alleviate our present Pains and a sence of favour and reconcilement with God would conquer the fears of Death and make us ready and willing to appear before our Judge 3. But if a man has the warning of a lingring and slow Sickness to repent of his Sins and prepare for his Death 't is yet a very great Hazard whether he will repent under it or not If he has not such a Disease as will necessarily hinder this yet many other things may and often do so We do not seldom see men that deferred their Repentance till this time as far from performing it then as ever they were before A man may think while he is in health and engaged in the World and exposed to the Temptations of it that the danger of that time and the confinement and separation from the World will mightily help him to do this necessary work then and put him upon it but alas the contrary to this does very ordinarily come to pass With some the very pain and trouble of their Disease though it does not take away their Sences and the use of their Reason yet it is able to distract their minds and divert them from all Thoughts of Repentance and making their peace with God Does not daily experience teach us that a severe pain if it be but at a tooth and that even in a Person habitually pious and good is able to disturb the mind and unfit one for any exercise of Devotion and so detain the Thoughts that they can fix on nothing but that All that we are commonly sensible of in such a case is the present pain and all that we can be concern'd about is to get rid of the present importunate grievance And is it not much rather likely to be thus with a man under the pain and trouble of Sickness If so little an inconvenience can divert even a good man from fixed and good Thoughts how much more likely is it that greater pain and uneasiness will divert him from such who is habitually wicked who has lived all his Life an utter stranger to such Thoughts has never tasted the pleasure nor found the benefit of them Besides as the delaying Sinner has been wont to love his Body better than his Soul to contrive the satisfaction and convenience of that rather than the everlasting Happiness of this he must needs be apt in this distress to be still in the same disposition and to be so busied about the griefs and pains of his Body as to neglect his Soul still as he has done all his days before And if so what a madness is it for a man to expect and wait for the very worst disposition and state of his Body that he may then perform the greatest and most important business of his Soul Again the very fear and apprehension of dying quickly may happen to take away all thought or concern of preparing for Death This may seem unlikely but yet it does sometimes come to pass I knew a man says one who had been wont to visit sick and dying Persons and he not altogether a careless Liver neither who being at the point of Death when he was admonisht by a Minister to prepare himself for his departure was so possessed and overwhelmed with the Thought that he was in danger of speedy Death that he could think of nothing else but of sending for this and the other Physitian of taking this and the other Medicine and all the care and thought that he could be possest with was only how he might recover and escape the present and imminent danger and in the midst of such thoughts he breathed his last And thus it is very likely to be with many men he who has great affairs upon his hands and especially if they be a little entangled he who leaves a Family but ill provided for or likely to need his presence among them He who would fain see a Son or a Daughter well disposed of and setled as we call it will be apt to be wholly devoured with the same care Thus sure it is very likely to be with a great lover of the World with him that loves nothing but what is here that has no treasure in Heaven nor expectations of any thing comfortable in the other World When he apprehends himself in danger to leave all at once what he has here to leave it for ever and go he knows not where and he knows not to what but fears exceedingly a great deal of ill such a man must needs be liable to a great Consternation at the Summons of Death and to think of nothing but by what means he may avoid it for the present and gain some more time to make a better preparation for it than he has done And further it may be the sick man is not in danger of a speedy Death or perhaps if he be so he will not believe it as it is with a great many He hopes perhaps to recover this Sickness and promises himself after it many years of life when he has but a few moments to live And the Flatteries of Friends will be apt to encourage this conceit and the Physitian must give him it may be more hopes than himself has to support this sick mans Spirits and assist his own prescriptions And then though the concern to avoid Death does not put him by his Repentance yet the hopes of longer Life may do it he will think he needs not yet repent the dangerous period before which he purposes to do it is yet a great way off and thus he goes on to cheat himself into everlasting perdition And it is no wonder if a man who has been habitually wicked and lived many years in his Sins does take any encouragement to put off his Repentance still and can hardly find in his Heart even upon his Death-Bed to do this The custom of sinning is like a second Nature and is not but with the greatest difficulty and labour overcome It will hardly ever forsake a man Of the habitual Sinner is that for the most part true which is said Job 20. 11. His Bones are full of the Sins of his Youth which shall lie down with him in the Dust How unlikely indeed is it that a man should in a moment so fall out with his Sin as to hate it and throw it off for ever when he has many years loved and cherished it or that he should now all at once be possest with an hearty Love of God and Goodness which for many years he has neglected and hated Accordingly we often see Persons upon their Death-Bed still the very same that they were before as they lived so they die there is no change or alteration in the least appears in the state and disposition of their minds We find them exercising the beloved Sin in their Discourse when they cannot do it in their Actions it appears to have still a fast possession of the Soul even when the opportunities of
Were there nothing in the Constitution of Man but that he could not be worthy to be compared with the vast bigness of the Earth and Heavens with the constant Motion the brightness and durableness of the Heavenly Bodies But the Soul of Man is in a Sense vaster and larger than these as it is capable to comprehend them It is of more unwearied motion than they it moves its self it is brighter far and far more durable than any of them It is then upon the account of the Spirit in Man that the making of him is thus set together with those great operations of the Creating Power Upon these grounds we may conclude that the Prophet Zachary does in our Text intimate the great excellency and dignity of the Soul of Man It shall be the business of this Discourse to insist upon some Proof and Application of this Truth And let us now perswade our selves for a little while to turn our Thoughts inward to view and consider our selves to know what a sort of Being God has given us Of all knowledge this may be reckon'd some of the most useful and important Hereby we shall come to understand what it becomes us to do what our true Interest is what great things we are capable of and should therefore pursue them To demonstrate the Excellency of the Soul of Man I shall insist only upon these two Heads of Discourse as containing what is sufficient for the present purpose They are the Nature of the Soul and the Capacities of it which do arise from and are the Consequents of such a Nature In the first place Let us consider the Nature of the Soul of Man And this I shall represent to you briefly under two Particulars 1. It is a Spirit 2. It is Immortal 1. The Soul of Man is a Spirit and therein it is an Excellent Being It is Invisible A thing that cannot be seen by the Eyes of the Body through the Excellency of it It is said of God in Praise of him that he cannot be seen The Apostle Paul calls him by way of Eminency the Invisible God 1 Tim. 1. 17. This then is an Excellency and does greatly recommend the Soul It is too pure and sublime a thing to fall under the gross apprehension of Bodily Senses It is a Pure Uncompounded and Unmix'd thing It is all the same is not made up of worse and better Parts It is in a sort all Light and has no Darkness is a bright celestial Ray sprung from the Great Father of Lights and Spirits Or at least it was very full of light and brightness in its Original State and before it was sullied with sinful Pollution in the Fall of our first Parents It has not diversity of Parts designed for divers Actions so as that what one Part can do another cannot which is the usual disparagement of Bodies But all the Soul can do whatever the Soul can do It can all of it understand and will apprehend or remember it can all chuse or refuse It has not some parts heavy and some active some to move and others to be moved but is all full of Action and is always working and busie It knows no weariness it needs no rest or refreshment It knows its own Actions and chuses what it does and acts freely and from its own Motion These are the Properties and Advantages that belong to it as it is a Spirit That the Soul of Man is a Spirit the Holy Scripture does abundantly declare When a man dies it says of his Body The Dust shall return to the Earth as it was and of his Soul The Spirit shall return to God that gave it Eccles 12. 7. This is a thing distinct from the Body it was not raised from the Dust as that was but came from God immediately nor does it return to the Dust but returns to God at our Death The Apostle says What man knoweth the things of a man that is the purposes wishes designs save the spirit of man which is in him speaking of the Soul of Man 1 Cor. 2. 11. And in the Fifth Chapter of that Epistle at the 5th Verse he directs the Corinthians to excommunicate an Eminent Person among them who had been Incestuous for the destruction of the Flesh that the Spirit might be saved in the Day of the Lord meaning his Soul I shall add no more to this particular but proceed 2. To what was next mentioned as declaring the Excellent Nature of our Souls which was that they are Immortal These Beings have a beginning indeed as every thing else has but One who is the first Cause and Author of all others But the Souls of men shall never come to an End When a man dies there is only a separation made for a while of his Soul from his Body with a dissolution indeed of the Body but the Soul remains the same that it was That lives still though not here and continues to be though it has changed its Habitation Do not imagine said the dying Cyrus to his Children That when I depart from you I shall be no where nor any longer For whilst I was with you ye could not see my Soul only ye knew by the Actions ye observed that it was in my Body Be assured then that it is still the same tho ye do never see it Thus the Learned Heathen could speak of the Soul And it is in the Nature of this to be Immortal as it is a Spirit It has nothing in its self to put an end to its being as it is an uncompounded thing It cannot be destroyed by any thing else but only by God that made it The Soul of man knows no decay it admits of no encrease of its Substance It remains always the same and is herein a Noble Image of the Unchangeable God It shall out-last the strongest works of Humane Art It shall endure longer than the Heavens and the Earth It shall weary time and then run on with Eternity This is a very great and important Excellency of it That it shall never cease to be and certainly if we are in any respect Immortal this deserves our very serious consideration And this also the Holy Scripture that source of all Saving-Knowledge and Wisdom does sufficiently teach us When it speaks of our Being after this Life and even before the Resurrection of our Bodies As when Christ said to the penitent Thief when he was dying This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise He was to Be therefore his Soul was not to be dissolved with his Body and he was to be in Paradise in a happy State When the Scripture calls Death a Departure out of this World it seems to intimate this The Apostle Paul who was to leave his Body in this World as all other dying Persons do yet speaks of his Death as a Departure 1 Tim. 1. 6. And in Phil. 1. 23. He speaks of his Death as what he desired in these words I desire to
depart and to be with Christ Which does most plainly shew he expected to Be still and to be more happy after Death than he was here Again this is also plainly suggested by our Saviour in the Parable of the Rich man and Lazarus Luke 16. 19 Verse to the End The Soul of Man then is at his Death disposed to such Abodes as it deserves and is suited to till the time of the General Resurrection of the Bodies of Men and then it shall be united to its own Body again and live with it for ever in a State of endless Happiness or endless Misery Thus much may suffice to shew the Excellency of the Soul of Man from its Nature The Second Head of Proof of this which I shall now speak to is the Capacities of the Soul arising from its Nature It will give us a further apprehension of its Excellency to consider what great and honourable things it is capable of And these I shall speak of under three Heads It is capable of Knowledge of Moral Qualifications and of a most sublime and elevated kind of Happiness 1. It is capable of Knowledge It can know the Creatures about us which are the Objects of our Senses can understand their Nature and Use by vertue of which it has and exercises a Dominion over these things It knows how to apply them to the serving our Necessity and Delight By vertue of this it can make those things which have no use of reason themselves to serve for rational and wise Purposes It can tame the wild and correct the hurtful Creatures It can govern the Strong and by artful application give strength to the weak Ones It often fetches wholesome Food or very effectual Physick out of mortal Poysons The Soul of Man is capable of knowing himself To understand his own Nature in the principles and end of it To know his Ornaments and Disparagements the causes and means of his Happiness or Misery and wherein these do truly consist and lie Man is capable to understand and know very much of the Ever-blessed God the Highest Being to apprehend and meditate upon the most glorious and delightful Perfections of his Infinite Nature He can see the Marks and Characters of these perfections upon the sensible things which is the most excellent Knowledge and the best use of them as the Apostle suggests Rom. 1. 20. The Invisible things of God are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead The Soul of Man renders him capable of knowing the Rules of true Wisdom of that Wisdom which is from above Those Rules which direct us to render our selves acceptable and amiable to God and one another to Become and Honour our selves Those Rules by which the Wise and Holy Angels govern their behaviour and those by which the most Holy God tho in an Infinite Eminency above all his Creatures governs his And surely this Capacity of Knowledge may be lookt upon as a great and honourable Advantage especially that of such a Knowledge as hath been mentioned Knowledge finds the mind of man pleasant and useful Employment which as it is an active and busie thing must have such employment or 't is uneasy and unhappy Knowledge presents us with the Objects of our Happiness and inables us to enjoy them This is the light and brightness and beauty of the Mind Ignorance is dark and deform'd and leaves the Soul unpolisht and ugly Ignorance like darkness is uncomfortable and sad Knowledge like the light is chearing and delightful This improves and raises the activity and freedom of the Mind but ignorance is clogg'd and wretchedly confin'd Of Knowledge then it may be said It is more to be desired than Gold yea than much fine Gold But especially is that true of that Knowledge which the Psalmist speaks it of even that which presents to us the Rules of good living Of which also Solomon speaks thus Happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understanding For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of Silver and the gain thereof than fine Gold She is more precious than Rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her Prov. 3. 13 14 15. 2. Another Capacity which greatly recommends the Soul of Man is That it is capable of Moral Qualifications By which word I mean the glorious Vertues of Holiness and Justice Goodness and Mercy Faithfulness and Prudence It is not only capable of knowing the Rules of these Vertues but also of possessing the Vertues themselves and of expressing them in our Actions Our behaviour towards God may be adorn'd with the bright Rays of Faith and Love of Piety and Devotion of Reverence and Humility Our behaviour towards men may all be regulated and adorned with Justice and Charity Meekness and Sincerity Goodness and Mercy None of the other Creatures about us can be possest of such Qualifications A Stone or a Beast cannot be just or good or faithful A Beast does not know what its self does it has not freedom of will does not chuse any of its actions therefore cannot be vertuous or vicious The Soul of Man has in this the Advantage of all the visible World and when 't is endowed with these Vertues at least it is brighter and more glorious than the Sun or Stars These render us like to God himself in the highest manner that a Creature is capable of In these things consisted the best part of the Divine Image in man before the unhappy Fall of our Nature in our first Parents and tho we then lost the things themselves yet we did not lose the capacity of receiving them again And when the Scripture speaks of the renewing or restoring that Image in us again this is said to be done by enduing us with Righteousness and true Holiness These are Excellencies which God ascribes to himself which he glories in and therefore it must be our greatest Advancement and Honour to be partakers of them and it must be accounted an argument of great worth in the Soul of Man to be capable of such Honourable Ornaments 3. It is another Argument of this that the Soul of Man is capable of enjoying a very high and honourable kind of Happiness even the best that any creatures can attain to When the Manna which the Children of Israel were fed with in the Wilderness is called Angel's Food it is intimated that this wonderful Provision did as a figure represent that Mankind are capable of the same Happiness with the glorious Angels and all holy and devoted Souls do in some measure partake of it in this Life By vertue of his Soul is every man even from the Prince to the Beggar capable of a Spiritual and Eternal Felicity As this is a Spirit it has a very high sense of things and a very lively perception of Pleasure or Pain No meer Body or Matter however 't is refin'd or made up into
run the way of thy Commandments We commit our selves to thy gracious Protection this Night make we pray thee our Rest comfortable to us by a Sense of thy Favour and Forgiveness Raise us up again the next Morning if it please thee from our Beds those Emblems of the Grave And make us in whatever our Hand finds to do do it with our Might because there is no Work nor Labour nor Wisdom nor Knowledge in the Grave whether we are going We recommend to thy Infinite Mercies O Lord all Estates and Conditions of Men. O God who declarest thy Almighty Power most chiefly in shewing Mercy and Pity Mercifully grant to all Men such a Measure of thy Grace that they running the way of thy Commandments may obtain thy gracious Promises We beseech thee to keep thy Houshold the Church in continual Godliness and that through thy Protection it may be defended from all Adversities and devoutly given to serve thee in all good Works to the Glory of thy great Name We pray thee let thy Favour and Mercy rest upon these Nations wherein we live forgive us Oh Lord our manifold Transgressions give us Peace and establish Truth to continue among us so long as the Sun and Moon shall endure Bless our King and Queen with all the Blessings of this Life and a better Prosper their Government over us to their own Comfort and Happiness and to ours Teach us all who are under them in our several Stations to do our Duties towards thee and them and towards one another to thy Glory and to the common Peace and Welfare Bless all our Friends and Relations comfort all that are Afflicted relieve the Oppressed help them to Right that suffer wrong These things Oh Lord and whatever else for our Ignorance we cannot or for our Unworthiness we dare not ask we humbly beseech thee to grant through the Merits and Mediation of Jesus Christ the Righteous In whose Words we conclude our Prayers saying Our Father c. THE UNPROFITABLENESS OF SIN demonstrated Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Prov. 22. 8. He that soweth Iniquity shall reap Vanity THough the Holy Scripture has told us of our Adversary the Devil that he is a Liar from the Beginning and the sad Experience of Mankind has found him so yet has he the Art to impose upon us still and we are so foolish as to credit his Suggestions By the very same Cheat and Delusion with which he drew our first Mother into Sin does he draw and perswade her foolish Posterity also to the Commission of it He made her believe it would be of great Advantage to eat the forbidden Fruit that this would mightily improve their Condition and make them more Excellent and more Happy God doth know said he That in the Day ye eat thereof your Eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as Gods knowing Good and Evil. Thus did the Serpent beguile her She took of the Fruit and did eat and gave it to her Husband and tempted him to eat too But this instead of advancing their Condition sadly impair'd it immediately were these our Parents driven out of Paradise they became subject to Sorrow and Misery and Shame and Death and were despoil'd of their greatest Glory the Image of God in their Souls Thus instead of becoming more excellent and happy they render'd themselves and all their Posterity exceeding miserable and vile But hereby has our Adversary learnt what sort of Suggestion is very apt to prevail with Mankind he has found we are ready to receive and follow that which seems kind to us we love to be flatter'd in our Inclinations and to have those things said to us which may perswade us to allow and gratifie them and we listen to that which promises great Advantages Therefore he tells Men they need not fear to be wicked there is not so much ill in it as some Man out of design would perswade them He tells them it is the only chearfull and pleasant course of life to follow their inclinations that 't is the only profitable and advantageous course and the way to do themselves most good to conform to the common Sins to run with the Multitude to do evil to follow the same ill ways that some are seen to raise their Fortunes by He tells us and we too commonly believe him that in breaking the Commands of God there is great Reward To antidote and fortifie our selves against this delusive Suggestion of the Father of Lies Let us observe what the Spirit of Truth tells us in the Text and fix our Thoughts a-while upon it at present that we may hereafter remember it to our Advantage He says He that soweth Iniquity shall reap Vanity He that soweth Iniquity that is He that lives an ungodly and unrighteous course of Life he that does any thing that is ill He shall reap Vanity that is he shall be wofully disappointed in his expectations of receiving any considerable or real advantage thereby That is said to be vain in Scripture which does not reach the purpose it was intended for which disappoints and frustrates the hopes and expectations that are built upon it So those Oblations are called vain which were not accepted with God And the Idols of the Heathens which bore an appearance of what they were not in Reality and Truth and were not able to help those that trusted in them are for this reason call'd there Vanities This then is the Import and Meaning of these Words spoken by Solomon A course of Wickedness is very false and deceitfull it promises Men much perhaps but performs little and he who expects any real Advantage any true Content and Happiness in such a course shall be miserably disappointed I think it not unnecessary to insist upon the Proof of this Truth for 't is what the World are not easily convinced of Though we may see it verified in the Experiences of other men very often yet we will not impute their ill Successes and Unhappiness to the Deserts and Nature of the Course they chuse but we impute them rather to some Indiscretion and Folly of those men in the Management of themselves which we purpose to avoid and so we hope to reap those advantages from the same course of life which we see others cannot Yea further it is very common that men are not convinced of this Truth though their own Experience might inform them Though they have found an Emptiness and Vanity in a wicked and careless Life so far as they have tried it yet they will be so foolish as to hope still for what they can never obtain they will think there is some Content and Satisfaction beyond them and on they go in this wrong
a Flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not TO know who it is that these words of Job do describe in so mean and disparaging a Character we need but look back to the first verse of this Chapter where we shall find he is speaking of Man It is man that Cometh forth like a Flower and is cut down He fleeth as a shadow and continueth not It was his design to represent by this Expression the contemptible and wretched Condition of our present Life which we very foolishly and unreasonably dote upon and admire This Life on Earth was never intended to be our happiest State and by reason of the Sin of Mankind it is fallen much below that degree of Happiness which the Creatour had intended it should enjoy Yet this pitiful State is that the wretched Sons of Men are most extreamly fond of Here they would always be this takes up all their Thoughts and Care They know or at least mind no Heaven but Earth and think to heap up felicity as they gather worldly Enjoyments We study how to live happily till we die and dote upon fading Pleasures as if we were always to enjoy them We commonly live here as if after this Life we were to be no longer and there were no better things attainable than what this Life possesses And while we mind this World we neglect the other we do not seek the better Happiness of that and lose it for want of seeking it Yea we forfeit that Happiness which is to come and deserve and incur everlasting Misery by what our too great love of this Life and its Enjoyments does engage us in Very much of the wickedness of this World and the misery of the next is due to this unhappy Cause To render a temporal Life happy as we suppose we spoil an Eternal one or incur an Eternal Death we serve our Bodies to the Destruction of our Souls The great Folly of which our Saviour suggests by that Question Mark 8. 36. What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole World and lose his Soul Or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul To meet with this unhappy and dangerous Errour as much as this Text without straining it will allow I shall employ the following Discourse about three things 1. I shall enquire and make it appear from other Scriptures what intimations concerning our present Life this Text affords us 2. I shall insist a little upon the Illustration of those Intimations 3. I shall add the due Improvement and Application of them In the first place let us compare this Text of Scripture with others that we may derive from it the more certainly and evidently the Instructions it contains In 1 Pet. 1. 24. 't is said All flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass The grass withereth and the flower falleth away And in the next verse he adds But the word of the Lord endureth for ever By this opposition of the Word that endureth to the Grass and the Flower of it which falleth away we may understand that by the Comparison of a Flower the Holy Spirit would teach us this Life is not of long continuance The Flower is the shortest liv'd part even of those Plants that have the shortest duration and is upon that account fit to mind us of the short continuance of this present Life Further in Ps 103. v. 15 16. we are told 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 This short liv'd Flower is exposed as the Flower of the Field 't is liable to many destructive and mortal Accidents yea if but the Wind passes over it it is gone 't is most easily destroyed 't is a thing may look fair and beautiful but has very little strength Thus it is with Man is the Psalmists meaning here He is as feeble as the Flower of the Field a small mischief may snatch him away in his prime Thus the Scripture teaches by this comparison the frailty and weakness as well as the shortness of human Life Again in Psal 102. v. 11. the Psalmist speaking of himself says My days are like a shadow that declineth which is as if he had said while my afflictions last and I hope for better days my Life declines apace it wasts continually away In Psal 144. v. 4. 't is said Man is like to Vanity his days are as a shadow that passeth away From these Scriptures we may learn that by the Comparison of a Shadow is taught us how transitory our present Life is It is continually passing away and spending it self And the rather may we be allow'd to conclude this from our present Text because 't is said of Man He fleeth as a shadow and then 't is added too He continueth not From this Text then it appears we may learn these three serious Intimations 1. The present Life of mortal Man is very short as is the continuance of a Flower 2. It is very feeble and frail is most easily cut off and destroyed and yet is exposed too as the Flower of the Field 3. This our present Life in this World is altogether transitory it is continually passing away As a shadow always moves and passes on till it is lost in the Nights Universal Darkness These are very obvious Truths and such as every Man's thoughts may easily suggest to him And they are very important and worth our considering and would be to those that would well consider them the Springs of much Peace and Wisedom But as obvious and useful as they are it appears they are much neglected and men commonly live as if they knew not these things At least 't is certain they seldom or never consider them Let us then not be unwilling to fix our minds upon them for a little while at present and let none fear any harm will follow if thereby they should make impression upon his mind and for the future so stay there as never to be forgotten again The next thing then that I proposed to do is to illustrate these particulars to express and speak of them in a few more words on purpose that our Thoughts may be detained a while upon them and that we may give them some advantage to make a due Impression 1. Let us consider that the present Life of mortal Man is very short They that live the greatest Number of Years have but a short Life on Earth A little time passes over the Innocence and Ease of our Infancy and Childhood A little more withers the flourishing Beauty and Gayety of Youth A little more weakens the Strength and spends the Usefulness of riper Manhood And if beyond this we live a little time more buries the decays and infirmities of Old-age The longest distance from the Cradle to the Grave is but a short one And the Wisedom of God would have
Further The very thought and assurance of the approach and nearness of Death may be a comfort to a good man against many of the Inconveniences of old Age. Death it self will not be very terrible to him whom a good Life has made ready for it who knows his Sins pardoned and his good Deeds accepted through the Mediatour who can say I have fought a good fight I have finisht my course I have kept the Faith and henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness It is pleasant instead of being terrible to a good man when he can say My work is almost done and I am now expecting my Reward My warfare is well nigh accomplished and the next thing that is to come is my Crown I am indeed near the time of parting with this World but I shall exchange it for a better I shall go to never fading pleasures to durable riches to unspeakable joy and felicity Can a man be troubled with the nearness and approach of his Death when he knows it will be a change that will be much to his advantage And he that knows this will be comforted most effectually under the Evils of his present condition When he can think if nothing else can cure them Death will and that very shortly it cannot be long ere I shall be free from them all Ere long my pains shall be at an end and I shall be at ease I shall be removed from among those that are wickedly a weary of me and willing to part with me to live with them that will be as willing to receive me And if his posterity are such as can deserve the Blessing of his Prayers he can comfortably commit them to the Providence of God and think that by his good and righteous and holy Life he has entailed a Blessing upon them which is a far better portion with a small provision than the greatest abundance of ill gotten goods And thus much I think may suffice to demonstrate that a good and vertuous Life makes the best preparation that can be against the Evils and Inconveniences of old Age. And this is certainly a very good Argument for our minding Religion in our Youth If we do so we are fit to die if it should not be our lot to live to old Age and as such a course is most likely to lengthen our lives so far so it will prevent or alleviate the Evils that commonly attend that time if we do live to it For a Conclusion of this Discourse and to strengthen the Argument I shall briefly compare this with the other ways of living that many betake themselves to When we are entering upon the World the most of us do dispose of our selves in one or other of these two ways Either we greedily follow the pleasures of the World and give our selves up to the pursuit and enjoyment of them Or we betake our selves to the eager pursuit of wealth or honours and to raise a fortune as we call it But alas neither of these two ways of living will be able to afford men that true comfort and satisfaction in their latter end which may be derived from Vertue and Religion these will rather end in Vexation and Trouble They that give themselves up to Pleasures treasure nothing but sorrow and shame for after-days What profit is there in these when they are gone what fruit do they leave behind them and how much pain and sorrow do they leave when they leave an impair'd Estate a sick distemper'd Body and a guilty Conscience And for a man to think I have amused and entertained my self with Vanities and for them have neglected and forsaken the most solid and durable Goods I have received all my good things here Alas how thin how empty a portion is it Yet this is all this is all I was born to enjoy These guilty pleasures cannot entitle me to better things therefore they are not earnests of such I have then received and spent all my portion of good and happiness These are very sad and grievous thoughts and such as these must the Sinners guilty frolicks end in Accordingly we may observe that none are so morose and melancholy and discontented in old Age as they who have licentiously followed their pleasure in the former part of their Life who are smarting now for their foolish frolicks and have the burden of their present Evils much the greater and the heavier for them Again let us consider those who have spent all their Life in heaping up of Wealth These do seem indeed to be somewhat the wiser persons of the two but there is not much difference between them He that most pursues Riches does not certainly gain them and while he is still drawn after them with hopes they perhaps like his shadow fly from him still and so he loses his labour and his life too He that gets Riches cannot be sure to keep them all his days or that he shall comfort his old Age with them And when that comes with the Evils and Pains and Distempers which all the wealth he has gotten cannot remove when it cannot reprieve him from the Grave nor set his Death a moment further from him when it will leave him at his going out of this World to all the Miseries of the next and this cannot purchase his peace with God nor redeem his Soul from Hell nor gain him admittance into the Courts of Heaven Then how does he disdain all his labour how is his sick mind fretted to think how he has lost his time how little comfort does all his labour in this kind afford him when the fruits of it are so useless to him Thus we see the ends of worldly men of those who minded nothing all their days but the pleasures and wealth of this World Their end is sad and gloomy their sweets turn bitter their abundance ends in poverty and wretched Nakedness their Mirth in sorrow and their short lived Pleasures in everlasting Pain and Torment But the good and vertuous Man closes up a troublesome Life with joy and gladness his Labours end in rest and his Pains in ease and felicity If he be encombred with any outward Evils his comfort is he is going away from them all If he has received any good things here he knows also that far better things are reserved for him in the World to come THE PRAYER ALmighty and most Wise and most gracious God Thou art Glorious in Holiness fearful in thy Praises doing Wonders all thy Works O Lord are done in Judgment thou art Righteous in all thy Ways and Holy in all thy Works We admire thee we praise we bless thee for thy worderful Works of Creation and for thy wonderful Works of Providence O Lord there is none to whom we may compare or liken thee there is no God besides thee And in particular we desire at this time to Praise thee for the Wisdom and Goodness thou hast shown in thy most excellent Law in
committing it are taken from them How often do we find the profane Person then profane the habitual Swearer cursing and swearing with his last Breath How often is the covetous Person taken up with his worldly Affairs thinking and talking of his Bags and Possessions or of gainful Bargains and further gettings even to the very minute when he must lose and part with all How often is the proud and vain Person then vain and proud too even then concerned about Beauty and Cloaths about trimming up and adorning the poor wretched Carkass which is likely within a few moments to be but rottenness and putrefaction This hardness at Death and unconcernedness even then about a future State is a very tremendous and deplorable Judgment of God which very often falls upon those who have long resisted the means of Grace and refused to repent and turn to him He gives up the obstinate Sinner to a Judicial hardness which the very near approach of Death and Judgment shall not be able to move He lets him be forgetful of himself at the point of Death because he was and would be all his Life long forgetful of God and his Duty to him He would not make sure of his pardon before and now he shall have no thought or concern about it And there is yet another hindrance the of delaying Sinners repentance at the point of Death which all such are in great danger of and many fall under and that is Despair The same Adversary of their Souls who tempted them before to presume will now if they are at all awakened and sensible of their condition be very ready to hurry them into this And surely there is too much ground for such a temptation in the case of him who has deferred his Repentance till now He must be in great danger of falling into a hopeless and despairing Sense of his Condition if he has any at all whose own Conscience with the Adversary can tell him he has squandered away the time of mercy and his day of Grace is come to its end before he has secured the Grace and Favour of God He has spent his whole Life in Sin and Rebellion against him that made him to whose Glory he ought to have lived and whose Mercy and Love he now stands in need of That he has utterly lost one Life and shall not be trusted with another that as he can never undoe the Ills he has done so he has no time left to alter his Course in and live it better And when he thinks with himself that at such and such times he was invited and earnestly urged to repent and break off his Sins and he had some good motions towards it in his mind but he made a shift to stifle those motions he slighted the good Counsel and despised the necessary Reproofs How apt must he be in the midst of such thoughts to fall into despair to think that God will now only laugh at his Calamity that if he should repent he shall be refused And then he will neglect it as thinking it now too late and that it would be in vain This is the sad Case of many a dying Sinner who has lived all his life in the contempt of God and Religion He now gives himself for lost and goes to Hell expecting to go to Hell He throws away his last minutes in despair after he has wilfully lost his whole Life before in presumption So many things there are which may hinder a man from having any mind or thought to repent at last But now when no man can possibly tell but some one or other of these may be his case when he comes to die if he neglects this before how plainly unreasonable and extravagant is it to put off our Repentance to that time 4. Another Argument to dissuade men from relying upon a Death-Bed Repentance may be this What Repentance men do practice in that condition it is very seldom sincere and true Some indeed are struck then with a mighty fear of God and dread of their final Sentence and of the Punishments of Hell which they are conscious to themselves they have deserved and which they think are near the getting hold on them And in this fright they are full of confessions of their Sins and condemnations of themselves for their former Evil life and earnestly they sue for pardon and mercy and make great protestations how good they will be if it will but please God to spare them But alas all this with the most of men in this condition is but false and dissembled all this does seldom arise to a true and sincere Repentance It proceeds in the most from a wrong Principle They only dread the Wrath of God and the Punishments of Sin they do not hate their Sin they are not truly fallen out with it they do not love God nor are heartily reconciled to his Commandments True Repentance ought to be entirely voluntary and free but this is entirely forced They talk of leaving only what is leaving of them and of sinning no more when they think they shall not have opportunity to entertain themselves with their beloved Sins any more It is possible a man in this condition may think himself that his Repentance is sound and his Resolutions are hearty but it is very easie for him to be deceived It is easie says one for a man to think he has no mind to do that which he plainly sees it is not in his Power to do Possibility says he is the best Proof and Trial of the Will If thou dost not while thou canst do this does most manifestly and truly shew that thou hast not the Will to do There is a great deal of dissembled seeking to God and pretended Conversion to him under distress and affliction among the Sons of men Such was that of the Jews spoke of in Psal 78. 34. where 't is said When he slew them then they sought him and they returned and enquired early after God But it is added in verse 36 37. of that Psalm Nevertheless they did flatter him with their Mouth and lied unto him with their Tongue for their Heart was not right with him neither were they stedfast in his Covenant In like manner the late penitent makes perhaps very earnest Addresses to God but it is only to get out of his present distress and if this be granted and his fears are over he soon forgets all the good promises that he had made Of those who make these good Vows and Protestations in their Sickness and Danger a very small proportion do fulfil them when they have escaped their danger which shews they are for the most part false and deceitful ones The most of them return after a little while to their abdicated Sins like the Dog to his Vomit or the Swine that was washt to wallowing in the Mire Or instead of those nauseated Sins says one Hamm. Pract. Cat. they make choice of some other new Path to Hell