though dark quietly shut your doors about you the wise God is willing to hide you for a little moment until his indignation be past My soul and body are dear companions it is not strange to see these two parted with dread and greif and yet nearest relations dearest friends must shake parting hands each with other in this world brethren that have lived long together and love most dearly must leave each others company at their Fathers pleasure and for their future good this is my case in death my soul be contented take chearful leave of thy body thou art returning to the father of spirits My body consent willingly to shake hands and shut out thy soul thou must for a time be shut up by God from falling under those desperate dangers and deep distresses which are more dreadful and intollerable then is death it self The design of death in dividing my soul from my body was to divide both from God but this is impossible for union with Christ and with God in him is inseperable no case will make them cast me off no condition can cut me off from them whom they love once they love to the end forever Joh. 13.1 Christs union is with me my self my whole self the whole not any single part of man no part of me can therefore be by the power of death dismembred from him death may militate against Christs body it may rend and mangle his members but it cannot destroy his body his mystical body it cannot divide any his members nor any part of his members from him death shall ere it be long by the sound of the last triumphant trumpet at the glorious and general resurrection know and prove that the union between Christ and the bodies of his people is as real as inseperable as the union between him and their souls Christ will not lose any part of his purchase he paid a price for man for whole man for our bodies and for our souls both are his all enemies that interrupt the union that intercept the communion which is between Christ and his members must be destroyed and the last enemy to be subdued is death when the Grave the Sea and Hell shall give up the dead bodies which are in them as in repositories for a time I shall then find the design of death in dividing my soul from my body is failed disappointed and become frustrate it never could divide either of them from God my Father or from Jesus Christ my Redeemer nor shall it be able long to keep these parts of me asunder and at distance each from other for my union with God and Christ doth necessitate and will most powerfully irresistably effect the re-union of my soul and body at the resurrection that I whole I my self out only part of my self may enjoy them for ever Let my God and my Saviour do with me what they please so they will but please to be with me in life and in death whilst I am and with my divided parts when I am not I will then perswade prevail with my self contentedly to enjoy them in my divided parts until the time return that my parts reunied my whole self may be placed in an inseperable possession of them in perfect glory world without end SECT XVIII VVHen I am dead my body will be covered with worms Worms will eat me when dead but conscience will not bite me and will feed upon me but it is no matter I shall not see their scrawling I shall not feel their gnawing of my flesh and if I did yet that is nothing whilst my soul shall escape the gnawings of an accusing conscience that worm which never dieth there is more mercy in being freed from this one worm then from many thousands of those silly weak dying wormes Why should it trouble me to become the companion of wormes must not I say unto the worm thou art my Mother Job 17.14 and my Sister what am I my self but a worm a weak creeping worm Psa 22.6 David did apprehend himself a worm a King and yet a worm and Bildad Jobs friend noteth of man in general Job 25.6 that he is a worm whilst I then am my self but a worm let the worms feed sweetly upon their fellow when I am dead I can do man no good why should I not be glad any creatures can fare the better for my death the wormes cannot cover me from the sight of God they may crawl upon my body but it is not thereby made loathsom to the Lord. They may devour my flesh but the worm which never dieth shall not distress my soul I will not therefore appear so weak as to afflict my self with the apprehensions of the power and prevalency of those silly creatures to which I must be subject but of which I shall not be sensible SECT XIX IN Death I shall see corruption In death I shall corrupt but rise again my body will corrupt be covered with dishonour consume away to dust moulder away to nothing this I cannot deny for it was peculiar to the holy one the Lord Christ and to him onely to dye and not to see corruption but yet I do beleive the resurrection of my body God can preserve my dust and make my dead bones to live my body is united unto Christ death cannot destroy that union my body united to Christ shall by the power of his resurrection be most certainly raised up at the last day that I may sit with him in heavenly places God is the God of Abraham Isaac Mat. 22.32 and Jacob he is the God of the living and not of the dead though therefore the bodies of Abraham Isaac and Jacob be dead and buried and have seen corruption and be dissolved into nothing yet they shall live again they retain in the grave an animating principle which will produce its effect they shall be raised up and exist in their individual specifical persons and subsistencies this was the Lords Argument to convince the Sadduces of the resurrection of the body this priviledge was not peculiar to those Patriarchs for I also beleive that my redeemer liveth and that he shall at the latter day stand upon the earth Job 19.25 26 27. and though after this skin wormes destroy my body yet in my flesh I shall see God him I shall see for my self whom mine eyes shall behold and not anothers though my reins be consumed within me My present life doth witness the first Adam to be a living soul my resurrection from death and the grave must witness the second Adam to be a quickening spirit My body is part of my self it must not it cannot be lost its seperation from my soul maketh me cease to be this seperation continued would continue me a nonentity for ever my self is redeemed and related to the Lord and my soul or my body is related to him but as parts of my self these divided must be reunited that my self
is exceeding sorrowful unto death Mat. 26.38 39. and once again and a third time to pray Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me Shall I exspect to be exempt from Shall I be afraid or ashamed to express the passions which were existent in all Gods Saints and from which my Lord and Master himself was not freed I am a Christian but yet a man I am a Minister but yet a man if I dye as I now fear I dye innocently Lord thou knowest I dye for righteousness sake I shall be a Martyr though of the lowest orbe this may mitigate dread but it maketh no change in me or in death yet terrors attend it and passions abide in me The most resolved Paul was so far from being ashamed 2 Cor. 1.8 9. that he was desirous the Church should know he was pressed above measure when he despaired of life and received in himself the sentence of death and 5.4 the most desirous to be cloathed with their House from Heaven could never yet desire to be uncloathed of their earthly Tabernacle nature can be much more content to be changed then to dye Death draweth me out of the bosome of the Wife of my delight divideth me from my Children the glory of my youth driveth me from my Kindred Acquaintance Friends and all humane society Can I part from these with dry eyes can men think I bear to these a natural affection and expect I should bid adiew to them not affected with natural passion doth nature and religion direct me to love them and will they not allow me to grieve when I leave them Death doth discapacitate me for the service of my God and his Church the grave cannot praise him Death cannot celebrate him They who go down into the pit cannot hope for his truth will not Christianity true Piety teach me with dread to discern this estate am I perswaded my life is more profitable for the Church can I then avoid St. Pauls strait Phil. 1 21 22 23 24. and be easily resolved what to choose though to me it is more profitable that I dye Death doth destroy my being when I am dead I am not can dissolution choose but dictate dread to sensible much more to rational beings Death is the wages of sin the witness of Gods wrath and the curse of the Law and by its circumstances made such with an emphasis can then a man of Religion receive the same without reluctancy and great remorse Death is the inlet of mine immortal soul into the Ocean of eternity can I apprehend it without amazement and great astonishment Let malefactours outface out-dare this King of dread and obtain to themselves the name and honour of Martyrs by their only abandoning the fear of death I dare not imitate I must not justifie I cannot I will not follow them these fig-leaves will not hide their sin from the face of God My soul keep thy passions within bounds then fear not to give them vent and to express the same before God and Men impossibile est hominem exuere Christianity doth not require thee to turn stoick and cease to be a man Let the fear of Gods casting thee into hell have the preheminence then cease not to fear mens killing thy body sell not thy self to save a natural life and then spare nothing to redeem the same from death by the exception of this one thing thy self make the Devil a liar as did Job and then be not troubled to set thy seal to a truth spoken by the father of lies viz. that all that a man hath he would give for his life Let not the dread of death transport thee to accept deliverance on terms of sinning against God then be not afraid or ashamed to let men observe thee subjected thereunto mourn not as without hope then spare not to mourn that thou must part from them whose duty it is to mourn over thy grave I bless God I see in nature much in Scripture more abundant reason to make me willing none to make me desirous to dye I look for those things and that estate which I will not exchange for my natural life but I could be glad to enjoy my life and them The cup of death is bitter my stomach riseth at and against it I cannot but pray Oh my Father If it be possible let this cup pass from me If it be possible let this cup pass from me Good Father Let this cup pass from me yet I hope I shall never want grace to subjoyn not my will but thy will be done not my will but thy will be done not my will but thy will be done whilst Death is Death and I a Man I cannot but dread it I cannot desire it I will therefore endeavour to defend my soul against the dread thereof and check my passions by contemplating what may make me content to undergo and cheerfully to stoop unto what I cannot I dare not desire any more then I can avoid or dare decline it when directed by a righteous yea a gracious God to arrest me my soul silence support thy self considering SECT I. DEath is of all things most certain Death is most certain most sure to overtake me to befall me dust I am and to dust I must return my life may be a while prolonged but nothing is more certain then that death will ere long put an end unto it man that is born of a woman is but of few days My natural constitution is corruptible In mans natural constitution not onely obnoxious to the assaults of violence from without but also subject to innate corruption principles destructive to it self my body is at best but an earthly Tabernacle always out of repair and ready to fall patched up by daily bread which will not be able to sustain its being when the grinders begin to fail the Keepers of this my house do already tremble my strong men begin to bow many diseases now grow upon me these are the Harbingers of mine approaching death I do already bear in my back the stone which will ere long most crrtainly batter in peices the earthen vessel of my body this Pitcher may a little while go to the Well but it will at length come broken home The contrary elements and qualities whereof my body is compounded and by which it doth now subsist do conclude the certainty of my death heat and cold moysture and draught are enemies each to other by their opposition my being is upheld and yet the militation of these in me tend to the annihilation of me The hand of violence may indeed hasten on me that estate which nature will most certainly most speedily effect the Plumb which is not plucked will fall the Grass which is not cut will wither the stoutest Oak of longest growth will at last come to dust if it be not consumed to ashes my strength is not the strength of stones nor is my flesh â—rass I am
which have all my days stung my soul and battered my body My soul take courage unto this last encounter herein my willingness to dye is the victory my fall is the fullest conquest that I ever did or can make be herein the more couragious considering Death is though an enemy yet a conquered and disarmed enemy Christ that Captain of my salvation hath tryed the strength of death and subdued it he by dying did overcome death and him who had the power of death viz. the Devil herein Satan was out shot in his own Bow and caught in his own snare what gained the Philistines by bringing forth Sampson to make them sport and to be insulted over in the house of Dagon but their own destruction the very same hath death and the Devil gotten by bringing the Lord of life to dye on the Cross and to the Grave which could not hold him these by getting have lost the victory O blessed Paradox by this my faith and my soul can out-face out-brave death whilst my nature and my body doth dread the assaults and stroak thereof Death struck the Lord of life with its sting and lost its sting by striking him and in him all that are his do ever since insult over death with an O death 1 Cor. 15.55 where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Since this foil death is befooled of its conquest over them whom it most insultingly strikes with success and cutteth down with power for it prevailing looseth its design The design of Death is to seal man under indelible guilt to set him under the curse of the Law and at everlasting distance from the Lord vers 56.58 The sting of Death is Sin the strength of Sin is the Law but thanks be unto God who hath given us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord for hereby death doth to all that are in Christ Jesus effect what is directly contrary to its design it dischargeth that guilt under which they greived all their days and releaseth them from those curses of the Law by which they were chastened in this life and it transmitteth their souls unto the immediate and eternal enjoyment of God and Christ and although it holdeth the body for some time yet it divideth it not from Christ to whom it is inseperably united and by whom it shall be raised up to be reunited to the soul and perfectly possess God for ever My Soul why art thou afraid of a Bee which hath lost its sting why dost thou dread an enemy vanquished to thy hand and sprawling at thy feet Hath David kill'd Goliah and shall not trembling affrighted Israel up and pursue the Philistines hath the Lord Christ gotten and given me the victory over death by discharging thy guilt and bearing the punishment thereof in his own body unto the satisfaction of the Law and wilt thou fear to encounter the fiercest assaults thereof What shall a conquered enemy disanimate the Conqueror My Soul in the world thou hast tribulation in death thou hast terror but be of good comfort thou art now engaged in the last encounter with both and the Lord Jesus hath overcome the world and conquered death Triumph in death for thou shalt by dying be made triumphant over Death the World and the Devil Thy warfare is now accomplished let me now in my last act play the man and shew the valour of my Faith and Patience unto the due restraint of my now provoked fear and passions Then this shall be the matter of mine eternal happiness and honour that I have warred a good warfare I have fought a good fight I have kept the Faith SECT V. DEath is a curse The cursed nature of death is changed the punishment of mans sin the expression of Gods wrath and the execution of the Law and dreadful sentence pronounced against man It is so in its nature and of it self But it is not such to all that are thereto subjected the voyce from heaven hath proclaimed them Blessed Rev. 14.13 who dye in the Lord and hath rendred two reasons of the blessed state of their death First they rest from their labour they then reap no punishment Heb. 4.10 but are indeed blessed for he that is entred into his rest ceaseth from his own works of sin and sorrow as God ceased from his Secondly Their works follow them unto their acceptance with and recompence from the Lord. The nature of death is changed to such who are in Christ Death to Christs friends is a sleep and to such who die for Christ the friends of Christ do not dye but sleep Job 7.21 I account sleep a special blessing of God for the refreshment of nature my sleep is the image the similitude of death Death is the truest the onely sleep of a true Beleiver when I sleep I am as dead and when I dye I shall but sleep I shall indeed sleep longer in my grave then in my bed but I am sure I shall sleep more quietly without affrighting fancies or disturbing dreams and I shall at length awake and arise when my weary day is ended how willing am I to lye down and sleep My Soul art thou not willing thy weary body should have rest to dye is to a Saint no more then to undress and go to bed to lie down and sleep Joh. 11.11 Let what will become of Dives our friend Lazarus sleepeth The righteous when they dye are taken from evil to come Isa 57.1 2 and 26.20 death is their defence from danger distress and dread their grave is Gods pavilion and receptacle into which they his jewels are gathered Mal. 3.17 lest they should be left in the commotions of the world in which they his trusty friends and confederates are secured from the storm and blast of the terrible ones raised up by the Lord to shake terribly the earth my Soul what though the Chambers of death be dark wilt thou deem it a curse to be gathered into them by Gods special grace that thou mayst not feel hear or see the evil which his wrath and vengeance is about to bring on the places of thy present abode The just by death enter into peace when the whole world is full of Wars they rest in their beds when the house is all in an hurly burly and unquiet tumult Death is the Saints cessation from labour and travel their security from lamentation and trouble their estate of quiet and ease and their entrance into rest and glory The very wicked who with Balaam are ready to curse them whilst they live would gladly share lots with them in their death The worst of men are so apprehensive and affected that their latter end shall be exceedingly good that they cannot but wish to dye the death of the righteous Death is indeed a curse to sinners but the course of nature unto Saints The direful executioner of Gods wrath and law to all who die in their sin
shall now lose the sent the grave shall be my burrough in it I shall be quiet I shall then be out of the reach of lust care trouble sorrow sickness temptation and persecution I shall now no more be heard to grieve or groan I will therefore be willing to cease to be that I may cease to be the subject of so bad so sinful qualities SECT XVI DEath will destroy my body Death destroyeth the body but not the soul be it so that is all it can do it hath nothing to do with my soul that remaineth immortal it shall be saved and set in Abrahams bosom â—n eternal happiness as soon as it is out of my body it shall be associated to the spirits of just men made perfect What need I care how it goeth with my worser whilst I have secured and it goeth so well with my better part my soul is an immortal being out of the reach of humane rage and the stroke of death What if men and death kill my body if God will not cast my soul into hell I escape well and much better then I deserve for sin had shipwracked me both soul and body I had forfeited both to divine Justice my soul being saved I live in death O blessed paradox oh happy state I not to dye in dying My body is but an earthen vessel I need not be much troubled if this be broken so that my heavenly treasure be secured and preserved my body is onely the cabinet I see no great cause to be troubled if that be lost whilst the jewel of my soul is safe Paul might well call on the Marriners to be of good chear in the tempest which tare their tackling and sunk their ship being able to assure them Acts 27. no mans life should be lost but the ship onely I travel with my soul through briars and thorns shall I wonder that I am pricked and that my cloaths are rent off me My soul is of such value that all is to be adventured and thrown over-board for its salvation What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul Matth 16.26 my body is dear to me I will do what I can to preserve it but my soul is much dearer this must be defended by exposing my body to danger and destruction skin for skin riches honours pleasures peace all my natural comforts and outward blessings I would give for my life but these and life and all will I give for my soul 1 Pet. 1.18 My soul is redeemed not with corruptible things as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ Christ laid down his life to redeem my soul and shall not I willingly lay down my life to keep my redeemed soul O thou the Shepherd and Bishop of my soul keep it within thy sheepfold untill thou shalt lead it unto thy glory I will not then be solicitous what may befall or become of my body seeing I am under a necessity of suffering loss I will rejoyce that my loss is not greater such as might have undone me for ever welcome death to my body temporal death which consisteth with the life and immortality of my soul and passeth it into the fruition of eternal life my soul may be saved by and under the loss of my body but my body could not be saved if my soul were lost Oh strange Oh blessed trade the loss I am like to sustain is mine infinite gain this loss of my body shall save my soul for in the cause of Christ and his Church he who would save his life must lose it Mat. 16.25 SECT XVII DEath will seperate my soul from my body Death seperateth soul and body but not me and God it will so but it cannot seperate me from God and that was the design of death it cannot seperate either the one or the other from the love of God in Christ Jesus I am perswaded neither life nor death nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present Rom. 8.38 39. nor things to come nor any other creature shall be able to seperate us from the love of God which is in Chrict Jesus our Lord shall not this inseperable love to me meet with an answerable return of love from me and make me with confidence and resolution conclude tribulation nor distress nor persecution nor famine nor nakedness nor peril nor sword shall not seperate Christ from me as it is written for thy sake are we killed all the day long and accounted as sheep to the slaughter love is a principle of union it cleaveth to and looketh after its object in its most low estate and lost condition Death shall not make me to be despised or forsaken by my God This God is my God Psa 48.14 my God for ever and ever and he will be my guide unto death yea in and through the vail of the shadow of death his rod and his staff shall comfort me and 23.4 the Lord his esteem of and relation to my soul and body abideth as well and as much though not by the same acts and expressions of affection now they are seperated from as whilst they were united each unto other God doth triumphantly observe the faith and patience by which I endure the tearing of them each from other for the testimony of his truth he doth dispatch his Angels to attend my death and to conveigh my soul into Abrahams bosome to the immediate enjoyment of himself nor doth he disregard my body when divided from my soul or disesteem the dust thereof he causeth it to be mourned over by my friends and natural relations and to be buried with the greatest solemnity poor they can observe yea he loveth it and looketh on it as united to Christ though laid in the grave or dispersed on the earth all my members are written in Gods book Ps 139.16 not one of them must be lost or miscarrie they shall not be neglected my dust is precious in Gods sight not a grain of it shall be lost after it is sown in the earth it shall most certainly spring up as precious seed watered with the dew of heaven the word of the Lord to Zion and all her sons doth assure them and me that her dead men shall live together with his dead body they shall arise awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust Isa 26.19 for thy dew is as the dew of herbs and the earth shall cast out the dead My body remaineth Gods Jewel when it hath lost that lustre the soul did give it God locketh it up in the grave as in his cabinet God well knoweth my body is liable to danger in the day of his wrath against the inhabitants of the earth the grave is the receptacle from distress whereinto he doth gather it know my soul and body you when divided do abide objects of Gods compassion complacency and care enter into your chambers
him shall at death be utterly and for ever discharged My soul shall then indeed be holy as God is holy and perfect as God is perfect it shall not only have perfect qualities the principles of union but also those degrees of perfection which shall capacitate it for full communion with my God Christ and his Holy Angels and glorified Saints even the utmost degree of perfection such a creature is capable of and an estate of so glorious communion doth call for and require The faculties of my soul shall be enlarged unto the perfection of knowledge and affection I shall after death be able to pry into the deepest mysteries of mans fall and salvation of the glorious unconceivable subsistency of the Trinity in unity three persons in one undivided essence of the miraculous hypostatical union of the two natures God and Man in one person of the blessed incarnation and whole work of redemption which is nothing but a Cabal of mysteries I shall then comprehend incomprehensible glory without the least defect doubting or difficulty I now know but in part I shall then know perfectly knowledge righteousness and true holiness those parts of the new man shall then attain to a perfect virile strength and stature the divine nature whereof I here partake shall then be in me compleat I shall then know all things fully and with full content mine affections will then most freely close with and take full complacency in those glorious objects mine understanding shall then know comprehend my mind shall not know more of God and Christ then my soul shall admire mine affections imbrace unto the fulness of my comfort forcing out the loud halelujahs and acclamations of joy and thanksgiving to God for ever the imbicility of the natural man which could not the enmity of the natural man which would not discern and savour the things of God shall now be discharged destroyed for ever for now the natural man it self shall expire and cease to be Such shall be the changed estate qualitie and endowments of my soul that the things which were to it tiring dulling difficult because supernatural irksom greivous and hateful because contranatural shall become easie and encouraging lovely acceptable and delightful because connatural the very proper and only element in which my soul can live and enjoy it self in this respect nothing could be so dismaying afflicting and tormenting to my soul as interruption intermission or expiration of enjoyment by the return of time Oh folly to dread Eternity which must exist in the exercise and enjoyment of these glorious qualities of my soul the disparity and disproportion which keepeth my God and me at a distance shall now be discharged and quite removed can I desire the time in which they shall again return upon me hath not the loss of Gods image in me and thereby the loss of his presence with me cost me dear enough already I cannot enjoy God for ever unless I be like God for ever my perfect proportion to God must fit me for perfect possession of God welcome then Eternity in conformity to God my only capacity of eternal communion with God 4. My future life is eternal Though I dye I shall dye but once my death shall be mine entrance into life and my life shall be eternal the second death shall have no power on me seeing I must once dye oh how happy am I that I do not live to dye the second death the first death divideth my soul from my body but the second death would have dividid my soul and body from God and that for ever but this death shall not befall me for there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 the Lord hath justified me who shall condemn me he hath delivered me from the dread of the first by redeeming me from the power of the second death I may be of good comfort I shall not dye but live I shall live in death I shall pass through death to life and whilst life is the subject who would not desire to have eternity the adjunct My soul canst thou chuse but joy to know that thy life is eternal life do I dread to die and tremble to think of Eternity in life O strange contradiction the result of a weak faith and of a clouded reason nature hath taught me to desire and endeavour the preservation and if it were possible the perpetuation of my natural sinful sorrowful life shall not grace much more make me to rejoyce that my holy happy life endureth for ever that I shall eternally live in the salvation of God to enjoy mine inheritance among the Saints and Angels in light to attend on contemplate and have communion with God and Christ were not eternal life affixed to these enjoyments what would they avail me what should I delight to tantalize in the waters of life Eternity abstracted I do but catch at the happiness I cannot hold I do fall under Moses his chance Moses his curse he led Israel to the banks of Jordan to the borders of Canaan he went up to mount Nebo and saw the goodly land but he entred not into it he enjoyed it not he died in the mountain I have preached Eternal life I have perswaded men to pursue it to press after it I have led them to the brink of the grave and am ready to lye down and dye now I dread the eternal life that attendeth me O my folly but blessed be God he hath not been provoked he will not be by me perswaded to blot my name out of the book of life but having purposed purchased for me and promised to me salvation an inheritance an estate of glory he hath secured me my life in and unto the possession thereof and made eternity the blessed inseparable property of them all My soul where art thou what art thou lanched into lost in eternity before out of my body return recover thy self before thou go hence and be no more seen look back on thine own thoughts survey the land which the prospect of thy faith hath descried in the ocean of eternity O the immensity O the depth of eternity this is an astonishing ocean an amazing sea whilst I stand on the banks of a temporal life how do I tremble to look upon eternity in its abstracted nature but stay my soul let us be wise let my faith follow this flood and deliberately observe how it streams it self in the Paradise of God into eternal salvation oh wonderful Eternal inheritance O this is desirable how do I long for it Eternal glory that is delightful the rayes thereof ravish my heart And Eternal life O the emphasis the excellency of all the rest shall I dread to shoot this gulph of death shall I fear to lanch out into the depth of this eternity can these blessed desired never enough desired things be abstracted from be enjoyed without eternity if they could would they be so good would
DEFENCE Against the Dread of Death OR ZACH. CROFTON'S Meditations and Soliloquies concerning the stroak of death sounded in his ears in the time 〈◊〉 his close Imprisonment in the Towâ— of London Anno. 1661 and 166â— Digested for his own private satisfaction and support in the vale of the shadow of death AND NOW Made publique for the advantage of such as abide under Gods present Visitation in London by the Pestilence Printed in the Year 1â—â—â— To the serious dying Christian Reader Especially those in and about London subjected to Gods visitation by the present Pestilence and under a daily exspectation of an arrest by death Christian and beloved Friends WHat was lately mine is now become your sad estate viz. the dreadful expectation of deaths stroak in the multitude of my thoughts within me the consolations of God did refresh and revive my soul the kind of death which threatned me is different from what impendeth you but the object of dread was to me and you the same viz Death and the same apprehensions of its nature which did affect me must affect you with fear and hope the ensuing meditations ministred a check to my passions and comfort to my spirit by these I perswaded my soul to be willing and contented though not desirous to part from my body and to let me cheerfully lye down and dye these were digested on my personal account for my private support and encouragement under the fears of death they having done their work were by me condemned to death at least to present darkness but are now by your sad condition animated and restored and the publication thereof is extorted by the importunity of some special friends who had formerly seen and perused them and in an affectionate sence of your sad condition subjected to the terrors of night the Arrow which flyeth by day the Pestilence which walketh in darkness and the destruction which wasteth at noon-day calling more loudly for Antidotes to the sting then to the stroak of death have restlesly sollicited these papers to be put into your hands The dread of death is as common as natural to man as is the stroak thereof it never appeared with its pale face to any subject of â—â—â—ht reason or true religion but with a terrifying aspect the Heathen accounted it of terrible things the most terrible they could no way render it comfortable but by representing it the sum the completion and so the period of evil and misery Cold comfort The Scripture calleth it the King of terrors which of Gods Saints have not feared to dye David was beset with the terrors of death Paul could not desire to be unclothed The onely begotten Son of God had his soul heavy unto death and in a fearful agony deprecated the stroak thereof the Saints never cursed the day of their birth and cryed out for their death but in the extremity of their perplexity and in the prevalency of their passion evidenced by this very character men exempt from phrensie and not miraculously extraordinarily acted by a divine spirit as were the three Children and other Martyrs must be the subjects of stoical Apathie senseless stupidity strong delusions or a reprobate sencâ— if they fear not the stroak of death I envy not some who havâ— I thought dyed too stoutly in suâ—h a cause their courage and conâ—â—dence in out-facing death But this I must say to all Christianun agere is not hominem exucre Christians cease not to be men nor is it fit they should so do Bernard well noteth of Peter the Apostle Bernardi Tract de gratia Libero Arbitrio that his sin was not in the simple fear of death Mortem evadere voluit quid istud criminis fuit voluit mori inculpabilis est To be unwilling affraid to dye is lawfully humane and not blame-worthy in a Christian It is equally monstrous in nature and a judgement from the Lord not to fear to dye and not to mourn for the dead I must say with the holy Greenham They are as well to be liked who fear death as those who joy at it And I for my part fluctuating on the waves of violence and uncertainty in an evil age and world must say as this good man Greenh work p. â— Notwithstanding my many crosses which hinder the comfort of my life I do not I dare not desire to die Death is in its nature most terrifying to the soul yet it s dreadful circumstances and concomitants do ordinarily more affect the sence and provoke the passions Seneca placed the most dread in the Scaffold the Ax the attendance the spectators the executioners and march to execution that pompa mortis These were no meanly affecting circumstances to me in my expectation of a violent death to you the suddenness the solitariness the certainty of the stroak by an inevitable noisom contagion may appear most grievous He who dieth in due course of nature meeteth with dread in death but he that dieth by some special kind of death as by sword or pestilence hath his dread aggravated and more eminently needeth the defence of a lively faith to repel the terrors of a lively sence which can and must be the result of a rational and Christian apprehension of deaths changed nature and quality with the sequels thereof through Christ the Lord of life these will alleviate the burden abate the strength abstract the sting and alter the countenance of death of any kind of death Familiarity breedeth contempt and casteth out fear the Fox by frequency playeth boldly with the lion We read of an Hungarian Prince who affected his youthful brother rebuked his daily meditations of death with an unexpected summons to execution Men little think of dying therefore are the terrors of death so stinging Plato perswading to thoughts of death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 defined true Philosophy to be a meditation of death Certain it is that they who will truly Christianize must be much in consideration of death and careful to dye well When men are every moment obnoxious to the sudden and certain stroaks of death it is time if ever they will be wise to labour to represent death lovely to their souls funeral Sermons â—ound best in the ears spectacles of mortality is the most pleasing sight and meditations of death the most delighting study not only to the mortified Christian but also to the dying man Croesus the rich King of Lydia when captivated stript and tyed alive to the stake which must make his funeral pile could affectionately cry out O Solon Solon and preach to Cyrus his Conqueror Solons Dictates of Mortality which in his prosperity he had despised And Seneca declining in Neroes favour and drawing nigh to his violent death did best discern and most clearly declare that mans felicity was after death The prophane men which in health neglect and despise Gods Ministers and cannot endure to hear of death or Jesus Christ can on a sick bed send for them gladly hear
Preacher against the King was not Michaiah carged by the King to be one that bare ill will to the King was not this the very lot of Christ himself suffered not that righteous one as a Blasphemer and as an enemy to Caesar shall I be deterred from following my Master from drinking of the cup whereof my deer redeemer hath begun from travelling in the beaten road of all Gods Prophets the very way prescribed by the Lord himself hath not the Lord Christ declared humane rage and reproach to attend all who faithfully reveal his will and mens sins is not unjust reproach in my death part of Christs cross and my Crown why then do I dread and decline it if I be reproached for the name of Christ I am happy 1 Pet. 4.14 the spirit of glory and of Christ resteth on me It is the cause not the pain maketh the Martyr or Malefactor my soul be not troubled at the kind or clamoured cause of my death were I indeed really guilty did I receive the due reward of my sin I must then have laid my mouth in the dust confessed my sin given glory to God accepted the punishment of mine iniquitie and by an humble act of faith applied the blood of Christ to my soul then I might rest assured that I was condemned in and by the world that I might not be judged of the Lord. But whilst if I dye as I now dread I dye innocently for a good conscience and for the Testimony of the truth Let me rejoyce that God hath accounted me worthy to be reputed the off-scowring of this world and enemy of mankind for my judgement is of the Lord who judgeth most righteous judgement and though my brethren cast me out Isa 66.5 and cry Let the Lord be glorified yet he will appear to my joy and they shall be ashamed when Jesus Christ shall come to judge clear and crown me as his Martyr it shall not repent me that men condemned and cut me off as a Malefactor SECT VII IN death I shall feel pain Death is painful but puts an end to pain It is like I may yet God can make it easie I feel more pain in the precursors then I can feel in the stroak of death the pain and extremity of a killing disease is often and ordinarily more then the pain of death it is usually such as maketh life a burden and death defireable how many in the burnings of a Feavor a fit of the Stone or Collique have wished for death to ease them of their pain my fear of pain in death is much greater then what I shall feel in the stroak thereof the pomp and passage unto death doth and will more perplex my soul then the pain thereof can possibly pinch my sence but suppose the worst yet The greatest pains of death are tolerable and pass away in a moment with how much ease did the Lord Jesus give up the Ghost in that dying act the dreadful expectation of which made him sweat blood and water how many of the Martyrs have with most calm and composed spirits lien under the most cruel and exquisite torments and as Lambs before the Shearer breathed out their last breath in the greatest pains of death that envy could devise or enraged malice could inflict Haukes that holy Martyr in our Marian Persecution in the midst of the flames did not forget to lift up his hands towards Heaven before he gave up the Ghost as a token to his Friends that the raging pain of that siery death was tolerable All Gods Saints have lien on this rack and sitten down on this little ease and shall I give back because of a little tolerable pain Be the pains of death never so peircing sharp and intolerable yet they are short soon pass away and are the Period of all pain in respect of this nature hath conceived and Scripture hath expresly concluded Eccles 7.2 better is the day of a mans death then the day of his birth all my life hath been nothing else but sorrow and pain my days have hitherto passed in anguish affliction and anxiety yea my resting time place and state hath scared me with Dreams Job â— 13 14. and terrified me with Visions in the night so that strangling death any kind of death hath been more desireable then life Shall I now fear that one stroak which though it cut me to the heart will at once cut off all my pain and greif doth not nature teach men to chuse the pain of cutting off an Arm or Leg rather then to lye continually under a festring burning and incurable wound Plotinus the Philosopher accounted mens mortallity Gods special mercy as the expiration of their misery Cato Major that wise Roman reflecting the pains he had endured professed if he might be rendred young again and renew his age he would not desire it he would refuse it Did the pain of life take away the pain of death to Heathens and shall it not much more do so unto Christians who have other and better hopes of future happiness then they ever knew or expected My soul stir up thy self make out a little faith and patience to endure this one pinch and stroak of pain which shall presently cease and be the period of all thy misery the cure of all thy maladies and will heal thee of all thy fears griefs cares diseases and distempers the afflictions of my body and anguish of my mind though I walk through the vale of the shadow of death I will fear none ill for Lord thou art with me be with me O my God that I may not over-passionately fear that little short pain I must feel make thou a lively faith in me to bear up under prevail against and triumph over a lively sence that so my last little pain being past I may possess eternal health and ease and therein rejoyce for that although the stroak of death did for present cut it did for ever cure my soul SECT VIII DEath will deprive me of all sensible pleasure it will so Death depriveth of pleasures but they are sensible and it is no matter for this pleasure was at best but sensible my soul found no pleasure in it nor did it satisfie my very sences these were tired in the possession and use of these Eccles 1.8 The eye is not satisfied in seeing nor the ear in hearing The necessary novelty is an undeniable evidence of the vanity of these delights Sinful It were well if I could say these pleasures were only sensible my soul hath on woful experience found them the pleasures of sin Heb. 11.25 not onely the reward but also the cause of sin I never could possess them without sin I have in this respect paid full dear for all the pleasures I have enjoyed under the sun they have stoln too much of mine heart and affections they have eaten into and eaten up too much of my precious time they have
dulled my sences stupified my soul and discomposed me unto the duties of holiness they have been baits and snares whereby I have been entised unto and entangled in sin they have diverted my soul from seeking and solacing it self in more serious and satisfying delights the sinfulness of my pleasure hath eaten out the sweetness of my pleasure These pleasures of sin are but for a season are often changing Short and do soon vanish will certainly expire cannot endure for ever and leave bitterness behind them when they go away they have cost me more smart and greif when they have been ended then they did afford me joy or content whilst they continued I may willingly dismiss those pleasures which I have bought at so dear a rate possess so uncertainly and for so short a season and proved so vain empty and dissatisfactory My Soul Let me chearfully contentedly cease from my pleasure among the living on earth whilst I shall therein cease from the sinning and sorrowing necessarily attendant on and inseparably annexed unto my pleasures and yet consider all joy is not at an end with me when I die Joy succeedeth and yet remaineth I pass not from all pleasure when parted from these I onely leave what is sensible and sinful but death shall transmit my soul into Gods presence in which are rivers of pleasures for evermore Psal 16.11 can I think the fulness of lasting joys solacing my soul in the sight of God will not compensate my loss of the sensible pleasures of sin which are but for a season did these cast the scales of Moses judgement and affections in his time of life Heb. 11.25 26 27. youth and strength causing him to despise the Crown and glory of Egypt and to chuse affliction with the people of God rather then to be called the son of Pharoah's Daughter And shall not the sence and expectation thereof make me content to leave the delights which I cannot longer enjoy It was my duty to have refused them sooner I may well be content to relinquish them now I can enjoy them no longer My soul yeild unto rejoyce in and bless God for that necessity which doth enforce thy duty and willingly leave those pleasures which would have left thee in bitterness if thou should longer abide in the body the onely subject capable of these sensible pleasures SECT IX DEath will deprive me of all my outward comforts Death doth deprive me of outwardcomforts which I have long enjoyed to supply my necessity goods and possessions in the world Wife Children and Servants which ministred to me Be it so it is Gods mercy I have enjoyed them for so long a time I am in the possession of them a tenant at Gods will he doth not the least wrong to take them from me so kind hath God been to me he hath let me possess them whilst they could do me good and I had need of them when I am dead they connot minister to me I shall have neither need nor use of any or all these comforts I may well be content to leave what I shall not lack what I cannot use it is I confess a mercy to have them but it speaketh imperfection to have need of them is it not much better to be in an estate of perfection without them then to have these comforts to me continued and my self abide imperfect Death doth deprive me of some comforts Such as content not nor continue but they are such which afford no true content nor are they of any continuance they are though the best things under the sun yet at the best they are but things under the sun Eccl. 1.1 2 and all things under the sun are vanity and vexation of spirit they give a little and indeed but a little content to my sence but not any to my soul they were not obtained without care retained without fear nor will they now be relinquished without greif I cannot deny them to be flowers flowers of beauty and pleasure but I must confess I ever found them fading and full of pricks I have not enjoyed them without vexation and if I live longer I shall ere it be long lose them and have them taken from me they all have the wings of the morning and flye away in a moment I can already say of some what I shall soon say of the rest I had servants trusty and faithful to me but they are gone My means by my ministry I had goods yearly renuing my store but it is taken from me I had Children sweet babes the cheif of natures blessings but my Josephs my Benjamins are not mine outward enjoyments have been to me a Gourde of refreshment and present delight Jon. 4.6 7 but a Jonahs Gourde of vanity in the root of which is a worm which doth and will soon make it wither if I pass not from my present comforts they will peirce my soul with care and fear and at last perish in mine hand I may well be content to die from those comforts which are sure to die from me and leave me in sorrow even in worldly sorrow which worketh death 2 Cor. 7.10 What great difference is it for me to be parted from my comforts or to have my comforts parted from me can any thing but a childish temper make me cry when those pleasing toyes are taken from me which I freely leave when tired with them or which I fling from me with fury when I feel my self hurt by them what cause have I to be thus dismaied to be divided from those comforts which I have thus long enjoy'd to supply my need yet with certain dolor and uncertain durance shall I so foolishly love as not be content to leave what loadeth me with care and fear yet cannot last but will be gone from me if I stay longer in this world Death taketh me from my outward comforts but yet I leave them to and for the comfort of my relations and friends which stay behind me they will have the use of them they will do them good though I leave them they are not lost my turn is served by them shall I grudge that others have them to serve their turn as they served mine hath it not been my care to get goods that I might leave them to my Relations and shall I now be unwilling to leave them that little which I have gotten and which can now do me no more good Though death deprive me of some useless moveables yet it leaveth me my most precious jewels and chiefest substance the graces of my soul the glorious priviledges of my faith death cannot touch or take from me and these are more worth then all the world My soul play the Merchant be content to see thy luggage and empty cask cast overboard to save thy choice commodities and thy pearls of price death may take me from riches it cannot touch my righteousness it may anticipate my pompous Funeral but
and subsist with my very self I cannot be and be without them I cannot lay them down without laying my self aside vanity vexation and trouble qualifie my life as inseperable to it why am I perplexed with an apprehension that such a life draweth to a period I have all my days been persecuted by humane rage and power and so should be still if I live longer I may well be contented to be resolved into an estate of peace when men have killed my body they have done their worst their all they have me not to insult over they do much better for me then they are aware of they give me a writ of ease from all my travel and trouble in the grave the wicked do and shall cease from troubling Job 3.17 18. the weary shall be at rest the prisoners do rest together and they hear not the voice of the oppressor My soul were there no more in death but this release from greif pain sorrow and travel thou mayest well resign me up to the stroak of death I may be content not to be that so I may not be so miserable well may death be sweet to me to whom my whole life hath been so bitter how many have desired death because of the danger distress and dolour of their lives how many have sinfully destroyed their lives to deliver themselves from their cares fears greifs wants and woful pains I desire not I dare not I will not tempt God and murmur against his providence by hastening my death by a violent untimely unlawful unnatural act of self-violence all the days of mine appointed time I will wait till my change come but I may very cheerfully willingly yeild unto that stroak which is sent of God to ease me of so great a burden the rather because Death is my discharge from sin as well as from sorrow and death onely can be the discharge thereof In iniquity I was conceived Psal 51.5 in sin did my Mother bring me forth sin is to me as natural as my self it is inherent in my being it was born with me it hath grown up with my â—ody that will not that cannot be divided from this this corruptible body is the uphold of the body of corruption these two do stand and will fall together This dying flesh is not only the subject of sence but also the seat of sin the members of my body are the instruments of sin unto and until death how tormenting hath life been unto my soul by reason of temptation unto sin the constant militation of my flesh hath made my life a continual conflict how have I feared to nourish my body because thereby I made provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof I could never yet tame sin but by buffetting my flesh and by abstracting from the supports of my being I cannot be rid of sin till I be released of life Oh the care to avoid fear to commit sin to which I have been subject how many times have I been forced to embrace sorrow to shun sin and to sit alone exposed to scorn and misery because I durst not run to the excess of riot with other men Mortification of sin hath been the main of my business since I saw the sinfulness of sin and yet do I what I could it would and doth exist in me and prevail upon me to the often checking my comforts hindring my communion with God and wounding my conscience by omissions of and defects in duty by commission of hainous sins and many abberrations from my heavenly father forced to fetch me home by paternal castigation though Gods grace hath maintained in me a constant militation thaâ— sin could not reign in my mortaâ— body and my Father hath ever kept me under the rod of correction yet the law in my members hath rebelled against the law in my mind and led me captive unto sin the best of my life hath been a candid confession and a continual complaint that the good I would do I do not and the evil I would not do that I do and an affectionate outcry Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin I must I may whilst I live make it my care to keep under my body lest my sin overcome me and yet whilst I abide in the body I shall bear about a body of corruption the death of this shall be and it onely can be the destruction of that Onely in the grave I shall cease to sin when I am not I shall not be sinful I shall not be a sinner My Soul Dost thou desire to be freed from the suggestions temptations and inclinations to sin and yet tremble at the thoughts of dissolution which will and onely can deliver thee from them all be assured after death thou shalt not be greived for because thou shalt not be stained with thy daily guilt thy sinful nature shall then no more greive the Spirit of thy holy God Hast thou waged a mortal warfare against thy sin all my life and wilt thou now give back in the last mortal stroak though this fall upon thy self with some violence it will certainly give thee the full conquest over thy lusts with which thou hast so long contested fall willingly under that fall which will make thee full victor over these cursed Philistines Come O my soul be willing to stoop that thou mayst lay down thy load submit freely to that stroak which will for ever set thee free from all sin and from all sorrow cease to complain that thy life hath been tedious and tiresom troubleous and toilsom or shew thy self content and truly glad to be eased desire to be dissolved that thy burden of sin and sorrow may be discharged Be still O my soul the stroke of death is dreadful but it once struck doth for ever dismiss and destroy the suggestions of Satan the motions of sin the actings of unrighteousness the apprehensions of Gods wrath and afflictions by mens rage and envy with all other evils who would not bear some dread to be delivered from so great distress when I am dead I shall cease from my labour I shall rest from mine own works of sin and sorrow these are indeed most properly mine own works produced procured by my self created continued by and with my self acted by existent in and with my self to be only desolved and destroyed with my self whilst I am I am as yea above others of my brethren the Butt of Satans rage and mens malice the subject of strong passions and finful motions whilst I have lived I have not done duty to God without great defect I have not delivered my Masters message among men without great danger Satan hath hunted me into sin and wicked men hath hunted me into sufferings they have lien in wait for me they have laboured to make my tongue my trap and to ensnare me by my words but I may now be content these can follow me no further they
the cross can I chuse but desire these should be can I chuse but leap for joy to know that these invisible things are eternal My soul stand still upon thy dying shore take a second a serious view of eternity as affixed to thy salvation to thine inheritance to thy glory and to thy life and tremble be troubled at the thoughts thereof if thou canst thou wilt be more ready to tumble thy self headlong into then once to turn back from thine Eternity First then Eternal salvation Death determineth all my woe it giveth me an immunity from all evil it passeth me into the possession of salvation salvation from sin from sorrow from weakness from sickness from all defects and deformities from all infirmities and imperfections from diseases of body disgrace unto my name and distempers of mind from all the envy of Satan rage of men and wrath of God is the happy and certain sequel of my death through Christ my Lord. Can it possibly greive or amaze me to see and to know that this salvation is eternal or that I am going to possess and enjoy it for ever shall my heart ake to appprehend it shall never ake more shall I blear mine eyes with weeping because God is about to wipe all tears from mine eyes for ever Have not I beleived and preached this salvation and the eternity thereof shall now mine entrance thereinto be mine affliction I have professed my self did and would and I have earnestly perswaded others to persevere in piety pressing to salvation and waiting for the time when there should be no more weeping or woe no more pain or greif no more fear or sorrow no more distress death or danger and shall I now give back when God hath brought me to that time shall I dread the discharge of evil which I have all my days desired and groaned for or shall the eternity of this immunity embitter mine expectation or enjoyment of it do I retain the sence of evil and can I desire to return to it again have not the Paroxismes of a Feaver the Fits of an Ague of the Stone or Collick perplexed me and made my strength to fail have not the threats of humane rage filled my soul with terror and exceeding dread have not mine apprehensions of Gods wrath and eternal woe which my sin hath deserved filled my heart with horror my soul with fear and greif and my bones with trembling shall I now fear to be put into that estate wherein all these evils shall end for ever wherein I shall never more feel it I shall never more fear it Oh blessed Eternity annexed unto so great salvation 2. Mine Inheritance is eternal Death putteth my soul into the possession of mine inheritance the inheritance which Christ hath purchased for me which God hath promised to me the inheritance among the Saints the inheritance of the Saints in light the inheritance of an house in heaven the inheritance of the blessed mansions of God the inheritance of a Kingdom the Kingdom of Heaven the Kingdom of God in this inheritance I shall inherit the confluence of all honour and happiness in this inheritance I shall sit down a Co-heir with Jesus Christ the onely begotten the onely beloved Son of God shall it greive me that this inheritance is eternal is not Eternity the Emphasis the excellency of this inheritance my soul could never be so much ravished with the plenty pleasure scituation society greatness and glory of this mine inheritance as it would be damped and deadned discouraged and discomfited with the vanity the transiency of the same what a cutting consideration would it be to think there were but a possibility of a cutting off from this inheritance or of my being cast out of it though but for a time unto this inheritance I have been called by the glorious Gospel I have been sealed by the blessed spirit of adoption I have received in my self the earnest the first fruits of this inheritance I have been thereby encouraged in mine expectation and enflamed in my desire of a full possession thereof shall I now draw back and decline mine inheritance and the enjoyment of it because it is incorruptible and fadeth not away because it is eternal without end I have ever deemed and determined the most rich and honourable inheritance on the earth a pompous vanity because it is temporal and transient Shall I now dread to enter into the possession of that inheritance which is Real because Eternal can I be so foolish as to desire the worm of time should eat into my fair estate and make my flourishing inheritance to fade I have all my days lived a child in nonage longing for and looking at but kept out of mine inheritance but I am now at age I shall now become a man a grown man and enter upon and into mine estate and this is my comfort mine advantage I shall abide a man a perfect man for ever the second childehood of old age shall not overtake me to deprive me of or discapacitate me to enjoy this my heavenly inheritance Oh! how have I longed and laboured how have I panted and prayed how have I pleaded with God how have I pressed against the power of men and Devils to get into the possession of this inheritance now I am come to the door shall I stand at the Threshold shall I dread to enter in sit down and possess mine inheritance because it is eternal will eternity be the burden of my heavenly estate My soul embrace death the door the dark entry which passeth thee into thine inheritance proceed with joy with courage praise God for the eternity of thy future state is not this my substance much better because more enduring then all my worldly goods hath not the hope of this made me content with the loss and to take joyfully the spoyling of those shall desireable delight eternity dismay my soul entring into the possession of what I have so much esteemed so long expected who would not exchange a Lease for life for an inheritance to be enjoyed for ever who would not part with all to purchase to possess such an inheritance a Royal Heavenly holy inheritance and shall I not gladly breath out a dying life to affix and secure eternity to this mine inheritance 3. Eternity is affixed to glory Death shall invest my soul with GLORY Eternity must needs be the sparkling lustre of GLORY mine Inheritance shall be a Glorious Inheritance and so much more glorious by being eternal mine inheritance is a palace not a poor cottage a mansion not a moveable Tent a Kingdom not a Country Village an Heavenly not an Earthly Kingdom a Kingdom of God not of men and is not this a Glorious Inheritance would not any man desire to enjoy this for ever Mine Inheritance or estate in this world hath ever been poor vile and base but my soul shall now pass into Glory and be invested with nothing but Glory I
they be such things is not eternity the very formality of them is not eternity that massie substance affixed to the exceeding weight of glory which counterpoiseth weigheth down and witnesseth the levity of those afflictions which we now suffer for a moment Eternity is the sting of sorrow but the strength of joy the horror of damnation but the honour of salvation the dread the dolor of the reprobate but the desire delight of the Elect the plague the sting of the gnawing worm and tormenting not consuming fire but the pleasure the lustre of the wedding garment and of the cooling refreshing streams of the waters of life My soul Christ my Savior hath redeemed me from the one and sealed me to the other of these conditions fear not therefore to go out of this body to pass through this red Sea this dark dreadful dismaying gulf into the Ocean of thine Eternity remember consider thy Lord long since declared strait is the gate and narow is the way which leadeth unto life I will by Gods grace stoop at this strait gate I will press through this narrow way seeing life so rich so glorious so blessed life is the end thereof to be enjoyed for ever The Conclusion § MOst blessed Jesus thou art the Lord of life and glory of thine own good will in compassion and pity to lost man thou didst leave the delights of Heaven and of thy fathers bosome and wast cloathed with mans mortal nature Thou hast subjected thy self to death to the most violent shameful and cursed death that thou mightest sweeten and sanctifie this cup in which all thine elect and Saints must pledge thee thou hast tasted death for all men Thou having felt the sting and encountred the strength of death didst conquer and triumph over the grave thou hast gotten thou hast given all that beleive in thee the victory over death thou art in thy Church and to thy Saints the first fruits from the dead thy glorious resurrection is our pledge and assurance that we shall not be always held under the power and dominion of death but that we shall be raised up to raign with thee for ever § I thy weak and worthless servant am under the expectation of death and if thou restrain not the wrath that is in man it may be a violent and shameful death under the dread hereof I look unto and desire to encourage my self in thee the captain of my salvation Be not far from me my God and my Saviour in this hour of my temptation but let thy grace support me under the stroak and save me from the sting of death strengthen my faith unto the full apprehension due application of thy death and resurrection to the curbing of my passions and check of my fears that I may willingly cheerfully follow thee through the vale of the shadow of death O be my God! my God and my Guide unto under death § Death is natural to man common to all men but its nature is changed unto some and but to some of the sons of men this dreadful Executioner of thy vengeance on the wicked is but a grim messenger to fetch thy children home this thy Sheriff executing Malectours putteth the heirs of salvation into the possession of that inheritance thou hast purchased for them and appointed to them the wicked dye when thy friends do but sleep and rest in their beds Be pleased O my Redeemer to know me and make me know my self to be one of that number to whom the nature of death is changed to whom it may not it cannot be apprehended or appear so dreadful evidence and cleer up to my soul and conscience that real supernatural change of quality in my self which may convince me of and secure unto me the contranatural change of the nature and quality of death to and upon me § Union with thy glorious self can only secure against the sting and encourage under against the terrifying apprehension of the stroak of death unite me O Lord unto thy self communicate to me thy grace that only evidence of my union with thee that assurance that only that full assurance that death shall not divide between thee and me death shall not seperate my soul from thee death shall not seperate my body from thee but my dust shall be regarded by thee my death shall be precious in thy sight make O my God the graces of thine holy spirit so legible in me that I may thereby make my calling and election sure and read readily that name that none can read but he who hath it and that I may be certainly resolved in my self that my name was written in thy book of life before the foundations of the world was laid § Thy grace O Lord hath been extended to me make me to see it teach me seriously to reflect it unto thy praise and the encouragement of my soul under and against the terrors of the dread of death I am through thy grace and abundant mercy called by the name I have been born within the pale of thy Church and under the Covenant of thy salvation I was dedicated to thee and thy service as soon as I was born thy covenant was then set on my flesh by baptism and I now bear it on my flesh I dare not with prophane Esau despise this my birth-right but must and by thy grace I will rejoyce that I pertake of the fatness of the Olive and that I am a branch from an holy root sanctified by and unto God Thou didst bless me O Lord with Christian nurture and education I have known thy word from my childhood thou hast seasoned me with and sanctified me by thy truth thy word is truth it hath been the delight of my soul and the direction of my life and faith Thy spirit hath been and is in me the spirit of conviction and of burning by it I see the finfulness of sin and possess with grief shame the iniquities of my youth and the evil of my ways and doings it lusteth against my flesh and draweth disposeth my mind to serve the Law of God when my flesh is forced to serve the Law of sin Thy glorious Gospel thy gracious spirit O Lord hath convinced me of and affected my soul with mine own guilt thy fathers wrath and justice and the salvation wrought out by thee and by thee alone I do beleive there is no name by which men can be saved but thy name most blessed Jesus thou art the true Messiah the only Mediator between God and man the all-sufficient Saviour of all that come unto thee unto thee O Lord I come weary and heavy loaden with my sin Oh give me easie pressed with a dread of thy fathers wrath plead my cause satisfie for me his offended justice be the propitiation for my sins oppressed with my lusts Oh save me from my sin subdue corruptions in me change my nature be to me a perfect Saviour for to thee I run on