next minute is our own and that he therefore who neglects his salvation to day may without danger put it off to to morrows consideration God has told us that his Spirit shall not alway strive with Man but as he offers to every one a space to repent so there is a time too if we omit that opportunity when there shall be no longer any space for it AND how can any of us tell that this hour is not the last wherein God will give us his grace for so great a work so that though we should live to see the next yet that then our sentence shall not be found already pronounced and we shall not be able to repent though we never so much desire it 3. SUCH obligations therefore have we all immediately to consider our ways and turn our feet to God's testimonies But Madam it has pleased his great goodness to lay more than ordinary ties upon you to do this He has taken you off by a peculiar instance of his Mercy from the vanities and tempations of the World He has disabled you from falling into many sins and calls upon you to watch against the rest He has brought you to an early knowledge of your self and of him at an age when most others are the servants of sin and creatures of vanity He has given you opportunity from the writings and conversation of the best Men to understand your duty your danger and your interest And Madam what you ought above all things to bless him for he has given you a heart too to receive instruction and that is desirous of his glory and though after so many better means as you have had of informing your self how to proceed in this important business after the knowledge you have attain'd and the progress you have made there is little need for me to add any thing on this subject yet I know I cannot better satisfie your piety or discharge my own duty than by laying before you in a short view a prospect of your labours through which you have so long been travelling and are now so nearly come to everlasting life 4. AT the first Creation when God created Man upon the Earth he planted in him a Law teaching him his whole Duty he gave him besides a positive Law not to eat of the fruit of the tree of Knowledge and to perform this he added a perfect strength and ability whereby he might for ever have lived without the least sin had Adam done this his perfection the Knowledge and Ability God created in him had still continued and after a certain period of years which God should have determined he had been rewarded with an assumption to eternal felicity 5. THIS is that which is usually called THE FIRST COVENANT which Adam fatally breaking by his disobedience soon forfeited and came short of that Glory which God had prepared for him yet it pleased the Lord to enter into a SECOND with him the tenour of which was That the Seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpent's head i. e. That Christ taking our nature upon him and so becoming the seed of the Woman should perform that Covenant of unsinning obedience which Adam broke and yet being faultless undergo a shameful and ignominious death for him and his Posterity and so bruise the Serpent's head i. e. deliver us from the power of the Devil who by this transgression had got the dominion over us 6. AND this is that Covenant we now live under the Promises of which are * pardon of sins through the blood of Christ * strength and grace to perform the conditions * and eternal glory to reward our labours This is what God on his part has declared to us for the requisites on ours what we must do to obtain these blessings that is the great business of us all to know and the peculiar design of this place briefly to consider 7. WHERE first I must lay down this for your encouragement that we are no longer now tied to the heavy yoke of a perfect unsinning Obedience not to have committed any deliberate sin nay or even to have persisted in a habit and course of it but it is * a sincere endeavour to perform whatsoever God enables us * an unfeigned Obedience to the whole Gospel of Christ and * a hearty bewailing of our own infirmities as often as we come short of it with * a real desire and * true endeavour of doing better for the future 8. To enter on a minute consideration of this would engage me to lay before you a Summary of the whole Gospel of Christ But Madam this were to exceed the limits of my design you have abundant assistances for this Knowledge in those excellent books which you have chosen for the companions of your Travels Only because certain it is that the very best of us come short of our duty and stand in need of God's pardon and forgiveness I will briefly lay before you the method you are to take to obtain this in the particular consideration of those two great duties of Faith and Repentance Sect. I. Of Faith. TTHERE is scarce any duty which ha's been so obscured in the writings of learned Men as this I will not enter here into any of their disputes but briefly say what I think fit for your practice and performance of it 2. FAITH then is an assenting to or believing * the whole word of God but especially of his Gospel and of the * Commands * Threats and * Promises therein contained This is the nature of that Faith which is required of us and it is then perfect when it affords to every one of these that assent which is proportioned to it viz. 1. A firm assent to whatever the Gospel has revealed 2. an obediential submission to the Commands 3. An humble fear and awe of the Threats and 4. a fiducial relyance on the promises of it 3. To have the first of these you must in general firmly believe that whatever God hath said is infallibly true and though in particular there be many revelations which you cannot it may be understand the possibility of as that God became Man was born of a Mother still remaining a Virgin that he suffered and died and yet lives for ever yet must you undoubtedly conclude that since he has plainly told you these things are so you ought firmly to believe him seem they never so repugnant otherwise to your apprehension 4. To have the second you must in general assent to God's commands that they are most fitting just and righteous and that all men therefore ought diligently to fulfill them and in particular you must resolve that by the assistance of Heaven you your self will. 5. FOR the third you must believe stedfastly that these threats shall certainly as most justly they ought be executed upon all those impenitent Sinners against whom they are denounced and that except you take care to work out your Reconciliation
removed and there shall be no more any death nor sorrow nor crying nor pain We have a full account of this Heb. 12. A place so satisfactory that I will transcribe only one passage to engage you to recur your self to the rest My son despise not thou the chastning of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him for whom the Lord loveth he chastneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth But Fourthly 6. Let us look into the Ages that have gone before us LET us consult our own experience in the present we shall find the observation of our Apostle ever to have been verified that the best men generally fall under the severest pressures Our Saviour Christ was our forerunner in this trial as well as in the reward that accompanies it He began as we ought to follow after and for the joy which was set before him endured the cross despising the shame Which of his holy Apostles escaped this trial What numbers of the Primitive Saints were under the perpetual persecution of the most malicious enemies that Hell could raise against them for many hundred Years They were stoned they were sawn as under were slain with the sword they wandred up and down in sheeps skins and Goats skins being destitute afflicted tormented and yet were these the Men of whom the world was not worthy whom we ought with comfort to look up unto and run with patience the race that is set before us 7. THESE considerations though I have as I ought proposed in general terms yet I am sure Madam you will not fail by a particular application to bring them home to your own concerns and for your easier performance I will go on if you please to make yet a reflection or two that may fortifie you in it 8. IN enquiring into the goods that you have lost or the evils you either fear or suffer I shall not trouble you with an Enumeration of that which I know you despise the flatteries the courtship the other vanities of the World The very loss of these is a happiness almost equal to what you undergo for it And though that Beauty which yet others I perswade my self valued too more highly than your self was a Blessing which you owed much to Heaven for yet the additional ornaments you have hereby the opportunity of making to your Soul will in the end give you a more solid satisfaction and as much chain to you the affections of the good and wise as the other attracted the eyes of the rest 9. FOR your present distemper it is God be thanked neither so troublesome for the present as to take you off from all satisfaction nor I am willing to perswade my self shall it prove so dangerous in its consequence as to deprive you of all hope of seeing your self again in your former health only disciplined and instructed not utterly cut off by sickness 10. HOWEVER let us suppose now as well as fear the worst Is there any thing particular in dying young Do not thousands every day do it And have you known none in health and vigour who have pitied your condition and behold they are themselves gone before you even since you fell into this Distemper And what is the harm then of this that you have fairer warning than others who are unexpectedly cut off and so have a better opportunity as well as greater engagements to cultivate your Soul and provide for your latter end To dye is no pain to leave this World is only to get quit of a troublesome place where you could never find any ease or quiet any solid satisfaction and comfort To go to Heaven is to be transferr'd to that Kingdom you have ever long'd for to enjoy all the glories of eternity to become company for Saints and Angels and behold the Blessed presence of God in whose presence there is fulness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore 11. THE truth is the greatest part of your misfortune is founded on the opinion of the World we fools esteem these things evils and this makes others believe they really are so But the good Christian who considers them only as necessary passages to a glorious immortality that through this dark scene of fansied horror sees a Crown and a Throne and everlasting blessings prepared for him joyfully receives his Summons as he has long impatiently expected it goes off out of the World as contentedly as the Actor when the Play is ended leaves the Stage His only concern is whilst he appears upon it so to demean himself that he may have a Plaudite at last and then 't is all one whether his part ended in the Third Act or continues on to the very last Scene 12. SUCH Madam are your Obligations to this first Duty and the performance of them will especially engage you to these three things 1. Never despair either of Gods blessings here or of his reward hereafter but go on as you have begun fulfil your duty as he has commanded embrace his promises with Faith and assurance and for the rest leave it in his hands as in the hands of a most merciful Saviour who himself became Man and suffer'd Death upon the Cross for our sakes and by that stupendious act of Mercy has taught us ever to rely in all things upon his Goodness 2. Murmur not at your sickness for thereby you will sin against God's Providence and Government but submit with peace to what you suffer and pray for your deliverance I do not say you should affect a rude insensibility Sighs and Groans and mournful expressions this is the sick Mans proper language David roared for the disquietness of his soul our blessed Lord himself in his last and sharpest pang of sorrow cryed out with a loud voice before he gave up the ghost There is nothing in this but what is innocent and though too much of it may betray your weakness yet whilst you keep still a resignation to God's disposal it cannot be imputed to you for any sin 3. TAKE heed of that which is the general fault of sick persons and which a long disorder almost unavoidably brings with it and that is Peevishness This will but render you uneasie to your self and to those about you it troubles your repose without doing you any good and is equally to be avoided both for the folly and for the sin 13. I SHALL close this reflection with one necessary remark which I desire you to apply to all the following That in speaking thus to you I am so far from charging you as guilty in this matter that I can sincerely say I believe the exhortation wholly needless only it was my duty in so important a concern to omit nothing that might any way be thought necessary and it will be your satisfaction to see how far you are advanced in your duty and your engagement to pursue that very little which you may perhaps find to
be still wanting CHAP. II. That you ought not to be amazed at the fear of Death THERE is nothing in the world more generally dreaded and yet less to be feared than Death Indeed for those unhappy Men whose hopes terminate in this life no wonder if the prospect of another seems terrible and amazing Hell is a place which the most resolute Soul cannot but tremble to think of how much more to enter into But for him who has lived well and who therefore relies on God's mercies for an eternal Salvation to shew this concern it betrays either much weakness or great doubt and either his faith or his hopes or both are less firm than they ought to be HE therefore that will not fear to dye must first be careful to live well 2. THE stroak of death is nothing Children endure it and the greatest Cowards find it no pain But when to this we shall add the certain apprehension of its being the gate to an eternal life then may we presume to say we have wholly conquer'd this King of terrours and sing the Epinikion of St. Paul 1 Cor. 15. O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly He must take off his Affections from this world 3. IT was the reflection of the Son of Sirach Ecclus 4. 1. O death how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a Man that liveth at rest in his possessions to the Man that hath nothing to vex him but hath prosperity in all things Whilst we please our selves with the vanities we enjoy here we cannot expect but that it must needs be a trouble to us to be divorced from them But let us only change the scene instead of these earthly transient goods let us raise our Souls to the Heavenly and Eternal then shall we begin to think the time long that we are divorced from them and wish for that end we before feared Tully tells us that Cleombrotus was so taken with this speculation that having only read in Plato the conjectures of that great Man concerning the state of the Soul after death he had not patience to tarry the tedious course of nature but by a violent death cut the thread himself that he might immediately enjoy what he so infinitely desired 4. NOR may we fortify our selves much less against the fear of death Thirdly From the Consideration of those evils it frees us from than of that happiness it transfers us to When the Great Emperor of Persia wept over his Army upon this Consideration that within the revolution of a single Age not a Man of all that innumerable confluence would be left alive Artabanus standing by improved his meditation by adding that yet all of them should meet with so many and great evils that every one should wish himself dead long before that It is the true character of our lives which Job once gave Man that is born of a Woman hath but a short time to live and is full of trouble It is the great blessing of Heaven that as our lives are very miserable so are they very short too and what we usually complain of as our misfortune we ought rather to congratulate as our happiness Had David died a little sooner How much trouble had he escaped which now he endured in the rebellion and death of his own Son and all the miseries of a Civil War that was raised against him Let any Man consult his own experience and say how many sorrows he had miss'd had God called him to his rest but a few years before and therefore whether the promise he has made to deliver the just from the evils to come ought not to be made our dayly prayer for its accomplishment rather than fill our Souls with terror at the apprehension But fourthly Death do's not only free us from misery but sin too 5. THE life of a Christian is a continual warfare full of dangerous conflicts and doubtful consequences Our lusts sollicit us the World encourages the Devil tempts us we fall often and are never secure But Death frees us from all danger sets us safely on Shore in our long-expected Canaan where there are no temptations no dangers no possibility of falling but eternal purity and immortal joys secure our happiness for evermore 6. THERE is yet an advice which may usefully be added here and it is this That since the time of our dying is uncertain we should every day expect what every hour may bring to us IT is our great unhappiness in this matter that though we live never so many years we are still surprized We put the evil day far from us and then it catches us at unawares and we tremble at the prospect But let us stand on our guard let us live like those who expect to dye and then we shall find these terrors very much lessen and that we fear'd Death only because we were unacquainted with it Philip King of Macedon had a Page constantly attending in his Chamber to tell him every morning as soon as he awaked Remember O King that thou art mortal 7. BUT to quit you wholly of this fear and that I may close this point too with something particular give me leave Madam to desire you instead of a thousand arguments to recur only to your own experience you have already lookt death in the face you are acquainted with it what have you found so terrible in it as to disturb the repose of a good Christian i.e. of such a one as your self I cannot without satisfaction remember the calm the quiet the peace you were then in when every hour seemed to tell you 't was your last Death is an enemy you have already met and already conquer'd you have pull'd out his sting by the preparation you have made for it and you know he has nothing now remaining that can injure or affright you Only maintain your conquest by securing your innocence and working out your Salvation and then you may with confidence undervalue that which so much terrifies the world and which yet all even those who the most dread it must in a little time meet whether they will or no. CHAP. III. That you ought to be careful to provide for another World. THIS is the great duty of our lives and ought to be the chief business of us all every day of them No Man knows what the next hour may bring forth and to put our Salvation and the hopes of eternity to so dangerous a hazard as we do when we procrastinate though never so little our working of it out with fear and trembling is to shew either a very unwarrantable presumption upon God's goodness or a very light esteem of our own Souls 2. OUR lives depend on so many curious parts and organs so many diseases assail them every moment so many accidents may take them from us that we can never say the