seek amongst the rarest and most precious Treasuries of Wit and Learning belonging to the Heathen Antiquity turn over the Writings of the most Eloquent Orators of the Subtlest Philosophers of the most famous Poets examine the Secrets of the most expert and experienced Physitians consider their Practice and all the Remedies that they prescribe to the Soul and you shall find them too unskilful to perform the least Cure They do but charm and divert the Disease hardens us against the evil they furnish us with a good exterior and teach us to bear a good Meen but they have no real Antidote against the Venome that kills the Principle of Life nor Remedy that reaches to the Heart And as the Torrents that dry up in the hottest seasons such Consolations that flow not from the Fountain of Life vanish away without effect and dry up to nothing when a deep sorrow fear and affliction seize upon a sinful Soul It seems the contrivers of the Heathens Religion were sensible of this Truth for they have dedicated Temples and erected Altars to all manner of gods and goddesses not only to Vertues and Health but also to Vices and Diseases to Fear Cowardise Anger the Feavor the Pestilence and an infinite more but they left Death out of their Devotions This is an open Declaration that they knew not how to strike acquaintance with Death and win its esteem and favor They had no Sacrifices nor Incense that could allay its fury they lookt upon it as their most inhumane and unreconcileable Enemy The very name of Death did terrify them therefore it was one of their most unfortunate Omens Adrian the Emperor is a witness of what I say he was one of the greatest Princes in former Ages he had made most part of the habitable World tremble under his Scepter and put to death an infinite number of Men but at last he trembled and was astonished himself at the approaches of Death he had overcome the most barbarous Nations and tam'd the most savage Beasts but when he came to this last Enemy he had no weapons fit for the Encounter therefore in this occasion he discovers the weakness and unconstancy of his Mind far more disturb'd than his Body was with the Disease Sometimes he did employ the Magick Art to retard Death sometimes he did make use of his Sword and Poison to hasten it at last he kill'd himself by an abstinence from Food necessary to entertain his life He had conquer'd all the World and given Peace and Happiness to his Empire but he could not overcome himself or appease the troubles of his Conscience he was so far from satisfying the troublesome thoughts of his Soul that he suffers himself to be overwhelmed with despair he flatters his Soul in hastening its ruine for when his Disease did suffer him to breath he talkt unto it in this manner My little Soul my dearest Companion Thou art now going to wander in obscure Cold and strange places Thou shalt never jest again according to the wonted custom thou shalt never give me any sport or pleasure any more But some may say that Adrian was a powerful Monarch but no great Philosopher that he knew how to Govern and was well acquainted with the Politicks but that he was ignorant of the Morals and had no skill to dye well To answer this Objection let us give an example of one without exception who will satisfy all Opponents Aristotle is generally esteem'd to have been the Subtlest and the most Learned of the Heathen Antiquity he was the Prince of all the Philosophers the Glory of his Age and the Founder of his Sect when his excellent Soul had viewed all things examined the Heavens searcht among the excellencies of the Earth pryed into all the Wonders of the World and found out the rarest Secrets of Nature He could never find any solid Comforts against the apprehensions of Death Notwithstanding all his admirable Subtleties and his profound Learning the fears of this cruel Death terrifies his Conscience in such a manner that he confessed That of all terrible things Death was the most dreadful CHAP. 3. Of divers sorts of Death with which we must encounter WHen David had a design to fight with Goliah he could not make use of the Armor of King Saul therefore he took a smooth stone out of his Bag cast it with his Sling struck the Philistine in the Forehead and brought down this proud Giant who had defied the Armies of Israel We have already examined and tried all the Armor of humane Wisdom and Learning laid up in the Storehouses of the greatest wits of former Ages and we have found that they are not able to yield us any benefit when we shall encounter with Death Let us therefore now see whither we may overcome this Proud Enemy with the Sling of our mystical David with the weapons of our Divine Shepheard but before we begin the Encounter let us look and behold it in the face The enemy that I intend that you should overcome is a Monster with three Heads for there are three sorts of death the Corporal the Spiritual and the Eternal The Corporal Death is a separation of the Soul from the Body although our Body hath been fashioned with the Finger of God it is but a weak and frail Vessel made with the slime of the Earth but our Soul is of an Heavenly Spiritual and Immortal Substance it is a Sparkle and a Raie of the Godhead and the lively Image of our great Creator for when God had made our first Parent He breathed into his Nostrils the breath of Life Gen. 2.7 that we might thereby understand that our Souls do proceed from his immediate hand therefore he is named the Father of spirits Heb. 12. and The faithful Creator of Souls 1 Pet. 4. This Soul doth raise us a degree above all the Animals and above the Celestial Bodies and renders us like to the Angels of Heaven It is the Light that enlightens us the Salt that preserves us from Corruption In one word by this Soul we live enjoy our Sences move and understand as soon as this Angelical Guest leaves its Lodging and Earthly abode it looseth all Beauty and falls of it self into an inevitable ruine For this Flesh that we entertain with care and pamper with all manner of Dainties doth then corrupt and rot after that it hath been stretcht awhile upon Beds of Gold and richly attired in Purple and Scarlet it is cast upon a Bed of Worms and covered with the vilest insects of the Earth notwithstanding all its former perfumes it yields then a most horrid stink before it did ravish the eyes of the Beholders with its admirable Beauty but now it becomes so odious and horrible that the living care not to see it at last it is reduc'd to ashes according to the Sentence that was pronounc'd in the Earthly Paradise Dust thou art and to Dust thou shalt return The Spiritual Death is the separation
secure and that you shall loose nothing but this Ship Acts 27. We may yet furnish them with stronger comforts for these good Mariners lost their Ship without any hopes of recovering it again but we are assured that God will one day gather up every piece of these broken Vessels of our Bodies and will joyn them together in a more perfect estate Therefore Death doth not carry away our bodies by violence but we leave them willingly we do not stay for its summons but we do prevent Death and give it a Licence when we have packt up our Bag and Baggage we are ready to depart out of this wretched abode where we endure all manner of calamities for in this house defluxions do rain down If Vapors do arise the Pillars and Foundation does tremble the Joynts do open the Windows are darkened and the burning Feavers like violent fires consume it I must not forget that the faithful do name their death not only a removal of their Lodging but a removal from a Tabernacle this teacheth us that we must depart from hence with as much joy and readiness as a Soldier doth out of his Tabernacle at the end of a laborious and bloudy warfare and with as much pleasure as the Children of Israel did out of their Tents under which they had remained in the Desart to enter into the sweet and comfortable dwellings of the Land of Canaan Not only this Body is like to an hired House or to a Tabernacle transported up and down but it is by Sin become to our Soul a woful prison Therefore Death may be compared to the Messengers sent by King Pharaoh on purpose to take Joseph out of his Dungeon and bring him to his Palace The Body that was created to be a noble Pavillion of Joy and Honor is become to our Soul a wretched and incommodious Prison Death is like to the Furnace of Babylon that burned and consumed the Bonds of the three Children without prejudicing their Persons or Attire Dan. 3. for it consumes those sad Bonds that detain our Soul enâ—laved to the Earth but it doth not meddle with the Oâ—naments of our Justice and Sanctification it is like the Skin that encloseth the Child in his Mothers Womb or like the Shell where the Chicken is formed for of necessity it must be broken before we can enter into immortal Life In short we may say That the Body which was given to the Soul to be its Palace is become by Sin its Grave and loathsome Sepulchre far more noisome than that of Lazarus and that Death is like the voice that calls upon us Lazarus come out Faithful Souls you see then that as Sampson carried away the Gates of the City of Gaza and transported them to the top of the Hill so hath Jesus Christ our true Sampson transported and carried the Gates of death to the highest pitch of Glory Therefore whereas before we did look upon it with horror as the very entrance of Hell now we may behold it with Confidence and Joy saying as Jacob did of Bethel This is the Gate of Heaven Seeing therefore that this is the nature and condition of Death I find that Men do give it too much advantage for we should not offer to say that such are dead whom God hath admitted into Eternal life because the qualification should be derived from the chief and noblest part as it is in nature there is no generation without corruption and we commonly say that it is a Generation when the thing engendred is more excellent than the thing corrupted as we say that it is a corruption when the thing corrupted excels the thing that is engendred Therefore our change and removal out of this world should be rather stiled a Life than a Death for if our Body Dies and Rots in the Earth our Soul revives and mounts up to Heaven and this mortal life that we leave in leaving the Earth is nothing in comparison of that life that we shall enjoy with Christ and his Holy Angels God is named the God of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacoh Now he is not the God of the Dead but of the Living Exod. 4. Matt. 22. I may also without any Figure say That Death in respect of the Body is no real Death but a kind of sleep as it is said in the Prophet Daniel Many do sleep in the dust of the Earth chap. 12. and in Isaiah that the Just sleep in their beds Therefore our Saviour speaking of Jairus's Daughter declared The Child is not dead but sleepeth Mat. 9. and of Lazarus his friend Lazarus our friend sleepeth but I go to awake him Beloved if thou art of the number of such as Christ loveth thy Death will be but a kind of sleep of a short continuance and a few days The Lord will raise thee up again For the hour cometh and is already That the Dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that shall hear shall revive John 5. During this Life the assaults of Death are no better than light skirmishes the most sensible and most dangerous blow that it strikes in appearance is when Death separates the Soul from the Body but the last and most signal encounter which will put an end to all disputes will happen at the day of Judgement Jesus Christ will then appear from Heaven in the company of all his immortal Angels and Saints to encourage us to the encounter He will come with a terrible voice of an Archangel and the last Trumpet shall sound then Death will endeavor to keep us still in its black prison and our Bones will be found without life or motion but the Spirit of God shall breathe upon these dry Bones and will cause them to revive As the Prophet Jonas was three days and three nights in the belly of the Whale God Commanded the Fish to vomit him up again upon the ground Thus when we shall have made so long our abode in our Graves as God hath appointed in his wisdom Death shall be constrained to restore all that it hath swallowed and as Daniel came out of the Lions Den by break of day these savage Beasts having done him no harm Thus at the break of the last day at the Rising of the Sun of Righteousness we shall all go out of Deaths deep Den and as if God had sent his Angel on purpose to shut the mouth of this old Lion we shall then find that he shall have done us no harm instead of devouring of us he will prove a faithful keeper of our bones therefore the faithful may speak unto Death in the language of the Prophet Micah Rejoyce not against me O mine Enemy when I shall fall I shall rise when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me Mic. 7.8 As Moses said to Pharaoh we will go into the Wilderness to sacrifice unto God we will go out of thine Egypt with our young and with our old with our Sons
before we have well thought whither we be mortal or no Therefore we are sooner surprized and astonished at its approaches and we become like the foolish Israelites that trembled and fled before Goliah because they were not accustomed to behold him 3. We have too great confidence and depend too much upon second Causes we look upon Death as a thing that happens by chance or as an evil that may be prevented or at least put away from us for a time whereas we should be fully perswaded that God hath determined and appointed not only Death it self but also all the causes and means by which it commonly happens Therefore we are often fill'd with displeasure and reduced to murmure and repine against God we grin and bite the stone instead of adoring in all humility that wise Hand that casts it In a word when ever Death comes to us we are ready to say to it as the Devils to our Saviour Wherefore art thou come to torment us before the time Matth. 3. 4. We are too much wedded to these earthly vanities we are inseparable from the World we would willingly make here our abode for ever and cannot abide to hear that Death will remove us Our unlawful affections have no bounds and we often spend our selves in the pursuance of the miserable advantages of the Earth When we come almost to the end of our life and of our mortal journey it is then that many of us are most earnest to make a large provision of Worldly Vanities we build stately dwellings and sumptuous Palaces at that very moment when we should think of nothing but of building our Tomb and preparing our Winding-sheet We have so violent a passion for all the advantages of this life that to separate us from them it is to pluck out our Hearts and tear our tenderest Bowels When Death comes to our Bedside and offers to pull us out we are ready to say as the Sluggard in the Proverbs A little sleep a little slumber a little folding of the hands Prov. 6. When our Divine Bridegroom knocks at our Gates we are scarce willing to abandon our Delights as the Spouse in the Canticles what saith the Worldling Must I leave my sumptuous Palaces my pleasant Dwellings and my delightful Gardens Must I relinquish all this rich Tapestry these precious Moveables and all these rare and exquisite Ornaments that enrich my Parlors Chambers and Closets Must this unmerciful Death divest me so soon of all my Offices and Dignities and hinder me from a full and peaceable enjoyment of all these Riches and Treasures Must it ravish from me in an instant all my Delights and satisfactions Is there no remedy but must I be pluckt from the embraces of my beloved Wife from the sight of my dear Children and from the sweet company of all my friends Must I receive no more the services of my Domesticks When we are in this miserable disposition it is no wonder if death is terrible to us and if it causeth us to resent the sharpness of its sting for as Absalom when he was hanging by the hair of his Head in a Tree of the Forrest Joab took three Darts and struck him through the Heart thus when our affections are too much wedded and entangled with the World and its vanities and fill'd with the expectation of earthly contentments it is then that they are miserably exposed to all the Darts and violent attempts of Death 5. Another principal cause of the fear of Death is our ill Life We give our selves over to the vices debaucheries and licenciousness of this unhappy Age we suffer our selves to be corrupted by ill company and carried away with the Torrent of vicious Customs It is therefore no wonder if death fills our Souls with apprehensions for it comes to us armed with our sins and is preceded by the remorse of Conscience and horror of our Crimes How came it to pass that such a terrible astonishment fell upon King Belshazzar when he saw the fingers of an hand writing upon the Wall of his Palace the Sentence of his doom Dan. 5. It was because he did profane the Holy Vessels of God's House and because he did riot in the company of lascivious Women Wherefore did Felix tremble when he heard St. Paul discourse of Justice Temperance and of Judgement to come Acts 24. It was because he was a wicked Varlet given over to all manner of filthy and unjust living Thus because we profane the Members of our Body that are as the Vessels of Gods Sanctuary and House and because our life is vicious and disorderly we can't abide to hear death mention'd and when it comes to us we are ready to speak to it in Felix's language to St. Paul Depart for this time So that the love of Sin and the fear of Death are as two Sisters that hold one another by the hands or rather they are as Twins that are born and dye together As the Prophet Amos said to the Israelites Ye put for away the evil day and cause the seat of violence to come near Amos 6. So may we say to the Men of this age Ye put far from you the day of Death as much as you are able and draw near to all manner of Impurity Covetousness Ambition Pride Vanity Usury Rapine Violence Envy Malice and such like Soul-plagues You don't only draw near to these abominable Vices but you do also worse to lodge them in your Bowels and to plant them in your Hearts Certainly we may very well apply to all vicious persons what the Prophet Jeremy tells of Jerusalem Her filthiness is in her skirts she remembreth not her last end Lam. 1. 6. I have taken notice of another imperfection in us we mistrust the Providence of God and know not how to repose our selves upon his Fatherly Care we have a too worthy esteem of our selves and of our own sufficiency We can't resolve to dye because we fancy our selves very useful in the world and that our Death would bring a considerable loss to the Church of God to the State or to our Family 7. Because the Soul and Body are linkt together in a very strict union we can't imagine how they can be separated without great and unspeakable pangs our infidelity is so great that we can't rest satisfied upon the promise of God who engages to succor us in our distress and to deliver us from all our troubles Is 50. It is true Jacob's Ladder that reaches from the Earth to Heaven doth fill us with admiration but it seems most difficult and uneasy to ascend Paradice is Rich Glorious and Delightful to the uttermost but its Gate is strait and choakt up with Thorns and Bryers 8 I judge that one of the chief causes of the fear of death is because we look upon God as a most severe and merciless Judge inflamed with anger and fury against us and armed with vengeance Whereas we should consider and acknowledge him to be a
merciful Father full of compassion and kindness for Mankind Every Slave trembles at the sight of his Lord and there is no Malefactor but is afraid when he appears before his Judge to be put to the question and can I who am all spotted with sin and black with my horrid crimes can I appear before that Glorious Throne that causes the Seraphims to cover their Faces with their Wings Is 6. How can I that am but stubble subsist in the presence of the God of vengeance who is a consuming fire Heb. 10. 9. There is another visible fault in us we don't imbrace with a true and lively Faith the Death and Passion of our Lord and Saviour we all speak of Jesus Christ crucified but we don't know the Divine Vertue of his Crucifixion nor feel its Efficacy we don't consider that his death hath torn in pieces the partition that did shut us out of the Heavenly Sanctuary and that his blood doth trace us a way to Paradise and procure an entrance into that place of Eternal Bliss 10. We don't represent to our selves as we ought to remove from our fancy the horror of the Sepulchre how our Lord and Saviour hath bin laid himself in the Grave and perfum'd it with his Holy and Divine sufferings We don't imprint into our imagination that it is just and reasonable that we should be conformable to Christ in his abasement if we will have any share with him in his Glory and exaltation 11. Besides that which nourisheth in our Souls the fears of Death is this we look upon it as if it were in its full strength and vigor whereas we should remember that Jesus Christ hath overcome and disarm'd Death by his powerful Resurrection and that for our parts we need but follow the footsteps of his Glorious victories and fasten that furious Beast to his Triumphant Chariot 12. We don't consider as we should with a serious and religious application of the mind How our Saviour Christ is not only risen from the Sepulchre victorious of death but that he is also ascended up into the highest Heavens as our fore-runner to prepare a place for us and that by departing out of our miserable bodies we follow the footsteps of our ever Blessed Saviour to reap with him the fruits of his most Glorious Victories 13. We stoop too much to consider our frail corruptible and mortal Nature and we seldom enter into this most useful Meditation That by the Holy Ghost we are nearly and unseparably united with Jesus Christ the Prince of Life and the Source of Light and that we have already in us the Seeds of Blessedness of Glory and Immortality 14. As the Children of Israel did murmure against Moses in the Desart and did wish to be again in Egypt This did proceed from a forgetfulness of their bitter slavery under which they had groan'd and of their painful labouring amongst the Bricks and the heat of the Furnaces and from their mindfulness of the pleasures alone which they had lost They dream't of nothing but of the plenty of Bread and Flesh of the Cucumbers Onions and of the Meats with which they had so often fill'd their bellies Thus we do repine at death because we don't dream of the evils from which it delivers us but think only upon the vain pleasures and seeming advantages of which it robs us 15. We imagine that Death destroys and reduces us to nothing And we don't consider that it never meddles with the principal part of our being but only pulls off from us Sin and breaks the rest of the Chains of our Spiritual Bondage so that Death is rather the Death of Sin than of the faithful 16. Here is another great fault in us We don't lift up our minds to consider the Glory prepared for us at the Egress of our Souls out of our mortal Bodies However we may demean our selves and what ever we may say we don't firmly without doubting believe the Felicities which God promiseth to us in the contemplation of his Face Sometimes we may think upon the joys of Paradise but it is a thought that doth pass through our Souls with too much speed and don 't take any root so that there be many if they were not ashamed would be ready to speak in that Emperor Adrian's Language My little Soul my dearest darling O Guest and Companion of my Body whither art thou now going 17. To these former causes of the fears of Death in us we may add another That we cast too much and suffer our eyes to dwell upon the rottenness and corruption that threatens our Body whereas we should carry our eye-sight to behold its Glorious Resurrection that shall soon follow Pleasant Abode and delightful Companion of my Soul must Death this cruel Death separate it from thee with so much violence Must thou part with thy dear and sweet company Must my Soul leave thee upon such grievous and lamentable terms That of so many Honors which have been heapt upon thee thou shalt not carry so much as their shadow to the Grave That of so many rich Moveables and Treasures thou shalt bear away nothing but a Winding-sheet a few Boards or at the most some pounds of Lead When thou hast lived in so much splendor and magnificence must thy covering be at last the Worms When thou hast walkt so proudly in Palaces Gilded with Gold and perfum'd must at last thy confinement be in a stinking and loathsome Sepulchre Must these beautiful Eyes be clos'd These Lips of Coral become pale This Golden Mouth be stopt and must this dainty Flesh rot and become odious to the eyes of the World 18. In the last place We don't think as we ought upon that Eternal Bliss and Glory that hath been prepared for us from the foundation of the World and into which we shall enter when Christ Jesus shall come from Heaven with his Holy Angels to judge both the Quick and the Dead when he shall reunite our Souls and Bodies together for all Eternity that he may be glorified in his Saints and wonderful in all the faithful CHAP. 7. The first Remedy against the fears of Death is to Meditate often upon it WE become acquainted with the most dreadful things by custome and conversation fresh Soldiers do commonly quiver and shake at the sight of an Enemy they tremble at the Volleys of Shot and half dead fall to the ground at the horrid noise of the great Ordnance but when their courage hath been hardened by a long exercise they can then without fear seek the Enemy in his greatest advantages and can go as merrily to the Combat as to a Feast or to a Triumph The showers of small shot the Lightning and Thunder of the Canon can't make them so much as to shut their eyes or stoop their heads They do then laugh at their former apprehensions Thus the first conceits of Death do commonly terrify us but when we seriously meditate upon it and look it
in the face we shall not only contemn it but we shall also seek it boldly in its retreats and with an assured and undaunted countenance we shall behold Death let fly all its Arrows and Launces all its Thunderbolts without the least apprehension As it is with them who are not wont to see Savage Beasts they dare not draw near to them and can scarce look upon them without fear but such as are familiarly acquainted with them can touch them without apprehension and freely play with them Thus it is with those who have never had the confidence to look Death in the face they tremble and are fill'd with astonishment assoon as they see its approaches but those who do often behold Death are familiarly acquainted with it and therefore they can with confidence thrust their Fists into its jaws Moses fled away from his Rod when it was first turned into a Serpent but when he began to take it into his hands and saw that it return'd to its former shape and being he was far from running from it or entertaining the least apprehension of it but rather he made a very happy use of it and by Gods Command he wrought many great miracles Thus it is with Death it frights us at first but if we can but take hold of it with the hands of a true and lively faith it will be so far from scaring or frighting of us that it will discover to us a world of delightful Wonders Death therefore is so far from terrifying such as are accustomed with it that it fils them full of comfort and joy as a Child that looks upon his Father who hath a Vizard on his face is frighted and begins to cry but if he hath but the confidence to pull off the Vizard and take but notice of the loving smiles of his Parent hid under that horrid deformity he will not only cease from weeping and settle his mind but he will also leap for joy and embrace him Thus if we look upon Death with a timerous countenance and behold its hideous appearance we shall be struck with a sudden horror but if we can with any assurance lift up its ugly Vizard we shall soon discover our heavenly Father and with tears of Joy we shall run to embrace him as the Apostles when they espied our Saviour in the night walking upon the Waves of the Sea cried out in a fright thinking that it had been a Spirit but when he drew near to them and heard his voice they perceiv'd him to be their Saviour when therefore they took him into their Ship the storm ceas'd immediately Thus if we look upon Death at a distance the blindness and ignorance with which we are possess'd will represent to us a frightful Spirit but if we examine and behold it nearer by the help of the Gospel Light we shall find it to be our Salvation and the accomplishing of our Redemption All our fears will then be calm'd and our Souls will return to their former repose In a word as he that runs from his Enemy increases his courage and renders him more earnest and resolved to pursue him Thus when Death sees us tremble and decline its approaches it becomes more proud and imperious over us We must therefore think betimes of Death represent it to our selves continually and enter into an acquaintance with it it was holy Job's practice for he cried unto the Pit thou art my Father and to the Corruption and the Worms you are my Mother and my Sisters Job 16. And imagine that this was the chief reason of Philip of Macedon's commanding a Page every morning to rouse him up out of his sleep with O King remember that thou art a mortal man For by this often repeated Lesson he labour'd to humble his lofty mind and teach his frail nature not to glory too much in the splendor of his Crown and Scepter nor to abuse the power committed to his Trust By this means also he became acquainted with Death that it might not seem strange when it should come in earnest to snatch him away This was also the designe of that Emperor Meruaan or Meruanes who caused this Motto to be Engraven upon his Seal Remember that thou must dye These words did call to his mind that which his Courtiers did not dare to mention to him So that this great Prince never confirm'd with his Seal the death of any man but at the same time he did represent to himself that his own death was not to be avoided for the same reason the Noblemen of China are wont to have their Coffins ready made betimes in their Chambers that at every moment they might look Death in the face for the same cause the Aegyptians in their most sumptuous Feasts did commonly place a dead mans Scull in an eminent corner of the room by this spectacle they intended not only to oblige the Guests to a moderation of their Joys and to a curbing in of their unruly Lusts but also to bring them acquainted with and to accustome them to behold it amongst all their Delights They treated Death as if their designe had been to invite it to their most delicious Feasts that they might rejoyce together with it Iohn 19. I conceive that the Jews for the same cause did build their Sepulchres in their Gardens of Pleasure that they also might have the image of death continually before them and that in the midst of all their divertisements it might be their most pleasant and ordinary entertainment For us Christians to oblige us to think upon Death there is no need that a Page should remember us every day that we are Mortal nor that the Motto of a Ring should call to our minds that we must dye there is no need of a Coffin to be plac'd in our Chambers in such things there is many times more Ostentation than Piety nor is it needful that a dead mans Skull be put before our Eyes or that a Sepulchre be built or hewen in our Gardens and places of Recreation and Delight for as Alexander the Great understood that he was a Mortal Man by the Bloud that ran out of his Wounds Thus the Diseases unto which we are subject and the daily infirmities that we feel do sufficiently instruct and assure us that we are Mortals And as a famous Philosopher when he receiv'd the unhappy news of his only Son 's untimely death answer'd the Messenger with a setled countenance I knew said he that I had begot him a Mortal man Xenoph. Thus will the faithful say without change of countenance or appearance of fear when his death is declar'd to him I knew that my Mother had conceiv'd me a Mortal Man I knew very well that Death is the Tribute that we must all pay to Nature and that upon this condition I am enter'd into the world If we will make use of any exterior help to imprint this Lesson into our Fancy we must practice with care the advice of
we know not at what time nor in what place Death intends to come upon us let us expect it at every moment and in every place Seeing that we lodge in this Earthly Tabernacle without any loss or assurance of Time let us be ready to depart at the first warning for it will be far better for us to goe out willingly than to be drag'd out against our wills it is not convenient that Death should carry us away in the same manner as the Sea bears and tosseth a dead Corps upon its wayes But we must in this occasion imitate the discreet Pilate or Mariner that trims his Sails and helps by his Art the Winds and the Tide to drive him to his desired Haven We should not follow Death as the Malefactor follows the Executioner that leads him to suffer but as the Child follows his Father that conducts him to a Feast we should not engage him in a combat with Death by constraint as the antient Slaves did with the wild Beasts in the Roman Amphitheaters but we should imitate David's generosity who of his own accord march'd out of the Camp of Israel to fight with Goliah It is better for us to attack and seize upon Death than to be surprized and devoured by it unawares Come when thou wilt O Death thou shalt never surprize me for I wait for thee at every moment with my weapons ready in my hand Thou shalt never drag me forcibâ—y for I will follow thee willingly and joyfully Although thou art mine Enemy yet will I speak to thee in the Language of the Spouse in the Canticles to her beloved Draw me and I will run after thee Nay I will meet thee in the way and receive thee with hearty embraces for instead of dreading thy coming I desire it passionately and hope for it for at thy first arrival assoon as I shall have seen thee I shall have overcome thee O blessed and happy day that assures me of such a glorious Victory and of such an Eternal Triumph A Prayer and Meditation upon the continual expectation of Death O Gracious God in whose power alone and at whose pleasure are the Times and the Seasons I know that it is appointed to all men once to dye and that the Grave is the dwelling which thou hast prepared to receive all Mankind we understand sufficiently by the experience of former Ages that none is able to say I shall live and shall not see Death Thou O Almighty God our Supreme Judge hast pronounced our irrevocable Sentence in the Earthly Paradise that we must dye so that I should be guilty of the greatest folly and madness if I did not firmly believe that I must dye as others and follow at my turn in the way of all flesh But Lord thou hast been pleased to hide from our knowledge the wonderful proceedings of thy providence and dost not suffer us to see the Hand that marks out the last hours of our Life We can perceive no shadow to discover to us with certainty when shall be the going down of our Sun we know not at what hour of the day or of the night thou wilt call us away to appear before thy great Tribunal Give us therefore Grace O merciful God to be alway ready to answer to thy Call and to obey thy Holy Commands that I may be as a Ship at Anchor that stays only for a Wind to set her Sails forward or as a Soldier who waits only for the Signal to march to the Encounter Give me Grace O good Lord that I may be like the good and faithful Servant who expects his Masters coming and hears his voice assoon as he calls Or like the wise Virgins who were ready to meet the Bridegroom and to follow him into the Marriage Chamber seeing that I can never know neither the time nor the place when Death will come to me O that I might expect and wait for it at every moment and at every place O that I might live in such a manner as if I were always ready to dye That my Soul were always upon my Lips prepared to fly away That I were continually in readiness to commit it into thy hands O my God my Faithful and Merciful Creator By this means I shall receive Death with Joy when it comes as thy Servant and Messenger and I shall follow it willingly being certainly perswaded that it will lead me into Eternal Life and introduce me into thy Glorious and Immortal Palace Amen A Prayer and Meditation for Youth O Almighty God and Vniversal Light that enlightenest every Man coming into the World the only Author of my Being by whose Gracious allowance I breath Thou O Lord hast formed and fashioned my Body with thy Divine hand and hast put into it an immortal Soul created after thy likeness Thou hast not only bestowed upon me a Life but hast by thy continual care preserved my Soul and kept my Body from all the dangers unto which this weak and frail Nature is always subject Although I feel my self lusty and strong if thou withdrawest away from me thy Spirit and that Divine Vertue that sustains me I shall instantly fall away and return again into nothing from whence thine Almighty Hand hath taken me O merciful Lord seeing that I live by thee alone make me to live only to thee and for thee that all my actions may tend to thy Glory and Praise thee That I may consecrate to thee with all my heart the First-Fruits of my Life and the Flower of my Age that I may remember my Creator in the days of my Youth and that I may abstain from Vice before the Time come in which I shall say That I have no pleasure therein O Father of Mercies pardon and forgive all the Sins and Infirmities of this foolish and unconsiderate Youth Give a stop to all the unruly motions and repress the violent attempts of this boiling Age tame this miserable Flesh that is not obedient to the will of its God That if the dread of thy Holy and great Name and the respect that I owe to thy Sacred Eyes that behold me are not sufficient to recall me from the Commission of sin and to oblige me to obedience Give me Grace to look continually upon Death that appears round about me and it may be in my very bosom Give me Grace to listen daily to the Heavenly voice that calls me to come forth before the Tribunal of the Great Judge of the World who spies my most secret actions who reads the most inward thoughts of my mind and examines all the passages of this most wretched life O that this flourishing Age and this perfect Health that I enjoy might never flatter me with the conceit of being free from and out of the reach of Deaths merciless Darts But let me remember that there are more Flowers and Blossoms that fall to the ground than Men gather of Fruits and that more tender and young Plants are taken up
before his journy to Damascus where he was strangly converted by a Miracle how could Gods immutable decree be accomplish'd for he had designed him from his Mothers Womb to be a Noble Vessel of his Grace and Mercy and a faithful Ambassador of his Son Gal. 1. If the good Thief had died before he had seen the Light or if he had been kill'd in one of his Robberies how could he have been converted upon the Cross where he Repented of his Crimes Or how could he have heard from our Saviour these blessed and comfortable words Verily I say unto thee Thou shalt be with me this day in Paradise Luke 31. The Heathens have perceiv'd and understood this Truth but they have darkened and defaced it by their impertinent and ridiculous Fictions for their Poets tell us that there are three Parcae or infernal Goddesses the one holds the Distaff and Spins the other winds up the Thred the third cuts it and puts a period thereby to the Life of Man By this Fable they intend to teach us that God lengthens or shortens at his pleasure Mans Life As it is therefore certain that God hath numbred our days he hath also appointed in his infinite Wisdom the means to convey us out of the world If one dieth in Peace another is kill'd in War If one departs in his Bed another hangs upon a Gibbet If one perisheth by Famine and another is stifled with the Plague If one is struck with the Thunder and the other is torn in pieces by wild Beasts If one is choak'd in the Waters and the other perisheth in the Flames In short if the separation of the Soul from the Body happens in a different manner it is not without the express Leave and Orders of our Heavenly Father Therefore when we see the strangest accidents come to pass and the most unexpected and tragick Deaths before our Eyes We must remember the saying of the Prophet Jeremy when he saw the burning and plunder of Jerusalem Who is he that saith and it cometh to pass when the Lord commandeth it not out of the mouth of the most high proceedeth not evil and good Sam. 3. We must then consider with the Prophet Isaiah That it is God that creates the Light and the Darkness and that sends Prosperity and Adversity Isai 15.45 Or with Amos who enquires whither there be any evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it Amos 3. That is to say that there is no Affliction nor Death that happens but God hath appointed it and fore-ordain'd it by his wise providence If the Devil cannot destroy Job's Flocks of Sheep nor hurry headlong into the Sea the Herds of Swine without his leave who holds him fast in Chains Matt. 8. Let us perswade our selves that all the powers of Hell and the World cannot cause us to dye by a violent Death if God hath not ordain'd it before in the resolutions of his infinite Wisdom so that if at any time a Prince or a Magistrate speaks to us in Pilats language to our Saviour Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee and power to save thee John 19. being strengthened with an Holy Confidence Let us answer him as our Saviour Thou shouldest not have that power over me were it not given to thee from above Without the leave and pleasure of my God thou canst not take from me an Hair of my Head We read in the Book of Judges that when Abimelech assaulted the Tower of Thebez with a resolution to win it upon a suddain a Woman cast from the top a piece of a Milstone that fell upon his Head and broke his Scull Judg. 9. If we look only upon the second Causes this accident may appear to be strange and unexpected but we must lift up our Eyes to the Almighty hand of an al-seeing Power and Wisdom far more dextrous than that of this poor Woman for the same Relation declares That God by this means brought to pass Jotham's Prophecy and rendred the wickedness of Abimelech which he did unto his Father in slaying the seventy Brethren with his merciless hand upon his own guilty head Ahab King of Israel was disguised with a designe to fight with the Syrians 1 Kings 22. An unknown Soldier le ts fly by chance an Arrow out of his Bow which struck him in the weakest part of his Armor wounded him to death and the Dogs lickt the Blood that gushed out of his Wounds At this sight a carnal and an earthly Mind will say That this was but a mischance of War an unfortunate accident But the Spirit of God informs us better that this happen'd to fulfil the Prophecy of Elias and the dreadful threatnings which he had pronounced against this wicked Prince who labor'd by Tyrannical and devilish attempts to invade other mens Possessions Thus saith the Lord in the place where Dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall Dogs lick thy blood even thine 1 Kings 21. When we cast our eyes upon the Tragical death of Josias King of Juda at the first sight it appears but the effect of the boiling fury of Youth which carried him against all reason obstinately to fight with Pharaoh Neco King of Egypt or of the strength and swiftness of his Enemies according to the complaint of Jeremiah the Prophet Our persecutors are swifter than the Eagles of the Heaven they pursued us upon the Mountains they laid wait for us in the Wilderness The breath of our Nostrils the anointed of the Lord was taken in their pits of whom we said under his shadow we will live among the Hâ—â—then Lam. 4. But to understand the Truth we must enter farther into the Sanctuary and adore the wisdom of Gods Decree that had resolved to take away this good and religious Prince into his Eternal Rest and bestow upon him a more noble and a richer Crown before he took in hand the sword of his vengeance to punish the people of Israel for the many Idolatries and horrid Crimes of which they had been guilty By this means God fulfilled the Prophecy of Husda Behold I will gather thee unto thy Fathers and thou shalt be gathered into thy Grave in peace and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place 2 Kings 22. When we look upon the Death and Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ we may imagine at the first view that only the Pharisees envy Judas's Treason the mutiny of the rude Rabble Pilates Injustice Herods Jests and the cruelty of the Roman Soldiery were the causes of his Tragedy but the Holy Apostles Peter and John unto whom our Saviour had discover'd the rarest secrets of his Wisdom consider these outward Agents but as the Instruments to bring Gods great designe Mans redemption to pass Therefore they speak of it in this manner in the fourth of the Acts Against thine Holy Child Jesus whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people
Children of Adam of what condition or degree soever likewise it is a great comfort and unspeakable joy to us to behold this cruel and proud Enemy brought down overcome and disarmed to see our Lord Jesus Christ marching out of Deaths fortifications loaden with its Spoiles rejoyce therefore ye Heavens and ye that dwell in them for the Murderer of our Brethren is swallowed up into Victory We who are the Members of this great Conqueror have a share in his Honour and Glory in his Person we are Conquerors of Death so that we may say with the Apostle That God hath quickened us together and raised us up with him This Prince of Life hath not only loosened all the bands of Death and broken to pieces all its chains but he hath led away Death in Triumph and made it subject to his Celestial Empire He hath an absolute power over Death as he himself declares in these words I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen and have the Keys of Hell and of Death For it stands with reason that if this invincible Lord when he was in the Prison of Death commanded over Death itself if he broke in pieces its Iron bars and its Brasen gates if he caused the Dead to go out and led them into the Holy City now that he is out of the Grave a victorious Conqueror he must needs command with an uncontrolable power this dreadful Enemy which he hath already overcome and brought under by his Almighty Hand O Death fret and fume out thy rage and fury I see that thou art tied as a Prisoner to the Triumphing Charriot of Jesus Christ my Saviour and I am certain that thou canst do nothing without leave and that thou canst not go a step unless he lengthens thy Chain As Joshua when he had overcome the Kings of Canaan called for his Captains and spoke to them in this manner Come near and put your feet upon the necks of these Kings fear not nor be dismayed be strong and of good courage Likewise we may imagine believing Souls that our Divine Joshua now that he hath conquered Death calls to us from Heaven tread upon this wretched Death with boldness fear not nor be dismayed The Children of Israel that trembled at the threatnings of Goliah were freed from all apprehensions when they saw him fall with a Stone from Davids sling so that the most timerous could have freely put their feet upon his Neck And shall not you Christians banish from your Hearts all fears and dread of Death now that you see that it is cast down at the feet of our true David the great Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls for although it opens its Jaws and that it fomes out flames of Fire it hath nevertheless received the Stroke of Death and is ready to give up the last gaspe And as the servant of Jonathan the Son of Saul dispatched and killed those whom his Master had cast down Thus we need but pursue the glorious Victories of the Son of the King of Kings or rather we need but gather up the pleasant Fruits of his Conquests for this Prince of Life that hath overcome Death for us offers to overcome it also in us with the Weapons with which he arms us In short to speak properly there can be no Death for such as are Incorporated in Jesus Christ by a true and lively Faith for he that lives and believeth in him shall never Dye and he that believeth in him though he were dead yet shall he live Joh. 11. A Prayer and Meditation for the believing Soul that strengthens it self against the Fears of Death by a Meditation upon the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ LOrd Jesus who hast been fully declared to be the Son of God with power by thy Resurrection from the Dead and who livest for ever and ever strengthen me in my weakness comfort me in my Sorrows and drive from my Soul all Fears and apprehensions of Death O wonderful Saviour I need no longer fear this cruel and proud enemy for thou hast broken all its fetters and chains and hast overcome Death and the Grave O glorious and triumphing Monarch what cause have I to dread a discomfited and disarmed Enemy whom I see lying under thy feet and chained to thy Triumphing Charriot I need but follow the sacred Footsteps of thy Victories and gather its excellent Fruits If thou hast been able to deal with Death when thou wast shut up in a Dungeon if thou didst then bring down its pride and carry away its prisoners what may not I expect from thy Victorious and Almighty Arm now that thou hast in hand the Keys of Hell and of Death O most mighty and merciful Lord Thou hast not only overcome Death for me but thou wilt also overcome it by me who am thy Child and the Sheep of thy pasture whereof thou hast paid the Ransome Thou art not only raised from the Dead but thou art also the Resurrection and the Life Thou the Prince of Life and the Lord of Glory and Immortality so that he that lives and believeth in thee shall never Dye and whosoever believeth in thee though he were Dead yet shall he live Sampson was worthily admired when he slept until midnight rose up and carried away the Gates of Gaza upon his Shoulders up to an high Mountain but who would not admire thee O invincible Nazarite who having slept until the third day in the bowels of the Earth didst rise again by thy Divine Vertue carry away the Gates of Hell and made them to become the Gates of Heaven and the entrance into thy celestial Paradice Let me Dye seeing that my Redeemer liveth and seeing that he intends to introduce me into an happy Life purchased for me with his most precious Blood and secured unto me by his glorious resurrection Amen CHAP. 18. The Sixth Consolation against the Fears of Death is the Ascention of Jesus Christ into Heaven and his sitting at the Right Hand of God IT is a great joy and comfort indeed to behold a cruel and a proud Enemy overcome and disarmed and our selves freed by that means from the heavy yoke of his unsufferable Tyranny but our joy would be turned into grief and our comfort into sadness if we did but perceive at the same time the Author of our Freedome choked with his own Blood and breathing out the last gasp at the moment of his Victory that our Sanctification might be entire and our joy perfect such a Friend to our welfare should continue afterwards alive and receive the Honors and Rewards due to him for such an expression of his Valor and Kindness to us There is no Enemy more cruel and more terrible then Death we have beheld it disarmed upon the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and perfectly vanquished and subdued by his glorious Resurrection But if with the eye of our Faith we look a little higher to behold the glorious
one after another and he also in his time yielded up the Ghost But Jesus Christ who is Risen from the Dead Dyeth no more Death hath no more Dominion over him so that he lives for ever and ever and will cause us all to become Immortal Therefore instead of desiring as Jacob to Live to go down into Egypt to see his Son Joseph we should earnestly desire to Dye that we might ascend up into Heaven there to behold our Lord Jesus Christ our Father and Redeemer When Jacob embraced again his wonderful and beloved Child in the exceeding transport of his Joy and Love he burst forth into this kind of Language Let me now Dye now that I have seen again thy Face and that thou art alive On the contrary when we shall embrace Christ in his Glory when we should behold his Divine Countenance we shall speak in another manner my Lord and my God seeing that I now look upon thee alive and Raigning in Heaven I shall live also and Raign with thee for ever and ever Amen A Prayer and Meditation for a believing Soul who strengthens it self against the Fears of Death by considering the glorious Ascention of Jesus Christ into Heaven and his sitting at the right hand of God O Holy and Divine Saviour I have often looked upon thy generous Behaviour and glorious Victories to strengthen my self against all apprehensions of Death but if thou wilt render my joy most perfect and accomplished give me Grace to Meditate upon thy Divine Triumph As thou hast engaged in many Encounters for my sake and hast vouchsafed unto me a share in thy Victory grant me also a share in thy glorious Ascention and Triumph As thou hast suffered for my Sins and art risen again for my Justification thou art also ascended up into Heaven to prepare a place for me thou art willing that I should be admitted into thy Noble and Divine Palace that I should be where thou art that I may behold thy Glory which thou hast enjoyed with God the Father before the Creation of the World O sweet and Merciful Lord what cause have I to fear to go to Heaven seeing that thou art there seated in the highest Glory and Felicity and that thou stretchest out thy merciful hand to receive and admit me Have not I good reason to expect to be glorified in thy Kingdom seeing that thou thy self dost bestow upon those that serve thee the Immortal Crowns and Scepters O great God and Saviour thy Throne is surrounded with Glory and Splendor nevertheless I will draw near unto it with boldness for it is a Throne of Love and a Throne of Mercy unto which every penitent Sinner may come Round about this glorious Throne I see a Rainbow of an Emerald colour that certifies me that thy Covenant is everlasting When thy Glory and Majesty did increase thy Love for me did not lessen and thy compassion and goodness were always the same Thou art the same yesterday and to day and thou shalt always be the same for ever Thou hast been pleased for my Salvation to lye in a Manger and to be nailed to a Cross Thou hast given thy Soul for my Ransome and hast spilt thy precious Blood to wash and cleanse me from my Sins and to make me a way that I might enter into thine holy Sanctuary In the midst of all that Glory and Light with which thou art now cloathed thou hast not thought it a scorn to acknowledge me for thy Brether and for a Member of thy Mystical Body It is for my sake that thou appearest before thine Heavenly Father it is for me that thou offerest up unto him Prayers and Supplications O wonderful Lord it is in thy power to give unto me the things which thou hast merited by thy Sufferings and which thou desirest for me by thy Prayers and Intercession for all power is given unto thee in Heaven and in Earth O Soveraign Monarch of the whole World hast not thou given unto us this great and gracious promise When I shall be lifted up from the Earth I shall draw all Men after me And is it not for us that thou hast prayed in this excellent manner Father I will that they also whom thou hâ—st given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me Seeing therefore that thou hast left this wretched Earth to go and Raign above in Heaven take unto thee my Soul O wonderful Redeemer and deliver it from this valley of Tears and Misery cause it to understand at the time of its departure those words of joy and eternal comfort Verily I say unto thee this day thou shalt be with me in Paradice Lord Jesus draw me with the cords of thy Mercy and Grace and I shad run after thee And seeing that I must of necessity pass through Death to come to thee the Prince of Life and Immortality give me Grace to consider it in the same manner as the Prophet Elias did the Fiery Charriots that carried him up to Heaven or as Jacob did the Waggon that carried him into Egypt to his Son that did Raign there this holy Father in a transport of joy cried out let me see my Son Joseph again and then let me Dye But when I shall be ravished with an unspeakable and glorious joy I shall speak in another manner Let me Dye that I may behold my true Joseph the Soul of my Soul the light of Life the Author of my Glory and Happiness O sweet Jesus I shall freely and willingly leave this wretched and crasie dwelling to enter into thy heavenly Palace to behold thy Glory and Magnificence O King of Kings and Lord of Lords when shall I hear that Divine Wisdom that drops from thy Lips and when shall I see thee sitting upon the Throne of thy Glorious Majesty where a thousand thousands wait upon thee and ten millions Worship thee When shall I enter into the Glorious Company of the Saints and Blessed Spirits that Sing forth thy Praises and cast at thy feet their most precious Crowns O glorious Monarch that art now in thy Kingdome enjoying a perfect happiness forget not thy poor Servant be not unmindful of thy Sâ—n or Daughter who am now overwhelmed with the sorrows of this miserable life and the anguish of Death Let not the Songs of the holy Angels and applauses of all the glorified Spirits hinder thee from listning to my Sighs and Groans O Almighty and merciful Lord look upon me with the eyes of thy Love and reach unto me thine helping hand Send unto me thine Angels of Light to receive my Soul and prâ—tect me from the Angels of Darkness that endeavâ—r to destroy me and to drag me headlong into Hell Let Some of thâ—se glorious Spirits that wait for thine orders and fly at thy command deliver me from Death and carry me upon their wings into thy Bosome I see the Heavens open and Jesus Christ sitting at the right hand
a sight of his Glory of the Riches and Divine Excellencies of the New Jerusalem but how much greater is thy priviledge for that which this Holy Apostle beheld in a Vision and a Dream God will discover to thee in Truth and Reality Let thine Heart listen and thou shalt hear the voice of thy Saviour calling already to thee feom Heaven as unto his Beloved Disciple Come and see Come my good and faithful Servant come my Son or my Daughter and I will shew thee my Glorious and Magnificent City I will shew thee the Palace of my Glory and all the Splendor and State of my Kingdom Come and I will expose before thine eyes all my Riches Treasuries and my most precious Crowns Come and I will cause the River of Living Water which proceeds from my Throne to run before thee and the Eternal Delights that proceed from my Face I shall shew thee all these Heavenly Treasures and Glory all the Angelical satisfactions not in the visions of the night in an extasy in an Holy ravishment of the Mind or in a Prophetical elevation of the Soul but I will discover them to thee in Reality and Truth by the assistance of a purer and more Glorious Light than that of the Sun I shall not only cause thee to behold this Glory these Treasures and Delight but I will cause thee to be partakar of them for ever for as thou hast pledged me in the Cup of my bitterness and sorrows as thou hast continued with me in my afflictions and hast been faithful unto Death I will give the Kingdom to thee as the Father hath given it to me I will give thee the Crown of Life and will cause thee to swim in the vast Ocean of the Eternal Pleasures Thou shalt not only see all my Treasures all my Pomp and Glory thou shalt not only behold the Rivers and the Seas of my most wonderful Delights and shalt be a partaker of them but thou shalt see me as I am in my Kingdom I will pull off the Vail that covers me and scatter the Clouds and Mists that hide me so that thou shalt look upon me without hindrance and behold me face to face thou shalt be transformed into my Likeness and be satisfied with my Resemblance You see therefore Christians that although Death appears to us grievous and ill-favoured we may apply to it what David said of Ahimaz that it is the Messenger of good news Notwithstanding its hideous Vail and Cloak of Darkness we have just cause to liken it to the Chariot of Fire that carried up the Prophet Elijah into Heaven From what we have said you may easily conclude with the wisest of Kings That the day of our death is better than the day of our birth for our Birth brings us upon a wretched Earth but death carries us into a Paradise of Heavenly Delights Our Birth exposeth us to several Encounters but Death lifts us up upon a Chariot of Triumph Our Birth expresseth from us Crying and Tears but Death makes us sing for joy our Birth brings us into the Light but Death causeth us to shine as the Sun our Birth makes us to live a sensual and animal Life of a short continuance but Death introduceth us into a Spiritual and Angelical Life that shall continue for ever In short our Birth casts us into the Arms of Death but Death leads to the Well-spring of Life Therefore the Apostle St. Paul confesseth that Christ is gain to him both in life and death Phil. 1. And for the same reason the Primitive Christians could not endure to see any person afflicting himself for the decease of Believers because that it was the day of their Deliverance Rest Glory and Happiness they did commonly forbid all manner of Mourning for they judged that it is not proper that we should cloath our selves with black and sadness for their sakes who are clothed in white and shining Garments of Light and Immortality They look'd upon this Life as upon a continual Death and upon Death as upon the beginning of a real Life Therefore they stiled the aniversary day of the Martyrs death The day of their Nativity From hence proceed the usual Songs of Praise which they did commonly sing to perpetuate their Blessed Memories I need not cause you to take notice devout Souls of the notable difference between the death of God's Children and the death of the wicked It is as great as between Heaven and Earth between Paradise and Hell Balaam had good cause to desire the one and fear the consequence of the other we have as much reason to cry out as he did Let me dye the death of the Righteous and let my last end be like his Numb 23. You have heard how an Heathen Prince made this address to his Soul My little Soul my little Darling Hostess and Companion of my Body Adrian thou art going to wander up and down in cold obscure and fearful places thou shalt never delight thy self in jesting as thou hast been wont thou shalt never give me any more pastime but when a Christian Soul goeth out of this mortal Tabernacle he may talk to it in another manner O my Soul pleasant Hostess and Heavenly Companion of this crazy Body thou canst not wander out of thy way for thou hast a faithful and a knowing Guide Thou art already in the blessed company of Angels that shall bear thee upon their wings thou art going to a Noble place enriched with Light and Glory and blessed with the sincerest and most Heavenly Delights Thou shalt meet with no more Sorrows Grief nor Displeasure which so often disturb thy quiet here upon Earth Thou shalt rejoyce for ever with all the Glorified Saints and sing Songs of Praise and Thanksgiving for ever with all the Celestial Spirits O my Soul how great is that Glory and Happiness which thou mayest justly expect from thy God who hath both an infinite Power and an infinite Mercy and Goodness seeing that he hath endeared thee unto himself by giving his own Life to free thee from Death and Eternal Damnation If your friends or rather your enemies in this occasion weep and are grieved at your departure if they labour by their Tears and Sighs to move your Heart and to perswade you to remain yet here below speak to them as St. Paul did to those that wept about his neck What mean ye to weep and to break my heart Acts 21. St. Paul was then in his journey to Jerusalem where he was to be bound and imprisoned and to be carried to the City of Rome where he was to dye upon a Scaffold by the separation of his Head from his Body notwithstanding St. Paul's friends comforted themselves with this expression The VVill of the Lord be done And what mean ye my friends will ye hinder me from going up to an Heavenly Jerusalem at the Gates whereof I must cast off all these Chains and Fetters of Mortality I must leave
is gone into Heaven to Rest from all his Works Revel 5. and to take possession of all power riches wisdom strength honor glory and praise The third Work is that of our Glorification when we shall see new Heavens appear and a new Earth when our Bodies shall be cloathed with Incorruption and Immortality and united again to our Souls and when in both Soul and Body we shall attain to the highest glory and most perfect happiness Then he that sits upon the Throne of Eternity shall say with a loud voice Revel 21. All is finished Afterwards the Sabbath of Sabbaths shall succeed that Eternal rest and that peace which shall never be interrupted by any unhappiness We may say that the first rest is that of God the Father the second belongs to the Son the third is the rest of the Holy Ghost that shall have then gathered all the Saints together reared up the House of God to the roof and perfectly enlightened and sanctified the Catholick Church from whence shall proceed its Eternal Glory and Happiness or rather we may say that this last rest is the rest of all the Three Persons of the most holy and most glorious Trinity for then they shall rest from all manner of Works for ever and ever and we in the bosome of their Glory we shall also enjoy an everlasting test When the Works of Creation were finished the Works of Redemption were next expected and after the Works of Redemption we hope for the Works of our final glorification But when God shall have brought us all into his Glorious Rest and that he shall have declared for the third time from Heaven All is finished We shall then expect nothing neither from Gods justice nor from his mercy for all Gods Enemies shall be then destroyed and it shall not be possible to add any thing to the grievousness of their punishments nor to the violence of their torments There shall be no more Tears to be wiped no more evils to be feared nor advantages to be expected not Crowns to receive for then all the Children of God shall be perfectly glorified They shall injoy God himself who shall he their inheritance for ever and the bottomless fountain of all their Delights so that it shall not be possible to add any thing to their infinite Glory nor to their Eternal happiness God shall then as it were take away all means of expressing any greater liberality and bounty Abraham leaped for joy when he saw the Birth day and humiliation of the Son of God how should we rejoyce and be transported out of our selves when we think upon this glorious Day of the appearing of our Great God and Saviour when with the eye of Faith we behold him sitting upon the Clouds of Heaven coming to put a period to Sin and Death to shut up the Devil and his Angels in the bottomless pit of Hell to deliver his Church from all Evils Enemies and Dangers and to promote it to the highest felicity and to an everlasting glory After this Believing Souls I must draw the curtain and suffer my pen to fall from my hand for mine eyes dazle at the sight of so much light and my Soul is surpriprised at the consideration of so much glory and so perfect an happiness Although I have continued in this Treatise longer then I first proposed to my self I must needs confess that whatsoever I have said upon so rich and glorious a subject falls far short of the Truth But I am perswaded that there shall be here enough for pious and devout Souls that seek not for the ornaments of Language nor for the flourishes of Rhetorick but seek for the true and solid comforts of Gods holy Word You Christian and Believing Souls for whose sakes I have undertaken this Work I intreat you by the Glory of God and by your own Salvation to preserve in your minds the Ideas of these things that I have now spoken of Imprint them in your Memories grave them upon your Hearts with the point of a Diamond and especially take delight in following my direction and you shall assuredly find both joy and comfort Think often upon Death let it be the most familiar and most pleasant subject of your Discourse expect it at every Moment and lead such a Life as if Death were already upon your Lips Fear not the many troubles of this humane Life doubt not but that God hath determined the time and manner of your going out of the World and that every kind of Death of the Children of God is precious in his sight Seeing that you are to live yet but a moment here upon Earth settle not here your Hearts but injoy your Riches and advantages as not enjoying them remembring that the fashion of this World passeth away seeing that it is Sin alone that makes Death appear so terrible to us hate all manner of Vice and study the practice of Piety And seeing that there is no body at the hour of Death but wisheth that he had lived well think upon your latter end and you shall never be able to Sin If your mind is disturbed with the consideration of those things which shall happen after our Decease learn to rest upon the wise Providence of God that sees into the depths of Eternity that provides for all things and that draws Light out of the greatest Darkness Are you cast upon a Bed of Sickness and Disease open the eye of Faith and you shall see your selves encompassed about with holy Angels and in the Arms of God himself dread not the violence of pain for God shall never forsake you in your grief he shall never suffer you to be afflicted above what you are able to indure fancy him not as a dreadful and a merciless Judge but look upon him as a gracious and a loving Father who desires not the Death of a Sinner but rather that he should repent and live If Death appears to you with a frightful Countenance if it fills you full of Terror cast your eyes by Faith upon the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and you shall see there all the Weapons and Armour of this Death broken in pieces You shall see there a Divine and precious Blood running down which hath satisfied for all your Sins and marked unto you the way to Gods Eternal Sanctuary Let not the Grave that is digging for you terrify you seeing that the King of Kings hath been laid there before you and filled it with his most Divine Perfumes Let Death seem to you never so Dreadful remember that our Saviour hath overcome it by his Resurrection fear not therefore to incounter it seeing that our Great God and Saviour shall make you partaker of his Victory And that you might beget in your Souls an earnest longing to go to Heaven Look upon Jesus Christ there who prepares a place for you and desires that you should be eternally with him to behold his Joy and Glory Fear not the separation
whole Nations and Kindreds the Flesh of all the Animals that have lived and died since the Creation of the World hath not been able to glut this horrid Monster All warfare is doubtful he that wins the Victory to day may soon after be put to flight He that rides at present in a Triumphing Chariot may become the footstool of his Enemy but Death is always victorious it triumphs with an insufferable insolency over all the Kings and Nations of the Earth it never returns to its Den but loaden with spoils and full of Blood The strongest Sampsons and the most victorious Davids who have torn in pieces and overcome Lions Bears and cut off the Heads of Giants have at last themselves yielded and been cut off by Death The Great Alexanders and the Triumphing Caesars that have made all the World to tremble before them and conquered the most part of the habitable Earth could never find any thing that might protect them from Deaths power when glorious Statues and stately Trophies were rais'd to their Honor Death did laugh at their Vanity and make sport with their Persons The rich Marbles where so many proud Titles are Engraven cover nothing but a little rotten Flesh and a few Bones which Death hath broken and reduc'd to Ashes We read in the Revelations of the Prophet Daniel That King Nebuchadnezar saw in a Dream a large Statue of Gold both Glorious and Terrible Its head was of pure Gold its Breast and Arms were of Silver its belly and thighs of Brass its Legs of Iron and its Feet were partly of Clay and partly of Iron As the Prince was beholding it with astonishment a little Stone cut out of a Mountain without hands was roll'd against the feet of this prodigious Statue and broke it all to pieces not only the Clay and the Iron were broken but also the Gold the Silver and the Brass all became as the chaffe which the wind blows to and fro This great Image represents the four Universal Monarchies of the World That of Babylon that of the Persians and Medes that of the Greeks and that of the Romans It represents also the Vanity and unconstancy of all things under the Sun for what is the Pomp the Glory the Strength and Dignities of this World but a smoak that the wind drives before it and a vapor that soon vanishes away All is like a shadow that flies from us or like a Dream that disappears in an instant when crazy Man that was created in the Image of God riseth out of the Dust he seems to be very glorious for awhile and becomes terrible but assoon as Death strikes at his Earthly part and begins to break his Flesh and Bones all the Glory Pomp Power and Magnificence of the richest of the most terrible and victorious Monarchs are chang'd into a loathsome Smell into contemptible Dust and reduc'd to nothing Vanity of vanities all is vanity Seeing therefore that Deaths cruelty is so notable that it spares none and that its power is so great that none can escape or resist it It is no wonder if Death is become so terrible and fills with fears grief and despair the minds of all Mortals who have not setled their Faith and Assurance upon God for there is no condemned prisoner but trembles when he beholds the Scaffold erecting upon which he is designed to be broken upon a Wheel or when he spies in the fire the Irons with which he is to be pincht to death In the midst of a sumptuous Feast King Belshasar saw the fingers of a Mans hand writing these words upon his wall of the Palace Mene Mene Tekel Vpharsin which the Prophet Daniel hath thus interpreted Mene God hath numbred thy Kingdom and finished it Tekel Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting Perez or Vpharsin Thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians As soon as this Great Monarch had cast his eyes upon this miraculous writing it is said that his countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joynts of his Loyns were loosed and his Knees smote one against another Certainly the profound Worldling hath a greater cause to be dismayed in the midst of his Glory and Pleasures when he may perceive Death writing upon every wall of his House in visible Characters and printing upon his Forehead that God hath numbred his days and this in which he now breaths shall be soon followed by an eternal night That God hath weighed him in the ballance of his Justice and found him lighter than the Wind And that the terrible Creator unto whom vengeance belongs will soon divest him of all his Glory and Riches to cloath therewith his Enemies what comforts can be found by the wretched sinners who do not only understand the particulars of their final sentence but do also hear the thundring noise of the Great Judge of the world offended at their impieties They may now perceive Hell prepared to swallow them up and the fiery Chains of that doleful prison ready to receive them They may at present feel the hands of the executioner of Gods justice that seizeth upon them already and see themselves before stretcht and tortur'd in that place where there shall be nothing but weeping and horrible gnashing of Teeth at present they feel the fierceness of that fire and brimstone for it may justly be said of these wretched Varlots That Hell comes to them before they go to Hel and that in this life they are tormented with the grievous pangs of the second Death therefore some of them in despair do offer violence to themselves and commit an horrid murder upon their own persons as if they were afraid not to dye by a hand wicked enough the expectation of Death to them is more insufferable than Death it self and they had rather cast themselves into the bottomless pit of Hell than endure the apprehensions and fears of Hell in their guilty Consciences to be delivered of the flashes of Hell-fire that mounts up to their souls in this life they cast themselves in a brutish manner into that unquenchable Burning That which is most terrible is that the horrid and unsufferable fears that seize upon the wicked are not only for a moment for as a Criminal that knows that there is a sentence of Doom pronounced against him doth continually fancy and think upon those torments that are preparing for him assoon as he hears the door unlocking or a Fly bussing about his ears he imagines that some are entring to drag him from his prison to execution in some sense he desires what he apprehends and hastens the approaches of that for which he wishes and cannot avoid Thus desperate sinners that know there is a sentence of eternal Death pronounced against them in the Court of the King of Kings and that from this Sentence there is no Appeal nor Escape must needs be in continual fears Such foresee the fearful image of Death that disturbs
their quiet and as St. Paul expresseth himself Through fear of death they are all their life-time subject to bondage Heb. 2. That is They are like so many wretched Slaves that daily tremble under the inhumane power of a merciless Tyrant I am not ignorant that there be some Atheists who talk of Death with contempt and scorn and who make an open profession of braving Death without the least sence of fear nevertheless they feel in their souls some secret Thorns with which death doth often gaul them some fears and apprehensions with which it tortures and disquiets them when they dream least of her It is true they do for the most part boast of not fearing the approaches of Death and laugh at it when they imagine that she is at a distance from them but these are they who are most apt to tremble at the grim countenance of Death and soonest to discover their weakness and despair If there be any that seem to laugh at Death their laughter is only in appearance upon the Lips they are like a Child newly born that seems to laugh when he is inwardly tormented in its Bowels or like those that have eaten of the famous Herb mentioned by the Herbalists that causeth a pleasant laughter to appear upon the Lips of such into whose noble parts it conveys a mortal poison to bring them to an inevitable end There be some I confess then die without expressing any fear or dread of Conscience but these are either bruitish or sensless Persons much like unto a sleeping Drunkard who may be cast down a Tower without any knowledge or foresight of the danger or they be pleasant mockers who are like the foolish Criminals that go merrily to the Gallows or they be such as are full of Rage and Fury whom I may very well compare to an enraged wild Bear that runs himself into the Huntsmans snare such Monsters of Men deserve not to be reckoned amongst rational and understanding Creatures CHAP. 2. That in all the Heathens Philosophy there is no solid or true Comforts against the fears and apprehensions of Death THere be certain Physitians that seem at the first discourse to be very well skill'd in their Art and that talk of the Diseases and their Causes most Learnedly and accutely and nevertheless in their practice they are both unhappy and ignorant their unscasonable Learning doth disturb the Patient 〈◊〉 than their Physick doth ease him they increase 〈◊〉 sufferings of the languishing Body and add affliction to its pangs These kind of Physitians do very well discribe unto us in this particular the properties of the Heathen Philosophers for when they represent the calamities of our humane condition they sharpen their Wits and discover all their Skill and Rhetorick â—â—â—e of them laugh ingeniously at our miseries others do art ficially weep to behold them but in all their Writings and tragick Expressions we cannot find any solid and sincere Comforts to strengthen us against the apprehensions of Death therefore their contemptible and vain fancies oblige us to tell them as Job did to his friends who did disquiet instead of comforting him Your remembrances are like unto ashes your bodies to bodies of Clay Job 13. It is true some of these Learned Philosophers have very well spoken that we begin to dye assoon as we begin to breath and that our Life is like unto a Candle that lives by its approaches unto death whereof the Flame doth devour and consume it for the natural heat that entertains our life doth insensibly undermine it for it is that which spends our radical moisture or humidity that yields the same benefits unto our life as Oyl doth to a Lamp or Wax to a Taper Others have aswel said that our present life is but a swift Race from one Mother to another they meant from the Womb of our Mothers that brought us into the world into the womb and bosom of the Earth that will receive us at last for assoon as we are born we run a swift Race towards our Grave at that instant when we fly from death we do draw insensibly towards it and contrary to any intention we cast our selves into its Bosom and Arms. Some of the same School have compared Man to a bubble upon Water that rises and swells and immediately decreases and breaks others make him like to the waterish bottles of divers colours that Children cause with their breath and destroy with the same In truth all Mans Beauty is but a vain appearance that vanishes away in an instant Isai 40. All flesh is like grass and all the glory of man like the Flowers of the Field 1 Pet. 1. One of these great Philosophers being demanded what the life of man was answered never a word because such a question deserved no answer or rather because he would imitate the custom of his Age of speaking by guess and symbolick representations for that purpose he entred into a Chamber and past out of it again at the same instant This he did to express unto his Disciples that questioned him how that Mans Life is but an entrance in and egress out of the World the one succeeds immediately the other Another of the same Sect walkt in a bravado two or three turns and then shrunk into a Pit to signify That our Life is but a kind of Mascarade a vain appearance that soon vanishes when Men have well admired themselves and their Beauty and when they have drawn the looks and esteem of the World Death snatches them away dashes out all their Beauty and swallows their borrowed Glory in a mournful Grave It is with us as with Actors in a Comedy the one represents a King the other an Emperor the one a Counsellor the other a Minister of State but when the Comedy is ended and the Garments changed you know not which is which we are like Counters upon a Table some signify Unites others Tens others Hundreds and others Thousands and Millions but when they are gathered together and put again into the Purse this vast difference appears no more This is a lively Image of all mankind for in this life some appear upon the Throne others are seated upon a Dunghil some flourish in Golden and Silken attire others are cloathed with nakedness some Command as Princes others submit as Gally-slaves some are fed with exquisite Dainties others must be content with the Bread of affliction but when Death hath cast them all into their Graves together then they appear equal and alike All these witty expressions and others of the like nature are pleasant and true they teach well and flatter the fancy but they afford no real Comforts Therefore to all these Learned Doctors we may say as Job by way of reproach to his friends that did add sorrow to his affliction You are all Physitians of no value How then comfort ye me in vain Job 13.9 and 21.34 When a poor Patient is stretched with the Tortures of an unmerciful Gout or
persons that they had never been born therefore they shall seek death and shall not find it Mat. 26. They shall desire to dye that is to be reduc'd to nothing Revel 9. but this death shall fly from them who of you can dwell in everlasting burning Is 33. who of us can dwell in Eternal Flames Revel 6. If the viols and little cups full of Gods wrath do force the wicked to cry out how much more shall the Rivers and the Ocean of Gods vengeance force from them O mountains fall upon us O rocks cover us and hide us from the face of him that sits upon the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb for the day of his anger is come and who may abide it Prov. 1. But as they have stopt their ears to Gods gracious calls and hardned their hearts to his invitations to repentance then God shall also stop his ears to their outcries and his eyes to their horrid sufferings and when they shall be overwhelmed with fear and despair God will scorn and mock at their insufferable misery CHAP. 4. That Jesus Christ our Lord hath redeemed us from Eternal Death and by degrees doth deliver us from a spiritual Death WE read in the fifth Chapter of the Revelation of S. John That this beloved Disciple wept bitterly because no being in Heaven and Earth nor under the Earth was able to open the Book sealed with seven Seals that was in Gods right hand at that instant one of the 24 Elders spake to him Weep not behold the Lion of the Tribe of Juda hath overcome to open the Book and to loose the seven Seals Thus we have until now wept bitterly because we could find no body in the Armies of Israel to encounter with that horrid Monster Death But let us also wipe our Tears and take good courage my beloved for this same Lion of the Tribe of Juda hath order to fight with this dreadful Enemy our victorious and triumphing David who hath torn in pieces the infernal Lion bruised the antient Serpents Head and spoiled Principalities and powers triumphing of them in his Cross Col. 2.15 It is he that hath undertaken this glorious combat It was for that purpose that he left for a while the Throne of God the Father and the company of his Holy Angels 1 Sam. 17. It was for that intent that he came into the Camp and confusion of Israel contemning the shame and reproaches of his brethren He hath not borrowed the weapons and assistance of the world Heb. 2. all that he hath taken from us is our frail nature But he hath armed himself with righteousness as with a breast-plate and hath put on the Helmet of salvation He hath cloathed himself with vengeance as with a garment and hath covered himself with Jealousie as with a cloak he hath alone troden the Wine-press and no body hath assisted him Isa 59. Isa 63. but his arme hath saved him and his hand hath upheld him As David cut off Goliahs Head with his own sword Jesus Christ hath overcome Death by Death like unto the powerful Sampson he hath destroyed all the Enemies of his Glory by his Death 1 Sam. 17. He hath overcome in dying him who had the Empire of Death that is the Devil Heb. 2. and hath delivered them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage then was fulfilled this proof out of Hosea O death I will be thy plague O grave I will be thy destruction Hos 13. and that of Isaiah He will swallow up death in victory and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces and the rebuke of his people shall be taken away from off all the Earth Isai 25. 1 Tim. 6. This blessed Prince King of Kings and Lord of Lords who only hath immortality and dwelleth in an inaccessible light hath destroyed death and brought to light life and immortality by the Gospel 1 Tim. 1. O death where is thy victory O grave where is thy sting The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law but blessed be God who hath given us the victory by our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15. This great God and Saviour hath perfectly redeemed us from Eternal death as he himself doth teach us in the Gospel of St. John 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 unto life chap. 5.25 I am the living bread which came down from Heaven if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever Chap. 6.51 v. 40. Your fathers did eat Manna in the wilderness and are dead This is the bread which cometh down from Heaven that a man may eat thereof and not dye Chap. 8. Verily verily I say unto you If any man keep my word he shall never taste of death I am the resurrection and the life he that lives and believeth in me shall never dye and he that believeth in me although he were dead yet shall he live Chap. 11. The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life by our Lord Jesus Christ Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection Revel 20. the second death shall never have any power upon him In one word the Gates of Hell that is to say Death can do no prejudice to them that are built upon Jesus Christ the rock of Eternity This merciful Saviour hath also delivered us from the spiritual death Eph. 2. For we being dead in our trespasses and sins he hath quickened us and raised us up together unto newness of life Colos 2. He hath carried our sins in his body upon the Cross that he dying unto sin we might live unto righteousness We are buried with him in his death by Baptisme that as Jesus Christ is raised from the dead by the Glory of God the father we also likewise should walk in newness of life 1 Pet. 2. Awake thou that sleepest and rise from the dead and Jesus Christ shall enlighten thee Rom. 6. For by his death he hath not only reconciled us to God the Father Eph. 5. Colos 11. but he hath also procured unto us the Holy Spirit that creates in us a new heart and imprints the image of his Holiness Ezek. 36. 2 Cor. 5. He makes us become new creatures and regenerates us by the uncorrptible seed 1 Pet. 1. This is that which the Scripture names the first resurrection Revel 20. St. Peter was ravisht in admiration at this great and wonderful benefit and therefore he acknowledgeth it Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead 1 Pet. 1. God discover'd to the Prophet Ezekiel a field cover'd with dry bones and commanded him to prophecy upon those bones Ezek. 37. At the Prophets Command
the wise man It is better to go to the house of Mourning than to that of Feasting Eccles 7. for that is the end of all Men and the living will lay it to his heart never look upon a diseased Body stretch'd upon a Bed nor upon a dead Corps in a Coffin but remember that this is an universal Law unto which all Mankind must pay obedience and that it is the broad Road of all the Earth and that there thou mayest behold the lively image of thy future Estate I conceive that this may be a good expedient and very successful to entertain in our minds the continual thoughts of Death to make our last Will betimes and frequently to peruse it for as it happens when we meditate upon a farewel that we are to take of our friends we feel in our souls the same affections and motions as are in us at the moment of our separation Thus will it be with us when we seriously meditate upon the last farewel that we are to bid to the World Death appears to us upon our Lips or rather we fancy our selves at that instant already in the sweet embraces of our Divine Jesus our Glorious Redeemer Besides those things that are unusual and extraordinary I find nothing in nor out of us nothing that we feel taste or relish in short nothing that passeth either in our private or publick conversation but is able to renew in our minds the serious consideration of Death The Flesh that thou dost eat the Wooll that cloaths thy nakedness the Silk that adorns thy Body in general all thy Garments and Ornaments are but the sparkles of the Dead Creatures the sight therefore of all these things must call to thy remembrance thy frail and mortal Estate and cause thee to meditate upon the Preachers saying The same accident that happens to the Beast the same happens to Mankind as is the death of the one so is the death of the other They have all the same Breath and Man hath no advantage above a Beast for all is vanity all goes to the same place all proceeds from the Dust and shall return to the Dust again Never pull off thy Cloaths but remember that thou must shortly quit this miserable Body and lay it down in the Grave When thou art entring into thy Bed think upon thy Sepulchre where thou must one day be stretch'd If thou dost awake in the night consider that Death will shortly come and put out the Taper of thy Life let thy Sleep be an image of thy Death and let it call to thy mind how thou must within a few days sleep in a bed of Dust when thou awakest think upon the delightful sound of the Arch-Angel's Trumpet that shall rowse thee out of Deaths long sleep say within thy self when thou arisest It may be that I shall never rise again till the Son of God shall come from Heaven to lift me up out of the Grave with his Almighty hand when we cast our Eyes upon the rising Sun Let us say within our selves it may be I shall never behold any other Sun rise again but the Son of Righteousness that carries healing under his wings Consider when thou dost put on thy Garments that the time is coming when thou must be cloathed with a more Magnificent and Glorious Robe a Robe of Light and Immortality when thou dost sit down to eat think upon the hour that is drawing near in which death will feed upon thy Carkass imagine that it may be that this is the last time that thou shall sit at the Table that next thou mayst sit with Abraham Isaac and Jacob with all the blessed Martyrs who have wash'd and whiten'd their Robes in the Blood of the Lamb and that it may be that thou shalt never taste any more but of the food of Angels and of the fruit of the Tree of Life and that thou shalt never drink but of the new Wine in the Kingdom of Heaven and of the Rivers of Eternal pleasures that run from the Throne of God Every time that thou goest out of thy dwelling or changest thy abode fancy to thy self that in a short time thou must depart out of this Mortal Tabernacle Art thou alone and separated from humane Society remember that within a few days Death will separate and divide thee art thou going to any meeting or entring into any company or marching to the Holy Assemblies discourse with thy self in this manner It may be that I shall never go to any other company until I come to the Church and Congregation of the First-born whose names are written in Heaven Art thou invited to the marriage of a friend Say unto thy Soul It may be I shall never go to any other Feast but to the marriage of the Lamb offered from the foundation of the World Dost thou see a rich and glorious Palace or a pleasant Garden say to thy self It may be I shall never see any other Palace but that where the living God doth dwell and it may be I shall never behold any other place of pleasure but the Celestial Paradise If thou dost cast down thy eyes to look upon the Earth upon which thou dost tread Consider at the same time that this Earth or some like to it shall afford thee a Grave and that thou shalt sleep there the sleep of death Remember what God told Adam Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Gen. 3. or say with the Holy man Job Remember I pray thee that thou hast formed me of Clay and that thou shalt reduce me to dust I shall sleep in the dust and if thou seekest for me in the morning I shall be no more Job 20. Job 7. If thou takest a view of the Plants of the Herbs and Flowers don 't forget what the word of God speaks concerning our Life in the 90 Psalm That Man is like the Grass which groweth up in the morning it flourisheth and is green in the evening it is cut down and withereth And in the 103 Psalm As for man his days are as Grass as a Flower of the field so he flourisheth for the wind passeth over it and it is gone and the place thereof shall know it no more And elsewhere All flesh is like Grass and the Glory of Man like the Flower of the field Is 40. 1 Pet. 1. If thou dost behold the Currants of Water the Rivers and the Torrents remember at that time what is said in the 14 Chapter of the second Book of Samuel for we must needs dy and are as water spilt on the ground And in the 90 Psalm Thou carriest them away as with a floud If thou tak'st notice of the shadow of the Needle in a Dyal that follows the swift motion of the Sun or to the shadows which solid bodies cast upon the Earth In the evening they stretch a great way and a little after vanish consider seriously and engrave in thy mind this excellent Sentence Man is
in the 31 Psalm I trusted in thee O Lord I said Thou art my God my times are in thy hand He is of the same judgement in the 39 Psalm Behold thou hast assured me my days as an band breadth and in the 68 Psalm Vnto God the Lord belong the issues of Death Moses teacheth us the same Lesson in his Divine Hymn Psal 90. for when he hath represented how that it is God who reduceth Man to Ashes and maketh him return to his first substance he tels us speaking unto God Thou turnest man to destruction and sayst return ye Children of Men. King Hezekiah's comparison is very notable he compares the Life of Man to a Thread that God hath twisted and that he cuts off at his pleasure Isai 38. Mine Age is departed and removed from me as a Shepherds Tent I have cut off like a Weaver my life he will cut me off with pining Sickness from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me Hannah Samuels Mother removes all difficulty and confirms this Truth sufficiently 2 Sam. 2. It is God saith she who killeth and maketh alive he bringeth down to the Grave and bringeth up There is nothing more significant to the same purpose than our Lord and Saviours words I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen and have the Keys of Hell and of Death Apoc. This great God and Saviour closeth the Gates of the Grave when he pleaseth and 't is not possible to open them against his will In short Whether we live we live to the Lord whether we die we die to the Lord whether therefore we live or die we are the Lords Rom. 14. And our Reason being enlightned with a Divine Revelation teacheth us this good and profitable Lesson for if God hath a hand in our Conception and Birth and if he appoints the time of our entrance into the world wherefore should not he also have an hand in our Death mark out the time of our last departure David speaks thus to God in the 139 Psalm My substance was not bid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the Earth Thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect and in thy Book all my Members were written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there is none of them we may therefore for the same reason say to God My substance will not be hid from thee when this miserable Body shall fall to pieces as rotten Wood and as a Moth-eaten Garment thine Eyes shall see me when Death shall cut off the Thred of my Life and separate what thou hast joyned together so wonderfully thy Power and Wisdom shall have an hand in my last hours and nothing shall happen to me but that which thou hast afore ordained in thine unsearchable Decrees If God appoints the time of our Resurrection and if it be certain that without his express Commission the Holy Spirit will not breathe upon our dead bones to cause them to revive is it probable that the breath should depart out of our Nostrils and our Bodies should fall into the Bed of corruption without the Orders of this great and living God Ezek. 37. He hath appointed to the Sun its course and to the Stars that shine in the Heavens their several motions and stations Isai 40 and should not he also appoint to his Children their motions seeing that they are to shine for ever in the Heaven of Heavens where justice dwels as so many immortal Stars He hath measured the Waters in his hand he hath compassed the Heavens with his Span he hath weighed the Mountains in Scales and the Hills with a Ballance he hath fashioned the Earth with a Hive and given bounds to the roaring Sea and is it possible that he hath not not measured the time of our Life and that he hath marked out with his finger the last moment He who hath numbred the Kingdoms of Heathen Princes hath he not also numbred the days in the which he intends to reign in our hearts by his Holy Spirit hath he not appointed the time for us to ascend up into the highest Heavens where we are to reign with him in the Kingdom of his Glory If it be certain that God hath unmbred the Hairs of our Head Matth. 10. it is not to be doubted but that he hath also numbred the days of our Life And if a Sparrow doth not fall to the ground without his order how can it be that a Soul should take its flight up to Heaven without his express Commission He bottles up our Tears he keeps a Record of all our afflictions and takes an account of our Sorrows Psal 50. and can we imagine that he doth not keep an account of the life and death of Men and that he minds not the time that we are to spend in this vally of Tears He takes notice of our uprising and of our down-sitting he compasseth thee round about whither thou dost stop or go Psal 59. and can it be conceiv'd but that he observes thy rising at thy birth the several passages of thy Life and thy going down at thy Death In short if God hath appointed in his eternal Council the continuance of the great World he hath also without doubt limited the Life of Man the little World and the Image and Compendium of the Great As our Lord and Saviour teacheth us Man is not able by his solicitous care to add one Cubit to his stature and our experience sufficiently demonstrates that we cannot add a year a day nor a moment by all our labor and industry to the continuance of our Life If Life and Death were not in Gods hand there would be nothing setled nor constant neither in the Kingdoms of the World nor in the Church of Christ The Prophets would be often found in grievous errors and the eternal Election would be totally abolish'd for the most weighty affairs of a Commonwealth depend upon the Life of Princes The death of one Man is able to turn an Empire upside down and to change the state of a Kingdom If Alexander the Great had been stifled in his Cradle what would become of the Prophesie of Paniâ— who declares the glorious victories that this Prince should obtain against King Darius the Persian Monarch under the Embleme of an Hâ—-Goat that should run at a Ram with all his might that should break his two horns and trample him under his feet And if King Cyrus had died before the obtaining of the Kingdom of 〈◊〉 how should Isaiah's Prophesie be accomplish'd for he paints out this young Conqueror in his most lively Colours and calls him by his name in this expression I have said of Cyrus He is my Shâ—pheard and shall perform all my pleasure even saying to Jerusalem Thou shalt be built and to the Temple Thy Temple shall be laid Isai 44. If the Devil could have taken away St. Pauls Life
is by the vertue of Gods Divine Spirit which he hath bin graciously pleased to grant unto us and if the persons that we love and cherish as tenderly as your souls or those whom we are to reverence and honor labor to stir up the bowels of our compassion and to impede us in our Holy resolutions by base and earthly considerations let us tell them as our Saviour did to Mary Magdalene Le me alone for I am going to my Father John 20. Stop not my course for I hold already the prize and the promised Crown In short as Abraham let the Ram loose whereof the Horns were taken in a Thicket and offer'd it up in Sacrifice to God Gen. 21. Likewise let us free our minds from all worldly cares and carnal affections Let us offer them up all to God as a sweet smelling Sacrifice let us present them as a Burnt-offering consume them in the Flames of an Holy Zeal and love of his Divine Majesty When the Christian shall be thus prepar'd he shall never stand in fear of Death he will say to it with an assured countenance Come when thou wilt O Death I desire no reprieve for along while ago I have setled my affairs and wait for thee with patience the chief part of my self is not here below my Heart is already ravish'd into Heaven where God expects me with Arms wide open Therefore notwithstanding thy fearful darkness and the designe that thou hast to destroy me I will follow thee as couragiously and as joyfully as St. Peter did the Angel of Light that open'd to him the Gates of his Prison and freed him from his Chains Acts 12. A Prayer and Meditation for such as prepare for Death by a renunciation of the World O Infinite Lord of Heaven and Earth who dispossest of good and evil by thy Divine Providence and admirable Wisdom thou hast not suffer'd us to have here a lasting City that we might seek for that which is to come Thou dost discover before our eyes the vanity and unconstancy of all things under the Sun that we might labor to attain to solid and everlasting advantages Thou hast placed and reserved in Heaven an inexhaustible Treasure of Riches uncorruptible Crowns of Glory and Eternal Triumphs that thither we might transport our Heart and affections The source of Heavenly pleasures is with thee that we might always be athirst for the strong and living God and that we might desire with an Holy earnestness to look upon thy beautiful and glorious Face Most Glorious Creator seeing thou hast bestowed upon me an â—mmortal Soul suffer me not to be so wretched as to content my self with these mortal vanities and seeing thou hast made it of a Spiritual and Heavenly nature suffer me not to be so unhappy as to wallow in this miserable dust of the Earth or to cast my self into the puddle and dirt of carnal Lusts Give me Grace to renounce the World and all the Vanities that the World adores Give me Grace to possess all these decaying and perishing things as not possessing them that I may tramble upon all the pomp and glory of the Age that I may consider that the Gold the Silver the precious Jewels whereof the apparent beauty deceives the carnal eyes of Men is nothing else but hardened Earth that will crumble away and dissolve into Dust that I may remember that after my decease all these things will profit me no more than that vile Earth and the Stones that shall cover my dead Corps or the Wood or Lead which shall be given to it for a Coffin Give me grace to despise all the Honors and Dignities after which the Men of the World run so impatiently for they are but like a shadow that passeth away and like the smoak that ascendeth up put of our reach Pluck out of my heart the cares of this life and all solicitousness for the Earth that Death may never surprize me unawares and that there may be nothing to stop or hinder from going to thee when thou shalt be pleased to call me that my soul being totally disengag'd and freed from all these Bryars and Thorns I may be always ready at every moment to be offered unto thee as a living and a burnt Sacrifice The Children of Israel did fix and raise their Camp at thy Command Give me also Grace to be as ready prepar'd to live and dye to remain in this Tabernacle and to depart out of it when thou shalt send thine Orders and as this people did pass over the River Jordan with a wonderful joy to take possession of the promised Land O that I might also leave this miserable Wilderness with transports of joy to enter into the Celestial Canaan where the Milk and Hony of Divine Pleasures and of Eternal Comforts flow as in their natural Channel O God who art my portion and mine inheritance cast me not away with the men of the World whose portion is in this life Thou dost fill their paunch with thy good things they are full and leave sufficient for their Babes but for me all my comfort is that I shall behold thy face in Righteousness and shall be sanctified when I awake with thy likeness Amen CHAP. 11. The Fifth Remedy against the fears of Death is to renounce Vice and to apply our selves to the practice of Piety and Sanctification GOd is so wonderful in all his Works and he governs all his Creatures in such a manner that his very Enemies are constrain'd to acknowledge this Truth You have an excellent example in Balaam who beholding the Tents of the Children of Israel breaks out into this passionate wish Let me dye the death of the Righteous and let my last end be like his Numb 25. He was a wicked Varlot that loved the wages of iniquity nevertheless he perceived by that Prophetical Light with which his Soul was enlightened how sweet and comfortable Death was to such as addict themselves in this life to the service and fear of Almighty God and how different it is from the death of the profane Worldlings who give themselves over to their Lusts and Delight in the unlawful pleasures of the Flesh for as the Drunkards sleep with a disturb'd and unquiet fancy likewise such as are drunken and full with the base and rotten pleasures of this life if they be not hardened by Atheisme do commonly depart out of the World with strange frights and horrid gripings of Conscience that cannot be express'd It is otherwise with a good Christian for as the Handicrafts man who hath work'd all the day in his Shop and the Husbandman who hath wearied himself in following his Plow lays himself down at night in peace so it is with a good Christian who hath carefully attended the works of Piety and Mercy in this life he sleeps his last sleep with a great quiet of mind and satisfaction of soul as righteous Jacob when he travelled a journey to his Mothers friends with his Fathers
glorify their Creator and advance his Kingdom When this good desire is well governed it is as acceptable to God as a sweet smelling Sacrifice This was David's earnest desire in the 119 Psalm Let my Soul live that it may praise thee This Holy Zeal forced so many bitter Tears from King Hezekiah in his sickness and caused him to intreat most earnestly to live yet longer in the World This Wise and Religious Prince did well foresee the fearful Evils the grievous Confusion and the abominable Idolatry that was likely to succeed after his Death in the Kingdom of Judea He was therefore very desirous to glorify God on Earth and to accomplish the Reformation which he had begun He desired to have Children whom he might teach to fear God with all their heart and to serve him according to his Holy and Divine Will that he might cause Piety to continue in his House and Royal Family he discovers this Holy desire in his Divine Hymn which he sung unto God after his miraculous recovery Behold for Peace I had great bitterness but thou hast in love to my Soul delivered it from the pit of corruption for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back for the Grave cannot praise thee Is 38. Death cannot celebrate thee they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy Truth the living he shall praise thee as I do this day the Father to the Children shall make known thy Truth The Lord was ready to save me therefore we will sing my Songs to the stringed Instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord. We find the same earnest desire in St. Paul for when he looks upon himself and upon the miseries that attend upon him on Earth and lifts up his Eyes to see the Heavenly Bliss that waits for him above he desires to depart out of this earthly Tabernacle and to be with Christ and acknowledgeth that it would be his great advantage but when he looks upon the Church of Christ his desire of the Salvation and instruction of his Brethren causeth him to prefer their Comfort to his own Happiness and Joy It is saith he more expedient for you that I remain in the Flesh and I know for certain that I shall abide and remain with you for your advantage and the joy of your faith This desire of Life with an intent of Glorifying God is Good and Holy but it is no easy task to keep it within its just and lawful bounds for very often it becomes vicious when it is stirr'd up by a fond love of our own persons which makes us so loth to dye For example when a great Prince animated with an Heroical Vertue is engaged in a War for the preservation of his Subjects and for the delivery of many afflicted People from oppression and Tyranny if God blesseth his Armies and causeth his Glorious designes to succeed he will not be well pleased if Death at that instant offers to cross him to break in pieces his victorious Arm to put an end to his Conquests and to cast his Crown to the ground he may justly complain in this manner Must I now leave off such a noble and a brave Designe must I here stop in the midst of such a glorious Race and must Death bury with my Body the expectations of so many good Men I am afraid that all my labors will vanish away with my breath I have just cause to fear that my fall will draw after me the destruction of many poor People that depend upon me I fear that oppression and Tyranny will resume fresh Spirits and a greater Boldness and prove for the future more grievous and unfufferable O cruel and inhumane Death by taking away my Life thou bringest my Friends to Execution and the Arrows that thou stickest in my Heart do pierce the Souls of many innocent People Likewise he that is promoted to be the King's Vicegerent in a Province or to be a Governor of a rich Countrey and an important Place may be grieved because Death snatcheth him away in the middle of all his business especially if it be in troublesome times and if he sees none of a sufficient ability to succeed him Must I will such an one say Must I quit so soon this Glorious employment Must I so quickly leave my Prince's service and forsake so many poor People as a Flock without a Shepheard Death how hateful and odious art thou Thou delightest to bring all things into confusion and trouble Thus a brave General of a victorious Army who being full of Courage manageth a successful War for the Honor of his Prince and the advantage of his Countrey cannot but complain against Death when it comes to subdue him before he hath totally subdued and overcome his Enemies especially if the times be so unhappy that none is able to undertake that employment after him he will be ready to break forth into complaints Must I leave off so many Glorious designs Must I forsake my most faithful Soldiers and abandon them to the mercy of their Enemies or to the capricious humour of an unexperienced Successor O Death full of envy wilt thou pluck out of my hands so soon this conquering Sword and cut off with one blow of thy Sithe so many great expectations In the same manner he that sits in the most Honourable seats of Judicature as a Judge a President or a Counsellor or any other chief Magistrate will doubtless mourn if Death seizeth upon him in the flower of his age especially if he fears that after him corrupt Men will succeed who may be likened to whitened Walls Must I will he say leave so soon this noble Office in which I took so much delight O inconsiderate Death why dost thou not suffer me to wear my Purple until such time as I shall be weary to bear it Why dost thou not permit me to sit here upon this magnificent Seat until I tumble off with old Age Likewise a faithful Minister of the Gospel when he perceives the work of the Lord to prosper in his hands Satan falls from Heaven by his means as a Lightning and Dagon to be brought upon his Face to the ground may justly wonder at Death's approaches and speak in this manner Must I so soon quit the duties of this Holy Function in which I took my greatest delight Must I break off from this Sacred Work by which I did advance so happily the Glory of God I am afraid that when I am gone ravening Wolves will enter into the Lord's Flock and a terrible night of ignorance will involve our posterity Thus a Father of a Family who passionately loves his Wife and Children shall never see death but shall feel all his Bowels move and his Heart tormented with grief he will sigh out such expressions as these Must I forsake a poor forlorn Wife swimming in Tears Must I leave my tender-hearted Parents who found my life a comfort and will find my
Strength and Vertue of thy Holy Spirit that I may resist all my spiritual Enemies and obtain a Glorious Victory Give me Grace to overcome Sin the World and my Self all my Passions and wicked Lusts that I may see Hell confounded and Satan crush'd under my feet Lastly Give me strength to fight with courage against Death and to overcome it O great and living God! it is not necessary that any should remember me that I am Mortal because Death is to be seen every day before me I walk continually upon its Footsteps if it gives me an assault in the midst of my Prosperities and in the first increase of my Glory I shall then go to obtain a more happy and magnificent Victory than these earthly ones for it is far more Honourable to conquer Death and triumph over Hell than to be a Conqueror of thousands of Mortal Men. And if this cruel death carries me away in a time that my Life and Services are so useful to my Prince and Countrey Let me learn to rest upon thy wonderful Providence that cannot want Captains and Soldiers Thou wilt raise up after me more happy and victorious Commanders but I shall enter into thy Heavenly Rest and Peace that reigns in thy Kingdom Lord Jesus I shall gather the fruits of a blessed immortality which have been purchased by thy wonderful Victories and by thy glorious sufferings and I shall share in the joy of thine Eternal Triumphs Let this death therefore come when it pleaseth I shall be ready to say to it as St. Paul I have fought the good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge shall give me at that day Amen A Prayer and Meditation for a Judge or Magistrate O Glorious Judge of Mankind who first honoured me with this noble employment and put into my hands the sword of Justice Let me always remember that I am not called to this noble Office by Man alone but by thee who lifts up and pulâ—s down who raiseth the poor out of the Dust to make him sit with the Mighty Enlighten my understanding with thy Divine Knowledge and strengthen me with that Spirit which thou gavest to Moses and to his Judges in Israel Give me grace to do the duties of my Office faithfully and to be an uncorruptible Judge Let my Ears be always open to hear the cries of the afflicted but shut to all unjust suggestions so that the wind of unlawful favor may never be admitted Let me without any respect of persons render unto every one what is his right and that nothing may hinder me from condemning the guilty and justifying the innocent Let it never happen to me to follow my passions or the Lust of others but let me be a faithful interpreter of thy Holy Laws and Commands At every time that I sit to judge thy people let me remember that thou art amongst the Judges and seest their most secret thoughts Let me always consider that when I have done judging others I shall be judged my self and nothing shall be able to oppose the Decrees of thine infinite wisdom If at any time the considerations of Flesh and Bloud tempt me to evil let me recal to mind my approaching Death that I may be bridled with an Holy Dread let me consider that it warns me already to appear in person before thy Tribunal where I must give up an account not only of my Words and of my Actions but of my most secret Thoughts and of the most plausible Acts of Judicature O Lord thou hast Eyes to see into the very depths an Ear to listen to the whisperings of the Heart and a powerful Hand to find out the Guilty When I think upon that Glorious Throne upon which whole Legions of Executioners of thy Justice do continually attend I should tremble for fear were it not that the Judge is my Advocate and Redeemer and that he is ascended up into Heaven there to intercede and prepare for me a place O let me therefore willingly quit these vain Honors of the World that pass away on a suddain Seeing that thou preparest for me above a Dignity far more Excellent Eternal and Vnchangeable Let me cast off without murmuring this Robe where Worms do breed and so many cares that consume my Heart Let my Soul put on with transports of joy the Heavenly Garments of Light and Glory that will render it Eternally happy Let me go down from this Seat of Judicature without grief seeing that the Lord Jesus promiseth to every one that overcometh that he will make them to sit with him upon his Throne When I am gone from hence thou wilt raise up wise and uncorruptible Judges that shall judge thy People according to Justice and Equity In the mean while I shall enjoy the sweet and comfortable effects of thine Eternal Mercy which thou hast discover'd in thine only Son who hath been made unto us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption Amen A Prayer and Meditation for a Minister of the Gospel who beholds Death with Joy and Comfort OVniversal Shepheard and Bishop of our Souls I cannot sufficiently acknowledge and admire the Graces and Mercies which thou hast bestowed upon me thou hast called me to an Office in which the Angels of Heaven esteem it an Honor for themselves to be employed and in which thou thy self hast been diligent during the days of thy Flesh Thou hast been pleased to make me one of the Ministers of thy People and to commit to my trust that which thou dost cherish as the dearest and most precious thing of the World namely thy Church for which thou hast expressed so much love as to give thy self for it and to redeem it with thy precious Bloud But alas my Lord and my God who is sufficient for these things The employment is heavy and painful and I am weak and feeble The World hates and persecutes us most vehemently and the Devil like a roaring Lion walks continually about us to seek to devour the Shepheard with his Flock In thine own Inheritance I am forced to swallow many bitter Fruits and drink Waters of affliction I find more Briers and Thorns than Flowers and Roses They that should encourage me in the midst of so many Labors do often weaken my Hands and afflict my Heart that which should cause my great'st joy and fill my Soul with the sweetest Comforts is the occasion of my deepest sorrows and of my most violent grief Merciful Lord whilst thou art pleased to leave me in this mortal Life and in my Ministry accomplish thy Vertue in my weakness and do thou the work which thou hast enjoyn'd to me thy poor Servant Open the door wide to the Gospel of thy Grace that all people of the Earth may learn to serve and worship thee in Spirit and in Truth Defeat all the Counsels and all the strength that riseth up against
O God who art the Creator and Father of their Spirits cause them to endure a thousand Deaths and reduce them to nothing from whence thou hast fetched them rather than to suffer them to be enslaved to Vice Error or to Superstition that robs thee O Great God of thine Honor to ascribe it to the Creature Merciful and Almighty Lord I shall not say to thee as Esau did to Isaac when he had blessed Jacob My Father hast thou but one Blessing for I am certain that thou hast an infinite number and many inexhausible Fountains of all manner of Blessings but I beseech thee with all the Zeal and Earnestness that I can to Bless my dear Children with thy Heavenly and especial Favors take them into thy protection bear them in thy Hands embrace them with thy tender compassion and let them be as dear to thee as the Apple of thine Eyes Let thy fear be always before them Let them love thee with all their Heart and serve thee with all their Powers that they may Glorify thee in prosperity and adversity in Life and Death that Christ may be their gain whether they live or whether they dye but I am now leaving the World and my Children without Grief or mistrusting thy care of them I am ascending with joy up to thee who art my God my Father and their Father and I trust in thy great and Eternal Mercies that one day we shall see one another in thine Heavenly Kingdom when we shall be admitted to behold thy Face which shall fill us with unspeakable Gladness and Pleasure Amen CHAP. 13. The First Consolation against the fears of Death God will not forsake us in our most grievous pangs MAn is naturally afraid of pain and abhors all sufferings and grief now the most of us are perswaded that it is impossible to dye without enduring great pains therefore they abhor Death not so much for its own sake as for the evils that it causeth to suffer That we may be able to drive away this ill-grounded Fear and strengthen our minds against all apprehensions we must first consider that death is not so dreadful and painful as commonly imagined the Holy Ghost calls it a Sleep and the Heathens themselves have said that Sleep is Death's Cousen-german and the Image of frozen Death Now Sleep creeps upon us insensibly it charms our Sences softly and with invisible Fetters it ties and stops all our most active faculties although we sleep every night we are not able to discover how this happens to us It is said of Socrates one of the most famous Men of the first Ages when he had in obedience to the Decree of the Judges of Athens drunk poison when he felt the venom benumming his Sences and Death creeping into his Veins he declared with a pleasant countenance That he had never swallowed anything more sweet and comfortable Nothing can be imagin'd more pleasant than the death of the old Patriarchs The Holy Scripture tells us That when Jacob had made an end of commanding his Sons he gathered up his Feet into the Bed and yielded up the Ghost Gen. 49. The same is related of King David That when he had perswaded Solomon to fear God and to do justice he slept with his Fathers 1 King 1. God is as merciful to many in these latter days to cause them to dye in speaking and calling upon his Holy name their Souls are not pluckt from them by violence but of their own accord they separate from the Body and fly into Heaven with an Holy chearfulness The separation of such Souls from the Body happens without pain grief or suffering Such are like to a Taper that extinguisheth without any blast of Wind of its own accord when the Wax that kept it alive and nourisheth its flame is totally spent If you perceive some tost and tortured with grievous pangs in their death-bed they are not properly the pangs of death but the last struglings and motions of life for I cannot imagine that at the moment of the separation of our Souls from our Bodies we suffer any pain because at that instant all the Senses are then lulled asleep and our Bodies have no more strength nor life to hinder the Souls departing Death is so far from being so dreadful and painful as we commonly imagine that on the contrary it is that very thing that puts an end to all our pains and miseries And I am perswaded that the diseases that bring us to our graves are not so grievous as the other distempers that we endure whilst we live here on Earth such as are a cruel Gout a Stone in the Kidneys or a Canker in the Breast for they are tortures that rack us continually and a Fire that consumes us without ceasing But when our pains should be far more sensible and that we should have reason to impute them to death we have no reason therefore to fly from it or to abhor its approaches for otherwise we have as good cause to curse the hour of our Birth and weep for our Victories for there is no Birth without pain nor Victory without strugling the most Glorious and flourishing Laurels are watered with Bloud and Sweat The most excellent things are the most painful and to speak according to the common saying that One nail drives another so one evil is a Remedy to many other evils we commonly seek with an earnest longing as a good thing that evil that frees us from the violent pains that we can scarce endure To be healed oâ—â— our distempers we swallow most bitter Pills and Potions that gripe and torment our Bowels To be freed from the Stone we suffer a most painful cutting And that the Gangreen that hath seized upon one of our Members might not get to our Heart we endure it with patience to be cut off whether it be Arm or Leg therefore when Death should be much more grievous bitter and more cruel than it is commonly represented yet we ought to embrace it willingly because that it delivers us not only from some disease or some particular pain but generally from all pains aches and distempers The Physick works not always out the humour that disquiets us When we have drawn out a Stone from the Bladder many times others grow in the place that are worse The Surgeons hand let it be never so perfect answers not always his Patients expectation instead of removing his pain it increaseth it But the working and cure of Death is always certain and never fails the success is always happy to a Christian Soul That I may supply thee with some comfort in the midst of thy great pains and sufferings My Brother or My Sister remember that these things happen not to thee by chance but it is God who sends them to thee according to the decree of his Wisdom Ascribe not thy Disease to the influences of the Stars to blind Fortune but lift up thine Eyes to his appointment who hath stretched
not wrath very sore O Lord neither remember iniquity for ever behold see we beseech thee we are all thy People By this gracious and loving Title of Father the prodigal Son is perswaded to be able to oblige his Father to have compassion of him I will rise and go to my Father and will say unto him Father I have sinned against Heaven and against thee and am no more worthy to be called thy Son make me as one of thy hired Servants Thus although we have forsaken our Heavenly Father mispent the Riches of his Grace and lived a filthy and a prophane Life Nevertheless if we can be but moved with a serious and a true repentance and say to him from our hearts Father I have sinned against Heaven and against thee I am no more worthy to be called thy Son He will forget all the miscarriages of our youth and will pass by all the offences that we have committed out of ignorance or mistake nay he will blot out all our wilful and deliberate sins he will not only embrace us when we shall cast our selves at his feet and in the arms of his Mercy but he will meet and receive us as his dearest Children he will kiss us with the blessed kisses of his Fatherly love he will give unto us his Holy Spirit that shall seal us for the day of Redemption and shall assure us that we are admitted to the liberty and all the priviledges of his Children he will shooe our Feet with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace and will give us all the assurances of our entire and perfect reconciliation He will cloath us here upon Earth with the Robes of Righteousness and Holiness and in Heaven he will bestow upon us uncorruptible Robes of immortality and Glory In this life he will give us the foretasts of Eternal Happiness and in the life to come he will lead us by the hand into the Banqueting Chamber and will cause us to sit there at Table with Abraham Isaack and Jacob and with all the First-born whose names are written in Heaven Out of this celestial abode all murmurings and complaints shall be banished but here shall be rejoycing and gladness for the conversion of poor sinners and for their admittance into the Kingdom of Heaven God himself shall invite the Holy Angels and blessed Spirits to share in these publick rejoycings saying to them We must rejoyce for these my Children were dead but now they are alive they were lost but now they are found again Let the miserable slaves of the Devil and of their filthy Lusts tremble at the approaches of death and let them look upon God as a dreadful Judge Rom. 2. For our parts we have not the spirit of Bondage to be again in fear but we have the spirit of Adoption whereby we may cry Abba Father Let the Sons and Daughters of Adam who have no other Being nor Life but that which they have received with their corrupted Nature fly from God's Presence for our parts we that are Regenerated by the Spirit of the second Adam we will draw near to him with boldness We will not say as that wretched Soul disturbed and frighted at the consideration of its crimes I heard thy voice I was afraid and hid myself Gen. 3. But rather having been brought up in the Schools of the Prophets and Apostles and having learn'd that we must prefer our Obedience to God's Will to all other things whatsoever we shall say unto him with Samuel Speak Lord for thy servant heareth 1 Sam. 8. Or rather we will speak unto him in plainer terms O my God and Heavenly Father speak when thou wilt for thy servant is ready and resolved to obey thy Commands we will stay till God shall call the fourth time as that Holy Man Numb 31. Who because of his tender and unexperienced years could not distinguish between God's voice and that of a Man but we will have our Ears always open to his Divine Orders and at the first motion and summons of his Will we shall be ready to follow him as the Children of Israel were in the Wilderness when they raised their Camp and marched according to God's directions Numb 3. And as when the Levites stopt and put down the Ark in its own place 2 Chron. 3. Moses did commonly pray O Lord give rest to the thousands of Israel Likewise you believing Souls whom God hath chosen for his Ark and Temple assoon as you shall perceive that this wise Governor of Mankind intends to put a period to your painful Journey and laborious Race that is to say assoon as you shall perceive the least signe of death speak with an Holy confidence and joy Rejoyce O my Soul the time of thy freedom and of thine Eternal Rest approacheth Here is the Messenger of good news here is Death that will usher me in to the Glorious Palace of my Heavenly Father Father the hour is come Glorify thy Son that thy Son may Glorify thee John 17. When the hour was come that our Lord Jesus Christ was to go out of this World to the Father he said unto his Disciples who were grieved for his going from them If ye loved me ye would rejoyce because I said I go unto the Father for my Father is greater than I John 13. John 14. Christian Souls speak in this manner at the hour of your departing If such as are about you happen to weep and lament if they endeavour to move and stop you by the considerations of Flesh and Bloud tell them why are you grieved at my deliverance and at the end of my misery why would you hinder and retard my Glory and Happiness O how cruel is your Love how blind and unconsiderate is your Affection Certainly if ye did love me as ye ought ye would prefer my satisfaction and the accomplishment of my happiness to the small advantages that ye might gather from my abode with you ye should consider that the least part of the joy that I shall feel in my Heavenly Fathers House is a thousand times more worth than all the Pleasures of the Earth than the Honors of the Age and the Pomp and Glory of the World My friends or rather my enemies let me go for I go to my Father I go to behold his Face which is the most Divine satisfaction I go to take possession of that Inheritance prepared for me from the foundations of the World John 20. Matth. 21. A Prayer and Meditation for a believing Soul that strengthens it self against the fears of Death by an Assurance and Trust upon God's Fatherly Goodness and Infinite Mercy MY God and Creator I perceive that the time of my departure draweth near and that Death presseth sore upon me It summons me to appear before thy dreadful Tribual it frights me when it brings to my remembrance all my former sins and represents unto me the hainousness of my crimes O Great God when I seriously think upon what I am
as it is Recorded of St. Stephen that when he had commended his Soul into the hands of the Lord Jesus that he fell asleep Acts 7. Therefore when St. Paul reproves the Coriâ—thians and acquaints them that God had punished them with divers Diseases and Death because they had profaned the Lords Supper he tells them For this cause many are feeble and sick amongst you and many sleep And when he speaks of all those that were dead in the profession of Christs Religion he saith they sleep in Jesus and he names them they that sleep Now we are not better and nobler then the Saints of Paradise to expect that our Bodies should receive a better and more favourable entertainment then they In short there is nothing more able to remove from our fancy that horror of our Graves then the consideration of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who is entred into the Earth as well as other Men and hath laid himself down there He hath Sanctified and perfumed that place with his Divine Presence he hath made it the object of our desires and the cause of our glory for there is no Subject but judgeth it an honour to lodge in his Princes Chamber and to lay down and sleep upon the Bed where he hath taken his rest although he hath remained there but a moment or an hour O glorious Tomb where Death and Life Disgrace and Glory are lodged together and where the Prince of Life the Author of all Honor and Happiness did rest himself Christians who desire to banish from your Souls all fears of Death and apprehensions of your Graves look upon your Sepulchres in the same manner as if you should see there Jesus Christ the King of Glory the Prince of your Salvation yet remaining asleep When old Jacob heard the mistaken news of the Death of his Son Joseph he was overcome with a violent grief so that he cryed out I shall go down with Sorrow to my Son into the Grave But the certain news of the Death and Burial of our true Joseph will fill us full of unspeakable comforts and will cause us to speak in another manner I shall go down to my Father into the Sepulcher with Joy The Prophet Elias raised to Life a Child which laid in his Chamber upon his Bed when he stretched himself upon it the Soul that was departed came again And Elisha raised another in the same manner by applying his Mouth to the Childs his Hands and Eyes to the little Infants But believing Soul God works for thee in this occasion a far more wonderful Miracle for our Resurrection and Life proceed from the Death and Burial of our great Prophet If we go into this holy Tomb if we lay our selves down upon this precious Body if we embrace it with a true and living Faith and a serious Repentance he will quicken us again and cause us to become Immortal for he hath been pleased to enter into the estate of the dead with an intent to procure unto us a blessed and a glorious Immortality A Prayer and Meditation for a Christian who strengthens himself against the horrible aspect of the Grave by looking upon our Lord Jesus Christ stretched out in his Tomb. O Wonderful Mediator between God and Man Thou art God Immortal and yet hast vouchsafed to take upon thee our Mortal Nature and to Dye for me miserable Sinner and to remain for a time in the estate of the Dead that thou mightest procure unto me a blessed Immortality Give me Grace to Meditate as I ought upon thy Sacred Body wrapped up in a winding sheet and laid in the Earth for by this means O sweet Jesus I shall be brought not to abhor the Grave I shall look with a stedfast and setled countenance on the Grave digging into which I must enter when thou shalt appoint it for the Servant is not greater then his Master It belongs not to the Creature to lift it self up above the Creator seeing that I expect to share in thy Glory and Exaltation it is but just and reasonable that I take some part in thy Disgraces and Abasement My reason assisted by thine holy Spirit teacheth me that I must be content to be wrapped up in thy Darkness and remain with thee in the valey of the Shadow of Death seeing that I hope to be cloathed one day with Light and Crowned with an eternal Life I must not only look upon the Grave without Fear but I shall consider it with Joy seeing that thou hast honoured it with thine holy presence and perfumed it with thy Divine and celestial perfumes I shall behold it in the same manner as if thou didst yet lye down in it as if I were to keep thee company there my Lord and my God A dead returned to Life again when he did but touch the Bones of thy Prophet but I do not only touch the Prince of Prophets but embrase thee with Faith as thou art dead for my Sins and as resting in thy Grave for my Salvation Thou shalt therefore make me sensible of thy Divine Vertue put in me the Seeds of Immortality and raise my hopes up to Heaven Already my Soul hath a share in the first Resurrection and one day this crazy Body shall return to newness of life If my Resurrection be not so quick and speedy as that of the Dead raised to Life by the Prophet It shall be far more glorious and lasting that I may bless thee with all thy Saints and praise thee for ever with thine Inheritance in Heaven Amen CHAP. 17. The Fifth Consolation against the Fears of Death is to Meditate upon the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ AS there is nothing more grieveous and unsufferable than to behold a proud and insulting Enemy who is alwayes victorious and whom none can overcome in his insolent and braving humor likewise there is nothing more pleasant and comfortable then to see such a pride cast down and to overcome such an Enemy Therefore the Children of Israel who had long groaned under the cruel tyranny of Pharaoh sung with Joy a Song of Triumph and Thanksgiving when God destroyed that wretched Tyrant and Buried him and his Army in the waves of the Red Sea For this cause when the Red Dragon the ancient Serpent called the Devil and Satan Exod. 15. who seduceth whole Nations was overcome and cast down from Heaven to the Earth There were Songs of Joy and Gladness heard in Heaven Revel 12. Now is come Salvation and Strength and the Kingdom of our God and the Power of his Christ for the Accuser of our Brethren is cast down which accused them before our God day and night therefore rejoyce ye Heavens and ye that dwell in them From hence let us conclude Christian Souls as it was a grievous Affliction and a sensible Grief to behold Death tyrannising over all the World and shutting up in its Dungeons Kings and Monarchs Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs and generally all the
Ascension of our Divine Saviour we shall see this same Death bound to his Triumphing Charriot and we shall see this glorious Redeemer exalted above the highest Heavens and sitting gloriously at the Right hand of God we shall see him invested in an almighty Power worshipped by all the Creatures we shall see him commanding not only the Angels of Light and the celestial Spirits that are about his Magnificent Throne but commanding also over this World over Death the Devils and Hell Because he hath been obedient unto Death yea to the ignominious Death of the Cross God hath highly exalted him and given him a Name which is above every Name that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in Heaven in Earth and under the Earth Phil. 4. and that every Tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord to the glory of God the Father Every Souldier doth not always bear a part in the Triumph of their General and all the Subjects do not tast of their Princes happiness but as we are the Brethren of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Members of his Mistical Body we have a share in his Triumph and in the glory of his Empire therefore the Apostle St. Paul informs us that our Life that is to say our glory and eternal Felicity is hid with Christ in God in another place he tells us in express words That God who is rich in Mercy hath made us sit in Heavenly places with Jesus Christ This glorious Saviour is gone to take possession of the Kingdom of Heaven not only for himself but also in our names and for us therefore he informs the Holy Apostles and all true believers That in his Fathers House there are many Mansions I am going to prepare a place there for you In the same manner he speaks in that admirable Prayer in the which he consecrates himself to God for the great Work of our Redemption Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my Glory which thou hast given me For the same reason St. Paul tells us in his Epistle to the Hebrews for our comfort Heb. 6. that Christ is gone into Heaven as our forerunner The High Priest of the Jews did enter into the earthly Sanctuary to present himself before God for the people Heb. 9. Thus our Lord Jesus Christ is gone into the Heavenly Sanctuary to appear for us in the presence of God The High Priest of the Jews did bear upon his Breast and Shoulders the Names of the 12 Tribes of Israel but Jesus Christ hath graven us upon his Heart according to the Prayer of the Spouse in the Canticles Can. 8. Set me as a Seal upon thine Heart as a Seal upon thine Arm for Love is strong as Death The High Priest of the Jews did cast off the Names of the Twelve Tribes with his Robes But neither Death nor Life nor things present nor things to come shall ever separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ Rom. 8. The Royâ—â— Diademe that was put upon Esthers Head never câ—â—sed her to forget her People and Parentage she was mâ—gâ—â—â—ly grieved for her Hamans Conspiray and the Decree which he had caused King Ahasuerus to Sign and 〈◊〉 with his Signet I may likewise say that the Glory unto which our Lord Jesus Christ is now raised can never make him forget the People that he hath redeemed with his Blood He is not unmindful of Satans plots nor of the Sentence of Doom pronounced against us by the great Monarch of the World and confirmed with his great Seal His glorious Head may be Crowned with the Râ—inbow but his merciful Heart is inflamed with Love for us He thinks it no disgrace to acknowledge us for his Brethren and to pray God for us upon his glorious Throne where thousand millions wait upon him and ten thousand thousands Worship him He is able to Save to the full all such as draw near to God through him for he lives always to intercede for us If the Father hath always granted him his Request when he was in his greatest abasement can we imagine that his Intercession will be fruitless now that he is ascended up to the highest Glory From the Chariot of his Triumph he beholds all our Encounters and our struglings with Death he sees all the Enemies that Assault us and all the Dangers unto which we are exposed He is acquainted with the deep Malice and the crafty Designs of the Enemies of our Salvation He perceives all the Darts that they let flie against us therefore he covers us with his Shield and will not suffer us to yield to Temptation He fulfills his Vertue in our Infirmities and makes us more then Conquerors he hath an eye alwayes upon his Flock he holds his Sheep all in his hand and none is able to pluck them from thence When he was upon Earth in his Agony at this word that dropt out of his Mouth I am he John 10. his Enemieâ— fell backward and when he was in Deaths Prison he constrained it to obey him and shall he not now that he is exalted up to the highest Heavens in the glory of his Triumph have the same power and command over Death the World and Hell When he walked upon the Waters he cried to his Apostles It is I be not affraid John 6. how much rather may he speak unto us in this manner now that he sits upon the Throne that can never be moved Christian Soul who trembles at the approaches of Death imagine that the Lord Jesus Crowned with Glory calls to thee from Heaven fear not for I call thee and hold out unto thee my Arms I that am thy Saviour and Redeemer who have satisfied for all thy sins with my Blood and who have redeemed thee from the Curse of the Law and eternal Damnation I have disarmed Gods Justice vanquished Hell broken the Serpents Head and swallowed up Death into Victory I have purchased for thee the Glories of Heaven and the Delights of Paradice I have trampled upon the World and all its powers I am Worshipped by all the Church triumphing in Heaven and by Legions of holy Angels that fly about my Throne I will therefore send some of them to guard thee and when thou shalt leave the Body where thou livest as a Sttranger they shall bring up thy Soul into this glorious abode of Immortality whether I am come to prepare a place for thee Without doubt if the Author of our hope is fixed in the vaile that is in Heaven where Jesus Christ is gone in as our forerunner we shall not apprehend the most contrary and boisterous storms raised against us by the Prince of the powers of the Aire who works with efficacy in the Children of Rebellion we shall tred under foot all the billows of this troublesome Sea and through these swelling waves we shall march safe to our Divine Jesus If at
It is most certain that this death is not to be feared as an evil and an enemy but it is rather to be desired as a good Friend and a Blessing It is reported of the Thracians that they buried their dead with expressions of joy and the Inhabitants of the fortunate Islands did Sing and Dance at the Funerals of their dearest Friends I don't recommend these foolish examples of these extravagant and barbarous People who were without Hope and without God in the World such cannot fear death too much for if it frees them from some present and light evils it casts them into an Abysse of excessive torments Death is an Happiness it brings with it solid Comfort and Joy but it is when we dye in God's Favour and in the Faith of our Lord Jesus God hath sufficiently declared the Happiness and Pleasure of his Childrens death for he doth often abridge the days of those whom he favours and esteems Because he had seen some good things in the person of Abijah the eldest Son of Jeroboam King of Israel he took him away in the flower of his Age 1 Kings 14. He granted the same favour to Josias King of Judea one of the most Religious Princes of the World for he had declared to him by Hulda the Prophetess Behold I will gather thee unto thy Fathers and thou shalt be gathered into thy Grave in peace and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place 2 Kings 22. It is not to be doubted but that such are most happy as die in the Lord and rest from their Labours but I judge such happy in a twofold manner as Dye or rather cease from Dying in such miserable times so full of confusion and disorder Would not you laugh at a Workman that should grieve when his Task is ended and his Labour finished or at a Wayfaring Man that should lament to see the end of his painful journey through Prickles and Thorns and the scorching heat of the Sun or the unsufferable cold of the Winter Or would you not wonder at one that should vex himself when he is safely arrived in the Haven escaped the Waves of a tempestuous Sea and in a shelter from the Storms Wretched Man thou art far more foolish and extravagant than those of whom we speak for the most painful Labours of a Workman the most grievous weariness of a tedious journey and the swelling Waves of a troubled Sea are nothing in comparison of the Labours Misery and Troubles of this languishing Life You would doubtless esteem it a very great folly and madness in a prisoner to be sorry of being delivered out of his noisome Dungeon or in a Gally-Slave to be angry when he is to be loos'd from his Chains or in an offender to vex when he is freed from his Torments What think ye is there less madness and extravagancy in you when ye are grieved to see death freeing your Souls from this miserable Body where it is imprison'd withdrawing it from the painful employments of this unhappy Age more grievous and intolerable than that of the Gally-slaves and discharging you from the troubles of the Soul far more painful than the most unsufferable tortures of the Body no no death that thou dreadest so much is not the death of the faithful but the end of his miseries and the last period of all his torments Gen. 8. Noah when he went out of the Ark that stopt upon Mount Ararat had never so much cause to praise God and to offer unto him the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving as we have when he is pleased to cause us to see the end of the Inundation of so many evils and calamities and to make this floating Life or this living Death to stop upon Mount Sion The Children of Israel sung Songs of Thanksgiving when they came out of Egypt and saw themselves deliver'd out of a bitter and painful Bondage where they had been employed in gathering up Stubble and burning Brick but we have much more cause to rejoyce and to sing Songs of Praise when Death takes us out of the World where we suffer a kind of bondage laboring in vain employments and enduring the scorching heat of many afflictions that consume us Thou findest fault with some of the unconstant people that murmured to return again into Egypt when they were upon the borders of the promised Land but rather find fault with thine own filthy flesh if it offers to murmure and revolt when thou art at the entrance of thy Celestial Canaan Joseph rejoyced when the King of Aegypt sent for him out of prison Gen. 41. and have we not cause to be joyful when God sends for our Souls out of the World and causeth them to go out of their Bodies which to them is a kind of a Dungeon If therefore we can speak without impatient murmuring I conceive we have as good reason as Jonas to say O Lord take I beseech thee my life from me for it is better for me to dye than to live Jonas 4. Or as the Prophet Elias It is enough Lord take away my life 1 Kings 19. Such a Soul may in an Holy transport safely speak in the language of David the Man after God's own Heart Bring my Soul out of prison that I may praise thy name the righteous shall compass me about for thou shalt deal bountifully with me Psal 141. A Prayer and Meditation for a Christian who comforts himself with the Consideration that Death delivers us from all evils which are so numerous in the World and which so often assault us O Glorious Prince of my Salvation thou hast hitherto strengthened me against all fears of Death but now I beseech thee with all mine Heart to give me Grace that death may not terrify and afflict me but also fill me full of Joy and Comfort Suffer me not to be like thy People Israel when they had forgotten their hard and cruell Bondage when they thought upon the Pleasures and Plenty of Egypt they did mutiny to return thither again when they were upon the borders of Canaan Give me Grace O my God to blot out of my Soul the fancy for the vain delights of the World and for the deceitsul Pleasures of this wretched Flesh Let me have always in my mind the Labours the Pains and Troubles of this miserable Life that I may continually look upon Death in the same manner as the Workman looks upon the end of his days work As the Wayfaring man looks upon the end of his Journey and as the Traveller looks upon the Haven of his last Rest Let me often meditate upon these horrible confusions that are this day in the World the Deluge of all manner of Evils that cover the face of the Earth the Rivers and Streams of Bloud that is shed the Fires and the Swords that devour so many Let me never forget the sad and lamentable state of thy poor Church that is like a small Boat upon
of that uncorruptible Inheritance which God keeps for thee in Heaven and hath prepared since the Creation of the World Hast thou a pleasant Garden or a rich Field But what are all the Gardens of the World in respect of the Heavenly Paradise where the Tree of Life grows that brings forth its Fruits every moneth of the year and where the River of living Water as transparent as Chrystal runs continually What reason hast thou Christian Soul to grieve when thou forsakest the pleasures of the World that thou enjoyest with the Children of the Earth or the Delights of the Body which are common to thee with the bruit Beasts Seeing that God will satisfy thee with his most precious Delights for in the blessed Vision of his Face thou shalt meet with fulness of joy Hast thou any friends on Earth Let it not trouble thee to leave them for instead of one friend here below whom thou fanciest to be real and sincere thou hast thousands in Heaven who will receive thee into the Eternal Mansions and embrace thee as their companion and the partaker of the same Glory and Happiness Hast thou any Parents or Relations I suppose that they are not burdensome to thee and that thou receivest much more Pleasure and Assistance from them than Grief and Ingratitude yet thou hast a spiritual Parentage in Heaven and Eternal Relations Thou hast in the Mansion-House of thy Heavenly Father a great number of Brothers and Sisters with whom thou shalt live in a blessed Unity as Members of one Body governed by the same Spirit and enflamed with the same Zeal Thou Husband whom Death snatcheth away from thy beloved Wife seriously consider that God will unite thee to himself by an unscparable Union and that he purposeth to take up to him some part of thy self that thy expectations thy hopes and affections might be now in Heaven And thou also O Woman whom Death plucks out of the embraces of thy dear and loving Husband remember that thou hast a Husband also in Heaven who hath espoused thee to himself for ever in Righteousness in Mercy and Compassion a Husband always Living and Glorious a Husband who loves thee with an Eternal Love that is stronger than Death whose affections are enflamed for thee in such a manner that the Water of all the Seas and Rivers are not able to extinguish a Husband who bears with all thine infirmities and hath redeemed thee from all thy sins a Husband who hath not spared for thee his precious Bloud that he might procure for thee the Glory and Happiness of his Kingdom who invites thee to his Heavenly Nuptials having prepared and appointed for thee a Room in the Banqueting-Chamber where thousands of glorified Saints shall sit and where the meledious Tunes of Angels shall be heard a Husband who calls to thee reacheth out unto thee his Hand and opens his Bosom to receive thee If thou hast found any satisfaction and pleasure in the company of that Person whom God had given thee for an Assistant and Mate judge from thence what Angelical Delights thou shalt meet with in the ravishing embraces of thy Heavenly Spouse The most pleasant Marriage days are gone as a shadow but the day which shall bring thee to thy Celestial Bridegroom shall never depart nor darken so that the Heavenly Contentments shall abide and continue with thee for ever without the least distaste You beloved and loving Children who are yet in the bosom of a good Father or of a tender-hearted Mother suffer Death patiently to remove you far from them and depart with joy to that good God that will receive you as his Children satisfy your Souls with the Milk of his most Blessed Consolations and will make you his Heirs and Co-Heirs with his Son Jesus Christ Say to him as the Holy Prophet When my Father and my Mother should forsake me yet the Lord will receive me Isai 66. Rom. 8. Psal 27. And you Fathers and Mothers that have a tender affection for your Children if Death takes them out of your sight and deprives you of the comfort of their company grieve not as those who have no hope for when they should be never so accomplish'd when they should have never given you but pleasure and divertisement What are all these pitiful Delights that pass away in a moment and that change oft-times into bitterness and sorrow if compared with the Eternal Pleasures which we shall enjoy in the contemplation of God's Glorious Face and in a familiar acquaintance with his Divine Wisdom You shall not return to them but they shall in their time go to you so that you shall shortly see one another in the Dwelling of the Father of Spirits Matth. 27. Death separates you for a while but the Author of your Life will bring you together for ever Finally of what age and condition soever you be if you perceive the breath of your Life to stop never grieve nor murmure at it for if Death separates you from your Selves it brings you nearer to God your chief Good and instead of a wretched and perishing life it will promote you to the fruition of an Eternal and ever happy one If we had lived in the days when our Saviour was on Earth there is none of us but would have looked upon it as a singular Happiness and Honor to have been admitted with Peter James and John when they went up to Mount Tabor to be Eye-witnesses of our Saviour's transfiguration A far greater Honor and Happiness Death is endeavouring to procure you it will usher you up to Mount Sion it will transport you above all the Heavens where you shall behold more excellent wonders than ever the Apostles beheld upon Mount Tabor for you shall not only see this Glorious Saviour whiter than the Snow and brighter than the Sun but you your selves shall be transfigured with him and cloathed with an exceeding great Glory The Holy Apostles saw but two Prophets but you shall see all the Prophets all the Patriarchs Apostles Confessors Martyrs the Holy and Blessed Virgin and generally all the Saints that Reign and Triumph in Heaven The Apostles had a sight of this Glory of our Saviour as of a flash of Lightning it continued with them but for a moment for soon after they came down from the Holy Mountain and were again in danger of the same temptations as before and besieged by the same Calamities It will be otherwise with thee O Christian Soul thou art flying up to Heaven from whence thou shalt never descend till the great day of the Glorious Resurrection of our Bodies Thou shalt not be assaulted any more by any temptationâ— thou shalt have no more Enemies to overcome nor Bitterness to digest Thou art going to reap and enjoy the Blessed Fruits of thy Saviours Victories and to be Eternally satisfied with the Celestial Pleasures that are at the right hand of the God of Mercies We esteem St. John highly priviledged because the Lord gave him
my Sins and all my Sufferings and Grief I shall enter into a new Glory into the ever blessed company of Saints and Angels If your love be sincere and real prefer my Felicity and Rest to the small satisfaction that you find in my company here below Consider that in the House of my God and in the vision of his Glorious Face I shall find every moment more Joy and Pleasure than I should have met with upon Earth in thousands of Ages All the Pomp and Splendor of the World all the Glory and State its Riches and Treasures its Pleasures and Delights are as unconsiderable to those that I am going to enjoy in Heaven as a few drops of Water to a boundless Sea or as a flash of Lightening to the Noon-Sun Must the blind Passion which you have for to see me continue with you hinder me from seeing the face of my God and Heavenly Father Suppose I were now shut up with you in some dark Dungeon and bound with the same Chain would you rather see me your companion to continue in your misery and sufferings than to behold me at a distance at liberty in the fruition of a perfect satisfaction Tell me not that we shall never see one another any more for can you be so great an Unbeliever to doubt of God's Mercy that intends to bring us together again in Heaven Death separates us for a moment but the Prince of Life will unite us together for ever in his Fathers House whither he is gone to prepare a place for us O Devout and Religious Soul by such Language as this thou shalt be able to mollify the hardest Hearts and prepare them to behold thy Translation into Heaven as Elisha was when he saw his Masters Rapture If they feel any displeasure and grief for thy separation from them they will have more joy and comfort to consider with the Eyes of Faith that extraordinary Glory and Happiness into which God intends to receive thee of his infinite Goodness and Mercy If it happens otherwise and that thou art to deal with weak minds whose Love is blind and whose Passions are so unreasonable as to resist God's appointment and to hinder thy promotion to Happiness thou must overcome by the strength of God's Grace and the assistance of his Holy Spirit all the furious reluctances of Nature Thou must imitate St. Peter when he saw our Saviour Christ in his transfiguration upon Mount Tabor he forgot his Family and all his dearest Enjoyments in the World therefore in that excess of joy he cried out Lord it is good for us to be here In the same Language must you speak Christian Souls I dare be bold to affirm if your mind is raised up by Faith into Heaven to behold Jesus Christ shining in Light and Glory and surrounded by all the Holy Angels and Immortal Spirits Assoon as you shall have but the least relish of Paradise you will be so ravish'd with that extraordinary Happiness that you will easily forget the most lovely Enjoyments of the Earth unto which you had devoted your affections so that in that transport of Joy you will be ready to burst out in this Language My Lord and my God I am sick with Love for thee I wish for nothing but for thy glorious Presence My chief Happiness is to be with thee and to behold thy face where I see already so much Light and Love I confess we shall not say as St. Peter Let us build Tabernacles For we shall never be concerned as Soldiers and Travellers in Fights and Journeys We shall not say let us build an House that we may dwell with thee and thy blessed company for I see O God with the eye of Faith the Palace which thou hast built from the foundation of the World where thou hast prepared a place for me Lord open to me the Gates of this Glorious Palace that I may enter in and sing forth thy Divine Praises My dear Friend shall the miserable Pagans who never tasted of the Heavenly Gift who were never made partakers of the Spirit of Grace nor of the powers of the Life to come the Heathens who were without Hope and without God in the World shall they march courageously to meet Death and wilt thou that hast had some foretasts of the happiness of Heaven that hast seen some beams of its Glory canst not thou resolve to depart out of the World Shall a Seneca who had no other means to strengthen himself but the perswasions of his vain Philosophy who had no expectation of advantages of the life to come shall such an one look with a stedfast countenance upon his Blood and Life gushing apace out of his veins and thou my Brother hast thou been brought up under the tuition of an Eternal Wisdom Dost thou embrace by Faith the Glory and Felicities prepared for thee by God and art not able to look upon Death with resolution and courage and canst not leave the World with expressions of Joy Shall Socrates whose crazy Body was animated by a sinful Soul and who had no manner of Antidotes against Death drink up that poison that was mixed for him as a pleasant cup of Drink And thou Christian that art animated by the Spirit of the living God that seals to thee his great and most precious promises Thou Christian that enjoyest the earnest of that Inheritance prepared for thee in Heaven shalt not thou be able to swallow down with content the cup that death holds out to thee Thou hast a powerful and an infallible Antidote against this poison for after this bitter Cup thou art going where thou shalt drink at leasure out of the Rivers of Eternal Pleasures Shall it be said that in the Jews Houses at the time of death the sound of Instruments of Musick was heard together with Crying and Lamentations and at thy Dwelling who hast an interest in Christ crucified and seest him Reigning and Triumphing in Heaven there shall be nothing heard but weeping and sighing that praising God and giving of Thanks shall not be seen at such a time Finally seeing so many persons of all Ages Sexes and Conditions have desired Death to be freed from all Earthly Evils and Calamities hast not thou good cause to wish for it heartily when it shall please God that thou mayest enter in the fruition of the advantages and happiness of the Heavenly Life How excellent is thy loving kindness O God therefore the Children of Men or rather thy Children the Brothers and Sisters of Jesus Christ thy Well-beloved Son put their trust under the shadow of thy wings They shall be fully satisfied with the fatness of thy House and thou shalt cause them to drink out of the Rivers of thy Pleasures If you be passionately desirous to taste of the Angelical delights and relish the Divine pleasures that flow from the Throne of God and of the Lamb if you be really athirst for God will not you speak in Davids Language Psal
of the former For thou shalt change this vile body and make it like to thy glorious body this corruptible shall put on incorruption and whatsoever is mortal in us shall be overcome and swallowed up by life With these same languishing eyes I shall behold thee upon a Cloud of the Heavens and a Throne of fire with these ears that are going to be stopt I shall hear the sound of the last Trump and the Songs of the blessed Angels with this Tongue that can scarce speak and move I shall sing forth thine Eternal and Divine praises with the Church Triumphing with these dying hands I shall embrace and take hold of thee with these feet that are already in the Grave I shall follow thee whither soever thou goest and walk about the streets of the new Jerusalem this same Body that is now dropping into the rotten Grave shall be carried up into Heaven to shine as the Stars or as the Sun for ever and ever O Lord I am ready to depart out of this Tabernacle there is nothing but a breath in my nostrils the shadow of Death appears upon mine eye lids and my Soul is upon my lips but I am fully perswaded that in this flâ—sh which shall be cast away to the worms and left in a rotten Grave I shall behold thy Glory and magnificence I shall see thy face and shall be satisfied with thy likeness when I shall awake again Amen CHAP. 24. The Twelfth Consolation the Destruction of Death and the Eternal and most Blessed Life which we shall enjoy both in Soul and Body after our Resurrection WE have sufficiently treated of that happiness which is prepared for our Souls at their departure from the Bodies and of the glorious Resurrection promised to these Bodies when Jesus Christ shall come down from Heaven in his Glory to judge the quick and the dead It seems 〈◊〉 we have nothing more to say but as Moses when he had made the Ark of Shittim wood and lined it with fine Gold he put round about a Crown of Gold upon the Top. In the same manner now that we have declared unto you the incorruption and future glory of our Bodies which are to be look'd upon as sacred Arks 〈…〉 God 's Majesty shall dwell for ever Now that we 〈…〉 how by the Almighty and gracious power of 〈…〉 they shall become more uncorruptible than the 〈◊〉 wood and more glorious than fine Gold I will nâ—w with Gods a â—â—â—ance draw about them a Crown more precious than the purest Gold and richer than all the â—ewels in the World I mean to Crown this work and intend to end it with as perfect a Picture as I am able to draw of the Eternal Glory and Happiness which we expect to enjoy both in Soul and Body after our Resurrection But first I must say something of the entire and perfect destruction of all our Enemies and represent unto you the overthrow and the fatal end of Death When Jesus Christ shall appear again to Judge the World in Righteousness he shall sit upon a glorious and a most splendid Throne Solomons magnificent Throne was but its shadow and imperfect Type he shall then send forth his Angels who shall gather together the Elect with the sound of a Trumpet from the four parts of the World and from one end of the Heavens to the other The sight of this glorious Saviour shall then fill us with an unspeakable joy and cause us to burst forth into this Language Is 25. Lo this is our God we have waited for him and he will save us This is the Lord we have waited for him we will be glad and rejoyce in his Salvation But when all the kinreds of the Earth shall behold this glorious King in the Clouds of Heaven with power and great glory they shall lament and strike their Breasts in despair they shall call to the Mountains and Rocks Revel 6. Fall upon us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of his wrath is come who shall be able to stand It is then that the Lord shall bring to light the hidden things of darkness and shall manifest the thoughts of the heart with the most secret contrivances The Books shall be opened not only of the guilty Consciences where Satans Image and Deeds shall be engraven but also the other Books where God himself hath written with his own finger all our actions words and our most secret thoughts All Men shall be judged according to the things written in the Books St. John declares this in the 20. of the Revelations I saw a great White Throne and him that sate on it from whose face the Earth and the Heaven fled away and there was no place for them And I saw the Dead small and great stand before God and the Books were opened and another Book was opened which is the Book of Life and the Dead were judged out of those things which were written in the Books according to their works Unto this St. Paul agrees we must all appear before the judgement Seat of Christ that every one may receive in his Body according as he hath done whether it be good or evil There are three sorts of persons that are to stand before this glorious Tribunal such as never had any other teacher but Nature who were not acquainted with any other Works of God but of Creation and Providence for God hath not left himself without witness in doing good The second sort have been assisted with a Divine Revelation from above under the Law which hath distinctly taught them what Works are pleasing to God These may have heard something of a Messias from the ancient Prophets they may have seen his pourtraiture in the Types and Shadows of Moses ordinances The other sort have had the Grace of God clearly and plainly revealed unto them unto whom our Lord Jesus Christ hath brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel There are none of these persons if they have lived in Impiety and debauchery and are dead in impenitency that shall be able to excuse themselves in this dreadful day of Judgement But some are more guilty than others therefore they shall be condemned to more greivous Tortures The knowledge that God hath bestowed upon Man hath been darkened by the Prince of darkness but it hath not been totally extinct and that Law which God hath engraven in the Soul of Man hath not been altogether blotted out but there remains yet some relicks So that there is no Man living that can affirm that he hath done all the good deeds which his Conscience was perswaded that he ought to perform and that he hath omitted all the evil acts of which his Conscience did convince him They who have lived and are Dead without any Law of God revealed unto them shall be judged without the Law Such shall be condemned for having taken pleasure in
we should dread its approaches but then it shall not have the least power it shall be totally abolished All the living shall become immortal And although God will not destroy the Being nor take away the malice of the Devil yet to us he shall be as if he were not for he shall never be able to break his Chains nor to escape out of his Prison and between him and us there shall be depths that can never be filled So that as Moses when he cast his Eyes upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians who pursued the frighted Israelites he told them Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord which he will shew to you to day for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day ye shall see them again no more for ever Likewise when we think upon Satan and all his infernal Armies that pursue you We may say with confidence Settle your minds Christian Souls and with the Eye of Faith behold the Salvation of the Lord for these hellish furies that have persecuted us so long shall be reduced to that estate that they shall not be able to do you the least displeasure or to give you any apprehension God is going to drown them in the Red Sea of his wrath and to shut them up for ever in the bottomless pit of his just revenge So that as in the Heavenly Paradise there shall be neither pain nor sorrow nor grief nor crying nor sighs heard Likewise there shall never be any fear nor fright nor the least alarm but we shall live there in a setled Peace and quiet for ever It is reported of the Macedonians that they wept for joy when they beheld their King Alexander the Great seated in the Throne of Darius and trampling under feet the Pride and Empire of Persia But how exceeding great shall our joy be when we shall behold Jesus Christ our great Monarch sitting upon the Throne of God and trampling under feet the pomp of the World crushing the Red Dragon and all the tyrannical powers of Hell The Glory of Alexander vanished away with his breath Death destroyed all his Trophies but our Lord shall triumph over death it self It shall be the last act of his Eternal Justice to destroy the destroyer and murderer from the beginning At that time there shall be no more enemies to encounter with no evils to be feared neither shall there be any Advantages to be desired nor Honors to be expected for God will cast us into the bottomless Ocean of the most Divine Pleasures and shall raise us up to the highest Glory that our Nature shall be capable of This Happiness and this Glory shall be infinite in regard of its durance It shall not be like to the Pomp and Magnificence of the Kings and Princes of the World which vanisheth away in an instant nor like to the brightness of Moses Face which departed with his life nor like the transfiguration of Christ upon mount Tabor which soon disappeared for when it shall have continued as many hundred ages as there are Stars in the Firmament it shall then but begin and appear in its rising so that there we may have just cause and more reason than St. Peter to say Lord it is good for us to be here There is no place in the world so pleasant and delightful but at last one shall be weary to continue in it nor company so amiable and sweet but becomes tedious in time nor pleasure so ravishing but grows into distast The greatest persons on earth sigh under the burden of their greatness the brightness of their Glory dazles them When nothing troubles them they are troubled of their own accord and the most magnificent Triumphs disturb and weary them Oft-times their Heart groans in the midst of the greatest rejoycings and of the publick applauses they think themselves more unhappy than those who envy their apparent happiness for all that shines is not Gold the most beautiful Roses are not without their prickles and many times they hide dangerous Serpents As the Glory and Happiness of Paradise is insinite in regard of its Durance so in respect of its Dignity and Excellency for God will not only satisfy all our desires and answer all our expectations but he will also give unto us above all that we can ask or think Shall I undertake to paint out unto you this Glory and perfect Happiness When St. Paul speaks of these Evangelical Mysteries he assures us that they are things that the Eye of Man hath never seen that his Ear hath never heard and that never enter'd into his Heart 1 Cor. 2. If this is true of the Doctrine which declares this Glory and Eternal Happiness how are we able to comprehend that Glory and Happiness it self therefore the same Apostle tells us in another place That God worketh in us abundantly above that we are able to ask or think Eph. 3. I cannot boast of having spoken with God face to face as Moses Numb 11. of having been ravished as St. Paul into the third Heaven 1 Cor. 12. God hath not transported me up as St. John into the Celestial Jerusalem neither hath he delivered to me as to his Holy Angels a Reed to measure the holy City But when I should have enjoyed these Glorious priviledges this Divine Entertainment these supernatural Elevations when I should have walked about and taken a full view of the Celestial Jerusalem when I should have been in the company of the Seraphims that fly about God's Throne when I should have beheld God face to face although I were the most eloquent of all Men and did speak with the tongues of Angels and had in my hand the Pencil of an Arch-Angel I should not dare to undertake to represent this exceeding great Glory nor to paint out unto you the brightness of that Heavenly Light wherof the least beam is able to dazle me St. Paul had been near the body of this great Light he had beheld the Riches and Glory of Paradise yet he confesseth that they be things unutterable not to be expressed by any tongue But as those who cannot cast their eyes directly to look upon the Sun because that it dazles them with its exceeding great Light behold its Body with more ease and leasure in the Water or in a Looking-Glass Thus shall we consider and look upon the Images which God himself hath expressed for us in his Holy Word of this Divine brightness of Heaven which we are not able otherwise to comprehend for God hath dealt with us as a Father doth with his young Babes who babbles with them and represents to them the light of the un with a black Coal Or as the Astrologers who represent the Heavenly Constellations by the Figures of Birds of four-footed Beasts and of creeping things For nothing can enter into our understanding but by the door of our Sences therefore Spiritual and Celestial things are represented under the Notions of Corporal and Earthly Enjoyments which we
of the Soul from the Body seeing that Death which shall separate you from your selves is not able to separate you from the Spirit of the Lord Jesus The Soul of our Souls the Seal of the promises of God and the earnest of our future Inheritance Instead of looking backwards and longing for these perishing advantages and for Honors that can only dazle the eye consider that Death shall wipe away all Tears remove all your grief and raise you above all the storms of the World above all the miseries and troubles that cover the face of the Earth That you may be able to follow this Death more chearfully Remember that it draws you out of a place all polluted with Sin and infected with Impiety to transport you into a new Heaven adorned with Righteousness and Holiness and perfumed with the Prayers Praises and Thanksgivings of the Glorified Saints remember that it frees you from all remains of corruption and gives Deaths wound to all your Lusts Mind not so much the false appearance of Death for to the wicked it is as it were the Subburbs of Hell the jaws of the bottomless pit and the beginning of their endless Torments but to you Believers it is the Gate of Heaven an entrance into Paradice and a passage to a most happy Life Learn to relish now the Joys wherewith your Souls shall be for ever satisfied when God shall Crown you with his Glory and make you Drink of the Rivers of his Pleasure Seeing that your Soul is going to put on a Garment of an Immortal colour and to dwell for ever in the Palace which God hath built with his Almighty hand Cast off willingly this wretched crasie and corruptible Body depart willingly out of this Earthly Tabernacle which turns of it self into Dust Consider well that if it falls by Death it shall rise again at the Resurrection and that when it shall have been the Dwelling and the Food of Worms it shall at last become the Temple of God and the Tabernacle of his Glory Finally O Religious Souls shut your eyes to the World and to all the vanities in it which the World adores and aspire to the real advantages which God hath prepared for you before the Creation of the World and which you shall injoy when the World shall be no more Let your precious Faith and your blessed hope enter into Eternity it self to behold that extraordinary happiness and glory which God shall accomplish when he shall bring us both in Soul and Body into his Celestial Paradice to see his face in which is fulness of Joy Seeing that this perfect happiness and infinite Glory which never entered into the Heart and thoughts of Man shall never be perfectly accomplished but at that Day when Jesus Christ shall appear from Heaven to be glorified in his Saints and to become wonderful in all Believers Think alwayes upon this Glorious Day the end of all our wishes the fulfilling of all your hopes and the perfection of all the designes which God hath conceived in himself from all Eternity You Devout Souls that are grieved to see the World prosper and Satans Empire flourish to see Gods Children subject to all the Darts of Death take good courage and rejoyce with an holy Joy for shortly all the Enemies of God and of your Salvation shall be punished with an everlasting punishment as from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power Shortly the Devil his Angels his Agents and Slaves shall be bound up in Chains of Darkness and cast into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone and shut up in the bottomless pit Shortly Death shall be no more and this Church of Jesus Christ ' whose Miseries and Afflictions cause you to weep shall be shortly cloathed with unspeakable light and glory It shall enter with Joy and Triumph into the Heavenly Jerusalem and you your selves shall sing with all the glorified Armies of Heaven Seeing that Christ shall come as a Thief in the Night and shall surprise all the Children of the World unawares prepare your Souls Believers with the love of God and an expectation of your Merciful Lord behave your selves in the same manner as you would do if you were now at the Eye of this great Festival as if you did spie already the breaking of this most happy day Entertain now the same affections and joy as if you did hear the voice of God and the Trumpet of the Archangel as if the Earth were already in a flame and as if Jesus Christ himself were coming in the Clouds of Heaven And seeing that no impure thing shall enter into the Heavenly and Holy Jerusalem and that without Holiness no Man shall see the face of God cleanse your selves Christians from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit perfecting Holiness in the fear of the Lord forsake all manner of Vice give your selves over to Vertue and to the practice of good Works imitate the diligence of the Faithful Servant that you may not be ashamed at the coming of your Great Master Take heed that you be not like the Wise Virgins that slept as well as the foolish but watch and pray that you may not enter into Temptation for the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak Redeem the time for the dayes are evil and make haste to put on the Garments of Righteousness and innocency fill your Hearts with the Holy Oyl of Faith of Hope and Charity Take your Lamps in your hands and let your Souls shine with a Divine Light In this blessed disposition let us go and meet our Heavenly Bridegroom and hasten his coming by our Prayers and Groans Let our Souls be full of Love let them sigh for our Divine Jesus and being moved with the same affection as St. John let us say to him with an earnest desire Come Lord Jesus and if he answers for certain I come quickly Let the Longing of our Souls increase more and more that we may be able to Pray more fervently and to cry out from the bottom of our Souls unto Heaven Come Lord Jesus even come Lord come quickly Amen A Prayer and a Meditation for a Believing Soul that rejoyceth and comforts it self in looking upon Deaths Destruction and the everlasting and Blessed Life which we hope to injoy both in Soul and Body after the Resurrection O Great Judge of the World bottomless Fountain of Life and happiness thy Gracious hand hath put into mine Heart the seeds of Immortality the first-fruits of Heavens Glory and the foretasts of everlasting Delights Thou hast made me to behold by Faith the joys and happiness of Paradice where thou shalt receive my Soul when it shall depart out of this wretched World and to Meditate upon the Glory which thou preparest for my Body when thou shalt take it to thy self to make it like to thy Glorious Body Now raise my thoughts and my hopes to this highest glory and happiness which thou hast promised to our