stood the first Martyr in stead in the storm of his Lapidation and upheld good Jobs heart in an evil day and made him bear so bravely the ruine of a great Estate without repining 2. Eternal good things will stand a Christian in stead and do him good when he lyes upon a sick and dying bed A great part of a Christian's wisdom lies herein always to keep death in his thoughts and what ever escapeth his thoughts not to let death escape them â—â— says God himself Deut. 32. 29. v. O that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end Memento mori is a motto which some carry in their Rings that is the motto which every Christian should have engraven upon their hearts never to lay aside the thoughts of death The youngest have reason to keep Death in their thoughts as well as the oldest the day of death comes on a pace towards both young and old No sooner does any one begin to live but so soon does he also begin to dye Very careful were the ancients herein As some now will have their Coffins made in their lives time so would they have their Graves King Asa made himself a Sepulcher in his life-time 2 Chron. 16. 14. v. in the City of David So did Joseph of Arimathea John 19. 41. v. Some Heathens would walk among the Graves to put them in mind of death Some have had their Graves before their gates some had a dead Man's Skul presented at their Tables some have had cups made of dead mens skuls to drink out of The Romans of old used to put a Sergeant in the triumphant Chariot of their Generals to keep the triumphing Conqueror within the bounds of moderation and sobriety of spirit and make him even then to have death in his thoughts by crying to him Memento te esse â—ortalem Remember that thou art a mortal man Philip of Macedon directed his Page every morning â—o call at his chamber door with this morning salutaâ—ion Memento mori Remember Death If Heathens were thus careful to keep death always in their thoughts shall not Christians that believe the Doctrine of Eternal life have serious thoughts of Death Thoughts of death would make Christians to labor for such things as will stand them in stead at death As the thoughts of a Famine in Egypt made the Egyptian King to provide for that which would do Egypt good and stand it in stead in the time of the Famine Or as the Governor of some great Fort expecting a Seige will provide for what will do the Garrison good in a Seige that they may not then fear the beseigers that the greatest enemy that comes may not be a terror to them Death is called the King of terrors Job 18. 14. v. Heathens called it The most fearful of all fearful things Hence t is that the hearts of miserable men empty of Eternal good things are kept in straitness and bondage Heb. 2. 15. Through the fear of death all their life-time are subject to bondage some have been so afraid of death that they have commanded their servants not to name death in their hearing O Death that is as I said called the King of terrors is a terrible sight to all Even the godly themselves have a natural fear of death Because they have as all creatures a natural desire of self-preservation and this natural fear being concreated with Man in the state of innocency is not sinful And also because sometimes because their faith is weak and little little Faith will cause great fear Matth. 14. Why art thou fearful O thou of little faith But none more fearful of death then they who have made no provision for Eternâ—â—y that have contented themselves with an Heaven here and never labored for any thing of hereafter But having an intrest in Eternal good things then will sweeten the bitterness of death as the tree did sweeten the waters of Marah Exod. 15. 25. v. this will make a Christian not to be afraid of death At death to have God with us a good Conscience within us and to see Heaven and all those Eternal good things laid up in Heaven before us will do us good and stand us in stead then It was that which comforted David Psal 23. 4. v. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil And he renders his reason why he will not be afraid For thou art with me And as for a good Conscience that is a continual feast but it hath the sweetest relish at death When a man at that time is become like old Barzillai through age and debility 2 Sam. 19. 35. v. his senses of seeing tasting and hearing fail him yet even at that time the relish of a good Conscience will most refresh him I pass to the third viz. To see Heaven before us and might here referr the Reader to what I have said of that with the rest before but let me tell thee Christian such a sight as this will make a dying man look upon death with a smiling aspect it will make him welcom death I remember what I have read of Mandanius a famous Gymnosophist to whom Alexander sent Messengers willing him to come to the Feast of the Son of Jupiter meaning Alexander himself declaring also that according to his obedience he should be rewarded and if he refused he should be put to death The Philosopher first denying him to be Jupiter's Son answered the Messengers that for his gifts he esteemeâ— them worth nothing seeing his own Countrey could furnish him with necessaries and as for Death he did not fear it but wish it rather in that it was a change to a more happy estate So far did meer Philosophy carry men in the opinion of Felicity that death was not to be feared in that to good Men it was the way to Felicity a truth that a Christian may rely upon on better and more certain grounds then a Heathen can It made Seneca imbrace death saying as he bled to death Scalpello aperitur ad illam magnam libertatem via his death made but way to a greater liberty so does the good Man death it makes a way for that which is far better then any thing the world affords And should it trouble a Christian then to yield to death Suppose a Man's Landlord should turn him out of his house that he and his wife and children must lodg in the Streets would he not willingly submit to that person that would remove him out of his present habitation that possibly is but some smoaky hole a dark low and old Cottage and compassed about with bad neighbors into a lightsom large lofty lasting house and where he were sure to have good Neighborhood Would it not do such a one good to think of the exchange he is to make would it not make him willing to remove such an house will stand him in stead indeed And is not the
all but of a resurrection to a glorious and immortal life This so takes up the heart of the Apostle that no opposition no persecution shall deterr him in looking after it Witness Holy St. Bazil when Modestus the Emperours Lieutenant told him what he should suffer as confiscation of Goods cruel tortures and death c. He answered If this be â—ll I fear not Yea had I as many lives as I have hair on my head I would lay them all down for Christ and he can say with that Martyr that being very much threatned by his persecutors he replyed there is nothing of things visible nothing of things invisible that I fear I will stand to my profession of the name of Christ and contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the Saints come on it what will When he holds on to continue firm to such a resolution he is therein serious in both taking of it up and keeping of it afterwards ever having an eye at the glory of God and the eternal good of his own soul his resolution is not like that pretended resolution of the Scribe in the Gospel that soon vanished and came to nothing he comes to Christ and declares to him what his resolution was viz. to be a constant follower of him Master saith he I will follow thee whither soever thou goest Matth. 8. 19. But when Christ had told him what he must expect to meet with in case he should do what he had resolved on how he must look for no such temporal advantage as he had an eye at as profits and honors c. presently he recedes and falls off so as we hear no more of him but his resolution is rather like that of Maevius a noble Centurion of Augustus who being taken and brought to Antonius and demanded how he would be handled heroically answered Jugulari me jube quia non salutis beneficio nec mortis supplicio addue possum ut aut Câ—saris miles esse desinam aut tuus esse incipiam command me to be slain because neither the benefit of life nor the punishment of death can move me either to cease to be Caesar's Souldier or to begin to be â—hine what ever befalls him though a thousand deaths be threatned yet neither the hope of life nor the fear of death draws him from his resolution which thing discovers how much he esteems of these things and prefeâ—rs them before what ever the whole world affords As Jacob no way more discovered the sincerity oâ— his affections to Rachel then that he continued to love her notwithstanding all the hard usage he endured for her so no way does he more discover the great esteem he hath of Eternal good things then that he continues to labour for them notwithstanding all the hardship he meets with in labouring for them As Antimachus said when all his Schollers save Plato forsook him I will go forward for Plato is more to me then all the rest so saies he that is labouring thus one Heaven is more to me then all these things that I do suffer and endure 7. When he does this at all times improves every hour and minute of time le ts no time or opportunity slip and slide away without labouring for such things as will endure beyond a season 1. When he does it in the day time 2. When he does it in the night time 1. When he does it in the day time indeed the day-time is a working time then t is that Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the Evening Psal 104. 23. For each one in his place should in a literal sense say with Christ John 9. 4. I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day to be sure a long night will shortly cover us with its wings in which we shall not have the power to work Our King Alfred cast the natural day that is our ordinary day and night into three parts eight hours he spent in Prayer Study and writing eight hours in the service of his body and eight in the affairs of his Kingdome he was careful to spend every hour of the day The whole day is not to be spent in bodily labour some time should be set a part for actions of piety towards God and labouring after the eternal welfare of our souls this should be our work not only upon the Lords day but every day As David in his Psalm of thanksgiving to God 1 Chron. 16. 23. v. would have them shew forth from day to day his salvation so from day to day even every should a Christian be imployed about his salvation should a Christian be providing for Eternity especially in the Morning or first part of the day and also in the Evening or last part of the day 1. In the Morning or first part of the day Our Naturalists tell us that the most Orient Pearls are generated of the Morning Dew the best services and holyest endeavors of Christians are they which are performed in the days morning So soon as the Sun ariseth the Bee flies abroad to gather in her Honey so does the industrâ—ous Christian in this his Heavenly labor he â—â— careâ—ul to spend the morning well as the best way to put hâ—s heart inâ—o a good frame for the right expense and husbanding â—he day following I have read of a sort of Heathens which woâ—ship that as their God all day which they first see in the morning It is so with Mens hearts if they look upon God first and spend the morning with him â—e is likest to have all the day and their hearts will be best fiâ—ted to sâ—end the whole day in his service and in the affairs of the soul Even some Heathens have thus spenâ— the morning choosing the morning câ—iefly for Sacrifice The Persian Magi sang Hymns to their Gods at break of day and worshiped the Sun rising The Pinaâ—ij and Politij sacrificed every morning as well as evening to Hercules Publius Scipio that famous Roman of whom it was said Ejus viâ—â—â—rat dijs dedica was â—â—nt to go to the Capiâ—o every morning before he went to the â—â—at to converse with the gods before he would converse with Men to be imployed in Heaven before he wenâ— about any imployment upon Earth So true have Heathens found those words Aurora est auâ—ea hora the morning is called the Golden hour and fittest as for any imployments so especially for Religious imployments And when a Christian religiously spends the morning or first part of the day with God for the good of his Soul and in Heaven laboring for the things of Heaven that he may all the day after have God in his thoughts and Heaâ—en in his eye then is he taking pains for Eternal good things Many instances hereof might be mentioned out of Scripture even of those that chiefly labored for these things David highly esteemed of the morning for religious and heavenly exercise therefore saith he Psal 63. 1.
God knowingly But being in the Agony of Death and considering more throughly of his account he was to give to God fear struck into him and these words brake from him Oh would to God I had never reigned Oh that those years I have spent in my Kingdom I had lived a private life in the Wildreness Oh that I had lived a solitary life with God how more securely should I now have dyed how much more confidently should I have gone to the Throne of God What does all my glory profit me but that I have so much the more torment in my Death Christians experience the truth of what I am saying when you please When you hear of some such lying upon their Death-beds Go to such a one whilst he is gasping out his last breath and ask him What does the world do you good now do Riches profit you now do your great Possessions stand you in stead now does that which your cheifest labor and pains was laid forth upon do you good now Then you may expect to hear the words of a great Courtier who when he came to dye did most lamentable cry out Plus temporis operaeque se palatio quam Templo impendisse That he has spent more time in the Palace then in the Temple so they that they did all their life long spend more time and take more pains and labor for Temporal good things then for Eternal good things for Earth then Heaven but what they labored for so much does them but little nay no good now and makes them as he said have the more torment in their death O the Testimony of a Man's Conscience upon good grounds that he hath lived graciously been afraid of Sin walked according to the rule of Gods word labored cheifly not for perishing but Eternal good things will afford more joy and comfort in a dying hour then all the world can And I cannot think but that in cool blood not one amongst many that hunt after these things below so much but he will subscribe to the saying of the wise Man Pro. 10. 2. Treasures of wickedness profit nothing but righteounsness delivereth from death from Death Eternal to be sure 3. Temporal good things will do those who injoy them no good in the Grave though they possessed whilst living all the Riches of the Indies yet when they dye they can carry nothing thereof with them Naked came I out of my Mothers Womb says Job and naked shall I return â—â—ither Job 1. 21. v. Job brought nothing with him when he came into the world and to be sure he should carry nothing with him out of the world Job's wealth and great substance could not descend into the Grave with him hereunto agrees that in Psal 49. 17. v. read the 16. v. Be not thou afraid when one is made rich when the glory of his House is increased 17. v. For when he dyeth he shall carry nothing away his glory shall not descend after him Though to gain these things here Men weary their bodies perplex their thoughts rack their consciences and indanger their Souls yet carry they nothing to the grave with them so saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 6. 7. v. For we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we carry nothing out There is no man that is rich in the Grave more then another The King is as poor there as the basest Peasant in his Kingdom his Crown and Scepter his great State and glory follow him not thither no all differences end in the grave if we do search Graves and Sepulchers those chambers of Death we shall discover no difference amongst those bones we find there betwixt the Rich and the Poor the Master and the Servant the greatest Lord and the lowest Subject Sculls wear no wreaths or marks of Honor there Vetera fraugantur sepulchra ossa divitum agnoscas non opes Open the graves of rich men and see what is there you may find the Misers bones but not his riches Salandine that great Conquerour carryed nothing with him thither but his Winding sheet Alexander that would have been the greatest and richest Man in the world in the grave is lesser and poorer then the poorest man in the world It is remarkable what one reâ—ates concerning a Stone that was presented to Alexander the nature of it is said to be thus that being put into the one part of the ballance it weighed down whatever was put into the other part of it but if a little Dust were cast uâ—on the Sâ—â—â—e then eâ—ery thing weighed down the stone and he that brought the stone being asked what he meant by it he answered O Alexander thou art this Stone thou whilst thou livest doest weigh down all that are against thee and treadest down all before thee but when thou comest to dye and there is a little Dust thrown upon thee then every man will outweigh thee and then thou wilt be less then any man in the world Then his conquered Kingdoms then his large Dominions and great Treasures would not do him any good It was but a foolish action of one that I have read of and bespoke him to have an heart wholly taken up with the things of this world that being near death clapt a twenty shillings piece of Gold into his mouth saying Some wiser then some I 'll take this with me however 4. Temporal good things will do those who injoy them no good at the day of Judgment Where Luk. 21. 27. v. They shall see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory having Math. 25. 31. v. all his Angels with him Being ordained of God to be the Judg of quick and dead Act. 10. 42. v. For he hath appointed a day in the which he will judg the world in righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the Dead Act. 17. 31. v. And can I name the day of Judgment without putting all that hereof into a shaking fit of an Ague without causing their thoughts to be troubled the joynts of their Loyns to be loosed and their knees to smite one against another as Belshazzar's did at the sight of the hand writing upon the wall Dan. 5. 6. v. and without causing them to tremble as Felix did when he heard of the Judgment to come Act. 24. 25. v. Or as the people of Israel did at the giving of the Law with thundring in the Mount Exod. 9. Then those men that here could never be contented with their condition but would be higher and higher richer and richer greater and greater laboring only for Temporal good things but neglecting Eternal good things will wish they might be turned into beasts or birds or stones or trees or air or any other thing yea Nothing rather then be brought before the Judg at that great Assize held not for a particular County or Kingdom but for the whole World to hear
begin his happyness and feoffe him in that glory which he cannot but for ever injoy This made holy Basil so resolute in his answer to Modestus the Emperor's Lieutenant when he threatened him with death Death saith he is a benefit to me it will send me sooner to God to whom I live to whom I desire to hasten This made that noble army of Martyrs mentioned in Ecclesiactical History such Lambs in suffering that their persecutors were more weary with striking then they with suffering This made them slight the sentence of death go cheerfully to the stake and leap into beds of Flames as if they had been beds of Down and to suffer the most exquisite deaths and torments that ever the wit or malice of men or divels could invent or inflict upon them 3. Eternal good things will do a Christian good and stand him in stead when he shall be brought to stand at Christ's tribunal in the day of Judgment when all the world shall be on fire about his ears and all earthly glory shall be consumed yet our Saviour encourages such then to look up and lift up their heads for their redemption draweth nigh Luk. 21. 28. v. We have seen the man injoying Eternal good things upon his death-bed not shrinking or trembling at death sed post hoc judicium but after this the Judgment Heb. 9. 27. v. whither if we follow him though he stands at Christ's barr yet not fettered in chains like a Malefactor expecting a dreadful Sentence neither trembling at Judgment to come as Felix when he was a Judg upon the bench did when he heard St. Paul preach of Judgment to come The Epicures Atheists and those debauched ones that now Hector it out so stoutly in the world and brave it in a way of all manner of Voluptuousness both in despite of God and men these would be glad if death were ultima linea rerum the last line of all things that when they dye and lye down in their graves there might be no Resurrection As Solomon calls the Grave a long home Eccles 12. 5. v. they could wish it were rather an everlasting home and that the grave might never give up her dead Rev. 20. 13. v. But as death is a sleep so it might be an Eternal sleep that there never might be any more Evigilation or waking out of sleep It would please them to hear the grave called Invium retrò sepulchrum a place that had no regress thence and they could wish from their hearts the doctrine of the Saduces against the Gospel were as true as the Doctrine of Jesus Christ in the Gospel Jesus Christ in the Gospel tells us both of a day of Resurrection and a day of Judgment but the Saduces teach that there is no Resurrection no Judgment nor Judg as these wish there were not so dreadful are the thoughts of that day unto wicked men This day will be the greatest for terror to those who never possessed more then this world but the greatest for joy to those who not contented with this world had their hearts taken up with the great things of another world When the greatest part of the world shall be sent trembling to Hell being doomed to everlasting Flames and for ever to remain in the same condition of the Divels themselves then they shall go triumphingly to Heaven be actually stated in an everlasting happy condition and for ever delivered from their fears and doubts of Salvation which all their lives-time were a grievous burthen unto them Terrible will this last day be to all those who never looked after providing for the Soul's welfare but it will be a joyful day to those who have laid up treasures in Heaven whither both Soul and body those two old companions are joyfully hastening together Happy Christians are they who in this day of Grace the only time men have to provide for their Eternal Condition have gotten their souls stored with Grace those who now have their souls made gracious shall then have both their souls and bodies made glorious Time was when sin had changed their souls from their Original beauty and glory had changed them from their primitive excellency and holyness their natures were then altogether sinful but at their conversion Nature was turned into Grace and now at their Resurrection unto Judgment those who had here gracious souls will then have as glorious souls so glorious bodies Then their souls shall be wholly freed from all sins and corruptions and brought to their primitive beauty and comliness and their bodies from mortality and all sinful uncleanness that they may by Christ be fashioned like unto his glorious body It was a rare saying of holy Bernard and worthy to be written in letters of Gold says he Christ hath a double coming He comes now by his Ministers to make his peoples souls gracious and at the day of Judgment he will come in his own person to make their bodies glorious those that have gracious Souls now shall have glorious bodies then even bodies conformable to the glorious body of Christ Phil. 3. 21. v. Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body like unto the Sun-like resplendent body of Christ Their corruptible bodies shall be changed and be made incorruptible their natural bodies shall be changed and be made spiritual bodies their mortal bodies shall be changed and be made immortal bodies 1 Cor. 15. 42 43 44. 53. v. Behold says St. Paul I shew you a mystery we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed 1 Cor. 15. 51. v. speaking there of the last day Indeed the Apostle was already changed and the Corinthians were already changed if we consider what St Paul and the Corinthians once were they will appear to have been changed Nature in them was already changed into Grace but the change he speaks of which should be at the day of Judgment is this Grace should then be turned into glory Their gracious souls should be made glorious souls and their vile bodies should be made glorious bodies As the Inhabitants of Samaria once said Isay 9. 10. v. The Sycomores are cut down but we will change them into Cedars the Sycomore is but a mean despicable tree to the Cedar the bodies of the best are but vile and despicable bodies now but at the day of Judgment they shall be changed into glorious bodies In that glorious morning when Christ shall come to Judgment every one that hath gotten grace here shall put on a new fresh suit of flesh richly laid and trimmed with glory says an ingenious person So much good will Grace do us then and stand us in stead then Then to have an interest in God the God of all grace will also do us good and stand us in stead then those who have gotten God for to be their God in Covenant with them will find their interest in God to do them good though God will then be a
be our Judg he that redeemed regenerated sanctified and justified us is to be our Judg he that hath loved us he that hath interceded for us with the Father he that hath united us to himself and hath made us one with himself is to be our Judg. And will not Jesus Christ now stand his people in good stead see Rom. 8. 1. v. Such shall never be judged to condemnation For there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Jesus Christ who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit they shall then hear no other proclamations but of blessings peace and glory no other sentence but of absolution Christ hath verily told us John 5. 24. v. Verily verily I say unto you He that heareth my Word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life John 3. 36. v. He that believeth in the Son hath Eternal life Hath Eternal life how 1. In promissis in promises thereof 1 Joh. 5. 25. v. And this is the promise that he hath promised us Eternal life 2. In principijs in the beginnings of it Eternal life is begâ—n here John 17. 3. v. And this is life Eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent This is life Eternal that is T is the beginning of life Eternal the full injoyment of which life is hereafter to be had 3. In primitijs in the earnests first fruits and handsel of it in those clusters of grapes and bunches of figgs those graces of Christ's spirit they are called by Saint Paul Rom. 8. 23. v. The first fruits of the Spirit 4. In capite Christ as a believer's head already injoys it and so a believer hath it in a begun possession Upon Earth Christ was his surety to answer the penalty of his sin and in Heaven he is now his advocate to take seisin and possession of Eternal life So that Jesus Christ then will not sentence them to Eternal death who are so many ways interested in Eternal life he will not cast any of his members nor any branches growing in him into Eternal fire none of these shall be made everlasting fuel for Eternal flames But yet this should not incourage any one in the way of Licentious living no the thoughts of the day of Judgment should call upon every one to keep a good Conscience and to walk unblamably all the days of their lives both before God and Man This is a duty that St. Paul lays down from this doctrine of the day of Judgment Act. 24. 15 16. v. First the Apostle lays down the Doctrine of Christ's coming to Judgment That there shall be a Resurrection both of the Dead both of the just of the unjust as if he had said All men shall appear at Christ's Tribunal in the last day And what follows Herein do I exercise my self to keep a good Conscience void of offence both towards God and towards Man The thoughts of this that the just must arise and be judged by Jesus Christ as well as the unjust this was an inducement upon St. Paul's heart that he should labor to keep his Conscience void of all offence both towards God and Men. Unto this of St. Paul let me add another place out of St. Peter The Apostle having shewed That the day of the Lord will come as a theif in the night in the which the Heavens will pass away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt 2 Pet. 3. 10. v. addeth in the 11. v. Seeing you look for such things as these and that all these things shall be dissolved What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and Godlyness The Apostle here would infer from Christ's appearing in Judgment and the dissolution of the Heavens and all things at the last day That they should be â—areful to spend their days in all manner of Piety and to keep their Consciences free from Sin St. Augustine tells of himself that as long as his Conscience was gnawed with the guilt of some youthful lust he was once insnared with the very hearing of the day of Judgment was even an Hell to him Conscience will then go with men to Judgment but they who have their hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience will hold up their heads in judgment and not fear when the rest of the world shall be full of fear nay when the whole world shall be in an aproar and shall see the Earth flaming the Heavens melting the Judg arrayed with Majesty and attended with all his holy Angels sitting on his Throne of Glory like the fiery flame Dan. 7. 9. v. and all souls fetched from Heaven and Hell to be re-united to their bodies when dreadful souls must leave their place of terror and once more to be re-united to their stinking Carions to receive a greater condemnation and blessed souls now in their place of happiness once more to be re-united to their then refined and glorified bodys to receive Eternal glorification Happy we if here we find our souls changed by Grace in Covenant with God united to Christ and do exercise our selves to have always a good Conscience void of offence towards God and towards Man Then may I say as St. John does 1 John 3. 2. Now we are the sons of God but it doth not appear yet what we shall be but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Read those words of the same Apostle in the former Chapter 1 Joh. 2. 28. v. And now little children abide in him In Christ your dear and ever blessed Saviour that when he shall appear in Judgment ye may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming Fear thou not O Christian who hast labored for and possessed thy self of Eternal good things which are the Best of good things such things that will make thee good and do thee good when all Temporal good things will do thee no good But go thou thy way until the end be for thou shalt rest and stand in the lot at the end of the days Dan 12. 13. v. Go on in the way and course of thy life that yet remaineth be contented whatever condition thou beest cast into prepare for thâ— end of thy life so that thou mayst end it comfortably and go to thy g 〈…〉 e in peace and stand up at the general r 〈…〉 ecâ—ion of the Dead when Christ shall come to Juâ—gment in thy lot of Coelestial Inheritances and heavenly glory prepared and allotted to thee and all laborious Christians at the end of the world for the days of Eternity For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God and the Dead in Christ
is a thing which the most skilled in Arithmetick will want figures to express Imagine the number of starrs in the firmament the piles of grass upon the earth and the grains of Sand upon the Sea shore yet will not all those put together set forth the duration and years of Eternal life though every starr and every pile of grass and every grain of sand should be used to express so many millions of years or Miriads of ages as there are drops of water in all the Seas and Rivers in the world If men had no other life to live but this here in this world then they might content themselves only with the things of this life but they have an everlasting life therefore should they make some provision answerable thereunto not providing only for this life which is but a span long and neglect another life that is so spacious We must all live for ever 1 John 2. 17. v. And truly these thoughts of Eternity should be prevailing thoughts and over-awing thoughts I speak not to one here but must live an Eternal life one way or other both young and old must live in a season beyond this season And being we must all of us live Eternally it should call upon us to labor for Eternal things for such things as will endure all our life long Amongst the Customes that have been observed amongst the rites and ceremonies in making Bishops they have this speech to them have Eternity in your minds O that we all could work this upon our selves that it might prevail with us to seek after that which is Eternal Think with yourselves Christians these bodies of yours though frail and mortal must yet live forever these souls of yours must live forever And it becomes us therefore to labour after those things that will endure forever for things that will endure beyond a season that will continue after millions of ages and longer then the ages of a million of worlds For want of considering that life which must last â—hrough all Eternity and providing for the same when men have come to dye and seen Eternity before â—hem how hath the sight thereof amazed the souls of â—en I have read of one who in a dying condition â—aving his thoughts upon Eternity said If it were â—ut a thousand years I could bear it but seeing it is â— Eternity thus amazeth me Surely if men did but â—riously think upon Eternity they durst not neglect â—roviding for it they would not lay aside all labour â—d thoughts for Eternal good things This this is â—e thing that will indeed amaze them when they come â— dye But on the contrary that Soul which is inâ—rested in Eternal good things the thoughts of Eterâ—ity will not dismay him he is provided of that which â—ill last as long as his life will last and this very thing â—th comfort him The Psalmist when he considered the decaying conâ—tion of himself that his life present was a shadow â—d that he was like withered grass yet comforted himself that God with whom he should live for ever was Eternal and did abide for ever Psal 102. 11. 12. My dayes are like a shadow that declineth and I am withered like grass but thou O Lord shall endure for ever and thy remembrance unto all generations Why doth he put these two together thus My shadow and God's enduring for ever as if he had said saith one This is my comfort that though I am of short continuance yet God with whom I shall live afterwards is Eternal and abideth for ever And happy he when this life is ended is sure of an Eternal God with whom to spend an Eternal life The Psalmist therefore goes on comforting himself v. 24. 25 26 27. Thy years are throughout all generations of old hast thou laid the foundations of the earth and the Heavens are the work of thine hands they shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall wax old like a Garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shal be changed but thou art the same and thy years shall have no end What comfort will it be when these old buildings of our bodies shall be pulled down and these tabernacles and cottages of clay must be mouldred into dust to be assured of a building not made with hands eternal in the heavens Even when one skin falls off another comes on Or as when a man layes by an old suit it is but to put on a better and more lasting 2 Cor. 5. 1. v. For we know that if this earthly house of our tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens What a comfort will it be when a man must leave a great Estate here and a great Inheritance here that for hundreds of years and many generations hath appertained to his Ancestors that he is assured of an Eternal inheritance Hebrews 9. 15. verse What a comfort will it be when a man shall part with and be taken from all those pleasures of the world he now doth enjoy yet he shall enjoy pleasures at God's right hand for evermore Psal 26. 11. v. In thy presence is fulness of joy at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore The Swan was of old dedicated to Apollo because she sings sweetly before death by which Hierogliphick the Ancients intimated the joyfulness of vertuous men before their death as supposing the Elâ—â—ian delights in the enjoyment whereof they should alwayes live after this life Christians remember we have far better assurance of an Eternal life than the Heathens had and knowing we must live Eternally should help us to look beyond present things such as are Riches Reveneâ—s Honors and the utmost of all earthly excellencies and worldly felicities Having done with the Motives or Arguments to perswade to labor for Eternal good things all which I desire may be weighed in the ballance of reason and conscience I shall in the next place hereunto add these following helps Help 1. Get. all the knowledge of Eternity and Eternal good things you can or are any wayes able Help 2. Frequently imploy your selves in considering and contemplating upon Eternity Help 3. Labour to get some tastes of those things we have shewed before are Eternal good things Help 4. Alwayes bear in your thoughts the immortality of your souls Help 5. Study the shortness of time and your present life Help 6. Get a sight of Eternal good things by the eye of faith Of all which briefly in the following Chapter as they are here propounded CHAP. XIII Helps to forward you in the labouring after Eternal good things 1. Help GEt all the knowledge of Eternity and eternal good things you can or are any wayes able It is most true that no tongue can express either the length of Eternity or the excellency of Eternal good things Eternity is that unum perpetuum hodie one perpetual day which shall never have end and therefore the
viz. Eternal life There is no creature hath a more noble end then Man there is neither Seraphim Angel nor Arch-Angel that surpasses Man in his end How should the thoughts hereof cause every Christian's end and design to take a nobler flight then to stay within the narrow bounds of a visible Sphear things of another world should raise the hearts of such noble creatures as Men are and not be contented with such things as they dayly see with their eyes and touch with their hands The things that we dayly see being but small inconstant and of short continuance the other great firm and in fine Eternal and answer the end wherefore God gave us life The excellency of any thing lies herein when it answers the end whereunto it was assigned what is a thing good for that does not answer the end whereunto it was assigned The end wherefore Men will get a Clock into their houses is to strike what is a clock good for that will not strike it does not answer its end The end wherefore Merchants are at great charges to build or buy Ships is to sail in them upon the Waters What is a Ship good for that will not sail it does not answer its end The end wherefore a Man hires a Servant is to do his work what is a Servant good for that will not do the work he is set about he does not answer his end The excellency of any thing lyes herein when it answers the end unto which it was assigned so herein lyes the excellency of a Christian viz. To attain unto the end wherefore God gave him a being Hence it is that the Apostle goeth about to breed in us an holy Ambition telling us we are born for higher matters then any earthly things are therefore not to be so base minded as to dote on these transitory things but to seek after things above Col. 3. 1 2. v. though we may have Temporalia in usu yet should we have aeterna in desiderio Temporal things may be by us used but Eternal things should be by us desired It is said of Isidore that being at a great Feast and there beholding a great sign of God's bounty towards the sons of Men suddenly breaks forth into abundance of tears being demanded the cause for and said he I here feed on earthly creatures that am created to live with Angels 8. From that willingness to dye and to have an end put to this tâ—mporal life that the injoyment of Eternal good things will work in us That Man will never be unwilling to dye that can say as St. Paul does Phil. 1. 21. v. Mors mihi lucrum to dye is gain Death will no ways indamage me but rather turn to my advantage hereby I shall gain heaven though I lose the earth and an happy Eternal life though I have an end put to this miserable and mortal life Not every one is thus a gainer by Death they that have labored only to gain the world the more they have gained whilst they did live the greater is their loss when they dye It was a good saying of one to a great Lord upon his shewing him his stately House and pleasant Gardens Sir you had need make sure of Heaven or else when you dye you will be a very great loser When men are sure to lose by death t is no wonder if they be loath to submit unto death How many tell us they have been utterly undone by great Losses some have lost all by Fire others by Water some have lost all by Theeves and others at Land some again have lost all by Pyrates and Shipwrecks at Sea but the greatest number of men are undone by death Death robbs them of all death spoyles them of all their great Estates in the world and takes away from them what they were unwilling to part with When the Duke of Venice had shewn unto Charles the Fifth the glory of his Princely Pallace and earthly Paradice the Emperour instead of admiring it or him for it only returned him this grave and serious memento Haec sunt quae faciunt in vitos mori These are the things which make us unwilling to dye Some of the Turks have said they did not think Christians believed there was an heaven because they saw them so loath to dye and to go to it such an aspersion have some of those Infidels cast upon our Religion but none are loath to go out of this world but such as have not made sure of Eternal good things laid up in Heaven When the people of Israel were come to the very entrance of Canaan the children of Reuben and the children of Gad regarding not that good Land desired Moses that they might stay on this side Jordan because it was a place meet for their droves of Cattel which they more respected then their passage into Canaan Numb 32. 2. and following verses they were loath to go over Jordan the land on this side Jordan pleased them so well not far unlike these children of Reuben and Gad are they who be of that Cardinals mind unwilling to quit their parts in Paris for any hopes whatsoevr of Paradice loath to quit the pleasures and profits of this life in hope of those incomprehensible joys of Eternal life and esteem more of one Bird in the hand then two in the bush Certain it is a Man will never yield to part with this life untill he have gotten good hopes of a better life t is that will help a Christian to out-face Death He that hath gotten treasures laid up in Heaven will not be loath to part with the greatest treasures upon Earth Nay such will rather rejoyce at the sight of those things they have so longed to see and now must possess to all Eternity Contemnuâ—t presentia ad futura festinant little regarding things present and hastening toward things to come such a one can say when death approaches Mâ—riar ut videam I am willing to dye that I may see God and Christ and all the Eternal good things of Heaven And with St. Paul I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is farr better Phil. 1. 23. And with Babylas slain by Decius in the words of the Psalmist Return unto thy rest O my Soul for the Lord hath been beneficial unto thee and now my soul be glad for now cometh thy rest thy sure rest thy sweet and never fading rest and can truly say he is willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. 2 Cor. 5. 8. v. This was it made the Martyrs go to their death with cheerfulness and songs and run to the Stake as to a Garland It was the sight of these things that made them not loath to dye any kind of death as some of them being asked what made them so to suffer they have named that Text 1 Cor. 2. 9. Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entred into
consuming fire to burn up souls like stuble that had not God for their God yet those who have this intrerest in God they may look upon him not as an enemy that will set himself against them but as a friend that is reconciled unto them not as an angry Judg that will condemn them but as a merciful Father that willingly hath pardoned them they may behold him not as clothed with dread and terror but with mercy and compassion though then God will frown upon them who never labored to get an interest in him yet will he turn away his anger from them who have chosen him for their God and will behold them with a smiling countenance Most men highly value an Interest in great persons and too many value this more then to have an interest in a great God But experience shews how mutable the friendship of men is they are like weathercocks upon Steeples that turn with every wind somtimes in their friendship they are like the Sun in its full strength but anon some cloud of a small or imagined offence darkens all their love and nothing is more common then to find friends dying oftentimes one to another even whilst they live and their somtimes injoyed friendship then does them no good nor stands them in stead whatever be their straits they come into But when once a Christian hath gotten an interest in God God will be a God to him as long as he is God God is a God for ever and he will be his God for ever What God is he was from Eternity and what God is to any he will be to Eternity there shall never come the time when God will withdraw his love or his good will cease towards them He will always do them good and always stand them in stead both in life and death and the day of Judgment God that hath done them good and stood them in their greatest straits of this life will do as much for them at this day An Interest in God did stand David in stead when he was in that great strait at Ziglag the City was burnt by the Philistins in his absence his wives carryed captive the people ready to stone him but David he incouraged himself in the Lord his God So Psal 31. 14. v. there also this man who was a man after God's own heart is in a great calamity and trouble but an interest in God did him good and stood him in stead then For says he I trusted in thee O Lord I said thou art my God God will have them to know that they have not any cause to fear nor be dismayed wheresoever they are or whatsoever condition they lye under so long as they have him to be their God Isay 41. 10. v. Fear thou â—at for I am with thee be not dismayed And he gives the reason which is satisfactory enough to all that know what God is and what it is to have God for their God the reason is in these words For I am thy God O the happy condition of that man who hath God for his God God being his then whatsoever is in God whatsoever God can do and whatsoever God hath is his because God himself is his The propriety that he hath in God extends throughout to all that is in God to all that God is or can do for his good Whatsoever there is in God shall be as truly that man 's for his good as it is God's for his own glory God will do that man good not only whilst he lives but when he dyes for God is not his God only while he lived but when dead he is his God to do him good at death and to do him good at Judgment Whilst he lived God was his God to pardon his sins they both go together I will be their God and I will forgive their Iniquities and remember them no more Jer. 31. 33. v. When he dyes God is his God even when he passeth through the valley and shadow of death he is with him and when his soul leaves his body he sends a guard of Angels to carry that into Abraham's bosom And when the body hath lyen a while in the Grave as he is his God he will raise it up out of the grave to glory in the day of Judgment he shall be made up with God's Jewels at that day Then also an Interest in Jesus Christ will do good let the terror of that Judgment be never so great to the greatest part of the children of men it will not be so to those that have gotten Jesus Christ to be their Saviour and that then shall have Jesus Christ to be their Judg. It will be a dreadful day to all those that have been ashamed to make a profession of Jesus Christ that have been ashamed of the ordinances of Jesus Christ Luk. 9. 26. v. Whosoever is ashamed of me and of my words of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he shall come in his own glory and in his Father's and of the holy Angels And that have shewed no mercy to the poor afflicted and distressed members of Jesus Christ that have shut their bowels against those that have been related to Jesus Christ Matth. 25. 41 42. v. Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Divel and his Angels But why so sad a doom For I was an hungred and ye gave me no meat I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink I was a stranger and ye took me not in naked and ye clothed me not sick and in prison and ye visited me not And that have had no sincere love to Christ 1 Cor. 16. 22. v. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathama Maranatha Let him be Anathama that is let him be accursed When Maranatha when Christ comes to Judgment And that have not yielded obedience to the Gospel of Jesus Christ 2 Thes 1. 7 8. v. The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. But Jesus Christ will stand them in stead who shall then be found having an interest in Christ Will it not stand one in stead at the barr of Man's tribunal that the Judg upon the bench is his friend that the Judg is one that loves him dearly that he is one who designs the good and welfare of the prisoner that the prisoner knows assuredly Well my Lord the Judg whatever accusations are brought in against me will be my friend I am sure he will save my life I am sure he will acquit me Indeed if the Judg were a man's enemy such a one hath cause to fear So if then the Divel or wicked men were to be our Judges we should have cause to tremble but Jesus Christ he is to be our Judg he that was once judged condemned and executed in our stead is to
wearing the oyl of their Lamps wasting â— and time is carrying them towards the habitations of Eternity and they quickly come to an end but in Heaven our being our blessed being shall have no end Ibi esse nostrum non habebit mortem It is the promise made to those who are believers John 3. 15. v. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Eternal life the life in Heaven is a lasting life indeed Adeo diutina quod nequit terminari So lasting as it is everlasting A life that is as Eternal for continuance as he that had no beginning That not to be termed a life which consisteth of the body and the soul but that even that is truly life which flourisheth in the memory of all ages and which Eternity it self ever beholdeth says one Illa illa vita the life of glory that is life indeed where when a Man hath lived as many thousand years or ages or Centuries as there are piles of Grass on the ground or grains of Sand on the Sea-shore or Starrs in the Sky he shall be as new to begin again as the first day he lived in Heaven We are here ready to admire the great age of some men of such as live long but Nihil longam quod finem habet that is truly long that lasts for ever And this life that lasts for ever is enough to Comfort any Christian in the loss of a present life that will last but for a few years When Philip asked Democritus if he did not fear to lose his head he answered No for quoth he If I dye the Athenians will give me a life immortal his meaning was only this he should be Statued in the treasury of Eternal fame So may every Christian say who hath gotten Eternal good things for his portion When they dye and have an end put to this life God will give them a life immortal Such a man cannot but have his soul brimful of brave thoughts that in a dying hour is able to refresh himself with this meditation Though I now must dye and have an end put to my natural and miserable life yet I shall now enter upon an Eternal anâ— happy life 3. That Joy which is to be had in Heaven is Eternal Joy Whilst the best here in the world are weeping and many times full of Sorrow the worst and vilest oâ— men are full of joy and abound in their pleasures buâ— here is their misery the posting Sun of their joy anâ— pleasures after a short gleamand a few days vain glistering will set in the Ocean of endless Sorrow Thâ— wicked man's joy is but a short-liv'd joy soon puffed out and lasts but for a moment to speak of when it lasts longest Job 20. 5. v. The triumphing of the wicked is short and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment and therefore it is by the Preacher Eccles 7. 6. v. compared to the crackling of thornes under a pot It is as soon out as in makes a great noise and dies But the joy of Heaven is lasting ye everlasting begun here and lasts to all Eternity called therefore Everlasting consolation such is the Saints joy 2 Thes 2. 16. v. We may compare their joy in Heaven as ones does God's rich mercy from whence it flows to the Oyl in the cruse which was still spending but never spent They who have made sure a provision for Eternity shall have joy for evermore In the world indeed they meet with many changes in this Babylon they are oftentimes forced to hang their Harpes upon the Willows and disabled from singing sweetly to the Lamb their Hebrew songs their estates and conditions are as variable as you see the Heavens at this time and season are now fair by and by foul now the Sun shines most gloriously but by and by the whole Heavens are cloudy and sending down showâ—â—s Their comforts have an Autumn and their joys a fall of the Leaf Their joys are soon clouded with sorrows for if God do but hide his face they are troubled Psal 30. 7. v Though they somtimes taste of the waters of life yet again they do drink of the waters of Marah Now they are with God in the Mount and see his face at another time they are walking in the valley of the shadow of Death and there wandring in a maze of perplexed thoughts heavy cares afflicting fears and bitter sorrows If at one time they have the oyl of joy and gladness yet at another time they have the spirit of heaviness and sadness If at one time they have sweet tastes of Heaven yet at another time they are even distracted with fears of Hell But in Heaven they shall have nothing but joy and no sorrow all tears there shall be wiped from their eyes and all sorrow driven from their hearts there they shall injoy full joy without any mixtures of sorrow they never sow again in tears but shall injoy good days for ever Rev. 21. 4. v. There will be no more death neither sorrow nor crying But Isay 61. 7. v. Everlasting joy shall be unto them yea fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore Psal 16. 11. v. there will be pleasures to all Eternity and millions of years multiplyed by Millions do not make up a minute to this Eternity The joy of Heaven is such a joy Quod non divellit aeternitas A joy that Eternity begins but Eternity shall never end Great was the Jews joy after that the lamentable and sad decree of Ahasuerus was reversed and Haman's plot defeated insomuch that the days that were appointed for their death and ruine were turned into day of feasting and joy and wherein they sent presenâ—s every man to his Neighbor and gifts to the Poor Esâ—her 9. from verse the 17. to 28. and this joy as it was then great so it hath been lasting for the Jews cease not to celebrate the same to this day But what is the Continuance of the Jews joy for this great Deliverance from Haman to the joy of every believer in Heaven for their deliverance from Hell that hath been but for some hundreds of years from the time of Ahasuerus to this present and say this annual commemoration should last as long as the World shall last yet would â—t be nothing to the joy in Heaven that shall last for ever 4. That Inheritance which is to be had in Heaven is an Eternal Inheritance The greatest Inheritances that men do settle upon their children put them all together are not equivalent unto it When an Embassador told Henry the fourth that magnificenâ— King of France concerning the King of Spain's ample Dominions First saith he he is the King oâ— Spain â—s he so saith Henry and I am King of France but â—aith the other he is â—ing of Portugal and I am King of France saith Henry He is King of Naples â—and I â—m King of France He is King of Sicily and I am King of France He is King of
in Judgment against many Christians That he would rather neglect his means thâ—n his mind his farm than his soul To be stored with Eternal good things will cause our souls afterwards to go out of our bodies upon the wings of joy calmness and serenity of spirit and with full sail for heaven This will make a Christian sweetly to sing with old Simeon Lord now let thy servant depart in peace And say as Hillary said to his soul Soul thou hast served Christ thâ—s Seventy years and art thou afraid of Death Go out soul go out But without this with what a dreadful Out-cry and Shrike will poor souls leave the body seeing themselves attended only with a black guard of Divels and no other place provided for them but the burning Lake and bottomless Pit with no other treasure inriched but the curse and wrath of the Almighty Not to have labored and taken pains for what will do the soul good will prove bitterness in the end It is storied of Caesar Borgias that being sick to death that he lamentingly cryed out When I lived I provided for every thing but Death now I must dye and am unprovided to dye this was a dart at his heart and believe it it will be at last a dagger at their hearts who now take care for their bodies but neglect their souls who labor and take pains to make provision for their ignoble part but make no provision for their more noble part When the body shall lye under its short breathings cold sweats dying groans and hastening to the Grave where worms and filthy Vermine must feed upon it and the soul hath nothing to comfort it now that it is passing into Eternity surely such a soul must needs be amazed at the â—nsuing change Oh that Christians were wise to consider these things that they would make it their work to provide for their souls to furnish them with that will prove Eternal that they would labor for spiritual and heavenly excellencies that they would acknowledg one soul to be more worth than many worlds God hath given to each of us a soul and to each of us but one soul It was a wretched and most foolish speech of a prophane Noble Man of Naples who said that he had two souls in his body one for God and another for whosoever would buy it Omnia Deus dedit duplicia saith one speaking of bodily members God hath given men double members two eyes if one be lost the other supplies the want of it two hands two ears two feet that the failing of one may be supplyed by the help of the other Animan vero unam but one soul if that perish there is not another to supply its loss And it is no other than madness and folly to look after the body and neglect the soul to gratify the body but to lose the soul With what hopes can such look to receive mercy and comfort from God in a dying hour It is reported of Alphonsus King of Arragon when a Knight of his had consumed a great patrimony by lust and luxury and besides ran into debt and being to be laid into prison by his Creditors his friends petitioned for him to the King the King answered Si tantam pecuniam vel in sui Regis obsequium vel patriae commodis vel sublevandis propinquis impedisset audirem nunc quoniam tant as opes impendit corpori parâ— est ut luat corpore If he had spent so much money in the service of his Prince or for the good of his Countrey or in relieving his Kindred I would have harkned but seeing he hath spent so much upon his body it is fit his body should smart for it So when those who now labor for the world and the things thereof that only concern the body and profit the body but neglect what concerns the soul and would profit the soul I say when these come and look up to God for comfort and mercy when all comfort from the world is gone God may justly answer If they had labored not for the meat which perisheth but for that meat which indureth unto everlasting life If they had labored as much for what would have done their souls good as for what they saw would do their bodies good I would have heard them but as they have neglected their souls in their life I will not care for their souls at death 7. Our labor and pains ought cheifly to be imployed not about perishing but Eternal good things Because our labor about Eternal good things will not be in vain In Malachy his time some did not stick to say It was in vain to serve God Mal. 3. 14. v. they did as others now think their pains in vain hypocrites they were such as would needs persuade themselves that they served God and that truly And being â—uft up with this conceit they thought God should â—hereupon serve them as they would have him and â—hey expected but when he at any time punished them â—or their sins and exercised them with afflictions â—hey presently would cry out It is in vain and to â—o purpose to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances and that we have walked â—ournfully before the Lord of hosts Indeed there is many a man that pursues the world with a fruitless and â—ain attempt they rise early go to bed late eat the â—read of sorrows yet all will not do they labor and â—hat hard for what they are not sure to obtain in the world and for that very often which they never do obtain they have but their labor for their pains Quid emolumenti what profit or gain have most afâ—er many a hard days labor utterly disappointed of â—hat they labored for like many such who seek after â—he Philosophers stone Not so a Christian laboring for Eternal good things â—hey are sure to obtain what they labor for their laâ—or will not be in vain That will never befall them which is written of Dioclesian and Maximian Herâ—ulius who suddenly gave over their Empires and cast â—ff their honors and betook themselves to a private â—fe out of rage and madness when they saw themâ—elves labor so much in vain for the rooting out of â—he Christians See that place 1 Cor. 15. 58. v. Thereâ—re my beloved Brethren be ye stedfast unmovable â—ways abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch â— you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Christians labor herein will not be like those labors that were by way of punishment inflicted upon the Daughters of Danaeus whom the old Poets feigned to be condemned in Hell to fill a bottomless tub with Water and to increase their labor this water they were to carry in Sieves and never to leave work till the tub were full here was a great deal of unfruitful labor here was labor in vain indeed A Christian hath better incouragement to labor his labor is not in vain in the Lord.
post and that only and meerly Ex gratia Your Souls are not so immersed in your bodies as that they must be extinguished with your bodies but they are seperable from your bodies and are able through the benefit of their own subtilty and spiritual substance being of a simple and uncompounded nature to subsist by themselves and when they are once divested of these earthly cases and divorced from your bodies they shall be clothed with an Eternity either of joy or torment and run parallel with the life of God and longest line of Eternity The senses of seeing hearing and the rest of those Organs of the body cease and dye with the body because they are parts of the body and have their dependance upon the body but the Soul hath a nature distinct from the body and moves and operates of it self when the body is dead and iâ— sepâ—rated from the body for when the body dyes the Soul dyes not with it but subsists even in its sepâ—rated state hath a being is still living and active and is crowned with immortallity It being the end of the resurrection of the body to meet with its old partner the Soul Not a body here this day but must dye but Souls those inmates must live though all our bodies return to the Earth whence they came yet our Spirits shall return to God that gave them and be sempiternal Eccles 12. 7. v. though our bodies must be made a prey to rottenness and worms and become captives to death and corruption yet our intellective Souls being spiritual substances independent and self-subsisting agents shall be incorruptible and for ever exist being endowed with an undying condition though our bodies was old yet Anima non senesâ—it the Soul doth not waâ— old nor ever lose its strength and vigor as bodies compounded of elements do Death its true may tyrannize over our earthly parts and may drive our Souls out of these clay lodgings but it is that they may at the very instant of departure have livery and seisin of everlasting Mansions in Heaven be alwayes themselves be for ever permanent and not subject to any extinguishment or destruction Hence it was a custom among the ancient Romans that when their great men dyed they caused an Eagle to fly aloft in the Air signifying hereby that the Soul was immortal and did not dye as the body The serious consideration of the Souls immortality should make us labour for that which will makes the immortal Soul for ever blessed and happy when it shall be unsheathed from the body unclothed from corruption and let loose from this cage of clay 5. Help Study the shortness of time and your present life And believe it Christians the less time you have the more need have you to make hast to labour for these Eternal good things Aeternitati comparatum omne tempus est breve All time if compared to Eternity is but short But time as it is short so it passeth away fast The ancients emblemed time with wings to shew the volubility and swiftness of it as if it were not running but flying whither towards Eternity for time is but a space borrowed and set a part from Eternity which must at last return to Eternity again I have read of certain Hereticks called Eternales because they held the world to be Eternal We have many such Eternallists who fancy to themselves a kind of Eternity here upon Earth Such an Eternallist was that rich fool in the Gospel we have spoken of before who fancied that he had a long time that yet he should remain upon the earth but was suddenly to be taken away Thou fool this night shall thy soul be taken away In a moment his life endeth We read of a beast called from the continuance of its life Ephemeris which though it live according to his appellative name but one day yet it falls presently to provide for sustenance as though it might live years Man's life is frequently in Scripture called a Day and yet most like this beast labour and toyl build and purchase thirst after honours and preferment in the world as if they were here to live for ever but in the mean time improve not a short life for Eternal advantages Let me tell the most healthful person here present that he is not assured of one day more wherein death may not assault him and push him into an Eternal Abâ—â—s after a few hours more and then you may expect your departing hour and throw the last cast foâ— Eternity Thou knowest not yet what may be in the womb of this very day Prov. 27. 1. v. Boast not thâ— self of to morrow for thou knowest not what a day mâ— bring forth Whilst a woman is with child none câ— tell what kind of birth it will be so as little doth anâ— man know what is yet in the womb of this very day until God have signified his will by the event Therâ— was a fellow that brought to Domitian the names those in a paper that would murther him but he put it in his pocket saying nova cras to morrow is a new day but he was killed or ever night He was a Wise man that being invited to a Feast on the next morrow answered Ex multis annis crastinum non habui For these many years I have not had a morrow to promise for any business No more do any here present know whether they shall have a morrow to labour for what will make them Eternally happy Death may surprize them before the Sun rise again The Apostle Peter saith 2 Pet. 1. 13. v. I will put you in remembrance knowing I must shortly put off this Tabernacle O so let us say to our selves We will now be thinking of death we will now have Eternity in our thoughts we will now be labouring for Eternal good things we will be storing our Souls with Grace because we must shortly put off these Tabernacles we must shortly have an end put to this present life I have sometimes acquainted you with the speech of young King Charles of Sicily lying upon his death-bed I have scarce begun to live and now woe is me I am compelled to dye Art thou one that hast not yet begun to live the life of Grace that only hast a share of this Worlds goods but altogether without the good things of Heaven O make haste for thou mayest suddenly be called to dye and it will be a sore affliction to you to have an end put to time before you have provided for Eternity Oh that men in their sins would consider what space what distance how far off their Souls are from death from Hell from Eternity No more but a breath one breath and no more the next puff of breath may be their last It is said of Sparta that they used to choose their Kings every year and whilst they did raign they were to live pompously and have all the fulness their hearts could wish but when
for thee Uniâ— me to Christ 111 who is the Fountain of life that I may live who by nature am dead in sins and trespasses Let thine Eternal spirit by its powerful influence and breathings heal 114 my Soul sanctifie my heart subdue the rebellion 115 of my will and purifie all uncleanness out of my affections that acting from inward principles of holiness I may imitating blessed St. Paul exercise 121 my self to have alwayes a conscience void of offence towards man and 122 in simplicity and godly sincerity not in fleshly wisdome but by the grace of God I may have my conversation in the world in all things willing â—12 to live honestly and walking before thee in truth and with a perfect heart doing that which is good that so when thou shalt bring to my mind the History 126 of my life which having been very sinful might here be followed with dreadful apprehensions of thy wrath and some glimpses and pre-occupations of Hell and hereafter with Eternal torments I may have that which will afford unto me inward consolation and refreshment and in the day when I must pass 127 through the valley and shadow of death that neither the terrors of death nor the fiercest oppositions of Hell and the Divel may dismay me let me be found interested in what will do me 145 good then and being lasting good things will last beyond Death go with me out of this 131 world stand me in stead at the day of 23â— 152 Judgement and keep me out 137 of Hell If whilst I live thou shalt make my condition an afflicted condition that 141 I must go through the valley of Baca towards Zionâ— yet bestow upon me what thou knowest 142 will make me bear afflictions patiently be as an Ark to uphold my spirits and keep them from sinking in the greatest deluge of calamities Though here I should meet with shame and disgrace O Christ yet with thee let me 174 enjoy Eternal Glory though here I should live but a short life yet in Heaven let me live 175 an Eternal life though here I should not have one joyful hour yet hereafter let me enter into my Masters 177 joy into that joy which Eternity begins 178 but Eternity shall never end though here I should never enjoy any earthly inheritance yet let me not miss of that Inheritance incorruptible 179 which fadeth not away in the 180 everlasting Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and there also receive that Crown 182 of glory that fadeth not away though here I should not have a house to shelter my self from storms and tempests yet let me be admitted into that house not 184 made with hands Eternal in the Heavens and scituated in the new Jerusalem which is the everlasting habitation of 189 Angels and glorified Saints Take my heart off these lower things wherein so many do fancy 221 doth consist the only comfort of their lives which are only for the body 198 and but vanity and vexation 191 of spirit and set it upon those alwayes 188 desirable good things in Heaven which only can satisfie 193 the longings of it and make my soul 198 that most precious and immortal 203 being happy By faith help me to look above 22â— the gaiety and eye-dazling 224 objects here in the world and to see the excellency and worth of those things that are 215 invisible but are made 235 known in the Gospel Oh that my head were water 245 and mine Eye a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for them who make all the motions 250 of their Souls to wait upon earthly designs and for the gaining 252 the Mammon of unrighteousness in this world such â—s prefeâ— momentany pleasures before 244 Eterâ—al joyes and spend their whole time in making proâ—sion for the flesh without the least thought upon Eâ—ernity that follows and never think of their present â—nfulness or their future Eternal misery Pardon â—e O my God that I have at any time postponed 256 the things of Heaven to the things of this world â—referring dross before Gold the fatness of the Earth â—efore the dew of Heaven earthly Mammon before Heavenly Mansions and the good things of this life â—efore the good things of another and better life yea â—ood and â—aiment for my body before Grace and Glory â—or my soul and now O Lord â—help me to consider â—hat it is â—igh time for me to mind the concerns of my â—oul and to be labouring for Eternal good things and â—261 seeking those things that are above and to â—ve above those things which 269 I cannot live withâ—ut yea wholly to spend my time whilst 269 I am â—n the body about those things whereof I shall have â—ost need when I am out of the body and principally â—o Labour for on earth those things that will be of use â— Heaven Make me spiritually 273 wise to lay up â—uch a stock and store that will do me good throughâ—ut all Eternity and before my body be laid in the Grave to take care that my never dying soul may be â—arryed into Abrahams bosome by a turning to thee O God by accepting of Jesus Christ by getting my â—ins pardoned and my evidence for Heaven cleared â—hough I do yet remain upon Earth let I pray thee â—hy spirit help me to converse in Heaven 274 and â—o have mine Eyes fixed upon those invisible things â—or ever blessed be thy most holy name O Lord that I am not placed among the common Beggars of this world that I have not been sent to beg my bread from door to door it might 278 have been my portion to have crowched to another for a morsel of bread to have been a vagabond and have saught my bread out of desolate places and to have lived as another Lazarus 279 in a starving and famishing condition O Lord I beseech thee never lay me under the heavy judgement of poverty in this world least I be poor and steal and take the name of thee my God in vain neither let me be a beggar in another world in Hell to howl for a drop of water to cools my tongue Yet if poverty must be the condition thou O God wilt have me to end my dayes in and I must be made worldly 287 poor yet O God vouchsafe to make me spiritually rich rich in Faith even enriched with the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ let me be found to be an heir of Salvation even an heir 288 of God and a joynt heir with Christ an heir of that Kingdome 289 which thou hast promised to them that love thee Help me O Lord to overlook the splendid braveries of this world the greatest and best things of this life 299 as those things which are 293 not but are as so many Empty 294 clouds and Wells without Water ciphers without figures and but as shadows to real substances being altogether void of 291 what will make me happy to Eternity and to Labour that I may have