humble us for our former Sins and direct us what to do for the time to come that our Speech our Conversation may be more profitable than it has been 1 Cor. 15. 58. Eccl. 9. 10. Fourthly Let us live so that our Examples may do good whilst we live and when we are dead For every Man that has the Spirit of Christianity i. e. a generous and a publick Spirit will not only be concerned for himself but for others and not only for the present but for the future Generation And as in this luxurious and most wicked Age of ours there is like to be transmitted to Posterity a great number of very bad Examples so it should be the Care and Endeavour of every good Man to prevent their mischievous influence by doing what in him lies to mend the World We live indeed in a time wherein the most part of People can talk very well but never was there any time in which there was less Practice It is a most easie thing to discourse well but none but a true Believer can live as he ought to do according to the Gospel which requires an universal and a shining Holiness Our Actions and Examples will have a more powerful efficacy than our Words and whilst the one does but touch the Ear the other will penetrate into the very Souls of those that observe us and render themselves Masters of their Approbation even almost whether they will or not We are obliged to have a great regard to the Salvation of our Neighbours and there is no course more likely to succeed than this They will easily follow us when we take them by the hand and advise them to go in no other way but in that where we go our selves When we are fervent in our Prayers it will shame their Coldness when we are serious in our attending on the Word the sight of our seriousness will make them more attentive and our Heat of Affection may kindle some Sparks of Love to God in their colder Hearts and the necessity of a good Example seems to be greater in Cities than in other places for as one observes Du-bose Serm. p. 495. It is certain that great Towns are ordinarily great Theaters of Vices as the Multitude is more numerous so wicked Examples are more frequent Sin hardens it self by the number and authorizes it self by the quantity of Accomplices And as the Fire burns more by a great heap of wood or coals put together so the Ardour of Sin warms and inflames it self by a great Throng of Persons that communicate to one another their criminal Affections Besides in vast and populous Cities they have more Liberty to sin because it is less observed and taken notice of as a Serpent conceals it self among a multitude of Bushes Whereas in little Villages the least faults are soon minded many times in greater places very great Enormities are not discern'd and it concerns us also whom God has raised from the Grave to be more exact in our Course for People will look with a more curious Eye upon us that are recovered to see what we do when they will not it may be look so much to the hand that heal'd us As the People câ—me more to see Lazarus that was risen than Jesus that reviv'd him from the Grave much people of the Jews came not for Jesus sake only but that they might see Lazarus also whom he had raised from the dead Joh. 12. 9. Wicked men are punish'd in Hell for all the Evil they have done 〈◊〉 the World and for all that they have been the cause of it is a new addition to their torments to think how many are going to the same miserable place whose damnation will lye at their door As 't is commonly said that Dives requested of Abraham that some messenger might be sent to warn his Brethren lest they came to the same place not from any Love to their Souls for there is no such Charity in Hell but from a fear that if they came to the same torment his own misery would be the greater for having been in a great measure the cause of theirs by his bad Example And on the contrary 't is a great pleasure to those in Heaven to think that they have been any way instrumental to the Glory of their great Lord and that the Seeds that by good Instructions and holy Example they threw upon the World flourish into Fruit when they are dead Thus they blossom in the dust and their Actions as 't is fabulously reported of some of the Bodies of the Popish Saints send forth a sweet perfume after Death to all the places round about The Saints of God do good indeed to the World when they are gone not by Intercession as Mediators for us but by the good Works which they performed here below and tho their Works follow them to increase their reward yet the remembrance of them stays behind It is hardly to be imagined how far the power of a good Example does diffuse its self when the person that gave it is removed from the World It does encourage others to Religion and to a perseverance in it seeing it has no new difficulties but only those which others have conquered who are now at rest with God Therefore are we commanded to be followers of them who through Faith and Patience have inherited the Promises Heb. 6. 6. We are to follow their Faith considering the end of their Conversation Heb. 13. 7. Those of us that have been so happy as to have had a Religious Education tho we are depriv'd of our Parents yet we full well remember their serious pathetical Exhortations how they did earnestly intreat us to fear God and keep his Commandments We can remember how they set some portion of their time apart every day for Reading the Word and secret Prayer and the other Duties of Religion and when we are gone if we have been truly sincere others cannot but remember our Example Your Children and Servants will greatly mind what you do that are the Master of the Family and you either very much promote or hinder their Salvation for which you must be answerable to God in the approaching day of Judgment Is it not a Credit to your Reputation when your Servant and Apprentice shall thus remember your Example and say Oh how Conscientious was my Master in his Buying and Selling how afraid was he of imposing upon others or of cheating them with many good words whilst he had deceitful intentions in his heart How afraid was he lest the business of his Trade should Justle out Religion or the Shop be an hindrance to the Duties of his Closet or of Family Prayer How careful was he to set aside some of his Gains for the Charitable Relieving of the Poor As to you that are Parents your Children will certainly mind more what you do than what you say If you Sanctifie the Sabbath and are serious in your Service to God you may
many things are to pass in that Moment In the same is our Life to finish our Works to be examined and we are then to know how it will go with us for ever and ever In that Moment I shall cease to Live in that Moment I shall behold my Judge in that moment I must answer for all my publick and my secret Actions for all that I have ever thought or spoke or done for all the Talents the Time the Mercies the Health the Strength the Opportunities and the Seasons and Dayes of Grace that I have ever had for all the Evil that I might have avoided for all the good I might have done and did not and all this before that Judge who has beheld my wayes from my Birth to the Grave before that Judge who cannot be deceiv'd and who will not be impos'd upon Little can he that has not been brought near to Death and Judgement know what Thoughts the diseased have when they are so Little very little does a Soul in Flesh know what it is to appear before the Great God This is so great and so strange a thing that they onely know it who have receiv'd their final Sentence but they are not suffer'd to return to tell us how it is or what passes then and God sees it fit it should be concealed from us who are yet on this side the Grave But who does not tremble to think of this mighty Change and of this Moment that is the last of Time and the beginning of Eternity that includes Heaven and Hell and all the Effects of the Mercy and Justice of God See Moral Essayes Vol. 4. Lib. 1. Chap. 9. Who does not tremble when he Considers that Infinite and Holy Majesty before whom the Angels cover their Faces that Considers his Omniscience and his Greatness and the mighty Consequences of that Sentence how sudden it is and how irresistible and that it is an irrevocable Decree and by a Word of this Mighty Judge we live or dye for ever It is no wonder if the thoughts of it make us shrink and quiver It is a greater wonder that when some or other whom we know are almost every week going to such a place and state as this we who are not yet cited to the Bar are no more concerned and use no more endeavors to be ready for it 't is a wonder that we put no higher a value on that Gospel that teaches us how we may avoid Condemnation 't is a wonder that we prize no more that Gracious Redeemer who alone can plead our Cause and that we labour and strive no more to be partakers of his Righteousness by which we may be Justify'd It is no wonder if this prospect throw men into strange Agonies as it frequently does those who are dying Many people will say when they hear the Complaints of the Sick and their Long Continued Groans It were well if God would take their souls away from their pained Languishing Bodies it were well indeed if that could put an end to their present and their future pain But do they not know that they must go into Eternity and be judged after death Oh my Friends when you come to the Borders of the Grave when you are within an Hour or two's distance from your Final Judgment and your unalterable state what a mighty Change will it cause in your thoughts and your apprehensions You will then know and feel it Then when the Perspective is turn'd and the other World begins to appear very great and this very little This that I have represented to you is a part of that which we call dying Death is that which the Philosophers have talk't of with great Contempt and with lofty Speeches but I believe they commonly talk't so confidently when they thought themselves far from it and I am sure they did so because they had not a distinct knowledge of Futurity For had they consider'd their own sins and the nature of their last Trial with the Consequents of it this would have lower'd all their Pride and Glory they would have changed their Language had they look't upon Death as the Conclusion of Time and the beginning of Eternity and not onely as a going out of this but as an entrance into a state that would never Change It is a great Mercy and greatly to be acknowledg'd that God allows us so much time wherein to prepare our selves for this final and irrevocable doom It is an instance of his Patience that is truly Divine that notwithstanding our many repeated Sins he has not cut us off It is his great Mercy that gives us leave to appear in his Courts before we appear at his Tribunal and that he affords us such large notice and warning that so we may be ready for our Last Tryal whereon so very much depends The Conclusion I May say to you this Evening as Christ to the People concerning John Mat. 11. 7. What came you out to see As for those who came hither out of a Curiosity onely to see one of whom they have it may be heard much discourse Let them know that though by reason of my long and sore Affliction I have been a wonder unto many yet now I can say with some hope that God is my strong Refuge As for those that came with an expectation of hearing something new and diverting that might please their Fancies or gratifie their Ears onely they find themselves by this time mightily disappointed But Those of you that came with a more serious Intention know that you see a Person that has by his own Sins and the Righteous Displeasure of God been for a long Season as in the very Grave and yet by the Power and Goodness of God brought from thence again You see a poor Reed that has been shaken indeed by the Wind but which the Grace of God has kept from being broken to pieces 'T is to you to whom I would principally direct my Speech 't is your Prayers which I would beg that so you would desire of God that the Deliverance which he has so far advanced may be compleated by the same Hand and Mercy that has hitherto reviv'd me You that have Health have cause to praise him for his Mercy and I that have been long sick have cause to praise him who has been my Physitian and my Helper O magnifie the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together Psal. 34. 3. Let us as we join our Prayers so unite our Praises to this mighty Lord. Do you praise him for keeping you from violent overwhelming pains and I will Praise him for mitigating those that I laboured under and though he chastened me sore yet he has not deliver'd me over to death And so by this means we shall bring an acceptable Sacrifice to his Altar and it may be that through Jesus Christ he will receive as an odour of a sweet smell this our Evening Sacrifice The End of the First Sermon Practical
Prolongation of Life is not in this respect so great a Mercy For they think that it is a most easie thing to be ready for Death and Judgement they think that a few Prayers at last a few Tears and Cryes to God with a Confession of their Miscarriages and a few Resolutions against what they once did amiss will put them into a good frame and serve their turn and so the time that was given them wherein to prepare for another World is lost and unimproved because they understand not the greatness of their Work nor the preciousness and value of that Time which is given them to do it in They ought to Remember if they have been near to death how that nearness changed their Thoughts and that they then found by the hurry and confusion of their Apprehensions that Sickness was no proper season wherein to begin an holy Course or to repair the disorders of an ill one Of all men in the World those who are recover'd from a Sickness that found them in their Impenitence have most Reason to be thankful because had they died in that Condition they had died for ever what thanks owe they to God that they are under Hope in the use of Means yet upon his Earth and not in Hell And there are two things with respect to our dying which render the Continuance of our Life a great Mercy First The small Acquaintance which we have with the Future state and the necessity we are under to get as lively apprehensions of it as we can There are many strange Vicissitudes in this World many changes that we see in Countreys when Kingdoms pass from one to another in Families when the number is either increased or diminished and we suffer many changes in our Bodies from Sickness to Health and from Health to Sickness again but there is no change that is so great as this by Death It is a thing of which we know but little and none of the Millions of Souls that have past into the invisible World have come again to tell us how it is All that go hence remain fixed in their own state some expecting and others fearing the Resurrection and the Great Day We have but very obscure apprehensions of that separated state we know but little of the Great All-comprehending Spirit and little with clearness and full satisfaction of our own Souls When we know something of Spirits by their effects and the discoveries they make of themselves and would more fully know their nature and have adequate Conceptions of them we are like little Children that see the Image and Representation of some delightful object in a Glass and then turn the glass hoping to see it in its full dimensions but by that means lose the sight of it altogether so it is with us in our most Critical Inquiries into Spiritual and Immaterial Substances Nevertheless it is very desireable to know in what condition our Souls will be when they leave the Body and what is the nature of that abode into which we must go but which we never saw Into what Regions we must then take our flight and after what manner this will be done When that Soul which touch't and wrought by our hands spoke by our tongue and heard by our Ears shall have her present Organs taken from her and pass from sensible objects on Earth to a spacious unseen World When as in the twinkling of an Eye our spirits will go from this lower state through the Aiery Region and the visible Heavens soaring till they come to the Throne of God All the Animal Actions of Nourishment and Growth all the Sensations that arise from outward and Material objects will cease and these spirits will be more vigorous and Active than now they are When Death comes it leaves the body though far different from what it was yet still in our view We see where it is and what Qualities it is invested with how it is disposed of we know and are able to give some exact Account of its Condition of this we have a more distinct Apprehension but none of a separated Soul but what is very imperfect 'T is certain the Soul will then preserve the Faculties that are natural to it viz. to Understand to Will to Remember as 't is represented to us under the Parable of Dives and Lazarus So long as 't is lodged here it sees and perceives Corporal things by the Organs of the Senses and reasons upon the Images that are labour'd in the Phantasie but there are in our Souls Idea's purely intellectual and which have in them nothing Material as the Contemplations of the Nature of God and of his Attributes We little know how the People of the disembodied Societies Act and Will and Understand and communicate their Thoughts to one another What Conception can we have of a separated Soul but that 't is all thought and that either in the Calmness of an elevated Joy or the bitterness of overwhelming Anguish according to the state in which it is and the sentence that is past upon it When a Mans Body is taken from him by Death he is turn'd into all Thought and Spirit either infinitely more pleas'd or more amaz'd than he could be in this World How great will be its thoughts when it is without any hinderance from these material Organs that now obstruct its operations In that Eternity as one expresses it the whole power of the Soul runs together one and the same way In this World the soul sends out Parties of it self divers wayes or to several ends the Judgment may be pleased in the main and yet the Affections disturbed or these more still and yet the Judgment dissatisfied and disturbed One thought goes out in high discontent another flyes after it recalls and reconciles it On the other side one thought leaps out of the Soul with pleasure another reproves daunts and dejects it with a correction of its haste But in Eternity the soul is united in its motions which way one Faculty goes all go and the Thoughts are all Concentred as in one whole Thought of Joy or Torment Beverley Great Soul of Man pag. 292. These things cannot but occasion great variety of thoughts in every Considering Man and the soul especially when it looks toward that World and thinks it self near it can no more cease to be Inquisitive about it than it can cease to be a soul. We may indeed be too curious in this matter though it seems to be a Curiosity that is most excuseable because it concerns a mans self his own soul and his own Eternity and when we have searched as deep as we can we must confess our Ignorance and say with the Prophet upon another occasion Lord thou knowest In these Contemplations we must make the Word of God our onely Guide and it is a Mercy greatly to be acknowledged that God allows us time wherein to Converse with that Gospel that has brought life and
immortality to light and with that Saviour who is the great Prophet and Teacher of the Church who came from Heaven and is now gone thither and we may fully rest and Acquiesce in the discoveries that he has given us of that Countrey for he knew it very well was very faithful in the discharging of his office and does not impose upon us any thing that is either false or incredible by our Holy Prayers we are to maintain a Commerce with him and with that World and by our frequent going thither in our Meditations we may gain a clearer knowledge of it Though there are no bounds on which our thoughts can terminate but onely the Revelations which God has been pleas'd to make in his own Word What is above those Heavens and that Firmament that we see there 's none can tell us but God and our Saviour who are there For when Men have abstracted their Thoughts with as much industry as they can from All that is material and sensible when they have refin'd their Understandings to the greatest spirituality and pored never so long upon the state of separation they will still remain in the dark about it And he is the most happy Man who in the sincere performance of the Duties of Religion can resign his Soul to Christ in Death and trust him though he is to be removed to a strange and a new World For immediately after he is loos'd from the Body he will understand more in an instant then all the most Learned in this World have ever understood by the labour and diligence of many years Secondly That which renders the continuance of Time to us wherein to prepare for Death a great Mercy is because we are to dye but Once and upon the well or ill doing of it depends our future Happiness or Misery It is a great Mercy that we have time wherein to make ready for our last Combat for if we lose the Battle once we are overthrown for ever it must not be fought over again It is a Mercy that we have leisure to compleat our journey well for we must never travel over the same Road again There will be no second Edition wherein to Correct our former Errors when a period is once put to the last Line of Life Oh what Faith what Courage what Strength is necessary to Conquer the Fears of Death and Death it self If men fail in their Trades they may by the kindness of their Friends be set up again if they have suffer'd Losses by Shipwrack by Fire or by Plunder they may be repaired but a Soul once lost will remain so for ever 'T is a long long Eternity that succeeds our Time if we should live on Earth as many Hundred years as the most Aged live Months it would bear no proportion with that vast and endless duration Whoever compares the shortness of our present state with the continuance of that into which we enter when we are to dye cannot but esteem the being brought back from the Grave to be a great Mercy If you have been careless of hearing at one season you may hear the Word again at another if you have heretofore been cold in your Prayers you may now excite your Hearts and pray with more fervour but if you once dye ill you must never mend so concluding a Miscarriage All the Tears we shed cannot give Life to the Body from which the Soul is fled All the Anguish of Miserable Souls cannot procure for them another Tryal They that are once cut down must never be planted by the Rivers side any more There is hope of a tree if it be cut down that it will sprout again and that the tender branch thereof will not cease though the root thereof wax old in the earth and the stock thereof die in the ground yet through the scent of Water it will bud and bring forth boughs like a plant But man dieth and wasteth away yea man giveth up the ghost and where is he Job 14. 7 8 9 10. Reason 5. Those who are brought up from the grave have cause to be thankful because by that means they have more opportunity to be serviceable to the Glory of God and to be useful in the World Meerly to live is not a thing very desireable considering how many Miserie 's there are in Life to what Evils and Inconveniences our Bodies are obnoxious and that the pains which they may suffer may be both very long and so secret that none can understand either what they are or how to remove them But it is a most desirable thing to Live when we can thereby obtain the Ends that are truly Great and Noble For First Hereby a man may do good to others He may teach the Ignorant reduce the wandring and by the sincerity of his Counsel by the zeal of his Prayers and the Lustre and Holiness of a good Example advance the power of Religion Our Lives are not our own they are Gods by a double title both of Creation and Redemption they are to be us'd for him who preserves or takes them away as he will Not onely Ministers but every private Christian is obliged by the Name he bears and by the Relation that he has to the holy Society of Believers and to the Kingdom of Christ whereof he is a Subject to enlarge it by all good ways that he can and every man is the more obliged to this when God has bestow'd a new Life upon him When we are near to the Gates of the Grave and look back and see with how little Zeal and Diligence we had spent our time and how little we had done for him who blest us all our dayes then we are enclined most earnestly to beseech him that he would grant us another Tryal and that then we would improve it much better than we did our former time and when he does grant us what we have askt then it should be our great indeavour not to frustrate and disappoint the designs of his Goodness and Mercy Then must we teach transgressors his way telling them how dreadful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God Then we may tell the Healthful what Sickness is what we have found it to be by our own Experience then we may tell them how it makes very uneasie and troublesome Companions of our now beloved Bodies How it deprive us of all our Pleasures and Recreations in the day and of our rest at night That all their Friendships Conversations and Merryments without true Religion are altogether vain and not onely so but they leave a sting of guilt behind when the sweetness that once allur'd is gone away We may warn them to provide for the dayes of darkness and for the many Miseries of Life that will sooner or latter overtake them When we are Recover'd we can tell the Diseased of the Goodness and the Power of God that they can never be so distressed but that it is still
meet with Joy It will be a welcom day indeed when their Looks their Expressions their Carriage will all be changed for the better There will be no appearance of any thing that is dismal and grievous and it will be more welcom to us because we and our friends so suitable so loving and so perfect shall never part again Oh what a comfortable thought is this Oh what will our praises be when we are there where there will be no more sickness no more death for ever We shall behold what we were in our Mortal State how vain and how short-lived and what we are when we are made Immortal There will be no more restless and weary dayes nor nights as restless as the day not a sigh nor a groan will be heard in all the blessed place above What would one that is in great pain give for ease most readily would he give all he has in the World but upon our first entrance into that Land of pleasure and of health all our Diseases will be cured and so fully cured that we shall never Relapse nor be diseased again There will be no pain This to those that are at ease may seem a little part of Heaven but to those of us that have been in long and terrible sickness 't is a very sweet and reviving Consideration In this World one affliction is scarce past till another comes usually there is breach upon breach and a new sorrow treads upon the heels of the old one as one wave upon another We have scarcely dryed our eyes for one loss but another comes that will make us weep again but in the Heaven which we hope for there is no Language but that of Praise Here we are alwayes either bewailing our own Miseries or those of our Friends and Neighbours but there it will not be so God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away Rev. 21. 4. Oh what a joy will it be to us to be past death that is so terrible and to be for ever past it The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with sons and everlasting joy upon their heads tĥey shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away Isa. 35. 10. We praise God indeed here and we have Cause to praise him but our Victories are not so compleat as to make a perfect Triumph we have one great Battel yet to fight and one great Gulph to shoot and a dark and a solitary way to go This is that which is grievous to our thoughts but oh what a joy will it be to us when we are past death and have dyed well who can express the mighty pleasure of it When the deliver'd Soul can say I that have been so furiously tempted so violently assaulted so siercely shaken by the blast of the terrible one shall be so no more all the Rage of Satan shall not come near me nor give me an unquiet thought for ever And I that griev'd and was disconsolate with tedious and uncommon pain shall never droop nor languish any more What a reviving prospect will it be when we stand on the other side of the Grave when the terrible forerunners of Death and Death it self shall be no more Then we may say indeed Oh death where is thy sting oh grave where is thy victory What consternation fear and perplexity fill'd the hearts of the poor Israelites when they were going out of Egypt when they were environed with rocks with their Enemies behind and with the Sea before They were in great trouble and knew not what to do But how different were their looks and Apprehensions when they beheld the Sea to give way and by an unheard of Miracle stand as a Wall on either hand till they past thorough How delightful was it to them when they were on the firm Land to see those very Enemies that Pharaoh and those Cruel Masters that had for so many years kept them in cruel bondage to find a grave in that Element which yielded and made a way for them Exod. 15. 1 2. So will it be with us when we shall see all our diseases all our Fears all our Temptations all our sinking thoughts to be destroy'd for ever The day of our death that will convey us to the blessed State will be better to us then the day of our birth that brought us into such an evil World as this Our Eyes will then no more behold grievous objects our Ears will no more hear any sad or doleful news Here we have many National and Personal Deliverances but alass we sin again and so bring upon our selves new Judgements But there which every sincere Soul reckons to be a great part of Heaven we shall sin no more for ever I that am now speaking come to you as from the Grave and can give you an account of Pain and Sickness but am not able to give you so distinct an Account of the Holy Cheerful Employment that is above But if one were to come to you from Heaven if he were but enabled to tell what he felt and your Capacities enlarged to understand the pleasing Narrative how would your glad hearts melt with an Admiring Joy and your Souls be raised to Praise and Wonder they will be much more raised and more joyful when you have your compleat and final Deliverance Then you shall say with those in Rev. 5. 12 13. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing And again Blessing honour glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever The End of the Second Sermon The Third SERMON PSAL. 30. ver 3 4. O Lord thou hast brought up my Soul from the Grave thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down to the Pit Sing unto the Lord O ye Saints of his and give Thanks at the remembrance of his Holiness IF Deliverance from the Grave be so great a Mercy and for which we ought to be very thankful what cause have they to be thankful that are delivered from a Death in Sin As the Soul is much better than the Body so the Mercies that are bestowed upon it are much more valuable and without this spiritual Resurrection temporal Deliverance and Salvation would not be so great a Mercy A Soul under the Dominion and reigning Power of Sin is in a far more deplorable Condition than a Body that is consuming in the Grave the one suffers under a sort of innocent Misery which it cannot help the other suffers under a wilful Obstinacy and Impotence contracted by its own fault How sad a prospect is it to see Men far from God in whom alone there is Life a Separation from whom is far more terrible than the
separation of the Body and the Soul which yet is painful and sad enough They that are under the Power of this Spiritual Death taste not the Goodness of God they hear not his loudest Calls they tremble not at his most dreadful Threats they are not drawn with his Love nor start at his approaching Wrath. They are very sick indeed but they feel not their Sickness their Ignorance has deprived their Souls of all knowledg of their own Miseries they are in a state of Death and Insensibility and their Case is the more sad because they are like to fall under the Power of eternal Death and tho their temporal Life is prolonged for a Season yet we may say of them as of Malefactors under the Sentence of the Law for their Crimes they are dead Men though there be a Reprieve or a delay of Execution for a little space And if any of you as I hope there are many here are delivered from a state so dangerous and so miserable what Thanks and Praise should you give to God who hath quickned you when you were dead in Trespasses and Sins Eph. 2. 1. especially considering that you had no Inclinations no foregoing Dispositions to this spiritua Life You contributed nothing to your own Regeneration no more than a Carcass in the Grave can raise it self and live again no more than dry Bones can move of their own accord or clothe themselves with Skin and Flesh. When he passed by and saw you in your Blood Ezek. 16. 6. then he said vnto you Live The Hour is come in which they that are in the Grave shall hear the Voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live Joh. 5. 25. How many of your Friends your Neighbours and your Fellow-Citizens are there in whom there are no Signs of Life at all that notwithstanding all their Civility and fair Carriage their Attendance upon the Word and the performance of several outward Duties have only a likeness to the Living but no real Life And why should God be so good to you and not to the rest of Men You were once the Children of Wrath and Enemies as well as they Were there any peculiar Excellencies in you more than in others to recommend you to his Favour No he has been merciful to you because he will be merciful and you may say as 't is in Eph. 2. 4 5. God who is rich in Mercy for his great Love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in Sins hath quickned us together with Christ. 'T is a very great Mercy for those that have been sick to be restored to Health but you are delivered from a worse Death and have obtained a better Resurrection in as much as the second Death to which they were obnoxious is infinitely more painful and dreadful than the first What a Mercy do you enjoy to be brought from a state of Wrath and Condemnation into a state of Peace and Favour from the Guilt of your Sins which made you dead in Law you are freed in your Justification and from the Power of Sin which would have kept you in continual Slavery you are delivered by the sanctifying Influences and Operations of the blessed Spirit you have cause to be thankful for your selves and for your Relations too if God has given the same Mercies unto them you may invite your Neighbours and your Friends to a Participation of your Comforts and say as the Father of the Prodigal Come and rejoice with me for this my Son was lost and is now found was dead and is now alive To raise your Thankfulness consider what a condition you would have been in had not God blessed you with a part in the first Resurrection You whose Eyes are now fix'd on Heaven and Glory had been still slumbering as unconverted Sinners are on the very brink of Hell you had then been without all relish of that word which first produced and which does every day maintain your Life and which is sweeter to you than Honey or the Honey-Comb Psal. 19. 10. You had now been without all Esteem and Value of that dearest Redeemer who purchased for you this Happiness at a very dear price and that you might live was himself content to die you had then been without that reviving hope of seeing him for ever that smooths your way and guides your Steps and upholds your Spirits thô you meet with many a sharp and bitter Cross. You would now perhaps have been prophaning his Sabbaths vilifying his Ordinances tearing his Name to pieces with execrable Oaths you might not have known what is the Sweetness of a sincere and hearty Prayer what is the Blessedness of a Soul whose Sins are pardoned and how honourable is the Priviledg of having the great God for a Father and Christ for a Mediator You are delivered from spiritual Diseases which are worse than all bodily Distempers for Pride and Envy Impatience and Discontent and Ambition and Revenge are worse than even the worst of Pains than the Stone the Cholick the Strangury or the like These cause a momentany Trouble but the evil Habits the corrupt Inclinations and the disorderly Motions that bear sway in that poor Soul that is dead in Sin tend to an everlasting Misery Continually adore and magnify the Power of your Saviour that made your Hearts at length to yield to his own terms though they gave him a very great Opposition Bless the Skill and Wisdom of your gracious Physician that cures all the Diseases of your old Nature that is not in any part of it sound and healthful It is easy to kill and ruin and destroy that we can all do too well but who can recover and save but he alone And if he was to be admired when on Earth He heal'd the Sick and made the Blind to see the Lame to walk and the Dead to live He is much more now to be adored and his Power is not less miraculous when it displays its vertue in Regeneration and when he makes all the boisterous unruly passions of Nature to be still and quiet than in commanding the Seas and the Winds These things should be the matter of your Praise and Wonder as they will be the cause of Praise and Wonder to his Saints for ever and if David is thankful here when he says O Lord thou hast brought my Soul from the Grave what matter of greater Thankfulness is it when a Christian can say O Lord thou hast brought up my Soul from Hell from the Power of Satan from the House of Bondage and from the Neighbourhood of the second Death Long Life is in it self a Blessing and for which we may very lawfully pray I say 't is in it self a Blessing for it may be clog'd with those Miseries that may make it to be as a Curse As if a Man were to live long only to row in Galleys or to dig in Mines or to pine in a Dungeon or to live in Pain and Torment or
in all our other Actions to be regulated by the Will of God and not by our own But indeed when a Man that has been very faithful and laborious in his Generation is by Pain rendred altogether unfit for Service when the Strength and Vigour which he laid out for God is wasted and decayed by old Age or a tedious Distemper when his Candle that has long burnt to enlighten others burns with a feeble and almost undiscerned Light he may then desire to die as a poor weary Man to go to Bed But the Saints of God do even then desire it with Calmness and Deliberation if they be not in a raging Disease for then it is impossible they have much ado to bring their Hearts to be sincerely and freely willing to depart Their Fears and Temptations and remaining Inclinations to the Body and their Friends on Earth render it a Work of Difficulty There are great Strugglings in that Moment between Nature and Grace between Faith and Sense though at last their Grace gets the Victory and so they long to be with Christ. If Deliverance from the Grave be so great a Mercy then Self-murther is a very great Sin The Law that forbids us to kill does extend to this as well as to the Murder of another Man this is a violating of that Soveraign Power that is in God and a taking upon us to dispose of our Life which is not our own but his 'T is an usurping upon his Providence which has determined when and after what manner we are to die and though 't is very likely there are several Accidents of Life that are worse than Death it self yet it is that Eternity that comes after Death that is most formidable and into which no Man ought to throw himself and when we are reduced to such a condition that to live seems to be far worse than to die yet even then the Unalterableness of our State afterwards should be a most powerful Restraint especially if we are uncertain where we are then to go It is against that Patience and Trust which we ought to repose in God It is a woful sort of dying to die in the doing of such a thing as this which he has most severely prohibited to tear our Souls from our Bodies with our own hands in such an ignominious and shameful manner and because of our Distress to pass Sentence upon our selves as not fit to live and then to be our own Executioners A Soul at Death should be in the Exercise of Grace and in a quiet and humble Resignation but in this case 't is in Fear and Horror and Discontent and what the Romans magnifi'd so much for Gallantry and an Heroick Spirit was the real Effect of Weakness and Cowardise as it is much more Heroical to sustain and meet a coming Danger than to retreat and fly from it It was from a Meanness of Spirit that Cato chose to kill himself because he could not see the Empire flourish under Cesar whom he did not love and however such Acts may be extoll'd by Heathen Historians they are not so by that Scripture which is the Rule of our Faith and the Guide of our Actions and which furnishes us with no Examples of those that did this Samson only excepted whose case had several things in it very singular but such as were very bad Men as Saul and Achitophel and Judas and as we would not have our portion with them in the other World so it is to be wish'd and endeavoured that our end may not be like to them in this But so great is the Love of Life and so strong the fear of Death in the most so dark the Knowledg of Futurity and so great our Unwillingness to go from a World with which we are well acquainted to that which we never saw that few Men are in danger of Self-murther till some great Affliction and overwhelming Pain and by the means of that some great Perplexity seize their Spirits I think few are in danger of it till their Griefs are unspoakably great or their Minds in that Anguish that is as the sad Foretaste of Hell till all their Thoughts are in hurry and Confusion and as then they are no way capable of being bettered by those Advices that seem proper to restrain them so it concerns you that are at ease and are able to pursue the Business and Affairs of Life and of Religion to pray earnestly to God that he withdraw not his Protection and the Guard of his Providence from you that he do not leave you to thick and gross Darkness nor to the Power of Satan who will push you forward to things that are most sinful and unwarrantable Pray hard that violent Tentations and overwhelming raging Pains may never overtake your for how evil soever Self-murther seem to you now you know not what you may be then prest to do pray earnestly that you may never be without the sense or hope of the Divine Favour for if which God forbid you once lose that woe unto you then you will be like a Ship without Sails or Rudder in a Storm you may be swallowed up or driven on the Rocks and broken to pieces It is Distress and violent Sorrow that exposes Men to the Commission of this Sin Saul fell not upon his Sword and killed himself till God had forsaken him and till he knew not what to do though it was his own Sin that brought him so low Cicero tells us indeed of one Cleombrotus who reading the Discourse of Plato concerning another more happy Life after this which could not be attained but by Death did thereupon kill himself to attain that Happiness but if that be true it is a thing that most rarely happens that any that have either hope of Heaven or Assurance of going thither are so impatient of being absent from it as to kill themselves to go thither And it may be you will be ready to ask me If they have no hope of being better when they die why do they long for Death or attempt to kill themselves They should rather strive to live that they may be better prepared for another World It is a Question that has been ask'd me by some People and seeing it is perhaps what you seldom have met withal I will give you an Answer to it and if it do not appear very rational yet I am sure it will contain that which has been the real Apprehensions of People under those Temptations I say then Men may desire to destroy themselves though they have no well grounded Expectation of Happiness after Death 1. Because of that Pain of Body and that Anguish of Soul which is intolerable to them they have no natural nor spiritual Rest nor Prospect of either and this fills them with Amazement and Horror and in that Amazement there is nothing which they will not dare to do 2. Because they may reckon that they are already as in Hell and that if they
be dead they can but be in Hell and so dare even to try the worst They think the longer they live they aggravate their Guilt and heighten their Punishment and add new Fewel to the Flame which is already too too hot and scorching the Burden under which they groan is so heavy that they do not desire to have more Weight added to it Or 3. It may be they may have some little very little hope that were they out of the Body they would be better than now they are and therefore they 'l venture As to living to be better prepared they have usually such dismal perplex'd Thoughts that they cannot think to any purpose at all nor find themselves by Living to be any better You 'l say these are desperate Conclusions and so they are but that makes me think that none but in Despair or in very sad Diseases for which the World has no Remedy are under a Temptation to take away their own Life And if it be a Disease there is room for the more Charity as to those that die after this manner for God will not impute the Effects of Phrensy and a decayed and disordered Reason to the Malice of the Will nor judg the Disease to be a Sin though he may have sent upon them such woful Distress for their former Sins There is another way of a Man's killing himself which because 't is very frequent is less taken notice off and that is by Gluttony and Excess in Drinking When a Man continually loads himself with vast Quantities of Meats and Drinks and so suffocates and strangles Life and brings upon his own Body Diseases and Death and tho this is not an Evil punish'd by the Judges yet it ceases not to be an Evil and a Man may by continued Intemperance and Riot be as guilty of Self-murther in the Sight of God as if he took a Knife and cut his own Throat Some will say indeed that such live apace and if their brutal Actions deserve the Name of Life 't is very true for they go with a swifter course into the Grave than they need to do Seeing the being brought up from the Grave is a great Mercy how great a Mercy is Health when the Restoration of it is so great a Mercy and so greatly to be acknowledged Some think it a very needless Labour to speak of this seeing it is that which all People know as it would be needless to praise the Sun which gives us Light or the Air in which we breath But though these are very common yet they are nevertheless very great Mercies like Gold which though it were never so common yet would continue still to be a very excellent and valuable Metal There is as much Difference between a Man in Health and a Man in Sickness as between a Man at Liberty and a Man in Chains Sickness whenever it comes will give you great Subjects of Sadness and Disquietness and long before you die you may see the Days wherein you will have no Pleasure you cannot then especially if it be violent with any Freedom or Clearness of Thought express your selves either to God or Man you will be very ill able to manage the civil Affairs of Life or with any vigor to perform the Duties of Religion and the Truth of this you would see if you went often to the Chambers of those that in long and grievous Pains languish away if you heard their doleful Groans saw their pale and decaying Looks it would give you a new taste of Health but there is such a nice Delicacy and Tenderness for the most part in those that are well that they care not for the Visitation of the Sick nor to be near to Persons when they are dying It would affect them if they saw more frequently their Faintings their Convulsions and their Agonies but they care not for it and yet so to be sick and so to die may in a very little while be their own Lot Health is not less a Mercy for being common What is more common than Sleep which is but a part of it and yet in all the World there is not a thing the having of which is more sweet or the want of which is more terrible for as I have observed in a former Discourse all Business and the Comforts of Life depend upon it and the Refreshment that it gives to our natural Spirits for let but a Man be for one Week or two without Sleep and he 'l be fit for no Business and if Health were not so usual a thing it would be a Miracle considering to what Variety of Evil we are every day exposed by the Frailty and Weakness of our Nature It would make a Man tremble to read what others have endured or how many several sorts of very painful Diseases belong to almost every part of humane Bodies how painful are the Methods that must be used for a Cure and how these painful Methods may be used and yet but encrease our Pain and be to no purpose And indeed when I consider saith Mr. Boile in his Occasional Reflections how many outward Accidents are able to destroy the Life or at least the Health even of those that are careful to preserve them and how easily the Beams of a warm Sun or the Breath of a cold Wind or too much or too little Exercise a Dish of green Fruit or an infectious Vapour or even a sudden Fright or ill News are able to produce Sickness and perhaps Death and when I think too how many inevitable Mischiefs our own Appetites or Vices expose us to by Acts of Intemperance that necessitate the Creatures to offend us and practises of Sin whereby we necessitate our Creator to punish us when we well consider this and consequently how many Mischiefs he must escape that arrives at gray Hairs the Commonness of the Sight cannot keep me from thinking it worth some Wonder to see an old Man especially if he be any thing healthy It is not to be imagined but by those that feel it what a damp the Pains and Indispositions of our Bodies put upon the motions of our Souls their Faculties are straitned bound and fettered that they cannot in their former manner perform their usual Operations When the Soul either in natural or spiritual Actions essays to do as it used to do it finds it self under a very great Weakness and Disability for the Body lies as an heavy Clog and Weight upon it as you know it is in the Head-ach the Tooth-ach or other pains which though they be of a short Continuance are very troublesome and would be more so were they to continue for many Months together How speedy an Alteration will the sharp sense of Pain make in the briskest and most merry Man For as Doctor Harris describes the sick Man Hezekiah's Recovery p. 172. He hath Eyes and scarcely sees Ears and hears not Mouth and speaks not Feet and walks not Those very Senses which let in
I may but I have had no Rest at all then nor the next nor the next scarce any discernable Sleep I am sure none that was refreshing for above three quarters of a year together And if at any time I rested a little that little Rest was all the while disturb'd with terrible and amazing Dreams and when I awaked I always found my self in strange and unexpressible Pain in Anguish and Bitterness such as nothing in this World is able to represent even as to its lowest degrees And judg you into what Confusions and Disorders this alone would throw a Man if it were single My Disease and my Fears and sad Apprehensions came upon me as a Whirlwind like the rushing of many mighty Waters strange and horrible Pains and great Fears so that it was as an universal Storm from which there was no retreat I said with Hezekiah Isa. 38. 12 13. Mine Age is departed and is removed from me as a Shepherd's Tent I have cut off like a Weaver my Life He will cut me off with pining Sickness from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me I reckoned till morning that as a Lion so will he break all my Bones from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me I was continually full of restless Pain and amazing Thoughts I often said I am now cut off I am come to the End of my Journey I am going to the Grave there was but a Step but a Minute as it were between me and Death nay how often have I been by most terrible Convulsions in the very Jaws of Death They were to me as a Den of Lions and are as painful and as terrible as if a Man were actually torn to pieces And in all these not the least help nor prospect of Relief and these returning every day for many weeks or rather one continued Convulsion-fit and that always with a very quick and cutting Pain it never came upon me but as a Giant or an armed Man and whenever that was I thought my self in the very Moment of my Separation from the Body I thought my self very often just going to the Bar of God I was in Death often often as in the very Agonies and Pangs of Death but I could not die I seemed to have the strength of Brass it seemed to me as if I had been raised up by Almighty Power only that I might be capable to suffer Pains very strange and very terrible I sunk as in the deep Mire Psal. 69. 2. I saw indeed sometimes the Light of Day but it was never refreshing nor comfortable to me for I was often saying with Job chap. 3. 23 24. Why is Light given to a Man whose way is hid and whom God hath hedged in For my Sighing cometh before I eat and my Roarings are poured out like Water I was not in Safety neither had I Rest neither was I quiet yet trouble came For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me and that which I was afraid of is come unto me I often said I shall never see the World till it be in Flames never see my Friends or Acquaintance nor they me till the Heavens be no more and till the vast Appearance of the great Day Thus my Feet stumbled on the dark Mountains and all was hideous Darkness Woe and Desolation with me Sometimes by the Greatness of my Trouble I was even stifled with Grief that I could not for a great while speak a Word and when I spoke it was in a mournful manner for many Months I could not breath without a mighty Pain and as soon as with Difficulty I had breath'd every Breath was turn'd into a Groan and every Groan was big with a very deep Sorrow I was weary with my Groaning Psal. 6. 6. All the Night made I my Bed to swim and watered my Couch with Tears Nay the Sadness and the stinging Particularities that I apprehended in my afflicted Case made me to weep even till I had no more power to weep Psal. 88. 3. My Soul was full of Troubles and my Life drew nigh to the Grave c. I saw the Grave as beneath me continually opening to swallow me up I often said in my self I shall no more see the Congregations or Assemblies of God's-People I shall never any more enter into his Court nor sing his Praise I shall no more speak in his Name nor experience his loving-kindness in the Land of the Living any more These were some of my Thoughts and this was my inexcusable Infirmity and my Unbelief Those that are in Health will scarcely perhaps credit what I say they will think I am a melancholy Man and aggravate my Trouble and set it out more than needs or than it was and that in the whole there was a great deal more of Fancy than of Reality but I pray God they may never taste one drop of that bitter Cup whereof I was made to drink for if they should they 'l find it whatever Names they now give it to be then full of real Miseries As I have spoke nothing but what I fully believe to be true so I have spoke the more of it that it may be of some use to others that though Trouble and Distresses fall upon them which are very strange and very perplexing or such as rarely happen that they would hope even in the Depths for they may see by me that nothing is too hard for God There are few that having been so near to Death revive again few that have been near it so long together and fewer that after they have recovered are willing to speak of what they then saw and felt but methinks it is not unnecessary to shew to what woful Miseries we are obnoxious in this World and how many ways God has wherewith to correct and punish the Sins of Men. Most People are unwilling to speak of such things as these because others are unwilling to hear such doleful Relations they invent some other Discourse to put it off but their hearing of it is better than to feel it and this may help them to avoid manifold Mischiefs before it be too late You think it may be that I have spoke a great deal and your Attention may be wearied but I'lassure 't is many hundred times below what I felt Great Griefs as well as mighty Joys exceed all our Words and Bitterness is not to be described Never was any I believe nearer to Death not to die never was any compass'd with a greater Danger never any had less hope of an Escape than I and yet the Mercy of a God that is Omnipotent has relieved me And as 't is commonly said that Musick sounds best upon the Water so by setting our Sorrows and our Mercies together our Praise may be more harmonious You may in this behold the Severity and the Goodness of God his Severity in continuing on me so many smart Strokes for so long a space and his Goodness
again the first Visit they make is to their old Good-fellows as they call them and they are welcomed into the jolly Company with full Bowls and with loud Huzzaes but let us go to such as will entertain us with Praises to God for our deliverance and not drink our healths but seriously pray for them Eightly When God has brought us from the Grave let us by all means see that so sore an Affliction and so great a Deliverance may be sanctified to us And we may know that they are so when they produce these following effects First When they take off our hearts from the World and the Creatures and drive us more to God Secondly When they make us more frequent and fervent in our Prayers Thirdly When they produce those holy ends for which they were sent upon us Fourthly When they make us to acknowledge God and to see his disposal and his hand in all that is come upon us Ruth 1. 20. The Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me Ver. 21. The Lord hath testified against me and the Allmighty hath afflicted me Fifthly When they make us to humble our selves and to lay our Mouths in the dust knowing that tho our troubles were very severe yet they were very just Ezek. 16. 63. That thou mayest remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done saith the Lord God And Job 42. 5. When they fill our Hearts with Admiration and our Mouths with his Praise Seventhly When the Mercies we receive carry our Affections with more flame towards the Benefactor from whence they came As the warmth of the shining Sun causes a new fragancy and a sweeter smell among all the Flowers of the Garden Eighthly When they bring us to more knowledge of God and to more true calmness and joy in him These are glorious Effects of a sanctified affliction and of a sanctified escape from it and a sign that they came not by a common but by a special Providence and by a right of the Covenant of Grace by which all things are ours I might add in the ninth place when we taste his Fatherly Goodness and Love in all that we enjoy if we find these things within us 't is a sign we have both heard the Rod and him that did appoint it Mich. 6. 9. Oh how happy are we if God by taking away our health has given us himself and if by sending sharp sickness and pain upon us he has prepared us for a sweeter relish of his Love Happy are we if our Temporary Sickness tend to an Eternal Health and our short Sorrows to an Everlasting Joy Happy yet again are we if he have not only Commanded us to take up our beds and walk but also said unto us that our Sins are forgiven if we can say with Hezekiah Isa. 38. 17. Behold for Peace I had great Bitterness but thou hast in Love to my Soul delivered it from the Pit of Corruption for thou hast cast all my Sins behind thy Back It must be our great endeavour that after we have been tryed we may come forth like Gold and that we do not as the three Children in another case come out with our old Garments and with the same Sins upon us Let us earnestly beg of God that we may have a compleat Salvation and a total Recovery That as our Bodies are supplied with new strength so our Souls may prosper also For to be diseased in our Souls whilst our Bodies thrive is as if the House in which one lives were very well repaired and adorned to all advantage and the Man that dwells in so fair an Habitation were forced to go in raggs so fine a dwelling and so ordinary an Inhabitant would not agree well together Oh let us take care that whilst God has healed our Diseases we be not inwardly distempered with the Plague of our own Hearts That Man is not to be called healthful that let him look never so well has a Disease in his Vitals that by slow Degrees preys upon his Life Neither can that Man be truly said to be recovered whose Soul is either void of Grace or that having had it in some measure languishes and decays He is composed of Contradictions of Life and Death at the same time he is alive and well as to his Body but his Soul is dead in Trepasses and Sins The most excellent and valuable part of himself does remain under the power of Death and whilst it is so is an Object more unpleasing to God than a dissolving Carcass in the Grave would be to us The Welfare and Recovery of our Souls is what we ought more to seek than the Welfare of our Bodies Both indeed are Mercies but the former is much the greater of the two What is Purple and fine Linnen and soft Raiment that sets off a Man to the Eyes of others to that Faith and Love and Patience and Hope and those other Graces of the Spirit that beautifie the Soul and render it amiable in the Eye of God What is all the Meat and Drink that refresh our Bodies to that Heavenly Manna that Celestial Nourishment that an healthful holy Soul feeds upon The prosperity of our Bodies their ease and capacity of performing their several Actions is one of the greatest Ternporal Mercies but alas this will signifie nothing at all if we do not prosper in our Souls There is a way indeed whereby we may gather Grapes of Thorns and Figs of Thistles i. e. Refreshment and Comfort from those Afflictions that peirct us to the quick and that Sorrow which was at first unwelcom to us may prove an Angel of Light and strike off our Chains if we can say with David It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy Statutes Psal. 119. 71. Ver. 67. Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy Word His was a very blessed Cross that flourisht into such fruit as this I think I should not say amiss should I say that God has as it were brought every person here from the Grave and saved him from going down into the Pit from a Grave and a Pit which has been often digged for us by the Plots and Designs of our Enemies and into which we had long ago fallen had not God mercifully saved and helped us God has very lately done great things for our Brethren in Ireland whereof I do believe your Hearts are glad for as you mourn'd with them in their Sorrows so t is fit you participate with them in the Joys that they now have by the quick advances of their increasing Deliverance and from the dangers that so nearly threatned them And God has not after the mighty wonders of his Providence left us here in England when destruction has been coming towards us with hasty paces when it has from the proud Fleet of our Enemies threatned
much pain in this but this is not the common Lot You know that the poor Man at the Pool of Bethesda had an Infirmity thirty eight years Jahn 5. 5. You are told in Luke 13. 16. of a Woman that was a Daughter of Abraham whom Satan had bound eighteen years and when so malicious and cruel a Spirit had the management of her Bonds no doubt but he made them very strong It was without doubt a painful Distemper as appears vers 11. she was bound down and could in no wise lift up her self If you enquire of those that usually attend the Dying or if you look upon the Weekly Bills you 'l find there by what painful Diseases Men go to the Grave By the Stone or the Gout raging Fevers or Cholick or which is of all others most formidable and which more generally die of every Week than of any other Distemper i. e. Convulsions Or if they die not by these yet by others that by their length are as grievous and as uneasie Your bodily Pains may be protracted to a very long duration for it is a most false Maxim that if your Pain be long it will not be sharp and that if it be sharp it will not be long It is a saying to which dayly Experience gives a Confutation For how many are there that are groaning under Pains both very long and very sharp Fevers burn us Agues shatter us Dropsies drown us Phrensies unman us the Gout tortures us Convulsions rack us Epilepsies fell us Collicks tear us and there is no considerable Disease which is not very troublesom in it self however Religion may sanctify and sweeten it Boyle occas Refl Sect. 2. Med. 3. What a vain thing is our Body and how vain are the Projects of Men for the preservation of it How many are their Cares and Designs about it It is for this that Commerce and Navigation is maintained to bring home Foreign Drugs for Physick and Sawces of other Countries to raise our Appetites Pearls and Jewels for Ornament and Splendor The greatest part of Men are imployed meerly for the service of the Body Physicians by profession are obliged to study what may repair its defects and contribute to our ease and health the Husbandman labours all the year that the Ground may yield us Corn and Bread and Fruit Some build us Houses others beautify and furnish them Butchers are employed to kill the Creatures for us and Cooks to dress them and yet these Bodies are lyable all the while to pains which none of all these can remove To sicknesses of which no Perfumes no costly Raiment no pleasant Relishes can make us to lose the bitter Sense and the Thoughts of them ought to lessen greatly all that inordinate Concern which we have for what is only mortal for its being so makes it to be very vain We must use our selves to hardship and relinquish our too great tenderness and delicacy For he is the wisest Man who knowing he is once to suffer as we all are does learn betimes to do it Let us therefore keep our Bodies pure and clean and chast First Let us use a great Moderation in all those Accommodations that relate only to them Such as Houses Gardens Estates or the like that they be not too expensive or take up too much of our time or of our delight That they be not designed as the Trophies of our Pride or the means of Vain-glory or to get a Name We that have Souls to save have something else to do than to follow needless Superfluities When we were sick we knew that we were too much unwilling to leave the World Let us not paint it with more alluring colours lest we be still more in love with it and more loath to leave it For shall we more easily part with things sumptuous and splendid than with things that are meaner and less suited to a fleshly Mind and Life We are Pilgrims and shall we be so industrious to plant and build and sow in a strange Country when we confess we are distant from our home What Man would set himself to adorn his Inn from which he may dislodge the next morning and it may be never see it any more Secondly Let us use a great Moderation in our Apparel When you dress your selves remember that you dress a Body that will shortly be a Carcass without Beauty Life and Motion Consider how soon all the Sprightliness of your Eyes all the Pleasure of your Looks will be gone the Cold of Death will quickly freeze that Blood which now circulates with so brisk a motion in your Veins and Sickness in a few days may so change you even you that are most curious about your Body that you will not desire even to look upon your self When pain and trouble has sunk your Eyes and hollowed your Cheeks and turned your once delightful red into a decaying pale how seldom then will you visit that Glass to which you now go so often and at which you stay so very long What will your softest Raiment and your finest Cloaths avail a decaying Body which God hath clothed with the Garment of Heaviness Let the Consideration of this be a powerful Motive to excite you not to go to the highest Excesses of a luxurious Age but after the Fashion of the grave the modest and the religious part of People that allow to themselves some large portions of their Time to adorn their Souls with those Graces that make them shine with real worth and do not spend it all to set the Body off What is this Body but a Lump of animated Clay a poor ruinous Habitation that has a thousand decays ready to come upon it and whilst we are contriving how to repair it for many years it may be we have not then a Month to live And what is it when the Soul that gave it all its pleasant sensations all its comlyness and lustre is fled away If we look but upon a Friend an hour after he is dead how is his Countenance changed There is nothing then to be seen in him that did attract our Eyes before You then no more see any Smiles in that Face where you have before seen the signs of Chearfulness and Joy Where is his former Comeliness and Beauty his ancient Grace or his lovely Features You can then take no delight in being with him you have then no mind to look upon that very person that it may be a while ago was the Delight of your Heart and the Comfort of your Life Will all the Finery in the World procure for us a sweeter slumber in the Dust Why should we set our selves with so much application to regard our Bodies Is it to much purpose to paint a little Dust and Ashes Those light impressions that we make upon it the next Wind blows away Think but how vain and short your Life is and this will greatly suppress your inclination to Vanity Look upon your Watches and
betray you to death or to long pain Seek chiefly to the Soveraign disposer of all things who can either cure you without means or make those that you try to be available knowing that without him not all the Cordials in the World can for one moment stay the departing Life Of which many Physitians are so sensible that they frequently tell you that by the blessing of God they hope to do you good Indeed they had need be men of Prayer that by their means Religio Medici might be as famous in reallity as it has been in scorn And though I pretend to no great skill in these affairs yet I have some Experience as to what I say I have often found the Insufficiency of all things that have been prescrib'd and that they have not given me the least Ease in my violent and sharp pain and how what I have taken with a design to help me has increased my Disease and made it more painful Therefore having severely smarted my self for my folly in expecting too much from humane help I may be allowed to warn others that they may not fall into the same snare and to desire them to trust more in God and less in Men. We may be as guilty of Idolatry in giving Men too much of our Trust as if we bowed before a Graven Image and it is an evil to which Men are as prone as to any other sin An Instance whereof is that which Suidas saith that the Book which Solomon wrote of Physick was affixed upon the Gate into the Entry of the Temple and because the People boasted too much in it neglecting the Lord Hezekiah caused them to pull away this Book and bury it and the Talmud saith that Hezekiah did two memorable things first he hid the Book of Physick which Solomon had written and secondly he brake the brasen Serpent which Moses made Weemes Exerc. div pag. 120. Indeed men do as that King said unto Hazael 2 King 8. 8. Take a present in thine hand and go meet the man of God and enquire of the Lord by him saying shall I recover of this disease They seek for Recovery first of all as that which would bring them the most acceptable News which made the Prophet use such Ambiguity in his Speech Verse 10. For 't is likely that 't was no dissimulation because his Sickness was not in it self Mortal yet he should surely dye that is by the Treachery of Hazael The hope of Recovery is so grateful to the Patient that Physitians are not a little tempted to conceal the danger when it is visible to all but to the Sick Man and of how ill Consequence is this I cannot better express it than in the Words of an Honourable person for whom men of all the Learned professions have a just value For my part sayes he who take the prognosticks of Phytians to be but Guesses not Prophesies and know how backward they are to bid us Fear till our condition leave them little hopes of us I cannot but think that Patient very ill advis'd who thinks it not time to entertain thoughts of death as long as his Doctor allows him any hopes of Life for in case they should both be deceiv'd 't would be much easier for the mistaken Physitian to save his Credit than for the unprepared Sinner to save his Soul Boyle Occasional Reflections Sect. 2. pag. 222. Our safest Course in all our Troubles and Sicknesses is to Go to Jesus Christ who has an Omnipotent Vertue and Ability to help as when he was on Earth he healed all manner of Diseases and among the rest a person that had suffered many things of many Physitians and was nothing bettered but rather grew worse Mark 5. 26. So he has still the same power and Compassion and though Thousands have shared in the Gracious effects of his Bevenolence yet he has still the same Charity and the same All-sufficient Fulness from whence to relieve us as the Sun after it has by its Light and Quickning influences given Being and Refreshment to so many several Creatures in the World suffers no diminution of its own Light and Heat and is no less Communicative and Beneficial to this very day then it was many hundred years ago The whole of what I have spoken upon this Head is onely to keep our spirits from placing an undue reliance on the Creatures when our Trust is chiefly to be fix'd on our Glorious and powerful Creator One would think it strange and yet so it is that when God has by some sharp and severe stroak beaten off our hold from those props whereon we us'd to lean in the time of our Careless Health when he has confin'd us to a solitary state and we can no longer have our Antient Friendships nor our former hope yet even in distress it self so great is our adherence to Creatures we substitute to Our selves new Reeds whereon to lay some strength and our vain trust does not expire but with our latest breath I would not have any part of what I have said to reflect in the least upon those worthy Physitians who in the time of my woful Calamity gave me their Charitable Visits though God was not pleas'd to succeed the Endeavours they used yet I hope and pray that he may reward them for their labour and their diligence As also Those that gave me their kind help when I was not able to help my self I owe to them all great Respect and Thanks and none can take it ill if I say what to his Glory I ought to say that God onely was my Physitian and my Deliverer and to him is all the praise due He hath torn and he hath healed he hath smitten and he hath bound me up he hath revived me and I live in his sight Hos. 6. 1. So that I may say with David Psal. 103. 1 2 3 4. Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits Who forgiveth all thine Iniquities and healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy Life from destruction who crowneth thee with Loving-kindness and tender mercies Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things so that thy Youth is renewed like the Eagles Observ. 2. To be brought up from the Grave and to be kept alive from going down to the Pit is a Mercy greatly to be acknowledged and for which we ought to be very thankful And thaâ— upon these following Accounts Reason 1. Because Life is the dearest of all our present Blessings All Happiness is usually represented by the name of Life and all Misery by the name of Death Other Evils take from us each of them some part of our Comforts Death bereaves us of them all Bondage deprives us of Liberty Banishment of our Countrey Sickness afflicts our Bodies shame or Infamy our Souls pain troubleth our Senses poverty incommodateth our Life but there is no Calamity so great
as not to leave us the use or enjoyment of some good or at least of our selves Death extinguisheth our Life and by this means overthrowing the very Foundations of our Enjoyments doth at the same time despoil as of all other good things altogether Daille sur Coloss. 2. 13. Life is the most excellent Gift of God but Death is an Enemy to Nature and cannot be lov'd for it self 't is the fruit of Sin Rom. 5. 12. 'T is the wages thereof Rom. 6. 23. For if Adam had persever'd in his Innocent Condition he had enjoyed a Glorious Immortality without those pains and that Death which is now our Lot The Philosophers indeed thought that death was natural to Man and all the discourses they grounded upon this false principle are so vain and empty that they onely serve to shew in the General how weak Man is seeing the greatest productions of the wisest Men are so mean and Childish Pascal pensees S. 30. Death is the matter of the Threat and therefore a punishment though Believers whose Faith is in exercise may quietly submit to it as a passage to Eternal Glory We give it indeed many soft names and seem to make nothing of it in our ordinary discourse we speak of nothing with more unconcernedness and with less Fear but it ceases not to be an Enemy though we give it never so many fair Characters Men at a distance from it can make a sleight matter of it but its nearer approaches if attended with the due sense of Futurity will make the boldest and the stoutest Man to tremble it will strike a damp into his Spirits mingle Gall and Wormwood with his Wine and Bitterness with his sweetest Joys Death is not the less formidable for being unavoidable but rather more so as a certain Evil is more an Evil than that which is only probable and which may never happen but do we consider what it is for the Union that is between the body and the Soul to be dissolv'd what it is to see Corruption what it is to have this Body turn'd into a Carkass without Life and Motion what it is to have this Body which we have tended with so long a Care which we have maintain'd at so vast a Charge of Meat and Drink and Time to have this Body in which we have slept and liv'd at Ease laid into the cold Grave and there in a loathsome manner to putrifie and consume away it cannot but occasion very great Commotions when the day is come that the two Friends who have been so long acquainted and so dear to one another must part Death is an evil to be prayed against for as such it cannot be the Object of desire And the old saying of Augustin is not unworthy of our Observation That if there were no bitterness in Death the Constancy of Martyrs would not be so remarkable Therefore says the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 4. We would not be uncloathed but clothed upon It is promised as a favour to Ebedmelech that though he sustained many other losses yet he should have his life for a prey Jer. 39. 18. and Paul then whom none had a greater desire and esteem of Glory yet reckons it a Blessing for a good Man to be kept alive For he sayes of Epaphroditus Phil. 2. 27. He was sick nigh unto death but God had mercy on him And we find the Holy Men of Old very earnest for their Lives Return O Lord deliver my soul O save me for thy mercies sake For in death there is no remembrance of thee in the Grave who shall give thee thanks Psal. 6. 4. 5. Psal. 39. 13. Oh spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more Psal. 102. 24. I said O my God take me not away in the midst of my dayes And what doleful Expressions did Hezekiah use upon the news of his approaching death Isa. 38. 10. I said in the cutting off of my dayes I shall go to the gates of the Grave I am deprived of the residue of my years I said I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the land of the living I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the Earth Reason 2. When a Man dyes 't is to him as an end of all the World He is no more considered as a Member of that Community to which he did once belong When his Eyes are once clos'd by Death he is no more to behold the Sun Moon and Stars which he now sees nor his Fields and Gardens his Shops and Houses his Estate and Lands As the waters fail from the Sea and the flood decayeth and drieth up So man lieth down and riseth not till the heavens be no more Job 14. 11 12. He quits for ever all those Earthly things on which he once set his Heart and when he is asleep in his Bed of dust he will not awake to pursue secular Affairs and Business which took up so much of his time and labour He must no more frequent his Exchange not read Books nor discourse with his Relations and Friends as he us'd to do among the Living here The first sound that he will he will hear will be the Voice of the Last Trumpet Arise ye dead and come to judgment The first sight that he will see will be the Mighty Judge in the Clouds and the Heavens and the Earth all in one flame All that little share of the World which he called his own will be undiscern'd and buryed in the vast ruins and desolations of the Great Day When a Man dyes 't is with him as an End of the World all the Affairs of Peace and War of Trade and Commerce and Gain and Riches all his projects and designs his large reaches his forecast his â—â—â—ughtfulness about News or about providing for his own Name or for posterity all these things are at an end with him for ever It would put a mighty Change upon the Face of things and the Circumstances of particular persons if they knew certainly the World would be at an end in four or five years or in so many Moneths and no man knows but it may be so as to him because before or at that time Death may cut him off and then he has no more to do with this Earth or with the Sons of Men. As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more He shall return no more to his house neither shall his place know him any more Job 7. 9 10. Reason 3. Because when we dye our Everlasting state is to be determin'd l After Death the Judgment The moment of our departure hence will pass us over to the Righteous Tribunal of God It will make us either to shine with the Angels above or to set with the Devils It will either fix us in a joyful Paradise or in an intolerable state of Wo. So that we may say with Nieremberg how