Man shall seriously consider That though he now gives himself the full swing and liberty of his unlawful pleasures and desires and denies himself nothing that his depraved Appetite can crave or suggest unto him yet these are but fleeting and momentany That when a few years are come he shall be taken from them and go the way whence he shall not return this will certainly imbitter his false joys and lay some restraint upon him in the Career of all his Sensual Delights On the other side when a good and holy Man shall consider that although in the ways of Vertue and Holiness he meets with many straits and difficulties he hath many fears and troubles within many trials and temptations without yet these will not continue long when a few years are come he shall be free'd from them all he shall go the way whence he shall not return This certainly will encourage him to persevere and to continue faithful unto Death This was that which afforded holy Job so much comfort in the midst of all his Afflictions He was in a very miserable Condition under the power of Sathan's Malice full of noisome Boils and grievous Pains laughed at and mocked by his cruel Enemies nay reproached and contemned by his nearest Friends as you may see a Catalogue of his Sufferings from verse the ninth to the 17th yet he still maintains his Integrity with the considerations of the shortness of his life and consequently of the duration of his afflictions saying When a few years are come then I shall go the way whence I shall not return from the words we may collect 1. The certainty of Death When a few years are come then I shall go the way c. 2. The uncertainty of the time of it When a few years are come The Prophet leaves it in indefinite he doth not say Such a number of years or in such a year I shall die but when a few years are come c. 3. The brevity of Mans Life Thought he mentions years yet they are but few When a few years c. 1. The certainty of Death St. Paul tells us Heb. 9.27 That it is appointed unto Men once to die and this Royal Decree of Heaven is like that of the Medes and Persians irreversible had Man continued in his primitive Innocence he should not indeed have died but when once Man put off that white Robe he became immediately obnoxious unto Death and God tells him Gen. 3. Dust thou art and to Dust shalt thou return The wages of sin is Death As certainly as we live so certainly shall we die Neither the Majesty of the Prince nor the meanness of the Peasant the Wealth of the rich Man nor the Poverty of the Poor The strength of the Mighty nor the holiness of the Pious can exempt from Death so that I may take up that Interrogation of the Prophet What Man is he that liveth and shall not see Death 2. The uncertainty of the time of it Astrologers by Calculating Nativities have pretended to foretell the Deaths of others as well as themselves but have seldom ever hit right in either and have been miserably deceived Our times are in God's hand This is one of the Arcana Imperis those incommunicative prerogatives God keeps to himself and dare any Mortal be so bold as to pretend to it God hath said that he comes as a thief in the Night and hath bid us Watch That of the hour and the season knoweth no Man and yet shall we say that we have any certainty of his coming Do we not see how many are daily snatch'd away by a sudden and untimely Death And yet shall we boast our selves of too morrow Infancy Childhood Youth Manhood and Ripeness of years can no more plead Exemption from Death than old Age so that you see how uncertain the time of it is 3. The brevity of Mans Life David observed that the days of our Age are Threescore years and ten and at most but fourscore and if we wade through many thousand Accidents and at last arrive to that Age it is still but short with respect to Eternity and we spend our years as a Tale that is told scarcely remembring when or where we began But it is not one of many thousands whose Lamp burn thus long to its lowest Basis but either the Oyl is consumed or a puff of wind hath blown it out long before What is our life saith St. James It is even a vapour that continueth but a little while and then vanisheth away David compares it to sleep which lasteth but for a Night to Grass which in the Morning is green and groweth up but in the Evening is cut down dried up and withered Lucian calls it a Bubble which by the next breath of wind vanisheth into Air. Homer a Leaf which if it be not gathered by the hand or eaten by a Worm or forced by the wind will wither and fall of its own accord at Autumn Pindar the Dream of a shadow what more vain unconstant short liv'd things than these Yet such is the Life of Man Well then might Job say When a few years are come then I shall go the way whence I shall not return From the words we may gather these four Corollaries or Observations 1. From the Example of this holy Man I learn that we ought to think of Death before it comes When a few years are come then I shall go the way c. 2. That we ought not only to think of Death in general but of our own Death in particular I shall go the way whence I shall not return 3. That it is the highest piece of Prudence to prepare for it before it comes because that after Death we shall not be able to return to amend or rectifie the deficiency of our former preparations I shall go the way whence I shall not return 4ly and Lastly That to a pious and innocent Soul the consideration of Death and never returning again to a troublesome and sinful Life is matter of great joy and comfort When a few years are come then I shall go the way whence I shall not return 1. As to the first That we ought from the Example of holy Job to think of Death before it comes There is nothing so much discomposes a Man or unfits him for the due Exercise of his Reason and Prudence in the conduct of any weighty Affair as to be surprized suddenly and without his expectation Even a sudden and profuse joy as well as an immoderate and unlook'd for grief hath cut off the thred of the lives of many What disorder and discomposure then will a sudden Arrest from Death make in the heart of that Man that never as much as thought on or looked for it before hand How will it amaze or distract him And turn all his Senses into Confusion If a Man had only one thing of great moment to do in his whole Life upon the success of which depended
well as America in England as well as Soldania yea in the cleerest times of Light and greatest Knowledg when Reason seems to be exalted to its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 highest pitch yet like the Moon at full by a strange kind of interposition of our sensual and brutish Appetites suffers the greatest Eclypse and all the use it seems to serve us for is to make us only more ignorant and less pious For how do Men now a days strain their Reason shall I call it or Curiosity rather to so high a peg endeavouring to find out hidden and abstruse Mysteries such as God hath not revealed and he thought fit we should be ignorant of How curious and inquisitive are they to find out how the World was made according to the Rules of Philosophy and how it is still upheld by the same natural Causes And they proceed so far till at length they lose both their Hypothesis and Reason too and because they cannot find how these things should Physically be will thence conclude they are not at all The Fool hath laid aside all his Modesty that he had in the days of the Royal Prophet then he dared not to make his Tongue the Index of his Mind and prate of his Folly but only tacitly in his heart said there is no God but now alass he out-braves the Sun at Noon day and not only his heart but his lips which should shew forth God's praise are become the Trumpets of his wicked Thoughts he dares boldly proclaim the No-being of Him who gave to him and all things else a Being and thinks it a certain badg of Gentility and the mark of a pregnant polite wit so to do But whether these brave Gallants think as they say will be no hard matter to determine for certainly though they may be so bold as to utter it with their lips yet they cannot with all their skill disband their own fears lest it should be otherwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no more than they can run away from their guilty Consciences nor yet quiet or satisfie their guilty Souls Otherwise what mean these secret Stings and Racks of Conscience That horrour of Mind and paleness of Countenance Those distracted and many times desponding thoughts when seiz'd with a fit of some sharp Disease and the apprehensions of their approaching death Quos diri consciafacti Mens habet attonitos sur do verbere caedit Occultum quatiente animo tortore flagellum Juvenal 13. Satyr Epicurus himself though he seem'd to disown a Deity yet confesses he feared nothing more than Death and the Gods One clap of Thunder shall force Caligula to run under his Bed and even the rough and stubborn Marriners in a Storm will cry every one unto his God The Satyrist of old observ'd it of such Hi sunt qui trepidant ad omnia fulgura pallent God hath imprinted a fear of punishment in the very hearts of Men which upon the Commission of any great Sin dogs them with secret pangs and horrours and though like the Wounded Deer they run every where to disentangle themselves Haeretlateri Laethalis arundo yet still the Arrow sticks fast Though they love not God yet they have a flavish fear of him and are forced with Juvenal to confess Esse aliquos manes subterranea Regna That there are some tormenting Spirits and a Kingdom of darkness The Prophet Isaiah excellently describes them Isaiah 48.22 The wicked is like the troubled Sea when it cannot râ—st whose Waters cast up mire and dirt There is no peace saith my God to the Wicked So that the Psalmist's Axiom is undeniable Psalm 58.11 Doubtless there is a God that judgeth in the Earth But lest these stout Hectors should still maugre all the impressions of Nature and convictions of Conscience which they endeavour as much as in them lies to stifle and silence continue to persist in those most Irrational and Atheistical Tenets let them laying aside all prejudicate thoughts consider with me the subsequent Reasons endeavouring to evince That the Existence of a God and a Providence in the World is as cleerly demonstrable as any Truth whatsoever The greatest Physical certainty that it is possible for any Man to have is from Mathematical Demonstrations as That every whole is greater than its part that of a Triangle its three Angles are equal to two right Angles that if you add equal to equals the result will be equal c. These Axioms I say are as undeniable and as certain as any we can speak of now that the Being of God is as certain as any or all of these will appear hence As first of all without this Concession of a Deity all things that are the Objects of Sense may quite delude and impose upon our understandings Cartes Princ. lib. 1. yea we cannot be assured of Mathematical Demonstrations themselves or any thing else that seems cleerest and truest to our judgments and apprehensions and we may be still in a Dream and not discover whether these things seemingly so demonstrable are really true or barely Phantasms Chimaera's and the results of our giddy Fancies for I must be first ascertain'd of the infallibillity of my Senses before I conclude that things represented to me by them are true and this it is impossible for me to be assured of before I have the knowledg of a Divine Existence But when I seriously consider and am assured that there is a God and that his chiefest Attribute is Truth which hath a direct Repugnancy to Deception and Error and that He will not cannot therefore impose upon and delude my Senses Hence is it that I infer the reality of them and thence conclude that all things that are truly represented to my Senses are indeed so as they are represented because God never obtrudes Falsities upon us under the pretext of Truth Neither doth it at all invalidate this Argument to assert that we are often deceived because that the Deception proceeds not from the Understanding but from our Will when we too rashly consent to things not clearly and distinctly understood Therefore all Mathematical Truths are not to be suspected and the Existence of the Divinity no more nay less to be doubted of than them Next of all it is plain and obvious even to the lowest Capacity yea known by the dim light of Nature that what at first had a beginning did not derive its being from it self but that there must be some super-intended Cause on which in respect of their Substance all other things do depend and which must have in it the Complement of all Perfections and that can be no less than a Ray of Divinity or rather God himself How perfect is every part of the Creation Who can tell where any thing is superfluous or any thing deficient And the more perfect cannot be produced from that which is less perfect as by its efficient and total Cause Therefore seeing such Beauties and Perfections as
multiplicity of Lusts and Sins insnared with passions amazed with fears divided between cares and impertinencies wearied with labours loaden with diseases afflicted with want evil spoken of with and without a cause I have had many disappointments and losses been unfortunate in my Friends and Relatives and which is worst of all I have been daily harrassed with many impetuous Lusts and Temptations My sins have prevailed against me I have displeased my God and wounded my own Conscience interrupted my hopes of Heaven and am continually tormented with evil and wicked inclinations I find still a Law in my Members warring against the Law of my Mind and bringing me into Captivity to the Lavv of Sin and Death Those things vvhich I vvould do I cannot do but those things that I would not do those I do O Wretched Man that I am Who shall deliver me from this Body of Sin and Death that I carry about me I am afraid lest my Faith should fail lest having received the Grace of God and tasted of the heavenly Powers I should again be entangled by the Snares of my old beloved Lusts and so forfeit all my right to Heaven lose the Reward of all my strict and circumspect Walking and not continue faithful unto Death But O my Soul there is something the remembrance of which alleviates my grief and sweetens this bitter Cup These my sorrows will not last long a few years are the most and they will suddenly come and then I shall go the way whence I shall not return I shall then cease to grieve any more cease to sorrow cease to fear and cease to sin any more for ever All tears shall then be wiped away from mine Eyes and there shall be no more Sickness nor Sorrow nor Death nor Crying nor Pain I shall then have perfect rest and joy peace and quietness without any interruption for in his presence is fulness of joy and at his right hand are pleasures for evermore Though the way be foul and troublesome yet the Journey is but short and the end will be pleasant and peaceable and this consideration shall make me go cheerfully away with my present burthen for when a few years are come then I shall go the way whence I shall not return Meditations before or at Dinner or Supper 1. VVHen you see the Table spread Meditate on Gods Fatherly goodness and providence towards all his Creatures what vast infinite numbers there are and yet he carefully as a loving Father for his Children provides for them all their Meat in due season 2. Meditate how much more gracicious God is to thee who hath richly furnished thy Table and prepared these his good Creatures for thee without any great care or trouble of thine whereas there are many thousands in the World far better than thy self who are sentenced to a necessitous Condition and are enforced daily to tug at the Oar to delve in the Dirt to wash their Faces and bathe their Bodies in their own Sweat and yet for all this must be content at last with course Fare and hungry Stomachs 3. Meditate that every Creature of God is good if it be received with Thanksgiving and that it is sanctified by the Word of God and by Prayer and therefore resolve always to implore his blessing on the same in the first place 4. Meditate that several of Gods Creatures lose their lives to preserve thine whose Nature have as great a repugnancy to Annihilation as thy own and as thou now feedest on them so the Worms shall shortly feed on thee and let this excite thee to be temperate in the use of them and so to eat and drink as may the better dispose thee for any service of God thy Neighbour or thy self Let not the daintiness of the Cheer tempt thee to Luxury remembring that it is the greater Vertue to abstain when there is the greater Temptation 5. Lastly Meditate that God who filleth things living with his goodness expects no other return but praise and thanksgiving therefore when thou hast eaten and art full have a care that thou forget not to pay him that so easie Tribute Occasional Meditations Vpon the sight of a Dying Friend IT was not many days since that we had sweet Commerce together and our Conversation was dear to each other we frollick'd it till the Night parted us and then our separation was as the shadow of Death We thought the Nights tedious and the Days long till we should be again happy in each others Embraces but â—o how soon the Scene is altered my Friend is arrested by a fatal Disease and is just expiring his last Breath I came to comfort him and to receive Comfort and Satisfaction from him but alass all that is left me to do now is to be only a witness of his dying groans to close his Eyes and to receive his departing Breath Those Arms that used to hug and imbrace me at our first Meetings are now become so weak and languid that he cannot shake hands at parting nor lift them up unto his Maker That Tongue that was formerly the Conduit of Eloquence and Charm'd all that heard him by its sweet and mellifluous Expressions into a sensible but silent admiration is now become mute and speechless that he cannot as much as take his Vltimum Vale or bid me farewell at parting Those Ears that were heretofore delighted with pleasant Discourse and melodious Sonnets are now become thick of hearing and cannot distinguish between the soft murmurs of some and the louder cries of other his mournful Friends nor can admit of the least comfortable Advice in this his greatest extremity His Eyes sometimes so sparkling and sprightly that they would not suffer the most minute Object to pass their Advertency are now become so dull and heavy that they can scarce peep out of their Casements to behold the most glorious Object nay not so much as to salute that Heaven which he is just going to be the possessor of That countenance which a few days since was so amiable and pleasant as to attract the Eyes as well as raise the Envy of all beholders is now so pallid and ghastly and his Cheeks so bedewed with Cold Sweats that his dearest Friends and Relations draw the Curtains about him that they may not contemplate his grim Visage In a word his brother Body the Receptacle of his Divine Soul and partner with her in all her Actions which till now kept an indissoluble Relation with it is turning into Dust and says to the Grave Thou art my Father and to the Worms my Mother and my Sister Job 17.13 Good God how great a change is this in so short a span of time This shall teach me to put a very slight estimate on all the imperfect Perfections of this World and to seek after those things which alone are truly valuable This shall teach me also to think often of my latter end and all the days of my appointed time to wait until
of the first Covenant The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works Behold thou hast now made my days as it were a span length and mine age is even as nothing in respect of thee and I am altogether vanity The sentence of Death hath passed upon all for that all have sinned And I who have had so great a share in sinning cannot but expect to receive the due Wages of it Death Only I beseech thee blessed God to make me wise now in the time of my Health and Srength to understand this and to consider my latter end Grant O Lord that by departing from every known sin by keeping Innocency and always taking heed to the thing that is right I may be in an habitual preparation for Death and find peace at the last Wean my heart daily more and more from the love of the World and worldly things and place my affections upon their right and more deserving Objects Heaven and Heavenly things that my heart may be where my Treasure is and that whenever I shall be called to part with them I may leave all without any murmuring or reluctancy and be willing and content to die Let every pain and sickness mind me of my last And that Death may not be a surprize unto me furnish my Soul with all those Graces before-hand which I shall have greatest occasions to make use of in my last Conflict Give me Repentance unto life not to be repented of A Stedfast Faith that worketh by Love towards thee my God and Charity to all the World A Firm Hope such as maketh not ashamed but may become an Anchor of my Soul entring even within the Vail True Christian Courage and Patience and a resolvedness of a cheerful submission to thy Fatherly Correction And Grant that in all things I may so put my Soul and House in order that when I come to die I may have nothing else to do but to die Let not my Death be unexpected untimely or violent if it be thy holy will And when it shall please thee to cast me on my last Bed give me Grace to search my Heart to renew my Repentance and Interest in Jesus and to compose my Soul for God Give me the opportunity and refreshment of thy holy Sacrament the Seal of the Divine Love the benefit of Absolution Some irradiations of thy Love and Favour in the assurances of pardon and peace together with a patient and comfortable expectation of the performance of all thy promises Let not the Devil take advantage of my weakness nor any of his Suggestions prevail upon me Let not his Accusations or my Sins distract me in my last hour but do thou interpose thy seasonable Relief O forsake me not when my strength faileth me but in the mid'st of the sorrows and temptations that I have upon my Bed let thy Comforts refresh my Soul O suffer me not for any pains of death to fall from thee And in my last Agonies when my Soul shall quit the ruinous habitation of my Body let thy holy Angels convey it into the Regions of a glorious Eternity where there shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying nor pain Grant this O merciful Father for the sake of him who by death hath overcome death even Jesus Christ my High Priest and blessed Redeemer Amen A Prayer for Sincerity out of the Whole Duty of Man O Holy Lord who requirest Truth in the inward parts I humbly beseech thee to purge me from all Hypocrisie and unsincerity The heart O Lord is deceitful above all things and my heart I fear is deceitful above all hearts O thou who searchest the Heart and Reins try me and seek the ground of my heart and suffer not any accursed thing to lurk within me but purifie me even with Fire so thou consume my dross O Lord I cannot deceive thee but I may most easily deceive my self I beseech thee let me not rest in any such deceit but bring me to a sight and hatred of my most hidden Corruptions that I may not cherish any darling Lust but make an utter destruction of every Amalekite O suffer me not to speak peace to my self when there is no peace but grant I may judge of my self as thou judgest of me that I may never be at peace with my self till I am at perfect peace with thee and by purity of haert be qualified to see thee in thy Kingdom through Jesus Christ Amen For Contrition out of the same Author O Holy Lord Who art a merciful Embracer of true Penitents but yet a consuming Fire towards obstinate sinners how shall I approach thee who have so many provoking sins to inflame thy Wrath and so little sincere Repentance to incline thy Mercy O be thou pleased to soften and melt this hard obdurate heart of mine that I may heartily bewail the Iniquities of my life Strike this Rock O Lord that the Waters may flow out even Floods of Tears to wash my polluted Conscience my drowzy Soul hath too long slept securely in sin Lord awake it though it be with Thunder and let me rather feel thy Terrors then not feel my sin Thou sentest thy blessed Son to heal the broken hearted but Lord what will that avail me if my heart be whole O break it that it may be capable of his healing Virtue and grant I beseech thee that having once tasted the bitterness of sin I may fly from it as from the Face of a Serpent and bring forth Fruits of Repentance in amendment of Life to the praise and glory of thy Grace in Jesus Christ our blessed Redeemer Amen Those whose Devotions are apt to be assisted by variety or are desirous of Forms for other Graces or more particular occasions may find a plentiful supply in the Books of the aforementioned-Pious Author in Dr. Tailor's holy Living and Dying but more especially in the Book of Devotions composed by the Reverend and Learned Dr. Patrick A Prayer to be used by any Pious Christian in these difficult times O Most just and holy Lord God thou art Righteous in all thy ways and holy in all thy Works I must needs confess that when I seriously consider the multitude and hainousness of my own Sins and those of the whole Nation which cry loudly to Heaven for Vengeance that it is even a miracle of Mercies that we have not long since felt the severities of thy Wrath in some direful Judgments but thou O Lord hast been exceedingly gracious and with much patience and long suffering hast waited for our Repentance and Amendment of Life but yet we have abused this Mercy of thine beyond all the former and have not returned unto thee And now O Lord seeing we would not be allured by thy Mercies thou art pleas'd to threaten us with the approach of thy Judgments which if thou wilt not avert O fit and prepare me for the cheerful Entertainment of whatsoever thy Wisdom shall think fit to