a sight of his Glory of the Riches and Divine Excellencies of the New Jerusalem but how much greater is thy priviledge for that which this Holy Apostle beheld in a Vision and a Dream God will discover to thee in Truth and Reality Let thine Heart listen and thou shalt hear the voice of thy Saviour calling already to thee feom Heaven as unto his Beloved Disciple Come and see Come my good and faithful Servant come my Son or my Daughter and I will shew thee my Glorious and Magnificent City I will shew thee the Palace of my Glory and all the Splendor and State of my Kingdom Come and I will expose before thine eyes all my Riches Treasuries and my most precious Crowns Come and I will cause the River of Living Water which proceeds from my Throne to run before thee and the Eternal Delights that proceed from my Face I shall shew thee all these Heavenly Treasures and Glory all the Angelical satisfactions not in the visions of the night in an extasy in an Holy ravishment of the Mind or in a Prophetical elevation of the Soul but I will discover them to thee in Reality and Truth by the assistance of a purer and more Glorious Light than that of the Sun I shall not only cause thee to behold this Glory these Treasures and Delight but I will cause thee to be partakar of them for ever for as thou hast pledged me in the Cup of my bitterness and sorrows as thou hast continued with me in my afflictions and hast been faithful unto Death I will give the Kingdom to thee as the Father hath given it to me I will give thee the Crown of Life and will cause thee to swim in the vast Ocean of the Eternal Pleasures Thou shalt not only see all my Treasures all my Pomp and Glory thou shalt not only behold the Rivers and the Seas of my most wonderful Delights and shalt be a partaker of them but thou shalt see me as I am in my Kingdom I will pull off the Vail that covers me and scatter the Clouds and Mists that hide me so that thou shalt look upon me without hindrance and behold me face to face thou shalt be transformed into my Likeness and be satisfied with my Resemblance You see therefore Christians that although Death appears to us grievous and ill-favoured we may apply to it what David said of Ahimaz that it is the Messenger of good news Notwithstanding its hideous Vail and Cloak of Darkness we have just cause to liken it to the Chariot of Fire that carried up the Prophet Elijah into Heaven From what we have said you may easily conclude with the wisest of Kings That the day of our death is better than the day of our birth for our Birth brings us upon a wretched Earth but death carries us into a Paradise of Heavenly Delights Our Birth exposeth us to several Encounters but Death lifts us up upon a Chariot of Triumph Our Birth expresseth from us Crying and Tears but Death makes us sing for joy our Birth brings us into the Light but Death causeth us to shine as the Sun our Birth makes us to live a sensual and animal Life of a short continuance but Death introduceth us into a Spiritual and Angelical Life that shall continue for ever In short our Birth casts us into the Arms of Death but Death leads to the Well-spring of Life Therefore the Apostle St. Paul confesseth that Christ is gain to him both in life and death Phil. 1. And for the same reason the Primitive Christians could not endure to see any person afflicting himself for the decease of Believers because that it was the day of their Deliverance Rest Glory and Happiness they did commonly forbid all manner of Mourning for they judged that it is not proper that we should cloath our selves with black and sadness for their sakes who are clothed in white and shining Garments of Light and Immortality They look'd upon this Life as upon a continual Death and upon Death as upon the beginning of a real Life Therefore they stiled the aniversary day of the Martyrs death The day of their Nativity From hence proceed the usual Songs of Praise which they did commonly sing to perpetuate their Blessed Memories I need not cause you to take notice devout Souls of the notable difference between the death of God's Children and the death of the wicked It is as great as between Heaven and Earth between Paradise and Hell Balaam had good cause to desire the one and fear the consequence of the other we have as much reason to cry out as he did Let me dye the death of the Righteous and let my last end be like his Numb 23. You have heard how an Heathen Prince made this address to his Soul My little Soul my little Darling Hostess and Companion of my Body Adrian thou art going to wander up and down in cold obscure and fearful places thou shalt never delight thy self in jesting as thou hast been wont thou shalt never give me any more pastime but when a Christian Soul goeth out of this mortal Tabernacle he may talk to it in another manner O my Soul pleasant Hostess and Heavenly Companion of this crazy Body thou canst not wander out of thy way for thou hast a faithful and a knowing Guide Thou art already in the blessed company of Angels that shall bear thee upon their wings thou art going to a Noble place enriched with Light and Glory and blessed with the sincerest and most Heavenly Delights Thou shalt meet with no more Sorrows Grief nor Displeasure which so often disturb thy quiet here upon Earth Thou shalt rejoyce for ever with all the Glorified Saints and sing Songs of Praise and Thanksgiving for ever with all the Celestial Spirits O my Soul how great is that Glory and Happiness which thou mayest justly expect from thy God who hath both an infinite Power and an infinite Mercy and Goodness seeing that he hath endeared thee unto himself by giving his own Life to free thee from Death and Eternal Damnation If your friends or rather your enemies in this occasion weep and are grieved at your departure if they labour by their Tears and Sighs to move your Heart and to perswade you to remain yet here below speak to them as St. Paul did to those that wept about his neck What mean ye to weep and to break my heart Acts 21. St. Paul was then in his journey to Jerusalem where he was to be bound and imprisoned and to be carried to the City of Rome where he was to dye upon a Scaffold by the separation of his Head from his Body notwithstanding St. Paul's friends comforted themselves with this expression The VVill of the Lord be done And what mean ye my friends will ye hinder me from going up to an Heavenly Jerusalem at the Gates whereof I must cast off all these Chains and Fetters of Mortality I must leave
passionately love and because there is not one thing here below that can express unto us the Glory and Happiness of Paradise so many perfections are not to be found in one only thing Therefore the Holy Ghost gathers together all the Excellencies Riches and Beauty scattered about in the inferior Creatures and borrows the Ideas and Notions of those things that are rarest and most glorious and that give us the greatest pleasure and satisfaction to represent unto us Heaven's Glory To begin in the first place with the word Paradise it signifies a delightful and a pleasant Garden it is often made use of to express to us the Joys and Happiness of the life to come and to make us sensible that what we have lost by Adam is restored to us by Jesus Christ Our Lord and Saviour who is goodness it self shall bestow upon us another Eden another Garden of pleasure watered with living water in the midst of it is the Tree of Life that brings forth its Fruits every moneth instead of an earthly Paradise subject to change we shall find an Heavenly and an Unchangeable Paradise The earthly Paradise is no more to be seen it is thought that it was swallowed up and destroyed by the Waters and Deluge but the Heavenly Paradise can never be destroyed by the most furious Fire nor by the most swelling Waves It is above all the Winds and Storms and Tempests therefore St. Peter assures us That it is an incorruptible inheritance that fadeth not away It hath no need of an elemental Water for it is watered every where with the River of living Water that proceeds from the Throne of God and the Lamb. And whereas Cherubims armed with a flaming Sword stood at the entrance of the Earthly Paradise to hinder Adam from approaching near to the Tree of Life and from gathering of its Fruits Now whole Legions of Cherubims are to carry us up upon their wings to the true Tree of Life which stands in the midst of the Heavenly Paradise and Jesus Christ himself the Prince of all the Angels of all the Cherubims and Seraphims promiseth to admit us to partake of its delicious Fruits by these blessed words To him that shall overcome I will give him to eat of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God It is the common custom of Men to have an high esteem of beautiful and great Cities whereof the buildings are stately and the Inhabitants many Therefore the Jews were wont to boast of Jerusalem and to call it The City perfect in Beauty the joy of the whole Earth Therefore the Holy Ghost represents unto us the Glory and Happiness of Heaven by a City which he names Jerusalem And St. Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews mentions the same comparison for when he had said That Abraham by faith sojourned in the Land of Promise as in a strange Countrey dwelling in Tabernacles with Isaack and Jacob the Heirs with him of the same promise he adds immediately after For he looked for a City which hath foundations whose builder and Maker is God and a little after God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City Heb. 11. And in the 12 Chapter of the same Epistle he speaks to Believers in this manner Ye are come to mount Sion and unto the City of the living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels And elsewhere We have no continuing City here below but we seek one to come Heb. 13.14 God is pleased not only to describe unto us our future Paradise under the general notion of a City and of Jerusalem but he declares unto us its Heavenly Beauty its Glory and Magnificence you cannot find a richer and a more excellent Image than that of St. John who himself had been a spectator of the new Jerusalem and had beheld all its rarities and wonders for when the Angel who had in his hand a Golden Reed to measure this Glorious City had said unto him Come I will shew thee the Spouse the wife of the Lamb. He carried him in the Spirit to an high Mountain from whence he had a prospect of that great and Holy City Jerusalem which came down from Heaven from God decked as a Spouse prepared for her Husband having the Glory of God and his Light This faithful witness assures us that its Buildings and the Streets of this blessed City were all of fine Gold as bright as Chrystal its Foundations were of precious Stone it s twelve Gates were twelve Pearls at each of them stood an Angel of God This Holy City hath no need of the light of the Sun or of the light of the Moon for the Light of God enlightens it and the Lamb is the Light thereof there is no Temple therein for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it It is our delight to abide in stately and magnificent Houses and in rich and glorious Palaces Therefore Paradise is expressed unto us by a Dwelling and by a Palace which God himself hath built with his own Hands This is the Picture that the Royal Prophet represents unto us in the 65 Psal when he speaks of God's House and of the Holy place of his Palace And St. Paul doth the like in the 1 Cor. 5 Chap. when he saith We know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens And our Saviour when he was ready to leave the World he comforts his Apostles in this manner In my Fathers House there are many Mansions I go to prepare a place for you And St. John heard a mighty voice from Heaven saying Behold the Tabernacle of God with Men he shall dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself shall he their God with them Every one desires to be rich there be some that esteem it their chief Happiness therefore the Holy Ghost represents the Happiness of Heaven under the notion of Riches and Treasures our Saviour himself speaks of it in this manner in the 6 of St. Matthew Lay not up for your selves Treasures upon Earth where Moth and Rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal but lay up for your selves Treasures in Heaven where neither Moth nor Rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal Therefore when the Holy Ghost describes Heavens Glory and mentions Gold Pearls and precious stones it hath a regard to this consideration And because Men are for the most part desirous of Honors Greatness and Dignities and that there is nothing in the world more esteem'd than Scepters Crowns therefore the Glory of Heaven is express'd by a Kingdom by Thrones Crowns and Triumphs Our Saviour speaks in this language to his Apostles To you all who have continued with me in my afflictions I appoint a Kingdom as my Father hath
is by the vertue of Gods Divine Spirit which he hath bin graciously pleased to grant unto us and if the persons that we love and cherish as tenderly as your souls or those whom we are to reverence and honor labor to stir up the bowels of our compassion and to impede us in our Holy resolutions by base and earthly considerations let us tell them as our Saviour did to Mary Magdalene Le me alone for I am going to my Father John 20. Stop not my course for I hold already the prize and the promised Crown In short as Abraham let the Ram loose whereof the Horns were taken in a Thicket and offer'd it up in Sacrifice to God Gen. 21. Likewise let us free our minds from all worldly cares and carnal affections Let us offer them up all to God as a sweet smelling Sacrifice let us present them as a Burnt-offering consume them in the Flames of an Holy Zeal and love of his Divine Majesty When the Christian shall be thus prepar'd he shall never stand in fear of Death he will say to it with an assured countenance Come when thou wilt O Death I desire no reprieve for along while ago I have setled my affairs and wait for thee with patience the chief part of my self is not here below my Heart is already ravish'd into Heaven where God expects me with Arms wide open Therefore notwithstanding thy fearful darkness and the designe that thou hast to destroy me I will follow thee as couragiously and as joyfully as St. Peter did the Angel of Light that open'd to him the Gates of his Prison and freed him from his Chains Acts 12. A Prayer and Meditation for such as prepare for Death by a renunciation of the World O Infinite Lord of Heaven and Earth who dispossest of good and evil by thy Divine Providence and admirable Wisdom thou hast not suffer'd us to have here a lasting City that we might seek for that which is to come Thou dost discover before our eyes the vanity and unconstancy of all things under the Sun that we might labor to attain to solid and everlasting advantages Thou hast placed and reserved in Heaven an inexhaustible Treasure of Riches uncorruptible Crowns of Glory and Eternal Triumphs that thither we might transport our Heart and affections The source of Heavenly pleasures is with thee that we might always be athirst for the strong and living God and that we might desire with an Holy earnestness to look upon thy beautiful and glorious Face Most Glorious Creator seeing thou hast bestowed upon me an â—mmortal Soul suffer me not to be so wretched as to content my self with these mortal vanities and seeing thou hast made it of a Spiritual and Heavenly nature suffer me not to be so unhappy as to wallow in this miserable dust of the Earth or to cast my self into the puddle and dirt of carnal Lusts Give me Grace to renounce the World and all the Vanities that the World adores Give me Grace to possess all these decaying and perishing things as not possessing them that I may tramble upon all the pomp and glory of the Age that I may consider that the Gold the Silver the precious Jewels whereof the apparent beauty deceives the carnal eyes of Men is nothing else but hardened Earth that will crumble away and dissolve into Dust that I may remember that after my decease all these things will profit me no more than that vile Earth and the Stones that shall cover my dead Corps or the Wood or Lead which shall be given to it for a Coffin Give me grace to despise all the Honors and Dignities after which the Men of the World run so impatiently for they are but like a shadow that passeth away and like the smoak that ascendeth up put of our reach Pluck out of my heart the cares of this life and all solicitousness for the Earth that Death may never surprize me unawares and that there may be nothing to stop or hinder from going to thee when thou shalt be pleased to call me that my soul being totally disengag'd and freed from all these Bryars and Thorns I may be always ready at every moment to be offered unto thee as a living and a burnt Sacrifice The Children of Israel did fix and raise their Camp at thy Command Give me also Grace to be as ready prepar'd to live and dye to remain in this Tabernacle and to depart out of it when thou shalt send thine Orders and as this people did pass over the River Jordan with a wonderful joy to take possession of the promised Land O that I might also leave this miserable Wilderness with transports of joy to enter into the Celestial Canaan where the Milk and Hony of Divine Pleasures and of Eternal Comforts flow as in their natural Channel O God who art my portion and mine inheritance cast me not away with the men of the World whose portion is in this life Thou dost fill their paunch with thy good things they are full and leave sufficient for their Babes but for me all my comfort is that I shall behold thy face in Righteousness and shall be sanctified when I awake with thy likeness Amen CHAP. 11. The Fifth Remedy against the fears of Death is to renounce Vice and to apply our selves to the practice of Piety and Sanctification GOd is so wonderful in all his Works and he governs all his Creatures in such a manner that his very Enemies are constrain'd to acknowledge this Truth You have an excellent example in Balaam who beholding the Tents of the Children of Israel breaks out into this passionate wish Let me dye the death of the Righteous and let my last end be like his Numb 25. He was a wicked Varlot that loved the wages of iniquity nevertheless he perceived by that Prophetical Light with which his Soul was enlightened how sweet and comfortable Death was to such as addict themselves in this life to the service and fear of Almighty God and how different it is from the death of the profane Worldlings who give themselves over to their Lusts and Delight in the unlawful pleasures of the Flesh for as the Drunkards sleep with a disturb'd and unquiet fancy likewise such as are drunken and full with the base and rotten pleasures of this life if they be not hardened by Atheisme do commonly depart out of the World with strange frights and horrid gripings of Conscience that cannot be express'd It is otherwise with a good Christian for as the Handicrafts man who hath work'd all the day in his Shop and the Husbandman who hath wearied himself in following his Plow lays himself down at night in peace so it is with a good Christian who hath carefully attended the works of Piety and Mercy in this life he sleeps his last sleep with a great quiet of mind and satisfaction of soul as righteous Jacob when he travelled a journey to his Mothers friends with his Fathers