest we set up our Hopes and our Establishment here we either altogether forget or at least do not so vigorously consider That God has provided another and better place for us whither we shall in a very little time be transferred by him and for which therefore the great affair of our whole lives now should be to provide 3. IS IT possible to be imagined that we should see such numbers engage their lives and Labours some to heap together A little dirt that shall bury them in the end Others to gain an Honour that at best can be celebrated but by an inconsiderable part of the World and is envied and calumniated by more than 't is truly given Most to pursue the pleasures as they call them of their Natures which begin in sin are carried on with Danger and end in bitterness and scarce one that troubles himself about the Blessings of Heaven or at least lives as if he did so would Men seriously perswade themselves that they have here no abiding place no City to dwell in but are only in their passage to the heavenly Jerusalem their City which is above where alone true happiness is to be found and upon which therefore their thoughts and their endeavours ought chiefly to be employed 4. CAN we behold the vices and debaucheries of many the carelessness and irreligion of almost all and believe that the Christian World is seriously convinced of those great truths their Religion teaches them of A future life and A vast Eternity of rewards and punishments according as we observe or neglect the Duties it commands in This 5. How shall we believe that those Men are perswaded of the true business of this
and get out of the number of these unhappy creatures you shall certainly find your part in them 6. FOR the last you are infallibly to believe what God has promised especially that he will give pardon of sin and everlasting salvation to all humble and repenting sinners and for what refers to your own particular you are confidently to rely upon his word that if you perform your part Christ will never fail in his and that therefore you ought to fulfill those duties which he commands and to which alone this promise of Reward is given 7. IT is a question which my little experience lets me know do's oftentimes trouble very good Men that certainly their faith in this last instance is not right because they still find it accompanied with fears and doubts of their own Salvation But Madam you must consider that the faith which God requires in this matter is only this That he will certainly reward all those that believe in him and obey his Commandments This we are undoubtedly to assent to but now for the particular application of this Faith to our selves that deserves no more of our assent nor can indeed warrantably have it than what is founded on the serious consideration of our own performances Now though our conscience bearing witness to our sincerity may give us great cause to hope we are in a State of Salvation yet is it no part of any man's Faith undoubtedly to believe it Nay rather some degree of fear and trembling mixt with it may be a good means to secure us in our duty whilst a confident dependance is very often ill grounded and may create such a negligence as will certainly ruine us 8. LET your endeavour therefore be to fulfill God's commands to repent as often as you fail of it and to hope for pardon and acceptance of him Infinite reason you have for all this and this will be sufficient for your present comfort and for your future acceptance But if still either * the greatness of the danger or * glory of the reward * either your desires of becoming better * or a true and humble sense of your own unworthiness which is almost the perpetual case of the best persons keep your Soul under an awe and a concern and will not suffer you to rise up to that confidence which some Men I fear unwarrantably themselves pretend to I am sure unwarrantably require of others Assure your self that whilst you firmly acquiesce in the general belief That God will reward all them that love him and doubt of your self only because you fear whether you do this so well as you ought this doubting shall prepare you to receive the reward of your Humility but never bring you in danger of any punishment for your infidelity Sect. II. Of Repentance REPENTANCE is usually defined to be a change of mind an absolute entire conversion of our Souls from sin to God. It is not a thing to be done at certain times as when we give an Alms we exercise a particular act of charity but 't is a state of life and consists in a continual sincere practice of all those duties which God has required and a hearty sorrow confession and resolution of better obedience as often as we violate any of his commands 2. THE passage to it is difficult and uneasie It contains many steps which the habitual sinner will find it hard to overpass I shall here consider only four of the more principal and which are ever found in that Christian who truly lives in a State of it 3. THE first is To have a true sense of sin of its Odiousness and of its danger i.e. YOU must firmly be convinced that every sin you commit sets you at enmity with Heaven and will if not forsaken render you uncapable of it That to persevere in any evil course is the way to make you unhappy in this Life and shall certainly throw you into everlasting torments in the next Of all this you must seriously perswade your self and that not lightly and in general deceiving your own Soul but bringing it home to your particular concern in it affecting your mind and engaging your utmost endeavours to avoid that evil which is thus odious to God and thus dangerous to your Everlasting Salvation THE second step to this Duty is To have a hearty sorrow and contrition for your sin 4. AND this you must endeavour after not by being frighted and terrified and so upon that account troubled as often as you reflect on those infinite evils your sins are like to bring upon you There is no Man living so wicked but would do the same But Madam you must really sorrow that you have ever sinn'd That you have provoked so loving and merciful a Father That you have disobey'd so gracious a Redeemer and all to gratify your passions in some baser instance which you ought to abhor upon these grounds alone though there were no punishment awaiting your transgressions 5. NOR must this sorrow and contrition be only for the grosser evils of our unregenerate estate but even when we live best we must repeat it as often as we transgress the divine command nay we should employ it too even upon the weaknesses the frailties the pollutions of our natures our very proneness and inclination to sin for however these unconsented to are no actual transgressions yet are they matter of sorrow and grief to every true Christian and therefore ought to be part of his humiliation also THE third preparatory to this Duty is Confession 6. AND this so necessary to our pardon that we have no promise of any forgiveness without it To fulfill this you must not satisfy your self to acknowledge to God Almighty in general That you are a sinner but you must carefully remark and particularly enumerate also at least the several kinds of sin whereof you know your self guilty You must shew your sense of them by aggravating them with all the unhappy circumstances and heightning accidents of them and for the rest you must comprise your unknown and lesser sins under some such general confession as that of the holy David Who can tell how oft he offendeth O cleanse thou me from my secret faults 7. YOU will Madam doubtless expect that I should here add somewhat of another sort of Confession which I have sometimes had the honour to discourse with you about I then told you that unless some Accident rendred it so I did not esteem it absolutely necessary The expediency of it I must confess I ever much approved and have often wish'd others would do so too and the reasons I have at large given you may be summed up into these 1. That St. James has advised us to confess our faults one to another Chap. 5. 16. and pray one for another 2. If we have injured another then we ought to go and confess our fault to him as ever we mean to obtain the forgiveness of God. 3. But if our sin