all the Solemnity of a Publick Judge in the Glory of his Father surrounded with all his holy Angels 6. In a great weanedness from this World and having our Affections strongly set upon Heavenly things Our Saviour plainly warns us That too deep a concern about earthly matters exposes men to a fatal Surprize by this great day Luk 21.34 Take heed saith he to your selves lest at any time your hearts be over-charged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life and so that day come upon you unawares How bitter are the Thoughts and much more the Approaches of Death to him whose Affections cleave strongly to this wretched World Violence must be used to separate him from it But he who sits loose to all things here below is easily parted from them Like the Beams of Light which gently touch the Earth but not being tied to it are easily withdrawn from it as soon as ever the Sun begins to set and the Evening to come on 7. In getting our Evidences for Heaven bright and clear Heb. 11.8 Abraham indeed at the call of God readily departs from his own Country into a Foreign Land not knowing whither he went But 't is impossible any one should be willing to leave this World and pass into the other if he be at a great loss in his own mind whither he is going to Heaven or Hell and which of these two must be his everlasting Habitation Where Eternal Happiness or Misery is the Doubt it must needs be a very uneasy thing to a serious Person and men are generally so in their last minutes to be tost up and down between Hopes and Fears But when our Title to that blessed Inheritance is clear and our Assurance is strong we may chearfully lay down our Bodies and resign up our Souls No man can live with half that Comfort and Joy as such a man may dye withal 8. In watching waiting and expecting Death and Judgment every day not fancying that certainly we shall dye but thinking within our selves that for ought we know we may dye every day Frequently seasoning our Hearts with such serious Reflections as these will be like a daily watering the Tree at the roots which makes the Sap to rise and shoot up into every Branch it will quicken us to the performance of all the forementioned particulars and have the same good Influence upon us as the expecting that Thieves may come every Night which makes us careful to provide for our own Defence 9. In well settling your worldly Estates Do this in the time of Health that it may be your last Will yours and not the Will of those that are about you who otherwise may be practising upon you when you are sick and weak in Body and Mind too The neglecting or the not doing this to their own full Satisfaction has caused very great uneasiness of mind in many when they have been suddenly within the near Views of Death We need not to have these worldly matters to distract and discompose us when we have much weightier Affairs enough to take up all the little remainder of our Time and our most serious Thoughts For Lastly If our Heads be clear and we have leisure we must seriously review the State of our own Souls Otherwise it will be as improper for us so to do as it would for a man that is to make a Map of any Country to pretend to survey it in a foggy day In this case we must live upon and draw Comfort from the former Trials of our selves We must also renew our Repentance for all those particular Sins we can remember and our Faith in the Blood of Christ for the pardon of them and again commit and give up our Souls to him recalling to our minds some of the Promises of God that are most suitable to our present condition speaking somewhat if we are able in the behalf of God and Christ and serious Holiness that may be of use to those that we shall leave behind us lifting up our Hearts to the heavenly Glory and commending our departing Spirits into the hand of God and Christ III. General I come to shew you wherein the force of this Argument lies from the suddenness of Death and Judgment to be always ready for them And 1. Death and Judgment will not stay beyond the appointed time till we get ready Thy Days are numbred thy Glass has been turned up and running for some time there are it may be but a few Sands more how few God only can toll and when they are run out ready or unready all is one away thou must Now God gives thee Time improve it that the long-suffering of God may be Salvation to thee But if thou trifle it away now when the Decree is gone forth to cut down the barren Tree it shall not stand a moment longer Many a Time hast thou been sick and the consciousness of thy having made little or no Provision for Eternity has made thee cry out in the bitterness of thy Soul O spare me a little longer God has been merciful to thee once and again but the time is a coming when he will be so no more How many hast thou known of thy sinful Companions who have cried as loudly as thou canst do Yet a little more time But God would not vouchsafe it but they have been hurried away to Judgment before they have made up their Accounts 2. Little or nothing is to be done to get ready upon a sudden Surprize by Death Thou may'st be struck dead in a moment Thy Disease may lye in thy Head may so distract and cloud thy Brain that as one well saith if the meer saying Lord have mercy upon me would save thy Soul as it will not yet thou shalt not be able to utter so short a Petition But suppose thou hast a little longer warning how unlikely is it thou shouldest get thy Soul into a meet posture for Death and Judgment if then it be to begin When thou hast spent Forty or Fifty Years in Wickedness is a few Hours time sufficient to make thy Peace with God for such a multitude of Provocations or procure the Change of thy Heart and Nature so consirmed in Sin Soul and Body by Physick and Pains are miserably indisposed for so serious a matter and there is little hopes that the Grace of God which thou hast so long resisted should then convert thee in a moment It may be thy Ignorance will be so great that having a clear sight of thy manifold and crying Sins and little or no knowledge of a Saviour thou wilt be at thy Wits-end not knowing what to do It may be God's Spirit will withdraw and leave thee to the hardness of thy own Heart and then thou wilt remain stupid as a Block Or else the Thoughts of so many Sins of the Terrors of God the near Approaches of Death and Judgment and amazing Fears of Hell will cast thee into terrible
drop in this manner before our Eyes 't is a lively Comment on that Scripture Go to now ye that say James 4.13 14 15 16. to day or to morrow we will go into such a City and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow Thou may'st travel to thy long Home before thou reach that City For what is your Life It is even a Vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away And therefore Ye ought to say If the Lord will we shall live and do this or that But now ye rejoyce in your Boastings please your selves with such vain Thoughts and Projects All such rejoycing is evil 'T is a sottish Thing so to do for you are not Lords of your own Lives and therefore not of your own Actions and if your Breath fail in that moment all these great Thoughts of yours shall perish like a proud and swelling Bubble that is broken by a single puff of Wind. 8. 'T is a strong Motive to Thankfulness to God that he hath nor so surprized us it our Natural state or in the very Act of some Sin and Folly A single Affront puts our Thoughts and Spirits into a mighty Ferment and Agitation which makes our Wrath immediately kindle like an heated Vapour by its own Motion in a sultry Evening and we are apt to be quick and severe in avenging our selves on our Adversaries if it be in the Power of our hands How easily could God have cut us off when we were Enemies to him struck us down dead at his Foot in an Instant when the Weapons of Iniquity were in our Hands without affording us any leisure to bethink our selves what we had done or whither we were going Astonishing Patience that he hath not long since torn away our guilty Souls from our Wretched Bodies sending one to the Grave and plunging the other into Hell That his Wrath hath not smoaked against us yea broke forth into a devouring Flame His Forbearance is so much the more admirable Eccles 8.11 because perverse Man takes an Occasion from hence to Embolden himself in Sin Because sentence against an Evil Work is not executed speedily therefore the Heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil His Power over himself is great as well as over us otherwise his Anger had been let out like a Flood upon us and we had been violently and hastily carried away before it 9. And Lastly 'T is an evident Demonstration of the Necessity of our being continually in a prepared Posture for Death and Judgment And this Naturally leads me to the II. General propounded which is to shew wherein this readiness for Death and Judgment does lye This is twofold First Habitual Secondly Actual The one as to the State the other as to the Frame of our Souls The one in Order to a Safe Departure the other in Order to a Comfortable one 1. There is an Habitual Readiness for Death and Judgment which lyes in these two things Justification by Faith in the Blood of Christ and Sanctification by the Spirit of Christ 1. Justification by Faith in the blood of Christ He is a miserable Creature who has the guilt of any one Sin cleaving to his Soul because that single guilt binds him over to Eternal Wrath. Who then can conceive the misery of that man who has upon him the guilt of all those innumerable Sins which he has committed throughout the whole course of his life every one of which and much more all of them together expose him to the Fury and Everlasting Vengeance of God Such a one is far from being fit for Death and Judgment who must fall under that condemning-Sentence Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels What terrour and confusion will the very presence of Christ strike into the Souls of these men Gen. 45.3 Joseph had concealed himself from his Brethren a long while but when at last he made himself known to them and said I am Joseph the thought of those Injuries which they had done him struck them dumb and they were troubled at his presence and could not answer him When our Saviour shall appear and say to an Unbeliever I am Jesus That Jesus whose Blood thou hast despised whose Gospel thou hast slighted whose Spirit thou hast resisted whose merciful Design thou hast opposed all thy life long and wouldest not be reconciled to God through me I am that very Jesus These words will strike and pierce him to the very heart and cause him to wail Rev. 1.7 and call to the rocks and mountains saying Fall on me and hide me from the face of him that sitteth on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of his wrath is come Rev. 6.16 17. and who shall be able to stand 2. Sanctification by the Spirit of Christ The most glittering Profession where there is not a work of Regeneration will not avail in that day The Foolish Virgins that had Lamps in their hands but no Oil in their Vessels will find the door shut against them when the Bridegroom comes Matth 25.10 as not being ready to enter in with him Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. If we are not true Penitents and Converts Acts. 3.19 our Sins are not blotted out but shall remain in God's Book against us under our respective Names and then it will not be a time of refreshing but of scorching Heat which we shall never be able to endure In a word There is not a more miserable Wretch out of Hell than an unpardoned and an unsanctified Man who is going to it and considers not whither he is hasting All this man's Happiness lies at the mercy of a Disease of an Accident of one moment for if this night God should take away his Soul where is he Nay it all lies at the mercy of one wise and sober thought For did he but understand and consider the true state of his Soul with reference to Eternity his Mirth would be changed into Trembling and all his Songs into Howlings and Lamentations into Agonies and Horrors of Conscience For 't is not more certain that he is at present out of Hell than it is that if he live and die in his present State he shall in a few moments be in it II. There is an actual readiness for Death and Judgment and that lies in these following things 1. In a careful abstinence from every wilful Sin and a speedy and deep repentance for any such 2 Pet. 3.14 if we have been guilty of it Wherefore beloved seeing ye look for such things be diligent that you may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless Our principal care must be to refrain from
Pangs and Agonies of Conscience and overwhelm thee with a total Despair Some such I have known who upon their Sick and Death-Beds have cried out Vndone eternally undone there is no Hope no Mercy for us there remaineth nothing but a certain fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation from the Lord to consume us Who have hereupon howled like a Beast and roared out like a damned Soul methinks I hear the doleful Sound continually in my Ears and I hope I shall never totally forget it But for the present let us suppose the best Provided thou shouldest prove a true Fonitent which is very unlikely yet without a Divine Revelation thou wilt not be able to know it Many have been affrighted by Sickness into seemingly very serious Purposes and have been taken for sincere Converts but when they have recovered have returned again like the Dog to his Vomit and the Sow that has been washed to her wallowing in the mire It may be this has been thy own case a Fit of Sickness made a great change in thy Countenance but a greater in Thoughts But with thy Health thou hast recovered thy ancient Looks and returned to thy Old Sins again and all thy good Resolutions have vanisht away like the Visions of the Night when a man awakes or the Dew of the Morning when the Sun is risen The Pangs thou hast undergone have not been like those of a Woman in Travel which end in the Birth of a living Child but like the racking and tormenting Pains of the Gout or Stone which wear off but no good comes of them And who can assure thee that special Grace hath now fixed and established thy Heart which hath so often started aside like a deceitful Bow So that thou wilt unavoidably dye in a dreadful Cloud and pass by the very Gates and within a near View of the Flames of Hell even though thou shouldest be received into Heaven 3. It will greatly torment thee if Sickness should find thee unready Oh how wilt thou befool and condemn thy self and say How often was I put in mind of such an Hour as this How often have I been called upon to prepare my Soul for it How often did I purpose to do it I was even ready to yield sometimes but still I deferred it till a more convenient Season as I called it such a Fool was I and so like a Beast have I carried it Surely I had not the Understanding of a man within me 4. Great is the Happiness of those who are ready for a sudden Death Nothing can make them miserable they walk in the Light of God's Countenance Peace of Conscience Joy in the Holy Ghost and a daily delightful Communion with God a thing so ravishing that as that Nobleman said when in his low condition he was tempted with the offer of a Bag of Gold to return to Popery Their Money perish with them that would not prefer one Hours Communion with God before all the Silver and Gold in this World They drink abundantly of that sweet Wine which hath a far more delicious relish and taste than all the Pleasures of this World were the Spirits of them all extracted and mingled together in one Draught And as they do not live so neither do they dye at the common rate of other men Much of their Master's Joy comes down into them before they are received up into it they dye smiling yea go away in Triumph into that blessed Place where Delight and Praise shall be their everlasting Work and Employment 5. And Lastly The Consequences will be very dreadful if thou art not ready If thou hast not the habitual and fundamental readiness that is if thou art not justified and sanctified thou art lost for ever And except these men's Consciences are seared if a Cloud be but gathering if some threatning Sickness do but hover over them it casts them into a mighty Confusion But if it actually seize them they are in the same condition with Belshazzar when he saw the Fingers of a man's hand writing he knew not what tho' he could not read nor understand the mystical Character yet his guilty Conscience concluded it was a Sentence of Death and Wrath whereupon his Thoughts troubled him and his Knees smote one against another and his Countenance changed white as that Wall on which the Hand-writing appeared And he could not be more in haste for his Wise-men than they are for the Physician to tell them what their Fate is like to be And though thou hast the Fundamental yet if thou hast not the actual readiness for Death too thou wilt be full of Fears and inward distress of Soul dye very uncomfortably and go away trembling into the other world IV. And Lastly The Application 1. Learn hence the Reason of Holy Men's strictness in Religion They dare not follow a multitude to do wickedly nor assume to themselves so great a latitude in practice as their Neighbours They think and therefore they walk otherwise than the rest of mankind do They take heed to their Feet because they don't know but the next step they make may be into the other World They have impressed upon their Minds a deep sense of those Words of our Saviour Rev. 16.15 Behold I come as a Thief Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame 2. How sad is it that so few are or take any care to get themselves ready There is not a plainer instance of the deplorable Corruption and Folly of human Nature than this That we stand in need of Divine Instruction by a powerful hand practically to know this common and obvious thing how frail we are God had pronounced that Severe Sentence against the Israelites That that whole Generation should die in the Wilderness within less than forty Years And consequently in so vast a body of men who were all of them to drop in so short a compass of Time they could not chuse but have daily Spectacles of Mortality before their Eyes and yet Moses was jealous that not a man among them would duly apprehend so plain a thing without Help from Heaven He therefore digests his own serious Thoughts on this Point into a solemn Prayer for the use of the Israelites that so he might lead the People in their Devotions as well as in their Wars and Journeyings through the Wilderness Yea tho' he was so eminent a Saint and so well skilled in all the Learning of the Egyptians of which Arithmetick was one part yet he saw a necessity of Divine Grace for himself too that he might be able to reckon aright in this matter which therefore he prays for in his own behalf as well as theirs So teach us to number our days Psa 90.12 that we may apply our hearts to wisdom But the Folly of the generality of Mankind as to this point Deut. 29.4 is so very manifest that we have too much cause