we would but when our work is done and with our Master's leave We must not with our own hands pluck down these earthly Tabernacles neither deny our consent when God will pluck them down we are Tenants at will and must not think to have our Houses at our own dispose whether they shall down or not we came not into the world but at his appointment and must not go out without his leave I know a Godly man though he have some assurance of a better habitation is not so reconciled to death as to choose it for its own sake for Deaths looks are not lovely it being the King of terrors Job 18.19 and the terror of Kings and in it self formidable and hath daunted the courage of the stoutest Souldiers and triumphs over the most triumphant Conquerour and sometimes discomposeth the most composed Christian And therefore as on the one hand it should not be overmuch feared so on the other it should not be overmuch slighted Christ himself had some fearfull apprehensions of it and well he might knowing what he had to suffer the Sting was then in but by his death it was taken out in reference to Believers yet the Serpent is formidable but not poysonful it will strike still though it cannot sting and as 't is an Outlet to Life so 't is an Inlet to Eternity and who can enter into so vast a Gulph and so boundless an Ocean without amazement where he can find neither bank nor bottom 'T is impossible for men to put off Humanity neither doth Christianity teach us to be Stoicks yet it teacheth us to bound and moderate our passions and not overmuch to fear Death When we have a lawful call to it and when 't is our duty to dye when God sends let who will be the Messenger obey we must Lu. 12.5 Fear not them saith Christ that can kill the body and can do no more but fear him that can cast both Soul and Body into Hell yea I say unto you fear him All outward things must be undervalued for Life sake but Life it self must go for Gods sake if thou sell thy life for any worldly advantage thou wilt make a hard bargain For what good will the world do thee when thou art dead Luk. 12.20 Thou fool saith Christ this night will thy soul be required of thee and then whose are these Thou must part with any thing in the world to preserve it but if thou sell thy Soul to save thy life or part with Christ upon that account thou wilt make a bad bargain Mat. 16.26 for what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in Exchange for his soul This is not to prevent death but to Exchange one death for another temporal death for eternal 'T is not a choosing death thou art Press'd to but a submission to the will of God that is required at thy hands and of two evils the least is to be chosen if thou must either choose death or choose sin death is the more eligible for sin will expose thee to the second death and prove the everlasting separation of soul and body from God which is worse a thousand times than death If thou must lose thy life or thy soul let life go if thou must deny life or deny Christ Christ is better than thy life being the very life of thy soul and he that to avoid a little temporal pain incurs eternal torments makes a foolish bargain Now though there be no reason to love death yet is there great reason why thou shouldst love God better than life Psal 63.3 whose loving kindness is better than life though life be dear yet Christ is dearer The Cup of death may be bitter but Hell and Damnation and the eternal Wrath of God are much bitterer which if thou forsake Christ thou must drink up to the bottom which Eternity will be little enough to do God puts Sugar into the former none into the latter Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord even so saith the Spirit for they rest from their labours and their works follow them But those that miscarry are sent away with a curse Mat. 25.41 Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels c. 'T is true after the Fall death was threatned as a Curse and a Judgment for sin but by the death of Christ the nature of it is changed to Believers Psal 116.15 and the malignity of it abated Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints the sting is taken out and we may put the Serpent into our bosom 't is now to the godly a Sleep Our friend Lazarus sleepeth and so 't is said of Stephen he fell a sleep and the Grave is but Gods Cabinet to hide his Jewels where they are secured from the evil to come Isa 57.12 26.20 't is but a Chamber to hide them in till the indignation be past And though Deaths chambers be dark they are best to sleep in where thou shalt meet with no disturbance no noise without or terrour within thou shalt neither see nor hear nor feel nor fear evil death is but a sturdy Porter to open the door of thy Fathers house the gates of Heaven to thee to let thee in And though it may expose thee to some pain for the present 't is not much and 't is but momentary and not worthy the glory that shall be revealed for endless Joy presently succeeds it and pain will soon be forgotten If thou canst but stoop a little and croud in at this strait gate and narrow door thou wilt enter into that spacious City the New Jerusalem If thou canst not love death for its own sake yet entertain him for his Masters sake for it is the Embassadour of the great God and for his Message sake for he brings an Answer of peace To submit unto the will of God and to be obedient unto the death is not only thy Duty but thy Wisdom and Interest and to say with Christ Not my will but thine be done and with Samuel 1 Sam. 3.10 Speak Lord for thy Servant heareth If thou deny thy Life when God requires it Christ will deny thee entrance into those Heavenly Mansions and 't is a thousand times better lose thy life than lose his love think not yet that Heaven is had upon hard terms thou maist haply lose something for Christ but shalt never lose by him the way to save thy life is to hide it with God in Christ The hardest terms that Christ propounds are but reasonable 't is thy Interest to go to Heaven though it were even through the flames of Hell much more through the pangs of Death Paul easily concludes to dye for him was gain and to be with Christ was best of all he dyed daily and carried his life in his hand
him that is able to receive meat Oh Death how acceptable is thy Judgment to the needy and to him whose strength faileth him c. The best and holiest men have dyed for Innocency it self is no Target against it otherwise Christ had not dyed in whose mouth was found no guile The stoutest and strongest cannot resist death Sampson himself must yield him the victory The wisest cannot preserve himself alive Solomon himself that had studied the nature of all Vegetables 1 King 4.33 from the Cedar in Lebanon to the Hyssop that grows upon the wall yet found out none that could cure the dint of Death contra vim mortis non est medicamen in hortis The worst of men also are subjected to his power those that would sell their Souls to save their lives cannot do it there is no power can resist it at one time it prevail'd against almost all the world as in the Flood against populous Cities as Sodom and Gomorrah c. against Potent Princes and great Armies as over Pharaoh and his Host Senacherib's Army where an hundred fourscore and. five thousand were slain in one Night thus good and bad pass through the same Gate but then their way soon turns the Godly to the right and the Wicked to the left hand the one to Heaven and the other to Hell for as death is an outlet to let us out of the World so 't is an inlet to let us in to Eternity to the Godly an inlet to Eternal Bliss and to the wicked into Eternal misery Then will a difference be made between the Good and the Bad as wide as between Heaven and Hell Death is a debt we owe to nature and pay it we must and t is not much matter whether it be sooner or later or whether we dye a natural or violent Death they both signifie the same thing should'st thou turn every stone and use all means direct or indirect thou canst not long preserve thy life possibly if thou deny payment of this debt when God requires it thou maist preserve it a little longer and but a little for God will ere long distrain for the Debt and then cast thee into an Eternal Prison Gods determinate counsel is upon thee and he knows eventually when thy death shall be he hath determined thy bounds that thou canst not pass God commanded Abraham to Sacrifice his Son and it was his Duty so to do and his sin if he refused though God determined eventually it should not be done yet if he had refused it he had miss'd of the Blessing Thy appointed time is with God but unknown to thee 't is his revealed will that is thy duty thou must look after not eventually what shall come to pass secret things belong to God Deu. 29.29 but things revealed unto us if God and his truth his Gospel and his cause call thee to lay down thy life and seal thy doctrine with thy blood thou must carry thy life in thy hand and lay it down at his feet If God command thee to lose thy life 't is thy duty to dye and if by denying Christ life be prolonged 't is a hard bargain and 't is no less thy sin though God eventually determined thy life to be prolonged There are many that hasten their death by their intemperance and sacrifice their lives to Bacchus and Venus to drunkenness and lust and so become a Victim to the Devil himself yet are not Gods decrees altered for though many hasten their death or use unlawful means to preserve their lives and so both the one and the other become Guilty yet Gods decrees are not altered If thou devote thy life to God and fully resolvest to lose it for his sake if he require it though he never call thee forth to suffer thou wilt not lose thy reward and if thou resolvest thou wilt part with Christ and kick up thy profession rather than suffer for him if he never put thee upon the trial God will take the will for the deed whether thou wilt or no dye thou must for death will not be bribed Crowns and Kingdoms will not prolong their owners lives thou maist say of death as Paul of preaching A necessity is laid upon me will I nill I dye I must if willing I have a reward if against my will I cannot help it death will not be corrupted with bribes won with promises nor terrified with threats When the time will be 't is not so much thy concern to know as thy duty to prepare for it thou maist lose thy self but canst not preserve thy life one day beyond the appointed time if thou deny God a temporal life he will deny thee eternal life I have read of one in persecuting times being called to suffer for the truth he had professed cryes out The fire is hot I cannot burn but within a short space he was burnt in his own house and we have cause to fear he finds the fire of Hell incomparably hotter than the flames he was burnt in which yet he could not evade Death triumphs over all ranks and Estates of men from the King upon his Throne to his meanest Subject Mors pauperum tabernas regumque turres aequo pulsat pede Death makes no difference ere long the grizly hand of Death will with a winding sheet cover those naked Breasts and spotted Faces which have been the Looking-glasses of lust And worms will ere long make their nest between those Breasts which are now exposed to sight and sale and eat out those wanton windows of love and messengers of lust death will then cool the courage of the stoutest hot-spur Crowns and Scepters are the spoils taken by this Conqueror as trophies of his victories Job 14.7 man that is born of a woman is of short life and full of trouble Inward corruption disposeth us to Death as well as open violence thy body is an earthen pitcher ready to break at every knock this earthly tabernacle must be repaired with food or Physick or both daily or it will soon fall about thy ears many are the harbingers of death many are the sensible decayes in nature which tell thee thy end is approaching the weakness of thy sight the dulness of thy hearing the rottenness of thy â—eeth the wrinkles in thy face and thy gray hairs mind thee that this crazy Pitcher will not long come home from the water unbroken The contrary Elements whereof thy body is compounded the disagreeing qualities within thee of cold and heat drought and moisture will at length quarrel for the upper hand and work the destruction of the compositum were there no external cause of thy dissolution these will effect what thy greatest enemy can but do though haply not so soon The fruit when 't is once ripe will fall if it be not gathered the Rose will wither if not pluckt the sturdiest Oak or Elm or Cedar will at length yield to time Methusalems glass will run out and these
the hands of the cruel into the hand of thy blood-thirsty Enemies but consider who 't is that appoints Death is it not the great God that gives life and is there any but he that can take it away can any act without him when they cannot breathe without him is it not he that kills and makes alive and brings to the Gates of Death and back again is it not he without whose Providence a Sparrow cannot fall to the ground by whom all the hairs of thy head are numbred As thy life is not put into thy own hands to live while thou listest and to dye when thou pleasest no more is it into thy enemies hands to take it away when their pleasure is but in the hand of thy mercifull Father who best knows when thy work is done and when thou art ripe for glory 'T is true he useth Instruments sometimes one and sometimes another but these instruments cannot go one link beyond their commission and these are of his own chooseing sometimes inanimate creatures must do his Will and prove his Executioners thus the waters must drown the old world thus the Red Sea must overwhelm proud Pharaoh and his Host thus the fire must burn up Sodom and Gomorrah and the Cities adjacent thus the Earth must swallow up Corah Dathan and Abiram and their company sometimes bruit Beasts 2 King 2.24 thus the two she-Bears that killed forty two Children that mocked the Prophet 2 King 17.25 26. thus he destroyed those that feared him not with Lions yea sometimes very Insects are his Executioners thus he plagued Pharaoh and his people and many others Herod was devoured of Worms and many of Lice and the least of creatures if animated by him can stop the breath of the proudest Tyrant and the strongest and most potent Prince without him can do nothing The Devil himself cannot touch one of Jobs Cattel without his leave the fire cannot burn the three children nor the Lyons devour Daniel having no Commission from him A world of Arians could not destroy Athanasius nor a world of Papists Luther and Calvin God as he hath appointed all men to dye so he hath determined by what death the time when and the manner how and the instruments by whom and every circumstance belonging to it If he pleased he can make five of his people put a hundred to flight Lev. 26.8 and a hundred chase ten thousand Isa 69.1 his hand is not shortned that he cannot save neither is his ear heavy that he cannot hear I know in our Creation we were by our composition made subject to death but by his blessing had we not sinn'd we had not dyed for sin brought death into the world but when the Fall came man had not only an aptitude to a dissolution but an irrevocable decree past upon him and dye he must and ever since nature of it self tends to ruine and our bodies like an old house must yield to time and fall in pieces God I know hath power in his hand to maintain life longer or take it away sooner and he acteth accordingly he sets one a longer Lease than another as he thinks fit The Fathers of the first ages lived long some of them near to a thousand years in our age few reach a hundred and there are but few that live so long as Nature might spin out their lives but either by some disease some accident some violence or other offered to Nature their lives are cut off Mans body being compounded of the four elements and of contrary qualities heat and cold drought and moisture except God by his special blessing keep these in peace they will strive for the predominancy and indanger the compositum When sin entred into the world Rom. 5.12 death entred by sin and so death passed over all for as much as all have sinned and Christ in the work of Redemption hath not freed us from the first but the second death not from the stroak but the sting of death Christ died not to deliver us from hunger and thirst cold and nakedness sickness and diseases but so far forth as is for our good and God himself and not we our selves must be Judge in the case Christ himself suffered these miseries and dyed by the hand of cruelty and greater than the Master is the Servant cannot be and man is as liable to this as before Christs suffering Nature thou seest disposeth thee to death and God hath determined the time when for God is the God of Nature and disposeth it as he sees good Well maist thou expect death as the wages of sin and every day doth expose thee to some danger or other which may take away thy life Death comes irresistible like an armed man thou hast no time certain no time promised no breath but what God puts into thee and therefore thou shouldest daily expect death let it come in what shape it will or let God send by what messenger he pleaseth thou shouldst bid him welcome thou shouldst stoop willingly under the stroke for 't is but death still thou canst not avoid it therefore make a vertue of necessity Seeing thy Lamp must out 't is not much whether it be put out or burn out whether the tree rot down or be cut down whether the Rose wither or be gathered if the later 't is like to be put into the bosom all is but death and a death thou owest and a death thou must pay thy natural constitution adapts thee to it and God by his decree designs thee to it and 't is thy duty to submit and no reason to the contrary for it is thy interest The potion thou art to drink is prescribed and mixt by the wise Physician the Cup thou art to drink comes out of thy Fathers hand and no more nay not so bitter as he gave his only Son and he drank up the very dregs of it for thy sake yea and there is Sugar put into thine to sweeten it All the circumstances of thy death are determined by him and none can add one dram to the potion he hath mixed for thee and yet dost thou grumble that it is too much or too bitter dost thou think thy self wise enough to alter Gods Eternal Decrees who hath determined thy daies the number of thy months are with him Job 14.5 he hath appointed thy bounds that thou canst not pass Or wilt thou quarrel the messenger he sends and like the foolish dog bite the stone and let the passenger that threw it go free is there evil in the city 〈◊〉 3.6 and the Lord hath not done it without his leave a dog cannot move his tongue against thee nor an enemy his finger whoever be the Instrument God is the Author Isa 10.5 if the King of Assyria be the rod God is he that holds the rod and when the Child is reformed the rod will be burnt David could see God even in Shimei's cursing 2 Sam. 16.10
everlasting why haltest thou between two opinions 1 King 18.21 if the Lord be God follow him and if Baal be God follow him If God be better than the world follow him fully and if the world be best then pursue it with all thy might but consider well what thou dost for this will be bitterness in the latter end Hast thou so long laboured and prayed and ran and wrestled for a prize that now seems not worth having dost thou now come within sight of Heaven and doth thy heart fail thee Hast thou put thy hand to the plow and now lookest back didst thou begin in the Spirit and wilt now end in the flesh wilt thou be like wicked men and Seducers that grow worse and worse Hath the world bribed thee or the Devil stopt thy mouth Take heed thou make not Judas's purchase or Demas's choice If thou change thy master consider what is his wages as well as what is his work and if this please thee go on Dost thou want nothing here to make thee happy that thou art so loth to away well let me tell thee if thou miss of Christ thou wilt want nothing to make thee everlastingly miserable if the world be all thou expectest then 't is no wonder thou art so loth to leave it for who can willingly part with his only Happiness and be stript of all his desired enjoyments and not only so but enter into everlasting misery for so they will do that have their portion in this life and those that make the world their God or love any thing though it be life it self above Christ 'T is no wonder that these fear the Pursevant that fetches them to execution and drags them to Hell He that hath the world for his All will be loth to lose all at one cast these may look upon death as one that comes to torment them before the time death to those is like as Belshazzars hand-writing was to him a terror and amazment and there is nothing that is in the world can speak peace to such a soul if his conscience be awake 'T is not Lucretius his Epicurean Rules nor Anacreons wanton Odes can then lull it asleep or cease the barking of it or shift off the terror of death A wounded Spirit who can bear but one that believeth that death is but a gathering to his Fathers a sweet sleep a going to Christ and being with him and that the body though laid in the grave shall not be lost but raised up again at the last day and made like unto the glorified body of Christ How unsuitable is it for such to be terrifyed with the apprehensions of it but the thoughts of the Immortality and the Incorruptibility and the Spirituality and Glory of the body at the Resurrection should drown the noise silence the doubts and fears of the danger that lies in the way and the pains and pangs of death it self The pains of death to these are worse than being dead and this is but a flea-biting to the joy that follows but to the wicked the pain of dying is nothing in comparison of the consequences of death and the tormenting pains of the second death for were Hell no worse than the pangs which dying men suffer it were not so formidable Rev. â— 6 6.16 In misery men shall seek death and shall not find it and shall desire to dye and death shall flee from them then will they say to the rocks and mountains fall on us and cover us c. 'T is wonder how wicked men can eat and drink and sleep and all this while know they are in debt and danger yea that there is a Sergeant ready to arrest them whensoever the Creditor will and to cast them into prison out of which they are never like to get sure some judiciary hardness is falne upon them that they are sleeping thus on the top of the Mast and playing securely before the mouth of the Lyon or before the Cannons mouth and are more insensible than brute Beasts of their danger approaching yea they hasten their death and misery by the intemperance of their lives and sacrifice not only their health but life also to Lust and Drunkenness to luxury and excess and will not suffer Nature to spin out the thred of their lives to the utmost extent but put a period to it themselves and cut off the thred of their lives with their own hands these men run headlong to Hell and wilfully upon death which they had cause most of all to fear and avoid The apprehension of approaching death is not the same to those men and to others that believe that death will end all their miseries and land them into everlasting happiness the same Judge absolveth the innocent and condemns the guilty and those men have not the same apprehensions of him the one longs for his coming the other fears it 'T is rather a wonder that the Saints that have assurance of their future glory do not long for the time of their dissolution and seek to hasten it by some illegal way than use any indirect means to live when they are called to dye I know the former is unlawful for we must keep our station while God appoints us and so is the latter for we must come off the Centinel when he calls us but it is more natural to desire happiness than misery and to use indirect means to procure the former than the latter We read in the primitive times when many Christians were to suffer of a Woman and her children that were hasting to the place and being met by one of the persecutors who demanded whither she went and why she made so much haste she answered She was a Christian and hearing many Christians were that day to suffer she hasted with her children to suffer with them and feared lest she should come too late Ignatius was afraid lest the Prayers of the Church should prevent him of suffering for Christ and of his Crown of Martyrdome These had not such fearful apprehensions of death as thou seemest to have Sure those that look for perfection by death should not be afraid of it and if these tabernacles of our bodies must down what matter is it whether they are taken down or burnt down seeing the materials both waies will be preserved the one turns them to dust the other to ashes and in a little time they will moulder of themselves into dust Death to the godly is but a parting of two intimate friends the Soul and the Body for a time and both the one and the other will be gainers by the separation the Soul goes immediately to Heaven and the Body lies in the grave for a season and shall thence be raised in unspeakable glory and God will build it up again an habitation for the soul at his own proper cost and charges Death to them is but a Gaol-delivery where the soul that hath been long a prisoner shall be set
Jonah out of the Whales Belly or Joseph or Jeremy or Paul or Silas or Peter to come out of Prison when the time of deliverance came was ever fick man afraid of Health or Lame man of being restored to his Limbs or a Blind man of being recovered to his sight was ever Hungry man afraid of his meat or thirsty man unwilling to drink or weary man unwilling to rest or was ever Turkish Slave unwilling to leave his Oars or enjoy his freedom yet have none of these so much cause to rejoyce in their freedom as the poor Soul hath in the freedom purchased by Christ and to be enjoyed at death Doth not the Husbandman long for the Harvest when he shall receive the fruits of the Field the reward of his labour doth not the Souldier long for the Victory when he shall receive the Crown doth not the Traveller desire his Journeys end and the Mariner his wished Port and the Labourer for the Sun-setting when his work is done and his wages is due and wilt thou only be afraid of the time when thy misery shall end and thy Joyes commence and all because there is a little dirty though not dangerous way to pass though there be an eternal reward for a temporal yea momentany Pain yea a thousand weight of pleasure for an ounce of grief Oh foolish Soul hast thou fought the fight and won the day and is it but stooping down and take up the Crown and wilt not be at so much pains Is there but one stile more to thy Fathers house and wilt thou sit down here and go no further but one hour between thee and Glory and hast thou spent so many years in reference to it and now wilt not add that hour to the rest hast thou almost run the race and shall one Lake in the way make thee to retire when the end is in sight hast subdued all the Enemies but one and is he disarmed also and lyes prostrate at thy feet and yet faintest and forsakest the Field dost thou fly from the Serpent when the sting is out hast thou vanquished the Flesh the World and the Devil and yet fearest Death which is a reconciled Friend hast thou overcome him that hath the power of Death and fearest thou Death it self Hast thou overcome the substance and dost quake at the shadow many thousand lose their Lives upon lower ends and venture them for a lower reward than here is propounded some for vain glory others for a corruptible Crown and wilt not venture thy life for Eternal glory and to secure thy Soul some venture Life and Soul and all in a Whores Quarrel or a Drunkards fray and wilt thou not in the cause of God and vindication of the truth and that when thy Captain stands by thee are the Gates of the Heavenly Jerusalem open and wilt not enter wilt lose all rather than strike one stroak more O my God let not the Flesh the World nor the Devil deceive me let me not faint under the burden nor ever turn my back upon thee Lord strengthen me and I will suffer for thee MEDITAT VI. What hurt can Death do a Believer OH my Soul what makes thee yet draw back are not all these foregoing considerations enough to satisfie thee but yet the thoughts of Death do appale thee and the thoughts of the Grave make thee to shiver heretofore thou hast even courted Death and solaced thy self with the Meditation of the Grave and the forethought of the time when Sin and Sorrow should be no more and now dost quake at the apprehension of it and art frighted at his grim countenance Consider a little what he is whence he comes and what message he brings and then see if he be so formidable as he seems he is but a Messenger and comes not upon his own errand neither runs he before he be sent he comes not from an Enemy but a friend yea from one that loves thee yea from that friend that sent Jesus Christ to dye for thee and the same love is exercised in the one as in the other he sent first to purchase an Inheritance for thee and now sends to thee to receive it He comes to tell thee the Great King of Heaven and Earth Greets thee and invites thee to the Marriage Feast to the Wedding Supper to drink Wine with Christ in his Fathers Court he comes to tell thee thou hast fought the good fight thou hast finisht thy course and from henceforth is laid up for thee a Crown of righteousness which Christ the Righteous Judge shall give thee at the last day that thou hast been faithfull over a few things and shalt be Ruler over many things and shalt enter into thy Masters Joy He comes to tell thee thou art at Age and must receive thine Inheritance that thou hast been long enough tossed to and fro upon the Waves of trouble and now must enter into the desired Port that thou hast long enough fed upon husks and now must come to thy Fathers house where there is bread enough and to spare he comes to tell thee thy Warfare is accomplished the race is run the prize is won and from henceforth the Crown of Glory is thine own and what hurt is in all this or why is such a Messenger to be feared he comes not as haply thou mayst suppose to break thy peace with thy God no but to make an everlasting peace which shall never be broken to assure thee God and thy departing Soul are at peace and all controversies are ended and that thou shalt never more see one frown in the face of God nor one wrinkle in his forehead he comes not for thy hurt but thy good not to hinder thy promotion but to promote it not to destroy thy body but only sow it in the Earth that it may spring forth a glorious body that corruption may put on incorruption 1 Cor. 15.55 and the mortal may put on immortality that Death may be swallowed up of Victory He comes not to make thee miserable Rev. 14.13 but happy Blâ—ssed are the Dead which dye in the Lord even so saith the Spirit for they rest from their labours and their works follow them He comes not to separate thee from God this he cannot do For neither Death Rom. 8.28.29 nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. No Death brings us into a nearer Union and more close Communion 'T is not come to make void the Covenant with God but to make it good for God hath promised in the Covenant to give Christ and Heaven and Glory to thee and how can this be made good till Death and though the body lye for a season in the Grave as Israel did in Egypt after Gods Covenant with Abraham yet shortly Death like
bestowed upon wicked men will off also If thy Name be written in the Book of Life it matters not much if it be blotted out of the world if God remember thee it matters not much though the world forget thee What though the Habitation wherein thou livest know thee no more if thou art acquainted in Heaven it matters not much though haply the place may be recorded for thy sake Psal 87.4 5 6. For of Zion it shall be said this or that man was born in her and the Highest himself shall establish her the Lord shall count when he writeth up his people that this man was born there What matter is it to thee where thou wast born if now thou hast a better habitation thou hast never had any abiding place since thou wast born but posted from one place to another by an over-ruling Providence and never in any long settled Habitation having above twenty times changed thy dwelling many times against thy will and most times by an unexpected Providence And sometimes when thou hast pitcht thy Tent and said Surely I shall dye here Numb 10.12 the Cloud hath removed and thou hast been forced to march some Providence or other gave a check to thy conceits and if thou live longer thy future condition is not like to be more settled thou hast been a wayfaring man all thy dayes even from the Morning of thy Life and so thou art like to be till thy Sun be set And for some season thy own house would not own thee thy own doors were shut against thee and thy nearest Relations durst not entertain thee though no flagitious crime was charged upon thee Many a place that did know thee is now strange to thee and thou art a stranger to it and if this become strange also 't is no great matter If thou art of a Peasant made a Prince and from a Countrey Cottage brought into the possession of a Kingdom never complain what wrong death hath done thee Or is it thy work thou art so unwilling to leave or art thou ready to say Alas what will become of these poor Sheep in the Wilderness 1 Sam. 17.28 if the Shepherd be smitten they will be scattered 't is well if there be so much care of them Paul indeed having the care of all the Churches upon him was driven into a streight whether to choose Life or Death yet to dye he knew was best for him but to live for them but I fear there are few like-minded that naturally care for the Church for all seek their own not one anothers welfare but the argument may be retorted If thou which hast been a Shepherd fly when thou seest the Wolf coming how shall the Sheep stand if thou turn thy back upon Christ and rather deny him than suffer for him what woful work will this make among the Sheep if thou refuse to seal thy Doctrine with thy blood what encouragement shall they have to own their profession to the Death when the Captains run what havock will the enemy make among the Souldiers but what will thy Life add to any mans happiness or thy Death diminish from thy own If the chief Husbandman take thee out of the Vineyard 't is but to make room for other Labourers for his work shall not stand if he stop thy mouth he will open the mouths of others his work shall be done whether thou live or dye Thou art almost laid aside as a broken Vessel and if he break thee quite the matter is not much there will be little loss And if thou live thou art in a capacity of doing little good but if thy Sun set at Noon God will not diminish thy wages Luk. 9.62 if he take the Plough out of thy hand he will not blame thee for looking back those that workt but one hour in the Vineyard had their penny but thy Sun is almost set the shadows of the Evening are stretched out Jer. 6.4 and Nature it self will shortly end thy dayes and cut off the thred of thy life if thou shouldst spin it to the utmost extent and yet art so loth to have it broke off a little before the time if thou hast imployed thy Talent well God will not chide thee that thou hadst it no longer he doth not require so much use for the half-year as for the whole nor so much work to be done in the half as in the whole day in the Vineyard If he call thee hence to serve him elsewhere he expects thou shouldst obey for thy praises in Heaven are as pleasant to him as thy Preaching upon Earth and for the Church of God take no care he that hath made provision for it this five thousand years he will not leave it now and can do his work without thee and if God take away thy life he will take away thy work and lay thy burden upon others shoulders The same stroak that lets out thy life le ts out thy sin and sin being gone the consequents fruits and effects of it cease also which are labour and sorrow Job 3.17 18. and in the grave the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary are at rest Death may be sweet to those to whom Life hath been bitter and though death may destroy thy Body yet shall it have no dominion over thy Soul Eccles 12.7 the Spirit returns to God that gave it The body is but a crazie Pitcher and no wonder if it break nay 't is a wonder it hath run through so many dangers and is not yet broken and when it is broken 't is but of the same Clay to make a better by the same Potter Thy life is precious indeed and should not be sold but not so precious as to be bought at such a rate as the loss of the Soul What wise man will sell the Jewel to redeem the Box Christ lost his life for thy Souls redemption and wilt thou not lose thine for its preservation Temporal death is the only in-let to Eternal Life but to seek to save thy Life when Christ and his Cause require it is the ready way to eternal death to lose it in this case is to save it and the way to get the greatest gain and to prevent the everlasting separation of soul and body from God which is the second Death But Death of it self cannot seperate from God Rom. 8.28 29. and however it may make the body loathsom in the eyes of men and undesirable to near Relations yet it cannot make it unlovely in Gods eyes or move him to forsake it and though it do fall into the earth and rot there 't is but as seed sown into the ground to spring up with more advantage it is a part of Christs Purchase and shall not be lost 1 Cor. 6.19 't is the Temple of the Holy Ghost and though it be ruined 't is but to be rebuilt and not one pin of it shall be wanting for the Grave
of France in Hungary Germany Savoy Piedmont England Scotland and especially of Ireland where two or three hundred thousand have perished in a sew weeks for since the fiery Jesuits became an Order having their Name rather from Judas than Jefus the Christian world hath been in a flame yea the poor Indians have tasted of their cruelty wherever they set their foot like Saul they make havock of the Church and many hundred thousands have been cut off by their bloody hands and all along thou maist trace the Church in blood and tears and dost thou think much to be one of those that shall cry Rev. 6.19 How long Lord holy and true before thou avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial 1 Pet. 4.12 as if some strange thing happened to thee for this is no temptation but what is common to man When such great Commanders and old Souldiers lead thee the way thou needest not be ashamed or afraid to follow them dost think to escape drowning in a common deluge The Apostle was sure of nothing but of bonds and imprisonment and was ready not only to be bound but to dye for Christ If thou go to suffering thou treadest not in an untrodden path for the Captain of thy salvation was made perfect by suffering A few daies and thou wilt be even with the greatest Kings and Emperours Job 21.23 For death is a perfect Leveller and if dye thou must as well as others dispute not the case with God what death it must be or who is fittest to determine it In one of these late years death slew an hundred thousand in our chief City and two or some say three hundred thousand more by the hand of cruelty in one Kingdom in Ireland and sometimes many thousands in one battel A death thou owest and a death thou must pay and whether in thy Bed or on a Tree or at the Stake if thy cause be good 't is not much matter whether thy life be ended by the course of nature or by violent hands whether thy lamp be burnt out or put out whether the Rose be gathered or withered if the latter even so Father for so it seemed good to thee Death is an enemy that cannot be resisted the only way to conquer it is to fall under it so Christ our chief Captain did we shall never conquer till we be overcome and never be victors till we are conquered and then both death and the fear of death and and he that hath the power of death the Devil shall be subdued for when he hath separated the soul from the body he hath done his worst and spit his venom and like a Ree that hath lost his sting can do no more mischief and then thy Conquest is fully obtained and the last enemy is subdued for then death and bell shall be cast into the lake of fiâ—e yea there shall be no more death thou shalt then be for ever freed from the dread and danger of it death pricks that ulcer that would never be cured while thou livest when Corn is ripe and cut 't is fit for use the conquest of death is made easie by the death of Christ that now Believers may triumphantly sing O death where is thy sting 1 Cor. 15.55 56. O grave where is thy victory the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law but thanks be to God who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ It cannot now sting thee but strike thee and the very wound it gives is the way to heal thee it seals up thy salvation to thee and makes it sure out of a possibility to lose it seals up wicked mens damnation and puts them into an irrecoverable condition Christ which was made a Curse for us hath taken away the curse of death and by hanging on a tree which was threatned as a curse Gal. 3.13 he hath sanctified that death also to Believers who suffer for him and for the testimony of a good conscience and their condition is also happy for they rest from their labours and their works follow them All Saints dye but all are not Martyrs all have crowns but not all the crown of Martyrdom but only those that love not their lives to the death all shall have white robes Rev. 7.11 c. but these shall have long white robes and palms in their hands and shall follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes If thou canst get the qualifications fit for a dying man thou needest not fear death nor the manner of it to such deaths black Vizor is taken off and there are few wrinkles seen in his forehead thy death is decreed and the manner of it and though thou knowest not what eventually will happen yet observe what is Gods will of command and so thou wilt know what is thy duty secret things belong to God but things revealed to us thou hast no promise to be freed from the Prison the Stake the Sword or the Halter and promise not thy self greater freedom than God hath promised he hath promised indeed all shall work together for thy good and this promise is sufficient for why shouldest thou desire freedom if it be not good for thee he hath promised that if thou art faithful to the death Rev. 2.10 thou shalt have a Crown of life that he will never leave thee nor forsake thee and that the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against thee And these promises he will assuredly keep if thou break not with him There is no death which a malefactor may dye but it may be a Believers lot and then why not thine God hath accounted thee worthy to preach the Gospel and to dispense the Mystery thereof and if he account thee worthy also to suffer for him and to seal thy doctrine with thy blood it is a double honour yea such as the Apostles gloried in for to dye for the Truth if cal'd to it is both a Duty and a Dignity if thou suffer with him you will be glorified together Pass on therefore out of this Egypt out of this house of bondage couragiously though through the red Sea yea a sea of blood to this heavenly Canaan yea though thy way lye through a wilderness of troubles for thine Inheritance will make thee amends murmur not for thou shalt have no cause to repent there is enough in God to give thee content and to pay thee for thy pains if thou think there is not stir not a step further if there be never faint in the way never leave Heavens road for a piece of foul way or for the Cross that lyes in it go on towards Heaven yea though thy way lye by the gates of Hell nay thorow the very flames of it much more though it lye thorow the pangs of death haply thou maist be burnt for an Heretick this is no new thing hundreds of thousands
thee home and now art fallen in love with it that thou wilt not leave it and rid of it thou canst not be till death let out thy life 't is only in the Grave thou wilt be at rest and hid from sin which then cannot find thee nor any miseries which now are the effects of sin nor from the temptations which are the inducements to sin and dost thou yet tremble to part with such an Enemy thou hast pretended Enmity to sin and been at Daggers drawing with it and art now reconciled to it it hath been thy trouble to have it and is it now thy trouble to leave it many a poysoned Arrow the Devil hath shot at thee and wouldst still be his Butt to receive his Arrows and venomous Shafts These Hell-hounds haunt thee and will hunt thee till thou art in thy Grave there they will lose the scent and can follow thee no longer here is thy Borough thy hiding place where thou art shut in by God and secure Here the weary are at rest here the Prisoners are secure and hear not the voice of the Oppressour here thou shalt be freed from all that is called misery Sin is an imperious Tenant or Inmate it will not out till the house be pull'd down yea will turn the Landlord out of doors Oh what hard hap had man to admit of such a Guest but this is thy comfort sin is but a Tenant at will not at thy will but the Will of God who will shortly pull down the House and set thee at liberty and Oh! thy madness that though thou canst no other way be rid of it yet art unwilling to dye and be happy In Heaven Paul shall never cry out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of Death Here the unclean conversations of the wicked shall never vex the Soul of righteous Lot David here shall never water his Couch with his tears nor Jeremy wish his heart full of water and his eyes a fountain of tears to weep day and night for the destruction of his people There is nothing here that can procure misery for here sin shall be shut out for no unclean thing shall ever enter But it is not sin only but sorrow also as well as sin shall be done away for when the cause is removed the effect shall cease It was sin that brought Death into the World and all the forerunners of it yea all the concomitants and consequents of it here thou art troubled with a sickly body subject to many infirmities many pains aches griefs and troubles scarce a waking hour free from pain and from head to foot scarce a free part but one pain or other doth molest it some pain ache or grief attends it every sense as 't is an inlet to sin so 't is to pain and misery to let in one trouble or other into the Soul and help to affect the heart with some fear or care or grief or trouble and these consume it as the scorching Sun the tender Flowers Oh how tender a piece is this dust-heap thy Body more brittle than glass it self a little cold or heat soon molests it how many tender Membranes Sinews Arteries Veins Muscles c. are therein contained and every one subject to obstructions extentions contractions dislocations c. and upon this distempers necessarily follow well maist thou say with Job Job 3 4.13 14 15. I am made to possess moneths of vanity and wearisom nights are appointed to me When I lye down I say When shall I arise and the night be gone and I am full of tossing to and fro unto the dawning of the day When I say my Bed shall comfort me and my Couch shall ease my complaint then thou scarest me with Dreams and terrifiest me through Visions So that my Soul chooseth strangling and Death rather than Life What bitter pills what nauseous potions dost thou take when sugered with the hopes of health what crying out Oh my Back Oh my Head Oh my Heart Oh my Bones Oh what would I give for a little ease a little rest a little sleep for a Stomach my Stomach nauseates my meat when others want meat for their craving Appetite and how hard a thing is it to keep up this poor old decaying ruinous Cottage in repair one Wall or other is continually ready to fall to ruine and at which door Death will enter is not yet known and when it comes it will but destroy thy body which for the Materials of it are no better than the body of a Beast which ere long will fall for Death is all this while undermining it and the rational Soul doth only keep it from putrefaction and Death is but a departing of the Soul from it to Glory and why shouldst be troubled to have the Prison-walls pull'd down and the Prisoner set at liberty why art unwilling to lay aside this flesh which hath taken part with Satan against thy God and is at present a temptation to thee with Peter to deny thy Master why choosest thou to live in a darksome nasty Prison where thy Wings are pinioned that thou canst not mount up to thy God where thou hadst thy Original this body is but a clog at thy heels and never was intended for thy dwelling place but only as a Tent or Pavilion an Inne or resting place for a night where like a wayfaring man thou maist rest for a while and away but here thou hast no continuing City thou art passing on to another place Phil. 3.21 to a Mansion a House not made with hands but eternal in the Heavens which Christ at his departing provided for thee when this Tabernacle shall be built into a Temple for God shall change this thy Vile body that it may be like unto his Glorious body and why then dost content thy self in this dirty Cell when thou maist have such a glorious habitation doth thy heart ake to think that the time is coming it shall never ake more or dost thou weep to think all tears shall be wiped from thine eyes and thou shalt never weep more or is it a matter of grief think'st that thou shalt never grieve more and art afflicted to think thy afflictions are at an end what unnatural sorrow is this art thou sick to think that in Heaven thou shalt never more know what sickness means or that thou shalt never more have an aking Head or an aking Heart here thou wilt be freed from whatsoever may be properly called Evil and shalt want nothing that is really good Here Christians themselves prove stumbling-block's in each others way which causeth tears from the eyes and sorrow from the heart but there the fire of love will consume the thorns of contention here corruptions like thorns serve to keep the fire of contention alive and those flames are more like to burn up their graces than their dross for the divisions of Reuben there are great thoughts of heart Judg. 5.15 but
God that I clearly saw death was â—o stranger to you and that you had learnt â—he Apostles lesson 1 Thess 4.13 Not to mourn as men â—ithout hope for those that sleep in the â—ord you imitated David who when his â—â—n was living fasted and prayed but â—hen dead 2 Sam. 12.18 held his tongue and said noâ—â—ing because God did it Or said as â—â—b at the death of all his children Job 1.21 â—he Lord gave and the Lord hath taâ—en away Blessed be the Name of the â—ord To mourn for our Relations is doubtâ—ss our duty to mourn immoderately as â—achel and will not be comforted is doubtles s a sin and implyes we think God hath â—onged us in taking away our Relations without our leave or serves to bespeak us 〈◊〉 have more wisdom than God hath and 〈◊〉 know better than he when 't is best for â—hem to dye and when their work is done these considerations made me think these Meditations would not startle you nay your own Death would not affright you and yet considering that death is an enemy to Nature and that you were Flesh as well as Spirit and though the Spirit were willing yet the Flesh â—s weak I thought it would not be unsuitable to put this weapon into your hand in this conflict between the Flesh and the Spirit for death sometimes comes with a grisly look and terrible aspect for as a Heathen saith of all Terribles Death is most terrible and therefore the Scripture calls him the King of terrors Job 18.14 and experience shews that he is a terror to Kings Psal 55.4 David complains the terrors of death compassed him about and the apprehensions of death struck a greater than David into an agony Christianum agere non est hominem exuere when we become Christians we cease not to be men Now though we cannot quite root out the fear of death yet Christians may and many doe much abate it yea and chuse it rather than life upon any sinful terms those under great sufferings refused deliverance Heb. 11.36 that is upon any unlawful terms The love of Christ in the Martyrs was hotter than the fire they burnt in yea this made Paul willing not only to be bound but to dye for Christ yea desire to be dissolved and to be with him so that although I think you have not so much need of a work of this nature as many have yet I cannot think 't is altogether useless for you lye under greater temptations than many others and have stronger gusts of wind to grapple with than low Shrubs and haply Christ may cost you more than others haveing more to lose and the world breaks many a match between Christ and the Soul those that are rich fall into temptation 1 Tim. 6.9 Luk. 18.23 remember the young man that parted with Christ upon this ground and Demas that chose the world before him 'T is easier to steer a small Vessel in a storm than a great Ship this may be thrust into any Creek or Harbour where a tall Ship cannot ride Cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator Oh Death Ecclus. 41.1 how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that lives at ease in his Possessions and hath prosperity in all things We may say of you as the people did of David 2 Sam. 18.3 If many of us fall it signifies little the Enemyes great design lyes against such as you those that fall high their fall will be the greater and a great deal of Grace is necessary to support a great man Till a man can see an emptiness in the Creature and a fulness in Christ and enough in Heaven to make amends for all his losses upon Earth he will not be brought to lose all for Christ It was no small measure of Grace that made Galeacius teave the Marquesdom of Vico and come to Geneva for the Gospel sake I know we live in such times as Salvian did when Religion and Godliness are accounted a shame to Gentility and a blemish to Nobility and those very Ingredients let their other qualifications be what they will will render the worlds greatest Favourites unlovely in their eyes 1 Sam. 2.30 But those that honour God God will honour and those that despise him shall be lightly esteemed St. Bernard tells Sophia That it was a greater honour that God made her one of a few than that she descended from Noble Parents the one was Gods distinguishing Badge the other a common favour Solomon tells us A vertuous Woman herâ— price is above Rubies and no doubt a vertuous Man is as precious but 't is a good conjunction where Grace and Greatness meet for although a Diamond hath the same vertue oâ— the Dunghill as in a Gold Ring or the richest Cabinet yet not so seemly Grace loseth not it Vertue in a Country Clown yet is it moâ—splendid in a great man and such a one thuâ— qualified is capable of bringing more Glorâ— to God and doing more good in his Generation than a poor man can Religion in greaâ— persons as 't is most Rare so 't is most Conspicuous 't is like a Beacon upon an hill eveâ— eye is upon it and the Country imitates thâ— Court Qualis Rex talis Grex. Greatneâ— makes men capable of doing God more work or the Devil more service The great 〈◊〉 need not be ashamed of going in thâ— Fashion for Grace is the fairest Flower 〈◊〉 their Garland for none wear those Jewel but the Spouse of Christ It was more honour to David to be Gods Servant than Israels King 't is more honour to be in Covenant with God than to have Royal blood run in our Veins to be an Heir of Heaven than to be Heir to a Kingdom to be the Children of God than to be the Children of Nobles Isai 43.4 since thou wast precious in my sight saith God thou wast honourable For Nobility it self is mortal and many Noble Houses and Families dye and come to nothing but Grace is longer liv'd My desire is that seeing God hath written Vanity upon the Creatures that you may be able to read it and so may hang loose to the World and so use it as not to abuse it And seeing Death is certain and the time of Death uncertain that you will learn to dye daily that when Death comes you may look upon it without Horror or Distraction In the mean time Heb. 12.1 2. that you may run the Race that is set before you yea so run that you may obtain and with Christ endure the Cross and despise the Shame 1 Cor. 9.24 that you may sit down with him in his Kingdom of Glory that you may keep your Garments unspotted in the World and have your Loyns girded your Lamps alwayes Burning and you your selves in a Centinel posture that at what hour soever your Lord and Master comes you may be found Watching my desire is that while you live you may
Hell that the Soul is Immortal and the Scripture the Word of God pardon the supposition for some deny the whole and most men live as if they did not believe it but whatever thy present thoughts be if thou art unregenerate thy future thoughts will shew thee thy folly and thou wilt have time enough to wish thou hadst neglected thy Ease Honour Pleasure Grandure yea thy life it self to have made thy peace with thy God and made preparation for Eternity for this preparation would have made thee dye never the sooner nor the neglect of it have made thy life the longer whether thou art prepared or no Death will make a very great change when Eternity is an addition to thy weal or woe If prepared Death cannot hurt thee for it hath lost his sting if not it cannot benefit thee for it terminates thy happiness and dates thy misery the godly shall never have no more Suffering because they have no more sin the wicked as they are never weary of sin so God will never be weary of punishing Haply thou maist live in great misery here and thinkest Death will set thee at liberty but if thou art in an unregenerate condition 't is but leaping out of the Frying-pan into the fire from Temporal Troubles to Eternal Torments which are ten thousand times worse and is it not then time to be serious and haply thou art young and strong and thinkest thou maist live many a fair day yet but what assurance hast when younger and stronger are gone before thee Job 21.23 c. In Job's days such as thee have dyed and so they do still One dyes saith he in his full strength being wholly in peace and quietness his Breasts are full of Milk and his bones are moistned with Marrow And another dyes in the bitteeness of his Soul and never eateth with pleasure Some dye in the Zenith or heighth of their perfection in the highest degree of worldly Prosperity having abundance of good blood and fresh spirits even compassed in their Fat Psal 17.10 as the Psalmist hath it for a full Belly many times makes a foul heart and most weeds grow in the fattest soil and experience teacheth that present health and strength are no assurance of a long life Amos 6.3 think not because thou puttest far from thee the evil day in thy thoughts that therefore 't is really at a great distance It follows not that because thou winkest and wilt not see Death therefore Death is blind and cannot see thee No No he is stealing upon thee at unawares tacito pede with a swift but silent foot and if he arrest thee before thou hast made thy peace with the Creditor Mat. 5.26 thou wilt be cast into Prison till thou hast paid the utmost Farthing Our time-wasting Gallants that spend their time idly or worse than in doing nothing will one day find the Bill of their accounts many fathoms longer than they imagined then they will set a greater estimate upon time than now they do and willingly would they redeem their lost hours which now they know not how to pass away at a high rate but it will not be now they set Death at defiance and meet it half way and hasten it by their Intemperance Drinking Whoring or shorten their lives in a Drunken Fray or Whores Quarrel but when Death comes in good earnest Dan. 5.5 it will seem as terrible as Belshazzers hand-writing upon the wall make their hearts to ake and their joints to tremble especially did they know the consequences of Death they would not be such prodigals of their lives or did they mind their work which they have to do they would not be such Prodigals of their time they should do it in and would think it went away fast enough without driving Oh! how a little time will alter these mens Judgments then their Feathers and Fancies will be laid aside when they stand upon Christs left hand and all their wealth will not purchase one drop of water to cool their tongues 'T is not then a Baalams wish will serve turn nor a Lord have Mercy upon me Mal. 7.22 25.11 will do their work Lord Lord open to us will not prevail those are not like to receive the reward of the Righteous that persecute them for righteousness sake Then they will befool themselves as fast as now they befool others wiser than themselves Then they shall change their minds and sigh for grief and say Wisd 5.3 c. This is he that we sometimes had in derision and in a Parable of Reproach we Fools thought his life Madness and his End without honour now he is reckoned among the Children of God and his Portion is among the Saints c. What hath Pride profited us or what hath Riches with our Vaunting brought us all these things are passed away like a Shadow and as a Post that passeth by c. Then our proudest Gallants willingly would be found in the garb or Fashion now they disdain and deride Now they call those Fools that deny themselves their Ease their Pleasure or Carnal Interest for Conscience sake but then they will befool themselves for choosing Pebbles before Pearls Earth before Heaven and the Creature before God for these things will prove but a pitiful Portion when there is most need Now they think Heaven is held at a dear rate and they will not come up to the price but then they 'l know that it was sold at a cheap rate when they parted with it for a lust and that the World was bought too dear when they gave the Soul for it Mat. 16.26 Now like Damocles they feast themselves without fear and see not the Sword that hangs over their heads ready every moment to pierce into their Brains and end their lives with their dinner Now they prize their honour more than their honesty and consider not that if the foundation of honour be not laid in Vertue the building cannot stand for those that lay the foundation in a shadow the building is but like a Castle built in the air and will soon fall about their Ears but that honour is lasting where God is the top of the Kin and Religion lyes at the bottom But to pass over this I shall give you some account of my present undertaking Some there are that think Books of this nature are unseasonable especially to our youthful Gallants because it spoils their Mirth and they have time enough to think of such things hereafter and they cannot endure to have their Enemy brought upon the Stage for this spoils the Play But to this I answer A young Sheep-skin is brought to the Market as soon as an old and I see not but the Gentry die as well as others yea many by Intemperance hasten their own death and when the Disease is common why should not the Remedy 'T is like enough these will not have time to read this from their necessary
Recreation but this is no fault of mine 't is doubt they will want time for other things also but those that will not give themselves the trouble 't is doubt will ere long meet with trouble of another nature Others may think the Book useless because many have treated upon this Subject To these I answer The more shame they are practised no better It was indeed Solons complaint That there were many good Laws made but one was wanting to put all the rest in execution So many good Rules for Life and Death are published but could a Book be published to perswade men to live by these Rules it would be a happy work I am not so vain or simple to think this may prove such a piece yet I know not what better Subject to treat of that is more likely to prevail than a Treatise of Death to perswade men to practise the Rules of Life for those that put far from them the evil day are most like to neglect their daily Duty and what hitherto is written seems too little to effect the work and therefore I have added my Testimony to the rest I know 't is easie for Momus to quarrel and find fault with another mans Tale when perhaps he may tell it worse himself 't is easier to find fault with another than to be free from faults himself Those that have done better or will do better I shall give them their due respect for others I shall not value their censure what I have done hath pleased my self and the work was undertaken for my self and I hope I shall not displease any sober or discreet person but for those that God his Word his Works or his Providences cannot please I neither hope nor desire to please what I have done is intended for a Cordial for those that have Death in their eyes and the Fear of God in their hearts and these usually have better Stomachs than to nauseate their meat because not modishly drest those I mean that have Gods beauty-spots not the Worlds upon them I mean Grace in the heart not Spots on the face to adorn them and make them lovely in the eyes of God and good men 't is these I speak to As for those that take the World for their Portion and therefore are loth to leave it I shall not envy them but pity them their Portion is little worth for Nobleness of Blood Greatness of Birth Crowns and Kingdoms shine not so bright as the Image of God in poor Lazarus at the Gate or Job upon the Dunghil for Grace is better than a thousand Escutcheons for these are but empty badges of Honour I have only two sorts of persons here to speak to The first are poor Desponding Christians that though they have right to and Interest in Christ and Glory yet are under some black and direful apprehensions of Death and though they would willingly live to God and if required dye for God yet are not out of fear of Death To these I have spoke unto most in the Book and and therefore shall say little to them in the Epistle The other sort are such that though they would dye the Death of the Righteous and have the righteous mans reward yet are they loth to live their-lives they would have the wages but none of the work they would dye happily but will not live holily they would land in Heaven but they sail the contrary way they will not go into the Vineyard and yet expect their penny at night such as these haply are afraid of Death and well they may for it will speak no good to them but evil as Ahab said of Micaiah Now I have said but a little to those in the Book for it was not my business and therefore I shall speak the more to them in the Epistle not that I have any comfort for them in this Condition but only this that there is a possibility to get out and therefore would willingly lend them my hand to help them â—ut and therefore I shall reach out some Directions which if they take they will â—e capable of the comfort the Book it self holds forth and the Directions are these that follow 1. Direction If you would look Death in the Face with comfort get your Corruptions mortified and the power of sin abated for til then Death will be an Enemy there is nothing that makes Death terrible but unpardoned unmortified sin an honest man can look the Judge in the face without fear when the Malefactor trembles Paul could triumphantly insult over it 1 Cor. 15.54 55 56 57. Oh Death where is thy sting Oh Grave where is thy Victory the sting of Death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law but thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ You see sin is the sting of Death and what hurt can the Serpent do that hath no Sting what a bold challenge was this to Death as if Paul had said Death do thy worst I fear thee not In like manner Ambrose could say I am not ashamed to live nor afraid to dye and Ann Askew the Martyr in her Confession 〈◊〉 neither wish for Death neither do I fear it As Christ hath not taken away sin it self but the guilt of it so hath he not takeâ— away Death it self the consequent of sin but the sting of it so that every godly maâ— may say with the Martyr Kill me it may hurt me it cannot the worst it can do is bâ—â— to send me to my Fathers house the sooner but to others the Serpent is dangerous and his sting deadly for if sin dye not the Soul cannot live 't is true some there be that seem to brave Death to his Face but this shews an ignorant mind and a seared Conscience and an hard heart for 't is impossible if the Conscience be awake that a man should look into Hell yea leap into it without horror Death to such if their eyes be open will be terrible yea of all Terribles the most terrible saith a Heathen yea the King of Terrors saith Bildad Job 18.14 yea and as experience tells us the Terror of Kings Nothing can make Death look terrible but unpardoned sin till therefore this Pardon be obtained your condition is damnable till you have assurance of it it will be uncomfortable Now Faith and Repentance have the Promise of Pardon and Eternal Life and the want of this will make you liable to Eternal Death Luk. 16.16 He that believeth and is Baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be Damned He that confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall find Mercy Leave off therefore lusting after Riches Honours and Pleasures and spend your time in minding your main Interest fight against sin which is your greatest Enemy for if sin dye not before you your Souls must dye 't is not enough to quarrel sâ—â— but you must kill it 't is not enough to coâ—fess it but you
must forsake it 't is 〈◊〉 enough to rail against it but you must haâ—â— it with an irreconcileable hatred aâ— shake hands with it and give it a bill 〈◊〉 Divorce and well you may for it is yâ—â— implacable Enemy and the cause of 〈◊〉 your misery and will be the cause of yoâ— Eternal Damnation if you repent not of 〈◊〉 This is it that arms Death against you 〈◊〉 when 't is mortified and subdued it will 〈◊〉 pardoned and when it is pardoned Deâ— may buzze about your ears like a Dâ—â— Bee but cannot sting you by stinging Châ—â— he lost his sting that he cannot sting 〈◊〉 of Christs faithful people Hence manâ— the Martyrs went as chearfully to dye aâ— dine and accounted their Dying-day tâ—â— Wedding-day as indeed it is to all Belâ—ers for in this life they are betroatheâ— Christ and at their Death the Marâ—â— will be consummate and they shall forâ— enjoy their Beloved and be Eterâ— lodged in his Bosom Oh the madneâ—â— the men of the World who lodge this pent sin in their Bosom which breakâ— match between Christ and the Soul 2. Direct There is another Enemy that must be overcome as well as sin or will not dye chearfully and happily and that is the World for till it be overcome and crucified a man is not fit to dye neither can he be willing to dye Gal. 6.14 for who can willingly part with what he loves By Christ saith the Apostle I am Crucified to the World and the World to me the world and he were at a point there was no love lost the World mattered him not and he mattered the World as little they were each to other as a dead Carkass offensive and unsavoury and though the World should lay many Temptations before him it would signifie no more than if they were presented to a dead man though she draw forth her two breasts of Profit and Pleasure he scorns to suck at such botches he looks upon it as a dead thing and behaves himself as dead to it He had learned to want and to abound and in every Estate to be content and therefore mattered not her Superfluities and for Necessaries he knew he should not want them A prosperous Estate could not make him surfeit nor a wanting Estate repine he was semper idem alwayes the same as Job upon the Throne and upon the Dunghill he still keeps his Integrity he wears the world about him as a loose Garment ready to cast off upon all occasions and he is at a point with all things under the Sun if he may keep them with a good Conscience he is content if not he is content also and it behooves others that would look Death in the face with comfort to learn this lesson for if the affections close with the World 't is impossible Death should be either safe or comfortable safe it cannot be for it makes a man break his peace with God for two such Masters as God and Mammon no man can serve Mat. 6.24 for if he love the one he will despise the other Jam. 4.4 Know you not saith the Apostle that the friendship of the World is Enmity to God Whosoever therefore will be a Friend of the World will be an Enemy to God 1 John 2.15 And again Love not the World neither the things that are in the World if any man love the World the love of the Father is not in him Those that goe a Whoring from God to the Creature and woe this vile Strumpet the World are very unfit to be received into the bosom of Christ have it we may use it we must as a Traveller doth his Staff so far as 't is helpful but love it we must not if we will not renounce the love of God a man may allow his wife a Servant to wait upon her but not to lodg in her bosom the love of the World is Enmity with the Lord Enmity both active and passive it makes a man both to hate God and to be hated by God he cannot be espoused to the World but he must be divorced from God see this in Judas in Demas in Demetrius in Ahab he will have Naboath's Vineyard or he will have his blood though he lose his Soul for it Col. 3.2 wise therefore was the Apostles Counsel to set our affections on things above and not on the Earth Things on Earth are mutable and momentary subject to vanity or violence when things above are as the dayes of Heaven and run parllael with the Life of God and line of Eternity and as the love of the World makes a man dye unsafely putting him out of a capacity of eternal happiness so it makes him dye uncomfortably also for who can willingly part with a present good for a future uncertainty with a thing he loves for he knows not what If the World seem a Pearl in his eye he will not let it goe if he have no assurance of a better Mat. 19.22 see this in the young man in the Gospel that would not exchange Earth for Heaven nor the Creature for God that parted with Christ whom he pretended to love rather than with his Estate which he did love Oh World how dost thou bewitch thy greatest admirers how dost thou deceive those that trust in thee But could we see the worth of Heaven or had we but a Pisgah-sight of the Heavenly Canaan we should soon make Moses's choice but the blind Moles of the World think God holds it at too dear a rate and if he will not abate he may keep it to himself some indeed while Religion is in credit will follow the Cry yet resolve they will never lose by it as the Young man before mentioned who came to Christ hastily but went away heavily the world breaks many a match between Christ and the Soul by bidding more as they think than God doth but it will fail in the payment but he that forsakes not all for Christ cannot be his Disciple the lesson I know is hard but necessary and there is a great reason it should be so when we look upon the World as our chiefest Jewel we are loth to throw it over-board but when we see the Vanity Emptiness yea Nothingness that is in it and can have recourse to a better Treasure we shall not matter it while we look upon it as our chiefest Treasure we shall be unwilling to part with it but when by the eye of Faith we can see better Treasure beyond Death and observe how little good it can do us at Death or after when we have most need we shall not much value it For indeed it proves like a bush of Thorns the harder we grasp it the more deeply it wounds and when by Experience we find that no Content Satisfaction or Happiness is to be had in the enjoyment we shall not much trouble at the loss In a word while the World is admired Death is hated but when Heaven is
neither Money nor Moneys-worth worth with thee as a Dowry yet will he make thee the largest Joynture his Covenants will be only to carry thy self to him as a loving and obedient Wife ought to do to her Husband to love him above all to obey all his Commands and to submit thy self to his dispose leave the Sin he forbids do the Duties he commands and forsake all others for his sake resolve thus to do give up thy self thus to him and thou needest not fear death for it cannot hurt thee for 't is but his Pursivant he sends to fetch thee home to his Fathers house where all things are made ready for thy Marriage with the Lamb when thou canst say Cant. 6.3 My beloved is mine and I am his thou art fit to Live and fit to Dye and not till then such a man that hath gotten a full gripe of Christ is sure that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities Rom. 8.38 nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor Heighth nor Depth nor any other Creature shall be able to seperate him from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord 1 Cor. 6.17 for he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit As truely one as those members are one Body that are animated by the same Soul or as Husband and Wife are one flesh All that I am and have saith the Soul is his and all he hath is mine he that hath this full assurance of Faith looks death undauntedly in the face and goes gallantly to Heaven 5 Direct If you would Dye well your way is to Live well for a holy life alwayes ends in an happy death Heb. 12.14 and a sinfull life if true repentance prevent not alwayes hath a Tragical end for without holiness no man shall see God and how can such a man think then to come to Heaven when the beatifical vision of God is Heaven it self but no unclean thing Rev. 21.27 1 Cor. 6.10 no unrighteouss person shall ever enter there no dirty Dog shall tread upon that pavement As the tree falleth so it lyeth Eccles 11.3 and as death leaves us so Judgment shall find us Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap Gal. 6.7 for he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap Life everlasting He that sails towards Hell is not like to land in the Port of Heaven if he change not his course the way of Sin is the direct road to Hell and those that follow the broad Way will ere long enter the wide Gate but the way to Heaven is narrow and the gate strait he that swims down the stream is not like to find the fountain-head and he that goes down the hill is not like to come to the top but most men like dead Fish swim down the stream even into the dead Sea of Eternal perdition Exo. 23.2 Take heed therefore of following a multitude to do evil for the way to Hell is Broad and well trodden beware of evil Company lest thou learn to swear with Joseph to curse with Peter but be couragious for Heaven and valiant for the Truth 'T is better go to Heaven alone than to Hell with company to be with Noah in the Ark than with all the World in the Flood the way of Holiness I know is not in fashion but 't is never the more to be shunned for the small company that walks in it nor is the way of wickedness the more eligible because 't is thronged the way of Holiness haply may seem rugged and perplexed by reason of the stumbling-blocks laid in it 1 Sam. 14.4 13. like unto that of Jonathans and his Armor-bearers way that had sharp rocks on either side that they were forced to go upon hands and feet yet consider it leads to Happiness and who will not take pains for profit Sic petitur Coelum sed facilis descensus averni Heaven is got by pains and patience but a man may wink and go to Hell To come to Heaven Opus est pulveris non pulvinaris as one saith those that trade in Righteousness and Holiness are most likely to treasure up Happiness those that live uprightly to men holily to God and walk as Zachary saith Lu. 1.75 in Righteousness and Holiness before him all the dayes of their lives men may befool them but God will never condemn them these men never need to fear Death or any Messenger God sends Act. 23.1 24.16 the that hath made his peace with God and with Paul keeps a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards Men though he may meet with troubles in his life he shall meet with Comfort at death when those that think to dance with the Devil all day and Sup with Christ at night to do the Devils work and to receive Gods wages that will not enter into the Vineyard and yet expect the penny will find themselves under a great mistake for his servants you are to whom you obey and from him you work for you may expect wages you will find at last that a Lord have mercy upon you will not serve turn Mat. 7.21 22. Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my father which is in heaven many will say to me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out Devils and in thy Name done many wonderful works and then will I profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye workers of iniquity The like we see by the foolish Virgins that cried Lord Lord open to us but the door was shut against them and they kept out such mens hope will prove like the Spiders-web or the giving up the Ghost and but serve them as Absaloms Mule did him bring them to destruction and there leave them yet many verbal Professors we have that if Heaven will be had for fair words will have it but this is their best bid as Epictetus complained in his time That many would be Philosophers as far as a few good words would go but no further but it be those and those alone that make Christianity their daily trade and to please God their great design that are worthy the name of Christians when the heart is upright God accepts the Sacrifice as he did Abels when the heart is rotten he disowns it as he did Cains Those fly-blown Sacrifices such as the Pharisees offered will not down with God But when the chief design is to glorifie God Mat. 6.1 c. and that with a perfect heart like Josiahs with such Sacrifices God is well pleased such a man though he may lose something for Christ will never lose any thing by Christ death which sets a period
this fort all is safe he can give the eyes ears the tongue their liberty if the heart be his he matters not his Prisoner is secure and to keep possession of the heart a thousand snares are laid in the way and if any make an escape he sends out Hue and cry after them stirs up all his Instruments to bring them back again sets some to reproach them some to perswade them yea some to flatter some to threaten and some to persecute for he knows the heart is the Master-wheel that guides all the rest for a man is denominated good or bad according as his heart is either good or bad this is the Shop wherein good or bad wares are forged Mat. 2.35 't is fons boni vel pecâ—andi origo the Fountain of good or the Spring of evil if there be a principle of life there the actions are pleasing to God if not they are but dead works A carnal heart is a Stewes or Shambles a place whence unclean and cruel thoughts are produced the forge where wicked thoughts are framed the Mint where they are coined the very Anvil upon which all Sin is forged an Augean Stable for Filthiness the heart is the Temple wherein Gods Ark or the Devils Dagon are placed Gal. 4.7 and worshipped 't is the Palace wherein dwelleth the Throne wherein sitteth the King of Glory or the Prince of darkness Eph. 2 2â— for the Devil works and acts in a wicked heart as a Smith doth in his Forge or an Artificer in his Shop what he pleaseth without controul these two Princes cannot sit in the same Throne or rule in the same heart these two Masters cannot be served by the same man their commands are so different those that love the one will despise the other and if one be obeyed the other must be neglected he that gets possession of the heart is our Master for we may know it by our obedience If Christ rule there the Devils kingdom must down and if the Devil rules Christ will be gone now his servants ye are to whom ye obey the heart is the fountain out of which all water flows whether sweet or bitter Mat. 7.26 and therefore it concerns us to see it be not defiled It is a Tree and we may know whether it be good or no by the fruit By the fruit saith Christ ye shall know them 'T is a Treasury out of which good or evil things are brought 't is the primum mobile that sets all the rest in motion and gives motion to the inferior Orbs the hand the eye the foot the tongue are all moved by it either in a direct or irregular motion 'T is the chief Monarch in the Isle of man that gives Laws and Commands to all the rest 'T is like the Treble in a Viol if this be in tune the other are soon ordered if out the Musick is spoil'd 't is the spring or Master-wheel of all the curious Clock-work of the Soul and sets all the rest in motion This is it that denominates an action good or bad as it differenced between Cains sacrifice and Abels and the fastings prayers and alms of the Pharisees and of the Apostles The more of the heart is in the sin the greater is the aggravation but the more of the heart is in a duty the better God accepts it Where the heart goes not along with the sin God will pardon it but if the heart go not along with the duty he will not own it weak performances are accepted where the heart is right glorious actions are abominable where the heart is rotten Now the heart by nature is polluted and must be cleansed it is deceitful and if not lookt to will betray us and when the heart is polluted the whole man is defiled and till this be cleansed a man is neither fit to live nor fit to dye nor after death to come to Judgment Get therefore the heart purified by Faith or never think to dye comfortably or happily 9 Direction As the Heart must be purged from sin so 't is necessary that it be replenished with Grace for without this you can neither dye a happy nor comfortable death for these are the Divine qualifications which God hath made necessary to salvation this is the Oyl which the wise Virgins had in their Vessels Mat. 25.4 c. their Hearts which the foolish did want and therefore were shut out of the Bride-chamber This is the wedding-garment without which you will be bound hand and foot Mat. 22.1 and cast into outer darkness this is the Sheep-mark of Christ those that have it he will own and place them at his right hand when all other like reprobate Goats shall be set on the left This is the Ticket whosoever hath it shall be admitted into Heaven and whosoever hath it not Heaven gates will be shut against him now how can that man be happy or comfortable in death that hath not this Oyl this Wedding-garment this Sheep-mark nor this Ticket that hath nothing to shew for Heaven and happiness or why he should not go to Hell and misery These Graces are the Jemmes and Jewels that adorn the Spouse of Christ and make her amiable in his eyes this is the differencing badge between the Children of God and the men of the World that shall have their portion in the Lake that burns with fire and brimstone These these are the Evidences Believers have for Heaven and by these it is they hold God to his bargain for he hath told them he that believeth shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be condemned This is the witness of the Spirit for 't is the Spirit that worketh those graces in the soul and also enables the Soul to read them thus written in the heart by the Spirit and so the Spirit witnesseth with our Spirits that we are the Children of God Now can any man willingly leave a present Inheritance that hath no assurance of any for the future Holiness is the Image of God the Livery that all that go to Heaven are clad with and though now it be out of fashion at death our greatest Gallants would willingly be found in this Livery yea Balaam himself would dye the death of the righteous though he liked not his life other Jewels adorn the Body but this adorns the Soul these have this excellent vertue they make a man live holily and dy happily none can miscarry that wear them these make men dye securely but it is also requisite that they know they have them for sometimes Believers lose their comforts for want of clearing up their Evidences for Heaven 't is necessary that a man have grace and 't is comfortable to know he hath it to have it in the habit sufficeth not if he act it not he must not only have faith but he must live by faith and by faith suck sweetness from the promises this will make a man look death in the face
undauntedly this grace will assure a man that life and death will prove advantagious to him and that God and his departing soul are at peace and that the Covenant remains firm even in the Grave it self this makes a man look even beyond death it self and see the Crown of glory the recompence of reward before him and assures him death will do him more good than hurt that it will set an end to his misery and beginning to his happiness and that when death hath struck the stroak the Angels will carry the Soul into Abrahams bosom yea lodge it in the Arms of their dear Redeemer These apprehensions made Paul to desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ and the Martyrs to be so willing to dye and so chearfully to go to the stake Love to God also is another grace which much sweetens the very thoughts of death indeed this sweetens the sharpest passage of Providence when we think this is my Fathers will whom I love and who loves me and knows best what is for my good yea death it self shall be welcome when 't is a Messenger from him I love to fetch me home to his bosom what will not a loving Wife suffer to enjoy her beloved Husband love desires the strictest union and most intimate communion with the party beloved but this the Soul cannot obtain but by Death O saith the Soul now I lye under the hatches troubled with a thousand infirmities I can seldom have a glimpse of Christ here well the time is at hand that I shall see him face to face and enjoy him in glory where I shall serve him without distraction and never be troubled more with vain thoughts or roving imaginations or any of Satans temptations Oh when will this time be The other graces of the Spirit are also necessary to this end to sweeten death such as Knowledge Repentance Obedience Humility Self-denial Patience Hope c. of which I shall not speak particularly Now the Promises are made to these graces not only of this life but of that to come among the rest of the good things promised is Heaven and Happiness but what is a carnal man the better for these promises that is not qualified for them but when by Faith we can see this Crown of glory and see our Names written upon it and get a Pisgah-sight of this heavenly Canaan we shall willingly venture over this Jordan and encounter all the Sons of Anak we meet in our way and not fear what Man what Devils what Death can do unto us get these Graces in exercise and you need not fear Fire and Faggot 10 Direction That you may thus empty the heart of sin and wickedness and replenish it with Grace and godliness that so you may be fit to live and fit to dye and fit to live with Christ-for ever 't is fit and necessary you take Gods way for it cannot be done by your own strength Improve therefore all the means which God hath afforded you for this end for those that refuse the means seldom attain the end Improve his Word and Ordinances these are the appointed means however some scorn at them and some think they are above them but those that go not this way seldom come to Heaven In the Word are given Rules how to live and how to dye and how to behave ourselves in all Conditions here is Oyl to be had and those that neglect will be to seek when the Bridegroom comes Those that now neglect the Wedding-garment will want it when they have occasion to use it and so be thrust out of the Bride-chamber This Word of God should be our daily study for here are directions both for life and death and none but those that are bad Husbands for the soul will neglect it here are the precious Promises which are our Fathers Legacy out of which the Soul by Faith sucks sweetness which are special Cordials against fainting fits which bear up the head above water and the heart in all storms and tempests here is direction in Heavens way yea way-marks set up that we should not erre nor wander here you may find what qualifications God requires in his servants and what Evidences for Heaven are good and authentick and what God will own another day and if by the help of the Spirit you can read them in your own hearts as in a counter pane there is no better Evidence for Heaven no greater Cordial in the world to bear up the heart here you may find comforts and consolatious in all your conditions and if you walk in this road you will meet with much help and assistance yea many companions in your Journey here you have the Spirit of God both to direct and comfort you and who can erre that hath such a guide or droop that hath such a comforter here you shall hear a voice behind you saying this is the way walk in it turn not to the right hand or to the left here you have the assistance of Gods Ministers to direct you but take heed of quenching the motions of his Spirit or abusing his Messengers lest his Spirit leave striving with you and God take away his Messengers in his anger here you may find many that have walked the same way met with the same troubles suffered the same afflictions temptations crosses and losses as you do and yet have born it with patience and overcome it with constancy and comfort here you may know the worst that death can do to you is for your advantage if you love God for such death cannot hurt kill you it may hurt you it cannot the worst it can do is but to send you to your Fathers house the sooner Meditate therefore upon this Word of God and also upon the Attributes of God and this must needs support you under sufferings Meditate also upon mans Mortality to quicken you in your pace of the Worlds vanity and emptiness to make you slight it and the fulness of Christ to make you to desire him The Meditation of death will not make you dye sooner but safer and the Promises will yield sweetness even in the pangs of death for death is to the godly but as a Pursivant to fetch them to Heaven and his wisdom power holiness justice goodness and truth are Cordials also and will help to keep the heart from fainting and desponding and will shield the Spirits against all crosses and afflictions they shall meet with and by Meditation in the Word you may learn the happiness of the godly and the miseries of the wicked and what will be the end of both yea you may find there what are the pains of Hell and the Joyes of Heaven and these may be used as motives to a holy life Prayer also is an excellent duty to prepare for death by this God is engaged to help at a time of need Christian Conference also is another help wherein one fire-stick helps to inkindle another till all come into a
houses of clay will at last tumble down of themselves Psal 89.48 What man is he that liveth and shall not see Death shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave Mors omnibus communis est 'T is the common path all the world walks in some sooner some later some in Infancy and some in Youth and in middle and some in old age And 't is the best way for thee to put thy life into his hands that gave it and who only is able to preserve it and assure thy self he will dispose of it to thy advantage and if he take it from thee will exchange it for life Eternal for a Believer to dye is but as the putting off an old suit of cloaths 1 Cor. 5.6 and exchanging it for a new and who will fear to put off his old nasty Rags at night for rich Robes in the morning 'T is but to change a Cottage for a Palace Earth for Heaven and the creatures for God and who will not be willing of such a bargain yea of a Peasant to be made a Prince Whatever thou losest for Christ thou shalt lose nothing by him for he will repay thee a hundred fold Mat. 19.29 This is the way to secure thy life or to part with it at the best advantage when otherwise thou wilt lose thy life as the Pharisees did their duties for nothing they prayed they fasted they gave alms but by reflecting upon themselves and not looking at God in what they did they lost their Reward If thou lose thy life and canst not help it what praise-worthy thing dost thou Thousands of men it may be imagined that never intended a life for Christ have yet with others been bloodily Massacred upon a religious account when something else lay at the bottom these have suffered Death without a reward and this may well be thy condition 'T is true thou shouldst not run before thou art sent or expose thy life to danger without a call so maist thou be guilty of thine own death which is murder in the highest degree this is the way to shorten thy life but to hasten thy misery But to dye for Christ is gain and soul-advantage and how canst thou that pretendest to believe a Resurrection to Eternal Life and pretendest an interest in it yet fear to dye which is the only way to enjoy it we sow our seed willingly in hope of a plentiful crop we go to bed willingly in hope of rest and sleep and shall we fear to repose our body in the Grave in hope of a joyful Resurrection O the Ignorance the Infidelity the want of Love that appears in thee for didst thou really believe what thou pretendest to believe or hadst thou that love for Christ which thou pretendest to have thou wouldest long for the time when thou shouldest enjoy this happiness when thou shouldst enjoy this God Mat. 6.21 love would make thee run through fire and water to come to him Love makes labour light it makes a man slight all the difficulties that lye in the way Vbi amor ibi animus and where the treasure is there will the heart be also dost thou believe that at death this mortal shall put on immortality 1 Cor. 15.54 and this corruptible shall put on incorruption that death shall be swallowed up of victory and that in Heaven thou shalt never hunger more nor thirst more nor have need of any creature supplies and never meet with more losses crosses or afflictions to molest thee but shalt be as the Angels of God which behold Gods face in glory Dan. 12.3 Phil. 3.21 dost thou believe that thy glorified body shall shine as the Sun in the firmament and be fashioned like unto Christs glorified body and yet art afraid to dye and come to glory how can these things be reconciled The question is not Whether thou must dye or no this is determined by an irrevocable decree but it is about the Time and the Manner of thy death who is fittest to dispose of it thee or the great God that gave it wouldst thou have it at thine own will alas thou canst not preserve it a moment and thou canst not preserve it from a violent death and a languishing disease may haply be more painful than the death thy enemy puts thee to thou canst not deny Christ thy life without hazard of eternal death and wilt thou not rather suffer a few pangs than run this hazard and be obnoxious to eternal torments Thou hast a sickly weakly body many distempers hang upon thee from head to foot scarce a free part and subject to more than yet thou feelest and there is no other Physician can cure thee but Death his stroak is the Catholicon the universal Medicine for all distempers and dost thou fear the potion which so many of the Saints have taken and did well nay never any that miscarried under his hands Christ by his death hath destroyed him who hath the power of death Heb. 2.14 15. even the Devil to deliver them which through the fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Now the only way to be delivered from this fear is to fall under this Stroak for death frees us from this as well as from all other miseries If thou shouldst yet deny thy life and so think to save it thou art much mistaken when God is thine enemy and thine enemy then he will be Every creature will wait for a Commission to take away thy life God can hide Death in the smallest creature With what contemptible things did he torment Pharaoh and his people which had they not been withdrawn upon Moses supplication would have been their destruction as Frogs and Lice and Locusts and Caterpillars c. Nay we may read of many that have lost their lives by such as these some have been devoured by Rats and Mice others destroyed by Leeches some stung to death by Bees Wasps and Hornets some choakt with Flies with Figs with Grapes Ward on Mat. part 329. with the kernel of Grapes with Fish-bones crums of bread an hair in milk some have been eaten of lice others of worms some have dyed in smelling of a flower some with the prick of a pin or thorn and many other such like God needs not muster any great Army to destroy thee the least of his creatures can do it if he give them a commission and if thou deny thy life when he requires it well maist thou fear this commission will be sealed well maist thou fear the bread thou eatest will choak thee the drink thou drinkest will be thy bane and what ever judgment thou ever readest or heard'st of that ever befell a graceless sinner it may be thy portion that the flouds may drown thee as it did the old world and Paraoh and his host that the fire may burn thee as it did Sodom and Gomorrah that the earth may open her mouth and swallow thee up
as it did Corah Dathan and Abiram Or whatsoever other judgments have befaln the Enemies of God may be thy portion for Apostacy is a most dangerous sin some creature or other may well distrain of thee in Gods name when thou denyest the debt Hadst thou been the first that ever tasted of death as Abel was thou mightest have been afraid had never any before thee entred into deaths darksome Cell or gone through that dark and narrow entry it were something but when ten thousand times ten thousand have gone before thee what need this fear and seeing will we nill we all of us must dance after deaths pipe why wilt thou not do it willingly God loves a chearful giver he loves a free-will Offering and loves not grumbling Servants millions of the Saints are now in Heaven that have travailed this road yet none of them repent they came there too soon Many of them have been taken out of the world by the hand of violence and now have the crown of Martyrdome upon their heads Rev. 12.11 they loved not their lives to the death and now have received a crown of life and if thou be faithful to the death this will be thy reward when thou comest to thy Juorneys end thou wilt be among the souls of just men made perfect singing Halelujahs to God for ever and for ever then wilt thou bid adieu to a vain miserable cheating and deceitful world But haply thou maist say Here I am acquainted but there I am a stranger and what comfort can I have in the removing Art thou a stranger the more shame for thee other Saints were strangers and pilgrims in this world and made hast home into their own country if thou hadst been well acquainted with the Word thou wouldst have seen the vanity and emptiness of all earthly felicity and that there was nothing in the world worth thy love and hadst thou had thy conversation in Heaven as thou hast pretended thou wouldst not have been such a stranger there as thou seemest to be But stay hast thou not many friends and relations there is not almighty God there whom thou callest Father and art thou a stranger in thy Fathers house hast had no communion no trading with him in his Ordinances what is then become of all thy prayers and other duties are those all lost 't is true thou never fawest his face neither canst see it and live but hast not seen him in his Word in his Ordinances in his promises threatnings providences and Attributes Blessed is he that hath not seen Gal. 4.26 and yet believeth and is not Jerusalem that is above the mother of as all and is not the Lord Jesus Christ him whom thou callest thy Lord and thy God and thy Husband and thy elder Brother yea thy Head and is a loving wife a stranger to her beloved husband and is not the Holy Ghost there from whom thou hast received such sweet consolations in thy sinking fits and are not the holy Angels there beholding thy Fathers face in glory who are now thy guardians that rejoyced at thy conversion and will rejoyce at thy Coronation 'T is true thou seest them not thou knowest them not they are invisible but they see and know thee and then thou wilt be able to see and know them for they shall be thy constant companions and thy fellow brethren And are there not millions of glorified Saints which are thy Spiritual kindred fellow members of Christs body yea brethren in Christ yea are there not some that thou knewest in the dayes of their flesh whose company thou so much desiredst and whose death thou so much lamentedst nay are there not some that were related to thee in the flesh gone before thee of whom thou hast comfortable hopes that they are with the Lord and will not their company be now as comfortable as it was on earth yea thou wilt know more there than ever thou didst here for I question not but the Saints shall know each other for shall we sit with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven and not know them All the Patriarchs the Prophets the Apostles Martyrs and glorified Saints are here and is not thine Inheritance thy Crown thy Mansion-house here and art thou yet a stranger is not this thy countrey which thou pretendest to be seeking and all this while art thou a stranger to it yea dost not live upon heavenly allowance and hast thy meat and thy drink and thy cloathes for thy soul from hence Or is it death that thou art a stranger to why didst thou not know that thou wast mortal why then didst not acquaint thy self with death thou knewest all must dye why didst not consider of it and among the rest of thy own death didst not believe God when he said Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return Heb. 9.27 or when he saith 'T is appointed unto all men once to dye and after death the judgment and when he told thee that all flesh is grass and the flower thereof as the flower of the field But if thou hadst not believed God couldst not believe thy own eyes and ears dost not dayly see younger and stronger than thee go before thee dost not hear of many round about thee strucken by death many suddenly many by a violent death and many by diseases Dost not remember a hundred thousand slain in London in one year two or three hundred thousand in Ireland in a few weeks bloodily Massacred hast thou not many Lectures of mortality read to thee many Monitors of mortality within thee doth not the dimness of thy eyes mind thee the very Spectacles thou lookest through tell thee of the decayes in Nature and canst expect greater warning or hast any more considerable work to do than to provide for death and is death yet a stranger hast thou not visited many a sick bed and been with many a departing soul and received their last breath into thy bosom and yet hast not sufficient warning God never ingaged to give thee so much thou art his listed souldier and hast taken press-money and thou art ingaged to be in a continual readiness yet God hath given thee many a particular warning to prepare for death thou hast many a time look't death in the face and God hath often pluckt thee by the shoulders and shewed thee grim death before thee and thou hast several times received the sentence of death within thee and God hath in effect said to thee Set thy house in order for thou must dye nay not only so but God hath imployed thee to warn others yet he hath forborn thee above sixty years and every year given thee many warnings and what wouldst thou have more and yet art unacquainted with thy main work What if he had taken thee hence thirty or forty years ago as he did many that were companions with thee in vanity what had been thy condition that yet pretendest thou art not
ready and what hopes is there of thee if God spare thee another year that thou wilt bring forth better fruit is old age the best and fittest for repentance and preparation to dye when thou wilt find enough to do to wrastle with pains and bodily distempers would a Captain take it for a sufficient excuse if a Souldier that is by ingagement to be ready at an hours warning and should give him a week a month a years time to make ready and at the end of that time he should plead his Arms are not fixed nor other necessaries provided and if the Captain give him another year and at the end thereof he should plead the same excuse would this be taken for a good excuse yet this excuse hath been in thy mouth many years together and 't is doubt if God yet lengthen thy daies and give thee more years it will be the same Hath not death entred into thy habitation hath it not taken away thy parents thy loving wife thy dear children and other of thy near relations and didst not yet lay it to heart wa st thou no wiser than fatted beasts that are taken away one after another to the Shambles and those that remain are senseless of the danger neither consider their turn is coming yea hath not death thrown many a dart at thee and sometimes wounded thee in the head sometimes in thy bowels and yet dost not consider that he hath a dart will reach thy heart Yea sometimes thou hast thought thou hast had thy deaths wound and yet wilt take no warning to get on thy Armour doth not the pains the aches the distempers of thy body under which thou daily groanest bid thee prepare for thy winding-sheet doth not news ring dayly in thy ear this and that friend relation or neighbour is dead and ere long others will say of thee he is dead also hast thou not interred many a dead corpse and preacht may a Funeral Sermon and given many an exhortation to the living to prepare for death and comforted many that have lost their friends by death and wast never yet satisfied that thou wast mortal and must dye also didst thou think thy self only exempted from the common lot of all men or that God would bring thee to Heaven another way or couldst thou wish thou wert immortal and shouldst live on earth to Eternity art thou willing to take the Earth for Heaven and the creature for God and the happiness thou meetst with here for Heavens glory hast enough to satisfy thee here below and desirest no more if not why wouldst not dye and come to happiness if the earth be more desireable to thee one year why not twenty and why not to eternity if God should bid thee choose thy time and appoint it thy self what time wouldst thou require haply Methusalems daies well but these would expire and death at the end would be as bitter as now it is If death were the road to Hell as 't is to the wicked thou mightest well startle at it And I have wondred at those of them that have been so prodigal of their lives when Life is the only preservative out of Hell Or if thy case were that of the beasts and thou were to be reduced unto the horrid estate of nothing death might make thee shrug but when thou believest that death to thee will be an entrance into glory an outlet to misery and an inlet to happiness and the same road that Christ and all the glorified Saints have gone to Heaven in how can this be reconciled with thy fears Hast thou had so many discourses of death and with death and dost believe that the sting is taken out by Christ and dost yet run from this Serpent and take him for an enemy that is but thy Fathers Messenger sent for thy good This must needs be thy sin and thy folly and doth too evidently bespeak thy Infidelity or the weakness of thy Faith Thou hast comforted others at the last gasp and prayed with them and for them thou hast strengthened the weak hands and feeble knees and now dost faint under the same burden But hadst thou had more mortifying Meditations of death and with the Apostle hadst learned to dye daily death would not have been so terrible a Bugbear to thee as now it seems didst thou once a day look him in the face by a serious meditation and by a believing expectation he would not look so grim and terrible Bears and Tigers are not so terrible to those that are their keepers and acquainted with them as to others The Lion in the Fable was at first sight a terror to the Fox but time much allayed his fear the more thou beholdest death the less deformed yea the more lovely he doth appear death will be no excepter of persons the rich and poor high and low whether they will or no must dance in this Ring when God commands he must and will strike death is written upon thy cradle and thou wast rockt upon the mouth of the grave and ever since no day hath been sure to thee but it might have been thy dying day 't is not long since thou didst bewail the death of thy Parents and 't is not long before thy children will bewail thine one generation comes and another goes and the latter treads out the steps of the former we trod out the steps of our predecessors and our posterity will do as much for us The world is but a Tent to abide in for a time an Inne to tarry in a night a Lodging place for a wayfaring man a baiting-place in a Journey Oh the folly of most men that take it for their Inheritance and look for no more but to the Godly 't is no continuing city no abiding place neither indeed worthy our love Were the world as the garden of Eden full of delights and pleasures thou hadst something to say for it and yet the worm of time would eat out the very heart of it the shortness of the continuance would spoyl the sport Many doat on beauty but none but the blind will fall in love with deformity it self The world is a Bochim a place of Lamentation and who falls in love with sorrow 't is a Golgotha a place of dead mens skuls and who but mad men converse among the Tombs 'T is a pest-house an infected and an infecting place where most we converse with are infectious 't is a prison a place of hardship where the soul hath not liberty to act according to its nature 't is a place of Egyptian bondage and slavery where there is little but moiling toyling working caring from morning till night for a poor living wherein we are so chained to our Oars that we have scarce time to eat our meat and what madness is it over eagerly to desire such a life and to quarrel those that ease us of our burden and put an end to our labours Here thou livest under continual pains aches griefs
maist do all things Trust not in thy own strength lest with Pembleton thou failest in the performance Mat. 9.17 God will not put new wine into old bottles nor the heaviest burden upon the weakest Horse the strongest if he leave them are weak and the weakest in his strength are strong if thy heart be upright God will either free thee from thy suffering or support thee under it he will fit the back before he lay on the burden if thou dye by a violent death so do those many thousands that are slain with the Sword and yet those that are slain by the sword are better than they that dye of famine Lam. 4.9 many a wounded man that yet escapeth with his life suffers more pains of his wounds than if he had been slain outright If thou refuse a few pangs for Heaven thou art not worthy of it yea a natural death may be as painful many times is more painful than a violent death but the reward of the latter if it be for God may clearly turn the scales and make it more eligible Thy enemies as before was said are not Masters of thy life neither is it in their power to take it away for they have no power but what they receive from Heaven 't is he that disposes of Angels and Men of Crowns and Kingdoms of Heaven and Earth that must dispose of thy life and is not he the fittest for the work is there any in the world can do it better is there any in the world thou hadst rather trust with thy life is not he the fittest to send for thee out of the world that sent Christ into the world for thy sake and wilt thou think thy life too dear for him that thought not the pangs of death nor the pains of Hell too much to suffer for thee hath he suffered so much to purchase glory and wilt thou suffer nothing to enjoy it his suffering was a thousand times more for thee than thine is like to be for him or rather for thy self for thou hadst the benefit of his death but he will have none by thine hath he provided a Mansion and wilt not leave thy Cottage to go to it Death 't is true is surly and grim but 't is thy Fathers Messenger and must do the message he gives in charge and 't is an Ambassador from the great King and Ambassadors are entertained not for their own but their Masters sake and death may be welcomed for the message sake he brings He comes to tell thee that thy work is done and thy wages is ready thy Warfare is accomplished the Field is won and the Crown is thine Mat. 25.21 that thou hast been faithful over a little and now must be Ruler over much and must enter into thy Masters joy That the Bridegroom is come and thou must go in with him to the wedding that thou hast been faithful to the death Rev. 2.10 and now shalt have a crown of life And is not such a message welcome and the Messenger that brings it will any wise man rather stay in Egypt than go through the red Sea at Gods command or endure a few Wilderness troubles to come to Canaan yea through a sea of blood to a Haven of rest If the way be troublesome the Journeys end is pleasant if thou art stung with fiery Serpents there is a brazen Serpent to heaâ— thee of thy wounds and to draw ouâ— the venom If the sea be rough the Piloâ— is skilful If thy disease be dangerous this Physician is skilful if thy wounds be deep this Surgeon will cure thee yea by Killing will cure thee of all distempers Were Death a pursevant from Hell as to many he is well mightest thou fear but being sent from Heaven and coming in thy Fathers Livery and his ugly Vizor taken off he is more amiable If thou have part in the first resurrection the second death on thee shall have no power Death 't is true Rev. 20.6 puts a cup of trembling into the hands of unrepentant sinners even a cup of the Lords indignation filled to the brim which they must drink up to the very dregs and Eternity will be little enough to see the bottom but what is this to thee thy part is sugered and 't is but one sup swallowed in a few moments of time to them it proves the first and second death to thee but a Sleep Our friend Lazarus sleepeth Those sparks which wicked men now on earth kindle by their lusts will there be blown up into an everlasting flame Mar. 9.44 the worm dyeth not and the fire never goeth out That death that puffs out the candle of the wicked only snuffs the other that it may burn brighter The godly while they are in the world act a Comedy which begins bad but ends well the wicked act a Tragedy which alwaies ends in blood and confusion death sets an end to both to the godliess miseries and the wickeds happiness Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord even so saith the Spirit for they rest from their labours and their works follow them And if this be the only way to blessedness why art thou afraid to walk in it death will be the Funeral of thy Vices and the Resurrection of thy Graces here Josephs feet shall no longer be hurt in the stocks the iron shall no longer enter into his soul neither shall Jeremy lye here in the miry dungeon nor Daniel in the den of Lions nor Jonah in the Whales belly why wilt thou not be uncloathed that thou maist be cloathed upon and surrender this house of clay that thou maist have a better Thou art like an ill debtor that bortowest with prayers keepest with thanks and partest with it with repining Thy body is but lent thee yet art thou loth to restore what was borrowed Well dye thou must and whether it be fit that God or thee should determine of the Time and the Manner of thy death is the question in hand and is this become a controversie and wilt dispute thy right Heaven and Earth may stand amazed at thy folly if thou wilt not yield him his due he will ere long distrain for it and try the Title at Judgment where thou art like to be cast and thrown into Prison till thou hast paid the utmost farthing for if thou deny to glorifie God by thy death he will glorifie himself by thy destruction Oh my God I yield I surrender I submit I put my life into thy hands send for me when and by whomsoever thou wilt My spirit is willing though my flesh is weak I dare not trust my own deceitfull heart lest it betray me but thee I dare trust Lord strengthen my Faith confirm my Assurance clear up my Evidences for Heaven stand by me in all my Sufferings and lay no more upon me than thou givest me strength to bear then call me and I will run after thee though
at liberty 't is but the bodies sleep and the Souls awaking the bodies death and the Souls resurrection wherein the Soul shall be freed from all those clogs which now presseth it down that it cannot mount up into those heavenly Regions and it shall live with God blessed for ever to eternity and is this a thing to be feared Hast not already had a sufficent time in the world that yet thou desirest more a thousand thousand have not lived so long and yet none of those in Heaven complain their time was too short upon Earth or that they came thither too soon and it would be hard to perswade them to return with a promise of all the Excellencies that the world affords This is the godly mans Purgatory and should he not rather pray to be delivered out than continued in it 't is his Hell all the Hells he is like to have and shall he take up his station here among miseries and troubles hadst thou in thy youthful daies had liberty to appoint out thy own time and bound the tearm of thy life haply thou mightest have thought the time thou hast already lived had been competent and truely if there be much more behind thou maist well fore-see it will be burthensome to thy self and troublesome to others by reason of thine infirmities The world hath not been so great a friend to thee as thus over eagerly to desire it thy Lord and Master and the most and best of his Servants have not found it so kind and thou hast had thy share of affliction even from thy youth up upon the account of Christ and his Gospel and must God put more gall and wormwood upon the breast to wean thee from the world wilt thou still linger and draw back like Lot in Sodom or like Israel dost quarrel at the promised Land because there are some Anakims to be subdued some troubles in the way and art ever and anon returning back into Egypt and longing after the Onions and Garlick and the Flesh-pots thereof Thou hast long since taken press-money and art now running away from thy Colours thou hast promised to be alwaies in a readiness and dost thou now frame excuses and woudlst be at thy own dispose and not at thy Captains Thou art in a journey and dost thou sit down at the stile and art glad when thou meetest with some stop by the way to hinder thee and is there nothing that thou fearest more than that thou shouldst come to thy journeys end too soon but haply thy work is not done and therefore thou darest not come into thy Masters sight but how dost create thine own shame in so saying hadst thou any greater business to do and of greater importance hast thou had time for every thing else and this not done art thou in a race and is a Crown of glory the prize if thou win and thy own Soul at the Stake if thou lose and hast been hunting Butterflies as thou wentest which when they are taken serve but to soul the fingers when thou didst expect the Bridegroom hast thou Slept and neither trimmed thy Lamp nor provided thy Oyl when thou wast bid to the Wedding hast provided no wedding-garment Thou hast been oft minded of this day yea thou hast often minded others also thou hast often had resolutions to do it how have these dyed and come to nothing many a time thou hast renewed thy Covenant with God and ratified thy baptismal vows In many a danger thou hast made large promises if he would deliver thee what thou wouldst do and what a reformed man thou wouldst be that thou wouldst double thy diligence and amend thy pace and have these resolutions been stifled and these promises broken Oh horrid Ingratitude what wouldst thou now desire of God mightest thou have thy wish wouldst thou desire to be immortal and never dye why this is impossible Gods decree is otherwise 't is contrary to Nature for this composition will work our destruction and 't is also inconstent with Grace then it might be thy trouble that thou wast made a man Or wouldst thou live to old age but how old wouldst thou desire to spin out thy life to an hundred alas what a life of misery wert thou like to lead and when that time came haply thou wouldst be as unwilling as now and would not Thirty or Forty years be as delightfully spent in Heaven as upon the Earth thou hast far more cause to complain of the wickedness than the shortness of thy time Many that have had a shorter time have done a great deal more work in it than thou hast done If thou live long thy corruptions will not dye for age a hard winter will not kill the weeds of sin these may flourish when thy body decayes and old age is not the fittest time for reformation and for preparation Old age is like an old Tree it will hardly bend when a young tree is pliable when thou comest to give an account of ill-spent time thou wilt think the reckoning large enough if thy receivings are great thy account will not be small If thou improve thy talents well and God take them quickly out of thy hand he will never blame thee thou hadst them no longer nor require an account of thee for the time thou hadst them not 't is fit the Master not the Servants should determine what talents each one should have and how long for 't is fit he dispose of his own goods as he pleaseth The longer God makes the lease of thy life the greater fine or the more rent is to be paid for God will not be a loser by thee well if nothing else will serve God may deal with thee as he hath dealt with others whip thee home by some severer scourge than yet thou hast met with and punish thee seven times more for this sin and make thee glad to return home as he did holy Job whose afflictions were so great that he chose strangling rather than life he may lay thee under some raging pain some torturing disease some tormenting distemper and so make thee weary of thy life or he may make thee spend the rest of thy dayes in prison and suffer hardship there or he may make thee to be a Turkish Gally-slave as many are chained to thy Oars or he may reduce thee to extream wants and penury to beg thy bread from door to door to endure much hardship hunger and cold as many Protestants did in the Irish Massacre and thus by putting more gall and wormwood upon the worlds Nipple he can wean thee from the immoderate love of it and the immoderate desire of life Oh my soul wilt thou force thy loving Father to lay heavier stroaks upon thee than ever he did Oh how unsuitable is this immoderate desire of life and fear of death and murmuring under a divine dispensation of Providence to a Christian to an ancient Professor to a Minister can any reason be given why God
't is but the weakness of thy faith and love or thou wouldst not desire to be absent from Christ upon such poor tearms Oh the hourly danger thou art in by reason of enemies without within and round about thee Oh the dangerous snares they lay for thy feet Oh the fears the cares and manyfold troubles thou daily meetest withall enough to make thee weary of thy life and with Job to wish for death and wilt not indure a little pain when it would set thee out of harms way out of the Devils reach or mans malice The love of Christ in the Martyrs was hotter than the flames they burnt in they could cry out None but Christ none but Christ true love desires union with the party beloved and how canst thou say thou lovest Christ when thy heart is not with him when thou desirest not his company or to enjoy him thou pretendest love to him and yet art willingly desirously absent from him and wilt not come to him at his call but wilt rather deny him and thy interest in him thou cal'st him thy Husband and pretendest thou hast devoted thy self wholly to him and given up not only thy Name but thy Heart to him and promised to forsake all other for him and obey him whoever was disobeyed yet when it comes to the trial with Demas thou choosest the world before him thou wilt not obey him neither forsake the world for him but lovest thy life above him what hypocrisie what dissimulation is this to pretend to follow him and yet really run from him when he calls thee well may he give thee a bill of divorce and put thee away who dost thus wilfully desert him Thou hast preacht for him and spoke for him and suffered for him but all this will not serve thy turn if thou love any thing above him thou must give up all or thou canst not have him he will admit of no Rival he will have the prevailing degree of thy Love or thou shalt have none of him if thou prize thy life above him he will prize himself to be too good for thee 1 Cor. 13.1 2 3. for love is to him more acceptable than any Sacrifice his love to thee made him exchange Heaven for the Earth and glory for misery and will not thy love to him make thee willing to exchange Earth for Heaven and the Creature for God though a wife pretend love to her husband yet if in her husbands absence she desires not his return and refuseth to go to him 't is a sign her love is cold and she hath something else she affects above him that she hath dealt treacherously with him and placed her affections elsewhere Were thy love to thy Lord and Husband but as strong as a covetous mans love is to his Riches or an ambitious mans to his Honour or the unclean persons to his Lust thou wouldst not think a little pains too much to enjoy him for these run through the pikes of danger to obtain their end and bring about their designs and though Damnation lye in the way they will venture one and march up into the Cannons mouth and expose themselves to the everlasting destruction of Body and Soul which is a thousand times worse than death it self before they will fail in their enterprize Did but thy heart pant after God as Davids did Psal 42.1 2. thou wouldst long for the time when thou shouldst appear before God hadst thou but a believing sight of the Heavenly Canaan and its glory thou wouldst then see the worlds emptiness vanity and misery and be more senbsile of thy wilderness troubles and long to pass over this Jordan thou wouldst be more willing to leave the one and go to the other But it may be 't is not thy dispute whether Heaven or Earth be the better choice but thy own Interest that thou questionest some enjoyments thou hast here and loth thou art to leave them till thou art sure of better but hath not this been thy objection many years and hast not yet got over this stile why how hast thou spent thy time what hast thou been doing what is the result of thirty or forty years trial of the estate hadst any greater work lay upon thy hand did not God send thee into the world upon this very business and hast thou spent thy time in hunting Butter-flyes or weaving the Spiders web to catch flyes all this while how canst eat or drink or sleep in quiet without some comfortable assurance when thou knowest not but the next morning thou mayst awake with hell-flames about thy ears thou art sent to run a race to fight a fight to lay hold upon Heaven by violence and hast all this while sate idle Heaven and Earth may stand amazed at thy folly If God allow thee more time what hopes is there that thou wilt make more haste or get clearer Evidence for Heaven think not that to deny Christ thy life when he requires thâ—â—â—o lay it down for him is to gain time for better preparation nay it layes such a barr in thy way to Heaven which it is much to be feared thou wilt never remove the very thoughts of using this unlawful means to save thy life do evidence that grace is either weak or wanting in thy soul Time was thou didst carry thy life in thy hand and hold forth the contempt of the world and mad'st a shew that thou matteredst the world no more than it did thee and that thou didst believe true happiness was not to be had under the Sun and is thy judgment now altered and in thy elder dayes art thou grown more wise and by diligent search hast found out thy mistake and not only thine but the mistake of all the godly and now dost begin to grasp after the world and art loth to leave it why dost not recant in publick why dost not discover to the people thy former errour and bid them look for their happiness here Wisd 2. â— 9. and crown themselves with rose-buds before they wither let us be partakers of our wantonness let us leave some tokens of our pleasure in every place for that is our portion and this is our lot Is this the doctrine thou wouldst have others believe and the counsel thou wouldst have them take if not why dost thou give them an Example to choose thy portion here and let Christ which was thy pretended portion go and grasp after that little which the world calls Portion so greedily and why art thou so loth to go where true Treasure is to be had why dost choose to be tossed to and fro by the billows of this raging Sea and endure the tempest and storms of trouble rather than come into a safe Harbour an Heaven of rest because the mouth of it is straight and the entrance uneasie Dost thou put thy self into the case of the wicked and dost expect their portion that thou lookest upon death as thy enemy also 't is
true it wounds thy body but thy Soul is safe but it destroyes them both in body and soul and it brings more profit to the soul than dammage to the body 't is but as the prick of a pin to a dangerous Ulcer which were it not prickt would prove mortal it will put an end to thy pains and a beginning to thy Joyes for when thy life expires sin also dyes and sin and sorrow are breathed out with thy life and from this day thy Lease in Heaven bears date which shall never expire Rouse up thy self O my Soul be not dejected God minds thee no hurt Death will not cannot hurt thee Kill me they may saith the Martyr hurt me they cannot the worst they can do is but to send me to my Fathers house the sooner Many a warning thou hast had many a Corps thou hast interred many a Funeral Sermon thou hast Preached for shame say not thou hadst not sufficient warning wast thou so mad as to think of going to Heaven another way or that thou wast immortal when thou sawest so many about thee dye daily or that thou shouldst live to old age when thou sawest so many dye young and felt so many sensible Symptoms of thy approaching death thou hast as thou didst suppose some grounded hopes that thou hadst a part in the first Resurrection and that therefore the second death on thee had no power and why then is death so terrible Many have more distempers in their Souls than in their Bodies 't is true this is thy case yet thou hast hoped thine are not mortal the malignity of the disease is over when many others have Plague-Sores running upon them these may expect death and have cause to fear it it will but heal thy distempers but inrage theirs thou hast had many meditations of death and many discourses with death and you did seem pretty well agreed thou hast looked death in the face and is he now become more terrible or art thou more timerous that when he comes to thy Bed-side draws thy Curtains and shakes thee by the hand thou tremblest hath Christ done thee no good by his passion by subduing Death disarming him pulling out the sting and trampling him under foot yea laying him prostrate at thy feet hath all the pains thou hast taken in heavens way workt no more upon thee set thee up no higher where now is thy promised obedience and thy prayers Thy will be done when thou art ready to resist Gods Will when 't is manifested and preferrest thine own before it why dost call thy Father the only wise God when thou thinkest thy own wit best and that thou knowest best when 't is best for thee to dye and wilt not submit to his will and that if thou wouldst speak out thy mind is to indent with Christ this thou wilt do or Suffer but not that this sin thou wilt leave but that thou wilt not thou wouldst pick and choose thy duties and take the easiest part of it and leave the difficult dangerous and costly part undone and wilt not have heaven at so dear a rate Thou pretendest a desire to be happy and who doth not Balaam desires the death of the righteous and that his end may be like his but they will not live the righteous mans life and thou art not willing to dye his death for he is conformable to the will of God both in life and death which is that thou dost dislike O my Soul some great thing is amiss with thee thy corruptions are as strong fetters to hold thee in the Devils Slavery thy grace is weak and cannot procure thy freedom the Devil is too cunning for thee the world subtil and thy own heart deceitful to betray thee into Satans hands Oh my God this is my condition this is the estate of my Soul here lyes my distemper the world lyes too close to my heart and Christ lyes at too great a distance my corrupt deceitful heart is ever and anon puting me on to choose this for my happiness a little Grace I see will not carry me through the temptations that lye before me but Lord speak the word and grace will flourish and corruption will dye thou hast said and I believe it that thou wilt not break the bruised reed Mat. 12.20 nor quench the smoaking flax till thou bring forth Judgment unto victory Lord I believe help my unbelief and let not my little grace be lost in the great heap of the rubbish of my corruptions Lord if thou open mine eyes to see the emptiness of the creature and the fulness of Christ then shall I love the one and despise the other Psal 119.32 and shall run the ways of thy Commandments when thou shalt inlarge my heart I see no reason why I should be exempted from obeying thy Will even to the laying down of my life and though flesh and blood will not yield willing obedience to it yet 't is my resolution thus to do Lord strengthen my resolution I know my fears are the result of my Infidelity Lord strengthen my faith that I may overcome them for by thy strength I shall stand and without thy assisting grace I shall Apostatize and fall back Leave me not to my self for then I shall undo my self dishonour my God scandalize Religion bring a reproach upon the Gospel wound my Conscience break my Peace with my God and undo my Soul Luk. 9.62 Let me not O Lord now I have put my hand to the Plow look back again Nor when I have begun in the Spirit Gal. 3.3 end in the flesh Rev. 2.10 Lord make me faithful to the death and then give me a Crown of Life MEDITAT V. The World is not desirable to a Christian OH my Soul why art thou desirous to stay in the World and why so unwilling to go to thy Father The time was when thou wast otherwise minded thou lookedst upon it as Bochim a place of tears a Golgotha an unlovely habitation thou wast not willing to dwell in Meseck and in the tents of Kedar thy affections did like fire mount upward and what Load-stone hast now to draw thee back thou wast at a point with all things under the Sun and didst wear the World about thee as a loose garment ready to cast off upon all occasions and dost now spit upon thy hands and take better hold dost now set up thy Staff and with Peter say 't is good being here Art now beginning to build Tabernacles here and slight that house not made with hands but eternal in the Heavens thou didst conclude with Solomon Eccles 1.14 All is Vanity and vexation of spirit and now at last hast found some solidity 2 Pet. 2.22 art thou now returnining with the dog to his Vomit and the washed Sow to her wallowing in the Mire are the Scales of ignorance now fallen from thine eyes and dost thou see some excellency in the worlds enjoyments that before
were hid from thee take heed lest thou see through the Devils Spectacles for these may deceive thee Is the world now become a Pearle in thine eye that thou despisest that Pearl of great price be not deceived it will not prove a true Diamond but a Bristow Stone Art thou now ready with Cardinal Burbon to say thou wilt not leave thy part in Paris for a part in Paradice consider well what thou dost before thou strike up the bargain and take the world for thy portion take a view of it again and see it in its own dress and not in the Devils paint and colours or in his Glass hadst thou indeed rather be absent from the Lord than from the World and doth it yield thee better delight and satisfaction Well and will it do so at death also where will thy portion be 2 Pet. 3.10 when the earth and all the works therein shall be burnt up give not Christ a bill of divorce till thou art sure of a better match will the World content thee here and hereafter what provision can it make for thee for hereafter if this be all thou takest for thy portion then no wonder thou art loth to leave it for where the treasure is there will the heart be also Hadst thou a great Estate in the World there might be some temptation but who will grieve to leave an empty Cell heretofore when thou hadst a greater Estate in the World thou wast crucified to the World and the World to thee and now dost fall in love with Poverty and Want thou didst look upon it as upon a dead Carkass and now dost perceive some life in it But stay a while and consider well what the World hath and whether her portion can pay thy debts and make provision for thee to Eternity thou canst expect no more portion than it hath consider whether it will serve thy turn the Soul is an immortal piece and must run parallel with the longest line of Eternity will the world do so also if not what will the Soul do when the portion is spent thou art in debt ten thousand Talents and canst not pay one farthing and it must be paid to the utmost mite or thou wilt be cast into a Furnace of fire for ever can the World if thou espouse thy self to it pay this debt No nor all the Angels in Heaven to help it and what a case wilt thou then be in to Eternity 'T is best for thee to return to thy former Husband for it 's much better with thee then Here is enough in him to pay thy debts and provide for the future But is thy forsaking Christ and choosing the World the result of all thy profession and the fruit of all thy Mortification Repentance Self-denial Preaching Praying Hearing Reading Meditating and of all thy other duties and is the World a sufficient recompense for all the pains thou hast taken in Gods Service and dost expect no more at his hands and art thou willing to let go all thy right in the Promises and all thy hopes of a future reward and doth the World make thee amends for all thy losses and crosses thou hast met with upon Religious accounts hast thou reduced thy self to pinching wants hard labour how foolishly then hast thou behaved thy self if the world be thy portion how foolishly hast thou denyed thy self in thy portion why hast thou not run down the current of the times as others have done when it was the way to preferment why hast thou swam against the stream why didst not take thy pleasure as others did in thy sins and sinful company then mightst thou have enjoyed the World as they do for their Portion in Externals is better than thine they take their pleasures they satisfie their lusts and why dost then live a mortified life for the like portion why didst thou take upon thee the profession of Religion when thou knewest it would run counter with the times why dost not swear with the Swearer drink with the Drunkard and be as debaucht as any other if the reward be alike but if thou look for another reward why art thou afraid of the time when thou art to receive it if Religion will not pay thee thy charges why didst profess it if it will why dost forsake it haft thou had a hard Master of Christ hath he failed of his Word or broke his promise to thee is his work or Wages worse than Covenant if not why dost leave thy Master look about thee within and without consider while thou art here what thy wants are what thy miseries and whether the world is like to free thee from the one or the other if it can how happens it in all this time it is not done thou hast spiritual wants can the World relieve those thou hast but a little knowledge of God and dost thou desire no more if thou do in what School wilt thou learn it death will bring thee where all these clouds of ignorance shall be dispell'd and thy knowledge shall be perfected 1 Cor. 13.9 10. Here thou knowest but in part and understandest but in part But when that which is perfect is come that which is in part shall be done away Thou hast now but a little enjoyment of him a few glimpses of him in a duty and dost desire no more what means then all thy Prayers and Duties tending this way but thou art never like to have much more till thou come to Heaven doubtless if thou now take up with the World for thy portion thou art of all men the most foolish why dost thou run from it when thou seekest to enjoy it and why dost forsake thy desired happiness If the world will content thee why dost seek after other things and deny thy self that content the world offers thee Art thou as holy as thou desirest to be and as good as thou wouldst be and hast thou as much satisfaction as thou desirest what is the meaning then of all thy Prayers Studies and other duties why dost bewail thy sins and implore Heaven for power against them and if thou wouldst be better why dost fear Heaven where thou wilt be holy as God is holy if thou be as good as thou desirest to be why dost play the Hypocrite with God and man and like a man in a Boat look one way and row another wouldst thou have no more power against thy sins why then dost rail upon it and revile it and profess that it is thy greatest trouble why dost wrestle and fight and pray against it and bring under thy body and if thou wouldst have power why dost thou fear Death which will free thee from this as well as other Enemies art content to live in thy Pride and Passion and Ignorance and Hypocrisie why dost not then speak plain art thou like some Beggars that have sores to shew to move compassion but are not willing to have them cured lest it marr their Trade
hast as much Grace as thou desirest why then dost pray for an increase and usest means to strengthen it Why Death will bring thee to perfection canst thou content thy self with a low frame of Spirit and a small measure of Grace why dost thou theâ— complain that thou canst not serve God with greater freedom and that thy duties are performed so deadly dully and drowsily and with so much distraction and yet art content with them as they are and longest not for the time when thou shalt serve him without distraction and never have wandring thought more thou complainest that thou feedest upon the husks of duty and findest not God in the duty and yet art willing to rest in this condition and longest not for the time when thou shalt solace thy self in his love serve him according to his will and enjoy him for ever dost thou do God as good service as thou desirest and doth he reward thee here according to thy content art thou fully satisfied and dost expect no more at his hands art thou satisfied for all thy duties losses crosses and afflictions if so why hast thou put up so many vain petitions wherein thou beggedst for greater matters nay what matter had it been if thou hadst never put up any petition for such a portion is given to those that never care to Pray Hear Read or do any Religious Duty but if thou expect a better reward why then art thou afraid of death which puts thee into the possession of it Why art thou afraid of having thy prayers answered and thy requests granted and a reward given thee an hundred fold if thou pressest after perfection why art thou afraid of it when it cannot be obtained on this side Death wouldst not have thy prayers granted death will conduct thee where it shall be done but it is in vain to expect it on this side Heaven art thou afraid of being called out of the Vineyard to receive thy wages and wilt rather lose thy labour than go home for thy pay hast so eagerly pursued after happiness and when thou comest within sight of it doth thy heart fall thee or wouldst thou find happiness where no man ever did or dost expect it to be sown in the furrows of thy field art thou searching for Honey in a Wasps nest None of these things can be had in this world they are reserved for Heaven sin will not dye till thou dyest nor leave thee till body and Soul are separated serve God thou canst not till thou come to Heaven without distraction thy graces will be imperfect thy knowledge weak thy love cold thy obedience imperfect and all thy Graces maimed and thy corruptions will be strong 1 Cor. 15.54 Lev. 14.44 till this corruptible hath put on incorruption and thi mortal hath put on immortality and these natural bodies become spiritual and then deathshall be swallowed up of Victory Sin in thee here is like a Leprosie in the House it will not be cleansed till the house be pull'd down it is in thy very nature and sticks as close as the skin to thy flesh yea as the flesh to thy bones and more close these may be separated but so cannot sin while we live till Death make the division this polluteth the heart which is the fountain and hence the streams are filthy for like corruption it lyes within and will break out in some botch or other the very heart and conscience the affections actions life and conversation are polluted so that thou maist say with the Leapers Vnclean Vnclean and thus it will be while thou art in the world and there is no other way to cleanse thee or make thee whole but passing under the stroak of Death this lances the Ulcer and heals the Sore and while sin goes before misery follows for this follows sin as the Shadow the Substance or the effect the cause and the same hand that cures the one heals the other also for in Heaven sin and sorrow shall be no more yea sorrow and sighing shall flee way and there shall be no more pain abut till we are rid of sin we shall never be rid of sorrow the natural effect of it Nil valet medicamentum dum ferrum in vulnere thou maist as well expect fire without heat or water without moisture or a stone without weight as sin without sorrow here thou maist expect to lie under an afflicted condition while thou livest and the holier thou art the worse entertainment thou art like to meet with in the world it will love her own but hate the godly as it hated Christ 't is a Step-mother to them but an own mother to the wicked these she nourishes but would starve the other if the their Father did not look to them It is by reason of sin that our lives are so bitter and we live inter suspiria lachrymas between sighs and groans here thou livest alwaies under the hatches 2 Cor. 12.7 and alwaies hast some thorn in the flesh some messenger of Satan sent to buffet thee and being amidst these storms and tempests driven from side to side and alwaies in danger canst thou fear a safe harbour when thou art weary canst thou be afraid of rest or being hungry or thirsty art afraid of meat and drink all manner of miseries attend us here in this vale of tears and whatsoever outward misery a wicked man suffers a child of God may suffer the like Eccle. 9.2 all things fall alike to all as to the good so to the bad and is not that Physician welcome that will free us from all these we pay our Physician if he heals us of one distemper our Surgeon if he cure one wound but death deserves more that cures us of all that is called evil here thou livest in the midst of thy enemies they are both within and without some seek thy estate others thy good name some thy liberty and some thy life and others thy soul and these lay snares accordingly to take their prey and dost thou choose to live in such a Neighbourhood thy very sences are the floodgates to let in sin thou canst scarcely open thy eyes or ears or any other sence but some bewitching object or other presents it self and the Devil baits his hooks with it to Angle for thy soul one vanity or other comes in at these windows either to provoke pride or covetousness or passion or luxury or some vice or other that lodges in the heart these are the five Cinque-Ports and here the Devil many times sails in with the Tide Jer. 17.9 And thy heart is deceitful also and desperately wicked and ready to betray thee into thine enemies hands thy very Relations many times prove a snare and either draw away thy affections inordinately to them or incline thee more to accept of life upon unlawful terms This was Spira's ruine thy Children and Servants many times prove thy trouble either beholding them under Sufferings or fearing
Moses shall come and bring it into the Heavenly Canaan and though Death in it self be a Punishment yea a curse threatned upon the fall and remains so still to wicked men to whom it is an inlet into eternal misery yet to the godly the curse is taken away by the death of Christ who for us was made a Curse and dyed that cursed death upon the Cross to take away the Malignity of it who by his death disarmed Death and took away his weapons wherein he trusted yea took away his sting that now thou maist put the Serpent into thy bosom and now Death is so far from putting an end to Believers happiness that it puts an end to their sorrows and is the very Gate to eternal Life and at the very stroak of Death in that moment of time their Joyes commence and their sorrows end death to the Wicked is a Pursivant sent from Hell to fetch them thither to the Godly a Messenger sent from their Father to bring them home 't is to the body but a quiet sleep free from hurtful dreams or fearful Visions The Grave is but a Bed of Roses perfumed by the Body of Christ a resting Chamber a Repository where God lays up his Jewels wherein thy dust will be kept as in a Cabinet and not one grain of it shall be lost Rev. 20.13 but the Earth the Sea the Grave and Hell shall then give up their dead and then both Body and Soul shall be received into the City of Pearl where no dirty Dog shall trample upon the Pavement when that Death hath done his Office the Angels shall do theirs and carry the Soul into Abrahams bosom and lodge it for ever in the arms of Christ and at the Resurrection when the Soul and Body shall be reunited they shall both be glorified for ever and freed from all mutation and change and all things else that may be called Evil when Death hath broken the Cage the Bird will be at liberty and sing sweetly when the prison Walls are pull'd down the prisoner will be free and is this that which thou fearest how many thousand deaths would a miscarrying Soul endure for Heaven at last yea if Eternity were spent in the continual feeling the very pangs of Death it would be much easier for a damned Soul if it felt no more than now it is and art thou so nice that thou canst not endure it for one Hour for one moment upon the promise of Eternal life Death brings in the Harvest of thy hopes the fruit of thy Prayers the reward of thy pains and of all the losses and sufferings thou hast had for Christ God is now sending for thee to make thee a King and wilt thou now withdraw thy self like Saul and hide thy self as he did when they sought him to make him King here lyes the perfection and end of thy Faith and of thy Hope the Salvation of thy Soul for these Graces as well as others are imperfect here here is the only place where happiness is to be had the only soil where hearts-ease grows and yet must God needs whip thee home or thou wilt not matter it well if now thou refuse to come at his call when thou call'st he may give thee no answer and when thou knockest he may not open but sure some root of bitterness lyes at the bottom either thou dost not believe there is such a happiness or that it is not thine or hast placed thine affections elsewhere and canst not remove them and made some other choice which thou wilt not leave Didst thou stedfastly believe that there was a reward for the Righteous and that thou art one of those that shall receive it how can this be reconciled with thy fears would any wise man take a great deal of pains for an Inheritance and then lose it all for want of taking possession thou hast in thy life-time 't is very like suffered a hundred times as much pain as thou art like to do at thy death and shall this dismay thee more than all the rest the day of Death is not so gloomy as 't is thought to be Solomon when he was upon his Throne in the midst of his Jollity commends his Cosfin Better saith he is the day of Death than the day wherein a man is born Eccles 7.1 Many of the wiser Heathens were of the same mind they wept and mourned at the birth of their Children to consider the troubles they were like to meet with in this troublesome World when they feasted and rejoyced at the death of their friends because their troubles were over and their rest was come and surely Believers have better ground of rejoycing than they had a more sure foundation for Faith and Hope to build upon Oh Death how pleasant is thy face to those acquainted with thee thou art black but comely to those that know thee thou art indeed attended with a little pain but with endless bliss the one makes makes thee feared the other beloved Oh my Soul let us draw a little nearer and take a more exact view of Death and see what is the worst hurt he can do us the best good he will bring us and compare the one with the other and compute the odds and see whether we can make a savers bargain of it and if so how little cause of fear we have It may be thou thinkest thou must part with all thy carnal Joys and worldly delights thy sensual pleasures thy merry Company and bid farewell to all thy merry meetings and pleasant Jokes with all thy Recreations Pastimes and pleasant Sports and be Buried in silence and laid in the dust and must bid thy pleasures adieu and poor Soul is this thy trouble and the cause of thy fear hast thou not better in exchange for them are there not more and more lasting Joyes in the presence of God Psal 16.11 Rivers of pleasures without bank or bottom at the right hand of God for evermore unknown Pleasures unseen Delights which no eye hath seen nor ear hath heard of neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive of such as no stranger shall ever meddle with Pro. 5.14 and will not those make thee amends Let the Epicures of the Age that choose pleasures for their portion plead this argument let the Drunkard howl when the new Wine faileth Joel 1.5 or when the Cup is snatched from his mouth Alas thou hast met with little Joyes and those mixed and the greatest part Wormwood and Gall a litttle Honey and many Stings a little bitter-sweet pleasure that ends in pain yea short and transitory in the midst of laughter the heart is sorrowful and the end of that mirth is Heaviness but what are those to the Joyes unspeakable and full of Glory that is in Heaven 'T is true there are some that are the Sons and Daughters of pleasure Psal 73.5 That are not in trouble as other men neither are
now to leave these behind thee and expose thy own to the wide world and know not what will become of them when thou art dead this makes thee loth to dye and leave them this doth make thee like unto the Servant that loved his Wife and his Children Exo. 21.6 willing to have thy ears boared and to be a Slave for ever but consider a little is not this inordinate love to love the Creature more than the Creator and rather obey man than God when thou tookest upon thee the profession of Religion was it not upon those terms Luk. 14.26 c. to hate thy Father and Mother thy Wife thy Children thy Brethren and Sisters and thy own life for his sake that is to leave any or all of these if he required it and now art breaking with Christ and wilt rather deny him lose thy Soul thy God thy Heaven thy Happiness than leave thy Wife and Children and other Relations Joh. 15.13 Greater love than this hath no man than that a man lay down his life for his friend But is not this more to lose his Soul to part with his interest in Heaven and endure Hellish torments to Eternity for their sake or for their company But they live upon thee and if they were dead thou knowest not how they will be maintained And dost know how they will be maintained if thou live dost know how the World will be Governed and all the Family in Heaven and Earth maintained if thou were dead dost thou bear up the Pillars of it or do all things seek their meet at thy hand is it Gods Providence or thine that maintains thy Family or at whose charge are they kept 't is true thou art his servant to give them meat and drink in due Season but thou hast it out of his Store-house and if thou wert removed cannot he put another into the Office cannot he that feeds the Fowls the young Ravens when they cry yea the Lions seek their meat at his hand and he cloaths the Lillies and the Grass of the field and cannot he maintain thy Wife and Children if thou wert dead if the Pipe be cut is there no water in the Fountain Psal 78.20 this is thy unbelief can God provide a Table in the Wilderness Nay but thou dost not question so much his Power as his Will why how dost know he will provide for them if thou dost live many a Wife and Children have suffered want in the Husbands life time and God may let thee live to be a burden and a grief to them an hinderance and not an help Nay hath not God more ingagements upon him to provide for the Fatherless and Widdows the poor and the needy than any other Psal 68.5 having made so many promises on that behalf A Father of the Fatherless and a Judge of the Widow is God in his holy Habitation Hos 14.3 Psal 146.9 and it is in him that the Fatherless find Mercy He preserveth the Stranger he relieveth the Fatherless and the Widow Jer. 49.11 Leave thy Fatherless Children saith God to me and I will keep them alive and let thy Widows trust in me and many a command hath he given upon their account that they shall not be wronged Nay are they not in the same Relation to God as thou art are they not his Children also and will he that feeds all his Enemies starve his Children Nay he feeds the Fowls of Heaven Psal 34.9 10. and hath not he promised that those that fear the Lord shall want nothing that is good Nay if thou shouldst lose thy life for his sake thou wouldst yet more deeply engage him to look to thine in thy absence But suppose thou shouldst for the sake of Christ lose thy Relations or rather leave them behind what wrong is done thee you came not into the World together and 't is not like you will go together but if thou go first hast no satisfaction for this piece of self-denial God is not wont to be behind hand with thee shalt not thou enjoy more and better Relations in Heaven whither thou art going Is not the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ there whom thou callest thy Father and Christ which thou callest thy Husband and thy head and the Holy Ghost which thou callest thy Paracletus thy comforter and is not Jerusalem which is above the Mother of us all Gal. 4.26 are not the Angels thy Guardians and the departed Saints many of them thou knewest in the flesh thy fellow-Brethren and thy companions and do not these better deserve thy love than any in the world being altogether lovely and without Spot or wrinkle glorious in holiness yea are not many of thy Relations in the flesh gone before thee Thy Father Mother Wife and several Children those thou lovedst in the dayes of their flesh those thou Lamentedst at the time of their Death and will not their Society rejoice thee in Heaven when they shall be made perfect in holiness here is Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets here are the Apostles and the Noble Army of Martyrs and here are the Spirits of just men made perfect and those faithful persons thou hast left behind thee will shortly follow and is there yet sufficient matter of complaint what if thou dost become a stranger to what is done upon the Earth this is thy happiness for if thou know no good thou wilt know no evil and for an ounce of good there is a pound of evil done there there is much that may wring tears from the eyes little that will remove sorrow from the heart much sin and debauchery much Idolatry and superstition much swearing and cursing much drinking and drabbing and of all manner of wickedness but little holiness and true Godliness this may bring tears from the eyes and sobs from the heart but in Heaven thou shalt never be troubled more with the Unclean conversations of the wicked for there will be nothing there to discompose thee And if thou shalt in Heaven know the things done upon the Earth which is a secret which God hath not revealed doubtless it is not to lessen thy comforts but increase them for as sin so sorrow shall never enter there Thou maist haply think that when death hath passed upon thee thy name will be forgotten and what then if thy good deeds are not remembred no more will thy sin and thy folly and this far exceeds the other but there may be a resurrection of Names as well as of Bodies Pro. 12.7 The memory of the just shall be blessed but the name of the wicked shall rot Psa 112.6 the righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance If honour be not founded on grace 't is the emptiest of bubbles which time will prick and the most lasting Marble cannot preserve The Aspersions which are cast in the face of the Righteous time will wipe off and the paint and lustre
of good Christians have suffered death under this pretence For a good work said the Jewes we stone thee not but for blasphemy This sect is every where spoken against And after the way which men call heresie saith the Apostle so worship I the God of my Fathers There 's none that persecute the Saints as Saints but as Offenders no man will put an innocent man to death under that notion the Devil hath taught them their lesson better than so Job is not punisht as a righteous man but a hypocrite that served God for gain and if God restrained his wages he would curse God to his face Daniel must be cast into the Lions den and the three children into the fiery furnace for breaking the Kings Laws and the Jews put all to death in Hamans time being against the Kings profit He that would kill a dog saith the proverb must say he was mad But these aspersions are not inconsistent with eternal salvation 'T is true thou art a great offender against God and so deservest death but thou art not like to suffer upon this account greater offenders escape safe but thy fault is that thou wilt not betray the Truth thou wilt not worship God according to mens Inventions thou wilt not bow down to their Idols who set up their Dagon by the Ark these things are most like to lay thee open to sufferings rather than Atheism debauchery or open prophaness But if it be thus thou art not the first innocent person that hath been oppressed in judgment neither art thou like to be the last Eccle. 7.15 't is no strange thing to see a righteous man perish in his righteousness but thy innocent blood if shed will like the blood of Abel cry from the earth for revenge and do them more hurâ— thau the stroak of death can do to thee and thy cause will be cal'd over again and tryed at another Barr and if maintaining the Truth and keeping a good conscience and standing close to thâ— cause of Christ be the cause of thâ— sufferings fear not thou shalt hereater be acquitted when thine enemies shall be condemned and Heresie then will be otherwise defined than now they do Oh my God I see death cannot hurt me my enemies cannot hinder my happiness if my own deceitful heart do not deceive me Lord leave me not to my self for then I shall miscarry Lord through thy strength I shall be strong and if thou leave I can do nothing Lord qualifie me fit for suffering and death and then command what thou wilt MEDITAT VIII The Miseries Death frees us from OH my Soul what saist thou yet wilt thou submit to God even to the death and leave it to Gods dispose what death thou shalt dye whether a natural death or a violent thou seest neither can hurt thee if thou be prepared either will undo thee if thou be not and therefore thou needst not to fear it nay it will do thee much good and therefore thou maist desire it with submission to thy Makers will thou maist sing with Paul that Swan-like song Cupio dissolvi I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all There are three things especially which make thy life uncomfortable to thee and that is Sin Sorrow and Temptations and from those or either of those thou canst never be freed by any but death sin is the cause of misery and temptations the cause of sin while thou art in the world thou art under the tyranny of sin and while sin lives sorrow never dies for afflictions follow sin as the shadow doth the substance or the effect the cause and while there is a Devil in hell and thou be on earth thou canst never be free from his assaults 'T is true in the Creation the soul was made innocent and the body spotless but by the Devils instigations Man lost his integrity sinned against God and so lost his Image and in the room of Original righteousness stamped upon his soul he hath Original sin so that thy whole man soul and body is polluted and that in all the powers and faculties of the soul and the body is become the instrument to act the sâ—â—s the soul conceives thou broughtest a poysonful Nature with thee into the world which thou canst not be stript of while thou art in the world yea before thou couldst sin thou wast sinful and before thou couldst act reason thou wast guilty of Treason against thy God thou broughtest the spawn of all sin with thee as a Wolf brings his wolvish nature into the world or a Toad or Serpent a noxious quality though when young they cannot reduce it into act Corruption hath naturally a seat in the soul from within come murders adulteries c. It possesseth the noblest powers and faculties of it Now a Swine in the Garden is not seemly much less in the Parlour or the Bed-chamber it takes up its residence in the heart which is the room wherein Christ himself should lodge This original corruption with which thou art tainted is virtually every sin for it is the Spawn of it there is no sin acted but the seed of it lyes here and hence it is thou art so disposed to evil and so averse from good there is no sin so bad but thou hast an inclination to it if this seed be watered with a temptation if the restraining or Sanctifying grace of God prevent not and no duty so good but this sets thy heart against it the very Praising of God that Angelical duty is opposed by this original sin This sin of Nature this original corruption is universal and that makes it much worse universal in respect of Time even from the fall to the end of the world no day free from this sin some sin reigns most in some Ages this in every Age. Also in respect of Persons no meer man was ever free since the fall no son of Adam or daughter of Eve other sins some persons may be and are little infected with but this all stand infected with And in respect of Parts 't is universal also no power of the soul no member of the body free from it and 't is continual and perpetual without any Intermission thou canst not leave it behind in one duty 'T is said that some Serpents when they go to drink lay by their poyson as also when they go to generate This I know not but this I am sure of thou canst not lay aside thy sinful nature yea when thou makest thy Addresses to God himself thou mayst haply lay aside the acting of sin but not being sinful for couldst thou leave thy sin behind thee thou mightest have more sweet communion with thy God in one Duty than now thou canst have in all thy duties for 't is sin that stains all thy duties and makes them signifie little to thee and wert thou not in Christ God would hate them and throw them back into thy face with disdain 't is
thy sin that makes thee take so much pains in duty to keep thy heart to God this hides his face from thee that thou canst scarce have a glimpse of him in an Ordinance this is the Root upon which all other sins grow the Spring that feeds all the streams of vice and hence they issue and this is it upon which the Devil fastens all his temptations the want of this made the Devil successeless in his tempting of Christ his fire fell upon wet Tinder and this is the misery of it this sin never dyes for age but the longer we live the stronger it grows some sins are in a decaying condition as to the Act when age disables an Adulterer and some others but this decayes not yea and we propagate it also to our Posterity our children receive it from us and so it will be propagated from one generation to another to the worlds end Oh the horrid nature of this sin 't is the Image of Satan which he stampt upon us when the image of God was lost and this cannot be rased out but by death here thou art troubled with a hard heart a stubborn will disordered affections unruly passions vain thoughts idle imaginations which thou canst not shake off more than thy very Nature this makes thee so unlike to God so like to Satan whose Image thou bearest and whose work thou doest this makes thy duties stink in the nostrils of God and thy whole man Soul and Body out of order this hinders thy communion with thy God and makes him a stranger to thee it makes thee act as an enemy to him and him to thee and thy iniquity hides his face from thee These are the Anakims that terrifie thee these are the sons of Zerviah that are too hard for thee these are the Caananites which are thorns in thine eyes and pricks in thy sides these sins of thine are the cause of all thy trouble thou hadst never had aking head or aking heart or loss or cross or any thing to trouble thee had it not been for sin but from these thou canst not be freed one moment no Prayer no Duty no Action but savours of them this thou art sensible of this burden thou groanest under and lookst upon sin as thy greatest enemy and well thou maist for nothing could hurt thee but for this this it is that makes the soul vulnerable which otherwise man nor Devil could not hurt this thou hast preached against spoke against prayed against thou hast railed upon it and called it all that naught is well now let us see whether thou wast in Earnest or in Jest whether all this was in sincerity or hypocrisie death comes now to free thee from this bondage ease thee of this burden and brings a potion to cure thee when all other Doctors have left thee and can do no good he will bring thee where sin and sorrow shall be no more for into heaven they shall never enter art thou willing of the seperation to give sin a bill of divorce and put it away wilt thou shake hands with it and bid it adieu for ever this potion will purge the soul from all the reliques of this distemper and cleanse the heart which is the fountain of all thy actions and make all the streams thence proceeding run clear and fetch away all those gross humours of sin that filthy lump that lyes upon thy heart and presseth it down and lyes as a clog upon it it will cast out all those unclean Spirits and cleanse those Augean Stables from all pollution this is the only Physitian in the world that can do it and God the great Physician of Souls hath approved of his Recipts and sent him to thee upon this errant to heal thee of the wounds of sin and to restore thee to thy primitive purity wherein thou wast created what saist thou wil't give him entertainment or no The Devil and the damned would take a potion a thousand times bitterer upon the like condition help thou canst not have till thou art purged nor to Heaven thou canst not go for no unclean thing shall ever enter there purged thou canst not be without death for then Christ will wash thee clean with his own blood and sprinkle thee with clean water and present thee to his Father without spot or wrinkle or any such defiling or deforming thing and cure thee of all thy soul distempers and bodily infirmities which shall never more seize upon thee he will say to sin and sorrow as unto the unclean spirit Go out of him Mar. 9.25 and enter no more into him These sins be they that keep thee under the hatches that thou canst not serve God without distractions but death will unpinion thy wings and let thy soul at liberty and then thou shalt never be troubled with vain thoughts or imaginations more thou shalt never speak vain word more or do any sinful action more what wouldst thou give for thy freedom from sin for one month or one year and what now wilt thou give for a perpetual freedom what dost thou yet hang back and art not willing to suffer one hours pain for it is this thy Love to God which thou hast professed that when thou art put to thy choice thou choosest sin before him is this thy hatred of sin that now thou art loth to leave it when it comes to the trial is this the fruits of thy prayer preaching and profession Art thou now at a stand whether to deny thy God or thy Sin and art inclined to choose sin rather than God and hadst rather be present with sin and absent from God and hadst rather live in the suburbs of Hell than dye and come to Heaven and hadst rather enjoy sin for ever than God for ever for till death hath passed over thee thou canst not be free from sin neither canst thou enjoy Happiness for Sin was born with thee and will dye with thee it hath an indwelling in the soul Psal 51.5 thou wast shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin 'T is as natural to thee as to live 't is thy very nature 't is thy very self thou maist as well shake off Nature yea shake off self as shake off sin it sticks closer than the skin to thy back or the flesh to thy bones these may be separated but sin cannot till the great separation between the body and soul and then the same stroak that lets out thy life will let out thy sin and all thy misery which is the consequents of sin this hath caused thee many a sigh and sob and sorrowful hour and many a prayer many an affliction and many a lash of his rod and hindred thee many an hours Communion with thy God it hath spoiled thee many a duty and made thy life a very burthen it hath broke thy peace many a time with God and wounded thy conscience and made God hide his face from thee and many a time he hath whipt
in riches sometimes in one thing sometimes in another as may most suit with thy inclinations sometimes the world smiles upon thee and so seeks to ensnare thee by her Syren song Sometimes she frowns upon thee to make thee despond and sometimes threatens thee to drive thee from thy duty and thy own heart is the most treacherous enemy ready to open and to let them in Now in this desperate danger who is it can live delightfully who is it can delight in such a Neighbourhood when the most righteous is a thorn and the most upright is as a thorny hedge Can any wise man delight to live among such mortal enemies whom nothing will satisfy but the souls ruine canst contentedly suffer atheistical thoughts darted into thy soul concerning God under-valuing thoughts of Christ of Scripture of divine Providence c. If thou give them no entertainment they must needs be thy trouble but the danger is if the Devil find thee unarmed and so thou close with his temptations Is it not much better for thee to be where the Devil the world and the flesh cannot reach thee and shall never more molest thee now this is in Heaven for he is cast out thence and his place is no more found thou maist bid them defiance for they cannot reach thee now when death comes thy victory is won the battel is over and the Crown is thine and the enemy will quit the field Now thy life is tormenting by reason of sin and the consequent of sin and 't is no small mercy to be delivered from the danger which while thou art on this side Heaven thou canst not be and then there shall be no corruption within and so no danger of temptation without the Devil himself as well as sin is there cast out and his place is found no more there here he is alwaies casting floods out of his mouth to drown the woman and though he cannot drown the Church he may affright her Christ that Man-child was not free from his temptations though he was well able to resist them but he layes many a stumbling-block in thy way and many times thou hast stumbled at them and much ado thou hast had to keep on in that path which is called holy that narrow path that leadeth unto life many times thou treadest beside it sometimes on the right hand and sometimes on the left and 't is well if at last thou thred the narrow and strait gate which thou art not like to do if thou deny Christ to save thy life thou canst not open thy eyes but the Devil presents some object or other to divert thy mind he fits his baits according to mens dispositions he baits his hooks to take the wanton with a beautiful harlot he hath a Bathshebah for David a wedge of Gold for Achan a Companion for the Drunkard one vanity or other draws away the heart from God as the Indians are inticed with Feathers and Shells and other Gewgaws to part with their more rich Merchandize Job 31.1 Well may Job make a covenant with his eyes not to look upon a maid for by looking many times comes lusting and if thou open thy ears thou let'st in some sin or sorrow to the heart for either thou wilt hear something that may excite some lust or other pride passion covetousness uncleanness c. or thou wilt hear swearing ribald talking lying slandering or such like which may provoke thee to indignation or sorrow and thy other senses also are Floodgates to let in sin or sorrow yea 't is much adoe to use lawful things lawfully thy table thy meat and thy drink the cloaths thou wearest the house thou livest in the means thou enjoyest all become snares and every sense becomes a caterer for the flesh latet anguis in herbas danger lies in all these and poyson is mixt with all our dainties and hadst thou more the danger would be more for the Devil will use his utmost endeavour to make it all to be Fuel for pride or lust or some other filthy vice he can bait his hooks and that to purpose with any thing lawful or unlawful licitis perimus omnes for if he can perswade us either to use unlawful things or lawful things in an unlawful way he hath his desire and we are taken in his snares but when thou comest to Heaven thou art freed from all these Temptations Well may he bark at thee as a Dog barks at the Moon but cannot reach thee or pull thee out of thy Orb he may shake his Chain but he can neither hurt thee nor fright thee And thus thou seest Death cannot hurt but will much advantage thee it will free thee from thy sin and from thy sorrow and put thee out of the reach of all thine Enemies for neither the Devil nor his Instruments can then do thee hurt thou art set out of the reach of wicked men as Lazarus was out of the reach of Dives What sayest thou wilt yield to go when God calls thee and welcome the Messenger that is sent for thee O my God let me not make a foolish choyce let me not undo my self I am too apt to indulge the Flesh and too apt to venture the Soul upon the Pikes of danger I am too apt to live by Sense and not by Faith my reason tells me I should go when thou callest my Faith tells me I shall lose nothing by it Lord the Spirit is willing but the Flesh is weak I live among many Enemies and those perswade me to favour my self but I know those that are Friends to my sin are Enemies to my Soul Lord I have devoted my life and all that mine is and pass'd away mine Interest in it for Christ Lord take what thine is and dispose of me and mine as thou seest fit only Lord give me in suitable Qualifications for what I have to do or Suffer and then command what thou wilt prepare me for Heaven and then send for me when and by whom thou pleasest MEDITAT IX Of Hell Torments the Reward of denying Christ OH my Soul art thou yet at a stand and knowest not yet whether 't is best to lose Christ or to lose thy Life to go to Heaven or to stay upon the earth to forsake the Creator or the Creature stand still a little and let us better consider it whether is it better lose the Soul or the Body the Jewel or the Box the Wine or the Cask but lose the body thou wilt not but only lay it to sleep a little the sooner but consider also what will be the reward of the one and of the other of dying for Christ and of denying him and as thou likest thewages make choice of the work If thou put thy hand to the Plow and look back assure thy self God will take no pleasure in thee if thou beginnest in the Spirit and endest in the Flesh of the Flesh thou wilt reap corruption but if thou sow to the Spirit
thou wilt of the Spirit reap Life Everlasting though thou hast Preached the Word to others thou thy self mayest be a Cast-away Thou maist be like to the Builders of Noah's Ark and make a Ship to save others and thy self be in the Flood or like unto the Sign at the Ale-house door that tells the Passenger where he may have shelter and yet thy self remain in the storm if thou turn thy back upon Christ notwithstanding all the Profession thou hast made he will turn his back upon thee If thou deny him before men and deny him thou dost if thou wilt not lose thy life when his cause requires it he will deny thee if thou be ashamed of him he will be ashamed of thee and he will never admit such to the Wedding if thou knock he will not open but bid thee an eternal farewell with a Verily I say unto you I know you not View a little the place appointed for Backsliders and see how thou likest of it Jude 6. The Angels that kept not their first Station but left their Habitation are reserved under blackness of darkness for ever and dost believe God will have more Mercy upon thee than upon them if thou commit the like sin 't is a folly for those that remain all the day idle and will not go into the Vineyard and yet expect wages at night but 't is egregious folly for thee that hast born the burden and heat of the day and when the shadows of the evening are stretched out and the Sun is almost set to depart in a pet and leave thy Master and lose thy wages God hath plainly told thee Ezek. 33.12 that if a Righteous man shall leave his Righteousness and do that which is evil all his Righteousness shall not be remembred in his sin he shall dye If now thou revolt all thy pains for Heaven is lost and wilt thou wilfully lose forty years work and wages he that runs a race though he run never so well if he stop before he come to the end or turn back will lose the Race as sure as if he had never set out he that acts his part never so well upon the Stage and fail in the last act will miss of his applause If thou deny Christ thy life thou wilt lose it but if thou be willing to sacrifice thy life for his sake it may be he will never require it yet shalt not thou lose thy reward but if thou deny it thou wilt lose it and thy self with it if God be not glorified by thee he will be glorified upon thee in thy destruction if thou lose thy Soul to save thy life thou makest a bad bargain The loss of a Joint or Limb may haply bring tears from thy eyes Mat. 16 2â— but what is this to the Soul and this will necessarily follow upon denying of Christ The essence and being of the Soul will not be lost this will be thy misery it shall not be annihilated or come to nothing this would be good news to a wicked man and the Atheist would willingly court himself into the belief that the Soul of man is breathed out as the Soul of a beast but this will not be nay happy would it be for them if the Soul were divisible as the body and the infernal Spirits should rend it into a thousand peices till it were rent to nothing this then were the worst it could suffer but there is a living death and a dying life if the Soul of man did expire with his breath as the soul of a beast and the whole compositum the whole man were reduced into the horrid estate of nothing to feel neither weal nor wo as the Atheist and Epicure perswades himself it were not so much but it must run parallel with the longest line of eternity and shall neither dye nor sleep with the body for this Lamp of Gods own lighting this fire of his kindling will not out the matter of it cannot be consumed hell fire will soon awaken those Atheists and light them to see their own folly and mistake yet the flame thereof cannot consume the Soul for it will prove fuel to feed those infernal and eternal flames the fire whereof never goeth out neither will the powers and faculties thereof be lost the fire will not consume them but they will be heightned and made capable of these eternal miseries and hellish torments the understanding which now is dark and by them purposely blinded shall then be inlightened they shall then better know the worth of the things they have slighted the vanity of the things they have chosen the Happiness they have lost and Misery that they are like to suffer The memory then will be enlarged and tell them of the means of Grace they have had and slighted the motions of the Spirit they have rejected the sins they have committed the duties they have omitted the covenants they have made the resolutions they have had of better obedience and by how weak temptations they have been overcome the threatnings they have had if they went on in a sinful way all which are now made good on them their conscience then will fly in their face and will not be quiet then will their evil deeds stare them in the face and say we are thy works and we will follow thee then they will call to mind at how low a rate Heaven and happiness God and glory were sold by them then their sins will cry out we are thine Jer. 17.1 and they will be ingraven upon the conscience with a pen of iron and the point of a diamond which cannot be blotted out Now thou canst lull conscience asleep or check it that it may hold its peace but then it will not be bribed but will be like a waking Lion rending the very caul of the heart and prove a never dying worm which shall feed upon thee for ever All the faculties of thy soul will then bear a part in this tragedy these will then tell thee thy God thy Saviour thy Redeemer thy Heaven thy happiness thy All is gone everlastingly gone past all hopes of recovery and all thy hopes are dasht and nothing left but endless easless and remediless torments This is the news that will continually ring in thine ears Oh what a sad what a sorrowful parting will there then be between the Soul and Body expecting a sad meeting O cursed body may the soul say for thy sake and at thy request I have denyed my God and now will he deny me I was so indulgent to thee I have undone my self to spare thee I have wounded my self to save thee a little longer I have procured eternal torments to us both to save a temporal life we are like to dye eternally Oh my soul if by denying to dye for Christ thy natural life be prolonged yet thy spiritual death will be hastned and after a few dayes this natural life which now thou purchasest at so dear
a rate will be required of thee and God will send such a messenger that shall not be resisted Isa 5.11 and notwithstanding all thy shifts and evasions thou must obey and notwithstanding all the sparks of thine own kindling thou must lye down in sorrow And whatsoever bait it was the Devil took thee with and perswaded thee by it to make such a foolish bargain this will be gone also if it were thy Estate that thou wast loth to leave leave it thou must and if thy Relations tempted thee to stay stay thou canst not with them when thy time is come nor stay them with thee when God commands them hence Nay the world it self to thee shall be no more Nay the time is coming the World and all the works therein shall be burnt up And where is thy happiness then Thou must at death and that is not far off bid an everlasting farewell to all earthly enjoyments never more to solace thy self in any earthly enjoyment But were this the worst both the good and bad would fare alike but here lyes the difference the one parts with what he can well spare the other with all his portion the wicked at death part with all that is really as well as imaginarily good not only temporals but spirituals also Thou must bid farewell to all the Holy Angels and glorified Saints never more to enjoy their society They will be ashamed of those that are ashamed of Christ yea and rejoyce in thy destruction Thou must then bid farewell to all thy carnal delights to all thy merry company and Jovial companions and to all the things thou tookest delight in here below yea to all the pleasures delights and Joyes at the right hand of God for evermore those rivers of unmixed Joyes and delights which eye hath not seen ear heard tell of neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive of to these thou must bid an eternal adieu and in the room of them thou must have eternal misery wo and alas for evermore And instead of this blessed company and holy society and these Celestial Joyes be hurried with the Devil and the damned into the Lake of fire and brimstone out of which is no hope of redemption and these shall be thy tormenting and tormented companions The place whither thou art to go is not any lightsome dwelling but a dark dungeon a dismal prison the tongue of man cannot describe it Jovim 'T is reported that Actiolinus a tyrant of Padua had a prison wherein the prisoners were laden with irons starved with hunger eaten with vermin and poysoned with stench for the dead bodies lay rotting among the living Here death might come in without knocking and those were most miserable that lived longest and those best that dyed first but this was a Paradice compared to hell The others punishment was short this to eternity that reacht only the body this the soul also death quickly enters into the one but cannot enter into the other for they shall be tormented for evermore Oh gulph full of horror and despair Oh eternity of torments the very thoughts thereof may make the stoutest spirit quake and tremble Here Dives lodgeth in flames of fire instead of his soft bed he is scalded with thirst and his sweet cups are taken from him and his food is new fire and brimstone and for his insulting joy he hath now gnashing of teeth In hell there are no Holy-dayes no Festivals no set times in which the fire shall cease burning Here thou must for ever swim naked to all eternity in this lake of fire and brimstone where thou canst find neither bank nor bottom here the wicked as tares shall be bundled together Drunkards with Drunkards Swearers with Swearers and one Apostate with another But the greatest loss which the damned have yea the very top of their misery is the loss of God himself blessed for ever in whose favour there is light and his loving kindness is better than life if thou miscarry thou shalt lose Father Son and Holy Ghost the beatifical vision wherein consists a believers happiness thou shalt never see his face in glory but shalt be everlastingly separated from him thou shalt never come into his presence never enter into his Courts never tread upon that pavement where the Angels and glorified Saints do inhabit there is a vast gulph fixed between you Luk. 16.26 that thou canst not pass thou wilt never enjoy one smile from the face of God or one kiss from the mouth of Christ but must go from him with a curse and not a blessing Goe ye cursed into everlasting fire Mat. 25.41 together with the Devil and his Angels Oh fearful sentence a thousand thousand rentings of the soul from the body is not so bad as one renting of the soul from God which is the life of it The loss of God will prove the greatest loss the loss of life is but a flea-biting in camparison of it for with him the soul is lost also yea the body which hath put thee upon so many temptations and for whose sake thou denyest Christ shall then be lost also and both soul and body to thy eternal horror shall be made capable of these hellish and eternal torments For there shall be pain of sense as well as pain of loss 'T is true Divines do think the former is the worst the loss of God and all that good is this sets the worm of conscience a gnawing which will never dye but there is also fire which will never out there is pain of sence as well as pain of loss And this is another part of Hell let me lead thee a little by the hand and let 's take a view of this part also let us look a little beyond death at the dangers that follow it and consider when this earthly habitation shall moulder into dust where thy dwelling shall be for ever Let us take a view of Hell which thou art to have into the bargain when thou soldest thy soul to save thy life and with Judas and Demas chosest the world instead of Christ let us view this region of the shadow of death which is thrown in to thy bargain But had I the tongue of men and Angels I were never able to describe the misery of the damned in Hell for no words in humane language can set it forth the Devil himself whose portion it is and the damned that feel it cannot do it they cannot fully discover the worst of a miscarrying souls condition If I could describe eternity I might do something to it and yet I should be at a loss as to the torments themselves yet perhaps I may lead thee by the hand and shew thee enough to convince thee that thou hast made a foolish bargain when thou denyedst Christ to save thy life and lost thy soul to gain a little longer time in the world and that this time thus gained was bought at a very great
the folly of men thus to fear a temporal death and not to matter death eternal to fear the wrath of man and not the anger of Almighty God to fear the death of the Body and despise the death of the Soul to fear the creature more than the Creator that feareth the rage of man and not the wrath of Almighty God Gregory In hell there is death without death and end without end because death ever liveth and the end ever beginneth for death will never dye Oh how sweet would death be there accounted if it would take away life and not compell those to live that would fain dye Oh the stupidity of men when a small loss will wring tears from their eyes and an infinite and irrecoverable loss is not regarded yea the speech of it they can digest with laughter Many quake and tremble to come before an earthly Judge and when they are going before the eternal Judge can sport themselves in the way they fear to lanch forth into the Sea and not to lanch forth into this infinite Ocean of Eternity for hell torments are not only easeless but endless and remediless While there is life there is hope but where the breath is gone the hope is past while the door is open there is entrance but when 't is once shut though thou knock it will not be opened When the soul is separated from the body of a wicked man God will be separated from the soul and an uniting time will never come Christ stands now to receive repenting Sinners but his Spirit will not alwayes strive with them the door will be shut and only those that are ready will go in to the marriage This is the time when the Father will receive a repenting returning prodigal but it will not last long God will put an end to the day of grace the night comes when no man can work the Sun will set that shall never rise and the day end that shall never dawn again and then all hopes of wicked men will be dasht for as the tree falleth whether to the north or south east or west there it shall lye That tree that falls hellward there it will lye for ever For after this life is no redemption for ever let the Pope say what he will to the contrary their feigned Purgatory will prove a delusion the fire thereof was only kindled to make the Popes Kitchin warm but hell fire is of another nature for all their Masses Dirges and Prayers cannot deliver one soul from thence But if the sentence of condemnation be once past and damned souls delivered up to their tormentors there is no help all conclude this decree is irrevocable and hell torments remediless Here the worm saith Christ dyeth not Mark 9.44 and the fire never goeth out Mat. 25.41 46. Rev. 20.10 15. and Christ calls hell torments everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels yea he calls it everlasting punishment the Devil that deceived the world shall then be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false Prophet are and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever into which lake of fire whosoever is not found written in the book of life shall be cast and many the like expressions we may find in Scripture which plainly tells us the perpetuity of hell torments where 't is called Everlasting darkness Jude 13. 2 Thes 1.7.8 eternal fire everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power How little foundation is there then for Origens opinion that after a time the Devils and the damned should be refined by this fire and should be delivered but what Scripture speaks thus and if the Scripture be silent nay speak point blank contrary where is the foundation of this fancy Micah 6.7 it is not with thousand of rams nor with ten thousand rivers of oyl that they can be redeemed the first born of their bodies will not be taken as satisfaction for the sin of their souls Mat. 16.26 and what saith Christ shall a man give in exchange for his soul The rich glutton with all his wealth Luk. 16. with all his prayers and intreaties could not purchase one dram of water to cool his tongue and this was far short of ransoming his soul Prayers and tears then will not serve turn they are good preventing physick Though as one saith we should wear our tongues to the stump Shepard Sincere convert and weep more tears than there is water in the sea it will do no good It was not with corruptible things as silver and gold thou wast redeemed from thy vain conversation received by tradition from thy Fathers but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot but if we now neglect this great Salvation and despise the offers of mercy in the daies of our life what remains for us but a fearful looking for of judgment and if the earth were turned into a globe of Gold or an heap of Diamonds and all offered for the redemption of a lost soul it would be rejected for this is not the blood of Christ nay this blood it self though more precious than the world would not serve in this case neither for it was never shed to this end to redeem souls out of hell though it was shed to keep them from hell and is of infinite value to this end nay if damned souls should obtain the prayers of all the Saints yea Angels in heaven it would do them no good Prayer here if pointed by faith may pierce heaven and prevail for a blessing Jam. 5.15 The Prayer of faith may save the sick and if he have committed sins they may be forgiven but prayers for the damned are out of season there is a time when God will be found and a time when he will not be found When the door is once shut it is not knocking then will open it yea the Angels and glorified Saints will then rejoyce in their damnation that God is glorified by it and those Ministers that now weep over their people and pity them will then pity them no more for ever yea to speak with reverence God himself cannot then help them not that he wants power for he could turn Heaven and Hell and all into nothing but he is infinite in justice and truth as well as power and this would intrench upon his Justice and Truth his word is out to the contrary and he may as well deny himself as his word yea he will be so far from an inclination this way Pro. 1.24 that he will laugh at their destruction and mock when their fear cometh in a word there is no ransome for a miserable soul the blood of Christ was of sufficient price to have saved the world had it been applyed for the end it was shed for but lost souls and damned Spirits have no interest in
it and there is no redemption for such the redemption of the soul is precious Psal 49.8 and it ceaseth for ever Luk. 16.26 Mat. 16.26 no one can get over that great gulph that lies between heaven and hell neither can any price be found out to redeem a lost soul here is no Writ of Error can be had for the prisoner is laid in by an unerring Judge that cannot be deceived there is no Appeal to be made to any other Court for this iâ— the Supream where the Causes tried in all other Courts are called over again and fully determined and the Judge of all the earth will there do justice here can no force hinder the execution and free thee out of prison for thou hast an omnipotent God to grapple with see now what a rock of ruine thou hast run thy self upon what a remediless condition thou art plunged into for if thou deny the Lord that bought thee thou wilt run upon swift destruction and all the friends thou hast cannot help it Well but though the pains be sharp yet if they be but short here is some comfort there is some hope that an end will come though it be long first but alas this comfort here is dasht These torments are eternal as is already proved and shall never end in the pangs of death 'T is true there is hopes for though they are sharp they are momentany yet some Tyrants have kept men many daies in a dying life or living death Tiberius Caesar being petitioned by one to hasten his punishment and give him a speedy dispatch made him this answer Nondum tecum in gratiam redii Stay Sir you and I are not yet friends Such an answer will God give to a damned soul if it desire God to put an end to his torments by death those lingring deaths either inflicted by God or man though they seem long to sence yet what are they to eternity the word for ever will be a Hell in the midst of Hell for when the soul cryes out in anguish and bitterness of spirit How long Lord how long the conscience answers again Ever ever while God is God and Heaven is Heaven and Hell is Hell the miscarrying soul must remain fuel to maintain this fire that shall never go out To this second death the first is but a flea-biting this is Mors sine morte finis sine fine this is that which is call'd Everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord where the poor soul must be tormented sine intervallo without ease or end for when the years of a thousand Generations are whirl'd about thy torments will be as fresh as the first day thou wast cast into them and not one farthing of the ten thousand Talents paid off nor one moment of eternity taken off Oh Eternity eternity how amazing art thou how shall we conceive of thee how shall we cast thee up Oh my soul if thou substract from eternity an hundred thousand millions of years the remainder will not be the less 't is infinite still for two finites cannot make an infinite for what is infinite is indivisible it cannot be made less should a poor creature upon the rack under exquisite tortures have his life prolonged for twenty years together without any intermission of pain we might well account him the most miserable man alive and whose heart would not ake for him but what is this to eternal torments and yet who pities them that are like to endure them nay who pities himself that lies under the danger if a man under some raging pain as of the Cholick Stone or Gout lie upon a Featherbed for many years in tormenting pain though he have friends to visit him meat and drink to support him and what comfort Nature or Art could help him to yet we look upon him as a spectacle of misery and one that deserves pity Job 9.14 to him saith Job that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friends But what is this to hell or what is a few years to eternity for in hell is no comfort no ease no refreshment neither any friend to pity nay if all the torments that ever poor creatures indured upon earth whether inflicted by God himself by man or by the Devil could all light upon one man and should lye under them for hunderds of years yet would it fall short for this would neither reach the pain nor reach the duration for when the miscarrying soul hath lain in hell as many years as there are grass piles upon the earth drops of water in the Ocean sands upon the sea shoar hairs on all the mens heads in the world and Stars in Heaven yet the hundred thousandth part of Eternity is not over Oh eternity how shall finite apprehensions conceive of thee how shall we number thee or find out what thou art we that live in time and have but a little time given us here cannot conceive of thee but by a long space of time as we cannot of Infinity of Essence but by a vast quantity we know God doth not number Eternity as we do Time one day is with him as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day For in eternity we need not trouble our selves to count the fleeting hours neither daies nor years for there is no Sun Moon or Stars to be set for times and seasons or for daies or for years but in hell is horrid darkness blackness of darkness for ever And whose heart may not tremble at the apprehension of it should all the Arithmeticians in the world joyn heart and hand and head and all to cast up the greatest summe possible that each one severally could reach and when this is done should add all these together into one summe yet it would fall short nay should the circumference of Heaven be written about with Arithmetical figures from east to west from north to south and all brought into one summe it would yet fall short for what is infinite cannot be diminished or increased such a summe added to it would not increase it such a summe substracted from it would not diminish it Oh my soul what think'st thou of it wilt thou venture upon the pikes of danger wilt thou deny the Lord that bought thee and the God that made thee to preserve a miserable life a little longer Thou seest thy wages and knowest thy reward hadst rather chuse everlasting damnation than a little temporal pain and rather thrust soul and body into eternal flames and suffer the vengeance of eternal fire rather then the pangs of a temporal death Oh what madness hath bewitched thee what folly haunts thee how doth the Devil and the world delude thee Thou that wouldst cut off a limb or joint to preserve the body from greater torture wilt not be willing to endure a little to preserve both body and soul from eternal ruine Heaven and Earth and all wise men may stand amazed at thy folly If thou turn
conversion will then rejoyce at our coronation and should God send for thee Oh my soul in a fiery Chariot wouldst refuse to go what if thou art taken away by a violent hand what hurt is in it the greatest wound is to themselves for thou wilt be among those Souls under the Altar among those that are slain for the testimony of Jesus and shalt receive a Crown of Martyrdom Oh happy wilt thou be if thou canst be of this blessed society in Heaven and make up this heavenly Consort in chaunting out the praises of the ever living God what thinkst thou of it is it worth having is it worth desiring is it worth labouring or suffering for sure there is a prize put into thy hands if there be but a heart in thee to seek it thou seest 't is a glorious place but the one half of the glory thereof is not told thee cannot be told thee the Subject of Happiness here will be both Soul and Body these worldly pleasures can but tickle the senses they reach not the soul but in Heaven both are concerned but the Soul especially both had a share in the work and both must share in the reward both must fight and get the victory and both must have a share in the Crown the body without the soul is incapable of those heavenly Joyes and the Soul without the Body is incompleat it must be the whole man soul and body that must be glorified for our vile bodies must be fashioned like unto his glorious body both run the race and both must receive the prize both are purchased by Christ and he will not lose any thing that he hath purchased the body as well as the soul are members of Christ 1 Cor. 6.15 and Christs body shall not be imperfect or any member lost but shall all be raised up at the last day the soul being the more excellent part of man and more capable of serving God than the body it shall doubtless be the more glorious yet the body shall not want its glory the soul shall be freed from corruption and the body from imperfection this corruptible shall put on incorruption and this mortal shall put on immortality then and not till death shall all the diseases and distempers be removed and perfectly cured all infirmities and deformities be taken away and both body and soul be made beautiful and comely yea Vessels of glory whatsoever implies any imperfection shall be done away there shall be no immature Youth or stooping crooked wrinkled Old Age but as Divines conceive all perfect men and women in their perfect age and strength in beauty and comeliness as if no infirmity or deformity had hindred Jacob shall not be halt nor Mephthosheth lame nor Leah blear-eyed and though the body be sown a natural body 1 Cor. 15.44 it shall arise a spiritual body not a real spirit but shall retain the properties of a true body but spiritualized and it shall much resemble a spirit in activity ability nimbleness and power Christ had a real body after his Resurrection which a Spirit hath not yet shall they be freed from the clog and burden of flesh which now they bear and no more be an hinderance to the soul they shall also be freed from all need of food or physick cloaths and such like which now are necessary for the preservation of life from the need of all creature-comforts from all that any wayes imply infirmity or misery inward or outward thou shalt never have aking head or heart or back or bone for there shall be no more pain but perfect health and strength and immortality and set out of the reach of death for death it self shall be cast into the lake of fire and shall be swallowed up of victory no noxious humour or vicious quality shall ever trouble it more no decay of nature Deu. 34.7 shall then appear but like Moses in the Wilderness though he lived to old age to an hundred and twenty years of Age yet was not his eye dim nor his natural force abated There no distemper within nor casualty without can work a decay the flesh shall be no more a burden to the body nor a clog to the soul but man shall be like unto the Angels who neither eat nor drink neither marry nor are given in marriage neither need they any creature-helps or comforts for God is their life and he upholds their beings where that body that now is a clod of walking breathing clay shall then be like the body of Christ more amiable than the celestial Orbs and glittering Stars by death it is sown a natural body but shall spring up a spiritual body it is sown in dishonour 1 Cor. 15.43 44 45. but raised in honour it is sown in weakness but raised in power for when death hath struck the fatal stroak God will send his Angels to carry the soul to Heaven and gather our dust and put it in this Vrn into his Cabinet not one grain of it shall be lost which he will keep as precious Jewels when many glittering Stones shall be cast by into shame and contempt Dan. 12.2 many that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt Those that honour God he will honour and those that despise him shall be lightly esteemed and at the resnrrection of the just these houses of clay shall be formed into the similitude of a Palace at Gods own cost and charges Oh who would not have his Cottage pull'd down upon such an account But if the body be so glorious not admitting the least infirmity or deformity how transcendently glorious will the soul be this Jewel will not be lost in the rubbish of death nay nay death cannot touch it but only break down the prison walls and set it free the body 't is true by dying is made immortal death shall have no more power of it but the soul is immortal be Creation and Gods Institution it must run parallel with the longest line of eternity death hath no power over it fear not those saith Christ that can kill the body and can do more but fear him that can cast both soul and body into Hell Many would perswade themselves and 't is their interest so to do if they could make it out that the soul shall dye with the body and that at death men breathe out their souls with their last breath as a beast doth and well were it for them if it were so for then they might follow their pleasure and drive on their designs more vigorously and then they might brutifie themselves more than they do which needeth not but these men rather would than do believe their own doctrine the conscience in the mean time giving them many bitter thrutches No no this Lamp of Gods own lighting will never out they must shine in Heaven Mat. 25.46 or burn in Hell everlasting Joy or endless
of the souls happiness Now all earthly delights to these heavenly Joyes are but a shadow a very dream the very dream of a shadow to what is there enjoyed where the glorified Souls shall be Kings and Priests for ever of the most high God they wear Crowns upon their heads and palms in their hands which they cast down at the feet of him that liveth for ever These little flashes of spiritual Joy and indeed it is no more will be blown up into a flame here no fumes of Melancholy shall disturb the Fancy or interrupt the Joy Malignant Saturn cannot send any influence into these superiour Orbs but here is that far more and eternal weight of Glory to be enjoyed O my soul hadst thou had but such a glimpse of Glory as Stephen had thou wouldst not have feared to have faln asleep with him Now thou art in the body and absent from God but when death hath closed thine eyes and covered thy face with a winding-sheet thou shalt not only see God but be present with him and behold his glory Now thy glimpses of him are like a flash of lightning soon gone much like a man that gazeth at a Star through an Optick-glass held with a palsy hand now and then thou catchest a sight but quickly losest it again but there he will alwayes be before thine eyes thou shalt behold his face there and not his back parts only whether with bodily eyes or otherwise is not well known nor much material 't is probable it may and the eye capacitated to behold the Object though here 't is dazled with a weaker glory we find Job seems to be of that mind Job 19.52 c. I know saith he that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold him and not another though my reins be consumed within me When this mortal hath put on immortality and this body which is sown a natural body become spiritual we know not but these Organs of our eyes may be capacitated to behold spiritual objects as well as our understandings be enabled to know him as he is 1 Joh. 3.2 This we know God will make himself known and that is sufficient to us whether the one way or the other let us not anxiously trouble our selves about the manner of it this know if God do not enlarge and capacitate our powers and faculties of the soul we can neither know him see him nor enjoy him as he is which he hath promifed we shall do and he that believeth in him and hath not yet seen him shall see him on whom he hath believed 't is Christs prayer John 17.24 that those that are given to him may be where he is to behold his glory and if those eyes were blessed that saw him in his misery how much more those that behold him in glory if the dawning of the day be so glorious how much more glorious will it be when the Sun shines in his full strength and all the shadows are fled away If those that bear his Image here and they are more excellent than their neighbours be so lovely what will they be when this Image of God is perfectly restored and they freed from all corruption here they have sung forth his praises then shall sing continual Halelujahs for ever how will they run the wayes of Gods commandments when all the clogs of corruption are taken off and their feet are inlarged Now their labour shall be turned into leisure to praise him when they have nothing else to do yea nothing which they delight more to do than that Now 't is death and death alone that can put us into the possession of this glory where we shall have fulness of Joy and Glory and be Heirs yea Coheirs with Christ and would any wise man deny to take possession Oh my soul wilt thou yet hang back and plead Nonage art thou afraid of Eternity when Joy and Happiness is added to it couldst thou wish the worm of time were at the root to make it wither art thou come to the door and thou makest a halt at the threshold and art willing another should take thy Crown and wouldst thou surrender thy interest when Paul looks through the Perspective glass of Faith and sees happiness at the end he was willing to dye and be with Christ thou knowest whom thou hast believed and darest not trust thy Redeemer with thy life that lost his own for thy sake whatever thou losest whatever thou sufferest for him it will never repent thee when thou art in Heaven it will reward thee for all thy cost and charges Christ tells thee an hundred fold and I may well say a thousand one day in Gods Courts here on earth was better to Davîd than a thousand elsewhere and one day in Heaven is much better than that yea but if thy life be cut off for his sake for one day thou loosest upon earth thou shalt have a thousand in Heaven for it he will make thee Eagle-eyed that thou shalt behold the Sun of righteousness in his splendour and the Organ not offended If Paul and Silas could sing in the Prison what will they do when they come into this heavenly Quire Isa 15.5 Here the eyes of the blind shall be opened the ears of the deaf unstopped the lame man shall leap as an Hart and the tongue of the dumb shall sing this is the marriage of the Lamb and his wife hath made her self ready and who will not rejoyce upon the Wedding-day when the Bridegrooms voice is heard Now the marriage shall be solemnized that was so long ago contracted between Christ and the Soul this is the day which the Lord hath made let us rejoyce and be glad in it this is thy pay-day when thou art to receive thy wages the harvest of thy hopes when thou shalt receive a plentiful crop of glory that which was sown in tears shall now be reaped with joy now thy desires thy longings and thy pantings shall be satisfied now is the time when the Crown of Martyrdom shall be put upon the head of the Martyr and a Crown of Righteousness upon the Just mans head now is the time that Sincerity will be discerned from Hypocrisie let it be spun with never so fine a thred and true Gold from counterfeit now is the time that those that have Oyl in their Vessels as well as Lamps in their hands shall go in with the Bridegroom to the Marriage and those that have not shall be shut out now he that hath a wedding-garment shall be a welcom Guest Mat. 22.12 and he that hath none shall be cast into utter darkness now is the time that those that have forsaken any thing for Christ shall receive an hundred fold and those that have lost their lives
full of trouble Yet many wish their dayes were three times double The Captive Slaves that in the Gallies lye To end their Bondage yet are loth to dye They flee from death although he be their friend For when he stops their Breath their Sorrows end Life is a warfare Death doth stint the strife We leave not fighting till we leave our life We fight against our sins the world and Devils At death we fully Vanquish all those evils To heavenly Joyes Death opens us the door Where sin and sorrow they shall be no more There 's no Corruption shall molest us there There 's no Temptation that we need to fear Why fear we Death then he this Boon will give Our Enemies shall dye but we shall live Life is the day wherein we labour hard Death is the night and then comes our reward Now we with Tempests on the Seas are driven Death is the Wind that blows us to our Haven Is he less happy that a brisker Gale Drives to the Shore or he that 's under Sail Whom fierce tempestuous winds as yet are driving Who with a thousand dangers yet are striving In life we in the raging Surges be Death comes and lands us in Eternity In life the Saints are Heirs but under age When death comes they receive their Heritage Heaven is our Kingdom but to come thereat There is no other way but through this Gate Life is our Journey Death our Journeys end Life is our Enemy and Death our Friend Death like a Pilot guides us to the Shoar He is the Porter that must ope ' the door We cannot serve our God or Christ enjoy Without distraction till our dying day Death 's but a quiet sleep when wearied 'T is but put off our Cloaths and go to bed Death is Gods pursivant and will compell Gods Friends to go to Heaven his Foes to Hell He is his Messenger none can prevent him None can resist him or the Lord that sent him Both Prince and Peasant drink of the same cup When he invites them home with him to Sup. All men must pledge the health Abel began There 's none exempt the Master nor the man The greatest Potentate cannot escape The way to Heaven and Hell lye through this Gate The high the low the rich and eke the poor When he doth knock must open him the door Nor fear nor favour makes him turn aside He will not be perverted with a Bribe What though some have their lives drawn out at length And we cut down by Death in our full strength What Hurt to us if we receive our pay For one Hours work as much as for a day What dammage to us if Commandment come When others work till night to leave at Noon The weary labourer pants and longs for rest And when he 's in his bed he thinks he 's best The Bed of Death to th' weary will give ease Our sleep's not broken there by worms nor fleas No fearfull Dreams nor Visions of the night Disturb our Fancies there or minds affright Within Death's Sheets the Grave we rest secure Free from oppression and tyrannick Power Our Souls like Captive Birds in Cages sing Death breaks the Cage and then the Birds take wing The world 's a Pest-house sin doth us infect Death 's our Physitian shall we him reject The Soul 's infected with sins foul disease And naught but Death can give us our release The world 's a Prison and we Captives be And only Death our Champion sets us free We mortal are when Death of life bereaves us We dye no more Death doth immortal leave us A thousand Maladies do each day attend us We 're sick to Death and none but Death can mend us In life we languish Death can make us well He 's like Achilles Spear can wound and heal Poor and in want we up and down do wander Death makes us all as rich as Alexander Death levels all both rich and poor do stand On equal ground none serve nor none command When Death hath done his work there 's no man can Discern between the Master and the man The Princes Skull no more than other men Bears the impression of a Diadem 'T is true of terrors Death is call'd the King And well he may while he retains his Sting But to Believers he no hurt can do For he hath lost his Sting and Poyson too In Stinging Christ this Serpent lost his Sting He that brought terror then doth comfort bring Christ conquer'd him and shall we fear to meet A Vanquisht Foe lying prostrate at our Feet For since that he was overcome and foil'd He is no Enemy but reconcil'd To good and bad he shews not the same face He 's Foe to Nature but a Friend to Grace We are poor mortals life is our disease Death our Physitian that can give us ease We groan for pain yet would not be set free We love our Bondage hate our Liberty Rather than over Jordans streams we 'l venture We 'l dye i' th' Wilderness or Egypt enter This Son of Anak Death more terror brings Than all the fiery Serpents with their Stings And though Egyptian Bondage doth torment us Flesh Pots and Leeks and Onions here content us At Death 't is true we must to Ashes turn But God will keep those Ashes in his Urn. And when the all-awakening trump shall sound The smallest Atoms of it shall be found And then by vertue of a new Indenture The Soul into her new-built house shall enter God shall with robes of honour then invest her And sin and sorrow shall no more molest her She shall by Christ her Judge be then acquitted And all her sins and trespasses remitted She shall in glory Halelujah's sing Unto the mighty God the worlds great King And wedded be to Christ in endless Joy And in her Husbands Bosom lye for aye Sorrow and Sighing then shall fly away And Tears shall swallowed be in endless Joy Then set thy House in order for thou must Within a little time return to Dust Lord make me then to know my later end How long the number of my dayes extend That I may know how frail I am before I go from hence and shall be seen no more When will this Joyfull Marriage be oh when Oh come Lord Jesus quickly come Amen Edward Bury FINIS The Author hath in the Press a. Book on the Subject these Poems are of Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and three Crowns at the lower end of Cheapside