he made it his care and business to dress his Soul for the embraces of the Father of Spirits to think that he shall bathe his dilated Faculties in an overflowing River of Pleasures and feed upon an Happiness which is as large as his Capacity and as lasting as his Being to think that as soon as his Soul is stormed out of the outworks of Nature the Angels which are ministring Spirits will convey it into Abraham's Bosom I say such a thought as this upon a Death-bed mitigates the Ragings of an imperious Disease sweetens the bitter Cup and renders the approaches of Death less formidable and scaring Whereas when a Wicked man after repeated Provocations and wilful resistings of Divine Grace is flung by an invisible hand upon his Sick or Death-bed he is presently Arraigned by his injured Conscience and a large Catalogue of all his Sins is opened and read before him he is afraid to Dye because he has all along lived in Rebellion against God And here we may imagine what a surprize the Wretch is in to think that he must live out a long Eternity in unpitiable Sighs and Groans and endure the Vengeance of an irreconcilable God that no sooner will Death cut the Thread of Life but he enters into a World of despairing Ghosts and that at the Day of Judgment must change his unhappy condition for a much worse these are the Thoughts which usually attend ungodly men when they are making their Exit unless they are hardned or deprived of their senses through the Violence of their Distemper This is the last punishment of a vicious course in this Life And one would think that such an uncouth remembrance of things at such a time when a man is under the ill circumstance of an intolerable Distemper when Nature is almost spent the Eyes darkned like a sullied Mirror the Face besmeared with a clammy sweat the whole Body trembling under the Severity of death when the Soul as it were sets hovering upon the Lip just advancing upon the Shoar of another invisible World I say one would think that it were enough to make men afraid of Sin to be thus miserably tormented with the Reflections of it when they are stepping out of this into a wide World of Spirits where their sorrows will be Augmented and the remembrance how they have lived here will afflict them more than to be stung with Snakes whipt with Scorpions and all the Instruments of torture applied unto them And it is no less a prevalent Motive to the Study and Practice of Religion that it influences a man to generous Actions and to order his Conversation so that he shall not be ashamed nor afraid to look back upon the passages of his Life past when he comes to dye but revive his drooping Spirits with the Hope and Assurance of commencing a Happy and Joyful Eternity having in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly Wisdom but by the Grace of God had his Conversation in the World And so says Solomon in the Text The righteous hath hope in his death the consideration of his well-spent Life lifts him up at the last gasp with the confidence of living with God Angels and Saints Which words manifestly imply this Proposition viz That a truly pious and holy Life produces a happy and comfortable Death Now my Business shall be First To prove the Truth of this Then Secondly To persuade Men to the Practice of Religion from the consideration that it brings Peace at the last and qualifies their Souls for the Embraces of the Father of Spirits First then I am to prove the Truth of this viz. That a truly Pious and Holy Life produces a Happy and Comfortable Death which is the same in sense and meaning with what the Wise-man asserts in the Text That the Righteous hath hope in his Death as if he had said That man that Exercises himself daily to have a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards man who by Study and special Arts hath contracted an intire love to God and Religion and lives in a constant and unfeigned Obedience to the Institutions of the Gospel shall be so far from having any frightful Reflection upon what is past or dismal Prospect of what is to come at the time of his Death that the very consideration of his sincerity in the Practice of Religion will revive and cheer his drooping Spirit with the Hope and Assurance of a joyful Resurrection to Eternal Life through the Merits and Satisfaction of Jesus Christ by the imputation of whose Righteousness he shall be enabled to stand blameless before God How true this is our own Experience and Observation tells us When we have visited a Friend Neighbour or Relation who have had their Conversation here in simplicity and godly sincerity with what cheerfulness have they resigned to God's Will and Disposal How little have they been concerned at the Thoughts of approaching Death With what Comfort and Satisfaction have they looked back upon and remembred the general course of their Actions How have they rejoiced in the Testimony of a good Conscience How light and easy did the Yokes of Pain and Sickness set upon them being taken up with the Thoughts of a future happy Life and Established with the assurance of Reigning the Lives of Victorious Saints What Lectures of Admonishment have they delivered to their surviving Acquaintances that they would live in the fear of God and dedicate their days to his Service for that such a Conversation only will bring them peace at the last With what Courage did they meet the King of Terrors How familiar and comfortable were his approaches to them having the same mind which was in the Apostle desirous to be dissolved being confident of spending an Eternity with Christ whose Vertues they endeavoured to imitate and whose Example they made the Pattern and Model of their Actions This is the comfortable State and Condition of good Christians when lying under the unhappy circumstances of Mortal Pains or Sicknesses neither the inconvenience of a crazy and distempered Body nor the fear of Death nor all the disturbances which usually attend a death-bed can shake their Faith or remove their Hope of a blessed Immortality For the very Design and Purpose of Religion is To teach men how to dress their Souls for the embraces of the Father of Spirits to furnish them with such necessary Graces as may prepare them to stand before the Son of Man when he comes to Judgment and he that is endued with this holy Principle and by Practice hath digested it into habit has answered the great end of his being sent into the World and is fortified with considerations sufficient against the worst that may happen to him Of such an excellent and gracious Nature is Religion that it qualifies a man for all states and conditions of Life if he be Rich it instructs him to set loose in his Affections to the Goods and Affluences of this World
conduceth to a happy Life prolongs our days and keeps a calm within our Breasts so it steps in to our Assistance at the last gasp by fortifying us against the fear and terror of death and reviving our drooping Spirits with a solid hope and confidence of commencing a blessed Eternity What a thought it is when a man hath his Winding-sheet in his Eye his last Knell in his Ear when he is just upon a Translation out of this into another World that after this sharp combat between Death and Nature is over his Spirit will soar aloft and feed upon the Entertainments of those blessed Regions above That though his body shall be destroyed with Vermin yet at the command of the great Creator shall be revived and re-united to its proper Soul and both live in the presence of God for ever and ever I say what a thought is this upon a Death bed How doth it relax the mind and comfort all within a man at such a time who hath a hope of Heaven upon good grounds What would not an impenitent Sinner give when languishing that he could but allay the Storm within and command such a sweet Calm that he could chide his outragious Conscience into silence recover his mis-spent time and dye with a good assurance of going to Heaven Some of us probably have visited such Wretches who never thought of dying till just within sight of their Graves What lamentable moans have they made How miserably handled by their wronged minds what sighs and screeches have the remembrance of things past fetched from them What frightful Ideas have their disturbed Spirits presented to them How uneasy and restless worried and even confounded with despair and left this World in unspeakable Agonies Now as we would desire when we lie under the ill circumstances of a crazy body and a mortal distemper to be quiet and peaceable within and wear out our languishing hours with a good assurance of Heaven we must endeavour to lead holy lives which alone bringeth peace at the last But here some may say This we know already and there is no such need of repeating it I confess that I pretend not to insinuate any thing new but only to remind men of their latter end and of those things which belong to their present and future peace and how necessary this is too plainly appears by the lives and practices of many who converse here as if they were never to dye who instead of wiping off their guilt by a sincere Repentance couragiously press on as if they were ambitious of being Heroes in Iniquity they charge through all the modesty of Human nature through all their native sense of a God and a Divine Vengeance and offer a kind of Violence to Hell as if they meant to force open its Brazen Portal and enter headlong into it before it be ready to receive them Is it not therefore necessary to alarm such Wretches with repeated Lectures of Mortality To remind them of Death and Judgment and what must be done by them if they would dye comfortably and behold the face of the Judge Christ Jesus with comfort But Thirdly and Lastly Rcligion is an indispensable Qualification for Heaven Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Though we speak with the tongues of Men and of Angels and have not Charity we are but as so many sounding brasses and tinkling cymbals Though we have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though we have all faith so that we could remove mountains Nay though we bestow all our goods to feed the poor and give our bodies to be burned yet if we are not truly Religious possessed with the Spirit of Piety and Holiness all this will avail us nothing says the Apostle St. Paul 1 Cor. 13.1 2 3 c. Were it possible for a wicked Soul to go to Heaven it would find nothing there which would entertain it to satisfaction For to use the expression of one Our Souls will continue for ever what we make them in this World Such a Temper and Disposition of Mind as a man carries with him out of this Life he shall retain in the next If we do not in a good degree mortify our Lusts and Passions here Death will not kill them for us but we shall carry them with us into the other World so that I say should God admit us so qualified into the place of Happiness yet we shall bring that along with us which would infallibly hinder us from being happy Thou Carnal and Sensual Wretch What Happiness would it be to thee to see God and to have him always in thy View who was never in all thy thoughts To be tied to live for ever in his Company who is of a quite contrary Temper and Disposition to thy self whose presence thou dreadest and whom whilst thou wast in this World couldst never endure to think upon So that the pleasures of the other happy World would signify nothing to him who is not so disposed to take pleasure in them for the Employment of that blessed place as it would be unsuitable so unacceptable to a vicious and ungodly person It is therefore the greatest and most powerful Argument imaginable to the Study and Practice of Religion that it qualifies us for the Enjoyment of God and renders us capable of the Employment and Conversation of Heaven it makes us of the same Temper and Disposition with God and the Holy Angels And then what sweet Harmony and Communion will there be where all are of a mind and all seek one end Therefore upon the whole Let us embrace Religion as that which will fit us for the Enjoyment of the greatest Good then when we come to dye our Faith and Hope will become our Anchor till both be swallowed up in Vision and Fruition May God of his abundant mercy grant that we may so live here that we may not fail of commencing a blessed Eternity with Them And this for Jesus Christ's sake Amen THE FOURTH SERMON JAM IV. 17th Verse Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is sin IN this Chapter the Apostle is inculcating many excellent duties relating both to God and man to God that we express our selves unto him in all the instances of Humility Reverence and holy Fear to our Neighbour that we do not impair his Reputation nor provoke him by slanderings and backbitings but to do unto him as we would he should do unto us And as the Conclusion of this his Discourse he reminds those to whom he writes and by them all Christians how nearly it concerned them to practice what they heard and knew and that it would enhance their guilt and render them the more inexcusable if they lived in the neglect of that which they knew to be their duty to him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is sin By which the Apostle gives us to understand That Sins against
in the best of our performances or those petulant follies we are guilty of when in a converted and regenerate state they were enough by their own weight to sink us into Eternal Perdition So that considering how defective we are at best there is work enough for Repentance and for the Exercising of Christian Graces so long as we live It is not such an easy thing to change an evil mind to correct a rude nature and to defend our selves against a Relapse for this it seems is our unhappiness the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh so that we cannot do the things that we would Galat. 5.17 While we are in the body we shall meet with difficulties and oppositions occasioned by the Flesh warring against the Spirit and ostentimes we are put to it to keep our integrity and too frequently either by surprize or for want of a good Judgment or substantial Arguments and suitable Considerations we fall and make work for our Repentance and this is the business of our whole lives to repent as soon as we have slipped and to fortify our selves with the whole Armour of God against Temptations But thus much for the first proposition namely That a Christian while he continues in this Life must not stop at any determinate degree in Holiness out of a fond conceit that he is good enough already From this I proceed to the Second Proposition which is Secondly That Perfection as such is not attainable in this Life and therefore we ought to strive to be as good as is possible I count not my self says the Apostle to have apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth to those things which are before I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus To be perfect in a strict sense is to be free from imbecility whether natural or contracted from any blemish or appearance of insirmity in fine it implies such an advancement which admits of no degree beyond it when a Christian by special arts has furnished himself with such a Complication of Graces that he cannot err nor be in danger of falling now it is impossible while our Spirits are clogged with Flesh and detained by the infirmities of human nature to be thus compleat and spotless for even the best of men by sad experience find how imperfect and weak they are how apt to fall that to regain their innocence are forced to renew their sorrows Accordingly we read one of the greatest Proficients in the School of Christ lamenting the corruption of his nature Rom. 7.24 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Some of the Ancients call this Verse genitus sanctorum the groan or lamentation of good Christians who are troubled at heart that they are so much interrupted by the importunities of the Flesh that they cannot serve God with better attention with that strictness of Zeal and ardency of Affection they would For what through the prevalency of the Flesh and the subtle but almost inconceivable insinuations of the common Adversary they are sometimes indifferent to holy duties disturbed by a multitude of unbecoming thoughts when engaged in them send up their prayers with cold desires are more insensible of their spiritual wants are sometimes more inclinable to comply with a temptation and are at a loss for Arguments to preserve their innocence these unhappinesses and many more too tedious to insert attending the best of men are as so many incentives to Repentance to quicken and spur them on in watchings and strivings these oblige them to keep a jealous Eye upon the inconstancy of their nature and to be still furnishing themselves with wise considerations that they may regulate their infirmities and reduce themselves to a better compliance with the duties of Religion The condition of nature is such that as long as we are in the World we shall be courted by temptations to lose our innocence and though we have by hearty endeavours stemmed the Tyde of our evil inclinations and made our Wills corrective and governable so that temptations are not so taking nor we in such manifest danger of being deluded by them yet oftentimes on a sudden not being immediately upon our guard we are insensibly betrayed and make fresh work for our Repentance Peter little thought when he told our Saviour that he would die with him before he would deny him that ever he should have been guilty of such a disingenuous act yet no sooner was he put to proof but he degenerated from his so solemn a promise and accordingly we read him a weeping for what he had done nay bitterly that he who was such an eminent Apostle had made so great a progress in holy Discipline should stain his innocence and lose his peace In fine while Flesh and Spirit are joined together there will be contention and war and during that it is impossible to be void of weaknesses and infirmities Says St. Paul here we see as through a glass darkly here we know but in part in this Life at best we are frail defective Creatures but in another World we we shall see more clearly there the infirmities of humane nature will be done away all temptation to sin shall cease nothing shall interrupt us in our devotion nor call us off from our enjoyments then the tempter who now has permission to use arguments and lay his baits shall be confined in the Prison of Hell for ever and shall never betray or hurt us more But while we are in this state through the interruption of the flesh we are mainly hindered so that we cannot do the things which we would And in regard that such is our unhappiness we must not limit our selves to any present attainments stop at any determinate degree in Holiness out of a fond conceit that we are good enough already but follow the Apostle's example who thus speaks of himself I count not my self to have apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth to those things which are before I press toward the mark for the prize of the high caling of God in Christ Jesus But I hasten to the Third and Last Proposition viz. Thirdly That it is dangerous to make a stop in the Christian warfare out of a fond conceit that we are good enough already as being at leisure to listen to Temptations and so be betrayed into our first and natural State For as it argues the being weary of well-doing that we begin to be cloyed with Virtue and strict Discipline are tired out by Watchings and Strivings when we thus slacken our pace in the Christian warfare and only entertain our selves with the consideration how much of our race we have run and are contented with what we have already done so we give the fairest advantage imaginable for Temptations to insinuate with and the
not to prefer the Creature to or bring it in competition with the Creator but to use this World as not abusing it moderately embracing sublunary Blessings with a generous Resignation of mind to leave them without murmuring if Providence so ordains it either to take them from us or we from them In fine Religion also learns the Man who is fortunately blessed to be charitably disposed to feed the hungry to clothe the naked to minister to persons according to their unhappy circumstances If a man be poor Religion teaches him to be content with his Lot and to submit cheerfully to him that governs the World who knows what condition is best for us it learns him not to covet the Goods of another it being a mighty disturbance to the Tranquility of the mind to Desire and not to have it also instructs to be honestly inclined by abstaining from pilfering and stealing poverty being a strong temptation thereto without the prevention of Divine Grace In brief Religion prompts us to whatsoever things are honest just pure lovely and of good Report and he that by special arts and strengths of Mortification has reduced his nature to the evenness of Vertue and a good disposition has laid up a good foundation against the time to come Whenever God sends his Messenger to call him off the Stage of this World he comforts himself as the holy Apostle did The time of my departure is at hand I am now ready to be stripped into a naked Spirit and to lanch into a wide Eternity but this is my Consolation I have fought the good fight I have finished my course and have kept the Faith upon which I ground this assurance That when Christ who is my Life shall appear I also shall appear with him in Glory Whereas when a man whose Life has been a perpetual course of uninterrupted iniquity comes to dye with what reluctancy does he submit to the Condition of Nature and the Will of Providence What dreadful Apprehensions is his crazy mind infested with What Fears and Amazements does he labour under Conscience which before was lulled into a fatal slumber is now awakened and alarms him with a repetition of his wonted insolencies and at once gives him a View of his whole Life These things hast thou done and I kept silence but I will reprove thee and set all thy sins in order before thee This is but a bad Character to be given of a man by his own Spirit and the very consideration of it must needs invade his Mind with abundance of ill-aboding Thoughts and scaring Reflections and the more because he has no time to recover himself by Repentance and a new Life he has neither strength nor opportunity to express such sorrow for his miscarriages as may move an offended God to Reconciliation but must leave this World in doubts and fears and which he has too much reason to believe must endure the despair of a damned Ghost for ever This I say is the sorrowful conflict of a wicked man upon his death-bed a sad Reflection upon what is past and a dismal Prospect of what is to come But it is not so with him who has ordered his Conversation aright he says my Text has hope in his death that after this painful Life is ended he shall enter into an house not made with hands whose builder and maker is God where nothing shall interrupt or call him off from his Enjoyments no satiety shall render his fruition loathsom or tedious but shall spend a long Eternity in perfect constant and unmixed Happiness But thus much for the first thing which was That a truly pious and holy Life produces a happy and comfortable Death according to the Wiseman's assertion in the Text The righteous has hope in his death I proceed from hence to the Second thing which is Secondly To persuade Men to a Holy and Religious Life from the consideration that it brings peace at the last and prepares our Souls for the embraces of the Father of Spirits And here First of all Religion does not put a man upon any thing which he shall be ashamed of but as he is a rational Creature capable of distinguishing between Good and Evil only obliges him to such actions which he may give a good account of to his own Conscience and to God who is greater than his Conscience It instructs him to chuse what is good in it self and to reject what is sinfully evil Now to be thus prudent and circumspect in matters of choice in the general course of our actions What a comfort is it to a man to be followed with the joyful whispers of a well-pleased mind where-ever he goes to be caressed by an innocent Conscience and continually entertained with a sweet Reflection upon what he has done Whereas a man of a cajative disposition who gives Reins to his Passions and no Bounds to his Lusts is often put upon unmanly Prosecutions and hurried into abundance of Inconveniences to gratify his greedy and unsatiable Appetite he is frequently tempted to such low-spirited actions which he is ashamed to own and blushes at them though no body be privy To how many inconveniences is a wicked man daily exposed And what base and unmanly shifts is he put upon to extricate himself out of those difficulties wherein he involves himself What violent passions and perturbations are raised in his mind And into what wild tumults of action doth sin frequently hurry him How doth it perplex and intriegue the whole course of his Life and intangle him in a Labyrinth of Knavish Tricks and Collusions so that many times he is at his wits end and knows not which way to turn himself These difficulties and many more attend a vicious and irregular course But now Religion only engages a man to do those things which in their very nature contrive his good are commendable and praise-worthy and administer abundance of satisfaction to him when he thinks upon them it diverts him from every transaction which confronts the Law of Reason and would disturb his mind upon an after-thought In fine the very purpose and design of Religion is to make a Man happy even in this Life by managing his Concernments so that he may neither be afraid or ashamed to think upon what he has done at any time And what a comfortable state is it to be always at peace within from the consideration of a Conversation managed with Christian prudence To lie down and rise with a mind resounding those best and sweetest Ecchoes Well done good and faithful Servant How bravely dost thou acquit thy self how manfully dost thou stand to thy duty against all oppositions And with what a gallant resolution dost thou repulse temptations that bear up against thee This therefore I take to be one great and forcible Argument to a holy Life That it preserves tranquility of Mind peace of Conscience as consisting of the best actions and the best choice But Secondly As Religion