may as well restrain the Sun from rising the Sea from flowing and ebbing and the Wind from blowing as keep Man from dying and going to the place appointed for all living for this condition as the wise man saith is the condition of all times and continueth still thou shalt die the Death for this is an universal truth of all men to be received and believed and duly and truly pondered It is appointed unto men that they shall once die Now having cleared and proved the Doctrinal part That Death is the general condition of all men let us consider how nearly it doth concern us to bethink our selves of this and to fit our selves for Death to take care for another Life a more glorious and eternal Life and seeing we must die therefore let me perswade you to take three or four considerations with you which may serve as incentives to encourage and stir you up to the execution and performance of this Duty 1. Be moved to consider That when you come to die all earthly and worldly things will fail you and forsake you for ever All your terrestrial and natural Endowments external and outward Enjoyments your excellent Parts great Parentage noble Birth and Breeding your ingenious Wit wonderful Wealth stately Crowns vast Kingdoms invaluable Pearls costly Diamonds magnificent Houses fruitful Lands dear Wives loving Parents sweet Children and precious Friends when Death comes all these are gone Prov. 27.24 Riches are not for ever neither doth a Crown endure to all Generations The glittering Sun of all earthly glory and pomp will certainly set which your own experience and Scripture evidence doth sufficiently evince Prov. 23.5 Riches have wings and they flie away 1 Cor. 7.29 30 31. The fashion of this world passeth away 1 Tim. 6.7 We brought nothing into this world and it is certain we shall carry nothing out What was there that the World was able to afford to delight the heart of man which Solomon wanted Surely nothing He had stately and glorious Buildings fruitful and pleasant Vineyards Orchards Gardens and what not all manner of excellent Trees rare Fruits variety of Servants a vast Exchequer ravishing Musick Men and Women Singers and whatsoever his Eyes desired yet when he had taken a serious view of all things his conclusion is All is vanity Eccl. 2.11 It is strange to see how men here toil themselves beat their Brains tire their Spirits break their Sleep perplex their Thoughts rack their Consciences ingulf and drown themselves in Cares and Troubles hazard their Souls thinking to eternize their Names and Mansions and when they have done all like the poor silly Silk-worm die in their Work Therefore let not Riches and Honours lift up your hearts and prompt you to Pride which is too too common and if Riches increase set not your hearts upon them for they are mutable and uncertain and cannot satisfie the capacious soul of man nor profit him in the day of trial but will perish and that for ever O then think of your precious souls and dying bodies and provide in time for death for die you must and what will it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul 2. Seeing if to die is the general condition of all men consider with your selves whether you are going to Heaven or to Hell O beloved I do heartily wish that all that hear me at this time would truly ponder this and effectually apply it to their own souls That there is one place for the Just another for the Unjust one place for Believers another for Unbelievers one place for Saints another for impenitent Sinners one place for the Sheep another for the Goats A dreadful Night or a glorious Day endless Torments or endless Pleasures a perpetual Happiness or a perpetual Infelicity an eternal Life or an eternal Death a glorious Heaven or a dreadful Hell Now my dear friends stop here and consider unto which you do belong Have you any certainty of a blessed and glorious Estate that Heaven and not Hell will be your place and inheritance A man that knows he must resign his habitation in a short time is very unwise and unprovident if he takes no care or order for another So will it be with us that inhabit these Houses of Clay Job 4. We are sure we shall leave them how soon we know not perhaps to morrow peradventure to day it may be presently we are therefore silly and imprudent if we take no care for the future What said Saint Bernard de Eccles to his Soul Adhuc domum quidem habes O anima sed certum est quoniam in brevi casura est domus tua nisi tu provideris aliam eris pluviae vento frigori exponenda O my Soul thou hast yet a House to dwell in but be assured thy House will shortly fall and moulder away to dust and unless thou provide thee before-hand of some other place of abode captive forlorn and naked shalt thou be exposed unto the wind the rain and the cold Alas Who can stand in this stormy tempest Happy therefore thrice happy and for ever happy shalt thou be my soul if then thy conscience tell thee thou canst say unto thy self in faith and full assurance Egredere anima mea Egredere Go forth my soul go forth I know that if my earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God 2 Cor. 5.1 That is an house not made with hands but eternal in the heavens Let us therefore look about us and make it our business to search and try our selves prove our own hearts examine our selves whether we are in the Faith for whatsoever we sow we shall undoubtedly reap and in the place where the tree falleth there it shall lie Eccles 11.13 If it falleth to the West it lieth to the West if it falleth to the East It lieth to the East if you live and die towards Heaven Heaven will be your place and habitation but if you live and die towards Hell Hell will be your place and home for according to your works and actions in this world will be your sentence and portion in the world to come 2 Cor. 5.10 And is it not sad and dreadful to believe that you have precious and immortal souls and do not know nor consider whether they shall be saved or damned stand or fall live or die everlastingly yet this is the case of millions of men and women in this terrestrial Globe that are making post-haste to Hell and think and hope they are in the way to Heaven Let us therefore believe and repent and amend our lives that Heaven that glorious place and not Hell the place of terrors may be our Countrey and Inheritance 3. Consider when Death comes to strike the fatal blow your conditions are stated your places of abode are determined without mutation to all eternity then your immaterial souls are for everlasting joy or endless sorrow for an everliving life or
King of Terrors cometh all and every age dieth Look how many degrees of ages we covet to live so many degrees of death we desire to die After an Old man where is his Infancy where is his Childhood where is his Adolescence where is his Youth Shall he not truly speak if he answers All these are dead and gone What speak I of ages every year month day and hour of our lives that we have lived in this vale of misery is dead to us and we are dead with them What therefore is our life but a gradation unto death What is every minute thereof but a motion to our graves Quotidie morimur saith Seneca Lib. 3. Epist 24. We die daily every day we lose somewhat of our life and the more it increaseth the more it dedecreaseth the more it is lengthen'd the more it is shortned and the longer we live the nearer we approach unto death Excellent to our purpose is that of Job Job 30.27 I know assuredly thou wilt bring me unto death which is appointed for all the living as a Harbour or Haven for all Shipping It may be when a Ship cometh within sight of land or near its harbour a sudden and violent gust or blast of wind may repel and drive it back again into the vast Ocean but thither after it hath been tossed with boistrous waves it will arrive at last So must we after many tryals crosses and afflictions at the gates of death Omnes una manet mors calcanda semelvia lethi Saith a worthy Author Death is the end of all and once the way of Death is to be trod of all As a River that riseth in the Forrest passeth by many Rocks runneth and tumbleth and maketh a noise yet in the end entreth into the Sea so fareth it with mans life He cometh into the world with pain and beginneth his course with pitiful cries and is daily molested with sickness and never ceaseth running till in the end he falls into the Sea of Death As every man hath his Genesis so he must have his Exodus and as we are born to live so we are born to die and our dying on earth is but the taking our journey to Heaven Why are we unwilling to lose that which cannot be kept The good Pilot sits at the Stern to guid his Ship and a good Christian to direct his life must think on Death Death is the door whereby we go out of Bondage and Christ is the door of Liberty Therefore as he that is in Prison taketh great comfort to sit upon the Threshold that when the door is opened he may the sooner get out so we must always have our hearts and minds fixed upon death for die we must We are all travelling unto one home the habitation or house of death which the Prophet in a proverbial manner calleth the way of all the earth Josh 23.14 Thus as death is certain so it is as certain our life is short which daily experience fully demonstrates It is compared to a shadow Psal 102.11 My days are like a shadow that fadeth and I am withered like grass and Hosea the 13.3 it is likened to smoke that vanisheth to a bubble that is dissolved to a Weavers shuttle for swiftness Job the 7.6 My days are swifter than a weavers shuttle and they are spent without hope and this he speaks in respect of the brevity of mans life which passeth without hope of returning in consideration whereof he desireth God to have compassion on him To a spiders web which is soon swept away To a cloud that goeth away Job 7.9 As the Cloud vanisheth and goeth away so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more that is shall no more enjoy this mortall life To a vapour that is soon disperst James 4.14 Ye cannot tell what shall be to morrow for what is you life It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and afterwards vanisheth away Remember my life is but a wind saith Job 7.7 No wonder if when the wind bloweth the Leaf falleth if when death cometh the day ends Is our life so uncertain so full of inconstancy and of so short a being upon earth better than is it to die than to live and the day of death better than the day wherein one is born Eccles 7.3 The day of death is not a perishing but a parting the soul is not lost to the body but only sent before it unto joy If the soul be carefully and painfully laid off it is joyfully and happily laid up Per nativitatem ad stadium per mortem ad praemium pervenimus Through our nativity we come to the race through death to the reward through birth to a sea of sorrow through death to the Heaven of Comfort through birth to the Combate through death to the victory through birth to labour through death to rest by birth to mourning by death to rejoycing by birth to a life which is full of misery by death to a life eternal free from all sorrows Death is rather the flight of sin than the detriment of man dying because to the Righteous death is not the end of nature but of sin As a father saith To leave this world and inherit a better should seem nothing Death is a passage from sin and corruption to glory and immortality from this Earth to Heaven from the company of Sinners to the company of Saints from sorrow to solace from pain to peace from sickness to safety from persecution to triumph from the bondage and slavery of Pharaoh to the liberty and freedome of the children of God When we are born we are mortal but when we shall rise again we shall be immortal We are alive in the Womb to die in the World but dead in the Grave to live in Heaven Our life is not compared to any thing that is permanent but to those things that are momentary and of no long continuance The date of our life is threescore years and ten Psal 90.10 and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years yet is their strength labour and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we flee away The Kingly Prophet could say it was but a span long Moses and Solomon called it a life dayes But what need we these Memento's or Remembrances seeing we can turn our selves no way but something there is which may put us in mind of our mortality Can you look upon your Watch and not consider that as the hour passeth so doth your life Can you sit in the chairs by the fire side and see a great quantity of wood or coals converted into smoke and ashes and not consider with the Poet Sic in non hominem vertitutur omnis homo So man no man will suddenly become Can you walk forth into the pleasant fields and see how some grass is coming some already withered and some quite sprung up Esay 40.6 and not consider with the Prophet All flesh is grass
a never dying death for eternal glory or eternal ignomy Oh therefore all ye that are careless and remiss know and call to mind in time that if ye be found without faith and repentance and holiness but a moment after death ye are miserable and undone for ever for Ab infernis nulla redemptio After death all ways all means all hopes and helps fail there is no wisdom no work or device in the grave Eccl. 9. God will then be implacable and irreconcileable thy self unpardonable heaven not attainable and your souls lost irrecoverably There is no repenting in the Grave nor working out of Salvation with a filial fear and trembling no Prayers no Sermons no Ministers there It is in the time of Life that you are to labour and make preparation for Death and know that delays breed danger Take heed it is a fearful thing to neglect the offers of Grace and the sweet invitations of Divine Love and Mercy Remember prophane Esau who for one morsel of Meat sold his Birth-right but afterwards when he would have inherited the blessing he was rejected for he found no place of Repentance though he sought it carefully with tears Heb. 12.17 So the foolish Virgins through their procrastination lost their admission into the Bride-chamber and fruition of the Bride-groom when the door was shut then they knockt crying Lord Lord open unto us but it was too late for said the Bridegroom I know you not Mat. 25.12 It was procrastination that did undo them Delay is the Rock the Shipwrack the Destruction of many Souls No doubt but there are many in Hell which had a meaning in their life time to receive Christ to believe in him and to honour him as their Saviour but God in his justice hath cut them short and deprived them of that which when they might they refused to accept of It is reported of the Prophet concerning the People that neglected the re-edifying of the Temple Hag. 1.2 The People say that the time is not come that the Lords House shall be builded So many think it is not yet time for them to look Heaven-ward youth must have its course the covetous bag must be filled the pleasures of the flesh must be fully tasted ambition must come to its height then it will be time to retire then it will be time to look towards Heaven to repent of sin and to prepare for death Nam mora damnosa est Deferring is dangerous Qui non est hodie cras minus aptus enit He that is unfit to day makes himself the more unfit to do it on the morrow by his procrastination The more the Sun declines to the West the less we feel the heat of it for as the Sun sets the Air cooleth So the nearer an Unbeliever draweth to his Grave the more his heart freezeth and the beams of Grace have less power and force upon his Soul Oh therefore that we would be wise to take our time and not neglect those blessed opportunities which God affords us There is a time coming and we do not know how near it is in which many shall seek to enter into the Kingdom of God and shall not be able Oh what woful yelling what pitiful crying and earnest knocking there will be then at the Gates of Heaven with Lord Lord open unto us when that heavy doom Depart from me I know you not shall be their portion Behold now is the accepted time now is the day of salvation 2 Cor. 6.2 Say not therefore anon anon or to morrow we will repent and believe why not to day why not even now seeing now is the appointed time Let me desire you to be up and be doing while it is day The night will come when no man can work Joh. 9.4 Then to your Christian task with all speed industry and dilgience work out your salvation with fear and trembling while your Candle is burning your Sun shining Will you loiter and see your Glass running your selves dying and your souls perishing Are you resolv'd to seek and secure the Kingdom whilst ye have time or will you bestow nothing but the infirmities and imperfections of decayed old age upon God and your immortal souls Oh that ye were careful in this your day to know the things that belong unto your peace before they be hid from your eyes 4. The fourth and last consideration to move us to prepare for death seeing it is the general condition of all men is to consider that it is the most dreadful astonishing spectacle on this side Hell to see a graceless wretch an unbelieving and prophane worlding breathing out his last There are many lamentable and sad sights in the world as to see a man starving and languishing for want of food or in violent pains for want of a Physician or Chirurgeon or drowning for lack of a Boat or some other help to receive him or to see a dead carcase a body without a soul Ah but how sad unutterrable and amazing sight is it to behold a wicked non-repenting sinner in his cold sweats and dying groans with his precious and invaluable soul standing on his pale cold and trembling lips O miserable case when suddenly the senses fail the body languisheth when thou shalt feel the sting of thy sins tormenting thy soul and see the flames of Hell flashing in thy face thy heart-strings ready to burst asunder and the ghastly apprehensions of speedy and hellish horrour shall dog thy conscience Death at thy elbow to prey upon thee and the infernal Lake wide open and ready to swallow thee up Who in this estate would not value a minute of repentance to a Monarchy of wealth O woful condition of those godless men and women whose belly is their god whose Heaven is their pleasure whose cursed jollity is but a feeding up to an eternal slaughter The day is coming wherein every minute of their sinful unsatisfying joys shall be repayed with a Thousand thousand Millions of years frying in that unquenchable fire and when the damned Ghosts shall forth of their incessant flames see the celestial and glorious reward and remuneration of the penitent and pensive Souls which they have despised and unworthily abused then shall they gnash their teeth and tear themselves and horridly utter that too too late recantation We fools thought their lives madness and their end without honour but now they are accounted among the Children of God and have their portion amongst the Saints but we with demoniacal and hellish spirits Let me therefore beg of you all to exempt your selves from all supine and carnal security And seeing you must die and your time short and that a thousand chances may every day bereave you of your lives make such conscience of all your ways words and works as if you were presently to give up your accounts to him that lives for ever Qui consider at qualiter erit in morte pavidus providus erit in operatione He that considers always of